Transformers: ReGeneration One

[Cliffjumper]

Doubting Prime was good in the early days e.g. the 'Crisis of Command' story; he has a bit of a downer, listens to The Cure, then goes out and smacks a lot of people in the mouth because only in this way is he saving billions of lives.

Then he had more of an issue seeing what his pleb force got up to in the Target: 2006 arc. And the result of that was the opening pages of 'Prey'. How good were those opening panels? I loved that bit, where he's staring at all the TV's Elvis style, stunned by what's gone on. Then he sits down, contemplates a bit (without The Cure this time), and then gets on the phone and says dynamically: "Wheeljack, I want to speak to you, NOW".

I like that stuff - he gets down, he gets back up again - Crisis of Command sees him effortlessly beat up the cream of the Decepticons like something out of a Bay film, Prey sees him handle Megatron and the Predacons then beaming to Cybertron to beat up everyone he can get his big blue Grimlock-crushing fists on.

But there's a sense with Furman especially that it's Pandora's box. Now we know Prime is prone to, say, melodramatic wailing and deserting his troops whenever a medic he rarely spoke to may or may not have died he can't go back to not being a complete emotional cripple.

Despite being more self doubting and troubled (arguably because of facing bigger crises) he succesfully dealt with at least three BIG species/planet threatening situations (Underbase, Unicron and the Swarm) whilst his predecessor generally didn't have any bigger threats than just the Decepticons or the odd bonkers human to deal with.

Proper Prime could only beat what was in front of him - rallying the Autobot army on Cybertron was arguably more crucial than either of those things or there might not have been Autobots to combat Starscream, Unicron and/or the Swarm. And how did PM Prime deal with all these crises? Kicking arse and taking names? Nope, plot device, plot device, plot device - it's largely a case of crack out the Matrix because there're **** all other ideas and hope for the best (the exception being the after-school special moral lesson of the Underbase which everyone saw coming 40 pages off) - Hot Rod could do that.

I mean at least twice the big plan is to kill himself and hope the universe works it all out.

[inflatable dalek]

And how did PM Prime deal with all these crises? Kicking arse and taking names? Nope, plot device, plot device, plot device - it's largely a case of crack out the Matrix because there're **** all other ideas and hope for the best (the exception being the after-school special moral lesson of the Underbase which everyone saw coming 40 pages off) - Hot Rod could do that.

Original Prime is just as prone to plot devices though, pretty much the first thing he did was dependant on remembering Windcharger has an insanely useful special power and he only survived Prey because Megatron has the misfortune to arrange the attack for the one day he was lugging about an exact duplicate of himself about in his trailer.

And with both the Unicron and the Swarm it was more Prime's strength of personality that won the day than anything else- He effectively purged the Matrix and made the Swarm nice just by being awesome.

I mean at least twice the big plan is to kill himself and hope the universe works it all out.

Which is only once more than the original.

[Auntie Slag]

Oh, must mention 'And there shall come a leader'. He was a right, rip-roaring Errol Flynn. No doubts on that day, just turn up with a massive gun and a shedload of troops on a narrow bridge.

Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes, lads!

[cybertronical]

Rein in the personal jabs, cybertronical. You're welcome to disagree with dalek but there's no need to be insulting. Thanks.

Like on one of the other forum threads where he states that Milne deserved to get ripped off by Pat Lee? Sorry but there's a pattern of a hater hating in a lot of replies here.

[cybertronical]

I love Furman, he's a huge influence on my love of reading in general and my interest in Transformers in particular. But he's not Patrick McGoohan. He's not even wearing a monkey mask with a Patrick McGoohan mask over it. He has yet to write any Transformers story where the characters- however well written- were in some way beyond my comprehension.

And before we start ascribing some sort of hidden depths or subtle meanings to Spike here... Lets just look at him for a second. And remember he now has the very silly name of Circuit Smasher. Does this seem likely to be someone who is working on multiple levels?

But you've taken a handful of pages and written off any potential development in that character. You may ultimately be right but you're declaring failure before the race has started.

Well yes, that would be the case if everything I said is intended to be 100% literally true. Or even if it came across as if it was supposed to be taken 100% literally.

