Full Preview of IDW Transformers: Unicron #4

ZeroWolf wrote:This comes out tomorrow right?

Yep!

Big Grim wrote:Gods, that character moment!

Having re-read their Spotlight about 8 days ago (had no idea this was coming!), man, it works. I wish it didn't but it does.

It is very ambiguous isn't it really.

ScottyP wrote:

Big Grim wrote:Gods, that character moment!

Having re-read their Spotlight about 8 days ago (had no idea this was coming!), man, it works. I wish it didn't but it does.

Really? Will dig that out and read it!

Given the apparent destruction of Cybertron here, I’m wondering if a certain someone in Lost Light is going to feel the effects or something

Synopsis

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



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.



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?



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.



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).



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.



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.





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

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 wrote: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.

Skritz wrote:

Randomhero wrote: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”