While not exactly all change, change is in the air as Transformers: Regeneration One #93 hits the stands (Wednesday July 17th to be exact). And I’m not just talking about the change of artist! But, before I delve into another post-script ramble/tease, as is my wont, it’s time to welcome aboard (pencil) artist Guido Guidi. Of course, Guido’s no stranger to either Transformers or Regeneration One (having worked extensively for both Dreamwave and IDW on their TF titles and supplied the variant ‘B’ covers for RG1), but it’s some consolation for the loss of Andrew (no, he’s not dead, just busy — in a kind of flat out, full time way — on an upcoming kids’ animated TV show) that we gain Guido’s amazing and detailed pencils. Guido really hits the ground running with #93, affecting a seamless transition (aided and abetted by the inks of Stephen Baskerville and the colours of John-Paul Bove). Trust me, this and the next few issues are gonna knock your socks off and shatter trousers in trans-continental style. And Andrew’s with us for the duration in one form or another, continuing as ‘A’ cover artist and returning for #100 to see us out in fitting style. Right, onwards with the issue itself. As usual, spoiler alert, first. My intention is always more to tease than reveal, but if you’d rather delve in stone cold, cease reading now. Okay, so, #93, phew, what a packed issue. With both Galvatron and Bludgeon on the last legs of their respective journeys to Cybertron, with starkly different agendas (which we delve more into here), matters build to a pre-invasion head. For a start, there’s a rather disgruntled Starscream, the not-as-helpless-as-he-appears fellow traveller aboard the Ark. Voice back – check. Attitude back – check. Need for payback back – check. Galvatron is in for a rude awakening! And then there’s Bludgeon. Having allied himself with Soundwave, you’d think it was a simple matter of conquest on his mind. Not so. There’s a far darker agenda simmering behind that skull face. One that we peel back and reveal this issue. It’s a shocker and a portend of things to come. Plus, Wreckers action, Dinobot action and Primus action. Yep, Primus! But… he’s gone, isn’t he? Deceased? An ex-god? Well… Remember I mentioned that change was in the air. It’s coming for Hot Rod… in a big way… and it begins right here. All i can say is… hoo boy! You can check out the official IDW preview here.
simon furman 
It keeps getting better and better!
Cant wait!!
You ever thought of writing for a Tansformers tv series Simon? I really love your writing style and would love to see a Transformers tv show done in the same manner with crazy action packed and fun storylines.
Well, I did write the final episode of Beast Wars, so anything’s possible. Right now I’m lead writer on hit CITV show Matt Hatter Chronicles:
http://www.matthatter.com/index.php
Having read the solicitations for #95, I can only say: about time! I secretly hoped that the current storyline would ultimately lead to that, and now I can enjoy each issue even more than before.
This is exactly becoming as I expected / hoped; Patience is going to pay off big time! Even the Art from Guido Guidi is all I wanted and more (First page : BLAM!).
Still curious if Cyclones & Scourse will be explained one way or another; Never really understood why they weren’t featured beyond the Headmaster Mini-series (excluding UK and the Alternate-future issues here), as Hot-Rod, Kup and the Like did.
Also, The Original Fortress Maximus should get a mention i think (and some of the other ‘heads’, but maybe this will as the Nebelons did seem to be under Mindwipes Spell?).
Owe and Warpath! (actually really want to see a ‘Marvel’ debut of ‘mini-bots’ like Tailgate, Pipes and Hub-cap)
But thats all childhood stuff of course; The Story and Art; more brilliant by the issue! really superb reading! I actually never ordered two or three issues a time of one comic including the Arc-bundles on top of that!
Please don’t stop!
Cyclonus and Scourge exist in RG1 continuity in their Targetmaster personas, so I’m not keen to muddy the picture with the animated movie versions. But, they do exist in the alternate timeline of Galvatron II (our current/resident RG1 Galvatron), and they make a cameo in #0. In fact, the keen-eyed amongst you might have caught the Scourge and Sweeps cameo (onscreen within Unicron during Galvatron’s flashback) in #91.