Well I stumbled upon the same post you cut and pasted on another forum where others took you to task over this point and you defended it there.

And "Bad fan parody" is meaningless. It'd be just as easy to go "Hey, you're bad fan parody for mindlessly liking this bad comic just because it has the Transformers name on it", and just as much bullshit.

The key difference in my opinion of the book *so far* is that I'm not reading things into things that have not happened yet or may not happen at all.

Once in this issue which is...what; the third time overall (including the FCBD)? Or on average about once a full issue? Show don't tell is the rule of all drama, this is just telling (there's an outside, wonderful chance Optimus is just nuts explaining all his odd behaviour so far. That'd be awesome).

In 80.5 Kup sarcastically says "Mm. Tough being the chosen one" and Hot Rod expresses his surprise at being mentored by Prime.
In 81 mention is made of Hot Rod being mentored but nothing is said about him being "special".
In 82 the characters do not appear.
In 83 Prime says to him "I sense in you... Greatness. A destiny written before time began"

So using the actual issues and the events in them Hot Rod has never been said to have done anything great, and on ONE occassion Prime says that he senses that Hot Rod WILL do something great which is why he chose him. For a Prime that held the Matrix and saw snatches and hints of the future before its not a stretch. Furman has also said that there is a reason why Primus was visually very similar in the features to Hot Rod/Rodimus that would be paid off. So I can prove my point and demonstrate that you are in error.

And yes, it might pay off brilliantly. Equally it might pay off badly. There's a chance they'll be a free blow job off Kelly Brook thrown in with issue 90. Anything might happen, I don't have a crystal ball to look into the future. All I can comment on with each issue is what happens within it and how it reflects on already published stuff.

But as stated above that's not what you're doing.

That does actually raise one good point about the colouring- It's completely at odds with the story. Everything is bright and cheerful and clean despite Wildman doing what he can to try and make it look battered. It winds up feeling like the human survivors are a bunch of OCD freaks spending all their time polishing and hoovering and- oh my, they'd have sorted out Megatron already if only they didn't have to touch every third rock on the way to the Ark.

So considering the Robo suits look as clean and bright and new as the destroyed-by-a-nuclear-bomb wreck of the Golden Gate Bridge did two issues ago what's to say they're not as decrepit and abandoned?

But you have no evidence of them being used or not used, old or new. My point is that you leapt to the conclusion that you could make the most fun out of. Maybe they haven't been used, maybe they have. Is that really a crucial point right now? There's a missile or a rocket in there too which has obviously not been fired which you could have picked on as there is evidence for that being in situ, but honestly they could have just finished building it, it may have no guidance system... A million reasons. Of all those reasons surely you can agree that "They didn't think to fire it for 20 years" would be the most negative way to take it?

More seriously... people who really, really like this comic seem very defensive about it. In terms of comparison, I've been harsher on the last two issues of RID. But no one is jumping in there to pick apart my phraseology in an overly literal way or accuse me of making up stuff because of my anti-Barber agenda.

I'm enjoying what there is SO FAR of ReGen1 and I'm looking forward to the pay off of the current arc and the inevitable battle between Prime/Megs. But here's the thing, I've never felt especially defensive of my opinion of it, but your posts are very much an attack whether you realise that's how they sound or not and I will freely admit taht I have been quite snipey back in that first post especially because I hoped that attitude reflected back would demonstrate that its not a great way to conduct yourself. I enjoy RID and MTMTE too for different reasons.

Or did I miss the memo with the list of comics and creators it's OK to have issues with and which ones are above reproach at all times?

Nope, but your swipe at Milne saying that he *deserved* to be ripped of by Pat Lee because of his artwork on one of the other forums was about as low a blow as you can do really. You may not like his work but that is a genuinely unpleasant and mean-spirited way to express that opinion. An artist deserves to effectively be robbed of money for work done that he'd already been robbed of the credit for? Do you deserve to not be paid a day's work because one person objects to how you served them in a shop? You can argue that its a joke or meant as a joke, but it absolutely does not come across in that way. Its not even relevant to the discussion to say it at all.

[Cliffjumper]

Considering Pat's form at that point, Milne was being colossally stupid with the whole Cyberforce thing. It's basically the industry equivalent of sending your credit card details to apparent Nigerian lottery winners. He might not have deserved to have not been paid for it but he was pretty dumb to expect it to happen.

