...Perchance to Dream

	; Galvatron admires his G1 collection
	"...Perchance to Dream"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	3rd February - 10th March 1990
Writer	Simon Furman
Art	Andrew Wildman (#255, #257, #260); Staz (#256, #258); John Stokes (#259)
Lettering	Glib (#255-256); Stuart Bartlett (#257-260)
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity/Earthforce

This article is about the original Marvel UK comic. For the Titan Books trade paperback, see Transformers: Perchance to Dream.

Five Autobots remember their past mistakes, and Galvatron prepares to muck up UK continuity forever.

Synopsis

These stories do not fit into the normal Marvel continuity. See Earthforce for details.

The Ark is unoccupied for an unknown reason and, watching from his ship nearby, an alternate-reality Galvatron sneaks a "mind bug" on board. With this probe device, he looks through the memories of the injured and offline Autobots, trying to find ones with dark sides that he can permanently unleash, now that he knows their brain patterns, creating a new army!

In turn, his device probes Prowl, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, and Silverbolt, causing them all to dream about times on Earth when they committed questionable acts:

Prowl

So, androids don't dream of electric sheep...

Prowl remembers trying to stop the Battlechargers, when his aggressive approach and their response left a trail of devastation. Optimus Prime stepped in, telling Prowl that, as an Autobot, he couldn't endanger humans like this, Prowl thought to himself, "Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire!"

Galvatron chuckles, musing to himself that with that thought, Prowl has become exactly what he's looking for, then turns to his next subject...

Ironhide

If Prime can be John Wayne, I'll be Clint Eastwood!

Ironhide remembers finding himself near a siege in Los Angeles, where unnamed terrorists were holding hostages. Believing the hostages would be killed if the police went in, Ironhide attacked in full force to intimidate the terrorists into surrendering. However, the police came in at the last moment and ruined the effect, prompting the lead terrorist to try and detonate his suicide bomb. Ironhide had to kill him by freezing him in place and berated the police as "dumb organisms".

This too, pleases Galvatron.

Sunstreaker

Jazz and Sunstreaker were on a covert recon mission to scout out Fortress Sinister, but the Autobot pretty-boy blew it by showing off, attracting the attention of Thundercracker and Skywarp. The Decepticons attacked, injuring Jazz, and, scared at the thought of being made "a mess" himself, Sunstreaker abandoned his comrade and deliberately drew the Decepticons near the US military encampment so the humans would drive them off. Sunstreaker congratulated himself and admired how he'd saved his good looks, while many soldiers lay badly wounded as a result of his tactic.

Galvatron is amused by this and welcomes Sunstreaker to the team.

Wheeljack

Please, Wheeljack. Let Nightbeat do the detective work.

Wheeljack remembers running into Ravage at Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant Number One, following the Dinobot Hunt. He wanted to find the technology used to make Jetfire so he could repair the injured Autobots, and so made a deal with Ravage: In return for the technology, he'd brainwash Jetfire with Ravage's neuro-control helmet into returning to the Decepticons. Despite not trusting Jetfire, he backed out at the last minute. He later found out Ravage had destroyed the factory, meaning he'd almost betrayed his comrade for no end result.

However, back on the Ark, the mind bug has awoken Wheeljack from his slumber...

Silverbolt

Those be some mighty big humans.

Silverbolt remembers battling Menasor, a battle where Superion was needed, despite (still!) not being fully tested. This time, the process worked, but it also caused the Aerialbots to see inside one another's minds. His secret fear of heights revealed, Silverbolt caused Superion to go savagely berserk.

Galvatron

Prowl and Wheeljack > Wreckers and Mayhems.

Galvatron's probe accidentally causes all the Autobots to revive. Boarding the Ark himself, he uses his mind-control device on Wheeljack and Prowl. However, as Autobots, they're easily able to deny their baser instincts, and they shoot him down without warning. Galvatron is then sent into a comatose state by a device Wheeljack created, leaving him trapped in Autobot custody and dreaming of being defeated over and over again.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks or dreams.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Humans

Prowl (3)
Optimus Prime (4)
Ironhide (6)
Brawn (8)
Sunstreaker (9)
Jazz (10)
Wheeljack (15)
Jetfire (16)

Silverbolt (18)
Skydive (19)
Fireflight (20)
Air Raid (21)
Slingshot (22)
Superion (23)
Rodimus Prime (24)

Runabout (1)
Runamuck (2)
Galvatron (5)
Thundercracker (11)
Skywarp (12)
Megatron (13)
Ravage (14)
Menasor (17)

Terrorists (7)

Quotes

"Do I detect a certain...hostility emanating from these vehicles, Runamuck?"
"Yep."
"Good!"

—Runabout and Runamuck

"That does it, 'Cons - I'm through playin' by the rules!"

—Who are you and what have you done with Prowl?

"[Bursts through a wall] Surprise, surprise!"

—Ironhide channels the Kool-Aid Man.

"Kee-keep back! I will-"
"Will you? You'll only make me mad, and you don't want that do you?"

—Terrorist intimidated by Ironhide

"How'd I look Jazz? I know great, but how great?"

—Sunstreaker in a nutshell.

"No! Look at me! This worse than slow torture! But what can I do? If I don't run, I'll have to stand and fight. They'll pick me off - fender by fender, hubcap by hubcap! I've abandoned Jazz, lost my communicator - there's no hope!"

—Sunstreaker is no ray of sunshine, ironically.

"Looking for something, Autobot?"
"WAAAH!"

—Ravage spooks Wheeljack

"Okay, I'm not averse to a little lube job now and then. I'm all yours, doc!"

—Jetfire says questionable things.

