Transformers: ReGeneration One

Comics, cartoons, movies and fan stuff.
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Cyberstrike nTo
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

Cliffjumper wrote:There're always going to be people who collect singles, especially for something like 52 (which appeals to all the people who've bought all the Batman comics, all the Superman comics et cetera), but sales/value of older issues in general have certainly suffered from them no longer being the only option.
I've met people online who still buy books like The Amazing Spider-Man for example for decades and haven't read an issue of it for at least 10 years. They say it's too keep their runs complete.
Please visit Outlaw Colony my new message board it's a fun site for fun people.
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Grayfox
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Transformers: Regeneration One #81

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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Despite some dodgy bits that actually reads better than 80.5 did. The holodeck stuff was obvious, tired and dull and head in the sand Prime is something I don't find remotely interesting but there's more pace and omph to it, the art is much better and the focus seems to be on the actually interesting Soundwave stuff.

And considering I was all ready to mock Furman for the promised new Wreckes being a cash in on Last Stand it was nice to see that only applied to Kup. Did he and Springer ever even speak before in any of the Marvel Stuff?
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Post by Warcry »

Maybe in some of the UK future stories. Wasn't he part of Team Rodimus then instead of running around with the Wreckers, then? But since Furman has disavowed the UK books and G2, I think this was Springer's first appearance in this pruned-down timeline.

The preview was pretty dull, I thought, since the main points that it hits on -- Wreckers, keeping the peace on Cybertron and Magnus being a stick in the mud -- have all been done in the last two years worth of main-line IDW books. There's nothing new here, no hook to pull me in or capture my interest. It's really not done much to convince me to buy the series.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I think Springer only possibly spoke to Kup in the TF:TM mini or maybe Big Broadcast - Springer was nearly entirely 'present day' in TFUK; Peace and IIRC a helicopter mode cameo in the Legacy spread (?) being the only exceptions that leap to mind. They're in the same issues of Time Wars, but of course Springer and Carnivac get dropped the second the Primes turn up.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Warcry wrote:
The preview was pretty dull, I thought, since the main points that it hits on -- Wreckers, keeping the peace on Cybertron and Magnus being a stick in the mud -- have all been done in the last two years worth of main-line IDW books. There's nothing new here, no hook to pull me in or capture my interest. It's really not done much to convince me to buy the series.
Yeah, I think that's a fair summing up.

With the ignoring of the UK stuff and the idea seemingly being that there's been no Decepticon activity in the last two decades I have to wonder what Galvatron has done to be one of the big bad three.

As far as anyone still around knows he's a minor stranger who attacked a base once before helping to inspire the attack against Unicron. "You bastard! Leading a brave one man attack on the devil and showing us what we needed to do! For this evil I will play kill you all day!. Just from the US issues, would any of the non-dead/missing characters even know his name?
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Post by Denyer »

It's more likeable than the non-Roberts IDW book. Still not very fussed, though.
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relak
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Post by relak »

drokk it!! my comic shop didnt get the Geoff Senor variant........
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

It's more likeable than the non-Roberts IDW book. Still not very fussed, though.
Certainly a very samey set-up. Not really sure why they couldnt have taken a different angle on it. Anyway, as someone who never really got into the marvel stories I'm not bothered but it doesn't read too bad. The art looks quite nice in a retro way. I'll skip but if it does well it will probably mean a return of Furman to one of the main books.
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Post by Terome »

I have now read it.

Despite the cribbing from IDW, (though rewarming the plot from Stormbringer is certainly what the world needs in these troubled times) I thought that they got Kup right, liked the idea of an Optimus Prime at the very end of his tether while turning Hot Rod into some kind of Hare Krishna burnout and the image of Soundwave sitting around with nothing to do in his bedroom. The set-up promised by the ending is kind of interesting on its own terms, though it's hard not to compare it to Generation 2 and to find it comes up a bit short.

There's a commentary up on Facebook that has the fine distinction of Andrew Wildman chucking 'seriously WTF is RacknRuin' in a way which suggests that drawing this series might be physically painful for him.

I can empathise with him: Those faction symbols are driving me up the goddamn wall.
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Post by relak »

flipped through it at the comic shop.

Is it just me or does the art look a little wonky in places.

Arms are wayyy to short at times (the first full body shot of Springer for example) and heads look out of proportion to the bodies.

Anyone managed to grab the Senor variant?
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Post by relak »

Ok am i the only on that is officially pissed off at Regeneration 81?

