IDW - Unicron #2

Main Story

Title: Stranger Eons

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Sebastian Cheng

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Side Story

Title: Last Stand

Written by: David Rodriguez

Art by: Nelson Daniel

Lettered by: Tom B. Long

Edited by: David Mariotte

Main Story Plot

Starscream has redeclared himself as the "Chosen One" and decides to speak on behalf of all the now displaced Colonists, causing them to lose faith in Optimus and the Council, even claiming that they will try and turn people against him with some damning reasoning.

Starscream reveals that during his last days in power he sent out Bludgeon and others to recruit some Decepticons who were still in hiding, and has now sent them to attack Unicron, or rather, to contain him.

Aileron and Arcee are talking about the destruction of Caminus, when Bumblebee approaches them to ask Arcee why she was disturbed to see the dead Omega Sentinel inside Unicron. Arcee explains that the Sentinels were a part of the Expansion, and one must have found Unicron, or was even sent to him by Shockwave in the past, but she doesn't trust HIM to tell the truth.

Bumblebee takes her hint, and heads off to ask someone who may know more, joined by Aileron, who doesn't want to be left idle, and they soon arrive at the hangar where Omega Supreme is being treated. Bee thinks they should get Soundwave to read his mind to get answers, and touches his face...however Omega's head starts to turn black, along with Bee's eyes....

Pyra stands on top of a building alone with the Mistress of Flame's Forgehammer, unsure of why she gave it to her, but believes it was to show that she will always be part of her life. Pyra stabs the hammer into the surface and walks away from it.

Starscream is brought into the Council's new War Room, where his former co-workers are not happy to see him, especially when he mocks them for not changing the name of their council, due to the destruction of almost all of the colonies now!

Starscream explains that his plan is to use Bludgeon's findings on Unicron using faster than light travel rather than teleportation, so his fleet is there to contain Unicron, before they can unleash the full firepower on it. He refuses to add Optimus' fleet to his, saying that there's enough firepower already.

Before anything else can happen though, the meeting is interrupted by a message from Chromia on her ship, the Sabre in G Nebula 89, who can see the conflict between the Decepticons and Unicron.

Bee is shown a vision of a scientist using a device to seemingly create Unicron, resulting in the star system to be destroyed, leaving only a dying planet and black star behind, and creating the magic of Prysmos and the Dire Wraiths...As Bee comes out of his trance, Omega Supreme dies, succumbing to his long term injuries.

The Decepticons open fire on Unicron, who unleashes the Maximals to attack them, however, despite obstructing him, Unicron still teleports away, with Bludgeon revealing himself to be a follower of Unicron!

Three Maximals break into Bludgeon's Worldsweeper, revealing their true, demonic forms in front of him.

Unicron arrives in orbit of Cybertron, and transforms into a robot mode. Bee and Aileron leave the hangar to look for Optimus or Windblade, as Bee understands now what Unicron is, and how to destroy him...unfortunately, the method is to destroy everyone...

Side Story Plot

On the Lemuria, the Joes are pinned down by the invading Maximal army, with almost the entire team injured or worse. Scarlett has all but given up, knowing their odds of survival are almost nil. They have refugees on the ship, but no way to get it to activate to escape. 

Roadblock manages to motivate Scarlett into remembering who they are, and that Joes never give up. She agrees and plans to make a last stand, just as Skywarp, Helix and Snake Eyes arrive, having taken down the Maximals in the base, and are ready to help with the rest...

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Bumblebee - Hatchback

Arcee - Sports Car

Aileron - Space Shuttle

Chromia - Speed Bike

Omega Supreme - Rocket Base Dies from Injuries

Pyra Magna - Fire Truck

Rust Dust - Motorcycle

Dust Up - Sports Car

Skyburst - Helicopter

Stormclash - Helicopter

Decepticon

Starscream - Fighter Jet

Soundwave - Cassette Player

Bludgeon - Tank

Sledge - Backhoe-Payloader

Wideload - Dump Truck

Broadside - Tank

Shockwave - Flying Artillery (Mentioned)

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Galvatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Maximal

Optimus Primal - Gorilla

Beast Megatron - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Inferno - Ant

Depth Charge - Manta Ray (Side Story Only)

Maximal Army

Other Cybertronian/Colonist

Elita One - Car

Obsidian - Helicopter

Strika - Battle Tank

Moonracer - Car

Knock Out - Car

Fireshot - Part of Jet

Vanquish - Part of Jet

Tigatron - Tiger

Airazor - Eagle

Lancer

Greenlight

Vigilem - Carcer Ship Corpse used as Ship

Two Data Slugs

RID 2015 Scorponok - Scorpion

Cybertronian Crowds/Colony Refugees

Devisen Survivors (Mentioned)

Veloctitronian Survivors (Mentioned)

Skywarp - Fighter Jet (Side Story Only)

Mistress of Flame (Mentioned) Dead

Omega Sentinels (Mentioned)

Eukarians (Mentioned)

