So Many Jokes, So Many Sneers, but all Those all so Nears, Wear you Down, Through the Years.
Megatron Origin Issue 1. June 20th 2007.
Heh...
Full disclosure time: Megatron Origin is a series I’ve already talked about at length on this site, as part of Transformation when it was reprinted in the UK 2007 Movie comic. All of this is going to be newly written, and I have not gone back and reread any of that. So, this will be fresh takes based on the context of its placement in the wider IDW continuity and being printed in four chunks rather than over a year. I’ll probably both repeat myself and contradict myself, but even a gap of just a couple of years can leave you feeling differently when rereading something depending on the mood it catches you in.
That said...
Well, this is a strange one. A Four issue miniseries that, unlike Nick Roche’s meant to be just a bit of filler Kup, gives a new writer the keys to the backstory of a major character. A backstory that has spread far beyond IDW’s original continuity to become Megatron’s Official History in all new takes since, even when it doesn’t really fit very well (such as in IDW2, where it feels a bit packed for Megatron to not just have been a senator but also a miner and a gladiator).
It is also a comic that came as close to being fully retconned out as any story ever would under the later editorial run of John “Never met a continuity point I didn’t love and will defend until death” Barber. In particular, as the man who will be the main Megatron writer, James Roberts will dance around this story in the timeline adding all sorts of details that don’t quite fit with it unless you squint, but only ever edging on the full Jonathan Frakes “It never happened”.
Heh...
Full disclosure time: Megatron Origin is a series I’ve already talked about at length on this site, as part of Transformation when it was reprinted in the UK 2007 Movie comic. All of this is going to be newly written, and I have not gone back and reread any of that. So, this will be fresh takes based on the context of its placement in the wider IDW continuity and being printed in four chunks rather than over a year. I’ll probably both repeat myself and contradict myself, but even a gap of just a couple of years can leave you feeling differently when rereading something depending on the mood it catches you in.
That said...
Well, this is a strange one. A Four issue miniseries that, unlike Nick Roche’s meant to be just a bit of filler Kup, gives a new writer the keys to the backstory of a major character. A backstory that has spread far beyond IDW’s original continuity to become Megatron’s Official History in all new takes since, even when it doesn’t really fit very well (such as in IDW2, where it feels a bit packed for Megatron to not just have been a senator but also a miner and a gladiator).
It is also a comic that came as close to being fully retconned out as any story ever would under the later editorial run of John “Never met a continuity point I didn’t love and will defend until death” Barber. In particular, as the man who will be the main Megatron writer, James Roberts will dance around this story in the timeline adding all sorts of details that don’t quite fit with it unless you squint, but only ever edging on the full Jonathan Frakes “It never happened”.
If Scourge and Alpha Trion hate fucked and had a baby.
That makes it quite a hard story to talk about in isolation, because there’s barely a moment or panel that comics published a decade later don’t give some extra context or subtext. Or is just flat out made unintentionally funny.
So, with that in mind...
The first, and most surprising, thing to mention is that writer Eric Holmes had originally pitched this as a six-issue miniseries to Dreamwave. So IDW, who were making great capital of Not Being Dreamwave picking it up (and shortening it), and therefore having to adopt various elements of Dreamwave’s continuity into their own, was strange.
Especially as Holmes was not some hot major comic writer, but a computer games guy whose entire work in this medium seems to be this miniseries (though Wikipedia doesn’t have anything for him past 2013). There’s never even been any indication Dreamwave ever planned to pick it up even before they folded, he was a chancer who go got lucky. Possibly because sales were already on the decline, and he resubmitted the idea to IDW at the exact right moment they were looking for an attention grabber. And what could be more so than doing Wolverine Origin for the franchise’s greatest villain?
Bigger than Holmes or his pitch though, is another Dreamwave refugee in Alex Milne on art. Milne at this point was probably most famous for being the person most screwed over by Pat Lee, both in terms of doing ghost art for him uncredited and not being paid. I can’t recall the exact amount, but the money I once saw him say he was owed was genuinely eye watering.
So, with that in mind...
The first, and most surprising, thing to mention is that writer Eric Holmes had originally pitched this as a six-issue miniseries to Dreamwave. So IDW, who were making great capital of Not Being Dreamwave picking it up (and shortening it), and therefore having to adopt various elements of Dreamwave’s continuity into their own, was strange.
