Awesome / The Transformers (Marvel)

• Shockwave showing up as a Big Damn Villain taking out all the Autobots with one shot while Prime was giving a Rousing Speech.
  • The following issue then has one of the most badass covers in comic history◊ — Shockwave with a smoking Arm Cannon, standing alongside a wall with the words "[THE TRANSFORMERS] ARE ALL DEAD." burnt into it. It even got a homage◊ with the IDW Reign of Starscream movie-continuity comic series in 2007.
  • The best part? The series was intended to end at Issue #4. What a way to tell readers "Thanks to you, this series will be here to stay, so have this as your next cliffhanger!"
• Shockwave and Megatron's fight in issue #6. Megatron starts it by shooting Shockwave at point-blank range. It doesn't kill the guy, but it does send him flying for at least a couple of miles. Then he gets right back up, and when Megatron arrives, uses a Sherlock Scan to figure out how to cripple Megatron in a few seconds.
• The Dinobot's first appearance is one for them and for Ratchet, who'd made a deal with Megatron knowing he'd never keep it. So when Megatron makes his inevitable betrayal, Ratchet sics the Dinos on him. The Dinobots win.
  • Megatron gets his second wind and fights off the Dinobots. Ratchet, realizing he's the last hope for the Autobots, charges at Megatron in an attempt to send them both falling off a cliff to their destruction. Megatron doesn't budge, but the impact causes the cliff edge to crumble under Megatron's feet and he tumbles into a snowbank. Yup, RATCHET beat MEGATRON.
• Omega Supreme's introduction, curb-stomping several Decepticons, taking some of them out of the comic for years, and being badass enough to make Megatron flee.
• From issue #12, Optimus Prime (who until then had been a captured disembodied head) returns to his body and gives a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the Decepticons.
• The ending of issue #13. Megatron is about to kill the human that had been using him as a weapon against his will. However, said human states that he's not afraid of him due to taking a level in badass. Megatron is impressed enough to spare the guy's life.
• Buster Witwicky manages to get a brief moment in one of the UK issues, when he takes the mech-suit Ratchet and Wheeljack had built for him and goes looking for a fight. He accidentally winds up fighting Shockwave, but manages to do something no-one else in the entire series does: Makes Shockwave freak out, just by triggering Shockwave's fear of burial. Not bad for a human.
• From the UK comics, the introduction of the Wreckers, and their leader Impactor.
  • The moment when the Wreckers have decided that the war "isn't (their) fight" anymore, and are getting drunk in a bar. A Decepticon comes in and starts bullying one of the patrons. Twin Twist moves to intervene, but Roadbuster just says it's not their fight. This is the last straw for Twin Twist, who finally decides he's had enough, and takes the guy out in one punch, before turning back to the others.
  Twin Twist: Not our fight? How can you say that? How can I say that? It is our fight. It must, always, be our fight. We're Autobots - and the responsibility comes with the job! How can we live with ourselves if we let Decepticon scum walk all over us? It's not too late, though... we have a chance — One chance — so...
  The Wreckers: Let's do it!
• After several issues of Galvatron remaining perfectly calm and unfazed by everything thrown at him, Jazz manages to finally get him angry by laughing at him. What made him laugh? The fact that just after Galvatron told him his origins, he finds out that Megatron is leading the Autobots, meaning it's now Megatron versus Megatron. Sure, Jazz pays hell for it, but still. It's the beginning of a very long case of Sanity Slippage for Galvatron.
• The end of Target: 2006, where it turns out Unicron was well aware of what Galvatron was up to, and that he was the one who 'convinced' Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr to go back and stop him, effortlessly.
• A moment from the UK comic series that doubles as a Funny Moment. Rodimus Prime has a Decepticon in the exact same position that Optimus had Megatron in in the movie. The Decepticon asks for mercy, and Rodimus repeats Optimus's line "You who are without mercy, now plead for it?" However, instead of hesitating and being interrupted, Rodimus simply shoots the Decepticon in the face while yelling "REQUEST DENIED!"
• From the UK comic: Ultra Magnus taking on Galvatron. Okay, yeah, he lost, but still.
• The climax of the UK only Space Pirates. Hot Rod is alone in Autobot City, the Matrix stolen and the city under siege from a Quintesson army. With no choice, he awakens the one Autobot that can turn the tide. Cue Metroplex, who is NOT subject to the Adaptational Wimp size reduction that hit Fortress Maximus, and quickly establishes that he is The Juggernaut, single-handedly turning the tide of battle in favor of the Autobots.
• Circuit Breaker is a human who built herself a Stripperiffic suit to manipulate electricity in addition to serving as an artificial nervous system. Unicron is a Cosmic Entity the size of a planet. And yet she successfully fries Unicron long enough for Prime to destroy him◊. Holy crap.
