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[[caption-width-right:350: One side makes you bigger, the other makes you smaller...]]

->''"Four million years ago, they came from '''Cybertron''', a world composed entirely of machinery... A world torn by an age-old war between the heroic '''Autobots''' and the evil '''Decepticons'''. These incredibly powerful living robots, capable of converting themselves into land and air vehicles, weapons and other mechanical forms, continue their conflict here on '''Earth'''. They are...'''THE TRANSFORMERS.'''"''
-->--Introductory blurb of the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates US]] comic

As well as the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers cartoon]], there was at the same time a comic published by Creator/MarvelComics. It is sometimes stated that the comic came before the cartoon; in truth, both went into production at the same time, though the first issue of the comic was released some time before the first episode of the cartoon.

The comic was initially set in the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse, 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.

In America, the comic was originally a four-issue limited series written by Jim Salicrup and published bi-monthly. When it became an ongoing series, it was printed monthly and written by Budiansky. It was printed on higher-quality paper than most other comics, and as a result was also more expensive. While it used the same characters, setting, and premise as the cartoon, it told a significantly different set of stories. In particular, while the Transformers in the cartoon were built by Quintessons, in the comic, they originally arose from [[MechanicalEvolution "naturally-evolving gears and pulleys."]] This was later {{Retcon}}ned into the Transformers being created by the god Primus, a part of canon later continuities adopted, such as the ''Anime/UnicronTrilogy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''.

In the [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} UK]], the comic was published weekly for most of its run, and the American comics were commonly split in two in order to stretch the material. To make up for the dramatically shortened length, the UK comic also featured original material (much of it written by Simon Furman) in the gaps between the American issues. These stories ''usually'' fit in with the American continuity, albeit with occasional twisting. After [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie the movie]], Furman started using the future cast in his stories, both to make Hasbro happy and to avoid stepping on Budiansky's toes. Each issue also featured a backup story to increase the page count; these ranged from the sensible (''ComicBook/IronMan, [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel Action Force]]'') to the silly (''ComicBook/PlanetTerry''.) Later on, after the comic went fortnightly, they were replaced by new ''Transformers'' material written by Furman; these were in colour at first, though later shifted to black and white as a cost-saving measure.

In addition, 1987 brought the new Headmaster and Targetmaster toys. Since this resulted in the appearance of a large number of toys with two {{gimmick}}s between them, Budiansky wrote a four-issue {{spinoff}} entitled ''Transformers: Headmasters'' (not to be confused with the ''Anime/TransformersHeadmasters'' {{anime}}), which introduced all the new characters as arrivals on the planet Nebulos. This series ended with the characters leaving Nebulos for Earth, to arrive in US issue 38 (UK 156.) In the UK, it was reprinted in 16 parts as the backup strip in the main comic during the lead-up.

After Budiansky suffered CreatorBreakdown as a result of trying to keep Hasbro happy, Furman was brought on to write both the US and UK comics. His focus on StoryArc[=s=] and CharacterDevelopment was considered the high point of the comic's run; however, due to a communications breakdown, the UK comics at this point drifted out of sync with the US publication. Furman initially tried to tie his backup stories more closely to the main action, but Marvel UK frequently reprinted a classic story without warning, which resulted in the backup strip referencing events that had yet to occur in the main strip. As a result, Furman said "screw this" and simply turned the backup strip into a series of light-hearted romps that never even tried to maintain continuity with the US series.

It finally ended after 80 issues in America (September, 1984-July, 1991) or 332 in Britain (September, 1984-January, 1992) due to declining interest in ''Transformers'', though Marvel would later publish the short-lived ''[[ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2 Generation 2]]'' comic as a sequel. ''Transformers Classics'' is an alternate sequel by [[Franchise/TransformersTimelines Fun Publications]], set in an AlternateTimeline ignoring the events of ''Generation 2''.

Following what they've done with the Marvel continuity of the ''G.I. Joe'' comics, Creator/IDWPublishing announced the relaunch of the Marvel Transformers continuity under the title ''Transformers: Regeneration One'', picking up 21 years after issue 80. Furman returned to write the series, along with artists Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville (who worked with Furman to produce most of the final issues of the Marvel US series, as well as numerous UK stories.) A preview issue, 80.5, was distributed on Free Comic Book Day 2012, while the series proper (starting with issue 81) launched in July 2012. This series also treats the ''Generation 2'' storyline as a divergent timeline, as the events of the G2 comic did not happen in the timeline of this series. Aside from the free issue, the series was slated for 20 issues, concluding with issue #100; an additional issue #0 was added between #94 and #95. The 100th issue was released on March 19, 2014.

Due to a scheduling issue, Guido Guidi (who has been providing the "B" covers) assumed ''Regeneration One'' art duties for Wildman on issues 93-99. Issue #0 featured artwork by Casey Collier, Geoff Senior, Jeff Anderson (no, not [[Film/{{Clerks}} that one]]), José Delbo, and Nick Roche, all of whom have worked on ''Transformers'' for either Marvel or IDW. Issue 100 featured art by Wildman, Senior, and Guidi.

In 2019, Simon Furman wrote a one-shot prequel to the comic, ''Transformers '84'', to mark the franchise's 35th anniversary. Told from the perspective of Punch, an Autobot that could infiltrate the Decepticons, and was never used in the Marvel comic, this story gave a new angle to the backstory. The unexpected positive reception led to a ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries, occurring on Cybertron before and after the launch of the Ark, and Earth in the aftermath of the ship's crash.

----
!!''The Transformers'' provides examples of:

* ActionSurvivor: Buster Witwicky becomes this.
* AdaptationalWimp:
** In the cartoon, the Dinobots were practically unstoppable, routinely overwhelming the entirety of the Decepticon forces. Here, Megatron is able to beat all five with ease.
** Its the same with the combiners. In the cartoon, it took another combiner (or an enemy of equal or greater size) to defeat one of them. In the US comic, Megatron defeats Predaking with a single blast from his fusion cannon, and in the UK comics, Galvatron easily defeats Piranacon (while underwater, even).
** In the movie, Rodimus Prime easily overpowered Galvatron, with the cartoon often depicting him as his equal, or superior. But in both the UK and US comics, he is no match for him (with the US story "Rhythms of Darkness!" showing him dead by Galvatron's hand).
** Fortress Maximus and Scorponok both get hit with this, being reduced from city sized Transformers to roughly the size of Optimus Prime. Maximus, like all his American exclusive appearances, also lacks [[Anime/TransformersHeadmasters the Master Sword]].
* ADayInTheLimelight: Really, you'd be better off trying to find chapters that are ''not'' this, given the toy-advertising nature of the comic...
* AlasPoorVillain:
** Scorponok, or more accurately, Lord Zarak. After angsting over whether or not he deserved to continue as Decepticon leader, feeling that he's only been masquerading as Scorponok all this time, he suddenly finds himself having to suck it up and help Optimus Prime rally against Unicron. He is blasted by the Chaos Bringer while ripping open Unicron's leg relentlessly alone amidst a sea of dead Transformers, and dies asking Prime if ''he did good''. His death is ultimately what gives Optimus the strength to purify the Matrix and destroy Unicron.
** Parodied ruthlessly by Furman. Starscream enacts the classic scene with the exact line mockingly in ''Victory'', while another parody is made on a cover of ''Generation 2'', this time with ''Megatron'' carrying Bludgeon's head. In this case, however, Megatron does regret killing Bludgeon, considering him a worthy leader.
** To a small extent Thunderwing, who, while a ruthless bastard, gets a tragic end when possessed by the Matrix. He regains his clarity and control of his mind briefly and painfully after remorsefully realising he had blasted his own Decepticon soldier -- only for Prime to ruin it by bashing his face in and causing him to go berserk and be in the Matrix's thrall forever.
* AlternateContinuity / AlternateUniverse: Canonically, the US and UK stories take place in different universes. ''Earthforce'' seems to be in a third universe.
** ''Generation 2'', ''Classics'', and ''Regeneration One'' are all divergent versions of the events after the conclusion of the original series. [=RG1=] goes even further and makes the ''Transformers'' multiverse a plot point.
** This is also how the Marvel comics relate to the original cartoon and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the rest of Generation 1]].
* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: Two different stories have a character make this kind of remark.
** In "The Resurrection Gambit" (issue 57 in the US version, issues 243-245 in the UK version), a damaged Megatron proclaims his identity in front of an empty (Cybertronian vagabond). The empty replies "Yep, an' I'm Lord Straxus.."
** "Bird of Prey" (issue 62 in the US version, issues 262-264 in the UK version) has a robotic gangster named B'hgdad confront Nightbeat and demand he hand over the bird sculpture because it is his property. Nightbeat replies that if the bird is truly B'hgdad's, then he's Creator/PeterLorre.
* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: (US) Issue #13 "Shooting Star!" At the time, it was advertised as the weirdest Transformers story yet ("Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom!" had yet to be written.) The plot concerns a small-time crook named Joey Slick gaining possession of Megatron (who's damaged and mostly stuck in his gun mode) and becoming one of Portland's most feared criminals. [=TFWiki=] notes that it's one of the few stories to make use of the fact that Megatron's altmode is a realistic weapon.
* AnimalMecha: The Dinobots, most notably. There are also the Predacons, Seacons, half of the cassettes, Terrorcons, Scorponok...
* {{Anticlimax}}: The comic ended on one due to Marvel cutting it short over declining sales. There was supposed to be a ''proper'' finale storyline involving the Autobots going on a journey to find the Last Autobot whilst dealing with the Decepticons and Galvatron but Furman was forced to condense it into about four or five issues. Thus the war ends after a single battle on Klo, Galvatron is defeated by being tossed into a lake, the Last Autobot is found in two issues flat, and Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, and Ratchet are killed off before their storylines can be wrapped up. Subverted now thanks to ''Regeneration One'', which is essentially giving the comic its' proper conclusion.
* AntiVillain: Circuit Breaker, very much. The only reason for her vendetta against the Transformers is because Shockwave severely injured her.
* AnyoneCanDie:
** A whole assload of characters are killed off by Starscream in the Underbase Saga, though some of them are eventually rebuilt.
** At the same time in the UK comic, the ''Time Wars'' storyline featured Galvatron and Megatron similarly cleaning shop of many characters no longer on the shelves.
** The "Rhythms of Darkness!" timeline from issue 67. Cybertron is gone, there's only a handful of Autobots left on Earth, and the corpse of Rodimus Prime is strung up between what's left of the Twin Towers. And it doesn't help that Galvatron is all too willing to exterminate his own troops for screwing up; just ask Cyclonus.
** Despite its small death count, ''On the Edge of Extinction!'' is actually truer to the spirit of the trope, since all characters, regardless of whether they were new toys, or key characters in the saga, could die. Heck, the two main characters (Optimus and Scorponok) bit the dust.
** ''Regeneration One'' is definitely running with this trope. Oh, hello, [[spoiler:Springer]]! Welcome to this continuity at last; now let's see your [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie Ironhide]] [[BoomHeadshot impression]]! And then there was [[spoiler:Megatron]]'s death. Welcome back, [[spoiler:Scorponok]]! Nice new body, [[spoiler:Grimlock]]! Hope you enjoy your death plummet into the Sonic Canyons together! Hey, look, it's [[spoiler:Arcee]]! Oh, wait, already a corpse on Junkion. Holy hell.
*** Though it seems [[spoiler:Grimlock]] was saved by [[spoiler:Primus]]. Given that [[spoiler:Grimlock is Simon Furman's favorite, you just had to know he wasn't going to die that easily]].
* ApocalypseHow: Bludgeon apparently seeks Species Extinction on Klo. ''Generation 2'' sees Societal Disruption on Earth at minimum, while ''Regeneration One'' sees Megatron carry it out to Species Extinction levels, with the threat of achieving Total Extinction.
** Then, there's Unicron, who [[BigEater eats entire planets]].
* ArcVillain: ''Regeneration One'' has Megatron for the first arc, and Scorponok for the second. [[BigBadDuumvirate Bludgeon and Soundwave act as the primary foes in the third arc]], [[BigBadEnsemble with Galvatron acting as a wildcard]]. The fourth arc features Jhiaxus, and the entire book has [[spoiler:the dark Matrix creature]].
* ArtEvolution: Some of the artists undergo this. Most notably...
** Geoff Senior -- The best-remembered artist in the whole run. At first, in ''Crisis of Command'' his art, while already head and shoulders over most of his peers, was not yet fully-developed and was not quite as unique and dynamic. In ''Victory'', his art starts getting more awesome/stylized, with many of his visuals tics becoming more prominent and the signature Senior side shot becoming more prevalent. The US run saw yet another art shift to a yet more refined, Mignola-esque style. His work in G2 was again very detailed, however, but this was more to fit in with Yaniger.
** Andrew Wildman didn't really undergo art evolution, but when Baskerville started inking his stuff, it really came into its own.
** Nel Yomtov never really cut down in block coloring (a lost art, mind you,) but he started getting better at block coloring characters into color schemes that clashed less with the background, and overall bettered his coloring techniques.
** Wildman and Senior gave the US comic a much needed shake-up in the art department with their unique, dynamic, refined art styles when they came in with Furman.
** In the UK comic, the Transformers became drawn in an overall more organic/life-like manner over time, initially being very toy-based and emotionless.
* ArtShift: Most notably, the UK comic shifted from gorgeous hand-painted colors to the printing method more akin to those in the US, then black and white.
** Kids in the UK at the time would be treated to constant art shifts as they got US stories between UK ones.
** ''Regeneration One'' issue #0 invokes this deliberately, with four different time periods being depicted by different artists, with coloring styles altered to suit.
* AscendedExtra: Xaaron, who even managed to cross the Atlantic to the US and remain a key character.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Most of the leaders of either faction are much stronger than their underlings. Often, Optimus, Megatron, Galvatron, etc. would be shown as capable of taking apart the entire armies of the opposing force.
** Grimlock, most definitely.
** Notable subversions in Xaaron for the Autobots and Ratbat for the Decepticons.
* AsYouKnow: Especially egregious in Furman's UK comics, which felt the need for the characters to remind the kids what happened the previous weeks.
* AuthorAppeal: Furman likes {{western}}s and hard-boiled detective stories, and wrote a few issues which intentionally {{pastiche}} those genres.
* AuthorTract: Bob Budinansky's final story, "The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!" ends with Roadhandler telling a group of humans not to look to the Autobot for heroes to look up to, and that they shouldn't bother looking for heroes in the first place. Instead, he implores them to have faith in themselves.
* AxCrazy:
** While several Decepticons could certainly fit this bill, special mention goes out to Megatron. In the wake of Optimus Prime's death-from-video-game, Megs is so obsessed with not having personally destroyed his foe that he crushes Brawl's head in for trying to console him. And when Brawl, the most AxCrazy of the Combaticons, is trying to be the voice of reason, you ''know'' Megatron has lost it.
** He gets worse in ''Regeneration One'', to the point where he's willing to [[DeathSeeker nuke himself]] along with [[ApocalypseHow the rest of the Earth]] just to ensure [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou his final fight with Optimus]] [[TakingYouWithMe is their last]].
** Straxus.
* BadassBookworm: Shockwave is a calculating scientist who will kick your ass. The Dinobots learnt it the hard way.
* BadassCrew: The Wreckers. Their introduction has them planning how to massacre some of the most dangerous Decepticons alive, and going from there. They're not even afraid to fight Optimus or Galvatron. And then there's their battle cry.
-->'''Wreck 'n' Rule!'''
* BadassInCharge: By virtue of the whole franchise.
* BadassNormal:
** Ratchet. He bests Megatron twice despite being a weak, non-combat-ready medic through wits and force of will, and saves all the Autobots from Shockwave (save for Optimus Prime).
*** Also, Nightbeat, who's a detective who defeats the incredibly powerful Thunderwing twice (and once he was Matrix powered!) and the planet-destroying Deathbringer, also matrix-powered. For the latter he literally talked him to death.
*** And Xaaron, who leads the autobot resistance of Cybertron to great efficiency, without an ounce of fighting skill.
*** A villainous example is Ratbat, one of the weakest Decepticons who still manages to become leader, boss Shockwave around and come extremely close to total victory for the Decepticons.
* BadassPacifist: Ultra Magnus is the strongest autobot in the first run, but is a pacifist who utterly despises war. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Magnus_V_Galvatron_Burning_Sky.jpg You still don't want to piss him off, though.]]
* BadBoss: Grimlock during his first run as Autobot commander. He had no concern for humans, and was more concerned with punishing Blaster and Goldbug than stopping the Decepticons. He basically gave Shockwave and Ratbat free reign until Fortress Maximus arrived on Earth; even then, Fort Max had to worry about the Shockwave/Ratbat faction ''and'' the Scorponok faction on his own!
** Prowl thought Grimlock was this at first in his second stint, as Grimlock didn't show any interest in preserving the Autobot-Decepticon alliance post-Unicron, but Grimlock knew the Decepticons weren't going to keep the peace either.
** Funnily enough, most of the Decepticon leaders aren't so bad, all things considered. Megatron had his moments though, and Shockwave once had Buzzsaw rip off Frenzy's arm, but apart from that they didn't do too bad. But then there's Straxus, who manages to outshine every other bad leader and then some.
** As far as his troops are concerned, Scorponok is a terrible leader. Of course, he does let [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Starscream]] live for no real reason.
* BadFuture: "Rhythms of Darkness!", written in 1989 (cover date April 1990), [[ExtyYearsFromNow set in a 2009]] where Unicron has consumed Cybertron, and Galvatron rules North America, and is in the process of getting the humans to waste their remaining weapons so he can complete his conquest of Earth.
* {{BFG}}: Megatron obviously. Galvatron and Shockwave are equally notable examples. And Omega Supreme's left arm ''is'' a [=BFG=].
* BigBad: Constantly changing. Megatron only leads the Decepticons for a small part of the comic's run; Shockwave, Scorponok, Soundwave (in the UK series), and even Ratbat had noticeably longer terms.
** Galvatron is the Big Bad in Marvel UK's prime, dominating several stories. Jhiaxus is the Big Bad of the G2 Run.
** If you split the comics into arcs (a bit nebulous in the US, but the UK comic was neatly split into various story arcs), there is usually one clear Big Bad per storyline.
** US Comics-
*** Transformers #1-4 (''The Transformers'') - Megatron
*** Tranformers #5-12 (''The New Order'')- Shockwave
*** Transformers #13-25(''Shockwave and Megatron's co-leadership'')- Megatron/Shockwave
*** Transformers #17-18 (''Return to Cybertron'')- Straxus
*** Transformers #26-41 (''Blaster and Goldbug desert'')- Ratbat (although arguably also Grimlock)
*** Transformers Headmasters 4-parter and #38 (''The Headmasters Saga'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #42- 46 (''Random hijinks'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #47-50 (''The Underbase Saga'')- Starscream
*** Transformers #51-55 (''Random hijinks...'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #56-#59 (''The Return of Megatron!'')- Megatron
*** Transformers #60-61 (''Primal Scream'')- Thunderwing
*** Transformers #62-66 (''Matrix Quest'')- Thunderwing
*** Transformers #67 (''The Human Factor'')- Starscream
*** Transformers #68 (''Rhythms of Darkness'')- Galvatron
*** Transformers #69-75 (''Unicron Saga'')- Unicron
*** Transformers #71-73 (''Decepticon Civil War'')- Shockwave
*** Transformers #76-80 (''End of the Road!'')- Bludgeon
*** Transformers #78-79 (''The Last Autobot'')- Galvatron
*** ''GI-Joe and the Transformers''- Megatron/Shockwave and Cobra Commander/Serpentor
*** ''The Transformers: Generation 2''- Jhiaxus

