Cosmic Coincidences

I find it interesting when people (OK, geeks mostly) see something in one form show up again in another they immediately assume it’s an homage, even when it isn’t.  For example, a line from your favorite movie matches a line in another movie. Entertainment Legends Revealed often has some of these, and it will turn out that the writer never heard of the comic/movie/song people insist was the reason for it.

We can document that George Lucas did indeed think of samurai movies and movie serials like Flash Gordon as well as WW2 dogfights when he made Star Wars (serials were also an influence in the “Indiana Jones” movies). The Wachowskis have cited Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and other anime influences went into the Matrix trilogy. So it does happen, but I find it interesting when an influence is insisted upon, but wasn’t actually the case.

While heading off to sleep Sunday night, I had this odd “revelation” that I though would be fun to make an article out of: What if Roberto Orici and Alex Kurtzman, reported Transformers fans, outright stole an idea from Bob Budiansky, writer of the Marvel comic? They didn’t, but let me make this case, and later get accused of starting a false rumor.

What if the All-Spark cube is a ripoff of the Underbase?

Now here my crackpot theory out, even though I’m admitting it isn’t true. The Underbase Saga was a four-part Transformers story leading up to the double-sized issue #50. This was back when such stories were at the writer’s discretion, when he or she (or sometimes they) had a huge arc in mind, rather than editorial mandates to pad a storyline out for trades, which led to today’s “Eventitis”. The origins take place in the early days of the Great War. In the Marvel TFU, Megatron started the Decepticon movement and went on his goal of conquering Cybertron, with plans to turn it into a staging ground to wage war on the universe. (Because that’s just what space dictators do, you know.) Optimus wouldn’t become the legend he is for a long time.

During his younger years, Optimus attempts to reach the Underbase, a super-huge database that contained the knowledge of the ages. Sort of a Castle Grayskull for Transformers. Not sounding familiar yet, I know, but here’s where it gets interesting. Megatron wanted the power for himself. Optimus, knowing what Megatron would do not only with the Underbase’s knowledge, but with the power of the Underbase itself (the data was encoded in beams of light, because Cybertronians knew how to do that somehow, and it takes a lot of power to keep the Underbase running), launches the Underbase into outer space. Sounding familiar yet?

Is he after the Underbase, or the All-Spark?

If you’ve read the UK story (reprinted by IDW in Saga of the Allspark), the All-Spark cube is launched by a similar means, building up the energies underneath it, until an explosion underneath caused it to launch into space, before coming to Earth. Megatron swears to go after it, but since Marvel Megatron doesn’t have a spaceship mode, he can’t go chasing it. (Actually, I don’t think we ever see Megatron’s Cybertronian mode in the Marvel comics.)

Turns out the Underbase was on it’s way to Earth, which is where “today’s” Autobots and Decepticons were prepared to fight over it again. And the shape of the Underbase?

Look familiar?

Now there are some differences at this point. In the comic, Megatron was indeed denied the Underbase that day, and in the “present”, he was dead (he got better) and Starscream would go on to gain the power until it overwhelmed him and blew him up. (He got better, too, but at least it was because he was getting a new toy and not that Simon wanted to write him, as Megatron wouldn’t get a new toy until the “Action Masters” years later.)

Actually, isn’t that what happened to Megatron in the movie? Maybe the All-Spark started out being an “Energon cube”, but could it be possible that they read The Underbase Saga and decided to rip it off? Actually, no, they’ve never mentioned the comics, but were supposedly fans of the cartoons, so that’s not what happened.

Or is it? Go ahead and push that theory, folks, no matter how hard other fans, and the writers themselves claim the opposite. You do it all the time, so do it now. Dance for my amusement, fanboy puppets! BWAHAHAAHAHAAHAAH…cough, cough..I don’t know how evil people do that.