Transformers: Generation 1 Vol. 0

This volume is issue #0 of the first Transformers: Generation 1 series launched by Dreamwave Productions in 2002—the retailer preview for the Prime Directive series and the starting point of the entire DW G1 storyline. The book is very short, only six pages, and was initially distributed only to comic retailers in a first printing of about 4,500 copies with no cover price, so readers often call it "issue #0." The story takes place in an Arctic snowstorm: a mysterious man named Lazarus brings the businessman Ratzenberg to an excavation site and urges him to invest in a "second chance" project. Lazarus tells of a group of transforming warriors who crashed to Earth millions of years ago, hinting that whoever controls them will gain immeasurable power and wealth. After the two arrive at the ice-field site, workers dig the dormant Soundwave out from beneath the ice, and Ratzenberg decides on the spot to put up the money. These few pages plant the seed of humanity's attempt to control the Transformers and its self-destructive consequences, leading directly into the six-issue Prime Directive storyline that follows. This is volume 0 of the series. The Chinese edition by the Sailian Translation Group rendered this preview as "Preview" and treats it as the starting point of the first Transformers: Generation 1 series. Because the content is only a prologue to the whole, lacking a complete arc, it is better read as supplementary material for collectors and for understanding the origins of the DW version of G1.