Welcome to this week’s Comic Sunday Speculation where I speculate on “out there” ideas. This particular article is my first Transformer comic speculation.

Transformers speculation are not easy due to continuity complexities as well as multiple publishing companies. In addition, common research resources such as key collector comics only provide information up to certain issues.

Hence, if I have made any errors in this article, please feel free to correct me via the comments. I will gladly update any mistakes I might have make.

With caveats out of the way, here is this week’s speculation.

Transformers cinematic reboot

We all know that there will be a reboot of the Transformers cinematic universe. Specifically, there will be 2 movies:

• Beast Wars
• Continuation in the G1 universe.

Initially, I wanted to focus on Beast Wars as this is a relatively untapped area in terms of comic speculation. Unfortunately, their first appearance in Beast Wars: Ground Zero is not cheap and are hard to find. As of this writing, there is one copy for sale on Ebay Uk and the seller is asking for USD90.

Hence, I shifted my focus back to the G1 universe.

With this reboot, there are rumors that the lead character might not be Optimus Prime, given that we have seen him on screen for almost all the movies. Instead, there might be a change of guard in the leadership. This might also be true for the Deceptions.

After Optimus Prime, the most likely candidates to lead the Autobots will be either Ultra Magnus or Rodimus Prime. For the Deceptions, it might be likely be Galvatron.

Fortunately, these 3 characters made their first appearance in the Transformer, the Movie adaption #1 and #3.

   

From the cover of Transformer, the Movie #1, it is clear that Ultra Magnus is in the issue so I believe that is his first appearance. Galvatron also appeared in this issue on the last panel.

Below is that panel.

Another candidate that a member in the Mewe group suggested is Transformers #43. However that issue appeared in 1988, which is a year later than this issue, so chronologically, Transformer the Movie #1 should be the first appearance issue.

For Rodimus Prime, he first appeared in Transformer the Movie #1 as Hot Rod. He only transformed into Prime in issue three when he receive the Matrix of Leadership.

Below is the panel in #3 where the transformation took place.

According to wiki, Hot Rod first appearance in comics is Transformer Headmasters #1. Again that book appeared later than Transformer the Movie #3 so chronologically, the latter is definitely the earlier book.

However, the problem comes in continuity. In particular, do comic fans recognize this Transformer the Movie mini series as part of the continuity or is it regarded as something that should not be considered?

Are Transformers good speculation candidates?

After sorting out the messy first appearances, one final question to answer is whether Transformer comics are good speculation targets. Currently, only Transformer #1 seems to be doing well. Even the fan favorite Dinobots’ first appearance in Transformer #8 is only getting $15-20 for NM raw copies

However, there are 2 factors which might change this:

• The general rise of cartoon related comics such as GI Joe, Turtles etc
• The movie reboot

With enough luck, these 2 factors might coincidence and lead to a sudden rise in speculative interest. If that happens, the cheap copies you are buying now will probably yield some good profits.

That being said, these books are still highly risky so keep your buying cost low.

In addition, remember to look for the harder to find newsstand editions, especially in 9.8 conditions.

Have a great Sunday!