Personal Canon Thread

I have an addendum to what I wrote before regarding the first four Marvel UK-original comic stories, particularly what I wrote about "Man of Iron".

I did some further research and discovered a few incongruities with what we're told about when "Man of Iron" is set, which not only cause some problems with where I chose to place that story in the Marvel UK continuity, but which also simply make no sense.

Part 1 of the story opens with a narration box that sets the story "at the end of a long hot summer". Then, Part 2 opens with another narration box that tells us it is now "An Autumn night, clear, cold, and sparkling with stars." Part 1 also takes place during the day and ends with night falling, while Part 2 appears to begin during the same night that ended Part 1. This would suggest Part 1 occurs on the last day of Summer while Part 2 begins on the first day of Autumn. Like I said in my previous post, this would place the story in September, but specifically about a week before the end of the month, around the 22nd or 23rd. This poses a conflict with something else we are told in Part 2: When Jazz, uh... "kidnaps" young Sammy Harker (the Autobots' main human ally in this story), he reminds Sammy that the boy is currently "on holiday", meaning he's on a break from school. This appears to be true as the bulk of the story is set across three consecutive days, and during all three of them, Sammy never attends school.

The thing is, Sammy can't be on break from school if the story is set in the latter half of September, because (according to Wikipedia, at least), the academic years for primary schools in England begin during the first week of September, and the first school break doesn't occur until the end of October/beginning of November, around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night. Of course, any UK members on here are free to correct me if any of this information is incorrect. Here is what Wikipedia said on the matter:

In England and Wales, the academic year usually runs from the first week of September of one year through to the third week of July of the following year, with the time split up into three terms. Each of these is usually divided into halves with a week-long "half-term" break between. Primary (4-11) and secondary (11–16) schools usually follow a 39-week academic year, while further (16+) and higher (18+) educational establishments often have 33 or even 36-week terms, generally with no half-term break. Oxford and Cambridge universities have shorter terms still, usually eight weeks each term.

For English state schools, the year commences the first week of September with a half-term break (one week) at the end of October, and the first term ending the third week of December

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England and Wales​

Summer holidays in State schools are usually between five and seven weeks long, starting in mid-late July and ending in early September. Schools have Christmas and Easter holidays, each usually lasting about two weeks. The school year is split up into three sections: Autumn term (between Summer and Christmas); Spring term (between Christmas and Easter); and Summer term (between Easter and the Summer holiday). Roughly half-way through each term, pupils will get one week off school, known as half-term. In the Autumn term, half-term often falls the week of Halloween and close to Bonfire Night.

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So, between the three bits of info we're given on when the story is set (end of summer, Autumn, and a school break), something is off. It seems the only way to find a fix for this is to assume that one of these points is less factual than the other two: If we take just the first two points into account, the story would be set in the back half of September. But, as I said before, Sammy is clearly not in school during this story, so the third point seemingly can't be ignored.

Going by just the first and third point, that would place the story earlier, before the first week of September during the final week of summer break (as opposed to the end of the Summer season). This could work, in theory. But, throughout the story, pretty much every human character is shown wearing jackets, coats, sweaters, long pants, long-sleeve shirts, and layers upon layers of clothing, all suggesting that the weather really is chilly and cool, like the caption for Part 2 said about the Autumn night being cold. And when the montage at the very end of the story flashes forward to the next summer, people are seen wearing short sleeves and T-shirts, reflecting the warmer weather accordingly.

So, that leaves the third option of ignoring the ironclad letter of the first point in favor of the latter two, with it being Autumn and during a school holiday. We'd just have to assume that "at the end of a long hot summer" is less literal and actually just means that Summer has already come and gone. If the above information from Wikipedia is correct (again, any UKers on here may chime in), then the Autumn session's half-term break set around Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night would be the perfect time of year for this story to be set. Specifically, it could be set during the little gap of time between Halloween (October 31) and Guy Fawkes Night (November 5), since neither event is so much as hinted as having happened or about to happen in this story. The three days could go anywhere from the 1st to the 4th of November (either November 1-3 or November 2-4).

