The Bad Guy's Ball!

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How does Shockwave drink?
"The Bad Guy's Ball!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	12th May 1990
Cover date	19th May 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Pete Knifton
Inks	Michael Eve
Lettering	Glib
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce

The Decepticons party like it's 1990.

Synopsis

Decepticon office parties tend to go the same way as human ones. Not pictured: Starscream crying in the bathroom after his pass at Megatron was rejected.

The Decepticons have called an Enclave—a special truce between warring factions to meet, discuss differences and resolve them. The Autobots call such an event the "Bad Guy's Ball". With a Decepticon Civil War looming, Megatron and Shockwave are seeking to unite against the Earthforce, so they hold a grand party at which they agree that unity is the logical way to destroy the Autobots. The Autobots have come to the same conclusion and so Jazz, Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, and Ironhide have been sent to derail the proposed alliance.

First, Jazz sneaks up to Headstrong and knocks him out. Then Sunstreaker and Ironhide fire upon Megatron from afar whilst Jazz and Bumblebee throw Headstrong from the roof to land at Megatron's feet. Soundwave notes that Headstrong's blaster has been fired and deduces that the assassin is one of Shockwave's troops. Megatron turns on Shockwave, accusing him of calling the Enclave to assassinate him. Shockwave disputes this but the two Decepticon armies turn on each other.

After they have all gone, Jazz notes the oil and energon snacks are still there and starts to party!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Oh, wonderful! Thirty or more blood-crazy 'Cons, and here we are - four tasty Autobot titbits! Am I being paranoid or has our leader got it in for us?"

—Sunstreaker bemoans his fate.

"Leshee...Hur-have I tried the multi-carb speshial? Better make shure..."
"Headstrong! Why not try - the punch?!"

—Headstrong is legless and Jazz is punchy.

"Well - that was fun. Let's go before they come back!"
"What's the rush? We've got oil, energon and my radio's tuned to the hottest sounds around - let's paaarty!"

—Ironhide and Jazz

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• An enclave is a physical territory, typically home to a group that is politically or ethnically distinct from the population that surrounds it. A more appropriate term for a Decepticon get-together would be a conclave. (See also: emirate)

Continuity errors

• Scorponok and his large faction of 'Cons (surely a rival or potential ally?) go unmentioned in all of this. This is extra glaring when they're going to be mentioned next week!

Continuity notes

• The Decepticons have been at daggers drawn since "Life in the Slow Lane". Megatron and Shockwave talk about this as a threat to the Decepticons' very survival, which seems a little extreme.
• There are over thirty Decepticons at the Enclave: presumably the bulk of both factions. That means they outnumber Earthforce more than two to one: there were twelve initial members and only two extra Aerialbots showed up in "Mystery!".
• Megatron refers to a dislike of alliances. He previously has been in one with Shockwave ("Second Generation!") and Galvatron ("Time Wars"), and neither went well for him.
• Motormaster is hanging with Megatron here. In "Two Steps Back!", he was in Shockwave's faction. This is probably an error but in the context of Decepticon feuding, it actually works quite well to have someone jumping sides.

Real-life references

• TBD

Other trivia

• Ravage eats from a bowl on the floor.

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "Power Struggle"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "The Tenth Letter" and Combat Colin

Cover

• Issue #270 cover: Megatron and Shockwave clink glasses at the Enclave, by Stephen Baskerville.

• 

  Issue #270 - Aw, they're friends...

Reprints

• Transformers: Fallen Star : Megatron and Shockwave fight at Memphis Airport. Cropped from the cover of issue #277, art by Stewart Johnson.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80), by Andrew Wildman.

• 

  Fallen Star
  (Titan Books, 2005)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road
  (Hachette Partworks, 2018)

References