[Red Dave Prime]

Wait, those Nigerian lotteries aren't legit? Shit......

Back to the discussion on Prime, I'm really hoping that Barber and Roberts bring him back to being the proper hero that we all enjoyed from the cartoon. If there was one thing Bay did get right, its that Prime should be a kick-ass hero. Prof Xs brain with Wolverines fighting skills. I may be wrong but my understanding is that he was the soldier who unified an army of civilians with the autobots (at least, the g1 toy side of things)

From IDWs history, I've liked the Prime shown in Escalation and Chaos Theory but most of the rest have tried to add far too much emo feelings to a guy who should be all about confidence. He was the guy who inspired the fight back against the decepticons.

And Costas Primes was the worst. By a country mile.

[Cliffjumper]

There seems to be some sort of mindset among the writers that the comics somehow aren't "grown up" if Optimus isn't a moping cluster of neuroses. You nailed it with the word confidence - he should be an absolute inspiration to the Autobots, the reason they keep fighting against the odds. The films manage this - you can totally believe eight Autobots would follow him against an army into a city swarming with Decepticon ships. Prime manages it. The G1 cartoon occasionally managed it, though sadly bad writing tended to make the rest of the Autobots look like sheep rather than loyal troops.

The Marvel comics were a bit weird with him when you think about it. The aforementioned magic macguffin moments aside he doesn't actually do a lot present day, does he? Most BEEEG storylines especially after he comes back see him sidelined either literally or figuratively.

[Red Dave Prime]

All that I know is that when i was a kid, My Optimus never backed down - even went toe to toe with Galvatron one Christmas, despite being nearly half his size....

[inflatable dalek]

[For those bored, there's some relevant thoughts about Optimus at the end of the post, scroll downwards]

Like on one of the other forum threads where he states that Milne deserved to get ripped off by Pat Lee? Sorry but there's a pattern of a hater hating in a lot of replies here.

Well, a quick search of here and Transfans for "Alex Milne Pat Lee" didn't come up with anything obvious this year (though I may have missed it). IIRC was there not something about how I used to hate Milne's used to be so poor he deserved not to be paid by Lee but the-frankly staggering- level of improvement feels like a completely different artist has taken over his body and he's now doing great work.

So, assuming that's the post you're talking about, that's not only saying something complimentary about his current output but is also, really, really, really obviously not literal. My search did throw up a post where I suggested his Megatron Origin work was the result of Pat Lee tricking him into putting his hands in a blender. Do you think I was being literal there and thought the art on that book was drawn with bloody bandage clad stumps?

It probably wasn't. By the by. He'd have not been able to afford the bandages.


That's not literal either.


Should I be putting a little * after everything that isn't 100% literally true with a note explaining in what way it isn't completely true? "Nobody wanted Circuit Breaker back"* *"Except for... err... Bob's Mum might have been a fan"? The odd thing about people picking on this is that Circuit Breakers general lack of popularity amongst fans is high enough to actually make it almost literally true...

I suppose if we're having to spell stuff out: I probably wouldn't like that blow job off Kelly Brook.*






*Unless she's one of those women who treat it like a dog with a chew toy.


And that mental image is why being 100% literal all of the time is a bad thing.

But you've taken a handful of pages and written off any potential development in that character. You may ultimately be right but you're declaring failure before the race has started.

Well again, all I can comment on is what happens in this issue-where Spike has a sizeable supporting role- and how he comes across in it. If a future issue should completely shatter my perception of the character here I'll happily admit. He's got several big hurdles to overcome (would it really have been so hard to just call him Spike? Again, Circuit Breaker wasn't so popular a copyright dodging reuse of the name had to be slotted in somewhere as a priority) but it's not impossible.

A lot will depend on how much gets clarified about exactly what happened that left the Ark on Earth. He could have destroyed it himself, the Autobots could have done the same or taken it home when they dropped the Neo Knights off (which is presuably when they got in touch with him so he could know about shiny new Cybertron). Who really screwed up the most there and how much should he be aiming so much of it at the Autobots?

