If you strain your ears, you might hear that familiar piece of music by Vince DiCola on the wind, heralding the arrival of the monstrous Unicron in the IDW comics. A character who, for years, has been described as “on the shelf, but we’re not touching him” has finally moved into the frame. Starting in 2018, Unicron will get his own book from IDW. We’d wager this will be a series that leads into a major crossover event – one that will certainly run through the Transformers books, and depending on how Unicron is brought to bear, it might just affect the rest of the Hasbro universe IDW has been building.
Other Transformers highlights from the IDW panel, care of Newsarama, include:
- First Strike is mainly Transformers VS G.I. Joe, with ROM and the Micronauts only playing a supporting role.
- The First Strike Transformers One Shots will be set on Cybertron and focus on how the characters there respond to the ongoing situation without Optimus Prime to guide them.
- December will bring a Transformers: Til All Are One annual, which will be focused on who should lead Cybertron: Windblade, Starscream, or Elita-1, and we’re promised “an election with dirty tricks”.
- There will be an annual called “Thundercracker in: Starscream: The Movie”, where Thundercracker is given the budget to make a movie about Starscream. Expect shenanigans and humour to follow.
And for those who are enjoying the wider Hasbro universe, you might enjoy some of these bits of news:
- Visionaries are making a comeback, in a new series starting in December by Maggs Visaggio and Fico Ossio.
- There will be a ROM and the Micronauts team-up comic.
- December will also launch G.I. Joe Unmasked, which has Matt Trakker of M.A.S.K. join G.I. Joe to fight against a wild assortment of different characters. Specifically, things like Hasbro’s Army Ants (remember those?!)
- No comment on the possibility of bringing the Inhumanoids into the Hasbro comic universe.
stad
I think you're either giving the writers a little too much credit, or you're looking a bit too deeply into your comics writing….
Geminii
Truuuuue… it's never really been a primary story focus, though. Kind of interesting if Hasbro starts bringing that aspect in; a lot of fanfic shows that there's something of a demand for it, but again that's mainly amongst the secondary adult demographic; the primary 'kid' demographic isn't really interested. However, over the past few decades, media writers have been getting better at writing multi-level stories, particularly ones where adult jokes and blink-and-you'll-miss-it references are added in to media which is, at least theoretically, aimed mostly at kids.
And let's face it; the Silverbolt/Blackarachnia foe-yay romance was one of the better bits of Beast Wars, and that was twenty years ago. I wouldn't mind seeing some more modern psuedo-romantic relationships turning up in Transformers fiction, particularly franchises which are less active war zones and more slice-of-life with opposing factions. It doesn't have to be a plot point or focus, but I think it'd work fairly well just from the perspective of character interaction. Especially if it was less snuggly and more snarky.
Goldimus Prime
Now?
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It's always been a thing.
MagnusPrimal
Not only that, but Transformers are in relationships now. They are less and less alien all the time.
Megastar
There not gonna retcon OP being the only real Prime after Nova just to make the event work. They'll either fix the Matrix or make a new one somehow and they won't make up a new thing to fight Unicron when they'll probably use the Talisman.
Negativedark
Ah, there\'s the Ruined Forever. I was wondering where I\'d be seeing some.
Anyways IDW has shown they aren\'t afraid to mix things up with characters and concepts. So they may throw us for a loop with Unicron.
Murasame
Wow, what a spoiler. Should I be looking forward to Unicron? In the past IDW would have let us guess if it is Unicron coming. Now they just straight out tell us. Where is the fun in that? That's like Marvel teasing who dies next. That's not how you make great comics.
GizmoTron
You complain about how badly written and terrible this annual is going to be before it's even been read let alone published. That doesn't sound like a glowing endorsement from someone who actually likes IDW's take on the characters.
And anyway, transposing human traits onto alien robots is also the entire basis for any and all Transformers fiction that has ever taken any steps beyond "Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons".
Ramses
RE: Army Ants
Haywired
G.I.Joe: Insecticide is the name of the upcoming miniseries.
artiepants
headline should have been "IDW officially out of ideas."
AutobotAvalanche
We don't talk about Eugenesis.
Rodimus Prime
What if they go with Roberts stupid fanfic idea?
ProtectronPrime
Army Ants: War is Hell. It will be lauded as the spiritual successor to Last Stand and Sins of the Wreckers.
optimusmegas
nah i mentioned it a few pages back about things like this being the reason people stopped caring about gi joe
ProtectronPrime
You say that now, but wait until they reveal that thanks to the Micronauts, Unicron is the size of a golf ball.
Haywired
I'm down for this and D.O.C and Buster fighting Unicron.
I'm willing to bet that IDW writers are going to use the Army Ants internal war as a thought-provoking parable to the war-torn nature of both human and Cybertronian societies. This has all the makings of the best and deeper part of the incoming stories.
Danny-Boy
Here's the thing: aliens ARE humans… metaphorically anyways. Science fiction has always featured alien characters that represent basic human emotions or traits, or stand in for human ideas. Just look at Star Trek, where almost every recurring alien race can be boiled down to a single human trait (Ferengis are greedy, Vulcans are logical, Klingons are honorable).
I think you mean "fun" and "awesome" written all over it.
Lody666
Everyone seems to have glanced over the fact that MASK and Gi Joe will be fighting the Army Ants
this has shite and disaster written all over it.
Furnace
You bring up an interesting point there. Perhaps the Autobots and/or Lost Light crew will go on a (Matrix) quest to reconstitute the relic? Or perhaps Cyberutopia itself will be the key to killing Unicron? (or maybe it IS Unicron)