Marvel Transformers Reading Guide

by wadapan

The earliest Transformers fiction took the form of a four-part limited series from Marvel Comics, which was immediately promoted to a full monthly ongoing due to its success. Bob Budiansky, editor of the original miniseries and writer of all the profiles printed on Transformers packaging, wrote the comic until issue #55 (with the exception of Len Kaminski’s fill-in story in issue #16), at which point British writer Simon Furman took over.

The eighty issues of the US comics form a straightforward continuity of their own, with minor interruptions for Michael Higgins’ G.I. Joe and the Transformers crossover (which takes place over issues #23-27 of the main series, but should probably just be read before issue #28) and Budiansky’s four-issue Headmasters miniseries (which should be read between issues #37 and #38). The four-page Christmas 1985 strip published in Woman’s Day should probably be read after issue #14. Budiansky’s profiles for many of the characters were released in The Transformers Universe.

The writer of the very first issue of the Marvel comic, Ralph Macchio, later wrote a couple of adaptations of animated material: Transformers: The Movie #1-3 and US #43 (“The Big Broadcast of 2006”). These were not part of the US continuity, but as will shortly be explained they were incorporated by Simon Furman into the UK continuity.

If you only read one comic from the Marvel series, make it “Man of Iron”, written as a standalone tale by Steve Parkhouse for the UK version of the series (see below) and later reprinted in the US. This is a moody, enigmatic piece that presents the arrival of alien shapeshifters as a genuine mystery—and frankly, it makes a much better introduction than the four-issue limited series that kickstarted the US run.

From there, my advice is simple: just read up to issue #55, then stop. You don’t need to read G.I. Joe and the Transformers. You don’t need to read Macchio’s later stuff. You don’t need to read any of the stuff explained below. Bob Budiansky’s run, while maligned in the early consciousness of the fandom, has aged really quite well, and epitomises the tone and ideas that are at the core of Transformers. After all, Budiansky came up with most of them!

There’s also lots of good stuff to be found in Simon Furman’s work, make no mistake. But many of his stories are, quite literally by definition, “filler” stories, covering a wide range of disconnected plot threads of varying quality and relevancy. Reading everything can turn what’s otherwise a high-paced, densely-packed comic series into a convoluted slog! Not only that, but Furman’s writing style ended up having a stronger influence on more modern Transformers comics (many of which he also wrote), which these days makes it a little harder to tell what made his stories special at the time. Remember, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you coming back later to check out the highlights of Furman’s work at your leisure, and indeed doing so will better shine a spotlight on his own long-running story arcs!

Okay, okay, editorialising over. If you’re really dead set on reading everything in chronological story order, here’s what you need to know.

Marvel UK

The real-world context for Furman’s UK run is fairly complex, so only the most relevant parts are included here. If you’re really interested, the Classics UK reprint series from IDW Publishing, James Roberts (of More than Meets the Eye fame) offers extensive behind-the-scenes material and commentary—though it should be noted that this series only made it up to UK #173 before being cancelled.

Over in the United Kingdom, the comic-book market favoured weekly magazines over monthly series. Around twenty-two pages of material were being produced by Marvel US each month, but Marvel UK wanted to publish eleven pages a week; this led them to commission British writers and artists to produce original strips set alongside the US material. Simon Furman wrote the overwhelming majority of these stories, which were generally published interrupting the US issues exactly when they were supposed to take place. Occasionally, he made edits to the US reprints to paper over continuity errors that arose from the US/UK divide.

The UK material was supplemented by a series of “Annuals”, hardcover books released in time for Christmas, which usually contained original strips and prose stories. These were written with a longer lead-time, but each usually tied into the series in some way or another. By the time Budiansky was wrapping up his run, Furman also decided to tie off most of his independent plot threads in his own finale arc, to allow him to switch his focus to the US comic—this was when stuff got really complicated, so I’ll explain that later. The following list just illustrates the distribution of US and UK material leading up to Furman’s takeover in a recommended reading order; this is basically just publication order, but the placement of Annuals and other related material is explained in more detail afterwards.

