List of Transformers comic book series

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There have been three main publishers of comic book series called Transformers, based on the toylines of the same name. The first series was produced by Marvel Comics from 1984 to 1991 which ran for 80 issues, and also had four spin-off series. This was followed by a second volume, entitled Transformers: Generation Two, which ran for 12 issues starting in 1993. The second major series was produced by Dreamwave Productions from 2002 to 2004 with multiple limited series as well, and within multiple story continuities, until the company went bankrupt in 2005. The third series is currently being produced by IDW Publishing starting with an issue #0 in October, 2005, and a regular series starting in January, 2006. There are also several limited series being produced by IDW as well.

In addition, there was a short-lived Transformers: Armada comic released in the UK in 2003 aimed at the under 10s market published by Panini Comics.

Marvel Comics

Transformers Generation One, Marvel, U.S.

The Transformers comic by Marvel was the first and arguably the best known Transformers comic. Although it was originally intended to be a 4-issue limited series, it expanded into an ongoing series, which ran for 80 issues before being cancelled.

• See also: List of characters in Transformers comics

Issues 1–4 (mini-series)

The Autobots and Decepticons land on Earth via the Ark, paralleling the cartoon. The Autobots are reformatted by the Ark to resemble cars and trucks; the Decepticons take the form of jets, weapons or in the case of Soundwave, a cassette deck with tapes.

The Decepticons wreak havoc, steal energy and build a fortress. The Autobots, seen here as very weak underdogs, unsuited for war, fight valiantly to stop their foes.

Ultimately, it's the humans that the Autobots befriend that save the day. Buster Witwicky's dad, captured by the Decepticons to formulate a fuel for them, secretly poisons his captors.

In the final battle, five Autobots take on the entire Decepticon army. On the cusp of defeat, the tainted fuel concocted by Mr. Witwicky kicks in and the Decepticons fall.

The Autobots don't even have time to celebrate however as the 4-part mini-series ends with Shockwave making an appearance at the end, blowing the remaining Autobots to pieces, and thus beginning the run of monthly Marvel comics.

Ongoing series (5–80)

Starting with issue 5 (cover-dated June, 1985), Transformers had more drastic changes. Before reaching its 30th issue, both Optimus Prime and Megatron had been killed off to make way for newer characters.

Starting in issue 35 (cover-dated December, 1987), the events became less Earth-centric, as the Transformers repaired their spacecraft and were able to revisit their homeworld Cybertron and other planets. This aspect was particularly prominent in the Matrix Quest sub-plot.

In issue 75 (cover-dated February, 1991), the Autobots and Decepticons had united under one banner after Autobot commander Optimus Prime surrendered to Scorponok, in order to end their civil war. United, they finally faced their ancient nemesis: Unicron. The Transformers won, but with heavy losses, including the deaths of Scorponok and Optimus Prime (again). Peace between the two Transformers factions was shortlived after Unicron's death. Bludgeon, the new Decepticon leader, tried to strand the Autobots on Cybertron, which was apparently destroying itself. His plan failed and the final confrontation between the two factions played out, with the Autobots lead again by Grimlock. Optimus Prime is united with Hi-Q (his Powermaster) and given life by The Last Autobot. He returns to battle to save the Autobots and then exiles the Decepticons forever (until Transformers: Generation 2). After the battle for Unicron, the comic ran for only five issues before being cancelled. The final issue had the mini series banner above the title; "#80 IN A FOUR ISSUE LIMITED SERIES".

Transformers Universe, Marvel, 1986

A four issue limited series in the style of Marvel Universe and G.I. Joe: Order of the Battle, featuring lengthy bios of all the Transformers of the period. Most of the text was the same as the tech specs found on the toy boxes, only much more expanded. The first three issues contained all of the first, second and third year Transformers. The fourth issue dealt with characters new to (1986), including characters that were not made as toys at the time.

Transformers the Movie, Marvel, 1986

A three issue mini-series adaptation of the feature film, with no continuity ties to the regular comic series. Differences to the animated feature include the original designs for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and Ultra Magnus' original death at the hand of Scourge and his Sweeps.

G.I. Joe and The Transformers, Marvel, 1986

A four issue limited series that teamed-up the Transformers with the other popular Hasbro property of the 1980s, G.I. Joe. The Joes and the Autobots must join forces to stop the Decepticons and Cobra from destroying the world. The story suffered from the need to maintain extremely tight continuity among Marvel Comics titles at the time, that is events that happened in the ongoing monthly titles must reflect in the limited series too. However, while there were references in the regular monthly issues of the Transformers comic to the story line of this crossover series, there were no such matching references in the monthly issues of G. I. Joe. That comic's lead writer, Larry Hama, did not consider the events of the cross-over series to be canon, though a later crossover that he DID take part in led to the Generation Two relaunch of the Transformers comic.

