Now THAT'S heavy!
Transformers/Back to the Future is a 2020 Crossover comic event published by IDW Publishing, teaming up the iconic robots in disguise with the iconic time travel series. Made to celebrate the latter series' 35th anniversary, it tells how, in another timeline, Marty McFly returns from his time traveling adventures in 1955, convinced he's restored history back on track. Instead, he's awoken to discover Hill Valley is not the town he remembers, for the Decepticons have conquered the entire area! Worst yet, they've placed Biff Tannen in charge! Marty, along with a mysterious new ally called "Gigawatt," must set history right, otherwise the Decepticons will control all of time and space!
The series was written by Cavan Scott, with art duties performed by Juan Samu.
Transformers/Back to the Future contains examples of:
- Accidentally Broke the MacGuffin: Accidentally is a stretch considering who broke it, but Megatron ends up breaking Gigawatt's Flux Capacitor when he attempts to execute him for treason. Given that this Megatron, he was more than likely going for a lethal blow, but he does succeed in causing the device to be unable to properly travel through time as intended.
- Alternate Continuity: Immediately declared to be such in the opening prologue by Doc Brown, who notes that this story did not happen in the main timeline, but may have happened elsewhere across the space-time continuum.Doctor Emmett Brown: 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 happen, have happened, may never happen, have been erased from existance 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.
- Breaking Old Trends: ZigZagged with Gigawatt. For the most part, all Transformers figures in the "Collaborative" line have all been Autobots. While Gigawatt is an Autobot, he used to be a Decepticon, only to pull a Heel–Face Turn and defect to the side of good.
- Canon Immigrant: Gigawatt, like with Ectotron before him, was created for the "Transformers: Collaborative" line of crossover vehicles, with this series marking his first appearance in a major piece of media.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Skilz, a Headmaster/Targetmaster-sized Autobot that turns into Marty's skateboard (and later a hoverboard), appears in the story, much to the surprise of everyone.
- The Hill Valley Clocktower has been turned into a Titan-sized Decepticon called Watchtower.
- Marty's Toyota pickup truck might be one, ...assuming it too is a Decepticon.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Biff Tannen is quick to turn Doc and the McFly family in to save his own neck, even after his allies already did.
- Comically Missing the Point: Doc is nearly hit by Bumblebee when the Autobot runs over Ravage. Marty Lampshades how Doc was apparently more interested in the contents of the cassette tape rather than getting "assassinated" by a car.
- Crapsack World: Thanks to the Decepticons, Hill Valley looks even worse than when Biff was in charge. The town has been reduced to rubble, the surrounding landscape is nothing but desert, and all that stands is the courthouse, with its clocktower still stuck at 10:04 PM. All of the populous has been enslaved and forced to mine the entire area for Energon, with Biff acting as the administrator. Anyone who resists or fails to produce the appropriate quota is either shocked or killed (as it's implied Needles was executed for such actions). This is still continuing on by 2015.
- Create Your Own Hero: Despite the Decepticons rewriting history in their favor, it leads to Gigawatt defecting from them and countering their time travel scheme with his own.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: By the original 2015, the Autobots have utterly decimated the Decepticon forces, to the point Megatron is a smoldering wreck who can barely function. After Rumble make use of the DeLorean to "fix" things, the opposite is true... the Decepticons rule almost unopposed, with only Skilz, Gigawatt, and a heavily-damaged Bumblebee and Rodimus Prime left of the Autobots.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Ravage, while transformed into his cassette mode, is seemingly killed when Bumblebee runs over him. This is in stark contrast to the cartoon, where he survives all the way through the series.
- This also happens to Future!Rumble after his jaunt through time by Megatron's hand to keep things from getting "too confusing" with the Past!Rumble.
- The Constructicons are offlined thanks to Doc, keeping the mightiest Decepticon weapon out of the picture. Or so the Resistance thinks...
- Needles of the Decepticon future is cited to have been killed trying to incite an uprising. As well as the Decepticon-Future Marty who, as his parents stated, "went missing", implying he was killed at some point.
- Didn't Think This Through: Marty tries to rebel against Starscream by throwing a trash can lid at him. He quickly realizes his mistake when the giant 20-foot Decepticon charges after him. Keep in mind this is the Marty coming off the first movie, so he hasn't gone through the Character Development in the following sequels to not act brashly.
- Disney Death: Gigawatt takes a fatal hit from Rumble in 1984 and seemingly dies not long after. But when Marty goes back to 2015, now free of Decepticon rule, he's revealed to be alive, the Autobots having managed to fix him.
- Eyepatch After Time Skip: Bumblebee is missing his right eye, which is now covered with a metal plate.