Liege Maximo (Mentioned) Dead

Solus Prime (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Marissa Faireborn

Scarlett (Side Story Only)

Roadblock (Side Story Only)

Shipwreck (Side Story Only)

Lady Jaye (Side Story Only)

Doc (Side Story Only)

Agent Helix (Side Story Only)

Snake Eyes (Side Story Only)

Human Refugees (Side Story Only)

Joe Colton (Mentioned)

Cobra (Mentioned)

Other

Unicron - Ringed Planet

Rom, the Space Knight

Prysmosians (Vision)

Dire Wraiths (Vision)

Alien Scientist (Vision)

Elonians (Mentioned)

Notes

• Very quickly, Firestar appears on the over with the Council members and Starscream...why? She isn't even in this issue (Don't get me wrong, she looks good, but she's just out of place)
• There are some human sized characters amongst the Transformers in the opening pages, we can't see much of them, but from their outfits I would guess they are Prysmosian (Though we know there are Humans and Elonians also on Cybertron now too)
• Gee, Cybertron sure looks like it has been developed a lot in the past few issues huh? We can't see any barren wastelands or shanty towns anywhere!
• The three Decepticons that Bludgeon recruits are the Mini-Con Demolition Team from the Classics toyline, albeit now upgraded to full-sized Transformers. Though in one panel Wideload is misnamed as Sledge (another member's name)
• When we last saw Bludgeon, he was commenting on how his "Master" was arriving soon. At the time, we believed this to be Onyx Prime, especially after it was revealed that he was Shockwave in disguise, but here we learn that he was referring to Unicron.
• The Decepticon fleet is made up of Worldsweepers, Warworlds and something called "Worldburners". This latter term is likely referring to the Nemesis and Revenge duplicates in the armada.
• We learn here that, unsurprisingly, Arcee was a part of the Cybertronian Expansion in the past. This is unsurprising since her twin, Galvatron, was known to also be a part of it.
• Similarly, we learn that the Omega Sentinels were a part of the Expansion too, and not just defenders of the planet.
• We learn here that less than a hundred Devisens survived their colony's destruction. We aren't given a number of Velocitronians, but since it was the first populated world to be devoured it is likely that only those who were based on Cybertron/Earth would have survived.
• Two Data Slug "Disposables" are seen working on computers in the council's "war room" I'd like to say one of those is Eject, but they look like generics and have similar colour schemes.
• Chromia and her team are revealed to be alive, having been missing for some time now. It was assumed by some that they were killed off-panel by Liege Maximo or his allies, as they were sent to hunt him down.
• It's unclear if Omega Supreme's vision is showing Unicron's "birth" or his "rebirth" after stasis. If it is his birth, then how would Omega have these memories, he wasn't around back then.
• It's implied from the flashback, that the planet Antilla, often shown orbiting a dead, black star is actually Unicron's physical form, but was originally a normal planet with life that was killed when a scientist did something to spread energy around.
• A side effect of Unicron's "birth" and the energy being shot off was the creation of the Dire Wraiths, having mutated from some alien species, and apparently the original advent of magic on Prysmos.
• So, after being on life-support for a few years now, Omega Supreme just dies after giving information to Bumblebee...YEESH!!
• Instead of turning grey when he died, Omega Supreme starts to turn black and cracks start to appear.
• The Maximals are revealed to actually be some demonic looking robots under their animal "shells", which somewhat resemble Liege Maximo. This also somewhat explains why we keep seeing multiples of these Maximals, even though they sometimes die in one issue, before reappearing (Like Inferno last issue reappearing here)
• Bludgeon refers to the Maximals as Liege Maximo's. Does this mean that the Maximals are not related to Onyx Prime's beasts?
• Unicron's transformation sequence is very reminiscent of the same scene in the Transformers Movie.
• I am actually surprised that Unicron IS going to Cybertron already. He still has two or three colonies to eat before going after Primus right? It's possible that he's just there to eat Caminus, and then teleport away to Earth or the thirteenth colony. Just seems a little off to me.
• The side story acts as a coda of sorts for the cancelled Scarlett's Strike Force, but is actually set earlier in the timeline than the main story, since the Maximals are attacking Earth here. It's possible they are just a second group, attacking the Colonies to make them easier to destroy. However it's more likely that it's because this was meant to go up in a later issue, since it was mentioned in solicits that Micronauts would have had a comic in this issue instead.
• This issue does not feature Aubrey Sitterson, the writer of GI Joe and Scarlett's Strike Force, most likely due to the controversy revolving around him last year.
• Roadblock mentions that "this isn't even the most trouble we've been in this year". Whilst in continuity it is likely referring to the actions of Cobra, that were supposed to happen in the unreleased issues of the comic, however in a real world context it could be referring to their comic's sudden cancellation at only three issues, in the middle of a storyline.
• Skywarp, Snake Eyes and Helix all were about to escape from the Lemuria and join Duke's project when the series ended. They must have decided to return here!
• The behind the scenes section includes interviews with Nick Roche and Shane McCarthy.