Worlds Apart! - Transformers Wiki

The Autobot Headmasters attempt to rescue the captured Autobot Targetmasters, but who are the Decepticons really interested in?

Synopsis

The Autobot Headmasters find out that what Highbrow termed a "nice little rescue mission" is anything but when their Decepticon counterparts attack, but the Autobots turn the tide—rather too easily, in fact. As the group debates the significance of this, Brainstorm reminds them of their goal: rescuing the captured Autobot Targetmasters and thus preventing the Decepticons from learning the secrets of the process to perfect their own Targetmasters.

But as Highbrow begins to debate caution, Gort detaches to voice his more proactive opinion and Chromedome's partner, Stylor, also agrees with the need for immediate action. After re-bonding, Highbrow recounts the stated agreement and goal that led to the creation of the Headmasters, along with his opinion that he and Gort are just too far apart mentally to work as an effective team. But when the Autobots arrive at the Decepticons' notorious Fortress of Despair, all agree that the open door and lifeless nature of the base are a real concern.

When the Headmasters finally reach the strung-up bodies of the Targetmasters, Sureshot stirs to shout a warning, that the Decepticons' real goal was to lure and capture the Autobot Headmasters to perfect their own Headmaster process. Before they can flee, Scorponok and the Decepticon Targetmasters burst through the wall.

Scorponok's Sting!

The Autobots are outnumbered and find themselves overpowered by the Decepticon leader, Scorponok, who batters the others aside as he grabs Highbrow in his claws. Only needing one specimen to examine, he orders the Decepticon Targetmasters to dispose of the rest. Hardhead decides to even the odds by freeing their captured friends, who in turn rescue their Nebulan partners.

Meanwhile, Scorponok is disappointed that Highbrow borders on the catatonic, as the Autobot and his partner violently argue over their best course of action. Scorponok laughs as he realizes that, far from being the perfect example he'd hoped for, Highbrow is just the thing he wanted to learn how to avoid. Back at the Decepticons' base, the combined might of the Autobot Targetmasters and Headmasters turns the tide, allowing Chromedome to race after his captured companion.

Scorponok calmly talks through the facts he knows about Highbrow and Gort, and realizes that the Autobot and Decepticon Headmaster processes are both technically sound and always have been; it's the compatibility between the partners that is the issue. Now that he's sorted out his problem, Scorponok's need for Highbrow and Gort evaporates, and only the timely arrival of Chromedome saves the pair. But Chromedome is greatly outmatched by the Decepticon Headmaster and pleads for Gort to recombine, pointing out that no matter how different Gort and Highbrow are, they both have common ground of wanting to protect peace and liberty.

Convinced, the combined Highbrow fights with renewed vigour, forcing a confused Scorponok to flee as the Autobot realizes the true power of the Headmaster process.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• Crosshairs and Sureshot's colour schemes are swapped, but otherwise the pair are drawn to their animation/Marvel model sheets.

Continuity errors

• Where this story can even fit into the continuity of the Headmasters limited series is a problem. The Autobot Targetmasters were introduced after the Autobot Headmasters had been captured by the Decepticons, the Decepticon Targetmasters were created just before the Autobot Headmasters escaped, when both sides very quickly fled Nebulos for Earth, and all that occurs in the space of the single issue "Brothers in Armor!!". Nevertheless, when the chronology of the Headmasters series was questioned in the UK letters page, Grimlock claimed "Worlds Apart!" took place during the action of "Brothers in Armour!", presumably shortly before the Transformers left Nebulos.^[1]
• Part of this is because the story was specifically ordered by Hasbro UK, who were heavily promoting the Headmasters at the time, but the full Headmasters limited series was not yet ready for a more rapid printing. Indeed, "Brothers in Armor!!" only went on sale in the same month as "Worlds Apart!" As a result, the story sits awkwardly in a continuity that was not fully available when it was written.^[2][3]
• Hardhead refers to his Targetmaster comrades as "Pointblank, Triggerhappy and Sureshot".

Continuity notes

• While the Decepticon Targetmasters include their full roster, the Autobot Targetmasters seem to consist of only the trio of new characters, with the movie trio absent.
• Having learned nothing from the events of this issue, Scorponok's next plan involving the capture of an Autobot Headmaster will also target Highbrow with even worse end results in the Transformers Annual 1989 story "All in the Minds!".
• Highbrow's retelling of the origins of the Headmaster process references both the events and art of "Broken Glass!", with the UK reprinting taking place in issues #134–137.

