THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

130 "Worlds Apart"
131 "Worlds Apart"
189 "Dry Run"
199 "Time Wars"
200 "Time Wars"
201 "Time Wars"
202 "Time Wars"
203 "Time Wars"
204 "Time Wars"
205 "Time Wars"
"Altered Image"
(1988 annual story)
"All in the Minds"
(1988 annual story)

Marvel UK book 9 of 9: Time Wars

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Reprinting: UK #130-131,189,199-205 and the 1988 annual stories, "Altered Image!" and "All In The Minds"
Script by: Simon Furman [#130-131,AITM,199-205], Dan Abnett [#189], Ian Rimmer [AI!]
Plot by: Simon Furman [#189,AI!]
Art by: Lee Sullivan [AI!,205-205], Dan Reed [AITM,202-203], Robin Smith [#200-201]
Pencils by: Will Simpson [#130-131], Jeff Anderson [#189], Andy Wildman [#199]
Inks by: Tim Perkins [#130-131], Cam Smith [#189]
Letters by: Annie H(alfacree) [#130-131,200-201], Tom Frame [#189,AI!,AITM], Glib [#199,203,205], Glop [#202,203], Peter Knight [#204]
Colours by: Steve White [#130,AI!], Abadzis [#131], Euan Peters [#189,AITM,199-205]

The violent end to Galvatron's excursions into Earth's past!

The Stories:

After a long series of UK storylines featuring the Movie characters, Furman would have been working in the knowledge he'd soon be fulfilling writing duties on the US title. Consequently, Time Wars can be seen as the explosive climax of his work on the UK title, though he continued contributing the majority of material for both series. Indeed, it's one of the final multi-part UK stories and the last big original story arc printed in the main comic in full colour. Okay, intro over, this is your chance to stop reading if you don't want spoilers!

Speaking of introductions, the summary of Transformers: The Movie used in earlier collections gets another outing at the start of this volume, followed by an overview of UK issues #188-227 which also touches upon Death's Head as written by Simon outside Transformers comics. Later we get short text summaries of the four UK reprints fitting before this in the timeline: Target: 2006, Fallen Angel, Legacy Of Unicron and Space Pirates. These chart some of the plot points Furman used to build up continuity, and help make the book read easily for anyone new to the material. In this they echo the 'Transformations' opening pages from the UK comics, which aimed to familarise new and returning readers with what had by this point become a rich ongoing continuity.

Worlds Apart was, when it first saw print, the first introduction of UK readers to Headmaster, Targetmaster and Horrorcon Transformers. Since the US 'Headmasters' 4-issue limited series would run as a back-up strip over sixteen UK issues, it was felt that additional introduction to the characters was warranted. The story isn't anything too complex: Highbrow feels that the Headmaster process hasn't been productive, the Autobot Headmasters walk into a trap set by Scorponok, and only teamwork with their Nebulan partners saves the day. Fun, if slightly cheesy. (There was even more introduction of the Head- and Target- masters in the 1987 UK annual, more marketing for the then-current toys. However, the annual version was text-only and basically retold the comic stories.)

Dry Run gives us a script by Dan Abnett, following up on the events of Legacy Of Unicron and Wrecking Havoc. After their botched attempt to wrest the time-travel device from Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge have come to ally themselves with Shockwave. Meanwhile, Shockwave has retrieved Megatron and reprogrammed him to challenge Galvatron and remove the threat he poses Shockwave. Unfortunately, Cyclonus can't keep his mouth shut and reveals his part in Shockwave's death in 2008... prompting Shockwave to turn Megatron loose on them! The consequences of this will underpin the entire Time Wars story arc.

The story continues in two 1988 annual comic strips. (This was a fairly common sales tactic by Marvel UK, these two being particularly important to an understanding of events in the comic.) Altered Image! sees Galvatron meet up Megatron and reveal their shared origin, a concept Megatron is a little... resistant to at first. All In The Minds, meanwhile, explains why Highbrow is carrying around Scorponok's head in Time Wars...

With that, we're into the main story arc proper. The rift which destroyed the Quintesson homeworld back in Space Pirates is revealed to have been caused by the damage done to the fabric of spacetime by Galvatron and other time-travellers. It's spreading fast, endangering Cybertron and the rest of the galaxy. Having deduced this, the Autobots of 2009 plan to travel back to 1989 and investigate... which, unfortunately, will leave Earth almost unprotected against the Decepticons there! Fortunately they're able to put a dampener on the Decepticon plans before they make the timejump, but Soundwave leads his men into the past after them. (As an aside: I've never minded Wildman's style of drawing Transformers—it tells the story well—but his humans here look like grotesque caricatures.)

