Regeneration One - the retro review thread

The modern comics universe has had such a different take on G1, one that's significantly represented by the Generations toys, so they share a forum. A modern take on a Real Cybertronian Hero. Currently starring Generations toys, IDW "The Transformers" comics, MTMTE, TF vs GI Joe, and Windblade. Oh wait, and now Skybound, wheee!
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Dominic
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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That is right. We don't know who it is, especially if Marvel asks about it. :lol:
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andersonh1
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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Regeneration One #85
Loose Ends part 5

Zero space has a crack.... that'll come back to be important in the future.

Optimus Prime finally turns loose on Megatron after Megatron kills Springer in cold blood and jokes about it. Prime decides to put him down like the dog he is. Megatron sics the zombie Decepticons on all the other Autobots while he and Prime go at it. An ailing Kup drags himself towards Ratchet, trying to do what Starscream said, to kill Ratchet. Megatron is tired of fighting Prime without resolving anything, so he has set Auntie to launch every last missile across the Earth and kill everything. Win or lose, Prime will lose everything. Spike and his group along with the Wreckers are trying to get to Auntie and shut it down. On Cybertron, Hot Rod and the other Autobots have Soundwave trapped in the Hall of Silence where Thunderwing's remains are kept.

On Earth, Prime tries to talk Megatron down, with no luck. Megatron is determined that only one will survive. Kup reaches Ratchet and demands a gun from First Aid, while Spike tries to fry Auntie. All the storylines cut together as Prime hesitates and Megatron impales him, only for Kup to shoot Ratchet, causing Megatron great pain and allowing Prime to crush Megatron's spark, apologizing as he does so. He takes no joy in his enemy's death. Spike fries Auntie and stops the missile launch, also stopping the Decepticon army. The survivors take it all in, while up in the Yukon near the Ark, Galvatron breaks free of the ice where Fortress Maximus had left him.

The final page gets the next story rolling, as Grimlock is imprisoned on Nebulos by Scorponok, who tempts him with a new transforming body that will free him from the Action Master form.

- Having still never read Marvel's Headmasters series, Scorponok's appearance was confusing for me at first, because of course he died in issue 75. However this is Scorponok's original head with a new body, and I presume all the Headmasters' original heads are on Nebulos at this point in the story, as seen a few issues back.
- Springer's death is pretty brutal.
- Optimus Prime, as usual, is pretty much unstoppable when he turns himself loose. But he's not brutal at all, and doesn't even want to kill Megatron if there's a way to avoid it. The fight is well drawn,and if there's one distinctive element to Wildman's Transformers,it's that they look beat up.
- It took forever, but Starscream finally got Megatron. Seems fitting, somehow. :)
- it's a little cliched, but I don't care: I love the thunderstorm and lightning in the background of the Prime/Megatron fight. And the tone is entirely appropriate. There are no long speeches or heroic actions, just two individuals violently beating each other as each tries to kill the other.
- Kup continues to be less idealistic than Prime, expressing little regret for having to kill Ratchet, though he says if positions were reversed, he'd be begging someone to put him out of his misery. I'm sure Ratchet feels the same way.
- Galvatron! I knew he'd turn up at some point when this series began. My only regret is that the promise of the Megatron/Galvatron team up from the last issues of Marvel G1 will never happen. There was unrealized potential there.
- One Decepticon leader down, two more to go, at least in this issue. Bludgeon's still out there too, and Jhiaxus.
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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- Having still never read Marvel's Headmasters series, Scorponok's appearance was confusing for me at first, because of course he died in issue 75. However this is Scorponok's original head with a new body, and I presume all the Headmasters' original heads are on Nebulos at this point in the story, as seen a few issues back.
That was a call back to the "Headmasters" series. The American comic forgot/ignored the idea of the heads being left on Nebulous, and generally slopped around with the idea of the symbiotic Nebulons. Furman touched on it in the UK. But, he could never go far beyond the US comics (which he had to remain consistent with). When he took over the US comic, he worked on defining Headmasters in more detail.

- it's a little cliched, but I don't care: I love the thunderstorm and lightning in the background of the Prime/Megatron fight. And the tone is entirely appropriate. There are no long speeches or heroic actions, just two individuals violently beating each other as each tries to kill the other.
Dialogue during fights is not as bad as it used to be in comics. But, more comic fights should be dialogue-light.

