20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Marvel

It was the early 80s and Hasbro had just bought the toy concept for Transformers from a Japanese company. They didn’t want to take it to market, however, until they could rebrand it for an American audience. Seeking out a creative partner, they came to Marvel to help them develop the narrative and characters for their new line of toys.

Marvel editors Jim Shooter and Denny O’Neil, two of the biggest names in comics at the time, stepped to the task and quickly came up with the backstories behind nearly every iconic Transformer character. Shooter developed a treatment for the story while O’Neil focused on characters, going so far as to even name Optimus Prime.

Once the work had been started, they passed it off to Hasbro and the full-time lifting fell to Bob Budiansky. While the mythology would be expanded upon by many creators long after these two had left, the fact remains that two Marvel writers were essentially responsible for creating the Transformers.