The Transformers Annual 1985

The first UK annual included two comics by Simon Furman, which didn’t connect directly to stories in the series. “Plague of the Insecticons!” advertised 1985 figures who later got contradictory introductions in the US comic, making it non-canonical. “And There Shall Come… a Leader!” flashed back to the events of the very first issue, and was later referenced in issues #42-44; the annual is best read before those issues. James Hill wrote two prose stories for this annual, neither of which quite fit into the continuity.

“The Special Teams Have Arrived”

At the behest of Hasbro UK, to promote the 1986 combiner toys, Simon Furman wrote a four-page preview of issues #63-65 which featured the characters. We don’t know whether the preview or the comic issues themselves were written first, but the events of the former were roughly retconned into being a dream sequence in the latter. This comic was packed in with issue #54, so should be read anywhere between there and #63.

The Transformers Annual 1986

The second UK annual began with “In the Beginning…”, Furman’s recap of issues #1-65. As most of its stories either take place after #65 or directly reference it—with the annual hitting shelves a few months later—it’s best read at that point. Furman’s sole story here is the comic “Victory!”, which was technically set before #65 (and can be read any time after #50 if you want to place it in strict chronology). The other stories, which generally suffered from minor continuity conflicts, were: Ian Mennell and Wilf Prigmore’s comic “To a Power Unknown!”, James Hill’s prose stories “The Return of the Transformers” (a sequel to “Missing in Action”) and “State Games” (a prequel to “And There Shall Come… a Leader!”), and Jamie Delano’s prose story “The Mission”.

The Transformers: The Movie

When told that the US stories would not use the “future” characters from The Transformers: The Movie, Simon Furman seized the opportunity by incorporating events of the film into the UK continuity. The epic “Target: 2006” story in issues #78-88 hyped up the film, drip-feeding plot points and telling kids to go watch it to get the full story. Furman was working from an earlier draft of the script, much like Marvel’s three-issue comic adaptation (printed in the UK as a “Winter Special”), which is best read after issue #88.

The Transformers Annual 1987

The third UK annual promoted the new figures in the three-part Headmasters Saga prose story by Ian Rimmer, who also wrote the comic “Ark Duty” featuring the future cast. Furman used a minor beat from issue #46 as the basis for the comic story “What’s in a Name?”, and later for issues #135-136. This annual also served to conclude the story arc from issues #113-120, in “Vicious Circle!”, and is probably best read at that point.

Action Force #24-27

Issue #125 of the UK comic kicked off the “Ancient Relics!” crossover that was continued in Action Force #24-27. It interrupted the two-part story from US #29-30; as it’s mostly unrelated, referring just to the events of US #28, it reads better if moved a little forward.

Headmasters

Bob Budiansky’s four-issue miniseries was serialised in the UK comic as a back-up strip through issues #130-145. In a similar situation to the earlier Special Teams comic, the lead story in issues #130-131 was requested by Hasbro UK in advance of the miniseries’ completion to introduce the new toys, and the miniseries should be read after that point (rather than just before the characters’ appearance in UK #156 / US #38, as with a US-only reading order) to provide context for the following UK-exclusive stories.

The Transformers advert

In the style of the one-page comic strips being used to cross-promote Marvel’s books such as Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head, the premise of The Transformers was explained by Ultra Magnus in a presumably-out-of-canon monologue printed in issue #170 and various other publications. Dreadwind, Darkwing, and Powermaster Optimus Prime are all depicted ahead of their first appearances in issues #176-177.

