Sigmund Freud, Analyse This.

Issue 244: The Resurrection Gambit! Part 2/Two Megatrons! 11th November 1989.
Ever heard the expression “Physician heal thyself”?
I’m slightly behind the rest of you no doubt, but I’ve finally seen Rogue One, meaning I’m sure I’m the last person to notice that Mads Mikkelsen and wife were named after Galen and Llyria (with one letter spelt differently in each name) from Headmasters. Hows that for an awesome callback? If only Mads had been given his Nebulon namesake’s awesome pudding bowl haircut.
After a fairly gentle opening gambit last week, this is really the issue where the continuity shit hits the fan, as Furman’s conflict between his new and old bosses create a nausea inducing mess that completely destroys the good character work the British stories have done on Megatron over the last year. Things are not going to be pretty.
Ever heard the expression “Physician heal thyself”?
I’m slightly behind the rest of you no doubt, but I’ve finally seen Rogue One, meaning I’m sure I’m the last person to notice that Mads Mikkelsen and wife were named after Galen and Llyria (with one letter spelt differently in each name) from Headmasters. Hows that for an awesome callback? If only Mads had been given his Nebulon namesake’s awesome pudding bowl haircut.
After a fairly gentle opening gambit last week, this is really the issue where the continuity shit hits the fan, as Furman’s conflict between his new and old bosses create a nausea inducing mess that completely destroys the good character work the British stories have done on Megatron over the last year. Things are not going to be pretty.

To start on the American side of the equation, the second part of The Resurrection Gambit! (or Gambit as the UK created title calls it. As this isn’t as funny as the last abbreviation I’ll be calling it by the full title though. Someone in the art department clearly had better things to do that use too many letters in their layouts) opens where it left off on Earth. With Optimus Prime having to take some very heavy handed hints from the Micromasters before he realises the entire thing was a trap to capture Ratchet. Though there’s little he can do about this as Scorponok and his troops arrive and even though he doesn’t trust the new guys he won’t let anyone mess with his boys. Though there’s nothing especially interesting here, it does at least move this plot-line forward for the first time in a fortnight, which is something of a relief.
Back on Cybertron is where it’s at though. Megatron is continuing his exposition: That the new Pretender shell is also a medical centre and survival suit for...someone that Dreadwind and Darkwing are bringing (which kind of kills any mystery for British readers) and Ratchet will oversee the process or Blackjack will explode some seriously nasty bombs he’s currently planting on the Ark. With, again, no explanation of what happened to the builder of the shell and why they can’t do this. What makes this scene though is Ratchet’s initial defiance, with Delbo perfectly capturing his square-jawed determination and then look of defeat after he realises he has no choice but to participate.
Which makes Megatron happy enough to tell his “How I survived” story. Which in short is that the exploding Space Bridge all the way back in issue 108 deposited him on Cybertron’s Dead End with damage and amnesia that left him wandering around like with the other empties until he saw Blackjack being menaced by troops wearing the “Hated insignia” and remembered who he was...
Back on Cybertron is where it’s at though. Megatron is continuing his exposition: That the new Pretender shell is also a medical centre and survival suit for...someone that Dreadwind and Darkwing are bringing (which kind of kills any mystery for British readers) and Ratchet will oversee the process or Blackjack will explode some seriously nasty bombs he’s currently planting on the Ark. With, again, no explanation of what happened to the builder of the shell and why they can’t do this. What makes this scene though is Ratchet’s initial defiance, with Delbo perfectly capturing his square-jawed determination and then look of defeat after he realises he has no choice but to participate.
Which makes Megatron happy enough to tell his “How I survived” story. Which in short is that the exploding Space Bridge all the way back in issue 108 deposited him on Cybertron’s Dead End with damage and amnesia that left him wandering around like with the other empties until he saw Blackjack being menaced by troops wearing the “Hated insignia” and remembered who he was...

The cut up nature of the British presentation means this ends halfway through the flashback, but it’s still enough to completely overwrite everything we’ve seen of Megatron since Ancient Relics!, the promise from Transformation a few weeks ago that having the same writer on both sides of the Atlantic would make the continuity smoother has almost immediately turned out to be false.
