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On a whim, I bought the two Titan collections, Dark Designs and Rage in Heaven. General interest has finally been piqued by Dalek babbling on about the original run on Facebook, so naturally I thought I'd start with the end. Wish me luck!

You probably won't have much trouble "starting at the end", as it were, because G2 is a reasonably standalone book. A small number of plot threads from the original run are picked up, but they're called out pretty well as they come up so there shouldn't be too much confusion. You'll actually miss out on more by skipping the G.I. Joe crossover that preceded it than the G1 book, IMO (and if you want to obtain those you'd need to track down a G.I. Joe trade with a bunch of other, unrelated issues).

The tone of the book is, uh, very different from anything else that's ever been done in Transformers comics, though. It's one of my favourite runs and I'm always one of the first to recommend it, but some folks aren't a huge fan of the stereotypically 90s EXTREEM art style and action scenes.

Generation 2 also probably represents one of tautest storylines Furman has ever produced. The book was given a run by Marvel, but projected sales did not expect the book to last and it was slated for cancellation at #12 if sales didn't hold up. This meant there was a tight editorial control on the book which has really helped Furman frame the story and there's actually a good payoff to the story in the same way there was with US # 75.

It is a shame that the collected editions to date omit both the G.I. Joe lead in (poor though it is) and the 'Ghosts' story that was originally released as a promotional Halloween exclusive (and later reprinted in TF G2 #2 when Derek Yaniger fell behind on art duties), as well as the pin up pieces of art that were printed in TF G2 #12which featured some nice illustrations by Yaniger of Sideswipe and Grimlock, plus another unidentified (and uncredited) artist.

Although the Titan trades mitigate a lot of it, the design work on the book by Starkings & Comicraft is superb, taking full advantage of the leaps and bounds in graphic design that computers were bringing to the market.

Art-wise, its a bit of a mixed bag. Derek Yaniger is one of the best artists to ever have worked on Transformers, but his own pace and scheduling conflicts meant his contribution is reduced to covers as the series progresses. Although the mighty Geoff Senior is a great fit (and, if I'm honest, I would have liked to have seen him on the main strip), Manny Galan struggles a bit by both being brought onto the book at the last minute and trying to mimic Yaniger's style. His best work is in #8, where he starts to draw the Transformers as he sees fit, rather than against his natural style. Sensibly, the mixture of artists is split along the two distinct narrative threads, so its not as jarring as IDWs recent attempts to do the same in Dark Cybertron.

I'm actually liking the art style just because it's so different from the other TF comics I've read.

I read through the first book last night. Pretty high body count for a kids' book, all things considered. No comments to make on the story yet as I like to digest things as a whole, but Furman seems to have had a longer leash creatively. A comic to sell toys whose big bad doesn't have one? I like it! It's like watching the brand actively grow beyond its birth.

Clay wrote:
I read through the first book last night. Pretty high body count for a kids' book, all things considered.

A lot of other 90ies Marvel comics are like that.

Thunderbolts, Amazing Spiderman, Uncanny X-Men, the Marvel Versus DC crossover, Peter Parker-Spiderman with the Ben Reilly storyline around issue 75...

And then there's Spawn.

The 90ies are my favourite nostalgic comic time period as that was the decade I started reading US titles [reading comic books, at around 8, in another language. Beat that! ]

Have to re-read G2 these days, but don't worry, you're not missing much if you go straight to G2 and ignore the Marvel run.

The Joe crossover is in its own trade with the other Marvel crossover if you want to avoid the non-TF material around it, but be warned- the ongoing Joe plots are a bit crap involved.

Have read the back half now and enjoyed it. Typing on the phone is a tedious task, so a more detailed response will have t wait... but, good stuff.

I do like Nova Prime when he was first introduced, when the concept of there being this one Prime that held the Matrix and was an evil extremist............