Transformation 244: Retcon.

11/1/2017

Oh boy.

Here we go then. It's a long, long one this week (I don't think I've used so many images before), as we wrestle with the problem of Megatron.

Still Ravage is fantastic and we get the start of one of the best remembered Combat Colin Stories.

It's all in my headache inducing look at ISSUE 244.

I'm so glad next week it'll mainly be jokes about the underwear factory from Corrie.

26 Comments

Ryan F

12/1/2017 05:34:25 pm

I think the giant out-of-place Targetmaster guy is actually Recoil (going by the 'Ark' big book of character models), and therefore yet another instance of an artist getting the Nebulan character models mixed up with their robot counterparts (Krunix says hi).

In a few issues time, 'Recoil' will suddenly be replaced with Kup as Delbo realises his mistake!

As for Straxus' crazy plan, you could (sorta) rationalise it. Maybe being just a head (and having been beaten by Blaster) meant Straxus had become a bit of a laughing stock. Better to nick Megatron's identity than rebuild himself as himself.

As for why he kept a copy of Megatron's memories on the clone... maybe it was to fool Soundwave, who can read minds and stuff? (I know, I'm reaching here!)

Stuart

12/1/2017 07:00:17 pm

All those Nebulons look alike to me. I used the Wiki, so you've another one up on them there.

I did give the story the grace of assuming Megatron completely bullshitted about what brought him to Cybertron, can't imagine Straxus actively planning to pretend to be Megatron if he knew everyone was trying to kill him last time he was home!

I wonder what Ratbat did or didn't know about Rebirth?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

12/1/2017 07:27:07 pm

I guess the memories were copied so that the fake Megatron couldn't be caught out by lack of knowledge. Perhaps Straxus had been watching the cartoon where the fake Optimus Prime could almost have a big sign around his head saying "Fake" and realised that that wouldn't work?

But yes, this is THE problem issue. Well we get an explanation for Megatron's absence that works for the US. And the retcon does at least explain how Megatron could have been in two places at the same time. But everything else...

As I've commented before, I think the single biggest problem most people have with this is that this effectively makes the original Galvatron a copy of Megatron and not the original. And I know there are doubters but throughout Salvage, Altered Image and Time Wars there was no hint whatsoever of Megatron being a fake - heck even Straxus assumed he was inside Megatron rather than vice versa - and Galvatron was his future self. Indeed at one point Galvatron even explicitly remembers a critical wounding as Megatron. The whole concept of history not working out as Galvatron remembers was primarily down to Galvatron explicitly deciding to do things differently from before (and possibly also from Rodimus Prime travelling back in time, literally taking Optimus Prime's place) with a hint that by the end madness is also infecting him. The alternative explanation would be that the whole changed history worked out over a much longer period yet somehow the fake Megatron broadly did the same actions as the original - which opens up the further question of just how the real Megatron survived in that particular timeline.

Beyond that, it's interesting to note that it's never too clear in the US stories just what Megatron's position is in the Decepticon hierarchy on Cybertron. He clearly has some influence to have sent the Air Strike Patrol in response to Scorponok's request so perhaps he actually is meant to be in command in some way. Indeed the Decepticon structure as a whole is never made too clear so perhaps there are multiple warlords in co-operation or even a vacuum that Thunderwing's rise is meant to fill. And perhaps Ravage was sent to Earth to spy on Scorponok, then found Megatron had been destroyed and so the lone soldier opted to throw his lot in with Shockwave as the best way to complete the mission?

(Incidentally Shockwave's later return in the US did get a bit of commentary at the time. In issue #72 a letter, presumably written when #69 was on sale, asked how Shockwave was still alive and the answer stated that the missing years and quest for warriors was a tale that might eventually be told. The issue was published just about the point when the original UK stories ended so perhaps the letters page writer assumed that a UK story at least might do the job.)

It's why Straxus embarked on this plan at all, why he was sent to Earth and why even he seemed to believe he was a presence seeking to possess Megatron's body that just don't make any sense at all. Or indeed why everybody acts as though Megatron has been dead all this time - there are potential ways to explain it but they all need stuff adding in.

Another example of how what we thought we saw actually isn't that is about to come up. The mini-comic next week tries to explain the renaming of the franchise to "G.I. Joe the Action Force" in a way that implies that whatever the retitling of the strip we're actually currently reading the adventures of G.I. Joe and Action Force are elsewhere. That possibly explains what the Transformation page is talking about.

