Escalation

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Who wrote "Don" on that pipe?
"Escalation"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	November 12, 2003
Cover date	November, 2003
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Andrew Wildman
Inks	Erik Sander
Colors	Espen Grundetjern, Rob Ruffolo
Letters	Benjamin Lee
Editor-in-chief	Roger Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave continuity
Chronology	The Dark Ages

On a divided Cybertron, the Tagan Heights are home to a battle that signifies the escalation of the war between the divided sides.

Synopsis

Ratbat thinks the Wreckers are a superstitious and cowardly lot.

In the Well of All Sparks, The Fallen is pleased with the Chaos Trinity's preparations for the Unbinding, saying they are reading to begin seizing those that they need. Bludgeon, however, is more interested in the "dark powers" that The Fallen had promised. Deciding Bludgeon needs some motivation, The Fallen reaches into Bludgeon's mind and offers him a glimpse at forbidden secrets, ensuring the loyalty of Bludgeon and his cronies.

Away, in the Tagan Heights, Springer and the Wreckers start a patrol, to keep the area out of the hands of Ratbat's Ultracons. Taking higher ground, he finds that Ratbat has unleashed Devastator.

Hot Spot and the rest of the Protectobots consider their alignment from the base they've made in the ruins of the High Council Pavilions. Hot Spot decides to take action in hopes of preventing escalation.

Springer orders the Wreckers not to engage Devastator, but the team disobeys the order to give Springer the opportunity to get clear. Springer falls away and ends up suspended upside down in some loose wires, where he's taunted by Ratbat.

Bludgeon considers the tasks The Fallen appointed to him, and he plots to manipulate Grimlock.

Devastator continues to battle the Wreckers, his limited intellect manifesting in the way he rampages without consideration. The Protectobots arrive and combine into Defensor in hopes of quelling the combined Constructicons. The rumbles of their clash allow Springer to fall out of his restraints.

While the situation in the Tagan Heights grows worse, the Autobase is left abandoned, except for a lonely Jetfire.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I opened a door, into a realm within, a dark forgotten corner of every Transformer. A relic of what we once were. Serve me well, and next time I will leave the door... ajar."

—The Fallen wants you to read that in Tony Todd's voice.

Sandstorm: "You really were first off the production line, weren't you? Six of the sharpest minds on Cybertron mushed into 'Devastator smash'."
Top-Spin: "Hey..."
Whirl: "... that's progress for you."

Notes

• Springer springs. This ability was mentioned in his on-package bio but has rarely been used in any Transformers media.
• Jetfire's new design for the series is based on Don Figueroa's scratch-build custom Transformer, Strikefire. Eventually the design was released as a figure in Titanium Series.
• Combiners are treated as living weapons so powerful both sides signed treaties agreeing to limit their use. While not given much focus for the rest of Dreamwave's productions, the idea will go on to see more usage in IDW's own Transformers stories.

Continuity notes

• When the Fallen offers Bludgeon a taste of the forgotten realm, several demonic robots are seen (one similar to Unicron), as well as a human skull and swords. This may have given Bludgeon inspiration for his later Pretender shell.
• Ratbat is a talky humanoid. But in "Countdown to Extinction", he's silent. Ratbat would later be seen with an early "even more talky humanoid" form in IDW Publishing's Megatron Origin.
• In the time since the prior War Within series, the Constructicons, Combaticons, Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Protectobots have all formed and became combiners.

Real life references

• Just as he sees Devastator, Springer starts to say "all quiet on the western front", a reference to the novel of the same name. Following on from that, he paraphrases the quote "we have met the enemy, and he is us", a reference to a particular famous Pogo strip.

Other trivia

• The "Wavelengths" section contain an article from the desk of Pat Lee.
• The "Declarations of War" page has reader mail answered by Matt Moylan.
• A print of this issue was included in the 2008 Universe Battle Beneath the Streets toy two-pack of Springer and Ratbat inspired by this issue. At least it was supposed to. Many, if not all, sets accidentally included the comic intended for the Autobot Ambush 2 pack.

Errors

• "The Dark Ages" is not on the cover under "The War Within", like all the other issues.
• Moments before combining into Defensor, Blades refers to Hot Spot as Hot Shot.

Covers (1)

• Springer in the shadow of Ratbat, art by Don Figueroa, Erik Sander and Saiko.

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• Video game, Viewtiful Joe
• Beast Wars, season 1 DVD
• Generation 1, season 3 DVD, part 1
• Armada #18 (double-page sideways centerfold)
• The Dark Ages #3
• Generation 1 #0 (back cover)

Reprints

Other than reprints of the full series

• Reprints of this issue and Marvel UK #82 were included with thematically relevant Universe (2008) two-packs... except each two-pack accidentally came with the comic intended for the other one. Whoops. Even worse, the Canadian releases of these two-packs completely lacked the comics despite advertising them on their packaging. It's worth noting that this issue was an exact duplicate of its original, with Dreamwave still labeled as the publisher - even though Dreamwave Productions went bankrupt in early 2005, and IDW was the current Transformers comic book licensee at the time. Since IDW took over in 2005, putting the 'IDW' branding all pre-2005 Transformers comics that were reprinted was standard practice...but for some reason, this War Within issue was left as-is.