Target 2006, altho' I have an extra kick of nostalgia for Wanted: Galvatron - Dead or Alive as that's the first Marvel TFUK I was exposed to

 

Yeah, to this day I still don't see why "Cyclonus dies eighteen years before he is even created!!!!" constitutes a time paradox. If Cyclonus' actions in 1988 had led to Bombshell/Skywarp/Life Spark/Hotlink/Bitstream/Hotstream/Bitlink/Salvo/Mister O (or any of the other possible contenders in the "Who turned into Cyclonus" debate) dying before 2005, then that would have been a time paradox, but, Cyclonus being created in 2006, travelling to 1988, and then dying, is not, in itself, a temporal paradox.

For me, it has to be "Target:2006". It's tightly plotted, beautifully drawn- the last, beautiful hurrah of the UK comic's original superior painted colour art, before the ghastly 'sepping' process got foisted upon them by Marvel US, and features any number of incredible, iconic moments. Issue #86's battle between Ultra Magnus and Galvatron is an unparallelled set-piece, and a wonderfully cinematic fight scene to boot, with well choreographed use of the environment. The whole story bristles with new ideas and clever twists, and doesn't let up with surprising its audience until the very end.

 

You simply can't beat this image. It's senior at his best here showcasing the sheer rivalry between magnus and galvatron. Target also introduced the wreckers to the mythos and triple changers springer, sandstorm and broadside. Impactors death after saving xarron is still an emotional moment. It's an epic that doesn't feature optimus prime in a starring role he's relegated to the opening pages and the end. We learn exactly what happened to him in issue 100.

 

It's also the second page of Transformers fiction I ever read, after that remarkable prologue page that opens the same issue, so, yeah, that's an enormously powerful image for me, and the reason why for me, it's always been "Ultra Magnus and Galvatron" as the most iconic rivalry, before even Optimus and Megatron.

 

Yes indeed. As a kid in 1980s Ireland long before the Internet you had promotional material from hasbro in the toy shops as a way of knowing what was on the way. Hasbro had a promotional poster of ultra magnus and galvatron billed as the new leaders. Target 2006 coincided with this and in the comics was the first confrontation between the two even if magnus wasn't a leader but a new warrior whose chief job was to find missing optimus prime.

It really was marvel UK who created this great rivalry. I'm sure hasbro were delighted to see how it fared in the comics with further battles in wanted galvatron dead or alive, the tf annual of 1987 and the two parter salvage.

 

Tricky...

The first "death of Optimus" I remember reading? (There was another several issues later, of course.)



Giant awesome battles?



Smaller scale revenge fights?



The most exciting cliffhanger I remember?



The single most dramatic fight issue, with Geoff Senior at the top of his game?



A victor emerges from the conflagration.



And it is Target: 2006.

 

This discussion set me thinking. Dangerous, I know, and I'll make sure to put my head in the fridge if I notice a burning smell of anything, but still. Although the fan base has, thankfully, pretty much long since moved on from partisan wrangling about whose G1 continuity is "better" between cartoon and comic- largely because for one thing we've all grown older and wiser, and also because there are so many, many more continuities to be pointlessly negative about appreciate nowadays, nevertheless, I think few would disagree that one area where the cartoon does certainly perform more outstandingly is presenting a memorable rivalry between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Their personal face offs are a defining feature of the Sunbow series, whereas, despite them being the 'lead hero' and 'lead villain' respectively, it's a personal feud with which the Marvel comic largely simply wasn't very interested.

Ratchet and Megatron are quite possibly more iconic nemeses than Optimus and Megatron, in the marvel continuity, and, in fact, the comic does seem to make a very deliberate point that whereas Megatron has an obsessive rivalry with Optimus, it isn't reciprocated, and Optimus doesn't really see his emnity with Megatron as anything more personal and important than his emnity with any other particularly dangerous Decepticon leader. He has a more intense relationship with Shockwave- understandable, Shockwave did decapitate and traumatically pervert the essence of the Matrix he carried, to create the Constructicons, or with Scorponok, or even with Thunderwing, than he does with Megatron, who he rarely meets, and whilst an already unbalanced Megatron was driven to attempt suicide, faced with Prime's death at the hands of somebody else, Optimus was not only fairly indifferent to Megatron's various deaths, but also fairly casually willing to stand aside and let Ultra Magnus vent his frustrations on Megatron, during "Resurrection". Ultimately, not counting "Another Time and Place", when Megatron's pretty much functionally undead anyway, their last meeting is during the "Eye of the Storm" arc, when it's actually a fairly major plot point that Optimus, looking at the Megatron/Ratchet hybrid, only really focuses on the fact that his friend, Ratchet, is in there, fused to some failed old Decepticon Leader or other. The other Autobots are acutely aware that it's Megatron involved, but Optimus doesn't seem particularly more bothered than he would be if Ratchet were merged with Ratbat, or Soundwave, or Cindersaur, or Windbreaker.