The Transformers Annual 1989

In the UK, the serialisation of Budiansky’s “Underbase Saga” finale (US #47-50) was interrupted by a Christmas strip in issue #198 and Furman’s final “Time Wars” epic in issues #199-205. These stories all read better if the start of the Underbase Saga, in issues #194-197, is postponed until after issue #205. The fourth UK annual—which saw the dating scheme switch to specify the upcoming year, rather than the year of release—should be read right before “Time Wars”, as two of its strips (“Altered Image!” and “All in the Minds!”) led directly into the epic. Additionally included were “The Saga of the Transformers — So Far!” (a text recap covering issues #1-161), “Prime Bomb!” (a text story by Ian Rimmer) and “Peace” (an alternate-future comic by Richard Starkings).

End of the Road!

While Bob Budiansky wound down his run with issues #51-55, Simon Furman prepared to transition to Marvel US. This period of editorial upheaval roughly coincided with a change of format to the UK comic; US reprints were now broken into four parts, each accompanied by a half-length black-and-white UK-original backup strip. A handful of these stories were colourised for reprints at the time, with John-Paul Bove finally colourising the rest years later for The Definitive G1 Collection.

At first, Furman intended to tie some of these strips into the work he was doing for Marvel US, but the decision was made to pad out the UK comic by reprinting older stories. The resulting buffer led Furman to focus his UK strips on isolated plot threads, ultimately spinning off into their own continuity entirely (see below). A full explanation of the main continuity’s remaining stories is as follows.

The Transformers Annual 1990

Unlike those that preceded it, the fifth UK annual contained very little to tie it to the main series. It mostly referenced material published months prior, and even then did not fit exactly into continuity. It began with the uncredited prose story “The Quest!”, which served to recap events from issues #1-205. Longtime colourist Steve White was assisted by designer John Tomlinson on “Destiny of the Dinobots!”, which peered into the future of the comic and apparently served as Furman’s inspiration for issue #284. Ian Rimmer wrote the first part of the prose story “Trigger-Happy!”, which was concluded by Dan Abnett, who also contributed “The Chain Gang!”. The only material from this annual known to be written by Furman was “Dreadwing Down!”, a comic that roughly fit in somewhere before the Underbase Saga.

UK #213-214

Created prior to the decision to change the comic’s format, “The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire.” was the last UK strip to be first printed in colour. It detailed Megatron’s return to Cybertron following “Time Wars”.

UK #215-218

“Race with the Devil”, set after the events of US #53, featured Dreadwind and Darkwing and set up the events of Furman’s first US issue. Also written before the decision to change the format was made, this story was intended to be told in two parts but was split into four.

UK #219-222

“Survivors!” followed up on characters from US #51 and began plot threads that continued into the Earthforce continuity. It was also written in two parts but split into four.

UK #223-227

“Aspects of Evil!” consisted of five one-shot stories focused on Marvel’s biggest villains, with a framing device set in the future timeline. Some of the flashback stories didn’t gel with the continuity particularly well, so don’t think about it too much.

UK #228

“(Double) Deal of the Century!” was a one-shot focused around Doubledealer.

UK #229

“The Hunting Party” introduced the Mayhem Attack Squad in the present day. This strip was one of the several Mayhem-focused stories colourised for The Transformers Annual 1992; the only one not to also be reprinted in the Winter Special 1994.

UK #230-231

“The Big Shutdown!” began Thunderwing’s rise to power, which paid off in US #60. This strip was also colourised at the time, in UK #331-332, as what would have been the first in a line of such reprints, had the comic not been cancelled one issue later.

UK #234

“Prime’s Rib!” was a future-timeline flashback written in an attempt to explain away an apparent contradiction introduced by US #53. Its placement here reflects the fact that it was originally intended to be published in issue #232.

UK #232-233

“A Small War!” was a flashback story that’s really hard to place into continuity, presumably written to promote the new Micromasters. Just read it here and don’t think about it.

UK #235-236

“Deathbringer” went on to be directly referenced in US #65. Ratchet’s appearance in this story places it before US #56.

UK #237-239

The three part story told across “Way of the Warrior”, “Survival Run” and “A Savage Place!” saw the Survivors face off against the Mayhem Attack Squad. Again, these stories were colourised for Annual 1992 and Winter Special 1994.