The question is, why? Furman will later bring Shockwave back to the American series with a minimal of fuss that only marginally rubs against what the British series did with him through giving no more than a one line explanation. And that was at a point where the original UK stories had ended so he knew he wouldn’t have to be the guy trying to make the two tie together any more. By having such an extensive flashback to Megatron’s survival rather than a quick could-work-for-both-sets-of-readers style “The space bridge didn’t kill me, it just deposited me elsewhere” style quick handwave, he’s required to come up with a more convoluted way of dealing with the UK take on Megatron he’s been developing over the last year. So why make more work for himself?
The likely reason is this was his first American gig, his first foot in the door where he’s having to deal with an editor in Don Daley who doesn’t know him from Adam. Effectively he’s starting his career over on the ground floor. This storyline sees him being given a surprising amount of leeway under those circumstances: Budiansky would never have had the luxury of four issues given over to introducing eight new characters (and of those, the Sports Car Patrol are minor supporting players and the others already well established from their prior lives), plus bringing back Megatron was Furman’s idea in the first place.
The question is, why? Furman will later bring Shockwave back to the American series with a minimal of fuss that only marginally rubs against what the British series did with him through giving no more than a one line explanation. And that was at a point where the original UK stories had ended so he knew he wouldn’t have to be the guy trying to make the two tie together any more. By having such an extensive flashback to Megatron’s survival rather than a quick could-work-for-both-sets-of-readers style “The space bridge didn’t kill me, it just deposited me elsewhere” style quick handwave, he’s required to come up with a more convoluted way of dealing with the UK take on Megatron he’s been developing over the last year. So why make more work for himself?
The likely reason is this was his first American gig, his first foot in the door where he’s having to deal with an editor in Don Daley who doesn’t know him from Adam. Effectively he’s starting his career over on the ground floor. This storyline sees him being given a surprising amount of leeway under those circumstances: Budiansky would never have had the luxury of four issues given over to introducing eight new characters (and of those, the Sports Car Patrol are minor supporting players and the others already well established from their prior lives), plus bringing back Megatron was Furman’s idea in the first place.

But it seems something did have to give, and that seems to have been “This is your day job now, you can bring Megatron back but I want Megatron’s return dealt with properly for our readers, the filler stuff the UK does will have to be sort itself out”. If that was the case it’s remarkable the tie-in with Dreadwind and Darkwing slipped through, but perhaps Furman did that under the radar.
Of course, though they don’t seem to have developed as close a working relationship as Furman will with the next US editor (which will basically get him the bulk of his American Marvel work), Daley clearly starts giving Furman a longer leash with the very next issue after this arc finishes. But as far as this story is concerned, UK readers will have ended it scratching their heads in befuddlement.
In itself though, the Ratchet and Megatron scenes continue to be gold (and I’m not talking the sort of gold Donald Trump likes. Up to the minute topical reference!), and there’s a lovely gag in the flashback where Furman clearly intentionally pokes some fun at the retcon he’s about to unleash by having one of the Dead End empties think he’s Lord Straxus (as Furman is a Bond fan it would be easy to misquote Dr No and go “Same old story, world domination. Our asylums are full of people who think they’re Megatron. Or Primus”). Delbo also clearly has some fun with the flashbacks, despite an insanely generic design for the Autobot who revives Megatron’s memories. Though some reason one of the skeleton crew on the Ark that Blackjack takes out (by himself! Looks like his should be the guys doing the distraction on Earth rather than the weak Air Strike Patrol) is a giant Nebulon Pinpointer.
Of course, though they don’t seem to have developed as close a working relationship as Furman will with the next US editor (which will basically get him the bulk of his American Marvel work), Daley clearly starts giving Furman a longer leash with the very next issue after this arc finishes. But as far as this story is concerned, UK readers will have ended it scratching their heads in befuddlement.