Furman is doing his old thing again with LOTS of foreshadowing about future plot elements.

-Yes the first half reads like the current Robots in Disguise
-I was hoping for more on the Last Autobot. No one tried to put him back together or find out who blew him up??? I hope future issues deal with the immediate aftermath.
- Not quite liking the art, but i think its more the colors. Wildman's faces look too long and Springers arms look too short but then again looking back at the Marvel issues, those problems were always there. I would have prefered if they went for a more classic color style like Guido Guidi's cover.


Also, is Generation 2 AND G.I Joe officially tossed out the window?


It is nice to see him reusing a few of the old marvel Tf characters, like the Space carnival.
I see the furmanisms back.
It's just me but i liked the mopey Optimus. It's well explained and i believe his deaths have had a permanent effect on him somewhat.
OR, perhaps it could have been something from Hi-Q???

*SPOILERS AHEAD*
SPOILER! (select to read)
I can see the stormbringer reference with the thundersing pretender shell mold. But why? in Marvel, Thunderwing was just a normal pretender!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

Ok am i the only on that is officially pissed off at Regeneration 81?
I'm not sure if I have enough emotional investment to be angry at this comic for any reason. It's long been projected exactly where its levels of creativity and craftmanship will sit, so with that accepted there's not much to do but to point out some of the pleasant surprises and indulge in some nitpicking. Anger doesn't come anywhere near that process.
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relak
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Post by relak »

Terome wrote:I'm not sure if I have enough emotional investment to be angry at this comic for any reason. It's long been projected exactly where its levels of creativity and craftmanship will sit, so with that accepted there's not much to do but to point out some of the pleasant surprises and indulge in some nitpicking. Anger doesn't come anywhere near that process.
I mean in the way it seemingly tosses out G I Joe and Generation 2.

Unless theres this big magic reset button to
SPOILER! (select to read)
restore all life on earth
near the end of the run.

Also another nitpick at IDW
Why couldnt they have pushed out the "Transformers Classics" reprints a little faster such that the last volume gets released in time to coincide with Regeneration?

It makes a heck more marketing sense right?
And it would have been feasable too. If there were going to be 8 volumes, they could have released the remaining 5 vols bi-monthly from May till now.

It's not as if they have to source for anything new since they already reprinted those issues before. It's just a matter of commisioning new cover art.

Instead what they did was publish this 100 page special which nobody bought cos everyone with a shred of interest in the Marvel US series has either the titan tpbs or waiting for the Classics to finish its run.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Furman did say beforehand though that, though they'll be tips of the hat/shameless rehashing [delete according to preference] the UK and G2 stuff wouldn't be "canon" for this book.

That's not how I'd have done it (and are there really more people out there who got the Berko thing than have read Target: 2006?), if nothing else it would have been more fun and go all out nuts trying to include everything and give the hyperthetical casual readers the intelligence to work it out for themselves. Sort of the Grant Morrison on Batman "Everything ever happened!" approach.
Terome wrote:I'm not sure if I have enough emotional investment to be angry at this comic for any reason. It's long been projected exactly where its levels of creativity and craftmanship will sit, so with that accepted there's not much to do but to point out some of the pleasant surprises and indulge in some nitpicking. Anger doesn't come anywhere near that process.
Yeah, pretty much my thinking. Now I've the capacity to buy and read digital comics on my AWESOME new phone the cost of each issue is now enough to make comics in general disposable income for me again (especially as there's no postage involved), not everyone I buy has to be worth keeping forever now but can be a bit of throwaway fluff to be read in five minutes on my break. And I for one welcome our new digital overlords and hope they drive a stake through the heart of (most) British comic shops.

It's a decidedly average issue all in all, but I'll be following for the same reasons as you.

Stuff I liked: Soundwave (along with Ratchet the character Furman has written most consistently well across the decades); Berko (could have so easily been an easy cheap shot at an unloved part of the run but he was played straight and made it feel more like a celebration of the entire US book silliness and all); and the Guido cover.

Everything else was raning from Mmmm to Guuugh.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

inflatable dalek wrote:Furman did say beforehand though that, though they'll be tips of the hat/shameless rehashing [delete according to preference] the UK and G2 stuff wouldn't be "canon" for this book.