Real-life references

• TBD

Other trivia

• Having been ordered by Hasbro UK, an unsurprising omission from the story is Fortress Maximus, who was not included in the 1987 UK toyline. Maximus is neither seen nor mentioned once in the story, and a brief flashback to the Headmasters limited series depicts Galen and only the four smaller Autobot Headmaster heads, specifically omitting Maximus's head.
• The presence of a Headmasters video competition in this issue (see "Back-up material" below) has previously caused some confusion, with this issue's publication and the competition's closing date of October 16, 1987 both preceding the original US broadcast of "The Rebirth" by a number of weeks. The general retail video tape release of "The Rebirth" in the UK didn't occur until approximately March/April 1988 (based on advertisements that appeared in the comic), well after the story's initial US airing in November 1987. In 2017, one of the competition winners described^[4] the tape as not being supplied in a clamshell case (unlike the majority of UK video tape releases up to that point) and only being packaged in a plain cardboard slipcover with no artwork, effectively serving as an "early-bird release". Exactly when the UK competition winners received the video tape in relation to the original airing of "The Rebirth" in the US is unknown.
• Like some other issues, a free version of issue #130 (with an altered corner box) was given out at the chain of British steakhouses Berni Inn.
• Geoff Senior finds the cover boring and says it wasn't his idea.^[5]

Back-up material

Issue #130

• Back-up Transformers story: "Ring of Hate!"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers
• Other features: Competition to win one of 250 video tapes featuring the Headmasters and Targetmasters "in their own cartoon adventure story", with 500 posters for runners-up. To enter, readers were shown drawings of four Headmasters and four Nebulan commanders and had to correctly match each Transformer with their respective Nebulan partner.
• This issue saw the start of the Headmasters series and marked the first time a Transformers story was used as backup material.

Issue #131

• Back-up Transformers story: "Ring of Hate!"
• Other strips: Robo-Capers

Covers (3)

• UK issue #130 cover: the Autobot Headmasters introducing themselves, by Geoff Senior and John Burns.
• UK issue #131 cover: Scorponok crushing Highbrow, by Lee Sullivan.
• UK issue #130 Berni Funtime free edition cover: the Autobot Headmasters introducing themselves, by Geoff Senior and John Burns.

• 

  UK issue #130

• 

  UK issue #131

• 

  UK issue #130 Berni Funtime free edition: Shut up and read this whilst the grown ups have a nice meal

Reprints

• UK issue #255 cover: Prowl dreams of Battlechargers, by Stephen Baskerville.
• UK issue #256 cover: Ironhide faces off with terrorists, by Stephen Baskerville.
• UK issue #257 cover: Sunstreaker is his narcissistic self, by Art Wetherell.
• UK issue #258 cover: Ravage surprises Wheeljack, by Jeff Anderson.

• 

  UK issue #255
  (Marvel Comics UK, 1990)

• 

  UK issue #256
  (Marvel Comics UK, 1990)

• 

  UK issue #257
  (Marvel Comics UK, 1990)

• 

  UK issue #258
  (Marvel Comics UK, 1990)

• Transformers Comic-Magazin #15 cover: Optimus Prime crushes some planes before the horrified Headmasters.
• Transformers: Time Wars cover: Galvatron takes on Optimus Prime, by Geoff Senior and Oliver Harud.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #4 cover A: 'Bot and 'Con battle, by Dan Khanna (art) and Josh Burcham (colors).
• Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #4 Retail Incentive cover: Scorponok menaces the Autobot Headmasters, taken from page 1 of issue #131.

• 

  Transformers Comic-Magazin #15
  (Condor Verlag, 1991)

• 

  Transformers: Time Wars (Titan Books, 2003)

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #4 cover A
  (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates #4 cover RI
  (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB cover: Wreck-Gar fights Sharkticons, art by Robby Musso, colours by Kieran Oats. Reuse of the cover of Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #1.
• Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB cover: Soundwave leading the Decepticons, art by Dan Khanna, colours by Liam Shalloo. Reuse of the cover of Best of UK: Space Pirates issue #2.
• Best of UK Omnibus cover: Galvatron and Megatron tear into the Wreckers and Mayhems, crop of the cover to Best of UK: Time Wars issue #4.
• The Transformers Classics UK Volume 4 cover: Rodimus and Galvatron fight whilst Scorponok squeezes Highbrow and Goldbug rides Wreck-Gar, by Andrew Wildman.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 10: Trial by Fire: Devastator (by Don Figueroa) and Weirdwolf (by Will Simpson and Tim Perkins).

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  Best of UK: Space Pirates TPB (IDW Publishing, 2008)

• 

  Best of UK Omnibus
  (IDW Publishing, 2009)

• 

  The Transformers Classics UK Volume 4 (IDW Publishing, 2013)

• 

  Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 10 (Hachette Partworks, 2017)

References