Regeneration One #85 - SPOILERS

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:36 am

Script wrap on Furman's blog

HTML preview without a stupid comic viewer thing

So this is it, the honest-to-goodness final showdown between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Nothing being given away as to the outcome, but it looks marvellous fun from the preview - Megatron's stark, staring mad and very much his Marvel incarnation. Here he's strongly reminiscent of Resurrection! when he did that black hole thing, you know, with the eyes, with his obsession with Prime from Gone But Not Forgotten! writ large. There's not so much from Prime here but presumably there'll be a couple of six-bubble speeches from him at some point too.

Also, I just love "Dibs on Overbite", though I'm still a little disappointed that this last time we see the classic Decepticons (Megs and Soundwave excepted) they're all zombies. I know that threads need wrapping up and considering they all died thirty issues ago there's no real need to have them there at all, but it just seems an ignoble end for the likes of Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Thundercracker and Skywarp to end up as mindless minions even if they do get to fight the Wreckers as an encore. I think what I'm saying is that while it's good to see all those old faces, a bit more characterisation amongst the 'Cons would have been nice beyond the same old Megs/Screamer dynamic. Eh, so it goes.

Also, Cosmos killing things! Robot Buster suits against Guardian robots! Auntie! Yay!

Post by **snarl** » Tue Nov 06, 2012 11:17 pm

I am very excited about this.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:19 am

This is going to be epic!

Post by **Best First** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:34 am

roll on this afternoon when i csn doanload this onto my iDevice and read it on the bog at work

...as La Fur no doubt intended

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:02 pm

I'm about to leave the house and go to Camden to get it. If they have sold out already, some of you may hear my anguished scream.

Post by **snarl** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:22 pm

Just got it from FP, they had a few copies left, although only one GG cover and ZERO Senior ones...

mama sita that was good.

Bar who would win out of prime Megs, there was another thing I was wondering about... which got a massively emphatic answer pretty quickly.

Yikes!

Really great art from Andy again.

GET. THIS.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:21 pm

Kup is badass.

Loved it.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 4:19 pm

Last copy in Mega City Comics today, I have no idea where all these other TF fans in Camden hide most of the time but they sure do get to the store fast on a Wednesday morning.

Great stuff, very satisfying end to two of the major protagonists of the original series. The third casualty (or the first chronologically) was a shock though - I thought he'd be safe for sure.

Random musing: Is the Grapple on Cybertron the one that was created on Earth from a memory crystal or the original?

Post by **snarl** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 4:40 pm

Re: the other casualty...

SPOILER

I was thinking it could happen, wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it.

My thoughts were "well, Springer escaping would be just the sort of cop out death escape that moany ***** love to pick over when they're looking for something to moan about"

But then I was thinking... Well, it could feasably happen that he moves out of the way just in time... And that it would be jarringly out of character and the book's context if the big M decided or "forgot" not to kill him.

Big balls of Furman to just have Megatron off Springer like that. Always had a thing for Spring, bit gutted by it but... it got my attention!

Post by **Best First** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:51 pm

Yeah, agree. Harsh, but in the scheme of Megs vs Springer and the response he wanted to elict in Prime - it made sense.

Which i guess makes it a good death from a storytelling perspective.

Glad the one that won, won.

Post by **snarl** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:29 pm

same, and I always thought he would having seen them go at it over the years.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:37 pm

He should have used that spark core punch years ago....

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:45 pm

AWESOME.

Plus... (spoilers)

GALVATRON

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:02 pm

I've edited the title of the thread so we can spoil away to our hearts' content in here.

Yes, I was very glad to see the big "G" wake up.

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:13 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:I've edited the title of the thread so we can spoil away to our hearts' content in here.

Yes, I was very glad to see the big "G" wake up.

I cried a happy cry

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:41 pm

That was excellent. I really thought it would be Optimus that lost.

Mouse poo

So. 14 isssues left. What happens next?

I can picture Spike and co not being very accommodating should Optimus and co wish to leave Earth again.

I think Starscream will stay amongst the Autobots for a while.

