Well, there's definitely a feeling of Furman revisiting old plotlines/ideas.

Heck - he's been wanting to rematch Ultra Magnus and Galvatron since he was writing the -ations; I remember him talking about it being among his plans in interviews.

I'm definitely curious about the ending though, and I'm ESPECIALLY curious if we're going to come back to Optimus Prime at all. I have to be honest in saying that I haven't missed him at all.

As for a theory on the flashbacks.... suppose that the entire point of everything, possibly barring Jhiaxus, was to get Rodimus a magical Matrix energy upgrade beam, but he just took multiple tries to clue in?

 

I'm going to jump on you there! In RG1 Skorpy used a dream in effect to make Grimlock think that happened and it took maybe 6 pages out of 110? Its one moment of similarity out of hundreds of others where it isn't and even then it's used in a completely different way. It's selectively drawing a comparison there by focusing on something that barely and only on the surface resembles the other story. Fine if you think both stories are crap (and I'm not a fan) but to say that they are alike for the reasons you cite is pretty much unsupportable.

 

Geez is there ever a time in the comics Rodimus doesn't get his ass kicked..

 

I kinda like the idea that things and events have parallel equivalents in the Multiverse, even if it is as the result of a real-world writers not being able to come up with original ideas/weren't able to finish the way they wanted to. It's not as though the Scorponok/Dinobots interaction has been the only thing that gets copied over to other realities. In any given Transformers universe, you can be pretty certain that:

1: The Cybertronian Civil War will end up on earth

2: Starscream will try to take over the Decepticons

3: Unicron will eventually show up, as he is a Multiversal Constant

I understand that of course there will be variations as to what will or won't be included, but I do enjoy seeing when some familiar element shows up and plays out in a different way.

However, if it plays out in EXACTLY the same way, that's just boring.

Regarding this issue, a question. Are we to assume that Hot Rod got upgraded to Roddimus Prime just by touching the Matrix? And if that's the case, couldn't Primus have just upgraded Hot Rod himself? Or is everything in the "vision quest" just an info dump from Primus to Hot Rod, and Hot Rod grabbing the "vision Matrix" was symbolic of the upgrade Primus was performing.

It will be interesting to see if Roddimus Prime HAS a Matrix.

 

Strange how the same characters were alive and well for Generation 2 though. I guess suspension of disbelief is required in either instance, but I guess my point is I just don't like the story. That's just personal preference.

 

I've wanted to like this series and for the most part I have. But the series has felt flat at times.

For one thing, at the start of the series, I was disappointed to see Kup and the Wreckers. I've never liked Kup and the Wreckers have been overused in recent years. Plus where's Twintwist? And Leadfoot? The Baymovies have to taint the G1 comics as well?

We had Nucleon revived and hence Actionmaster Megatron flying around on Serpentor's chariot. Where's his Neutro Fusion tank?

Scorponok had been reduced to a one dimensional villain. I know Zarak was initially the conflicted one but it's a pity some of that didn't stay with Scorponok.

Spike was unnecessarily ruined to become a second rate homage to a third rate character. I liked his interactions with Fort Max back in the day. It was part of the character(s). Plus get the guy a shirt!

On the subject of resurrected Decepticons, modern day series seem to have reduced Thunderwing to a mindless shell whenever he turns up. First the soulless Stormbringer and now just an empty battery of Matrix energy. I miss the driven, Matrix obsessed leader who cared about his troops.

Speaking of which, Ruckus, Spinister and Needlenose seem rather one dimensional themselves these days in all their incarnations. I miss their loyalty to Thunderwing and each other. The one dimensional thugs get boring pretty much immediately. That's why I've always hated Blitzwing.

Why oh why, to use a Furmanism, did they bring back Wildman? His art was the worst part of the old series. Senior should have done the whole lot.

And why remind us of the Godawful carwash of doom?

It's a shame they're ignoring the G2 comics. It was bad enough with ignoring the UK stories in the old days.