Back in the past, Ravage (not seen since he was buried in issue #75) awakens to find that Galvatron has a subterranean base built over the caverns he's been recuperating in. Ravage recognises that Galvatron is Megatron and joins Scourge serving under him. Above ground, Optimus Prime—commanding a force of Headmasters, Technobots, Dinobots and other Autobots—is preparing to go after Galvatron (Prime has his Powermaster body here, which introduces a couple of continuity questions) and Scorponok's Decepticons are knocking at their door asking for his head back. (There is, by the way, a nicely comical background shot of Mindwipe dragging their leader's body into frame by his feet.)

The future Autobots successfully timejump, which has the effect of displacing Optimus and various other Autobots into limbo. (Limbo, those who've read other TF time-travel stories before will recall, serves to protect spacetime by maintaining a balance of individuals and mass.) Fort Max and Ironhide, acting remarkably stupidly (Ironhide especially, as he was involved in Target:2006) 'deduce' that Rodimus and the others have killed Optimus. Civil war duly breaks out, with only Goldbug recognising the effects of a timejump before he's shot by Misfire.

Yes, into this mix are thrown Scorponok and his Decepticons, most of whom disappear to limbo as the future Decepticons appear. As if this weren't enough bodies to contend with, an uneasy Autobot-Decepticon alliance on Cybertron (sparked by the impending crisis) has dispatched the Wreckers and its equivalent, the Mayhem Attack Squad, to Earth. They've just arrived, setting the scene for a really big fight.

Magnus rescues Goldbug, which brings the Autobots to a truce, and Rodimus uses the matrix link he shares with Optimus to prove to Fortress Maximus that the Autobots in limbo are still alive. Remember that continuity issue I mentioned? Well, this Optimus doesn't have the matrix. It was blasted into space with his original body (a fact mentioned by Goldbug in #162, something Furman later uses as the basis for the Matrix Quest story arc.) This version of Optimus is the product of personality engrams preserved by Ethan Zachary and a lot of Autobot history tapes. So, the reasonable explanation is that Rodimus possessing the matrix is enough for contact to be made... probably with any TF in limbo, not just Optimus. He simply doesn't have any reason to try to contact anyone else.

Meanwhile, the Wreckers and Mayhems face up against Galvatron... and (dun-dun-der) Megatron!

The past and future Decepticons come to a working truce with the past and future Autobots, listening to a projection of Optimus as he outlines his theory: the time-travelling done by Cyclonus and Scourge via Unicron's portal circumvented the limbo substitution process, damaging spacetime. The combined forces aim to return Cyclonus and Scourge to their own time.

Springer also knows about the origins of the rift, and explains to Scourge that the impending catastrophe is down to him and Cyclonus. Scourge goes off to find Shockwave whilst, meanwhile, the forces belonging to Springer and Carnivac are being slaughtered. (Dan Reed's art for these two parts conveys the action scenes very effectively.) Things start to look up when Roadbuster hits Galvatron with a lucky shot, but it doesn't take him down...

Over to Lee Sullivan for part six, as Soundwave plans to make his forces scarce, Scorponok takes on Galvatron one-on-one, Ravage catches up with Scourge, and Optimus re-enters the fray! Though he may not possess the matrix himself, it's reasonable to assume Optimus is able to use the continuing link Rodimus established earlier to bridge the gap between limbo and Earth. As the body count soars, Prime does his best to take Galvatron out before the rift wipes everything out!

Ravages succeeds in talking Shockwave around, but back at ground zero things are going from bad to worse... the rift swallows up numerous bodies, including Galvatron and Scourge, when Shockwave jets in with Cyclonus's remains. And then, just like that, it's over... although the loose ends from this series will keep Furman in enough back-up strip plots to see the UK comic to its conclusion.

All in all, Time Wars works very effectively. The number of variables Furman manages to keep track of (remember, the UK series was written to intersect with the US stories and essentially produce a double-size continuity) ...for a young writer was (and is) an impressive feat. He gets to define a large number of characters, many of whom were neglected by the US comics and cartoons, conveying the sense that what we see of the Autobot-Decepticon war is only the very short tip of an iceberg.

The Presentation:

Geoff Senior and Oliver Harud have done a nice job with the cover, which is rendered in a bright and animated style similar to those on the other Titan UK reprints. It's a big spoiler for the final part of the Time Wars story arc, featuring a mauled Galvatron beating on Optimus Prime, but it does serve to illustrate the reason most fans will have for picking up this volume.

Something a little annoying is that colours and lines on a few pages seem rather pale and washed-out... though I have to say it doesn't surprise me. Anecdotal evidence suggests the archive materials for parts of Time Wars were lost en route to be published (in what would have been Collected Comics #20) so these have undoubtedly been scanned and restored from what copies Titan could lay their hands on. It doesn't affect readability, anyway.

The Verdict:

Re-reading these stories, I was struck by how well they live up to the hype they're often given by TF comic fans. Even given the range of art styles, the long list of characters used and the occasionally throw-away nature of stories such as Worlds Apart, this is very effective story-telling. Definitely recommended.

 
Reviewed by Denyer

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