Especially as Holmes was not some hot major comic writer, but a computer games guy whose entire work in this medium seems to be this miniseries (though Wikipedia doesn’t have anything for him past 2013). There’s never even been any indication Dreamwave ever planned to pick it up even before they folded, he was a chancer who go got lucky. Possibly because sales were already on the decline, and he resubmitted the idea to IDW at the exact right moment they were looking for an attention grabber. And what could be more so than doing Wolverine Origin for the franchise’s greatest villain?
Bigger than Holmes or his pitch though, is another Dreamwave refugee in Alex Milne on art. Milne at this point was probably most famous for being the person most screwed over by Pat Lee, both in terms of doing ghost art for him uncredited and not being paid. I can’t recall the exact amount, but the money I once saw him say he was owed was genuinely eye watering.
Near, far, wherever you are...
But, after a messy start, for IDW he is going to be the artist. With more pages than anyone else, indeed he’s probably the most prolific Transformers artists of all time by a considerable margin. Largely because he’s one of the few who does it as a full-time job and therefore cannot turn any work down ever, most infamously working on Transformers Vs Terminator as he was having major heart surgery to make sure he’d meet the deadlines and they wouldn’t bring in a fill-in artist (the kicker being the comic was then badly delayed by Covid).
That dependency on the work doesn’t make him a simple yes man though, there will be many stories in the years to come of him standing his ground, disagreeing with writers and love/hate relationships with the company as a whole. I have complicated feelings about him these days (largely born of him having done a cover for a Comicsgate Kickstarter, even with sympathy for the not being in a position to say no to work thing), but it says a lot for his speed and talent that, though he came very close to being dumped entirely at least once, that he has remained such a mainstay of the company up till today. He’s as key and vital a contributor to the IDWverse as any writer and is as good a poster child as any for how artists are underappreciated and often badly mistreated there in comparison.
But, and I’m going to be honest here, I became a big Milne’s art fan in the later years (and have several pages on the wall. Unfortunately, all bought from and inked by the aforementioned Comicsgate Kickstarter guy before I knew he was one. My walls are basically Awful Person, Awful Person, Fell Out With That Person, Nick Roche), but his early IDW work often leaves me cold. It feels too busy (not helped by often very heavy inking and colouring), and I frankly prefer his style when he’s using cleaner and sharper Nick Roche designs as a baseline.
That dependency on the work doesn’t make him a simple yes man though, there will be many stories in the years to come of him standing his ground, disagreeing with writers and love/hate relationships with the company as a whole. I have complicated feelings about him these days (largely born of him having done a cover for a Comicsgate Kickstarter, even with sympathy for the not being in a position to say no to work thing), but it says a lot for his speed and talent that, though he came very close to being dumped entirely at least once, that he has remained such a mainstay of the company up till today. He’s as key and vital a contributor to the IDWverse as any writer and is as good a poster child as any for how artists are underappreciated and often badly mistreated there in comparison.
But, and I’m going to be honest here, I became a big Milne’s art fan in the later years (and have several pages on the wall. Unfortunately, all bought from and inked by the aforementioned Comicsgate Kickstarter guy before I knew he was one. My walls are basically Awful Person, Awful Person, Fell Out With That Person, Nick Roche), but his early IDW work often leaves me cold. It feels too busy (not helped by often very heavy inking and colouring), and I frankly prefer his style when he’s using cleaner and sharper Nick Roche designs as a baseline.
AU where this guy lived and is the main character.
So, with that in mind, into the comic. Which may have been the result of IDW speaking to Holmes on the phone and asking for a comic “Suitable for minors”.
The idea of Megatron’s backstory involving an unsubtle analogy for the 1980’s British mining strikes is such a James Roberts one it’s actually always a surprise to reread this and realise it predates him (though as a Scot, it’s a natural stomping ground for Holmes as well for things to base worker unrest on), as we open with Senator Decimus flying to “Mining outpost C-12” in pre-war peacetime in order to give a speech about how mechanisation means the miners are all about to be relocated.
Again, later work will give a whole lot of backstory to what is going on with Cybertron politics and functionalism at this point, but as that would add about 10000 more words to get into, just take my word on it for now.
On the outpost, we are introduced to our lead as he works away in, as a sign of my issues with early Milne, what is meant to be Megatron mining hard with some sort of tool, but instead looks like he’s crying as he performs My Heart Will Go On at karaoke.
And Megatron is very much a taciturn blue-collar guy here, half his dialogue in this miniseries is going to be a variation on “Huh” or “Heh”. He is not a philosopher poet, and rather cheekily James Roberts will later imply he’s like this here because of botched brain surgery immediately before he was transferred here (that Megatron ultimately recovered from).