"They'll kill us all!"

—Bystander

"So! My little toy did more than read and relay your dreams! It woke you up!"

—Galvatron's plan has gone more than a little pear-shaped.

"Soon you will call me Master!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"SHEEAGH!"

—Galvatron clobbers poor Wheeljack, who just can't catch a break in this issue.

"Nice idea, Galvatron, but it's like Ironhide said - we're Autobots! We're dedicated to ignoring our baser instincts! It's what sets us apart from scum like you! It takes more than a bit of machinery to change that!"
"UK-[Prowl slams Wheeljack's device onto his head]"
"But don't fret. Here's a device Wheeljack rigged up. Call it poetic justice!"

—Prowl is badass and Galvatron is screwed.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

TBD

Continuity errors

TBD

Continuity notes

Surprise, I'm Galvatron II!

The flashbacks all take place before "Afterdeath!". With the exception of Ironhide's, they make specific reference to past stories, either directly placing themselves at a certain time (Prowl, Sunstreaker and Wheeljack) or being more vague (Silverbolt). They can all slot into past continuity with no problem.
The framing story, by contrast, doesn't fit with contemporary continuity. As the Ark is flying, it has to be before "On the Edge of Extinction!", but there is no point when these characters could be revived and then killed again in time for their Nucleon revival. Furthermore, the story starts off the Earthforce run, which sidesteps the US continuity entirely and in 2015 was officially listed as an alternate timeline.
The Galvatron in this story doesn't fit into continuity any better. The Dinobot Hunt! trade paperback from Titan pegs him as "the alternate-reality Galvatron from US #67," aka Galvatron II. That's frankly impossible to reconcile without that handy alternate timeline ruling. Now we can say that instead of/after/before going to Cybertron like he was told to, in Earthforce's timeline he flies off to the Ark. That still leaves us with the question of what happened to Hook, Line, and Sinker (who should be following him) and why Unicron just leaves him there.
Sunstreaker was shot point blank by Shockwave way back in "The New Order", leaving him offline until "Totaled!" many issues later -- after which he vanished from the story again, presumably deactivated during "Totaled!" or the Underbase slaughter in "Dark Star". He doesn't know who Galvatron is, suggesting he was only brought online shortly before "Totaled!" and not briefed on anything. This is the first story to have him back for any length of time.
"Perchance to Dream" follows the same format—flashback-based character vignettes with a framing story—as the earlier "Aspects of Evil!". That story had another Galvatron too, leaving us with the possibility that this Galvatron was originally meant to be that Galvatron.
At one point, Galvatron's mind bug examines Brawn as a possibility, before Galvatron rejects him as unsuitable, regretfully noting that Brawn's brute strength would have been an asset. From Galvatron, that's quite a compliment!

Real-life references

Galvatron has read Shakespeare, or at least the start of Hamlet, Act III.

Other trivia

Prowl's reactivation by Galvatron's mind bug is referenced in his Transformers AtoZ profile update in the Transformers Annual 1991.
Reprinted as a self-titled, digest-sized trade paperback by Titan Books in August 2006. It was collected with the UK Thunderwing stories and the 3-part Irwin Spoon story that ended the Earthforce run.
Jazz is part of Galvatron's chess set on the cover despite only appearing in flashback. He was part of the Classics toyline that these stories were pimping and turns up quite abruptly in three issues' time; perhaps he was originally planned to have a spotlight story of his own?

Back-up material

Issue #255:

Reprint Transformers story: "Worlds Apart!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Transit" and Combat Colin in Space!

Issue #256:

Reprint Transformers story: "Worlds Apart!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Transit" and Combat Colin in Space!

Issue #257:

Reprint Transformers story: "Worlds Apart!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Transit" and Combat Colin Meets Combat Kate!

Issue #258:

Reprint Transformers story: "Worlds Apart!"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Going Under" and Combat Colin Meets Combat Kate!

Issue #259:

Additional Transformers story: "The Primal Scream"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Going Under" and Combat Colin Meets Combat Kate!
Free gift: Transformers sticker

Issue #260:

Additional Transformers story: "The Primal Scream"
Other strips: G.I. Joe the Action Force - "Going Under" and Combat Colin
Free gift: Autobot Classic Heroes poster
This issue featured the first part of a competition to win a set of the Classic Heroes toys Prowl, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Jazz and Inferno.

Covers (6)

Issue #255
Issue #256
Issue #257
Issue #258

Issue #255 cover: Prowl dreams about the Battlechargers, by Stephen Baskerville.
Issue #256 cover: Ironhide threatens some terrorists, by Stephen Baskerville.
Issue #257 cover: Sunstreaker admires himself, by Art Wetherell.
Issue #258 cover: Wheeljack is surprised by the sudden appearance of Ravage's character model, by Jeff Anderson.

Issue #259
Issue #260

Issue #259 cover: Menasor puts the smackdown on Superion, by Andrew Wildman.
Issue #260 cover: Galvatron plays chess with the Autobots, by Geoff Senior.

Reprints

Transformers: Perchance to Dream: Menasor smacks down Superion, detail from the cover of issue #259, by Andrew Wildman.
Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Vol 19: Perchance to Dream: Megatron (from early IDW promo art), by Guido Guidi above a retro scene of the Battlechargers (from Marvel UK #255 cover) by Stephen Baskerville.
Transformers: Best of the Rarities: Soundwave and Ravage "cassette" by James Biggie.

Perchance to Dream
(Titan Books, 2006)
The Definitive G1 Collection Vol. 19 (Hachette Partworks, 2017)
Transformers: Best of the Rarities
(IDW Publishing, 2022)

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