#8 - "Repeat Performance!"

Credits

Writer - Bob Budiansky / Penciler - William Johnson / Inker - Kyle Baker / Lettering - Rick Parker / Colors - Nel Yomtov

Story

While Shockwave prepares for the transport of Optimus Prime's head, Ratchet searches the Savage Land -- a prehistoric preserve hidding in Antarctica -- for the missing Dinobots. He finds Slag buried in a tar pit, then digs him out and taps his memory banks. It turns out that the Dinobots defeated Shockwave previously (from issue #4) by luck; they were knocked into the tar pits by Shockwave, but manage to knock him in as well by creating an avalanche. Slag then suddenly wakes up; after a moment of confusion, he offers to help Ratchet.

Back in Portland, Oregon, the U.S. Army has surrounded G.B. Blackrock's captured aerospace plant. Shockwave easily penetrates their defenses and slips inside, while an enraged Josie Beller watches from her hospital room. Inside the plant, Shockwave prepares Optimus' head so the Creation Matrix can be used to make six new Decepticons.

Later at the Ark, Megatron receives a transmission from Ratchet. Ratchet shows him a video of the Dinobots defeating Shockwave, then arranges to meet Megatron at the mountains of a nearby ski resort.

When Megatron arrives at the rendezvous point, he announces that he will not return the Ark to Ratchet. Ratchet admits that he had anticipated treachery from Megatron, then unveils the revived Dinobots. Though outnumbered, Megatron still manages to defeat the Dinobots. In desperation, Ratchet charges at Megatron and tries to knock him off a cliff. Megatron does not fall, but the ledge -- weakened by the jolt of Ratchet's charge -- crumbles. Trying to minimize the damage of the fall, Megatron transforms into his lighter pistol mode, then disappears into the snow banks below.

At the hospital, Josie Beller destroys a computer monitor with a mere wave of her arm...

Notes and Comments

• So, who broke the pact first, Megatron or Ratchet? While Megatron admits that he never intended to turn the Ark over to Ratchet, he didn't technically break the pact until he refused to do so. Ratchet, on the other hand, had promised in the last issue to destroy Shockwave. He never does so, but draws Megatron away from the Ark with false pretenses. By all rights, then, Ratchet is at fault, which is rather ignoble for an Autobot.
• Additional information about the relationship of the mainstream Marvel comic-book continuity and the Transformers can be found in the "Notes and Comments" for issue #3.