- False Friend: Rumble pulls this on Doc Brown until the Delorian is fixed and he can summon Megatron.
- From Bad to Worse: A double whammy of an example compared to both the first film and the second. Because of Marty's time travel jaunts in the original movie, he nearly wiped himself from existence by interfering with his parent's first meeting, and almost got himself stuck in 1955 for good. The second film, meanwhile, saw Biff Tannen turn Hill Valley into a lawless wasteland that he ruled over with an iron fist, having succeeded in killing George McFly, institutionalizing Doc Brown, and forcing Lorraine to marry him. All of this seems tame by comparison when Megatron and his Decepticon army conquer Hill Valley, leaving a very eager Biff in charge of the whole place (though even Biff is terrified by his new masters).
- Heel–Face Turn:
- It turns out, Gigawatt himself used to be a Decepticon (albeit reluctantly), only joining the Autobots when he felt Megatron's cruelty had gone too far.
- Biff, of all people, pulls one at the final issue. Marty and Gigawatt, the latter severely wounded, finally arrive in 1984 and wake up the Autobots, but they still need to take out Rumble. Rumble critically damages Gigawatt and has Marty at his mercy, but Biff shoots Rumble in the back as revenge for being enslaved, and takes out Rumble with a dump truck filled with the Energon he was forced to make. Afterward, the Autobots take Biff in as their new mechanic, thus, making him a better person rather than the slimy underling he would become under the Decepticons.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the final issue, Rodimus, Bumblebee, Skilz and Doc Brown buy Marty and Gigawatt time to build up the speed necessary to go back in time to fix things. The former two are killed on-screen while the latter are about to be killed by the Titan-sized Decepticon Watchtower. Luckily with the timeline fixed, their deaths are undone.
- Hope Spot: The Autobot resistance is looking very grim. With the Decepticons in complete control, and with Gigawatt unable to use the Flux Capacitor properly, all hope seems lost until Marty McFly is brought to them. They believe he can help fix the broken time device, but Marty has no knowledge on how to do so; only Doc Brown can fix it, and he's missing. Luckily he's still alive in the Decepticon Future and they manage to find him in the third issue.
- Jerkass:
- Biff, of course. Though it seems even he is afraid of Starscream. But not afraid enough to sell out the people who saved him so he can save his own skin.
- Megatron really ups his game as a heartless villain, as he decides to execute anyone who fails to meet production quotas.
- Hook, who turns full Bad Boss the moment Scrapper goes down.
- Immediate Sequel: In relation to the Back to the Future movies, the story starts right at the end of the first movie.
- La Résistance: Rodimus Prime, Bumblebee, Gigawatt, and Skilz are all that's left of any hope of freeing humanity from the Decepticons.
- Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Rumble ends up being the entire cause of the Autobots being wiped out, and the Decepticons conquering Earth. Having spent some time manipulating Doc Brown, Rumble steals the car after altering a badly beaten and bruised Megatron bursts onto the scene, apparently in this state thanks to the Autobots winning the war. Rumble subsequently alters history and ensures his side emerges victorious, while the rest of the world pays the price. Fortunately, Marty and Gigawatt are able to fix this.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In an unusual instance of this trope, the betrayer doesn't commit such acts because he's the one being mistreated; rather, it's the humans under Megatron's thrall being horrendously abused for petty reasons that leads Gigawatt to defect.
- Mythology Gag:
- From Transformers
- Soundwave is utilizing a design based around his 2007 "Music Label" toy, which made the character a working MP3 player.
- Playing to the infamous Frenzy is Red, Rumble is Blue debate
, Rumble appears in his original toy's red color scheme. - Bumblebee, though still retaining his familiar cartoon design, transforms into a generic sedan not unlike his "Titans Return" toy, instead of a Volkswagen Beetle.
- Rodimus Prime is in charge of the Autobots after the death of Optimus Prime, after Megatron had killed him.
- As with the original cartoon, the Autobots and Decepticons laid in stasis on The Ark until 1984. This time, however, a time-traveling Rumble wakes the latter up, and ensures the former are destroyed before they can offer any resistance.
- Like in IDW's first Transformers comic universe, Scrapper ends up being taken offline, rendering the Constructicons unable to combine into Devastator. This time, Bonecrusher, then everyone else follows suit.
- Biff's exosuit is like the ones Spike and Daniel Witwicky used.
- Rodimus delivers the famous "One Shall Stand" speech from his debut movie, only it's a Subverted Catchphrase.
Rodimus Prime: "Okay, I won't. But know this, Starscream: One shall stand—and the other'll get knocked into next week!"- Ratchet's color palette is lifted from the original IDW Infiltration series.