- Galvatron! I knew he'd turn up at some point when this series began. My only regret is that the promise of the Megatron/Galvatron team up from the last issues of Marvel G1 will never happen. There was unrealized potential there.
Furman covered much of that ground in the UK comic. I am not sure how much he would have done, even if the original series had continued.
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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Regeneration One #86
Natural Selection part one

This is the one story that I felt on first reading was problematic, both for the way it seemingly robbed Transformers of free will (if genetics determine their faction choice) and because it brought back Scorponok, who had been written out well and didn't really need to be revisited. I'm curious to see if I have the same opinion this time.

Slag and others who suffered debilitating effects of Nucleon are shown as Grimlock admits he has never been one to be patient, and that he rushed the use of Nucleon to the detriment of so many. He's now determined to find a cure. The story shifts to the present day as Grimlock has been captured by Scorponok. Grimlock is hanging from chains and Scorponok talks to him as he works, mocking him and studying his Nucleon-infused physiology. As he explains, this is his original head that had been left on Nebulon with a newly built reproduction of his old body, and he compliments Zarak for his intellect while noting that if Zarak had adopted his warrior instincts, he might have lived longer. He tries to gain Grimlock's help and loyalty by offering him the same: a replica of his original body, to free him from his mode-locked form.

Back on Cybertron, Hot Rod is trying to deal with Soundwave, trapped in the hall of silence, where he is trying to recover Thunderwing's remains. The Autobots can't get in, leaving them with their only option to detonate the hall and destroy it, along with what's left of Thunderwing. Hot Rod is reluctant to do so, because Thunderwing contains all that's left of the Creation Matrix, the link to their creator Primus. In the end, he makes the decision to go through with it, but Soundwave has teleported out, having obtained Thunderwing.

On Earth, the dead Decepticons are being tossed into a pit, along with a few Autobots. Despite the fact that they were enemies, Prime mourns for Megatron, and refuses to let First Aid repair his wounds. As he talks to Kup, Spike appears and says that the humans have voted unanimously for the Transformers to get off the planet. Neither their help nor their presence is required. The last of the dead bots are tossed into the pit and the Autobots prepare to vaporize them from orbit, but before they can do so, Starscream manages to get out of the pit and fly off.

On Nebulos, Grimlock breaks free and tries to escape, only to end up fighting the other four Dinobots who express their intention to kill him. But it's been Scorponok mentally manipulating him, and Grimlock finally agrees to work with him, as Scorponok tells him that they are going to Cybertron to create a planet of Decepticons. On the final page, both Starscream and Galvatron slip past Autobot patrols and enter the Ark....

- This is largely a low-key transitional issue before the next storyline really kicks into gear.
- I'm sorry to see the Action Master version of Grimlock go. I've always thought it was a nice design as drawn by Andy Wildman
- We'll get more into the genetic change from Autobot to Decepticon next issue, but I suppose it could be seen as something like the shell programs from Beast Wars, where a Maximal was made into a Predacon, so there is precedent.
- Scorponok is a nice contrast with Megatron as a Decepticon leader, but does he really think Grimlock can be trusted? Since I've read ahead, I know he doesn't, but even if I hadn't I would suspect that he's prepared contingencies.
- Prime's sorrow at Megatron's death is one of the many reasons that I like this version of the character. He doesn't revel or delight in the death of anyone, even an enemy.
- I guess the "funeral pyre" really does finish off all those dead characters beyond hope of recovery, including Megatron.
- I found it interesting that the caption says that they're all in West Virginia, and it's a wasteland like so much of the Earth. Megatron did his work thoroughly.
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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This is the one story that I felt on first reading was problematic, both for the way it seemingly robbed Transformers of free will (if genetics determine their faction choice) and because it brought back Scorponok, who had been written out well and didn't really need to be revisited.
Materialist morality was a huge thing in the 70s and 80s. (Do not act like you are not old enough to remember that first hand. Sit on the porch here with me, and we can discuss it over lemonade, and then take a nap.) So, a genetic cause for good and evil fit with the times. But, Furman aggressively applied the idea of free will and change, particularly with Grimlock. (These same ideas came up in G2.) So, Furman was not resting as much on hard determinism as it may seem.

Normally, I agree that characters need to stay dead. But, Furman was using a dangling plot thread that should have been addressed long before.

Hot Rod is reluctant to do so, because Thunderwing contains all that's left of the Creation Matrix, the link to their creator Primus. In the end, he makes the decision to go through with it, but Soundwave has teleported out, having obtained Thunderwing.
This is good set-up for Hot Rod's decision to cut the Matrix creature off entirely at the end of the series.

