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PreviewsWorld is gracing us with the new and upcoming comic solicitations for IDW's Hasbro series from the Transformers titles such as Optimus Prime and Lost Light, to the Free Comic Book Day Unicron comic, Visionaries crossover with Transformers, and ROM. Here they are in brief:

TRANSFORMERS TITLES

Optimus Prime #17 - This is the Casey Coller cover, Zama one not shown (the listing for the Coller cover shows this one's lines only for some reason, likely a mistake)
(W) John Barber (A/CA) Kei Zama
"The Falling," Part 3: Onyx Prime sows the seeds of chaos and panic on Cybertron as he reveals dark secrets... but nothing will prepare Optimus Prime and his allies for Onyx's darkest revelation!
In Shops: Mar 28, 2018
SRP: $3.99

Optimus Prime #17 - RI Cover: Thomas Deer
(W) John Barber (A) Kei Zama
"The Falling," Part 3: Onyx Prime sows the seeds of chaos and panic on Cybertron as he reveals dark secrets... but nothing will prepare Optimus Prime and his allies for Onyx's darkest revelation!
In Shops: Mar 28, 2018
SRP: PI

Lost Light #16 - Cover A
(W) James Roberts (A/CA) Jack Lawrence
ALL GOOD THINGS...! Rodimus and the Crusadercons have reached their final destination. The trouble is, it's not Cyberutopia. In fact, it's not ANYWHERE. But they'd better get used to it, because they're going to be there until the end of Time...
In Shops: Mar 07, 2018
SRP: $3.99

Transformers vs. Visionaries #4 - Cover A
(W) Magdalene Visaggio (A/CA) Fico Ossio
Leoric and Ironhide only have hours left to save Cybertron from destruction, while Virulina tries to harness the life energy of Leoric's captured friends to accelerate the end. Now Leoric must somehow detonate the counter-wave bomb and rescue his people. And the clock is ticking.
In Shops: Mar 14, 2018
SRP: $3.99

Transformers vs. Visionaries #4 - Cover B
(W) Magdalene Visaggio (A) Fico Ossio (CA) Luca Pizzari
Leoric and Ironhide only have hours left to save Cybertron from destruction, while Virulina tries to harness the life energy of Leoric's captured friends to accelerate the end. Now Leoric must somehow detonate the counter-wave bomb and rescue his people. And the clock is ticking.

Transformers vs. Visionaries #4 - RI Cover
(W) Magdalene Visaggio (A) Fico Ossio (CA) Brendan Cahill
Leoric and Ironhide only have hours left to save Cybertron from destruction, while Virulina tries to harness the life energy of Leoric's captured friends to accelerate the end. Now Leoric must somehow detonate the counter-wave bomb and rescue his people. And the clock is ticking.
In Shops: Mar 14, 2018
SRP: PI

Free Comic Book Day 2018 - Transformers Unicron #0
(W) John Barber (A) Alex Milne (CA) Sara Pitre-Durocher
Not a whimper, nor a bang-the end comes with a squall of entropy shrieking from the ravenous maw of death itself. The message is clear: Unicron has arrived. The Transformers lock into a desperate bid to save Rom's homeworld from the world-killer - but why has Unicron chosen this world on his path to Cybertron... and Earth? The biggest story in the history of Transformers starts now: for Unicron's arrival can mean nothing less than the end of a universe.
Teen Audiences.
In Shops: Apr 11, 2018
SRP: PI

Redemption of the Dinobots - Trade Paperback
(W) John Barber (A/CA) Livio Ramondelli
Explore the Dinobots like never before! It's a rollercoaster of death and absolution, drenched in atmosphere and action in three stories focused on the Dinobots. First, in "Punishment," Optimus Prime and Windblade team up to stop a killer, but do they really want to, when all the victims are Decepticons? Then, in the title story, the Dinobots accept a dangerous mission into the Cybertronian wilds, but they get more than they bargained for, and are forced to reassess their beliefs in the process. Finally, in "Salvation," the Dinobots are reviled for the things they've done. So when their greatest threat, Trypticon, appears, how much will they sacrifice for a world that hates them?
* Collects The Transformers: Punishment, The Transformers: Redemption, and The Transformers: Salvation.
In Shops: Apr 18, 2018
SRP: $19.99

