Comic Review: Transformers Regeneration One

[GoktimusPrime]

Not much happened really, showed us some stuff from marvel UK,

Despite previous issues contradicting Earth-120185. I thought ReGen One exclusively occurred on Earth-91274. Then again, Earth-91274 did show a brief flashback to the Firebug story, so it's likely that the Firebug story did also occur on Earth-91274 (but not other events from Earth-120185 such as the Time Wars etc.). That's what I assumed anyway.

the final part of car wash of doom,

Yeah, it was interesting seeing Buster grown up and married to Jessie, as well as the events leading up to Megatron's Decepti-Zombie Apocalypse. It also answers the question as to what the hell Fortress Maximus was doing... although not a terribly awesome answer; I was hoping to see Fort Max go down in a blaze of glory (forcing Spike to abandon him and Cerebros; maybe Fort Max would've ejected him to save his life). Meh.

Jhiaxus being a genius of evil and a parallel universe.

Is that what it was? Cos that scene did feel a bit weird for me, but I assumed that what Jhiaxus destroyed was merely an avatar of Boltax, but not Boltax himself since Boltax himself is the entire temple itself (though Jhiaxus and the others may not have known that since it was a guarded secret). But then again, ReGen One is supposedly ignoring G2 continuity so... AAAARGH!!!

Art was spectacular, I cannot believe one person was responsible for colouring the entire issue.

The use of different artists for the various mini-arcs was interesting.

I'm also not entirely pleased that they've decided to 'reset' the issue counts at #0. I've quite enjoyed how ReGen One continued the count from where G1 ended... I hope it's just for this issue and the next issue isn't going to be #1. :/

[i_amtrunks]

Is that what it was? Cos that scene did feel a bit weird for me, but I assumed that what Jhiaxus destroyed was merely an avatar of Boltax, but not Boltax himself since Boltax himself is the entire temple itself (though Jhiaxus and the others may not have known that since it was a guarded secret). But then again, ReGen One is supposedly ignoring G2 continuity so... AAAARGH!!!

Jhiaxus destroyed the whole "covenant of wisdom" in the G1 comic universe. The parallel universe was purely the "1986 movie-esque" scenes near the end.

I'm also not entirely pleased that they've decided to 'reset' the issue counts at #0. I've quite enjoyed how ReGen One continued the count from where G1 ended... I hope it's just for this issue and the next issue isn't going to be #1. :/

They merely used the #0 to give themselves more story-telling time. Back to #95 next month.

[Verno]

With #95 out last week and only 5 Issues to go, does anyone want to throw around some theories about how this is all going to wrap up?

[Paulbot]

My guess: big cosmic reset button and then Generation 2 occurs as previously told.

[Verno]

My guess: big cosmic reset button and then Generation 2 occurs as previously told.

Is that even possible? The G2 Comic never smoothly followed the G1 stuff as it was. I don't think ReGen1 was designed to create a bridge between the two.

[Paulbot]

The G2 comic did follow on from G1 pretty well with the exception of where some minor Autobot characters ended up and what happened to Nucleon.

The overarching story seems to be that time/space is broken and that something needs to be done to fix it, which suggests that ReGen One is wrong and will be undone in the end.

Which would be usually be annoying to me, but I really don't care. The series has disappointed me too much, and I feel like I'm only buying this series out of duty now.

[i_amtrunks]

The series has disappointed me too much, and I feel like I'm only buying this series out of duty now.

I've not enjoyed it as much compared to its sister titles, but it reads like a decent continuation of Marvel G1 with a modern day focus on 5 issue "stories".

As for the series itself, I don't know if it is time itself that is wrong and that Regen 1 will be undone, as much as the planet itself is wrong and needs a cleanse. I'd love something other than a Decepticon purge or a watchful peace, but I wonder how limited Furman will be by the license.

[Verno]

I'd be interested in a summary of what's disappointed you in the series Paulbot.

[Paulbot]

Trying to sum it up, and it's hard not to rant. Basically though, this isn't what Marvel's #80-100 issues would have been like, and since that's kind of the whole gimmick it's disappointing. It doesn't compare favourably to other TG comic books, including all of Furman's own IDW series. The art has been poor, but improving. There's far too many interchangable cannon fodder characters (nearly everyone except the predictable ones) and ruining of characters that were stars in Furman's US run (Megatron, Scorponok, Ratchet, Thunderwing). It's gone too far off what the book might have had in it Earth and most of humanity destroyed. Of course Furman did go to this plot in Generation 2 as well but only when the book had already proceeded on it's way to oblivion. The familiar beats from Generation 2 (Megatron controlling the Ark, Bludgeon and his Warworld) make this series more like an alternate take on G2 rather than a continuation of G1. It might read better once all finished and collected but month to month feels so needlessly drawn out.

[griffin]

I have similar disappointment, in that I wanted to have issue 81+ be what Furman originally had planned for the original 81+. I wouldn't have cared much if it rewrote Gen2, because if the comic had continued its run, it wouldn't have introduced Gen2 toys/characters until right at the end anyway (as issue 100 would have been in early 1993, just as Gen2 was about to be released... and the Gen2 era of comics began in mid 1993 anyway).
This Regen-1 series just feels too much like "retcon" after 20 years of fiction and fan stories and theories.... which is not what fans of the original comic probably wanted to see. They signed a petition, and wanted to see, a comic that continued the original series as if it had never been axed.

Aside from that, my other element of disappointment is the story structure, and the way it is done to conform to fit TPB reprinting.
I am a fan of individual story issues of Budiansky (in the original series), and I am a fan of the continuous story arc of Furman (in the original series) that keeps building momentum to sporadic climaxes (like issue 75). I am NOT a fan of story arcs that reach climax every 5 or 6 issues, and lose momentum by starting a new chapter/arc every 5 issues... just so that they can later sell a TPB that reads as a stand-alone "issue".
So far, the RG1 comic series looks more like four single, long, issues... which feels like we have been short-changed by 16 issues. (in my opinion)
When the series started coming out, I really wanted it to be like the Furman run of the original series, in that I would be excited enough to chase up each issue as they were released (because I wanted to find out what happens next)... but now I'm content to just wait for the TPB to be released months later and just read each "chapter".