Generation 2: Redux

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"Generation 2: Redux"
Publisher	Fun Publications
First published	BotCon 2010, June 24, 2010 November 24, 2010 (retail edition)
Writers	Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop
Pencils	Robby Musso
Inks	Robby Musso and Frank Milkovich
Colors	Evan Gauntt, Trent Troop, and Jesse Wittenrich
Letters	Jesse Wittenrich
Editor	Pete Sinclair
Continuity	Wings Universe
Chronology	2010

The Transformers fight over a powerful new substance called forestonite.

Synopsis

For 22 years, Earth was the main stage for the Transformers war. But after the Rebirth, where Cybertron was revitalized, Galvatron and Zarak took the Decepticons into deep space, with Optimus Prime and many other Autobots heading after them. Meanwhile, on Earth, a new generation of Transformers was born from Cyberfactories in conjunction with the humans and Nebulons using technology reverse-engineered from Vector Sigma. Considering themselves Earthlings rather than Cybertronians, these Transformers were intended to be factionless, but war soon reared up again, creating new factions of Autobots and Decepticons. Both Prime and Galvatron have sent troops back to investigate the new war...

The Autobots fare poorly in their latest battle; Clench's Decepticons have taken the Large Hadron Collider, and the Autobot leader, Pyro, has been captured. Pyro orders everyone to fall back as he's taken, and his troops fall back, regrouping 10 miles out. Streetwise, one of the few Autobots from the previous generation still on Earth, and the only functional Protectobot, notes he would have gotten out here sooner if he knew how bad it was. Meanwhile, Pyro's second in command Rapido gets into an argument with Scorch, Optimus Prime's envoy, who thinks of the mission as a failure and the new generation as being mere children. Streetwise stands up for Rapido, knowing he's no rookie, and Rapido notes the Decepticons had some new allies. Aquafend identifies them as Sharkticons, noting that reports from deep space also indicated they were lead by a Predacon General. The Autobots aren't sure what Clench is up too, but Rapido managed to download the facilities specs, enabling them to get inside. Scorch is annoyed at Rapido pulling rank, but the young Autobot notes that in an emergency, he outranks everyone, authorized by Optimus himself. Streetwise wonders if Pyro will be okay, and Rapido notes that Pyro will be online for at least a little while to sate Clench's sadism...

Meanwhile, at the LHC, Pyro is brought before Clench. The Autobot nonchalantly needles Clench, noting that he's stooping pretty low to be working with Quintessons. The Predacon General, the arrogant Sky-Byte, tells Pyro to watch himself. Sky-Byte proceeds to explain the plan: using the LHC, the Decepticons have refined forestonite, a fuel source found only on Earth. It can give Transformers astounding abilities...possibly with some unexpected mutagenic side-effects. Breakdown, last of the Stunticons, doesn't trust Sky-Byte and his science, worried what would happen if Galvatron were to find out. Clench reminds Breakdown that on Earth, he's in charge, but concedes that he's right about the forestonite possibly being dangerous. Clench grabs a container and throws it at Cindersaur, ignoring Sky-Byte's warnings that it's not meant to be taken orally; the Decepticon quickly chows down, but the mutagenic affects cause him great pain. Clench tells Sky-Byte and Breakdown that once the samples are stable, they're to be the next test subjects, followed by him...if they survive.

Outside the facility, the Decepticons have helped themselves to some oil. Double Punch attempts to make conversation with Calcar, but the former's accent makes him nigh-impossible to understand. Suddenly, Slicer is shot, as an Autobot group lead by Scorch engage the Decepticons. With Aquafend informing the others that the Go-Bots, their nearest reinforcements, are 15 minutes away, the situation doesn't look good, and soon the forestonite enhanced Decepticons join the battle. Clench sics the Firecons on them, and when Electro tries to cut them down, Clench demonstrates his new gravity powers on the unsuspecting Autobot. Motormouth manages to knock Clench away from his friend, but Electro is soon attacked by the heavily mutated Cindersaur. Slicer attacks Gobots and Windbreaker, Motormouth is chased by the Sharkticons, and Double Punch and Calcar knock Leadfoot and Scorch around.

