The Energon Pub

This weeks sees the release of IDW Transformers: ReGeneration One #98, and while we can't show you a preview yet, do come back tomorrow for the first pages of the mayhem-filled book! In the meantime, check out what Simon Furman has to say in his Script (W)Rap for the issue, as well as a small comment and teaser from inker Stephen Baskerville too!

Stephen Baskerville wrote:This Wednesday sees the release of TRANSFORMERS REGENERATION ONE #98 as the clock ticks ever closer to the climax of the series at #100. Word-sculpted by SIMON FURMAN, Pencil-caressed by GUIDO GUIDI, Colour-conjured by J-P BOVE and Ink-dribbled by Yours Truly, in this issue RODIMUS PRIME and his Autobot army take the battle to JHIAXUS’ stronghold! If you like all-out intergalactic warfare on a grand scale this one is for you. (If you’re more into cupcakes and pink princesses you may be disappointed-- though I for one would like to see a KUP*-cake!)
This month’s black and white teaser image may seem an odd choice, given all the pics of carnage and mayhem I could’ve chosen. But when you finally see what Rodimus is saying in the lettered version, I think you’ll agree this is quite a pivotal moment. In the meantime, as an impromptu competition, feel free to come up with your own ideas for his speech balloon. Bad jokes especially welcomed. The only prize will be your eternal shame!
(*To those not up on this whole Transformers thing, KUP is one of the goody robots, hence my Cupcake/KUP-cake pun. Sigh. Never try explaining jokes.)

Simon Furman wrote:Here we are, at whatever the one before the penultimate issue is called, the last but two chapter of the original and founding Transformers saga. In other, less convoluted, words, here’s Transformers: Regeneration One #98 (of 100), which hits comic stores this coming Wednesday (January 29th). And boy, does this one kick some serious assets. We’ve been kind of teasing the threat posed by/true power of (former Cybertronian senator) Jhiaxus for a while now, but this issue should leave no one in any doubt about his lofty niche in the pantheon of Transformers villainy. But, before you read on, be warned, my authorly digressions do have a hint of spoiler about them, so if you’d rather have your issue served up unsullied by loose-lipped internet blather, cease reading now. Okay, so, where’d we leave things. Oh yeah, Rodimus Prime just got smacked around by Jhiaxus and he’s not taking it lying down. In fact, he’s mobilizing the whole dad-blasted Cybertronian fleet and going in all guns blazing. Not your average, agonize-about-it-for-a-decade Prime this one. Oh no. If this were toy branding, it’d be Affirmative Action Rodimus Prime emblazoned on the packaging. But is such all-guns-blazing action against a largely unquantified foe a wise move? Maybe not. Anyway, once the action kicks off it never stops, with the kind of full on epic battle the like of which this comic has never seen. “Could there possibly be room for anything else,” I hear you wonder. Well of course. There’s also the return to, um, unrestrained action for not one but TWO uber-fan favourites. Both of which you’ve been crying out for. But one of these is kind of good news, and one is very bad. Especially for poor Optimus Prime. Plus (oh yeah, it keeps on coming), the mystery of Galvatron and those Acolytes of Unicron takes another unexpected twist. Alrightyyy! No full IDW preview yet, but as soon as one surfaces I’ll update and link to it here.

Hooray for bad puns... And I bet those 2 "fan favorites" are Starscream an Fortress Maximus (who returns to Earth to confront Optimus). I'm looking forward to this, hopefully the action gets amped up.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Hooray for bad puns... And I bet those 2 "fan favorites" are Starscream an Fortress Maximus (who returns to Earth to confront Optimus). I'm looking forward to this, hopefully the action gets amped up.

It's definitely action-driven, I can say that!

Courtesy of IDW Publishing, we bring you a full preview to whet your appetites for this week: on the menu is seven pages and a cover for Transformers: ReGeneration One #98! Check out the images below, and come back tomorrow for the Seibertron.com review.

Transformers Regeneration One #98
Simon Furman (w) • Guido Guidi (a) • Andrew Wildman, Guidi (c)

INVASION! And it's the Autobots doing the invading! RODIMUS PRIME takes action, leading an armada into the heart of JHIAXUS' forces—but is he playing straight into the villain's hands? Plus, FORTRESS MAXIMUS re-enters the fray, but on whose side? Oh, and STARSCREAM's past comes back to haunt him… big time!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
- The COUNTDOWN to the concluding #100 continues—only 3 issues remain!
- Variant Cover by Geoff Senior!

Hopefully Maximus beats Optimus within a spark of his life. We all know he won't kill him.

I'm not a fan of Senior's covers at all, but that 1 I wouldn't mind getting.