And yes, I had no idea about the Prisoner when I first read the Combat Colin story. But Lew's always been good at using references to things the audience may not know about without it detracting from enjoying the story.

Burstingfoam

12/1/2017 08:56:43 pm

Ah, dear old Two Megs. Geeky confession: I'm in the very last stages of a personal project to transform the entire Marvel run of TF (UK and US plus G2 and Regen 1) into little mini-movies (very basic). The only story I actually rewrote in this process was this little gem. It was just too silly. Instead, in my version, the explosion of the space bridge causes an anomaly that creates two Megatrons, one with the brain of Straxus overlaid with Meg's personality who is sent to London, the other the 'real' Megatron who ends up back on Cybertron. Simple, no need for any nonsense. Yes, it still creates some Galvatron problems, but nothing's perfect.

Yes, I rewrote Furman, which is like rewriting Shakespeare, but then I was never convinced that he got the ghost scene correct in Hamlet anyway.

Alex Smith link

16/1/2017 11:15:09 am

Mini-movies sound amazing!

Burstingfoam

17/1/2017 09:16:26 am

It's not that exciting, just a bit of copy and paste of frame by frame of the comics with some music laid over - I've recently discovered in my aged state that I can read comics better that way. I've been on adoption leave, and I had far too much free time on my hands.

Dave

14/1/2017 12:01:49 am

I would have been just a bit shy of 9 years old when this came out, and I have very fond memories of watching Beauty and the Beast (although an adult show, I think it was on fairly early on a weekday night), so I may well have been the one person in the Venn Diagram of Transformers readers/potential Beauty and the Beast purchasers! To be honest, although not exactly setting the UK on fire, I remember it being fairly well discussed at school at the time. On a par with McCoy's era of Doctor Who at any rate.

Simon Hall

14/1/2017 05:33:18 pm

An even simpler way of reconciling the UK/US stories here would just to have a Megatron adventure where the spacebridge malfunctions again... Nevermind though, I kind of like stories like this for existing, if only for providing fuel for fanfiction.

I remember seeing Beauty & The Beast too! It was on ITV, IIRC around teamtime. Not on too late. Presumably because as 'fantasy' show it was deemed suitable for all. Can't remember anything about it though, and didn't twig until some years later this was the same lady from The Terminator.

I wish there was a Combat Colin trade paperback. I'd love to read this stuff again.

Stuart

14/1/2017 05:45:52 pm

I believe Lew has plans for a CC trade this year.

Based on my extensive research (what someone told me on Twitter) B&B did start off at a reasonable 9PMish time but would up in an Alien Nation style after midnight style slot over the 3 year run (which was when I remembered it being on, different ITV regions msy have varied), so it seems it had more of a pressence here initially than I thought.

Tetsuryu

15/1/2017 07:28:42 am

I was wondering when'd be an appropriate time to chime in since I had something to say on both stories, but seeing the major points of contention nicely coincide with the same issue...

When I first read the entire Marvel comic, I took the shorter route of reading the US version. Which was also convenient in the sense that I was spared from the major continuity headaches, but back then I didn't particularly pay attention to artist and writer names - hell, as far as I remember, I didn't even notice Delbo had replaced Perlin on the art.

What I did pick up on though was the first issue of Back from the Dead!, or at least this story, when Furman took over. It's been like ten years now so my memories are a bit hazy, but I do distinctly remember noticing something had changed in the way the character spoke. They seemed more articulate somehow? Maybe the plotting seemed a little tighter too. Like I said, it's been years.

Anyway, regarding the continuity headache, I realized a while back it'd be much easier to just ignore the entirety of Two Megatrons and just dismiss Megatron's backstory in the main story as a lie. While that would probably significantly alter the reader's perception of Megatron's a character in this story, particularly when you take his past relationship with Ratchet into account, it hardly makes any difference since any plot threads he might still be carrying at this point are effectively ended by the final issue of this story when Megatron is dead (again), Furman will blow this place up and be home in time for corn flakes.

Felicity link

27/11/2019 12:36:45 am

The Perlin-to-Delbo transition was smoothed over by Akin & Garvey inking Delbo’s first issue. I wouldn’t blame someone if they thought “Spacehikers” had been pencilled by Perlin!