Meanwhile, Road Pig is knocked out by Streetwise, who has split from the others with Rapido and Meanstreak to rescue Pyro and stop the Decepticon's plans. Rapido tries to blow the door down with an experimental proton missile, but embarrassingly, all it leaves is a little scorch mark. Streetwise knocks the door down his way, with his fists. With the only guards being two Sharkticons, Streetwise tries the old universal greeting trick, but their upgrades allows them to see past the bribe. Rapido transforms and knocks them through the wall, where they greet the bound Pyro. Suddenly, the Autobots are confronted by Breakdown, Sky-Byte, and Roadblock; the Stunticon unleashes his new sonic attacks on Streetwise, his nemesis ever since their respective teams were destroyed. Sky-Byte decides to celebrate his upcoming victory by composing a haiku, much to Rapido's confusing, and the Predacon unleashes his new Tsunami Blaster attack on the Autobot.

Back outside, things are looking bad for the Autobots, when the Go-Bots, having been delayed by border checkpoints, finally arrive. Even better, reinforcements from Autobot City have arrived at the Geneva Space Bridge Nexus, only 8 minutes away from the battle. Scorch, reinvigorated, attack Double Punch with the Go-Bots. Back inside, Breakdown thrashes Streetwise, while Rapido lets off more of the proton missiles. Sky-Byte easily dodges them, laughing at their ineffectiveness...but Rapido wasn't aiming at him, and the freed Pyro attacks Sky-Byte, throwing him into Roadblock. Pyro heads for the forestonite, hoping to make the fight level, but Breakdown declares that if the Decepticons can't have it, no one can, and blasts the canisters. Surprisingly, they don't explode, but with the pressure the forestonite is stored at, it turns gaseous, quickly exposing everyone in to room and moving beyond.

Outside, Scorch and the Go-Bots pour the pain on Double Punch, as the reinforcements arrive from Autobot City. Aquafend and Gobots rush inside to save the hostages, Electro and Volt are sent to shut down the energy fields, and Leadfoot and Manta Ray are radioed by Pyro to shut down the wind turbines powering the facility, as the facility begins to overload. Inside, Aquafend and Gobots are confronted by Jetstorm and Deluge, the two having recently returned from Cybertron. Aquafend sarcastically greets Jetstorm, his brother, but the four are interrupted when the forestonite rushes through the corridor, mutating them. Meanwhile, Electro tries to shut down the power while Volt holds off Jolt and Sizzle, and they too are soon covered in forestonite gas. Meanwhile, Streetwise is unable to move out of the way when a large chunk of the ceiling falls...and passes right through them! Sky-Byte tries to annihilate Rapido before he can discover his abilities, but the Autobot now has superspeed, easily outrunning the Predacon's Tsunami Blaster and guiding his heat-seeking missiles outside, knocking over Clecn and guiding the missiles into Cindersaur. Enraged, Clench prepares to kill Rapido, but Pyro engages him, offering to help him integrate with society if he stands down. Clecnh refuses, and tries to use his gravity powers on Pyro, but the Autobots new ability allows him to see a few seconds into the future, causing Clench's attack to down Skyjack instead. Double Punch throws the groggy Scorch aside, ready to assist his leader in defeating Pyro, only to find that the Autobot easily avoids his clumsy attacks, and he too is pinned down by Clench's gravity attack.

At the same time, Roadblock is taken out by Meanstreak, using his new electrified vehicle mode, while the increasingly paranoid Breakdown shouts at Streetwise to face him. Streetwise, expertly avoiding him, tells him that their feud is pointless; both of them are the last of their teams. Still, Breakdown refuses to listen to reason, declaring there can only be one. As he rants, Streetwise sneaks up behind Breakdown, telling him he's under arrest...but when Double Punch is caught in Clench's gravity trap, his mass ruptures the facility, distracting Streetwise and allowing Breakdown to escape. Double Punch flies off, unwilling to deal with anymore superpowered Autobots, and as the gas flows out and mutates the Autobots outside the facility, Clench finds himself agreeing, ordering the Decepticons to retreat. Later, with the hostages freed, and the Autobots helping repair the LHC, Pyro gathers the leftover forestonite containers, offering some to Streetwise that he can take back to Autobot City and help bring back the other Protectobots with. Streetwise accepts his offer, but plans to have the Protectobots transferred here, planning to stay in the action. Pyro declares that with their powers, they truly are a new generation, and also notes several forestonite barrels have mysteriously gone missing, creating a new mystery for the Autobot detective to solve...

