Transformation 231: Weekend at Bernie's 3

12/10/2016

It's the final of Decepticon Leader Factor, and all Thunderwing needs to do to win it is not have an Autobot shoot white sticky foam in his face.

The noir is played down this week as we get a less likely homage to a classic (apparently) comedy, plus a cut out Combat Balloon!

All in my look(ing) at (you kid) The Big Shutdown! Part 2.

14 Comments

Ryan F

13/10/2016 09:37:27 pm

I think the sticking-point preventing this story being set 14 months ago is that one of the Headmasters here mentions getting back to the Ark, but 14 months ago the crews of the Ark and Steelhaven had yet to intermingle, so this must be set at the very earliest just before Club Con, which still puts it after A Small War, timewise.

My best guess is that Thunderwing is leader in Small War, then gets demoted and becomes leader again in Assault on the Ark.

This story would seem to better fit after Megatron is 'killed' in the teleport accident with Ratchet, and that's the vacancy he's being tested to fill.

Maybe in A Small War he was just leader of a rebel faction, rather than the whole Decepticon force?

Tom

14/10/2016 02:52:04 pm

I always assumed the 14 months ago only applied to A Small War and not to this and the following Thunderwing story. I always thought that the eluding to Thunderwing as leader thing was just the present day narrator using the present day term for him but that the story itself was set earlier. That's just what I accepted as fact as a kid and moved on. That made The Big Shutdown and Rage set in present day without a problem. Of course there was still the confusion of where these stories were placed in relation to Two Megatrons and the U.S stories. And as I haven't thought about this for 25 years, I am now getting a headache.

Tim Roll-Pickering link

14/10/2016 07:30:02 pm

Similarly I always assumed Thunderwing was a junior commander in A Small War rather than overall leader. There's nothing wrong with introducing a character out of chronological sequence and this way round he gets a more impressive debut.

IIRC Thunderwing's US debut was published just a month later so I wonder exactly what order Furman was writing the stories in. But given what seem to be intended tie-ins I'd guess the US stories went in first.

Ryan F

14/10/2016 07:50:27 pm

I have an inkling that A Small War was written before Big Shutdown, but was held back to tie in with the US Micromaster strips so they could do a wall-to-wall Micromaster issue and really push the toys. It'll be interesting to see what the Classics UK reprints will say about all of this!

At least here there was a bit of an attempt to tie the b/w stories into the American stories - Thunderwing's rise to power, Meccanibals on Cybertron, the retrieval of Starscream's corpse, Two Megatrons, Longtooth being sent on the Matrix Quest etc.

I think there was a genuine attempt to make it all fit, but because of the various delays (reprints taking the place of the US strips), at the end of the day Furman just had to throw his hands up and say: "sod it, let's start from scratch."

Tim Roll-Pickering link

14/10/2016 10:53:57 pm

Furman said pretty much that in an interview about a decade ago. In some cases in this period it's easy to subtract the number of reprint issues and see exactly where the stories could have lined up - Out to Lunch in #240 is the best example. Assault on the Ark could also have worked well in that at the end of it Thunderwing is appointed leader of the Decepticons and the very next week would have seen his first US appearance in that role.

Of course the problem with that theory is that Out to Lunch references the changes on Cybertron since Thunderwing became leader...

However the first two Thunderwing stories are a little harder to place in this. I guess the critical line (from last week) is "Heir apparent to the Decpticon throne!" - okay it's yet another example of fiction chucking in a piece of political terminology without really thinking it through (an heir apparent just has to outlive the incumbent to succeed) but it's possible Thunderwing is setting out his credentials in advance after a rapid turnover of leaders on Cybertron (Straxus, Ratbat, Scorponok, the Triumvirate, Megatron) has left things unstable with very little continuity of planning. Another possibility is that there's been a fragmentation of leadership into separate war lords and the High Council is a body to reunify the Decepticons under a new leader. Either way it's possible for him to be doing all this whilst one or the other Megatron is still plotting.

Tom

17/10/2016 09:53:46 am

I was holding out hope that the new partworks collection would collect all these stories in chronological (Aspects of Evil and The Void etc notwithstanding) up until Perchance to Dream went awry but alas that appears like it is not to be.

Stuart

20/10/2016 09:21:46 am

In terms of the partwork, I wouldn't be surprised if how the couple of B&W stories in the trial are handled isn't representative of how the rest would be done if it goes nationwide. I think Furman has slipped the two stories drawn for colour into the trial so they at least get the treatment even if no more comes of it. I can see the rest getting their own dedicated book (or two).

The Transformation page of the next issue actually specifically calls Thunderwing "Commander in Training", and (looking ahead) he's only outright called Decepticon leader once in the whole story, suggesting a mistake.

I would disagree with Tom's idea the narration is calling him by his present day title, simply because he's not leader in the present yet. He's a kebab at the sea bottom.

Tom

20/10/2016 10:20:54 am

Of course this is true in real time but as a kid I collected the American and U.K. Comics and the uk comics were received months behind their shelf date whereas the American ones seemed to arrive almost immediately at my comic store (I'm in Australia). So kids perspective was beautifully skewed:)

Stuart

20/10/2016 10:36:39 am

Still not a bad theory.

You're also not the Tom I thought you were. Who'd have thought there'd be two of them in Transformers fandom? ;)

Tom

20/10/2016 02:46:59 pm

I have no doubt that there would be separate books with the black and white stories in them if it continued, however I thought it would be cool if these stories of this era that were in continuity with the US books up until Perchance To Dream were published alongside the US ones as intended to be enjoyed when written. Deathbringer effectively kicks off Furman's run on the US stories and these Thunderwing stories help set up the future run ins that all these characters have with each other as well.
And as far as the headmasters in these issues are concerned, the universe entries in the U.S series also specifically mention the nebulan companions, so when before The Big Shutdown they went to Nebulos is the real mystery Nightbeat should be investigating!

Ryan F

20/10/2016 03:11:05 pm

I always assumed the newer Headmasters were on the Steelhaven all along, just lurking in the background just out of shot.

I don't know if anyone else here is a fan of the TV show Lost, but an equivalent would be when they introduced Nicki and Paulo in that show and said "yup, they were just there all along!"

IIRC this doesn't affect the Double Targetmasters or Doubledealer, who were never depicted in the comics with their little chums.

Tom

20/10/2016 03:38:12 pm

That might work if Hosehead actually knew the others. But yeah it's as good a theory as any. Otherwise a whole new thing happened on Nebulos off screen as eluded to in the universe profiles from Bird of Prey.

Ralph Burns

23/10/2016 08:51:07 pm

Thunderwing is a very silly sausage!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Felicity link

22/11/2019 11:29:29 am

Fire-retardant foam, defeating Decepticons since “The Ultimate Doom”!

Transformation 231: Weekend at Bernie's 3

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