Transformers: Headmasters, Marvel, 1986

A four issue mini-series introducing new characters that were later incorporated into the ongoing series.

Transformers Generation One, Marvel, UK

The UK verison of the original Transformers comics was produced by Marvel UK (Marvel Comics's semi-independent UK imprint). It began as a simple reprint book with a single US story split across two or more UK issues, but differences in production schedules meant that additional locally sourced material was need to pad around the US material. Over 160 new stories not included in the U.S. comic were produced for the UK market. They introduced characters such as Straxus and Emirate Xaaron and operated an expanded continuity parallel to main US franchise.

Initially the UK exclusive stories were heavily tied into US continuity and were not able to develop the characters. However, the release of the Transformers animated movie, introduced a new generation of future characters (Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, Galvatron, etc) who were ignored by the US title and could be developed by the UK title without contricting the US reprints.

The principal writer of the UK material was Simon Furman. Many of his longer stories took a more epic approach to the Transformers than the US title. The UK comic extensively developed the backstory world of the Transformers. Furman's epic semi-mythical and at times more sophisticated approach to the material had a significant impact on future Transformer imprints. His success on the title was such that he succeeded Bob Budiansky as writer of the US counterpart and has been associated with a succession of Transformer comic franchises, such as Dreamwave and IDW.

Transformers Generation Two, Marvel, U.S.

A 12 issue series, the series expanded the original G1 mythos from the small war on Earth and Cybertron to enclose the whole of the Galaxy that was fast being altered into a likeness of Cybertron itself by the Cybertronian Empire, a race of later generation Transformers that evolved while the earthbound Autobots and Decepticons were deactivated. The events of this series were actually set in motion with a crossover from the G.I. Joe comic books #138–142, in 1993. Megatron returns to reclaim his leadership off Bludgeon and by the end of the series joins with Optimus Prime to fight against the G2 Decepticons and their genetic offshoot, the Swarm.

The series ended with an epic battle between the "Generation 1" Transformers, the Cybertronians and the Swarm.

The final page reveals the Empire's true scale as its leader, identified as the Liege Maximo, dismisses the final battle as insignificant to his Empire as a whole. He also remarks that Megatron, the Decepticon leader, is more like an offspring than an ancestor to him implying the Empire precedes even known Transformer history.

The story was concluded later by Simon Furman (the same writer for the Generation 2 comics) for a fan convention in the UK called Transforce. The first part of the story—called Alignment—came out in 2002, with the last part coming out in 2005. While mostly a text story, it did include art by veteran Transformer comic artists such as Lee Sullivan, Andrew Wildman, Geoff Senior, Jeff Anderson, and Lew Stringer. In this series, the Autobots and Decepticons face off against the Generation 2 Liege Maximo to stop his attempts at God-hood with many big name characters (including Furman's favorite character) being killed in the process. In it, we find out that the Liege Maximo was one of the original 13 Transformers created by Primus.

Since Alignment was not published by an "official" comic book publisher, there is a question as to whether or not it is considered part of the Generation 2 canon. However, as Alignment was written by the same person who wrote the original comics—and the chances of a continuation of the Marvel comic storyline seems extremely improbable—it is as close to official canon as possible.

Note

The Marvel Comics character Death's Head, a character created by Simon Furman, appeared in certain Marvel UK Transformers stories. In the third issue of the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z (released on March 22, 2006), the entry for Death's Head's describes his encounters with the Transformers to have taken place in an alternate reality, referred to as Earth-120185, thus separating these stories from existence in standard Marvel Universe continuity. This raises the question of whether or not any of the Marvel Comics Transformers stories take place in the Marvel Universe "proper" (Earth-616), despite such tie-ins as Spider-Man's guest-starring appearance in the original Marvel limited series and Circuit Breaker, a character that originated in the Transformers comics, having a cameo appearance in Marvel's Secret Wars II limited series. A case can be made that only the stories that featured Death's Head are separate from standard Marvel continuity, since the character's adventures often involved travel across time and dimensions, not to mention genres; Death's Head also encountered the British science fiction icon Doctor Who on occasion.