Still no sign of Shockwave...

inflatable dalek · Post by **inflatable dalek** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:10 pm

Hound wrote: I think Starscream will stay amongst the Autobots for a while.

Did he not die with the other zombiecons?

Once again I wasn't hugely impressed by the preview (though huge props for skipping the pages with Springer's death so as not to spoil it) but the issue as a whole continued the upward trend from last month.

Weirdly the preview pages managed to include the only really weak art from Wildman (a panel where I think Prime is supposed to be dramatically dodging a fussion cannon blast instead looks like Megatron fires at point blank range and misses). The rest, for the first time in the book, I think stood pretty close to his best work from the '80's. The first page especially was great. And whilst the "We're really just alike" stuff felt like every Megatron/Prime fight we've seen since G2 it was at least a well done variation.

And in a book where- despite being promised no one was safe- we've wound up with more characters alive than we had at the end of 80, a proper main lead death was well overdue and the nasty unheroic way Springer went out was fantastic.

And the missile plot did what I wanted, it made the Wreckers adventure something other than a side show. Circuit Smackhead is still crap though. Especially now it also turns out he never bothered to do anything about making sure Galvatron was dead either ("Well, I'm sure some water will have killed that guy for good").

The issue was actually good enough that even the promise of a shameless Maximum Dinobots rehash in the next story arc isn't enough to put me off. Certainly it can't be worse than the deeply underwhelming first time Furman did it (Swoop: "I hate you! I'm leaving!... No I'm not. Or... yes I am. No... No I'm staying after all. ZOMG! Sludge is dead! Oh... no he's not"). I do hope IDW have gotten some sort of discount on a story they've already brought once though.

It'll will however take some exceptional writing for the return of the "real" Scorponok to not be a facepalm moment.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:59 pm

Let the record show I totally called the Rachet ex machina RE: Ark access and zombified Deceps.

inflatable dalek wrote: And the missile plot did what I wanted, it made the Wreckers adventure something other than a side show. Circuit Smackhead is still crap though. Especially now it also turns out he never bothered to do anything about making sure Galvatron was dead either ("Well, I'm sure some water will have killed that guy for good").

Oh, like Galvatron is the first Decepticon to be thrown into a large body of water and assumed to be done with.

Does anyone think Circuit Smasher is done with? I still think a "Auntie recognizes Autobotishness in Spike and somehow recreates him as a new Fort Max, a la Hi-Q and Op (yes, I realize that was TLA) or whatever the F is going on with Zarak/Scorpy. Or as ID said,

It'll however take some exceptional writing for the return of the "real" Scorponok to not be a facepalm moment.

I'm really worried about this storyline. WTF is he doing here? How did he get here? Is this the Scorpy that Optimus surrendered to? That fought side by side with Optimus against the Unicron zealots? Who got melted into a puddle and then asked Prime if he did good? Because if it's not, why do I care at ALL about this character?

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:11 pm

I'm really worried about this storyline. WTF is he doing here? How did he get here? Is this the Scorpy that Optimus surrendered to? That fought side by side with Optimus against the Unicron zealots? Who got melted into a puddle and then asked Prime if he did good? Because if it's not, why do I care at ALL about this character?

Simple.

His real head was left on Nebulos, where it continued, living.

Zarak became the head of the old body, which was made all melty by Unicron.

Therefore this is the real Scorpy, and not the fleshy influenced one.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 11:45 pm

It's epic.

So, I take it Magnus V Galvatron is up next resulting in the obvious death of Galvatron...

Oh come on if Magnus dies it would be sweet...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 3:36 am

A few surprises, but not as stoked by the results as most here.

For one, Megatron gets the short end of the stick in Marvel continuity yet again. The guy truly is an epic loser. Going batshit crazy ala Galvatron certainly didn't go a long way in making him stand out as a villian. And taking decades to utterly destroy a defenseless Autobot-less planet only to call out your greatest enemy and then get waxed by him doesn't really inspire a sense of awe worthy of the leader of the Decepticons, does it? I much preferred Budiansky's Megatron, brash and overly confident but backed up by somewhat of a ruthless intelligence. That Megatron, I could respect. This Megatron was a crazy Galvatron clone and kind of annoying. But you can rationalize it out that Megatron was unstable mentally due to the whole Ratchet mind fusion thing. Agree that the whole banter between Prime and Megs, the whole "I complete you" spiel was old and hackneyed.

