Transformer Roll-Out: Scorponok Is Trumped in 'Regeneration One' #90

Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met (besides Javier Fuentes, who argues this point with me when every Roll-Out article is posted) and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's reviewing the latest book from IDW...​

Transformers: Regeneration One #90 - “Natural Selection” Part 5

Here it is, folks! The culmination of the past four issues of Scorponok’s grand plan to remake Cybertron in his image! This is for all the marbles!

…and it ends with a resounding thud.

Transformers: Regeneration One has been a book I’ve struggled with since its first (er, 81st) issue. It’s been a slog of a comic, moving at a glacial pace, and Andrew Wildman’s pencils don’t hold up to what other artists have done with these characters in the years since the original Marvel Comics ended. While I continue to hold up the “IDW Universe” books - Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye - I’m hard pressed to recommend this one. Two arcs are now completed in this return series, and so little has happened that I’m yawning as I write this.

Simply put, “Natural Selection” wraps up as neatly and as quickly as any ‘80s Saturday morning cartoon. Spoiler alert: the bad guys lose. That’s all fine and dandy, but a far more interesting scenario would have been Scorponok actually succeeding and taking control of Cybertron, as the scattered remnants of the Autobots try to fight back against increasingly difficult odds. It’s been proven in the past that the Decepticons need a strong leader to focus them into action, and with Megatron dead Scorponok seemed like a good candidate. However, with his defeat in this issue, the future of the Decepticons feels much like the future of this comic: directionless.

Transformer Roll-Out: Scorponok Spells Trouble in 'Transformers: Regeneration One' #89

Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's reviewing the latest issue of Transformers: Regeneration One...

It’s becoming clear to me that Transformers: Regeneration One is going to be a slow burn of a book. That’s fine with me, and it certainly is something to be expected from the way Simon Furman crafts his Transformers stories. With issue #89 we get a lot of developments with the Dinobots, but Furman is clearly keeping the more interesting threads for later on down the road.

​Cover to Transformers: Regeneration One #89, art by Andrew Wildman. Hasbro/IDW Publishing.

By now, Scorponok has all but claimed Cybertron as his own. The “warrior gene” has been unlocked in nearly every Autobot on the planet, with only the Dinobots and a handful of holdouts standing between Scorponok and a new Decepticon golden age.

Getting the Dinobots to fall in line under Grimlock is going to take some effort though, as Grimlock’s former squad knows what he’s done and wants to restore the damage that’s been done to their name. It’s some intense Dinobot action as the rough and tumble Autobot faction works through some deep-seated issues with their commander.

Once again, the most intriguing bits of Regeneration One are frustratingly shunted to the background. Hot Rod has to make a choice when it comes to the relics of Primus. There’s some more of the origins of the Transformers race here, and though I’ve never been quite fond of Furman’s version of their creation it’s still rather interesting. There’s a little bit of what’s happened to Shockwave back on Earth, and Optimus Prime sets out on a quest for redemption. Soundwave and Bludgeon are nowhere to be found, adding to the glacial pace of the Regeneration One storyline.

I’m fully expecting some of those threads to not come together until an arc or two down the line. That works for me, but I want to see the action on Cybertron building to something larger than an evil scheme of Scorponok’s that gets thwarted in the nick of time. Stay tuned next month and I’ll let you know if things heat up.

Transformer Roll-Out: 'Transformers Regeneration One' #88 Advance Review

Julian Titus is a writer for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. He's also the biggest Transformers fan I've ever met and will be covering IDW's Transformers comics right here on a regular basis. This week, he's got an advance look at the latest issue of Transformers Regeneration One...

So far, the prime directive of Transformers Regeneration One has seemingly been Simon Furman doing away with all the characters and gimmicks he was forced to introduce into the original series 20 years ago. Clearing out the Head Masters, Action Masters, and the like, the series has felt more like a purge than a continuation of a licensed comic book that was far better than it had any right to be. Now that he’s finished culling the Transformers universe, it seems like Furman is finally building to something that moves the Regeneration timeline forward.

Covert art for Transformers Regeneration One #88, art by Andrew Wildman. Hasbro/IDW Publishing.

Scorponok continues to make his power play for the Decepticon leadership, bolstered by his newly recruited Autobots (made aggressive thanks to unlocking the “warrior gene” within) and the conflicted Grimlock. I find it odd that the altered Autobots immediately turn on their comrades, implying that every Transformer is just one line of code away from being a killing machine. It makes for a bleak version of the Autobots that’s very close in tone to the current Robots in Disguise series, which I’m not a fan of. Hopefully, some of the converted Autobots will turn that newly found aggression on their enemies, which would certainly be a more interesting development than the good guys simply becoming bad guys.

Far more interesting are the secondary stories in this issue. Hot Rod is still deep in the bowels of Cybertron, hoping to commune with Primus, the Transformer god. He runs afoul of some familiar creatures that long time readers will recognize, and what he finds has tantalizing implications for the future of the series. Soundwave gets a hint of Bludgeon’s grand plan, and back on Earth, Galvatron finds something that could help him return to power.

The first 7 issues of Regeneration One were all about cleaning the slate. Now, the stage is set to change the Transformers universe in big ways. Between Hot Rod searching for legends and relics and the potential for a three-way Decepticon civil war, the future of Regeneration may be bleak, but it’s also quite interesting.

(Transformers Regeneration One #88 hits stands Wednesday, February 13.)