** Marvel UK
*** ''Man of Iron''- None, really. Starscream is the most senior Decepticon seen, although he's presumably been sent by Megatron.
*** ''The Enemy Within''- Megatron
*** ''Raiders of the Last Ark''- Aunty
*** ''The Wrath of Guardian/Grimlock!''- Shockwave (he sets Guardian on the Ark)
*** ''Decepticon Dam-Busters!''- Megatron
*** ''Christmas Breaker''- Circuit Breaker
*** ''Crisis of Command!''- Soundwave
*** ''The Icarus Theory''- Professor Morris
*** ''Dinobot Hunt''- Soundwave
*** ''Second Generation/Devastation Derby''- Megatron/Shockwave/Who cares?
*** ''In the National Interest''- Forsythe (Triple I) and Megatron
*** ''Target: 2006''- Galvatron
*** ''Prey!''- Straxus
*** ''Wanted: Galvatron- Dead or Alive''/ ''Fallen Angel''- Galvatron
*** ''Ancient Relics''- Megatron
*** ''Worlds Apart''/''The Final Conflict''- Scorponok
*** ''Kup's Story''- Tyroxians
*** ''Headhunt''/''Ladies' Night''- Shockwave
*** ''The Legacy of Unicron''- Unicron
*** ''Enemy Action/Salvage/Wrecking Havoc/Dry run/Altered Image'' (Galvatron assorted stories)- Galvatron
*** ''City of Fear!''- Flame
*** ''Deadly Games''- Zabra
*** ''Space Pirates!''- Ghyrik (Quintessons)
*** ''Time Wars''- Galvatron
*** ''Survivors!''- Limbo Creatures
*** ''Dark Rodimus saga''- Unicron
*** ''Carnivac/Survivors/Mayhems saga''- Snarler
*** ''(Double)Deal of the Century''- Doubledealer
*** ''Deathbringer!''- Deathbringer
*** ''The Big Shutdown!/Assault on the Ark!/Rage!''- Thunderwing
*** ''Demons''/''Dawn of Darkness''- Demons
*** ''Penchance to Dream''- Galvatron
*** #261-277 (''Transformers: Earthforce- Starting Over!'')- Megatron/Shockwave
*** #278-#289 (''Transformers: Earthforce- End of the Road'')- Starscream/Soundwave
*** ''The Magnificent Six''- Megadeath
*** ''Another Time and Place!''- Bludgeon

