Whose Timeline is it Anyway?

There are a great many questions about how many Transformers Timelines there are, and how they fit together. As this site follows the version of Transformers seen in the original comics, there is no discussion of any cartoon series, or comics by Dreamwave or IDW.

• Marvel or not Marvel?
• Britain versus the United States
• Timeline: 2006
• Earthforce
• Generation 2
• Conclusions

Marvel or not Marvel?

There is quite a lot of debate over whether the Transformers comics take place in the Marvel Universe or not. There are quite a few indications that this is the case:

• A Dazzler song has just been playing on the radio in Power Play (US #2/UK #3)
• Spider Man guest stars in Prisoner of War (US #3/UK #5-6)
• Nick Fury and Dum-Dum Duggan (both of S.H.I.E.L.D.) make guest appearances in Prisoner of War (US #3/UK #5)
• Robbie Robertson (of the Daily Bugle) makes a guest appearance in Prisoner of War (US #3/UK #5)
• Spider Man mentions Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four in Prisoner of War (US #3/UK #6)
• Four million years ago, the Dinobots were sent to the Savage Land (a well-established part of the Marvel Universe), as mentioned in The Last Stand (US #4/UK #8), Warrior School (US #7/UK #26), and Repeat Performances (US #8/UK #27-28).
• A caption in Repeat Performances (US #8/UK #27) says that Ratchet's trip to the Savage Land happened before Avengers #257.
• A Daily Bugle headline appears in Dis-integrated Circuits (US #9/UK #33) and another one in The Icarus Theory (UK #45).
• The Marvel Comics office seen in I, Robot Master (US #15/UK #55) is the same as that seen in the Marvel Universe which is, I'm told, different to what it looks like in real life.
• Professor Morris worked for Roxxon in The Icarus Theory (UK #45-46).
• Transformers character Circuit Breaker turns up in Secret Wars II #3.

There are also a few indications that Transformers is outside the Marvel Universe:

• An editorial on the US comic's letters page claimed that Transformers was not part of the Marvel Universe, and asked readers to ignore all previous references to the Marvel Universe. However, the UK letters page never said anything of the sort any of the numerous times it was asked about having superhero crossovers.
• I am told that at Peter Parker's trial in 1995, he remembers that he has never visited Oregon - despite his visit there in Prisoner of War.
• In the Generation 2 series, the Decepticon attacks on Earth cause massive damage across the globe, which doesn't fit into the Marvel Universe. For further discussion of how (and whether) Generation 2 fits with the original series, see the Generation 2 section below.
• Deaths' Head (from the 2006 Timeline) ends up in the mainstream Marvel Universe. At one point after his arrival there, we discover that he was originally from the Marvel Universe, but was taken into a different universe (the 2006 Timeline). It might be worth noting that his transition from the 2006 Timeline to the Marvel Universe was due to a collision with the Doctor from the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips (who also isn't part of the Marvel Universe, and possibly not part of the main Doctor Who Universe either). For further discussion of how the 2006 timeline fits with the contemporary timeline, see the Timeline: 2006 section below.

Proof that Transformers is in the Marvel Universe?

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Britain versus the United States

It is worth asking whether the British and American stories count as seperate continuities. The UK reprints of US stories differed from the originals on occasion to fit in with UK stories. Sometimes this was a lot more than just changing issue numbers in captions, or anglicising the spellings. The significant changes made are as follows:

• UK #68/US #18. In the US version, this is when Megatron and Shockwave first meet following their respective returns. In the UK lots of dialogue is changed to reflect their previous meeting and the joint leadership established in UK #65.
• UK #73/US #20. In the US version, Skids says "I'm going with Donny -- back to my people, the Autobots." In the UK version, he says "When my wounds heal, I'm going back to the Autobots." This is presumably to explain his absence from the Ark during the next 15 issues (which consisted of In the National Interest and Target: 2006).
• UK #89/US #21. In the US version, Prime's wound is a result of the events of US #19 (Command Performances). In the UK version, it is a result of his time in Limbo (seen in UK #100 Distant Thunder).
• UK #107/US #25. There are two bits of changed dialogue. One piece edits out a reference to the GI Joe crossover miniseries. The other piece inserts a reference to the Predacons' previous attack on Megatron (UK #96-98) in place of a claim that the Predacons had never met Megatron before.

It is also difficult to fit the Transformers versus GI Joe miniseries into UK continuity. This is because the two have different accounts of Bumblebee being blown apart and rebuilt as Goldbug. It isn't impossible that Goldbug was rebuilt into Bumblebee between the two events, but it does seem unlikely. If there is a distinct US-only timeline, then the UK story Deathbringer (UK # 235-236) is included in it, as there is a reference to it in Matrix Quest part 4 (US #65/UK #290).

Spot the difference

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Timeline: 2006

There are quite a few different versions of the Transformers' future, several of which follow on from Transformers: The Movie. The most important of these is the one featured in UK stories from Target: 2006 to Time Wars. It has been assumed by several commentators that this timeline was (at least at the time) intended to be the future of the Transformers. However, Unicron's appearance over a decade early in On the Edge of Extinction strongly suggests that the Movie isn't the future of the Transformers. There are several other differences between the present and the future.

