Aspects of Evil!

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<tr style="background-color:#e7d492;text-align:center;font-size:12px;"> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> <table width="100%" style="background-color:transparent">

<tr style="font-size:14px;"> <td class="tti_buttonlink">« </td><td align="center">The Transformers (UK) #223–#227 </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink">» </td></tr> <tr class="tt1_secondarynav"> <td class="tti_buttonlink"> </td><td align="center"> </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink"> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 12px; background-color:#ffffff;" align="center"> <img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/9/92/Issue227.jpg/230px-Issue227.jpg" width="230" height="306" border="0" /><br />Tony Blair has really let himself go! </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> "Aspects of Evil!" </td></tr> <tr> <td>Publisher </td><td> Marvel Comics </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Cover date </td><td> 24th June 1989 - 22nd July 1989 </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Writer </td><td> Simon Furman </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Art </td><td> Jeff Anderson, Art Wetherwell, Andy Wildman, Lee Sullivan and Simon Coleby </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Letterer </td><td> Helen Stone, Glib and Nick Abadzis </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Continuity </td><td> Marvel Comics continuity </td></tr>

</table> An aged Rodimus remembers the evils of the Decepticon leaders, and a terrifying revelation is made.

Synopsis

In the year 2356, in a medbay on Autobot City: Earth, a decrepit and sickly Rodimus Prime is visited by an Autobot student who is researching the nature of evil.

Rodimus recalls...

Scorponok

In the year 1991, the Decepticon civil war was nearly over, and a wounded, defeated Scorponok rampaged through a human town with the Air Strike Patrol pursuing with intent to kill. This turned out to be deliberate: It drew Hot Rod and his team to Scorponok, at which point he surrendered. Hot Rod was now forced by the Autobot Code to protect Scorponok from being killed. Since he also couldn't fight the Air Strike Patrol in a human settlement, he had to settle for leading them into the countryside, which meant Scorponok was left unguarded and was free to walk away to plot anew.

Galvatron

When Rodimus's Autobots returned to 2009 following the Time Wars, they found the timeline had healed, revising history. Now Galvatron hadn't fled to 1987 Earth, and because of this, the Decepticons had conquered Cybertron. Galvatron attacked Rodimus, taunting him with his defeat and with the revelation he'd murdered Blurr. His intention was to goad Rodimus into a fury, corrupting the Creation Matrix with his baser instincts so that Galvatron could control it. The other Autobots were able to pull Rodimus back from the brink, but in the process, Galvatron had awakened Unicron, trapped in the Matrix since The Legacy of Unicron!...

This segment of the story is continued in "The Void!".

Shockwave

Autobot City was officially opened in 2004, attended by various Earth heads of state. Shockwave attacked with a small army, logically working out that the Autobots would try to protect the humans before fighting back, that they would be slaughtered before they realised they had to fight back, that the death of human leaders would destroy Autobot/Earth relations, and that this act would lead to him taking command of the Decepticons again. His logic was undone by Hot Rod illogically attacking him directly, which caused the attack to break off and strengthened relations with Earth.

Megatron

On Cybertron in 1990, Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr were freed from Decepticon captivity by an Autobot deep-cover agent named Warmonger. Recaptured, Hot Rod was forced to watch as Megatron accused Bludgeon of being the traitor responsible. Bludgeon demanded to prove his innocence through a traditional trial-by-combat against the other Decepticons, which is what Megatron had hoped for; Warmonger revealed himself as an Autobot when he couldn't bring himself to murder Bludgeon, and so Megatron killed him. Megatron showed casual disregard for the idea Bludgeon could have died first and mused it would have been simpler just to kill everyone.

Throughout this, the student gets more and more eager to learn of Unicron, leading to Rodimus to recall:

Unicron

With his body rebuilt, Unicron's third coming was in 2010. He devastated Cybertron and almost wiped out everyone before Rodimus drew his spirit back into the tainted Matrix. But when Kup and Arcee found him, they realised Rodimus—screaming at them to stay back: "It's not safe!"—had been part of Unicron's body...