** BigBadDuumvirate: Megatron and Shockwave from US #14-19, operating separately until #19, at which point Shockwave is relegated to TheDragon; Shockwave and Ratbat from #31-#39; Ratbat and Scorponok after that, up to #50.
** GreaterScopeVillain: Unicron, obviously, in both Legacy of Unicron and Issues 60-75 of the Marvel Run. In fact, Simon Furman's Marvel run was what established Unicron as more than simply a big robot or worse still, a fish-monkey's pet.
*** Galvatron is this in the UK comics even in arcs where he isn't the direct threat, as several arcs either focus on measures taken to deal with him or the impact of his mucking around with the timestream.
*** Liege Maximo in the G2 comics
* BigDamnHeroes: Optimus, as always, is a walking one.
** First in Crisis of Command, where he wipes out the entire Decepticon army to save Bumblebee.
** Also Time Wars when he escapes Limbo to battle Galvatron after all else have fallen.
** Also when he saves Hot Rod and the Autobots from the malfunctioning Guardian Unit.
** Ultra Magnus in Target: 2006.
** Grimlock's party actually come to Optimus Prime's rescue with one of these in the last issue.
* BigGood:
** Usually Optimus Prime, Emirate Xaaron or both, although a few other Autobots take turns, notably Grimlock and Fortress Maximus.
** Rodimus Prime is the leading force of good in Marvel UK's post-movie stories.
** And if we take ''this'' one by the various arcs:
** US comic arcs:
*** Transformers #1-4 (''The Transformers'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #5-8 (''The New Order'')-Ratchet
*** Transformers #9-12 (''Prime Time'')-Prowl
*** Transformers #13-24 (''Megatron and Shockwave join leadership'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #17-18 (''Return to Cybertron'')-Perceptor
*** Transformers #25-27 (''Funeral for a Friend'')-Perceptor/Grimlock
*** Transformers #28-41 (''Blaster and Goldbug desert'')-Blaster
*** Headmasters miniseries and Transformers #38-40 (''The Headmasters Saga'')-Fortress Maximus
*** Transformers #42-59 (''Random hi-jinks/Underbase/Return of Megatron'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #60-61 (''Primal Scream'')-Emirate Xaaron
*** Transformers #62-66 (''Matrix Quest'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #67 (''The Human Factor'')-GB Blackrock
*** Transformers #68 (''Rhythms of Darkness'')-Prowl
*** Transformers #69-75 (''Decepticon Civil War/Unicron'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #78-79 (''The Last Autobot'')-Fortress Maximus
*** Transformers #76-80 (''End of the Road'')-Grimlock/Optimus Prime
*** GI Joe and the Transformers-Optimus Prime/Blaster and Hawk
*** Generation 2-Optimus Prime
** And the UK arcs:
*** ''Man of Iron/The Enemy Within/Raiders of the Last Ark/Decepticon Dam-Busters''-Optimus Prime
*** ''The Wrath of Guardian/The Wrath of Grimlock''-Ratchet/Prowl
*** ''Christmas Breaker/Crisis of Command/The Icarus Theory/Dinobot Hunt/Devastation Derby/Second Generation''-Optimus Prime
*** ''In the National Interest''-Grimlock
*** ''Target 2006''-Jetfire
*** ''Prey''-Optimus Prime/Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Fallen Angel''-Grimlock
*** ''Wanted: Galvatron''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Ancient Relics/Grudge Match''-Grimlock
*** ''Worlds Apart''-Highbrow is the most senior Autobot seen, although he was presumably sent by Fortress Maximus
*** ''The Final Conflict''-Fortress Maximus
*** ''Kup's Story''-Kup
*** ''Headhunt/The Legacy of Unicron''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Ladies' Night''-Goldbug
*** ''Enemy Action''-Springer, although he may simply be representing Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Salvage/Deadly Games''-Ultra Magnus
*** ''City of Fear/Wrecking Havoc''-Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Space Pirates''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Time Wars''-Optimus Prime
*** ''Survivors/Carnivac and Mayhems saga''-Springer
*** ''Aspects of Evil/Dark Rodimus arc''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''(Double)deal of the Century/Deathbringer/Assault on the Ark''-Optimus Prime
*** ''The Big Shutdown''-Nightbeat
*** ''A Small War/Demons/Dawn of Darkness''-Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Perchance to Dream''-Prowl
*** ''Earthforce''-Grimlock
*** ''The Magnificent Six/Another Time and Place''-Optimus Prime
* BittersweetEnding: ''Regeneration One'', to be sure. See also EarnYourHappyEnding.
* BlatantLies: In #103 of the UK run, a 'valiant' Deception (Octane) back on Cybertron tells his superior, Straxus, of how he bravely stood up to the combined might of Optimus Prime (stranded there at the time) and Ultra Magnus, when they attacked a slave-labor camp... except that in reality, he turned tail and fled as soon as he was able. Straxus, being the intelligent BrainInAJar that he is, (or rather, disembodied head in a jar) doesn't believe a word of it, and easily infers what ''really'' went on.
* BodyHorror: A space bridge explosion horrifically fuses Megatron and Ratchet into a single, pained misshapen creature, which runs rampant through the Autobots' base when Megatron has control, but begs for a MercyKill from Optimus when Ratchet has control in "The Price of Life!".
* BondVillainStupidity: Most of the Decepticon leaders at one point or another, but a rogue ''Autobot'', Flame, is the one most played straight, since he really has no reason to leave Xaaron and the Wreckers alive.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The UK letters page was answered in-character by a Transformer (Soundwave, Ratchet, Grimlock, Dreadwind, and Blaster all had a spell on the page). Their answers frequently broke the fourth wall.
* BrickJoke: Issue 80, the final one of the US run, featured the legend "#80 in a four-issue limited series" above the title, referencing the series' origin as a mini-series that was expanded into an ongoing monthly title.[[note]]It was unusual for Marvel, as at the time ''The Transformers'' became an ongoing, ongoing series that were spawned from limited series usually restarted the numbering. The ongoing spinoffs, though, often occurred months after the original miniseries ended, while ''The Transformers'' #5 came out one month after #4. By the time #80 came out, Marvel wasn't using that style of legend for their miniseries anymore, but the creative team brought it back anyway.[[/note]]
** ''Regeneration One'' brought it back again, this time saying "[[UpToEleven #100 in a four-issue limited series]]".
* BringIt: Galvatron to Hook, Line and Sinker in Primus' chamber.
* CallBack:
** ''A Savage Circle'' is more or less this, with the Ark once more falling to Earth, entombing all its occupants once more.
** Only for the UK readers- the end of the issue right before the proper introduction of Ratchet (The Lesser of Two Evils in the US) has the blurb 'The Last Autobot?' (Ratchet, obviously). At the end of 'A Savage Circle', where Ratchet exits, stage right, we are treated to a blurb telling us the next issue is called 'The Last Autobot!'.
** In the first issue, an offhand mention is given to Megatron's desire to turn Cybertron into a spacecraft and never mentioned again. 150+ issues in the UK later and its the central plot of the City of Fear storyline.
* CanonDiscontinuity:
** The miniseries adaptation of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]] is ignored by the US version of the main series.
** 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.
** The crossover miniseries with ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' wasn't reprinted in the UK version until much later in the comic's run due to the ''Action Force'' comics not yet being brought up to speed on the G.I. Joe comic's continuity. Consequently, Bumblebee was given a different explanation for becoming Goldbug (he was rebuilt by Wreck-Gar in "Hunters" after Death's Head killed him in "Wanted: Galvatron - Dead or Alive!") and Dirge remained alive in the UK continuity. When the time finally came to reprint the ''G.I. Joe'' crossover, it was stated to not be in continuity.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The reason Shockwave didn't kill Megatron when he took command the first time, though he makes it clear that if Megatron tries anything this might change.
* TheCavalry: During the "City of Fear" storyline, Xaaron sends Flywheels to find [[EnemyMine help]] against the hordes of zombie Transformers. Despite the Wreckers assuming the Decepticon will simply abandon them, Flywheels indeed returns, bringing Trypticon with him.
* CerebusSyndrome:
** Largely averted in the UK stories. In the US stories however, Furman's arrival marks the entrance of darker, more mature storylines.
** The ''Generation 2'' comic manages to be even darker in tone, with death being more prevalent than ever.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** Ultra Magnus in the UK comics. He's left behind on Cybertron and never seen or mentioned again, not even when the characters return there. (The post-movie version of Magnus may well have had a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped on him]], since he is last seen being carried away injured after having a trio of Decepticons tear into him, but he isn't mentioned again either so it's hard to be sure.)
** Buster Witwicky just vanishes after the Underbase Saga.
* CityOfAdventure: Portland, Oregon.
* ClingyCostume: Thanks to the injuries she received from Shockwave, Circuit Breaker regains her mobility using a revealing suit of electronic armor that she apparently can't remove.
* 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".
* ContinuitySnarl:
** In the very first issue, it is implicity stated that the Ark's computer couldn't scan organic life, leading it to mistake human vehicles and objects as the planet's native life forms, and scan these forms for the Transformers to disguise themselves as. Not long after, the Dinobots' backstory showed the Ark scanning dinosaurs for the Dinobots to resemble, despite dinosaurs being organic life, which it was incapable of recognising later. The only thing close to an explanation for this is a claim that the computer "[[HandWave wasn't feeling too well]]" at the time the Dinobots were deployed.
** In one issue of the UK comic, Donny Finkleberg, aka "Robot-Master" broadcast a battle for Decepticon leadership between Megatron and Shockwave to the world, even being so kind as to explain who they were and why they were fighting. This contradicted the purpose of the whole "Robot-Master" persona (created by the government and encouraged by Megatron), which was to convince the people that there were no factions between the Transformers, and that they were all destructive machines under the command of a human villain.
** The easiest way to resolve ''Earthforce'' is to stick it in an alternate universe.
** After the "Time Wars" arc, it was revealed [[spoiler:that the Megatron who worked with Galvatron was actually a clone of the original. This ignores how Galvatron was shown remembering events from the clone's perspective]].
* CrapsackWorld:
** Modern day Cybertron is this for the Autobots.
** Earth in the alternate 2009, overrun by Galvatron's Decepticons, although they're largely contained to North America.
** [[spoiler:Earth in 2012, in ''Regeneration One'', with Megatron having [[ApocalypseHow nuked the planet]].]]
* {{Crossover}}:
** There was a four-issue miniseries that crossed over with ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' which was only in continuity in the US version of the comic (it was reprinted in the UK comic, but several years later, and was clearly not in continuity with the UK strips). The only changes that carried on to the main comic were Dirge being destroyed and Bumblebee being rebuilt as Goldbug, the latter of which was given a different explanation in the UK comic and was eventually undone in both versions of the comic.
** ''Generation 2'' was in fact introduced in the form of a PoorlyDisguisedPilot inside a later crossover with the aforementioned ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' comic.
** The UK comics had its own crossover with their ''Franchise/GIJoe'' counterpart, ''Action Force''.
** 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!]]
*** It should be noted that in this same issue, the army that attacked the Decepticons was armed with G.I. Joe gear.
* CurbStompBattle: Megatron and Shockwave's first fight lasts all of a few pages, and decidedly in Shockwave's favor (in Megatron's defense he was still recovering from wounds, and not in peak condition).
* CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul: Shockwave, very much.
* DeathIsCheap:
** Optimus Prime gets killed, but survives thanks to having his mind preserved on a floppy disk before he can get a new body built. But then, [[LateArrivalSpoiler that's a given]].
** Megatron appears to get killed when he makes a space bridge explode while he's still on it, but he later returns unscathed.
** Lampshaded in ''Generation 2'' and ''Regeneration One''.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: In the UK storyline "Salvage!", [[spoiler:Ultra Magnus recovers from his HeroicBSOD and soundly defeats Galavatron, breaking his long losing streak, and wounding Galvatron badly enough to force him to retreat]].
* DependingOnTheArtist:
** Jose Delbo draws Soundwave with an actual face. Nel Yomtov colored him purple, though the UK artists kept him his proper blue.
** The character models could change from toy-based to animation-based from one story to the next. Most early UK-exclusive stories tended to have more toy-accurate characters.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Happens with some of the characters, particularly when comparing their behavior in stories written by Bob Budiansky vs. those by Simon Furman. Grimlock, for example, was a vain, power-mad DesignatedHero under Budiansky, whereas Furman depicts him as a NobleSavage of a ProudWarriorRace.
* DestroyTheSecurityCamera: In Issue #13 ("Shooting Star"), a damaged, mindless Megatron is found by Joey Slick, a small-time crook, who uses him in gun mode to go on a crime spree. When Joey robs a bank, he orders Megatron to take out the security cameras first.
* DeusEstMachina: Primus and Unicron are more important in the Marvel series than in the rest of G1.
* DeusExMachina: In "Rhythms of Darkness", Galvatron is just about to shoot Spike, when Hook, Line and Sinker (Unicron's minions) show up, capture him and drag him to the past. Granted, Unicron sent them forward in time for that specific purpose, but it's still remarkably coincidental that they'd arrive at that specific moment.
* DiabolusExMachina: Shockwave at the end of the first 4-part miniseries, where he appears with little foreshadowing and takes down all the Autobots in one shot.
* DistantFinale: The epilogue of ''Regeneration One''.
* DistractedByMyOwnSexy: Sunstreaker in Penchance to Dream.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Poor, poor Ultra Magnus.
** Blurr is another notable case, being decapitated by Galvatron so he can present his head to Rodimus Prime and drive him towards TheDarkSide.
* DrowningMySorrows: Darkwing and Dreadwind in ''Out for Lunch!''.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** At the beginning of the series, both sides used "fuel", and figuring out how to create it from Earth's resources was a major plot point. By issue 14, energon cubes, along with their being created from almost any "energy source" along the lines of the cartoon had appeared, but fuel would continue to be used and referenced for a while, until energon fully took its place.
** 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.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: The first few issues based characters' appearances exclusively on their action figures, which resulted in characters having extremely deformed-looking vehicle modes with robot kibble hanging off them, characters that had no hands, characters who had no ''heads''...
* EarnYourHappyEnding:
** The 80th and final issue of the original Marvel Comics run ends with the power of the Autobot Matrix and The Last Autobot restoring Cybertron and the Autobots vowing to help the Klozians rebuild their world and usher in a new era of peace while the surviving Decepticons are forced to make a temporary retreat.
** IDW Publishing's maxiseries continuation ''Regeneration One'' has this happen big time, especially considering that the series began with a HappyEndingOverride. [[spoiler:The Dark Matrix Fragment has been destroyed once and for all, the Great War is over, the galaxy is rebuilding, Megatron and Galvatron have been defeated, Spike overcomes his past, Grimlock redeems himself, and the remaining Decepticons pull a HeelFaceTurn. Optimus Prime is dead but thanks to his tutelage Rodimus will go on to lead the Autobots into a bright future. And perhaps best of all, the Transformers (even though Cybertron itself is lost) have managed to find a new purpose in existence beyond their ForeverWar... traveling the galaxy and helping the other races find peace. The ending shows Rodimus, eons later when he seems to be the last Transformer alive, finally dying and allowing his energy to essentially recharge Cybertron, thus giving a new generation of Cybertronions a chance at life. That life being the Maximals and Predacons...]]
* EldritchAbomination:
** Unicron is larger than any of the Transformers and is also the most powerful villain.
** The [[spoiler:dark Matrix creature]]. Especially in ''Regeneration One''.
* EnemyCivilWar: At various points, there has been Megatron vs Shockwave, Shockwave vs Ratbat, Ratbat vs Scorponok, Scorponok vs Shockwave again, Scorponok vs Megatron, and Scorponok vs Megatron vs Galvatron.
* EnemyMine: In several UK stories, Autobots and Decepticons must join forces against a greater threat, such as Flame and Unicron. The US series saw them join forces against Starscream in the Underbase saga.
** A particularly unique example is in Time Wars where the Autobots and Decepticons of two eras band together to stop the Con's own leaders- Galvatron and Megatron.
* 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.
* EvilerThanThou: In "On The Edge of Extinction!", [[spoiler:the Dark Matrix creature attacks Unicron, threatening to destroy him. After a moment's struggle, Unicron realizes that the pure good within the Matrix that he feared has been smothered. He points out that what remains is evil, an area in which he has no equal - which he proves by destroying the Dark Matrix creature]].
* FlashStep: Blurr's special ability.
* FirstNameBasis:
** Impactor with Emirate Xaaron.
** Optimus with his closest allies- the 'cons and most bots call him 'Prime'.
* [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]]: ComicBook/DeathsHead
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Xaaron to Springer after he has a brief HeroicBSOD.
** Ravage has an epic one when he manages to cure Shockwave of his insanity with logic.
* GiantMook: The gestalts.
** Also, Guardian Units.
* GladiatorGames:
** Popular on Cybertron before the Decepticon uprising. Megatron himself started off as a gladiator.
** Ultra Magnus becomes an unwilling participant of one in ''Deadly Games''
** In ''The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire'', Megatron is subjected to this by the Decepticon Tirumvirate...only to rile the audiences in his favor and have them blow the Tirumvirate's heads off.
* GodzillaThreshold:
** Space Pirates has Autobot City under siege by the Quintessons and most of the Autobots captured. Out of options, Hot Rod is forced to activate the core of Autobot City, Metroplex, despite the damage his waking up will do to the city.
** After Optimus mysteriously vanishes, three nigh-invincible Decepticons from the future turn up and kick everyone's ass, with one of them (ole' Galvy) just literally laughing off the Autobots' full prowess. Ironhide despairs enough for him to free Megatron and ask for his leadership to stop the 2006 Decepticons.
** Used again in the Unicron Saga, with Prime surrendering to the 'cons to convince them to work with him to defeat Unicron. Viewed a necessity at the time as Thunderwing had disappeared with the Matrix, and Optimus was out of options.
** And also in Time Wars.
** And in Space Pirates, making it a story where two thresholds are crossed to deal with the threat.
** And in G2. Funnily enough all of these are written by Simon Furman.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Apeface incapacitates Rampage with his arm. Sounds normal? Well, mind you, that arm had been recently ripped off by Rampage...
** Galvatron incapacitates Kup and Blurr for several issues by throwing Magnus at them.
* TheGrimReaper: Deathbringers are a unique variant, who basically euthanize planets which are already dying.
* GutPunch:
** Xaaron's death in ''On the Edge of Extinction!'' indicates that yes, major characters can and will die.
** Shockwave's death in the Legacy of Unicron story showed that the gloves were off- in a future timeline, no one was safe.
* HappyEndingOverride: The Creator/IDWPublishing continuation ''Regeneration One'' starts by undoing the conclusion of the original Marvel comic. The Decepticons have come back to reclaim Cybertron, they have destroyed the Last Autobot, Earth is in ruins because of a revived Megatron and the Autobot's former ally Spike Witwicky now despises the Autobots and wants them dead.
* TheHeartless: The Limbo creatures in both G2 and ''Resurrection!'' feed off negative emotions and subject their victims to death Freddy-Krueger style in their dreams.
* HarmfulHealing: A substance called "Nucleon" was developed on a robotic planet to serve as a miracle cure, but the patients who were treated with it went insane and murdered their doctors. Grimlock tries to access Nucleon in order to revive his deactivated Dinobot comrades and battles through a series of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent robotic zombies]]. Once at the island where the Nucleon is stored, he learns that the patients were not hoarding the substance, but protecting others from it. Nucleon revitalizes mechanoids but has horrible side effects; in one instance, a patient was brought back to life along with the malfunction that killed him, and must now suffer through yet another slow, painful death. Grimlock tests Nucleon on himself and it results in paralysis, followed by the loss of his transforming ability. He has to literally shed his old body and get a vastly superior and improved form of his humanoid self, [[ShapeshifterModeLock though without any transforming ability]].
* HeelFaceTurn: Walter Barnett, head of the government branch Triple I. He initially saw all Transformers as dangerous menaces, but over time, realized that the Autobots were friendly. Unfortunately, he was unable to convince his superiors of this.
* HeroAntagonist: The Wreckers and Ultra Magnus serve the roles of antagonists who are technically the good guys in the story "Prey!", where they believe that the real Optimus is a Decepticon impersonator due to bad intel.
* HeroicBSOD: Ultra Magnus falls into this after repeated defeats at Galvatron's hands. When they encounter each other again in the "Salvage" two-parter, he reacts by falling to his knees, and emitting a BigNo. [[spoiler:Fortunately, he recovers upon seeing Galvatron beating up the Sparkabots, and finally defeats Galvatron.]]
* HeroicSacrifice:
** The UK series' "City of Fear" storyline ends with the zombified Impactor sacrificing himself to prevent Cybertron from being destroyed.
** The ''Generation 2'' comic has Fortress Maximus and Spike Witwicky give their lives to stop Megatron after he stole the Ark.
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Optimus Prime himself at the end of ''Regeneration One''. Rather fittingly he dies in the arms of Rodimus who, thanks to Prime's teachings, will go on to become the new hero. However, the same issue shows Rodimus himself dying of old age eons later.]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: The story "Used Autobots" gives us Big Steve, a ConArtist who knows every trick in the book, rolling back his cars' mileometers to make them seem less used, and tricking some new parents into buying a shabby old car, claiming it to be a perfect family vehicle.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** Optimus Prime asks a human to destroy him because he endangered bystanders in a ''video game'' fight against the Decepticons... even though Megatron was cheating at the time. ItMakesSenseInContext, but Optimus' action was still stupid.
** 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.
* HopelessWar: The entire story, essentially, and the tragedy of the Autobot-Decepticon war (well summed up by Soundwave's ''Killing Joke'' homage in Space Pirates). Also, the key idea behind the first half of G2, as we learn in the first issue (as well as the Marvel UK future timeline) that the only 2 outcomes to the war are either its eternal continuation or self-destruction of both races. [[spoiler:The ''Regeneration One'' series subverts this, ending with the Autobots and Decepticons making peace with each other, and finding a new destiny as explorers.]]
* HopeSpot:
** Various through the Wanted: Galvatron arc, first with Galvatron's temporary defeat at Magnus' hands, then his temporary KO after Rodimus Prime frying him with his own siphon's power. Problem is, Galvy is easy to knock down but taking him out is a whole 'nother story....
** 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...
** The greatest one, however, is easily the the Autobots' victory at the end of the first mini...only for them to be obliterated by Shockwave.
** In a similar vein, the ending of the first issue of ''Matrix Quest'', ''Birds of Prey!'', where Nightbeat and his team restores Pzazz before being blasted in the back by the Decepticons.
** In ''Dark Creation'', after getting their asses thrashed, it appears that Bumblebee finally manages to retrieve the Matrix while Thunderwing is distracted in combat with the Matrix-spawn creature, and the issue even appears to end with Optimus welcoming his warriors home....only to find out Thunderwing had managed to recapture the Matrix and had hijacked the Autobots' ship.
* HostileShowTakeover: The UK issue where Ratchet took over the letters page due to Soundwave being indisposed.
* HumanAliens: The Nebulans even refer to themselves as humans a few times.
* IAmYourOpponent: Magnus to Galvatron in the final issue of the ''Wanted: Galvatron'' epic.
* IHatePastMe: Galvatron doesn't take seeing Megatron again very well. He just barely stops himself from crushing Megatron's head.
** In the UK comics Galvatron objects less violently to his past self but still (justifiably, since Galvatron attempted to reason with Megatron in both cases only for the latter to thoughtlessly and pointlessly attack him.) views him as an irrational and a lesser embarrassment.
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Megatron's black hole cannon is incredibly powerful, but if used will destroy all around him.
* InterspeciesRomance: Sludge falls for a human reporter, who is a bit weirded out by the concept of a giant alien robot crushing on her. His fellow Dinobots mock him for it.
** And in the UK comics, a woman named Cindy falls for Ultra Magnus.
* {{Introdump}}[=/=]ProductPromotionParade: Especially egregious in issue #1, where over two-dozen Autobots and Decepticons were introduced in the span of two-and-a-half pages.
* IOweYouMyLife: Outback's reason for following Optimus and helping him against the Wreckers and freaking Ultra Magnus in ''Prey!''.
* TheJuggernaut:
** How ''do'' you kill Galvatron? It took time itself to finally put him down for good.
** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of Space Pirates, having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army. He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.
* KidAppealCharacter: Bumblebee, at first. Then Spike.
* KillEmAll:
** The main purpose of both the Underbase saga and the simultaneous "Time Wars" was to slaughter old toys and bring the cast down to a more manageable size.
** [[spoiler:By the end of ''Regeneration One'', the Transformers as they were before are no more with Rodimus as the last man standing. However, following his death, he releases the Matrix's power back into the dead Cybertron, restoring life to it and laying way for new biomechanical life: Maximals and Predacons.]]
* LargeHam: You'd think it's a requisite for being in charge of the Decepticons. Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, though. Averted in the case of Thunderwing, who only becomes a ham when he's undergoing some serious SanitySlippage.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Susan Hoffman's assistants in the UK-exclusive story "Race with the Devil" bear a noticable resemblance to three of the four Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} (Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz and Peter Venkman) as depicted in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters''.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Almost too many for the writers too handle. Some issues would introduce dozens of characters at one go.
** Conversely, of course, the Underbase saga killed off dozens of characters in one go, though some of them were eventually brought back.
* LowerDeckEpisode: A shit ton given the toy-advertising nature of the comic.
** In terms of 'epics', we have the Survivors/Carnivac/Mayhems saga, focusing on minor toys and forgotten characters.
* 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".
* MadScientist: Flame, who suggests turning Cybertron into a mobile warworld, while looking like an absolute nut-job all the while. His story arc also involves him raising dead Cybertronians as zombies. Amazingly, this guy's an ''Autobot''. Well, until he got kicked out.
* MagicFloppyDisk: After getting destroyed over a video game (see HonorBeforeReason, above), Optimus Prime's entire personality was backed up on a single 5¼" floppy disk. Let's put that in perspective: those disks can hold 1.2 mb of data. How big was the last mp3 file you listened to, let alone the mind of an insanely advanced, sentient, mechanical life form that puts supercomputers to shame?
* TheManBehindTheMonsters: Flame is behind the robot zombie infestation in the City of Fear storyline.
* ManipulativeBastard: That Xaaron was a wily old buzzard. It's because of him that Optimus managed to be in charge of the entire Autobot army.
* MechanicalEvolution: Issue 1 makes an offhand mention about Transformers evolving from naturally-occurring simple machines.
* MentalWorld: Used more frequently than you would expect from a series about robots. First used in ''Resurrection!'', although this is influenced by Limbo beings. Next utilised in ''Salvage'', where Megatron engages in (what should have been) his final battle against Straxus.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: Happens to Impactor (mentor to the Wreckers, particularly Springer) when he gives his life to foil an attempt to assassinate Xaaron.
* MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: In the UK-exclusive story "Break-Away" (issue 263) Optimus Prime makes Grimlock Autobot Leader of Earth on the condition that he show some restraint. Grimlock replies that restraint is his middle name.
* MexicanStandoff: Galvatron and Rodimus have a brief one in the UK Story Fire on High. Roddy wins, but it does little more than annoy Galvatron.
* MindScrew: With the Decepticon leader already losing his head, Shockwave uses the idea that Optimus may still live to push Megatron over the edge and kill himself.
** ''Two Megatrons'' is confusing even in-universe that one of the Megatrons kills himself.
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: Happens in issue #79. Spike Witwicky, mentally fused with the Autobot Fortress Maximus, goes to Canada to stop a crazed, rampaging Galvatron. The Misfit Mobilization Moment occurs when the war-weary Spike accepts his fate and coordinates with Fortress Maximus to win the fight.
* MoodWhiplash:
** The ending of the first mini.
** Also the sudden arrival of Thunderwing while the Autobots are celebrating Pzazz's ressurection.
** Between Scorponok's epic last stand against Unicron and his heartwrenching death is a comedy sequence where Grimlock punches Unicron across the face with the Ark and Prowl takes the piss out of him before Grimmy takes the piss out of Wheeljack.
* MoralMyopia: Big Steve. Despite making a living out of conning people into buying his old cars, and selling out the Throttlebots to Triple I, he has the gall to claim that it's "not fair" when Blaster destroys the cheque Walter Barnett gave him as payment.
* 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.
* {{Motormouth}}: Blurr eventually starts speaking in a manner similar to his animated counterpart.
* MythologyGag: A pretty elaborate one. In the early stages of planning the toyline, Swoop was to be called Divebomb. Later, when the Predacons were introduced, the flying one was called Divebomb. Furman used this coincidence to give them a backstory - Swoop was originally called Divebomb, but was defeated by a Decepticon who rubbed salt into the wound by stealing his name. Swoop is still bitter about it.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Galvatron returned to 1986 barely holding on to his sanity, not helped by being attacked by a group of Autobots. Then Blaster shot him with his electro-scrambler, and that was pretty much that for Galvatron's sanity.
* NoSell: The Autobots unleash everything they have at Galvatron, mentioned to be enough to level a small city. He just stands there and laughs, before mopping the floor with them.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Cybertronian zombies in the City of Fear storyline are controlled by Flame via computer.
* PlanetEater: Unicron.
* PlanetSpaceship: Both Megatron and Flame tried to turn Cybertron into this.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The Neo-Knights were Simon Furman's attempt to get his foot in the door as one of Marvel Comics main writers. Circuit Breaker was already owned by Marvel and Rapture and Thunderpunch were all but stated to be mutants. In the letters page of the final issue, Furman even remarked that he believed the ''Transformers'' brand as a whole was at its end and that his new aim would be to create a Neo-Knights spinoff.
* {{Prequel}}: The ''Transformers '84'' one-shot and the ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries following it both serve as prequels to this comics continuity. Both have a FramingDevice of the Autobot Punch narrating the events, with the former establishing the circumstances that led to the Autobots' exodus from Cybertron using the Ark and the latter explaining what was going on at Cybertron and on Earth before the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark were eventually rebuilt and reactivated in the 1980's.
* PutOnABus: The UK version of the comic had Skids phased out by having him displaced into limbo because of time travel. To avoid inconsistencies with continuity, reprints of US stories featuring him at the time (which only had him in background roles anyway) were altered by editing Skids out or replacing him with a generic Autobot.
* RecycledTitle: "The Void" is used as the title of two completely different stories, one from the US version of the comic and one from the UK version of the comic. Considering that reprints of every US story constituted roughly half of the UK series, this likely caused some confusion.
* ReligionOfEvil: Unicron's got cultists, programmed to assasinate Primus' chosen warrior before Unicron's arrival. Optimus suggests they're brainwashed.
* {{Retcon}}: A few.
** Salicrup's offhand mention in the first issue of the Transformers evolving from naturally-occurring wheels, levers, and pulleys in issue 1 is replaced by a story about them being created by Primus during Furman's run.
** When Simon Furman reintroduced Megatron to the US series, he concocted a story about how he was blasted back to Cybertron at the end of "Gone But Not Forgotten!"; since this conflicted with established continuity, a short UK story established that the Megatron seen in "Ancient Relics!" and "Time Wars!" was actually a clone with Straxus' mind who ''thought'' he was Megatron. [[spoiler:The two Megatrons eventually fight, and the real Megatron defeats the Straxus clone]].
** The Matrix was originally a highly advanced program (of sorts), and contained within Optimus Prime's head. The "Matrix Quest" storyline changed this so that, like the movie, it was a tangible object, contained within Optimus's chest, and formed from the essence of Primus himself.
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: Take a shot every time the human authorities fire on the Autobots, either ignoring the Decepticons outright or softening the heroes up just in time for the bad guys to swoop in.
* RobotMaster: Played with by Donny Finkleberg, who called himself Robot-Master and claimed responsibility behind the Transformers' various rampages. In reality, he was recruited by the United States government, using the ruse to avoid a public panic over alien robots (no, it ''doesn't'' make sense).
* SanitySlippage:
** Megatron doesn't take Optimus' HeroicSacrifice well.
** Thunderwing goes mad in his attempts to beat the Autobots to the Matrix.
** Galvatron, repeatedly, becomes more and more insane in his desperate attempts to change the future.
** Shockwave, in the UK comics, takes the knowledge of his future demise badly, but when Megatron and Galvatron start working together, he goes right off the deep end.
* SavedByCanon: The ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries ends with the Dinobots apparently deactivated for good after Grimlock's squabble with the Ark's computer AUNTIE, but the fact that the Marvel Comics continuity has the Dinobots join the Autobots after being uncovered and revived by Ratchet as well as survive the entire run of the series makes it clear to people who've read the original Marvel Comics that the Dinobots aren't down for the count.
* SequelSeries: This continuity has three different official continuations, all of which are incompatible with one another.
** After the end of the main series, Marvel published a direct continuation titled ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2'', which lasted 13 issues (including a zero-numbered issue) after beginning with a five-part arc in ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel''.
** Fun Publications ran a comic taking place after the Marvel Comics continuity in their Transformers Official Club Magazine titled ''Transformers Classics'', which was notable for crossing over with ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass'' in an arc that ended with the ''Classics'' universe destroyed and the survivors having to share their new home with the good ''Shattered Glass'' characters.
** The Creator/IDWPublishing maxiseries ''Regeneration One'' is a continuation of the original Marvel comic that takes place 21 years after the last issue and disregards the stories exclusive to the UK version of the comic as well as the Generation 2 comic and ''Transformers Classics''.
* ShoutOut:
** The first four issues of the ''Matrix Quest'' storyline feature full-issue genre homages, often referencing a specific work: #62 references ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon''; #63 is a SpaceWestern; #64 is ''Literature/MobyDick'' [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]; and #65 is an Franchise/{{Alien}} homage.
** The denouement of the UK ''Space Pirates'' story is one to ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' with Ultra Magnus and Soundwave in place of Batman and The Joker. [[spoiler:Soundwave even makes the same pose as Joker when he bitterly refuses Magnus' overture for any sort of peaceful coexistence, saying it's far too late for that]].
** The Unicron cultists wield sais and have [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles prominent three-toed feet.]] This is almost certainly a deliberate artistic choice.
** One issue of ''Regeneration One'' features a location called Eugenesis Plaza, named after the (in)famous Transformers fanfic FanFic/{{Eugenesis}}. As a further reference, Hot Rod suffers some bad luck here, a reference to an assassination attempt performed on him in that story.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Arcee is the only female Autobot in the Generation 1 cartoon to be featured in the comic, and even then, she's only included in the UK version of the main series and the US version regards the three-issue adaptation of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]] as non-canon.
* 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?
* SpaceRomans: Pre-civil war Cybertronian society is basically Ancient Rome [[RecycledInSpace WITH ROBOTS!]]
* SpaceshipGirl: Aunty, the ship's artificial intelligence. The ''Ark'' was originally gonna be named ''Aunty''.
* TheStarscream:
** OK, Starscream is in it, but Shockwave and Soundwave both pull it off much more successfully.
** In the future, Cyclonus and Scourge are this to Shockwave himself. They succeed, albeit while under mind control.
** Galvatron. Both in the UK and US comics, any time Unicron tries to control him, he immediately starts thinking of ways to betray him.
* StrawFeminist: The UK version of the comic established in the story "Prime's Rib" that Arcee was built to appease complaints from feminists that whined about the Autobots all identifying as male even after being told that Transformers were technically genderless. Even after her creation, the feminists continued to complain over the fact that there was only one female Autobot on the team and also objected to her looking weak and being colored pink. Their ire increased when Hot Rod stated his approval for female Transformers after inadvertently colliding into Arcee.
* SuperTeam: The Neo-Knights are a team brought together to make a difference in the Transformers' war. Their members consist of Rapture, Thunderpunch, Dynamo, and recurring antagonist Circuit Breaker.
* 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.]]
* TimeTravel: The conflict of many stories in the UK comics are brought on by Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge appearing in present day from the future.
* {{Transplant}}: At the end of "The Legacy of Unicron", ComicBook/DeathsHead falls sideways through time and ends up in the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strips, making him part of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse.
* TookALevelInBadass: Bumblebee when he gets resurrected as a Pretender is visibly in awe of how much more powerful he is than before. He quickly transitions into a frontline fighter, becoming the de-facto leader of a squad composed of himself, Jazz and ''Grimlock''.
* TooYoungToDieLamentation: In the Marvel run of the series, issue #59, Blurr once laments that he is too young to die, as he is "only" 4 million years old. While it sounds like it was intended for comedy, given the ridiculous length of time that is to a human, it actually isn't. Cybertronians are so ridiculously long-lived that a million years is very close to their age equivalent of a human decade. As such, Blurr is reasonably dismayed at the prospect of being blown up by Decepticons in what would be his early 40s.
* UnbuiltTrope: As one of the first bits of Transformers media, it was quite in-depth about the nature of living robots and the horrors of war. Characters would die and stay dead including the humans, BadBoss[=/=]GeneralFailure Megatron gets replaced when he can't do his job, victories were often heavy in cost and the Decepticons would win their fair share.
* VerbalTic: Several characters have them.
** Him Grimlock have particularly noticeable one. It become more prominent after resurrection. An early explanation was that Grimlock did it to hide his intelligence. When he gets resurrected, it's because his vocal circuits didn't make the return trip.
** Wreck-Gar still talks in TV [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]], though given most of his appearances were in the UK comics, they're naturally based on things a British reader would get.
** Wheelie and his rhymes, again in the UK comics. Weirdwolf also talked in rhyme, but only when Budiansky was writing.
** Though brief his appearance was, had one Slog did.
** Statement: Shockave had a more mechanical speaking pattern on his return to the US comics. Hypothesis: Suggested to be the result of his long plummet to the ground in his last appearance. Acknowledgement: Scorponok calls him on it when they fight.
** Death's Head also has a verbal tic, yes?
* VillainWorld: Present-day Cybertron is under Decepticon control for almost the entire series (the last few issues see an Autobot-Decepticon alliance, and the planet being abandoned). Though the Autobots have reclaimed part of the planet in the main alternate future.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** A lot of effort is expended to recover Grand Slam and Rain Dance's warning about the Underbase, but once that's done, they're completely forgotten. Also the fact that Centurion is a non-sentient robot being remotely controlled by Professor Morris is completely forgotten for his final appearance in ''Ancient Relics''
** The Mechanic, a human car thief who steals some Autobot weapons. The Autobots make one attempt to track him down, the Mechanic escapes with the weapons for a second time, and he's never mentioned again.
** After being forced to build the Space Bridge, the Neutralist scientist Spanner was [[AndIMustScream incorporated into his creation]]. Despite Spanner's begging, Blaster couldn't bring himself to destroy him, leaving him stuck as the Decepticon's unwitting servant. Over thirty issues later, the Space Bridge had been phased out in favor of a new method of inter-dimensional travel, with Spanner's fate never being mentioned.
** An editor's note in the ''Classic'' trade comments on this:For all intents and purposes, Spanner is considered dead, already dying after being incorporated into the Space Bridge in the first place.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Inverted. The first issue has the Transformers astonished to discover the existence of non-mechanical life on Earth, and struggling a bit to acknowledge the humans as sentient, living beings. The Decepticons, of course, never do concede the worth of human life.
* YoureInsane: UK Issue #117; Galvatorn is about to siphon all the energy of a soon-to-erupt volcano and, instead of offing Ultra Magnus when he had the chance, drags his beaten arse to the volcano, shows him his fancy energy-stealing device, and then gloats about it. Ultra Magnus has this to say: ''"You're insane. Completely and utterly insane!"''
** Xaaron similarly calls out Flame on his suicidal plan which would have destroyed Cybertron if not thwarted, a term the mad scientist happily accepts.
* ZombieApocalypse: "City of the Dead", a storyline in the UK comics revolves around one caused by a MadScientist Autobot named Flame.
----