Whilst the comic never really picked up that feud, though, when it came to Ultra Magnus and Galvatron, it was there in spades. Whenever the two clash, it's prefaced by a sizeable build up, the sense of an epic clash in the wind, the recurring cliffhanger image of one of them (usually Magnus, although the first instance of it in #85 is reversed) reeling in shock whilst the other makes his entrance, posing menacingly and challenging them to the inevitable fight. Though at the same time, it's a dynamic rivalry, and in stark contrast to the stoic heroism of Optimus, it's a surprisingly pessimistic one, as we see the progressive trauma this unending vicious circle of fights - and defeats - heaps on poor Ultra Magnus, culminating in "Salvage", where Galvatron has become his own personal bogeyman and figure of stark terror. And yet, twice the point is made that Magnus can defeat Galvatron, but only by sheer, absolute rage. Both times this happens, the Future Decepticon (which is in itself a great descriptor from Furman) gets his backside handed to him rather fast to his utter surprise and shock.

Curiously, if this was Optimus Prime, there'd be a price to pay here- with Prime too, in "Prey" it's established firmly that both Megatron and Shockwave are aware that "Don't piss Prime off too much, or you'll have to visit a proctologist to get that gun on your arm back", but generally speaking, in Furman's work, it's made clear that Optimus going into berserker mode usually leads to him being mired in guilt afterward, whereas, with Magnus, the story usually establishes that berserker rage was the right card to play at that point, and it's normally holding back that proves to be the mistake.

In some ways, Ultra Magnus gets to be the comic's hero during this period in a way that Optimus was never quite able to. Magnus isn't a statesman, isn't a leader- in his case the 'New Leader' moniker is established early on to mean that he's potential Leader material, and so gets to be the loose cannon that Optimus only really got the chance to be on Cybertron during "Prey". Magnus also makes mistakes- serious ones sometimes- and has significant character flaws that are allowed to be presented as flaws- his tendency to be somewhat rule-bound early on, and then, later on, the marked independent streak that develops as a result of learning to overcome the former.

Meanwhile, Galvatron manages to be the lead villain of the comic in a way that Megatron had manifestly failed to do so. He's undeniably overpowered- indeed, that's pretty much the point of Galvatron, and in stark contrast to the usual G1 cliché about long laser battles where a direct hit causes about as much damage as a mosquito bite, it's fairly consistently applied here that if Galvatron's particle cannon hits you dead on, that's it, game over, one-shot-kill. This could be a problem, but instead it forces Furman and co. to be inventive, and makes the restraint Galvatron usually shows a defining part of his character. Unless he goes berserk, he enjoys his superiority over lesser Transformers so much that he gets more pleasure out of letting them realise how utterly outclassed they are, than he would out of killing them, and, in stark contrast to the perpetually put-upon Megatron, Galvatron is sufficiently self-confident that he doesn't need to prove how dangerous he is. He makes a Bond-villainesque point of urbanely, civilly chatting to Autobots he meets, and is mockingly polite to Autobot minibots. It reaches its apex in "Enemy Action", a scene I've mentioned before, when he rescues an injured Fizzle and brings him back to his comrades - quite possibly saving the Minibot's life, given that an earlier plot point had established that the Sparklers couldn't follow Galvatron into the ocean - just because it gives him the opportunity for a funny, self-deprecating entrance, but it has its origins in "Target:2006" , in the chilling scene where he deliberately goads the entire remaining Ark crew into unloading everything they've got at him all at once, in order to laugh at them and make the effective point of "Go away."

 

That was all very well put and I agree with you. One of my favourite single frames of Galvatron is in Enemy Action, namely his amused smirk after the Seacons combine. It just sums up his power and confidence so well.

