TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #95

"DESTINY, PART 5"
Writer: Simon Furman | Penciler: Guido Guidi | Inker: Stephen Baskerville
Colorist: John-Paul Bove | Letterer: Shawn Lee | Editor: John Barber
Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

Cover by Andrew Wildman

The Plot: The battle on Cybertron rages. Bludgeon's men depart the Warworld to join the Blitz Engines on the surface, leaving Bludgeon alone aboard ship. The Wreckers infiltrate the Warworld to get to Thunderwing's shell, but Bludgeon takes them out. He is about to kill Kup when Rodimus Prime appears and hurls him from the ship.

Meanwhile, Grimlock comes around and leads the Dinobots and proto-Transformers to the surface, where they help turn the tide against Bludgeon's forces. At the same time, Starscream and Shockwave attack the Warworld with the Ark, taking it out. Elsewhere, Omega Supreme defeats the Decepticon Monstructor, while Blaster beats Soundwave.

Cybertron is saved, but Rodimus Prime worries about new threats looming.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #248

"AND HE STRIKES LIKE A THUNDERBALL"
Writer: Roger Stern | Pencil Breakdowns: John Romita, Jr. | Finishes: Brett Breeding
Letters: Diana Albers | Colors: Bob Sharen | Editor: Bob DeNatale
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man battles Thunderball, eventually defeating him by luring him into an electrical substation and using his body to close a high-voltage circuit.

The Sub-Plots: None to be found in either of this issue's stories.

Continuity Notes: Thunderball tells Spider-Man that he received his powers from an Asgardian Norn Queen. The wall-crawler, despite having met Thor numerous times at this point, believes the story to be "hooey".

Thunderball recalls the origin of the Wrecking Crew in DEFENDERS #18, and notes that he's been uncharacteristically weak lately, as seen in IRON MAN #171.

The Spider's Web: Assistant Editor Bob DeNatale provides a brief column on the genesis of these "Assistant Editor's Month" stories. Then readers react to Peter's decision to leave graduate school in issue #243. And one fan asks if John Romita, Jr.'s recent appointment as penciler of X-MEN will affect his work on Spider-Man, resulting in a statement that Romita will simply have both series on his regular schedule. Liars!!

Also On Sale This Month: "Assistant Editors' Month" hits PETER PARKER #86 with a story written totally straight, but drawn in the cartoony style of Fred Hembeck -- then Spider-Man takes a break from MARVEL TEAM-UP to allow Aunt May and Galactus to headline the title.

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #247

"INTERRUPTIONS"
Writer: Roger Stern | Breakdowns: John Romita, Jr. | Finishes: John Romita, Sr.
Letterer: Joe Rosen | Colorist: Bob Sharen | Editors: Danny Fingeroth & Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man visits "Nose" Norton to see if he can scare up some information on the Hobgoblin's whereabouts. Norton claims to know nothing, but the web-slinger plants a spider-tracer on his hat and, following dinner with Aunt May and Anna Watson as Peter Parker, our hero trails Norton to Brooklyn, where the stool pigeon sells a trombone case to a group of thugs taking orders from a man they call "Doc". Spider-Man is discovered watching the men and leaps into action against them. When Doc displays superhuman strength, the wall-crawler believes he has finally found the Hobgoblin. But the untimely arrival of Spider-Man's would-be sidekick, Frog-Man, allows the criminals to escape.

Later, Peter develops photos from his automatic camera and gets a look at a map Doc had been showing his men in preparation for an armored car heist. The next day, Spider-Man takes the Long Island Railroad to the heist location, but arrives moments too late. He attends to an ailing armored car guard, then followed the criminals' tire tracks to a nearby garage. There, Doc reveals the item he and his men have stolen is not, as he had claimed, gold, but a crowbar. When Spider-Man shows up, Doc sheds his lab coat, dons a mask, and produces a wrecking ball from a nearby crate, revealing himself to be Thunderball of the villainous Wrecking Crew.

