Much like the G.I. Joe franchise, the early Transformers comics at Marvel helped define and enrich a universe that began as nothing more than a toy line. And the comics have continued to influence the Transformers mythos in the decades since, telling some of the best stories featuring Optimus Prime, Megatron, and the rest of the gang.

With the fourth live-action Transformers film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, hitting theaters this Friday, we figured now was a good time to look back and pick out our favorite Transformers comics over the years.

5 Regeneration One

When IDW took over the Transformers franchise, they followed their usual pattern of rebooting the universe and starting over with a streamlined, modernized take on the characters. But much as they did with the G.I. Joe franchise, IDW eventually went back and dusted off the original Marvel Comics continuity. Transformers: Regeneration One picks up 21 years after the conclusion of The Transformers #80, with the newly restored Cybertron falling under attack by Soundwave and other surviving Decepticons. The series served as a self-contained sequel, not acknowledging the developments in Marvel's Generation 2 comics.Regeneration One is a nice dose of nostalgia for fans of the original Transformers comic, but nostalgia only carries a book so far. Luckily, IDW brought writer Simon Furman on board to continue his run where he had left off in 1991. If Furman wasn't the driving creative force during the entirety of The Transformers as Larry Hama was for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, his run was certainly the highlight of that book during its later years. Regeneration One did suffer through some growing pains as Furman settled back in and the book struggled with pacing issues. But the end of the first story arc was a definite attention-grabber, and the story only got better from there.Furman was ultimately able to give this version of the Transformers mythos the satisfying conclusion it deserved when Regeneration One wrapped with issue #100. The series has since been collected in a series of four trade paperbacks.

4 The War Within

Dreamwave held the Transformers license for a few years in between the Marvel and IDW eras. Unfortunately, most of the company's output isn't that highly regarded, and their continuity and storylines weren't continued after the license passed to IDW.But one Dreamwave project that is held in high regard is the prequel series Transformers: The War Within. This series flashes back to the early era of Dreamwave's G1 continuity, millions of years before the Autobot/Decepticon War shifted to Earth. The War Within explores the political turmoil on ancient Cybertron and Optimus Prime's rise from humble origins to become a noble leader. The series offered a much more in-depth and fascinating look at Transformers icons in this era. And the series also served as writer Simon Furman's big return to the Transformers franchise after his Marvel work ended.While not exactly the most new reader-friendly Transformers comic out there, The War Within serves as a great origin story for these characters. The first sequel, The War Within - Dark Ages, further fleshed out this era and introduced The Fallen (who would go on to serve as the main antagonist in the second live-action film). A second sequel, The War Within: The Age of Wrath, was begun, but Dreamwave's bankruptcy cut that book short. IDW has released an Omnibus collection of the first two volumes, but it doesn't look as though The Age of Wrath will ever be completed.

3 All Hail Megatron

Any franchise that sticks around long enough tends to go through a "grim and gritty" phase. And it's happened to the Transformers on more than one occasion. But All Hail Megatron succeeds where things like the Dreamwave comics and the Dark of the Moon film have failed in stacking the odds against the Autobots and presenting their struggle in a harsher light.All Hail Megatron is a 16-issue maxi-series that served as a sort of soft reboot of IDW's Transformers publishing line. After several years of rotating mini-series and various spinoffs and character spotlights, the publisher really needed to give readers a proper jumping-on point. That's what writer Shane McCarthy managed with this storyline. Picking up from the events of Transformers: Devastation, the Autobots are left scattered and broken on Cybertron, while Megatron and his Decepticons rule Earth with a literal iron fist.The series offered a nice change of pace, injecting a new sense of desperation into the franchise and going a long way towards fleshing out the Transformers. All Hail Megatron also boasts some of the stronger artwork found in IDW's comics, including some very striking, propaganda-style cover designs.IDW released several trade paperback collections for All Hail Megatron, as well as a comprehensive hardcover edition.

2 The Matrix Quest

As we've mentioned, Simon Furman's run on the original Marvel series is widely regarded as that book's greatest era. And dedicated fans might as well just pick up IDW's Transformers Classics volumes that cover that run (start at Vol. 5). But those who want a taste of what Furman's work had to offer in that time period would do well to check out "The Matrix Quest." This storyline unfolded across issues #62-66, with Optimus Prime dispatching several teams of Autobots across the galaxy to track down the Matrix of Leadership and hopefully put a halt to Unicron's warpath.The structure of "The Matrix Quest" is interesting in that each issue offers a fairly standalone tale that contributes to the overall narrative. More interesting is how each issue pays homage to a famous novel or film. Transformers #62 echoes The Maltese Falcon, issue #63 references several Wild West films, Issue #64 is a clear homage to Moby Dick, and issue #65 draws inspiration from Alien and Aliens.Furman's Unicron saga continued well after "The Matrix Quest" wrapped, but no storyline better showcases the writer's ability to tell a compelling, dramatically rich tale about transforming robots.

1 Last Stand of the Wreckers

Nick Roche has made no secret of the fact that he was a little hesitant about the idea of writing and drawing a mini-series about the Wreckers, of all characters. A-Listers these characters aren't. But Last Stand of the Wreckers is as true an example as any comic that there are no bad characters, only bad stories.The premise of this series (also co-written by James Roberts) is pretty straightforward. The Autobots' resident black-ops crew, the Wreckers, are reassembled in the aftermath of All Hail Megatron. They're dispatched to a remote prison facility that has been out of communication with both Autobots and Decepticons for years. And what they find there isn't pleasant. Last Stand of the Wreckers is a dark, emotional, often brutal series, where our heroes die painfully and often. One of Roche and Roberts' themes in the story is the way heroes can die pointless deaths. That approach allows readers to feel for and identity with the cast in ways that are usually difficult with Transformers stories. No longer are these bots larger than life figures.IDW has collected this mini-series in both trade paperback and hardcover format. Any Transformers fan at all interested in diving into the comics would do well to check this story out.

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