Excellent comic.

 

yes, a real nice throwback full of warm memories

 

That always drove me nuts; things were bad enough with Grimlock's... I guess corruption is a good of word as any, for Blaster to leave, and then come back and challenge Grimlock... at the behest of the other Autobots (!) but then suddenly Prime's back and everything is hunky dory. I get it; they rolled right into the Underbase Saga, so there wasn't much time to deal with Grimlock's less than stellar tenure, but as you say, it must not have bothered Prime all that much.

 

I'd honestly be more surprised if he remembered it than if he forgot it.

 

I suppose this is increasingly off-topic to this issue #0, but far more than the quick turn-over back to Prime in time for the Underbase Saga (and Prime's apparent easy forgiveness of Grimlock) was the fact that Prime specifically named Grimlock to be the new leader after the battle with Unicron toward the end of the series. My reaction at the time was "Don't you remember how badly that went last time?" (of course, it being Furman, and those original stories being written by Budiansky, it's entirely possible he didn't, Furman's having to write all those fill-in issues notwithstanding)

 

I remember being a bit bothered by Ops decision to name Grimlock the leader after the Unicron battle. Although, Grimlock became leader and relinquished command all during Primes “afterlife”. Maybe no one told Prime how bad their decision to name Grimlock leader really mucked things up.
Or, maybe Op trusted that Grimlock learned the lesson he quickly learned in “Totaled”.

 

In fairness to Prime- or perhaps, in fairness to Grimlock, arguably we do see Grimlock's first tenure from a slightly biased perspective.

Grimlock:

1. Got the Ark repaired and off Earth.
2. Avoided dragging the Autobots into sufficiently major battles that not only did their casualty list not grow, but Ratchet, First Aid, Hoist et al actually managed to get a large number of the casualties ranging from "The New Order", through "Dinobot Hunt", "Target:2006" etc back into working order.
3. The only major losses during his period of leadership were from Autobots who either had, or were in league with those who had rejected his command.

On the minus side, Grimlock wasn't particularly interested in stopping the Decepticons from attacking humans, unless the particular humans in question had done something to impress him- but, then, as we've just seen, the whole "protect humans at all costs" thing was a hang-up of Optimus' for a reason- given that Grimlock and the rest of the crew were as much a victim of Optimus' actions as the humans were, Prime perhaps couldn't try to hold Grimlock to the same standard.

From a purely teleological point of view, as well, of course, Grimlock's strategy actually did benefit the human race in the longer run- the Decepticons ultimately left Earth to pursue the Ark to the moon.

 

I would counter that the events of "Totaled!" were a MAJOR defeat for the Autobots. Yes, he was dealing with an Autobot defector, but all those casualties were caused by Decepticons while his back was turned.

And there's simply no way Prime wouldn't have been told. Goldbug probably filled him in on the details while they flew back from Nebulos to pick up the Autobots stranded on the moon. You think Prime never asked why they were stranded there? Did Grimlock learn his lesson? It's possible, but I sure wouldn't have trusted him again.

 

I do remember being pretty impressed that Under Grimlocks leadership the Ark became spaceborn again.
Yeah, joking aside about no one telling Prime, there most def should of been some fallout. If not for “The Big Broadcast of 2006” maybe that could of been inserted.
How about a Simon/Guido backup story in TF2k19 that shows this story? Like someone else said, a lot of blank spaces to fill.

 

Story was frankly crap like everything modern Furman touched, but it was worth it for the art.

 

One story I'd actually love to see would be set around that time, to see Goldbug make good on his 'I've grown out of hero worship' persona by really tearing into Optimus over his suicide and its consequences for everybody else. As far as Grimlock's concerned... maybe we're looking at it the wrong way around. Maybe Prime didn't make Grimlock his successor because Grimlock made a good job at it last time, but instead perhaps because he made a bad job of it.

Both "Target : 2006 : Prologue" and "Breakaway" pretty clearly establish that despite Op's reputation for stoicism and saintly forbearance, in fact, Grimlock's bad attitude does a very good job of pissing Prime right off, when he's not in the mood. Maybe Optimus' thought in "Still Life" wasn't "Grimlock would be the perfect leader!" but more "That ruddy tyrannosaurus always seems to think being leader is awesome. Fine. He can damn well keep on leading the Autobots until either he learns how to actually do it right, or at the very least, to stop wanting it so much. Let's see how you handle trying to negotiate an Autobot/Decepticon peace treaty, Grimlock..."

Less cynically, it may have been more about Grimlock's personal growth, than about appointing the best leader for the job. Or, perhaps, most realistically, having been blown up, torn apart, and reduced to shredded tinfoil in agonising pain, on the very cusp of death, maybe Optimus simply wasn't really in a very good state of mind for choosing his successor. They're probably lucky he didn't name Slag.

 

"And then Grimlock said to ignore humans, and then he was laying around having his molars cleaned and then he hunted me and then..."

"Not now, Bumblebee."

 

Still better than any of the ten IDW2 issues.

 

I liked the story. Loved the art. I was surprised at Optimus Prime's decision, and can't say that I agree with his method. But it seems on-brand enough for the Marvel character.

The way they went between the two time lines made it a little confusing.

Before it was released, I was really hoping for something that took place entirely on Cyberton and showed what they were all doing leading up to issue #1. I wasn't really expecting to see so much of Earth. I think a good 10 or 20 issue prequel story leading up to Marvel #1 could have been fun. But I guess that would be much too similar to the current IDW series description.

I'd still like to see more comics from this team.

 

Different than I expected since I avoided the previews, but a good solo read. It's good to see Punch and other late-the-the-toyline characters have the spotlight.

 

I read it and enjoyed it. Like everyone else, I loved the artwork and would be happy to see more new stories from the Marvel era.

One question though. If I remember correctly the Clones were in Regeneration. If Wingspan was killed, doesn't that mean this comic won't be in continuity with Regeneration?

If so, it's a shame Furman has no qualms disregarding his older work every time he revisits the Marvel Transformers comics. His worst crime obviously having Marvel US ignore Marvel UK. I realise he was thinking of the US fans but he could surely have written the US comics without cutting it's ties to UK comic.

Anyway, this has been a pleasant surprise to read.

 

My take is that it doesn’t have to be in continuity with the UK comics or Regeneration One - but Furman shouldn’t have actively gone against the continuity of those comics for those who want to consider it in continuity without any issues. Wingspan was killed in ‘84 but reappears later in Regeneration One. So why did Wingspan have to be the one to die? The Duocons couldn’t die either.

 

I'm trying to recall whether it was Wingspan or Pounce who got shot dead in Regeneration, in order to convince whichever one it wasn't, that Kup wasn't bluffing. Maybe Wingspan got, er, cloned? Just because we've only ever seen two of each of them, doesn't mean there might not be more.

 

Personally, I've always seen it as "writing without the need to uphold the UK comic" rather than "cutting ties to it." The former is just writing without specific restraints. The other is an act of intention.

And, again, for me, ignoring the UK stuff isn't even a crime. I have no meaningful objection to keeping it (if that's what he wanted), but I have ALWAYS considered that stuff non-canon to the US comic.

That's kind of what I'm getting at. I don't think Furman made a conscious decision to "go against the continuity." I think he simply wasn't thinking about continuity to those particular aspects at all.

Heck, when the previews came out, folks were complaining about Micromasters in the background, suggesting he didn't even keep strict continuity with the US stuff. There's plenty of continuity-breaking to go around!