I would just keep Legacy of Unicron as their origin story for existing – they went back in time and joined Scorponok as that story says they do. It just happens to be the Marvel U.S. continuity instead of the Marvel U.K. continuity they arrived in.
Loving the series so far, can’t wait for Wednesday!
If I can be a bit of a pain, can I ask about the *other* heads that were stored on Nebulos? For example, Weirdwolf’s was (presumably) left there, yet we’ve seen that he’s still up and about with Bludgeon’s crew…so does that mean that there could be two of him knocking about?
The other Headmaster heads will indeed feature in RG1, in the final arc. That includes the head of a certain Fortress Maximus!
Yay! Thanks Simon!
Yes , great to hear!
One additional question ; Is the ‘Action-Master’ concept further touched on, or is it just limited to only Grimlock not able to transform and the alternative effects of Nucleon on the 5 autobots?
I know some ‘Action-Master’ toys are shown, but it’s not clear if they aren’t able to transform. Also, of course there’s Prime (Who WAS but not anymore an Action-Master?) , Megatron, a bunch of Decepticons (even Devestator(!) ) etc.
Not really important maybe, just curious.
What a seamless transition with the art! I’ve been a fan of Mr Wildman for 25 years now, but, as much as he’ll be missed, we couldn’t hope for a better replacement.
I’m glad the issue of the remaining Headmaster heads will be addressed. In terms of Nebulos, will we see any Nebulans that we met during the original series, such as Zarak’s daughter Llyra? I always imagined her to be antagonistic towards the idea of the Transformers returning to Nebulos, and it would be interesting to see an older Llyra as a member of the Council of Peers bitterly opposed to the Autobots returning and the thought of close ties with Earth.
I’m suddenly aware of how close we are to issue 100; I’m glad that we have issue zero to delay the inevitable (and that we finally get to see what happened to Buster). I’ll always hope that it survives in some form after the milestone (perhaps a graphic novel to tie in with the 30th anniversary?).
Keep up the great work, as ever!
No real plans for Llyra (or others from the original mini-series), but maybe a cameo could be arranged. I wonder if Nebulans age at the same rate as humans?
I was writing a fanfic about a decade ago which was going to hint at a common origin for humans and Nebulans. It was going to be a bit timey-wimey.
I’m sure I read some where written by Bob that Nebulans age much slower than humans.
Okay…it is time for my rant about how hopelessly I am in love with this book. I have a girlfriend who lives in Washington DC…I live in Pittsburgh. The majority of our text messages are about what we hope will happen in Regen…trying to guess what will happen and what we hope will happen. It is fantastic. Thanks, Simon, for something awesome to bring us together. Okay…things that I loved seeing…SPOILERS!
1. Monstructor-My favorite gestalt. Yes, he has appeared in the other series but I was kind of bummed we didn’t see him in 67. Now we get the payoff.
2. Wingthing-This tickled me because Soundwave was the first Action Master I bought as a kid. Fantastic cameo. I’d love to see Squawktalk and Beastbox and Overkill and Slugfest. Wishful thinking, I know.
3. All the Galvatron stuff. Now he is finally rid of Screamer and Shockerz. Let’s get down to business. I do hope we see him through till the end. I’d love to see him face Jihaxus
And….question time…
1. Now that Grimlock is found…will we see Scorp again? I know…wait and see.
2. The solicitations for 95 revealed Rodimus Prime…will the Primes meet?
3. The Deathbringer will be in 0…does this have significance to the panel in issue 65?
4. Will we see any deaths soon? I’m surprised there haven’t been any major deaths besides Megs and Springer. Cosmos was brutal.
So, thanks, buddy. BTW, it is the goal of my girlfriend and I to meet and buy you drinks one day. Perhaps at a con down the line.
Guido’s art was fantastic and the whole team did a bang up job.
Just my two cents. 8 issues to go. From the comiclist.com solicitations…it doesn’t look like a very long wait till 94. Keep it up, bro.
