Re-Generation One (IDW retro G1)

[Onslaught Six]

Prime just has a vision of Unicron--isn't it possible that it's someone else manipulating that, and not actually Unicron?

[Dominic]

Do you really trust Simple Simon to do anything that is not going to degenerate in to cosmic gibberwank, with or without Unicron? It took Simple Simon all of one issue to invoke Unicron and reset the status quo to 1991 spec.

If he had a better track record, I would be more willing to stick around to see what he was going to do. But, in the past decade, Simple Simon has more often than not proven himself willing to be a lazy hack. And, this first issue has given us no reason to think that he is going to do anything more with "Re-Generation 1".


Dom
-at least content that Furman will be off of the main TF books for a while.

[Onslaught Six]

That's my thinking--if you have to keep Furman around (and there is, sadly, a sizable segment of the fandom that will buy whatever he does regardless of quality or content) then put him on something that'll stay contained within itself.

[Shockwave]

It could be something different, I'll concede that, but Dom's right, it'll probably still be cosmic gibberwank.

[andersonh1]

Prime just has a vision of Unicron--isn't it possible that it's someone else manipulating that, and not actually Unicron?

It's also possible that having died in the process of killing Unicron, the incident still haunts Optimus Prime, and this was an illustration of that. He wasn't just damaged in the fight with Unicron in #75, he was blown apart, and only lived a few minutes afterwards in a horribly wounded state before expiring. That's got to leave a lasting impression, even on Optimus Prime.

[Dominic]

I have heard Furman quoted as saying that Unicron showing was a question of Prime not being quite over it. Hopefully, that is what will play out.


Issue #82:
And...this issue Simple Simon proves that he does need Unicron to write bad comics. There was a predictable "you did not see everything" save for Kup and the Wreckers. (It is unclear if the Wreckers being alive and relatively well means that "Time Wars" did not happen in this timeline, or if they were repaired in the ~25 years since.)

Grimlock goes to Nebulos to discover....that the planet has been pretty well smashed up. It is not as bad as the situatioin on Earth, but Nebulos is in bad shape. Furman really seems to like post-disaster settings. They are nice and easy to draw/describe on a script. And, blasted wastelands and ash landscapes are kewl and probably resonate with this book's target audience.

Spike apparently gets an upgrade and is the heir to the (presumably unusable for copyright reasons) Circuitbreaker.

And, Megatron is commanding an army of zombified Decepticons. Yes. Zombies. Trust Simple Simon to jump on to a bandwagon after it has already stopped. (I am pretty sure that zombies have once again worn out their pop-cultural "awshim" factor and even people who might otherwise like them are pretty well sick of them. So, all Furman has really done here is prove that TF comics are creatively retarded and derivative.

Grade: D

This book is worth picking up for the same reasons that "Countdown" was.


Dom
-still not sure why the fandom, and the official sources, have consistently felt the need to go back to issue 80 so many times over the years....

[andersonh1]

I don't mind the post-apocalyptic landscape on Earth, though I still have trouble imagining that this is where the original series would have taken us if it had continued on. We're not seeing "what would have been" so much as "as much as Furman can remember of his plotline after it's been influenced by 21 more years of Transformers fiction and ideas". And that's fine, really. Wildman's art seems less precise than it used to be, though it was always somewhat organic. Circuit Smasher is fine as a callback to one of the more unique aspects of Marvel G1, even though I was never a fan of Circuit Breaker.

For me the value in this series, and what I enjoy, is picking up those old character threads and extending them a bit. Action Master Grimlock, searching for a way to gain his transformation abilities back. Ratchet's fate after causing the Ark to crash. The question of what would happen to Headmasters and Targetmasters if the organic components died or otherwise wanted to end the partnership. Good stuff, and I'm really enjoying it.

I'd grade it a B, personally.

I have heard Furman quoted as saying that Unicron showing was a question of Prime not being quite over it. Hopefully, that is what will play out.

Exactly what I thought. And it makes perfect sense that the trauma from the event wouldn't easily be overcome.

[Dominic]

I think that the problem with the art is that the colours are over-saturated. Wildman's pencils and Baskerville's inks still look pretty good. The colouring problems may be more due to modern printing than ineptitude by the colourist.

Circuit Smasher is fine as a callback to one of the more unique aspects of Marvel G1, even though I was never a fan of Circuit Breaker.

I liked the idea of "human who does not like TFs" and "humans doing more than just stand there looking scared" that the comics gave us. Assuming that I recall the copyright and reasoning correctly, Blackrock and most of the other Neo Knights will be an option for IDW.


And, as much as I am shitting on Furman, I will say this for him. He is far from the least talented man in comics, (Lee or Spiegelman can have that hounor). And, his work ethic is more professional than guys like LIefeld (who so far is doing his job on Hawkman) or Kirkman. I am really just annoyed that so many fans have not moved on from Furman having a better than expected run 20 years ago and that many of those same fans have not moved on in 20 years.

I really cannot blame Furman for riding an obvious gravy train and pandering when so many people are rewarding him for doing so.

And, if I had more faith in him creatively, I would be more enthusiastic about this book.

[Shockwave]

Got this yesterday too. The Decepticons aren't zombies, they're lobomitized. There's a distinct difference. Their situation can be reversed, this is not a situation where they were dead and came back to life, Megatron simply cut off their higher brain functions. They never actually say that Spike is Circuit Smasher (it'll probably turn out to be Spike, but as of right now, the only name we have is Circuit Smasher). I find it interesting that the Nebulans were trying to repair the Cybertronians still existing on their planet. Especially given the state of it which I'm assuming was caused by the war.

[Dominic]

Spike is Circuit Smasher. That is established.