YMMV / The Transformers (Marvel)

• Adaptation Displacement: Sort of. The comics came out several months before the first episode of the cartoon, but the cartoon's the one that gets referenced constantly in every other piece of media. On the other hand, the concept of Primus comes entirely from the comics, and has become prominent in almost all forms of the franchise. His opposite number Unicron, though debuting in The Movie of the cartoon, usually has a backstory more in line with the comic rather than the cartoon.
• Awesome Art: Frequently, especially in "Rhythms of Darkness."◊
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Designated Hero: Grimlock tends to fall into this at times, but the worst example comes during the original series' final issue; he and his fellow Dinobots recklessly jump out of the Autobot's ship to chase after a single Decepticon, with several Autobots following them. This turns out to be a trap that costs the lives of many Autobots, something Prowl rightfully calls Grimlock out on. A few panels later, Grimlock starts lecturing Prowl on how "Autobots fight... to the end!" A stirring sentiment, but it doesn't change the fact that Grimlock seems to have no apparent regret for foolishly leading several Autobots to their deaths.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Many, best look at the franchise' page for them.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Rhythms of Darkness has Rodimus strung up between the otherwise demolished Twin Towers.
  • The Transformers: Regeneration One Issue #0 eventually reveals that Buster Witwicky, Spike's brother and original protagonist of the comics for a while, was killed with his wife Jessie inside a car wash by Ratbat, turning a homage to the infamous Car Wash of Doom issue of the Marvel Transformers comics into a needlessly dark and depressing send-off to Buster.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The original plan for the last storyline was going to be the Autobots going on a quest to find the Last Autobot, an ancient and legendary mythic being. Years later Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, while in a different continuity and with a different focus (the Knights Of Cybertron) has this idea as its basic premise; a crew of Autobots go off on a quest to find an ancient legend.
  • An early UK strip has a pair of onlookers see the Transformers, with one of them dismissing it as a Spielberg flick. Guess who went on to produce the live-action movies?
  • The first issue stated it was "Part 1 in a 4 part miniseries". The series would go on to run in that continuity for an official 100 issues.
• Hype Backlash: Fans of the Marvel run can be pretty quick to sell the series as better than the cartoon, and though it is more mature, fans rereading it in the modern-day might end up unimpressed. The storytelling still suffers from the series' Merchandise-Driven nature, many of the stories (especially from the Budiansky run) are resolutely camp, it lacks the focus episodes and a lot of the hokey charm of the G1 toon, and the artwork is inconsistent. It doesn't help that many of the best-regarded stories ^note  such as Target: 2006 and Time Wars were UK-exclusive, or that pretty much every modern continuity has stolen ideas from it.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Shockwave is the military commander of the Decepticons and has devoted his entire life to logic and conquest. After masterminding the original attack on the Ark that left both sides stranded on Earth, Shockwave emerged from stasis to destroy all the Autobots in a single blow. He seized control of the Decepticons away from Megatron, and attempted to use the Creation Matrix to create new soldiers for his army. Although he eventually stepped down as the Decepticons' leader, he soon manipulated Megatron into seemingly killing himself by taking advantage of his paranoid delusions. Shockwave entered a brief alliance with Cobra to gain control of Power Station Alpha and betrayed them, all so he could steal the Earth's resources for himself. When he lost his forces after being left for dead, Shockwave teamed up with Starscream to stage a coup against Scorponok and try to take command again. With intelligence to match his strength, Shockwave is one of the most dangerous Decepticons the Autobots have ever faced.
  • Ratbat was once the Decepticon's fuel auditor, but he rose through the ranks to eventually become the leader of the Decepticons. Obsessed with maximizing efficiency on all aspects of the war effort, Ratbat refused to take unnecessary risks and waste precious energy. Upon arriving to Earth, he brainwashed G.B. Blackrock into producing a line of car washes that would hypnotize its customers into supplying fuel for the Decepticons. Ratbat soon took Buster Witwicky as a hostage, and seized command over Shockwave's forces after his supposed death. Ratbat took advantage of the Autobot's splintered command after Optimus's death, and launched a surprise attack on the Ark that nearly wiped them all out. When Starscream betrayed the Decepticons to steal the power of the Underbase, Ratbat helped coordinate an offensive against him, all while planning to take the Underbase's power for himself. Despite not being the strongest Decepticon, Ratbat proved to be one of their most efficient leaders.
