The Energon Pub

[Insurgent]

In the 1985 Annual, there is a strip featuring the Dinobots dreaming about certain events from their lives.

Sludge involves a human with a wierd glow, whom he only referrs to as the beautiful shining woman. Clearly he knows her as he stops running and moves his head down so she can stroke it, commenting that the Decepticons took her from him last time and he wont let that happen again. While doing this, she says Welcome back to your death, rips off her face to reveal a robotic skull and shoots beams from her eyes. This knocks Sludge out and Megatron appears with a remote control.

I can't search the database as I have no name or references to work with. Can anyone tell me anything about this person and her history with Sludge?

[Swoop]

Yeah, she's a TV reporter (forget her name) who appears in Dinobot Hunt. She and her crew run into Sludge, who's sunk into a very primitive state due to circuit corrosion caused by being buried in tar for 4 million years. She befriends Sludge, but then a group of Decepticons appear. Swiftly disposing of the TV crew, they attack Sludge, who goes into a berserker rage due more to the attack on the reporter than himself, before they can capture him.

[Bigchin]

Ah, you beat me to it, and I'd just finished typing my answer as well! Bah. Anyway, her name was Joy Meadows, and she first appeared in #48 of the UK run.

[Insurgent]

Ah ha. So that explains the affection for each other. But what's with the glow, the ripping off the face, the robot head and Megatron clearly being her master?

Also, I thought that was her in Target 2006 in the flashback to Prowl interviewing a tv crew from the issue before.

[waaaaghlord]

Joy shows up a few times in the UK stuff. She's in Ladies' Night as well.

As far as her appearance in that annual goes remember that it's all a dream. She's shining because that's the way Sludge pictures her in his mind and the common theme to all of the Dinobots' dreams is their individual defeats, hence her turning out to be a Megatron controlled bot in that dream sequence.

[Insurgent]

Joy shows up a few times in the UK stuff. She's in Ladies' Night as well.

As far as her appearance in that annual goes remember that it's all a dream. She's shining because that's the way Sludge pictures her in his mind and the common theme to all of the Dinobots' dreams is their individual defeats, hence her turning out to be a Megatron controlled bot in that dream sequence.

Bwah ha! And my questions are answered.

So she never turned into a robot, she was always a human that never glowed. It was just Sludge's perception of her, as an almost angelic being. And friend of Sludge that he dreamt turned into a Decepticon spy.

Thanks for the info guys.

[Swoop]

She also appeared in In the National Interest, where the Dinobots and Centurion faced off against Megatron, Soundwave, and the Constructicons. (A much underrated arc IMHO - how can you beat an awesome battle royale between the above characters?)