Transformers UK #1

The Facts

Dated: 20 September 1984

Cover: Jerry Paris

Story: "The Transformers" (11 pages; part 1)

Credits: Bill Mantlo (plotter); Ralph Macchio (scripter); Frank Springer (penciller); Kim Demulder (inker); Higgins (co-letterer); Parker (co-letterer); Nelson Yomtov (colourer); Bob Budiansky (editor); Jim Shooter (editor in chief)

This reprints the first 11 pages of US #1 with most of the pages in black and white rather than full colour.

Reprints: Reprinted in full colour in Collected Comics 1, in hardcover format in The Complete Works Volume 1, and currently available in the Titan graphic novel Beginnings.

Features: Sorry, but I don't have the issue to tell you what features there were.

Back-Up Strips: Machine Man

In Brief

Which one is this?

The Decepticons declare war, the Ark blasts rocks out of space before crashing, a probe fails to recognise organic life, and Optimus Prime's trailer brings everybody back to life.

Firsts and Lasts

Pretty much everything in this issue is a first. In no particular order:

• The first issue of the UK Transformers comic
• The first Transformers fiction to appear in the UK
• The first Transformers reprint of any description
• The first American story to appear in the UK comic
• The first story partly in colour and partly in black and white
• The first cover to be done by Marvel UK
• The first Transformers comic work by Bob Budiansky (who had previously written the tech-specs for all of the first batch of characters)
• The first Transformers work by Bill Mantlo, Ralph Macchio, Frank Springer, Kim DeMulder, Higgins, Parker, Nel Yomtov, Jerry Paris, and maybe Jim Shooter (though editor in chief usually means no actual involvement in an issue)
• The first mention, and appearance, of Cybertron, the Ark, and the Decepticons' spaceship
• The first appearances of the Autobots, the Decepticons, Optimus Prime, Prowl, Jazz, Megatron, Soundwave, Buzzsaw, Frenzy, Laserbeak, Ravage, Rumble, Skywarp, Starscream, Thundercracker, and possibly a few others I haven't spotted.

Memorable Moments / Dialogue Triumphs

Unfortunately, only five characters (seven if you count the probe and the Ark) get any dialogue and the plot is so skeletal there's no room for moments that stick in the memory.

Miserable Moments / Dialogue Disasters

The whole issue is too mundane to throw up anything that counts as a clunker.

The Characters

Autobots

Autobots (behind the scenes)

Decepticons

Decepticons (behind the scenes)

The Story

Synopsis

Cybertron was a Saturn-sized metallic planet orbiting Alpha Centurai with mechanical life forms. The dominant race, sentient robots called the Transformers, were peaceful until Megatron led a group of Transformers called the Decepticons in a war against the Autobots. The war shook Cybertron out of its orbit. As the war progressed, the Autobots found their Champion - Optimus Prime. Under his leadership, the Autobots held their own for over a thousand years. However, Cybertron eventually drifted into another Solar System, and Autobot scientists realised that Cybertron would pass through an asteroid belt. Optimus Prime volunteered to personally lead a mission to clear a path through the asteroid belt on a newly constructed craft called the Ark. The Decepticons discovered this and attacked the Autobots just after they had finished their task. The Autobots were too weak to resist the Decepticons and, as a last resort, Prime crashed the Ark into the third planet of the Solar System - Earth. Forty million years later, the volcano Mount Saint Hilary in the US state of Oregon erupts, awakening the Ark's computer systems. The Ark sends out a probe to explore the planet. The probe does not register organic lifeforms, but does register human vehicles as life forms. It scans a variety of human technologies, returns to the Ark, and gives its data to the Ark, which prepares to commence reviving the Transformers.

Goofs

• The cover bears no relation whatsoever to what happens in the issue.
• How can a war (even a global one) possibly shake a planet out of its orbit? [Perhaps it's Primus' doing rather than something caused by the war.]
• When Prime and Prowl are discussing the situation on the Ark, Prowl's ready with advice, but Prime doesn't want to hear it beacuse he's already made up his mind. Furthermore, the option Prime takes is one that Prowl hasn't been told about. So much for the line about Prowl being the "most trusted of my advisors!"

Analysis

'They shall learn the way of conflict. The way of war. The way of Megatron' You might expect the first issue to be something special. Unfortunately, you'd be disappointed. Introducing the premise, something that is done in a few lines numerous times later in the comic's history, takes up the entire eleven pages of the story. There is no room for individual stories, and even the few Transformers that get lines are little more than part of a faceless mass under the command of either Megatron or Optimus Prime. There are very few times when I'd recommend the cartoon over the comic, but their opening stories are one such time. More than Meets the Eye is a far superior start to a series. The best thing about this issue is that things can only get better. Can't they?

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