Transformation 227: Sick Old Man.

16/9/2016

Unicron is back! But not for long...

It's the conclusion of Aspects of Evil, as we look at the biggest baddy of them all. But does the real evil lie within man's soul?

SPOILER: Yes it does.

Plus, unexpected news on a new partwork (and if you're in the test area or know where it is, let me know!).

All in my look at ISSUE 227!

19 Comments

Nathan webb

16/9/2016 03:45:34 pm

I hope you got payed by hachett for the advert. I'm undecided about buying the comics again in another format. But the recoloured black and whites is tempting.

Stuart

17/9/2016 06:36:18 am

No, I'm just trying to help out by explaining something that people clearly have a lot of questions about. I doubt they'd pay someone to point out the paucity of their website.

Charles RB

17/9/2016 11:35:39 pm

I only just learned they exist from this blog.

Much like their Dredd line, I plan to sporadically raid this for stuff I don't have or would like a better collection of

Alex Smith link

16/9/2016 07:31:07 pm

I need to get home and re-read the issue, but is it not the case that Unicron here is possessing Rodimus's body for his attack (after getting into the Matrix in 'Legacy...')?

Tim Roll-Pickering link

16/9/2016 10:37:59 pm

Yeah that was my assumption too but my copies of this one aren't to hand. Certainly the idea that Rodimus isn't just somewhere inside Unicron's giant body (as in the Movie) but somehow *is* the core of Unicron's body as he's been possessed makes a lot more sense. Is it also possible that Unicron is reaching out from the Matrix into other Transformers in close proximity and thus the Student could "find" Unicron inside him? Certainly the Galvatron portion implied that there's some kind of link that can be triggered. But it's really terrible storytelling that just throws out random ideas and the Student's criticisms seem to be aiming at subtly pushing us into deducing what's really going on but instead come out as just random negative comments, leaving it all a mess.

But the biggest problem is that if one hasn't recently read the end of Legacy of Unicron (and this is almost exactly the midpoint between the original printing and the reprint) then the whole information about Unicron having been previously absorbed into the Matrix isn't something that would be at the forefront of the reader's mind and so it becomes chaos.

I remember Collected Comics 13 well as it was a holiday treat taken with us to Yugoslavia. That was the one time I've been a millionaire, thanks to the terrible inflation the country was suffering at the time.

Paul

17/9/2016 12:20:42 am

Thirded. I always took it that Rodimus had been taken over by Unicron (as in the 250s story set earlier when explicitly Rodimus is controlled by Unicron in the Matrix). When Rodimus "attacks" it appears to be an internal thing - we don't see the Autobot leader until Unicron has shrunk and disappeared in a Mr Hyde type scenario. The later/chronologically earlier story ends with Rodimus saying he'll need to confront Unicron again and clearly it doesn't go so well to start with.

Stuart

17/9/2016 06:38:54 am

That's certainly how the next future story presents it, but if the fight between Unicron and Prime here is supposed to be internal it's poorly conveyed (albeit intentionally) thanks to it all happening off page.

Charles RB

17/9/2016 09:33:32 pm

The big problem with the story is that "oh no Unicron's possessing Rodimus" is the _punchline_, which means you can't explain it properly until page 5, which means.... well, this. And without that core idea, this is an underwhelming return for Unicron (the _cover_ has more impact).

Possibly a better way would be to make this explicit and then have the Student, under Unicron's influence, try to attack Rodimus. We'd be cost Telefunken in 2000 but oh well.

(As a side note, I'd love to see Coleby draw Unicron _now_. His mature style is great at grotesqueries)

Tim Roll-Pickering link

18/9/2016 12:23:31 am

The cover just adds to the confusion - okay scale has never been the most consistent thing in Transformers (though the comic's usually better than the cartoon), Unicron is one of the bigger problems and covers aren't always literal, but that image implies Unicron is in his traditional giant sized form attacking Cybertron. But some of the images inside - e.g. the one with Galvatron (who looks to be just alive & grasping) in the foreground at the top of this post - suggest that Unicron is rather smaller this time, another hint at what's going on.