A few days latter in Rennes, Slicer arrives outside a ship with some forestonite, as his supposed future self greets him. The older "Slicer" trades the forestonite for the Autobots "battle plans" up to the year 5000, and quickly takes off. Inside, "Slicer" is annoyed by the stupidity of his counterpart, and rips his fake Decepticon insignia off...revealing him to be the negative-polarity Wheeljack! Reporting to Rodimus, Wheeljack informs him that while he missed Nexus Prime before he left this dimension, he managed to gather some forestonite for their special project. Rodimus orders him back, and Wheeljack complies, eager to escape these weird universe where Autobots are good and Decepticons are evil. As Wheeljack blasts off, Slicer discovers the battle plans are in fact the video game Ninja Gladiator for the Magnographix 16, and comments that everyone's right: he is a jerk!

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"So I' sez to 'im, you fink I'm gonna tear off me head and let some squishy live n'it, you got another fink comin'."
"I don't know what you're saying."
"I was expressin' my disinterest i—"
"No, I mean I can't understand you."

—Double Punch has an accent that Calcar can't penetrate.

"Om nom nom nom nom!"

—Cindersaur eats a canister of forestonite.

"Well, this is embarrassing. This has never happened before, I swear."

—Rapido has impotent photon missiles.

"Fire and debris fall
ambition has been thwarted
we'll take our cut now."

—Sky-Byte departs with a haiku

"Then we'd best make it official then. Can't have enough star players on the team, after all. Thanks to the forestonite mutation, we're all experimental tech now. We truly are a new generation of Transformers. And there's going to be lots to do: Decepticons to thwart, villains to fight, a home to defend. Not to mention a case to solve... How are your detective skills, Streetstar?"
"Can't be beat, please don't call me that."

—Pyro and StreetWISE. The latter of which does not like his new name.

Notes

• Mentioned characters include: "Nexus-Whoever".
• Characters mentioned in Clench's profile include: Galvatron, Zarak, the Queen of England, and Pyro.
  • Clench is noted to be a U.S. citizen under the Non-Biological Entity Citizenship Amendment, referencing Sector Seven's designation for Transformers from the live-action movies. Clench's original toy has a license plate that indicates he's from Texas. He's number one on the FBI's Most Wanted list, and wanted by Interpol for numerous crimes.
  • Clench is knows as the "Colossus of Roads", referencing both the Colossus of Rhodes (an ancient Greek statue) and Clench's alternative name that his Generation 2 re-release was sold under.
  • Clench has rheanimum-enforced armor (a substance from the Marvel Generation 2 comics) and his riot shield is coated in electrum (from The Transformers episodes "The Golden Lagoon").
• Characters mentioned in Rapido's profile include: Optimus Prime, the Concurrence, and Pyro.
  • Rapido was injured in a racing accident, preventing him from helping during the Battle of Autobot City seen in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • Rapido helped save Optimus Prime from the Concurrence, a group of human villains from the Binaltech storyline.
  • Rapido's gun is called a "Axelerator Cannon", named for his sub-group.
• Characters mentioned in Slicer's profile include: Galvatron, Breakdown, and Clench.
  • Slicer's shotguns shoot solitarium buckshot rounds; solitarium is a substance from the Robotmasters series.
  • Slicer is noted to have damaged his "Neuro-Centre Control" when landing on Earth, leaving him stuck with a French accent. Slicer's original toy's Power Plans labelled his head as a "Neuro Centre Control", without the hyphen.
  • Slicer's motto paraphrases the French guard from the 1975 British comedy film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Characters mentioned in Scorch's profile include: Optimus Prime, Boss, Flash, Hurricane, and Double Punch.
  • Scorch is noted to have been with the Turbomasters in space while the other Autobots were on Earth.

