Ca$h and Car-nage!

	; This cover was created with the latest in anti-counterfeit technology.
	"Ca$h and Car-nage!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	July 1988
Cover date	November 1988
Writer	Bob Budiansky
Penciler	José Delbo
Inker	Danny Bulanadi
Colorist	Nel Yomtov
Letterer	Bill Oakley
Editor	Don Daley
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Apparently, bounty hunters were big in the '80s.

Synopsis

At a county fair, a bounty hunter named Burn-Out interrupts the Z Foundation's carnie "Reck the Robot" shoot-'em booth by shotgun blasting the robo-prop. The barker tells him about a chance for real prizes...

At a monster truck rally, Randy "Roadhog" Horton indulges his passion for demolition derbies by destroying the Robo-Car provided for the Z Foundation Challenge. The announcer tells him how he could do the real thing, for real money...

At a sleazy motel, two bounty hunters named Skunge and Felix employ high technology gimmicks and their own deceptively small size to capture criminals-at-large. At the local police station, an officer mentions the Z Foundation's robot-hunting bounty...

And so, in New York City, the four mercenaries gather at the Z Foundation's national offices. They are met by Mr. K and his associates, Mr. B and Mr. L. They explain that the chairman, Mr. Z, founded their foundation in order to eliminate the threat of all Transformers to the people of Earth. They offer the men $50,000 for each Transformer they bring in, and the use of patent-pending "jammers", designed under the theory that they can neutralize a Transformer's conversion power. So armed, the bounty hunters are christened the Roadjammers, and sent out to hunt their prey.

Meanwhile, there are nothing but robots on Cybertron. Six Autobots have been captured by the Decepticons, and await their fates in a detention facility. The Firecons arrive and escort out three Autobots—Fizzle, Sizzle, and Backstreet—to a waiting space bridge center. For their own suspicious purposes, the Decepticons fully re-energize and rearm the Autobots, sending them across the trans-dimensional gateway to planet Earth... right near New York City.

Catching the Autobots by surprise, the Roadjammers make quick work of Sizzle and the others. Still, some of what the Autobots said before they were jammered makes them curious—if the Autobots did just arrive on Earth like they claimed, how did the Z Foundation know where to send the Roadjammers to patrol? It crosses their minds that maybe Mr. K and the alphabet flunkies are running some kind of scam on the side with the 'Cons, so they come up with a plan to catch the businessmen with their possible Decepticon partners, and turn them all over to Mr. Z for an even bigger reward.

Back at the Z Foundation, Felix jimmies their way into a locked parking structure, and sure enough, they find three Decepticon Headmasters languishing in the corner. Mr. K and the others arrive and make no attempt to hide their partnership—they reveal their hidden binary bonding armors and join with their Decepticon partners in robot mode. Only then do they realize they're paralyzed by the jammers, since Felix made the necessary adjustments to double the power of the three jammers they were given.

At that moment, Mr. Z himself enters the structure, and unveils his true identity as Lord Zarak, leader of the Decepticons. He summons Scorponok to retrieve the jammer technology from the Roadjammers, but Felix has arranged to manipulate the jammer signals by his dashboard computer system, letting him turn all six Cybertronians against Scorponok by remote control.

Temporarily overwhelmed, Zarak feels forced to activate his prototype anti-jammer, which unfortunately will free the Autobots from the Roadjammers' control, as well as his fellow Decepticons. As the jammering effect fades, the Autobots recover quickly and get the Roadjammers to safety before the Decepticons can turn on them. As the Autobots drive away, Felix tells his team that he's confident the jammer technology can be reverse-engineered, and that they'll all soon be back in business...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Nebulans
Backstreet (10) Dogfight (11) Sizzle (12) Fizzle (13) Override (14) Guzzle (15)	Flamefeather (16) Cindersaur (17) Sparkstalker (18) Horri-Bull (19) Fangry (20) Squeezeplay (21) Scorponok (22)	Burn-Out (1) Mel (2) Randy "Roadhog" Horton (3) Skunge (4) Felix (5)	Kreb (6) Brisko (7) Lokos (8) Zarak (9)

Quotes

"The true purpose of the Z Foundation is to get others to unwittingly eliminate the Autobots for us! So far, the offers of money and aid by you Earthling fools have been nothing less than inspiring! I want to personally thank you four! Now give me the jammers!!"
"We'll give you somethin', sucker!"
"I only ask once! Scorponok -- destroy!!"

—Zarak is on a roll, and Roadhog isn't about to slow him down.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

The dastardly Robo-Car destroyed by "Roadhog" appears to have Hot Spot's head.
Page 21, panel 2: Backstreet is as big as Scorponok.
Page 21, panel 5: Zarak's aghast face is a direct swipe from Headmasters #4.
Zarak has a Decepticon insignia (which he doesn't usually) for only one panel.

Continuity errors

Cindersaur, of all people, saying "I can roast 'em later?"
In "Broken Glass!" the Nebulons had to be binary bonded to the Autobot bodies because simply controlling them by remote control was pitifully ineffective. Here Felix overwhelms Scorponok by remote controlling six Transformers using the jammers and a few buttons on his truck's dashboard.
Even taking into account the use of shoulder pads in eighties fashion, how on Earth do the Headmasters hide their armour under their suits? Kreb's especially includes a large, high collar which couldn't possibly be contained by a shirt collar.