But then, you're probably wondering, what does any of this have to do with my previous placement of the story during the same stopgap within "The Last Stand" that I placed "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", and the flashback portion of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!"? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I not only really didn't like having to place "Man of Iron" in two radically different placements between the US and UK continuities, but I also struggled to believe that (out of all four of those stories) "Man of Iron" could also be set during that same stopgap as the others. It's just such a busier, longer-set story than the events of the other three, each of which only span a day at the most and keep the action close to home for the characters. Whereas "Man of Iron" takes the cast halfway around the world on a longer three-day adventure, with a more explosive and destructive battle between the 'Bots and 'Cons that yields heavy damage to both sides, consequently feeling like so many more resources are expunged during the story.

The Autobots' energy situation on Earth in the four-issue limited series is dire. They are desperate for more energy, and their reserves are practically running on empty. The other three UK stories taking place during that time is already straining believability enough, while "Man of Iron" just feels impossibly too big a story to have also occurred during that time. So then, where am I going to put it? Right after US issue #12 "Prime Time!", which would put it before "Shooting Star!" in the US continuity and before "Christmas Breaker!", "Crisis of Command!", "The Icarus Theory", "Dinobot Hunt!" and then "Shooting Star!" in the UK continuity.

But what about all I said before about why it couldn't go right before "Christmas Breaker!"? Well, I found something else, too. While it's still true that "Christmas Breaker!" opens with a newspaper dated December 24, 1985 that has an article written about the events of "Prime Time!" (suggesting that those two issues are meant to be close to each other), I found there to be another gap of time that happens later but which, in-universe, doesn't feel like a time gap at all. The majority of "The Icarus Theory" takes place on January 25, a whole month after "Christmas Breaker!". On that same day, Optimus checks in on Ratchet repairing Bumblebee from the injuries he sustained during the preceding story "Crisis of Command!" Both Optimus and Bumblebee act as if the events of that story just happened very recently, as if it was just the other day that Bumblebee got injured.

If that's the case, then that means there's about a whole month-long gap of time between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", despite the former containing some story bits that foreshadow the events of the latter, which, when read back-to-back, make "Crisis of Command!" feel like it comes shortly after "Christmas Breaker!", not a whole month after. And yet, the dates in both "Christmas Breaker!" and "The Icarus Theory" say otherwise. So, if there can be that long of a gap between "Christmas Breaker!" and "Crisis of Command!", then perhaps there could be a similar gap between "Prime Time!" and "Christmas Breaker!" after all, in which "Man of Iron" could slot in and be set at the beginning of November.

As for the newspaper article, perhaps the news coverage of the events of "Prime Time!" was an ongoing thing, with multiple stories being written about it for several weeks after it happened. The specific article in the Christmas story was also said to be an interview with Ferdy and Gabe, two of G.B. Blackrock's employees that were among the workers held captive by Shockwave. Maybe the interview simply took that long to get underway, delaying the article's completion and publication. Maybe the two were first taken in by the Army or Triple-I and questioned by them before being released to the public and interviewed by the press. Either way, the events covered by the newspaper article don't necessarily have to be as recent as I'd previously believed.

What's more, the sudden outrage that the Autobots feel with Optimus at the start of "Crisis of Command!" would now have more context in light of Optimus's callous decision to order Jazz to destroy the buried Autobot vessel at the end of "Man of Iron", when the Autobots could have salvaged any resources from that ship for them to use in their war with the Decepticons, instead of Optimus simply having the ship destroyed. Prowl and Bluestreak grumbling to themselves in "Christmas Breaker!" about how Optimus has been acting "strange" lately would also have more context from that decision in "Man of Iron", since that decision always felt strangely out of character for Optimus.

And at the very end of "Prime Time!", Optimus says to Buster Witwitcky, "You have taught me something of value today, Buster Witwicky...and that is that one human life knowingly endangered by our struggle is one life too many. By the Primal Program itself, I pray we Autobots have the wisdom to learn that lesson well!" Placing the events of "Man of Iron" right after he says this now gives more context to Optimus's decision to destroy the ship in that story, as he seems to be taking that lesson to heart to its fullest extreme in destroying the vessel to keep the humans of Stansham safe from the Autobot/Decepticon war (and we know that this Optimus sometimes takes his moral code a little too far, like how he chose to kill himself over a video game after some NPCs got killed off when playing said game in US issue #24 "Afterdeath!").


Concluded in the top half of the next post below...