  • Doubledealer is a Transformer with the unique ability to transform between Autobot and Decepticon, which he uses to manipulate both sides into paying him for his services. After learning that Chainclaw was delivering a set of battle plans to the Autobots, Doubledealer kidnapped him and demanded a hefty ransom of Energon units for his release. He then transformed into his Autobot persona of "Double" and offered to deliver the ransom, while secretly pocketing it for himself. As his Decepticon persona "Dealer", he sold the plans to Scorponok before heading back to the Autobots as Double, claiming the Decepticons had double-crossed them. The two sides fought each other as Doubledealer made a clean getaway, having successfully conned both teams and doubling his profits in the process.
• Memetic Badass: Buzzsaw earned a reputation as an especially fierce powerhouse from his tenure in the Marvel comics in part because he's a tiny cassette robot. While Buzzsaw is largely a non-presence in most media^note he was rarely used in the cartoon because his toy was sold with Soundwave, who was a prominent character. Laserbeak, who was sold separately, thus received a lot more focus, Marvel showed him as a vicious Decepticon warrior who even took down Omega Supreme in a staggering display of The Worf Effect. His article on TFWiki.net leans into this with the tiny birdbot as a kind of ultimate badass.
• Memetic Mutation: Straxus's famous introduction.
• My Real Daddy: Simon Furman. Not only did he write for most of the comic and introduced several major aspects of the franchise such as the Wreckers commando unit, but he introduced some of the most core mythology that the Transformers franchise would build off of in the form of Primus that the series would be unrecognizable without.
• Never Live It Down: Optimus sacrificing himself over a video game.^note He hurt a virtual human when playing against Megatron While his willingness to die for others is well respected, this one is considered to be a bit too much. And then he's able to be revived because his mind was backed up on a floppy disk. The kind that has a real life storage capacity of about one megabyte at most.
• One-Scene Wonder: Slog's only appearance in the entire series, in "Rhythms of Darkness", helped by his unique speech pattern, and introspective nature.
• Seasonal Rot: The Budiansky issues start off okay, but soon degraded before Simon Furman takes over. Sadly, that's more than half the series (not counting the UK run or the G2 comics). However, his tenure on the book still has its fans, (most notably Lewis Lovhaug praised it in his retrospective on the whole comic series) and produced some memorable storylines like The Underbase Saga.
• Shocking Moments: Issue 50 and issue 75, both of which involve absolutely massive battles, in which numerous cast members die. The latter more so, given that Primus himself dies. That's the equivalent of a biblical story ending with God getting shot in the face.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Grimlock as Autobot leader seemed a fantastic concept, especially with an introductory story of him learning to respect humans and that a good leader needs more than strength. He promptly develops Aesop Amnesia and turns into The Caligula, sitting on a throne wearing a crown, beating up his troops and showing no interest in fighting Decepticons. Incredibly, the only one bothered enough to stand up to him is Blaster and just as the storyline builds to a confrontation between them, all the Earthbound Autobots disappear for four issues (during which Blaster was left stuffed in a cupboard and forgotten by everyone). There's a one issue wrap up where the delayed confrontation is interrupted by a Decepticon attack, then they all disappear for another four issues by which time Optimus Prime's back and the whole storyline's forgotten.
  • Optimus Prime's first death should be a dramatic moment. He's sacrificed his morals simply to win a temporary advantage in battle, and rather than live with the knowledge that he did that, allows himself to be killed, regardless of the bad position it will leave his troops in. It's just too bad he allows himself to die over cheating in a video game.
• Vindicated by History: For many years Bob Budiansky's tenure on the book was seen as an embarrassment. With many fans highlighting the childish and absurd plots(The infamous story involving Ratbat as Decepticon leader and running a Car Wash of Doom is a notable example) and Simon Furman was viewed as My Real Daddy. However, as time went on people began to learn and realize just how important Budiansky's contributions to the franchise were. He came up with the personality and tech specs of nearly all of the early characters and people started to realize he had his own share of interesting, fun, and unique stories alongside the absurd ones. Fans also became much more sympathetic and understanding of the fact that Budiansky suffered from much more Executive Meddling than Furman did. Nowadays while Furman is still regarded as the man who helped shape Transformers mythology, Budiansky has gone from being "The guy who wrote stupid plots" to "The guy who helped create Transformers".
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Nebulos, the planet where no-one wears sensible clothing.

---