Dreadwind's Xmas!

« The Transformers(UK)#302 »
"Dreadwind's Xmas!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Cover date	29th December1990
Writer	Harry Papadopoulos
Continuity	Letters page
Chronology	Xmas1990

Dreadwind has had too much of the Christmas spirits...

Contents 1Synopsis 2Featured characters 3Quotes 4Notes 4.1Artwork and technical errors 4.2Continuity errors 4.3Continuity notes 4.4Real-life references 4.5Other trivia 4.6Back-up material 4.7Covers 4.8Advertisements 4.9Reprints

Synopsis

Dreadwind has barricaded himself into his room at theMarvelUKoffices, resisting his replacement as theletters pageanswerer. After some weeks he has become bitter and twisted. Then onChristmas Evehe is visited at midnight by three apparitions. The first resemblesGrimlockand states it is "the ghost of the past". It tells Dreadwind to give up and go back toCybertron.The second resemblesBlasterand is the "ghost of the present" who asks Dreadwind what has been achieved other than turning his bitterness on himself. The third is cowled but reveals itself to be a distorted version of Dreadwind who tells the Decepticon that this is what he will become if he doesn't change his ways. The spirits vanish and Dreadwind cries. At dawn he abandons his occupation and leaves, heading home to plot vengeance on the Ultimate Beings...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Bah, Hot Rod!" he moaned.

—Dreadwindchannels Dickens.

Notes

Artwork and technical errors

• This was a text only story.

Continuity errors

Continuity notes

• There is no mention ofHi-Test.

Real-life references

• This was based onA Christmas CarolbyCharles Dickens.
• The ghost of the present quotes fromThus Spoke ZarathustrabyFriedrich Nietzsche.

Other trivia

• With the UK comic no longer producing original comic stories, this text story served as the year'sChristmastale and appeared on theTransformationpage.
• No credits are given for this story. Only years later, with the release ofTransformers: Best of the Rarities,was it confirmed to be written by the last editor on the UK comic,Harry Papadopoulos.
• The title only appears on the cover.
• Dreadwind had been replaced as the letters page answerer fromissue #300;however theTransformationpage in that issue reported on his refusal to be evicted from his office.

Back-up material

• AdditionalTransformersstory:"The Human Factor!"
• ReprintTransformersstory:"In the National Interest"
• Other strips:G.I. Joe the Action Force- "Alliance of Convenience" andCombat Colin

Covers

• 

  UK issue #302

• UK issue #302 cover:Dreadwind is looked upon by three ghosts, byStewart JohnsonandJohn Burns.

Advertisements

• None yet identified.

Reprints

• Transformers: Best of the Rarities:SoundwaveandRavage"cassette" byJames Biggie.

• 

  Transformers: Best of the Rarities
  (IDW Publishing, 2022)