The Transformers (issue)

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This article is about the first comic issue of the first comic series about Transformers. For other uses of The Transformers, see Transformers (disambiguation).

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<tr style="font-size:14px;"> <td class="tti_buttonlink"> </td><td align="center">The Transformers (US) #1 </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink">» </td></tr> <tr class="tt1_secondarynav"> <td class="tti_buttonlink"> </td><td align="center">The Transformers (UK) #1–2 </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink">» </td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 12px; background-color:#ffffff;" align="center"> <img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/1/12/MarvelUS-01.jpg/230px-MarvelUS-01.jpg" width="230" height="352" border="0" /><br />Largest Transforming Transformers Optimus Prime! One of six blind-packed $500,000,000 toys! </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> "The Transformers" </td></tr> <tr> <td>Publisher </td><td> Marvel Comics </td></tr> <tr> <td>Date published </td><td> May 8, 1984 </td></tr> <tr> <td>Cover date </td><td> September 1984 </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Plot </td><td> Bill Mantlo </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Script </td><td> Ralph Macchio </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Pencils </td><td> Frank Springer </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Inks </td><td> Kim DeMulder </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Colors </td><td> Nelson Yomtov </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Lettering </td><td> Higgins, Rick Parker </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Editor </td><td> Bob Budiansky </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Continuity </td><td> Marvel Comics continuity </td></tr>

</table> A group of sentient warring robots crash-lands on Earth four million years ago. When they awake in the present day, their battle begins anew.

Synopsis

On the Saturn-sized mechanical world of Cybertron, life has evolved not through carbon bonding, but via "naturally-occurring gears, levers, and pulleys". The resultant sentient robots, the Autobots, live in peace for many eons, until some of their number fall victim to a lust for power. Rallying behind the banner of the powerful Megatron, these "Decepticons" rebuild their bodies, allowing them to change at will between a humanoid form and the form of various war machines. The Decepticons unleash a furious war on the Autobots, intending to conquer the planet and rebuild it as a cosmic dreadnought.

Faced with annihilation, the Autobots turn to a noble leader from their own ranks: Optimus Prime. Under his leadership, the Autobots, also now gifted with the ability to "transform", rally and counterattack. And thus, an all-consuming war rages across the planet for a thousand years, while the planet itself—dislodged from its orbit by the titanic battles—spins out of control through the cosmos.

Eventually Cybertron enters another solar system and is faced with destruction as it approaches an asteroid belt. Aboard a huge spacecraft dubbed the Ark, Optimus Prime leads a team of Autobots on a mission to clear a path through the asteroids. After the mission is completed, the Decepticons attack the weakened Autobot warriors. Facing inevitable defeat, Optimus Prime sends the Ark on a suicide course into a supposedly lifeless planet. The crash renders all the combatants inert.

Combat Deck bought a junker lot from eBay.

Four million years later, a volcanic eruption reactivates the Ark's dormant computer, which finds the planet now teaming with mechanical "life". It reactivates the ship's passengers, rebuilding them to resemble the planet's natives. Damaged, the computer does not recognize friend from foe, and thus both factions are restored to life. After checking themselves over, the Decepticons flee for other parts, leaving the Autobots to make their home in the crashed Ark. Observing the planet, Optimus notes that they must work to save the planet from the Decepticons, whom they've accidentally unleashed upon it.

Optimus Prime sends a team of five, under the command of Prowl, to scout out the new world and make contact with the natives. En route, they are sighted by Decepticon spy Laserbeak. The Autobots mistake a drive-in movie theater for some kind of religious ritual; Bumblebee over-enthusiastically nudges a "native", violently jostling its teenage occupants Buster, Jessie and "O". As Buster and the others climb out to see what happened, the Decepticons attack, intent on keeping their foes from establishing an alliance with the planet's natives. The Autobots reluctantly transform and defend themselves, turning the drive-in into a battlefield. During the battle, Prowl realizes that the automobiles are not alive at all, but the small, pink creatures fleeing from them are; the Autobots retreat to draw the Decepticons' fire away from the apparently defenseless fleshlings.

During the battle, Buster hears the damaged Bumblebee cry out in pain, and ends up "driving" him away from the battlefield. That night, his father "Sparkplug" finds him tinkering with the yellow VW Bug in his garage. He's delighted that his son is finally showing some interest in mechanics, but not so amused when the car cries out that it needs help, because it's dying...

