Great stuff. No doubt about it. I love classic art, and everyone here hit it all perfect. Senior just jumped right back in no problem. If the story is good, this will be 3 great issues in a row. And to tell the truth the past 2 issues went a long way in making 91 and 92 look great as well. This whole arc is shaping up to be what we should have gotten all along. Still doesn't make up for the first 8 issues,espeically that Grimlock arc, but if Furman can Ace it all for the rest of the run, then maybe it won't be a total loss after all.
That through Zero Space, time travel or some other cosmic shenanigans, this time line is changed e.g. Earth won't get destroyed, dead characters live again etc - basically, the cosmic reset button in this case would give the series a 'happy ending'. And, as a Marvel TF fan since 1984, I would not object to this. Though I don't really consider RG1 a part of that saga (for me, the definitive iteration of the TF story), I'm not above a happy-ish ending whereby my homeworld - and the Autobots' adopted homeworld, which they tirelessly defended for years - isn't destroyed because the Autobots had some sort of massive memory lapse (seriously Simon!?!) and forgot about that destroyed Ark spaceship in Canada...
I think an acceptable ending can be a hopeful one rather than undoing everything. Because even if Earth is saved then you're still left with all the other stuff that could still happen. I don't want to see 5 issues of people undoing what has already been done, somehow that makes the struggle redundant to me. It's like the old conundrum about going back and killing Hitler, would your action end up having worse consequences? If Earth/Nebulos/Cybertron have a bright or new future at the end that would be best for me. Not an undoing, but the end of a chapter and beginning of another. I want to see people battle and ultimately win - the reset button would be such a cop-out!
I originally defended that "memory lapse" by arguing that no one on Cybertron would necessarily have known where the Ark disappeared to post-Unicron battle. However, if we're having to accept as given that Fortress Maximus somehow learned Galvatron's name, and was in touch with Cybertron long enough to send a note home to let them know, this doesn't work (although neither does the assumption that FM learned Galvatron's name, but we work with what we're given). Prime should have sent a clean-up crew to dismantle the Ark.
Struggling to remember but Xaaron had met Galvatron so there was someone on Cybertron that knew him at least? There were also a few Unicron worshippers that may have had an insight there too? Not sure. It isn't well explained but the gap isn't that hard to plug for me but one line of dialogue could have cleared it up! As for the Ark, I'm assuming there were no life signs on it (as they suggest it was the mid 90's that Megs was woken up) and the ship was wrecked. Spike stayed behind just in case. Galvatron was also gone. The comics established that the TF's had been to many worlds of other mechanoids and biological life, so Earth wasn't special. They'd been fighting for 4 million years and were fighting on earth for just over 6 years? Its actually a very short time to be there in the grand scheme of things, why would they focus on it at all when they have a home world to rebuild now? I think these aspects are clunky because they haven't been literally spelled out but I don't think any of it is illogical or out of keeping with what's already been established.
Xaaron never got a chance to talk to ANYONE about Galvatron before getting possessed by Primus/blown up. Unicron worshippers weren't terribly vocal beyond their mind-controlled ravings. One line of dialogue might have cleared it up, but not having been given that line, it's bad writing. The thing with the Ark is that it's been made clear in other continuities (at least one penned by Furman himself, the original continuation of the Marvel storyline) that leaving Cybertronian tech for Earthlings to get to was considered a bad idea. There's little reason RG1 Prime should decide he didn't care when G2 Prime made such an effort to go clean that mess up as soon as he learned it was there. (See my original explanation, which depended on Fort Max NOT calling home to let them know the name of a defeated Decepticon)
Save for issue 80 a happy ending would go against Simons usual formula, or atleast the idea that it "NEVER ENDS." I'd be perfectly happy if the series had a downer of an ending, it feels more fitting for how this series was structured.
Well, technically it does 'never end' as a cosmic reset would mean the timeline would eventually flow into the original Generation 2 comic...right? Right?! Everybody wins.
Yeah, you're right about Xaaron, but rereading 71 Galvatron attacks a NUMBER of autobots with Hook, Line and Sinker. They all witnessed the attack and there is no evidence that any of them were killed. In 73 we see some of them and one gets a face slice, one is in a net and one is just stood there. They all survived the Galvatron attack and would be witness enough to report who he was and what he looked like. So not bad writing, bad memory on both our parts! Yeah, but that's OTHER continuities, no reason to be beholden to them at all. The Ark was scrapped (Megs took 15 years to get it to near spaceworthy condition after all and then it still took time with Galvatron and a reactivated Shockwave). And it was left with a guard. In a region where it was unlikely to be interfered with. Again I really don't see this is a logic stretch, so what if its not what G2 Prime would have done? I think the whole POINT of RG1 Prime is that he took his eyes off the ball, became remote and complacent and suffering followed in his wake. RG1 Prime had 20 years of peace, G2 Prime didn't, their experiences would be different. And going back to the earlier point, if there was a handover of the Ark to Fort Max he could have told whoever came back to drop the Neo Knights off of what happened with Galvatron. They saw the Ark was scrap, more effort to remove than leave and no life signs on board so they left with Fort Max there just in case. Actually looking at the 1st RG1 trade Megs seems to be emerging from ice so even if the Ark were gone he may not have been on it. The book also states that Megatron had invasive tech (probably as a result of the mind share with Ratchet) that set off the nukes (rather than it being tied to the Ark). It also implies that everything escalated quickly. Whatever happened with the ark therefore there was going to be a wrecked Earth, though perhaps there wouldn't have been zombie cons. So regardless of how often they had popped in for a visit to Earth or removed the Ark its still likely that the majority of the Human population would have been wiped out in exactly the same way. There was no time to get a message out by then, up to that point they thought they could deal with Megatron. By the time they realised their mistake the Earth was toast. On a reread the info is all in there and the removal or not of the Ark seems to not be as important to the events that followed anyway.
Oh god, they brought back Jose Delbo! Not a bad issue, I'm just ready for this run to end. I wanna see if they can actually pull off a proper ending to the G1 series. Or if, like many comic book writers, they just can't help themselves and leave some sort of cliff hanger.
When is this issue supposed to be out? I'm seeing lots of discussion, but my local comic shop doesn't have it nor is it on their invoice for next week.