to:

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarvelUS-01_8019.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: One side makes you bigger, the other makes you smaller...]]

->''"Four million years ago, they came from '''Cybertron''', a world composed entirely of machinery... A world torn by an age-old war between the heroic '''Autobots''' and the evil '''Decepticons'''. These incredibly powerful living robots, capable of converting themselves into land and air vehicles, weapons and other mechanical forms, continue their conflict here on '''Earth'''. They are...'''THE TRANSFORMERS.'''"''
-->--Introductory blurb of the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates US]] comic

As well as the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers cartoon]], there was at the same time a comic published by Creator/MarvelComics. It is sometimes stated that the comic came before the cartoon; in truth, both went into production at the same time, though the first issue of the comic was released some time before the first episode of the cartoon.

The comic was initially set in the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse, 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.

In America, the comic was originally a four-issue limited series written by Jim Salicrup and published bi-monthly. When it became an ongoing series, it was printed monthly and written by Budiansky. It was printed on higher-quality paper than most other comics, and as a result was also more expensive. While it used the same characters, setting, and premise as the cartoon, it told a significantly different set of stories. In particular, while the Transformers in the cartoon were built by Quintessons, in the comic, they originally arose from [[MechanicalEvolution "naturally-evolving gears and pulleys."]] This was later {{Retcon}}ned into the Transformers being created by the god Primus, a part of canon later continuities adopted, such as the ''Anime/UnicronTrilogy'' and ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''.

In the [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} UK]], the comic was published weekly for most of its run, and the American comics were commonly split in two in order to stretch the material. To make up for the dramatically shortened length, the UK comic also featured original material (much of it written by Simon Furman) in the gaps between the American issues. These stories ''usually'' fit in with the American continuity, albeit with occasional twisting. After [[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie the movie]], Furman started using the future cast in his stories, both to make Hasbro happy and to avoid stepping on Budiansky's toes. Each issue also featured a backup story to increase the page count; these ranged from the sensible (''ComicBook/IronMan, [[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel Action Force]]'') to the silly (''ComicBook/PlanetTerry''.) Later on, after the comic went fortnightly, they were replaced by new ''Transformers'' material written by Furman; these were in colour at first, though later shifted to black and white as a cost-saving measure.

