Comic Review: Regeneration One - King of Shadows [uploaded]

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Blackjack
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Comic Review: Regeneration One - King of Shadows [uploaded]

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King of Shadows:
Written by: Simon Furman
Bonus text story included with #100

Synopsis: As the Shadow-leeches and the Anti-Matrix take over Cybertron, Ravage manages to move through ‘clean’ shadows to avoid the Shadow-leeches taking over. He finds his fangs ineffective against them, and Ravage finds himself being the prey, the only living thing left on Cybertron after everyone was turned into shadows. Ravage reflects how the dark Anti-Matrix creature has been whispering in Soundwave’s ears to restart the great war, and when Ravage had seen the Anti-Matrix through Soundwave’s eyes, he had stopped trusting his friend. Now, Ravage can sense that his once-friend has been transformed into a shadow-leech thanks to their once symbiotic relationship.

A flash of light distracts the creatures, and Ravage drops his guard for a moment, causing the Soundwave-shadow to attack him. Ravage could sense the other cassettes within the Soundwave-creature, and it wants to re-absorb all its former minions, including Ravage. As Ravage prepares himself for his demise, the Ark suddenly appears and Starscream distracts the Soundwave-shadow long enough to rescue Ravage.

However, in the following millennia, Ravage, Shockwave and Starscream travel the stars as the last Decepticons – however, having lost their lust of war, Shockwave and Starscream preach tolerance and unity. Ravage, on the other hand, will continue to ensure that the shadows and the Decepticon ideal live on.

Featured Characters: Ravage, Shadow-leeches, Soundwave (killed), Beastbox (killed), Squawktalk (killed), Howlback (killed), Wingthing (killed), Slugfest (killed), Overkill (killed), Starscream, Shockwave

Review:
I spared no moment to rue his passing.
As a nice little two-page prose that fit at the end of #100, I thought that it was nicely written, reads quickly and is a nice little side-story to tell about what exactly happened to everyone else on Cybertron – they died. Ravage’s constant struggles with how the Shadows, where he used to be the most comfortable in, have become alien and filled with enemies. Throughout the short, dense prose, Ravage’s character as unyielding and honourable of sorts is well defined, and it’s nice to see Ravage get some actual characterization instead of just being an attack cat. Ravage also lampshades how idiotic it is that Starscream and Shockwave suddenly became good and preaches unity to people, and he remains the one last true bastion of Decepticon ideals. Maybe serving as a sly nod to Beast Wars, the story serves as a nice little closure with a vague stinger that certainly feels a lot better than the actual finale.

(3.5 out of 5)

Notes:
The entire events of this short story take place off-screen throughout #99 and #100, and details the fates of everyone on Cybertron – basically everyone is dead.

This story also marks the first time that the cassettes Overkill, Slugfest, Beastbox, Squawktalk and the E-Hobby exclusive toy Howlback has ever been mentioned in the Marvel continuity. (Garboil is the only on to be missing)

The idea of Ravage as the only believer of the Decepticon cause in an unfamiliar culture seems to bring in mind how in the Beast Wars cartoon, Ravage was the only Decepticon left in a society filled with their descendants, Maximals and Predacons, and even then still believes in Megatron’s ideal.

Goofs:
The story makes constant reference to the cassettes being symbiotic to Soundwave, even though that’s not really a thing in the Marvel comics where other than shooting Laserbeak out a couple of times, most of the other cassettes are shown to be independent of Soundwave.

Howlback is a female, even though I’m not quite sure how that will work out in the Marvel continuity.
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Blackjack
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Post by Blackjack »

I've actually finished reviewing #100, I'm just too lazy to do the synopsis. Tomorrow. Or maybe later today. We shall see.
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