Trivia / Transformers (2023)

• Creator's Pest: Downplayed as he doesn't actively hate the character but Daniel Warren Johnson admitted in his Director's commentary that he dislikes drawing Bumblebee due to his serrated arms. This in addition to a Hasbro Rep requesting Bumblebee be sidelined is why Bumblebee is killed off in issue one.
• Executive Meddling:
  • A minor case but Daniel Warren Johnson initially drew the Ark with three thrusters instead of the usual five. Hasbro however insisted on sticking to the Ark's classic design forcing Daniel to digitally insert two extra thrusters on the page where the Ark is sticking out of the mountain.
  • The final scene from issue #1 where Starscream gruesomely crushes Davey in his hand was requested by Hasbro to happen offscreen, which Daniel Warren Johnson was fine with.
  • Hasbro encouraged Bumblebee to be sidelined for a while due to feeling that that the character had become over-exposed in recent years, leading to his death in the first issue.
  • Hasbro almost had the scene from the start of issue #2 where Optimus steps on a deer removed, and Daniel Warren Johnson's editor suggested they replace it with a squirrel. Johnson managed to fight for the original scene to be included by making the intended message and respect to the character clear.
• Refitted for Sequel: More like "Refitted For Remake" but none of the original Generation 1 Transformers incarnations ever made mention of Spike/Buster's mother (Aside from IDW but that was a much different take on the Witwicky's in general). The production bible for the cartoon did mention that Sparkplug was a Widower but this never made it into the series. The idea of Spike's mother/Sparkplug's wife having passed away was reused for this comic, with Spike mentioning she died a couple of years ago in Issue #2.
• Throw It In!: According to Daniel in his commentary for issue #2, Skywarp was supposed to be the one who stepped on the poor police officer but colorist Mike Spicer accidentally gave him Starscream's color scheme. Daniel decided to keep it in because it made just as much sense for Starscream to do it.