In itself though, the Ratchet and Megatron scenes continue to be gold (and I’m not talking the sort of gold Donald Trump likes. Up to the minute topical reference!), and there’s a lovely gag in the flashback where Furman clearly intentionally pokes some fun at the retcon he’s about to unleash by having one of the Dead End empties think he’s Lord Straxus (as Furman is a Bond fan it would be easy to misquote Dr No and go “Same old story, world domination. Our asylums are full of people who think they’re Megatron. Or Primus”). Delbo also clearly has some fun with the flashbacks, despite an insanely generic design for the Autobot who revives Megatron’s memories. Though some reason one of the skeleton crew on the Ark that Blackjack takes out (by himself! Looks like his should be the guys doing the distraction on Earth rather than the weak Air Strike Patrol) is a giant Nebulon Pinpointer.

Over in the back-half of the issue we have the attempt to make this work for British readers in Two Megatrons! Oddly it ignores a very easy out that Furman seems to have given himself in the American story. The flashback seen there basically repeats the trick from Resurrection! where Octane’s narration doesn’t match up with the flashback we see. Megaton talks about blowing up the Space Bridge being a deliberate clever choice and that he just miscalculated the result slightly. As this is the only part of the flashback where there’s any suggestion Megatron is an unreliable narrator, it feels like an author creating wriggle room on the main area of contention. By leaving some uncertainty over What Really Happened he could have done anything between Megatron blowing himself up and arriving on Cybertron, only needing to them come up with a story that has him abandoned in the Dead End.
Instead Furman makes things overly difficult for himself. Let’s talk about the good stuff first: Ravage continues to be characterised in an excellent way, the issue starting with him being even more confused than when he met Galvatron (in the first of a couple of references to Time Wars, almost as if Furman really wants to remind you Ravage can recognise Megatron’s smell through a complete body change and him not instantly spotting an imposter at the time makes no sense) and then has to make the choice over which of the two fighting Megatron’s to back. Has he been serving the real deal, or is the intruder reclaiming his identity? There’s no way to tell! Certainly not from how they smell, what would make you think that?
He also scores points from the way that, when he hears the explanation from the intruder Megatron about the truth, he assumes the whole thing is complete bollocks and that this must be the fake. Which is nicely meta on Furman’s part, though coming up with a retcon that wasn’t so silly might have been better than commenting on this directly.
Instead Furman makes things overly difficult for himself. Let’s talk about the good stuff first: Ravage continues to be characterised in an excellent way, the issue starting with him being even more confused than when he met Galvatron (in the first of a couple of references to Time Wars, almost as if Furman really wants to remind you Ravage can recognise Megatron’s smell through a complete body change and him not instantly spotting an imposter at the time makes no sense) and then has to make the choice over which of the two fighting Megatron’s to back. Has he been serving the real deal, or is the intruder reclaiming his identity? There’s no way to tell! Certainly not from how they smell, what would make you think that?
He also scores points from the way that, when he hears the explanation from the intruder Megatron about the truth, he assumes the whole thing is complete bollocks and that this must be the fake. Which is nicely meta on Furman’s part, though coming up with a retcon that wasn’t so silly might have been better than commenting on this directly.

Geoff Senior’s art is also completely on the top of its game, especially the back and forth punches between the titular characters that is the equal of any of his other action scenes. His art is also the only reason the ending comes close to pulling off the pathos it’s aiming for.
It’s when the fight pauses in the middle of the intruder throttling the incumbent Megatron for him to tell his unlikely story things start to fall apart. Amusingly this begins slightly further ahead than the American opening ended with Blackjack leading Megatron out of the Dead End. It seems Lord Straxus’ base had been abandoned (why?), and in an operating theatre there the Intruder found...
Sigh.
Project Rebirth. Straxus built himself a perfect replica of Megatron with copied memories as a backup in case his attempt to take Megatron’s mind failed. When it did fail he took over the duplicate, and when the real Megatron seemed to die his people sent it to the London sewers where Action Force found it and woke it up before Straxus could take control.
This is the point Ravage attacks, and it’s easy to sympathise. So, in order...:
Why did Straxus make an exact copy of Megatron rather than just having his techs build him a new body of his own? He was certainly in more of a position of power than Megs was at the time even if he was just a head, and his people clearly had the ability to create a great body, the faux-Megs went toe to toe with Galvatron!