In addition, 1987 brought the new Headmaster and Targetmaster toys. Since this resulted in the appearance of a large number of toys with two {{gimmick}}s between them, Budiansky wrote a four-issue {{spinoff}} entitled ''Transformers: Headmasters'' (not to be confused with the ''Anime/TransformersHeadmasters'' {{anime}}), which introduced all the new characters as arrivals on the planet Nebulos. This series ended with the characters leaving Nebulos for Earth, to arrive in US issue 38 (UK 156.) In the UK, it was reprinted in 16 parts as the backup strip in the main comic during the lead-up.

After Budiansky suffered CreatorBreakdown as a result of trying to keep Hasbro happy, Furman was brought on to write both the US and UK comics. His focus on StoryArc[=s=] and CharacterDevelopment was considered the high point of the comic's run; however, due to a communications breakdown, the UK comics at this point drifted out of sync with the US publication. Furman initially tried to tie his backup stories more closely to the main action, but Marvel UK frequently reprinted a classic story without warning, which resulted in the backup strip referencing events that had yet to occur in the main strip. As a result, Furman said "screw this" and simply turned the backup strip into a series of light-hearted romps that never even tried to maintain continuity with the US series.

It finally ended after 80 issues in America (September, 1984-July, 1991) or 332 in Britain (September, 1984-January, 1992) due to declining interest in ''Transformers'', though Marvel would later publish the short-lived ''[[ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2 Generation 2]]'' comic as a sequel. ''Transformers Classics'' is an alternate sequel by [[Franchise/TransformersTimelines Fun Publications]], set in an AlternateTimeline ignoring the events of ''Generation 2''.

Following what they've done with the Marvel continuity of the ''G.I. Joe'' comics, Creator/IDWPublishing announced the relaunch of the Marvel Transformers continuity under the title ''Transformers: Regeneration One'', picking up 21 years after issue 80. Furman returned to write the series, along with artists Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville (who worked with Furman to produce most of the final issues of the Marvel US series, as well as numerous UK stories.) A preview issue, 80.5, was distributed on Free Comic Book Day 2012, while the series proper (starting with issue 81) launched in July 2012. This series also treats the ''Generation 2'' storyline as a divergent timeline, as the events of the G2 comic did not happen in the timeline of this series. Aside from the free issue, the series was slated for 20 issues, concluding with issue #100; an additional issue #0 was added between #94 and #95. The 100th issue was released on March 19, 2014.

Due to a scheduling issue, Guido Guidi (who has been providing the "B" covers) assumed ''Regeneration One'' art duties for Wildman on issues 93-99. Issue #0 featured artwork by Casey Collier, Geoff Senior, Jeff Anderson (no, not [[Film/{{Clerks}} that one]]), José Delbo, and Nick Roche, all of whom have worked on ''Transformers'' for either Marvel or IDW. Issue 100 featured art by Wildman, Senior, and Guidi.

In 2019, Simon Furman wrote a one-shot prequel to the comic, ''Transformers '84'', to mark the franchise's 35th anniversary. Told from the perspective of Punch, an Autobot that could infiltrate the Decepticons, and was never used in the Marvel comic, this story gave a new angle to the backstory. The unexpected positive reception led to a ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries, occurring on Cybertron before and after the launch of the Ark, and Earth in the aftermath of the ship's crash.

----
!!''The Transformers'' provides examples of:

* ActionSurvivor: Buster Witwicky becomes this.
* AdaptationalWimp:
** In the cartoon, the Dinobots were practically unstoppable, routinely overwhelming the entirety of the Decepticon forces. Here, Megatron is able to beat all five with ease.
** Its the same with the combiners. In the cartoon, it took another combiner (or an enemy of equal or greater size) to defeat one of them. In the US comic, Megatron defeats Predaking with a single blast from his fusion cannon, and in the UK comics, Galvatron easily defeats Piranacon (while underwater, even).
** In the movie, Rodimus Prime easily overpowered Galvatron, with the cartoon often depicting him as his equal, or superior. But in both the UK and US comics, he is no match for him (with the US story "Rhythms of Darkness!" showing him dead by Galvatron's hand).
** Fortress Maximus and Scorponok both get hit with this, being reduced from city sized Transformers to roughly the size of Optimus Prime. Maximus, like all his American exclusive appearances, also lacks [[Anime/TransformersHeadmasters the Master Sword]].
* ADayInTheLimelight: Really, you'd be better off trying to find chapters that are ''not'' this, given the toy-advertising nature of the comic...
* AlasPoorVillain:
** Scorponok, or more accurately, Lord Zarak. After angsting over whether or not he deserved to continue as Decepticon leader, feeling that he's only been masquerading as Scorponok all this time, he suddenly finds himself having to suck it up and help Optimus Prime rally against Unicron. He is blasted by the Chaos Bringer while ripping open Unicron's leg relentlessly alone amidst a sea of dead Transformers, and dies asking Prime if ''he did good''. His death is ultimately what gives Optimus the strength to purify the Matrix and destroy Unicron.
** Parodied ruthlessly by Furman. Starscream enacts the classic scene with the exact line mockingly in ''Victory'', while another parody is made on a cover of ''Generation 2'', this time with ''Megatron'' carrying Bludgeon's head. In this case, however, Megatron does regret killing Bludgeon, considering him a worthy leader.
** To a small extent Thunderwing, who, while a ruthless bastard, gets a tragic end when possessed by the Matrix. He regains his clarity and control of his mind briefly and painfully after remorsefully realising he had blasted his own Decepticon soldier -- only for Prime to ruin it by bashing his face in and causing him to go berserk and be in the Matrix's thrall forever.
* AlternateContinuity / AlternateUniverse: Canonically, the US and UK stories take place in different universes. ''Earthforce'' seems to be in a third universe.
** ''Generation 2'', ''Classics'', and ''Regeneration One'' are all divergent versions of the events after the conclusion of the original series. [=RG1=] goes even further and makes the ''Transformers'' multiverse a plot point.
** This is also how the Marvel comics relate to the original cartoon and [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the rest of Generation 1]].
* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: Two different stories have a character make this kind of remark.
** In "The Resurrection Gambit" (issue 57 in the US version, issues 243-245 in the UK version), a damaged Megatron proclaims his identity in front of an empty (Cybertronian vagabond). The empty replies "Yep, an' I'm Lord Straxus.."
** "Bird of Prey" (issue 62 in the US version, issues 262-264 in the UK version) has a robotic gangster named B'hgdad confront Nightbeat and demand he hand over the bird sculpture because it is his property. Nightbeat replies that if the bird is truly B'hgdad's, then he's Creator/PeterLorre.
* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: (US) Issue #13 "Shooting Star!" At the time, it was advertised as the weirdest Transformers story yet ("Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom!" had yet to be written.) The plot concerns a small-time crook named Joey Slick gaining possession of Megatron (who's damaged and mostly stuck in his gun mode) and becoming one of Portland's most feared criminals. [=TFWiki=] notes that it's one of the few stories to make use of the fact that Megatron's altmode is a realistic weapon.
* AnimalMecha: The Dinobots, most notably. There are also the Predacons, Seacons, half of the cassettes, Terrorcons, Scorponok...
* {{Anticlimax}}: The comic ended on one due to Marvel cutting it short over declining sales. There was supposed to be a ''proper'' finale storyline involving the Autobots going on a journey to find the Last Autobot whilst dealing with the Decepticons and Galvatron but Furman was forced to condense it into about four or five issues. Thus the war ends after a single battle on Klo, Galvatron is defeated by being tossed into a lake, the Last Autobot is found in two issues flat, and Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, and Ratchet are killed off before their storylines can be wrapped up. Subverted now thanks to ''Regeneration One'', which is essentially giving the comic its' proper conclusion.
* AntiVillain: Circuit Breaker, very much. The only reason for her vendetta against the Transformers is because Shockwave severely injured her.
* AnyoneCanDie:
** A whole assload of characters are killed off by Starscream in the Underbase Saga, though some of them are eventually rebuilt.
** At the same time in the UK comic, the ''Time Wars'' storyline featured Galvatron and Megatron similarly cleaning shop of many characters no longer on the shelves.
** The "Rhythms of Darkness!" timeline from issue 67. Cybertron is gone, there's only a handful of Autobots left on Earth, and the corpse of Rodimus Prime is strung up between what's left of the Twin Towers. And it doesn't help that Galvatron is all too willing to exterminate his own troops for screwing up; just ask Cyclonus.
** Despite its small death count, ''On the Edge of Extinction!'' is actually truer to the spirit of the trope, since all characters, regardless of whether they were new toys, or key characters in the saga, could die. Heck, the two main characters (Optimus and Scorponok) bit the dust.
** ''Regeneration One'' is definitely running with this trope. Oh, hello, [[spoiler:Springer]]! Welcome to this continuity at last; now let's see your [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie Ironhide]] [[BoomHeadshot impression]]! And then there was [[spoiler:Megatron]]'s death. Welcome back, [[spoiler:Scorponok]]! Nice new body, [[spoiler:Grimlock]]! Hope you enjoy your death plummet into the Sonic Canyons together! Hey, look, it's [[spoiler:Arcee]]! Oh, wait, already a corpse on Junkion. Holy hell.
*** Though it seems [[spoiler:Grimlock]] was saved by [[spoiler:Primus]]. Given that [[spoiler:Grimlock is Simon Furman's favorite, you just had to know he wasn't going to die that easily]].
* ApocalypseHow: Bludgeon apparently seeks Species Extinction on Klo. ''Generation 2'' sees Societal Disruption on Earth at minimum, while ''Regeneration One'' sees Megatron carry it out to Species Extinction levels, with the threat of achieving Total Extinction.
** Then, there's Unicron, who [[BigEater eats entire planets]].
* ArcVillain: ''Regeneration One'' has Megatron for the first arc, and Scorponok for the second. [[BigBadDuumvirate Bludgeon and Soundwave act as the primary foes in the third arc]], [[BigBadEnsemble with Galvatron acting as a wildcard]]. The fourth arc features Jhiaxus, and the entire book has [[spoiler:the dark Matrix creature]].
* ArtEvolution: Some of the artists undergo this. Most notably...
** Geoff Senior -- The best-remembered artist in the whole run. At first, in ''Crisis of Command'' his art, while already head and shoulders over most of his peers, was not yet fully-developed and was not quite as unique and dynamic. In ''Victory'', his art starts getting more awesome/stylized, with many of his visuals tics becoming more prominent and the signature Senior side shot becoming more prevalent. The US run saw yet another art shift to a yet more refined, Mignola-esque style. His work in G2 was again very detailed, however, but this was more to fit in with Yaniger.
** Andrew Wildman didn't really undergo art evolution, but when Baskerville started inking his stuff, it really came into its own.
** Nel Yomtov never really cut down in block coloring (a lost art, mind you,) but he started getting better at block coloring characters into color schemes that clashed less with the background, and overall bettered his coloring techniques.
** Wildman and Senior gave the US comic a much needed shake-up in the art department with their unique, dynamic, refined art styles when they came in with Furman.
** In the UK comic, the Transformers became drawn in an overall more organic/life-like manner over time, initially being very toy-based and emotionless.
* ArtShift: Most notably, the UK comic shifted from gorgeous hand-painted colors to the printing method more akin to those in the US, then black and white.
** Kids in the UK at the time would be treated to constant art shifts as they got US stories between UK ones.
** ''Regeneration One'' issue #0 invokes this deliberately, with four different time periods being depicted by different artists, with coloring styles altered to suit.
* AscendedExtra: Xaaron, who even managed to cross the Atlantic to the US and remain a key character.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Most of the leaders of either faction are much stronger than their underlings. Often, Optimus, Megatron, Galvatron, etc. would be shown as capable of taking apart the entire armies of the opposing force.
** Grimlock, most definitely.
** Notable subversions in Xaaron for the Autobots and Ratbat for the Decepticons.
* AsYouKnow: Especially egregious in Furman's UK comics, which felt the need for the characters to remind the kids what happened the previous weeks.
* AuthorAppeal: Furman likes {{western}}s and hard-boiled detective stories, and wrote a few issues which intentionally {{pastiche}} those genres.
* AuthorTract: Bob Budinansky's final story, "The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship!" ends with Roadhandler telling a group of humans not to look to the Autobot for heroes to look up to, and that they shouldn't bother looking for heroes in the first place. Instead, he implores them to have faith in themselves.
* AxCrazy:
** While several Decepticons could certainly fit this bill, special mention goes out to Megatron. In the wake of Optimus Prime's death-from-video-game, Megs is so obsessed with not having personally destroyed his foe that he crushes Brawl's head in for trying to console him. And when Brawl, the most AxCrazy of the Combaticons, is trying to be the voice of reason, you ''know'' Megatron has lost it.
** He gets worse in ''Regeneration One'', to the point where he's willing to [[DeathSeeker nuke himself]] along with [[ApocalypseHow the rest of the Earth]] just to ensure [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou his final fight with Optimus]] [[TakingYouWithMe is their last]].
** Straxus.
* BadassBookworm: Shockwave is a calculating scientist who will kick your ass. The Dinobots learnt it the hard way.
* BadassCrew: The Wreckers. Their introduction has them planning how to massacre some of the most dangerous Decepticons alive, and going from there. They're not even afraid to fight Optimus or Galvatron. And then there's their battle cry.
-->'''Wreck 'n' Rule!'''
* BadassInCharge: By virtue of the whole franchise.
* BadassNormal:
** Ratchet. He bests Megatron twice despite being a weak, non-combat-ready medic through wits and force of will, and saves all the Autobots from Shockwave (save for Optimus Prime).
*** Also, Nightbeat, who's a detective who defeats the incredibly powerful Thunderwing twice (and once he was Matrix powered!) and the planet-destroying Deathbringer, also matrix-powered. For the latter he literally talked him to death.
*** And Xaaron, who leads the autobot resistance of Cybertron to great efficiency, without an ounce of fighting skill.
*** A villainous example is Ratbat, one of the weakest Decepticons who still manages to become leader, boss Shockwave around and come extremely close to total victory for the Decepticons.
* BadassPacifist: Ultra Magnus is the strongest autobot in the first run, but is a pacifist who utterly despises war. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Magnus_V_Galvatron_Burning_Sky.jpg You still don't want to piss him off, though.]]
* BadBoss: Grimlock during his first run as Autobot commander. He had no concern for humans, and was more concerned with punishing Blaster and Goldbug than stopping the Decepticons. He basically gave Shockwave and Ratbat free reign until Fortress Maximus arrived on Earth; even then, Fort Max had to worry about the Shockwave/Ratbat faction ''and'' the Scorponok faction on his own!
** Prowl thought Grimlock was this at first in his second stint, as Grimlock didn't show any interest in preserving the Autobot-Decepticon alliance post-Unicron, but Grimlock knew the Decepticons weren't going to keep the peace either.
** Funnily enough, most of the Decepticon leaders aren't so bad, all things considered. Megatron had his moments though, and Shockwave once had Buzzsaw rip off Frenzy's arm, but apart from that they didn't do too bad. But then there's Straxus, who manages to outshine every other bad leader and then some.
** As far as his troops are concerned, Scorponok is a terrible leader. Of course, he does let [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Starscream]] live for no real reason.
* BadFuture: "Rhythms of Darkness!", written in 1989 (cover date April 1990), [[ExtyYearsFromNow set in a 2009]] where Unicron has consumed Cybertron, and Galvatron rules North America, and is in the process of getting the humans to waste their remaining weapons so he can complete his conquest of Earth.
* {{BFG}}: Megatron obviously. Galvatron and Shockwave are equally notable examples. And Omega Supreme's left arm ''is'' a [=BFG=].
* BigBad: Constantly changing. Megatron only leads the Decepticons for a small part of the comic's run; Shockwave, Scorponok, Soundwave (in the UK series), and even Ratbat had noticeably longer terms.
** Galvatron is the Big Bad in Marvel UK's prime, dominating several stories. Jhiaxus is the Big Bad of the G2 Run.
** If you split the comics into arcs (a bit nebulous in the US, but the UK comic was neatly split into various story arcs), there is usually one clear Big Bad per storyline.
** US Comics-
*** Transformers #1-4 (''The Transformers'') - Megatron
*** Tranformers #5-12 (''The New Order'')- Shockwave
*** Transformers #13-25(''Shockwave and Megatron's co-leadership'')- Megatron/Shockwave
*** Transformers #17-18 (''Return to Cybertron'')- Straxus
*** Transformers #26-41 (''Blaster and Goldbug desert'')- Ratbat (although arguably also Grimlock)
*** Transformers Headmasters 4-parter and #38 (''The Headmasters Saga'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #42- 46 (''Random hijinks'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #47-50 (''The Underbase Saga'')- Starscream
*** Transformers #51-55 (''Random hijinks...'')- Scorponok
*** Transformers #56-#59 (''The Return of Megatron!'')- Megatron
*** Transformers #60-61 (''Primal Scream'')- Thunderwing
*** Transformers #62-66 (''Matrix Quest'')- Thunderwing
*** Transformers #67 (''The Human Factor'')- Starscream
*** Transformers #68 (''Rhythms of Darkness'')- Galvatron
*** Transformers #69-75 (''Unicron Saga'')- Unicron
*** Transformers #71-73 (''Decepticon Civil War'')- Shockwave
*** Transformers #76-80 (''End of the Road!'')- Bludgeon
*** Transformers #78-79 (''The Last Autobot'')- Galvatron
*** ''GI-Joe and the Transformers''- Megatron/Shockwave and Cobra Commander/Serpentor
*** ''The Transformers: Generation 2''- Jhiaxus

