Susan Hoffman

Susan Hoffman is a human from the Marvel portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

This never would've happened if Winston had been there.

Doctor Susan Hoffman is an archaeologist and explorer. She doesn't like to dilly-dally and prefers to get directly to the point on all matters.

Strictly by happenstance, many of her expeditions have thrown her into contact with the Transformers, much to her dismay. While she does get along with the Autobots, the fact that their intergalactic war with the Decepticons continually interrupts her next big discoveries drives her up the wall.

Fiction

Marvel The Transformers comics

Susan is comforted during her post-traumatic stress.

While exploring ancient Roman tunnels beneath the streets of London, Dr. Susan Hoffman encountered an ancient relic of a decidedly different kind than she was expecting—a deranged clone of Megatron, who lashed out, collapsing a portion of the tunnels and killing the rest of her exploration team.

Fleeing to the surface, Hoffman called upon the anti-terrorist squad Action Force and ventured back into the tunnels with them, attacking what they believe to be the clone, but which was in actuality the Protectobot Blades, investigating matters himself. When "Megatron" then attacked and a larger battle erupted between him, Action Force, the Autobots, and the mechanoid Centurion, Hoffman fled. Ancient Relics!

Short skirts and big guns are a winning combination.

Some time later, investigating the unnatural eruption of Mount Verona, Susan discovered the author of the event, Galvatron, entombed in lava within the volcano alongside his constant foe, Ultra Magnus. Susan showcased her find on Ladies' Night, a TV vehicle of reporter Joy Meadows, which caught the attention of viewer Cindy Newell—both Joy and Cindy had also encountered the Transformers before, and Cindy recognised Galvatron from the previous battle that ended with the volcano's eruption.

Cindy headed for the volcano, arriving at the same time as two other groups who had witnessed the broadcast—the Combaticons, charged with destroying Galvatron, and Blaster and the Throttlebots, who ultimately chose not to act on the possibility of rescuing Ultra Magnus for fear Galvatron would be saved as well. Susan, Cindy and Joy instead took matters into their own hands, commandeering some military vehicles from the army cordon surrounding the volcano and attacking the Combaticons with them.

Susan, in particular, sought to save the greatest archaeological find of her career, and sent jeeps loaded with explosives careening down the mountain into Swindle and Onslaught, but a misjudged tank blast from the other two women saw Susan caught in one of the explosions and captured by Onslaught. Impressed by her fortitude, Onslaught considered it a pity to have to kill her, but was prevented from making good on his threat by the return of the Throttlebots, who saw off the Decepticons. Ladies' Night

Dr. Hoffman's last recorded encounter with the Transformers happened while she and her assistants were in search of the Juluth tribe. The mountains they were searching also happened to be where the corpse of the Decepticon Starscream had crashed after he had attempted to absorb the energies of the legendary Underbase, only to overload and self-destruct. The Juluth tribe thought the giant walking robot corpse shooting everything was a sign from the heavens and attempted to sacrifice Hoffman and her assistants to appease it. Hoffman herself was feistier than her captors had anticipated however, and with a swift kick to the shin of her detainer managed to escape. She didn't get far before she crossed paths with the Triggerbot Override, and hopped onto his motorcycle mode. Hoffman then doubled back, and with Override's help drove away the Juluth before they had a chance to kill the rest of her group. Though the Triggerbots were left forlorn afterwards, as they had failed in the mission they had actually come to Earth for, Hoffman insisted they had done good in helping her team. Race with the Devil

Related characters

Assistants

Who ya gonna call?

Dr. Hoffman's assistants include three scientists with a tendency to be involved with paranormal activity and some random chick.

The four assistants accompanied archaeologist Dr. Susan Hoffman on an expedition for the Juluth tribe. They were soon greeted by the reanimated corpse of Starscream. The Juluth tribe considered the giant walking robot zombie that was screaming and destroying everything to be a sign from the heavens, so they figured sacrifices were in order. All four of Dr. Hoffman's assistants were taken hostage by the tribesmen and tied to the ground, prepared to be stabbed through the heart.

Luckily, while this was happening, the Triggerbots arrived and sorted things out with the undead robot. Override split off from his group to ensure that the nearby humans were safe, and drove away the Juluth just as they were about to begin their ritual. Susan thanked the Autobots for their help, though actually untying the assistants slipped the group's mind until one of them called out for additional help. Race with the Devil

When asked about the identity of these mysterious assistants, Bumblebee responded by playing a garbled clip of a very familiar theme song. Bee's Backtalk

Notes

• Simon Furman originally based Susan Hoffman off Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles. For the cover of "Ladies' Night" she was drawn to more resemble Susanna.^[1]
• Three of the four assistants are obviously meant to be the Ghostbusters: they resemble the Real Ghostbusters animation models for Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman and Ray Stantz. The female assistant isn't drawn to resemble Janine Melnitz, their secretary, and obviously isn't Winston Zeddemore, so it's uncertain who she's meant to be. The Real Ghostbusters had a comic being published by Marvel UK at the time "Race with the Devil" was printed in Transformers, so the appearances of Hoffman's assistants may have been an in-joke by artist Andrew Wildman, who worked on both books.
• When John-Paul Bove coloured "Race with the Devil" for Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection, he gave 'Egon' blond hair in line with the Real Ghostbusters look and the unnamed woman the same hair colour as Janine.

References