Why, having decided to use an exact copy of Megatron’s body as a backup, did Straxus give it Megatron’s memories? Especially as he’d only use it if he couldn’t dominate the real Megatron’s mind anyway.
Why did they send it to Earth rather than waking him up on Cybertron, the planet he wants to rule? If the plan was to take over Megatron’s Earth troops, why send him to London (Megatron having his Gone But Not Forgotten! wounds in Ancient Relics! is often held up as as a flaw in this explanation, but if he was sent to London after the real one disappeared and They wanted him to pass for the real deal for whatever reason, scaring him in the same way he was last seen would make sense)?
It’s when the fight pauses in the middle of the intruder throttling the incumbent Megatron for him to tell his unlikely story things start to fall apart. Amusingly this begins slightly further ahead than the American opening ended with Blackjack leading Megatron out of the Dead End. It seems Lord Straxus’ base had been abandoned (why?), and in an operating theatre there the Intruder found...
Sigh.
Project Rebirth. Straxus built himself a perfect replica of Megatron with copied memories as a backup in case his attempt to take Megatron’s mind failed. When it did fail he took over the duplicate, and when the real Megatron seemed to die his people sent it to the London sewers where Action Force found it and woke it up before Straxus could take control.
This is the point Ravage attacks, and it’s easy to sympathise. So, in order...:
Why did Straxus make an exact copy of Megatron rather than just having his techs build him a new body of his own? He was certainly in more of a position of power than Megs was at the time even if he was just a head, and his people clearly had the ability to create a great body, the faux-Megs went toe to toe with Galvatron!
Why, having decided to use an exact copy of Megatron’s body as a backup, did Straxus give it Megatron’s memories? Especially as he’d only use it if he couldn’t dominate the real Megatron’s mind anyway.
Why did they send it to Earth rather than waking him up on Cybertron, the planet he wants to rule? If the plan was to take over Megatron’s Earth troops, why send him to London (Megatron having his Gone But Not Forgotten! wounds in Ancient Relics! is often held up as as a flaw in this explanation, but if he was sent to London after the real one disappeared and They wanted him to pass for the real deal for whatever reason, scaring him in the same way he was last seen would make sense)?

Whatever happened to these mysterious technicians who carried out this plan and knew all this?
How did none of this show up in the big mental probe and medical once over Shockwave gave Megatron in Salvage!?
Why did Galvatron remember the events of Time Wars through Megatron’s eyes? Was he made from the double? What happened to the real Megatron in the original history then?
It’s quite impressive a feat to come up with a retcon of a difficult and thorny continuity issue and leave it more difficult and thorny than when you found it. None of this makes any sense, and it becomes almost a relief when the Megatron we’ve been following since London declares “Sod this for a game of soldiers” and shoots himself in the head.
This final defeat of the gloating ghost of Straxus in his mind (though Straxus isn’t too bright here, if he hadn’t come out and tormented the clone at that exact moment, Ravage would have killed the reluctant to fight back real Megatron for him) is meant to be tragic and cathartic, with the issue ending on a melancholy note as Megatron stands over himself, mourning “The lost years of his life” as he tells Ravage that both Megatron’s won. Which makes the real loser the reader.
Even more annoyingly, there will be no explanation of why Megatron abandoned his fancy base (though you can argue Furman was thinking of this as the same building as in the American story, but Delbo had no reference material to work from and just did his own thing), what happened to the rest of his army, why everyone thinks he’s dead again and—most importantly—why Ravage would part ways with him. So not only does it cover the distance between the British and American stories badly, it doesn’t even go all the way.
When I was a kid who hadn’t read all the stories this stomps upon I actually absolutely loved it for Ravage and the art and the drama of ending on a suicide, which is dark stuff for even this more mature phase of the book.
But in the wider context, this is incredibly poor threadbare nonsense that makes a mockery of some of Megatron’s best ever character work for very little real gain as it doesn’t even properly patch the continuity issue. A frustrating shame, especially as it's also the last appearance of Straxus as well (the decks are well and truely cleared for the new direction in the New Year).
