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Based on this issue I don't see most of the remaining '84 cast surviving. Guess we'll see! I do wish this and OP 24 had been wrapped into one book with the final battle actually starting with this chapter. There is a metric ton of plot to resolve in Unicron 6 now.

We have two pieces of news concerning the final chapter of the Unicron mini-series. Firstly, Scotty P has made us aware of a five page preview over at Comic Crusaders. For those unaware, this final issue is a double issue and Alex Milne will be accompanied by Sara Pitre-Durocher, Andrew Griffith, and Kei Zama for art duties.

The preview is below but before that we wanted to share a variant cover sent to us by artist John Paul Paras who also wrote to us the following:

I've been a Transformers fan all my life and when I heard they were doing a Unicron Mini Series, I knew I had to be apart of it. I wanted to do a cover homaging the Classic "Infinity Gauntlet" Issue 4 George Perez Cover. IDW and Hasbro approved of the concept and I was off into the creative phase. I wanted to show that although Unicron was small compared to vastness of space, he was ready to conquer it. KRSComics.com are taking Preorders for the Release date of November 14th. The Variant is limited to 500 copies and is only available their online. I'm proud to be apart of Transformers history and hope you guys enjoy my cover to Transformers Unicron issue #6.

Transformers: Unicron #6 (of 6)
Cover A: Alex Milne / Cover B: James Raiz
John Barber (w) • Alex Milne (a & c)

FC • 48 pages • $7.99

November 14 2018

This is it! The end of an era! Finishing off 13 years’ worth of continuity with a bang!

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.

Holy crap, Slide. You're... you're a special kind of idiot, aintcha?

Nexus Knight wrote:Holy crap, Slide. You're... you're a special kind of idiot, aintcha?

I don’t think anyone is suppose to like Slide but I can understand her. She believed in optimus. Saw him as a god and he indirectly got her brother killed. Not brother in arms, her actual brother, but not just her brother but her entire ability to transform. Her entire life has been ruined. She reminds me a lot of Prowls views on Megatron by the finale of Lost Light. It didn’t matter how much good he does he ruined lives and you can’t get passed that.

Randomhero wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:Holy crap, Slide. You're... you're a special kind of idiot, aintcha?

I don’t think anyone is suppose to like Slide but I can understand her. She believed in optimus. Saw him as a god and he indirectly got her brother killed. Not brother in arms, her actual brother but not just her brother her, but not just her brother but her entire ability to transform. Her entire life has been ruined. She reminds me a lot of Prowls views on Megatron by the finale of Lost Light. It didn’t matter how much good he does he ruined lives and you can’t get passed that.

No, she has the right. OP took advantage of their faith and basically used it to build his army to take Earth. Oiler died because of Prime. The thing that makes her species unique was yanged away because of it. She has every right to be pissed. I'm talking about the time and place. People are literally dying around her and she is hesitating trying to help because she has a beef with the person leading the charge.

Anyways, who thinks Thundercracker is gonna bite Unicron's bullet?

Nexus Knight wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

Nexus Knight wrote:Holy crap, Slide. You're... you're a special kind of idiot, aintcha?

I don’t think anyone is suppose to like Slide but I can understand her. She believed in optimus. Saw him as a god and he indirectly got her brother killed. Not brother in arms, her actual brother but not just her brother her, but not just her brother but her entire ability to transform. Her entire life has been ruined. She reminds me a lot of Prowls views on Megatron by the finale of Lost Light. It didn’t matter how much good he does he ruined lives and you can’t get passed that.

No, she has the right. OP took advantage of their faith and basically used it to build his army to take Earth. Oiler died because of Prime. The thing that makes her species unique was yanged away because of it. She has every right to be pissed. I'm talking about the time and place. People are literally dying around her and she is hesitating trying to help because she has a beef with the person leading the charge.

Anyways, who thinks Thundercracker is gonna bite Unicron's bullet?

I kinda wonder is she’s just snapped. Like her brain has and she just can’t truly fathom what is happening around her. Thy does happen and not defending her really but it’s how I’m interpreting it.

