Editing Transformers: The War Within

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[[Image:DW TWW TPB.jpg|right|240px|thumb|Well, this about sums up the story!]]
'''''The War Within''''' is a six-part miniseries published by [[Dreamwave Productions]] in 2002, set in the main G1 [[Dreamwave Generation One continuity|Dreamwave continuity]].  It depicts the early days of the [[Autobot]]/[[Decepticon]] war and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]]'s ascension to [[Prime (rank)|leader]] of the [[Autobot|Autobots]]. The series was successful enough to lead to two sequels.<ref>Well, one and a half. It was not successful enough to keep Dreamwave from folding halfway through ''Age of Wrath.''</ref>


{{chapters|title=''The War Within'' issues:|next=War Within: The Dark Ages
|content=
*[[The War Within issue 1|#1]]
*[[The War Within issue 2|#2]]
*[[The War Within Preview|Preview]]
*[[The War Within issue 3|#3]]
*[[The War Within issue 4|#4]]
*[[The War Within issue 5|#5]]
*[[The War Within issue 6|#6]] 
}}

{{quote|For curing grief of the fans who look at ARMADA (TV) and are drowned in sadness.|Broken translation of [[Hirofumi Ichikawa|Hirofumi Ichikawa's]] [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers/msg/de814303c33cba37?dmode%3Dsource "TWW review"]}}

==Overview==
Eons ago on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], the [[Great War (G1)|Great War]] is in its early stages, with the vicious [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] cutting a swath through the ranks of the Autobots.  When the previous Prime is killed, the High Council chooses a common data entry bot to step up and become the new leader: Optimus Prime.  But not everyone is happy with the new choice, as his initial command decision is to surrender Cybertron to the Decepticons.  Meanwhile, Megatron works to activate planetary scale engines which could remake the face of Cybertron. He needs one thing to power them... and Optimus Prime has it.

''The War Within'' was the first of any series to seriously re-imagine G1 characters as they might have appeared on Cybertron.  Previously, pre-Earth Transformers were often just simplified versions of their Earthen selves, if they were redesigned at all.

==Creative team==
The series was written by long-time Transformers scribe [[Simon Furman]], marking his return to mainstream Transformers comics.  Pencils were by [[Don Figueroa]], who also did the redesigns of dozens of [[Generation 1]] characters for the series.  

==Items of note==
* Though the individual comics from Dreamwave were titled ''Transformers: '''The''' War Within,'' the collected volume from [[IDW Publishing]] is titled ''Transformers: War Within,'' possibly for trademark reasons.
* Several of Figueroa's designs were later made into toys for the [[Titanium Series]] toy line, including [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]], [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]], [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]], [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] and [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]]. The Thundercracker design was recolored into [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]],  [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] — both of whom had slightly different designs in the series itself — and [[Sunstorm (G1)|Sunstorm]], who did not exist in the time period. Starscream's design was also adapted for [[Unicron Trilogy]] [[Starscream (Armada)|Starscream]]'s ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' form. An unpainted prototype was developed for ''War Within'' [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] with an alternate head for [[Cliffjumper (G1)|Cliffjumper]], which will likely never see release.

==Errors==
* On the back cover of the trade paperback collection, "Transformers", in one place, is spelled "Transfrormers", including on the IDW reprint.
* Although perhaps not an overt error ''per se'', Don Figueroa draws the orientation of Optimus Prime's L-shaped shoulder armor with considerable inconsistency throughout the series, rotating it 90° from a "sideways" to a "behind" orientation over and over again, differing even between pages of the same issues. Likely as a result of this inconsistency, merchandise based on Optimus' ''War Within'' design differ in their sculpted representations of this feature, with the [[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#Titanium|Titanium figurine]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)/merchandise#Palisades|Pallisades statue]] depicting the back-facing orientation, while the [[Optimus Prime (G1)/toys#Titanium_Series|Titanium 6-inch figure]] favors the outwards-facing configuration (although on this toy alone these shoulder pieces ''can'' move, his transformation hinge prevents them from rotating all the way backwards).

==Sequels==
* ''[[Transformers: War Within: The Dark Ages|War Within: The Dark Ages]]''
* ''[[Transformers: War Within: The Age of Wrath|War Within: The Age of Wrath]]''

==Collections==
* ''Transformers: War Within'' — Trade paperback <small>(July ??, 2003) ISBN 0973278609</small>
* ''Transformers: War Within'' — Pocket novel <small>(July 14, 2004) ISBN 1897105010</small>
* ''Transformers: War Within'' — IDW reprint <small>(March 28, 2007) ISBN 1600100562</small>
* ''[[Transformers: War Within Omnibus]]'' — IDW reprint also including ''The War Within: The Dark Ages''. <small>(March 1, 2009) ISBN 1600103731</small>

===International collections===
====Japan====

'''Transformers: War Within Vol. 1''' (トランスフォーマーウォー・ウィズィン)
*'''Publisher:''' [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96 JIVE Ltd.]
*'''Published:''' [[March 15]], 2004
*'''Translation:''' [[Hiroto Ishikawa]], [[Katsuya Akitomo]] 
*ISBN 4902314258 
*ISBN 978-4902314250

==Footnotes==
<references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:War Within}}
[[Category:Generation 1 comic series]]
[[Category:Dreamwave titles]]