CREDITS WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Been a long time since I posted a nice hyperbole-laden rant here, so let's get right to it:

Since joining Marvel Unlimited, I've reviewed a few modern Marvel comics, the most recent being 2012's WOLVERINE AND THE BLACK CAT: CLAWS II, last month. As always, I typed out the issues' credits at the start of the post. For CLAWS II, the credits read like this:

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray | Artist: Joseph Michael Linsner
Colorists: Dan Brown & Nick Filardi with Ian Hannin | Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Production: Maya Gutierrez | Assistant Editor: Jake Thomas | Editor: Mark Paniccia
Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso | Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

Does this look wrong to anyone else? The creative team is encapsulated entirely on two lines, followed by three lines of editorial, production, and, most mystifying of all, executive titles! This is insane. Compare the above credits with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #236, from earlier that same week:

TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #0

"LESS THAN ZERO"
Writer: Simon Furman
Art: Casey Coller, Geoff Senior, Jeff Anderson, José Delbo, Nick Roche
Inker: Stephen Baskerville (p. 7 - 16) | Colorist: John-Paul Bove
Letterer: Chris Mowry | Editor: John Barber
Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

Cover by Andrew Wildman

The Plot: Sent into "Zero Space" by Primus, Hot Rod witnesses key events in the Transformers' history, across more than one timeline. First he sees a group of Autobots on Earth, led by Optimus Prime in his PowerMaster form, battling a Creation Matrix-spawned creature called the Deathbringer. Next he is sent millions of years into Cybertron's past, where he witnesses Jhiaxus steal the secrets of the Underbase and erase all records and memories of his own existence from Cybertronian history. Then on Earth once more, Hot Rod views the beginning of Megatron's campaign against the human race.

Finally, in a parallel timeline, Hot Rod sees himself, as Rodimus Prime, battling Galvatron on the Planet of Junk, amid the corpses of his fellow Autobots. Rodimus is destroyed and the Matrix flung from his body. Hot Rod touches it and then materializes on Cybertron as Rodimus Prime, just in time to challenge Bludgeon.

G1 Continuity: Lots of it here! The Deathbringer was part of a throwaway flashback in one of Furman's Marvel issues. The actual story behind the flashback was published in the U.K. comics. But since those events do not exist in this timeline, Furman has repurposed the scene here.

AVENGERS #237

"MELTDOWNS AND MAYHEM"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Al Milgrom | Inker: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Joe Rosen | Colorist: Christie Scheele | Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The Lava Men return to their home underground, after securing a promise from Project: Pegasus security chief O'Brien that the magma tap which disturbed them will be moved. However, four supervillains -- Moonstone, Blackout, Electro, and the Rhino -- are loose within Pegasus. The villains attempt to seize control of the facility, but the Avengers and Spider-Man stop them. Moonstone and Blackout escape, but not before Moonstone disrupts the Project's reactor, sending it into a critical meltdown. Captain Marvel, immune to the radiation by virtue of her light-based powers, enters the reactor core and, with Spider-Man walking her through the process, averts the catastrophe.

Later, back at Avengers Mansion, Earth's mightiest heroes agree to take Spider-Man on as a junior trainee. But when the ask their government liaison, Sikorsky, for clearance, he vetoes the idea, stating that the government has "a file on him that's a yard long." Spider-Man decides that an Avengers membership may not have been up his alley anyway, and departs.

The Sub-Plots: Spider-Man is still pining over the Avengers' $1,000 a week salary. Later, during the fight, the Scarlet Witch disables Electro by using her hex powers to cut off his oxygen, an unexpectedly brutal move which stuns Captain America. Also, at Avengers Mansion, the Witch reminds readers that her husband is injured, though she doesn't refer to him by name.

AVENGERS #236

"I WANT TO BE AN AVENGER!"
Writer: Roger Stern | Breakdowns: Al Milgrom | Finisher: Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Janice Chiang | Colorist: Carl Gafford | Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man breaks into Avengers Mansion to demonstrate his skill as a potential Avenger. But the group has little interest in his grandstanding and sends him packing as a priority alarm sounds. Outside the mansion, Spider-Man hitches a ride on the Avengers' departing quinjet and reveals himself when the heroes arrive at Project: Pegasus in upstate New York. Spider-Man helps Captain America, She-Hulk, and Starfox battle a group of rampaging Lava Men. Ultimately the fight ends when the Wasp and the Scarlet Witch arrive with Captain Marvel, who the Lava Men believe is their goddess. The Lava Men explain that their underground realm was pierced by Pegasus's magma tap, and the Avengers apologize.

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel's energy emissions have allowed the villainous Blackout to free himself from imprisonment within a device under study by the Pegasus scientists. Blackout teams up with fellow Pegasus inmate Moonstone, and together the duo springs Electro and the Rhino as well, and Moonstone prepares the villains to seize control of the Project's nuclear research dome.