Generation 2

[Verno]

I recently picked up copies of the Titan Hardback TPBs of Dark Designs and Rage In Heaven (an early Christmas present from my GF that she had no chance of wrapping and hiding) and I have spent the last couple of days immersing myself in the G2 story.

My knowledge of G2 is perhaps better than that of G1 (in all its guises) because of the hours spent reading articles on the TF Wiki as research for my own Comic writing (which weaves a single, uniting story from the very beginning with The One, Primus and Unicron, through G1 and G2, to the Beast Wars era, some 300 years after the signing of the Pax Cybertronia). However, none of that time spent reading the Wiki pages truly prepared me for the early-90's goodness that was waiting for me.

As we all know, G2 was cut (very) short of what Mr. Fuman perhaps had in mind for it, but be that as it may, he did well to create a self-contained story with the time he had - and small facets of the story have played out on larger stages in the years since its writing, namely the Vok, from Beast Wars, being an evolved form of The Swarm.

But speaking of Evolution, I believe this to be the strongest theme of the G2 story - one that would have played out to a much larger degree had the comic-run continued. I think Mr. Furman had some very big evolutionary steps in mind for the Transformers race that never got to see the light of day.

The full introduction of the Liege Maximo and the Hub on the final page of Issue #12 gives us a tantalising glimpse of what may have laid in store for the reader. Talk of balance between light and dark, grand counter-forces, and evil being infinite... Couple that with an entity of great power being turned into a force for Creation (The Swarm), there were some large steps and large stories to come.

Thoughts?

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree, and I think it's a shame that Furman decided to disregard G2 continuity with ReGeneration One. :( He sells himself short by believing that his G2 work was no good.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I agree, and I think it's a shame that Furman decided to disregard G2 continuity with ReGeneration One. :( He sells himself short by believing that his G2 work was no good.

I came to reading Transformers Comics late, so except for reading the odd G1 comic in the store that as a little kid I couldn't afford to buy, the very first comics I bought were the G2 Transformers series.

I felt it was a good series and Furman indeed does not give himself enough or the series enough credit. The Autobot/Decepticon alliance against the new generation of Cybertronians was great, Jhaxius was a fantastic new character to introduce, and Starscream was his betraying and absolutely brilliantly entertaining self by playing everyone off against each other, then merging with the Warworld to boot! Also, with comic art constantly evolving, it had in many regards a lot more visual appeal than the G1 Marvel comics that I had read, and have collected some as an adult since. I was kind of shocked as a teenager when I read a comic where Red Alert got shot in the neck and killed (issue 4, first issue I bought), the first TF death I had seen since the 86 movie. But it reinforced that this was a more mature comic aimed at readers of some experience with the franchise instead of little kids (though I was not a fan of Hot Spot committing suicide - no more Defensor). And the cover of Issue 1 of Optimus with a bunch of shotgun casings stuck in his helmet and the line "THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHERS AUTOBOT" really reinforced that perhaps this truly was a second generation of the comic.

Plus G2 had some great toys - I don't have many but I loooove my Clench figure!