Ralph Burns

17/9/2016 10:29:07 pm

I do love how the further into the future we saw of the Transformers the more things just turned to **** and was just generally horrible. Our good friend Rodders? Last seen screaming on a bed, alone, as the Devil consumes him from within 300 years from now.

Grim, grim stuff for a kiddy comic! Of course it's even worse in 'Peace'. No happy endings in TFUK!

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Charles RB

17/9/2016 10:51:40 pm

When I did a major edit to flesh out TF Wiki's timeline for Marvel, with all the branching alternate timelines, I made damn sure Peace (and crying Rodimus) was right at the bottom: the last word on Marvel Transformers.

Alex Smith link

17/9/2016 11:08:59 pm

Furman can't help himself - even Regen One ends with everyone dying, and that universe cut off from the multiverse.

I love him to bits.

Stuart

18/9/2016 03:06:13 am

Though the ending to Reg was actually a Hasbro mandate! For whatever odd reason, despite being happy to approve it for GI Joe, they did not want a Marvel continuation. One of the conditions of it being approved was the book had to kill the Marvel continuity hard.

On the one hand, if Furman had been given a limited run with no provisos he'd have probably done something similar. But if he'd had the same "You can do it as long as it sells" brief Hama seems to have on the revived Real American Hero, I thing Reg would still be going today.

tigerbread

18/9/2016 11:56:29 am

Y'know that got me thinking, which of the official Marvel endings does everyone prefer? there are at least 4

1 Earthforce time line #290s (1990)
2 G1 End of the Road #332 (1991)
3 G2 #12 (1994)
3 Regeneration one #20 (2014)

Personally I've always preferred the G2 ending, with the Bots and Cons in a fragile alliance, and Op and Megs at their respective helms, the future awaits them...

Charles RB

19/9/2016 02:04:37 pm

"For whatever odd reason, despite being happy to approve it for GI Joe, they did not want a Marvel continuation"

Transformers does seem to be a more 'living' franchise - certainly then - than the Joes, with the films and two cartoons and the 'modern' G1 comics. Hasbro might have not liked having something 'old' that might conflict with modern brand stuff.

Or they might just have been petty about Regen1 being (IIRC) semi-pushed on them and IDW after Hama got his shot. "Okay BUT YA GOTTA KILL 'EM"

Ralph Burns

18/9/2016 01:10:49 pm

The 'Peace' ending is my much preferred one for a few reasons. It's the first ending we were given, it fits the overall tone of the Transformers story and it isn't negated by any other 'ending' due to the timeframe it is set. Even Regen One can be made to fit with some squinting.

RE: Regen One. While I sadly found the last issue to be a bit of a mess I did think the final two pages were spot-on and a good ending for Marvel TF as a whole.

Though as a kid, I thought the 'ending' was Part 1 of 'Still Life' as I didn't see any of the regular UK issues after that at the time: I could only find the Specials which continued until late 1994. I had assumed the ongoing comic had just been cancelled with that issue part-way through a story until I got online in 1995.

SPECIAL TEAMS!

Alex Smith link

25/9/2016 09:13:07 pm

I know it's not 'official-official', but Alignment is a nice ending for me.

Felicity link

21/11/2019 09:53:38 pm

I’d never heard the term “partwork” before so I’m glad for the info.

Is that Xaaron in the “Next Week” section? If so, it’s nice to see him without the “grille” that makes it look like his lips are starting to grow together. :-)

LiamKav

9/10/2020 12:14:31 am

It's around this time that I really started feeling sorry for Rodimus. I know that his life should be a bit depressing and heavy to contrast with light-hearted live for the moment Hot Rod, but he gets abuse that never happens to Optimus. His entire time line gets wiped out, half his friends die, he has to carry around the corrupting essence of Satan inside him... Every ending at this point is a miserable experience for him, either an all out war between people who fought side by side, or Unicron using his body to destroy countless Transformers and leaving him with the permanent fear that it could happen again. It seems his destiny is to carry the burden of Unicron inside him forever. Sure, Op died when he killed Unicron, but he was back a swear new body within 5 issues, so that's not much of a burden.

Transformation 227: Sick Old Man.

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