Transformers Comic-Taschenbuch issue 1
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 Tangerine flavored Megatron VS Optimus Prime! | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Condor Verlag | ||||||||||||
| First published | 1990 | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Wolfgang M. Biehler | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Marvel Comics continuity | ||||||||||||
| Price | 4 DM | ||||||||||||
Contents
Articles and features
Transformers — The Universe Is Expanding!
A nonfiction article explaining the origins of the Transformers as comic book characters, Hasbro's dealings with Marvel that also included G.I. Joe, a summary of the Transformers' in-story origins, the setting and some of the key characters. In fact, this article is mostly a direct translation of the original announcement of the Marvel Transformers comic book that was originally published in Marvel Age #17, although for inexplicable reasons, the translated article is credited to a "Michael Landmann" (a recurring name for nonfiction articles in Condor's Marvel publications) instead of the original author of the Marvel Age article, Dwight Jon Zimmerman.
A few sentences are cut for space; for example, all references to the creative team beyond Denny O'Neil are dropped. Furthermore, some sections are rearranged for dramatic effect; notably, the "The saga of the Transformers begins billions of years ago…" portion that begins halfway through the original article is used as a teaser at the beginning of the German article. And of course, the translation still uses the early working names "Blow-Out" and "Spin-Out" for "Cliffjumper" and "Sunstreaker", respectively, because how should Condor have known otherwise?
However, Condor wouldn't be Condor if they hadn't managed to insert a few original quirks into the translation:
- The description of Optimus Prime is basically correct, but the way the translation interprets "tractor trailer" reduces him entirely to a truck cab without any mention of a trailer whatsoever, and then goes on say he can "break apart into three parts", which sounds just confusing.
- Likewise, the next paragraph elaborates on how Optimus Prime can "produce a deadly combat deck", but the translation misinterpretes the term "produce" to mean Optimus can manufacture a combat deck on the spot.
- The original text refers to Cliffjumper and Sunstreaker as "exotic sportscars", but the translation explicitly interprets that to mean "foreign sports cars"… even though Cliffjumper turns into a Porsche, a German model.
- The weirdest of all misinterpretations can be found in the section that describes how the Autobots' ship adapts the Transformers to life on Earth: Whereas the original text states theat Aunty "matched" the personalities of each Transformer to a particular "inhabitant" of Earth, the translation takes that to literally mean that "each Transformer was given the personality structure of a specific inhabitant of Earth". Shadowplay much?
Reprints
- The Transformers (Marvel US) #19 - "Command Performances!"
- The Transformers (Marvel US) # 20 - "Showdown!"
- The Transformers (Marvel US) # 21 - "Aerialbots over America!"
- The Transformers (Marvel US) # 22 - "Heavy Traffic!"
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