I hope thundercracker doesn’t. I don’t wanna day he’s got a survival bubble on him but he’s been in my top five transformers since he saved everyone in All Hail Megatron 12

God Slide is the most annoying character that isn't a Visionary in IDW

Randomhero wrote:
I kinda wonder is she’s just snapped. Like her brain has and she just can’t truly fathom what is happening around her. Thy does happen and not defending her really but it’s how I’m interpreting it.

I honestly doubt that, I just chalk it up to Slide being a terribly written character.

Deadput wrote:God Slide is the most annoying character that isn't a Visionary in IDW

Randomhero wrote:
I kinda wonder is she’s just snapped. Like her brain has and she just can’t truly fathom what is happening around her. Thy does happen and not defending her really but it’s how I’m interpreting it.

I honestly doubt that, I just chalk it up to Slide being a terribly written character.

A terribly written character in the same book as IDW Thundercracker, Needlenose Tracks and Acree...

Yeeeeeeeeah no. She’s written that way for very specific reasons. The people who continue to complain about her character constantly are really wearing their Captain Obvious costumes real well.

Randomhero wrote:A terribly written character in the same book as IDW Thundercracker, Needlenose Tracks and Acree...

Yeeeeeeeeah no. She’s written that way for very specific reasons. The people who continue to complain about her character constantly are really wearing their Captain Obvious costumes real well.

I mean there are people who would say that those characters aren't written well either. (Not me but some people would, although I do think that Thundercracker having a dog is stupid...not bad writing but stupid)

Slide's character could work but the way she is written is completely stupid.


And this is the same comic with other badly written idw characters like Pyra Magna and Optimus himself. (Optimus just straight up sucks as a character in the last few years in IDW)

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:A terribly written character in the same book as IDW Thundercracker, Needlenose Tracks and Acree...

Yeeeeeeeeah no. She’s written that way for very specific reasons. The people who continue to complain about her character constantly are really wearing their Captain Obvious costumes real well.

I mean there are people who would say that those characters aren't written well either. (Not me but some people would, although I do think that Thundercracker having a dog is stupid...not bad writing but stupid)

Slide's character could work but the way she is written is completely stupid.


And this is the same comic with other badly written idw characters like Pyra Magna and Optimus himself. (Optimus just straight up sucks as a character in the last few years in IDW)

Why because they arent devoted to him? Both never fought side by side with him for millions of years. Pyra is the way she is because she grew up around the devotion of Primes and witnessed first hand a Prime murdering her leader. She doesn’t believe in him because she doesn’t think he has the right to be followed by someone like Mistress Flame who also witnessed the evils of a Prime but chose to pretty much ignore that incident.

Slide again lost everything because she believed in him and at this point OP 24 happened where he fully admitted to her in ways he’s a fraud and manipulated people. What’s she’s saying right now is literally an hour or so after her conversation with Optimus from issue 24 where he admits to doing pretty bad stuff for the greater good.

I legitimately believe John is wrote her like this due to her having post dramatic stress and post partum because when you have that you’re not always thinking properly

“A place to call our own.” Where you gonna live if Unicron eats your universe slide?

Wait, was Trypticon just taken out there? Jeez-o!

DerrikDGreat wrote:“A place to call our own.” Where you gonna live if Unicron eats your universe slide?

Right? She's a selfish heel. Basically IDW Spike in robot form.

Big Grim wrote:Wait, was Trypticon just taken out there? Jeez-o!

What's funny about this is, wayyyy back in 1986, just prior to the release of TF:TM, my friends and I were speculating how Metroplex and Trypticon were going to be a part of the film (I mean their toys had just come out, so of course they'd be in the movie right... )

We only knew there was a *monster planet* (It's name wasn't revealed in the trailers), and envisioned how Metroplex and Trypitocn would be part of this grand battle. Only took 32 years to see it (sort of) actually happen

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.

And so the story ends. The finale comes, and the universe shakes, rocks, rattles, and rolls. But the question is, did the conclusion finally bring the show to justice?

Well, let's discuss this shall we?



For starters, let's talk about our main cast. Aileron is here, and she does her part, but there is nothing really spectacular. Arcee is her typical badass self, but really doesn't need to do much to be a part of the action. She's there, and she does what she does best. Windblade and Bumblebee are also sort of just here, not really doing too much to the overall story despite previous prominence. Which is OK, all of the named characters have had some moments to shine, so their lack of doing much is forgivable.

