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Thread: Comic Review: Transformers Regeneration One

  1. #161
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    The best part of this series was Geoff Senior and Josh Burcham's covers - it's a shame everything went downhill between those covers. I wish it had actually been a continuation of Transformers from #81 as it would have been and had been set in 1991, (and been coloured by Burcham or Guidi instead of Bove, so it actually looked like a nineties comic.) I mean... an Ark full of Nucleon-fuelled Transformers crashed on Earth in #78, and #81 would have been a poetic parallel to #1, with the Autobots, Megatron, Starscream and Shockwave waking up (and having to deal with losing their altmodes.) And then it could have progressed in 'real time' introducing some of the 1991 toys over the first twelve or so issues and the 1992 ones in the last eight. Instead, we got this clusterfudge.

    I loved the last panel, though.

  2. #162
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    After a second read and some checking up of events from the comics referenced within I think I have more of an understanding of the going ons.

    Still alot I don't like, but the multiverse stuff, and that G1 is now a singularity apart from the rest was an interesting twist that could only really have happened with the massive real time gap between 80 and 81. I actually like the ending more now that I figured out what I think happened, having 12 pods was a nice nod too.

    It is a shame that most of the 21 issue run of Regeneration 1 could have been tossed aside or shrunken down to not fill the modern 5-6 issue arc for trade paperbacks and there could have been a better handling and pacing based more around this final issue. A good issue or two devoted just to tying up events on Earth, another for Nebulos and maybe some more time in the 80's issues for seeing what megatron actually did on Earth and to better resolve the rime/Megatron fight.
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  3. #163
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    This whole 'writing for the trades' thing confuses me. Beast Wars: The Gathering and The Ascending were both collected into trades after they finished, but each miniseries was only 4 issues, so the trades only had 4 issues. Perhaps if ReGen1, with it's 20 issues, was divided into story lines/trades of 4 issues each, it would have given more scope for everything. Issue #0 wouldn't have been necessary as more time could have been given to the stories it contained.

    #81 - #84 - Loose Ends Parts 1-4

    #85 - #88 - Natural Selection Parts 1-4 (Yay, less time wasted here!)

    #89 - #92 - Destiny Parts 1-4

    #93 - #96 - ADDITIONAL STORY!!!

    #97 - #100 - The War To End All Wars - Parts 1-4

    But if they were that desperate to get five issues into each trade, then why not pad them out with an issue of the original run? They reprinted issues #76-#80 in the '100-page spectacular'. That's 5 issues. Why not have put one of these original issues in each of the subsequent trades? Then, IDW get to sell 5 trades instead of 4! That's good business sense.

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  4. #164
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    So it's not just me then. Good. Here's some more of my thoughts on ReGeneration One #100 and the series as a whole.

    Art

    As with Sky Shadow, I've loved the Senior/Burcham covers. Best thing about the series. And who'd have thought we'd ever get a cover of Huffer punching Snarler on any comic.. Guido does some fantastic retro art (the stuff in Generations, his variant covers for this series), where was that on the inside?

    Inking takes some blame here I guess and colouring to a degree. Check out the pages Senior drew in 100 and inked himself. Suddenly everything looks better, smoother, shinier. I thought it might be a different colourist, but no it's just the art's not "dirty" with scratches and damage. Wildman did some nice work in #100, the spread of Cybertron on pages 2 -3 is quite nice but also a bit of a waste of two pages when things get crowded at the end.

    Characters

    Throughout the series many G1 characters made first appearances, and were then killed. Others got to turn up just to be named and killed in the same panel. The vast majority of characters became red shirts. Just in the final issue we see Tailgate, Streetwise, Slingshot, Hosehead and Iquanus, none of whom I think have had dialogue this whole series, turn up to be name checked and killed. Oh and everyone else on Cybertron (except the Dinobots and Ravage) were, it seems killed, off panel. Although it’s not clear if a shadow leech could be returned to life. This death count includes Soundwave turned into a parasite hunting Ravage in a two page backup prose story. Good end to one of most recognisable Decepticons and a character that had been around for most of the 100 issues huh?

    What about other prominent heroes and villains from the Marvel series? Well Ratchet, the underdog hero that bet Megatron several times, was used as a chair by Megatron and euthanised. No heroic ending for him then. Blaster, rebellious Autobot warrior got some magic sound powers. Bumblebee, he was around but didn't have a lot to do. Shockwave? Another slave of Megatron's who helped the Underbase Starscream and then when off and visited the Dock people of the planet Hickeridickeri. Bludgeon got to retread his story from G2. Jihaxus got to retread his story from G2. Scorponok got to come back as a mad scientist with a mad cartoon scheme and die, pissing over the most emotional part of the whole 80 original issues. Most of the G1 Decepticons you remember? Mindless zombies. Fort Max and Galvatron both killed in #100 so quickly it's hardly noticed.

