Transformers Comic-Magazin issue 23

« Transformers Comic-Magazin #23 »
Publisher	Condor Verlag
Cover date	October 1992
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity
Price	3.50 DM

Contents

Secrets of space. From the chronicles of the CYBERTRON: Planet Without Hope

Fifteen million years ago on planet Cybertron, a group of mutants under the leadership of Megatron has created a war machine named Skywrecker that is deforesting a forest. When a rechnical malfunction causes it to stop working, Megatron berates the machine's creator, Skybolt, who sarcastically sugggests Megatron should just as the Autobots for help instead. Megatron thinks this is actually a great idea and enlists the help of Soundwave, who subsequently kidnaps Ultra Magnus and Goldbug. Ultra Magnus at first refuses to do Megatron's bidding, but when Megatron threatens Goldbug's life, Ultra Magnus finally agrees to repair Skywrecker. However, as soon as Megatron activates the machine, he realizes that Ultr Magnus has jammed the steering, and thus Megatron is unable to do anything to stop it from moving towards his subordinates. Ultra Magnus and Goldbug use the ensuing chaos to make a safe escape back to their home base, where they tell their friends of their latest adventures. (source)

Reprints

• The Transformers (Marvel UK) #170-171 - "Deadly Games!" Parts 1 & 2

Notes

• The text story in this issue was originally written for an entirely different franchise of which Condor was also publishing a Comic-Magazin at the time, namely Thundercats, with the names swapped out after the fact, which explains why it is completely unrelated to any established Transformers fiction. The original version of this story was published in Condor's Thundercats Comic-Magazin #6 under the title "Die Bruderschaft der Bösen Mutanten" ("The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants"). Since that story was credited to a "Michael Rubin", this means either writer Robert Mann was using multiple pseudonyms, or he plagiarized a story written by a colleague from the same company.
• Full list of names and settings in this story and their counterparts in the original Thundercats version:

• Cybertron: Third Earth
• Fifteen million years ago: Year 19 of the Bear
• Castle Tara-Angh: Castle Plun-Darr

• Megatron: Slithe
• Skywrecker: Hammerfist ("Hammerfaust" in German)
• Skybolt: Monkian
• Atmosphere cruiser:Thundertank
• Soundwave: Goldfinger
• Energon cubes: Flints ("Feuersteine" in German)
• Ultra Magnus: Tygra ("Tigro" in German)
• Goldbug: Cheetara ("Geparda" in German)

• Other properties of "Cybertron" in this story are a castle named "Tara-Angh"; a forest surrounding the castle that consists of "rusty iron bars and various indeterminable metallic devices"; Energon mines underneath the castle; and a village populated by Berbil bears.
• Because of the ambigous meaning of the original German term, Goldbug is either Ultra Magnus's friend or girlfriend. Goldbug is, however, unambiguously identified as a female.
• So, just a thought… if it's just the steering of the Skywrecker that's jammed, why is there so much mayhem caused with it moving towards Megatron's underlings? Why can't they just get out of its path? Why were they even standing in its path to begin with even if they were assuming Megatron would have total control of it? And the story explicity says it's moving slowly… so is this supposed to be a comedic chase at slow speed?
• Although not strictly an error, no explanation is given for how Ultra Magnus and Goldbug are freeing themselves from their ties prior to escaping.
• We're not even trying to make sense of the fact that any of these characters (in particular Goldbug and "Rodimus") already exist fifteen million years ago on Cybertron…

Errors

• The introduction to this issue once again elaborates on how the remains of Optimus Prime were found by the Autobots following an assault, but it was actually a "clone" that was destroyed, allowing the real Optimus Prime to chase Megatron all the way to Cybertron where he got lost, referring to the Marvel UK storyarc that began with "Prey!" and was reprinted in Condor's Transformers Comic-Magazin beginning with issue 7. However, Optimus's return to Earth, featured in the UK story "Resurrection!", was reprinted in Comic-Magazin #10, and in terms of continuity, he was subsequently killed for real in the Marvel US story "Afterdeath!", which was reprinted by Condor in Transformers Comic-Taschenbuch #2, two years before this issue came out. In addition to this persistent rewriting of history by Condor, several additional details are inaccurate: The so-called "clone" was actually just an facsimile construct; when discovered by the Autobots, it hadn't just sustained "life-threatening injuries", it was literally blasted to pieces; and Optimus's original intention for having the facsimile created in the first place was so he could observe how the Autobots would cope with his apparent death, not so he could give chase to Megatron without anyone noticing or interfering.
• Because the search-and-replace job in the text story was not particularly thorough, numerous names rooted in the Thundercats franchise remain unaltered: Megatron's group is referred to as "mutants" multiple times; at one point, Megatron addresses Skybolt as "Monkie"; "Berbil bears" (a reference to the Ro-Bear Berbils) are mentioned; in two instances, "Soundwave" is still referred to by his original name "Goldfinger"; and at two points, Ultra Magnus is even referred to as a "Donnerkatze" ("thundercat") in German, which might explain why a person or a search-and-replace function looking for the English franchise name might have overlooked it.