- From Back to the Future:
- The story practically opens up with Marty escaping from the Libyan Nationalists as he did in the first film, returning from 1955 to discover Doc survived the attack on him. Everything goes mostly the same from there, with Doc leaving for 2015 as Marty returns home, unaware of the changes to his life that are in store.
- Despite the fact that Hill Valley is under Decepticon control, George and Lorraine look closer to how they did in the new 1985 thanks to Marty's alterations to the past.
- Much like in 1985A, Biff is in charge of a dystopian Hill Valley, albeit that he's subservient to the Decepticons rather than ruining the place all by himself.
- Biff's famous "Hello! Anyone home?" maneuver is used, only this time, he's on the receiving end of it by his superior, Starscream.
Starscream: Think, human, think.- When Marty decides to try and escape from Starscream, he's warned of the fate that befell Needles when he tried to do the same. Considering that Needles was partly responsible for the accident that befell Marty and ruined his future in Part II, it's heavily implied that he might have tried something very similar against the Decepticons and paid for it with his life.
- Speaking of, Marty's escape against Starscream is done in the same manner that he escaped from Biff in the first film, complete with the Seeker crashing into an abandoned manure factory when the DeLorean appears and rams him.
- Upon his introduction to Gigawatt, the robot utters Doc's famous Catchphrase, making Marty think that he might be Doc until he shows otherwise.
- The Autobot resistance is operating out of the old Delgado Mine, where Doc hid the Delorean for Marty to retrieve in Back to the Future Part III
- When Doc Brown rescues the older McFly family from Scrapper, he describes it as "a red-letter day", which Doc described in the same manner towards the day of the Flux Capacitor's invention.
- Biff commits further acts of Malaproper, this time with the phrase "Which side of my bread is buttered", only with pancakes instead of bread. Hook calls him out on this, and they don't even eat the stuff.
- Skilz takes on a hoverboard as his new alternate mode.
- From Transformers
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After his conquest of Earth, Megatron chose to leave the Delorean on display in his base. Doing so causes Gigawatt to scan the car and use it to go back in time to try and set things right. It becomes downplayed, however, as Megatron does at least have enough smarts to shoot Gigawatt in the flux capacitor, damaging it enough to give the bot enough trouble when he uses it.
- No True Scotsman: When Gigawatt defects, Megatron claims he's no Decepticon. Unusual for this trope, Gigawatt agrees with him.Gigawatt: No. No, I'm not. I quit!
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: It's Back to the Future, when isn't it about doing this. But yeah, as explained above, Rumble manages to steal the Delorean and go back to 1974, enslave Biff and gather enough Energon until 1984 where he awakens Megatron early, who prevents the Autobots from waking up. Without Optimus, the other Autobots on Earth lose the war and Earth falls under Decepticon rule. Marty and Gigawatt undo this by managing to travel back to 1984 and getting help from, of all people, the 1984 Biff by getting to the Autobots ship and awaken the Autobots before Rumble arrives and prevents him from enacting his plan, saving the world and restoring the rightful timeline.
- Sequel Hook: The series ends with the timeline restored, the Decepticons defeated, and Marty's family now living successful and better lives as a result of his adventures across history. Marty goes on a joyride in the pickup truck he always wanted... that just so happens to have the Decepticon insignia on the grille.
- Shout-Out: When Biff tries to worm his way out of punishment by Starscream, his face looks an awful lot like a troll face.
- Tin Tyrant: Megatron becomes this thanks to Rumble. Through his conquest of Earth, he's managed to utterly decimate the planet, and is so petty as to want to kill any humans who either resist his rule or fall behind on production quotas. He even wears a kingly cape for good measure.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The Decepticons decide to kill Biff Tannen for the apparent demise of Scrapper. He's saved by Doc Brown and the rest of the McFly family. How does he repay them? By turning them into the Decepticons to save his own neck!
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Doc Brown is responsible for the Decepticons' conquest of Earth, as, in 2015, he healed Rumble upon finding him, and trusted the bot to help him fix his time machine. Naturally, Megatron showed up and had Rumble steal the Delorean, who then used it to enslave Biff for a decade, then reawaken the Decepticons, allowing Megatron to kill them as they lay in stasis. Without the Autobots, Megatron was easily able to take over Earth.
- Wham Shot:
- At the end of issue 3 the Hill Valley Clock Tower is revealed to be a giant Decepticon.
- Issue 4 ends with Marty driving off in his new Toyota Hilux...and it's revealed it bears the Decepticon insignia on its front grille which he's oblivious to.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Megatron kills Future!Rumble after he wakes the Decepticons early, seemingly simply so they won't have two of him running around.