Especially when you consider our big 3: Soundwave, Starscream, and Optimus Prime. To me, this story finally got Starscream back in line with what Till All Are One had set him up to be, and finally seems to shake loose from the later Barber runs and revert back to what IDW appears to have wanted him to be, and that is a good thing. He and his seekers got some really nice moments together and individually, so I appreciate this. Soundwave continues to pull the heart apart, and I love his part in the conclusion of this story, very well done. And Optimus is not quite Optimus. His retraction of the faceplate and the fact that he never wears it again after he gets ready to go to orbit to fight Unicron is very telling, as is the (near) conclusion of his storyline. He is Orion once more, the masks, as he puts it, are gone. He is who is he is, and he helps smooth a few of his bumpy points.



We also had some other nice character moments, from all corners of the Transformers and the Hasbro Universe in general. Action Man gets in a good shot, the seekers are great, the Dinobots do a nice part, the return of a fan favorite character by Mount Rushmore was awesome to see, Prowl, Stardrive, and Rhinox with their moments of light, and even some Sharkticons and Junkions. The wind down pages in particular, with several important character interactions, was done very nicely as well, a good bookend to the series.



But for every good moment we had, there seemed to be a dim bulb preventing the light from fully shining. Slide is without a doubt the worst part of the book, and the worst part of IDW's Optimus Prime run if I'm honest. She ended up as such an unlikable character that I feel didn't deserve the storyline she ended up getting. The continued random cameos of Maximals that don't really do anything and don't really get any development besides Rhinox in any way was disappointing. Unicron himself and how he relates to his creator, and indeed his creator in general were lacking. The way Bludgeon, Monstructor, and the Dinobots resolved felt like a bit of a mess.

But most importantly, several moments in the book that were supposed to be huge just didn't ring. They sort of thudded. Starscream, the Maximal's victims, and Unicron's creator fall heavy in this category. They needed some more oomph. And the climatic finale itself needed some extra bits in the final resolution, as I feel the true climatic moment was with Soundwave, not with Unicron or Orion.



Art duties were very heavily scattered with this book, bringing in artists from almost all the main IDW ongoings over the past few years, including Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Kei Zama, and Andrew Griffith. While there were noticeable shifts between most of the artist changes, with Zama using her more monstrous features, Milne his pointy-ness and detailings, and Griffith's and Pitre-Durocher's smoother and less complicated look, there was never a feeling of real disconnect, thanks to the efforts of David Garcia Cruz and Joana Lafuente. While they did give some coloring liberties to pages with certain artists, calling back to said artist's previous books and color stylings, such as Zama's pages having a more dark, metal look while Pitre-Durocher's was more clean, smooth, and bright, They did a pretty good job of keeping the look and feel of the book consistent while still giving each artist that special spice of uniqueness. Tom B. Long also continues his work of letting the art be enjoyed to its fullest extent while giving us the important dialogue needed for the story.



So in conclusion, this story fell somewhere in the middle ground. The story wasn't particularly bad overall, but it certainly felt like it lacked the excitement factor, the big push, that big wow moment that it really needed to be spectacular. The characters in the book and their screen time were handled pretty well, we just needed some characters to shine more in their moments (Starscream) and others who really needed to be given fewer pages and didn't feel like they got more than they deserved (Slide). Soundwave for me was the shining point of the book, which says a lot seeing as what role others played in the grand scheme of things. We also needed more of that expanded universe, the little shots were nice, but I feel we could have used a bit more of the Hasbro Universe itself, especially seeing as how ROM has played such a small role in this issue considering he started out the book as one of the seemingly more important characters.

But most importantly, we got a new take on Unicron, but it didn't quite live up to expectations. The destruction he caused and the look were impressive, but what he ended up being was a bit disappointing. I feel like we could have gotten a lot more from this badass villain who was the end. I feel like the moments inside him would have done very well for a personality of his own to shine through, but we did not get that. And considering how big of a deal he was, I wish we could have gotten a bit more from him.

And the series itself feels like that overall. It had potential, but for some reason, the big moments just never got quite the flare they needed. It needed something more, a bit more life to it, and maybe a bit less of the Main Cast and a bit more of the small moments, like Blurr's moment, but for others. It also needed a bit more of Unicron, and maybe a bit better executed finale. But overall, again not bad, just not quite up where I wish this book could overall have been.