    And Optimus Prime. Heroic leader of the Autobots. Very much the star of the G1 Marvel comics. What's the end of his story? Retires to Earth to help rebuild it, sucker shot by Fort Max, possessed into attacking Rodimus, breaks free to pass on the secret to winning and then dying. I guess that's kind of like Dark Awakening but at least cartoon Prime got a second chance after that. ReGen Prime goes out with a whimper. He doesn't even get to be one with the Matrix because Rodimus just broke any link to TF heaven. He's just gone. Cold and brutal way to end that hero's tale.

    And Megatron? He did his best Overlord impression and did mass killing (nearly all of Earth's population) looking for some attention. A way to show Megatron is so evil but also gone a quarter of the way through the story. Also a bit of a drastic approach to "we don't want stories about humans" isn't it? The majority of Budiansky's run on the book (love it or hate it) was about the way TFs interacted and influenced (and were influenced) with humans they met. Well sorry readers they are all dead. Buster, Jessie, "O"? Dead. Bomber Bill? Dead. Skids' friend Charlene? Micromaster cohort Cecilia Santiago? The Robot Master, The Roadjammers? The cast of MonsterCon from Mars? Even those Spacehiker kids? All dead. Plus you and everyone you've ever met.

    Plot

    The last issue tried to explain how all the four previous stories worked together, and you know what it might read better as a whole now. But what a chore to get here. Verno's suggestion of shorter arcs would have been much a better approach.

    And plot elements? Nucleon didn't strip TFs of their Transformations. Hot Rod ran around the sewers with those demons. Scorponok came back with an actual physical key that could be inserted into Transformers to turn them evil. This was the worst plot element of all and instead it could have been an interesting ongoing subplot: Autobots acting a little more aggressively, or wildly, acting out of character, eventually revealing that Cybertron itself was infected by the Dark Matrix energy and that was the reason behind it.

    So the ultimate bad guy of ReGen turns out to be some residue of the Matrix/Deathbringer never seen before, never even hinted at existing before that 0 issue that came out late in the series run. Yep that's a loose end we needed to have invented and then closed off.

    Rodimus calls on the multiversal equivalents to take up some pages I guess. Lost Light Rodimus and Animated Rodimus and the rest don't seem to do anything of any real value. I don't think they'll remember as I don't think they are actually there. I think they are manifest copies and that's why they disappear when the link to the multiverse is cut. Did Rodimus stab the Dark Matrix creature? Or the rift?

    It took me a few reads of #100 to work out what was going on with Spike and what he did to change things. I first thought he blasted something, there's some energy discharge, but I couldn't figure it out. But it seems that he was a nexus being (a combination of Human, and Transformer and Nebulon tech) and so his negative emotions were feeding the dark creature and making it more powerful enough to open the rift.

    Impact

    The final victory comes from Rodimus disconnecting the ReGen universe from the rest of the Transformers multiverse. Primus wants to create a unified single perfect universe with the best of all the Transformers multiverses. Is that "Generations"? Is that "Aligned Continuity"? Is Primus really a stand in for Hasbro!?!

    Was Furman saying the G1 comic universe is some sort of special ground he wants no one else to touch ever again. By in canon separating it from the multiverse, no one else can touch his characters or write over his stories? Is it a meta manifestation of GeeWun mentality!

    Or, on the other hand, did Furman realise that ReGen was a bad idea, the storyline a bad continuation of G1, so bad and corrupt that the ReGen universe should never been seen again and everything in it should die away!

    Fortunately there's another TF universe where the G1 comic and then G2 comic happened and that was untouched by ReGen Rodimus Prime's actions, and another where the G1 comic and the UK G1 comic happened, also untouched. Good thing the TF multiverse is big enough that G1 comic + Regen comic can be seen as a timeline that needed pruning to protect the greater good of TF continuity.

    I prefer Verno’s theory, that this creates the Dead Universe (not Shockwave's actions with time and space in Dark Cybertron) given the way the Transformers aged and decayed after being separated from Primus. The two stories are happening so close together that maybe they will be related in some way.

    In conclusion

    And then in his final word Furman says this is not the story we would have told in 1991. Well **** you, that's the story I signed the petition for. That's what we were promised and what we wanted, but instead we get a story of the Matrix's evil child causing chaos and destruction, 80% or more of G1 characters killed, 99% or more of earth's population killed, and an apparently happy ending that has the human survivors living on Nebulos, and the Autobots taking interstellar vacation until they all die of old age.

    The original issue #80 was rushed, but it ended with the promise of life going on. The new issue #100 ends with the promise of death for all. Bummer of a way to finish the story. I guess it's a literal way of treating this as "the end".

