The Energon Pub

[ZeroWolf]

I'm not sure about that as I think ll events are happening before the unicron event but there's still time to be surprised.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Saviors of the World
A Seibertron.com Spoilerish Review of IDW Transformers: Unicron #4

Synopsis

Unicron sets his sights on Earth... but is anyone left to defend it?

Streets filled with blood, black and red
Dreams and hearts that once knew love are cold and dead

Story

The Unicron tale has crossed the halfway point, and we are now on the downward slide towards and explosive final 2 issues. But the big question is, how did the setup for the finale go? Well, it did not disappoint on many fronts, yet felt slightly hollow in others.

Let me break it down for you.

Breathing rust, it's come to this
We burnt to dust, an apocalypse

On one front, we had a very fast paced story, especially looking back at the previous 3 issues. That's not saying there are pacing issues at all, but a lot happens that you need to keep up with. A spotlight issue is nicely homaged and then in a way bookended. A story that began post-Dark Cybertron that was a dream turned reality for many characters reached its tragic conclusion. The big moment many have waited for finally took place, in pretty spectacular fashion. And how we are to the final battleground, the last stand.

And all that was in a single issue. You keeping up so far?

Cities will burn, the end is come
Paradise is lost, we wonder what we've done

Now while the story did have a lot going on, and it did bring in some other Hasbro properties, as promised, it did have a few wonky moments, ranging from overly happy to the point of somewhat forced hugs to some fun and games in what should be a really dark moment. But those are somewhat minor compared to finally giving the Visionaries a proper and good use and seeing the better side of Prowl once more resurface, and speaking of Prowl the similarities drawn between him and Joe Colton were quite interesting and sort of unexpected despite making complete sense. Also neat was Skywarp once more showing his face and being snarky. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get a Seeker reunion soon.

Riches rust
The iron fist crashes down on the powerless

I must add too that Stardrive had better not show up as a video game Boss level unless she is nerfed quite hard.

Overall, the story itself was good, and it continues to do a mostly great job with balancing characters. We continue to get new named characters on screen even as others leave the stage permanently, Strongarm being a great example of someone showing up late and new in the game. And it continues to give us good character moments, which are made but not drowned out by the very large stage they are performing on.

Art

Art duties once more fall to Alex Milne on lines and Tom B. Long on lettering, with the addition of David Garcia Cruz in addition to our regular Sebastian Cheng. No joke, the first time I read this issue, I did not know there were 2 colorists, that is how well they blended in together. The scenes of Unicron are very well done, and continue to properly show off his size and his power, even if to date he still only has 2 words and a noise expression for dialogue (itself not a bad thing, the art has been enough for this Titan).

But we could live again if we can find ourselves

I think the art continues to be a very strong point in a story about a Planet killing robot, where the struggle really can be to properly keep things in scale and convey the proper size and might, both of which are done properly.

And in addition to all of that, Tom Long continues to do a great job not only conveying the text, but also making sure it does not block any of the scenery of the book.

Final Thoughts

As a final thought on the story itself, there are a 3 things that stand out from this issue, 2 of which are running minor complaints or questions from the whole series: why bring Bumblebee back other than to make quips and yell at Starscream and be heard by more than just him; why do the stars go out when Unicron kills a planet; and where did the Visionaries go and is there role in things really done? Sort of a disappointment that they almost appear to be doing a "Hi and Bye" thing, especially when they themselves are probably the best Anti-Unicron force.

We are kings and conquerors
And I won't bow to you

With 2 issues to go, a lot is going to happen, and I'm intrigued not only by what will happen, but what can happen to finish the story off properly. We have seen so many stories ended here for characters that had major or minor roles throughout the Barber penned stories, and many quite Tragic, which is a wonderful and painful part about the book with the way so many die and so many die that mean things to the people reading it. But with many threads left to tie up, I'm hoping and trusting they find a way to do the remaining 2 issues justice. But for now, we have a pretty good one to set up that final dash.

We are the saviors, the saviors
The saviors of the world

out of

Continuing on with our Skillet/Unicron unity, this week's issue's Theme song is: Saviors of the World.