Continuity notes

The Z Foundation attempts to promote the idea among the people of Earth that all Transformers are dangerous and should be destroyed. This is reminiscent of Megatron's use of Robot-Master. The humans already distrust the Decepticons so they try to get them to distrust the Autobots as well.
In a nice artistic touch, Delbo actually draws Backstreet without his proton missile cannons until they're returned to him by the Decepticons.
This is the first US appearance for nearly the entire cast: Fangry, Horri-Bull, Squeezeplay, the Triggerbots, Firecons, and Sparkabots. The new Decepticons are seemingly part of Scorponok's crew who, like the pre-Pretenders, have been quietly lurking in the background, unseen until now.
The Space Bridge was built by Straxus to estasblish contact with Megatron. So how did Scorponok learn of it/and or gain access to it? Of course the Regeneration series establishes him and Straxus as two of four warlords in an alliance retroactively answering that question.
This is the first and only time José Delbo was to draw the space bridge. It was, in fact, the last appearance of the space bridge in the Marvel comics, though it does get one final mention in issue #56.

Real-life references

The bounty hunters are summoned from a county fair and a funny car rally in Pennsylvania, and from western Nevada; the Z Foundation's headquarters is in New York City; the Autobots are deposited in upstate New York.

UK printing

Galvatron? Whossat? Never heard of 'im.

UK issue #192

Back-up strips: Action Force - "Unmaskings" and Combat Colin
Even though they had been consistently called "Sparkler Mini-Bots" (or "Sparkler mini-bots") in all their previous UK-exclusive appearances, the introductory pages to both issue #192 and #193 explicitly refer to them as "Sparkabots". Presumably, by this point Marvel UK had become aware of the fact that they had been using an outdated name that didn't match the toys that were available at retail in the United Kingdom.
Following the trend from last issue, this issue's splash page was edited to fit the UK comics' aspect ratio. Damn José Delbo and his small splash pages.
This is the second time that the Sparkabots are captured by the Decepticons and tormented by the Firecons in the UK comics. The first time was in issues #170-171.
Some dialogue was edited to reflect the fact that the Sparkabots had already been to Earth in the past, which is plainly evident as the lettering for the altered dialogue looks notably different from the lettering for the remaining, unaltered dialogue. The upshot of this is that it's now Backstreet who asks "Where are we?" when they leave the space bridge, rather than one of the Sparklers.
This was the first issue where Dreadwind got to answer letters addressed to him instead of to Grimlock. In this issue he encourages people to send in anti-Grimlock letters, confirms that Metroplex does have a brain and confuses continuity by claiming that he and Darkwing came to Earth after leaving Nebulos.

UK issue #193

Back-up strips: Action Force - "Unmaskings", Death's Head, and Combat Colin
In Dread Tidings this issue, Dreadwind confirms that he and Darkwing are most certainly not brothers. Hi-Test also shows that he has a very British accent.
The Death's Head "back-up strip" in this issue is actually a one-page comic strip meant as an advertisement for Death's Head's own regular series. The UK comics often blurred the line between back-up strips and advertisements.

Bot Roster

Ark Autobots: 47 active; 5 bodyless Throttlebots. (52 total)
Steelhaven Autobots: 28 active.
Ratbat's Decepticons: 32 active; 8 rescued from the Ark; 4 offline/missing. (44 total)
Scorponok's Decepticons: 25 active. Three new Headmasters are introduced here but narratively have been there all along, unseen in the background.
The 3 Autobots sent to Earth here apparently do not remain there, as they are never seen with the Ark/Steelhaven crew.

Courtesy of my...

The Decepticons return Backstreet's laser-guided proton missile cannons, which see a fair bit of use on Earth.

Covers (3)

US issue #46 cover: Roadjammers vs an Autobot, by Frank Springer.
UK issue #192 cover: Mr. Z presenting picture of the Autobots to the Roadhog, by Stephen Baskerville.
UK issue #193 cover: Burn-Out blasting Fizzle, by Andrew Wildman.

US issue #46 - Like, tripping out, man.
UK issue #192 - Come back, so I may brain thee!
UK issue #193 - OH NO! Not Fizzle's ROOF!

Reprints

Transformers: Dark Star TPB: Starscream, Carnivac, Overbite, Dogfight, and half a Mecannibal, by Andrew Wildman.
Dark Star HC: Starscream victorious, by Seth Fisher and Chris Blythe.
Classic Transformers Volume 3: Panels from this issue and US issues #35 and #36. Art and pencils by José Delbo, pencils by Don Perlin, finishes by Dave Hunt & Don Hudson, inks by Ian Akin & Brian Garvey, colours by Nel Yomtov.
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4: Starscream, by Guido Guidi.
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 12: Cosmic Carnival: Skullgrin and the Cosmic Carnival by Don Figueroa, Frank Springer and Danny Bulanadi

Dark Star TPB (Titan Books, 2004)
Dark Star HC
(Titan Books, 2004)
Classic Transformers Volume 3
(IDW Publishing, 2009)
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 4
(IDW Publishing, 2012)
The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 12: Cosmic Carnival (Hachette Partworks, 2018)

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Ca$h and Car-nage!

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