Transformers Comic-Magazin issue 23

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The Transformers/ThunderCats crossover you never expected to read is more bizarre than you could possibly imagine.
Publisher	Condor Verlag
Cover date	October 1992
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity
Price	3.50 DM

Contents

Secrets of space. From the chronicles of the CYBERTRON: Planet Without Hope

Fifteen million years ago on planet Cybertron, a group of mutants under the leadership of Megatron has created a war machine named Skywrecker that is engaged in deforestation. When a technical malfunction causes it to stop working, Megatron berates the machine's creator, Skybolt, who sarcastically suggests Megatron should just ask the Autobots for help instead. Megatron thinks this is actually a great idea and enlists the help of Soundwave, who subsequently kidnaps Ultra Magnus and Goldbug. Ultra Magnus at first refuses to do Megatron's bidding, but when Megatron threatens Goldbug's life, Ultra Magnus finally agrees to repair Skywrecker. However, as soon as Megatron activates the machine, he realizes that Ultra Magnus has jammed the steering, and thus Megatron is unable to do anything to stop it from moving towards his subordinates. Ultra Magnus and Goldbug use the ensuing chaos to make a safe escape back to their home base, where they tell their friends of their latest adventures. (source)

Articles and features

Reprints

• The Transformers (Marvel UK) #170-171 - "Deadly Games!" Parts 1 & 2

Notes

Move on, nothing to see here.

• The text story in this issue was originally written for an entirely different franchise for which Condor was also publishing a Comic-Magazin at the time, namely ThunderCats, with the names swapped out after the fact, which explains why it is completely unrelated to any established Transformers fiction. The original version of this story was published in Condor's ThunderCats Comic-Magazin #6 under the title "Die Bruderschaft der Bösen Mutanten" ("The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants"). Since that story was credited to a "Michael Rubin", this means either writer Robert Mann was using multiple pseudonyms, or he plagiarized a story written by a colleague from the same company.
• Full list of names and settings in this story and their counterparts in the original ThunderCats version:

• Properties of "Cybertron" in this story are a castle named "Tara-Angh"; a forest surrounding the castle that consists of "rusty iron bars and various indeterminable metallic devices"; Energon mines underneath the castle; and a village populated by "Berbil bears".
• So, just a thought… if it's just the steering of the Skywrecker that's jammed, why is there so much mayhem caused with it moving towards Megatron's underlings? Why can't they just get out of its path? Why were they even standing in its path to begin with even if they were assuming Megatron would have total control of it? And the story explicity says it's moving slowly… so is this supposed to be a comedic chase at slow speed?
• Although not strictly an error, no explanation is given for how Ultra Magnus and Goldbug are freeing themselves from their ties prior to escaping.
• The main reason why the entire story revolves around this made-up "Skywrecker" vehicle in the first place is because the original ThunderCats version of the story revolved around a vehicle name "Hammerfaust" (literally "Hammerfist"), a German name (presumably created by Condor themselves) for the Mutants' Fistpounder vehicle from LJN's ThunderCats toyline. The reason why the text story revolved around a vehicle from the toyline? Aside from the text story, Condor's ThunderCats Comic-Magazin #6 also included a translated version of a multi-part story from Marvel UK's ThunderCats comics, in which the Fistpounder appeared.
• We're not even trying to make sense of the fact that any of these characters (in particular Goldbug and "Rodimus") already exist fifteen million years ago on Cybertron... especially since this setting wasn't even directly lifted from the original ThunderCats version of the story!
• It's possible Skybolt's name was lifted from the M.A.S.K. vehicle of the same name.

Errors

• The introduction to this issue once again elaborates on how the remains of Optimus Prime were found by the Autobots following an assault, but it was actually a "clone" that was destroyed, allowing the real Optimus Prime to chase Megatron all the way to Cybertron where he got lost, referring to the Marvel UK storyarc that began with "Prey!" and was reprinted in Condor's Transformers Comic-Magazin beginning with issue 7. However, Optimus's return to Earth, featured in the UK story "Resurrection!", was reprinted in Comic-Magazin #10, and in terms of continuity, he was subsequently killed for real in the Marvel US story "Afterdeath!", which was reprinted by Condor in Transformers Comic-Taschenbuch #2, two years before this issue came out. In addition to this persistent rewriting of history by Condor, several additional details are inaccurate: The so-called "clone" was actually just a facsimile construct; when discovered by the Autobots, it hadn't just sustained "life-threatening injuries", it was literally blasted to pieces; and Optimus's original intention for having the facsimile created in the first place was so he could observe how the Autobots would cope with his apparent death, not so he could give chase to Megatron without anyone noticing or interfering.
• Because the search-and-replace job in the text story was not particularly thorough, numerous artifacts of the original ThunderCats version of the story remain unaltered:
  • Megatron's group is referred to as "Mutants" multiple times.
  • At one point, Megatron addresses Skybolt as "Monkie".
  • Although Ultra Magnus and Goldbug return to their "base station" at the end, the story originally finds them in a forest near the village of the "Berbil bears" (the German name for the Ro-Bear Berbils).
  • In two instances, "Soundwave" is referred to by the name of the character from the original version of the story, "Goldfinger".
  • As a consequence of being a substitute for Cheetara (or "Geparda" in the original German version of the story), Goldbug is unambiguously referred to as Ultra Magnus's female friend, although the ambiguous meaning of the original German term makes it unclear if "she" is just a "friend" or his girlfriend.
  • At one point, Megatron orders Ultra Magnus to repair the "Skycutter" and other Mutant vehicles. The Skycutter is an existing Mutant vehicle from Thundercats.
  • At two points, Ultra Magnus is even referred to as a "thundercat" in German ("Donnerkatze"), which might explain why anyone explicitly looking for the English franchise title might have overlooked it while performing a word replacement search.
• On top of that, Jackalman's single line in the original version of the story is attributed to Megatron in the Transformers version, even though Megatron is otherwise a substitute for Slithe. This results in a nonsensical exchange with Megatron (Jackalman) addressing Skybolt (Monkian) as "Monkie", and Skybolt's response referring to Megatron (Slithe) in the third person.
• Likewise, Rodimus is substituted for Panthro near the beginning of the story, and for Wily-Kit, Wily-Kat and Snarf all at once at the end. It's almost as if Robert Mann, who in the past has given us lengthy lists of Transformers toys characters, really had trouble thinking of any Transformers characters' names!