Regeneration One 80.5 was released today as part of Free Comic Book Day.

My hopes weren't high. Far too something that is beloved is resurrected when it shouldn't be (bands, actors in famous roles, comic book runs) and it's never quite the same. I still have the sour taste of X-Men Forever (Chris Claremont 'picking up' his run on X-Men from where he left off) and the bitter taste of the same author's New Mutants Forever.

As much as I loved the Furman/Wildman run back when I was 12 years old, I've grown up, my tastes have changed. When Transformers was cancelled I wanted the characters to come back, but they did. First as guest stars in GIJoe and then in their own series.

I wanted Transformers Generation 2 #13 for a lot longer because as far as I was concerned those 12 issues of Generation 2 were Transformers 81-92. I spent years thinking about how the story would go after the Battle with the Swarm. Erasing that from continuity is annoying to be honest. (Perhaps that Zero Space mentioned on the first page means this is an alternate universe not the regular TF Marvel Universe - showing my comic continuity obsessions a bit I know )

But anyway. One of my concerns about this book would be whether it would be true to the 80s era or if modern fan desire to see certain characters and later TF canon developments would take over.

At first glance some of that seemed to be the case. The key Autobots in this preview issue include Ultra Magnus (never seen in the US comics) and Hot Rod (with a hybrid comic/cartoon colour scheme) and Kup - only the latter having played any sort of major part in the original run.

But then we see the Decepticon camp, and apart from Soundwave getting a cartoon inspired repaint, the cast seems right. When I saw the latter year Micromasters with him I was suitably impressed. Those are the toys characters that would have been in the comic at the time. The mentions of the Covenant of Primus though shows some later continuity seeping in though.

There's not a huge lot of story inbetween all the recaps, and I think it strange that the ongoing series will, presumably, follow on from the last page event which is an odd place to start. (This chapter would have to be included in the collections). Its also a bit of an odd choice for Free Comic Book Day since a history doesn't reflect the more casual fan's knowledge of G1.

I wasn't sure about Wildman's art but it looks better in print than the preview scans suggest. Overall, the feel of reading this story felt like reading an old Marvel comic, and I was pleased by that. I think this is a series I will buy in store not on the IDW app

My hopes for #81 have been raised and I look forward to picking that issue up.