UK #241-242

Thunderwing’s rise to power culminated in “Rage!” and “Assault on the Ark!”.

US #56-59

Furman’s opening arc on the US comic—”Back from the Dead”, “The Resurrection Gambit!”, “All the Familiar Faces!” and “Skin Deep”—revived a bunch of classic characters.

UK #240

“Out to Lunch!” followed on from the appearances of Dreadwind, Darkwing, and the Meccanibals in US #56-59. It also referenced Thunderwing having taken over Cybertron.

UK #243-244

Furman decided to reconcile Megatron’s reappearance in US #56-59 with his appearances in past UK material by retconning the latter to have actually been a clone created by Straxus, in “Mind Games” and “Two Megatrons!”.

UK #245-247

The resurrection of Bumblebee, Grimlock and Jazz in US #56-59 led into their appearances in “Underworld!”, “Demons!” and “Dawn of Darkness”. The antagonists of this arc reappeared in US #76.

UK #248

Starscream’s revival, meanwhile, was followed up on in “Fallen Star!”

Sunday Times Strips

Included in James Roberts’ 2022 collection of rare Transformers reprints were five never-before-seen black-and-white one-page strips written by Simon Furman in 1989 for the “Funday Times” supplement. All five of these strips can be read for free in the preview released for the compilation, but it also includes many other hard-to-find stories featured on this page! These strips featured the Classic Pretenders, but in keeping with the UK/US continuity flux from this time, Megatron is presented as Decepticon leader on Cybertron, evidently from before plans changed.

US #60-61

The next two issues of the US comic, “Yesterday’s Heroes!” and “The Primal Scream”, finally brought Thunderwing into the US comic, and saw the Classic Pretenders and Rescue Patrol transported to Earth (before the latter’s later appearance in UK #250).

UK #249-250

“Whose Lifeforce Is It Anyway?” led into “The Greatest Gift of All!”. These stories were written to tie into the upcoming “Matrix Quest” story arc.

UK #251-254

The final UK story arc to be set in the main continuity was told across “The Void!”, “Edge of Impact”, “Shadow of Evil” and “White Fire”. It continued to foreshadow the “Matrix Quest”, and was the last window readers received into the future timeline.

UK #255-289

Okay, here’s where this reading order gets really controversial. To promote the Classics reissue line, Furman shifted his UK strips to focus on back-to-basics plots and characters. He wrote these shorter stories ahead of his US issues, and occasionally drew from ideas he was planning to use, but discontinuities started to pile up between the plot threads. Eventually, the decision was made to explicitly delineate the UK stories as a continuity of their own, with the subplot established in issues #219-222, #229, and #237-239 being effectively grandfathered into the new timeline. The so-called “Earthforce” stories (told across issues #255-289) notably cover an entire character arc for Grimlock, and play into the finale of the US series: so read them now, and don’t think too hard about them. Note that issue #265, written to recap the core premise of the Transformers comic, reads better if moved just before issue #284. The prose story from the 1991 annual, “The Magnificent Six!“, is also set in this continuity and works nicely as a coda. Of these stories, only the three-part story from “Cry Wolf”/“Wolf in the Fold!”/“Where Wolf?” was colourised at the time, for Annual 1992 and Winter Special 1994.

US #62-80

With the UK material having finally veered off into its own alternate timeline, Furman was free to finish his US run in peace, crafting a story arc that culminated in the double-length issue #75. Like Budiansky before him, he followed this finale with five more issues dealing with the aftermath of those events.

Transformers Annual 1992

The 1991 and 1992 annuals (the last produced by Marvel UK) included just one new text story each. The second of these, “Another Time & Place“, was a coda to Furman’s run with Marvel.

Ladybird Books

In the UK, author John Grant wrote a series of ten illustrated storybooks for the popular Ladybird Books publisher, along with an adaptation of The Transformers: The Movie. These were also sold with audio cassettes containing elaborately-produced readings. A full list is as follows:

Miscellanea

A smattering of other books and comics were released in the 80s, some of which included story content by a wide variety of authors. A noncomprehensive list is as follows:

Death’s Head

Following his breakout debut in Transformers, the freelance peacekeeping agent Death’s Head went on to star in a variety of other comics from Marvel. These made little reference to his time in Transformers, but a complete reading guide is nonetheless available here.

