About Heroes

A few months ago I went to the 2008 Transformers Botcon convention in Cincinatti, OH with Dan and Omar. While many Transformers fans were buying old toys and the Botcon exclusive toys, I was on a different mission. I was interested in finding some old Simon Furman Transformers comic books. I was in luck, there were two different booths selling TF comics. Not only did I find the final TF hardcover comic I was searching for, I also spotted a oversized TF graphic novel titled “The Legacy of Unicron.” I had never read this story since it was originally published in the Marvel UK Transformers comic book series. I was thrilled to find this for two reasons. First, I love Unicron. Love him to death, he’s my all time favorite TF bad guy. Second, Simon Furman was a guest at Botcon and I wanted to get this bad boy signed by him despite my not having read the story. Needless to say the story did not disappoint.
This story really should have been the basis for the second animated Transformers movie. The book opens with a few pages of notes about the Transformers UK line of comics and then dives into a two-page recount of the events of the original Transformers animated movie. The premise of the comic is this: after the final scene of TF: The animated movie, Unicron’s head lands on the planet of Junk. It seems the matrix of leadership didn’t destroy Unicron’s brain, thus he is re-activated on the planet of Junk. Unicron then quickly uses his mind powers to enslave the Junkions into rebuilding his body. Wreck-Gar, leader of the Junkions learns of this development and quickly contacts the Autobots for help. A villain called Death’s Head has set his sights on Rodimus Prime. Galvatron has been buried deep inside a volcano on Earth so his allies Cyclonus and Scourge find themselves in combat against the Autobots and Death’s Head. So basically there are multiple forces manipulating and battling against one another.
Unicron finally regains control of Cyclonus and Scourge and orders his former minions to launch a full-scale attack on Cybertron. Cyclonus and Scourge decide to obey their former master and begin the attack. While all hell is breaking loose across the universe Wreck-Gar finally contacts Rodimus Prime and informs him of Unicron’s new plan. Ultra Magnus tells his leader to return to the planet of Junk and deal with Unicron while the Autobots make a stand against the full Decepticon battle fleet headed their way. Can’t you just feel the excitement? This is why this story would have made a great-animated movie sequel and we are only halfway done!
Rodimus returns to the planet of Junk and to his horror watches as Unicron is being rebuilt by the enslaved Junkions. To make things worse, Death’s Head has also been introduced to Unicron. Unicron tries to use his mental powers on Death’s Head but it seems that this bounty hunter is able to resist Unicron. This ultimately culminates into a mental battle deep within Unicron’s mind. Death’s Head needs some time to get his bearings and tricks Unicron into revealing the true history of the Transformers. It seems that there were two forces in the universe many milleniums ago. Unicron, the chaos bringer was a huge warrior (not a robot) destroying all in his path. There was also Primus, a noble knight protecting the galaxy against this dark god. The two were evenly matched, so Primus realized he needed to trick Unicron so that the fighting would stop. Primus lured Unicron into a huge asteroid, thus trapping their spirits inside the huge rock. The rock split apart and the two warriors drifted through space in their rocky tombs. The spirits were not dead though and after thousands of years Unicron re-formatted his rocky prison into a massive robotic planet. Unicron continued to master his prison and finally managed to transform into his robot mode making him the first real Transformer. Primus realized his foe was stronger than ever and also re-formatted his body in the planet known as Cybertron. It was on Cybertron that Primus created his children, the Transformers, in hopes that one day his race would stand against the chaos bringer. Simon Furman would later introduce this origin of the Transformers in his Marvel Comics US run.
In the finale of this story, Unicron summons Scourge and Cyclonus back to the planet of Junk. Rodimus Prime and Wreck-Gar fire missles and lasers at Unicron to no avail. Finally, Death’s Head brings Rodimus into Unicron’s mind for a final astral plane battle. As the war rages on the planet of Junk, Unicron feels victorious until he realizes that Rodimus and Death’s head have merely kept his mind busy while he newly reformatted body has been taking damage. Much like the finale of the TF animated movie, Rodimus uses the matrix of leadership to trap Unicron’s essence once and for all. Cyclonus and Scourge retreat and their fellow Decepticon warriors quickly succumb to the Autobot forces on Cybertron. Death’s Head also leaves to pursue new targets in the galaxy. Once again, the Autobots have saved the universe from Unicron and the Decepticon forces.
Thoughts/Comments:
WOW! This really felt like a sequel to the original TF animated movie. The action was intense, the artwork was amazing, and Simon Furman continues to show love and respect to the Transformers universe. I really enjoyed reading this epic, the characters maintained their personalities from the original G1 cartoon and movie. In fact, as I read this story I heard the voice actors from the show while reading the text found within this graphic novel. The only minor complaint I had was Unicron’s head landing on the planet of Junk. At the end of the animated movie, Unicron’s head spins in orbit around the planet Cybertron. This would continue over into the third season of the TF animated series. Still, this was a rare find and I enjoyed every minute of this story. For you TF fans out there, try and hunt this story down. All in all, this movie sequel (in my mind) gets a solid A. This is a must have for any fans of G1 Transformers and fans of the animated movie.