This Dream is for You, so Pay the Price. Make One Dream Come True, You Only Live Twice.
Issue 260: The Primal Scream Part 2/...Perchance to Dream 6. Galvatron. 3rd March 1990.
Prattling fool! Your warrior heart is tainted by an idiots tongue!
Even Transformation is making jokes about the less than convincing attempts to hide the identity of the mystery villain in the British story, indeed you have to wonder why they just didn’t reveal him at the end of last week as the cliffhanger. Still, with the white flag raised over the intrigue, we get an amazing Geoff Senior cover of Galvatron (gasp!) playing chess with his Autobot pawns.
I wonder if this cover was a Furman suggestion rather (as would presumably be more usually the case) than the editor. It’s very evocative of the “Human chess” sequence from The Prisoner, a series he has paid homage to before. Either way, it’s impressive and notably—as discussed last week—features Jazz on the board instead of Silverbolt.
Prattling fool! Your warrior heart is tainted by an idiots tongue!
Even Transformation is making jokes about the less than convincing attempts to hide the identity of the mystery villain in the British story, indeed you have to wonder why they just didn’t reveal him at the end of last week as the cliffhanger. Still, with the white flag raised over the intrigue, we get an amazing Geoff Senior cover of Galvatron (gasp!) playing chess with his Autobot pawns.
I wonder if this cover was a Furman suggestion rather (as would presumably be more usually the case) than the editor. It’s very evocative of the “Human chess” sequence from The Prisoner, a series he has paid homage to before. Either way, it’s impressive and notably—as discussed last week—features Jazz on the board instead of Silverbolt.
The second part of The Primal Scream is also on predictable territory, at least for long term readers. Though perhaps as a way of keeping things fresh, Furman does give us some more depth to the creation of the Transformers themselves than he did first time around. We get to see the first Cybertronian rise up from the surface of the planet and take the Matrix, which is clarified to be a genetic matrix rather than a Creation Matrix. Of course, “Genetic” implies genes and that maybe Transformers are made of more than just metal. Which is something Generation 2 will run with.
One key shift in emphasis from the Legacy telling though comes from the fact that the 1990 Children of Primus have yet to have defeated Unicron even once. The guardian is keen to point out the Civil War means the Transformers just aren’t ready yet to take on Unicron yet, meaning that no matter what, Primus must stay asleep as once he wakes up the Chaos Bringer will know exactly where to find Cybertron. Which is a problem as the Mayhems charge in, killing the old robot and—as Bumblebee says—“I have a nasty feeling it’s going to get noisy down here!”
One key shift in emphasis from the Legacy telling though comes from the fact that the 1990 Children of Primus have yet to have defeated Unicron even once. The guardian is keen to point out the Civil War means the Transformers just aren’t ready yet to take on Unicron yet, meaning that no matter what, Primus must stay asleep as once he wakes up the Chaos Bringer will know exactly where to find Cybertron. Which is a problem as the Mayhems charge in, killing the old robot and—as Bumblebee says—“I have a nasty feeling it’s going to get noisy down here!”
That only takes us two pages into the issue, which is a sign of how dense this is. I remember the real visceral thrill I got from reading this for the first time as a child, the entire warring Gods from beyond time idea completely blew my mind. It might be a fairly stock idea generally, especially for Marvel, but for a property like this it remains extraordinary. And the new kinks and Senior art hopefully stopped it being too dull for old hands.
We then have an interlude back on Earth that is entirely set up for future stories rather than remotely to do with the plot surrounding it, but which is hilarious. Like Ratbat and Shockwave before him, Scorponok is finding the politics of being Decepticon leader an increasingly difficult number of plates to keep spinning. He’s made the on the surface sensible decision not to kill Starscream as they are badly understaffed and awaiting (Thunderwing sent?) reinforcements from Cybertron that makes it handy to keep a super Pretender about the place.
In a team meeting though, it’s clear the troops are pissed at this. Especially Mindwipe, who still has a big hole in his chest from the first Furman arc. The angry shouts, including a glorious “Who elected you anyway?”, makes him the Theresa May of giant robots. Only less robotic and hate filled. But whilst Scorponok is promising strong and stable leadership, Starscream is having a good old listen at the door and already has plans to really sow that dissent.
We then have an interlude back on Earth that is entirely set up for future stories rather than remotely to do with the plot surrounding it, but which is hilarious. Like Ratbat and Shockwave before him, Scorponok is finding the politics of being Decepticon leader an increasingly difficult number of plates to keep spinning. He’s made the on the surface sensible decision not to kill Starscream as they are badly understaffed and awaiting (Thunderwing sent?) reinforcements from Cybertron that makes it handy to keep a super Pretender about the place.
