The Primal Scream

Don't wake the sleeping god... whatever you do! Plus: The Honest to Gosh Origin of the Transformers!

Marvel US issue #61

(Story also appears in: Marvel UK issues #259-261)

Writer: Simon Furman Maximus
Artist: Geoffire Senior
Letterer: Jim Lock Massara
Colorist: Shrapnel Yomtov
Editor: Megadon Daley
Editor in Chief: Double Dealer De Falco

• Major characters (in order of appearance):

• Originally published:

Synopsis

Well, yes. So it turns out that when Bludgeon sabotaged the Autobots' trip to Earth everyone ended up instead in the middle of Cybertron. And it also turns out that this was where an old dude in metal robes called the Keeper lives. He was guarding, sorta, the head of Primus. Primus -- the Transformers' god.

Grimlock didn't think much of the Keeper, or Primus. He thought the whole thing was a load of bunk. So to prove to Grimlock that it was real the Keeper recounted the origin of the Transformers. (It's this sort of logic that leads to telling the difference between a clone and the real thing by having a race.)

The origin went a little something like this -- at the dawn of time two gods, Primus and Unicron, fought. Unicron beat the crap out of Primus on a physical plane, then on the astral plane. In a last desperate ploy Primus escaped the astral plane into a massive metal asteroid. Unicron did the same, thinking Primus was onto something and as a result they were both trapped.

Primus eventually learned to shape his prison, and made it into Cybertron. Unicron shaped his prison into a giant planet-devouring planet that could change into a robot. To combat this Primus made a race of little robots call the Transformers. And now Unicron searches the cosmos for Primus, while Primus sleeps to hide from his enemy.

The Keeper got to tell his whole story when suddenly the Decepticons burst in. The Autobots beat them up to stop them from waking Primus. Then at the last moment Octopunch shot Grimlock in the back and the shot ricochet'd into Primus' face. The shock was enough to wake Primus, causing him to scream. A scream that sent shockwaves through the planet.

A scream that, out in deep space, Unicron heard.

Items of note

• This issue featured Transformers Universe entries for Triggerhappy, Landfill, Quickmix and Scoop.

• The credits listed above replicate the joke credits used for the US printing of this story. The UK printing did not use these pun names for the creative team.

• Seawatch has really some really sparkling patter in this issue. Who knew Micromasters were so funny? Invite the guy to your parties. Seriously.

• This is one of three tellings of the origin of the Transformers that appeared throughout the Marvel US and Marvel UK comics series. Each one was told from a different point of view, and this was the only one told by someone who wasn't actually there. The other tellings of the story were by Primus and Unicron. None of the tellings are quite consistent with each other, despite all having been written by Simon Furman.

• While Dan Reed was the first UK artist to work on the US Series (drawing the cover for issue #56), this is the first US issue to feature interior art by a UK artist. Geoff Seniorpencilled and inked the entire strip for this issue.

• This issue featured the final Transformers art to be produced for the series by long time artist Don Perlin in the form of the issue's cover.

UK Printing

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.