On a positive note, I'm delighted to see Hot Rod's evolution to Rodimus Prime. I always thought he and not Optimus should have defeated Unicron. Hot Rod did get a lot of exposure back in Furman's US Marvel stories. For a while, I remember wondering would we see Rodimus Prime back then.

I did like the Scorponok arc and it was nice too see what happened to the Headmaster's original heads. Plus my favourite Actionmaster Kick Off showed up.

I am wondering how everyone knows Galvatron. He kept away from the major players before and up to the Unicron battle. Even Scorponok admitted back then to not knowing him after he took the first shot at Unicron and was sent flying. So how did Kup and Optimus know him? He was on Earth for the last twenty years and they haven't been. It would have been nice to see him meet Hot Rod at some point in the series and tease him with information on Rodimus Prime and even his death.

It's nice to see Bludgeon's motivation isn't just the usual conquest.

Despite my misgivings, I am overall enjoying the series and look forward to each new issue. Just a shame it's a limited series.

 

This....this has been my point all along.

 

I really liked the Rodimus Prime bit at the end.

 

Did we see Hot Rod punk his future self like he did to OP in the '86 movie? Ha, obvious irony is obvious.

I honestly have to ask what the point of this issue was. Was Furman writing himself into a corner again and needed to an extra issue to show us stuff he didn't have room for in the last 6 issues of the book? What is the point of adding new plots to a series that's ending in half a year? Why can't he just clean up the ones already left over from the eighties?

Don't get me wrong, I like Furman. I think the War Within series was some of his best work. Hell, even the -ations were intriguing to read as they differed so much from past retellings. But, sigh, I can't see what he's doing with RG1 as any kind of a clean-up/last hurrah for the old Marvel run. He's added so much that I can't see how this all ends well without feeling rushed. (again)

Unless they're planning to just wipe everything out like Funpub's Classicverse or he's laying tracks for a RG2.

 

Same here! Makes you wonder if they'll kill Optimus again though  

 

I think the main problem I have is that it shouldn't be something that acknowledges the IDW-verse. It was supposed to be a continuation of Marvel comics as if it had not ended. That was it's purpose and it hasn't followed through on that in the sense of plot. Grimlock and Scorponok never had any beef with each other before hand.

I understand that time has passed in our world but the purpose of this series was to turn back that clock and write the series as if it had kept going on for twenty more issues.

as it is, where does Generation 2 fit into this. Wasn't G2 supposed to be just a few years after G1. Now it's twenty years, G2 hasn't happened, the earth is destroyed, Meg's is dead (again), and so are a bunch of characters who were in G2. With the civilization of Earth dead, Cobra can't have existed to find and reformat Megatron thus kicking off G2. Did Rodimus exist in G2 since he was a future character?

I'm okay with the inclusion of Marvel Uk themes because it supposedly fits into the G1 timeline up to a point, but I just don't see how G2 can be a continuation of this.

precisely.

 

But it isn't and they don't. Skorponok had knowledge of headmasters and nebulon science. Grimlock wanted a cure for his troops which Skorponok manipulated. At best you can argue that IDW acknowledged the G1 marvel universe by having Skorpy be a bot with a scientist skills, not the other way round.

And it isn't meant to be a continuation, it's meant to be a conclusion. It's purpose is different as if it hadn't been cancelled it would be open ended and would obviously proceed differently. Writing for a conclusion means bringing threads to a close, like Grimlock's guilt as opposed to letting it keep playing out. But you can look at interviews with Simon from 10 years ago where he talks about the Primordials being Primus' first attempt at life being something that would have been explored. Getting rid of Nucleon was a theme. The headmasters original heads was one he mentioned too. So they've all appeared just maybe done in a closed way rather than open.

Simon has said that he is picking up the threads he would have used had the book not have continued but he has also said that he would be writing to a finish which inherently means it's not going to be identical to an open ended book that got cancelled 20 years ago. The purpose was NEVER to write the series as if it had kept going on for twenty more issues but to END it in 20 issues.

