Transformers: ReGeneration One

[Denyer]

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.

It's got about as much to do with the early stuff as TF/Avengers or Infestation... and those kind of things are what thoroughly killed and shat on my interest in IDW continuity, more so than the dire year of McCarthy and the direction-less ongoing.

I can't fathom why Megatron would have lobotomised a load of guys I didn't even register as having gone anywhere near Earth,

I seem to recall they're probably Underbase casualties.

[Red Dave Prime]

I dont recognise The Avengers cross over. Never even read it. But I think the first investation works ok within the whole chaos arc.

Speaking of which, Heart of Darkness is pure dog shit. And its not aimed at the childrens market.

[Denyer]

Crossovers aren't so bad if they're either well-written or effectively disposable (and not pushed as being part of continuity), but killing off main cast members in them is something only the likes of Ellis can get away with.

HoD, Ironhide, Drift... again, there's not much direction by those points.

[inflatable dalek]

I seem to recall they're probably Underbase casualties.

Though there is a bit of wriggle room depending on how you define the word (though not much, surely he woudn't leave the unrepairable behind?) the end of Dark Star has Scorponok saying he's going to collect his "casualties" seemingly with Prime's blessing (and of course, he's not really got the resources to stop him). So we're in a strange world where the book is both being very precise about some minor inconsequential plot points but cheerfully ignoring others as it sees fit.

Thinking about it, a whole load of Decepticons being aboard the Ark in stasis really makes no sense, because either Megatron would have been put in with them post monster-Ratchet and wouldn't have been exposed to Nucleon, or their bodies were all mixed in with the Autobots rather than being kept separately. And Grimlock not knowing about them as he's cheerfully pumping Nucleon into the system is a bit much (and whilst he might have worked around them, that's at odds with his "No need for checks, they're all Autobots!" attitude).

What is odd though is it was also established that there were still fallen Autobots aboard when Shockwave stole the Ark, wouldn't that make for a more interesting zombie army to set against their former comrades?

[inflatable dalek]

Start humming that Heartbeat gallery music; Geoff's 83 cover:

http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/0/09/RG1_83_cvrRI.jpg


Hmmm. Have to say it's the weakest of the three for me, a bit too busy.

[Red Dave Prime]

Reminds me EJ sus Prowl Spotlight (and issue 7 of Costas ongoing)

I like it. To be honest, I'd rather IDW tried different styles on the covers before letting them into the comic itself if you get me.

[Skyquake87]

I'd rather they give up with the '90s fad of multiple covers...

The cover itself is decent, I like that Senior has captured how shambling the zombie Decepticons are. Like Dalek says, a bit too busy though.

[Terome]

So we're in a strange world where the book is both being very precise about some minor inconsequential plot points but cheerfully ignoring others as it sees fit.

That's the whole book so far to a tee, isn't it? We get Auntie and Robot Buster but also have Rack'n'Ruin walking around, we've got Cosmic Carnival callbacks but a G.B. Blackrock who is suddenly some kind of engineering genius and a dynamic between Hot Rod and Optimus that has its roots in Time Wars but not a word about the much more immediate concept of Prime being reborn as partly organic. My question from the start has been, 'Who is this for?' and we're still no closer to the answer on that one.

Anyhow, my favourite part was the introduction of teeny man-sized holograms of the Autobots that can sit at the table with Spike. That is very polite of them to have thought of that.

TEROME'S THOUGHTS ON OPTIMUS PRIME: The Marvel monologues were a nice counterpoint to the guileless Optimus of yesteryear but I reckon that with Prime, less is more. The Prime TV show does it best, to my mind.

[Skyquake87]

I didn't end up buying this when I went to my comic shop yesterday. I had a leaf through it and wasn't terribly impressed. I just feel this book really is raking over the past and that's not a good thing. It's a bit like 'ooh remember that bit, well...' rather than developing the scope of the original Marvel book as # 76 - 80 were starting to do.

The guy that ran the shop looked a little surprised :
Jared "Really? But this was supposed to be the Second Coming of Jesus as far as Transformers is concerned."
Me: "But its just not very good. The James Roberts book I get is the best one."
Jared : "But all the Transformers fans say this is the one. It outsells the other two books 2:1 here. So you're swimming against the tide of your brethern's opinion?"
Me : "Most Transformers fans don't seem to be able to recognise terrible comics, though."
Jared: "Ah well, I have to be honest, all these books look the same to me. Its just metal men hitting each other"

And therein lies the truth of perhaps why IDW are not reaching a wider audience with these comics...

[inflatable dalek]

With the way sales dropped off after issue one your store may be an aberration.

TEROME'S THOUGHTS ON OPTIMUS PRIME: The Marvel monologues were a nice counterpoint to the guileless Optimus of yesteryear but I reckon that with Prime, less is more. The Prime TV show does it best, to my mind.

I think Prime's mopiness would work better if he actually had something to be depressed about. What we're getting basically boils down to "Ugghh, it's so sad I'm not dead".

[relak]

Not entirely

I get the same thing at my local comic shop.

Regeneration is always the first tf comic to go out of stock and I know for a fact that this shop orders equal numbers of all 3 tf series in order to qualify for the incentive covers

[figureofauthority84]

The more Furman writes, the happier I am that the real Marvel universe wrapped up with G2.

