Transformers: Time Wars

Marvel UK Transformers from Titan Books #9

by Simon Furman, Dan Reed, Andrew Wildman

Things fall apart in a big way, as the saga of future Decepticon Galvatron reaches its staggering conclusion The fabric of space and time itself is in turmoil, disrupted and torn by time anomalies resulting from Galvatron's dabbling with past and future. Transformers from two eras collide in an attempt to save the entire universe, pitted against two halves of the same whole... Megatron and Galvatron Spinning out from events in Transformers: The Movie, these hard-to-find UK-originated Transformers stories form an amazing contuinity exclusive to Titan Books.

Genres: Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Simon Christopher Francis Furman is a British comic book writer who is best known for his work on Hasbro/Tomy's Transformers franchise, starting with writing Marvel's initial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, as well as foundations for both Dreamwave Production's and IDW Publishing's takes on the Generation 1 minifranchise.

Reviews

[Joseph Leake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Premiering in 1989, this was one of those legendary stories from the UK Transformers comic book series (so famously different in tone and character from the contemporaneous US series); when I first got my hands on it in 2005, as a college student who'd grown up on Transformers, I found it to be quite the doozy. Rereading it now, nearly twenty years later, I can see why: it's a wild ride.

That sense of extravagance, of freewheeling unpredictability and intensity is, I believe, the main appeal of the story. When I first read Time Wars all those years ago, its high reputation puzzled me a bit, and I think I now know why: one of the hallmarks of Simon Furman's Transformers stories (showcased first in the UK comics, and later in the US series) was the complexity that he brought to the characters, the inner turmoils and personal dilemmas, the distinctive (and often clashing) personalities, and I went into Time Wars expecting this; but actually it is not well-exhibited here. That aspect of "the Furman touch" is certainly detectable, but in the execution it's rushed and underdeveloped.

But the story's lack in this regard offers a compensatory element of wild fun and energy. The most memorable part of the story lies in its arresting and unexpected moments -- all the things that would never have occurred in the relatively tamer animated series: Cyclonus' death at the hands of Megatron; Highbrow pulling off Scorponok's head and carrying it back with him to Autobot headquarters; an increasingly crazed Galvatron, after an unstoppable rampage against Autobots and fellow Decepticons alike, being torn apart in the story's denouement by the forces of time itself -- these and other moments are what make up the "wild ride" of the story.

I think one of the most memorable story elements is the fight -- and subsequent alliance -- between Megatron and Galvatron. These characters never met on the animated series; they never met because Galvatron is Megatron's future self. The time-travel plot enables this, and it's yet another example of the distinctive creativity of the comic series.

(The interaction between these two characters also introduces what I think to be the story's most brilliant idea: Galvatron becomes increasingly insane as his past changes around him, leaving him disoriented by multiple conflicting memories. His decision to involve his past self in his machinations thus brings about his own undoing.)

[Jdetrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly ambitious end to the real meat of the Transformers UK comics.