(Double) Deal of the Century!
From Transformers Wiki
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| "(Double) Deal of the Century!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 22th July 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 29th July 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Andy Wildman | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Stuart Bartlett | ||||||||||||
| Cover | Jeff Anderson | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK) | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 1989 | ||||||||||||
Never make a deal with a guy named Doubledealer.
Contents |
Synopsis
Chainclaw is in the process of bringing Optimus Prime battle plans from the Autobot resistance on Cybertron to be evaluated, when he is attacked by a Decepticon falcon named Dealer, who carries him off right before the optics of Prime and the Race Car Patrol who were coming to meet him. Dealer radios Prime with an offer: meet him and his price to retrieve the plans, or he'll sell them to the Decepticons. Optimus agrees and, while considering who to send as a courier, is met by the Autobot named Double. Double claims to have been Chainclaw's back-up, and wants to take the meeting to make amends for his failure. After a Micromaster scans his Autobrand as authentic, Optimus Prime agrees to send Double to the exchange.
Dealer meets with Scorponok already at an abandoned barn, and sells him the Autobot resistance's plans. A short distance away, Optimus Prime and the Micromasters are waiting for Double to return from the exchange, only to have him stagger into view carrying Chainclaw. He claims the Decepticon double-crossed him and took the plans, pointing to the barn and saying the enemy is still inside. As Optimus and the Race Car Patrol charge into the building to avenge their comrades on the unsuspecting Scorponok, Doubledealer chuckles to himself about a good day's work and takes to the skies, as the sounds of battle echo behind him.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Both |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"You're right, Autobot. Close...but no steam valve!"
- — Doubledealer taunts Chainclaw.
"Well, we have the energon...and it seems we have no option but to pay. Right then, Race Car Patrol...which of you wants to be courier?"
- — Optimus Prime, not exactly overwhelmed with volunteers.
"I have to say, Doubledealer, old boy...that was one of the best so far. It's amazing what you can accomplish...when you're both Autobot and Decepticon! You can even pull off the double deal of the century!"
- — Doubledealer gloats in title drops.
Notes
Artwork and technical errors
- Chainclaw's shell really looks more like a giant rat than an imposing grizzly bear.
- Roadhandler's name is spelled as "Road Handler".
- Weirdwolf is misspelled as "Wierdwolf" on page 13.
Continuity errors
Continuity notes
- Doubledealer and Chainclaw make their first appearances. Technically, so do the Race Car Patrol, although the later stories "A Small War!" and "King Con!" in UK #232–235 take place prior to this one.
- Doubledealer is depicted here as a standard Triple Changer, with no mention of any Powermaster gimmick or partners.
- Chainclaw gets completely battered in this story, and would continue to do so in subsequent appearances.
Real-life references
Other trivia
- The title page of this comic renders the name as "[DOUBLE]DEAL OF THE CENTURY!" An introductory paragraph calls it "(Double) Deal Of The Century". TFWiki.net formatting is unfriendly to square brackets in the title of articles, so we stick with the second version, but with more conventional capitalization and the exclamation point.
- Doubledealer would again be known as "Dealer" in the 2005 IDW continuity.
Back-up material
- Reprint Transformers story: "Headhunt"
- Back-up strips: Action Force - "Cross Purposes" and Combat Colin
Foreign Localization
Swedish
- Title: "Århundradets dubbelspel" ("Double-Deal of the Century")
Covers (1)
- UK issue #228 cover: Doubledealer, Optimus Prime, and Scorponok, by Jeff Anderson.
UK issue #228
Reprints
- Transformers Extra Comic-Sonderheft #1 cover: Optimus Prime, some human children, a mis-coloured Skullgrin, a mis-coloured Laserbeak or Buzzsaw and some dude wearing Megatron's helmet, by ???
- Transformers: Earthforce cover: Grimlock thumps a table, by Stephen Baskerville.
- Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 17: Matrix Quest: Nightbeat and Prime's corpse by Makoto Ono and Geoff Senior.
Transformers Extra Comic-Sonderheft #1 (Condor Verlag, 1989)
Earthforce (Titan Books, 2005)
Definitive G1 Collection vol. 17: Matrix Quest (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)