Okay, rough guide to Transformers:
The Marvel comic book series of the 1980s came out about 3 months before the cartoon - although the cartoon and comic were scheduled at the same time, there was a delay in the animation work at Sunbrow.
Initial stories in the comic and cartoon were very similar to the movie - Autobots & Decepticons are fighting a civil war on Cybertron, they end up on Earth and hostilities resume.
The comic book ran until 1991 - with a short lived "generation 2" in 1992 of about 18 issues. Following on from that Dreamwave publishing puchased rights to Transformers from Hasbro in 2001 & began a new series picking up from the end of series 2 of the cartoon.
Basically, the Autobots & Humans have defeated the Decepticons and are planning to return to Cybertron...until the Ark II explodes in mid flight - leaving people to believe that they are all dead. A scientist called Lazarus finRAB the bodies and starts to sell them as remote controlled WMRAB - at which point Spike finRAB Optimus Prime & revives him using a part of the matrix Prime gifted to him before leaving Earth. Cue a big fight, the destruction of San Francisco & the first series ended with Prime and the Autobots realising how much of a mess they'd made of two planets.
Second Dreamwave series was set on Cybertron - all the Autobots & Decepticons are arrested on Earth by the former Decepticon Shockwave, who has unified the factions and ended the civil war, as war criminals...until Prime discovers that Shockwave is planning to take over the Earth for some wider scheme...
Which was never revealled as Dreamwave went bust.
Cue the 2006 reboot, written by English writer Simon Furman (the "second" TF writer after original writer Bob Budiansky). This series is much darker in tone - the war on Cybertron has spread across the galaxy (with Cybertron itself a planetary husk) and it's a war of attrition with the Decepticons infiltrating planets with a type of clone to create unrest to the point of global annihilation. Once all the native inhabitants have killed each other off, the Decepticons scavenge the planets for resources.
The Autobots try to stop them, but can't risk exposing themselves for the fear of escalating the conflict too quickly, knowing that they can't actually win in a stand up fight against the Decepticons greater numbers & through the protocols laid down by both sides.
This series contains a far more "adult" approach to the Transformers - the Autobots know they can't save most planets that the Decepticons infiltrate (including the Earth). There's an interesting point that Prime feels guilty that the war has been going on this long because of his pacifistic views - he really doesn't want to fight - and he knows that it's effectively a losing cause. You've got the subtle ways that the Decepticons destablise planets & Starscream is just fantastic in the series!
They are all available in trade paperback form as follows:
Vol 1 Infiltration
Vol 2 Stormbringer
Vol 3 Escalation
Vol 4 Devastation
Vol 5 Revelation
You also have Megatron: Origin - detailing Megatron's rise to power within the Decepticon ranks from being a lowly Energon miner.
You can still get the Dreamwave series as well, including The War Within and The War Within: The Dark Ages - both written by Simon Furman & drawn by Don Figeuroa & Andrew Wildman.
Then you have the current series, All Hail Megatron, where the Autobots have abandoned Earth for a bigger crisis, leaving it wide open for the Decepticons to exploit. That series has just started.
Mmm, geeky Transformers nerd moi??? Guilty as charged!
