"Armada - The REAL Story" is a Remix Comic of an early toy pack-in comic for Transformers: Armada with an... unusual plot.
The original comic is about Optimus sending Hot Shot to stop Megatron's latest scheme, where he and his Mini-con partner Jolt destroy the device responsible and defeat Cyclonus and Crumplezone. However, this comic was also written in three languages despite having little room to fit text, forcing its writers to make compromises in the flow of the dialogue; the resulting choppy prose became a source of ridicule among fans at the time. One fan, going by the handle of Yartek, decided to make fun of the comic by rewriting it to be as silly as possible. The result was "Armada - The REAL Story".
In this comic, Optimus Prime sends Hot Shot out to find his feet (and "do stuff for eight pages") and tells Jolt to go with him so Hot Shot does better. Hot Shot ends up finding a substance that he believes is jam (though Cyclonus and Crumplezone claim it's pie filling) and is attacked by the Decepticons. Fortunately, Jolt shows up to lend him a boost and a "handy plot device", and the two evade their pursuers.
The comic can be read in its entirety here
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Tropes in this comic include:
- Adaptational Jerkass: Optimus Prime, in stark contrast to his presentation as a kindly father-like figure in the source material, calls Hot Shot and Jolt respectively "wierd (sic) deformed guy" and "stupid little helicopter guy".
- Canon Immigrant: The comic has a passing mention of Elita-One, who exists in other Transformers media but doesn't have a counterpart of herself in the Unicron Trilogy (which the comic is based on).
- Crushing Handshake: At the end of the comic, Hot Shot and Jolt shake hands. Jolt complains about the handshake hurting and asks the bigger bot to let go.
- Hula and Luaus: After some deliberation, the narration at the beginning decides that the comic is set in Hawaii. None of the backgrounds resemble Hawaii at all, and the only time it comes up is when Optimus looks at some tropical dancers on a monitor in the second panel.Earth, or some planet looking the same. I dunno
I mean, it's not like the artist does the damn backgrounds
Okay... Hawaii. Yes
It's Hawaii - No Fourth Wall: The narrative appears to lack a fourth wall, as Optimus Prime opens the comic by telling Hot Shot to "do stuff for eight pages" and Jolt says he hopes to at least save the plot and gives Hot Shot a "handy plot device".
- Non Sequitur:
- Jolt responds to being told to accompany Hot Shot on his mission by saying he has articulation.
- Hot Shot declares "i eAt yOuR bAbIEs" as he drives out of the Autobot base. Unlike most of his dialogue, this statement has nothing to do with how he's feeling or what's happening around him.
- Only Sane Man: Despite him being aware of plot devices and his being in a narrative, Jolt is the least loony of the characters in the comic: Optimus Prime belittles his men and loses track of his own feet, Hot Shot is several spoons short of a full drawer and mistakes pie filling for jam, and Crumplezone and Cyclonus attempt to kill Hot Shot for stealing their pie filling.
- Remix Comic: The mini-comic that came with the first wave of Transformers: Armada toys, originally stuffed with the same dialogue in three languages, took on a life of its own thanks to TF fan Matt Marshall deciding to poke fun at the stilted prose by rewriting the comic to be as silly as possible. The result is a comic that instead tells the story of the mentally-impaired but well-meaning Autobot Hot Shot's quest for something known only as "JaAm" while Optimus Prime wonders where his feet are and Cyclonus tries to figure out what the hell his alt-mode is supposed to be.
- Woman Scorned: Played for Laughs; Optimus says Elita-One will go nuts if he can't find his missing feet, and tasks Hot Shot with searching for them before she flips out.