That's not how I'd have done it (and are there really more people out there who got the Berko thing than have read Target: 2006?), if nothing else it would have been more fun and go all out nuts trying to include everything and give the hyperthetical casual readers the intelligence to work it out for themselves. Sort of the Grant Morrison on Batman "Everything ever happened!" approach.
Yeah, that sounds like the sort of thing I was hoping for. My fondest wish would have been for something that resembled Bongo's Radioactive Man comics, where decades of loosely-sketched history are insinuated between each issue. Kicking in at Marvel G1 #332 (which, pleasingly, would be the issue that the US series would be at if it had come out this August, I think) could have had call-backs and follow-ups to plotlines laid down throughout a comic that ploughed on through the Beast Era, quizzed over Robots In Disguise, skitted around the Unicron Trilogy and then picked up a thing or two from the Bay movies. I think that is a critical mass of bizarrity that I would enjoy.
Of course there are very good reasons not to publish a comic resembling anything like that, so I'll settle instead for imagining it while spacing out on public transport while in the world outside my head, faint praise is doled out for remembering that the Skyscorchers exist.*

* I had no idea that the Skyscorchers existed before reading this issue.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Marvel 333 surely?


Considering the generally solid work IDW are doing on the other two books of tying disparate loose continuity threads together in an interesting way whilst still doing their own thing I really don't think it would have been that hard to at least include the UK stuff, maybe even G2.

And I think it would have been less confusing, if a standalone piece is what they wanted/had to do, just to not include all the nods and homages. Because the majority of readers aren't going to be checking up on interviews and blogs for the exact chronology. It'd save them a lot of "Why is Rack'N'Ruin alive?" style questions anyway.
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STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
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Terome
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Post by Terome »

If you'd been in charge, how'd you have set the continuity and such, Dalek?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Easiest:

Include the entire American and British series. Not in an "Give a three hour lecture about Earthforce placement" sense though. Just a general not going out of its way to contradict anything it doesn't have to (Another Time and Place, just being vague about Earthforce placement). For this issue to work in with the UK stuff all it would actually need to do is change some of the Wreckers and Insecticons for non dead ones (or put in a line about how the Last Autobot brought as many fallen Transformers back as possible before he blew up).


Other than that, it would not only pretty much work, it would actually make more sense of Galvatron being seen as an epic threat that everyone is seen being shit scared of.

Other than that, the only BIG lose end from the UK stuff (other than maybe a quick line about, say, Irwin Spoon or whatever) is the long promised Ultra Magnus/Galvatron final fight. I will bet now they'll be some sort of smackdown between the two of them before the end, so imagine how much more powerful that would be with the proper history behind it. Plus, it would mean Magnus being written properly (UK Ultra Magnus would have gone in with the Wreckers, whilst the IDW version- which we're getting here- would never have risked his mission to get involved with Deadly Games).

Mind, as this isn't the same Galvatron it'd only be a big moment for Magnus. But nothing's perfect.

The really hard insane option:

Include G2 as well. Set in on a Cybertron where everyone has come back post the final battle leaving a seemingly slowing rebuilding Earth behind. Have Megatron supposedly off looking into the Liege Maximo. Then the cliffhanger is "So he actually went back to Earth and took over wrecking everything else!". Substitute characters and designs as appropriate (Buster for Spike and so on) and build up to the Liege as the new threat rather than Unicron again (though I'm kind of hoping that's a bluff and Prime is just mad).

Either way, don't have Prime all upset at his death unless you're also going to retcon it so he's equally haunted by dreams of a giant floopy disc. And just call it issue 1 of Regeneration One. As is, presenting it as issue 80 pitches it as a somewhat different book to the many years later trying as hard as possible to be standalone tone it actually is.

And treat the audience as intelligent. The Marvel stuff is out there, and has been out there for years. Trust that people will get a reference to Flame or whatever as just being something from a comic they might not have read without their heads exploding and going "WHAT IS THISSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!".
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STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

I am now slightly interested in this after my local forbidden planet dropped the 100 page special featuring the previous 5 (76-80)issues in with my usual pre-orders. I was going to pass but thought I'd give it a whirl. I was suprised how fast paced and quirky it was. The wildly off-beat cast was also a plus. The art is very different to what I think of for Transformers but not in a bad way.

So, my plan is to follow this through downloading cbrs for the moment and if I'm still reading three issues in I'll either try and pick up the singles or get the inevitable TPB (I'm guessing that there will be 3 of them to cover the run)

Anyway, now that my toe is in the marvel universe - any recommendations for good issues to look back on?
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