There's nothing really, truly terrible here, other than the fact that Furman has completely forgotten who Marvel Ultra Magnus is in the intervening years. But there's nothing good either. Megatron stomping out human life because he was bored? Zombifying all the Underbase casualties? Random Action Master vehicle cameos? Ratchet as a severed head? Revisiting the Headmasters even though none of the dead ones matter but Scorponok and reviving him would be pissing on one of the greatest moments of the original run? Honestly, so far it reads less like a story and more like a checklist of things that the crowd that championed Furman's petition were saying they wanted to see in the book.

And you know...pandering to your base isn't all bad, and he could still make something good out of it. But not at this rate. In the old days everything from 80.5 to the end of 82 would have been one comic's worth of material, but in Furman's new, decompressed style there's not going to be room for anything but pandering. And while that's all well and good in fanfic I expect better from professionally-written comics.

One of the reasons that G2 was a worthy sequel in my books is that it expanded the universe in new directions, introduced new ideas and generally took a fresh approach to everything that we'd gotten used to in the 80s. But this book doesn't do that. It's not expanding, it's turning the universe back in on itself, tying up loose threads and underscoring all the things that came before. There's nothing new here, nothing fresh, and nothing yet that justifies this book's existence. That doesn't mean that it isn't mildly entertaining, but it just feels hollow to me and I still don't get what the point of it is (other than making money, naturally).

I agree with you 100%,furman has nothing new to tell,21 yrs later he`s making things up as he goes along,contradictions and bad story galore abound in this new mess,prime a wimp?,berko running the cosmic carnival after jamming from there for fear of big top?,deactivated decepticons aboard the ark from underbase casualty when scorponok said he was going to attend to his casualties and prime his in issue #50?,earth a dead planet?,no g.i. joe?,original headmaster heads left on nebulos? i`m sure the original heads were part of the headmaster process,grimlock wants to be able to transform again?why? he`s more powerful in this mode,the list goes on and people are actually happy with this?to me the storyline finished with g2, enough said.

[Grayfox]

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/ ... firsts.htm

Do'uh, should be #84 in the title. ;/

[inflatable dalek]

It does now...

Much more like it, focused and tight with only a few annoyances. Still very obvious, but can it keep this pace up?

[Blackjack]

For once, a TFTM quote actually felt like part of the dialogue instead of something forcibly injected into it.

[inflatable dalek]

Easily the best issue yet, and the first one to feel focused.

The big advantage was that most of the things I really haven't liked about the series to date were kept to a minimum. Prime only got three lines, none of which were to do with how sad he is he's not dead; the rehashing of stories Furman's already sold IDW once was one page on Thunderwing; homages/injokes/rip offs were almost non existent (one line from the film, the suits and how Skywarp's teleporter worked in the ...tions).

The only real negative thing to get a large role was Smasher. And I'm still not sure why he couldn't have been just Spike wearing one of the Robot Buster suits (or if they wanted to give him an edge over the other humans even keep Cerebrus about). Him being so keen to destroy the Ark when its facilities could be useful was annoying as well (though I wouldn't be surprised if Roadbuster is just going to ignore him and use its weapons on the Zombie army).

To counter that though, the Wreckers had a smart well thought out plan with the two tier attack. Actual strategy! The careful planning and fight scenes were all very nicely done (and props for remembering to mention why they don't just get a big jug of water to throw at Kup).

Also, mad bad and dangerous to know Megatron remains a joy. Whilst it might have been nice if his lie about why he's kept Ratchet alive had been seeded earlier rather than right before the truth is revealed this petty, bored psychopath has been great fun. It's a shame he's almost certainly going to die next issue (as I can't see the end of Prime's arc being "I wish I was dead" *DIES*) because he's the best character in the book.

The Ratchet thing, whilst fairly obvious from the off, was nicely done as well. Odds on Starscream being the one to finish him off and thus kill Megatron next month?

Wildman's art... well it was probably always going to suffer even worse than usual after two Annuals with scenes that have shown what this book could have looked like (I'm not suggesting keeping the full on 1984 Yomotov homage, but those books certainly showed IDW can be more imaginative with their colouring than shown here and Guido basically gave the best audition possible to be drawing Reg) but it was very weak again.

I think the absolute nadir was the return of a problem he had in his Devil's Due crossover work- Not bothering to draw the mouth on characters in the background if its going to be too much effort (and we're not even talking about 'bots way off in the distance either). His Motormaster (? I actually found it hard to be sure) was especially poor as well.

Overall though, a very big step in the right direction. I don't think it'll ever be brilliant, but at least there was actual fun to be had this time round.

[Red Dave Prime]

Wasnt too bad was it?

I had to smile at the Thunderwing stuff simply because so many of you have been making fun of Furmans recycling.

As a noob to this, I dont really notice problems with the characters being not quite what they were. I simply found it a fun enough read. I'm not entirely sold on the series yet but its no stinker by any stretch.

[figureofauthority84]

thinks that this regeneration junk is awful in both story and art?

[Grayfox]

http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia ... ?aid=47979

Megs vs OP - final battle.

[Denyer]

It does read and look like Marvel, now that Furman's finished with setup.