If things had been different...

[Professor Smooth]

We know that the comics and cartoons are (and have always been) vehicles to promote the figures. But what if things had been different? What if Marvel Comics had come up with the idea for The Transformers before Hasbro? What would be different?

[spiderfrommars]

Ooooh, it would've been targeted at an older audience wouldn't it? The darker epic elements could have come to the fore from the start.

Transformers is one of the best and most ingenious toylines of all time, but that does prevent some people from taking our beloved comic seriously... maybe it could have had top tier writers from its inception.

In any case, Marvel played a huge part in giving the characters life and meaning anyway, with good old Bob writing out the profiles for Hasbro. It turned out to be a good marriage considering.

[Stormwolf]

Yes, I suppose that Bob would have performed a lot better if that were the case

And we would possibly have gotten a pretty cool cartoon in the 90's or so.

[Guest]

There would have been more interaction with the mainstream Marvel universe and the resultant dilution would've had a detrimental effect on any of the epics we came to know and (dis)like.

Plus, TFUK would've been scuppered and Furman wouldn't have been able to make his mark in the world.

[jboyler]

I doubt it would have been significantly different. I think that Marvel would want to tie it in with the Marvel Universe, so they would try to force the characters to stay on Earth. It would have lots of crossovers and so creativity in terms of new characters and settings would be limited. Eventually the comic would be ignored, mostly because it didn't have an "X" in the title.

Comics work in a weird cycle. Unpopular titles receive less supervision, and with less supervision comes more freedom to be creative. So eventually a team would start writing some of the imaginative space-epics that we really love. Furman wouldn't be involved, but I imagine the quality of the stories would eventually meet or surpass what we saw at the end of the G1 run.

-J

[Shanti418]

Seems to me that Marvel would want to get them off the Earth ASAP. Otherwise, everytime there was a TF rumble, everyone and their mother would show up.

[jboyler]

Otherwise, everytime there was a TF rumble, everyone and their mother would show up.

That would make sense, but comics never really seem to work that way. I've lost count of how many times I've read a comic and wondered, "Why doesn't X character or Y group show up to help out with this?"

If superheros intervened in each others battles as often as they could, no one would have a comic to themselves!

(Check out "Superman: Red Son" to see this logic carried to it's extreme)

-J

[Professor Smooth]

Consider this, thanks to Hasbro owning the property, there were a huge number of characters to work with. Hasbro demanded that new characters be introduced to the series to help sell the figures on the shelves. Without such a demand, would they have moved so away from the original Ark/Nemesis crews? Would characters like Bludgeon have been created?

[jboyler]

Hasbro demanded that new characters be introduced to the series to help sell the figures on the shelves.

That's a tough one. Conventional wisdom has it that a large cast limits the amount of "screen time" each individual member receives. I've always felt that one of the major weaknesses of Transformers and (by close relation) GI Joe is that they are required to show off such a huge cast that we never get to go much in-depth on any single character.

However, although the "core" characters of any given comic is typically small, there are usually many smaller roles which rotate in and out as storylines begin and end, and as the title changes hands between different writers and editors. Even though the hero is almost always consistent, there is constantly a demand for new villains and, by association, their henchmen. Also, keep in mind that at that time the most popular comic was the X-Men, which had a mind-boggling number of characters.

So the answer is: Yes, there would eventually be large numbers of characters, moreso on the side of the Decepticons than the Autobots because the bad guys tend to rotate more often than the good guys.

The caveat to this is that the characters would probably be introduced more slowly (of course, for the Transformers being 'introduced' at all is a feat!) and therefore they would be less prone to have speech balloons that go, "Hey, X, let's do this!" "Okay, Y, that sounds good!" because the readers would have been given a proper introduction to each character.

-J

[Shanti418]

That's one of the things that always set the comic apart from the cartoon:

In the cartoon, they'd just plop some characters in without any reason whatsoever just to play "Autobot #2" or something.

Whereas in the comic, most often then not, they had to do SOME backstory to make it make sense (Aerialbots/Stunticons, Throttlebots, Pretenders)

Do I think they would have introduced more characters along the line? Definetly, although in that situation, it would be a hell of a lot easier to just say, "TFs not on Ark/Nemesis can't transform and/or definetly don't have Earth alt modes," and wipe their hands clean since they're not bowing down to a toy line.

But, in that existance, do I think Marvel would have been, "Hey, we should really have more humans that transform into heads/weapons/enginers, more transformers that come in ridiculous oversized human shells and some really cute little transformers that can wrestle!"?

No, no I don't.

I don't need no stinking Micromasters. Rumble, Frenzy, Eject, Rewind, and SlamDance are all the cute little human shaped TFs I need, baby.

[Ozz]

I haven't read whole thread, so apologies if I repeat something.

I thought about it couple of times. If Marvel had treated Transformers seriously, they might have given it to someone like Chris Claremont back then. Good artists would be involved, too.

I guess new characters would show up eventually. It's inevitable. X-Men hadn't stopped at Giant Size X-Men line-up. They got likes Kitty, Dazzler, Rogue, Longshot, Forge, Rachel and Gambit.

Of course, with Transformers they had to do it on the more scale. It's a war between two big groups, so there would have to be more new characters popping up, if only to make up the numbers. Probably it would be similar to what we actually got: plenty of characters, but only handful of them developed.

Situation from my dreams is that Transformers would be written by Claremont, then there would be couple of spin-offs and mini-series, like Dinobots, or Aerialbots written also by Claremont or a chap named Simon Furman who would work closely with Claremont to avoid continuity cock-ups, with art provided by the likes of William Johnson, Geoff Senior, Bryan Hitch and Andrew Wildman.

[jboyler]

written also by Claremont or a chap named Simon Furman who would work closely with Claremont to avoid continuity cock-ups, with art provided by the likes of William Johnson, Geoff Senior, Bryan Hitch and Andrew Wildman.

Why do we keep limiting ourselves to the same creators over and over?

What would Transformers have become if Peter David had penned it instead of "Incredible Hulk"? What if Walt Simonson took a turn? Imagine the anarchaic possibilities of a Frank Miller comic, written and drawn with the same mad creativity as "Ronin."

I think the ultimate Transformers story would be told as a Jodorowsky space epic.

And can you even imagine Alex Ross painting them?

-J

[Ozz]

Why do we keep limiting ourselves to the same creators over and over?

Those are the ones I know the most and the ones who I think would suit Transformers the most. Furman was in top form back then. So was Claremont, and if he managed to write The Uncanny X-Men for 16 years and the book stayed for most of that time on certain high level, I'm positive he could do it for Transformers, too.

Other creators... I read, what, five, issues of David's The Incredible Hulk, but I read his whole run on X-Factor and loved it. If he got group of characters like, I don't know, Nightbeat, Siren and Hosehead, he could do similar series with great dose of humour like he did with Havok and co.

Simonson I don't know much. Miller, I don't know if he would fit.

I love Alan Davis to bits, but I don't see him as an artist in Transformers comic. Writer maybe, but when he writes, he usually does the art, too. People were sometimes put off by Wildman's art, they might have freaked out after seeing Alan's Transformers..