It isn't. The G2 story never happened in RG1. Characters from G2 have already appeared in different ways than G2. G2 Hot Rod appeared in RG1 Hot Rod's vision confirming it as a seperate reality.

 

On the first part. His original idea way back when was to jump the story by twenty years and just gloss over the proceeding time? His idea was to destroy an earth that was still at that time (tangentially) tied to the Marvel main universe?

And you may be confusing my statement about not acknowledging IDW. I wasn't referring to Maximum Dinobots in this instance, but in the concept of multiple Rodimi' that we saw an issue earlier. Which featured the various Rodimus' through the years since Marvel US ended. That is what I'm talking about. When continuing to a conclusion a series that was last dealt with twenty years ago, the intent is to continue as if that time had not passed.
That is the point, whether direct or indirect. It's to continue and conclude the narrative as if it had been unbroken. This does it in some ways and not in others.

My only beef with having Scorponok onboard was that it was a not needed character due to the nice way in which he died. That whole arc just wasn't really needed. Other things could have fit in. But on the whole, it just doesn't read like a Marvel book, which is kind of what it is supposed to do.


As to the second part, I thought FUrman said that G2 still existed in REgen 1's timeline as well. That it was still MArvel Canon, like Regen 1 is supposed to be.





If the entire twenty issues has all been a huge time anomaly (which it looks like it is) in which the entire point was to correct and have it flow like it did before (from g1 to G2), then this entire series becomes completely pointless in regards to its original purpose.

 

Sorry, he's said nothing but the opposite from day one.

 

Just got it off comixology since my store was sold out. It was kind of hard to follow given all the different flashbacks Hot Rod went through. There were still some good moments though. I just hope it all adds up in the end.

 

The last page with Rodimus Prime on it was pretty cool. The rest of it was okay, I guess. Why did Hot Rod need to see these particular things in order to become Prime? Having visions of random shit and becoming Prime is a little less epic than taking out an entire planet monster and saving your entire planet and becoming Prime. So is RG1 just dropping Optimus and forgetting about him? I love that we're getting some Rodimus Prime, but the handling of Optimus in this series has been pretty weak.

 

Well the Marvel story was always happening concurrently with the here and now so the fact that 20 years had passed in reality wasn't really something that could be ignored. In fact there'd be just as many people complaining that it wasn't set now of the story had been set then. As for glossing over the last 20 years, how much detail of 20 years could he include in 20 issues? When for legal reasons huge chunks of the human cast couldn't be seen or even named? Obviously there have had to be changes but mostly because the Marvel series was NEVER designed to end. This is. You keep talking about it's purpose but from the beginning it was stated that the purpose was to definitively conclude it. This is something that has never happened before so it's impossible to compare it to the Marvel book unless he had been told back then that he had to wrap it up in 20 issues. Complaining about the author's intent when in fact the circumstances then and now are completely different. I can get that you hate the story, but as we will NEVER know what Simon MIGHT have written IF the story had had 20 issues to wrap it up 20 years ago because that was never the circumstance, it seems an odd reason to hate it.

OK I misunderstood you there. But surely the fact that the story does pick up 20 years later is the clearest show of intent, not what you think the intent was.

That's all different, I can't argue with your opinion, I think the second arc is the most divisive in terms of the plot.

Yeah, Simon's said from the start that G2 was not the plan to follow G1 because it was in a way a soft reboot. He said that there would be echoes of Marvel UK and G2 but that those events did not happen here.

Well I don't think it is heading that way at all. If the purpose were to correct it all then Hot Rod could have done that by going back in time. But he didn't. He returned to the present. The past is coming back to bite them all so far as I can see, no indication that it'll all be undone. And if we must keep talking about "purpose" there was never any indication that Marvel UK or G2 had any bearing on this story so it seems very unlikely to me that it's "purpose" would be to fold it in. Everything that is happening is a consequence of Primus' plan not going to plan, it's already happened. What seems to be coming is the clean up. But honestly we could argue about what seems to be happening, because we could both be wrong, but I'm looking forward to finding out.