When I heard about Regeneration 1 this was my, perhaps optimistic, expectation for it:

-Ongoing

-Continuation of a G1 continuity that meshed the lore of the cartoon and marvel comics together

-Using the awesome 80s marvel style throwback art in the story, not just the variant covers

-Adding depth to the G1 characters but not a massive overhaul of characters like IDW G1 eg. Megatron's motivations for world domination

- Tying up several mysteries left over from the original G1 continuities eg. Alpha Trion, Quintessons, Post-Rebirth, Post War Cartoon G1 Cybertron

There were other hopes I had for it but maybe I'll get into them later

Anyway, give me a lowdown of what you wanted vs what we got vs what you'd change. Interested to hear.

 

I wasn't looking for any cartoon loose ends, as that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish, but the original cancellation of the book was very much sprung upon the creative team. I hoped, naively, I guess, that we would have got a continuation of what those plans were before the book was axed.

Ultimately, Regeneration One was something a lot of us thought we wanted, but it just came up short in a lot of ways. I wasn't in need of another "Hot Rod ascends to Prime" story... Hot Rod was barely even in the US title! The book probably should have left everything intact (the US and UK continuity) and picked up from like maybe issue 78 or so. That wasn't the aim, and that wasn't what we got. Que sera sera.

I haven't sat down and reread ReGen One in a long time, maybe I'll think better of it when I do. I remember my biggest problem with it being the wonky pacing.

 

Not nearly so much mysticism. granted, it was part of Furman's run, but still contained-ish in the Matrix. The Last Autobot magically reviving all the Autobots was always kind of a hokey ending to the story back in the day, so I don't know. It just seemed like there was too much happening. The gene key was disappointing. Hot Rod going on a super spiritual journey was whatever.

I dunno. I really don't know *what* I expected but it wasn't great, what we got.

I didn't expect anything from the cartoon because it was always solicited as, and intended as, a direct sequel to the Marvel G1 comics.

Have to disagree about the art, though. It literally had Andrew Wildman as the artist for the first arc, doing an intentionally retro style to match the style he did on the original G1 comic. Guidi intentionally drew in Wildman's style when he took over. Like it or don't, it's part of the nostalgia package.

 

A story.

 

What I WANTED was for the story to pick up after issue 80. Jumping ahead 20 years just immediately took me out of the zone. Most of the stories could have been done without having to jump ahead (the Earth stuff mostly.. Which was my least favorite part next to Scorponok brainwashing all of the Autobots with Grimlock's help).

 

I wanted issue 81 of transformers. I wanted to see them complete the monsters on cybertron plot set up and other plotholes left from the first series. I wanted to to take place right after issue 80. We were promised a follow-up to the marvel comic and got all hail megatron 2 with a crappy young justice jumpskip! (stopped watching that series when they did that.) I see this series as a what if and G2 is the real follow up comic.

 

A satisfying conclusion. And I feel that I got it, albeit in a kind of rushed, hypercondensed form.

I'd rectify that by removing the entire genekey arc, which was what I felt really dragged the series down.

 

I wanted it to pick up where #80 left off and ending, leading up to G2.....then I wanted a Regeneration Two

 

Animated Season 4.  

 

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who hated the genekey plot. It reminded me too much of the robosmasher from "The Secret of Omega Supreme".
What I wanted was a sequel that kept G2 as canon. A part of me was almost expecting a Machine Wars story that would have acted as a bridge between G1 and BW. More so than TFs go extinct and the Maximals are born.

 

Yeah doing the 20 years time jump really hurt it , for me personally.

Thats what I wanted, but with them ditching g2 comics I just couldnt bring myself to support RG1 comic at all. they should have just led up to g2 and like you said do RG2


It was a shame, great writer, artist, colorist, loved the creative team, they did soooo much that I wanted to see get done and answered but that rushed last few issues to cover the basic g2 plot just to erase the g2 plot, again, had me decide not to bother with it

 

The 20 year jump certainly was not something I was expecting, and it would have been better to address more of that time. The Scorponok/Gene Key arc was entirely unnecessary, and with only 20 issues planned felt like a wasted opportunity. Furman giving Grimlock a lone hero arc is unavoidable, and I like Grimlock almost as much as Furman... but ditching Scorponok's evolution from cookie cutter Decepticon tyrant to a leader that Optimus Prime can respect was an issue.
Before the series began, I would've liked it to link to Generation 2. During the gene key arc, I just wanted the series to end. By issue 100, I felt that the invocation of the Furmanism "it never ends" was appropriate and satisfying.
Overall, ReG1 did not live up to expectations... but was good enough.