There's also this other really odd bit near the end of "Man of Iron". Right before Optimus tells Jazz that they must destroy the ship, he says to Jazz, "We have won this skirmish, but who knows how fast the Decepticon threat is growing? We cannot leave the Earth now, Jazz. The Decepticons would soon overrun the planet. Only we few stand in their way. We cannot leave." It seems odd that either Optimus or Jazz would entertain the notion of leaving the Earth during the time of the four-issue limited series, as not only are their resources so limited that even leaving the planet is pretty much an impossibility for the Autobots at that point, but they know good and well that the Decepticon threat is something that must be stopped and only by them. So it reads as if Optimus is just stating the obvious to Jazz when at no point prior did Jazz or anyone else ever bring up the idea of the Autobots leaving the Earth.

BUT, were this story to take place right after "Prime Time!" instead, it would then come at a point after Megatron has been defeated, Shockwave has been defeated, and the now-leaderless Decepticons are pretty much on the losing side of the war. By now, it would make more sense for some of the Autobots to be discussing the possibility of leaving the Earth, considering the Decepticons as good as done for. In this context, Optimus's line now reads more as him reminding Jazz that, while the Autobots pretty much have this war won by now, their mission isn't fully over until the Decepticons threat is completely neutralized for good, that it's still too early to start celebrating and calling it quits just yet.

So in the end, I'm more comfortable with placing "Man of Iron" right after "Prime Time!" in both the US and UK continuities. While this would instead set "Man of Iron" during the Autumn of 1985 instead of 1984, the story was originally published in January 1985, so it's at least still within the same year it was originally published. Consequently, we now have the following reading order for all of these issues (US issues in normal text, UK issues in Italics):

"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand" Pages 1-8
"The Enemy Within!"
"Raiders of the Last Ark"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" flashback story
"The Last Stand" Pages 9-22
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" present-day wraparound story
"The Wrath of Guardian!"
"The Wrath of Grimlock!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Man of Iron"
"Christmas Breaker!"
"Crisis of Command!"
"The Icarus Theory"
"Dinobot Hunt!"
"Shooting Star!"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"

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Who's up for another round of "Where can this fit in the Marvel G1 comics?"?

This time, I'm taking a look at the four Marvel UK Nebulos stories that all take place somewhere during the four-issue Marvel US Headmasters mini-series. These are three "Headmasters Saga" prose stories from the 1987 annual: "Doomsday for Nebulos", "Stylor's Story", and "The Final Conflict". As well as the standalone comic story "Worlds Apart!" Of note is that all four of these UK stories were published before the first issue of US mini-series had been first published in full in the UK, so these four stories always felt a little awkward with the US mini-series. Nonetheless, each of them (like the first four Marvel UK stories that I've already gone over) was still intended to take place at some point during the events of the US issues.

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"Doomsday for Nebulos" is basically an extended adaptation of the first meeting of Lord Zarak and his followers with Scorponok and his Decepticons, which was seen in the second issue of the US Headmasters mini, "Broken Glass!". With "Doomsday" adding so much more detail to this meeting than how it went down in "Broken Glass!", one can have their cake and eat it too by simply considering the shorter single-page version of these events seen in "Broken Glass!" as an abridged, summarized version of the meeting, with "Doomsday for Nebulos" being the full, true version of the meeting, as nothing of value is lost by writing off the "Broken Glass!" version of the meeting as the less literal of two. So, the way to fit "Doomsday for Nebulos" would be the read all of "Broken Glass!" up to the page with this meeting (Page 11), then stop reading "Broken Glass!" and read "Doomsday for Nebulos", and then resume reading the rest of "Broken Glass!". Conveniently, Page 11 is exactly where the UK printing of "Broken Glass!" ends, having been split in half over two issues (just like the other three Headmasters chapters).

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Next comes "Stylor's Story", which is another expanded retelling of events from the Headmasters mini. "Stylor's Story" recounts the final events of "Broken Glass!" from the point-of-view of Stylor, the Nebulan who would become binary-bonded to the Autobot Chromedome. Basically, the whole second half of "Broken Glass!" from the first page after the aforementioned Zarak/Scorponok meeting, all the way to the very end of the issue, is recounted by Stylor in this story. And any minor oddities that may exist between the two can be chalked up to Stylor embellishing some of the details in his version of the events, as he's telling the story in the style of a charismatic salesman. So, the way to fit "Stylor's Story" would be to simply read it immediately after the end of "Broken Glass!".

