Marvel's The Transformers Year One, Part I: The Enemy Within! (US #1-3 & 33-34 / UK #1-6 & 9-17)

From November 2015 to May 2016, I read the Transformers comics included by IDW in some Humble Bundles; this included The Transformers Classics vols. 1-4, which collected issues #1-50 of the US Marvel monthly Transformers comic.

Later, from December 2020 to April 2021, as part of my readthrough of the Doctor Who Magazine comic, I read IDW's The Transformers Classics UK, vols. 1-5. (The two are connected via the character of Death's Head, who travelled from the Transformers universe to the Marvel one via the Doctor Who one.) These collected the UK-exclusive comic strips up to issue #173 of that comic. (I subsequently tracked down some Titan collections to fill in the rest of the UK run, which took me from January 2022 to March 2023.)

The thing is, though, that about half of the UK comic was actually reprints of US material, and the UK material was designed to fit around it; basically, as the UK comic was 11 pages weekly, they didn't have enough content if they only reprinted the monthly 22-page US book. So UK stories expanded the US saga, as seamlessly as possible. 

Yet, the UK strips have only ever been reprinted on their own, not with the surrounding context of the US strips they are meant to fit into even though they are kind of weird and jumpy if you don't have US strips to hand! So as I read a UK strip, I had to strain to vaguely recall what had happened in a US strip I had read five years previous. And eventually I got beyond the point where I had even read the US strips.

So I decided that someday I would read them all in something approximating chronological order. When IDW dropped the Transformers license, I purchased all the remaining collected editions I would need on comiXology.

But by the time I actually got around to reading these books, I didn't need to! In 2025, new Transformers comic publisher Skybound crowdfunded a massive collection of the complete runs of both the US and UK strips... in internal chronological order! The Til All Are One Compendium takes up four absolutely massive hardcovers, but obviously I couldn't pass them up. 

So now that I've finished Black Panther, that will be my next "filler" comics project, reading either a US issue or the equivalent of one every day. (Early on, the UK strip was usually eleven pages; later, things got more complicated.) I won't be using the order given in the TAAO compendiums, though, because of course I've worked out my own. (I don't have a problem with theirs; indeed, I think some of their choices probably read more smoothly than mine!) Like all of my reading orders, it aims to balance chronology with narrative experience, incorporating flashback and flashforward stories where they make sense, not where they happen.

I'll be writing them up in batches of seven, so that I do one writeup a week. Thus here we start off with the first three issues of US comic (reprinted in the first six issues of the UK comic), and the first two UK-original stories, (supposedly) set during those US issues...

"The Transformers" / "Power Play!" / "Prisoner of War!" (part 1) / Man of Iron / "Prisoner of War!" (part 2) / The Enemy Within!, from The Transformers US #1-3 & 33-34 (Sept. 1984–Jan. 1985 & Oct.-Nov. 1987) / The Transformers UK #1-6 & 9-17 (20 Sept.–1 Dec. 1984 & 12 Jan.–4 May 1985); reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium One (2025)

plot by Bill Mantlo; scripts by Ralph Macchio, Jim Salicrup, Steve Parkhouse, and Simon Furman; pencils by Frank Springer, John Ridgway, and Mike Collins; inks by Kim DeMulder (with Mike Esposito), John Ridgway, and Mike Collins; lettering by Higgins & Parker, Janice Chiang (with others), and Richard Starkings; coloring by Nelson Yomtov, Josie Firmin, and Gina Hart

 

from The Transformers US #1

The US Transformers series began with what was intended to be a four-issue miniseries, though it's obvious that by the time issue #4 was written, that plan had already changed, as issue #4 sets up a number of ongoing plots. The first two issues have a lot to do, setting up the basic premise of The Transformers for an audience totally unfamiliar with it; plotter Bill Mantlo and scripter Ralph Macchio really pack in the exposition. The opening, about Cybertron, is fine... I find the big panels containing ten characters all telling each other their names and gimmicks much more contrived! This speaks to what will eternally be my issue with the Transformers comics: there are often just too many characters. And because new toys are always coming out, new characters always have to be worked in, so no one ever remains in the spotlight for long. (It's probably no coincidence that my two favorite Transformers series, Beast Wars/Machines and More than Meets the Eye/Lost Light, have limited casts.)

