“Are you sure this is how baseball is played?”
The Transformers #28
Marvel Comics (May, 1987)
“Mechanical Difficulties!” WRITER: Bob Budiansky PENCILER: Don Perlin INKERS: Ian Akin & Brian Garvey COLORIST: Nel Yomtov LETTERER: Janice Chiang EDITOR: Don Daley
The Mechanic has been using the stolen Autobot tools to steal equipment to put weapons and other stuff on criminals’ cars. The Portland PD and the Autobots both want to take him down, but thanks to the usual misunderstanding by the police and Grimlock apparently having learned nothing from the events of the previous issue, aren’t willing to get along. Luckily, Blaster, Goldbug, and two detectives will put aside their differences and stop the Mechanic’s plans and capture a bunch of crooks. However, they didn’t get the tools back, which leads Blaster and Goldbug to decide returning to an angry Grimlock is not the healthiest move.
What they got right: Last issue was setting up the new status quo for the Autobots, but this starts a new story arc as Blaster and Goldbug go off on their own. I like seeing the Autobots and humans work together and the story ends on a decent high, or at least medium-high.
What they got wrong: The Mechanic never shows up again, at least in the US run. That means the subplot with him is unresolved and somewhere he’s still running around with Transformer tech causing who knows what kind of trouble. It would have been nice to have seen that dealt with, but returning with the gear, if not the Mechanic himself, might not have led to the Blaster and Goldbug story arc Budiansky planned. What is annoying, however, is that twice we get the “as you know” for characters who didn’t have to already be in the know–once when the police chief talks about the trap they set for the Mechanic and the other when Wheeljack tells Grimlock and the others that he found a way to track the the Power Booster Rod. This is major writing no-no to begin with but here it’s also unnecessary for them to be in the loop at that moment.
Other notes: I really hoped that Grimlock was going to be better than this, kind of like the one in Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters. I didn’t expect him to act like Optimus but I thought he would be more proactive than Op when it came to the Decepticons. Instead we will never see them fight Decepticons (except for Blaster, Goldbug, and the bots they’ll be meeting two issues from now) until Optimus returned. Grimlock could have been a better leader and this is one thing I do think Budiansky did wrong.
Recommendation: A set-up for the next arc but I don’t know how necessary it was outside of getting Blaster and Goldbug on his own. Still, a decent read for completists.
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