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Back to the Future

Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com
Transformers/Back to the Future (Part 1) "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.

 

Back to Back to the Future Episode Studies