Two Megatrons!

Megatron battles himself on Cybertron, but who is the real one?

=Marvel UK issues #244=

Writer: Simon Furman Art: Geoff Senior Lettering: Glib


 * Characters: Megatron (Straxus), Megatron, Ravage
 * Originally published: 18th November 1989

Synopsis
Having surprised an intruder in the Decepticon base on Cybertron, Ravage is shocked to discover that it is a second Megatron (hereafter referred to as Megatron-2).

The newcomer and the other Megatron (Megatron-1) begin a vicious battle. While they fight, Megatron-2 attempts to appeal to both Ravage and Megatron-1. He explains that he is the real Megatron and that after blowing himself up on the space bridge he had ended up on Cybertron in the region known as the Dead End. He was eventually rescued by the Micromaster Blackjack. After leaving the Dead End he discovered Lord Straxus’ old headquarters.

He learnt that before attempting to take control of his body, Straxus had built a clone of Megatron-2 using the body of a Decepticon trooper. In the event of the mind transfer to the real Megatron failing he would have a backup. The transfer did fail and Straxus’ mind ended up in his clone. Unfortunately the mind transfer process had the side effect of creating a copy of Megatron-2’s mind inside the clone. After Megatron’s supposed death the clone was transported to Earth where it was discovered by Action Force before the Straxus personality could take complete control.

At first neither Ravage nor Megatron-1 believe this story, but then the Straxus personality attempts, once again to take control of the clone body. The Megatron aspect then realises that the story is true and that Straxus must die for the good of the Decepticons and so he blows his own head off. The real Megatron pays tribute to his counterpart’s sacrifice.

Errors

 * If Straxus could build a clone of Megatron with all his powers and strength then why did he need the real one in the first place?
 * Why did the clone Megatron have wounds identical to those inflicted by the Predacons on the real Megatron?

Items of note

 * Megatron tells Ratchet a more in depth version of what happened to him after he blew up the space bridge in The Resurrection Gambit!
 * This story was written to paper over a massive continuity hole. When Simon Furman took over the writing of the US comic and decided to bring back Megatron he had the problem that the character had been in regular use in the UK strip for several years. Rather than try and explain all this to US readers he decided to explain away the UK Megatron as a Straxus clone.
 * In Time Wars it is revealed that Galvatron was able to remember the events of the battle as experienced by his former self Megatron. However the Megatron is question is actually the Straxus clone as revealed here. While this may be caused by the distortion to the time stream it could imply that the UK comic’s Galvatron was actually created from this Straxus clone rather than the real Megatron.