HASBRO UNIVERSE TITLES

ROM & The Micronauts #4 - Cover A
(W) Christos Gage (A) Paolo Villanelli (CA) E. J. Su
Asymmetric Warfare! Newly emerged from Microspace, Rom and the Micronauts seek out Baron Karza and his Dire Wraith allies. But it may be too late to save Earth from being consumed by a dark god from beyond our dimension!
In Shops: Mar 21, 2018
SRP: $3.99

ROM - Tales of the Solstar Order #1 - Special Edition
(W) Chris Ryall, Christos Gage (A/CA) Guy Dorian, Sal Buscema
"Battle Scars!" This special re-presentation of Rom comic co-creator Sal Buscema's storied return to the character is presented in a single issue for the first time, along with bonus art, an interview with Buscema, and other cool extras!
* Rom comic co-creator Sal Buscema's triumphant return to Rom interiors!
* The final fate of a Solstar Knight collected in one special edition!
* Bonus: Interview with the art team!
In Shops: Mar 28, 2018
SRP: $4.99

Just a couple of thoughts....

After a 12 year run, IDW is finally doing a Unicron story. I'm surprised they resisted this long, but its cool to see that they did, as it makes more of an impact. However...after First Strike, I seem to recall IDW stating they were going to give the whole *crossover* thing a break. We've had 2 years in a row of this, and it really hasn't worked out well. Unicron seems to be a threat that will end (or effectively reset) the entire IDW Hasbro Universe. On one hand I would actually welcome it. I have not been impressed with most of IDW's run (unlike most fans), and after several soft reboots, this would be a chance to completely start over. You could legitimately include every incarnation of Transformers from the start. Instead of being a book set in the styling of the original series universe, where other universe characters show up for no reason, you could start from the beginning calling it just *Transformers* but not in any particular set continuity, but rather an all new one where anyone can show up, no need for explanation. ON the other hand however, I'm not really keen on another convoluted crossover where I have to get 6-8 additional books in addition to whatever the main series will be to get the whole story as was the case with Revolution & First Strike, especially since my local shop keeps missing most of those titles even when I request them in advance.

I don't know if this is the case with others, but if not for my *hold* account, I've been seeing fewer and fewer IDW titles on the actual stands. The local shop owner I've known for 20+ years, he owns 3 stores in the greater Sacramento area, and he says IDW titles sales are dropping dramatically...I'm one customer of a handful that he orders for each month.

We had an idea, then confirmed, that they'd be headed for the third crossover (after Revolution and First Strike) in the near future. The fact that it involves Unicron makes sense, really, as a universal evil of sorts.

Like you though, I am curious to see how a universal death-bringer could possibly leave any universe intact. I wouldn't mind seeing a new direction for all of the IDWverse, but parts of it have gotten really REALLY good just this week, and it would be a waste of good stories to have them go in just a couple of months.



A note on First Strike, though: you really don't need the tie-ins that much. The event holds up (in as much as it does, it's not amazing) without them easily, the only one that adds anything to it is probably the TF ones (Optimus Prime and Transformers). The others are more set-ups for the series to follow than First Strike.

Va'al wrote:A note on First Strike, though: you really don't need the tie-ins that much. The event holds up (in as much as it does, it's not amazing) without them easily, the only one that adds anything to it is probably the TF ones (Optimus Prime and Transformers). The others are more set-ups for the series to follow than First Strike.

On that point I'll agree. Especially since the TF titles are the only IDW ones I purchase on a regular basis. Still when it comes to TPB, you know these will all be bound together, also they'll throw in a singular Transformer character in the others just to make suckers like myself purchase them. Also, being a numbers guy, it all contributes to the overall singular running number system in my head where all these books are part of a singular series. For instance, the Optimus Prime Annual coming in February?? (I think) is *my* official issue #400 , which in itself is quite a milestone.

Is there a reason the bottom left corner of the Unicron cover is blacked out? We've already seen the full cover and there isn't anything particularly spoiler-y about it.

But just in case...(potential TAAO Annual spoilers)

It's Starscream and Arcee. Not unexpected, although I guess Starscream is supposed to be sort of off the table post the TAAO Annual.

FCBD books often have a little space for shops to put their logo/info as promotion. That’s what that space is for.