Re-Generation One (IDW retro G1)

[Dominic]

And.....it ends. Over. Finished.


Re-Generation One #100:

In case anybody is curious, I got the subscriber cover (with the Joes) and the regular cover (Rodimus v/s Optimus Primes). An ordering mistake led to me getting an extra copy of the subscriber cover in my pull-box. If anybody wants it, lemmee know.

All told, it ended better than I thought it would. The ending works better at a meta level than it does on page. But, for a book like this, that is fine. Furman peppers in some Furmanisms and some other quotable TF lines through-out the book as a way to sort of "unify" the franchise. On page, the story ends with a note of Gotterdammerung. Most of the Cybertronians die. And, it is clear that the species as a whole is doomed in the long-run. (A flash-forward shows their eventual extinction.) But, it is less an elegy and ,(in the tradition of what was always best about TF), a story of progress.

Spoiler

The relatively few surviving Transformers abandon Cybertron and journey to the stars as peace-makers. The Dark Matrix creature is trapped in zero-space, effectively dooming Cybertronians to extinction. Rodimus is shown at some indeterminate point in the distant future, and is established as the last of his kind, moments before he dies. The last panel depicts a new species (resembling Botanica from "Beast Machines") rising from Rodimus' remains.

A significant portion of the double-sized issue is allocated for a cover-gallery and end notes. The sheer number of variant covers for "Re-Generation One" means that nearly half the cover-gallery is actually the 20 issues of of the continuation. All Marvel indicia is removed from the original 80 cover images, including the "frame" on issue 22. (This makes me continue wondering if the 5th UK reprint volume was been delayed for licensing issues. We know that Marvel is again pushing Death's Head, a character that would feature prominently in the 5th volume.)

Furman's last work (printed on the inside back cover) notes that issue 100 is not the ending he had planned 20 years ago. This is unsuprising given how rushed parts of "Re-Generation One" have been. But, the ending does tied everything up nicely, including the plots that were clearly for-shadowed in the last 5 issues of the original series. It is a safe bet that Furman planned for those arcs to be longer and better developed. (We know that the Cybertronian Empire would have been given more page space based on "Generation 2". And, Furman had them planned at least from issue 80, around when he wrote "Another Time and Place".)


"Re-Generation One" was an interesting experiment. Depending on the learning curve for IDW, it might be worth repeating at times when they need to fill-out their TF offerings. (Obviously, a movie-year is not the time to make that sort of push.)


Grade: A

[Tigermegatron]

Last week,I bought the volume 1 of Re-Generation,This week I bought & got Regeneration volume 2 & 3 today. I already read volume one last week. I plan to read volume 2 & 3 tonight. I have volume 4 on pre-order but it will arrive in june.

I honestly think buying IDW'S TF comics buy the TFP volumes is the best route for me. As I never liked waiting each month to read the newest comic issue. I prefer to read everything in one long shot.

[Dominic]

"Re-Generation One" definitely reads better in large chunks.

Volume 4 is not due until June though? I thought it was coming sooner.

[andersonh1]

Got issue 100 today but haven't read it yet. I love that the cover is such an accurate homage to #1, with only a few little tweaks. Nice touch to wrap up the series like that.

[Tigermegatron]

I think it's just best to think of regeneration as a "What If" comic series.

I think Simon Furman should of had that Dark Matrix creature in the year 2015,after the G-2 Events Happened. Then the Matrix Dark creature being not please with the present day events,he time travels back to the past & causes a few changes in history. This time Travel could have erased G-2 from happening. The dark matrix creature,could have possessed certain characters in the past & made them do what they did.

Sorry,Simply telling everyone,To make believe G-2 Never happened was perhaps the most lame/pathetic thing ever. G-2 was important to some fans,as BW,BM & The TFCC comics have it in there universes & have even further built up upon the stories with newer entries in this universe.

[Tigermegatron]

I was kinda surprised Regenergation never touched upon Optimus & HI-Q merging minds & bodies near the end of the Marvel G-1 Comics. It would have been interesting to see some of Hi-Q persona in Optimus in Regeneration. Or at least Optimus in Regeneration mentioning Hi-Q & What the merger did to him.

Did Optimus ever Transform in a vehicle mode in the Regeneration comic book series. Or did he have his action master body with no alt mode transformation in the regeneration comic book series.

I think Skockwave,Galvatron & Starscream got such small roles in the Regenerations comic book series. Because at the time during the regeneration comic series,Shockwave,Starscream & Galvatron had such big roles in other IDW TF comics from Rid & MTMTE. It sure seems like Simon furman put all the key characters in Regeneration that had next to small roles in Rid & MTMTE While regeneration was running along with these titles.

[BWprowl]

Big ups to Dom for sending me a copy of this, as my shop was sold out when I got there the day it came out (I can kinda understand under-ordering a last, double-sized issue of a niche book of a niche franchise, rather than having stacks of the big thing left sitting around, functionally unsellable, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t annoying for me personally).

Despite my occasionally-ambivalent attitude towards ReG1, I did like this ending a lot, mostly because it flipped a lot of switches for me. I like endings in general, and final-final battles against nebulous, antagonistic forces, and extremely-distant finales that show the VERY ending of everything, and really, yeah, endings. Just how *final* this issue was designed to be was great. Furman’s racked up big body counts when ending series and story-arcs before, but he manages to top himself here by offing *the entire Cybertronian race*, and damn, those last two pages with the aged Rodimus on the deteriorated Cybertron are powerful stuff, I almost wish there’d been a little more of it, it really *got* to me, you know? This is it, the ending of the original G1, pretty much forever, and done in such a way that the entire point is “Yes, this is completely over (FINISHED!) and done with, but that means we have to move on and keep trying new things”.