[Skritz]

Being a Beast Wars fan, I'm sorry but the useage of Maximals as villains to end the serie almost reek of the author hating on BW and making them a secondary unsubtle giant mallet that says "See? They ruined and destroyed everything!"

Overall, so far? Meh, 5/10 with some bonus for ending this.

Edit: Deleted most of the post out of fear of backlash and flamewar.

[ZeroWolf]

I don't think it was any malicious intent behind doing it, and certainly doesn't read to me like it's saying that. It's a bit of a shame that they were used like this but it is what it is.

[Randomhero]

I personally don’t dislike the use of beast wars characters being villains but it has been on my mind throughout all this as “yeah there’s gonna be a lot of people don’t like this”

I too don’t think John is doing this to make people mad. He’s using them because there is a lot of racism toward beastformers established in IDWs history and Shockwave is someone who has always been sympathetic toward cybertronians who have been treated like they’re lesser being so these characters being used as his army do make sense. Yes they are not these characters we all group up with but I feel they do fit with the history of IDW.

Again I do totally understand and can relate to people who do not agree with how these characters are portrayed.

[Skritz]

I personally don’t dislike the use of beast wars characters being villains but it has been on my mind throughout all this as “yeah there’s gonna be a lot of people don’t like this”

I too don’t think John is doing this to make people mad. He’s using them because there is a lot of racism toward beastformers established in IDWs history and Shockwave is someone who has always been sympathetic toward cybertronians who have been treated like they’re lesser being so these characters being used as his army do make sense. Yes they are not these characters we all group up with but I feel they do fit with the history of IDW.

Again I do totally understand and can relate to people who do not agree with how these characters are portrayed.

I find it a bit crappy that they just labelled 'Maximals': now admittedly, making Maximals the 'tribe of Liege Maximo' is admittedly an interesting idea given their name and that the maximal logo is sometimes depicted as green. Unfortunately, to me the idea fall apart because Barber took characters who were once fleshed out characters on their own right, the stars of their own show 20 years ago and turned them into mere cameos and later a near-faceless, dialogue-low army of vicious monsters. I find this interesting and telling of how much the crop of Neo-G1 writers still hold Beast Wars to be secondary, inconsequential or even not having any character of note that people care about. Nevermind this was the first story and character-heavy TF show when it came out.

Perhaps had they fleshed out 'Beast Megatron' and made him a prominent figure in the Maximal army it could have worked because his original portrayal did have an angle of him seeing his Predacon brethren as 'unjustly oppressed' (irrelevant of Predacons being genuinely dickbags safe for Dinobot), hence his plot to alter history in the show. They could have also gone with the angle of using him and Shockwave as flat out embracing the beast side and wanting to make everything beasts: a twisted reversal of Beast Machine Megatron's plan to make every cold, mechanical and logical.

To me this just seem like some sort of bizarre slapdash of ideas not really given time to stand out and be fleshed out combined with some misplaced desire to use 'cameo characters' as much as possible for the finale.

[Sunstar]

I'm loving the setting taking place in toronto. The scenes with the CNtower (I've edge walked it) And I often though it would be quite fun to do a battle there. I chuckled at seeing the BMO tower as well <3 I was quite chuffed.

[Randomhero]

I personally don’t dislike the use of beast wars characters being villains but it has been on my mind throughout all this as “yeah there’s gonna be a lot of people don’t like this”

I too don’t think John is doing this to make people mad. He’s using them because there is a lot of racism toward beastformers established in IDWs history and Shockwave is someone who has always been sympathetic toward cybertronians who have been treated like they’re lesser being so these characters being used as his army do make sense. Yes they are not these characters we all group up with but I feel they do fit with the history of IDW.

Again I do totally understand and can relate to people who do not agree with how these characters are portrayed.

