I'll sum this up with a quick, non-spoilery sentence: DAMN that was good! Spoilers: Spoiler So Unicron possesses Cybertron and makes it his new body. Chaos ensues. Stockade gets what is coming to him when Unicron basically tells him he's an insect and nothing more than a tool in assisting him gain Cybertron as a body. Whoops. Earthside, Optimus and the other Autobots head off to Cybertron as well, find Cybertron (now looking a lot more like Unicron) already in the solar system. Their shuttle gets shot down. FYI, the shuttle is named "The Straxus", nice homage. Starscream makes his move to take over Earth, with Mikaela and the US President Hypno-chipped. Barricade's back, Wreckage is there, and a couple of others (Thundercracker and Dreadwing, I think). Oh, and Unicron is hungry and going to eat the Earth. So it doesn't matter much what Starscream does. I loved the characterisations in this issue. Stockade in particular got an interesting twist to his character "I had to do something, I could not stand by and let Cybertron die!" Take it out of context, he sounds like a hero! Oh, and Spoiler Unicron acts exactly as you would expect him to. Malevolent to the core, I got a real sense of awe and evil off reading his few lines. Furman's nailed Unicron's personality perfectly in this issue. Probably the best Unicron's ever been written, to be totally honest. But we'll see. Love Unicron's new look too, he seems more organic, the image of Cybertron's metal giving way to magma and loose rock is amazing. Art is a little inconsistent again. It's good work, but it's a little hard to follow a story where the character designs alternate between one or two styles every couple of issues. Although I think the comic is getting better in this regard. The worst offender is Fracture, a couple of issues back, she was drawn like the toy. This issue, her design is a little more stylized, which would be fine except it looks a little off compared to how she looked before. I do like the Cybertron modes for guys like Incinerator and Divebomb, they are very well done designs. Very clever the way the Earth mode is obvious yet reworked slightly (Incinerator, for example, has VTOL fans). All in all, small complaint about art aside, this was another good one. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Good issue, great storyline. Arguably one of Simon Furman's very best.
I genuinely bored of the Movie comic now. Reading the main story is 'meh' and the other stories are almost a chore. I mean, I've not even read the Megatron story and the Beast wars stuff I have absolutely NO connection to. The main strip is almost like, 'sales are slipping, lets throw in Unicron!' I think the thing that gets me the most is a lot of these spin off movie stories in no way possible fit in with movie continuity. Sure I understand its meant to be an alternate universe/timeline or something, but really? Like I need another continuity to bend my head around? I dunno, I feel like I'm simply picking this title up out of habit, yet I get so much enjoyment out of the new Animated comic, and thats only 2 issues in!