How did none of this show up in the big mental probe and medical once over Shockwave gave Megatron in Salvage!?
Why did Galvatron remember the events of Time Wars through Megatron’s eyes? Was he made from the double? What happened to the real Megatron in the original history then?
It’s quite impressive a feat to come up with a retcon of a difficult and thorny continuity issue and leave it more difficult and thorny than when you found it. None of this makes any sense, and it becomes almost a relief when the Megatron we’ve been following since London declares “Sod this for a game of soldiers” and shoots himself in the head.
This final defeat of the gloating ghost of Straxus in his mind (though Straxus isn’t too bright here, if he hadn’t come out and tormented the clone at that exact moment, Ravage would have killed the reluctant to fight back real Megatron for him) is meant to be tragic and cathartic, with the issue ending on a melancholy note as Megatron stands over himself, mourning “The lost years of his life” as he tells Ravage that both Megatron’s won. Which makes the real loser the reader.
Even more annoyingly, there will be no explanation of why Megatron abandoned his fancy base (though you can argue Furman was thinking of this as the same building as in the American story, but Delbo had no reference material to work from and just did his own thing), what happened to the rest of his army, why everyone thinks he’s dead again and—most importantly—why Ravage would part ways with him. So not only does it cover the distance between the British and American stories badly, it doesn’t even go all the way.
When I was a kid who hadn’t read all the stories this stomps upon I actually absolutely loved it for Ravage and the art and the drama of ending on a suicide, which is dark stuff for even this more mature phase of the book.
But in the wider context, this is incredibly poor threadbare nonsense that makes a mockery of some of Megatron’s best ever character work for very little real gain as it doesn’t even properly patch the continuity issue. A frustrating shame, especially as it's also the last appearance of Straxus as well (the decks are well and truely cleared for the new direction in the New Year).

Transformation is actually openly scathing about the British story for a change, describing it as a “Dallas-style “Oh, it was all just a dream” story”. Which might have been a fairer complaint if not for the fact that if the UK team were still editing dialogue as it had under Furman’s time as editor he might not have needed to jump through so many hoops to straighten things out. The page also gets confused about the order the stories happen in after being so helpful in explaining the chronology last week; here claiming The Resurrection Gambit! runs just before Two Megatrons! Did someone get confused by how the flashbacks wind up flowing into one another?
The sidebar gives us some information on what we’ll be getting in the lead up to Christmas, including being mysterious about who’ll be in Fallen Star. “If you’ve been wondering what’s been happening to Action Force lately” is a fairly optimistic statement, but apparently “Wonder no more!” Err, I wasn’t... “They’re back!” They’ve not been away... “In a one-off mini-special which you’ll find in the middle of your Transformers next week”. Great...I guess?
The ever present Action Force strip itself sees a surprisingly brutal moment where Outback (not Snow Job as I said last week, who would make that mistake?) smashes the head of his hijacker through the car windscreen and them leaves the body behind as a distraction for the Madeupcommie guards. Or does he?
The exciting thing here though is the launch of a new, epic Combat Colin story, Prisoners of the Place of No Return! A dedicated homage to a show most of the readers wouldn’t have seen is a tricky thing to pull off, but Stringer manages it by throwing enough puns for everyone at the page. So when Colin and Steve are kidnapped by Madprof putting knock-out gas through the door of the combat shed in exactly the same way as a certain classic TV show, we also get lovely details such as the Combat Computer having “Wake up you dozy dimwit, there’s a villain outside” on its screen as Colin completely fails to notice Madprof on the CCTV.
The sidebar gives us some information on what we’ll be getting in the lead up to Christmas, including being mysterious about who’ll be in Fallen Star. “If you’ve been wondering what’s been happening to Action Force lately” is a fairly optimistic statement, but apparently “Wonder no more!” Err, I wasn’t... “They’re back!” They’ve not been away... “In a one-off mini-special which you’ll find in the middle of your Transformers next week”. Great...I guess?
