Transformers: ReGeneration One

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
Post Reply
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Transformers: ReGeneration One

Post by inflatable dalek »

To be completely fair, I'm going to judge this on its own merits without any comparisons to G2, Another Time and Place, the UK G2 Annual, the fan club tat or any and all other previous post-Marvel stuff.

Well, the introduction from Furman where he lists his and Wildman's post-Transformers credits in a desperate attempt to make it look like they've done other things is hilarious and almost worth five stars by itself.

Other than that, mostly what the preview made it look. Lots of badly drawn pointless flashbacks (dear God, Fortress Maximus has a head that's the Transformers equivalent of the Elephant Man).

For the non-flashback stuff, I'm really not sure having Optimus bored and disinterested in the whole thing was a good idea. And considering I think they spoke about twice in the original series him picking Hot Rod as his special student (?! what do they do all day alone on top of a hill?) seems very odd. As does the mention of the Covenant of Primus.

Soundwave got the good bits, using Megatron's name and legacy to rally the "Neo Decepticons" felt very true to his UK best, and the no nonsense Goldeneye plan was nice and straightforward. It was also cool that his troops were mostly made of ones from towards the end of the Marvel days.

But, the ponderous (and unexplained) Furman spoofing narration dragged it down, Magnus is the IDW version, and I'm actually not entirely sure if that was the actual Last Autobot (in which case he's been on the Atkins diet since 80) or a badly made statue that got blown up at the end. If it is the later, why was he just standing in the middle of the street like that for no reason? It doesn't help those hypothetical new readers work out why his death might be a bad thing.

One odd thing, with the inclusion of stuff from the UK comic (the Baird transmitter is a bit of an odd callback isn't it?) it's surprising there's nothing including from it in the flashbacks. You'd have thought at least some of those events would have stuck in Mystery Voice Over's memory.

I wonder when Prime found out about what happened on the Ark?

The colouring is a bit odd, Prowl is in his Marvel scheme, Soundwave is purple in the flashback but blue in the present and Megatron has the black helmet throughout.

Oh, and the whole thing shamelessly recycled from Furman's Energon comic.

The real damning thing is, this dropped through the letter box at the same time as MTMTE 5. A comic that builds on Furman's groundwork (albeit without being set in the same Universe) in a much more solid, intelligent and enjoyable way. And Last Stand did the taking the piss out of Furmanisms thing better as well.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Terome
Posts: 1431
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Brighton

Post by Terome »

What? This is out? Didn't we all agree it looked silly? The nerve of them to release it anyway!
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

My copy turned up today, not sure if that's early for Free Comic Book Day or not. It might be the rest of the world is completely ignoring it.

I'm actually glad I've read it as it's exactly the right length to have a good laugh at the whole thing in the way that a proper issue wouldn't be (I think the crying would start around page 12). Despite initially having some morbid curiously in the first issue at least this has been properly sated here, and I will be safely occasionally illegally downloading in order to make mocking comments in threads ignoring the series as a whole.

Combat Colin blowing himself up is the canon end of the Marvel series.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Terome
Posts: 1431
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Brighton

Post by Terome »

Despite initially having some morbid curiously in the first issue at least this has been properly sated here, and I will be safely occasionally illegally downloading in order to make mocking comments in threads ignoring the series as a whole.
Yeah, it was weird to discover that this comic was absolutely not aimed at me. I'm not sure, really, who it is aimed at. Ignoring Generation 2 and the UK stuff seems to preclude those who care about what happens in that universe, which I imagine is most of those who signed the petition, the 'retro stylings' preclude anyone who was wandered in from the movie house and the aping of parallel IDW themes seems to preclude those who are already reading. Hasbro seems to hate it and there's a weird and undefined sense of resentment underpinning the whole thing.

It's bizarre, it was it is. I mean, at least that awful Classics story had toys to shift. This has 'historical oddity' written all over it.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

It's including the UK stuff! Kup says "Wreckers"!.

