Power Struggle

	; Why can't this happen to a Carnival Cruise?
	"Power Struggle"
First published	October 1986
Cover date	February 1987
Script	Michael Higgins
Pencils	Herb Trimpe
Inks	Vince Colletta
Colors	Nelson Yomtov
Lettering	Joe Rosen
Editors	Bob Harras & Don Daley

The Decepticons' theft of Power Station Alpha is co-opted by Cobra, leading to an unstable alliance.

Synopsis

Superion accuses the G.I. Joe team of killing Bumblebee and demands what is theirs. This is more than enough for the Joes to react the way every other branch of the human military reacts when confronted with a giant robot. Superion is forced to return their fire, but just as things are escalating to the point where he may have to use lethal force, he receives a message that Optimus Prime has been killed and all Autobots are to return to the Ark. Abruptly, he abandons the battle.

At the Decepticon base, a disinterested Megatron watches as the cerebro-shell planted by Bombshell causes Power Station Alpha to take off on remote control (while Hawk is busy canoodling with Senator Barbara Larkin). Noting his leader's lethargy, Shockwave comes to the conclusion that he will have to take command of the Decepticons.

The theft of Station Alpha is also observed by Cobra, and Doctor Mindbender uses an electronic helmet to take control of the cerebro-shell and redirect the station towards them. A group of Cobra aircraft is sent to escort it, but they come under attack from the Joes. The air battle is observed from a nearby pleasure cruiser by G.B. Blackrock and a group of anonymous, bikini-clad beauties. Serpentor notices the boat and tells the Joes that he will destroy it if they don't stand down. Senator Larkin advises destroying Alpha, but Hawk knows that this will cause a dangerous radioactive plutonium fallout and orders his men to stand down. Cobra then fire on the boat anyway, forcing the Joes to spend time evacuating its occupants. Blackrock overhears them discussing their recent encounter with "giant, shape-changing vehicles" and tells them he might be able to help them.

Meanwhile, Anthony Duranti, the boy Bombshell used as a decoy, has been left in a catatonic state by the cerebro-shell. An x-ray shows it lodged in his brain, and the doctors elect to try and remove it by surgery.

Serpentor and Mindbender witness the arrival of Station Alpha, but it is closely followed by Dirge and Bombshell, who explain the Decepticons' interest in the station. Mindbender hastily suggests an alliance after planting a listening device on Dirge. Later, he overhears Shockwave informing the two Decepticons of his plan to convert Alpha into a device to tap into the Earth's natural energy...a plan Mindbender realises will destroy the planet.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	G.I. Joe	Cobra	Humans
Superion (5) Blaster (17)	Megatron (19) Ravage (20) Shockwave (21) Dirge (32) Bombshell (33)	Mutt (1) Scarlett (2) Junkyard (3) Snake-Eyes (4) Roadblock (6) Beachhead (7) Sgt. Slaughter (8) Lady Jaye (9) Dial-Tone (10) Ace (11) Crankcase (12) Hawk (14) Mainframe(18) Wild Bill (26) Lift-Ticket (27) Slip-Stream (28)	Baroness (22) Serpentor (23) Destro (24) Doctor Mindbender (25)	Barbara Larkin (13) Congressman (15) Garcia (16) Anthony Duranti (29) Mrs. Duranti (20) G.B. Blackrock (31)

Quotes

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

Blaster is colored in red with a blue head, joints, and hands in his one-panel appearance.
Dirge is colored mostly blue with an orange cockpit area and wings.
Rattlers are colored green at times.
The X-14 Skystriker is repeatedly colored green.
In the panel where Lift-Ticket is shown downing a Rattler, he's gone from piloting a Tomahawk to piloting a generic green fighter plane.
Anthony suddenly has black hair in this issue, whereas in Issues 1 & 4 he is blonde.

Continuity errors

Although the existence of Transformers seems to be fairly common knowledge, the Joes act as though they have never heard of them.
Ravage was last seen stuck down a mineshaft in "Showdown!". It is unknown how he escaped. In the UK continuity, he was trapped until "Time Wars". In the US continuity, after this miniseries he isn't seen again until "Eye of the Storm", where Mindwipe believes he hasn't been seen since the events of "Showdown".
This issue establishes that Shockwave had, in fact, lost his interest in leading the Decepticons and was perfectly fine with Megatron leading, and only decided to get rid of Megatron because of his mental state, in contrast to the Budiansky-written main series, which depicted Shockwave as a scheming, power-hungry, Starscream-like character.
Last issue, Hawk was present when Superion arrived at Fort Lewis. In this issue, the rest of G.I. Joe has to contact him about Superion's arrival because he is hanging out with the congressmen elsewhere in the base.
Megatron is seen moping around the Decepticons' new base in the Florida Keys. It is technically possible this happened between panels 1 and 2 on page 21 of "Gone but Not Forgotten!", that is, after he arrived at the new base but before the events leading up to his apparent suicide. However, in "Gone but Not Forgotten!" he had extensive battle damage to his face the whole time he was at the new base, but in this issue his face was fine.

Continuity notes

This makes little sense canonically…

The reference to the death of Optimus Prime places the early part of this issue and the late stages of the previous one at the same time as "Afterdeath!", though describing it as an assassination is quite a stretch.
In addition to the hasty disappearance of Optimus Prime and Megatron from the storyline, Cobra Commander has apparently been killed since the last issue. (He was actually buried alive and believed dead, along with Destro who thus appears in this issue erroneously. They both remained MIA for the remainder of this series, reflecting their separation from Cobra during this period.)
Anthony has a toy Bumblebee. Maybe this story takes place in the same universe as the Marvel UK letters page. Of course, either way this raises the question of why a toy company within a world where humans are largely unable to tell the difference between the good robots and the bad ones would even create a toy this accurate, and customers would actually buy said toy, and yet somehow G.I. Joe was completely oblivious to Bumblebee's role and ARRRRGHHH.

Real-life references

UK printing

Issue #269

Additional Transformers story: "Mystery!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Shuttle Complex" and Combat Colin
AtoZ: Silverbolt and Skids
In the issue's Dread Tidings, it is reported that a sign outside a pub in Middlesex is advertising "Jazz, Live here on Monday", and Unicron writes in to ask Dreadwind to say hello to his friends Johnny and Iain. Dreadwind also attempts to answer the age-old question of what Emirate Xaaron transforms into, saying that as he hasn't done it for millions of years the shock would probably kill him but it's probably something wimpy like a toaster.

Issue #270

Additional Transformers story: "The Bad Guy's Ball!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Tenth Letter" and Combat Colin

Issue #271

Additional Transformers story: "The Living Nightlights!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Tenth Letter" and Combat Colin
AtoZ: Skydive and Sky Lynx

Issue #272

Additional Transformers story: "Cry Wolf!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Tenth Letter" and Combat Colin

Other trivia

Covers (5)

G.I. Joe and the Transformers #2
UK issue #269
UK issue #270
UK issue #271
UK issue #272

G.I. Joe and the Transformers #2 cover: the Decepticons watch G.I. Joe fight Cobra, by Herb Trimpe.
Issue #269 cover: a worried-looking Skydive, by Pete Knifton and Pete Venters, taken from panel 3 of the first page of issue #269.
Issue #270 cover: Megatron and Shockwave clink glasses at the Enclave, by Stephen Baskerville.
Issue #271 cover: Wheeljack nods off as the Sleepfasts get up to mischief, by Staz.
Issue #272 cover: Carnivac, by Stephen Baskerville.

Reprints

Other than reprints of the full series

N/A

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Power Struggle

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