Continuity notes

• This story takes place a few years after the fourth season of The Transformers cartoon, with most of the first generation Autobot forces chasing after Galvatron and Zarak's Decepticons in space, while the second generation Autobots and Decepticons duke it out on Earth.
• Breakdown and Streetwise were last seen in The Transformers episodes "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1" and "The Rebirth, Part 3", respectively.
• The volcanic eruption that awoke the Autobots and Decepticons in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1" is among the events flashed back during the "Cybernet Space Cube" montage.
• Streetwise tries using the universal greeting and energon goodie trick on the Sharkticons, first seen in The Transformers: The Movie.
• Jazz, Beachcomber, and Seaspray all last showed up at various points in the third season of the The Transformers cartoon. Goldbug last appeared in "The Rebirth", while Sideswipe hasn't been seen since the second season of the cartoon.
• Aquafend notes that Jetstorm has returned from Cybertron; he and Deluge were seen in "The Coming Storm: Part 1" harassing and eventually getting their butts kicked by Nexus Prime.
• Wheeljack's appearance here places him as having come at some point after "Transhuman", released a year later. While he's working for Rodimus here, at some point he'll depart from his forces, joining up with Ultra Magnus' faction. He has also been looking for Nexus Prime, noting that he was in this reality some time before, as seen in the aforementioned "The Coming Storm".

Transformers references

• Nearly every Generation 2 original character gets to make an appearance in this story. Aside from toys released at BotCon 2010, these include:
  • The Decepticon Cyberjets, minus Hooligan, who appeared in "Wings of Honor" as part of the early Skyraider Decepticons. Skyjack, specifically, is in his Universe toy form (which was called "Skyfall" due to trademark reasons).
  • Meanstreak and Staxx of the Power Masters.
  • The Rotor Force toys.
  • The Laser Rod toys
  • The Laser Cycles.
  • The new Go-Bot Autobots.
  • The Axelerators.
  • The Skyscorchers.
  • The Auto Rollers.
  • The Color Changers (with Aquafend replacing Drench,who was shown in "Flames of Yesterday" to be the Decepticon Drench after defecting to the Autobots).
  • Calcar.
• Additionally, a few of the Generation 1 characters released in the Generation 2 toyline appear, including:
  • The Generation 2 releases of Sparkstalker and Flamefeather, who are joined by Cindersaur here.
  • Fizzle, who would be shown in later stories to have changed his name to "Blaze", the name of his Generation 2 release.
  • Minibots Beachcomber, Bumblebee (who first shows up as Goldbug; the forestonite turns him back into Bumblebee, albeit more toy-accurate than before), Hubcap, and Seaspray.
  • Autobot Cars Sideswipe and Jazz.
• For the first half of the story, Breakdown and Streetwise appear as "virtual" redecos of their BotCon 2010 toys using their Generation 1 colors.
• Streetwise and Rapido are drawn with their door wings folded folded against their backs, helping them better resemble their original toys.
• Breakdown being the only functional Stunticon is a reference to the fact that his Generation 2 toy was the only one of the Stunticons that saw release, as an exclusive at BotCon 1994. None of the Protectobots had their toys released either.
• The panels in the flashback are lined with patterns like those of the Cybernet Space Cube, a scene-transition added to The Transformers episodes for their release as the Generation 2 cartoon.
• Galvatron is drawn based on his Universe Deluxe Class toy.
• Optimus Prime's headcrest is drawn as silver, as it was erroneously in the "Rebirth" three-parter.
• Several Second Generation Transformers (including Rapido) are noted to have been built in the '90s, a reference to how some of the early Generation 2 toys were originally released at the tail end of the European The Transformers toyline.
• Aquafend notes that the new Sharkticons were first encountered when they destroyed an Autobot outpost near Zegris, a planet introduced in "Gone Too Far".
• Sky-Byte is noted to be a Predacon General; Japanese media would indicate that the Predacons were created by the Quintessons.
• Rapido says that "in an emergency, I outrank everybody," referencing Rapido's original tech specs, where he had a rank of 10. (Optimus Prime's rank was only 9 that year!)
• Forestonite was originally introduced in the Comic Bom Bom G-2 manga, "The New Battle!!"
• The...bright coloration of Generation 2 toys is explained here to be part of the mutagenic side effects of forestonite exposure.
• Sky-Byte, like his Robots in Disguise cartoon incarnation, likes to make haiku. Additionally, his exposure to forestonite gives him the ability to shoot a "Tsunami Blaster" from his chest, named for the special attack of RID Sky-Byte.
• Aquafend and Jetstorm are brothers, in reference to their shared mold.
• Rapido jokes that Clench takes after his predecessors when he retreats as the fight gets more fair, poking fun at The Transformers cartoon's habit of having the Decepticons retreat at the slightest inconvenience to their plans.
• Pyro insists on calling Streetwise "Streetstar", much to his consternation. Streetstar was the name given to his BotCon 2010 toy, as the name Streetwise was not available.
• Sideswipe gives himself spiked wheels, based on the depiction of his counterpart in the Marvel Generation 2 comics.
• The Ninja Gladiator game first appeared in the Transformers Animated episode "Where Is Thy Sting?".