One odd thing about the "Story so far" recap is it only covers the events of the comic, there's not a jot explaining how what seems to be a lot of the former Decepticons (last seen running away with Bludgeon) not only came back to Cybertron but successfully integrated back into society to the point where only a few malcontents are left stirring up trouble in such a minor way Optimus can't be bothered to leave the shag pad he's sharing with Hot Rod to go deal with them. Which is sort of a big thing.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
relak
Protoform
Posts: 233
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:47 am

Post by relak »

Terome wrote:Yeah, it was weird to discover that this comic was absolutely not aimed at me. I'm not sure, really, who it is aimed at. Ignoring Generation 2 and the UK stuff seems to preclude those who care about what happens in that universe, which I imagine is most of those who signed the petition, the 'retro stylings' preclude anyone who was wandered in from the movie house and the aping of parallel IDW themes seems to preclude those who are already reading. Hasbro seems to hate it and there's a weird and undefined sense of resentment underpinning the whole thing.

It's bizarre, it was it is. I mean, at least that awful Classics story had toys to shift. This has 'historical oddity' written all over it.
I can understand the underpinning resentment.

Furman did say that he hates to revisit old work

Maybe this was forced upon him after IDW saw how successful Larry Hama's continuation of G I Joe Real American Hero was
Cliffjumper
Posts: 32206
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2001 5:00 am

Post by Cliffjumper »

Or maybe Furman's a lying sod sometimes, what with most of his recent work relying so much on recycling what he's already done.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

Furman was far keener on this than either IDW or Hasbro seem to have been to start with.

If Prime isn't bothering to make any effort to see anyone how is he effectively running the planet? Or if there are others making the day to day decisions why do Magnus and Kup need to take the long walk (which suggests Prime doesn't even have a phone) to ask his permission to send the Wreckers to go tell Soundwave he's a naughty boy?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Red Dave Prime
Posts: 1340
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:03 pm
Location: Ireland

Post by Red Dave Prime »

Never a big reader of the Marvel series, this does seem like a baffling comic choice for IDW - providing a new ending to a series which, from my limited understanding has effectively had three (the big battle with unicron could have been the ending, then there was the actual ending with the last autobot thing and then Generation 2 looked to have capped off at least the gen 1 angle, even if it was left open)

I could be wrong on the above, I'm really only going on reading the reviews on this site.

Not sure who this is aimed at but it will be interesting to see its sales figures.
User avatar
LKW
Protoform
Posts: 812
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:09 pm
Location: fray-adjacent

Post by LKW »

Well, pretty much, it's aimed at me - someone who considers the G.I. Joe ARAH continuation among the top three books he's reading, and who has adopted Chris Claremont's X-Men Forever as his prefered X-Men continuity; and also, who freaked out, in the highly positive way, when he heard that Stephen Baskerville was actually coming back to ink this. (Dalek, I believe you now have a reprinting of what I consider to be a definitive proof of Basker's greatness, G.I. Joe #139. Anybody who wants to see what a difference an inker can make should check out the first several pages of this issue vs. the rest.)

And, yah, you got this a leeetle eariler than the rest of us (or, the US, at least); FCBD is May 5th :eek: Jealous (though spoiler-phobic), here; this book is the only reason I'll be making the Comic Book Day trip (albiet maybe to the newly-opened shop which is a little closer than my normal, pull list place).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
User avatar
relak
Protoform
Posts: 233
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:47 am

Post by relak »

inflatable dalek wrote:Furman was far keener on this than either IDW or Hasbro seem to have been to start with.

If Prime isn't bothering to make any effort to see anyone how is he effectively running the planet? Or if there are others making the day to day decisions why do Magnus and Kup need to take the long walk (which suggests Prime doesn't even have a phone) to ask his permission to send the Wreckers to go tell Soundwave he's a naughty boy?
which i find baffling why he was so keen on it.

I sometimes get the feeling that he's not actually all "I do this as a creative art and thus as a creative person i refuse to go back and revist what i've done in the past and prefer to push forward".

I feels its more like "oh Thank God thats over, cos i had no idea where to go with it! Now to crack out some excuse and make some whole new story."
User avatar
Skyquake87
Protoform
Posts: 3986
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:34 am

Post by Skyquake87 »

Cliffjumper wrote:Or maybe Furman's a lying sod sometimes, what with most of his recent work relying so much on recycling what he's already done.
He's always recycled stuff...its perhaps not been as noticable since his return to Transformers, but take Death's Head for instance. Issue 10 ends with some completed artwork from the then in production issues 11 & 12 which were leading into what would eventually surface as 'The Body In Question'.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

LKW wrote: And, yah, you got this a leeetle eariler than the rest of us (or, the US, at least); FCBD is May 5th :eek: Jealous (though spoiler-phobic), here; this book is the only reason I'll be making the Comic Book Day trip (albiet maybe to the newly-opened shop which is a little closer than my normal, pull list place).
Ah, if it's been sent out earlier than it should I'll edit the post mentioning where I brought it from in case it would get them into trouble. Though it shouldn't be so hard to work it out for those of you in the know.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Terome
Posts: 1431
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Brighton

Senior's cover for Regeneration 1

Post by Terome »

Is this a good cover?