Oh, I hope they find a way to get the dark Matrix creature/energy out of Fort Max without killing him. He was one of my FAVORITE characters from the original series- and one of the most forceful Autobot leaders. It would be a shame for him to die twice.

Maybe Spike will have something to do with Max's recovery, and possible destruction of the dark Matrix creature? That would tie together, and deal with, two of the "rogue" elements Primus told Rodimus Prime about.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Hopefully Maximus beats Optimus within a spark of his life. We all know he won't kill him.

I'm not a fan of Senior's covers at all, but that 1 I wouldn't mind getting.

That's Guido Guidi, actually. I'll show Senior's cover with the review tomorrow.

Va'al wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Hopefully Maximus beats Optimus within a spark of his life. We all know he won't kill him.

I'm not a fan of Senior's covers at all, but that 1 I wouldn't mind getting.

That's Guido Guidi, actually. I'll show Senior's cover with the review tomorrow.

I was talking about the cover where Max bitchslaps Optimus. That's Senior's cover, right? I'm not a fan of that style.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Hopefully Maximus beats Optimus within a spark of his life. We all know he won't kill him.

I'm not a fan of Senior's covers at all, but that 1 I wouldn't mind getting.

That's Guido Guidi, actually. I'll show Senior's cover with the review tomorrow.

I was talking about the cover where Max bitchslaps Optimus. That's Senior's cover, right? I'm not a fan of that style.

Oh, yes, that one is. Sorry, thought you were talking about the thumbnail image!

wow scale is all wrong in comcis fort max should be huge than prime not leader class size should be interssting how prime gets out of this one

dragons wrote:wow scale is all wrong in comcis fort max should be huge than prime not leader class size should be interssting how prime gets out of this one

Actually makes sense, they rebuilt him for his old head they had stored, which was of the old scale ( he got rebuilt bigger after becoming a headmaster on the way to Earth). So he's the old height, to keep things to scale,

dragons wrote:wow scale is all wrong in comcis fort max should be huge than prime not leader class size should be interssting how prime gets out of this one

I take it you're new to the G1 comics and only know Max from the cartoon, right?

Synopsis
INVASION! And it's the Autobots doing the invading! RODIMUS PRIME takes action, leading an armada into the heart of JHIAXUS' forces—but is he playing straight into the villain's hands? Plus, FORTRESS MAXIMUS re-enters the fray, but on whose side? Oh, and STARSCREAM's past comes back to haunt him… big time!



Story

Three left. Then it's actually over. For realsies. We swear. In the meantime, feast your eyes and minds on this rather action-packed issue of G2 ReGeneration One, penned by your friendly neighbourhood Furminator! It's quite the ride, including some of your favourite 'what the..?' moments and cliffhangers, but let's go with order...



Three major plotlines: Optimus on Earth and Fort Max on Nebulos - conflated. Rodimus and the Autobots versus Jhiaxus in the Hub. Starscream's spidey-sense tingling, with Shockwave still playing HAL. And it's the first two that really take the stage for most of the issue, with some fairly big moves stepping up in the final pages. Literally. Both the big and the stepping.



Simon Furman actually throws in quite a lot of references to previous work, some more some less subtle, but all still enjoyable. The plot is very action driven in all its branches, while still maintaining a sense of the overall war scenario and multiple Underbase arc. And we get quite a few meta-moments too, which still make me chuckle.



The final section of the issue is just a massive tease, from Jhiaxus' response, to Fort Max' retreat, to Starscream's actions, to the final final pages. It's all about to go down, and it's going to ignore all whimpers and bangs - the sheeeaaagghs will be innumerable.

Art

Guido Guidi, you magnificent bastard. Ma quant' si' bbello?. Seriously, as much as he has a penchant for faces, the contrast between Jhiaxus' liquid silver troops and the blocky Cybertronians is marvellously executed, and there are some seriously impressive perspective shots of Fort Max and Jhiaxus.



But credit where it's due: Stephen Baskerville's inks complement Guidi's pencilwork masterfully, keeping the new school old school, yet still fresh and sleek and regenerated. And to top it all, John-Paul Bove adds another magical multicolour touch, in the skies, in the explosions, in the battles, glows, dots, bashes, action talking and pzazzing. Make that several magical touches.



To round off, Chris Mowry does a pretty nice job with the lettering too, embellishing Furman's sound scripts with nice chunky letters where needed. See pzazz above. The three covers are also brilliant, with Andrew Wildman bang on target on A, Guidi screaming into B and Geoff Senior smacking the incentive.

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

That was.. quite a ride. Possibly the most hectic issue of the run so far, with space battles and scheming alike. Furman manages to keep it more or less in control, and the clean artwork definitely helps to keep track of it all. A lot is being put on the plate for the final two issues, and I really hope it holds up.



