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

ZeroWolf wrote:Why didn't Unicron kill bludgeon or convert him like the others straight away.

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

(W) John Barber (A) Alex Milne (CA) Guido Guidi / Francesco Francavilla
Unicron sets his sights on Earth... but is anyone left to defend it?

Stormshot_Prime wrote: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?

Transformers: Unicron #4 (of 6)—Cover A: Alex Milne—SPOTLIGHT
John Barber (w) • Alex Milne (a & c)
Unicron sets his sights on Earth... but is anyone left to defend it?
FC • 32 pages • $4.99

Transformers: Unicron #4 (of 6)—Cover B: James Raiz—SPOTLIGHT
John Barber (w) • Alex Milne (a) • James Raiz (c)
FC • 32 pages • $4.99

Bullet points:
The destruction continues! We’re halfway to the end and Unicron is winning. Will Optimus and his allies be able to save anything?!
Connecting B covers by James Raiz featuring destruction at the hands of Unicron!
Covers by fan-favorite Transformers artists of the past decade!
Variant covers by Guido Guidi and Francisco Francavilla!

Va'al wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote: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?

Supposed to come out and IDW schedule are mutually exclusive.

Current forecast is to expect cloudy with a chance of deathbringers by September 5th, along with Optimus Prime and Lost Light. Urrrggghh.

Lore Keeper wrote: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?

Randomhero wrote:

Va'al wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote: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?

Supposed to come out and IDW schedule are mutually exclusive.

Current forecast is to expect cloudy with a chance of deathbringers by September 5th, along with Optimus Prime and Lost Light. Urrrggghh.

I heard in a podcast they’ve rescheduled all the finale issues for the same day too in October

Transformers: Unicron #4 (of 6)

John Barber (w) • Alex Milne (a & c)

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

FC • 32 pages • $4.99

ZeroWolf wrote:This comes out tomorrow right?

Big Grim wrote:Gods, that character moment!

Randomhero wrote:Did tracks also die? Blur grabs him and then what?

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.

Big Grim wrote:

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!

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.

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.

ZeroWolf wrote:To be fair, beast wars: uprising did offer new takes on characters but it was club fiction.

Randomhero wrote:

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”

Skritz wrote: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.