I find it a bit crappy that they just labelled 'Maximals': now admittedly, making Maximals the 'tribe of Liege Maximo' is admittedly an interesting idea given their name and that the maximal logo is sometimes depicted as green. Unfortunately, to me the idea fall apart because Barber took characters who were once fleshed out characters on their own right, the stars of their own show 20 years ago and turned them into mere cameos and later a near-faceless, dialogue-low army of vicious monsters. I find this interesting and telling of how much the crop of Neo-G1 writers still hold Beast Wars to be secondary, inconsequential or even not having any character of note that people care about. Nevermind this was the first story and character-heavy TF show when it came out.

Perhaps had they fleshed out 'Beast Megatron' and made him a prominent figure in the Maximal army it could have worked because his original portrayal did have an angle of him seeing his Predacon brethren as 'unjustly oppressed' (irrelevant of Predacons being genuinely dickbags safe for Dinobot), hence his plot to alter history in the show. They could have also gone with the angle of using him and Shockwave as flat out embracing the beast side and wanting to make everything beasts: a twisted reversal of Beast Machine Megatron's plan to make every cold, mechanical and logical.

To me this just seem like some sort of bizarre slapdash of ideas not really given time to stand out and be fleshed out combined with some misplaced desire to use 'cameo characters' as much as possible for the finale.

Yeah but in the same it’s not their story and there’s not really much of reason to give them time to be characters in ways. They’re there to be an army. They are just these characters in appearance and I don’t think we technically need to compare them to their cartoon personalities. In 35 years we’ve gotten over a dozen different versions of G1 characters to a point where have a megatron who has become a good guy.

With beast wars it’s a little harder since there’s pretty much one or two versions of primal and beast megatron. Beast wars is so modern no one has really ever tried or wanted to make new reinterpretations of these because nobody wants to or they don’t know how to because beast wars characterization was pretty perfect.

I asked while reading this “why not just call them predacons? Seems more appropriate- oh right, there are predacons in this universe...”

Again I do understand if you don’t like how they’re portrayed. They are just generics wearing iconic character costume. Literally since the reveal in issue 2 and I can say “if they’re just genetics why use them? Just use other beat characters.”

It’s a question really for John and if you ask him on Twitter and he might answer! He’s very friendly and does answer fan questions. The answer might just be “I wanted to use some beast wars characters in here”

[ZeroWolf]

To be fair, beast wars: uprising did offer new takes on characters but it was club fiction.

[ScottyP]

There could have been a different plan initially, but the universe ending shoehorned the Maximals into their current role. They cut an imposing figure when they're not done up all craggly.

[Randomhero]

To be fair, beast wars: uprising did offer new takes on characters but it was club fiction.

That’s true. I did forget about uprising.

All in all I thought this issue was okay. I don’t know why but it took this issue for me to understand shockwaves plan. Going back and rereading from issue 1 I was like “oh he did state his plan from the beginning”

It just didn’t stick with me at all. Mostly I think because of the maximals being with unicron.

[Skritz]

I personally don’t dislike the use of beast wars characters being villains but it has been on my mind throughout all this as “yeah there’s gonna be a lot of people don’t like this”

I too don’t think John is doing this to make people mad. He’s using them because there is a lot of racism toward beastformers established in IDWs history and Shockwave is someone who has always been sympathetic toward cybertronians who have been treated like they’re lesser being so these characters being used as his army do make sense. Yes they are not these characters we all group up with but I feel they do fit with the history of IDW.

Again I do totally understand and can relate to people who do not agree with how these characters are portrayed.

I find it a bit crappy that they just labelled 'Maximals': now admittedly, making Maximals the 'tribe of Liege Maximo' is admittedly an interesting idea given their name and that the maximal logo is sometimes depicted as green. Unfortunately, to me the idea fall apart because Barber took characters who were once fleshed out characters on their own right, the stars of their own show 20 years ago and turned them into mere cameos and later a near-faceless, dialogue-low army of vicious monsters. I find this interesting and telling of how much the crop of Neo-G1 writers still hold Beast Wars to be secondary, inconsequential or even not having any character of note that people care about. Nevermind this was the first story and character-heavy TF show when it came out.