 

Hard not to agree with this. It sums up perhaps better then I ever could the fundamental difference between the comic and sunbow. I agree that when Magnus fights at his best he perhaps has no equal but indecision and lack of confidence to finish the job comes back to haunt him. See wanted galvatron in which using the image of his human friend Cindy being in trouble fuels him to pound galvatron and knock him out but his indecision about what to do next allows galvatron to recover and blast him in the back. Galvatron does become his own personal demon finally exorcised in salvage where he protects the sparkler mini bots but because he's still weak from being in the volcano doesn't have the strength to finish off galvatron whose allowed to limp away to plan anew. Its a pity we didn't get the final fight in time wars but instead in regeneration where we have two quite different Ultra magnus and galvatron having their one and only showdown in marvel us which regeneration was a continuation of.

Marvel UK galvatron doesn't destroy for the sake of it. It's to make a point, namely how out of your depth you are to take him on. From target 2006 onwards were he allows the autobots to throw everything at him and then takes then down without much trouble. The smirk shown in enemy action shows his sheer belief in himself. He was forged in the fires of a god but despite this he absolute hates his creator.

I've said it before that we rarely see optimus prime let loose largely because he was in sunbow depicted as this noble courageous leader who was strong but protected life and rarely got angry. He was the icon of transformers the hero. In the animated movie we do see a more powerful prime taking out all the cons en route to megatron but still hesitates with megatron at his mercy which costs him. In a few flashback scenes in Prey we see prime hammering megatron but again he's not depicted that much in full fighting mode. It was ironically in the bayverse we saw this side of optimus a lot more.

Megatron is a mess in marvel. Early on he's the typical eighties villain in both marvel and sunbow. All hes missing is the twirly moustache and cane but over time in the comic he becomes increasingly unstable and challenged multiple times for leadership not by starscream but by shockwave. I don't remember strarscream challenging him that much in the comics but shockwave certainly does, a character he had little interaction with in sunbow other then a few video chats and after the first few scenes in the movie shockwave just disappears. In the comics shockwave plays a far more important role not just in marvel but years later in idw too.

My final point goes back again to 1986 and a typical toy shop in Ireland. No sooner had parents bought "the new leader" Ultra magnus for their kids then hasbro unveil another new leader in rodimus prime. So magnus is not the leader it's this upgraded hot rod. Did you not see the movie? Rodimus is chasing his proverbial tailpipe from the get go and while some fans loved him.as a leader and actually preferred him to optimus but was evidently not liked enough and brought optimus back. Meanwhile in the comics rodimus starred in wanted galvatron a two parter with deaths head, legacy of unicron, space Pirates and time wars and various black and white stories before one of the final.images of him is rodimus strung up between the two world trade center buildings with the cons having g evidently won.

Poor rodimus. Yes he was in regeneration set afterwards but poor rodimus. He got the short end of the hasbro stick. You couldn't properly recreate the end scene with galvatron in the movie because he was so badly out of scale unlike magnus who scales very well with galvatron. You really did feel his toy was an afterthought and i felt if hasbro really wanted this guy to be the autobot leader long term then more should've been done. Just my 2 cents.

 

I think if I had to rate them in reverse order...

7) Prey/Return to Cybertron

It's still a good story, but it just doesn't hang together as well as the other stories for me, and I wonder if that might be because it has a bit of a focus on Prime and Megatron, who I just never felt were as interesting as the Movie-cast (or the Dinobots come to think of it) under Furman's pen. Magnus and the Wreckers are hanging around but dont do much. That said the "lucky" throw from Prime that impales the Decepticon is a great wee moment.

6) Time Wars

I mentioned above how a few of the beats in this story dont really work for me. It definitely misses Ultra Magnus, and some of the plot points dont work. That being said, there's still some great art and great moments (Galvatron down... but not out!) and it feels suitably epic, unlike Prey. The covers are absolutely on point too, with 202 and 203 being highlights for me, Brian. Also - screw Sandstorm, I'm glad he died.

5) Space Pirates

This one is a lot of fun, but lacks the big sense of urgency that some of the others have. The Quintessons dont make for a particularly interesting villain, and the artwork isnt as memorable (despite big Plexy putting in an appearance). Wreck Gar's chat is good fun, and the Soundwave/Mags alliance on Cybertron is good fun. At the very least it gave us Eugenesis.

