Comic Review - Transformers Regeneration One #85

            Megatron is a jerk.  If you are a Transformers fan and have gleaned nothing else from the series, you have to at least acknowledge that Megatron is a royal douche.  It is no more apparent than in this Transformers series from IDW.  Regeneration One picks up where the old Marvel series left off.  It was kind of a blast from the past as well because I remember that old series and even had an issue or two.  I was not a huge Transformers fan back then (my flag planted firmly in the He-Man/Thundercats camp) but with Goose’s intense affection for all things transforming robots, I have started to get into it a little more as of late.

 

            While Regeneration One picks up where the old series left off many years ago, it has catapulted the action twenty years into the future.  This is a future where Megatron, in all his grand douchieness has laid waste to the planet.  What is presented to us as the reader is a postapocalyptic future that is controlled by a maniacal metal dictator.  What is also apparent, aside from the fact that Megatron is a jerk, is that he really has a hard-on for Optimus Prime.  It is revealed that everything that Megatron has done, from the utter destruction of the world, to the creation of zombie robots (the rolling dead?) was to get the attention of his most hated rival, Optimus Prime.  Issue 85 has been billed as the issue where this long-standing hate fueled relationship comes to a dramatic conclusion.  Of course, this is comic books, so who knows how “final” the conclusion really is, but it makes for a good book nonetheless.

On the left:  The Cover; on the right:  The interior image.

Cover:

            The cover is not only a representation of the story, it is nearly a complete recreation of an interior panel.  Luckily for the readers, it is not just a copy of the panel blown up a little bit to fit a cover.  It is reworked and recolored to heighten the mood and make it pop.  The yellow uplighting really helps to make this pop on the shelf and does a great job of separating itself from the interior image and making it work as a dynamic image all its own. 

            Optimus Prime’s pose is dynamic, but it could have been pushed to be more so.  Everything is very vertical on the page.  Prime himself is not only completely centered on the cover, but he is also straight up and down.  Tipping him just a bit on the diagonal would definitely up the dynamism.  Another issue is Megatron’s arm in the foreground.  Not only is it the exacts same color as Prime’s leg, it also follows the path of Prime’s leg, making it a little hard to differentiate between the two.  If Prime had been tipped a bit, as was previously mentioned, this may have taken care of that problem while still keeping the triangular design that Wildman was going for in place. 

6/10-A good cover that just needed a bit more to make it a great one.  This is one of the biggest moments in the history of the property (so to speak) and it should have been a little less stiff than it was presented here.

Story:

            The big draw of this book was that IDW was able to get Simon Furman to write it.  For those that do not know, Simon Furman was the writer on the Marvel Transformers comics that ended in 1991 at issue 80 (as well as the majority of the Marvel UK Transformers comics).  He is basically picking up where he left off and his familiarity and fondness for the characters shows through here.    The story itself wraps up a lot of plotlines that have obviously been dangling since 1991.  Even with all of that, it sets the stage for the next issue.  To be perfectly honest I thought that this was going to be the final issue in the series and that they would just go ahead with the other two Transformers series from here.  I was a bit surprised when I got to the end of the book and not only did it not contain a big “The End” but it actually set up a new story arc involving Grimlock. 

            I did not regularly follow the comic in the late 80s (I had just started reading, give me a break) so I am not sure whether all of the characters naturally developed into what they are now, but I can tell you one thing, I do not like the Spike Witwicky, 90’s X-Force reject.  The long hair and headband motif does not scream “Survivor” as much as it screams “Youngblood”.  All he was missing was shoulder pads and boot pockets. 

            I did enjoy the way Furman created the inner conflict in Prime.  The desire to do the right thing for his soul while doing the right thing, essentially for the planet.  The fact that it turned out like it did wasn’t too much of a surprise, however the realization that Megatron and Ratchet were fused based on something that happened over twenty years (our time) ago and was more relevant now than ever made me smile.  It brought me back to the “good old days” of comics and the thinking that everything that happened would have ramifications that would not be felt for many issues down the road.  I don’t get that feeling as much anymore unless something is heralded as an “event” but maybe it is because most mainstream comics are not good enough to hold my attention and build up that story.  Oh well, a discussion for another time. 

8/10-Furman killed it on this issue.  The internal conflict in Optimus Prime is my personal favorite but all of the other little side stories wrapping up was icing on the cake.

Art:

            Andrew Wildman is also a holdover from the original Transformers series and is a frequent collaborator with Simon Furman.  He does a good job of conveying movement in the panels and pages even though he is doing so with the much blockier Generation One Transformers designs as opposed to the ones featured in Robots in Disguise or More Than Meets the Eye.  I am not a huge fan of Wildman’s work drawing people, and there even seems to be something a little off about his robots, but it does grow on me toward the end.  This could be due in large part to the quality work he does on the Optimus Prime-Megatron fight.  Honestly the action sequences in general are well done, the storytelling suffers a bit here and there but is not enough to lose me completely.  

This issue is full of big hits like this that Wildman executes wonderfully considering the size and blocky nature of the combatants.

Of course it also contains Spike in this getup.

From issue 70, over 20 years ago!  And yet this moment has a huge impact on the winner of the Optimus-Megatron fight.

Not only a glimpse of things to come, but also a bit of bad storytelling.  by not showing Grimlock and Scorponok in the same panel together, there is no way to know the sizes of these guys in relation to one another, which just makes this page kind of confusing.

6/10-To be tasked with, and be able to pull off, one of the biggest brawls in the storied history of this franchise is a great feat.  I can even look past the terrible character design for Spike and the confusing storytelling in places because when Wildman is on in this issue, he really delivers.

Overall:  7/10-This is still the third best Transformer’s book being produced right now in my opinion (mainly because it contains humans) but what Furman and Wildman are able to do, even after a twenty three year break, in terms of continuing this story while keeping it fresh and interesting should be commended.