The Planet-Eater!
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 Ultra Magnus can't deal with this lousy coloring, or his own off-model rendition, now! | |||||||||||||
| "The Planet Eater!" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 1986 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | December 1986 | ||||||||||||
| Adaptation | Ralph Macchio | ||||||||||||
| Breakdowns | Don Perlin | ||||||||||||
| Finishes | Ian Akin and Brian Garvey | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Nelson Yomtov | ||||||||||||
| Lettering | Janice Chiang | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Bob Budiansky | ||||||||||||
While the Autobots and Decepticons fight a crucial battle on Earth, something threatens the very existence of Cybertron.
Synopsis
In deep space, the planet Lithone is under attack from the planet-eater, Unicron. As the world is devoured, only one Lithone, Kranix, manages to escape. Unicron now turns his sights on Cybertron....
The year is 2005, and although the Decepticons still rule Cybertron, the Autobots are preparing to retake the planet. But all is not yet ready. Optimus Prime sends a group of Autobots on a mission to Autobot City on Earth. Unfortunately, plans for this mission are overheard by Laserbeak, who reports the findings to Megatron. Megatron leads a group of Decepticons to intercept the Earth-bound shuttle, murder its crew, and attempt to invade Autobot City using the Autobots' own ship.
The Autobots are given the most minimal of advance warnings when Hot Rod, playing with Spike Witwicky's son Daniel outside Autobot City, notices something wrong with the ship. The Autobots scramble to prepare their base for battle, but, being unprepared for this head-on assault, they are soon overwhelmed.
Optimus Prime arrives to join the battle, and knows that the only way the battle can be won is to face Megatron directly in mortal combat. Both leaders battle, and sustain heavy injuries. Although Optimus Prime is fatally wounded, he has turned the tide of the battle, and the Decepticons retreat using Astrotrain as transport. Before Prime dies, he passes the Autobot Matrix of Leadership to his choice for Autobot leader, Ultra Magnus.
As the embattled Decepticons journey through space, Astrotrain informs them that they must jettison dead weight or they'll never make it back to Cybertron. Starscream sees an opportunity. All of the most wounded Decepticons are tossed out into deep space, including Megatron.
The wounded Decepticons float through space, and are gathered toward Unicron. Unicron offers Megatron a deal: destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership in exchange for a new body and troops. Megatron resists at first, but ultimately agrees. Unicron reshapes some of the fallen Decepticon warriors into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Megatron himself is reformed into the powerful Galvatron!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
Differences with the film
This comic adaptation is based on a slightly earlier version of the script than the finished film uses, and as such, there are several difference between it and the movie. Alternate scenes, details, and staging derived from the script include:
- Unicron devours Lithone using a corrosive mist. It is only after the planet is destroyed by this threat that we are granted our first look at Unicron, compared to the way the film shows him approach Lithone first.
- The native Lithones have the ability to transform into spacecraft, this being how Kranix escapes the planet, rather than piloting a ship. Arblus is consumed by Unicron's acid mist, instead of escaping with him.
- Bumblebee has "bumper stickers" on his arms, which read: "I ♥ CYBERTRON" and "I ♣ DECEPS," but see "Errors," below.
- Instead of taking off from an exposed, flat launch pad, the Autobots' shuttle bursts out of a concealed vertical launch platform, disguised as a mountain on the moon's surface, which shatters as the craft takes off.
- Laserbeak does not spy on the Autobots through a window, but is instead concealed within a cassette deck inside their headquarters. Consequently, the whole scene of his stealthy approach is absent, and we only first see him when he emerges from hiding after the shuttle launch.
- The Autobot shuttle is shown flying through an asteroid field just before the Decepticons' attack, with Ironhide in the pilot's seat, boasting of his ability to dodge the space-rocks. This scene provides an implicit explanation for how the Decepticons were able to get close enough to board the ship without being detected (they hid among the surrounding asteroids) that the film lacks.
- Brawn is shown being blasted in half, in comparison with the shoulder-shot that takes him out in the finished film.
- Hot Rod and Daniel's journey to Lookout Mountain goes by without incident. The scene of Daniel hitting a rock on his hoverboard and being caught by Hot Rod is absent, with the Autobot simply picking Daniel up at the start of their journey, and the pair do not smash through Kup's security cordon either.
- Blurr is all but absent; the art includes him during Optimus Prime's death scene, but he was not in the script at all for this portion of the film, only showing up during the post-battle clean-up. This was a holdover from a much earlier draft of the script that had him stationed elsewhere at a forward observation post, only arriving at Autobot City to deliver news of Unicron's consumption of Moonbase One.