4) City of Fear

I'm a big fan of Dan Reed's art, and I really like this one. Flame isn't Galvatron, but he makes for a fun villain, Springer's inner turmoil is a fun read, and Flywheels makes for a fun little character. The ending with Impactor sacrificing himself (and the cover with him and Springer) brought a lump to young Private Buttocks' throat back in the day I can tell you.

3) Wanted Galvatron

I can remember reading this at the time it came out, in sheer pant-shitting terror as Galvatron beat the unholy Primus out of every character that dared stand in his way. The Geoff Senior-drawn rematch between Galvy and Mags is almost as brilliant as the first, with Galvatron shattering Magnus' optics being a defining image for my young brain. It would be much higher except I never got the Annual when I was a kid and it took waiting until 137-138 to realise what had happened. Still rankles to this day.

2) Legacy of Unicron

Is it possible to have too much Deaths Head? It's probably what holds this one off the top spot, as Furman basically writes him as being almost as all-powerful as Grimlock. Its still a great story and the sheer scope and scale of it added so much to the Transformers mythos. The death of Shockwave remains a shocking and hugely influential moment, the art is compelling, and Wreck Gar is a lot of fun.

1) Target: 2006

The original and best. Mass displacement, Maccadams, Galvatron, the Wreckers, Impactor, Galvatron, Xaaron, Ultra Magnus, Ironhide digging out Megatron, the splash page of Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr arriving, Galvatron, Scourge walloping Trailbreaker, Triple changer debut, Galvatron, zombie Jazz, the glorious painted art, Geoff Senior doing THE definitive issue of TFUK (#86) and the debut of, for me, the best villain in TF comics history, Galvatron, who I may not have mentioned up to now. It's a story I must have read 100 times, and I'm sure I'll read it 100 more. And then there's this exchange:-

Galvatron "Must I kill you to stop you?"
Battered Magnus, barely able to rise "Yes."

Soup herb.

 

One of the great lines from galvatron to jazz in target 2006. Jazz says you're just like him aren't you, like megatron?

"No jazz not like megatron...I am megatron"

Goosebumps. This was out around the time of the animated movie but yeah the darth vader luke empire moment in marvel UK.

 

Of course, I'd actually forgotten Flywheels- and in a way, his behaviour during the "City of Fear" epic is actually my favourite of all the "Heroic Decepticon turns good" character arcs, since it's so nicely and credibly underplayed - he doesn't "turn good", he just was a soldier who happened to be on the other side. In a fun counterpoint to Galvatron's Fizzle moment, mentioned up-thread, Flywheels proves himself, in an admittedly cliché "shooting the bloke behind you" moment, when he saves Ultra Magnus from a zombie attack because- well, essentially just because Magnus is his comrade today. He's not a tragic hero, or an atoner striving for redemption, he doesn't feel the need to agonize over it or make long soliloquys about it, he's just a decent bloke who happens to be a Decepticon, and once they've all established that they're facing a common enemy today, he's reliable. He also has a wonderfully snarky sense of humour.

 

Flywheels funniest moment is when he tells the autobots to just jam the signal showing up magnus and the Sparklers as being dumb. It's a funny moment because it takes magnus down a peg or two. It also shows despite being their prisoner that he's willing to help.

 

Time Wars shows so much promise, but, to me at least, fails to deliver on it through being too rushed.
I've sometimes wondered what should be done to fix it- this, roughly is what I'd have thought would make for a rather improved "Redux" version.

Changes from actual storyline:

