Hotwing Hits Limbo

Commander Stargazer calls Earth to ask about the extra SilverHawks he keeps being promised, and is told to condense his message because time is money. Lord Cash reports a rumour that Mumbo Jumbo and Melodia are heading his way in the Limbo Limo, so Stargazer sends the Copper Kidd; Professor Power calls from the Artificial Sun, so he sends Bluegrass and the Steel twins in the Mirage; and Quicksilver and Tally-Hawk go after a distress signal. Every call is a fake. The Mob means to take the SilverHawks one at a time: Hardware is waiting for Quicksilver, Melodia and Mumbo Jumbo carry off the Kidd in the Road Star, and the Mirage crew fly into a hornet's nest at the Artificial Sun. All of them end up in the dungeons of Mon*Star's fortress on Brim*Star.

Alone at Hawk Haven, Stargazer pleads with Earth Control, and the General there sends him a new volunteer named Hotwing. While he waits, Stargazer sends Sly-Bird out to look. Stargazer scoffs at an ex-magician, but Hotwing reports as a squadron leader, and magic, he says, runs in the family. Stargazer tells him the calls were all fakes and that the only person who can get him into Brim*Star is Zeek the Beak, who hangs around with Seymour the Hack.

Zeek opens his price at half a million limbo bucks and settles for a dollar fifty, payment on delivery. Seymour drives them in without an alarm, Zeek shows Hotwing an entrance behind a boulder, and Hotwing sends him back to the cab, finds the dungeons and frees the SilverHawks with what he calls mind over matter.

The escape is spotted, and Mon*Star orders his transformation. Hotwing sends the others after Hardware and the vehicles. Mon*Star completes the transformation, but Hotwing takes him on and the team breaks out of the fortress, and Quicksilver tells him he pulled the rabbit out of the hat just in time.

As Mob victories pile up, Stagazer calls for more SilverHawk volunteers from Earth, and gets Hotwing, a SilverHawk with magic talent.

Commander Stargazer: "Turn Mon*Star into a rabbit?"

Quicksilver: "You pulled the rabbit out of the hat, just in time."

Hotwing: "Thank you, lieutenant. I was beginning to run out of tricks."

Commander Stargazer asks Earth for soldiers and Earth sends him a magician, and his first response is the best line in Peter Lawrence's script: "Turn Mon*Star into a rabbit?" The joke lands because we have spent the first act watching him lose his team, one emergency call at a time. Lord Cash has a rumour, Professor Power has a problem at the Artificial Sun, and a distress signal is growing stronger. Each time Stargazer sends somebody, until he is alone at the console asking what he is supposed to do when the next call comes in.[1]

The Mob states its plan in its own words: together the SilverHawks are a formidable bunch, and one at a time they can be picked off. It works because the SilverHawks answer every call that comes in. The help Stargazer scoffs at is the help he needs, because Mon*Star has built a trap for soldiers, and the one man who walks through it brings a magician's tricks along with his rank. Hotwing reports as a squadron leader, and when Stargazer mentions the magic, he answers "That too, sir. Runs in the family."

The standout scene belongs to someone else entirely. Stargazer's only route into Brim*Star is Zeek the Beak, a ratty little guy who, as the Commander warns, is never sure whose side he's on, and Zeek opens negotiations with "It'll cost you half a million limbo bucks!" The haggling tumbles from there to a deal, payment on delivery, with Seymour playing the exasperated straight man. It is the funniest minute in the episode. Getting into Mon*Star's fortress takes a con man, a cab and a stage trick, none of which a military plan would include. Seymour's cab rolls in without an alarm because the guards are used to him driving around picking people up.[2]

The animation gives the newcomer a look that no other hero shares. Hotwing is gold from head to foot where the team is chrome, and in the dungeon the design makes a joke of the difference: Steelwill flexes both arms in the foreground while Hotwing stands behind the bars of a cell, and the line that plays over it is "Muscles are marvelous, but brains are better."[3] The script keeps Hotwing's magic just as light, with no explanation offered beyond mind over matter.

The weakness is the first act's convenience. For the Mob's plan to work, Stargazer has to send every unit he has after calls nobody checks, and the team has to fly into each trap without comparing notes. The reason is plain enough: an introduction has to clear the board for the new hero, and in a twenty-two minute slot the quickest way to empty Hawk Haven is to make everyone careless at once. The captures pass in a line of dialogue apiece, and the Mirage crew's fall at the Artificial Sun is summed up as "Looks like we called the wrong play, Will."

Hotwing takes on the transformed Mon*Star while the team gets clear, and afterwards Quicksilver thanks him in the Commander's own terms: "You pulled the rabbit out of the hat, just in time." Hotwing admits he was beginning to run out of tricks. It is quite an entrance!

1 ^ Alone at the console, Stargazer also sends Sly-Bird out to find what is happening, telling the bird that if it does not, "it's the end for all of us."

2 ^ Seymour and his cab are regulars by now; the cab first turns up in Save The Sun.

3 ^ The cell Hotwing stands in is on the wrong side of the bars for a rescuer, and the episode does not stop to explain how he got there.

1. First appearance of Hotwing, sent from Earth as a new volunteer; he reports to Stargazer as a squadron leader and says magic runs in the family.
2. Stargazer introduces Zeek the Beak as a ratty little guy who hangs around with Seymour the Hack and is never sure whose side he's on.
3. Zeek's price for getting Hotwing into Brim*Star falls from half a million limbo bucks to a dollar fifty, payment on delivery.
4. Seymour gets the cab into Brim*Star without an alarm because the Mob is used to him driving around there picking people up; his cab first appears in Save The Sun.
5. Stargazer sends Sly-Bird out alone to find out what has happened to the team.
6. The Mirage crew's call comes from Professor Power at the Artificial Sun; when they arrive there is no response from him and it is too quiet.
7. Mon*Star orders his transformation when the SilverHawks escape, and the published frames show him both before (15:20) and after (17:46).
8. The closing lesson is about the Moon's light and eclipses, and the Copper Kidd finishes on eighteen points.

4 names enter the series in this episode.

• Hotwing
• Sly-Bird
• Zeek the Beak
• Transport

Appearance lists compiled from the episode articles on the ThunderCats wiki, checked against this site's encyclopedia. Names we have no entry for are shown without a link rather than left out.