In a team meeting though, it’s clear the troops are pissed at this. Especially Mindwipe, who still has a big hole in his chest from the first Furman arc. The angry shouts, including a glorious “Who elected you anyway?”, makes him the Theresa May of giant robots. Only less robotic and hate filled. But whilst Scorponok is promising strong and stable leadership, Starscream is having a good old listen at the door and already has plans to really sow that dissent.
On Cybertron, we get the show-piece fight where Senior really gets to go nuts, thanks to the eccentric design of the three Decepticon Pretenders (telling the Autobots get out of their duller shells as quickly as possible) really lending itself to some memorable visuals. Jazz slamming Bludgeon face first into the floor and Octopunch attacking dinosaur mode Grimlock with a trident being highlights.
Unfortunately Bumblebee’s crisis of faith in front of Primus as he wonders if God requires them to die for the greater good is less interesting, because inevitably he decides it’s better to go down fighting and worry about the consequences later. Despite that though, this is a packed tour de force that more than makes up for the slow pace of the first half and lets Senior kick ass.
And I wonder if the “Rude Awakening” in the NEXT box is a nod at the best episode of the cartoon?
Unfortunately Bumblebee’s crisis of faith in front of Primus as he wonders if God requires them to die for the greater good is less interesting, because inevitably he decides it’s better to go down fighting and worry about the consequences later. Despite that though, this is a packed tour de force that more than makes up for the slow pace of the first half and lets Senior kick ass.
And I wonder if the “Rude Awakening” in the NEXT box is a nod at the best episode of the cartoon?
The conclusion of ...Perchance to Dream is somewhat odd tonally. Mainly because it has entirely the wrong surprise villain in Galvatron. His presence is usually only discussed in terms of continuity issues (not all of which are apparent at this stage), but the bigger problem is he’s too big and important a villain for such a silly gag laden pay-off.
So Galvatron (who at least is helpful by flat out telling us he’s not the same guy from Time Wars) has been searching the memories of the Autobots to find those with hidden dark sides so he can use what can only be described as mind control three pin plugs to “Free” that aspect of their personalities and turn them into his troops. Which doesn’t work because all the Autobots present (though tellingly the device isn’t tried on the biggest bastard of the lot, Sunstreaker) are actually down with their bad selves and won’t give in to them.
Galvatron is them taken out by two shots before Wheeljack, showing how much he has his dark side in check, plugs him into a helmet where he’ll be brutally tortured by a giant Rodimus Prime in his dreams for the rest of time.
Compared to some of the in-depth looks at the Autobots we’ve had across this story this feels rather glib and much more childish, almost as if there was a Hasbro mandate to end with a “Hey kids, these really are unambiguously Heroic Autobots!” note.
It doesn’t help the story makes such a fuss of Galvatron being a major adversary, with Wheeljack even lying by claiming the Decepticon killed “Scores” of Autobots during the Time Wars (as an aside, one of the clear distinctions between the UK and US material at this point is that the former will always callback to Time Wars and the latter only to Dark Star when it comes to big Transformer massacres) to emphasises how dangerous he is. So seeing this once grand villain who had plots that played out over years built up around him reduced to failing to deal with six confused Autobots—who were seemingly buried with their guns—and failing to carry out a basic third rate villain plot is deeply underwhelming.
So Galvatron (who at least is helpful by flat out telling us he’s not the same guy from Time Wars) has been searching the memories of the Autobots to find those with hidden dark sides so he can use what can only be described as mind control three pin plugs to “Free” that aspect of their personalities and turn them into his troops. Which doesn’t work because all the Autobots present (though tellingly the device isn’t tried on the biggest bastard of the lot, Sunstreaker) are actually down with their bad selves and won’t give in to them.
Galvatron is them taken out by two shots before Wheeljack, showing how much he has his dark side in check, plugs him into a helmet where he’ll be brutally tortured by a giant Rodimus Prime in his dreams for the rest of time.
Compared to some of the in-depth looks at the Autobots we’ve had across this story this feels rather glib and much more childish, almost as if there was a Hasbro mandate to end with a “Hey kids, these really are unambiguously Heroic Autobots!” note.
It doesn’t help the story makes such a fuss of Galvatron being a major adversary, with Wheeljack even lying by claiming the Decepticon killed “Scores” of Autobots during the Time Wars (as an aside, one of the clear distinctions between the UK and US material at this point is that the former will always callback to Time Wars and the latter only to Dark Star when it comes to big Transformer massacres) to emphasises how dangerous he is. So seeing this once grand villain who had plots that played out over years built up around him reduced to failing to deal with six confused Autobots—who were seemingly buried with their guns—and failing to carry out a basic third rate villain plot is deeply underwhelming.