1. In the 2009 prologue, 2009-Ultra Magnus does not travel back with the group; this, I think, was "mistake number one", because this Ultra Magnus doesn't really have the rivalry with Galvatron, or the history, that the present day version does, and really the whole point of the future arc is that they're not the same person any more. Instead, 2009-Magnus remains to guard Autobot City and the time portal, and, instead of the issue ending with 2009-Soundwave leading the Terrorcons into the past, the issue ends with Soundwave and the Terrorcons entering Autobot City, finding the Time Portal, and then being confronted by 2009-Magnus.
2. In an attempt to correct two of the more egregious instances of Autobot Stupidity that rather spoil the storyline, rather than the 1989-Autobots being cabbage-headed enough to just attempt to murder their visitors from the future in a silly hysterical fit after forgetting all about the mass-substitution phenomenon which they should know about at this point, and particularly be prepared to deal with since they're already preparing to deal with a time-traveller (namely, Galvatron), instead have tensions and a few wild accusations from the less-well informed, when Optimus Prime and co vanish, but only have it escalate into a firefight because Mindwipe, present, and acting 1988-Nebulos-Decepticon Commander since Scorponok's still recovering from getting his head screwed back on, seizes the opportunity and flashes a hypno-beam on several of the Autobots to stir them up into starting a fight.
3. Meanwhile, since in the actual storyline, the Wreckers, despite the fact that Xaaron and Optimus Prime are clearly trying to co-ordinate their anti-Galvatron strategy at this point, just brainlessly stroll into Galvatron's base chattering amongst themselves, instead establish that they were meant to rendez-vous with Optimus' forces first, but are on a time limit, and with the Ark contingent delayed by the fighting with their future allies, Springer and Carnivac disagree on strategy and Carnivac, not wanting to team up with Optimus Prime anyway, recklessly leads his Mayhems into Galvatron's base. Springer, having rather more of an idea of what Galvatron is capable of than Carnivac does, thus knowingly, but heroically, rather than moronically, puts his team in harms way to try to rescue the Mayhems, giving Carnivac considerably stronger motivation for his later heel/face turn. As before, they're confronted by Galvatron and Megatron. Similar carnage results, but this time Flywheels is numbered among the survivors, and gets back to the Decepticon battlecruiser, where, whilst Roadbuster is preparing the Pathblaster, Flywheels makes a phone call...
4. Rather than 2009-Magnus, it's 2009-Soundwave who discovers the injured Goldbug, and conspires with him to stop the Autobot/Autobot civil war, giving him a more proactive role than just listening in on the Autobots' plans over the other side of a rock, thinking "Hey, that sounds good, I'm in" and then later thinking "This is actually scary, let's run away" a few issues later. Soundwave reveals to Rodimus and Fortress Maximus, via his recording/playback ability, what happened back in 2009- that Magnus confronted him, and managed to convince him that Rodimus was travelling back in time to avert a serious catastrophe- giving some payoff to Magnus and Soundwave's "understanding" at the end of "Space Pirates"- but then 2009-Magnus was consumed by the rift, which is already beginning to 'unweave' 2009, meaning that the future Transformers only hope of any kind of a future is to stop this madness. It also sows foreshadowing, since Magnus had clearly become a temporal anomaly.
5. As before, Rodimus consults the Matrix, and uses the imprint of Optimus Prime's mind within it to communicate with 1989-Optimus in Limbo. 2009-Soundwave manages to convince Scorponok and Mindwipe of the need for a truce as well, and, receiving a distress call, the Alliance head in as the cavalry and then find out that the decimated Wreckers and Mayhems are facing not only Galvatron, but Megatron as well. It's at this point, since Rodimus is not able to handle Megatron and Galvatron, and- via the Matrix, whilst watching from outside time, Optimus can see how much damage having Galvatron and Megatron in the same place is doing to reality, that Optimus takes the gamble of returning to the physical world and entering the fray.
6. ... Unfortunately, it's not enough. Powerful as Powermaster Optimus Prime is, Galvatron is still stronger, and growing more so by the moment- "Fools! I am Galvatron!! I am the Child of Unicron himself, the Herald of Chaos and Darkness!!! I was made to feast upon the powers of chaos, the energies of uncreation!!!! Why do you think I have courted this carnage? As time is rent asunder, the power of destruction flows to meeee!!!!!" - only, probably, with more exclamation marks; nevertheless, Galvatron is seen to be able to absorb the energies of the burgeoning rift, being made stronger and stronger still by them, graphically healing his maimed face, and knocking everyone sideways. Ironically, though, this display of insane godhood- and indeed, the revelation that Galvatron is quite happy to tear apart the universe everyone else is trying to live in- is what drives Megatron from his side, rather than Megs just... disappearing, the way he does in the actual story.
7. At Fortress Sinister, after Scourge has been shot in the back and left for dead by Shockwave, it's Ravage, as before who rouses Scourge, and the wounded Sweep commander realises what he has to do- but it's Megatron who confronts Shockwave, and convinces him not to be so fatalistic and seize the opportunity to remake the future his way- with Megatron himself realising the same thing at the same time, leading into his "This time I'm going to do it right" policy from "Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire".
8. At the last, then, the final cliffhanger is not "Optimus Prime enters the fray", as Optimus Prime is already here. Rather, at this point, Optimus Prime is down, beaten up and about to be crushed under a boulder by Galvatron... when the Autobot Space Bridge dangerously opens one final time and a car-transporter mode 1989-Ultra Magnus barrels through it at full speed from Cybertron, ramming Galvatron and saving Optimus' life, answering Flywheels' distress call. The bulk of the final issue then is an all-out final battle between Ultra Magnus and Galvatron, as Cybertron's Greatest Warrior tries finally to take Galvatron down for good, knowing that if they can take Galvatron offline and toss him into the rift, the problem should be solved, but if they can't, the more energy Galvatron absorbs, the more the rift will be ripped open. Scourge sacrifices himself, as seen, but Galvatron's final reckoning comes when Magnus finally accepts the inevitable and bodily forces Galvatron into the rift, annihilating both of them (and, consequently, rendering 2009-Magnus a temporal paradox, explaining his consumption by the future-rift). It then falls to Shockwave, as seen in the actual story, to deliver the coup-de-grace by disposing of Cyclonus' remains.