1. You’re right… wait and see. đŸ™‚
2. Yup. And more.
3. It certainly ties in that otherwise isolated nod to the UK stories.
4. There will be death. But not indiscriminate. I wants deaths to have weight and meaning.
Hi Simon,
First of all, thank you for Regeneration One. I’ve enjoyed every issue so far and it’s like being back in 1987 again when I’d impatiently wait for my weekly Transformers fix! đŸ™‚
Anyway, here’s something I’ve been wondering about for a short while now, so if it isn’t too spoilerific, would you be able to spare a moment to enlighten me?
I’m aware that as far as RG1 is concerned, the events of the UK continuity didn’t happen, which is all fine and understandable. However so far – unless I am overlooking something obvious – nothing has majorly contradicted the events of the UK comic, so the storylines could potentially still have taken place, if one chooses to believe that.
However, with Ultra Magnus coming face-to-face with his long time UK nemesis, Galvatron, I guess that illusion will be pretty hard to maintain!
How do you intend to play this one? Will you (somehow!) make it ambiguous as to whether or not Magnus recognises his old foe, or will he flat out state “I’ve never seen this Decepticon before”, thus relegating the UK continuity unequivocally into its own pocket universe?
I expect it’s the latter, but one can always hope! đŸ˜‰
Cheers Simon!
The UK comic already cannot exist alongside Regeneration, even if we ignore stories set after the movie (other than time travel back to the past). A few characters are alive where they should be dead. A little rewriting and a few replacements of characters and it would have fit in with the UK continuity with no problems. It wouldn’t have been that much different to the Regeneration One we got now except that it would have made us UK Marvel comic fans happy yet could also be taken as a sequel to the U.S. comics.
I’ve tried to approach the whole UM/Galvatron clash in a way that fits for RG1 (so no, as far as UM is concerned, they’ve never met/fought before) but also kind of acknowledges the history these characters have (even if it’s just in dialog that can be read a number of ways). But the truth of it is, even if the UK stories were canon, this Galvatron never fought this UM. This is the Galvatron from an alternate timeline (who has fought UM before… now I’m getting confused), and not the movie Galvatron who jumped back in time in T2006.
The story is getting exciting. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.
Guido Guidi has done a great job with the art. I was worried that the flow of the story would be hurt by a chance in artist, in the middle of a story arc, but he’s kept the art style consistent with what Andrew Wildman was doing. And of course Stephen Baskerville and Jean-Paul Bove must also deserve a lot of credit for keeping the look consistent. đŸ™‚
I didn’t like seeing all alternate Hot Rods, from other Transformers series. It took me out of the story, because those characters didn’t exist when you were writing the old comic. It just felt wrong to me, but it’s your story, so I’ll ask: is that image of the other Rodimus’ going to be important?
Thanks for featuring characters like Monstructor and Wingthing, Simon! I love that you’re including characters that didn’t get much, or any, fiction the first time around. Any chance that you can squeeze in the Turbomasters, Predators, Skyquake, Thunderclash etc? Sorry if we fans seem like Hasbro with a new list of toys to include, when you just want to tell stories!
The alternate Hot Rods/Rodimus-es are important, but they don’t impact directly on RG1. There’s no crossover pending. It’s just placing RG1 (and indeed all variations of the Transformers saga) in one big Multiverse. Which IS important.
the only one i was shocked to see was Hot Shot from armada as him and Rodimus from Energon share the same (known) continuities.
Thanks for the explanation Simon. đŸ™‚
o.k. when is screamer going to get his for good?he deserves it,now that a rodimus prime comes in you going to give poor prime the boot?leave prime alone,where is scorpi hiding?keep galvi alive too please.
Personally, I hope that any character can still die, if it helps to tell a great story. đŸ™‚ I was surprised how few characters have died so far, not that it’s affected my enjoyment of the book.
When I was a kid, Scorponok was my favourite toy, and I got upset when he got slagged. But if he hadn’t died, we would never have gotten Scorp/Zarak’s tormented indecision when faced with Unicron, followed by his ultimate act of heroism, (despite it being futile.) The dying Scorponok talking to Optimus is one of the most powerful scenes from the old comics, in my opinion.
