Comic Review: Transformers Regeneration One

It's poetic that it was Kup - basically the inverse of Hod Rod's role in Prime and Megs' fight in Transformers: The Movie.

Awesome last page - that's the storyline I want to read.

I really wish Josh Burcham was colouring this whole series (and not just the awesome Geoff Senior alternate covers that are costing me [and Paulbot, I believe] a lot of money to collect). I hate John Paul Bove's colouring - it's too 21st century and literal and doesn't communicate well in terms of different settings. I would rather have Nel Yomtov back than Bove.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

I really wish Josh Burcham was colouring this whole series (and not just the awesome Geoff Senior alternate covers that are costing me [and Paulbot, I believe] a lot of money to collect). .

---

i love the senior covers and have been picking them up also!! alot of the IDW "RI" recently have been good, better then the black and white or design sketch covers they were spitting out...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

Awesome last page - that's the storyline I want to read.

---

I just hope it is different enough from Maximum Dinobots, that is the vibe I get (and the same author)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sky Shadow

I really wish Josh Burcham was colouring this whole series (and not just the awesome Geoff Senior alternate covers that are costing me [and Paulbot, I believe] a lot of money to collect).

---

Haven't actually seen any RI covers, which is a good thing for my wallet!

Ultimately I'm going to enjoy looking at these comics, because of the Senior covers, but I'm not going to be reading them over and over. As the wrap up to the first "arc" I'm still feeling overall disappointed in the series. Maybe if the colouring was a bit more restrained as Sky Shadow suggests it would work a bit better. Substituting backgrounds for shaded colouring doesn't help. The Transformers are fighting in an apocalyptic Washington DC? Um, yeah's there's a bit of a broken white building (maybe a house) and a road. There's no scale, no sense of place. It might as well be the danger room Kup was training in back in #81.

Using the holographic "Auntie" from one of the most obscure of the UK comic's strips (disregarding annuals etc) was a poor call too I think. I know this book is aimed at die-hards but that's a step maybe too die-hard? Or maybe it just irritates because generally this series is based on the US comic only and other UK stories are otherwise ignored (despite the main reason to care about characters in this story like Springer and Broadside).

One thing I didn't appreciate until the second reading, was that Starscream was the only Transformer to know that Megatron and Ratchet were linked mentally, having witnessed that firsthand. All Kup, and the other Autobots, would know was that Fixit had to save both of them to keep them alive when did the operation, but the more metaphysical bond wasn't revealed until the Autobots were all off the Ark. As readers we've known it for over 20 years but it would be an unknown fact at play in the story to everyone else.

I agree about the oversaturation of colours. This comic would probably look better in black and white. :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paulbot

Using the holographic "Auntie" from one of the most obscure of the UK comic's strips (disregarding annuals etc) was a poor call too I think. I know this book is aimed at die-hards but that's a step maybe too die-hard? Or maybe it just irritates because generally this series is based on the US comic only and other UK stories are otherwise ignored (despite the main reason to care about characters in this story like Springer and Broadside).

---

I quite liked it. We die-hards almost never get stories aimed at us, and I'm glad this attempts to do so. Even then, it's still fairly superficial. Cos even people who are ignorant of G1 are till told that AUNTIE is the name of the Ark's computer... and that's all you really need to know. I know what you mean though about picking and choosing which parts of UK continuity to ignore and which to not ignore -- and that inconsistency certainly does bug me too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Paulbot

One thing I didn't appreciate until the second reading, was that Starscream was the only Transformer to know that Megatron and Ratchet were linked mentally, having witnessed that firsthand. All Kup, and the other Autobots, would know was that Fixit had to save both of them to keep them alive when did the operation, but the more metaphysical bond wasn't revealed until the Autobots were all off the Ark. As readers we've known it for over 20 years but it would be an unknown fact at play in the story to everyone else.

---

Fixit did say that while he would be able to physically separate their bodies, he would not be able to separate their minds. And Kup and others gave Prime that disapproving look when he still chose to give Fixit permission to separate them. So Kup did have fore knowledge that Ratchet and Megatron wouldn't have been psychically separated.

I'm really surprised at the dislike for JPB's colouring.

He's an incredibly skilled colourist, and I think he's doing a pretty good job, and that he's long overdue for steady work with IDW TF.

He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, though. Picking a colouring style to suit the masses is just an impossible task for this project. I've seen his 'proto' work where he was experimenting to find something that worked, and I think he's pulled it together well.

He's trying to give people a mix of what they remember, what they think they remember, and something to differentiate it from regular projects.

My issue with the colouring is the way it's working to make up for flaws in the drawings (such as filling in the blanks of backgrounds or trying to add depth to figures who are rather flat).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cat

He's trying to give people a mix of what they remember, what they think they remember, and something to differentiate it from regular projects.

---

It's not a matter of memory, though - we can pull out our old comics and look at them. Nel Yomtov was widely held to be a terrible colourist, but I still like his work and would prefer it if this comic had some good block colouring rather than horrific digital smudges in the background of every single panel. The Guidi covers have great colouring. The Senior covers have great colouring. The Wildman covers and interiors are horribly pale - there's no chiaroscuro, it's just blah. I hate looking at Bove's colouring. It's counterintuitive to the whole project.

#86 is on Shelves i dont mind it i am finding myself not really enjoying it as much as i thought is that because of MTMTE? however i found the clean up operation on earth somewhat un Autobot Like....

And i still think it is the worst ending to ratchets story!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sharky

#86 is on Shelves i dont mind it i am finding myself not really enjoying it as much as i thought is that because of MTMTE? however i found the clean up operation on earth somewhat un Autobot Like....

And i still think it is the worst ending to ratchets story!!

---

Agreed with all of the above. It is a very short read compared to the other two monthlies.

The ending for Megatron and Ratchet was not good enough really, and Prime deciding to stay as he is and not get patched up is idiocy. Not sure I like where the Starscream stuff is going either.

For the non Earth stuff is was all setup for the next mini arc. Soundwave made it through too easily and perfectly, he's too clever by half at the moment. Scoroponks stuff was watered down to a quick, "oh look I can do this now because I am so S-m-a-r-t! OH ramifications of my smartness!

Not a bad issue, but not as good a read as it's stablemates.