This would have worked much better with almost any minor Decepticon in the Galvatron role, indeed the next time Furman tries a plot like this it will be Mindwipe and entirely played for laughs. But even beyond that this is a very weak conclusion to an overall successful story, with only some of the inter-Autobot banter and some nice (done almost entirely in page wide narrow panels) Wildman art to recommend it.
So let’s briefly talk how Galvatron fits into the bigger picture. Officially this is where the British stories become a separate cul de sac from the American, though it’s more likely that at the time Furman wasn’t thinking in such exact terms, more sort of vaguely hoping that with both UK and US books likely to end soon that there wouldn’t be chance for any major contradictions to seep in if he wrote things a bit looser. The six Autobots revived here will wind up being revived again later is the most obvious one in retrospect, but Galvatron showing up in the present without explanation is the one that stood out at the time.
There are basically three possible explanations for where Galvatron came from:
1: The least likely, he’s the Aspects of Evil! version fled into the past. Which means something pretty major must have happened to him since our last visit to the future at the start of the year.
2: It’s the Rhythms of Darkness! Galvatron. Which is probably what Furman intended at the time, after he’d already decided to bring Galvatron in to the US series but before settling on his final fate. However, this means this would have to be set after the end of the issue 332 and that the Ark was gotten flying again before having to crash once more (with Megatron and Starscream aboard again as well) before Generation 2.
So let’s briefly talk how Galvatron fits into the bigger picture. Officially this is where the British stories become a separate cul de sac from the American, though it’s more likely that at the time Furman wasn’t thinking in such exact terms, more sort of vaguely hoping that with both UK and US books likely to end soon that there wouldn’t be chance for any major contradictions to seep in if he wrote things a bit looser. The six Autobots revived here will wind up being revived again later is the most obvious one in retrospect, but Galvatron showing up in the present without explanation is the one that stood out at the time.
There are basically three possible explanations for where Galvatron came from:
1: The least likely, he’s the Aspects of Evil! version fled into the past. Which means something pretty major must have happened to him since our last visit to the future at the start of the year.
2: It’s the Rhythms of Darkness! Galvatron. Which is probably what Furman intended at the time, after he’d already decided to bring Galvatron in to the US series but before settling on his final fate. However, this means this would have to be set after the end of the issue 332 and that the Ark was gotten flying again before having to crash once more (with Megatron and Starscream aboard again as well) before Generation 2.
3: It’s an entirely new time and dimension hoping Galvatron. Which would also be the explanation if you go with this being outside of regular continuity. Personally I like to make everything fit, but this is still the thinking I go with to save headaches. Though it does mean there will be two Galvatron’s and a Megatron on the Ark when it does crash. But you pays your money and you makes your choice.
It’s a shame the 2009 date given in Rhythms of Darkness! doesn’t fit with the 2010 date of the Dark Rodimus arc so that we can’t just have all the post-Time Wars Galvatrons be the same guy.
There’s another free gift I don’t have with my copy this week (though thanks to Ryan Frost for clarifying last week’s sticker proclaimed “Caution: Transformers live here!”), a Classics Heroes poster. Which features Inferno and Jazz instead of Silverbolt of course. Indeed, the sidebar is rather cruel in pointing out Silverbolt isn’t an Official member of the CH team.
The sidebar also explains that Inferno hasn’t been included as he’s not dead. Which is odd as Jazz (who actually is alive again at the moment of course, which may have been another factor in his last second switch. It says a lot about how the UK and US stories do feel like different beasts now that this didn’t occur to me before) and Silverbolt were the only Classic Heroes to have died on page prior to this.
It’s not been mentioned previously, but The Punisher comic has relaunched, so we get a full page advert for its new look fortnightly format.
Combat Colin goes for a simple gag about Colin trying out his new remote control mini-Combat Plane only for the remote to accidentally bring anything and everything electrical to him. It might be a bit basic after the big and sweeping epics of the last few stories, but it also provides a bit of needed breathing space.
It’s a shame the 2009 date given in Rhythms of Darkness! doesn’t fit with the 2010 date of the Dark Rodimus arc so that we can’t just have all the post-Time Wars Galvatrons be the same guy.
There’s another free gift I don’t have with my copy this week (though thanks to Ryan Frost for clarifying last week’s sticker proclaimed “Caution: Transformers live here!”), a Classics Heroes poster. Which features Inferno and Jazz instead of Silverbolt of course. Indeed, the sidebar is rather cruel in pointing out Silverbolt isn’t an Official member of the CH team.