It's also interesting that you're holding up the percieved negatives as unfair speculation but not me praising the book for the set up over Megatron's new abilities even though it's just as unclear if that is genuine proper plot foreshadowing and now something pulled out of the arse after all.

Well I stumbled upon the same post you cut and pasted on another forum where others took you to task over this point and you defended it there.

Well, one poster (in a thread where- despite being generally much more positive about the book overall than this one only had two people out of half a dozen go into this strange over defensive thing, most either didn't have a issue with someone disagreeing with them or-quite rightly- didn't care) had a problem with that point and got exactly the same reply.

I've no huge desire to go into arguments at other boards in any great depth (especially as everyone-myself included- seems to have taken some deep breaths and gotten over the entire thing) but it's an equally flawed point whoever makes it.

And frankly, you being able to quote new and old posts of mine- including ones on other forums is kind of creepy. Presumably unintentionally but still has a very stalkerish vibe. Especially as you're a new poster whose brief history is entirely taken up (at the time of writing) with posts about me.

I'm sure in nearly a decade online there are a great many of my posts that are contradictory or just plain stupid (I was once very firmly of the opinion the second half of the Armada cartoon was actually OK, sheer madness. Young me was a cock, unlike the sophisticated smart sexy man I am today).

I'm not going to feel especially beholden to things I may have said weeks months or years ago so any more "Ah, but you once said THIS!" style stuff won't help your argument (unless its to prove I am I cock, which frankly I'm more than capable of doing myself) so please stop it so I can sleep with the light off tonight.

So using the actual issues and the events in them Hot Rod has never been said to have done anything great, and on ONE occassion Prime says that he senses that Hot Rod WILL do something great which is why he chose him. For a Prime that held the Matrix and saw snatches and hints of the future before its not a stretch. Furman has also said that there is a reason why Primus was visually very similar in the features to Hot Rod/Rodimus that would be paid off. So I can prove my point and demonstrate that you are in error.

And that is a fair counterpoint.

But as stated above that's not what you're doing.

Not stated very convincingly though. These issue by issue threads are going to be full of speculation (that shouldn't need to be specifically pegged as speculation if it's about stuff in the future in issues as yet unprinted, that should be blatantly obvious) about what will and won't happen. And a lot of it will of course be based on how well we think the title is going. And yes, I'm sure we'll all be amazingly wrong on lots of our guesses (well, I hope so anyway. It's a sad day if Furman gets that predictable).

But you have no evidence of them being used or not used, old or new. My point is that you leapt to the conclusion that you could make the most fun out of. Maybe they haven't been used, maybe they have. Is that really a crucial point right now? There's a missile or a rocket in there too which has obviously not been fired which you could have picked on as there is evidence for that being in situ, but honestly they could have just finished building it, it may have no guidance system... A million reasons. Of all those reasons surely you can agree that "They didn't think to fire it for 20 years" would be the most negative way to take it?

My main reason for focusing on the suits rather than anything else in the room is that they're what go the Significant Look from Springer suggesting they're going to be important to the story. And there's far more negative ways of reading that scene than my speculation; such as-off the top of my head- assuming it wasn't a significant look at all and and Wildman just gave Springer a bad squint for no reason.

I'm enjoying what there is SO FAR of ReGen1 and I'm looking forward to the pay off of the current arc and the inevitable battle between Prime/Megs. But here's the thing, I've never felt especially defensive of my opinion of it, but your posts are very much an attack whether you realise that's how they sound or not and I will freely admit taht I have been quite snipey back in that first post especially because I hoped that attitude reflected back would demonstrate that its not a great way to conduct yourself. I enjoy RID and MTMTE too for different reasons.

And I have no idea how you can get "Hate filled attack" from a review that summed it up as basically average and has some hope for future plotlines like Bludgeon (if not the Thunderwing side of things, just the character himself) and Megatron's mystery backers (Jhiaxus would be my guess. He's been promised; science tech and zombies would fit in with his IDW personality ala Magnus and giving someone like Shockwave these sort of skills would raise the difficult question of why they never did it before).

And if your idea with the snark was in some way supposed to be teaching me a lesson what had Warcry (a harmless chap if ever there were one) do to deserve similar treatment by taking him to task for a post that is possibly at another forum outside his jurisdiction?

