Pretender to the Throne!



He looks like our beloved leader, but he seems to be a few wires short of a circuit board.

=Marvel US issue #40= (Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #162-163)

Writer: Bob Budiansky Pencil Art: Jose Delbo Ink Art: Dave Hunt Letterer: Bill Oakley Colorist: Nelson Yomtov Editor: Don Daley

Optimus Prime, Ethan Zachary, Sparkplug Witwicky, Spike Witwicky,  Goldbug, Highbrow Scorponok, Vorath, Iguanus, Bomb-burst, Submarauder, Skullgrin, Bugly, Finback, Landmine, Cloudburst, Waverider, Groundbreaker, Sky High, Splashdown
 * Major Characters (in order of appearance):


 * Originally published: May, 1988

Synopsis
Since Optimus Prime's destruction, Ethan Zachary has been using the copy of Prime's mind he had saved on a floppy disk at that time to play video games. Although Prime is sentient, and able to converse with Zachary, Prime believes himself to be nothing more than a computer character.

In an attempt to convince Prime that he is more than this, Zachary eventually contacts the Autobots on the spacecraft Steelhaven, recently arrived from the planet Nebulos, where Goldbug is being restored to bodily form after recent events. Goldbug goes to Earth to investigate Zachary's claim that Prime lives, and discovers the truth: Prime does exist, but only as a computer-generated character.

Goldbug and Zachary surmise the sending Prime on a mission might help him understand that his is more that a program, and Prime stumbles upon an experiment by Headmaster Decepticon leader Scorponok to create the Pretenders. Copying the data from this experiment, Prime returns to Goldbug and Zachary, but his computerized presence does not go unnoticed. While Goldbug and Zachary transmit this data to the spacecraft above, thus creating Autobot Pretenders, the Decepticon Pretenders trace Prime back to Zachary's software company, and launch an attack. The computerized Prime coordinates the Autobot Pretenders' successful defense of the company's headquarters, and the Decepticons are repulsed. But this experience does nothing to convince Prime that he is a real, live, robot.

Errors
Goldbug claims to have seen Prime's body launched in the Earth's sun for burial. When the funeral bier is launched in Funeral for a Friend!, Bumblebee/Goldbug is not listed among the Autobots present, presumably because he is still a pile of parts, due to events in the G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover. Also, we learn later in the series that the bier was not launched into the sun in the first place.

Items of note
TBA

UK Printing
UK Issue 162 TBA

UK Issue 163 TBA