Getting into Transformers comics. Please advise.

[Gabriela D.]

Hello, Escapists!

After watching the movies again and remembering all the hype about them, I decided to get into the comics. (It has absolutely no relevance to this awesome dream I had the other day).

Problem is, I have no idea where to begin. I have zero experience with comics and this would be my first foray into this world.

So my question is, where should I start? I keep hearing about this G1 thing; is that it? Or is it the animated show? Is there a chronological order? Or canonical?
I want the same experience you had when you got into the series. The humour, the action, the drama etc. etc. I want the awesome characters and battles and I want to immerse myself into the world.

So please help me out here. Thanks!

 

[JemJar]

Okay, so G1 is Generation 1, the "original" stuff as such. And strictly speaking, G1 covers a LOT of ground, G2 being as widely unsuccessful as reboots tend to be.

If you want to go properly old school about it, the early stuff will be focused on stories taking place on Earth and Megatron leading the Decepticons. This is pre-original animated movie stuff.

G1 content covers both the cartoons and the comics, but canon (particularly certain origin stories) can vary a little between the two. Having said that, both sets of canon are utterly laughable if you actually attempt to think about them, so don't do that.

But as is usually the case with comics, ones published by Marvel in particular (oh yes kiddies), the stories are as big a twisted jumble as you can imagine, with time-travel and character death and resurrection mixing things up.

For my money though, some of the best Transformers comics are the Dreamwave series from a few years back. Their Generation 1 writing captures the characters pretty well and plays out as Transformers should do, looked back on with the rose-tinted glasses of proper adult nostalgia.

And includes some fun lines like "We're Autobots. We fight. That's what we do."

And don't overlook the TF: War Within stuff which Dreamwave did too, it's quite a fun take on the TF universe on Cybertron, the prequel to the whole thing.

Of course, sadly Dreamwave went under a few years in, meaning that the storylines don't really tie up very well, but it's fun while it lasts.

But the place to start, above all, is probably that 1985 animated movie. The cheesy 80s rock soundtrack. The bad comedy. The universal greeting. Orson Welles. Leonard Nimoy.

 

[Gabriela D.]

Snip

Awesomesauce. Thank you. Then I guess I'll see the 1985 movie and then get into the Marvel and Dreamwave G1. I'll leave the War Within for last. That ok?

How did you get into it?