SCRIPT (W)RAP: TRANSFORMERS RG1 #81

The countdown to the release of Transformers: Regeneration One #81 this Wednesday (July 11th) continues with the return of an old blog standard — the script (w)rap (pre-release digressions on the thought processes behind the comic script). Beware, though I take pains not to give away anything critical, there are always light spoilers.

So — while Regeneration One #80.5 has already come and gone — this felt to me like the big one, on which a lot was depending. Finally, after 21 years, the issue number count has rolled on from where we left off at issue #80 to #81. It really needed to grab and keep gripping. The FCBD #80.5 was a bridge, a scene-setter and a recap rolled into one, but now the story proper kicks in with a vengeance, and I wanted to waste no time getting the big guns back into the fray. No way was I going to start this issue with anything less than action, action, action, so we’re straight into a battle that may or may not be more than meets the eye. The story arc is called Loose Ends, and I wanted to get some of those ‘loose ends’ front and center. But how to do that? Galvatron was last seen disappearing under the Yukon ice, Bludgeon was sent packing after his defeat on Klo, Megatron (Shockwave and Starscream) was last seen aboard the Ark, which Ratchet crippled and sent plummeting down to Earth in a crash-dive. Scorponok died back in #75. Nevertheless, as we begin issue #81, Kup is seen battling multiple old foes. Just check out the amazing splash page art by Andrew Wildman. Boy, does he draw Bludgeon well. Then I wanted to waste no time in getting the Wreckers into action (making their US [original] series debut), and catching up with/continuing the violent unrest propagated by Soundwave’s ‘neo’ Decepticons in #80.5 (which led to the destruction of The Last Autobot). By the way, you’ll notice a singularly UK-centric member among this iteration of the Wreckers. So many things are being folded into this new/reinvigorated continuity. By the way, don’t worry if you didn’t catch #80.5, reading it is useful but not essential, as the scene on Cybertron is re-set by what unfolds at a weapons decommissioning plant (how topical). When I was planning out Regeneration One, I always knew where and what #81 had to end on. The cover is, of course, a bit of a giveaway. But I still fully expect jaws to drop at the sheer audacity of what Kup and the Wreckers find on Earth. I want no one to be in any doubt that this book is going to rip the ground out from under your feet and spin you around on a regular basis. You can rely on nothing any more. Literally, to paraphrase the opening of Stingray, “anything can happen in the next 22 pages”. And will. It gets ugly, fast, and we’re only just getting warmed up. And in among this, several Easter egg-ish nods and winks, a big bit of bubbling menace that’ll come slowly to the boil over the next ten or so issues and some characters making their debut you maybe thought would never appear in a G1 comic. Have I whetted your appetite? Good — only two days to go…