IDW Transformers: Unicron #1 & #2 Second Printing and Cover Variants

Back from Hospital hiatus once more. I wanted to hold off commenting until I read #3 (it was a little late).
Why does Unicron always do less when he transforms? I think they could have at least kept him in Planet Mode until issue 4 (of 6). It's not like Transforming him now has actually added anything to the story? In Planet Mode he was an approaching threat, in Bot Mode he is just ...lurking?

Plus the (I assume) Transformation homage to The Movie in issue 2 was really weak. It wasn't a static scene, so the translation to panels just doesn't pop in the same way.

The whole fate of the Decepticon armada really seemed to have been ill-conceived too. I had to look up on the Wiki just what actually happened in issue 2, as it didn't make any sense by panel alone. The visuals didn't really convey what had happened in any meaningful way. Which continues into issue 3 as, by the dialogue, they look "so different" yet on the page.. a little more dented??
A clearer art style would have benefited the action scenes too. Like EJ Su or Nick Roche, as going into issue 3 I'm starting to find the art distractingly overly detailed IE from the very first panel. Coupled with the point I've made before concering the OP/LL casts, wherein there are too many characters with the same colour palette and visual cues.

As an aside, did they ever give a reason how Bludgeon recovered from his fate Stormbringer? Or was it just dismissed as "Jhiaxus fixed him, off-panel"?

ZeroWolf wrote:I'm trying to remember his next appearance after stormbringer...was it redemption of the Dinobots? Or was it Dark Cybertron?

His next appearance was annoying Orion on LV-117 in Syndromica (during RID S1)

I see. I thought as much. It's funny that Furman seemed to treat a lot of the old concepts as 'one & done' in early IDWverse. Stormbringer seemed like the only story he intended for the Pretenders, hence why all the others were dead, Thunderwing was depowered and Bludgeon was trapped in his own body, by the end of the story. Ironic given that Bludgeon was traditionally one of his favourites in Marvel TF.

I forgot all about his appearance in AHM...In fact I've forgotten a lot of things in AHM, probably on purpose.

i like it

Anyone have any idea when #4 is supposed to come out? I’m not 100% sure on this but wasn’t it supposed to be released this past Wednesday?

I've had a think on it, and have come to a conclusion: I really dislike the "evolved" (my term, not the book's) look of the Maximals and Monstructor. I think the characters are distinct enough to look menacing on their own, but the upgrade or whatever makes them look like boring, nonsense, incompetent generic alien things from a run-of-the-mill summertime scifi movie.

Edit for clarity: the objective quality of the work portraying them is outstanding, it is the concept of the designs that I find bland.

Oh so the visionaries are going to play a part of this? That's going to be interesting then though I wonder if the talisman is just a red herring at this point I expect the way to stop/pacify unicron will come in issue 6

Is it just me, or do a lot of artists have a hard time drawing Windblade's face without making it look stretched out and weird?