History ComicBook / TheTransformersMarvel

** An interesting case is given in the adaptation of the cartoon episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006", which obviously can't fit into the continuity of the US comic due to the aforementioned disregard of the movie. While the US run of the comic dismissed the story as taking place in an alternate timeline, the reprint in the UK version of the series edits the story so that it was a fabrication Wreck-Gar told to the Quintessons.

* ComicBookAdaptation: While the comic book actually predates [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the cartoon]], there was a three-issue miniseries that adapted [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]] (which is only accepted as canon by the UK version of the comic series) and one issue was an adaptation of the cartoon episode "The Big Broadcast of 2006".

** A whole assload of characters are killed off by Starscream in the Underbase Saga, though some of them are eventually rebuilt.

** When ''The Big Broadcast of 2006!'' was reprinted in the UK, Simon Furman came up with a FramingDevice claiming it was a story made up by Wreck-Gar, which also allowed him to make an uncalled for TakeThat at the filler issue. A few years later, Marvel UK reprinted GI Joe and the Transformers after having halted US reprints to reprint UK stories and the story was presented as a US tale from the outset with no attempt to tie it in to the UK continuity.
* The "Man of Iron!" story (first [=UK=] and then reprinted in the US later on) is quite dark such as the Decepticons never talking, one missile launch reducing Trailbreaker to a pile of scrap and the Man of Iron and the Navigator being brutally killed.

*** ''Second Generation/Devastation Derby''- Megatron/Shockwave/Who cares?

*** Transformers #13-25(''Shockwave and Megatron's co-leadership'')- Megatron/Shockwave

The comic was initially set in the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse (with Franchise/SpiderMan even making an significant appearance in the third issue), but soon moved to a separate AlternateUniverse along with the ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comic to prevent ExecutiveMeddling from Creator/{{Hasbro}} interfering with Marvel's own characters. Most of the early issues were written by Bob Budiansky; he and his successor, Creator/SimonFurman, would end up having more influence on the overall ''Transformers'' mythos than anyone else.

** Franchise/SpiderMan makes an appearance in the third issue of the US version (reprinted as issues 5 and 6 in the UK version), though this was subsequently ignored by the remainder of the series. ComicBook/NickFury gets a cameo, too -- and makes a backhanded allusion to all the time [[ComicBook/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1977 Dum Dum Dugan spent fighting Godzilla!]] In the same issue, the army that attacked the Decepticons is armed with G.I. Joe gear.

** The first few issues were written as if the series took place in the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse; Franchise/SpiderMan guest-starred in #3 while Shockwave and the Dinobots are explicitly said to have crash-landed in the Savage Land. Later issues jettison this and position the story in a separate continuity, likely due to the constraints that a shared setting would place on both ''The Transformers'' and Marvel Universe.

* TeleporterAccident: A dimensional portal exploding with Megatron and Ratchet on it fuses them into a singular, misshapen entity that gets trapped in the void outside reality until the Autobots recover their screaming form at the end of "Eye of the Storm". [[spoiler:The Autobots later manage to seperate them physically, but they are linked to eachother at a subatomic level due to the fusion, and one cannot live without the other's survival.]]

* SpaceAgeStasis: Very little change seems to take place on Cybertron in the 4 million years the Ark's crew is in stasis. Taken to an incredible extreme when Shockwave and Starscream are trying to repair the Ark to escape Cybertron after Unicron's attack, and Shockwave describes the ship as being one of the best and most advanced ships available - and it's been sitting under a volcano for 4 millions years?

* SealedEvilInAnotherWorld: The prequel ''Transformers (1984}' reveals that Optimus' goal from the very start was to lure Megatron and his greatest warriors aboard the ''Ark'', and then slam it onto the nearest lifeless planet he could find, hoping that even if Megatron wasn't outright killed he'd be trapped forever. To his horror, he realizes it never occurred to him that just because a world ''seems'' lifeless, that doesn't mean life can't evolve there later, having accidentally subjected Eartha nd the humans upon it to the Decepticon's alien terrorism.

* MostWritersAreHuman: For inorganic mechanical life forms that have lived for thousands or millions of years, the Transformers as a whole certainly behave no different than humans do.

* MachineBlood: Invoked in one issue when Blaster discovers a puddle of leaked Transformer fuel and, after verifying that's what it is, calls it "the lifeblood of my people".

* Prowl and several other Autobots suggest using the life-granting power of the Creation Matrix to create Ultimate Autobots: powerful warriors they can use to crush the Decepticons. Their argument is Pragmatic: the longer the war carries on the more damage is done to Earth, therefore anything that brings about the end of the war sooner is a good thing. Optimus Prime's opposition is Idealist: The Creation Matrix is meant to bring about life, and using its life-giving properties to create beings meant only to kill would be a perversion of that function. He also fears an escalation: the creation of Ultimate Autobots would most likely lead to the Decepticons creating Ultimate Decepticons to counter them. Unusually, the Matrix itself grants Optimus Prime a vision that implies it agreed with Prowl's Pragmatism, leading to the creation of the [[CombiningMecha Aerialbots]] as dedicated war machines. Alas, Optimus's fears turn out to be accurate, as the Decepticons create the Stunticons to counter the Aerialbots.

** Then when they supposedly finally get him back to the future, he is revealed a few panels later to have succeeded to interfering with the time travel device such that it would not affect him...

** Averted in the Ratchet/Megatron two parter ''Warrior School/''Repeat Performances'', in which the two make a deal, with Ratchet promising to defeat Shockwave if Megatron frees the Autobots. Despite both making an oath, Ratchet knows Megatron will betray him, so he frees the Dinobots and sets a trap for him instead.

* EnemyWithin: Megatron finds the strength to face and defeat his demons in the form of Straxus in ''Salvage!''. Then it is retconned away. For shame, Furman.

%%* BadassInCharge: By virtue of the whole franchise.