 

The moments that shined for me, then, were the ones that kept things focused on a smaller cast: I liked the emphasis on Ravage here, Megatron's loyal servant (something that continues into the following UK stories), and I appreciated the emphasis on the human characters to keep things focused and grounded, though it's surprising (both given the big emphasis on him here, and given what future versions of this story have done) that there's not much of an ongoing connecting between Buster Witwicky and Bumblebee after this. 

from The Transformers UK #9

Things get a bit complicated if you're trying to reach chronologically. The first UK story, Man of Iron (released in UK issues #9-12), represents a status quo that really only existed for the opening US story (released in UK issues #1-8), so it must somehow take place during its events, even though there's no noticeable gap. I followed the placement advice of the Transformers wiki and read it during issue #3 of the US comic, after p. 10. This almost kind of works, but does mean you have to assume Buster's dad Sparkplug is slaving away as prisoner of the Decepticons while everyone goes to England! Man of Iron is great, a story about the Autobot/Decepticon war affecting the life of a kid, almost entirely told from the point-of-view of that kid, and thus the Transformers are alien and inscrutable and brutal. (Surely it is one of the peaks of what the fan writer "Broadside" calls Budianskian storytelling.) I have read it twice before, since IDW collected it in both Transformers Classics and Transformers Classics UK, as it was the only UK story to also appear in the US strip. In its original US appearance, it came after issue #32, where it was quite a jarring change of tone, but reading it here, I found it flowed a lot more smoothly. We just don't know the Autobots that well yet, and the tendency of the Decepticons to engage in wacky plots involving car-washes and graffiti hasn't taken off yet; they are still ruthless attackers from an alien world.

 

After this, we segue back into the second half of US issue #3, where Spider-Man teams up with Gears to rescue Buster's dad. This is fine but weird. Later, the idea these comics took place in the Marvel universe would be quietly and wisely forgotten.

 

from The Transformers UK #14

Chronologically, things are still difficult, because the UK story The Enemy Within! (#13-17) supposedly also takes place during the original miniseries, but Megatron mentions Spider-Man, so evidently after US #3, where there is even less of the gap. Put that aside, though, and I found this one of the stronger stories of this first run. We have two parallel stories: in one, the Autobot Brawn malfunctions and begins attacking humans; once he's been recaptured and repaired, he needs to prove himself to his comrades. In the other, Starscream tries to plot against Megatron but is found out by Ravage; he needs a way to bring himself back into the Decepticon fold. Once again, I really like the emphasis on the loyal but sinister Ravage. In general, I'm happy to see Mike Collins artwork... but the wimpy arms of Brawn (which I assume are toy accurate?) belie his given name!

 

Overall, I think what is interesting is that I found myself much more sympathetic to the US material than I remember being first time around. Maybe I haven't read enough for the antipathy to set in, but I also think I have a stronger sense of what it's going for and thus appreciate its successes more. We'll see if I still think that way when we get to the car wash!

 

This is the first in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers US issues #4-8 and UK issues #7-8 & 18-30.

Review: The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1 by Bob Budiansky et al.

Last year, I reviewed the components of IDW's Doctor Who Humble Bundle; IDW also has done a couple Transformers Humble Bundles, and I've downloaded the components of both of them and have been reading an issue a day over breakfast, on days where I don't have other comics to read. There are diverse range of comics on hand, and I'll be reviewing them in some semblance of continuity order, beginning with the first volume of the collected Generation One comics:

Comic PDF eBook, 315 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1984-86)
Acquired August 2014
Read November 2015

The Transformers Classics, Vol. 1

Plots by Bill Mantlo, Jim Salicrup, Bob Budiansky
Scripts by Ralph Macchio, Jim Salicrup, Bob Budiansky
Pencils by Frank Springer, Alan Kupperberg, William Johnson, Ricardo Villamonte, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin
Inks by Kim DeMulder, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, Alan Kupperberg, Kyle Baker, Brad Joyce, Tom Palmer, Al Gordon
Letters by Michael Higgins, Rick Parker, Janice Chiang, John Workman, Diana Albers
Colors by Nelson Yomtov