Benchpress Comics

Spring 1999, new publishing upstart Benchpress Comics proudly announced the acquisition of the rights to produce new G.I. Joe and Transformers comics. The plan was to release two Transformers monthly series, one would feature the Generation 1 cast of characters while a second title would focus on Beast Wars. For various reasons, the negotiations fell, Benchpress went bankrupt and before even one issue was published, Transformers comics were in limbo once more.

Dreamwave Productions

Dreamwave Productions aquired the Transformers licence and went on to produce a highly sucessful return of Transformers to the comic world. They started with a limited series of the Generation One characters and a monthly series dedicated to . The G1 stories were not bound by the previous Marvel series or the animated series.

Generation One

Transformers G1, Volume One: Prime Directive, Dreamwave, U.S. (2002)

• Takes place after the Autobots attempt to leave earth for a second time in a space ship called the Ark II.
• Spike Witwicky has been given a piece of the Matrix by Optimus Prime.

Transformers G1 Volume Two: War and Peace, Dreamwave, U.S. (2003)

• Chronicles the return to Cybertron of the Ark Transformers.
• Shockwave has succeeded in his quest to rule Cybertron.
• Ultra Magnus is seen as a white robot minus his larger outer form in this series for a brief time, keeping with the toy design.

Transformers G1 Volume Three: Ongoing, Dreamwave, 2004, U.S.

• A new ongoing series from Dreamwave. Discontinued after issue #10 due to bankruptcy of Dreamwave in January 2005.

Armada/Energon

Transformers: Armada (2002–2003)

This comic series is based on the new Transformers toyline of that year, '. The continuity, while following elements from the cartoon series of the same name, is wholly its own continuity. Differences include the Minicons' ability to talk in a normal way rather than the beeps and boops from the cartoon series. Also, the resolution to the Armada saga is much different and involves cross-dimensional travel and several Generation 1 characters. The series ends at issue #18 and is retitled as ' the following issue.

Transformers: Energon (2003–2005)

The story to picks up ten years after events in Armada. The first issue is #19 since Armada was not cancelled but rather retitled. The series is discontinued at issue #30 due to Dreamwave's bankruptcy while being written by Simon Furman, and drawn by Alex Milne.

Transformers/G.I. Joe

With the success of Transformers and the same with Devil's Due Productions's revival of G.I. Joe, it did not take long for fans of both properties to speculate on a cross-over and their wishes were answered. Dreamwave and Devil's Due each produced their own six-issue mini-series and continuity. For Dreamwave, rather than follow the previous efforts of Marvel Comics, the story is set in an alternate continuity, a time of World War II where Cobra, instead of Nazi Germany, is poised to take over all of Europe. Cobra finds the Decepticons and reformats their alt modes into 1940s era war vehicles and weapons. The G.I. Joe Team finds the Autobots who aid them in stopping both Cobra and Decepticons.

A second volume was produced. Dreamwave managed to release one issue before their financial troubles put a halt to their operations. The story would have followed G.I. Joe and Transformers in the present time and the connection to the first volume's story explained.

See also Devil's Due's G.I. Joe vs. Transformers section in G.I. Joe (Comic).

Transformers: The War Within

Volume One

• Introduction of veteran Transformers writer, Simon Furman to the Dreamwave universe, as well as artist Don Figueroa.
• Chronicles the first days of Optimus Prime following his ascension to Prime.
• This series set a new precedent and began to rewrite parts of Cybertronian history to streamline it.
• The Transformers' Cybertronian modes were drawn with supurb detail so that they could actually transform.
• Before his renaming as "Optimus" Prime, we discover that he was a historian (or data-collector, similar to perhaps a librarian) named "Optronix"

Volume Two: The Dark Ages

• Optimus Prime and Megatron disappear through an experimental space bridge.
• We are introduced to The Fallen one of the original 13 transformers, a character from the prehistory of Cybertron, who seems to have it out for Primus.

Volume Three: Age of Wrath

• A new miniseries which started in fall 2004, continuing on from the previous two War Within miniseries. The comic was again written by Simon Furman, and was drawn by Joe Ng. The series saw Megatron return to Cybertron with an army of powerful clones, leaving only a handful of Autobots free to act as resistance. The serial was discontinued after issue #3 due to bankruptcy of Dreamwave in January 2005.
• With Furman onboard for IDW Productions' series, there are rumours the series may be continued at some point, but at the moment they remain nothing more than rumours.

see

Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye

• An eight issue limited series from 2003 which featured bios of all the Transformers released as toys in the United States (with the exception of several of the Action Masters). The character entries were done in the same style as the 1986 Marvel limited series, Transformers Universe, with page long bios and art of the characters in both their robot and alternate forms. The character bios included expanded information from the original toys' tech specs, as well as new character development from the Dreamwave Transformers continuity.
• Issues one through seven contain the character bios, while issue number eight contains entries for key Transformer locations, ideas, and technology.
• The first pages of issue one and the last pages of issue eight feature a mini-comic about where all the information presented in the limited series is coming from, and who is accessing it, which was a prequal story to the Beast Wars television series.