The idea of Megatron’s backstory involving an unsubtle analogy for the 1980’s British mining strikes is such a James Roberts one it’s actually always a surprise to reread this and realise it predates him (though as a Scot, it’s a natural stomping ground for Holmes as well for things to base worker unrest on), as we open with Senator Decimus flying to “Mining outpost C-12” in pre-war peacetime in order to give a speech about how mechanisation means the miners are all about to be relocated.
Again, later work will give a whole lot of backstory to what is going on with Cybertron politics and functionalism at this point, but as that would add about 10000 more words to get into, just take my word on it for now.
On the outpost, we are introduced to our lead as he works away in, as a sign of my issues with early Milne, what is meant to be Megatron mining hard with some sort of tool, but instead looks like he’s crying as he performs My Heart Will Go On at karaoke.
And Megatron is very much a taciturn blue-collar guy here, half his dialogue in this miniseries is going to be a variation on “Huh” or “Heh”. He is not a philosopher poet, and rather cheekily James Roberts will later imply he’s like this here because of botched brain surgery immediately before he was transferred here (that Megatron ultimately recovered from).
Grandstanding the logo is much funnier after later issues reveal who designed it.
Which leads us to the other area this doesn’t really fit in with later stories that make him an already famous malcontent by this point: Holmes is writing a nobody who gets pushed too far and we’re repeatedly hit by the fact no one who “Matters” has any idea who he is or takes him seriously rather than a dangerous political criminal serving his sentence.
This means that when the miners are all called together and Decimus gives a very well rehearsed speech about how it’s all for their own good that is going to be very familiar to us all (I’m writing this on the day the Tories are trying to insist cutting unemployment benefits is a great thing for the unemployed), it’s actually another random guy who stands up and shouts “Bullshit” and gets shot down for looking angry by the Autobot guards. Who make sure to project their Autobot badges as they tell everyone not to make them do these things because you’ve got to imprint that hatred on Megatron’s mind.
Meaning Megatron is just a bystander who accidentally gets waylaid by an Autobot and, in the scuffle, becomes outraged enough to snap and violently (and it’s the best page of the issue, Milne loves his viscera) beats the guard to death with his bare hands.
This means that when the miners are all called together and Decimus gives a very well rehearsed speech about how it’s all for their own good that is going to be very familiar to us all (I’m writing this on the day the Tories are trying to insist cutting unemployment benefits is a great thing for the unemployed), it’s actually another random guy who stands up and shouts “Bullshit” and gets shot down for looking angry by the Autobot guards. Who make sure to project their Autobot badges as they tell everyone not to make them do these things because you’ve got to imprint that hatred on Megatron’s mind.
Meaning Megatron is just a bystander who accidentally gets waylaid by an Autobot and, in the scuffle, becomes outraged enough to snap and violently (and it’s the best page of the issue, Milne loves his viscera) beats the guard to death with his bare hands.
Another classic Tony Benn quote from the warrior poet.
Which is then followed by the standard success rate of a Megatron plan, everyone with him getting gunned down. Starting as he means to go on.
The genuinely impressive thing is, for all the retcons, I believe this firmly remains Megatron’s first kill, meaning it’s a visually powerful moment that hasn’t lost any of that power since.
But let’s talk about the elephant in the room that will only become a bigger, fatter, juicier elephant as we go along. Wanting to add depth and motivation to Megatron is one thing, using real life legitimate working-class oppression and revolt as the analogy for what makes him and the Decepticons is in appalling bad taste. It’s saying Thatcher was right to break the miners because if she hadn’t, Arthur Scargill would have gone on to kill more people than Hitler.
Turns out you do need to keep the plebs in their place, or their uppity ways will only make things worse.
And speaking of worse, subsequent writers making more and more overt analogies between Megatron and real-life oppressed people is only going to make this more and more uncomfortable. Especially in 2021, a time where it is even more obvious than ever real-life villains do not have nuance or a point of view, the Prime Minister who’s responsible for the deaths of a football stadium filling amount of his own citizens due to Covid is a cunt for no reason other than he is a cunt.
Certainly no one ever wound up like Megatron starting from “Hey, could you stop shitting down my throat please ruling class?”
The genuinely impressive thing is, for all the retcons, I believe this firmly remains Megatron’s first kill, meaning it’s a visually powerful moment that hasn’t lost any of that power since.
