Comic Review: Transformers Regeneration One

[Paulbot]

I'm not impressed by the Underbase Decepticons casualties being in the Ark. Scorponok and Prime had a truce to collect their fallen after the defeat of Starscream.

The only one that makes sense to be aboard the Ark is Ratbat, I can imagine Optimus Prime keeping his body for Ratbat's own safety.

It could perhaps have been forgiven if only Ratbat's former troops were aboard the Ark. Scorponok picking up his troops from Nebulos rather than the regular Earth bound 'cons. But that's just the Terrorocons, who are among the revived army. And he definitely picked up Soundwave (and had him repaired) so why would he not have collected the others?

I always imagined that the Underbase Cons were still in storage in the New Jersey base. Why couldn't Megatron have just gone there to get them instead of Furman placing them aboard the Ark?

Surely Grimlock would have been a bit more careful about reviving the robots with Nucleon if there was an entire army of Decepticons in some of those pods.

I like loose ends being tied off, I did this in my fanfic, so it's annoying that it's not a nice and tidy bow.

They also seem to be setting up a mystery about how Megatron was able to control the Ark. Did the humans never see Ratchet being carted around by Megatron?

And Spike is described as an "old, old ally" of the Autobots by Topspin. An Autobot who's a couple of million years old calls someone known 20 years ago as an "old, old ally"?

There's just so many things about this series that bug me unfortunately.

But I love the Geoff Senior covers. I have to pay more for each issue, but love them.

I am pretty sure that it was clearly defined in Marvel that binary bonding involved a lot more than putting on a fancy suit

Yes indeed. The exact quote is "Joints are replaced, bones are reinforced, armor plates attached until hours later the operation is complete!"

[Sky Shadow]

Unlike the other Headmasters, we don't know exactly what was done to Spike between US #38 (when he just had the helmet) and #39 when he was fully armoured and bonded, but we do know that once he had removed himself from the armour, he could then pretty much instantaneously put those "armor plates" back on, and take them off again, as in #51.

I completely agree with Paulbot about the Senior covers - they're brilliant, and I thought the colouring of #83's made it even better.

[Lord_Zed]

I'm not impressed by the Underbase Decepticons casualties being in the Ark. Scorponok and Prime had a truce to collect their fallen after the defeat of Starscream.

The only one that makes sense to be aboard the Ark is Ratbat, I can imagine Optimus Prime keeping his body for Ratbat's own safety.

It could perhaps have been forgiven if only Ratbat's former troops were aboard the Ark. Scorponok picking up his troops from Nebulos rather than the regular Earth bound 'cons. But that's just the Terrorocons, who are among the revived army. And he definitely picked up Soundwave (and had him repaired) so why would he not have collected the others?

I always imagined that the Underbase Cons were still in storage in the New Jersey base. Why couldn't Megatron have just gone there to get them instead of Furman placing them aboard the Ark?

Surely Grimlock would have been a bit more careful about reviving the robots with Nucleon if there was an entire army of Decepticons in some of those pods.

While I too would have preferred to have the Zombiecons originate from Scorponoks old base, I can't really say it was a big issue for me, I'm glad that they even referenced the Underbase Saga given it's age. Also for all we know when the Decepticons gathered their casualties they may well have just gathered the ones they had the resources to restore and left the rest for dead (they were never the sentimental type). Perhaps the Autobots were forced to clean up the Deception bodies to keep them out of human hands. I would hope their resurrection is not a result of Grimlocks doing though, I don't think they were in the pods like Megatron and the Autobots, I think the Deceptions were in the Arks morgue much like Thundercracker, Skywarp and co after Omega Supreme trashed them.

Of course I could be way of, but that's just why it didn't bug me so much. I personally think the missing key to the puzzle is Shockwave, why wasn't he among the zombie cons? I can't imagine Megatron in his current state being lenient on him for his past transgressions, and he was knowledgeable enough of the Ark's systems to rebuild it. So maybe he's the Ark's new computer? Just my wild theories though.

[Paulbot]

It gets to me because I'm the sort of (obsessive) fan that has spent 20 years thinking about the loose ends after #80 (and G2#12).