Ratchet! We barely knew thee! Looks like you guys are forgetting his death in this. Then again, you could argue he was never truly alive. I was so anticipating his return, as Marvel Ratchet is one of my all-time favorite characters. The dude didn't even get a line in this thing. That sucked. I would have loved to have seen him in play, even for a few panels. What a waste.

Kudos for Springer getting his head blown off. Didn't see that coming, but glad it did.

Looks like it's Galvys and Scorpy's time to shine.

Give it a "B-". Interesting choice of events from Simon, not at all what I would have expected to happen to some of these characters, but then unpredictably is usually a good thing in storytelling.

Hot Shot · Post by **Hot Shot** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 6:36 am

Loved it. Two things I haven't seen mentioned anywhere:

- "Slag" got its first in-continuity use as a curse.

- Megatron had a spark. This actually kinda bugs me, since I was hoping we'd get back to the "crush the brain module" rule of true cybertronian death. I guess one could always assume the spark is just the heart in Ye Olde Marvel, and crushing it fried his brain.

R.I.P. Springer.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 8:13 am

Yaya wrote:I much preferred Budiansky's Megatron, brash and overly confident but backed up by somewhat of a ruthless intelligence. That Megatron, I could respect. This Megatron was a crazy Galvatron clone and kind of annoying.

Right. Except Budiansky's Megatron's CV reads:

poisoned by Sparkplug
bitch-slapped around by Shockwave
knocked off a cliff by Ratchet
Joey Slick's mindless drone
implausibly sparing Joey Slick's life
eating coal in Wyoming
freezing in place and having matches struck on him by Robot Master
pretending to be Robot Master's friend
implausibly sparing Robot Master's life
getting more than half his forces trashed by Omega Supreme in a pointless attack
losing at a computer game to Optimus Prime despite having the cheat code
going insane
crushing Brawl's head
going more insane
blowing up the space bridge with himself on it

This "ruthless intelligence" must have been buried pretty deep, because I missed it. Ironically, the Megatron you're describing is pretty much the Furman version of Megatron from Time Wars and The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire who later turned out to be Straxus all along. When Furman brought the real Megatron back he had a plan that was so ruthlessly intelligent it hinged on Ratchet helping him (remember how that worked out last time) and Starscream not betraying him or being a coward. Ruthlessly intelligent.

Hot Shot wrote:Megatron had a spark. This actually kinda bugs me, since I was hoping we'd get back to the "crush the brain module" rule of true cybertronian death. I guess one could always assume the spark is just the heart in Ye Olde Marvel, and crushing it fried his brain.

Yeah, this was signposted (a bit) in #82 - Megs talks about crushing the Autobots' sparks - so I guess (like every other TF series since BW) they've just sort of crept into this continuity as well. Which irks me too, since it renders all that business with the Throttlebots' brain modules in toy cars null - not that it really matters because after that they were rebuilt only to be destroyed again in a single panel - but it is inconsistent.

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 5:11 pm

I imagine the Throttlebots live on. Most of the Underbase casualties were undone it would appear.

We see the likes of Grapple, Hound, Tracks, Cosmos etc in this issue alone.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:12 am

Hound wrote:We see the likes of Grapple, Hound, Tracks, Cosmos etc in this issue alone.

Still wondering whether Grapple's the original or the one created on Earth...

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:28 am

Metal Vendetta wrote: Right. Except Budiansky's Megatron's CV reads:
poisoned by Sparkplug

bitch-slapped around by Shockwave

knocked off a cliff by Ratchet

Joey Slick's mindless drone

implausibly sparing Joey Slick's life

eating coal in Wyoming

freezing in place and having matches struck on him by Robot Master

pretending to be Robot Master's friend

implausibly sparing Robot Master's life

getting more than half his forces trashed by Omega Supreme in a pointless attack

losing at a computer game to Optimus Prime despite having the cheat code

going insane

crushing Brawl's head

going more insane

blowing up the space bridge with himself on it

Hence, why I said:

Megatron gets the short end of the stick in Marvel continuity yet again. The guy truly is an epic loser.

