A Clue

« Planet Terry »
Planet Terry in A Clue (Part II)
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Published in	The Transformers issue 17
First published	4th May, 1985
Writer	Lennie Herman (uncredited)
Pencils	Warren Kremer (uncredited)
Inks	Vince Colletta (uncredited)
Colours	Peter Kremer (uncredited)
Letterer	Grace Kremer (uncredited)
Editor	Sid Jacobson (uncredited)
Executive editor	Tom DeFalco (uncredited)
Editor-in-chief	Jim Shooter (uncredited)

"Our little Space hero continues his search for his parents."

Synopsis

Robota stumbles out of the junk pile and dusts herself down, much to Planet Terry's confusion. She explains that she was resigned to this fate by being replaced by the new model of Servant Robot – an attractive and curvaceous gynoid that Terry wryly notes is being waited on rather than serving. Terry introduces himself and his mission to find his parents by searching every galaxy; his only clue is a wrist bracelet bearing his name, and his only keepsake of them is an empty picture frame that he signed on their behalf. Robota volunteers to help Terry in his search and, after telling the locals he'll be back in a few months, they depart in his ship.

Robota compliments Terry's space ship handling, and he tells her he was born in one – and demonstrates that it's more than just a figure of speech, showing her the life ship in which he grew from infancy. After he wound up on Uranus, he did a favour for the Wazir and was gifted his current mode of transport, which began his search in earnest. The ship isn't perfect, however; a klaxon alerts Terry to engine trouble, and Robota navigates him to a nearby planetoid. Terry makes an emergency landing, rattling Robota.

Terry is surprised to hear the sound of applause, and exits the ship to find prospector Enoch Diggs (and his Burrobot, Hee Haw), who congratulates him on the landing. Though a dotty and forgetful fellow, something Mr Diggs does know is the way around a rocket engine, owing to 38 years with the Confederation Astro Patrol. As he boards the ship to take a look, he's stunned by the sight of Terry's lifeboat. He shakily asks if Terry is also wearing a wrist bracelet, and on spotting it, he comes to a shocking conclusion... he knows who Terry's parents are!

Featured characters

Planet Terry's crew	Others
Planet Terry Robota	Servant Robot, Series IV Robot factory workers Bznko bickerers Hunched dragon man Enoch Diggs Hee Haw

Quotes

"If I can't have their picture, at least I can have their picture frame! And I'm sure they would have written this!"

—Planet Terry on his only memento, a frame reading "To Terry – love Mom & Dad."

"What are you prospecting for, Mr. Diggs?"
"Don't rightly know, lad, but I'll know it when I see it!"

–Terry meets Diggs.

Notes

Planet Terry issue 1 on Marvel Database, an external wiki

Original printing

• Planet Terry issue 1, 25 December 1984

As originally published, each issue of Planet Terry contained multiple separately-titled but interconnected chapters. "A Clue" is the second of four chapters from the first issue.

As it was originally published in the same book as "The Search", "A Clue" carries no credits for its creative team, meaning they are uncredited by The Transformers.

Edits

• The original printing of "A Clue" followed immediately after "The Search", but as it was being printed serially in The Transformers, a plain text caption recapping the previous story was added to the first panel. This has the effect of obscuring Robot Factory No.5, Robota's former workplace, but she eventually fills that narrative gap with a comment in "The Doom of the Domed City".
• On the third page, "favor" is corrected to "favour", and "traveling" becomes "travelling".
• Pages four and five are printed in black and white.
• The original closing caption "Continued in this issue!" is replaced wholesale by "Don't miss next issue!".

Continuity errors

• After an extended part of the previous story established Bznko to have "Spxls" instead of years divided into portions with names like "Fklm", "Grpz", "Blzk", and "Plkm", this issue establishes that months are referred to as... months.

Continuity notes

• Humans (or at least human-like aliens) have established a robot factory on Bznko.
• The hunched dragon man asks if the bickering aliens are a new Yungmun when they make a bad quip.
• When Robota asks him his name, Terry's answer is "Terry", but when he introduces himself to Diggs, he starts with "I'm known as Planet Terry".

Real-life references

• "Wazir" is an uncommon romanisation of the word "vizier".
• "Burrobot" is a portmanteau of "burro" – the Spanish word for donkey – and "robot". His name is "Hee Haw" because that's the noise a donkey makes. That's the level of wordplay we're dealing with here.