Apathetic might be the word. I certainly don't hate it, I stopped letting TF comics wind me up with AHM. These days I read, enjoy the good stuff and mock the bad before forgetting about it. As I must be boring people by banging on about it constantly, cheap digital comics are great in this regard. It's disposable entertainment again, good and bad.

Its not even relevant to the discussion to say it at all.

Well, that's hard to say without being able to find the exact post you're talking about. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't relevant to the discussion at the time though, even if only in a throwaway way.


EDIT: Bugger, forgot the Optimus Prime bit...:


I wonder if the reason Prime comes over as more coflicted/troubled in the comics as opposed to the films and cartoons is in large part down to us being able to "hear" his thoughts and get a sense of the real "man" behind the front he puts on for his troops? A lot of the time (like in Prey) they never know what's troubling him and he'd probably seem a more confident leader without that insider knowledge. The only times I can recall Marvel Prime really breaking down in front of everyone was over Ratchet's death and return. Even the surrender is presented as a straight command decision even if he's not feeling it.

[Cyberstrike nTo]

More seriously... people who really, really like this comic seem very defensive about it. In terms of comparison, I've been harsher on the last two issues of RID. But no one is jumping in there to pick apart my phraseology in an overly literal way or accuse me of making up stuff because of my anti-Barber agenda.

Or did I miss the memo with the list of comics and creators it's OK to have issues with and which ones are above reproach at all times?

Essentially it's because you have *gasp* the nerve to say that Furman is writing sometimes bad and then you must beg forgiveness from Furman because we all know that when it comes to The Transformers Simon Furman is never bad he's a writer in the same league as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter David, and Stan Lee. He's God's gift to The Transformers and we the fans should never question his talent or hate his work because that would tantamount to sacrilege, because Furman as we all know can do no wrong with The Transformers.
Now hopefully you know that I was being sarcastic.

Over at the IDW message board I once called Furman's work there and in particular Revelations and Maximum Dinobots as 100% pure crap and got a PM from a mod there saying that I had attacked Furman personally.

Now I didn't attack Furman's family, politics, his manhood, or the man himself I just said that I thought he had written some bad stories and that I didn't enjoy them. I personally don't consider that what I said as a personal attack. It was meant to show my unhappiness at his less than stellar work. Maybe in hindsight I could have went to detail as too why I hated most his work for the IDW G1 Universe but I was sick and didn't feel like wasting my time fighting over it.

I am sick and tied of seeing creators who aren't doing good work get a free pass because in the cases of people like Simon Furman, Larry Hama, Chris Claremont and Jim Shooter because of their past associations with titles or franchises.

[Cliffjumper]

I wonder if the reason Prime comes over as more coflicted/troubled in the comics as opposed to the films and cartoons is in large part down to us being able to "hear" his thoughts and get a sense of the real "man" behind the front he puts on for his troops? A lot of the time (like in Prey) they never know what's troubling him and he'd probably seem a more confident leader without that insider knowledge. The only times I can recall Marvel Prime really breaking down in front of everyone was over Ratchet's death and return. Even the surrender is presented as a straight command decision even if he's not feeling it.

Prey works because he's got a point, IMO, and it's a military worry that if he dies there's a chance a moron like Ironhide or Jetfire's going to be calling the shots. Yesterday's Heroes, though, is unforgivably embarrassing - especially as he's shown to have next to no real affinity with Ratchet at any point; the opposite, actually - Ratchet's pivotal early work is largely ignored by pretty much everyone.

Just because comics do give the opportunity to show his inner mopologue is no reason that a) they should and b) it should be so boring and whiny. On the other side of the coin he's rarely all that inspiring in the later Marvel comics either.

It fitted well enough with a lot of the storylines at the time, notably the Unicron soap, and G2 did at least mix it with him actually doing stuff. But it's an angle that's been done now and the DW & IDW versions didn't need to retread it.

[Denyer]

Furman's really gone off the boil since having to work with lots of story constraints and use page space effectively. I'll defend the concepts Infiltration started with to the bitter end, but most of what he did after that went nowhere. Most of IDW's writers prior to giving Rocherts a shot needed reining in or hand-holding and didn't get it from editorial.

