Time Wars: Difference between revisions
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==Errors== | ==Errors== | ||
[[Image:Timewars colourerror uk201.JPG|right|150px|thumb|The FortMax repaint we've all been waiting for!]] | [[Image:Timewars colourerror uk201.JPG|right|150px|thumb|The FortMax repaint we've all been waiting for!]] | ||
*On page 4 of issue 200, Robin Smith draws Blaster with his Marvel US head. On pages 9 and 11, however, he is drawn with his cartoon head like in all his other Marvel UK appearances. | |||
*The first page of issue 201 was originally printed with the wrong colours. This was corrected in the subsequent [[Collected Comics (Marvel)|Collected Comics]] and [[Titan Books]] reprints, though the colors are still slightly off (especially the dark brown-ish red on Rodimus Prime). | *The first page of issue 201 was originally printed with the wrong colours. This was corrected in the subsequent [[Collected Comics (Marvel)|Collected Comics]] and [[Titan Books]] reprints, though the colors are still slightly off (especially the dark brown-ish red on Rodimus Prime). | ||
*Scourge was pretty mad at Galvatron last time he saw him, to the extent that he was willing to kill him. How we get from that to the look of love he gives Galvatron in issue 200 is unexplained. | *Scourge was pretty mad at Galvatron last time he saw him, to the extent that he was willing to kill him. How we get from that to the look of love he gives Galvatron in issue 200 is unexplained. | ||
Revision as of 20:20, 25 March 2011
| This article is about the comic story. For the trade paperback named after it, see Time Wars (Titan). |
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 Oh shit. | |||||||||||||
| "Time Wars" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | 7th January 1989—18th February 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Robin Smith (#200, #201) Dan Reed (#202, #203) Lee Sullivan (#204, #205) | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Andrew Wildman (#199) | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Stephen Baskerville (#199) | ||||||||||||
| Colours | Euan Peters | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | GLIB (#199, #203, #205) Annie Halfacree (#200, #201) GLOP (#202, #203) Peter Knight (#204) | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Euan Peters | ||||||||||||
The combined forces of the Autobots and Decepticons must battle both Megatron and Galvatron to save the present and the future from a rift in space and time.
Synopsis
On New Years Day 2009, a time rift has destroyed the planet Quintesson Space Pirates! and is now threatening to consume both Earth and Cybertron. Analysing the source of the disturbance, they find the source of the rift to be the year 1989. They correctly deduce that Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge are somehow the cause. In an attempt to solve the problem, a small group of Autobots travel back in time to 1989.
In 1989, the rift is also threatening modern day Earth, causing natural disasters. An earthquake awakens Ravage, who has lain inactive since falling down a mine shaft. Showdown! He attempts to escape back to the surface, but instead discovers the underground base of Galvatron.
Optimus Prime is giving a briefing to the other Autobots, in which he outlines his belief that the time storm is related to Galvatron. Meanwhile, outside the Ark, Highbrow is fretting over what to do with the head of Scorponok that he had captured. All in the Minds! He wishes to end the threat of Scorponok, but is unwilling to kill him in cold blood.
Before he can make a decision, he is attacked by the Decepticon Headmasters and Targetmasters in an attempt to recover the head. They capture the head, but before they can destroy Highbrow, the other Autobots come to his rescue and a major battle ensues.
In the midst of the battle, the future Autobots arrive, causing Optimus Prime, Hardhead, Highbrow, Blaster, Brainstorm and Snarl to be transported to the holding dimension as part of the time travel process. Thinking their friends have been killed by the newcomers, Fortress Maximus leads an attack on the future Autobots.
At the same time, a spacecraft from Cybertron arrives on Earth carrying the combined forces of the Autobot Wreckers and the Decepticon Mayhem Attack Squad. They have joined forces in an attempt to force Galvatron to return to his own time.
The Autobot battle is eventually stopped when Goldbug, who has seen the results of time travel before Target: 2006 Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive! and believes the newcomers are friends, is injured. Using the Creation Matrix that resides in both Optimus and Rodimus Prime, the present and future leaders are able to communicate with each other and resolve the battle peacefully.
The Wreckers and the Mayhem Attack Squad meanwhile enter Galvatron’s base and confront the future Decepticon. They are shocked to discover, however, that Galvatron and Megatron have now joined forces. The two of them soon leave the ranks of the Wreckers and Mayhem Attack Squad decimated, forcing them to retreat and regroup.
Optimus Prime is explaining that the rift is caused by Cyclonus and Scourge being in the present because they bypassed the usual mass transfer system when they travelled back in time using Unicron's time portal. The Legacy of Unicron! As a result, the balance of space time has been upset. The situation has been made worse by Cyclonus's death twenty years before his creation. Dry Run! They deduce that if Cyclonus and Scourge are returned to the future, the rift will seal itself.
