TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #91

"DESTINY, PART 1"
Writer: Simon Furman | Penciler: Andrew Wildman | Inker: Stephen Baskerville
Colorist: John-Paul Bove | Coloring Assist: James Stayte | Letterer: Chris Mowry
Editor: John Barber | Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

The Plot: Bludgeon demonstrates his Blitz Engines, planetary invasion devices powered by the Matrix energy from Thunderwing's Pretender shell, to Soundwave. Following a successful takeover of the planet Cresta Superior, Bludgeon sets course of Cybertron.

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Hot Rod learns that the fallout from Scorponok's coup has left several Autobots mentally unstable. Amid civil unrest, Hot Rod publicly declares his plan to go beneath the planet's surface and reunite the proto-Transformers with their descendants, an announcement which nearly gets him assassinated.

Nonetheless, Hot Rod proceeds with his plan, aided by the Dinobots. But first he orders Ultra Magnus to restore order on Cybertron and prepare the planet for reunification. Magnus also speaks with Optimus Prime on Earth, who reports that the Ark has fallen into Galvatron's hands.

Someplace else, a Cybertronian warlord receives word of Bludgeon's destruction of Cresta Superior and realizes his path is about to cross with that of the chaotic Decepticons.

G1 Continuity: In the aftermath of Scorponok's takeover, the citizens of Cybertron are seen cleaning up. One location shown during this montage is MacAdam's Old Oil House, a tavern from the British Transformers comics.

Galvatron has a very brief scene aboard the Ark in which he recalls Unicron destroying Cybertron in his original timeline, and giving him Earth to rule. A footnote points to TRANSFORMERS #67 to see how that turned out for him.

G2 Continuity: The mysterious Cybertronian warlord at the issue's close is Jhiaxus, a villain from Simon Furman's TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION 2 series. There, Jhiaxus and his underlings were "evolved" Cybertronians who had moved beyond notions of Autobots and Decepticons. Reporting to Jhiaxus is his G2 henchman, Rook.

Body Count: Bludgeon annihilates the surface of Cresta Superior with his Blitz Engines.

My Thoughts: This is a "quiet" issue in the vein of those X-MEN comics which normally followed a large crossover. We see the stage set for the next story arc, as Hot Rod prepares to return beneath Cybertron's surface (he seems to spend a lot of this series aimlessly wandering those catacombs, doesn't he?), while Galvatron continues his voyage to Cybertron and now Bludgeon heads that way as well.

Variant "retro" cover by Guido Guidi

The appearance of Jhiaxus is an interesting development. His admittedly brief scene seems to paint him into a similar role as he served in GENERATION 2, that of the wild card who believes himself superior to the rest of the Transformers. I doubt Furman will follow the exact same path as G2, however, so Jhiaxus's part here should hopefully be a surprise.

Grimlock's demise sure didn't last long, did it? We don't even get a full issue to imagine he's dead. Instead we have the Dinobots informing Hot Rod that they think he's still alive, simply because they would know if he wasn't. Like I said last time, I really didn't mind that Furman had killed off his pet character. If he does come back, and especially if he plays a key role in the remainder of the story, I'll be a little disappointed.

Lastly, it's nice to see that Optimus Prime hasn't completely severed ties with the Autobots. I figured he would be incommunicado during his self-imposed exile on Earth, so his conversation with Ultra Magnus, in which he informs the other that Galvatron has stolen the Ark, was pleasantly unexpected. Plus it clears something up from last issue, as we learn that Prime does in fact know it was Galvatron, not Megatron, that he saw on the issue's final page. And what's more, Prime believes that Galvatron is Megatron reincarnated, making him, to my recollection, the first character in the series to tumble to that idea.

Final Opinion: As noted, this issue is concerned primarily with moving pieces into place. I'm not exactly thrilled for Hot Rod to undertake yet another expedition into the bowels of Cybertron, but if it leads to him finally becoming Rodimus Prime and advancing his otherwise totally static character arc, I'll be happy.

Available as part of TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE, vol. 2 from Amazon.com.