This also had pretty much the *only* good use I’ve seen so far of the ‘Primus as a multiversal constant’ concept, as the TFs having to cut themselves off from that singularity was a clever way to go. It also sets up a nice precedent for any other continuity arms Hasbro may want to amputate in the future, though I wouldn’t want it to get overdone either.

One thing: While I have no problem with Cybertron and the Transformers getting reborn into something new because “IT NEVER—“, making the new lifeform look like Botanica was a big mistake. Not only would it be better to the concept to have it look like something unlike any TF from before, but making it look like that is only going to fuel needless speculation from people who’ll seriously miss the point of the issue anyway. This thing is pointedly over, I don’t need idiots drawing up charts to stupidly link this to BM somehow because they took a misguided easter egg too seriously.

Point of discussion: I find it interesting that as soon as the TFs’ time became limited, they immediately dropped their war and started on peaceful, diplomatic endeavors. You could almost make the argument that the Cybertronians’ near-constant warring was driven by their functional immortality, and wanting to be in the best, most powerful position to utilize that. But once their days are numbered, they realize that such a thing is ultimately pointless, since they’re all doomed anyway, so they might as well quit killing each other prematurely and make the most of what they have left.

You could alternatively argue that, with the immortality, the predisposition towards warfare functioned as some sort of ingrained population control mechanic, and with the ability to live forever removed, so was the need to prune their population with constant fighting.

[Dominic]

Some people are arguing that the change in Starscream and Shockwave was a result of the Underbase influencing them more than anything else. This is supported by the fact that Ravage (the only other surviving Decepticon) did not have any fundamental change. He accepted help from Starscream as a matter of survival. But, he did not suddenly decide he liked flowers and rainbows.

This does not rule out the idea of "warfare as population control" though. And, (not to draw too much from the BM angle), this was arguably a factor at the end of "Beast Machines".

This also had pretty much the *only* good use I’ve seen so far of the ‘Primus as a multiversal constant’ concept, as the TFs having to cut themselves off from that singularity was a clever way to go. It also sets up a nice precedent for any other continuity arms Hasbro may want to amputate in the future, though I wouldn’t want it to get overdone either.

I doubt that Hasbro would make any specific effort to wipe-out any specific part of TF. At most, they would ignore it and passively let it fall in to obscurity. That is probably the healthiest way to go about things, even if fans would not allow it.

One thing: While I have no problem with Cybertron and the Transformers getting reborn into something new because “IT NEVER—“, making the new lifeform look like Botanica was a big mistake. Not only would it be better to the concept to have it look like something unlike any TF from before, but making it look like that is only going to fuel needless speculation from people who’ll seriously miss the point of the issue anyway. This thing is pointedly over, I don’t need idiots drawing up charts to stupidly link this to BM somehow because they took a misguided easter egg too seriously.

I figured it was Furman's way of drawing "Re-Generation One" to a similar ending as "Beast Machines". The story will continue, though with much changed circumstances. It would be more of a thematic cue, than a specific point of reference.

[Tigermegatron]

Some people are arguing that the change in Starscream and Shockwave was a result of the Underbase influencing them more than anything else. This is supported by the fact that Ravage (the only other surviving Decepticon) did not have any fundamental change. He accepted help from Starscream as a matter of survival. But, he did not suddenly decide he liked flowers and rainbows.

Starscreams & Shockwaves peaceful resolve and new life purposes at the end of the Regeneration comic book series was a direct result of Both of these characters having intense bondage slavery and mind Trauma placed upon them by Megatron for over Two decades while on the earth.
Starscream had his free will and vocal processors muted by Megatron. Shockwave got badly damaged and strapped inside the Ark space ship core for decades. They both got put through intense tortue and got to see how it felt,after experiencing this first hand,they knew it was wrong to inflict this on others. after they were freed of oppression,They both sought to assist instead of dominate, This is evident all throughout the Regeneration comic series.

I doubt that Hasbro would make any specific effort to wipe-out any specific part of TF. At most, they would ignore it and passively let it fall in to obscurity. That is probably the healthiest way to go about things, even if fans would not allow it.

Hasbro allows IDW to do as it please with the TF comics. Because Hasbro knows it's 95% target buying TF toys customers who are younger kids are not buying any of the IDW TF Comics.

[Sparky Prime]

Hasbro allows IDW to do as it please with the TF comics. Because Hasbro knows it's 95% target buying TF toys customers who are younger kids are not buying any of the IDW TF Comics.

Hasbro doesn't just allow IDW do whatever they please with the comics, it makes no difference if there more people buying the toys compared to the comics. Hasbro is still going to check the storylines to ensure their product is represented how they approve. And we have seen that Hasbro sometimes does interject their influence into the comics, particularly recently with some of the characters that have shown up or the forms they've taken.

Dom's right, I can't see Hasbro going to any effort to cut out a specific part of TF. They pretty much include everything as happening with the concept of a multiverse, but if they don't want to acknowledge one of them, like Dom said, they'd simply just ignore it an let it pass into obscurity.