- I guess the "funeral pyre" really does finish off all those dead characters beyond hope of recovery, including Megatron.
I liked how the original series handled death/damage. The more damage done, the harder it was to repair. The characters knocked out in issue 50 could have been repaired, but the effort and cost were prohibitive. (The Decepticons seemed to bring character back more easily, likely because they had less restrictions on where they could get supplies.)
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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I was thinking that I read the last RG1 issue a week ago. Try a month!

Regeneration ONe #87
Natural Selection part 2

The book opens with Scorponok applying "the epiphany" to some unwilling Autobots, who Grimlock observes to be in pain from the process. Scorponok is activating the "warrior" gene, and he and Grimlock have a discussion about the complications of alliegience, with Scorponok claiming that they're all still the same person, just with less of a conscience. To him, this is evolution. The three insult Grimlock, who promptly puts them all in their place forcefully, having regained his dinosaur mode and ability to transform with a replica of his old body. Scorponok's next move is to head for Cybertron and to apply the process on a massive scale.

On Cybertron, Hot Rod is trying to discover if there is a map of the subsurface tunnel system beneath Cybertron, and having no luck. His goal is to locate Primus, and reference is made to Transformers #60 where Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee found it by accident. Having lost the Matrix fragments, Hot Rod wants to find Primus himself. Grimlock returns, and Hot Rod has him arrested and imprisoned, after Grimlock shows them that he has no more Nucleon in his system. Hot Rod believes, correctly, that something is not right about the whole situation.

On Earth, Starscream heads into the Ark, still not quite himself after Megatron's lobotomy. He is confronted by Galvatron, who demands to be shown why he's come to the Ark. Meanwhile Optimus Prime is staying behind on Earth, because he owes the people help in recovery. He feels he was never meant for resurrection and his time is over, and he needs to try and make up for any damage he's done.

On Cybertron, Hot Rod leaves Hosehead, Grapple and Siren in charge of Grimlock while he heads underground. Scorponok's converted Autobots land and attack, while Perceptor goes to see Grimlock, and after an examination determines correctly that Grimlock got his new body on Nebulos. Grimlock applies the procedure to Perceptor, turning him bad, so while the exterior attack is going on, the conversion process begins inside.

Hot Rod heads down underground, while the proto-Cybertronians note that he's passed their way and clearly mean to follow him. The issue wraps up with Starscream revealing to Galvatron that Shockwave is alive and functional and wired into the Ark...

- I expressed problems last time with genetics as a source of good or evil behavior in the absence of choice, so I appreciate the comment this issue that alliegiance is quite that simple. Nature versus nuture, Transformers-style.
- Both Autobot leaders, Optimus Prime and Hot Rod alike, are making choices and taking action based on guilt. I'm not sure if that was purposefully being paralleled or not, but it's a nice coincidence.
- I've never seen Perceptor drawn the way he's drawn in this issue. I wonder what led to that design choice?
- Nice to see Kick-Off, an Action Master, get a small role. All those late G1 bots got so few media appearances, so it's nice to see that remedied.
- It's good to see that Hot Rod has enough perception to figure that Grimlock's situation is not entirely on the level.... but then he goes off and leaves it in other hands. Way to cut and run on your responsibilities, Hot Rod.

It's a better issue than I remember, and for whatever reason I had forgotten that Hot Rod chose to go underground and look for Primus because he lost Thunderwing's remains. One more dot connected.
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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I have reached the point where I genuinely lose track of when I last picked up something to read it. The general story is in my memory, it's a familiar book, and I'm thinking "it was only a few months ago or last year when I was reading that, I should get back to it." Nope, it was 2016 the last time I picked up Regeneration One. Read the whole thing over the last three nights and remembered that I had never finished these retro reviews (and probably won't at this point, not at the same level of detail). I also thought I had never read the last few issues, because I did not remember anything about them, and I was right. The entire arc with Jhiaxus, the Underbase and the dark Matrix creature were all new to me. I don't know why I bought the issues and then never read them, but I didn't.

So that last story arc is a pared down version of Jhiaxus and the 2nd Generation Decepticons from G2, only there aren't legions out there in space and no Liege Maximo. From there the Underbase returns to finish off Jhiaxus (rather than the Swarm), and then the final threat turns out to be the dark Matrix creature. Rodimus Prime gets a lot of page time, which I enjoyed, and is that Botanica or someone like her on the final panel? Grimlock remains a major player through all the story arcs, as is to be expected. It's not a bad ending for Marvel G1, though as I noted in Transformers 84, I'd have enjoyed seeing this story drawn in the retro style, or at least colored in a retro fashion even with Andrew Wildman's art.
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Re: Regeneration One - the retro review thread

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I suspect that Bove etal used lessons learned on this series for the art in "84".
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