Linkage Part 13
From Transformers Wiki
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 Oh yeah. Shit just got real. | |||||||||||||
| "Linkage" Part 13 | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Columbia Music Entertainment | ||||||||||||
| First published | 28 April 2004 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Hirofumi Ichikawa | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Hirofumi Ichikawa | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Armada cartoon | ||||||||||||
| Packaged with | Legends of the Microns 13 | ||||||||||||
The final battle with the Mini-Cons' creator!
Contents |
Synopsis
On Earth, Stella Holley has taken up drawing as a way to keep remembering and honoring her Mini-Con friends.
Around Cybertron, the combined forces of the Autobots, Decepticons and Mini-Cons are locked in battle with the massive Unicron. As Quench mopes about not getting a hug from Stella before leaving Earth, Ravenus fights alongside the Sonic Assault Team to make up for his past acts while under Unicron's control.
A squad of evil Mini-Cons led by Midship advances on the Super Stunt Team. Against the backdrop of Unicron facing off against the Mini-Con-created Unicron of Light, Redline and Midship clash...
One year later, while Stella is on a break at her job, her friends notice something very strange going on...her hair is turning platinum blonde! Stella knows this is a sign from her friends. Somewhere, Redline and the others have returned to Earth and established a free city for Mini-Cons...and it's only a matter of time before they are all reunited!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Free Mini-Cons | Unicron | Humans | Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
- This comic was available only with the thirteenth (and final) volume of the Legends of the Microns DVD in Japan, along with the exclusive Quench toy. Later pressings of the DVD did not include either.
Transformers references
- Unicron is using the toy's light-up hand to make the ship-smashing energy wave in the first panel. His eyes are also lit up red, just like the toy!
- The Dead End drones use the cartoon's light-gray coloration rather than the toy's dark gray and yellow. This is also the only in-fiction appearance of the drones' robot mode.
- Overload makes a one-panel appearance this installment. Ichikawa had intended to use "Linkage" to explain where Overload came from as well, since the cartoon couldn't be bothered to, but the limited pagecount kept him from deviating from the main story in order to do so. Overload's body uses the Takara version of the toy's multi-hue reds, but the Hasbro version's blue face (which is silver on the Takara version). Considering Overload appeared in both color versions in the cartoon, the mash-up is forgivable.
- Tidal Wave appears in the same panel as Overload... both of the "power-up armor for the leader" types, fighting side by side.
- Stella had commented on how she wished her hair was platinum blonde back in Part 11.
- The device on the cliff in front of the Mini-Con city is an Autobot space bridge, its design taken straight from the obscure Panini UK Armada comic magazines. This is further proof that Ichikawa is a huge geek, but the good kind of huge geek.
Trivia
- Four pages and the final chapter.
- With this final installment, Impulsor is the only DVD-exclusive Mini-Con with a weapon mode to not have said mode appear in the comic.
- Stella's hair turning blonde has nothing to do with the energon-sensing powers of the Energon-series human Kicker Jones, which turns his hair blonde. In fact, Ichikawa was totally unaware of Kicker when he wrote the comic. Reportedly, his reaction to learning about the hair-color change thing was, quote: "Oh, this can't be good," but he went with it anyway rather than abandon the reference to past installments.
- Ichikawa originally intended to have some Omnicons or Terrorcons in the shot of the Mini-Con city, as the toy development teams on both sides of the planet had decided that those groups were evolved Mini-Cons (which was reflected in the Dreamwave Energon comic). However, when he discovered that the cartoon production team had never even heard of any of this and had their own origins for them, Ichikawa grudgingly dropped them.