<div style="width: 90%; margin: 0 auto .2em auto; background-color:#efefef; border: 2px solid #eeeeee; padding: 2px; text-align: left;">Note: Chronologically, the UK Annual stories "State Games" and "And There Shall Come...a Leader!" are set during the early events of this issue.</div>

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots</th><th style="background:#EEEEFE"> Decepticons</th><th style="background:antiquewhite"> Humans </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Optimus Prime (4)
• Prowl (10)
• Ironhide (13)
• Cliffjumper (14)
• Sideswipe (15)
• Huffer (16)
• Bumblebee (17)
• Sunstreaker (18)
• Brawn (19)
• Mirage (20)
• Bluestreak (21)
• Jazz (22)
• Gears (23)
• Hound (24)
• Windcharger (25)
• Ratchet (26)
• Wheeljack (27)
• Trailbreaker (28)

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• Ravage (1)
• Megatron (2)
• Soundwave (3)
• Rumble (5)
• Skywarp (6)
• Frenzy (7)
• Laserbeak (8)
• Starscream (9)
• Thundercracker (11)
• Buzzsaw (12)

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• Buster Witwicky (29)
• Sparkplug Witwicky (30)
• Jesse (31)
• "O" (32)

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Errors

• Many coloring errors throughout the issue.

Items of note

• Cameos: an Autobot Elder who may or may not be Tomaandi.
• Advertised as part #1 in a 4-issue limited series.
• Printed on high-quality Mando paper.
• On May 22, the first Usenet post about Transformers is posted by Ted Nolan to net.comics, regarding this issue. Capsule review? "Worst comic of the year."
• The cover price is 75 cents, which would be $1.50 when adjusted for inflation to 2007 dollars. In November, 2007, IDW Publishing's Transformers comics currently cost $3.99.
• Over the course of the series, some of this issue's early details would be retconned away or simply ignored. Among them are the notion of a Saturn-sized Cybertron, the "naturally evolving" origin of the Transformers, and the toy-based appearance of several characters, such as Ratchet, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Brawn.

Covers (3)

<table class="gallery" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/1/12/MarvelUS-01.jpg/78px-MarvelUS-01.jpg" width="78" height="119" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> US issue #1 - First he will crush the planes, then he will crush the giant floating heads.

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/7/7d/MarvelUK-1.jpg/90px-MarvelUK-1.jpg" width="90" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> UK issue #1 - Is Soundwave on Ultra-Energon?

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/5/52/MarvelUK-2.jpg/91px-MarvelUK-2.jpg" width="91" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> UK issue #2 - Is this girl that into her doll that she didn't see the giant f*cking robots?

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/5/58/Complete_works_1_cover.jpg/89px-Complete_works_1_cover.jpg" width="89" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> The Complete Works Part 1

</div> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/e/e0/MarvelUS-01-25years.jpg/78px-MarvelUS-01-25years.jpg" width="78" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> US issue #1 (25th Anniversary Optimus Prime pack-in)

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• US issue #1 cover: gigantic Optimus Prime, tiny Starscream, Gears, Laserbeak and the Witwickys, by Bill Sienkiewicz.
• UK issue #1 cover: Soundwave and Buzzsaw kick Prime's ass, by Jerry Paris.
• UK issue #2 cover: the Autobots depart the Ark, by John Ridgway.
• The Complete Works Part 1 cover: reuse of UK issue #1's cover.
• 25th Anniversary Optimus Prime cover: now including tiny disclaimer: "Headline from original comic; this reissue is not part of a series."

Generics

This issue features a broad range of generic Transformers, from peace-loving Autobots to a Decepticon raiding party. As the brand was in its infancy at this stage, character models were not yet fixed and coloring tended to veer towards the random, so some of these generics may have been intended to represent actual characters. Whether they do so is probably best left up to you.

<div class="noprint">Main article: Big Red</div>

<table class="gallery" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 48px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/5/5e/Generic_autobots_marvel_1.jpg/120px-Generic_autobots_marvel_1.jpg" width="120" height="50" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> The first glimpse of the Transformers. The Autobot on the far right may represent a pre-war Optimus Prime (Orion Pax/Optronix?) while the others share design elements (if not colors) with the 1984 Autobot cars.

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 45px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/f/f5/Generics_marvel_1.jpg/120px-Generics_marvel_1.jpg" width="120" height="56" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> Since he is called out in the caption box, it is probably fair to assume that the robot armed with the ion blaster represents Optimus Prime. That may be Sideswipe to his right, armed with a fusion cannon.

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 47px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/9/97/Generic_decepticons_marvel_1.jpg/120px-Generic_decepticons_marvel_1.jpg" width="120" height="52" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> In one of the more famous mistakes from this issue, a robot resembling a miscolored Optimus Prime leads the Decepticon raid on the Ark.

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