The ever present Action Force strip itself sees a surprisingly brutal moment where Outback (not Snow Job as I said last week, who would make that mistake?) smashes the head of his hijacker through the car windscreen and them leaves the body behind as a distraction for the Madeupcommie guards. Or does he?
The exciting thing here though is the launch of a new, epic Combat Colin story, Prisoners of the Place of No Return! A dedicated homage to a show most of the readers wouldn’t have seen is a tricky thing to pull off, but Stringer manages it by throwing enough puns for everyone at the page. So when Colin and Steve are kidnapped by Madprof putting knock-out gas through the door of the combat shed in exactly the same way as a certain classic TV show, we also get lovely details such as the Combat Computer having “Wake up you dozy dimwit, there’s a villain outside” on its screen as Colin completely fails to notice Madprof on the CCTV.

When they wake up we also get the frankly amazing sight of Colin in his y-fronts, as his Combat Trousers have been stolen! And he’s also in Portmeirion, with the exteriors familiar from The Prisoner faithfully recreated as Colin wonders “Where am I...and more importantly WHERE’S ME TROUSERS?”.
Unsurprisingly Stringer is a big fan of Patrick McGoohan’s masterpiece and the references are only going to get more overt as we go on, but even as a kid who was about 13 years away from first seeing the series on DVD this felt very special and will become arguably the most iconic Colin story.
Dreadwind actually doesn’t do too badly on answers this week, though when telling James Clifford from Mexborough that Playback was a cassette he is obviously worried about past failures as he adds a “I think” just in case. He also explains all the suffering Bumblebee/Goldbug has been put through as being down to him having “The sorta face you’ve just got to beat up on, y’know?”. Which is fair enough.
There’s one major page layout failure though, when pointing out to James Murtagh from Ayreshire that the Transformers guns do occasionally show their tech spec powers there’s suddenly an orphaned half-sentence that doesn’t seem to relate to anything in that or any of the other letters. “alone—he’s a good boy, good to his mother. So there”. No idea what that’s about.
The highlight of this week’s adverts is the full page given over to the graphic novel you’ve all been waiting for: Beauty and the Beast: Portrait of Love, based on the Linda Hamilton/Ron Pearlman TV series that was relatively obscure over here. I do wonder how much crossover there was between the typical Marvel UK reader in general and Transformers in particular and that romantic grown up action show. Though thanks to my amazing twitter friend Sprite I know they did one other similar book, so it at least did well enough internationally.
Next week, back on Friday...who can Dreadwind and Darkwing be bringing along to put in that shell?
ISSUE 243
1989
COMMENT
Unsurprisingly Stringer is a big fan of Patrick McGoohan’s masterpiece and the references are only going to get more overt as we go on, but even as a kid who was about 13 years away from first seeing the series on DVD this felt very special and will become arguably the most iconic Colin story.
Dreadwind actually doesn’t do too badly on answers this week, though when telling James Clifford from Mexborough that Playback was a cassette he is obviously worried about past failures as he adds a “I think” just in case. He also explains all the suffering Bumblebee/Goldbug has been put through as being down to him having “The sorta face you’ve just got to beat up on, y’know?”. Which is fair enough.
There’s one major page layout failure though, when pointing out to James Murtagh from Ayreshire that the Transformers guns do occasionally show their tech spec powers there’s suddenly an orphaned half-sentence that doesn’t seem to relate to anything in that or any of the other letters. “alone—he’s a good boy, good to his mother. So there”. No idea what that’s about.
The highlight of this week’s adverts is the full page given over to the graphic novel you’ve all been waiting for: Beauty and the Beast: Portrait of Love, based on the Linda Hamilton/Ron Pearlman TV series that was relatively obscure over here. I do wonder how much crossover there was between the typical Marvel UK reader in general and Transformers in particular and that romantic grown up action show. Though thanks to my amazing twitter friend Sprite I know they did one other similar book, so it at least did well enough internationally.
Next week, back on Friday...who can Dreadwind and Darkwing be bringing along to put in that shell?
ISSUE 243
1989
COMMENT