Perhaps had they fleshed out 'Beast Megatron' and made him a prominent figure in the Maximal army it could have worked because his original portrayal did have an angle of him seeing his Predacon brethren as 'unjustly oppressed' (irrelevant of Predacons being genuinely dickbags safe for Dinobot), hence his plot to alter history in the show. They could have also gone with the angle of using him and Shockwave as flat out embracing the beast side and wanting to make everything beasts: a twisted reversal of Beast Machine Megatron's plan to make every cold, mechanical and logical.

To me this just seem like some sort of bizarre slapdash of ideas not really given time to stand out and be fleshed out combined with some misplaced desire to use 'cameo characters' as much as possible for the finale.

Yeah but in the same it’s not their story and there’s not really much of reason to give them time to be characters in ways. They’re there to be an army. They are just these characters in appearance and I don’t think we technically need to compare them to their cartoon personalities. In 35 years we’ve gotten over a dozen different versions of G1 characters to a point where have a megatron who has become a good guy.

With beast wars it’s a little harder since there’s pretty much one or two versions of primal and beast megatron. Beast wars is so modern no one has really ever tried or wanted to make new reinterpretations of these because nobody wants to or they don’t know how to because beast wars characterization was pretty perfect.

I asked while reading this “why not just call them predacons? Seems more appropriate- oh right, there are predacons in this universe...”

Again I do understand if you don’t like how they’re portrayed. They are just generics wearing iconic character costume. Literally since the reveal in issue 2 and I can say “if they’re just genetics why use them? Just use other beat characters.”

It’s a question really for John and if you ask him on Twitter and he might answer! He’s very friendly and does answer fan questions. The answer might just be “I wanted to use some beast wars characters in here”

Isn't that a self-fullfilling prophecy? There's no real basis for alternate interpretation because, unlike G1 which had cartoon and comics, the BW cast only really ever had their TV show with very strong characterization. But because said characterization exist nobody will try to go for an alternate take.

As for Twitter: I try to stay away from cancer, thank you very much.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Now I've read it...

To me this was a filler issue. Exposition heavy doesn't even begin to describe it. The crux of the entire issue, again was lost to the artwork. The roar, the chest glow.. Joy? Pain? The art definitely isn't telling the reader.

A continuing problem I'm having with this series. Note I'm not saying the art is bad, it's actually quite good and consistent throughout. However, every single panel seems to have at least ten extra things at play it simply shouldn't. It's too much and is hindering the visual flow of the story. To me this could have been last issues back up story and it wouldn't have felt out of place. 5/10

I find this interesting and telling of how much the crop of Neo-G1 writers still hold Beast Wars to be secondary, inconsequential or even not having any character of note that people care about. Nevermind this was the first story and character-heavy TF show when it came out.

100% agree with this. Certainly what I've reading between the lines from their inclusion in this story.

[william-james88]

I dont know if I am in the majority or minority, but this mini isnt doing it for me. For such a huge event, I feel really underwhelmed by it all. They really doubled down on the "no gods" thing and Unicron's lack of sentience kinda sucks out all the fun and wonder. Plus for trying to make it more into the realm of science than that of fantasy, I lose all sense of scale and logic by having all the saved races along with the entire race of giant robots currently inhabit earth. How small was cybertron then?
Usually Milne's art is enough to carry me, but even that seems to be different than what i am used to. Maybe its due to the different colourist or inker,but it feels far less clean than before. Also while Milne exceeds at robotic beings, I always found his humans simply average compared to the rest of the industry, lacking in any distinctive style. And this book has lots of organics so it doesnt play to his strong suit.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thanks to a heads up from Comic lover Sunstar, we have word that IDW artist Alex Milne has been given permission to share with us his cover for IDW Unicron #6! The cover, shared on his twitter page, is his interpretation of the end of the IDW universe at the hands of Unicron, with various bots and fragments of panels showing scenes from all of the IDW titles being sucked into Unicron's maw as he roars in rage. He also was kind enough to share the uncolored version.

Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

[ZeroWolf]

Why did he have to include that bit of Kup dying...I was trying to forget that series. Though it also looks like that's the only but of Megatron we'll see in this mini series

@Will thanks for posting your thoughts on this, especially on your take on Unicron. While it is different, I do wish it had been different from the take they went with. I would have loved them to have presented us with a Unicron that was akin to the elder gods of the Cthuthulu Mythos. Or if they want him to be silent, then make it an allusion to him seeing the TFs as ants, and we don't have conversations with ants before we deal with them do we. It's a shame as I love the look of this Unicron, and I would throw money at Hasbro to have a toy of it (In fact I bet that the people who have done the recent Tarn non-transforming statue would handle something like this)

[ausbot]

When is the reboot happening, I've lost interest in this version of transformers, too many other titles, I would like one book so I didn't need to get 100 other books to know what is going on.

[william-james88]

@Will thanks for posting your thoughts on this, especially on your take on Unicron. While it is different, I do wish it had been different from the take they went with. I would have loved them to have presented us with a Unicron that was akin to the elder gods of the Cthuthulu Mythos. Or if they want him to be silent, then make it an allusion to him seeing the TFs as ants, and we don't have conversations with ants before we deal with them do we.

All great points, I fully agree with. And I dont mind silent Unicron, as long as it shows it has agency of its own. But this one doesnt, its just an automated deathstar. You know what this treatment of Unicron reminds me of? 2 things:

- Ultimate/Movie Galactus: Just an entity devoid of any personality that was very boring to have as an antagonist and only shared similarities in name and some visual cues.
- Bane from Batman and Robin: looks like Bane, has Bane's name, even his powers but is just a brain dead pastiche of what we think of when we think of Bane. This is what this Unicron is.

Of all the ideas they could have had for an interpretation of Unicron, this is the most dull Barber could have gone with.

[ScottyP]

When is the reboot happening, I've lost interest in this version of transformers, too many other titles, I would like one book so I didn't need to get 100 other books to know what is going on.

Next year. There are six issues remaining of the current continuity, two this month, four in October.

[william-james88]

When is the reboot happening, I've lost interest in this version of transformers, too many other titles, I would like one book so I didn't need to get 100 other books to know what is going on.

Arent there like only 3 books, one of them being a miniseries? And both Optimus Prime and Lost Light are independent of eachother so you dont need one to know what is going on in the other.
And i dont think the reboot will mean less books.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Amusing to see a picture of Thunderwing (The Forgotten) on that cover and being so prominent...

[D-Maximal_Primal]

After getting a glimpse at Alex Milne's cover for Unicron #6, we have yet another cover from the final IDW universe ending issue, this time at the hands of its original artist: EJ Su! The final issue cover gives us Unicron in the background as Optimus Prime poses like Christ on the cross and with a slight glow around him, while Soundwave, Starscream, Bumblebee, and Windblade's heads all float around him. EJ Su was the original IDW Transformers artist, penciling the Infiltration, Escalation, and Devastation series, in addition to spotlights around the same time and some covers and interiors since.

Check it out below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

AUG180714
(W) John Barber (A) Alex Milne (CA) E. J. Su
EARTH WAR! With Unicron's ultimate goal revealed, the shaky alliance of Autobots and Decepticons is all that stands between Earth and the planet-eater. Heroes will rise-and fall-as Optimus Prime journeys into the dark heart of Unicron for the final confrontation with evil. At stake: the soul of a universe.

This is it! The end of an era! Finishing off 13 years' worth of continuity with a bang!
A double-sized story for the ages!
Don't miss the cover by the man who introduced the IDW age of Transformers: E.J. Su!
In Shops: Oct 24, 2018
Final Orders Due: Oct 01, 2018

[ZeroWolf]

Why does Starscreams face look off in that cover? The rest look fine, it's just his.

[Dinobot-Snarl]

Why does Starscreams face look off in that cover? The rest look fine, it's just his.

Agreed. That was the only face I could not recognized until I read the post. Odd eh?

[Flashwave]

Why does Starscreams face look off in that cover? The rest look fine, it's just his.

Cause his whole head and helmet is rounded on the same contours, the traditional helmet is more blocky and angular