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Then we get to "The Final Conflict", which is the first of these UK Nebulos stories to be a mostly original story instead of adapting events from the Headmasters mini. Notably, three of the Decepticon Targetmasters appear in this story, when Misfire, Slugslinger, and Triggerhappy didn't first become Targetmasters until near the very end of the fourth US Headmasters issue "Brothers in Armor!!". And when they do, the Autobot Headmasters are all captives of Zarak and the Decepticons. They aren't freed and don't escape until the next scene after, which is then followed by the Autobots deciding to leave Nebulos and head for Earth on the issue's second-to-last page. The final page then sees their departure from the planet, as well as Zarak's Decepticons giving chase aboard Scorponok's ship.

There is so very little time for "The Final Conflict" to slot into "Brothers in Armor!!". The only place it could possibly fit in is between those final two pages. The penultimate page sees Galen give the order for the Autobots to prepare for immediate departure from the planet, and "The Final Conflict" begins with preparations already being underway. A few more matters are taken care of before they leave, and then Scorponok comes in with his duel challenge to Fortress Maximus that turns out to be a distraction while the Decepticon Targetmasters steal a fuel converter that Brainstorm and Arcana had made, one that would enable the Decepticons to leave Nebulos and head to Earth themselves.

Two more things to note:

• First, unlike the previous two stories, "The Final Conflict" is not a single body of prose, but rather has a main story and separate Epilogue that seems to be set some days later. So there's an extra gap of time in this story between its main part and its Epilogue. Though, I'd still place this epilogue, too, before the final page of "Brothers in Armor!!", as it seems to take place immediately before the Autobots finally take off from Nebulos.
• And secondly, in all three of these UK stories, Galen is inexplicably referred to as "Kord" instead. The letters page for Issue #158 simply wrote this off as a total error, so we just have to imagine that he's still named "Galen" in these three stories.

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Finally, we get to "Worlds Apart!", the most awkward-fitting one of all. This one basically can only fit in the exact same place as "The Final Conflict" due to the Targetmasters' appearances alongside the Headmasters in this story. The Autobot Targetmasters were first created in "Brothers in Armor!!" when the Autobot Headmasters were still in Decepticon custody, and like I said before, the Autobot Headmasters don't escape their captivity until right before the end of the issue, which leads immediately to their preparing for departure. "Worlds Apart!" can't go anywhere other than the same stopgap used by "The Final Conflict". The question then becomes how "Worlds Apart!" and "The Final Conflict" can fit with each other.

"The Final Conflict" begins with the Autobots having already begun their plans for departure, and ends with them all ready to go. But "Worlds Apart!" is a standalone story with no signs of either faction planning to leave Nebulos. Yet, because of the Autobot Headmasters not being captured and the Decepticon Targetmasters existing, "Worlds Apart!" has nowhere else to go. It needs to fit in or around "The Final Conflict" some way somehow. This is where I return attention to the Epilogue of "The Final Conflict" being set some time after its main story, which creates another gap of time (a gap within a gap) in which "Worlds Apart!" could actually slot right into.

It's still not a perfect fit, though, as "Worlds Apart!" has the Decepticons in ownership of a "notorious Fortress of Despair", something that feels quite at odds with their having used Zarak's various facilities as their bases of operation while on Nebulos. Coupled with Zarak's resources and influence, the Decepticons would have had no need for an additional fortress of their own. My rationale for this is that the Fortress of Despair could have been built by the other Decepticons in Scorponok's crew besides the Headmasters and Targetmasters, like the Terrorcons and the Duocons, who weren't seen at any of Zarak's bases. These other guys could have built the fortress and been stationed at it while still under Scorponok's command from afar.

And it's not entirely impossible for this to have happened off-panel between issues, since it is stated by Zarak in "Brothers in Armor!!" that the Autobots first came to Nebulos "some months ago". When reading all four US Headmasters issue back-to-back, it does not feel like "months" have passed. So this implies that more unseen adventures may very well have happened between issues. Specifically, the fortress could have been constructed off-panel during the time of issue 3, before the Decepticons had actually formalized their alliance with Zarak. They'd still be using Zarak's industrial complex as a temporary base, but would have had the fortress built to serve as their own additional base before deciding to fully team up with Zarak. And those not binary-bonded to Nebulans could have continued to operate from the fortress (and were simply elsewhere, out in the field, away from the fortress during the events of "Worlds Apart!").