** Marvel UK
*** ''Man of Iron''- None, really. Starscream is the most senior Decepticon seen, although he's presumably been sent by Megatron.
*** ''The Enemy Within''- Megatron
*** ''Raiders of the Last Ark''- Aunty
*** ''The Wrath of Guardian/Grimlock!''- Shockwave (he sets Guardian on the Ark)
*** ''Decepticon Dam-Busters!''- Megatron
*** ''Christmas Breaker''- Circuit Breaker
*** ''Crisis of Command!''- Soundwave
*** ''The Icarus Theory''- Professor Morris
*** ''Dinobot Hunt''- Soundwave
*** ''Second Generation/Devastation Derby''- Megatron/Shockwave/Who cares?
*** ''In the National Interest''- Forsythe (Triple I) and Megatron
*** ''Target: 2006''- Galvatron
*** ''Prey!''- Straxus
*** ''Wanted: Galvatron- Dead or Alive''/ ''Fallen Angel''- Galvatron
*** ''Ancient Relics''- Megatron
*** ''Worlds Apart''/''The Final Conflict''- Scorponok
*** ''Kup's Story''- Tyroxians
*** ''Headhunt''/''Ladies' Night''- Shockwave
*** ''The Legacy of Unicron''- Unicron
*** ''Enemy Action/Salvage/Wrecking Havoc/Dry run/Altered Image'' (Galvatron assorted stories)- Galvatron
*** ''City of Fear!''- Flame
*** ''Deadly Games''- Zabra
*** ''Space Pirates!''- Ghyrik (Quintessons)
*** ''Time Wars''- Galvatron
*** ''Survivors!''- Limbo Creatures
*** ''Dark Rodimus saga''- Unicron
*** ''Carnivac/Survivors/Mayhems saga''- Snarler
*** ''(Double)Deal of the Century''- Doubledealer
*** ''Deathbringer!''- Deathbringer
*** ''The Big Shutdown!/Assault on the Ark!/Rage!''- Thunderwing
*** ''Demons''/''Dawn of Darkness''- Demons
*** ''Penchance to Dream''- Galvatron
*** #261-277 (''Transformers: Earthforce- Starting Over!'')- Megatron/Shockwave
*** #278-#289 (''Transformers: Earthforce- End of the Road'')- Starscream/Soundwave
*** ''The Magnificent Six''- Megadeath
*** ''Another Time and Place!''- Bludgeon