The student sneers at this as a work of fiction, rips off his Autobrand and storms out, declaring he'll find Unicron himself and prove to Rodimus what evil is. Rodimus realises he's unleashed the student's evil side and that Unicron is taking control again...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots</th><th style="background:#EEEEFE"> Decepticons</th><th style="background:#FFEEB8"> Others </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Landfill (6)
• Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime (7)
• Quickmix (8)
• Student (9)
• Kup (11)
• Arcee (12)
• Blurr (decapitated) (16)
• Flak (17)
• Sunrunner (18)
• Ultra Magnus (19)
• Optimus Prime (22)
• Warmonger (28)

</td><td style="background:#EEEEFE" valign="top">

• Scorponok (1)
• Whisper (2)
• Tailwind (3)
• Nightflight (4)
• Storm Cloud (5)
• Galvatron (10)
• Windsweeper (13)
• Ruckus (14)
• Crankcase (15)
• Shockwave (20)
• Astrotrain (21)
• Blitzwing (23)
• Megatron (24)
• Bludgeon (25)
• Octopunch (27)
• Stranglehold (26)

</td><td style="background:#FFEEB8" valign="top">

• Unicron (29)

</td></tr></table>

All characters apart from Rodimus and the Student are seen in flashback.

Continuity

It's 'round about this time UK continuity gets iffy:

• The Galvatron segment and the Rodimus Prime framing story follow on from both "Time Wars" and "The Legacy of Unicron!". Both are continued in #251 to #254.

• Scorponok and Megatron's segments don't fit "present-day" continuity at all, though. While it could be assumed that Rodimus's timeline diverges from the regular Marvel one around 1989 (due to the earlier arrival of Unicron), that would still mean Megatron was blasted into dimensional space and merged with Ratchet. While it's possible Megatron could be back in time for 1991, 1990 is pushing it a bit. More annoyingly, his story could fit after "The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire" if it was set in different year. Maybe Rodimus is getting his dates mixed up? However, if events diverged at "Skin Deep" or earlier so Megatron was defeated by other means, it would all fit, though what would cause that divergence is unknown. (Viewing these stories as apocryphal could be the easiest solution, but where's the fun in that?)

• A Galvatron unfamiliar with the Time Wars turns up in "Perchance to Dream", with a similar scheme of unleashing the baser sides of Autobots. They may be the same Galvatron.

• Chronologically, the Shockwave portion is the third to feature the post-movie cast; it is preceded by "Ark Duty" and followed by "Target: 2006" (or the Movie itself, technically).

• The framing portion of this story is the next-to-last post-movie tale, chronologically. "Peace" is set some two hundred years after this story, though it is unclear if it is meant to be in continuity with this tale. The reader never sees how or if Unicron is driven out of the Matrix.

• It's not explicitly stated that it's his time-jump to 1987 that Galvatron didn't do, but the narration refers to him as not having "fled to Earth": something that fits better for Fallen Angel than Target 2006.

Errors

• In part 2, Flak and Sunrunner are depicted as being the same size as their non-Micromaster comrades.

Items of note

• Part 1 refers to a Decepticon civil war between Megatron, Scorponok and Shockwave in 1991. This civil war is also referred to in "Trigger-Happy!" in the Transformers Annual 1990, released around the same time. In the US reprints, eventually a subplot will develop of Shockwave preparing to declare a Decepticon civil war against Scorponok, with the resulting story being reprinted in 1991. This would hint Furman had the Decepticon civil war idea planned this far back but went on to change the details of it considerably.

• The same format of flashback-based character vignettes with a framing story will be used again in "Perchance to Dream".

• All of the post-movie stories have been wiped from existence after the Time Wars, with a new revised history in place. The full effects of this—i.e. are dead characters still alive, did Cyclonus and Scourge go back in time (if they didn't, Death's Head would still be around too)—are never explored. However, Rodimus refers to "The Legacy of Unicron!" as still having happened.