- The battle for Autobot City does not last through the night; Optimus Prime and the Dinobots appear to show up not long after Devastator is formed.
- The identities of the other Decepticons tossed out of Astrotrain with Megatron are left indistinct, represented only by generic silhouettes (including one Seeker, and one wing-less Conehead).
- The jettisoned Decepticons actually land on Unicron's surface, rather than floating in space in front of him while Megatron bargains. In keeping with the alternate version of Lithone's destruction, Unicron starts to surround Megatron with his acidic mist to "convince" him to accept his offer, rather than pulling him into his maw.
- Where the film shows only three other Decepticons are transformed by Unicron in addition to Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge, six figures are visible in the comic, in keeping with the script's description that Scourge and Cyclonus would have an "array" of duplicates serving them.
Other changes made to the story, usually in the name of condensing and simplifying it, which are not derived from the script include:
- The scene of the Autobots checking in on Moonbase One is omitted. As a result, Jazz does not appear in the comic.
- Ironhide dies from the first shot the Decepticons hit him with; there's no "heroic nonsense" scene of Megatron finishing him off.
- The Decepticons actually land the Autobot shuttle on the city's launch pad before Daniel spots them. Consequently, Hot Rod and Kup's battle with Blitzwing and Shrapnel is omitted.
- Other scenes cut from the "battle of Autobot City" portion of the story include Starscream's strafing run on Arcee and Springer; the Insecticons eating the door and Hot Rod and Kup smashing through them; Perceptor and Blaster's battle with the cassettes in the communications tower; and the Autobots moving the missile launcher into place (though Devastator is still shown being hit with the missile from the launcher). This means that all of Kup's scenes wind up being cut from this issue; he only appears during Prime's death scene, and any important dialogue of his needed to move the story is given to Arcee.
- Hot Rod does not interfere in Optimus Prime and Megatron's fight; Megatron simply surprises Optimus Prime with the gun.
- Optimus Prime's final words are an entreaty to the other Autobots to follow Ultra Magnus.
- The scene of the Decepticons fighting for leadership inside Astrotrain is cut.
- To create a better cliffhanger ending for the issue, the order of the Decepticons' transformations by Unicron are reversed; Scourge and Cyclonus are created first, then Galvatron.
- Though figures representing them do appear in the art, there's no mention of Cyclonus's armada; instead of having Unicron introduce "Cyclonus, the warrior, and his armada," the comic featured narration stating that Cyclonus is "the warrior who will become Megatron's ship." As we'll see next issue, in accordance with the script, Unicron does not provide Galvatron with a ship as he does in the film.
Visual differences from the film, resulting from incomplete or outdated reference material include:
- All the new movie characters are drawn to the specifications of slightly outdated characters models, which were the basis for their toys, but which were further revised for the finished animated film (most famously, Galvatron is mostly grey, instead of the purple he is in the movie). Marvel would never get the updated models, and the characters would continue to look this way in every Marvel US and UK publication.
- Spike is not wearing an exosuit, but rather an orange-red bubble-helmeted space suit.
- The Matrix is a featureless green rock.
Continuity and plotting errors
- The abridged dialogue during Megatron and Unicron's bargaining omits Unicron saying "you belong to me now," making Megatron's response of "no, you don't own me!" something on a non-sequiter.
Art and technical errors
- In the two panels that Cliffjumper makes a cameo in, he is colored like Bumblebee.
Other trivia
- Autobot City is referred to as "Fortress Maximus." This was a name Hasbro had been holding in reserve for a while; it was initially conceived for the character who would instead be named Omega Supreme, and its use here suggests they were planning to use it for Metroplex, before deciding against it. It would, of course, eventually see use the following year as the name of the 1987 Autobot Headmaster leader.
Cover
- Issue #1: The cast in a movie-poster pose
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Daniel stares into the GIANT CROTCH OF MAGNUS
Reprints
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The Transformers Winter Special 1986 (Marvel UK, 1986) -
Classic Transformers, Vol. 6 (IDW Publishing, 2010) -
The Transformers Classics, Vol. 7 (IDW Publishing, 2014)
Reprint notes
- All three issues of the mini-series were collected into one special for released in the United Kingdom. This reprint edits the date from 2005 to 2006, to keep continuity with the regular weekly comic's recent story "Target: 2006," which—working from an even older draft of the film than the one on which this adaptation was based—placed the events of the movie in that year.