Galvatron and Megatron follow the Wreckers and the Mayhem Attack Squad and continue the battle outside, bringing the other Autobots into the fray. Galvatron has now become totally insane and is fighting blindly and slaughtering all in his path.
Scourge, who is beginning to have doubts about his alliance with Galvatron, decides to take action and flies to the Decepticon fortress to retrieve Cyclonus's body. There, he finds Shockwave in a state of mental breakdown after learning Dry Run! that he is due to die at Cyclonus and Scourge's hands in 2008. The Legacy of Unicron! Unwilling to let Scourge take Cyclonus's body, he blasts the future Decepticon unconscious.
The battle with Galvatron is going badly and all are falling before him. Half his face has been blasted off in events that are different from how he remembers them as Megatron, pushing him even further from sanity at the same time as changing the course of history. Optimus Prime, trapped in the limbo dimension, can only watch through the Matrix link. As the Autobots continue to fall, however, he decides to take drastic action and uses the power of the Matrix to return to reality and confront Galvatron. However, because he is now in the same period as Rodimus Prime, also the bearer of the Matrix, the effects of the time rift increase.
Scourge, recovering, appeals to Ravage to get Cyclonus's body, and wanting the madness to end, he sacrifices himself by throwing himself into the rift. Ravage manages to convince Shockwave that because he has foreknowledge, he has time to prevent his fate. This snaps Shockwave from his mental decline.
Galvatron, still fighting madly, fights Optimus Prime to a standstill, but before a winner is revealed the time rift rips Galvatron apart. However, the rift continues to worsen as it needs Cyclonus as well. Just as the rift is about to rip the Earth apart, Shockwave arrives and throws the body of Cyclonus into the rift, causing it to close itself.
The future Autobots return to their own time, pledging to destroy all their time machines. Optimus Prime and Shockwave agree to a truce until they next meet.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Errors
- On page 4 of issue 200, Robin Smith draws Blaster with his Marvel US head. On pages 9 and 11, however, he is drawn with his cartoon head like in all his other Marvel UK appearances.
- The first page of issue 201 was originally printed with the wrong colours. This was corrected in the subsequent Collected Comics and Titan Books reprints, though the colors are still slightly off (especially the dark brown-ish red on Rodimus Prime).
- Scourge was pretty mad at Galvatron last time he saw him, to the extent that he was willing to kill him. How we get from that to the look of love he gives Galvatron in issue 200 is unexplained.
- What's left of the Wreckers and the Mayhem Attack Squad, having been key characters for much of the story, simply disappear in the closing stages, shunted aside by the big names. The same happens to the rank-and-file present day Autobots such as Wheeljack and Scattershot (the latter was going to be killed off shortly anyway)
- The "present" Autobots should recognise most of the "future" Autobots—Kup and Blurr, for example, are among their current forces on the Ark. Kinda lucky they didn't make the trip to Earth, really... They should probably recognise Ultra Magnus and Rodimus Prime (he looks just like Hot Rod, after all) as well, and maybe even Red Alert. (Similarly isn't it lucky that Scorponok didn't bring the present day Terrorcons with him?)
- Blaster appears in the 2009 timeline but neither does he travel back in time with the other Autobots nor is he present when the Decepticons storm Autobot City. It's lucky he didn't travel back in time as his 1989 incarnation is present as well, or was.
- At least some of the present-day Autobots (such as Ironhide) should recognise the explosive effects of being shunted to limbo, so their immediate declaration that Optimus and company have been killed is a little hysterical.
- The nature of Goldbug's injury shifts all over the place—he's shot in the shoulder by Misfire, but then has a critical chest injury by the time Magnus finds him. His dramatic turn done with, his life-threatening wound reverts to being a shoulder injury that Hoist patches up in three seconds flat.
- The plan is to get Cyclonus's body and Scourge back to the future, but it is unclear how they plan on accomplishing that. Nobody in 1989 appears to have the means to transport them into the future.
- Also Rodimus Prime isn't really Optimus Prime's future self. Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime in the same era should not cause a time disruption despite what the two Primes believe...yet it is caused by the two holding the Matrix simultaneously. Though, Optimus doesn't have the Matrix, as it is with his other body on VsQs. Head hurt yet?
- Keep in mind that the present and future had become a mess due to the temporal anomoly, There was no telling how history would reboot itself.
Items of note
- This marks the end of the story arc that began 121 issues ago in "Target: 2006".
- This was the last of the UK comic's 'epic' storylines. By issue 213 falling sales meant that the page count of the UK originated strip was reduced from 11 to 6. The constant threat of the comic's cancellation meant that Simon Furman kept the story arcs limited to a few issues at most.
- The present day Ultra Magnus was going to get a rematch with Galvatron here, but the upcoming switch to black-and-white strips forced Furman to wrap up everything in Time Wars; poor ol' Magnus got lost in the shuffle.[1] Insult to injury, his 2009 incarnation is never seen after this strip and, considering the state the Decepticons were making of him, could have died with barely a mention!