John D. link

15/1/2017 10:51:58 pm

I think it was pretty reckless of Simon Furman to being Megatron back into play in the UK comics. Did he maybe think there was no future for the character after Hasbro didn't make a Powermaster of him? Maybe he thought he was in the clear. If so, why did Megatron return in the US comics? There are lots of ways the Classic Pretenders could have been created. Odd to give so much characterisation to somebody whose toy couldn't be bought. Incidentally I think on Boxing Day my mum binned all the disposable Megatron kibble. She is 75 but I am still taking her to task on this...

John D. link

15/1/2017 10:55:01 pm

Boxing Day 1985 I mean.

As I had said before I never bought the returning U.K. Comps Megatron as being Megatron. He didn't really act like Megatron. I think Megatron would have wanted to regain control of his troops rather than side with a powerful maniac who was claiming to be some future version of him.

Ralph Burns

18/1/2017 09:23:01 pm

Story made perfect sense to me at the time. Never had a problem with it. Also: Senior's art covers all sins.

Now the upcoming Earthforce stuff: that is when the pure excrement hits. :(

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Colin H

25/1/2017 05:09:44 pm

Now here's a curious thing: I remember that Beauty and the Beast ad from time of publication, but this was a long time after I'd stopped buying anything from Marvel UK except for Doctor Who Magazine (which I'm pretty sure didn't run it). Can anyone else remember where else it might have been printed?

Harry

17/2/2017 03:12:39 pm

OK, bear with me, I wasn't reading the comic by this time and I may be overlooking the obvious, but here goes...

I completely understand that, to US readers, Megatron hadn't been seen since that time that he blew up the Space Bridge, while standing on it himself, and, given that we already knew that the Space Bridge could do Very Bad Things to a robot (c.f. Straxus and also the generic Decepticon whose name escapes me from way back), readers there could be forgiven for having believed the character dead, as could the Transformers themselves in that continuity. Any excuse whatsoever given by Megatron would work for the American continuity.
The problem, as I see it, is this. Furman retcons things here such that the 'Megatron' seen from 'Ancient Relics' onwards in UK-originated stories was a 'clone', Straxus in a Megatron facsimile construct with a copy of Megatron's own memories overlaid. Say we go with this, and the 'fake' memories are so that Soundwave couldn't detect the truth, or 'Megatron' couldn't be caught out on a lie. Why, then, in the US story, is Ratchet so surprised to see that Megatron still lives, if everyone (including the clone itself) believed that to have been Megatron? The reveal in 'Two Megatrons' is made by the real Megatron, and his audience consists solely of the clone, who is dead by the end of the story, and Ravage. Are we to believe that Ravage told everyone that the clone was a fake, Autobot and Decepticon alike, yet purposefully decided not to tell them that the true Megatron still lived, 'cos why give the Autobots or rivals for the 'con leadership vital information? And when would he have had the time to do this anyway? And why would anyone believe him even if he had done...? ;)

Cradok

26/1/2018 02:26:28 pm

I once tried to fit Earthforce into everything by using the Straxus Megatron and shifting Two Megatrons. It didn't really work because EF has to take place after the Dinobots are brought back in US72 and before Megatron dies in US59... oops.

There *is* a place that it can fit(ish), if you can buy that after Megatron is split from Ratchet, he manages to escape, go to Cybertron to kill Straxus, and then gets nabbed and shoved back into stasis. Also, that place is literally in between panels in an issue.

There would also have to have been offscreen casualties of the Earthforce Autobots who are also resurrected by Neucleon, but that's not as big of a stumbling block.

Earthforce doesn't fit, but I was always proud of my attempt. I feel it came closer than any other I saw.

Felicity link

27/11/2019 01:13:06 am

I loved the writing, art, lettering, and colouring (those lovely green captions!) in that flashback, and having only read the American comic at that point, it didn’t create any continuity problems on my end.

I did wonder, at the time, why the Empty sarcastically calling himself Lord Straxus seemed so British. I must not have known yet that the writer was British (and so presumably to him any character not explicitly given an American accent would sound British in his head).

I like the widely-spaced eyes José Delbo gave that generic Autobot in the flashback. Delbo will be doing some more pleasing generics in upcoming issues, IIRC.

That’s a great panel by Geoff Senior of Ravage’s head. Kudos to him for having the confidence to draw Ravage from that angle, too.

The Megatron impostor problem sounds like the Spider-Man clone saga, only done first. Fans did not like the idea that the Spider-Man they’d been following for 20 years had actually been a clone, while the real Spider-Man had been off somewhere else. Hence the hasty rewrite to say that no, that was just a lie by one of the villains and we haven’t been following the wrong Spider-Man.

