Transformers: Unicron Kindle & comiXology

The IDW Transformers that John Barber wrote and edited took a sorry turn for the worse with the Revolution event, when MASK, ROM, GI Joe and other toys/comics from the 80s were added to the Transformers universe. Comic crossovers are usually never about improving stories - rather, they are a way to boost the sales of sagging comics. The Revolution event was horrendous, and the books were near unreadable.This conclusion to IDW's 13-year Transformers run is the spiritual descendant of the Revolution event. While most of this book focuses on the Transformers (specifically, those of the RID and Optimus Prime series), there are several 3-4 page snippets from GI Joe, Rom, MASK, Visionaries (WTF are they?), and one or two other groups. Really really bad. After reading the first few, I just ignored the rest and the story lost nothing. Their presence was jarring.The main theme of this story is that Unicron attacks and everything in the Transformers universe is in peril, particularly Cybertron and Earth. This book conflicts with the end of the Lost Light series (which is among my three favorite endings to a series ever). Since IDW was ending this Transformers run and restarting it all anew, they could have taken an aggressive and original stance on how it could conclude. They didn't. Many of you can predict the ending. That is not why we read.There are too many characters for the brevity of pages. It is clear that Barber enjoys writing Starscream and Optimus Prime, but he does a nice job using Windblade to criticize them and the Cybertronian race. We also have nice appearances of Shockwave, Arcee and Prowl, whom were all hugely featured during Barber's run. With the run over, the book was at it's best when Prowl and Starscream took center stage.

The Transformers: Unicron mini-series was the culmination of many years' worth of Transformers comics, hundreds of comics, by a wide variety of creators. Writer John Barber set out to wrap everything up in what is essentially an event comic, like the Marvel and DC summer crossover events. With only a few exceptions, event comics are not very good. It's very difficult to live up to expectations, to juggle a cast of dozens of characters, to do justice to what has come before and also provide a compelling narrative. This was a difficult job, but John Barber delivered one of the best event comics I've read. It provided a solid and satisfying conclusion to the larger story, while still serving as a story in its own right. Beloved characters died, usually quickly in just a couple of panels, but none of the deaths felt gratuitous to me. And ultimately, the story stayed true to the thematic core of this iteration of the Transformers.I've only mentioned John Barber, but artist Alex Milne does great work, as always. He has to draws hundreds and hundreds of robots, but he keeps them all visually distinct, and expressive, and keeps things moving forward. I only regret that he didn't draw all of the final chapter.Traditionally, Transformers comics are all about the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons. In this last era of Transformers comics, John Barber and James Roberts explored life after the war, and dug into deeper questions about war and peace. In the Optimus Prime series Barber raised questions about Optimus Prime's heroism, about the purity of his intentions. Is it even possible to be a hero, if you're a general in a war that's raged for years, routinely making choices that lead to people dying?Barber continues this line of thought into the Unicron comic. He goes beyond questioning single characters, though, to explore their cultural legacy. Unicron is ultimately a story about colonization, and how the evils a culture inflicts in the past can never stay buried.This story worked for me as a thrilling adventure, as a farewell to characters I'd come to love, and as a conclusion to years' worth of narrative and thematic threads. It is a powerful and impressive achievement.

Great addition to my growing transformers book collection! Great to have all these stories in one book versus having multiple comic books!

The end of idw transformers universe. It went out with bang.

It's pretty good. Then again I haven't read very many transformers comics. The art was really cool, especially the cover art.

I purchased all of the issues for this miniseries as they released. Horrendously overwritten with far too much focus on characters that aren’t Transformers. Despite his name in the title Unicron is barely seen (despite all the effort that went into giving him a very cool design). I stopped reading after issue 4, and you’d do well to not even start.

Love graphic novels an especially Transformers graphic novels. This story line maybe have been talked down upon but I like it being something new to the Transformers line up. I recommend this to any comic book readers of all ages. The art work is pretty cool an the designs are familiar. I give it 5 stars

Firstly the positives - The art is leagues above some recent issues, they've clearly spent time on this one. Which is nice but not enough to outweigh the bad stuff. Another good thing is it's definitely the end and we should get a new start from here. I want to say something else that's good as I've really enjoyed some of these comics over the past 10 years or so but I can't think of anything.Bad Stuff - The story sadly throws in all the stupid side characters from other brands, even if you like these by themselves you wont have liked them being thrown into the Transformers universe. I'm surprised no one in the story room thought after all the bad reviews of the cross-overs that maybe for the last one they'd win some hearts and minds by just writing a story fans would at least back if not fully love.I like to think everyone supports the idea of more girl transformers or LGBTQ transformers etc, personally I love the Arcee backstory; but recently it seems to be the rule meaning old characters...well character has been altered. It rolls into the humanising of too many characters, OP being the worst example. Frankly making Megatron an autobot in hindsight is more believable.It's very rushed for an ending, considering they wasted whole volumes on filler stuff its odd this end is so rushed. The bad guys are a bit rubbish aside from Monstructor, maybe a few more evil primes could of been working with Unicron or the Quintessons lured him out of retirement. I was genuinely expecting one of the humans to kill Unicron and OP to cry about his insecurities after half way through.Two starts for the amazing artwork and Arcee/Shockwave/Prowl have been well written in most books, this continues here.

I have been an avid IDW Transformers fan for over 10 years and own almost all the GNs.I gave up on the Optimus Prime series at number 3, because it was terrible and, despite having followed the series four over a decade, I largely didn't have a clue what the hell was going on, who any of the characters were and what they were all talking about, making it virtually unreadable.Now, I'm half way through reading what is supposed to be the grand finale of the whole universe and once again, I find myself not having a clue what the hell is going on and having to wade through pages of nonsense short stories featuring MASK, GI Joe and all other manner of pointless crap that I have no interest in - which is why I'm reading Transformers and not GI Joe!So, yeah, after being a loyal fan for a very long time, I feel that IDW has left me behind and no longer seems to want to tell Transformer stories, instead preferring tacky, cash grab cross overs and tie ins.The artwork is really good (For which I gave an extra star, it probably doesn't really deserve) but the story is a massive disappointment to the continuity which started so amazingly with Infiltration, all those years ago.Buy it for a sake of completness if you must but be prepared to be disappointed. I'm now really wishing, I'd just left the Transformers saga at the conclusion of The Lost Light.

I am certain it will provide some entertainment to those who read IDW's Transformers series and the Hasbro universe but for many Transformers fans, this comic event has been squandered.Unicron is known as a giant planet eating robot to the G1 cartoon fans, to the Marvel comic fans he is a fallen God seeking to annihilate all creation and end his opposite which happens to be the core of Cybertron. In the Unicron Trilogy anime series he was a creator destroyer, the antagonist which was beyond good and evil. Recently he's been planet Earth in both Prime and the movie series and despite all this somebody thought it'd be a good idea to have this event tethered to pre existing comics.It's not a bad story but maybe during the brainstorming sessions they could have considered a soft reboot, have the mainline comics wrap up their stories and start fresh here after some time passed allowing both old and new readers to get a grip on the characters and situation.

Bien