Optimus getting killed is very clichĂ©d by now, though đŸ˜› And I think it’s probably a good idea to decide which characters are too important to be dead, in case it’s possible to continue this saga again one day. Unless #100 is written in a way that makes it very clear that it’s the final, absolutely definite, never coming back, end. đŸ™‚
If there’s one thing you can be sure of #100 will be very final.
Great issue . The invasion / uprising has begun . Galvatron is loose and murderously inclined .
Monstructor and Wingthing were nice cameos .
A few things stick out . The Demons pilling the corpses behind the face of Primus ( Almost as if they were offerings ? ) was odd .
If they had acess to the Primus chamber why didn’t they murder the old robot who was Primus’s keeper who was killed by Bludgeons troops who were hunting Grimlock , Jazz and Bumblebee .
Other thing was that with Monstructor loose I have little hope of seeing the missing Decepticons ( Devastator , Menasor , Bruiticus , Rumble , Frenzy , the Insecticons and the conehead trio )
Simon said they were still on the Ark or on Cybertron . Guess they are not on Cybertron because they would likely be on the frontlines with Monstructor .
At least we still have one Decepticon Gestalt . All Autobot Gestalts should be available if Lightspeed survived the massacre of his team ?
Predaking , Piranacon and Abominus are dead . Vaporized in a crater . Liokaiser hasn’t been introduced but could appear . But the Constructicons, Stunticons , and Combaticons along with the other missing Decepticons just disappeared after issue 47 .
I assumed they were killed in the Underbase battle or when Scorponok and Ratbats spaceships collided . Just knowing what happened to them and having a ending would be nice . Hopefully we will ?
Also Ruiniation a Bruiticus replica could appear but that would be a poor substitute for the real thing .
Thanks for everything Simon . It is deeply appreciated .
Take care
Great issue!! Simon, can you please answer the following:
1) Have we seen the last of Starscream & Shockwave?
2) Will Shockwave ever get released from his incarceration as part of the Ark?
1. Absolutely not.
2. Mmmmaybe.
Great issue Simon and it was interesting to see Bludgeon’s true motivation for attacking Cybertron revealed. It made sense too, considering his almost Klingon-like persona in the old comics. Nice to see Galvatron (or Galvatron 2 is it?) edging his way back into the the thick of things too. With Hot Rod seeing parallel incarnations of himself and the crack in Zero Space alluded to several issues ago, I’m wondering whether Galvatron’s prolonged stay in this timeline has in some way damaged the fabric of the TF multiiverse? Or am I completely barking up the wrong tree?
Nope, you’re on the right track. But it’s not the only problem that needs fixing.
And yes, it’s Galvatron 2 or II, from Rhythms of Darkness.
To follow up on Ian’s question, could this rift also be due to the fact that Primus still exists, but Unicron does not (at least not on this plane of reality)? I know you always bring up the whole duality thing…
BY PRIMUS SIMON, you impressed me. This was the first issue I’ve read of RG1 that actually felt like your old work. The pacing was better, and there was no fat. We actually got to spend time with the characters, and they had more then one page of story. Starscream finally returned, and was Awesome. The whole part with Galvatron was great stuff. Soundwave and Monstructor was Awesome. Even the stuff with Hot Rod was great. Glad he finally made it to Primus after 7 issues. Guidi really out did himself. Nothing against Wildman, but it looks like Guidi really knew how to take your script and run with it. I wasn’t before, but I’m actually looking forward to Magnus vs Galvatron now. Really hope the rest of the run can be this great.
Huge fan of the series. I loved the original Marvel series as a kid and it’s been real exciting to see things pick up (essentially) where they left off and to receive a formal conclusion.
The “Rhythms of Darkness!” issue was always one of my favorite stories from the original run, if I may ask, would it be anyway possible to get something like a three-to-five issue mini-series (tbp size) that flushes the story of this timeline out, from a prequel set-up showing Unicron’s victory over Primus/Cybertron and Galvatron conquering Rodimus Prime and the Americas to what happens after Galvatron is removed from that timeline?
It’s been stated very clearly that issue 100 will be the grand finale for the series, so I understand if something like this isn’t possible. But I just figured I’d throw the idea out there to see if there is a way to make it into a reality. đŸ™‚
Who knows? Maybe there’s scope for a mini set in the Rhythms of Darkness timeline. IDW would need to think it’s a good idea too.
