Last time in The Transformers: Regeneration One: Hot Rod was sent spiralling through time by Primus.
Okay, when I first heard about this Zero Issue, I admit I was excited about it, primarily for three words:
Geoff. Slaggin’. Senior.
Yes, UK/US Marvel Transformers artist extraordinaire, Geoff Senior, would be returning to pencil interior pages of a US Transformers comic, for the first time in over a decade. He’s provided retailer incentive covers for RGO, and he did some work for the UK comic back in 2007, but unless I’m missing some information, the last pages he pencilled was for BotCon 2000’s “Reaching the Omega Point” story.
Then I read who else was going to be involved – Jeff Anderson? Jose Delbo? Nick Roche? Holy crap, this is a Transformers comic lovers dream team of pencillers! It’s a Who’s Who of past and present artists all around, with Casey Coller, Stephen Baskerville, and John-Paul Bove adding talent to this packed issue.
Add Simon Furman into the mix, and you’ve got the makings of a huge story. And that’s just talking about the credits.
Seriously, this issue acts as a great homage to the old Marvel days, with Geoff Senior touching on the Deathbringer story, Jose Delbo bringing back to the page the familiar faces of Buster Witwicky and Jessie (but no love for “O”? Come on, now!), and Jeff Anderson draws Jhiaxus, Boltax and the Underbase. If you haven’t been schooled in US and UK Marvel comics — well, you wouldn’t be reading this comic, would you? But for those who remember days long ago, this comic is a treat. Sure, Regeneration One doesn’t take into account any of the old UK stories, but this is Hot Rod’s journey through time and dimension, allowing him to step into other universes and see what could be done to prevent the dire future that Primus warned about.
We start off with Hot Rod landing in Denver, as Optimus and the Autobots fight the Evil Matrix posessed Deathbringer (which we saw in US #65, and then this story is based of UK #235 and 236.) While Optimus and crew are able to safely defeat the Deathbringer, as they did in the original story, what we didn’t see was that the Evil Matrix energy that resided within the Deathbringer still lived. It hadn’t been present when Optimus purged the Matrix in US #75, so it’s still out there, somewhere.
Hot Rod then jumps to earlier days of Cybertron, as Jhiaxus arrives at the Underbase. Hot Rod doesn’t have any data on Jhiaxus, so he’s in the dark as to what’s going to happen. And what happens is Jhiaxus everyone but Boltax, and then he steals data from the Underbase — how to create life. After he wipes Boltax’s memories — or crushes his head, one of the two — he leaves, leaving Hot Rod to wonder just what damage Jhiaxus could have done.
Another time jump, and we’re back on Earth, watching Buster and Jessie trying to outrun the Zombie Decepticons, as Megatron is taking over the Earth (as we learned early on in RGO). Ultimately, Ratbat kills Buster and Jessie in a car wash, but not before Buster is able to call Spike and plead for him to rejoin the battle as Fortress Maximus. Sadly, Spike is unable to do so, paralyzed by fear — or guilt or something — in a lonely hotel room.
Hot Rod jumps to a parallel future, where we see Rodimus Prime and Galvatron fight over the Matrix on a planet of Junk. Ultimately Rodimus is attacked from behind by Scourge and Cyclonus, the laser blasts knocking the Matrix free the chain around his neck and landing in front of Hot Rod. That’s when he realizes why Primus ultimately sent him on this trip — to see what evil the Decepticons had done over the past millions of years, see that there’s Evil Matrix energy out there, and then to tap into a parallel universe’s Matrix, since his own was gone.
And then he returns to his own universe — as Rodimus Prime…
Thoughts: Fantastic. From the nods to previous Transformers stories, to getting artists from previous eras to draw their respective stories, to copying the coloring/painting styles of said stories, this comic really hit a home run in the art department. And the story isn’t too shabby, either. This issue has the dual task of taking a look back into the past as well as setting up the final storyline of RGO, and Furman and company have done a solid job on both fronts. Well done.