Ricky Church reviews Transformers: Unicron #2…
After the huge battle in its inaugural issue, Transformers: Unicron #2 takes a bit of a breather as the characters regroup and plan what their next move against the planet-eater will be. Barber uses the time to build upon some of the recent events out of Optimus Prime and even Till All Are One and the Dinobot centric one-shot Salvation. Some answers are also given, or at least hinted at, to Unicron’s origins and what his goals could be. Its a good issue that continues a nice set-up of what is to come as the IDW universe continues its final story.
A lot of the issue focuses on various characters debating over what their next move should be, particularly Starscream as he again makes a move to take control of the Decepticons and present himself as Cybertron’s saviour. There’s some interesting arguments made throughout these scenes and Barber has a good handle on Starsceam’s more selfish attributes as he puts the blame on their defeat on Optimus and those who follow him. He hasn’t completely lost all of his development though as he claims he’s trying to do what’s best for Cybertron and not take the offer Shockwave had given him in the previous issue. A nice touch Barber also uses is how Starscream’s hubris allows him to be tricked into letting Unicron and his minions have another win, showing this is too much for even his ambitions.
The characters are pretty well balanced during these sequences. Everyone has a chance to raise their voice and make strong points as Barber juggles between a fairly sizeable cast. Even outside the meeting as other Decepticons and Autobots gather for a second assault on Unicron, there’s a fair amount of characters that are given nice roles, including a couple bots we haven’t seen for a longtime like Blugdeon and Chromia. Barber even includes a very nice callback to Transformers: Stormbringer, one of IDW’s first Transformers stories, that connects the two different comic eras in a brilliant story move.
Elsewhere, Bumblebee and Aileron try to uncover the history of Unicron. It’s still nice to see Bumblebee back in action, though he doesn’t get a huge part in this issue as he remains in a somewhat comatose state while conversing with Omega Supreme, another character who we haven’t seen in a long while. The hints we get at Unicron’s origins are interesting, but also contradict everything we’ve been previously been told thus far about him. Knowing Barber’s method of storytelling with long-format planning, this isn’t so much continuity errors as it probably is just, ahem, more than meets the eye around this legendary Cybetronian enemy.
Alex Milne again steals the show with his art. With no big action scene to show off, Milne’s depiction of the characters work quite well despite. His body language on the various bots is well illustrated during the council’s meeting and she displays good continuity on the damage Optimus sustained during the trip inside Unicron. The Beasts Wars era transformers also steal the spotlight in their images with some incredible detail, such as the hairs on Optimus Primal’s body or Unicron’s transformation, a series of panels that Milne almost makes looks shot-for-shot from The Transformers: The Movie. Sebastian Cheng also gives a diverse range of colours throughout the issue that pop off the page and makes good sue of shadows and darkness. Between the two of them, they deliver some great imagery in a Transformers book.
The only downside to the issue is the back-up tale focusing on G.I. Joe‘s Scarlett and Roadblock. It’s a short story involving them holding back a Maximal invasion against their base and discussing how they should meet their end, but the downside to this lies in the fact that it has nothing to do with the overall story in this issue and takes a bit to place in context. Rather, it instead seems to spoil future events in the Unicron series as Unicron and the Maximals are nowhere near Earth at the moment.
Despite the back-up tale, Unicron #2 is a good breather after a whirlwind of an opening chapter. The discussions between the characters are strong and Barber balances the cast well while Milne’s art is one of the strongest points of the issue. As the IDW universe comes to an end, Transformers: Unicron is shaping up to be an interesting and fitting end to it all.
Rating: 7/10
Ricky Church