Real-world references

• The general idea of the second generation of Transformers being created on Earth likely owes something to Hirofumi Ichikawa's fanmade doujinshi, Transformers: Chronicles. Rapido is noted to have been one of the earliest of the new generation, created before most; the Axelerators were also depicted as such.
• Most of the action takes place within and about the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. It's real! And it didn't end the universe.
• Streetwise's personality is based on fictional private investigator John Shaft, referencing his TFWiki article's opening, itself based on Shaft's theme song from the 1971 Shaft film (based on the 1970 novel in which the character debuted).
• Rapido's mannerisms are based on the character of The Most Interesting Man in the World, part of an advertising campaign for Dos Equis beer that ran from 2006 to 2018.
• Clench's mannerisms are based on American character actor Jack Palance. His claim to have "core-dumped bigger than you" is paraphrased from his character Curly Washburn from the 1991 comedy film City Slickers. His quip "Believe it... or not!" refers to Ripley's Believe It or Not!, a documentary series which Palance hosted from 1982 to 1986.
• Pyro's mannerisms are based on the Doctor, the titular protagonist of the long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who; specifically, the tenth incarnation of the character played by Scottish actor David Tennant from 2005 to 2010.
• When Cindersaur downs the forestonite, he goes "om nom nom", an internet meme popular in the 2000s, often used in image macros.. The meme itself originates from the onomatopoeiac noise made by the Muppet Cookie Monster while eating cookies on the long-running children's show Sesame Street.
• Pyro notes in the end that humanity can go back to "hunting the Higgs boson", an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics, the existence of which was still trying to be proven back in 2010.
• The Magnographix 16 is named in reference to Hudson Soft's TurboGrafx-16 game console.

Errors

• In the flashback, Zarak is drawn as the Headmasters version of Scorponok, rather than his animation model as seen in "The Rebirth". This was corrected for the Diamond Edition.
• Streetwise is consistently drawn with Rapido's helmet.

Other Trivia

• The Diamond Edition includes an exclusive epilogue (featuring Slicer and Shattered Glass Wheeljack) and profile pages for Clench, Rapido, Slicer, and Scorch.
• Powers granted by forestonite include:
  • Firecons: enhanced flame attacks
  • Clench: can create localized gravity wells.
  • Breakdown: Concussive sonic blasts
  • Sky-Byte: "Tsunami Blaster" chest-beam attack
  • Rapido: superspeed
  • Pyro: premonition of imminent future
  • Bumblebee: floats like a butterfly
  • Sideswipe: shape shifting
  • Beachcomber: plant life blossoms where he stands
  • Streetwise: intangibility
  • Windbreaker: air blasts
  • Motormouth: energy lasso
  • Aquafend: ice attacks
  • Meanstreak: pain-inducing energy surge
  • Electro: Electricity-enhanced sword
  • Most characters do not showcase their powers, but some will get to show them off in later stories.

Covers

• BotCon Edition: Spark and the other G2 Redux Autobots pushing "City Commander" Ultra Magnus out of the way to rush to a situation, and closeups of Breakdown and Clench; art by Nick Roche and colors by Thomas Deer.
• Diamond Edition: G2 Autobots by Alex Milne and colors by Evan Gauntt.