Prime Directive

This article is about the first Dreamwave G1 mini-series. For the 2007 movie's prequel comic, see Movie Prequel (2007){{#switch:{{#sub:Movie Prequel (2007)|-1}}

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Prime Directive is a six-part miniseries published by Dreamwave Productions in 2002, and set in the main G1 Dreamwave continuity. It centers on the revival of the Transformers after a catastrophe several years prior.

While the series was entitled Transformers: Generation 1 when it was released, it was dubbed Prime Directive when collected in trade paperback form.

Followed by: War and Peace

Overview

Prior to the events in the series, The Transformers had been gone from Earth for several years, having all vanished and thought destroyed in the destruction of their Ark II ship. The ship was carrying the victorious Autobots and their captive Decepticons back to Cybertron, but exploded soon after launch. Afterward, the sinister Lazarus collected their inert forms and found a way to control them, planning to sell them on the black market. However, the U.S. government has plans of its own... as do the Transformers themselves.

Prime Directive was the first mass-market Transformers comic in nearly a decade, an absence reflected in the storyline. The first issue debuted at #1 on the Diamond sales charts and led to a briefly-successful line of Dreamwave Transformers comics. The series was introduced by a six-page preview issue. A second series called War and Peace followed and an ongoing series after that.

Prime Directive established a new G1 continuity that drew on elements of the cartoon, but does not fit well into any particular previous story.

Many fans found the series impressive for the great amount of care and detail put into the artwork. The glossy print and Photoshopped colors were worlds beyond the newsprint paper and dotted coloring of the Marvel Comics series. Others felt that the storyline was needlessly decompressed (almost two whole issues pass before any of the Transformers actually speak), that the visual storytelling was unclear, and that the overall pacing suffered for the sake of needlessly dramatic splash pages.

Creative team

The series was written by Chris Sarracini and penciled by Pat Lee and Edwin Garcia.

Trivia

• Prime Directive is also the name of the original Transformers movie script.

Collections

DreamWave
Transformers Generation One, Vol. 1 TPB

• ISBN 0973083727
• ISBN 978-0973083729
• Date published: December 4, 2002
• Pagecount: 160

IDW Publishing reprint
Transformers Generation One, Vol. 1 TPB

• ISBN 1933239816
• ISBN 978-1933239811
• Date published: February 22, 2006
• Pagecount: 144

International printings

Japan

Volume 1

• ISBN 4902314134
• ISBN 978-4902314137
• Date published: December 17 2003
• Translator: Hiroto Ishikawa, Katsuya Akitomo
• Publisher: JIVE Ltd. (JIVE American Comics Series)