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"Transformers/Back to the Future"
Part 1
Transformers/Back to the Future #1
IDW
Written by Cavan Scott
Art by Juan Samu
Colors by David Garcia Cruz
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Cover A by Juan Samu
October 2020 |
Doc Brown's time machine attracts the
attention of the evil Decepticons!
Read the story
summary at
the Transformers Wiki
Notes from the Back to the Future chronology
This story takes place in an alternate universe from the
mainstream
Back to the Future
universe depicted in the main PopApostle Back to the Future
chronology. In this alternate universe, Doc Brown and
Marty are observed by the robotic beings of the Transformers
franchise during the final minutes of
Back to the Future, and Doc's
journey to 2015 at the end of that film is forestalled by an
Autobot/Decepticon battle in the streets of Hill Valley.
Didja Know?
Transformers/Back to the Future was a
four-issue comic book mini-series published by IDW in 2020-2021.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Doc Brown
Marty McFly
Libyan terrorists
Rumble
Soundwave
Ravage (destroyed in this issue)
Megatron
Optimus Prime
Einstein
Bumblebee
Hound
George McFly
Lorraine McFly
Linda McFly
Dave McFly
Blitzwing
Scrapper
Thundercracker
Long Haul
Biff Tannen
Starscream
Needles (mentioned only, possibly deceased in the altered
timeline)
Skilz
Gigawatt
Didja Notice?
The issue opens with a note from the desk of Dr. Emmet Brown
that sort of excuses how this wildly divergent timeline
could exist: "The space-time continuum is full
of infinite possibilities and alternate timelines in its
unending nooks and crannies. These include events and
histories that could have happened, have happened, may never
happen, have been erased from existence or exist entirely as
conjecture. How then do we classify this tale? For now,
suffice to call it entertainment. As a physicist, I can
speculate no further."
The first nine pages of this issue retells (sort of) the
events of the first
Back to the Future movie. But
the DeLorean time machine is depicted as having the Mr.
Fusion already installed, which does not happen until Doc
Brown goes to the year 2015 at the end of the movie and has
it installed there.
On page 4, the Decepticons Rumble and
Ravage are observing Marty McFly's disappearance in the
DeLorean from Twin Pines Mall and his reappearance there on
foot seconds later. Since Marty reappears, the Lone Pine
Mall sign should be seen instead of the Twin Pines Mall (see
the study of
Back to the Future for
explanations of the Twin Pines/Lone Pine Mall
differentiation).
Also, notice that Rumble and Ravage are observing
this from behind bushes right next to the Twin Pines Mall
sign. But in
Back to the Future, there are
no bushes there!
On page 6, the houses and cars on the street where Marty
lives in Lyon Estates do not match what is seen at the end
of
Back to the Future.
On page 9, panel 2, an Autobot behind Optimus Prime appears
to be Hound, able to transform into a military-style
Jeep.
On page 10, Doc finds an old audio cassette tape on the
street (actually Ravage in its cassette alternate form) and
Marty exclaims, "It might be Van Halen!" Van Halen was an
American hard rock band from 1974-2020. Disguised as an
alien, Marty used a tape of lead guitarist Edward Van
Halen's music to scare his teenage father in 1955 that he
was going to melt the boy's brain.
On page 10, Doc gently chides Marty for seeming to think
that cars can suddenly drive themselves. Marty retorts, "Who
knows--maybe they will in the future!" and Doc responds,
"Not a prediction I'd make." This may be a joke in reference
to self-driving cars that have just begun to appear in the
real world in the early 21st Century. Also, Doc himself will
later install a self-driving component to a new DeLorean
time machine as seen in operation in
"Time Served" Part 3.
On page 11, after seeing the DeLorean disappear into the
future, Bumblebee swears, "By the spires of Iacon..." This
is a fairly well-known oath used by the Autobots,
referencing the Celestial Spires of the Cybertronian city of
Iacon. Iacon is depicted as the capital of Cybertron in many
of the Transformers continuities.
Also on page 11, Marty's poster of Huey Lewis and the News'
Sports album is seen hanging above his bed. But in
Back to the Future, it was on
the adjacent wall to the left of his bed.
On pages 11-12, Marty once again sleeps
in his famous sleeping-Marty pose.
Returning to his home after his time
travel adventure in
Back to the Future
on page 11, Marty flops down on his bed to
sleep and his clock displays 12:20 AM as the time. But in
Back to the Future, Marty
arrived at Twin Pines Mall at 1:21 AM, so it would be more
like 2:00 AM or so by the time he got home. Also, Marty's
digital clock here is of the red liquid crystal display
variety, but in the movie it was a mechanical-digital
display.
On page 13, the coveralls worn by the McFly family as they
are herded off to work camp have the Decepticon emblem on
the backs. The Decepticon who guards the workers as they
board the transport is Blitzwing.
On the double splashpage of pages 14-15,
the Decepticon who is seen kicking a human worker is
Scrapper. The Decepticon flying in jet fighter form is
Thundercracker. On the ground, the industrial dump truck is
actually a Decepticon called Long Haul.
The statues seen on the clock tower appear to be
sheepdogs as seen in the Telltale computer game
Back to the Future: The Game,
not the panther statues seen in the films.
The human workers enslaved by the Decepticons in the altered
timeline are made to process cubes of energon,
the energy source/foodstuff that powers all Transformers and
their technology.
On page 17, Starscream uses one
of Biff's lines (slightly modified) from
Back to the Future when he
taps Coordinator Biff Tannen on the head (it's not clear how
he knows it): "Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Think, human.
Think."
Marty flees from Starscream through downtown Hill Valley on
a conveniently located skateboard, leading the Decepticon
into crashing into the Jones Fertilizer building. In the
Back to the Future movies, Marty rides a
skateboard/hoverboard through downtown Hill Valley to escape
Biff/Griff. Biff (and Buford) Tannen was sent continually
careening into loads of Jones Manure haulings.
The Transformer called Gigawatt (not named until
"Transformers/Back to the Future"
Part 2) is unique to the Transformers/Back to the Future
timeline/universe. The time-travelling Transformer has a
flux capacitor built into his chest and is able to transform
into a DeLorean automobile. Notice that Gigawatt's knees
also each have a device that looks similar to a flux
capacitor. |
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