 

RG1 felt more like a conclusion to the UK comics more than the US run,with wreckers,deathbringer,auntie hologram,ultra magnus vs galvatron and so on.

 

Except it completely ignores all the deaths in Time Wars.

 

I enjoyed it for what it was. The art was pure 80s nostalgia eye candy.

I expected it to be a pure follow-up to the Marvel G1 comics. We kind of/sort of got that. I don't think the 20-year time jump hurt THAT much. This isn't the first story I've read where a large time jump in real life also means a large time jump in fiction.

I thought it was WEIRD, though, that Furman seemed to treat this like a follow-up to Marvel G1 AND his abandoned stories for the IDW continuity. For example...

Skorponok completely lost all his (excellent) character development from Marvel G1 and became the megalomaniac just like IDW's Skorponok. Did Skorponok even interact with Grimlock in G1? Skorponok and Grimlock's rivalry really seems like a continuation of the -ation series, Spotlight: Grimlock, and Maximum Dinobots.

Did Soundwave and Blaster even know each other in Marvel G1? Yet in RG1, Soundwave and Blaster have a dramatic final showdown with a lot of implied history.

Those are just 2 examples. It's been years since I read RG1, I only read each issue once, and I know I'm leaving out a few more.

It seemed to me that Furman was serving 3 masters, which is kind of odd, as he seems to be the sole guardian over the direction of RG1. On the one hand, he wanted to continue some of the stories from Marvel G1. For example, Megatron's brief story arc. Ultra Magnus finally finishing off Galvatron. The continuation stuff worked quite well.

On the other hand, he bizarrely seemed to give us the stores he wanted to give us with the IDW G1 series, but was unable to because he was snubbed in favor of All Hail Megatron. Seems like he shoehorned some of his unresolved IDW stories into RG1 with perfunctory efforts to match the stated goal of continuing the Marvel G1 story. This stuff was....decent. It felt odd, and it didn't have the emotional payoff it would have otherwise had if presented in the IDW series properly.

On the third hand, my least favorite stuff was the stuff that overrode G2. Off the top of my head, the Jhiaxus stuff was vastly inferior to the actual Jhiaxus stuff we got in G2. Essentially, a beloved story was replaced with a worse story. Was that really necessary?

In my opinion, a pure continuation of the G1 Marvel comics could have easily lasted 20 issues. And, a "What if?" story where Furman continues the IDW stories while ignoring All Hail Megatron and everything that followed could easily have lasted 20 issues. But RG1 tried to do 3 things way too quickly (and I only enjoyed 2 of the 3), and none of the things had a chance to reach full potential.

 

Nope. Only the Guido Guidi covers can be held true to that statement. The inside artwork is terrible and is actually WORSE than the inside art. Geoff Senior's artwork from original Marvel comics is better than in Regeneration One.

This...


is more appealing than this...

 

I liked the art in both. the RG1 art had a more classic feel than the current IDW G1 books. I did enjoy the new art better than G2.

 

The main problem I will always have with RG1 is that furman didn`t do his homework,in the original run megatron was the only decepticon in cold storage aboard the ark,even grimlock didn`t know that when he ordered his dinobots to wake the autobots with nucleon,yet in RG1 there was decepticons galore in cold storage in the ark,auntie computer was mentioned once or twice in the US run and dropped,yet in RG1 auntie is there with that egyptian head hologram that came from marvel UK,where was circuit breaker and the neo-knights?grimlock in almost all the issues like a ridiculous bad-ass,less is more.Galvatron had no real plans he was only there to make ultra magnus look good,he should have remained buried in ice,speaking of magnus for being the greatest cybertron warrior he sure had a lot of bodyguards with him to face galvatron in issue #100,the decepticons were clowns standing around and getting beaten or killed by autobots,it should have been a war with casualties on both sides.there was no decepticon aboard the warworld to fire back on the ark? if starscream still had the underbase inside him why didn`t it repair him after he blew up in issue #50?and no special autobot teams to hunt down and destroy the ark?and starscream and shockwave the two who ran away from the unicron war while valiant decepticons fought unicron get to live happily ever after.i would rather have a ending to G2 with the loose ends from the first run explained better there.And furman please lay off all the mystical stuff you brought to the transformers like matrix creatures.

 

Nothing. I read the whole Marvel G1 run a long time after ReGeneration 1 was released.

 

Yes, please. I want to read that