This final Review of Unicron #6 features the Skillet song Hero, a personal favorite of mine, and the fitting end to this book.

As I tried but ended up not being able to work it into a single issue review, I decided to make my personal favorite song of all time the theme song for the series itself, and I feel this song in a way encapsulates how several characters felt in the series, never giving up in spite of overwhelming odds, and keep their faith. The theme song for the Unicron series is: Feel Invincible, also by Skillet. As it is the theme, I have also linked the video below for listening without leaving this page:

I agree in almost every way with this review. There's so much good stuff in this book! There's also so much dull surprise. John Barber at his best, coupled with moments of overbooked, meandering plots elsewhere. Maybe if they'd kept some cards off the table after their removal this would've been a little cleaner.

Anyway I don't want to be too negative. This is a fun story that I enjoyed a lot and I think everyone on a TF website like this will at least like it, and some of you will love it and think me and D-Max have gone loopy

Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.

Second.

Both were cluster f$&@s but one was as cluster f$&@ because the amount characters while the other was due to the writer not self editing and jamming everything possible in a handful of issues because he wouldn’t change stuff and abandon ideas that didn’t matter (omega guardians) and using the final issue as post story instead using it to really wrap stuff up.

Said it before, people are too bias to James Roberts and overly critical of John barber

You know the proverb "Never Dare a Fool"

I'm a fool, so I'll say it:

I gladly prefer lost lights ending. But it's worth a caveat that it will all hinge on the true unicron finale, which is op 25#. I do prefer James writing, I appreciate your mileage may vary and there's nothing in existence that has 100% approval rate with zero dislikes. For me though LL was the best ending...At least so far.

A CHRISTIAN ROCK BAND!
oh well

THAT JAM ROCKS!!!!

Randomhero wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.

Second.

Both were cluster f$&@s but one was as cluster f$&@ because the amount characters while the other was due to the writer not self editing and jamming everything possible in a handful of issues because he wouldn’t change stuff and abandon ideas that didn’t matter (omega guardians) and using the final issue as post story instead using it to really wrap stuff up.

Said it before, people are too bias to James Roberts and overly critical of John barber

Alternate take: I could have told both of you this would be your opinion before reading either. You guys are Barber fanboys, I'm a Roberts fanboy (this is an actual reason Va'al reviewed as many issues of LL as he did), it's all good and I'm glad there are these different approaches for different fans

ScottyP wrote:

Randomhero wrote:

Daniel Adkins wrote:Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.

Second.

Both were cluster f$&@s but one was as cluster f$&@ because the amount characters while the other was due to the writer not self editing and jamming everything possible in a handful of issues because he wouldn’t change stuff and abandon ideas that didn’t matter (omega guardians) and using the final issue as post story instead using it to really wrap stuff up.

Said it before, people are too bias to James Roberts and overly critical of John barber

Alternate take: I could have told both of you this would be your opinion before reading either. You guys are Barber fanboys, I'm a Roberts fanboy (this is an actual reason Va'al reviewed as many issues of LL as he did), it's all good and I'm glad there are these different approaches for different fans

Exactly. You are a Roberts fanboy and you shouldn’t have been the person to reviewed it because you gave it a complete bias review. Va’al should have reviewed it because that’s someone who reviews it unbiased. The fact that it got a perfect score is appalling. The final arc to lost light is a giant mess and makes Revelations and Maximum Dinobots look like a masterpiece in comparison.

And I wouldn’t say I’m a Barber fan boy. I think he’s a better writer because he knows he’s writing a comic and knows how to structure one. Plenty of Roberts writings I’ve loved and I admitted months ago the reveal of Rung got me choked up pretty bad but doesn’t change the fact that it was a train wreck as a whole

Va'al couldn't of reviewed it, a general marches to war with whatever army he has. Plus how can someone review a series ender without bias?

Ok I've now read it and I didn't like it.

I genuinely hope that a fresh team and company will be given the reigns for the next comic continuity.

Coptur wrote:Ok I've now read it and I didn't like it.

I genuinely hope that a fresh team and company will be given the reigns for the next comic continuity.

Fresh team yes, fresh company no.