** BigBadDuumvirate: Megatron and Shockwave from US #14-19, operating separately until #19, at which point Shockwave is relegated to TheDragon; Shockwave and Ratbat from #31-#39; Ratbat and Scorponok after that, up to #50.
** GreaterScopeVillain: Unicron, obviously, in both Legacy of Unicron and Issues 60-75 of the Marvel Run. In fact, Simon Furman's Marvel run was what established Unicron as more than simply a big robot or worse still, a fish-monkey's pet.
*** Galvatron is this in the UK comics even in arcs where he isn't the direct threat, as several arcs either focus on measures taken to deal with him or the impact of his mucking around with the timestream.
*** Liege Maximo in the G2 comics
* BigDamnHeroes: Optimus, as always, is a walking one.
** First in Crisis of Command, where he wipes out the entire Decepticon army to save Bumblebee.
** Also Time Wars when he escapes Limbo to battle Galvatron after all else have fallen.
** Also when he saves Hot Rod and the Autobots from the malfunctioning Guardian Unit.
** Ultra Magnus in Target: 2006.
** Grimlock's party actually come to Optimus Prime's rescue with one of these in the last issue.
* BigGood:
** Usually Optimus Prime, Emirate Xaaron or both, although a few other Autobots take turns, notably Grimlock and Fortress Maximus.
** Rodimus Prime is the leading force of good in Marvel UK's post-movie stories.
** And if we take ''this'' one by the various arcs:
** US comic arcs:
*** Transformers #1-4 (''The Transformers'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #5-8 (''The New Order'')-Ratchet
*** Transformers #9-12 (''Prime Time'')-Prowl
*** Transformers #13-24 (''Megatron and Shockwave join leadership'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #17-18 (''Return to Cybertron'')-Perceptor
*** Transformers #25-27 (''Funeral for a Friend'')-Perceptor/Grimlock
*** Transformers #28-41 (''Blaster and Goldbug desert'')-Blaster
*** Headmasters miniseries and Transformers #38-40 (''The Headmasters Saga'')-Fortress Maximus
*** Transformers #42-59 (''Random hi-jinks/Underbase/Return of Megatron'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #60-61 (''Primal Scream'')-Emirate Xaaron
*** Transformers #62-66 (''Matrix Quest'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #67 (''The Human Factor'')-GB Blackrock
*** Transformers #68 (''Rhythms of Darkness'')-Prowl
*** Transformers #69-75 (''Decepticon Civil War/Unicron'')-Optimus Prime
*** Transformers #78-79 (''The Last Autobot'')-Fortress Maximus
*** Transformers #76-80 (''End of the Road'')-Grimlock/Optimus Prime
*** GI Joe and the Transformers-Optimus Prime/Blaster and Hawk
*** Generation 2-Optimus Prime
** And the UK arcs:
*** ''Man of Iron/The Enemy Within/Raiders of the Last Ark/Decepticon Dam-Busters''-Optimus Prime
*** ''The Wrath of Guardian/The Wrath of Grimlock''-Ratchet/Prowl
*** ''Christmas Breaker/Crisis of Command/The Icarus Theory/Dinobot Hunt/Devastation Derby/Second Generation''-Optimus Prime
*** ''In the National Interest''-Grimlock
*** ''Target 2006''-Jetfire
*** ''Prey''-Optimus Prime/Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Fallen Angel''-Grimlock
*** ''Wanted: Galvatron''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Ancient Relics/Grudge Match''-Grimlock
*** ''Worlds Apart''-Highbrow is the most senior Autobot seen, although he was presumably sent by Fortress Maximus
*** ''The Final Conflict''-Fortress Maximus
*** ''Kup's Story''-Kup
*** ''Headhunt/The Legacy of Unicron''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Ladies' Night''-Goldbug
*** ''Enemy Action''-Springer, although he may simply be representing Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Salvage/Deadly Games''-Ultra Magnus
*** ''City of Fear/Wrecking Havoc''-Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Space Pirates''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''Time Wars''-Optimus Prime
*** ''Survivors/Carnivac and Mayhems saga''-Springer
*** ''Aspects of Evil/Dark Rodimus arc''-Rodimus Prime
*** ''(Double)deal of the Century/Deathbringer/Assault on the Ark''-Optimus Prime
*** ''The Big Shutdown''-Nightbeat
*** ''A Small War/Demons/Dawn of Darkness''-Emirate Xaaron
*** ''Perchance to Dream''-Prowl
*** ''Earthforce''-Grimlock
*** ''The Magnificent Six/Another Time and Place''-Optimus Prime
* BittersweetEnding: ''Regeneration One'', to be sure. See also EarnYourHappyEnding.
* BlatantLies: In #103 of the UK run, a 'valiant' Deception (Octane) back on Cybertron tells his superior, Straxus, of how he bravely stood up to the combined might of Optimus Prime (stranded there at the time) and Ultra Magnus, when they attacked a slave-labor camp... except that in reality, he turned tail and fled as soon as he was able. Straxus, being the intelligent BrainInAJar that he is, (or rather, disembodied head in a jar) doesn't believe a word of it, and easily infers what ''really'' went on.
* BodyHorror: A space bridge explosion horrifically fuses Megatron and Ratchet into a single, pained misshapen creature, which runs rampant through the Autobots' base when Megatron has control, but begs for a MercyKill from Optimus when Ratchet has control in "The Price of Life!".
* BondVillainStupidity: Most of the Decepticon leaders at one point or another, but a rogue ''Autobot'', Flame, is the one most played straight, since he really has no reason to leave Xaaron and the Wreckers alive.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: The UK letters page was answered in-character by a Transformer (Soundwave, Ratchet, Grimlock, Dreadwind, and Blaster all had a spell on the page). Their answers frequently broke the fourth wall.
* BrickJoke: Issue 80, the final one of the US run, featured the legend "#80 in a four-issue limited series" above the title, referencing the series' origin as a mini-series that was expanded into an ongoing monthly title.[[note]]It was unusual for Marvel, as at the time ''The Transformers'' became an ongoing, ongoing series that were spawned from limited series usually restarted the numbering. The ongoing spinoffs, though, often occurred months after the original miniseries ended, while ''The Transformers'' #5 came out one month after #4. By the time #80 came out, Marvel wasn't using that style of legend for their miniseries anymore, but the creative team brought it back anyway.[[/note]]
** ''Regeneration One'' brought it back again, this time saying "[[UpToEleven #100 in a four-issue limited series]]".
* BringIt: Galvatron to Hook, Line and Sinker in Primus' chamber.
* CallBack:
** ''A Savage Circle'' is more or less this, with the Ark once more falling to Earth, entombing all its occupants once more.
** Only for the UK readers- the end of the issue right before the proper introduction of Ratchet (The Lesser of Two Evils in the US) has the blurb 'The Last Autobot?' (Ratchet, obviously). At the end of 'A Savage Circle', where Ratchet exits, stage right, we are treated to a blurb telling us the next issue is called 'The Last Autobot!'.
** In the first issue, an offhand mention is given to Megatron's desire to turn Cybertron into a spacecraft and never mentioned again. 150+ issues in the UK later and its the central plot of the City of Fear storyline.
* CanonDiscontinuity:
** The miniseries adaptation of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]] is ignored by the US version of the main series.
** 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.
** The crossover miniseries with ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' wasn't reprinted in the UK version until much later in the comic's run due to the ''Action Force'' comics not yet being brought up to speed on the G.I. Joe comic's continuity. Consequently, Bumblebee was given a different explanation for becoming Goldbug (he was rebuilt by Wreck-Gar in "Hunters" after Death's Head killed him in "Wanted: Galvatron - Dead or Alive!") and Dirge remained alive in the UK continuity. When the time finally came to reprint the ''G.I. Joe'' crossover, it was stated to not be in continuity.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The reason Shockwave didn't kill Megatron when he took command the first time, though he makes it clear that if Megatron tries anything this might change.
* TheCavalry: During the "City of Fear" storyline, Xaaron sends Flywheels to find [[EnemyMine help]] against the hordes of zombie Transformers. Despite the Wreckers assuming the Decepticon will simply abandon them, Flywheels indeed returns, bringing Trypticon with him.
* CerebusSyndrome:
** Largely averted in the UK stories. In the US stories however, Furman's arrival marks the entrance of darker, more mature storylines.
** The ''Generation 2'' comic manages to be even darker in tone, with death being more prevalent than ever.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** Ultra Magnus in the UK comics. He's left behind on Cybertron and never seen or mentioned again, not even when the characters return there. (The post-movie version of Magnus may well have had a [[DroppedABridgeOnHim bridge dropped on him]], since he is last seen being carried away injured after having a trio of Decepticons tear into him, but he isn't mentioned again either so it's hard to be sure.)
** Buster Witwicky just vanishes after the Underbase Saga.
* CityOfAdventure: Portland, Oregon.
* ClingyCostume: Thanks to the injuries she received from Shockwave, Circuit Breaker regains her mobility using a revealing suit of electronic armor that she apparently can't remove.
* 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".
* ContinuitySnarl:
** In the very first issue, it is implicity stated that the Ark's computer couldn't scan organic life, leading it to mistake human vehicles and objects as the planet's native life forms, and scan these forms for the Transformers to disguise themselves as. Not long after, the Dinobots' backstory showed the Ark scanning dinosaurs for the Dinobots to resemble, despite dinosaurs being organic life, which it was incapable of recognising later. The only thing close to an explanation for this is a claim that the computer "[[HandWave wasn't feeling too well]]" at the time the Dinobots were deployed.
** In one issue of the UK comic, Donny Finkleberg, aka "Robot-Master" broadcast a battle for Decepticon leadership between Megatron and Shockwave to the world, even being so kind as to explain who they were and why they were fighting. This contradicted the purpose of the whole "Robot-Master" persona (created by the government and encouraged by Megatron), which was to convince the people that there were no factions between the Transformers, and that they were all destructive machines under the command of a human villain.
** The easiest way to resolve ''Earthforce'' is to stick it in an alternate universe.
** After the "Time Wars" arc, it was revealed [[spoiler:that the Megatron who worked with Galvatron was actually a clone of the original. This ignores how Galvatron was shown remembering events from the clone's perspective]].
* CrapsackWorld:
** Modern day Cybertron is this for the Autobots.
** Earth in the alternate 2009, overrun by Galvatron's Decepticons, although they're largely contained to North America.
** [[spoiler:Earth in 2012, in ''Regeneration One'', with Megatron having [[ApocalypseHow nuked the planet]].]]
* {{Crossover}}:
** There was a four-issue miniseries that crossed over with ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' which was only in continuity in the US version of the comic (it was reprinted in the UK comic, but several years later, and was clearly not in continuity with the UK strips). The only changes that carried on to the main comic were Dirge being destroyed and Bumblebee being rebuilt as Goldbug, the latter of which was given a different explanation in the UK comic and was eventually undone in both versions of the comic.
** ''Generation 2'' was in fact introduced in the form of a PoorlyDisguisedPilot inside a later crossover with the aforementioned ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' comic.
** The UK comics had its own crossover with their ''Franchise/GIJoe'' counterpart, ''Action Force''.
** 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!]]
*** It should be noted that in this same issue, the army that attacked the Decepticons was armed with G.I. Joe gear.
* CurbStompBattle: Megatron and Shockwave's first fight lasts all of a few pages, and decidedly in Shockwave's favor (in Megatron's defense he was still recovering from wounds, and not in peak condition).
* CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul: Shockwave, very much.
* DeathIsCheap:
** Optimus Prime gets killed, but survives thanks to having his mind preserved on a floppy disk before he can get a new body built. But then, [[LateArrivalSpoiler that's a given]].
** Megatron appears to get killed when he makes a space bridge explode while he's still on it, but he later returns unscathed.
** Lampshaded in ''Generation 2'' and ''Regeneration One''.
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: In the UK storyline "Salvage!", [[spoiler:Ultra Magnus recovers from his HeroicBSOD and soundly defeats Galavatron, breaking his long losing streak, and wounding Galvatron badly enough to force him to retreat]].
* DependingOnTheArtist:
** Jose Delbo draws Soundwave with an actual face. Nel Yomtov colored him purple, though the UK artists kept him his proper blue.
** The character models could change from toy-based to animation-based from one story to the next. Most early UK-exclusive stories tended to have more toy-accurate characters.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Happens with some of the characters, particularly when comparing their behavior in stories written by Bob Budiansky vs. those by Simon Furman. Grimlock, for example, was a vain, power-mad DesignatedHero under Budiansky, whereas Furman depicts him as a NobleSavage of a ProudWarriorRace.
* DestroyTheSecurityCamera: In Issue #13 ("Shooting Star"), a damaged, mindless Megatron is found by Joey Slick, a small-time crook, who uses him in gun mode to go on a crime spree. When Joey robs a bank, he orders Megatron to take out the security cameras first.
* DeusEstMachina: Primus and Unicron are more important in the Marvel series than in the rest of G1.
* DeusExMachina: In "Rhythms of Darkness", Galvatron is just about to shoot Spike, when Hook, Line and Sinker (Unicron's minions) show up, capture him and drag him to the past. Granted, Unicron sent them forward in time for that specific purpose, but it's still remarkably coincidental that they'd arrive at that specific moment.
* DiabolusExMachina: Shockwave at the end of the first 4-part miniseries, where he appears with little foreshadowing and takes down all the Autobots in one shot.
* DistantFinale: The epilogue of ''Regeneration One''.
* DistractedByMyOwnSexy: Sunstreaker in Penchance to Dream.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** Poor, poor Ultra Magnus.
** Blurr is another notable case, being decapitated by Galvatron so he can present his head to Rodimus Prime and drive him towards TheDarkSide.
* DrowningMySorrows: Darkwing and Dreadwind in ''Out for Lunch!''.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** At the beginning of the series, both sides used "fuel", and figuring out how to create it from Earth's resources was a major plot point. By issue 14, energon cubes, along with their being created from almost any "energy source" along the lines of the cartoon had appeared, but fuel would continue to be used and referenced for a while, until energon fully took its place.
** 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.
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference: The first few issues based characters' appearances exclusively on their action figures, which resulted in characters having extremely deformed-looking vehicle modes with robot kibble hanging off them, characters that had no hands, characters who had no ''heads''...
* EarnYourHappyEnding:
** The 80th and final issue of the original Marvel Comics run ends with the power of the Autobot Matrix and The Last Autobot restoring Cybertron and the Autobots vowing to help the Klozians rebuild their world and usher in a new era of peace while the surviving Decepticons are forced to make a temporary retreat.
** IDW Publishing's maxiseries continuation ''Regeneration One'' has this happen big time, especially considering that the series began with a HappyEndingOverride. [[spoiler:The Dark Matrix Fragment has been destroyed once and for all, the Great War is over, the galaxy is rebuilding, Megatron and Galvatron have been defeated, Spike overcomes his past, Grimlock redeems himself, and the remaining Decepticons pull a HeelFaceTurn. Optimus Prime is dead but thanks to his tutelage Rodimus will go on to lead the Autobots into a bright future. And perhaps best of all, the Transformers (even though Cybertron itself is lost) have managed to find a new purpose in existence beyond their ForeverWar... traveling the galaxy and helping the other races find peace. The ending shows Rodimus, eons later when he seems to be the last Transformer alive, finally dying and allowing his energy to essentially recharge Cybertron, thus giving a new generation of Cybertronions a chance at life. That life being the Maximals and Predacons...]]
* EldritchAbomination:
** Unicron is larger than any of the Transformers and is also the most powerful villain.
** The [[spoiler:dark Matrix creature]]. Especially in ''Regeneration One''.
* EnemyCivilWar: At various points, there has been Megatron vs Shockwave, Shockwave vs Ratbat, Ratbat vs Scorponok, Scorponok vs Shockwave again, Scorponok vs Megatron, and Scorponok vs Megatron vs Galvatron.
* EnemyMine: In several UK stories, Autobots and Decepticons must join forces against a greater threat, such as Flame and Unicron. The US series saw them join forces against Starscream in the Underbase saga.
** A particularly unique example is in Time Wars where the Autobots and Decepticons of two eras band together to stop the Con's own leaders- Galvatron and Megatron.
* 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.
* EvilerThanThou: In "On The Edge of Extinction!", [[spoiler:the Dark Matrix creature attacks Unicron, threatening to destroy him. After a moment's struggle, Unicron realizes that the pure good within the Matrix that he feared has been smothered. He points out that what remains is evil, an area in which he has no equal - which he proves by destroying the Dark Matrix creature]].
* FlashStep: Blurr's special ability.
* FirstNameBasis:
** Impactor with Emirate Xaaron.
** Optimus with his closest allies- the 'cons and most bots call him 'Prime'.
* [[BountyHunter Freelance Peacekeeping Agent]]: ComicBook/DeathsHead
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Xaaron to Springer after he has a brief HeroicBSOD.
** Ravage has an epic one when he manages to cure Shockwave of his insanity with logic.
* GiantMook: The gestalts.
** Also, Guardian Units.
* GladiatorGames:
** Popular on Cybertron before the Decepticon uprising. Megatron himself started off as a gladiator.
** Ultra Magnus becomes an unwilling participant of one in ''Deadly Games''
** In ''The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire'', Megatron is subjected to this by the Decepticon Tirumvirate...only to rile the audiences in his favor and have them blow the Tirumvirate's heads off.
* GodzillaThreshold:
** Space Pirates has Autobot City under siege by the Quintessons and most of the Autobots captured. Out of options, Hot Rod is forced to activate the core of Autobot City, Metroplex, despite the damage his waking up will do to the city.
** After Optimus mysteriously vanishes, three nigh-invincible Decepticons from the future turn up and kick everyone's ass, with one of them (ole' Galvy) just literally laughing off the Autobots' full prowess. Ironhide despairs enough for him to free Megatron and ask for his leadership to stop the 2006 Decepticons.
** Used again in the Unicron Saga, with Prime surrendering to the 'cons to convince them to work with him to defeat Unicron. Viewed a necessity at the time as Thunderwing had disappeared with the Matrix, and Optimus was out of options.
** And also in Time Wars.
** And in Space Pirates, making it a story where two thresholds are crossed to deal with the threat.
** And in G2. Funnily enough all of these are written by Simon Furman.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: Apeface incapacitates Rampage with his arm. Sounds normal? Well, mind you, that arm had been recently ripped off by Rampage...
** Galvatron incapacitates Kup and Blurr for several issues by throwing Magnus at them.
* TheGrimReaper: Deathbringers are a unique variant, who basically euthanize planets which are already dying.
* GutPunch:
** Xaaron's death in ''On the Edge of Extinction!'' indicates that yes, major characters can and will die.
** Shockwave's death in the Legacy of Unicron story showed that the gloves were off- in a future timeline, no one was safe.
* HappyEndingOverride: The Creator/IDWPublishing continuation ''Regeneration One'' starts by undoing the conclusion of the original Marvel comic. The Decepticons have come back to reclaim Cybertron, they have destroyed the Last Autobot, Earth is in ruins because of a revived Megatron and the Autobot's former ally Spike Witwicky now despises the Autobots and wants them dead.
* TheHeartless: The Limbo creatures in both G2 and ''Resurrection!'' feed off negative emotions and subject their victims to death Freddy-Krueger style in their dreams.
* HarmfulHealing: A substance called "Nucleon" was developed on a robotic planet to serve as a miracle cure, but the patients who were treated with it went insane and murdered their doctors. Grimlock tries to access Nucleon in order to revive his deactivated Dinobot comrades and battles through a series of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent robotic zombies]]. Once at the island where the Nucleon is stored, he learns that the patients were not hoarding the substance, but protecting others from it. Nucleon revitalizes mechanoids but has horrible side effects; in one instance, a patient was brought back to life along with the malfunction that killed him, and must now suffer through yet another slow, painful death. Grimlock tests Nucleon on himself and it results in paralysis, followed by the loss of his transforming ability. He has to literally shed his old body and get a vastly superior and improved form of his humanoid self, [[ShapeshifterModeLock though without any transforming ability]].
* HeelFaceTurn: Walter Barnett, head of the government branch Triple I. He initially saw all Transformers as dangerous menaces, but over time, realized that the Autobots were friendly. Unfortunately, he was unable to convince his superiors of this.
* HeroAntagonist: The Wreckers and Ultra Magnus serve the roles of antagonists who are technically the good guys in the story "Prey!", where they believe that the real Optimus is a Decepticon impersonator due to bad intel.
* HeroicBSOD: Ultra Magnus falls into this after repeated defeats at Galvatron's hands. When they encounter each other again in the "Salvage" two-parter, he reacts by falling to his knees, and emitting a BigNo. [[spoiler:Fortunately, he recovers upon seeing Galvatron beating up the Sparkabots, and finally defeats Galvatron.]]
* HeroicSacrifice:
** The UK series' "City of Fear" storyline ends with the zombified Impactor sacrificing himself to prevent Cybertron from being destroyed.
** The ''Generation 2'' comic has Fortress Maximus and Spike Witwicky give their lives to stop Megatron after he stole the Ark.
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Optimus Prime himself at the end of ''Regeneration One''. Rather fittingly he dies in the arms of Rodimus who, thanks to Prime's teachings, will go on to become the new hero. However, the same issue shows Rodimus himself dying of old age eons later.]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: The story "Used Autobots" gives us Big Steve, a ConArtist who knows every trick in the book, rolling back his cars' mileometers to make them seem less used, and tricking some new parents into buying a shabby old car, claiming it to be a perfect family vehicle.
* HonorBeforeReason:
** Optimus Prime asks a human to destroy him because he endangered bystanders in a ''video game'' fight against the Decepticons... even though Megatron was cheating at the time. ItMakesSenseInContext, but Optimus' action was still stupid.
** 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.
* HopelessWar: The entire story, essentially, and the tragedy of the Autobot-Decepticon war (well summed up by Soundwave's ''Killing Joke'' homage in Space Pirates). Also, the key idea behind the first half of G2, as we learn in the first issue (as well as the Marvel UK future timeline) that the only 2 outcomes to the war are either its eternal continuation or self-destruction of both races. [[spoiler:The ''Regeneration One'' series subverts this, ending with the Autobots and Decepticons making peace with each other, and finding a new destiny as explorers.]]
* HopeSpot:
** Various through the Wanted: Galvatron arc, first with Galvatron's temporary defeat at Magnus' hands, then his temporary KO after Rodimus Prime frying him with his own siphon's power. Problem is, Galvy is easy to knock down but taking him out is a whole 'nother story....
** 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...
** The greatest one, however, is easily the the Autobots' victory at the end of the first mini...only for them to be obliterated by Shockwave.
** In a similar vein, the ending of the first issue of ''Matrix Quest'', ''Birds of Prey!'', where Nightbeat and his team restores Pzazz before being blasted in the back by the Decepticons.
** In ''Dark Creation'', after getting their asses thrashed, it appears that Bumblebee finally manages to retrieve the Matrix while Thunderwing is distracted in combat with the Matrix-spawn creature, and the issue even appears to end with Optimus welcoming his warriors home....only to find out Thunderwing had managed to recapture the Matrix and had hijacked the Autobots' ship.
* HostileShowTakeover: The UK issue where Ratchet took over the letters page due to Soundwave being indisposed.
* HumanAliens: The Nebulans even refer to themselves as humans a few times.
* IAmYourOpponent: Magnus to Galvatron in the final issue of the ''Wanted: Galvatron'' epic.
* IHatePastMe: Galvatron doesn't take seeing Megatron again very well. He just barely stops himself from crushing Megatron's head.
** In the UK comics Galvatron objects less violently to his past self but still (justifiably, since Galvatron attempted to reason with Megatron in both cases only for the latter to thoughtlessly and pointlessly attack him.) views him as an irrational and a lesser embarrassment.
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Megatron's black hole cannon is incredibly powerful, but if used will destroy all around him.
* InterspeciesRomance: Sludge falls for a human reporter, who is a bit weirded out by the concept of a giant alien robot crushing on her. His fellow Dinobots mock him for it.
** And in the UK comics, a woman named Cindy falls for Ultra Magnus.
* {{Introdump}}[=/=]ProductPromotionParade: Especially egregious in issue #1, where over two-dozen Autobots and Decepticons were introduced in the span of two-and-a-half pages.
* IOweYouMyLife: Outback's reason for following Optimus and helping him against the Wreckers and freaking Ultra Magnus in ''Prey!''.
* TheJuggernaut:
** How ''do'' you kill Galvatron? It took time itself to finally put him down for good.
** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of Space Pirates, having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army. He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.
* KidAppealCharacter: Bumblebee, at first. Then Spike.
* KillEmAll:
** The main purpose of both the Underbase saga and the simultaneous "Time Wars" was to slaughter old toys and bring the cast down to a more manageable size.
** [[spoiler:By the end of ''Regeneration One'', the Transformers as they were before are no more with Rodimus as the last man standing. However, following his death, he releases the Matrix's power back into the dead Cybertron, restoring life to it and laying way for new biomechanical life: Maximals and Predacons.]]
* LargeHam: You'd think it's a requisite for being in charge of the Decepticons. Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, though. Averted in the case of Thunderwing, who only becomes a ham when he's undergoing some serious SanitySlippage.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Susan Hoffman's assistants in the UK-exclusive story "Race with the Devil" bear a noticable resemblance to three of the four Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} (Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz and Peter Venkman) as depicted in ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters''.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Almost too many for the writers too handle. Some issues would introduce dozens of characters at one go.
** Conversely, of course, the Underbase saga killed off dozens of characters in one go, though some of them were eventually brought back.
* LowerDeckEpisode: A shit ton given the toy-advertising nature of the comic.
** In terms of 'epics', we have the Survivors/Carnivac/Mayhems saga, focusing on minor toys and forgotten characters.
* 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".
* MadScientist: Flame, who suggests turning Cybertron into a mobile warworld, while looking like an absolute nut-job all the while. His story arc also involves him raising dead Cybertronians as zombies. Amazingly, this guy's an ''Autobot''. Well, until he got kicked out.
* MagicFloppyDisk: After getting destroyed over a video game (see HonorBeforeReason, above), Optimus Prime's entire personality was backed up on a single 5¼" floppy disk. Let's put that in perspective: those disks can hold 1.2 mb of data. How big was the last mp3 file you listened to, let alone the mind of an insanely advanced, sentient, mechanical life form that puts supercomputers to shame?
* TheManBehindTheMonsters: Flame is behind the robot zombie infestation in the City of Fear storyline.
* ManipulativeBastard: That Xaaron was a wily old buzzard. It's because of him that Optimus managed to be in charge of the entire Autobot army.
* MechanicalEvolution: Issue 1 makes an offhand mention about Transformers evolving from naturally-occurring simple machines.
* MentalWorld: Used more frequently than you would expect from a series about robots. First used in ''Resurrection!'', although this is influenced by Limbo beings. Next utilised in ''Salvage'', where Megatron engages in (what should have been) his final battle against Straxus.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: Happens to Impactor (mentor to the Wreckers, particularly Springer) when he gives his life to foil an attempt to assassinate Xaaron.
* MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: In the UK-exclusive story "Break-Away" (issue 263) Optimus Prime makes Grimlock Autobot Leader of Earth on the condition that he show some restraint. Grimlock replies that restraint is his middle name.
* MexicanStandoff: Galvatron and Rodimus have a brief one in the UK Story Fire on High. Roddy wins, but it does little more than annoy Galvatron.
* MindScrew: With the Decepticon leader already losing his head, Shockwave uses the idea that Optimus may still live to push Megatron over the edge and kill himself.
** ''Two Megatrons'' is confusing even in-universe that one of the Megatrons kills himself.
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: Happens in issue #79. Spike Witwicky, mentally fused with the Autobot Fortress Maximus, goes to Canada to stop a crazed, rampaging Galvatron. The Misfit Mobilization Moment occurs when the war-weary Spike accepts his fate and coordinates with Fortress Maximus to win the fight.
* MoodWhiplash:
** The ending of the first mini.
** Also the sudden arrival of Thunderwing while the Autobots are celebrating Pzazz's ressurection.
** Between Scorponok's epic last stand against Unicron and his heartwrenching death is a comedy sequence where Grimlock punches Unicron across the face with the Ark and Prowl takes the piss out of him before Grimmy takes the piss out of Wheeljack.
* MoralMyopia: Big Steve. Despite making a living out of conning people into buying his old cars, and selling out the Throttlebots to Triple I, he has the gall to claim that it's "not fair" when Blaster destroys the cheque Walter Barnett gave him as payment.
* 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.
* {{Motormouth}}: Blurr eventually starts speaking in a manner similar to his animated counterpart.
* MythologyGag: A pretty elaborate one. In the early stages of planning the toyline, Swoop was to be called Divebomb. Later, when the Predacons were introduced, the flying one was called Divebomb. Furman used this coincidence to give them a backstory - Swoop was originally called Divebomb, but was defeated by a Decepticon who rubbed salt into the wound by stealing his name. Swoop is still bitter about it.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Galvatron returned to 1986 barely holding on to his sanity, not helped by being attacked by a group of Autobots. Then Blaster shot him with his electro-scrambler, and that was pretty much that for Galvatron's sanity.
* NoSell: The Autobots unleash everything they have at Galvatron, mentioned to be enough to level a small city. He just stands there and laughs, before mopping the floor with them.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Cybertronian zombies in the City of Fear storyline are controlled by Flame via computer.
* PlanetEater: Unicron.
* PlanetSpaceship: Both Megatron and Flame tried to turn Cybertron into this.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The Neo-Knights were Simon Furman's attempt to get his foot in the door as one of Marvel Comics main writers. Circuit Breaker was already owned by Marvel and Rapture and Thunderpunch were all but stated to be mutants. In the letters page of the final issue, Furman even remarked that he believed the ''Transformers'' brand as a whole was at its end and that his new aim would be to create a Neo-Knights spinoff.
* {{Prequel}}: The ''Transformers '84'' one-shot and the ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries following it both serve as prequels to this comics continuity. Both have a FramingDevice of the Autobot Punch narrating the events, with the former establishing the circumstances that led to the Autobots' exodus from Cybertron using the Ark and the latter explaining what was going on at Cybertron and on Earth before the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark were eventually rebuilt and reactivated in the 1980's.
* PutOnABus: The UK version of the comic had Skids phased out by having him displaced into limbo because of time travel. To avoid inconsistencies with continuity, reprints of US stories featuring him at the time (which only had him in background roles anyway) were altered by editing Skids out or replacing him with a generic Autobot.
* RecycledTitle: "The Void" is used as the title of two completely different stories, one from the US version of the comic and one from the UK version of the comic. Considering that reprints of every US story constituted roughly half of the UK series, this likely caused some confusion.
* ReligionOfEvil: Unicron's got cultists, programmed to assasinate Primus' chosen warrior before Unicron's arrival. Optimus suggests they're brainwashed.
* {{Retcon}}: A few.
** Salicrup's offhand mention in the first issue of the Transformers evolving from naturally-occurring wheels, levers, and pulleys in issue 1 is replaced by a story about them being created by Primus during Furman's run.
** When Simon Furman reintroduced Megatron to the US series, he concocted a story about how he was blasted back to Cybertron at the end of "Gone But Not Forgotten!"; since this conflicted with established continuity, a short UK story established that the Megatron seen in "Ancient Relics!" and "Time Wars!" was actually a clone with Straxus' mind who ''thought'' he was Megatron. [[spoiler:The two Megatrons eventually fight, and the real Megatron defeats the Straxus clone]].
** The Matrix was originally a highly advanced program (of sorts), and contained within Optimus Prime's head. The "Matrix Quest" storyline changed this so that, like the movie, it was a tangible object, contained within Optimus's chest, and formed from the essence of Primus himself.
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: Take a shot every time the human authorities fire on the Autobots, either ignoring the Decepticons outright or softening the heroes up just in time for the bad guys to swoop in.
* RobotMaster: Played with by Donny Finkleberg, who called himself Robot-Master and claimed responsibility behind the Transformers' various rampages. In reality, he was recruited by the United States government, using the ruse to avoid a public panic over alien robots (no, it ''doesn't'' make sense).
* SanitySlippage:
** Megatron doesn't take Optimus' HeroicSacrifice well.
** Thunderwing goes mad in his attempts to beat the Autobots to the Matrix.
** Galvatron, repeatedly, becomes more and more insane in his desperate attempts to change the future.
** Shockwave, in the UK comics, takes the knowledge of his future demise badly, but when Megatron and Galvatron start working together, he goes right off the deep end.
* SavedByCanon: The ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries ends with the Dinobots apparently deactivated for good after Grimlock's squabble with the Ark's computer AUNTIE, but the fact that the Marvel Comics continuity has the Dinobots join the Autobots after being uncovered and revived by Ratchet as well as survive the entire run of the series makes it clear to people who've read the original Marvel Comics that the Dinobots aren't down for the count.
* SequelSeries: This continuity has three different official continuations, all of which are incompatible with one another.
** After the end of the main series, Marvel published a direct continuation titled ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2'', which lasted 13 issues (including a zero-numbered issue) after beginning with a five-part arc in ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel''.
** Fun Publications ran a comic taking place after the Marvel Comics continuity in their Transformers Official Club Magazine titled ''Transformers Classics'', which was notable for crossing over with ''ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass'' in an arc that ended with the ''Classics'' universe destroyed and the survivors having to share their new home with the good ''Shattered Glass'' characters.
** The Creator/IDWPublishing maxiseries ''Regeneration One'' is a continuation of the original Marvel comic that takes place 21 years after the last issue and disregards the stories exclusive to the UK version of the comic as well as the Generation 2 comic and ''Transformers Classics''.
* ShoutOut:
** The first four issues of the ''Matrix Quest'' storyline feature full-issue genre homages, often referencing a specific work: #62 references ''Literature/TheMalteseFalcon''; #63 is a SpaceWestern; #64 is ''Literature/MobyDick'' [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]; and #65 is an Franchise/{{Alien}} homage.
** The denouement of the UK ''Space Pirates'' story is one to ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' with Ultra Magnus and Soundwave in place of Batman and The Joker. [[spoiler:Soundwave even makes the same pose as Joker when he bitterly refuses Magnus' overture for any sort of peaceful coexistence, saying it's far too late for that]].
** The Unicron cultists wield sais and have [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles prominent three-toed feet.]] This is almost certainly a deliberate artistic choice.
** One issue of ''Regeneration One'' features a location called Eugenesis Plaza, named after the (in)famous Transformers fanfic FanFic/{{Eugenesis}}. As a further reference, Hot Rod suffers some bad luck here, a reference to an assassination attempt performed on him in that story.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Arcee is the only female Autobot in the Generation 1 cartoon to be featured in the comic, and even then, she's only included in the UK version of the main series and the US version regards the three-issue adaptation of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the movie]] as non-canon.
* 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?
* SpaceRomans: Pre-civil war Cybertronian society is basically Ancient Rome [[RecycledInSpace WITH ROBOTS!]]
* SpaceshipGirl: Aunty, the ship's artificial intelligence. The ''Ark'' was originally gonna be named ''Aunty''.
* TheStarscream:
** OK, Starscream is in it, but Shockwave and Soundwave both pull it off much more successfully.
** In the future, Cyclonus and Scourge are this to Shockwave himself. They succeed, albeit while under mind control.
** Galvatron. Both in the UK and US comics, any time Unicron tries to control him, he immediately starts thinking of ways to betray him.
* StrawFeminist: The UK version of the comic established in the story "Prime's Rib" that Arcee was built to appease complaints from feminists that whined about the Autobots all identifying as male even after being told that Transformers were technically genderless. Even after her creation, the feminists continued to complain over the fact that there was only one female Autobot on the team and also objected to her looking weak and being colored pink. Their ire increased when Hot Rod stated his approval for female Transformers after inadvertently colliding into Arcee.
* SuperTeam: The Neo-Knights are a team brought together to make a difference in the Transformers' war. Their members consist of Rapture, Thunderpunch, Dynamo, and recurring antagonist Circuit Breaker.
* 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.]]
* TimeTravel: The conflict of many stories in the UK comics are brought on by Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge appearing in present day from the future.
* {{Transplant}}: At the end of "The Legacy of Unicron", ComicBook/DeathsHead falls sideways through time and ends up in the ''Magazine/DoctorWhoMagazine'' comic strips, making him part of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse.
* TookALevelInBadass: Bumblebee when he gets resurrected as a Pretender is visibly in awe of how much more powerful he is than before. He quickly transitions into a frontline fighter, becoming the de-facto leader of a squad composed of himself, Jazz and ''Grimlock''.
* TooYoungToDieLamentation: In the Marvel run of the series, issue #59, Blurr once laments that he is too young to die, as he is "only" 4 million years old. While it sounds like it was intended for comedy, given the ridiculous length of time that is to a human, it actually isn't. Cybertronians are so ridiculously long-lived that a million years is very close to their age equivalent of a human decade. As such, Blurr is reasonably dismayed at the prospect of being blown up by Decepticons in what would be his early 40s.
* UnbuiltTrope: As one of the first bits of Transformers media, it was quite in-depth about the nature of living robots and the horrors of war. Characters would die and stay dead including the humans, BadBoss[=/=]GeneralFailure Megatron gets replaced when he can't do his job, victories were often heavy in cost and the Decepticons would win their fair share.
* VerbalTic: Several characters have them.
** Him Grimlock have particularly noticeable one. It become more prominent after resurrection. An early explanation was that Grimlock did it to hide his intelligence. When he gets resurrected, it's because his vocal circuits didn't make the return trip.
** Wreck-Gar still talks in TV [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]], though given most of his appearances were in the UK comics, they're naturally based on things a British reader would get.
** Wheelie and his rhymes, again in the UK comics. Weirdwolf also talked in rhyme, but only when Budiansky was writing.
** Though brief his appearance was, had one Slog did.
** Statement: Shockave had a more mechanical speaking pattern on his return to the US comics. Hypothesis: Suggested to be the result of his long plummet to the ground in his last appearance. Acknowledgement: Scorponok calls him on it when they fight.
** Death's Head also has a verbal tic, yes?
* VillainWorld: Present-day Cybertron is under Decepticon control for almost the entire series (the last few issues see an Autobot-Decepticon alliance, and the planet being abandoned). Though the Autobots have reclaimed part of the planet in the main alternate future.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** A lot of effort is expended to recover Grand Slam and Rain Dance's warning about the Underbase, but once that's done, they're completely forgotten. Also the fact that Centurion is a non-sentient robot being remotely controlled by Professor Morris is completely forgotten for his final appearance in ''Ancient Relics''
** The Mechanic, a human car thief who steals some Autobot weapons. The Autobots make one attempt to track him down, the Mechanic escapes with the weapons for a second time, and he's never mentioned again.
** After being forced to build the Space Bridge, the Neutralist scientist Spanner was [[AndIMustScream incorporated into his creation]]. Despite Spanner's begging, Blaster couldn't bring himself to destroy him, leaving him stuck as the Decepticon's unwitting servant. Over thirty issues later, the Space Bridge had been phased out in favor of a new method of inter-dimensional travel, with Spanner's fate never being mentioned.
** An editor's note in the ''Classic'' trade comments on this:For all intents and purposes, Spanner is considered dead, already dying after being incorporated into the Space Bridge in the first place.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Inverted. The first issue has the Transformers astonished to discover the existence of non-mechanical life on Earth, and struggling a bit to acknowledge the humans as sentient, living beings. The Decepticons, of course, never do concede the worth of human life.
* YoureInsane: UK Issue #117; Galvatorn is about to siphon all the energy of a soon-to-erupt volcano and, instead of offing Ultra Magnus when he had the chance, drags his beaten arse to the volcano, shows him his fancy energy-stealing device, and then gloats about it. Ultra Magnus has this to say: ''"You're insane. Completely and utterly insane!"''
** Xaaron similarly calls out Flame on his suicidal plan which would have destroyed Cybertron if not thwarted, a term the mad scientist happily accepts.
* ZombieApocalypse: "City of the Dead", a storyline in the UK comics revolves around one caused by a MadScientist Autobot named Flame.
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[[redirect:ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel]]
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** 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/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters Dum Dum Dugan spent fighting Godzilla!]]