But let’s talk about the elephant in the room that will only become a bigger, fatter, juicier elephant as we go along. Wanting to add depth and motivation to Megatron is one thing, using real life legitimate working-class oppression and revolt as the analogy for what makes him and the Decepticons is in appalling bad taste. It’s saying Thatcher was right to break the miners because if she hadn’t, Arthur Scargill would have gone on to kill more people than Hitler.
Turns out you do need to keep the plebs in their place, or their uppity ways will only make things worse.
And speaking of worse, subsequent writers making more and more overt analogies between Megatron and real-life oppressed people is only going to make this more and more uncomfortable. Especially in 2021, a time where it is even more obvious than ever real-life villains do not have nuance or a point of view, the Prime Minister who’s responsible for the deaths of a football stadium filling amount of his own citizens due to Covid is a cunt for no reason other than he is a cunt.
Certainly no one ever wound up like Megatron starting from “Hey, could you stop shitting down my throat please ruling class?”
Don't worry, this guy just moved his mind into his trailer, he's fine.
But there’s going to be a lot more conversations about this as we go along, we don’t even need to touch on the people brutalised by police going on to be SPACE Nazis because it’s something we’re going to get a lot more of. And to be honest (possibly because of the reduction from six to four issues), Megatron’s Totally Legitimate Reasons are going to get a little lost in this series. It’s when they get picked up again down the line there’s going to be real issues.
What matters here is that Megatron and a few other survivors are being carted off to space jail, with Megatron acting in shocked disbelief like a man who has never been in trouble with the law before.
Hmm.
Next to him, Rumble and Frenzy and much more pragmatic and, having been impressed by his strength, ask for Megatron’s help in following through on an escape if they provide a distraction.
And what a shame future retcons will make the Decepticons already a going concern at this point as the idea of Rumble and Frenzy being the first guys on the team is hilarious.
Also hilarious is the distraction being Rumble doing his earthquake arms as apparently these trained police officers didn’t think to deal with people’s special powers before slapping cuffs on them. So much for functionalism.
A surprisingly cheerful at getting to kill another guard Megatron then takes the ship, smartly firing on the senator’s accompanying vessel to disable it rather than taking a fuller revenge, ensuring the Autobot forces will focus on rescuing the politician rather than pursing the escapees.
Hey, he’s getting smart, that brain mangling must be wearing off.
What matters here is that Megatron and a few other survivors are being carted off to space jail, with Megatron acting in shocked disbelief like a man who has never been in trouble with the law before.
Hmm.
Next to him, Rumble and Frenzy and much more pragmatic and, having been impressed by his strength, ask for Megatron’s help in following through on an escape if they provide a distraction.
And what a shame future retcons will make the Decepticons already a going concern at this point as the idea of Rumble and Frenzy being the first guys on the team is hilarious.
Also hilarious is the distraction being Rumble doing his earthquake arms as apparently these trained police officers didn’t think to deal with people’s special powers before slapping cuffs on them. So much for functionalism.
A surprisingly cheerful at getting to kill another guard Megatron then takes the ship, smartly firing on the senator’s accompanying vessel to disable it rather than taking a fuller revenge, ensuring the Autobot forces will focus on rescuing the politician rather than pursing the escapees.
Hey, he’s getting smart, that brain mangling must be wearing off.
Megatron's schemes always have some holes in them.
They take the captured prison ship to Kaon, apparently the “Worst place on Cybertron”, with the plan being to disappear. A small but telling moment as they land though is we see an advertising board with a female Transformer on it, the first of a few we will see across the series in crowds.
Now, Furman did look at the scripts to vet any contradictions with his plans, but as these were Milne flourishes not on the page, they slipped past him. And as he had what can only be described as Ominous Plans that required no gender amidst Transformers (defining no gender as “No girls”), he went as far as to say these details were not canon.
Artistic flourishes being declared non-canon by writers will be a repeated theme of Milne’s work, but this one should be remembered and kept in the back of your mind when it comes to Furman’s “I hate retcons” when his own retcon of these women Transformers is re-retconned by a woman writer in a few years.
Now, Furman did look at the scripts to vet any contradictions with his plans, but as these were Milne flourishes not on the page, they slipped past him. And as he had what can only be described as Ominous Plans that required no gender amidst Transformers (defining no gender as “No girls”), he went as far as to say these details were not canon.
Artistic flourishes being declared non-canon by writers will be a repeated theme of Milne’s work, but this one should be remembered and kept in the back of your mind when it comes to Furman’s “I hate retcons” when his own retcon of these women Transformers is re-retconned by a woman writer in a few years.
