Flashback!

« The Transformers (UK) #268 » Earthforce »
Oh boy!
"Flashback!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	28th April 1990
Cover date	5th May 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	John Marshall
Inks	Stephen Baskerville
Lettering	Glib
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce

In pursuit of Megatron, Prowl goes back to his own death!

Synopsis

Don't tell me you were a transforming car too, Al!

The Autobots have discovered Megatron is using a Flashback Doorway to project his mind into a being in the past. Prowl steps through to follow him and arrives inside his own past body during the battle with the Underbase powered Starscream.

Megatron is after extra troops and has possessed the body of Snap Trap with the intention of altering history to ensure the Seacons survive. Because of the consequences this could have to the timeline, Prowl seeks to stop him. Confronting them in the river, Prowl calls out Megatron's name and the latter, realising he has been followed, transforms into Snap Trap's robot mode. As the two time travellers battle, Prowl drops hints that Megatron should know who he is and at a crucial moment, Megatron pauses in shock when he thinks it's Optimus Prime. Prowl takes advantage of this knocks out Megatron, whose consciousness returns to the present.

Prowl hangs around long enough to see Starscream destroy first the Seacons and then, despite his desire to run, himself. His consciousness returns to the present where Jazz tells him Megatron has fled.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"That's right, Prowl -- Starscream is now a...god!"

—Starscream reminds everyone he was a bit nuts in those days.

"I'm hurt you don't realise who I am, Megatron. We've fought enough battles over the years!"
"What are you talking about? Why should I know-- No! Prime?!"
"Nope - Prowl! But it was worth a try!"

—Prowl psyches Megatron out

"I tell you, Jazz, dying once is bad enough...twice is beyond a joke!"

—Prowl has had a bad day.

Notes

Artwork notes

• The title of the story has the last four letters printed in mirror image.
• Every panel set in the past has the curved-edges look used to denote 'flashback' in regular strips!

Continuity errors

• A letter writer answers an earlier letter on 'who built Optimus' by recounting "War Dawn".The editor Dreadwind cheerfully says "there you go" as if it's comic canon, pausing only to say he's never heard of this Alpha Trion bloke "but then who am I?"^[1] Probably the editor didn't know this was a cartoon story and thought he was being nice by printing a young kid's story.

Continuity notes

• The events in the past take place during those of "Dark Star". However, in that story, only the death of the Seacons is seen on panel.
• Megatron just happens to have a time machine! How, we dunno (five pages gives no room) but chronologically this is the first time machine made in Marvel continuity.
• Megatron has frozen up or reacted with fear to a sudden Optimus Prime in "Gone but Not Forgotten!" and (sorta) "Salvage!".

Real-life references

• Quantum Leap had recently started airing in the UK and the story gleefully pinches the idea of time-travelling into other people's bodies to change the outcome.

Other trivia

• This issue's Transformation doesn't promote "Flashback!" much except saying the art is "certainly interesting". The bulk of the section is devoted to promoting the upcoming The Knights of Pendragon miniseries (as Pendragon by mistake) and flagging up recurring Captain Britain character Dai Thomas ("of Excalibur fame!") rather than, er, the appearance of Cap.
• Good news, chums! Dreadwind explicitly says in the letters "Nobody is too old to read Transformers!"

Back-up material

• Additional Transformers story: "Blood on the Tracks"
• Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Shuttle Complex" and Combat Colin

Cover

• Issue #268 cover: Megatron/Snap Trap tries to stab Prowl in the past, by Stephen Baskerville.

• 

  Issue #268 - Dark Star Redux

Reprints

• Transformers: Fallen Star : Megatron and Shockwave fight at Memphis Airport. Cropped from the cover of issue #277, art by Stewart Johnson.
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road: Bludgeon (art reused from Dreamwave's More than Meets the Eye profiles) above an interior scene of Grimlock punching through Fangry (from US issue #80), by Andrew Wildman.

• 

  Fallen Star
  (Titan Books, 2005)

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 20: End of the Road
  (Hachette Partworks, 2018)

References