I’m a huge G1 Transformers fan, but I’d never read The Transformers: The Movie #1 until this reprint. After spending some time with it, I can safely say it’s maybe the most adapted comic that’s ever been adapted, ever. If you’re familiar with the movie from 1986, it’ll feel less like a comic and more like a storyboard, with exact lines of dialogue ripped from the film, and a few select cuts made to fit the first 30 or so minutes of said film fit into 20 pages of comic.
Because it’s such a close adaptation of the Transformers movie that came out 40 years ago (damn, we’ll celebrate it in a minute once I’ve had some time to accept how old it is), this is going to be a pretty spoiler-heavy review. Fair warning.
The art is rough, the dialogue is stilted, and the absolutely rocking soundtrack is nowhere to be found, but there’s still a lot to like about this comic beyond the gorgeously updated covers. That rough art is also fun. That stilted dialogue is expedient. That soundtrack lives rent-free in my head.
Let me be clear; if you’re like me and you’ve seen the ’86 movie so many times you’ve internalized it, you do not need to read this comic. But also, if you’re like me and you’ve seen the ’86 movie so many times you’ve internalized it, it’s just interesting enough to see how it’s shifted and contracted to fit into a three-part mini.
The Don Perlin art is rough in 2026 (40 years later, yay anniversaries, told you we’d celebrate it), but it’s charming as hell. Every Autobot and Deceptcon has a rounded edge to them that makes them feel more alive while still feeling mechanical from stem to stern. There’s a kineticism to the way Kranix tries to outrun their planets destruction at the beginning that feels almost more terrifying than it does in the movie.
This is what the book actually looks like.
Image Comics
The Ralph Macchio script doesn’t fare as well. Most of the dialogue is directly cribbed or outright truncated. There’s no sauce, no love, nothing special that’s done here to make the writing itself feel less than anything of a copy-paste job. There’s maybe two moments where it felt like there was real adapting, at least for the dialogue – the real writing comes from making the movie fit into this unintended new format.
This book basically covers Unicron’s opening salvo against the planet Lithone, Laserbeak spying on Optimus and the other Autobots on Cybertron’s moon, through Megatron’s assault on Autobot City, Optimus Prime’s counterattack, his eventual death, and Megatron’s transformation to Galvatron. Like I said, it’s basically the first half hour of the ’86 Transformers movie with a few scenes cut for time.
We don’t get to see Preceptor go to Blaster to send a message to Prime (and the ensuing cassette-former battle). There’s no epic transformation sequence of Autobot City (bizarrely referred to as Fortress Maximus instead of Metroplex), and we don’t get to see Optimus Prime going absolutely HAM on Decepticon ranking officers before duking it out with Megatron in mortal combat. (Pretty much all of the references I’ve made were written to be links, but Hasbro hates fun and removed all videos from YouTube.)
We do see the death of Optimus Prime, the passing of the Matrix, and the deal Megatron makes with the devil to become Galvatron. What’s most interesting about this sequence that’s the end of one toy line and the beginning of another passing of the torch from one generation to the next, is that it completely removes Hot Rod’s involvement from the fight between Prime and Megatron. I think part of the reason the generation above me hold this movie in such low regard is this character they didn’t know seemed singlehandedly responsible for Prime dying. That’s completely removed here – and even Prime wasting time shooting Thundercracker, Dirge, Soundwave, etc. is removed.
It’s a small tweak but a really interesting one that makes you consider how much you’re willing to designate the death of Optimus Prime as a young rookie’s mistake or simply a chapter of an epic battle.
Image
The Transformers The Movie: 40th Anniversary Edition #1 is an ugly book that gets better the more you spend time with it. It’s a poorly written book until you hit the last page. It’s a perfect companion piece for fans of the Transformers movie who have absorbed every cel over the last four decades. It’s familiar enough where all the beats hit at the right moment, but different enough that you’re interested to see how they can stick the landing after small tweaks that drastically change the emphasis of a story you already know.
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