Aspects of Evil!
| This article is about the original Marvel UK comics. For the Titan Books trade paperback, see Transformers: Aspects of Evil. |
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 Tony Blair has really let himself go! | |||||||||||||
| "Aspects of Evil!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | 24th June - 22nd July 1989 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Simon Furman | ||||||||||||
| Art | Jeff Anderson (#223) Andy Wildman (#225) Lee Sullivan (#226) | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Art Wetherell (#224) Simon Coleby (#227) | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Simon Coleby (#224) Cam Smith (#227) | ||||||||||||
| Letterer | Helen Stone (#223) Glib (#224-225, #227) Nick Abadzis (#226) | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity (Marvel UK) | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Post-Time Wars future (1990-1991, 2004, 2009-2010, 2356) | ||||||||||||
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 Autobot law 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 Prime'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 his last defeat...
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 Prime 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 possessed by Unicron again...
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 Prime 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.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
- 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.
- In describing Shockwave, Rodimus repeatedly uses the term "inhuman" as an insult. Talk about being unclear on some core concepts!
- 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.
- The "Autobot law" Scorponok uses against Hot Rod could be the Autobot Code, though neither of them refers to it as such.
- The student is never seen again.
- Issue #223 features Transformers AtoZ profiles for Powerglide and Predaking while #227 features Prowl and Ramhorn.
- In #227's Dread Tidings, Dreadwind explains that Megatron has green fuel when others don't "because he's got royal blood. That's why it's green, innit?!"
Errors
- In part 2, Flak and Sunrunner are depicted as being the same size as their non-Micromaster comrades.
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?)
- The Aspects Galvatron would appear to be a Galvatron formed from a post-Time Wars Megatron clone, who knows in advance he'll be transformed; it'd make sense that he deliberately take different actions to the original Galvatron.
- The Decepticon civil war turns up in "Trigger-Happy!" in the Transformers Annual 1990, released around the same time.
- 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".
Covers (7)
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Issue #223 -
Issue #224 -
Issue #225 -
Issue #226
- Issue #223 cover: Scorponok waves at the Air Strike Patrol by Geoff Senior.
- Issue #224 cover: Rodimus really gets on top of Galvatron by Geoff Senior.
- Issue #225 cover: Your puny Earth bunting is no match for Shockwave by Jeff Anderson.
- Issue #226 cover: Megatron dominates Bludgeon in the ring by Jeff Anderson.
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Issue #227 -
Aspects of Evil TPB -
Best of Megatron TPB
- Issue #227 cover: Unicron chows down on Cybertron (again) by Geoff Senior.
- Aspects of Evil TPB cover: Rodimus Prime and Unicron fight, by Stephen Baskerville. Cropped version of issue #254's cover.
- Best of Megatron TPB cover: Megatron, by Livio Ramondelli.