It may not be the ending that old-school fans and readers wanted, but it's building up to be a pretty big one, and I really really hope it does not disappoint. Furman and the artistic team have quite a lot to play out in the coming months. I'm holding on.

Perhaps not entirely relevant, but it has always bugged me why Fort Max is consistently drawn with a '+' on his forehead. Anyone know where this came from? Since I can't find a reference on the toy...

Banjo-Tron wrote:Perhaps not entirely relevant, but it has always bugged me why Fort Max is consistently drawn with a '+' on his forehead. Anyone know where this came from? Since I can't find a reference on the toy...

He's always had that in the comics, starting way back in Headmasters#1.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:Perhaps not entirely relevant, but it has always bugged me why Fort Max is consistently drawn with a '+' on his forehead. Anyone know where this came from? Since I can't find a reference on the toy...

He's always had that in the comics, starting way back in Headmasters#1.

I know, but why? I mean it's such a distinctive detail and completely lacking anything approximating it on the toy.

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:Perhaps not entirely relevant, but it has always bugged me why Fort Max is consistently drawn with a '+' on his forehead. Anyone know where this came from? Since I can't find a reference on the toy...

He's always had that in the comics, starting way back in Headmasters#1.

I know, but why? I mean it's such a distinctive detail and completely lacking anything approximating it on the toy.

Well he didn't have it in the cartoon, IIRC, and the toy is based on the cartoon, not the comic. I am not sure why he has it in the comics, I do think it looks distinctive and unique.

He kinda has it in this screen capture...


Anyway Va'al, sorry for derailing your thread. I'm looking forward to this arriving soon!

Seeing this picture is very uplifting; one of the downers since Regeneration started is how Optimus keeps second guessing himself and feeling sorry for himself for messing up (kinda like how his character in the G1 North American TF cartoon was). By issue 96 he finally got out of that emoing stage, but you can't help but want to punch the guy to get him out of his whiney-baby angst he's been showing.

Banjo-Tron wrote:He kinda has it in this screen capture...


Anyway Va'al, sorry for derailing your thread. I'm looking forward to this arriving soon!

No problem! It's good to have some discussion going on, whatever it may be.

But please do leave your thoughts once you get to read it! I'm curious to see what older fans, with more of a connection to the Marvel run, think of this.

The other thing I didn't notice in either of those shots (and usually in any of the comics) is that he doesn't his ramps hanging off the shoulders. I don't know if that's the case in the entire cartoon, though. I can't remember.

Banjo-Tron wrote:Perhaps not entirely relevant, but it has always bugged me why Fort Max is consistently drawn with a '+' on his forehead. Anyone know where this came from? Since I can't find a reference on the toy...

There *is* a "+" of sorts on his toy's forehead sticker. It's not white, like his comic and cartoon appearances, and it's surrounded by another color, but it is there.

Well, Va'al, I just got home from work, and read it, and...and...wow. I have so many questions. More than I can figure out the answers to.

It's so sad to see such longtime characters such as Hound die. I know others in one ship weren't heard from again, but I hope that doesn't mean they're dead, too. This is almost painful to read. Seeing one of the ORIGINAL Autobots from 1984 bite the dust actually kind of hurts. I've lived with these characters in various forms for 30 years now.

I actually have a LOT more I want to say, but most of it would involve spoilers for those who haven't read it. Is it okay to put that here and discuss it?

Then you better get prepared for more, because Furman is a sadistic asshole who loves to kill off characters. The way this issue ended, looks like the last 2 will be a smorgasbord of annihilation.

And I think by now it's OK to post spoilers, but just to be on the safe side, I think Rodimus wasn't really surrendering, he was just trying to either get close to Jhiaxus personally to take the fight to him, or he has some other plan than Jhiaxus is too arrogant to realize Rodimus can formulate.

Also, is it just me, or is Kup giving off a Red-Forman-from-That '70s Show vibe? I'm literally waiting for him to start calling other Autobots "dumbass."

The art is top-notch as always. I am very glad this style prevailed over the newer style used in MTMTE and by Geoff Senior, which, as I mentioned before, I was never a fan of.

Overall, I was much more impressed with this issue than I have been with Regeneration in quite some time. I am just waiting to see if Grimlock will step back into the spotlight somehow, being Furman's (and my) favorite character. I am also liking the way Rodimus has been handled, even if his "maturation" from Hot Rod seemed a bit rushed. It should have taken a bigger stage from the start, instead of just a sideline next to Prime and Megatron in the 1st arc and then Scorponok and Grimlock in the 2nd arc. Honestly, I really wish Rodimus got to face G1 Megatron. That's 1 of my dream confrontations that I don't believe has ever happened in any comic or cartoon. If I'm wrong, please someone point out to me where it has happened. And how did it end. Thanks.