The Autobots repaired their prisoners (such as Omega's victims) and kept them in life support too (according to Furman's UK #83). In fairness though they might have kept the Decepticon army in a different section of the Ark, and with or without Ratchet, the Autobots were struggling to repair their own troops.

Like I said in an earlier post, nameless, personality less disposable armies might cut it in TF:Prime, but it's a waste of the characters here. It also bugs me that, why not just have the Decepticons not be zombies but just loyal to Megatron? Or kept under control by fear of the mad powerful (Nucleon-powered?) nutbag, but maybe that's getting a bit too close to LSOTW.

I don't think Shockwave's absence is accidental. The answer to Leadfoot's "how did Megatron do all this" is likely a combination of Ratchet and Shockwave. The Classicverse comics had Shockwave's head in a box. Maybe that'll happen again? Or maybe Galvatron and Megatron did actually kill Shockwave when they turned on him before the Ark crashed. Furman never followed up on Shockwave in the G2 comics either.

[Lord_Zed]

Like I said in an earlier post, nameless, personality less disposable armies might cut it in TF:Prime, but it's a waste of the characters here. It also bugs me that, why not just have the Decepticons not be zombies but just loyal to Megatron? Or kept under control by fear of the mad powerful (Nucleon-powered?) nutbag, but maybe that's getting a bit too close to LSOTW.

While I understand and agree about the faceless armies thing,I do actually think in this case just having the Underbase casualty cons resurrected good as new, would be both a little boring and for me undermine the potency of their loss in the original comic series. I must say comic book resurrections have become one of my own personal pet hates. If every single character from the original run is back good as new then, well where's the drama? As any future casualties can presumably can just be brought back to life at a moments notice.

So far aside from Megs, Grimlock, Trailbreaker and presumably Prowl have been the only Nucelon revived Transformers shown, it is hinted that there may have been bad side effects for some of the others. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but I certainly hope so as the perfect miracle cure is a lame plot device, the Last Autobot's mass resurrection was bad enough, but at least he's gone now.

Sometimes they just need to let some characters stay dead.

Which reminds me there are or were still a bunch of deactivated Autobots in the Ark when it crashed, wonder what happened to them?

[i_amtrunks]

So this was an obvious setup issue.

Some good scenes for the Wreckers and some foreshadowing with Spike. Nothing surprising or unexpected occurred, but it was a nice enjoyable read.

Art is a mixed bag, the lines seem decent, this as a black and white comic would be very pretty, but the colours vary from bleak and unitonal to a bright plastic sheen, without ever nailing the gritty damaged look I think there are going for.

[Paulbot]

I've not liked this series much, but I did think #84 was the best issue so far. I still think there were problems but the pace was better. Issues 81 to 85 will probably end up reading better as a trade collection.

[GoktimusPrime]

Judging from Starscream's actions, these zombies may not be quite as mindless as Megatron thinks... hmm...

[i_amtrunks]

Writing this as I read and get interrupted by the missus. Spoiler alert. Cbf doing the spoiler free stuf, it dulls the conversation and really those who read this thread are the ones who read it anyway!

So, very annoyed at the skipping around from location to location, I just want the fight between Megs and Prime as well as the secondary Autobot vs. Decepticon zombies fight. I don't care about the battle for the Ark, and I certainly do not give a flying rats about Hot Rod (at this moment in time). I know that both will tie in later and probably directly to the Prime Megs fight.

Now to keep reading, Springer is headless, Kup rusting...

...And that is one short read compared to recent MtMtE and RiD issues, but a good read. Nothing you wouldn't expect, including the return of an old "friend". Kup is Kup, and Furman closes the loops he left on Earth, by effectively making it a redundant and now useless to the story, allowing the focus to return to Cybertron and Nebulos. Only Decepticon left standing may be Screamer.

As for the strands still running, we know have a new (old) con ready to screw up the Cybertronian Con's plans, Hot Rod wasting everyone's time and Maximum Dinobots take 2 ready to begin. Only 15 issues to go!

[Verno]

What is this crack in time? Is it caused by a certain someone's trip back from 2005?