The Transformers: Regeneration One #3

Grimlock and a small team of Autobots were able to prevent Scorponok’s takeover of Cybertron. However, the Autobots troubles are far from over as they quickly fall victim to new Decepticon attacks. To make matters worse, the Autobots are quickly losing faith in Hot Rod’s leadership, with some thinking Optimus Prime to be outright wrong with selecting him. Prepared or not, the Autobots will be in for the fight of their lives. -summary

For those unaware and happen to be stumbling across this book, Transformers Regeneration One is the continuation to the original Transformers series by Marvel Comics that ended in 1991. This sequel written By Simon Furman whom penned a portion of the original series, picks up directly after that series and continues its original numbering following issue 80 on to 100, at the same time, Generation 2 has been erased to make way for Regeneration One. This volume contains issues 91 – 95.

For one thing, it’s absolutely crucial to already be familiar with the first two volumes due to its running storylines, because this book ties up threads and goes into newer ones. New readers will be lost and the book will no doubt turn into a jumbled mess. The plot continues as Decepticons Soundwave and Bludgeon finally put their plans into motion which had been building up across the last two volumes. They attack Cybertron using a well organized plan that involves some type of self-repairing drone. The attack is devastating with things looking bad for the Autobots as usual; at the same time, Galvatron is making his way towards Cybertron playing as a deadly wild card, since he will never allow anyone to rule the planet in his place.

I always point out Simon Furman’s fanboyism on penning the Transformers because a majority of the time he simply owns. He touches on character and world building that was never seen in the animated series. This is quite possibly the most interesting I have seen Hot Rod; Furman goes to another level with the whole unsure leader bit, by pretty much saying what we were always thinking during the animated series run: “Pass leadership to Ultra Magnus, because you’re not worthy Hot Rod!”. Here, there are Autobots encouraging him to do so openly with the entire planet only seconds away from a full fledged riot towards them. I also enjoy how he writes Optimus Prime, whom is convinced against all criticism that Hot Rod is the one.

Furman tries to give plenty of characters some type of face time, but there’s clearly only a handful actually necessary. However, he does pay homage to earlier storylines and bits and pieces of the Transformers mythos all over. There’s quite a bit of fan service to be found, such as the sound bytes battle between Soundwave and Blaster, and that’s actually some of the problem. Although he tries very hard to explain certain story elements such as Nucleon and its hazards in regards to Transformers using it. This will mainly appeal to people familiar with those past storylines. Regeneration One for the most part is fan oriented; I doubt those unfamiliar with the Transformers universe will enjoy all this as much as we do, yet I still believe newbies will find something worthwhile here.

Andrew Wildman’s artwork is engaging enough with some nice and brutal encounters; there is plenty of action once it gets there of robots being blown apart or limbs sliced off. Unfortunately nothing can even begin to compare with the first volume, which featured the final battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron; that battle felt so personal and told the best story so far. Wildman can deliver some very nice backgrounds when he wants to. Many areas of Cybertron has that other-worldly, futuristic look of spiraling highways and metallic buildings. Stephen Baskerville and John-Paul Bove provide the finishing touches with some gorgeous inks and coloring; the traveling sound waves and laser fire are colored with nice detail, and the explosions as usual stand out.

This third volume was definitely more engaging than the second, and it did a nice enough job wrapping up some things while leaving others unfinished for the fourth and final volume. The only issue I can think of is the juggling of sub plots. Furman is trying to accomplish a lot in a short period of time and it shows. Some of the action segments for example could have delivered more. In any case, Transformers fans will no doubt get a kick out of this, therefore I highly recommend they move forward. Newer fans can get something out of this series, but I would also recommend them taking a look at the original series as well.

Pros: Better than last book, nice follow up, writing and artwork

Cons: Far more fan oriented, juggling of plots may get on some people’s nerves