The Energon Pub

This week we get two new Transformers titles from IDW Publishing! Below we have the preview for Transformers: Regeneration One #87. Swing by your local comic shop or download tomorrow, enjoy the teaser below.

Transformers: Regeneration One #87
Simon Furman (w) • Andrew Wildman (a) • Wildman, Guido Guidi (c)
WAR CRY! The conquest of IACON begins in earnest, as SCORPONOK’s game-changing strategy threatens the very nature of what it means to be AUTOBOT... Or DECEPTICON! And HOT ROD begins his own personal odyssey to the very heart of CYBERTRON—where ancient forces are stirring!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

*Variant cover:
Variant Geoff Senior cover!

Bullet points:
• The action heats up!
• Continuing the story of the original 1980s Transformers series!

The art is looking more and more familiar and what I'm used to from the old Marvel comics, so I'm absolutely loving that. Now that Earth seems to be out of the picture, we finally zoom in on the Transformers more. I only have one nitpick though: Andrew doesn't seem to have done much research for this. If he had checked the old Headmasters comics from 1987, he would have seen that both Hardhead and Crosshairs had a completely different character design, especially the heads. This seems to be inspired by the toys, but they never looked quite like this in the US comics and cartoon... (the Japanese Headmasters series comes close, but even there Hardhead didn't have a faceplate).

The art has been fairly good in Regeneration One up until now. The terrible art for Brainstorm and Hardhead really makes me miss Geoff Senior really bad.

LMAO, a few years ago I wrote fanfic with Grimlock as a main character, and referred to him constantly as a throwback through the other characters...

Anyway, to me the art is just as good, and I got over the change in their designs. Minor flaws. Or are they on purpose? We'll see. Good to see Grimlock kicking a little butt, even if it's his own guys. And yes, finally, the story shifts to Cybertron. Hopefully it stays there for the most part, even if the loose ends with Prime and Spike have to be tied up.

Hans wrote:I only have one nitpick though: Andrew doesn't seem to have done much research for this. If he had checked the old Headmasters comics from 1987, he would have seen that both Hardhead and Crosshairs had a completely different character design, especially the heads. This seems to be inspired by the toys, but they never looked quite like this in the US comics and cartoon... (the Japanese Headmasters series comes close, but even there Hardhead didn't have a faceplate).

Wildman has expressed more than once his relative lack of interest in drawing Transformers (still doing a good job though, in my opinion!), but JP Bove and Furman are both conoisseurs and big fans of the franchise, and do correct him and each other on various aspects so it's quite likely a deliberate choice. I think.

On another note:
Seriously, how many times does IDW want to show us Shockwave being held up half-dismantled attached to various cables?

It could be a deliberate choice, yes... but if that's how they want to show that these are the "original" heads, then it should be pointed out that in the Headmasters comic, the original heads and the "Nebulan heads" looked the same. Except for Fort Max, who sometimes looked like Cerebros after the hookup with Galen

And for the record, Wildman and Baskerville were my favorite artteam on the original Marvel comics, I loved their stuff. Still do, but yeah... a little more research could help sometimes But I loved Baskerville's inking from the beginning. It reminded me of Todd McFarlane (who I loved at the time on Amazing Spider-man), only.... tidier

With volume two of ReGeneration One coming out this Wednesday, we decided to go back and make sure all the issues contained in the trade have been reviewed! Read all the already written ones: ReGeneration One #86, ReGeneration One #88, ReGeneration One #89 and ReGeneration One #90. And now, for the missing one: ReGeneration One #87.

Synopsis
WAR CRY! The conquest of IACON begins in earnest, as SCORPONOK’s game-changing strategy threatens the very nature of what it means to be AUTOBOT... Or DECEPTICON! And HOT ROD begins his own personal odyssey to the very heart of CYBERTRON—where ancient forces are stirring!




Story

So Grimlock has accepted Scorponok's offer, and is on his way to Cybertron. After a demonstration of what the Gene Key can do, at least. He's back in his old body, happy as larry, bashing and gnashing, and he has a plan to carry out.



Meanwhile, Optimus decides that he'd rather stay on Earth and think things through, thank you very much. I suppose this could have been a worse decision, but it does seem to slow down things a lot. Every other character on the planet(s) keeps asking 'what would Optimus do?' - apparently, nothing. Just go for a stroll. Good to know.



And of course, Hot Rod tried keeping everything under control back at home. Even though Grimlock is a bit of a trouble-maker, Scorponok's vanguard has arrived, and there's definitely something going on in the basement.



The idea of Scorponok changing the moral compass of all Cybertronians is intriguing, but the execution is a bit puzzling. What exactly does the Gene Key do, and why does it even work? If morality is not a black-and-white thing, as they explicitly said in these issues, surely the result would not be this one? Or would it?


Art

Again, it's Wildman and Baskerville on pencils and inks, respectively, and there's quite a wide cast this time round. Some have complained about the three headmasters not looking like their usual selves, or at least previous incarnations, but they do resemble their toys in this form. The usual concerns about expressions do arise, but there's something particularly off with Perceptor.



Bove really shines in this issue though, especially when the skies are concerned. Something I didn't notice on the first read: the Cybertronian sky progresses through this story arc, from a very very dark night to something else for its conclusion, following the pacing of the events. A nice touch, JP.



The artwork seems to work a lot better in this issue! Yes it's Andrew 'Screaming Robots' Wildman, but the human facial expressions have more of a variety this time, and really help convey what is going on in the story. And I like screaming robots, anyway.


Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

The issue is enjoyable actually, and it does a lot more than the previous one. There are some concerns both in terms of plot devices and artwork, such as the exact functioning of the Gene Key and Perceptor. Poor poor Perceptor. But overall, the story works.



There are some extra bits I haven't mentioned in the review, about some other characters still on Earth, of whom Starscream is one and the others are ..well, I'll leave it to you to find out. Overall, not a bad issue, a good read, still fairly slow but appropriately so this time. Let's see what Scorponok has in mind for next month, shall we?