Regen seems fair enough for anyone who wants to ignore UK and G2 stuff that's often lauded as including Furman's better work, but by doing so feels pointless. Not that a straight continuation (or amalgamation) of the aforementioned continuities would get very far without being outstanding work, either. There are plenty of new stories that could be told without dusting off past glories and trying to get them started again... and it isn't going in Furman's favour that other writers are doing just that.

one of the other forum threads where he states that Milne deserved to get ripped off by Pat Lee

Memory for forum snark isn't what it used to be, but I think that was someone else -- certainly someone else first.

I suspect Milne would be the first to concede (and thinking back to old interviews, seem to recall has) that trusting Lee for so long wasn't smart.

Not sure whether it's that his art's come a long way or that he's always been a pretty skilled mimic -- he can do DW house style, he can do Roche's, he can take cues from Figueroa and others... left to his own devices, things tended to get overly busy unless the inking/colouring obliterated the excess detail, but that's been dialled back these days. It's hard to say what his own style is. Doesn't really need one -- he's demonstrably a good all-rounder.

[Cliffjumper]

I know I said something along those lines about Mad Brick... But yeh, it's often just cheerful hyperbole in a lot of these topics and you have to be a bit worried about someone taking everything on these boards face value.

Furman's just generally far too self-aware and needy now. Everyone loved Nightbeat so let's crack him out. Hey, didn't the Wreckers go down well in Last Stand, let's throw them in. Cor, a lot of fans seemed to have liked Bludgeon, let's work him into every ****ing story.

I haven't read ReGeneration One and I'm not going to for a variety of reasons, the main ones being that the consistently sub-par work of both Furman and IDW over the past five, six years means neither of them merit my time, let alone my money. Nothing I have read about this series makes me think I'm missing out on Furman's latest attempt to turn back the clock.

[inflatable dalek]

Not sure whether it's that his art's come a long way or that he's always been a pretty skilled mimic -- he can do DW house style, he can do Roche's, he can take cues from Figueroa and others... left to his own devices, things tended to get overly busy unless the inking/colouring obliterated the excess detail, but that's been dialled back these days. It's hard to say what his own style is. Doesn't really need one -- he's demonstrably a good all-rounder.

I think it was either Skyquake or Terome who made the good point Roberts very different (to Furman) hyper-detailed scripting style may be something Milne is more in sympathy with.

It's also worth remembering that this isn't, to date, anything like the worst IDW comic Furman has done. Which is a two way tie between Beast Wars (though that started promising before getting going off the rails really badly so it's early days yet) and the film stuff. Two comics handed to him solely because he was "The Transformers Guy" rather than because anyone bothered to ask if he had any affinity for either property.

[Cliffjumper]

Nah, I'd say Devastation and Maximum Emobots are worse than either. All of the Movie comics are shit because of their fundamental misunderstanding of the source material and the way IDW just try to super-impose Generation 1 onto the top of it. BW is much the same - cartoon is tightly coiled action adventure with a well-defined small cast; comic is quasi-epic bullshit featuring a thousand faceless ****jobs. Devastation and Emobots are meant to be proper and are written by someone apparently doing what they do best rather than the tired hackwork of a burnt-out old fart who's under 1 on an unimaginative publisher's speed-dial.

I'd agree with Denyer that the basic set-up of the IDW G1 universe is superb... the problem is it's all for nothing if there aren't any good stories in it. Furman was more concerned with setting out the rules for the universe ("This is what I think should be done with Pretenders, Combiners, female Autobots, blar-de-bloody-blar").

[Red Dave Prime]

I'll defend the first 2-3 issues of devastation. Sixshots initial attack is done really well and the chase after Ratchet, while undermining said good work, is fun. I remember when it first came out there was a real sense of urgency to it all and it seemed like it was going to live up to its name.

But.... ah, well.

I dont think Max Dinobots is as bad as others suggested. Its absolutely stupid but not much more than Bays movies. But it has some fun in it. And I may be alone but I really liked Roches Dinobots - yes, even Swoop. But I can name several IDW series that are far worse - Drift, Megatron Origins, Ironhide and especially Bumblebee all are much less readable.

[Denyer]

Bumblebee's a great series for kids, although even they're likely to see the plot holes.

