10 Insanely Detailed Comic Book Worlds That Blew Fans' Minds
9. Cybertron - Marvel, IDW Etc.
IDW
The Transformers might be best known by the general public for their toys, TV shows and big blockbuster films, but one thing that most tend to forget is that they started out first in the pages of Marvel Comics - kind of.
Although the concept for the Transformers was created years before they hit the American market, it fell to Dennis O'Neil and Jim Shooter to create the line of characters. O'Neil was the one who came up with the name of Optimus Prime, while Bob Budiansky would go on to flesh out the remaining Transformers and the overarching conflict between the noble Autobots and their sinister rivals, the Decepticons. It was Marvel who first established the tenets that the TV series would follow, and it's largely comics where the robots in disguise have been best explored.
More recently the task of expanding the mythology of the Transformers has fallen to IDW. They've done so in two universes - both of which are also connected into the wider Hasbro Comic Book Universe (which, yes, is genuinely a thing) - and Transformers fans will waste no time at all in singing its praises.
The premise of two sentient robot groups waging war against each other is simple, but readers will attest to the depth and intricacy in which comics publishers have been able to explore these characters.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