What I'm saying is that Budiansky Megatron didn't go maniacal till late in the story, and even after blowing himself up on the spacebridge, he came back with somewhat of a plan. Granted, his plans always failed, but they had some potential. For example, even though he did get poisoned by Buster, he did kick Prime's ass in the space of like three panels before keeling over. And even though Omega Supreme handed Meg's ass to him, he did out-logic Mr. Logic by pointing out that even though it was like a crazy suicide attack, the Autobots would always know the Decepticons would be ready to take the initiative in a moment of apparent weakness. Shockwave conceded the point and relinquished command of the Decepticons to him.

This Megatron on the other hand is just a maniac, a perfect loon and reminds me of UK Galvatron more than Marvel Megatron. But again, I guess that's the point. Dude went batshit. No further explanation necessary.

Post by **snarl** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:31 am

This issue reminded me a lot of Time Wars as it happens.

Prime v Megs reminded me a lot of Prime V Galvy, even the end in which Prime could but didn't put Megs out for the count, then in the end it was outside intervention the really sealed it.

The holding the massive boulder bit must have been in homage to Time Wars, only it was Prime who got squashed in that instance. And it wasn't even real, it was mental Galvy's mind.

Wreckers involvement.

One Wrecker gets their head shot off by Megatron.

It's in a rocky, desolate area in the middle of a big [composite word including 'f*ck'] off storm.

btw, what happened to Sandstorm?

THIS particular version of Megtron maybe got a bum deal...

But I'm quite content to completely write off the early stories of him basically being a ****, they mean nothing to me.

He's still a credible baddie that didn't get as much exposure as he could have due to Galvatron being better than him.

The quote I always remember is that "a fighting-mad Optimus" one, which I think in a nut shell we can take to mean Prime's always holding back, but he's more or less unstoppable if he cuts lose.

Which boils down to Megatron cut him lose cause he wanted closure / to die.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:57 pm

snarl wrote:The quote I always remember is that "a fighting-mad Optimus" one, which I think in a nut shell we can take to mean Prime's always holding back, but he's more or less unstoppable if he cuts lose.

Yeah i think it was Prey, wasn't it, or the aftermath on Cybetrn when Megs and Captain Goldfish* are catching up.

And it make sense, Prime and Megs are equals in battle, but one is constrained by compassion and the other free of it. If that changes the balance shifts. Worst still for Megs, he must know this at some level.

*"We have 2 plans Lord Straxus"

"Yes worm?"

"One, we build you a new body, two, we create an expirmental mind transfer device and you try and hijack the body of the body of the most nutso decepticon ever"

"Hmm... option 2 please. Worm"

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 2:22 pm

I found myself wishing that Mr. Guidi had drawn the issue...v
Because it was beautiful and most of his art winds up on eBay.

Post by **snarl** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 2:58 pm

Smooth, you could try emailing Wildman himself, pretty sure he sells his originals - think a few of the guys here have bought off him at conventions...

I think I might have. Mother has probably chucked em... faaaaaark.

Best First wrote: Yeah i think it was Prey, wasn't it, or the aftermath on Cybetrn when Megs and Captain Goldfish* are catching up.

And it make sense, Prime and Megs are equals in battle, but one is constrained by compassion and the other free of it. If that changes the balance shifts. Worst still for Megs, he must know this at some level.

Pretty sure it’s the Prey TPB yeah, think it was called afterdeath and is the one where Prime chucks a con that looks a bit like Judge Dredd onto a massive spike at the beginning.

Agree that Megs knows he’d be bettered. I think he just wants his chance of glory and then closure, like Billy Butcher did in the Boys.

Having said that, he looked astonished… almost heart-broken (spark broken) Prime had actually killed / as good as killed him as Prime caved his chest in.