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So then, this is the final resulting chronology of the Marvel Headmasters saga on Nebulos:

"Ring of Hate!"
"Broken Glass!" pages 1-11
"Doomsday for Nebulos"
"Broken Glass!" pages 12-22
"Stylor's Story"
"Love and Steel!"
"Brothers in Armor!!" pages 1-21
"The Final Conflict" pre-Epilogue
"Worlds Apart!"
"The Final Conflict" Epilogue
"Brothers in Armor!!" page 22

Sabrblade said:

Who's up for another round of "Where can this fit in the Marvel G1 comics?"?

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Please don't take this as an indication that this is unwelcome here, but... Have you considered a blog

lastmaximal said:

Please don't take this as an indication that this is unwelcome here, but... Have you considered a blog

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I know what you are saying about that. His stories are very robust and deserve to be expanded on. I've really enjoyed reading them.

I've honestly thought about a blog myself with my Gizmo-verse. I know most people would be "Whatever dude" with my silly storyline, but some people might enjoy it and I know I would enjoy trying to get it all out of my head and into writing.

I don't dispute any of that. And I do respect the amount of thougt that goes into considering so many narrative elements and factors; this amounts to literary analysis and that's fun in itself. I'm just a bit weary of the walls of "was this too long for the TFWiki notes section" material. But i suppose, as much as anything, that's probably an indicator that I'm just not the audience for this sort of thing. Or this much of it. But I'm far from the only rabbit in need of a rabbit hole, and this might just fit the bill for others. So I'll stop talking about it.

I'd love to read that storyline, Gizmoboy.

New little movie head canon. The opening to rise of the beasts happened centuries in the future after Unicron emerged from the Earth and destroyed Cybertron, most of the Trsnsformers fled to the far reaches of the universe with Hatchlings (from Revenge of the Fallen/Dark of the Moon) forming various colonies such as Animatron.
The Terrorcons are Optimus Prime, Hound and a female Decepticon twisted and repurposed as servants to Unicron.
Also the Rise of the Beasts core toyline Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Cheetor and Airazor are Legacy forms, upgrades of their BW standard forms enhanced by alternate universe technology.

The story behind 'Creatures collide' set is Goldbug wakes up on a slab in Slaughter City on Cybertron, he's hunted by the former Mayhem trooper Ransak, and his Predacon clones: Skywasp, a more competent version of Waspinator who has Skywarps power rectifier chip and Scorponok, a cold logical and more ruthless version of Scorponok. Goldbug is joined by Nightprowler, an Autobot spy, and doesn't know if he's the original bumblebee or a clone with his memories.

Legacy 'Guardian Robot' is Omega Master, a Decepticon aligned guardian robot reprogrammed and named by Starscream in a bid to usurp Megatron.

That Creatures Collide setup sounds really cool!

So, uh... This is one more addendum to a previous post of mine. This time, it's regarding "The Enemy Within!", "Raiders of the Last Ark", and the flashback part of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" I believe I have found an even better placement for these three during the events of "The Last Stand", one that is much cleaner than the one I previously tried to put them in (Don't worry about this post being too lengthy, I'll try to keep it as brief as I can).

Originally, I placed these three into a stopgap between two pages of "The Last Stand", stopping the story at the end of Page 8 and resuming it afterward with the top of Page 9. I had stated the following pointing out a bit of awkwardness with that placement, while also trying to make it work:

Sabrblade said:

Admittedly, it's not a perfect fit, since the scene literally jumps from Megatron walking outside to suddenly being inside yelling at Starscream mid-conversation. But because "The Enemy Within!" was never written to be a perfect fit with the US stories, this is as good as it's gonna fit. Besides, the original scene similarly jumped from Megatron being outside to inside anyway. And "The Enemy Within!" shows there to be no military outside Decepticon fortress surrounding it anymore, so it has to come after this scene from "The Last Stand" regardless, since the military is sent into retreat in this scene.

