The Transformers Comics
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Title: Pretender to the Throne!
Issue: 40
Released: May 1988
Pages: 22
Writer: Bob Budiansky
Pencil art: José Delbo
Ink art: Dave Hunt
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Nel Yomtov
Editor: Don Daley
EditorInChief: Tom DeFalco
Introducing the Pretenders
At last -- The Return of Optimus Prime!
Physically destroyed in issue 24, Optimus Prime's software still lives inside Ethan Zachary's workstation. Ethan tries his best to get the former Autobot leader to understand he is more than a game character, but fails repeatedly. Along with the newly reconstructed Goldbug, he sets Optimus Prime on a mission to spy on the Decepticons by infiltrating their computer network.
He encounters the Scorponok-lead Decepticon experiment to create organic/metallic hybrid Transformers - the Pretenders. Using information retrieved by their "dead" leader, the Autobots construct their own Pretender squad. While the two opposing Pretenders battle in the real world, Optimus Prime and Scorponok do the same in cyberspace.
"No! A data surge! I don't have the storage capacity to hold that! Arrgh! I'm overloading!" - Scorponok
Notes:
Disclaimer: This is neither autonoded nor a cut'n'paste writeup. My only source material are the original comics.