I wasn't sure whether to post this here or not, as I've lurked here for many years but seldom post, but in the end decided to go ahead since I know there are at least a few rusty old Marvel fans like me kicking around these boards... So... those who know Marvel UK will probably know that on several occasions, they altered the art and/or text of a US reprint to better align the story with their "expanded" UK continuity. For example, when Megatron fought the Predacons in "Gone But Not Forgotten" (US issue), it was the *second* time they fought thanks to an earlier Marvel UK story. So, the UK reprint of the story altered dialog to reflect this. Another example, involving Skids, is here. There were lots of things they didn't alter, though, such as TF showing up in US stories when they were elsewhere (or dead!) in UK continuity, and some things that just made no sense in any continuity ("It now falls to Red Alert"... to randomly be on Earth for one issue, for example!). Even the "see issue xx" boxes weren't changed in the last few UK reprints. Many, many years ago I decided to "fix" this and start doing Marvel UK style "retcon" edits to some UK pages. However, this was back before digital copies of the comic were available; in fact, before there were *any* reprints and the only way to read the old issues were fan scans or physical copies from eBay or comic shops. I had forgotten all about this little unfinished project I started until the other day, when I found the files I'd done - but never posted - on an old hard drive! I'm wondering if there is any interest if I was to a) try and replicate my work with modern (much better quality) digital issue pages, and/or b) post my old pages for others to see. Obviously, anything posted would be just the edited pages/panels and not the whole issues!
Hello. I’m a rusty old marvel fan myself who is intrigued by your post I’ve spent the majority of my adult life piecing together a mint set of marvel uk comics and tbh I’m afraid to handle my collection. This leaves reprints as my go to as reading copies which most often lack the edits you’re referring to. I’ve also been collecting the Hachette books for the Furman write ups and other little bonuses, but they have the same issue. Seeing the UK edits collated together and your suggested revisions is an interesting prospect. What a thoughtful post
Here are some of the official Marvel UK retcons I remembered or later learned of. If you know of one I'm missing (or a list somewhere) please let me know and I'll add it: Issue 70: Issue 91: Issue 107: Issue 108: Issue 109: Issue 139: Issue 158: Issue 159: Issue 174: Issue 175: Issue 194: Apologies for the scan quality. As I said, there are from the days when there were no official releases, just fan scans. If *anyone* has good quality scans of the original Marvel UK issues, I would be very, very interested in talking to you in regards to this whole project. My own issues are too fragile to risk attempting to scan and most modern reprints don't include the UK retcon pages sadly.
Now, here's one of mine... a Banjo Retcon! Issue 194 Original Page... My Retcon... What's Changed: I removed Runamuck from the 2nd panel, as he shouldn't be part of the Decepticon forces at this point (he was deactivated by Circuit Breaker in UK#95 and is revealed to have been hiding out with Shockwave since then in UK#311). His appearance here is an art error even in the US printing, not just something that conflicts with UK continuity! Note: obviously the quality of my retcon can only be as good as the original scan I used as the base, hence why I am interested in getting hold of better scans in order to maybe re-do some of these old edits.
Two more Banjo Retcons: Issue 175 Page 10, original US... Page 10, official UK retcon... Page 10, my own additional edit... What's Changed: Marvel UK already retconned this page, removing Thundercracker, Frenzy, Starscream and Skywarp from the rescued Decepticons. In the UK comic timeline, Thundercracker, Frenzy and Starscream had already escaped their imprisonment aboard The Ark in Target 2006 (although Frenzy got a few UK-only stories, I don't recall Thundercracker appearing again between that story and the ones following his US activation in this issue). Starscream would feature in the Christmas story Stargazing (issue #145) before rejoining Ratbat's Decepticons in #194). Skywarp was destroyed by Galvatron during Target: 2006, presumably why he was removed from the rescue... My version re-adds Skywarp, because while blasted into fragments in Target: 2006, he is repaired and fully functional in issues #206-209 (where he is destroyed again, by the Underbase-powered Starscream). There's no practical way to remove SKywarp from those issues, so it must be assumed he was scraped up and put back into cryo storage by the Autobots after Target:2006, and repaired either by them or the Decepticons post-#175. I also added Blast Off to the rescued Decepticons because he was captured in issue #144 (Spacehikers) and his return to the Decepticons following this story is otherwise never explained. Incidentally, the Combaticons and Stunticons - along with the Autobot Protectobots - actually disappear from the Decepticon ranks before the story Dark Star, never to reappear again until Generation 2! Then again, despite being rescued in every version here, I don't think Rumble ever appears again in the G1 Marvel comics either, does he?