Generation 2

In the 90s, Transformers returned with brand-new comics from Marvel, to coincide with Hasbro’s rebooted toyline. These stories continued on from issue #80, basically ignoring “Another Time & Place”.

G.I. Joe #138-142

To generate hype for their new comic, Marvel got Larry Hama to write a G.I. Joe. arc focusing on Megatron’s revival.

Generation 2 #1-12

Simon Furman then returned for a brand-new twelve-issue run. Aside from its first and last bumper-length instalments, each issue contained two strips; the backup strip from issue #2 was also published separately as a free “Halloween Special Edition”.

Generation 2 (Fleetway) #1-2

Meanwhile, the collapse of Marvel UK meant that UK publisher Fleetway took over the license. Furman was credited with a two-part story that offered a different take on the US comic’s early events; according to Furman long after the fact, this was done so UK readers wouldn’t have to worry about the G.I. Joe crossover.

The Official Transformers: Generation 2 Annual

In 1994, UK publisher Grandreams put out an annual based loosely on the Marvel comic. It’s unknown who worked on it!

“Alignment”

For the unofficial UK Transforce convention, Furman wrote a novel tying up lingering plot threads from Generation 2 and setting up aspects of his Beast Wars stories.

Tales from the Beast Wars

When 3H Productions gained the official Transformers convention license, it didn’t take long for them to start producing original toys and comics. They hired Simon Furman to write stories tying into the then-current Beast Wars cartoon, and he set about gleefully incorporating aspects of the Marvel continuity.

Beast Wars: Transformers advert

To promote the Beast Wars video game in the UK, regular Marvel artist Geoff Senior illustrated a one-page comic, presumably written by one of the game’s developers.

“Critical Mass: Ground Zero”

BotCon 1997 saw the release of a short comic promoting the convention’s two toys, ostensibly set at some point during the Beast Wars cartoon’s first season.

Reaching the Omega Point

At BotCon 1998, Beast Wars cowriter Bob Forward contributed the “Visitations” script reading. This led into a multi-part series of prose stories by Simon Furman, which (contrary to the way they’re usually labelled) are best read in publication order: “Covenant”, “Herald”, “Schism”, and “Paradox”. The plotline was concluded in the BotCon 2000 exclusive comic “Terminus”. Decades later, Furman wrote a Leonicus profile card for an unofficial BotCon.

“The Last Days of Optimus Prime”

Some lingering mysteries from Reaching the Omega Point were resolved in a short unofficial comic produced for Transforce 2000.

Universe

When Beast Machines began to air, 3H Productions started a new overarching story tying into its events: The Wreckers. This marked a shift from the Marvel-inspired backstory introduced by Furman towards more inspiration being drawn from the Sunbow cartoon. Each bumper-length comic also included an instalment of the Primeval Dawn backup strip, which tied up plot threads from the end of Beast Wars.

However, only a single issue of The Wreckers was released before Hasbro mandated that the fan club should instead produce fiction promoting the Universe toyline. Ultimately, just three issues of each of these series saw release, with none of the storylines being concluded by 3H. Fun Publications eventually resolved some of these plot threads; for information on that, see our reading guide.

Primeval Dawn

The first Primeval Dawn backup strip was written by Bob Forward, and was intended to lead into an online flash animation, for which only a trailer is known to the fandom. Simon Furman took over the reins for the next two instalments; a fourth would have lead into The Wreckers, but the story was left unfinished.

The Wreckers

Hype for The Wreckers was built across the “VEHICON ALERT!” and “Apelinq’s War Journals” features on the BotCon website. The first issue of the comic was written by Glen Hallit; subsequent instalments were by Rob Gerbracht, who’d written the online material. The fourth issue of the comic was fully-scripted, and Fun Publications later released the artwork for the first four pages.

