The Transformers: Headmasters #1

History

Bob Budiansky, who was simultaneously writing the main monthly Transformers series, also scripted this miniseries; it was penciled by Frank Springer, the same artist who had drawn the original four-issue Transformers miniseries that launched the Marvel run in 1984. The project was conceived as a dedicated vehicle to introduce the bulk of Hasbro's 1987 toyline into the comic's continuity, since many of the new toys had non-terrestrial alternate modes that could not plausibly be explained by the Earth-centric origin story used for the prior three years of characters. Springer faced the extraordinary challenge of rendering approximately 62 new character designs across the four issues — accounting for transformations, roughly 132 distinct visual references — which contributed to a number of coloring and character-confusion errors throughout the run that fan communities have extensively documented. The series was published bi-monthly under editor Don Daley with Jim Shooter serving as editor-in-chief, and released on a cover date of July 1987 with an on-sale date of March 21, 1987.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First comic-book appearances of Fortress Maximus, Chromedome, Hardhead, Highbrow, Brainstorm, Sureshot, Crosshairs, Point Blank, and the Monsterbots (Repugnus, Grotusque, Doublecross), as well as the Technobots (Scattershot, Nosecone, Afterburner, and teammates) and Scorponok, Skullcruncher, Lord Zarak, Galen, Gort, and Marita.
• Written by Bob Budiansky (also writer of the main Transformers ongoing series) with pencils by Frank Springer, inks by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey, colors by Nel Yomtov, letters by Diana Albers, and edited by Don Daley.
• Titled 'Ring of Hate!', the story follows Fortress Maximus leading a crew of Autobots aboard the starship Steelhaven away from the endless war on Cybertron to seek peace on the alien world of Nebulos — only for Scorponok and his Decepticons to pursue them there.
• The miniseries was specifically devised by Marvel and Hasbro to introduce the 1987 toy assortment, including the Headmaster and Targetmaster gimmicks, into the comic's shared continuity; many of those toys had alternate modes that were not Earth vehicles, requiring a non-terrestrial origin story.
• The narrative device established in this issue — two large Transformer factions traveling to a new world — was reused by subsequent writers to introduce later toy waves (Powermasters, Pretenders) simply as previously unseen members of the same ships' crews.
• The Headmasters plot from this miniseries merged directly into the main ongoing US Marvel Transformers series at issue #38, making this issue the narrative root of a multi-year storyline thread.
• In the UK, the story was serialized as a back-up strip in the weekly Marvel UK Transformers comic beginning around issues #130–133, with new cover art by artists including Geoff Senior, Lee Sullivan, and Dave Gibbons.
• The complete miniseries has been collected multiple times: in Titan Books' trade paperback Trial by Fire (2004), IDW Publishing's Classic Transformers Volume 6 (2010), IDW's Transformers Classics Vol. 7 (2014), Hachette's Definitive G1 Collection Volume 10 (2017), and Hero-X's Transformers Classics Special: Headmasters (2018).

Cast · 33 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The Transformers: Headmasters

Variants (1)