#2 - "Power Struggle"

Information provided by Keith Palmer.

Credits

Writer - Michael Higgins / Penciler - Herb Trimpe / Inker - Vince Colleta / Lettering - Joe Rosen / Colors - Nel Yomtov

Story

Confronted at Fort Lewis by Superion, the G.I. Joe team opens fire, but the Autobot easily ignores their initial attack. Before the humans can do further damage, Blaster radios Superion that Optimus Prime has been assassinated, and orders him to return to the Ark. Superion flies away, leaving the Joes to mull over Bumblebee's remains and wonder what happened.

Later, at a hotel near the base, General Abernathy ("Hawk") visits Senator Barbara Larkin, who led the construction of Power Station Alpha. The two share a romantic interlude while waiting for the launch, even as both the Decepticons and Cobra make plans to steal it. When Alpha is launched, Dr. Mindbender uses an electronic helmet to control of it from Cobra Island. As Alpha veers off course, the surprised Joes scramble to their aircraft and chase it.

The Joes find Alpha flying over the Pacific Ocean, where it is escorted by a fleet of Cobra aircraft, and a dogfight breaks out. Seeing a cruise ship directly below, the Cobra leader, Serpentor, threatens to attack it unless the Joes break off. Ignoring Larkin's pleas to destroy the station, Hawk agrees, hoping to recapture the station later. Once Cobra has securely captured Alpha, they attack the cruise ship anyway; as the Joes counterattack, the Cobras leave with the station, surreptitiously followed by Dirge.

The Joes quickly drive away the remaining Cobras and rescue the passengers of the ship, which turns out to belong to industrialist G.B. Blackrock. During the clean-up, the Joes comment about their recent spate of robot problems, and Blackrock offers to help.

After Power Station Alpha lands on Cobra Island, Dirge and Bombshell arrive and introduce themselves to the Cobra leadership. Dr. Mindbender proposes a Decepticon/Cobra alliance to them, while secretly planting a device on Dirge. Intrigued, the two Decepticons leave with news of the offer.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Anthony Duranti has fallen into a state of shock, and his worried mother takes him to a doctor. X-ray scans reveal the presence of a foreign object -- Bombshell's cerebro-shell (from last issue), and brain surgery is scheduled to remove it.

At Cobra Island, Dr. Mindbender uses his planted device to eavesdrop as the Decepticons talk about the proposed alliance. He hears Shockwave announce that he plans to use Alpha for his own ends -- to destroy the Earth and power Cybertron...

Notes and Comments

• Optimus Prime's death (more of a suicide) occurs in issue #24 of the regular Transformers comic.
• It appears that the events of this issue take place between issue #24 and issue #25 of the regular Transformers comic. Optimus Prime is dead, and Megatron has already begun to sink into depression.
• Using that chronology given above, a continuity error occurs: this issue places the Decepticons in their artificial island base near the Florida Keys. But in issue #25, the Decepticons are still in their Wyoming strip-mine base, and are in the process of moving to their Florida base.
• Ravage speaks in this issue, as he did in the first four issues of the regular Transformers comic. No explanation is given as to how he escaped the mine shaft he fell into back in issue #20, nor for his subsequent absence afterwards.
• Finally, a cheap potshot at bad psuedoscience. Shockwave's plan to destroy the Earth and use Power Station Alpha to tap the ensuing energies is incredibly inefficient. Far easier to use Alpha to tap the Sun's energy output, which is easily hundreds of times greater than what an Earth-sized fireball could produce...