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But, the more I thought about it, the more that awkwardness continued to bother me, enough to make me want to see if I could find a much cleaner placement. Then it hit me: Why not just make the beginning of "The Enemy Within!" be the first Decepticon scene of these events? As in, why not just put the stopgap for the three UK stories right before the first Decepticon scene of "The Last Stand"? Well, I tried that and... It works! Very well!

The first Decepticon scene of "The Last Stand" is when Megatron first steps outside of the Decepticon base to let the U.S. Army unleash all their firepower on him, only for their armaments to do him no harm. He then walks back to the base and we cut to him being inside looking over other Decepticons undergoing repairs from their most recent encounter with the Autobots. Before, I placed the stopgap in the middle of this scene, cutting it off when Megatron walks back to the base and right before it cuts to him being back inside. BUT, if the entire stopgap were to come before this whole scene even begins, placing all three of the UK stories ahead of it, then the scene wouldn't be arbitrarily split apart, Megatron wouldn't abruptly go from confident and pleased on one page to an inexplicably infuriated mood on the immediate next page, and the general flow of the original scene as it leads into the eventual end of the issue would be kept fully intact.

So basically, the stopgap would now come on Page 7 of "The Last Stand", between its 6th and 7th panels. Panels 1-6 show Buster arriving at the hospital in Ratchet, Sparkplug being admitted to the hospital, and Buster running off to make a phone call. Panels 7-8 then change the scene to the U.S. Army surrounding and observing the Decepticon base, right before Megatron steps outside on the next page and proceeds to carry out the rest of the scene as described above. Granted, it's now in the middle of a page instead of at the end of one, which in theory seems messier than placing the stopgap at the end of a page, but it actually does work better here. With the stopgap moved up to the middle of Page 7, the events within the period of "The Last Stand" would now play out like this:

As the Autobots continue repair work on the Ark, the recently rescued Sparkplug reveals that he gave the Decepticons the fuel conversion formula. An argument ensues and Sparkplug has a heart attack during the chaos. While Ratchet takes Buster and Sparkplug to the hospital, the Decepticons at their own base have their own an argument. Starscream wants to attack the Ark, but Megatron prefers caution after their recent encounter with Spider-Man. Meanwhile, further repair work at the Ark leads to an accident that turns Brawn into a berserker. While he rampages in the town of St. Petersburg, Starscream carries out his own secret plans in attacking a U.S. Air Force base. The Autobots stop Brawn while the Decepticons recall Starscream, who demands a trial by combat. Megatron contacts the Ark and Brawn is chosen to be Starscream's opponent, so that Brawn may redeem himself. A bit of trickery by Mirage allows Brawn to fake his death, which allows Starscream back into the Decepticons.

But, reinvigorated, Megatron decides that now is finally the time to attack the Ark. He leads a raid on the Ark, but Optimus revives the ship's dormant computer Auntie, who captures everyone but Ravage and Windcharger. The two unlikely allies rescue everyone from Auntie and shut her down, but the exhausted Decepticons retreat from the Ark. That night, the Autobots monitor the Decepticon base and learn about their new plan to attack Sherman Dam and harvest hydroelectric power from it. A battle results in the dam getting destroyed and the Autobots try to save a town from the ensuing flood. They succeed, but just barely, and are blamed for the damage by the townsfolk. The next day, the U.S. Army surrounds the Decepticon base and discover that their weapons have no effect on Megatron. The Decepticon leader then surveys the damage his troops took from their most recent battle with the Autobots, and makes preparations for the final battle soon to come. The rest of "The Last Stand" then proceeds accordingly.

The only issues that remain are the same as before: Ratchet being at the hospital the whole time in "The Last Stand" while being present for both "The Enemy Within!" and the flashback of "Decepticon Dam-Busters!", and one that I'd overlooked before, which is Buster's phone call. For Ratchet, we can simply presume he returned to the Ark after dropping off Buster and Sparkplug, and then later went back to the hospital to await any word of Sparkplug's condition. For Buster's phone call, he makes the call after admitting his father to the hospital, and near the end of "The Last Stand" we find out that his call was for Jesse and "O" to come visit his dad at the hospital. This implies that it was originally meant to be all the same day in the story. But with the stopgap cramming in three additional stories (the third of which being set in the evening during sundown), that then forced the latter half of "The Last Stand" to being on the next day, so we just have to assume that Jesse and "O" simply couldn't make it to the hospital until the next day for whatever reasons.