- As if the high death count was bad enough, keep in mind that this is right im the middle of the Underbase Saga, which had many more deaths.
- Cyclonus was killed in issue 189 "Dry Run!". The initial effects of the time rift were shown in issues 182-187 "Space Pirates!" with the destruction of the planet Quintesson.
- Here Ravage recovers from his fall down a mine shaft after a battle with Skids in issue 72-73 "Showdown!" (US issue 20).
- The future Decepticons don't really add anything to the story. They just turn up, watch for a bit and then leave.
- The Wrecker/Mayhem strategy is laughable - they simply walk into Galvatron's base, arguing loudly.
- It's a recurring problem with the rotating artists on the UK comic, but the height of characters changes drastically over the course of the story. Fortress Maximus goes from being a shade taller than Rodimus to almost half again as tall between issues.
- Galvatron actually starts off this story in a fairly sane state of mind (as he had in Altered Image!) By the end of it he's attempting to destroy every Transformer that exists and screaming his defiance at the universe itself. Hanging out with Megatron seems to have this effect on him (although to be fair, having half his face blasted off probably didn't help matters).
- Finally, Galvatron stays dead. Hard to miraculously recover from being erased from history. Except that he does, sort of.
- Where does Fracas go?
- During the first issue when humans are fleeing from the Terrorcons on New Year's Day 2009, a dropped copy of Dragon's Claws can be seen. This prediction of the title's longevity was optimistic as the real Dragon's Claws comic folded a few months into 1989; however just a few months before the real New Year's Day 2009 a trade paperback of Dragon's Claws was published.
- Reprinted as a Trade Paperback by Titan Books in July 2003.
- The future Autobots last appeared in "Space Pirates!". Their story continues in the second segment of "Aspects of Evil!", then "The Void!".
- When this story was written, it was with the intention that Megatron was the same guy we saw being blown up with the space bridge at the end of "Gone but Not Forgotten!". However, a few months later, the story "Two Megatrons!" would retcon him into actually being a clone bearing the mind of Straxus who thinks he's Megatron. Consequently, the events of this story leave open the (originally unintended) possibility that, in the original timeline, it was actually this Straxus-Megatron who was rebuilt into Galvatron by Unicron, rather than the genuine article.
- Several panels in the two issues drawn by Robin Smith feature characters in poses directly drawn from their character models. Most of them can be found in issue 200: Ravage on page 1, panel 2 (the same pose is used again, albeit mirrored, in panel 1 on the subsequent page, with a slightly redrawn pose appearing in panel 3); The Ark on page 4, panel 2; Grimlock and Powermaster Optimus Prime (minus his handguns) on page 4, panel 3 (Fortress Maximus in the same panel appears to be an original pose); Galvatron on page 7, panel 3; Snapdragon on page 8, panel 2 (with a slightly redrawn leg); Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher (both of them slightly redrawn) on page 9, panel 1; Fortress Maximus (with a different facial expression), Rodimus Prime and Blurr on page 10 (Arcee, Kup, Ultra Magnus and Red Alert appear to be original poses); possibly Fortress Maximus on page 11, panel 3 (downscaled and with less details); and Rodimus Prime in the subsequent panel (albeit with a different facial expression and one arm redrawn to be raised). Some more can be found in issue 201: Misfire (with a redrawn hand to include his gun), Skullcruncher, Fangry and Slugslinger on page 5, panel 2 (Horri-Bull and Weirdwolf appear to be original poses); Soundwave (with his hand redrawn and lacking his gun) and Cutthroat on page 6, panel 5 (Blot appears to be an original pose); Fortress Maximus on 9, panel 4 (with an arm redrawn to be raised, and a hand redrawn to be opened). Uncertain are Scorponok on page 5, panel 5 and Rippersnapper, Hun-Gurrr and Sinnertwin on page 6, panel 5, who never had Universe profiles.
Covers (8)
-
199 cover -
200 cover -
201 cover -
202 cover -
203 cover -
204 cover -
205 cover -
Time Wars TPB
- UK issue #199 cover: Galvatron is on fire! by Robin Smith.
- UK issue #200 cover: Wraparound cover, featuring Rodimus Prime, Arcee and Kup bursting out of Powermaster Optimus Prime, by Lee Sullivan.
- UK issue #201 cover: Fortress Maximus fights Rodimus Prime while Goldbug is dying, by Robin Smith.
- UK issue #202 cover: Galvatron and Megatron stand on heads, art by Andrew Wildman.
- UK issue #203 cover: Carnivac and Springer, by Robin Smith.
- UK issue #204 cover: Optimus Prime interrupts Galvatron vs Rodimus Prime, by Jeff Anderson.
- UK issue #205 cover: Galvatron defeats all the Autobots, by Andrew Wildman.
- Time Wars TPB cover: Galvatron takes on Optimus Prime, by Geoff Senior and Oliver Harud.