• The Ark is still buried in Mount St Hillary by 2003 according to the 1987 Annual story Ark Duty. However, it takes off from Earth in Child's Play (US #37/UK #141-142) and Spacehikers (US #38/UK #143-144). So every story from then onwards is clearly in a different timeline to the 2006 Timeline.
• In Target: 2006 part 2 (UK #80), Galvatron mentions that it is many years before Ultra Magnus arrives on Earth to take command of Autobot City: Earth. Therefore, Target: 2006 and all the other stories that feature Ultra Magnus on Earth did not happen in the 2006 Timeline - unless Megatron had been completely unaware of them. At the least, this probably means that the events of Prey (UK #96-97 - which are a reaction to the events of Target: 2006) and all the events following on from that story never happened in the 2006 timeline.
• In Head Hunt part 1 (UK #133) Rodimus Prime remembers his old Targetmaster companion Firebolt dying on Earth. Whilst the Targetmasters did arrive on Earth in the contemporary stories, the last five or six stories don't seem to fit with Firebolt dying on Earth (but, hey, his arrival on Earth is probably after the divergence point).

On the other hand, there are quite a few hints that the 2006 timeline at least parallels the contemporary one. Here are the ones I've spotted:

• Hot Rod the Targetmaster travelling to Earth, as mentioned above.
• Galvatron remembers Lord Straxus and makes a comment on his character in Target: 2006 part 1 (UK #79), so in his timeline, Megatron must have met Straxus.
• The Decepticon Civil War between Megatron, Shockwave, and Scorponok that Rodimus remembers from 1991 in Aspects of Evil part 1 (UK #223) looks very much like the conflict that began in ... All this and Civil War 2 and the events apparently following it in the Earthforce stories.
• In Time Wars, Galvatron has quite a few memories of both the Time Wars and events after this. They include what Carnivac did at some time after Time Wars part 4 (UK #202), "what we did last time" in Time Wars part 4 (UK #202), Megatron being hurt by the Pathblaster in Time Wars part 5 (UK #203), and Megatron destroying Optimus Prime and all his Autobots in Time Wars parts 6 and 7 (UK #204-205). However, it is possible that these memories were a result of the madness he lapses into by the end of the story. Certainly, they differ from what actually happens - but that could just be because he acts on them.

Another alternative timeline following on from Transformers the Movie is the one we see in Rhythms of Darkness (US #67/UK #298-301)- where, incidentally, New York's Twin Towers survived until 2009, rather than being destroyed on the 11th of September 2001 as in the real world.

The other alternative timeline is the one seen in the Galvatron segment of Aspects of Evil. This may or may not be the same timeline we see in Rhythms of Darkness. Many of the UK future stories printed after Time Wars appear to happen in this timeline.

It's also worth noting that the Galvatron we see in Perchance to Dream (UK #255-260) appears to be a different Galvatron to the Galvatrons we see in Rhythms of Darkness and Time Wars, and that he appears to be familiar with both time travel and alternate selves.

Is it insanity, or changed history?

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Earthforce

The last thirty-five UK stories (starting at Perchance to Dream UK #255) can be dubbed the "Earthforce" stories. They feature the revival of some of the original Transformers and their posting to a Canadian base as the Autobot Earthforce to fight the Decepticons. Unfortunately, there is no place for these stories to fit within the main storyline. In Breakaway (UK #263) Optimus Prime (the Powermaster version) is preoccupied with Unicron approaching Cybertron, yet the Dinobots and other future Action Masters are active.

I have come across two attempts to fit these stories into continuity. One (favoured by the TransMasters - a fan group who have produced fiction following on from Generation 2) involves setting them between the end of the original comic runs but before Generation 2, which requires lots of retconning to explain things like Prime still looking like a PowerMaster, and most of the original Autobots still being deactivated. The other one (proposed by the Virgin's Guide to the Transformers) attempts to fit them in between Matrix Quest. This theory has problems explaining the presence of Megatron, Galvatron, most of the Decepticons who served under Megatron and Shockwave, and a couple of the Mayhem Attack Squad.

I find both theories unconvincing, and suggest that the Earthforce stories constitute a branching timeline. If so, the divergence probably happens when Unicron brings Galvatron to the present. In the Earthforce timeline, he brings back the Galvatron from Aspects of Evil, who is familiar with time travel (thanks to his encounters with the Rodimus Prime who fought in the Time Wars). This Galvatron doesn't travel to Cybertron to wake Primus, but travels to Earth to make slaves out of dormant Autobots. Thus Perchance to Dream takes place during the events of the US story Surrender, and the events on Earth are interrupted by the arrival of the revived Dinobots, leading into Two Steps Back, rather than being interrupted by Primus transporting the Transformers to Cybertron.

