One Of The Wildest Transformers Episodes Was Written By Wolverine's Creator

The late Len Wein was one of the most prolific comic book writers of his day. Like many of his contemporaries (especially Marv Wolfman and Gerry Conway), he bounced back and forth between the "Big Two" comic companies, Marvel and DC. Wein left his mark at both, co-creating characters like Swamp Thing and Lucius Fox at DC and the next generation of X-Men (Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, etc.) at Marvel.

However, his most famous creation is without a doubt Wolverine. Working with then Marvel Editor-In-Chief Roy Thomas and artist John Romita Sr., Wein debuted Logan in 1974's "Incredible Hulk" issue #180. In creating Wolverine, Wein wanted to give whoever wrote "X-Men" next a new mutant character. As it turns out, that writer was Wein himself when he crafted "Giant-Size X-Men" #1 with artist Dave Cockrum the following year. Wein eventually ceded the ongoing "X-Men" series to writer Chris Claremont, but he built the toy box Claremont would play in for the next decade-plus.

Wein put himself into Wolverine. Throughout his life, Wein dealt with chronic illness — his widow Christine Valada confirmed this experience was what inspired Wolverine's healing factor. However, due to superhero comics' notoriously stingy residuals/copyright agreements, Wein never reaped the financial rewards he deserved from creating Wolverine. After attending the 2009 premiere of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," he said (according to "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story"), "It was very gratifying and very nice. I would have preferred a check."

Not seeing "a dime from any of the Marvel stuff," Wein supplemented his income with cartoon scriptwriting. In 1986, he co-wrote an episode of "The Transformers" with Diane Duane. That silly episode, "Webworld," is one of the most memorable in the series.

"The Transformers" season 3 followed on from 1986's "The Transformers: The Movie." The series didn't totally leave Earth behind, but the scale grew more cosmic; many stories were set on either the Transformers' homeworld of Cybertron or other alien planets. "Webworld" is one of the latter, with the twist of featuring the evil Decepticons as the episode's protagonists.

Earlier in the season, the Decepticons' leader Galvatron fell into a lava pool, causing him severe mental damage and leaving him just as inclined to attack his own troops as the Autobots. Finally, in "Webworld," the other Decepticons give Galvatron's devoted second-in-command Cyclonus an ultimatum: take care of their leader, or they will. So, Cyclonus tricks Galvatron into going to the planetwide asylum Torkulon. It's called "Webworld" because the Torkuli used purple web-like material to restrain their patients.

The episode is a fish-out-of-water comedy; for once, the Decepticons have to abide by an alien culture instead of trying to conquer it. Even aside from Galvatron's predicament (actor Frank Welker makes him sound even wilder than usual), Cyclonus has to deal with paperwork upon Galvatron's institutionalization.

With a scant 22 minutes and a quota of action to meet, the episode resorts to a montage: Talk, art, and group therapy all fail on Galvatron in rapid succession. Ultimately, the Torkuli resort to lobotomy. Torkulon itself is a living entity, with insect-like puppets called Alya. The Alya are instructed to devour Galvatron's diseased brain circuits and absorb them, curing him of "being Galvatron." The treatment backfires; Galvatron's mind leaves Torkulon itself in ruins.

"Webworld" wasn't Wein's last rodeo with "Transformers" — he also wrote for "Beast Wars," "Beast Machines," and "Robots in Disguise." However, "Webworld" was his best, and funniest, outing. You can watch it on Hasbro's YouTube channel.