Besides the obvious Optimus and Grimlock, did any of the other characters become Action Masters in the Marvel Comics (US/UK)? A bunch got revived by nucleon so I'm going to take a strong assumptions Megatron,Prowl, Wheeljack, and rest in #75 became Action Masters?
The comic ended too soon; we don't know what would have happened. Remember, "Nucleon effects every robot differently."
That's an interesting take. I just know that the Ark crew were exposed to Nucleon, but if the wiki is gospel and never looked at that, maybe they would still be able to transform and be "normal"?
Regeneration one addressed this somewhat: Grimlock, slag, silverbolt, huffer, blaster and inferno were the last transformers suffering the effects of nucleon
In regards to Marvel there are at least three different timelines. For the US run, as mentioned by @dj_convoy II, the series ended too soon. Grimlock became an Action Master in issue #76 and Optimus in #80 -- at least, Optimus has his Action Master body but it isn't stated that he is one and it's only HiQ that came into contact with Nucleon. All the other classic Autobots were revived with Nucleon, but since Marvel US came to an end, we don't know what happens to them. A safe bet is that those who had Action Master toys, became Action Masters. (As for Inferno...he never appeared in the US run prior to one of the last issues so his case is strange.) For the UK run there was a prose story to close the series: Another Time & Place. This tells that Optimus became an Action Master shortly after being rebuilt, and most of the others revived with Nucleon as well. Another UK timeline is the Transformers:Earthforce series. This series does not fit in either the US or UK continuity. In at least one of these stories, Desert Island Risks, the Decepticons built a new Devastator since the Constructicons can no longer combine. Although this fits with Action Master Devastator, it really cannot be since the story doesn't fit with the timeline. (Earthforce is a mess as far as continuity goes.) Then of course there are modern takes. Most notable of these is RG:1 where several TF's suffer from the effects from Nucleon, although I can't recall if any of these were unable to transform.
If I remember correctly, the Earthforce stories work best if you place them all after issue #80. You have Starscream and Shockwave at war with Megatron's team, just as it would have been had they awoken on Earth after the Ark crashes there (again). Lots of classic G1 bots and cons at war.
That's true, I guess when I comes to the US comics at least, depends what you consider a "Action Master". Just bc you were exposed to Nucleon or if that can't transform as well?
"best" but not really. Definitely, you have the classic characters who were revived by Nucleon so it has to be post #80, but though it's been a while since I read them, but I distinctly remember Grimlock having his regular and not his Action Master body and Optimus being a Powermaster, plus several other things that just don't fit anywhere in the Marvel US or UK run, or after either.
There is a short story where Grimlock gets his regular body back (which he has in G2). He finds a cure for the Action Master bodies on Hydrus Four. This can fit before Earthforce. It happens after Klo. It's called "Another Time and Place". We just have to assume that Bludgeon was not inside his shell when it blew up, and Megatron's spark was not in the body that was ripped apart (or maybe he survived due to the mind-link with Ratchet). My mind in the 90s was going to make it all fit, one way or another, lol. Eartforce even ends with the UK story "End of the Road", featuring the Stunticons. It's not a perfect fit, but it works pretty well. It gives us what we wanted to see when the Ark crashes in Canada, carrying Starscream, Shockwave, Megatron, Galvatron, and a whole shipful of nucleon.
Since Earthforce still features Scorponok's team here and there (like Double Deal of the Century) and then there is that other Galvatron who cannot be either the Time Wars or the Rhytms of Darkness version (Galvatron 3?) it really cannot fit into continuity, for a lot of reasons. I mean there is also "Making Tracks" that makes no sense since we saw Tracks being revived by Nucleon in Edge of Extinction (and the Last Autobot revived everyone after #80). Or the Battlechargers being on earth with Shockwave when Runabout was eaten by Demons. I know, I tried fitting it into continuity myself, but I think the best way is to consider it an alternate divergent timeline that branches off a few UK stories after Underbase (stuff like Race with the Devil can still fit regular continuity). Basically, yeah, that. The "Another Time and Place" special that is a sort of alternative end to Marvel G1, I think had Snarl become an Action Master too, since he had an AM toy out. I think Grimlock mentions others too like Tracks and Jazz, who had AM toys. But it has been a while since I read it, so I might be wrong. Will the Definitive Edition comic TPBs ever reprint the text stories? He appears in Edge of Extinction alongside those revived by Nucleon. I guess we are meant to think in Marvel US continuity he was on Earth and died in the Underbase saga. Of course in UK he was among the Survivors. He didn't? In Hungary, we got Semic to publish the Marvel comics and they mostly followed US schedule, and yet they did include "Cold Comfort and Joy" which had Inferno. Cold Comfort and Joy! - Transformers Wiki! I always assumed this meant that the Marvel US comics published this story too. Btw, fun fact, in the hungarian translation Slapdash does not reference watching Miami Vice (since that show was unknown here) but instead is watching X-Men TAS, and later says he learned that fighting move from Wolverine, in another bit of weird continuity so long after Spiderman appeared in the comics.
I'll have to re-read Another Time and Place. It'll be reprinted here: TRANSFORMERS BEST RARITIES (MAY221563) But looking at On the Edge of Extinction, there's no Tracks or Inferno (wiki doesn't have them listed either)
The Devastator thing was a reference to the UK releases. The Constructicons got re-released without their combiner parts around that time (although my brother got a re-release with the parts, so it's not exactly 1:1 for releases. I think his was old stock that came back out)