Whilst killing Magnus is sad, at least this way he'd get the heroic and appropriate ending he deserves, being the one to finally end the threat of Galvatron, rather than just randomly disappearing after "Deadly Games", and at least the right version of Magnus would appear in the story, and we get a few more character moments that build upon and call back to the years of UK material before this.

 

Your idea sounds so much better than what we actually got. While Time Wars does have a few epic moments, it just felt very underdeveloped and confusing in a lot of areas and, as a result, I would have to say that it is probably my least favourite of the UK epics (at least out of the ones in this poll).

As for what my favourite epic is, I’m honestly torn between Target: 2006 and Prey/Return to Cybertron.

 

If you include the fallen angel in the prey/return to cybertron its hard to look beyond it. Galvatron v the Dynos was some confrontation.

 

I suppose we can only assume, unless Furman's ever gone on record about this, that the problem with "Time Wars" was the incipient cut-backs to black and white and five page strips, and possibly also trying to bodge it in around the Underbase saga. I think that was the point that I first began to catch on to the idea that some of the stories were home-grown and others were imports that had to be shoehorned into the ongoing narrative somehow. I know it really became apparent soon after, when the monochrome stories always commented on the casualties wrought by Galvatron and Starscream, but the colour imports only mentioned Starscream's rampage- especially as the UK's Transformation editorials (with, of course, no self-aggrandisement whatsoever) had consistently depicted "Time Wars" as being the far bigger, more impactful, and damaging catastrophe suffered. In keeping with this, I remember them trying to patch around the complicated issue scheduling of these issues (namely, for anyone not aware) that "Time Wars" got published in the middle of the Underbase Saga, and claiming that in fact, the Underbase saga happened first, and then the Time Wars hit.

Of course, that doesn't make sense, given the way the likes of Swoop, Goldbug, Grimlock, and Wheeljack are all up and running just fine in the early parts of Time Wars, and of those three, only Goldbug is seen to take significant damage on panel, and that appears survivable. However, it's entirely consistent with the approach Furman had employed previously, with stories like "Dinobot Hunt" following "Prime-Time", and, indeed, the events relayed in "Distant Thunder" that took place during "Target:2006", with Optimus Prime's wound, supplanting "Command Performance"- namely a somewhat crafty habit of what would, in MMORPG circles, be called 'kill stealing' of a sort. It looks rather as if the original intent, as done previously, was to imply that a significant number of the Underbase casualties were actually just wounded, and had been repaired by the time of the "Time Wars", whereupon Furman could then take advantage of them having been already written out of the US book in order to kill them again as part of the Galvatron carnage.

Now, in fairness, that's not a bad strategy. The US book always tended to be rather more casual about such killings than the UK one, and, indeed, reading "Prime-Time", it's still hard to envisage that underwhelming fight as being one that wrecked and wrote out over two thirds of the 1984 cast, given that they seem to end it battered, but conscious and still operational, so "Dinobot Hunt" very successfully steals its thunder as a more credible ending for the likes of Bluestreak, Huffer, Sideswipe, Gears, Cliffjumper, Windcharger and so on. Starscream's rampage in the Underbase saga is extensive- but really, for the most part, the injuries suffered don't appear any more 'final' than many of those the characters had just suffered in "Cold War" the issue prior, only to be speedily repaired off-panel. That in mind, then, if the UK comic had still been in rude health, it's easy to imagine a universe where it was generally perceived that the Dinobots suffered serious injury during their battle with Starscream in Tokyo, but survived long enough to participate in the battle with the future Autobots and then get killed by Galvatron during Time Wars.