Universe

Furman scripted three issues of Universe, as well as two script readings for the convention. The first reading bridges issues #1 and #2, while the second is set some time after #3. These stories drew characters from a wide variety of continuities, including both of Furman’s runs for Dreamwave (for info on those, see our reading guide). Gerbracht wrote some profiles for The Official Transformers Collectors’ Club Magazine #1 (no further issues were produced), some of which were for Universe characters, while others were retconned into the “Shell Game” continuity—a short convention comic by Furman without ties to any existing stories. An unreleased piece of media from this time, “Complete Go-Bots Power!”, was a colouring book by Recordicons creator David Willis.

“A Meeting of Minds”, “Singularity Ablyss”

In 2004, Furman wrote a short story as part of the Transformers Legends anthology canonising a deleted scene from the very end of the Beast Wars cartoon. Additionally, Beast Machines showrunner Bob Skir contributed a canonical story set at the very end of the sequel show.

IDW Publishing

Alongside their rebooted “Generation 1” continuity, IDW Publishing produced a variety of series tying into established stories.

Beast Wars

Furman recycled ideas from his unproduced Dreamwave Beast Wars series for the four-issue The Gathering miniseries, which was followed by a sequel in the form of The Ascending. He also collaborated with Benson Yee on the Beast Wars Sourcebook profile series. These stories adapted aspects of the 3H stories but otherwise ignored them, instead tying directly to the cartoon. Around the same time, Furman contributed three tongue-in-cheek non-canon Beast Wars script readings to the unofficial UK convention Auto Assembly, which were later followed by more multiversal-shenanigans-based readings in 2012, 2015, and maybe more we don’t know about!

Transformers: The Animated Movie

For the 20th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, IDW hired Bob Budiansky to write a four-issue adaptation. Simon Furman later wrote a couple of pack-in comics inspired by the movie.

Transformers Generations

Yes, this isn’t IDW, but I’m putting it here. Over in Japan, Million Publishing has been releasing annual guidebooks on Takara’s toylines, frequently including original comic strips—and on a few occasions, they contracted Simon Furman to create stories! Of relevance to this reading guide is 2011’s “The Fierce Fighting on Planet Nebulos“, which was described by Guidi as being “set in a sort of post-#80 Marvel comic universe”. Guidi later wrote “Starscream’s New Power“, set in another ambiguously-G1-inspired reality. Furman’s most recent comic, “Reborn“, is the only one for which the original English script has yet to surface. Check out our “movie expanded universe” reading guide for information on a couple of earlier comics like these.

Regeneration One

In 2012, Furman began a brand-new sequel to his Marvel US run. While canonically it ignored his UK-only material and Generation 2, picking up with issue #80.5, Regeneration One was the thematic conclusion to many aspects of those stories, and even to minor elements of Furman’s previous IDW run (see our reading guide). The series ran until issue #100, with a special issue #0 published as an interlude between issues #94 and #95.

Transformers ’84

A brand-new series of comics revisiting the events of the earliest issues of the Marvel run was kicked off with an issue #0, which led into the Secrets & Lies series.

“The Skin that I Live In”

For the unofficial Nordic Transformers convention RetCon 2018, Furman wrote an exclusive comic about the Pretenders, with a surprise appearance from an IDW favourite. Interior art was done by Ed Pirrie. You can find this one in our out-of-print media archive!

“The Last – And Only – Stand of the Remnants”

This was followed up by an innuendo-laden comic for RetCon 2019, starring various Transformers with unfortunate names. Yeah, basically, this is Erector’s star turn. While mostly carrying a Marvel vibe, the comic naturally makes reference to ideas from Dreamwave and IDW’s material. For RetCon 2023, Furman wrote a loose sequel drawing inspiration from that year’s blockbuster release of Rise of the Beasts, and from his previous work on Beast Wars: The Ascending.

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