The sidebar also explains that Inferno hasn’t been included as he’s not dead. Which is odd as Jazz (who actually is alive again at the moment of course, which may have been another factor in his last second switch. It says a lot about how the UK and US stories do feel like different beasts now that this didn’t occur to me before) and Silverbolt were the only Classic Heroes to have died on page prior to this.
It’s not been mentioned previously, but The Punisher comic has relaunched, so we get a full page advert for its new look fortnightly format.
Combat Colin goes for a simple gag about Colin trying out his new remote control mini-Combat Plane only for the remote to accidentally bring anything and everything electrical to him. It might be a bit basic after the big and sweeping epics of the last few stories, but it also provides a bit of needed breathing space.
With pages moved about for the poster, Dread Tidings is in black and white for the first time, though this will continue for the remainder of the monochrome era. This means there’s no way of differentiating Hi-Test’s answer to one letter from Dreadwind’s.
Notable letters include a 31 year old Mr. D Marshall from Desborough writing in on behalf of his five year old son Ben (honest), and Denny Sutton writing in all the way from Basle Switzerland. We also get an example of Hi-Test Fails to Answer Letters Properly!, as he fails to answer Catherine Warne (trying to prove her brother doesn’t know everything) from Stanmore’s question about who made Optimus Prime. Hi-Test throws this open for readers to answer and considering the Findus Pancakes loving Return of Optimus Prime is out on video I expect some of the responses will be annoying from a “The cartoon doesn’t count” perspective.
The Transformers Classic Heroes Competition (where the stock photo of the toys you can win has Prowl doing a jolly dance with his arms) is going to be split over two issues. The first part requires you to spot five differences in two seemingly identical panels of Ironhide surprising a terrorist from issue 256.
G.I. Joe: The Action Force sees Snake Eyes and Scarlett joined by The Blind Master as they dickishly fake their deaths in a mine explosion in front of Flint and Lady Jaye so they can go after Stalker.
Billy meanwhile gives the pay-off to a storyline so old and forgotten by Hama that Transformers readers have never encountered it as he has to explain to Rip-Cord that his girlfriend Candy (AKA Bongo the Balloon Bear) is dead. We did see the start of this relationship back in the issue of Action Force containing Ancient Relics!, and Rip-Cord’s hunt for her was briefly a major plot in the issues prior to the merger of the two comics. But because it’s not a ninja it’s been allowed to peter out and here dies with Rip-Cord not even being allowed to get an on-panel reaction.
For the first time in a long time, both the images on the Next Week page (on the back of the comic because of the poster) are from next week. Where we’ll be finding out what Prowl and Wheeljack (and Furman) think of the newest Transformers.
ISSUE 259
1990
COMMENT
Notable letters include a 31 year old Mr. D Marshall from Desborough writing in on behalf of his five year old son Ben (honest), and Denny Sutton writing in all the way from Basle Switzerland. We also get an example of Hi-Test Fails to Answer Letters Properly!, as he fails to answer Catherine Warne (trying to prove her brother doesn’t know everything) from Stanmore’s question about who made Optimus Prime. Hi-Test throws this open for readers to answer and considering the Findus Pancakes loving Return of Optimus Prime is out on video I expect some of the responses will be annoying from a “The cartoon doesn’t count” perspective.
The Transformers Classic Heroes Competition (where the stock photo of the toys you can win has Prowl doing a jolly dance with his arms) is going to be split over two issues. The first part requires you to spot five differences in two seemingly identical panels of Ironhide surprising a terrorist from issue 256.
G.I. Joe: The Action Force sees Snake Eyes and Scarlett joined by The Blind Master as they dickishly fake their deaths in a mine explosion in front of Flint and Lady Jaye so they can go after Stalker.
Billy meanwhile gives the pay-off to a storyline so old and forgotten by Hama that Transformers readers have never encountered it as he has to explain to Rip-Cord that his girlfriend Candy (AKA Bongo the Balloon Bear) is dead. We did see the start of this relationship back in the issue of Action Force containing Ancient Relics!, and Rip-Cord’s hunt for her was briefly a major plot in the issues prior to the merger of the two comics. But because it’s not a ninja it’s been allowed to peter out and here dies with Rip-Cord not even being allowed to get an on-panel reaction.
For the first time in a long time, both the images on the Next Week page (on the back of the comic because of the poster) are from next week. Where we’ll be finding out what Prowl and Wheeljack (and Furman) think of the newest Transformers.
ISSUE 259
1990
COMMENT