Dreadwind's Xmas!

« The Transformers (UK) #302 »
"Dreadwind's Xmas!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	29th December 1990
Writer	Harry Papadopoulos
Continuity	Letters page
Chronology	Xmas 1990

Dreadwind has had too much of the Christmas spirits...

Synopsis

Dreadwind has barricaded himself into his room at the Marvel UK offices, resisting his replacement as the letters page answerer. After some weeks he has become bitter and twisted. Then on Christmas Eve he is visited at midnight by three apparitions. The first resembles Grimlock and states it is "the ghost of the past". It tells Dreadwind to give up and go back to Cybertron. The second resembles Blaster and is the "ghost of the present" who asks Dreadwind what has been achieved other than turning his bitterness on himself. The third is cowled but reveals itself to be a distorted version of Dreadwind who tells the Decepticon that this is what he will become if he doesn't change his ways. The spirits vanish and Dreadwind cries. At dawn he abandons his occupation and leaves, heading home to plot vengeance on the Ultimate Beings...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Others
Dreadwind (1)	Ghost of the past (2) Ghost of the present (3) Ghost of the future (4)

Quotes

"Bah, Hot Rod!" he moaned.

—Dreadwind channels Dickens.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• This was a text only story.

Continuity notes

• There is no mention of Hi-Test.

Real-life references

• This was based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
• The ghost of the present quotes from Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Other trivia

• With the UK comic no longer producing original comic stories, this text story served as the year's Christmas tale and appeared on the Transformation page.
• No credits are given for this story. Only years later, with the release of Transformers: Best of the Rarities, was it confirmed to be written by the last editor on the UK comic, Harry Papadopoulos.
• The title only appears on the cover.
• Dreadwind had been replaced as the letters page answerer from issue #300; however the Transformation page in that issue reported on his refusal to be evicted from his office.

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "The Human Factor!"
• Reprint Transformers story: "In the National Interest"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Alliance of Convenience" and Combat Colin

Covers

• 
  UK issue #302

• UK issue #302 cover: Dreadwind is looked upon by three ghosts, by Stewart Johnson and John Burns.

Advertisements

• None yet identified.

Reprints

• Transformers: Best of the Rarities: Soundwave and Ravage "cassette" by James Biggie.

• 
  Transformers: Best of the Rarities
  (IDW Publishing, 2022)