    I get the impression that if you've never read a TF comic since 1991 you might love this. If you've never read a comic at all since 1991 you might love this. But with so much better TF fiction out there, including other work by Furman and Wildman, I couldn't recommend this series to anyone. I wished for it a long time ago, but some wishes shouldn't come true!

  5. #165
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paulbot View Post
    The majority of Budiansky's run on the book (love it or hate it) was about the way TFs interacted and influenced (and were influenced) with humans they met. Well sorry readers they are all dead. Buster, Jessie, "O"? Dead. Bomber Bill? Dead. Skids' friend Charlene? Micromaster cohort Cecilia Santiago? The Robot Master, The Roadjammers? The cast of MonsterCon from Mars? Even those Spacehiker kids? All dead. Plus you and everyone you've ever met.
    This is a really good point, and another reason why the story should have continued in 1991 [so the humans would have been a) still alive and b) not twenty years older]. For me, cameos from any of those humans would have been welcome. Single-story Budiansky-style issues, no matter how camp or ridiculous would have been welcome. Solid characterisation of individual Transformers would have been welcome. How is it that Furman often used to achieve more in six black-and-white pages than he did in entire issues of Regeneration One?

  6. #166
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    Rodimus says that the Transformers became peace-keepers/ moderators of the Universe after the rift closed, showing Screamer and Shockers only (with Ravage). With those the only surviving Cons and all of about 20 Autobots left, it is barely worth mentioning, unless all the space demon tendrils reverted back to their original forms (which I do not think happened.)

    4 issue arcs still would have been too long for everything but for the War to end all wars, which couldve easily doubled to 8 issues to be covered properly.

    I still think this was not a fitting end issue; however, the end panels and idea (G1 comic being split from the multiverse) were certainly nice and nifty.

    I think that most people who signed the petition (if they already werent) would be ticked off for not getting the conclusion they wanted back in the 90's.
    Looking For: Wreckers Saga TPB Collection (with Requiem)

  7. #167
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paulbot View Post
    EVERYTHING
    i agree with you there Paul with everything,

    after reading through this series getting alll covers i came out the end disapointed....

    and the thing i am most disapointed about still is that first arc where megs was just written of then incinerated along with all the other cons and some bots..

    Ratchet the Autobots greatest Hero didnt get the ending he deserved it should of been him who took down megatron not become some head on a throne it should of been that one final battle between the two which could of finished with ratchet holding his head to megatrons and kill them both using that link they shared and terminating them both... hero stuff not just like all those times megatron suffered defeat by his hand and underestimated the doc.

    as for the rest of the series i wouldnt know where to start

    well summed up Paul..
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  8. #168
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    So the Dark Matrix Energy Monster (DMEM {I wonder what they'll call it on the Wiki, as it's never really given a proper name}) was the one whispering in Prime's ear during his meditation in #81? Not Unicron.

    It uses the line 'Evil is infinite', and that's a curiosity.

    The first use of that line in TF history was in the final issue of G2, with the reveal of the Liege Maximo. Now, look at the Liege's head, and the head of the DMEM. Consider also that the Liege Maximo wanted to ascend to godhood (according to Alignment) and the DMEM wanted to do something similar.

    I can only conclude that these entities were originally one and the same. Furman had plans for this DMEM a long while ago it seems, but over the years his thoughts on how to use it changed.

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  9. #169
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    Quote Originally Posted by Verno View Post
    It uses the line 'Evil is infinite', and that's a curiosity.
    This line made me cringe. True evil doesn't recognise itself as evil. That's what makes IDW (and even BM) Megatron such interesting villains -- they don't see themselves as villains, but as heroes.

    I also concur with Paulbot's review. And yeah, good to know that at least Earth 120185 is still untouched, but an alternate version of Earth 91274 (let's call it "Earth 91275") is forever changed. I say alternate because it does ignore G2 continuity, which AFAIK should still have occurred on the original Earth 91274. So arguably Earth 91275 (events of US G1 comics sans G2 plus ReGen) is a separate reality from Earth 91274 (US G1 + G2, but not ReGen) anyway.

  10. #170
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    This line made me cringe. True evil doesn't recognise itself as evil. That's what makes IDW (and even BM) Megatron such interesting villains -- they don't see themselves as villains, but as heroes.
    To quote the Liege Maximo in G2:
    Quote Originally Posted by Liege Maximo
    You cannot destroy evil. It exists always as a counter-force. A balance in nature that is always maintained...

    Thus, when the first named Prime was created, so was the Liege Maximo
    You are right in what you say about villains like BW/BM Megs - that they're deliciousness comes from their perspective of the universe. But the Liege Maximo is speaking on a much larger scale - in fact, he essentially makes up half the scale himself; the evil half.

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