Transformers Armada: More Than Meets the Eye

• In 2004 Dreamwave released a three issue version of the More Than Meets The Eye series featuring all the characters released as toys in the United States. The layout was similar to the G1 series from 2003, and included separate character bios for the Minicons as well as for the other transformers.
• The first pages of issue one and the last pages of issue three feature a mini-comic of the human character Alexis studying the history of the Transformers. The comic seems to be set sometime between the events of the Transformers: Armada and Dreamwave comics.
• Before Dreamwave's bankruptcy, an Energon edition of More Than Meets The Eye was also planned.

Transformers Summer Special

• A one-shot produced in the Summer of 2004. Featured stories from G1, Energon, Robots in Disguise, and Beast Wars. The later was to be an annual mini-series but because of Dreamwave's bankruptcy only one issue was published.

IDW Publishing

Hasbro awarded the comic license to IDW in the spring of 2005 with plans to relaunch the property.

Transformers: Infiltration

started in October, 2005 with issue #0 and properly launched with issue #1 in January 2006. Simon Furman writes and E.J. Su pencils a new six-issue telling of the Transformers arriving on Earth.

A recent press release indicates that Transformers: Infiltration #0 has set a record in the five-year history of IDW Publishing, surpassing over 100,000 copies in initial pre-orders.

Beast Wars: The Gathering

Beast Wars: The Gathering was released in 2006 as a four-issue series written by Simon Furman and drawn by Don Figueroa. The two had previously collaberated on several projects for Dreamwave. The series takes place after season 2 of the Beast Wars cartoon series and features characters that had toys produced but were not featured in the cartoon. The publishers have indicated a sequel is likely.

Other series

Transformers Generations is a series that reprints key or best-of issues from the Marvel and Dreamwave series. Transformers: Evolution is a title that will feature stand-alone, out-of-continuity tales from rotating creative teams. Chuck Dixon wrote the first four-part series - revolving around steam-powered Transformers on Earth in the 19th Century. It premeired in July, 2006. Transformers: Stormbringer, also due to begin in July will focus on stories in Transformers history before they came to Earth. The series' main villian will be the Pretender, Thunderwing.

Convention and Fan Club comics 1997 to present

• The yearly official Transformers convention and fan club has had comics printed as convention merchandise and an ongoing comic series within the official fan club newsletter. The first official convention, OTFCC (Official Transformers Collectors' Convention), was produced by 3H Productions but the license was revoked due to amounting problems with the dealings of the convention. The last convention held was in July, 2004.

• A variant convention exclusive cover of Transformers #1 Vol. 3 published by Dreamwave Productions was produced for the Canadian TransformersCon in March of 2004.

• Hasbro awarded Fun Publications, INC., the license, which was officially announced January 3, 2005. Fun Publications, INC. adopted the name BotCon as their convention name to replace the previous name of OTFCC. BotCon was previously a very well-known, fan-run convention before its last show and final show in summer 2004. The convention under the new name was held for the first time in September, 2005 in Frisco, Texas.

• The comics under OTFCC included , and the Wreckers comics. These comics have characters that range from the Beast Wars era, to the Universe setting, and now to the Cybertron series under Fun Publications, INC.

• The Cybertron series comic is featured with the fan club newsletter, which comes bi-monthly and is stapled in with the Master Collector's monthly magazine. There are six pages to the comic in every newsletter. This equals a full issue by the end of the year with 36 pages in six months.

See also

• Transformers Universes
• Transformers series
• Transformers (2007 film)

External links

• [IDW Transformers title] - Current Transformers comic.
• [BIGBOT.COM] - IDW/DreamWave Transformers comics checklist
• [Transformers Archive] - Features issue summaries and scans
• [Robert Jung's Transformers Comics Guide] - A guide to the various Transformers comic book series. Includes issue summaries, annotations, and cross-references.
• [Target: 2006] - A guide to the two Marvel comics series. Includes [The Transformers Chronology Project].

 

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