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** 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/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters [[ComicBook/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1977 Dum Dum Dugan spent fighting Godzilla!]]
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The comic was initially set in the main MarvelUniverse, 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.

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The comic was initially set in the main MarvelUniverse, Franchise/MarvelUniverse, 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.



* {{Antivillain}}: Circuit Breaker, very much. The only reason for her vendetta against the Transformers is because Shockwave severely injured her.

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* {{Antivillain}}: AntiVillain: Circuit Breaker, very much. The only reason for her vendetta against the Transformers is because Shockwave severely injured her.
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* DestroyTheSecurityCamera: In Issue #13 ("Shooting Star"), a damaged, mindless Megatron is found by Joey Slick, a small-time crook, who uses him in gun mode to go on a crime spree. When Joey robs a bank, he orders Megatron to take out the security cameras first.
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** Fortress Maximus and Scorponok both get hit with this, being reduced from city sized Transformers to roughly the size of Optimus Prime. Maximums, like all his American exclusive appearances, also lacks [[Anime/TransformersHeadmasters the Master Sword]].

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** Fortress Maximus and Scorponok both get hit with this, being reduced from city sized Transformers to roughly the size of Optimus Prime. Maximums, Maximus, like all his American exclusive appearances, also lacks [[Anime/TransformersHeadmasters the Master Sword]].
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** Fortress Maximus and Scorponok both get hit with this, being reduced from city sized Transformers to roughly the size of Optimus Prime. Maximums, like all his American exclusive appearances, also lacks [[Anime/TransformersHeadmasters the Master Sword]].
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** The denouement of the UK ''Space Pirates'' story is one to ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' with Ultra Magnus and Soundwave in place of Batman and The Joker. [[spoiler:Soundwave even makes the same pose as Joker when he bitterly refuses Magnus' overture for any sort of peaceful coexistence, saying it's far too late for that]].
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* TookALevelInBadass: Bumblebee when he gets resurrected as a Pretender is visibly in awe of how much more powerful he is than before. He quickly transitions into a frontline fighter, becoming the de-facto leader of a squad composed of himself, Jazz and ''Grimlock''.
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** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of "Space Pirates", having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.

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** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of "Space Pirates", Space Pirates, having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army army. He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.
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** And in Space Pirates, making it a story where two thresholds are crossed to deal with the threat.

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** Legacy of Unicron has Autobot City under siege by the Quintessons and most of the Autobots captured. Out of options, Hot Rod is forced to activate the core of Autobot City, Metroplex, despite the damage his waking up will do to the city.

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** Legacy of Unicron Space Pirates has Autobot City under siege by the Quintessons and most of the Autobots captured. Out of options, Hot Rod is forced to activate the core of Autobot City, Metroplex, despite the damage his waking up will do to the city.



** And in G2.
** And in Space Pirates. Funnily enough all of these are written by Simon Furman.

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** And in G2.
** And in Space Pirates.
G2. Funnily enough all of these are written by Simon Furman.



** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of "Legacy of Unicron", having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.

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** Metroplex appears once in the comic, at the climax of "Legacy of Unicron", "Space Pirates", having been awoken by Hot Rod to deal with an invading Quintesson army He quickly establishes himself as this, with nothing that the Quintessons throw at him having any effect whatsoever as he single-handedly turns the tide of battle in the Autobots' favor.
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** Legacy of Unicron has Autobot City under siege by the Quintessons and most of the Autobots captured. Out of options, Hot Rod is forced to activate the core of Autobot City, Metroplex, despite the damage his waking up will do to the city.

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