I can’t believe we’re down to the last two issues of every IDW Transformers series. And even though we had lots of battles and death, this issue still seemed to be on the quieter side (relatively) which I appreciated because with everything going on in these books I needed a chance to catch my breath. See below for a review of Unicron #5.
Warning, spoilers below.
(Also props to @EvilJackeen on twitter for sorting out the timeline for us as to why the Lost Light crew doesn’t know about Unicron yet.)
It seems like a shame to spend the time writing a full recap of the issue when the TFwiki does it so well already, so I’ll just include some random thoughts:
The Talisman of the Visionaries is deadly to Cybertronians, and it would’ve killed Unicron when he ate Cybertron…except it wasn’t on Cybertron at the time, because Windblade took it to Earth. But why? Nothing was going to save Cybertron, but if the Talisman had been there, Cybertron’s end could’ve served some purpose by killing Unicron. But now Cybertron’s gone and the Talisman has to be manually dropped into Unicron, and I still don’t know why, but I’m positive it’s because I’ve missed something important. Was the Talisman’s magic solely responsible for getting everyone off the planet? That’d make it worth it, certainly. (The TF Wiki seems to imply it was moved to interfere with Shockwave’s millions-of-years-in-the-making plan, but if that was the only reason I still don’t see why it was better to do it this way than to let it stay on Cybertron, since Cybertron was going to get et anyway.)
Random thought two: Starscream has reverted to his default state: whiny backstabber with delusions of grandeur, and in a way that’s fitting, since most of his incarnations since 1984 have behaved the same way. I still wish we could’ve seen more of the way he was portrayed in Till All Are One: a whiny backstabber with delusions of grandeur who in the end was aspiring to something better. Maybe we’ll still see that, there’s still one issue left.
Next thought: face-plate-less Optimus! In a few of the Optimus Prime issues I thought we saw that too much (Optimus Prime’s face IS his face plate, as far as I’m concerned) but it was a neat surprise to see it one last (?) time here.
And man, I wish I’d been reading more of the storylines that included Trypticon, because I know almost nothing about him, except that instead of being some destructive, stompy, dinosaur thing, he’s an actual Titan! And he seems kind of nice! (And watching him and Metroplex team up was all kinds of fun.)
I thought it was interesting hearing Arcee talk about how, now that she’s in love with Aileron, she actually has something to lose, and she’s not used to that feeling. I guess with Sideswipe she didn’t realize how much she liked him until he died?
And heh, props to Arcee for throwing shade at Optimus about his speeches.
Also, is G.I. Joe being rebooted along with all the Transformers books? It makes sense that they would, their storylines have run together enough times it’d be hard to reboot one and not the other. But I’m hoping the final issue of Unicron doesn’t have quite as many humans in it as this one. Some, sure, absolutely. But I feel like I’m jealously guarding the final Transformers book from all the human characters, basically going “NO, this is the TRANSFORMERS’ last issue, go have your own! Shoo!” I was never very invested in the G.I. Joe storylines, and that’s just me, I’m betting a lot of readers can’t imagine a final Transformers book that doesn’t include G.I. Joe. (I can though, you betcha.)
But speaking of the humans we have to have, obviously Marissa has to be there because Thundercracker gave her Buster. I have a very bad feeling about this. I hope I’m wrong, but I think Alex Milne and John Barber are getting ready to rip our hearts out with a Seeker and his dog.
Enough questions and complaints, you know what I really liked? The art. Obviously. All those years ago when I first started reading Alex Milne’s issues of More Than Meets The Eye, I would’ve told anyone who would’ve listened that his art needs to be the very last thing we see if the series (“god forbid!” I would’ve said) had to end. We’ve had so many fantastic artists in the last few years, way too many to name (though Sara Pitre-Durocher, Joana Lafuente, Livio Ramondelli, and Jack Lawrence need to get a nod) but Alex Milne’s version of the Transformers is my absolute favorite. It’s like the very best of the G1 cartoons, except much, much better. (And David Garcia Cruz did a masterful job this issue with the colors.) I’d go on, but you’ve heard every version of “the faces are perfect!” and “the battle scenes are amazing!” from me enough times. I even like humans when he draws them. THERE, I said it!
