Two Megatrons!

« The Transformers (UK) #244 »
Megatron gives some head!
"Two Megatrons!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	11th November 1989
Cover date	18th November 1989
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Geoff Senior
Letterer	Glib
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

Megatron battles himself on Cybertron, but who is the real one?

Synopsis

"Not listening! La! La! La! La! La!"

Having surprised an intruder in the Decepticon base on Cybertron, Ravage is shocked to discover that it is a second Megatron (hereafter referred to as Megatron-2).

The newcomer and the other Megatron (Megatron-1) begin a vicious battle. While they fight, Megatron-2 attempts to appeal to both Ravage and Megatron-1. He explains that he is the real Megatron and that after blowing himself up on the space bridge, he had ended up on Cybertron in the region known as the Dead End. He was eventually rescued by the Micromaster Blackjack. After leaving the Dead End, he discovered Lord Straxus's old headquarters.

He learnt that before attempting to take control of his body, Straxus had built a clone of him using the body of a Decepticon trooper. Thus, in the event of the mind transfer to the real Megatron failing, he would have a backup. The transfer did fail, and Straxus's mind ended up in his clone, dormant beneath Megatron's copied brain patterns. After the real Megatron's supposed death, the clone was transported to Earth where it was discovered by Action Force before the Straxus personality could take complete control. This clone would go on to fight in the Time Wars and was, in fact, Megatron-1.

Fusion Cannon: Fast, effective relief at the site of pain! Or your money back.

At first, neither Ravage nor Megatron-1 believe this story, but then the Straxus personality attempts once again to take control of Megatron-1's body. The Megatron aspect then realises that the story is true and that Straxus must die for the good of the Decepticons, so he blows his own head off. Megatron-2, the real Megatron, pays tribute to his clone's sacrifice.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons
Ravage (1) Megatron (2) Megatron (3) Blackjack (4) "Hapless trooper" (5)

Quotes

"So who won?"
"We both did...two Megatrons won!"

—Ravage and Megatron honor the clone's sacrifice

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• TBD

Continuity errors

• If Straxus could build a clone of Megatron with all his powers and strength, then why did he need the real one in the first place?
• If Straxus could build a body with all of Megatron's powers and strength, why does it have to be a Megatron clone and not just a new body?

Continuity notes

• Megatron tells Ratchet a more in depth version of what happened to him after he blew up the space bridge in "The Resurrection Gambit!"
• This story was written to paper over a massive continuity hole. When Simon Furman took over the writing of the US comic and decided to bring back Megatron, he was faced with the problem that the character had been in regular use in the UK strip for several years. Rather than try and explain all this to US readers, he decided to explain away the UK's Megatron as a Straxus clone.
• In "Time Wars", it is revealed that Galvatron was able to remember the events of the battle as experienced by his former self, Megatron, however the Megatron in question is actually the Straxus clone as revealed here. While this may be caused by the distortion to the time stream it could imply that the UK comic's Galvatron was actually created from this Straxus clone rather than the real Megatron. (Or he could have just been plain nuts.)
• The clone Megatron has wounds identical to those inflicted by the Predacons on the real Megatron, and isn't sent to Earth until Megatron is thought dead. Was it planned that Straxus would pretend to be Megatron 'still alive'?
• This story means that Straxus is still around, just dormant, after the events of "Resurrection!"... which is when Ratbat is in charge of Cybertron. Was he dormant for a proper reason or did Ratbat arrange it that way?
• Ask Vector Prime retconned the hapless trooper used to make the Megatron clone into Archforce, the slightly altered Hero Megatron toy from Europe's Generation 2!
• It was actually trying to make sense of all this, rather than any activity on Straxus's part, that caused Megatron-1 to blow his own head off. We sympathise.

Real-life references

• TBD

Other trivia

• TBD

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "The Resurrection Gambit!"
• Other strips: Action Force - "Evasion" and Combat Colin

Cover

• Issue #244 cover: Megatron tears off Straxatron's head, by Geoff Senior.

• 
  Issue #244 - "And so you suffer the same fate all troublesome plot strands must face!"

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Reprints

• Transformers: Fallen Star : Megatron and Shockwave fight at Memphis Airport. Cropped from the cover of issue #277, art by Stewart Johnson.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Vol 19: Perchance to Dream Megatron (from early IDW promo art), by Guido Guidi above a retro scene of the Battlechargers (from Marvel UK #255 cover) by Stephen Baskerville.
• Transformers: Best of the Rarities: Soundwave and Ravage "cassette" by James Biggie.

• 
  Fallen Star
  (Titan Books, 2005)
• 
  The Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 19: Perchance to Dream
  (Hachette Partworks, 2017)
• 
  Transformers: Best of the Rarities
  (IDW Publishing, 2022)