Or, at least, it would have been, if Time Wars had in the event bothered to do any of that. In practice though, after a few issues slaughtering the Wreckers, when Galvatron finally encounters the crews of the Ark, Steelhaven, and Rodimus, Soundwave, and Scorponok's gangs (that's quite a lot of Transformers in total) only a handful of them rush into combat. Fortress Maximus even calls out "Swoop! Grimlock! With me!"

Um, Maximus, I know you're an awful leader, but... you have the better part of five well armed Transformer battle units present here, and you're confronting the most powerful foe your race has ever produced, in an existential battle for the fate of four worlds. Did you maybe want to bother deploying a couple more soldiers? Or at least all the Dinobots?

Scorponok gets a good fight with Galvatron at least, and he, at least, does suffer some impressively visceral damage before 2009 Magnus insults the memory of the epic rivalry between 1980s Magnus and Galvatron with a really underwhelming pistol, and Scorponok's crew show themselves up as utter morons. All told though, apart from Scorponok, who, of course, survives with little sign of his injuries, and maybe Goldbug, who might have later succumbed to his injuries during the Autobot/Autobot War of Thick earlier, there aren't really any casualties among the present-day Earthbound Transformers at this point.

In the event, it seems to wrap up incredibly fast, as, after all the build-up, Powermaster Optimus Prime jumps out of limbo to sell his toy, and proceeds to get involved in a rather feeble fist-fight with a Galvatron who, by this point, is so deranged that he can't even fight properly, or see or understand where his enemy really is. It should have been so much better. To return to the Annuals, their semi-regular text story introduction giving a historicised version of a 'story so far' will later describe the events of this final conflict, accounting how Rodimus Prime duelled Megatron whilst Optimus battled Galvatron. In practice, Rodimus Prime does bugger all, Megatron just... disappears, last seen standing in the background giving Galvatron a dubious look in long-shot (and, incidentally, showing zero reaction to Optimus sodding Prime showing up on the battlefield), and the 'fight' largely consists of Optimus marvelling at how Galvatron doesn't even know what he's doing any more, before the rift comes along and eats him.

The issue gets some redemption at this point, since the visuals surrounding Galvatron's final dissolution and the awesome terror of the rift unleashed are among the most memorable in the comic's history, and unlike Galvatron himself, in no way disappoint after the build-up to this point. Those 'missing' casualties certainly can't be a direct result of the rift though, since paradoxically there, death by being sucked out of the space/time continuum entirely would be a bit too final for them to show up later.

It's no surprise really that, in practice, fan consensus inverts the claims made editorially in the comic, and slots in "Time Wars" before the Underbase Saga rather than afterward. This isn't entirely free of problems either though- Scorponok shows up undamaged and at full power during the Underbase saga, but is... oddly quiescent for a while after it, spending a lot of time as Zarak in Manhattan and keeping in the background, which whilst obviously not Budiansky's intention, may have explained why Furman felt free to so graphically injure him during "Time Wars".

 

Some very nice ideas though I was always disappointed Rodimus Prime didn't get more action in Time Wars especially given he's the reason Galvatron travelled back in time the second time. That and I always preferred Rodimus to Optimus Prime.

I voted Target: 2006. I started collecting the UK comic at issue 79, the first part of the epic.

I feel the other epics suffered from the decline in colouring and artists like Dan Reed and Andy Wildman with their fleshy robots.

Also, I hated that a non Transformer like Death's Head could beat up Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge. I grew to appreciate Death's Head once he fecked off to his own comic.

I didn't like the Quintessons growing up especially the idea they could beat the Cybertronians. I have grown to like them since.

I really hated Zenag. Between him and Primacron, I just don't like monkeys. Guess it's obvious I didn't like alien and human characters.

 

I wasn't a fan when magnus turns up in target. I thought he was taking over from optimus my favorite transformer. So I hated him. How dare ge and how dare the toy have a white g1 optimus like cab. It was just too much for this 11 year old to handle.

However over time I became a big fan. Wanted Galvatron changed my mind with him and from then on I was a fan so much so that I have virtually every version of him as a toy including his g1 toy.

And Robert stack was a great actor to voice him in the movie too....