History ComicBook / TheTransformers

* TheJuggernaut: How ''do'' you kill Galvatron? It took time itself to finally put him down for good.

** 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.

* 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 public over alien robots (no, it ''doesn't'' make sense).

* GrievousHarmWithABody- Apeface incapacitates Rampage with his arm. Sounds normal? Well, mind you, that arm had been recently ripped off by Rampage...

* 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 indeedreturns, bringing Trypticon with him.

* SequelSeries: 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.

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 Creator/BobBudiansky; 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 Creator/JimSalicrup 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/ActionForce'') 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.

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. ''Franchise/TransformersClassics'' 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 Creator/AndrewWildman and Creator/StephenBaskerville (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, Creator/GuidoGuidi (who has been providing the "B" covers) assumed ''Regeneration One'' art duties for Wildman on issues 93-99. Issue #0 featured artwork by Creator/CaseyCollier, Creator/GeoffSenior, Creator/JeffAnderson (no, not [[Film/{{Clerks}} that one]]), Creator/JoseDelbo, and Creator/NickRoche, all of whom have worked on ''Transformers'' for either Marvel or IDW. Issue 100 featured art by Wildman, Senior, and Guidi.

* 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 and 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.

* {{Prequel}}: The ''Transformers '84'' one-shot and the ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries following 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.

* {{Prequel}}: The ''Transformers '84'' one-shot and the ''Secrets & Lies'' miniseries following it serve as a prequel to this comics continuity, with a FramingDevice of the Autobot Punch narrating the circumstances that led to the launch of the Ark and what was going on at Cybertron and Earth before the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark were eventually rebuilt and reactivated in the 1980's.

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 series ''Secrets & Lies'', occurring on Cybertron before and after the launch of the Ark, and Earth in the aftermath of the ship's crash.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: The comic has a character named Emirate Xaaron. An ''emirate'' is not a person, but a ''place'' that is ruled by an ''emir.'' (No, Xaaron's not one of the "big enough to be a GeniusLoci" bots.)

** 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.

* {{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 warped up. Subverted now thanks to ''Regeneration One'', which is essentially giving the comic its' proper conclusion.

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 series ''Secrets & Lies'', occurring on Cybertron.

** If you split the comics into arcs (abit nebulous in the US, but the UK comic was neatly split into various story arcs), there is usually one clear Big Bad per storyline.

In America, the comic was originally a four-issue limited series written by Creator/JimSalicrup 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 [[Anime/TransformersCybertron later cartoon series]] adopted.

* MachineBlood: 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".

** Shockwave's death in the Legacy of Unicron story showed that the gloves were off- in a future timeline, noone was safe.

* 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.

** There was a four-issue miniseries that crossed over with ''Franchise/GIJoe'' 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 ''Franchise/GIJoe'' crossover.