comicbooks.com Join Free
The Transformers #38 cover
Cover: Frank Springer & Dave Hunt

The Transformers #38

Mar 1988 · Marvel · 1.00 USD; 1.25 CAD; 0.40 GBP
📊 ~8,623 copies sold its debut month
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free
“Trial by Fire!”

From Marvel's 1988 run of The Transformers, issue #38 — "Trial by Fire!" — drops readers into a tense, large-scale confrontation set across a rocky, cavernous landscape. The cover, penciled by Frank Springer and inked by Dave Hunt, places a massive, gun-wielding Decepticon front and center while two human figures scramble nearby, caught between towering mechanical combatants exchanging energy blasts in the background. With Bob Budiansky writing and José Delbo on interior art, this mid-series chapter promises the kind of all-out chaos the title delivered so reliably throughout 1988.

Was this helpful and accurate?
writer Bob Budiansky · artist José Delbo · inker Dave Hunt · colorist Nel Yomtov · letterer Bill Oakley · cover Frank Springer, Dave Hunt

Find on

Search eBay for The Transformers #38
No confirmed live listings for this exact issue right now — this opens an eBay search.

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸
Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

Cast · 32 characters

Full credits

inker Dave Hunt
colorist Nel Yomtov
letterer Bill Oakley
cover pencils Frank Springer
cover inks Dave Hunt

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers

▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers

The Autobot Headmasters arrive on Earth, and track Goldbug's distress signal to the former Ark site, where they find Spike Witwicky and the small toy car that holds Goldbug's brain. Fortress Maximus has been upgraded where his head is now another Autobot named Cerebros and Galen is the head of Cerebros. The Decepticon Headmasters also arrive on Earth, and track the signal to the same site. As a battle erupts between the two warring factions, Galen and Lord Zarak detach from their respective Transformers to fight, but Galen sacrifices his life to save Spike.

Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).

Variants (1)

Reviews

Reader reviews

No reader reviews yet.