Strangely enough I would have gotten a “Prisoner” reference in a comic despite the original TV series airing before I was born. One of my earliest memories is watching a rerun with my father and being terrified of Rover. Around 15 years later PBS began showing “The Prisoner” and I remember my science fiction fan friends getting into it at that time. I donated to PBS just to get the penny-farthing fridge magnet and non-fiction book to give as a gift to my father. I even found the soundtrack on cassette! That’s also when I bought the four-issue comic mini-series “Shattered Visage” though it turned out to be so low-affect as to be very confusing.

But it’s equally great when these references happen and you don’t catch them because years later when you re-read the comic it’s a whole new layer to experience. Like a flawless lysken crystal.

I almost never got to see “Beauty and the Beast” when it was originally on, but I would have liked to have. What little I did see looked cool. I did catch it in reruns in the late 1990s but by then my enthusiasm for fantasy had cooled. Sometime in the mid-1990s my local comic shop owner just gave me a free copy of the “Beauty and the Beast” comic shown above, presumably because it had been taking up room in the back issues and he couldn’t sell it, so he figured it would at least have a good home with me. (“Free garbage!” my friend once joked.) Unfortunately I no longer have it. I skimmed through it but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I forget whether I recycled it or gave it away. I hope it was the latter and someone out there is enjoying it now.

Nevermore

9/9/2020 08:54:37 pm

Here's a fun little tidbit: There's a small printing error in the original US #57 version of "The Ressurrection Gambit" that appears to be not present in the UK #244 printing of the story. During Megatron's flashback, the panel of him getting blasted through the space bridge (lower left corner of the page, Megatron appears orange), half of his face from the panel above is accidentally repated and pasted over his narration caption and the gutter separating the two panels.

When Titan Books reprinted the story for their "Primal Scream" collection, they either didn't notice the printing error, or weren't aware that the UK version doesn't have the error, and so the error was repeated in the Titan reprint.

When IDW "remastered" the Marvel run for their "Classics" collections, they were working from inferior scans of the original US printings. The "Megatron ghost face" error was fixed, but it was done so without knowledge of the intact UK printing, so they replaced the dash present in the UK version with an ellipses.

Could you by any chance provide a clean scan of that panel and the gutter above it from the UK #244 reprint for the sake of comparison?

Stuart

9/9/2020 09:08:26 pm

Will have a look at the weekend.

Nevermore

11/10/2020 03:11:56 pm

Already got what I was looking for but thanks!

See here:

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Resurrection_Gambit_printing_error.jpg

Snowkatt

27/6/2024 02:19:39 pm

4 years later.
Now I got them again, the dutch version of this comic, has remnants of the error.
The narration box suddenly sports anime hair, while they rewrote the contents in dutch, erasing the actual error.

LiamKav

11/10/2020 10:50:20 am

The discontinuation of the IDW classics is line is super frustrating because I would love to have gotten Furman's thoughts on both this and Time Wars. I'm sure someone has asked him at a convention but that's different from a more thoughtful analysis that you might have gotten in a book. As has been said, from the US POV everything is fine. It's just the UK side that makes no sense, and as an "explanation" of why the Autobots are suddenly under the impression that Megatron has been dead for a couple of years it completely fails as no Autobots witness it.

(On US side, I get that Furman might have had his hand forced by the US editor, but surely he could have dropped the UK guys a note saying "just replace the speech bubble on page 6 panel 2 with "since the Time Wars blah blah blah" or something...

Tim Roll-Pickering link

11/10/2020 11:54:14 am

The problem is that Megatron's flashback is too visually explicit that he blew himself up on the space bridge to simply turn into "you disappeared when the rift erupted". And also it seems there wasn't much of a relettering budget in this period. At most the changes were to Anglicise the spellings and change the issue numbers referenced (and sometimes those were overlooked) and not to fix continuity.

I don't think Two Megatrons is even trying to explain why the Autobots believe Megatron is dead (though the Straxus clone shooting his own head off does almost meet the "I hear you blew yourself up" line) but rather just aims to explain away how Megatron was simultaneously lost in the Dead Zone and running about on Earth without even thinking through all the consequences.

It's a pity there's never been an official revisit to Marvel UK continuity because this would be a prime candidate for resolving.

JeremiahEcks

20/2/2025 01:43:21 pm

Two Megatrons. Hm. Let's have a go to make it fit...

