Aspects of Evil!

« The Transformers (UK) #223–227 »
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"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

"AIM FOR THE NIPPLES!"

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

"No, Prime! Parents will never buy a comic with this on the cover!"

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

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.)

Quotes

"At the time we thought he'd lost it - been driven mad by his injuries. We should have known better! Scorponok's evil needed no insanity to fuel it!"

—Rodimus Prime sums up his first case study.

"There he is, Nightflight - we've got him!"
"You mean I've got him, Whisper! One of my rockets and he's history!"
"Hah! You're both just blowing exhaust fumes...When I nail Scorponok, Megatron will see I'm the real power in this group!"

—Whisper, Nightflight and Tailwind arguing over who get to kill Scorponok

<This goes right against the grain. I want to stay, help my comrades protect the humans. But I think this situation...>
"...calls for a single act of bling stupidity! And I'm just the Autobot for the job!"

—Hot Rod realises what he brings to the fight with Shockwave.

"I had narrowed down the traitor to one of four. I guessed correctly the ridiculous Autobot Code would flush him out. The one who couldn't kill to save himself would be the traitor!"
"But-but one if one of the others had got to me first?"
"You'd be dead...and I'd have to find another way to flush out the traitor. On reflection...it would have been far simpler to kill you all and have done with it!"

—Megatron explains his man-management policies to Bludgeon.

"I come here to find out about Unicron and I get lectures on some evil has-beens and a work of fiction! Well, get this, Autobot fool! I'm going to find Unicron for myself. And when I do...you'll really understand the meaning of evil!"

—The student outs himself as a Unicron groupie.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• On the cover of Issue #223, Tailwind's A-10 Warthog mode is factually incorrect.
• In part 2, Flak and Sunrunner are depicted as being the same size as their non-Micromaster comrades.
• Part 2, panel 3: "disarray" is misspelled as "dissaray".

Continuity errors

• TBD

Continuity notes

• 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?)
• 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".
• So if Galvatron never travelled back in time, that means Death's Head can't have either and Bumblebee never became Goldbug! So argued a number of small children in Dread Tidings but Hi-Test made it clear "the space-time framework repaired itself. That doesn't mean it went backwards. Nice try, though."^[1]
• The Decepticon civil war turns up in "Trigger-Happy!" in the Transformers Annual 1990, released around the same time.
• 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.
• Pretty much the only thing Scorponok's segment foreshadowed correctly was the Decepticon Micromasters being allied with Megatron. This won't be properly revealed in the main timeline until the end of "Back from the Dead", a full 19 issues later.
• The "Autobot law" Scorponok uses against Hot Rod could be the Autobot Code, though neither of them refers to it as such.
• 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.
• 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 same format of flashback-based character vignettes with a framing story will be used again in "...Perchance to Dream".
• In describing Shockwave, Rodimus repeatedly uses the term "inhuman" as an insult. Talk about being unclear on some core concepts!
• The student is never seen again.

Real-life references

• TBD

Other trivia

• TBD

Back-up material

Issue #223

• Reprint Transformers story: "Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!"
• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Divergent Paths" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Powerglide and Predaking

Issue #224

• Reprint Transformers story: "Wanted: Galvatron — Dead or Alive!"
• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Divergent Paths" and Combat Colin
• Classic Covers Calendar: The seventh in a series of monthly calendars that showcased inks from covers of yesteryear with new colours. This July edition used Robin Smith's inks from issue 129.
• Instead of the usual strip, Combat Colin consisted of a number of cut out and keep badges. Due to the black and white printing, it was suggested the reader should colour them in.

Issue #225

• Reprint Transformers story: "Headhunt"
• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Cross Purposes" and Combat Colin

Issue #226

• Reprint Transformers story: "Headhunt"
• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Cross Purposes" and Combat Colin

Issue #227

• Reprint Transformers story: "Headhunt"
• Back-up strips: Action Force - "Cross Purposes" and Combat Colin
• AtoZ: Prowl and Ramhorn
• In 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?!"^[2]

Covers (5)

• 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.
• Issue #227 cover: Unicron chows down on Cybertron (again), by Geoff Senior.

• 

  Issue #223

• 

  Issue #224

• 

  Issue #225

• 

  Issue #226

• 

  Issue #227

Reprints

• Transformers: Aspects of Evil TPB: Rodimus Prime and Unicron fight, by Stephen Baskerville. Cropped version of issue #254's cover.
• The Transformers: Best of Megatron: Megatron, by Livio Ramondelli.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, Volume 17: Matrix Quest: Nightbeat and Prime's corpse by Makoto Ono and Geoff Senior.
• Transformers: Best of Arcee: Arcee by James Biggie
• Transformers: Best of Shockwave: Shockwave by James Biggie

• 

  Aspects of Evil TPB (Titan Books, 2005)

• 

  Best of Megatron (IDW Publishing, 2010)

• 

  Definitive G1 Collection vol. 17: Matrix Quest (Hachette Partworks, Ltd., 2018)

• 

  Transformers: Best of Arcee (IDW Publishing, 2022)

• 

  Transformers: Best of Shockwave (IDW Publishing, 2022)

References