One difficult thing to work out about these stories is Megatron's presence. Assuming that the branching timeline theory is broadly correct it seems quite clear that events up to at least Primal Scream happen exactly as chronicled in the American stories. However, this means that Megatron is either out of the way in unspace, being merged with Ratchet, or he's still merged with Ratchet, but stuck in storage on the Ark. Perhaps the Megatron here is the Straxus-controlled Megatron clone seen in the Two Megatrons storyline - meaning that either the two Megatrons never met each other in the new timeline, or that the clone somehow survived being shot in the head with a fusion canon at point blank range.

Earthforce: The Early Years

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Generation 2

The US Generation 2 stories were intended to carry on from the US comic. However, there are quite a few major discrepancies between the two comics, suggesting the possibility that they happened in different timelines. Incidentally, the first two (of five) UK Generation 2 comics featured original material that conflicts with the US story.In case you're interested, here are the discrepancies between the US G2 series and the end of the original US comic:

• Megatron has had time to repair the Ark, but not himself, since the end of the US story. Given that it took the Autobots several years even with the efforts of such techie characters as Wheeljack and Huffer, it seems unlikely that Megatron could repair the Ark in the relatively short space of time between the two comic series.
• The effects of Nucleon seem to have disappeared. Grimlock, who - when we last saw him - was no longer able to transform, now regularly transforms. None of the other Autobots (or, indeed, Decepticons) exposed to Nucleon seem to have suffered any such effects. And no, this probably isn't due to the UK annual story Another Time and Place, as in Generation 2, Prime seems genuinely surprised at Bludgen's re-appearance, which contradicts that story. Besides, Another Time and Place leaves Megatron in the wrong place to appear in his Generation 2 origin story.
• Several Autobots have had body transplants. Grimlock is back to his original form from his Actionmaster one, Prime has gone from the new body created by the Last Autobot into something closer to the original, Sideswipe is unrecognisable. Even amongst the Decepticons, Soundwave appears to have had a face transplant.
• There are plenty of characters around who really shouldn't be. When the Ark was stolen by Shockwave, Grimlock said that there were lots of Autobots he didn't get round to reviving who were on board. The implication is that the revived Autobots we see in the last few US stories are pretty much all that were revived. This means that lots of the Autobots we see in Generation 2 should have bought it when the Ark exploded, rather than being on Cybertron. I'll add a list of them here when I get round to reviewing the G2 stories.
• On the Decepticon side, we know from what happened on the Ark that Primus didn't bother transporting "dead" Transformers to Cybertron for the battle with Unicron. Even if he had done so, Bludgeon probably wouldn't have wanted all that dead weight on board the three ships he had to carry the entire Decepticon army at the end of the US series. Therefore, quite a few of the Generation 1 Decepticons we see should be buried in the rubble under Scorponok's old New Jersey base - or wherever else Scorponok stored the bodies of all those underbase casualties. I'll add a list of characters who shouldn't be there when I get round to cataloging G2.
• The Creation Matrix seems to have been recreated out of nowhere, though a letter to the G2 letters page (whose theory was accepted by the editorial team) plausibly suggested that the Last Autobot was responsible.
• The Autobots and Decepticons both seem to have changed their insignia - after over 4 million years. However, Prime still has the old insignia in his vehicle mode. It's also quite unlikely that the Decepticons would redesign their insignia to exactly match the insignia used by Jhiaxus - they redesigned it before they even knew Jhiaxus and his Decepticons existed.

Are these the same Autobot?

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Conclusions

There are up to 8 seperate timelines seen in the comics, each taking place in a (but probably not the) Marvel Universe, which can be summarised as follows:

2006 Timeline: Transformers the Movie, the future seen in Target: 2006, and all the UK's future stories from Fallen Angel through to Time Wars.

Rhythms of Darkness Timeline: Rhythms of Darkness, the Galvatron seen in the US stories.

Aspects of Evil Timeline: Aspects of Evil part 2, The Void-Edge of Impact-Shadow of Evil-White Fire, the Galvatron in Perchance to Dream.

US only Timeline: US #1-32, 35-42, 44-66, 68-80 (missing Man of Iron, The Big Broadcast of 2006, Rhythms of Darkness), Headmasters #1-4, GI Joe versus Transformers #1-4

UK Timeline: Everything printed in UK #1-332, except the American GI Joe Crossover, the Earthforce stories in #255-289 and all stories set in the future. Those stories from the UK Annuals which can be judged to be in continuity, except for Earthforce and future stories. The UK Action Force Crossover story.

Earthforce Timeline: UK timeline up to somewhere around Surrender. UK original stories from #255 on.

Generation 2: Either the US Only Timeline or the UK Timeline plus Generation 2 #1-12.

UK Generation 2: Like the Generation 2 timeline, but including the UK Generation 2 stories instead of the earliest US Generation 2 stories.

This doesn't include any of the divergent continuities featured in some of the UK Annual stories.

The war is over. Long live the war.

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You visited Target: 2006 at 10:48 pm BST on Monday 6th September 2010