"Honestly, this has never happened to me before"
Whole lot of retcons around this story.
Speaking of which... oh my.
At the security headquarters in Kaon, Sentinel Prime is on the shooting range and very pissed to be disturbed by Prowl and told about the escape and is more annoyed he doesn’t get “What he needs” from the senate than by threats to a senator.
Now, well... How Sentinel Prime is going to be retconned to hell and back could fill a book. And probably will when I reach that point. Let’s just say for now that, through no fault of its own, it’s impossible to take Origin Sentinel Prime seriously because of the incredibly ridiculous backstory he’ll be given. Which is a shame considering this is his first ever proper appearance as anything but a corpse is any fiction.
Though as a taster, before any have had a chance to show up in Furman’s stuff, this is in retrospect the first ever appearance of a functional Headmaster in IDW.
Speaking of which... oh my.
At the security headquarters in Kaon, Sentinel Prime is on the shooting range and very pissed to be disturbed by Prowl and told about the escape and is more annoyed he doesn’t get “What he needs” from the senate than by threats to a senator.
Now, well... How Sentinel Prime is going to be retconned to hell and back could fill a book. And probably will when I reach that point. Let’s just say for now that, through no fault of its own, it’s impossible to take Origin Sentinel Prime seriously because of the incredibly ridiculous backstory he’ll be given. Which is a shame considering this is his first ever proper appearance as anything but a corpse is any fiction.
Though as a taster, before any have had a chance to show up in Furman’s stuff, this is in retrospect the first ever appearance of a functional Headmaster in IDW.
The canonicity of lizards has yet to be confirmed.
Mind, even by itself, Sentinel immediately giving disinterested fascist overtones is at odds with what Furman will be saying about how Nemesis tarnishing the Prime legacy is a dark revelation to Optimus. And the portrayal of “Prime” as being a police precinct captain style rank is not only at odds with Furman’s take, but pretty much all Transformers fiction bar, oddly enough, the early Dreamwave Armada issues. So, it’s curious that Furman never felt these contradictions to his intent needed a statement when the girls did.
Sentinel being prepared but bored by the idea of dealing with the escapees whilst fully loaded feels like a natural endpoint, so it’s odd there another half page showing the abandoned shuttle with footprints (one the metal surface of Cybertron? How greasy were these prisoners?) leading away from it.
Even if you ignore everything later stories did to this issue, you can tell this is very much written by someone who, for all their time on computer games, has never written a comic before and is struggling.
Sentinel being prepared but bored by the idea of dealing with the escapees whilst fully loaded feels like a natural endpoint, so it’s odd there another half page showing the abandoned shuttle with footprints (one the metal surface of Cybertron? How greasy were these prisoners?) leading away from it.
Even if you ignore everything later stories did to this issue, you can tell this is very much written by someone who, for all their time on computer games, has never written a comic before and is struggling.
Imagine going back to 2007 and telling people this guy would become a President Trump analogy.
For an origin story for Megatron, his entire life up to his point is covered by one page (no wonder James Roberts will become obsessed with trying to sneakily write Actual Megaton Origin) and you get no real sense of who he is or what he feels beyond “Huh”. He’s a passive character carried along by events, with Rumble of all Transformers being a more proactive presence.
Also, the pacing is odd and not a huge amount happens, suggesting the decision to lose two issues from the original pitch was a smart one. Throw in that the political analogies have not aged well (or at least that I’m more aware that they’re bad) and the art being a muddy dense mess that manages to have too many panels on most pages for such a little amount happening and this is probably the weakest issue IDW have given us yet. It would be unfair to call it terrible but, “huh” does indeed sum it up pretty well.
But speaking of stories that will get some pretty hefty retcons along the way, next week it’s back to Dark Universe intrigue with Spotlight: Galvatron.
ESCALATION ISSUE 6
2007
COMMENT
KO-FI
Also, the pacing is odd and not a huge amount happens, suggesting the decision to lose two issues from the original pitch was a smart one. Throw in that the political analogies have not aged well (or at least that I’m more aware that they’re bad) and the art being a muddy dense mess that manages to have too many panels on most pages for such a little amount happening and this is probably the weakest issue IDW have given us yet. It would be unfair to call it terrible but, “huh” does indeed sum it up pretty well.
But speaking of stories that will get some pretty hefty retcons along the way, next week it’s back to Dark Universe intrigue with Spotlight: Galvatron.
ESCALATION ISSUE 6
2007
COMMENT
KO-FI
