Animated Comic issue 1

That looks familiar, I wonder why...

Template:Comicnav ALL NEW! CYBERTASTIC!

Transformers Animated #1 was published by Titan Magazines in October 2008.

Magazine Credits

Editor: Natalie Clubb
Designer: Danny Preston
Deputy Editor: Andrew James

Contents

Burnout

• Script: Simon Furman
• Art: John McCrea
• Colours: Kat Nicholson
• Lettering: Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft

Detroit is being torn about by earthquakes, while the Autobots work desperately to save frightened civilians! But as Ratchet notes, they're not on a fault-line, so the earthquakes can't be natural. Prowl guesses they're under attack and he's right, for along comes Quake-Maker and his horribly bad moustache! (Bumblebee and Sari Sumdac aren't impressed)

Total diss.

Rather than explain his origin and how the hell his powers work, Quake-Maker buries most of the Autobots and smacks Optimus around. All seems lost — but no! Suddenly Optimus is saved by sleek, confident, super-cool Autobot Afterburn, who effortlessly runs rings around the supervillain and wins Sari's heart! (And dodges a rock which then smacks Optimus in the face)

As the other Autobots free themselves, Afterburn effortlessly takes command and works out Quake-Master's power only works when he's on the ground. He leads the Autobots in keeping him up in the air and the group takes him down within seconds. Optimus watches from the sidelines, a bit upset to notice Afterburn's proven better as a leader than him.

That night, the Autobots are contacted by Ultra Magnus and told Afterburn has been sent to Earth by the Elite Guard to learn about humanity, and so the Earth team's successes can be replicated on other alien worlds the Autobots might need to defend. Meanwhile, the Decepticons monitor the news and hear Quake-Maker has escaped from custody — something Megatron appears interested in...

Articles & features

• Starscreamers - Jokes by Starscream ("Never think Decepticons don't have a sense of humour. Why do you think Megatron has been leader for so long?")
• Roll Call - brief character and backstory summary.
• Character Puzzles: Starscream related puzzles
• Nano-Bites - news about all the cool Animated stuff you can buy
• DVD competition.
• Search For The Allspark: the Autobots have hidden the Allspark in this comic! Find it and write in, and win a prize!
• Poster of Optimus
• Half of a The Many Faces Of Optimus Prime poster. The other half is in in the Movie comic
• Competitions for a Nintendo DS and Sonic Chronicles, and the Next Avengers DVD.
• Challenge Megatron: Complete the puzzles or meet your doom!
• Bee Mail: Letters page, hosted by Bumblebee

Free Gift

• "Free! AWESOME Missile Blaster!" — toy missile blaster, natch

Bits and Bots

A short four-panel strip by Robin Etherington and Diego Jourdan.

Bumblebee has given Optimus a service, but finds there's one bolt left over from putting him back together. "It's probably not important!" he says as Optimus falls to bits behind him.

Reprints

Reprinted stories are only a portion of their respective issues.

• Blast From The Past, part 1a (screencaps strip) (17 pages)

Errors

• Seventeen pages of screen captures in a £2.60 comic. WHAT.

Quotes

"Let me see. Would-be world conquerer? Embittered ex-employee? Big-shot blackmailer? Career asylum jockey? To-tal... loo-ser?"
"Please tick box as applicable!"

—Bumblebee and Sari in response to Quake-Maker

"I won't bore you with the science. Frankly, it's too long-winded..."

—Quake-Maker cops out

"He's dreamy!"

—Sari's measured response on Afterburn

"A natural. An instinctive tactician and a born leader. Everything, in fact... I'm not!"

—Optimus finds out he's last year's toy

Items of note

• The strip, as with Dino-MIGHT!, takes place in mid-Season 2.
• Afterburn and Quake-Maker are original to this strip.
• Optimus is shown with his face-mask on for the whole story. Since he's in battle every time we see his face, it's unknown if this was deliberate or an error.
• The dutch reprint got 19 "free" Transformers animated stickers, and omits the 17 screen capture pages for 3,25 Euros. * It's also the first and last Animated comic to be printed in dutch! This won't be the first and last time this would hapen.