I have a bit of a mixed relationship with The Transformers. I loved the two spin-offs of the original cartoon, Beast Wars and Beast Machines, both of which I followed devotedly in high school. But my attempts to return to the source material have done little for me: I don't care for any single episode of the original 1980s Transformers cartoon I have seen, aside from the 1986 film, which I like not so much for its quality, but for the sublimely unique experience that is watching it: toy robot advertisements meets mythological saga, featuring both Orson Welles and Weird Al. But I always like the idea of the Transformers-- how could you not?-- and with the cheapness of a Humble Bundle, I'm willing to give it another go.

Unfortunately, I think the opening volume of the 1980s Marvel Transformers comic betrays all the weaknesses of the format. While I think the Beast-era cartoons managed to put storytelling above toy-selling, this comic drowns in its toy-commercial roots, driven home by the giant panels where umpteen characters introduce themselves, their gimmicks, and potted explanations of their own personalities:

And, get this, this is only half of the spread! There are two whole pages of Autobots doing this, plus another whole page for the Decepticons earlier in the issue.
from The Transformers #1 (plot by Bill Mantlo, script by Ralph Macchio, art by Frank Springer & Kim DeMulder)

The worst part of it is that little of these introductions even matter! You never hear from most of these characters in any substantive way, and when you do, they're written completely generically-- the little bits of personality they deploy here never matter. This is probably unavoidable by the design of the comic; when you have eighteen good guy characters and eleven bad guy ones, and are constantly adding new ones as new toys come out, it becomes impossible for more than a handful of them, if that, to receive any kind of focus in a 22-page comic book!

The human characters are few and distinctive enough to pop, though not always for the best. There's a kid who's an obvious reader surrogate, "Buster" Witwicky, son of a mechanic but with no mechanical aptitude himself, but I find myself gravitating more toward his single father, "Sparkplug", a grizzled Vietnam vet who is scared by these strange alien robots but still has a heart of gold.

Surprisingly serious stuff, actually.
from The Transformers #4 (script by Jim Salicrup, art by Frank Springer and Ian Akin & Brian Garvey)

I also found myself liking Ratchet, the ambulance Transformer who is the Autobot's mechanic, but I think that might be because I imagined him voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Jeff Combs, who voiced Ratchet in the 2010-13 cartoon Transformers: Prime.

Initially, the first four issues are written by three writers (Bill Mantlo, Ralph Macchio, and Jim Salicrup), but after that, the long-serving Bob Budiansky takes over. I've of two minds about Budiansky's work. He obviously doesn't want things to be stale. While on television, The Transformers was about Autobots led by Optimus Prime and Decepticons led by Megatron fighting an unchanging war, Budiansky is constantly adjusting the status quo. The logical Shockwave assumes control of the Decepticons, and manages to subdue and capture most of the Autobots. The Shockwave-Megatron throwdown is probably the best sequence in this whole volume, but other than that, the old status quo had so little time to bed in, that seeing the Autobots scattered and leaderless isn't all that effective an upset, and the Autobots don't end up with a whole lot of focus.

That said, this is a pretty great issue-ending image.
from The Transformers #5 (script by Bob Budiansky, art by Alan Kupperberg)

Budiansky likes to sprinkle in tales that put some focus on the human element, with mixed results; the trucker whose trailer is stolen by the Decepticons has some potential; the man who finds his life of crime enhanced by his possession of a Megatron locked into handgun mode is much more entertaining. So there's obviously potential here, but thus far I feel like Budiansky and his very varied artistic collaborators aren't really delivering on it.

(One last note of complaint: two issues here feature Marvel-owned characters, Spider-Man and Circuit Breaker, in issues #3 and #9. IDW actually did get the rights to reprint them in hard copy, which was, I believe, a first, but apparently not electronically. I understand that these things happen, but the e-book version of this collection doesn't explain their omission, just cutting from issue #2 to #4, and from page 55 to page 81, without a single comment!)

Next Week: Bob Budiansky does his best-ever work on The Transformers, in Classics, Vol. 2!