IDW - Regeneration One #0

Title: Less Than Zero

Writer: Simon Furman

Art: Pages 1,22: Casey Coller

Art: Pages 2-6: Geoff Senior

Pencils: Pages 7-11: Jeff Anderson

Pencils: Pages 12-16: Joss Delbo

Art: Pages 17-21: Nick Roche

Inks: Pages 7-16: Stephen Baskerville

Colorist: John-Paul Bove

Letterer: Chris Mowry

Editor: John Barber

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

Plot

Hot Rod is tumbling through Zero Space, courtesy of Primus and is ejected, as an observer on Earth, during the battle with the Deathbringer. He watches the battle unfold and wonders why he's been sent there. After the Autobots defeat the Deathbringer Hot Rod continues to wait, eventually he sees what he's supposed to, the piece of the Matrix that was inside the Deathbringer is still around, and is tainted with evil, thus meaning that it's out there somewhere still.

Primus whips him up again, sending him to the distant past of Cybertron, long before the war broke out, where he follows Jhiaxus, someone he has no knowledge of, into Boltax's tower of Knowledge. Hot Rod watches as Jhiaxus, Boltax and three others pool their mental resources together as they create the Underbase. When inside the Underbase's cyber-ocean Jhiaxus attacks the others, and starts mining it for information, and makes plans for the informations. At the same time he deletes all records about himself, including memories and leaves, to begin his grand schemes, which Hot Rod wonders about...

Hot Rod is taken away before he can find out anything else and arrives on Earth again, just as Megatron's army of zombie Decepticons starts their rampage. Hot Rod follows the journey of Buster and his wife Jessie as they drive around and try to evade the Decepticons. They call Spike to try and get him to come with Fort Max to help, but Spike's not answering his phone. Buster and Jessie hide out in a carwash, but the zombie Ratbat finds them, and kills them both. Hot Rod wonders whether he was there to see Buster's fate, or what tipped the mental state of Spike...

Hot Rod is shot out of Zero Space and lands, corporeally on the planet of Junk where he finds an alternate version of himself fighting with Galvatron, he sees a crashed Autobot ship of some design he can't identify, and sees the bodies of several of his friends (and Arcee). Hot Rod warns his counterpart about an attack from Cyclonus and Scourge, and IS HEARD! Rodimus Prime however is shocked and ends up gettin ghit by the two Decepticons, the Matrix being flung off the chain around his neck, which lands near Hot Rod. Galvatron kills Rodimus and gloats to his troops, Hot Rod understands that he's not there to learn anything, just for some help, that he can't get back home, and reaches out for the Matrix.

Back in the Regen universe Bludgeon is about to kill Kup when a newly arisen Rodimus Prime appears from nowhere to stop him!

Characters

Autobot

Hor Rod/Rodimus Prime - Car/Caravan

Optimus Prime - Truck

Siren - Car

Nightbeat - Car

Getaway - Car

Hosehead - Fire Engine

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Alternate Reality Rodimus Prime - Caravan Killed by Galvatron

Alternate Reality Ultra Magnus - Car Carrier Dead

Alternate Reality Kup - Pick Up Truck Dead

Alternate Reality Springer - Rocket Car/Helicopter Dead

Alternate Reality Arcee - Car Dead

Other Autobots

Optimus Prime's Original Body (Flashback) Dead

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Flashback) Possessed by Primus

Waverider - Hovercraft (Mentioned)

Fortress Maximus - Battle Platform (Mentioned)

Alternate Reality Optimus Prime - Truck (Mentioned) Dead

Decepticon

Bludgeon - Tank

Octane - Oil Tanker/Cargo Plane "Zombified"

Ratbat - Cassette "Zombified"

Razorclaw - Lion "Zombified"

Skywarp - Jet "Zombified"

Bugly "Zombified"

Thundercracker - Jet "Zombified"

Other Zombie-cons "Zombified"

Alternate Reality Galvatron - Laser Cannon

Alternate Reality Cyclonus - Space Jet

Alternate Reality Scourge - Space Shuttle

Megatron (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Jhiaxus - Jet

Boltax Mentally Injured by Jhiaxus

Decanus Mentally Injured by Jhiaxus

Brain Trust member 4 and 5 Mentally Injured by Jhiaxus

Boltax's Disciples 

Human

Buster Witwicky Killed by Ratbat

Jessie Witwicky Killed by Ratbat

Spike Witwicky

Firefighters

Human Evacuees Killed by Zombie-Cons

Other

Deathbringer Commited suicide thanks to Optimus

Anti-Matrix Creature

Mechanical Medic (Flashback) Turned into Deathbringer

Primus (Flashback) Inside Grimlock's body

Notes

• This issue acts both as a continuation of Hot Rod's journey, which began in issue 94, it also acts as a prequel to the series as well, helping to fill in some gaps in the plot.
• This comic COULD be seen as the Regeneration One celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the brand, with Marvel's comic continuity being the basis, as it uses several popular artists from across the franchise, and focuses on several different time frames. It also emulates the art style, including the changes in colouring style over the years as well, from ben-day style dots to block colouring etc.
• The Deathbringer segment is essentially a retelling of the UK story that had this event, but with Hot Rod being included as an observer, and the revelation of the tainted Matrix fragment at the end.
• Jhiaxus is revealed here to have existed long ago (and not created through budding like in the G2 comics) and that his absence from anyone's memories was due to him essentially deleting himself to hide
• It's shown here that Buster and Jessie have gotten married since they last appeared in the comics
• From the look of their mobile phone, it looks like Megatron's zombie invasion began in the mid-late 1990's
• Buster's fate, where he is killed in his car by Ratbat in a carwash is of course a reference to the events of "Buster Witwicky and the Carwash of Doom".
• The future alternate reality events shown are most likely from Galvatron's home universe, which therefore shows how he killed Magnus and the others, including Rodimus. This also implies that after he killed Rodimus he dragged his body back to Earth to string him up in New York. This alternate reality is basically the events of the 80's movie, but if the ship was left intact and the crews were combined.
• Ironically even though Hot Rod says he must be in an alternate future, the events of the Movie take place in 2005/2006, and Regen is set in 2012/2013
• The final scenes in this comic are clearly set during issue 95, which hasn't been released yet.
• Hot Rod doesn't name-check Arcee amongst the corpses, most likely because she doesn't have a counterpart at the moment in Regen One.
• It's likely that the reason Hot Rod was corporeal in the Junkion scene is because it's not a part of his history, but an alternate reality. Also he needed to be able to touch the Matrix here, so he had to be corporeal for that too!
• I wonder if Rodimus Prime has claimed the alternate reality's Matrix for himself as well?