Although, in that text I quoted above, I also said that the lack of military surrounding the Decepticon base in "The Enemy Within!" means it has to come after Megatron walks away from them in "The Last Stand". Yet, now I'm putting the stopgap before that part instead of after. And, earlier in the story, the first scene with "O" has him watching a news report that says "The Army still has their bizarre base surrounded, but everything is quiet now! The robots are inside!" So with my placing the stopgap both after that statement is given, and before the Army fires on Megatron in vain, that puts the stopgap during a time when the Decepticon base is continuously surrounded by the Army, yet there's no sign of them outside the base in "The Enemy Within!"

How to fix this? Well, before Starscream and Ravage leave the base, the former says that the other Decepticons have all gone on a survey mission, so maybe the Army left the base to follow the 'Cons in pursuit during that time, since we're talking about Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Soundwave, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Rumble, and Frenzy, and that's a lot of robots for the Army to just ignore and allow them to go and come back. Or maybe since it was said to be quiet, the Army kept their distance and used the downtime to rest and recuperate from the previous battle in "Prisoner of War!", which let the Decepticons all slip away and return as they needed during that time. After all, they also come and go from their base during "Raiders of the Last Ark" and "Decepticon Dam-Busters!" as well. The Army really must have taken a break during that quiet time for all three of these UK stories to slot in.

And so, the reading order for the first four UK stories now looks like this (and I think this is finally it):

"The Transformers"
"Power Play!"
"Prisoner of War!"
"The Last Stand" Page 1 to Page 7 Panels 1-6
"The Enemy Within!"
"Raiders of the Last Ark"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" (flashback) Page 4 Panels 4-5 to Page 19 Panels 1-4
"The Last Stand" Page 7 Panels 7-8 to Page 22
"The New Order"
"The Worse of Two Evils!"
"Warrior School!"
"Repeat Performance!"
"Decepticon Dam-Busters!" (present-day events) Page 1 to Page 4 Panels 1-3, Page 19 Panels 5-6 to Page 22
"The Wrath of Guardian!"
"The Wrath of Grimlock!"
"DIS-Integrated Circuits!"
"The Next Best Thing to Being There!"
"Brainstorm!"
"Prime Time!"
"Man of Iron"
"Christmas Breaker!"
"Crisis of Command!"
"The Icarus Theory"
"Dinobot Hunt!"
"Shooting Star!"
"Rock and Roll-Out!"

I'm due to receive the latest Legacy four pack set.
My back story is they all appear on a patchwork Cybertron in Nexus Zero. This Cybertron is like Battleworld from Marvel Secret wars and has all of the Legacy characters on it, their reason for being there is unknown, they wake there in new bodies, similar to Riverworld.
Tarn is his Cyberverse self long after being killed by Soundwave, he's been a digital ghost journeying through the multiverse, witnessed the beginning and ends of many Transformers societies. He now ends up in a new stronger body, he hates it and his stance on the the decepticons has changed when he realises he is but the product of a flawed and twisted mind. His sword was forged from the carcass of Megatron X and is imbued by his essence that was corrupted by the dark matrix he had. Tarn often converses with him.
Squeezeplay is G1 Squeezeplay based on his Marvel G1 a to z otherwise he was a flat character in the comics, he's binary bonded to a titan master that was a blank slate until it was given a copy of the mind of Cancer from Masterforce, after Legends World. Cancer helps Squeezeplay manage his worst instincts and both found a balance and inner peace together.
Tarantulas is Shattered Glass Tarantulas from a universe where the Cybertronian Empire expanded across the galaxy and exalted entire races by sharing technology. They were decimated by the Autobots wreckers. Tarantulas encountered SG Unicron and took his offer to become his emissary, for a while, he willingly joined SG Beast Megatrons crew but was eventually killed by the nefarious Vok. He rises on patchwork Cybertron unsure of what to make of it all.
Prime Cliffjumper was reborn but he's addicted to dark energon, he's got an edge, he fully embraces his dark side and actively hunts Decepticons believing he should exterminate every last one of them. Patchwork Cybertron is orbitted by a few moons including that which was Unicron's head which may contain the energon Cliffjumper now craves.