[Red Dave Prime]

Surely as its the g1 based series than we shouldnt be getting such a kid-friendly series especially one that is so out of tone with the main story.

And I dont know if even kids would enjoy Bumblebee.

I just hated it. All of it. From Art to script.

Sorry if that offends anyone

[Skyquake87]

Nah, I'd say Devastation and Maximum Emobots are worse than either. All of the Movie comics are shit because of their fundamental misunderstanding of the source material and the way IDW just try to super-impose Generation 1 onto the top of it. BW is much the same - cartoon is tightly coiled action adventure with a well-defined small cast; comic is quasi-epic bullshit featuring a thousand faceless ****jobs. Devastation and Emobots are meant to be proper and are written by someone apparently doing what they do best rather than the tired hackwork of a burnt-out old fart who's under 1 on an unimaginative publisher's speed-dial.

I'd agree with Denyer that the basic set-up of the IDW G1 universe is superb... the problem is it's all for nothing if there aren't any good stories in it. Furman was more concerned with setting out the rules for the universe ("This is what I think should be done with Pretenders, Combiners, female Autobots, blar-de-bloody-blar").

Oh my God Cliffy I can't type for laughing...God knows what Cybertronical will make of this. Or does he/she/it just have it in for Dalek?


I suppose having read rather a lot of Furman's non TF stuff, I don't think I treat him like the second coming whenever he gets to write Transformers. Robocop was passable, Alpha Flight was terrible and Death Metal rates up there with Maximum Dinobots for out and out stinker. As does Death's Head 3.0, come to think of it. Can't tell how how bitterly disappointed I was with that. I think I'd have rather read Dan Abnett's take on Death's Head II.

I've not read #83. Thats my caveat first of all. But I have read issue 81 & 82 and they just exist is my over-riding feeling. The twenty year gap is just pointless. This should have been set back in the day, to give this real oomph. Let's really find out what happened with Ark and Fort Max. A dead Earth seems such a disappointment coming after a dead Cybertron (cf. Strombringer - still don't think that's very good. Sorry.). I can't fathom why Megatron would have lobotomised a load of guys I didn't even register as having gone anywhere near Earth, nor why we have Starscream only partially lobotomised (there's a plot development you can see coming a mile off. oh yay...) . And where does this leave his mind-link with Ratchet...?

Optimus sitting in the middle of nowhere staring into space...just what is going on there? Is he mad? Why is he only now showing signs of a complete mental breakdown when he looked so together on his return (again) from the dead? 20 years surely can't be that long in the eyes of a Transformer.

There are too many choices that seem...bizarre. At least they do to me, I was hoping for something a bit more visceral and dynamic than what we've actually got. We already have two quite...'talky' books in the shape of RID and MTMTE, so what more does this have to say that those two aren't? Not much, sadly.

I was moderately excited by the thought of Bludgeon...but he's going after Thunderwing's remains. Er, why? What will that achieve?

Its like the thing with the Headmaster heads being given new bodies...these aren't things that I would have thought were necessary or interesting things to address, just passing 'What Ifs' given page space. In fact, if this were a 'What If', with a fraction of the page count, then it might just go off on a mad tangent...or we could just get something like What If # 53 which must rank as one of Furman's best pieces of work, just for the massive two fingers it waved.

I think that's what I would have wanted from ReGen - something with a bit of passion and fire in its belly, instead of a half baked concept hung on a few forgotten about minor plot points.

I especially want something more interesting if I'm to spend £2.99 on this month in month out.

For me the kicker isn't that this is 'bad Transformers comics' , its just bad comics. The bar for comic writing has been risen so highly over the last decade that it's difficult not to find it wanting.

This is just turning into waffle now, but when you boil Furman's recent stuff to the plot points and overall direction, you can see what he's trying to do, but the execution is so...unengaging.

I like Generation 2 and Death's Head and Dragon's Claws because these are things that Furman wrote when he was on fire - sharp, exciting stuff that grabs you by the throat and forces you to sit up and pay attention. His latter day stuff...if its not exploring the complexities of its own arsehole (Necrowar, Stormbringer, Death's Head 3.0) then its meandering off and forgetting where it started or what the point is.