This Banjo Retcon is a little different... it's not a "fix" for continuity or an error like all the others I've done or that the UK comic officially did. This one was a personal project to somehow make Optimus Prime's death in Afterdeath (issue #16 UK) less... well... stupid. Any Marvel TF fan knows that Prime died (the first time) in the comics in the most ridiculous way imaginable: he literally rage quit over a video game and allowed himself to be destroyed *just to make a moral point*. His "sacrifice" saved nobody, and in fact put the Autobots at a massive disadvantage, and indirectly caused the chain of events that led to them leaving Earth under Grimlock's leadership, never to return to safeguard or ally with humanity in the course of G1 again. More immediately, it also gave the Decepticons the energy source they wanted and allowed them to build their island base, which would also take them into space and help them find the Underbase, which Starscream would then... well, you get the point. Prime not only died for nothing, he threw his life away in a way that *helped* the Decepticons. Even the author of the story himself is on record saying he wasn't sure what he was thinking, I believe. So, how to "fix" this? Using no new art and adopting the style of the original UK "retcon" edits, I could see only one option, and one that was darker and more dramatic: Megatron wins. In combat with Prime, he uses the cheat code "afterdeath" to win their fight and - as per the rules - Prime is destroyed in real life. Of course, the problem with this is why Ethan would push the button to kill Prime in *any* situation. At least in the original, Prime pretty much begs to be killed (recent story retcons might suggest massive guilt for what happened in the new "Issue #0", but that's one hell of a retcon!). Here in my version, you have to assume that either the dialog was misleading and the game kills Prime automatically when he loses, or Ethan pushes the button as a reflex or out of fear of Megatron. His horror at what he's done kind of suggests the second one, but the last is most believable. Regardless, the below panel edit is the way I decided to headcanon a "better" death for Optimus. He doesn't commit suicide over a video game but instead loses to Megatron's guile. Note that this gives Megs a much-needed (especially in Marvel US) "win" as he's pretty ineffective otherwise and dies in the next couple of issues himself, anyway. Without further ado... Issue 106 Original UK pages (same as US printing)... And now, my edit of the page/panel sequence... Pretty grim, but IMO better than Optimus' suicide over a video game!
A couple more Banjo Retcons, these one simple textual error fixes... Issue 64 UK original page... Huh? Drag Strip is called "Dead End"! Oops! My "fix"... Note: this was later fixed in the Collected Comics version officially, I believe. Issue 90 Original UK page... Note that Dirge calls Thrust "Ramjet" here! My "fix"... Issue 183 Original UK page... That's not Chase, Perceptor... that's Rollbar! My fix... Regardless, RIP Hopper. EDIT: after all these years, I've only now realised that "Chase" here was actually, technically correct. That's Searchlight, mis-coloured like Rollbar... but in the Marvel comics, Chase and Searchlight's robot modes (but not car modes) were swapped! I guess I need to recolour "Rollbar" here and then look at fixing all the mis-naming of Chase/Searchlight dialog...
One more Banjo Retcon... Issue 30 Original UK pages... Wait... what's Inferno doing there? He wasn't with the original Ark crew! My fix... That's better, right? No more Inferno being completely out of place for one story. Sadly, the original scans were pretty poor quality as you can see (major jpeg artifacts!) but this was all I had to work with back in 2003 or so when I did this. It was also a lot more work than most of the others, if I recall, so not sure how much I want to do it again even if I get hold of a better scan! Edit: maybe I *should* re-do this one? I just noticed that I removed the wrong (tiny) figure in one panel, and also Ironhide's lack of a head needing some attention too!
I had the same idea a few years ago, found few I wanted to fix but you're being way more thorough. Fixing Walter Barnett's counting error in Desert Island in Space Removing reference of Carnivac and Snarler coming to Earth via spacebridge, they arrived in a spaceship in Time Wars Editing the White Fire arc to say new years 2010 instead of 2009 (this was an actual error) The trickier stuff is editing US-specific references in the Furman Run... Really interested to see what you do with those.
I did something like this about 15 years ago with US#56 onwards. Fixing the dialogue between Ratchet and Megatron to include a reference to the Megs clone and Time Wars was a lot of fun!
Nice idea for a project. You're correct when you say that the Collected Comics reprint changed Dead End to Dragstrip. I've seen a few examples on DeviantArt but I've always wanted someone to redo the colours of the Marvel US comics. We can add G2 and Regeneration to that too. Mind you, Hatchett's colouring of the UK black and white stories is lacking. I think they tried too hard to stick to the old comics. I'd much prefer to see them properly coloured with a broader palette.
Edited my "official" post to add the official Marvel UK retcons for issues 158 and 159 (Desert Island in Space), which fix Walter's Throttlebot counting errors and Spike calling Galen "human", as well as changing Hot Rod's Nebulon companion's name (no idea why his companion was constantly renamed in the UK run), and making Shockwave's "death" much less awesome; I don't see why they needed to change that dialog, and not just make his survival unknown to Ratbat? Then again, Shockwave surviving becomes a narrative dead end (why does he have Decepticons like the Seacons and coneheads with him for some issues and not others?) so I guess it's doubly pointless.
Your scans look better than some of the scans I have found. Your source. Original US comic. Original UK comic. Classics reprint
Anyway, here's something I did a while ago. I've not edited any panel other than resizing and cutting them up. My dream would be to redraw everything to make a full twenty-two page comic with the layout below. The original US comics of this time were about sixteen pages long instead of the standard twenty-two. Page 1 Page 2 Page 3. Page 4. Page 5 Page 6. Page 7. Page 8. Page 9. Page 10. Page 11. Page 12. Page 13. Page 14. Page 15. Page 16. Page 17. Page 18. Page 19. Page 20. Page 21. Page 22.
I like how you incorporated the UK Deathbringer story into it. Personally, I'd love to see the entire series recolored similar to this fanmade work from Deviant Art.
Oh gross. Modern digital painting devoid of depth or character. Half of what makes Marvel G1 so good is that sweet classic artwork. For what purpose? To give everyone Sunbow colors? The comics were better than the cartoon in almost every way artwork included. Sure there were errors or shaky lines but it was overall much more consistent and engaging than Sunbow's Scooby-Doo fare. Soundwave is purple, unless it's a UK story. Powermaster Optimus Prime has red eyes. Bumblebee has yellow eyes and a yellow face. Galvatron is silver-white with purple pants! This is why I won't read IDW reprints. 'bad scans' of a vintage comic are much more authentic.