I am not so sure if it is a good cover.

The composition is good from a purely geometric point of view, I think, but does it looked phoned-in to anyone else?

That's a Frank Miller Hand if I ever saw one. How is it bigger than Bludgeon's, which is much closer to the picture plane?

Good use of colour, though?
User avatar
Skyquake87
Protoform
Posts: 3986
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:34 am

Post by Skyquake87 »

I've got to be honest, A lot of Geoff Senior's spot illustrations for comics over the last ten years (all mainly Transformers, natch) haven't been up to his previous standard. I think that's largely down to him working within advertising now and turning out quick, fast concept sketches and so on. Whilst his work still has that 'punch' and immedacy, you can tell he's been out of comics for a very long time. That said, i like that this is quite a dynamic image and has nice old-school colouring and its better than Wildman's 'Megatron On The Bog' cover.
Cliffjumper
Posts: 32206
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2001 5:00 am

Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, have to concur. Punchy and dynamic in theory, but the linework is a bit colouring book. His BotCon, Titan cover and Armada work wasn't splendid either - conversely, I did like that Movie strip he did. Generally, though, I don't think he works well with digital colouring (neither does A"A"W).

But yeh, it's pretty obvious it's not a career path he's that interested in any more, which is a shame.

Mind, I've always liked the way Wildman seems to hang onto Furman's coat tails like some sort of sticky lemur, but if Geoff ever decided to back to TFs he's be straight out the airlock. "Okay, Andy Andrew, it's #75, the big culmination of the story we've been doing for the past whatever issues. It needs to be epic. So **** off and get me a sandwich, Geoff's doing it."
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

I'm slightly reticent to comment after being chided as being the grumpy old fart of fandom at Transfans by someone who seems to have signed up especially to take issue with my 80.5 thoughts (aparently pointing out Furman's non TF work has been mostly crap isn't giving the man behind Ola the Heat Vampire due respect) but:

Yeah, close (and certainly the best Re-1 image yet) but no cigar. As well as the hand issue (with Wildman's cover having a similar problem is it Disproportionate Limbs Month at IDW?) could really do with an arm on the top right as well, Megatron maybe?

Edit: Does it feel more Lee Sullivan to anyone else?

Love the colouring though, that they're doing a UK style cover (every issue?) is a nice touch. I'll bet people buying digitally will be reworking it in photoshop to add the UK numbering.

As for Senior in general, liked the Movie stip and some of the Titan covers (Target 2006 was too dark and Space Pirates a mess). I think he mainly suffers from his best 80's work being so good it's hard to meet those expectations.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
Terome
Posts: 1431
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:16 pm
Location: Brighton

Post by Terome »

I think that man on Transfans hates the internet? Or perhaps the very concept of mass communication? I was surprised that he services cars, because he wouldn't be out of place working as a politician.*


* Politics joke.
User avatar
inflatable dalek
Posts: 24000
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: Kidderminster UK

Post by inflatable dalek »

It was one of those things that should have been easy to brush off and ignore but did get under my skin, fairly needlessly, because of the way he seemed unable to grasp the contradiction in moaning about moaning. The fact he was defending a comic he hadn't read didn't help either...

Apparently Jeff Anderson was all set to do a cover as well as an Auto Assembly exclusive (presumably for the July issue?) but Hasbro put the kibosh on it. Considering his style could probably be best described as "reliable" he'd probably have done the best job out of the three old guard at recapturing past form.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
User avatar
relak
Protoform
Posts: 233
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:47 am

Post by relak »

well, it doesnt look much different from his recent works in the "Allspark saga" movie prequel comic.

Except the coloring makes it look all the more cartoony here.

I wish he'd use his G2 style though.
Post Reply