IDW Transformers Unicron #6 Review

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:

Credit(s): IDW Publishing