For it to work, we have to move The Big Shutdown between Time Wars and Fall & Rise of the Decepticon Empire, and Rage & Assault on the Ark after Two Megatrons. Why? Well bear with me.

The Decepticons on Cybertron, post Ratbat, are ruled by the Triumverate. The Decepticon High Council - whoever they are - aren't happy with this so they task the Decepticon best suited to take over, an older warlord named Thunderwing (as he has been retconned to be in The Magnificent Six) to supplant them. But Thunderwing disappears when he's knocked into temporary statis on Earth.

In the meantime Megatron II and Ravage to go Cybertron post Time Wars, slaughter the Triumverate and take control for themselves. The High Council are happy as a strong leader is re-established.

However the Autobots don't know any of this. On Earth, last they heard was that Megatron was dead after fighting Grimlock and Blades in London. Yes he reappears in Time Wars with Galvatron but there is time distortion, a lot is happening and Meggy disappears towards the end but isn't there after it as he and Ravage steal the Mayhem's ship. Maybe they saw him, maybe they didn't, maybe what they saw wasn't what they saw. It was mainly the Survivors who fought him and they're not really interacting with the main Autobots.

So on Cybertron, Megatron is allowed to rule presumably from the Shadows. Meaning some Autobots might suspect he's alive, some think he's dead, nobody knows for sure.

Then OG Megatron appears, creates an Archforce Headmaster toy, and the retcon has occurred.

Megatron doesn't want to take control of the Cons though. He wants his revenge first. So duplicitous with Ravage, he dumps the Clone's body somewhere as being maybe assassinated, Ravage agrees with the story to cover his boss, and Megatron goes into hiding with the Micromasters and taking stolen Pretender technology left over (that allowed early Pretenders, like Thunderwing in the Magnificent Six) to be created.

Megatron therefore isn't Decepticon leader and the gig is free for the High Council to decide now to recover Thunderwing. This means during Back from the Dead, Thunderwing is leading publically, the Cons think Megs was assassinated, but to allow Megatron's full revenge he works from the Shadows. It doesn't go well for him of course.

This allows for Optimus to assume Meggy has been dead for years - as he isn't sure he saw him in Time Wars - and allows Ratchet to think he was dead too. However if that is too far a stretch, then we can play with the Decepticons parading Megatron II's carcass out and saying Autobots killed him - which is why MEGATRON says now the dead walk! He is referring to the fact that he has just set up a pretence of himself being dead.

That sort of works for why people think Megatron is dead and what is going on with Decepticon succession on Cybertron. But whyyyyyy did Straxus make a Clone anyway?

Hmm. I'll come back to that when I'm not on a lunch break!

JeremiahEcks

20/2/2025 03:57:40 pm

What about Straxus? Hmm, grr, why would he create the Clone with Megatron's brainwaves and send it to Earth and... sigh.

No. It doesn't make sense. And whatever we decide to come up with doesn't fit what is written on the page whatsoever. There are just too many incongruities...

a) If Straxus can make a Clone of Megatron, why not make a Clone of himself instead?

b) Why send it to Earth?

c) If he only has the Clone as a backup of failing to take Megatron's mind, why not have the backup be someone more malleable (Ratbat?) who would still carry authority on Cybertron?

There's a lot one has to assume...

1) Straxus specifically wants Megatron's body, not his own. He tries specifically to invade Megatron's mind first off and as he's planning that, he also takes time to precondition Archforce (for it is apparently he according to Vector Prime) to be a suitable backup. WHY he wants Megatron's body and not his own, we can only guess (the name Megatron carries more prestige? It gives him some form of unpredictable anonymity? He's gone whacko?) but we have to assume that's specifically what he wants.

2) He chooses to go to Earth with the Clone. I can see only one reason for this - Ratbat.

Ratbat realises what is going on with Straxus the first time he tries to invade Meggy's mind. Ratbat is responsible for kicking Megatron back to Earth and Ratbat is capable of much worse. So Straxus assumes Ratbat will ruin his plans (whatever they will be). So he asks his confidants to make sure he's deposited on Earth where Ratbat can't sniff him out.

The problem he has is he has no way of realising Ratbat is either en route to Earth or there already but as they never interact, no problem.

3) Why a copy of Meggy's mind? Maybe because he wants access to Megatron's secrets and hopes when he subjugates him he can get access to everything to increase his power. In hubris he assumes he can beat a Megatron CLONE after all.

I dunno. Maybe that works. Maybe it doesn't. I tried.

Transformation 244: Retcon.

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