Thank you for the reply. đŸ™‚ I’m excited to hear that the door is at least open for a mini set for the “Rhythms of Darkness!” timeline.
I’d definitely champion a mini set to come to fruition in any way possible… though admittedly as a meager fan I’m at a loss of how to do that.
I’m seriously enjoying RG1 and am looking forward to seeing if Bludgeon’s vision of having a “good death” comes true and if the currently circulating Guidi cover of #94 is an indication of Omega Supreme being called into action against Bludgeon’s Blitz engines.
Now I can feel like reading the old Marvel stories. Maybe its’s the matter of art (excellent debut of Mr. Guidi), maybe the story is going perfect way?
Anyway – Primus involved, Galvatron back on Cybertron and Warworld at the gates – all looks promising. It will be hard to keep on waiting till (almost) the end of August to look at Magnus vs Galvy showdown.
And Rodimus will finally arise – that’s huge.
Tell me Simon – how Optimus could get the knowledge about his potential successor? If Marvel UK stories are no longer part of contunuity Optimus didn’t have chance to meet Rodimus during Time Wars..
Anyway – Destiny looks great so far, Simon. Thanks for this. Have a good fun writing next pages.
In terms of RG1, Op will be meeting Rodimus Prime for the first time (kind of) in issue #96. But it won’t be their last meeting. Oh no.
Ok, so I guess Optimus got vision with Hot Rod as a new Prime and this forced him to guide young Autobot?
Hi Simon. First of all – this was a great issue. The series has really ramped up in recent months with a tangible sense of dread and finality. Really, really enjoying it and can’t wait to see how it ends (but… it never ends!). Also high praise to Guido for some terrific art that really helped smooth over the transition.
Also: didn’t realise you were one of the writers on Matt Hatter! I work for CITV, I’ve actually made promos for the show đŸ™‚ I knew Andrew worked on it, didn’t realise you did too. Small world I guess!
Good luck with the rest of the series!
Hi David, small world indeed. Always glad to meet someone with a connection to MHC. Andrew kind of made the introductions between Platinum (the production company) and me, and from there it’s been a steady (dual role) job ever since. Really enjoying myself, and we’re just kicking in to season 3 scripts!
Cool, I might tap you up for info when the show comes back to CITV đŸ˜‰
hey simon I like to write myself is there anyway I can write you a tf story and you tell me your opinion I read a lot of tf stories and it’s my favorite comic and cartoon of all time.
Hi Chris, sorry but (much as I’d like to) I make it rule never to read TF fan fiction, in case I’m ever accused of stealing ideas or scenes. It may not even be a conscious thing, but I’d hate for something to creep into my scripts that I absorbed from someone’s else’s material. This way, I can always say, hand-on-heart, that if there are any similarities to someone’s homegrown TF fiction, it’s pure coincidence. Luckily, that’s never happened, and I’d like to keep it that way. Hope you understand.
Hi Simon, I’m having a ball reading RG1. Great stuff so far. I’m both looking forward to and simultaneously dreading #100. One quick question: any chance of any kind of a doff of the cap to a certain robotic freelance peacekeeper?
I would have G1 Hound repaint Detritus as the new Death’s Head since Death’s Head cannot be used. His bio says Detritus is a Junkion mercenary who sells his services to both Autobots and Decepticons. Other than his he hasn’t really appeared in fiction nor has a real personality. So I say give Detritus the personality, attitude, mannerisms and motivations of Death’s Head. Death’s Head in all but name and visual appearance.
I would like a Rhythms of Darkness four issue mini-series. The first two issues would take place before RoD while the last two would take place after RoD.
Hi Simon really enjoying regeneration one and can’t wait for 100,do you plan to do a possible follow up comic with the rg1 characters after issue100? Also does scorponok turn up although presumed dead?is fort max going bad?please please please make another comic as I grew up with g1 and was over the moon when you planned to do rg1 after20 years and happy to relive my childhood.
Great work mate keep it going!!
From graham uk.