IDW Transformers Unicron #6 Review
Tuesday, November 13th, 2018 9:41pm CST
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A Seibertron.com semi-spoilerish review of IDW Tranformers: Unicron #6
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.

It's just another war
Just another family torn
Just a step from the edge
Just another day in the world we live
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.

Who's gonna fight for what's right
Who's gonna help us survive
We're in the fight of our lives
And we're not ready to die
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.

Who's gonna fight for the weak
Who's gonna make 'em believe
I've got a hero (I've got a hero)
Livin' in me
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.

A hero's not afraid to give his life
A hero's gonna save me just in time
I need a hero to save me now
I need a hero, save me now
I need a hero to save my life
A hero'll save me just in time
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:
Credit(s): IDW Publishing
This article was last modified on Wednesday, November 14th, 2018 5:59pm CST
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Posted by ScottyP on November 13th, 2018 @ 10:45pm CST
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

Posted by Daniel Adkins on November 14th, 2018 @ 12:12am CST
Posted by Randomhero on November 14th, 2018 @ 6:10am CST
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
Posted by ZeroWolf on November 14th, 2018 @ 6:20am CST
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.
Posted by X3ROhour on November 14th, 2018 @ 6:29am CST
oh well
THAT JAM ROCKS!!!!
Posted by ScottyP on November 14th, 2018 @ 7:17am CST
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 fansRandomhero 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

Posted by Randomhero on November 14th, 2018 @ 8:53am CST
ScottyP wrote: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 fansRandomhero 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
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
Posted by ZeroWolf on November 14th, 2018 @ 9:49am CST
Posted by Coptur on November 14th, 2018 @ 10:29am CST
I genuinely hope that a fresh team and company will be given the reigns for the next comic continuity.
Posted by ZeroWolf on November 14th, 2018 @ 10:37am CST
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.
Posted by Skritz on November 14th, 2018 @ 4:46pm CST
Posted by D-Maximal_Primal on November 14th, 2018 @ 5:57pm CST
Z3ROhour wrote:A CHRISTIAN ROCK BAND!
oh well
THAT JAM ROCKS!!!!
Oh well? What does "oh well" mean here?
@Random, yeah, Va'al is gone, so it was pretty much Scotty to do the review.
I worked on that review for a good while, trying to articulate thoughts. Slide really wasn't good, and the character deaths were many, but most were killing the remnants of a war that looks to finally be gone.
Also, the spirits of the dead page was lacking Starscream and Stormclash, which are pretty big misses considering Scattershot and the Clones were apparently in there. Starscream could be deliberate though
Posted by Coptur on November 15th, 2018 @ 2:47am CST
Posted by ZeroWolf on November 15th, 2018 @ 2:59am CST
Coptur wrote:what happened to Va'al?
He retired, and went to pastures new.
Posted by Sunstar on November 15th, 2018 @ 7:51am CST
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Also, the spirits of the dead page was lacking Starscream and Stormclash, which are pretty big misses considering Scattershot and the Clones were apparently in there. Starscream could be deliberate though
I was disappointed in the lack of Starscream there. I wondered if the talisman obliterated his spark.
Posted by YoungPrime on November 15th, 2018 @ 8:27am CST
Daniel Adkins wrote:Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.
Or anyone who feels it necessary to even make this a topic is likely a bitter, annoying, troll.
By right a modern IDW-verse book about UNICRON should be better BUT because majority of Barber's cast in this book and OP are so darn annoying I haven't bothered reading a single Unicon book yet. Whereas with LL I've bought both the physical and digital copy of each of the last 10 issues and miss that series already.
A book about 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier characters that has become memorable that you desperately have to force take a back seat to a book staring OP, BB, Starscream and many other A-lister's speaks for itself!
The main reason that I'm eventually going to read Barbers remaining books is in hopes that it properly ties in with the LL.
Posted by Stormshot_Prime on November 15th, 2018 @ 8:39am CST
YoungPrime wrote:Daniel Adkins wrote:Anyone who says LL has a better ending than this book is crazy.
The main reason that I'm eventually going to read Barbers remaining books is in hopes that it properly ties in with the LL.
Don’t get your hopes up on that one. Besides homages and brief visions the series kind of end on a weirdly separate note, as if everyone in both series forgot their friends.
Posted by Cyberstrike on November 15th, 2018 @ 11:33am CST
Skritz wrote:Well that was a big **** which, to me anyway, ended as a big pile of rushed nothing and empty nonsense. A wet fart of an ending. Sue me.
Maybe because the creators involved didn't want to write or draw it, because it supposedly means the end of a 13 year old comic book universe because some trolls didn't like it or wanted to see it end, because they just hate filled trolls, and now they got their wish.
So yeah I wouldn't give my time and energy to give a great book under those conditions either.
Posted by Big Grim on November 15th, 2018 @ 12:06pm CST
Ah well. To each, their own.