• Ratchet single-handedly sabotaging the newly returned Megatron's scheme, first by making sure a revived Starscream's personality would return, making him immediately surrender to whoever was attacking him, and second by using Megatron's own technology to bring back Jazz, Bumblebee and Grimlock.
  • Speaking of those three, their reactions to being revived is pretty good too. Do they stand around wondering where they are or what happened? Hell no. The first thing they do is go straight on the attack.
• The Autobot Pretenders (Jazz, Bumblebee and Grimlock) and the Resuce Patrol Micromasters versus the Mayhem Attack Squad in #61 is made of awesome. Points go to Seawatch's line to Bludgeon.
  Seawatch: Hey, Bludgeon? You know how to ski? (Starts dragging him through the water) That's okay. Neither do I!
• Thunderwing's Dynamic Entry in issue #65, smashing through a wall. And Grimlock's utterly unfazed reaction is to instantly punch Thunderwing hard enough to send him flying. Thunderwing's reaction?
  Thunderwing: Hnn. I almost felt that.
• Scorponok and Shockwave's fight. It takes them all the way from New Jersey to the shores of Manhattan, still brawling all the while. Note that Scorponok spends most of his reign as Decepticon leader plagued by doubt, so Shockwave's really gone and pissed him off good.
• The fact that Galvatron manages to con Primus. He puts it best.
  Galvatron: For all their supposed "omniscience", even Gods can be tricked.
  • Then Primus brings the Autobots and Decepticons home in the blink of an eye.
  • Galvatron gets another one in "On The Edge of Extinction!" Seeing his big revenge plan against Unicron collapsing because of the sheer terror the collective Cybertronian population feels, Galvatron elects to lead by example. He shoots Unicron right in the face (thanks to a power boost from Cybertron's core) and manages to make Unicron recoil in agony, something his movie counterpart was incapable of doing. Even as he's swatted aside, it's clear that his plan worked, as the collective population begins opening fire, with even Scorponok admitting that he was shamed by "that unknown warrior".
• In issue 79 ("The Last Autobot"), Fortress Maximus, the mighty but conflicted Autobot subcommander, vs. Galvatron, one of the most powerful single warriors ever forged, who dismantled pretty much every Autobot he'd ever fought, either barehanded or with his particle cannon. Recent events have driven Galvatron completely 'round the twist, and he has some lingering injuries, but he is still one of the most dangerous beings alive. Despite having part of his face torn off, despite being thrown around like a toy despite being physically more massive than Galvatron, and despite the Decepticon being so Ax-Crazy he rips out some of Fort Max's wires with his mouth, Max overcomes his mental weaknesses, and uses the fact that he is fairly bristling with weaponry to blast him, beat him down, and throw him into a freezing Arctic lake.
  Fortress Maximus: We are Fortress Maximus, the Last Autobot, and you—you are history! *knocks Galvatron into a lake with an uppercut*
  • To further make it cool, the dizzying size of the cast of the comic meant that only the most well-known characters got more than one CMoA—even Optimus Prime only had three that come to mind, and the final writer's favorite, Grimlock, only had a handful—so a severely underutilized character like Fort Max getting a Crowning Moment of Awesome is doubly cool.
• Ratchet was a medic with laser scalpels as his main weapon, but was 2-0 against Megatron, for a while was the only functional Autobot in the early goings and saved the day with guts, determination and the inability to know when to quit. In some ways, he was more heroic than the Marvel version of Optimus Prime.
  • #58 and #59 are basically nothing but Ratchet being awesome.
• Ratchet's Dying Moment of Awesome, beating the crap out of Starscream long enough to make sure the Ark crashes. Not awesome enough? This also kills Megatron and Shockwave in the process, not to mention seriously messing Galvatron up.
• What was printed on the last issue's cover? "#80 in a four-issue limited series" It's not often a comic book series can have a Dying Moment of Awesome all its own, but this one did.
  • The Transformers: Regeneration One added to this. #100 in a four-issue limited series it boasted on its final issue.
• The last issue's got plenty of awesome. Such as the fact that even when everyone else has been killed, out of all the Autobots left, Kup is one of them. And he doesn't have a scratch on him.
  • Grimlock punching straight through Fangry's chest, like it's the most casual thing in the world, while at the same time lecturing Prowl.
  • Optimus' resurrection. And the fact that he's back in his original body.
• The byline for Issue 80, the finale: #80 IN A FOUR ISSUE LIMITED SERIES. For a comic series that started out as a way to sell toys, a 76-issue extension is quite a special occurrence indeed.

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