Our Darkest

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"Hear me and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan."
"Our Darkest"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 5,2018
Cover date	May 2018
Written by	John Barber
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Sebastian Cheng
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

The Transformers come to the aid of Elonia when Unicron attacks.

Synopsis

From across the cosmos, reports reachCybertronof a colossal, planet-sized entity roaming the spaceways, consuming other worlds. One by one, planets that are home to bothShockwave'sRegenesisores and Cybertron's colonies fall; first the time-tossedLV-117,then the dead worlds ofGorlam PrimeandPrion,then the planet of speed,Velocitron,each physically adding to the monster's mass as it devours them. The Transformers are able to deduce that this entity has been summoned by two transmissions recently sent by Cybertron itself into deep space, the second of which identified the planet-eating monster as "Unicron."And Unicron is not finished dining; now, it appears in the skies overElonia,home of theSolstar Order,and begins to feed. Optimus Prime leads a team aboard theArk-Zero,the only vessel fast enough to get there in time, in a desperate bid to save the planet's population...

Prime's team are met byRomtheSpace Knight,and Prime explains the situation to him. With no idea what Unicron is or why it's doing what it's doing, stopping it seems impossible, butWheeljackhas an alternative: a massive, planet-wideSpace Bridgeto teleport the entire population of Elonia to Cybertron. Rom appreciates the offer, but he and the Space Knights think they can deal with Unicron, and head out to confront it. While Rom andLiviaskim Unicron's surface, discovering it littered with the remains of dead Transformers absorbed along with Velocitron, the rest of their team flies straight into Unicron's maw... only to be immediately destroyed when a blast of energy emerges from it. Rom and Livia are caught in the blast and hurled down to Elonia's disintegrating surface.

The Transformersteleportdown to Elonia and begin setting up Space Bridge pylons in strategic locations around the planet. As they work, Bumblebee befriends an Elonian girl and her pet. Before long, everything is ready to go, but when Wheeljack flips the switch, nothing happens!Soundwavededuces that a counter-signal is blocking the activation of the Space Bridge, the source of which Optimus Prime andArceediscover when they go the spot where Rom fell: an ancient CybertronianTitannamedEmissary,who has lain hidden for millions of years beneath theThrail Mineral Mineand has been exposed by the planetary break-up. The mine is source of the metal used to create the Space Knights' armor; examining a handful of the metal, Optimus realizes that it isanother of Shockwave's Regenesis ores,confirming that Elonia is being targeted by Unicron because it is another of the thirteen lost "colonies" of Cybertron.

Wheeljack sees no option but to teleport back to theArk-Zerobefore the planet is destroyed, but Bumblebee refuses to leave the Elonians to die, and Wheeljack is justly shamed. Arcee has a drastic solution—she buries her swords in Emissary's brain, killing him, causing the counter-signal he is generating to cease. Wheeljack is briefly alarmed by an energy spike that accompanies the cessation of the signal, but then quickly composes himself and activates the Space Bridge. Everyone teleports out... except Wheeljack himself, bravely resigned to the fact that he must stay behind to operate the Bridge to get everyone away safely. Satisfied, Wheeljack dies with Elonia as Unicron gorges upon it.

As Unicron completes its feeding, it disappears in a flash, teleporting away to somewhere else in the galaxy, leaving only blackness in its wake, the stars winking out from the sky. AboardArk-Zero,Soundwave confirms that two-thirds of Elonia's population has been saved.Windbladejoins the group via teleconference hologram to explain the full extent of Unicron's actions to Rom, and, knowing that this threat is far from over, they begin planning for next time.

But, across the universe, "next time" is alreadynow,as Unicron appears in the skies overEukarisand begins to feed...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"It shouldaworked!I tell ya, my calculations areneveroff! I mean, sure,sometimes—but notnow!"

—Wheeljackreacts to the space bridge's failure to activate

"TheTitans... your kind see them as like untogods."
"I said it before, knight... I don'tpraymuch. "

—Romis surprised byArcee's decision to kill Emissary

"Heh.Guess there're areworseways to go than savin' an entire- "

—Wheeljack'slast words.

"I HUNGERRR..."

—Unicron's first words

Notes

Continuity notes

• This issue occurs partway through the pages ofOptimus Prime#22,which also includes the setup for the events that unfold here, and the fallout that bridges the gap between this issue andUnicron#0. However, it was released several months ahead of time, as aFree Comic Book Day2018 "teaser" for theUnicronevent, in the same month asOptimus Prime#19.This made it the first story to reveal that Bumblebee would be returning to life a few months in advance of it actuallyhappening,though anyOptimus Primereaders can't have found that to be a shocker of a revelation.
• Optimus refers to the Solstar Order as one of "three grand dominions" in the galaxy. One of the others is definitely theGalactic Council;it's unclear if the third is theBlack Block Consortia,Cybertron and itsCouncil of Worlds,or some unknown force.
• The Elonian girl's pet is apurple porcine animalwe've seen before;Stardrivehad a plush toy of one inShining Armor#1,and a dead one was glimpsed inOptimus Prime#18.
• Speaking ofShining Armor,Bumblebee mentions that he's "happy to see Rom again," having met him in that mini-series.
• Rom'sotherSpace Knight ally, the serpentine officerOrphion,is conspicuous by his absence; that's because he died fightingBaron Karzaand theDire WraithsinRom & the Micronauts#5,released the week after this issue came out.
• Livia postulates that Unicron might be aWarworld,aDecepticonship class that appears over inMore than Meets the Eye/Lost Light.
• Optimus and Arcee use anorbital jumpto get fromArk-Zeroto Elonia, a form of short-range teleportation from an orbiting craft to a planet's surface introduced waaay back at the start of IDW continuity. But, see "Errors", below.
• Emissary was revealed to have crashed on prehistoric Elonia inOptimus Prime#18.
• The Thrail Mineral Mine was introduced in the2017ROMannual.It has previously been strongly implied that the ore found there was one of Shockwave's Regenesis ores (a running gag in the Hasbro Universe even has various humans mistake Rom and his compatriots for Cybertronians); this issue confirms it, identifying the ore asOre-12.Optimus observes the ore's "hexagonal lattice"; this has previously been described as a feature ofSolus Prime'sCreation LatheinThe Transformersvol. 2 #46,suggesting it is a common feature of Cybertronian metal, or at least ancient and powerful ones.
• When relating that two-thirds of Elonia's population has been saved, Soundwave makes a point of stressing this includes animal life. Soundwave has a fondness for animals; he considerselephantshis favorite Earth creatures (humans are #2!), as noted inOptimus Prime#4.
• The first signal was sent to Unicron inFirst Strike#6,which was the story that introduced the planet-eater into IDW continuity. The second signal was the flare of healingTalismanenergy released inTransformers vs. Visionaries#5;not that there was any indication inthat storythat any signal was being sent, but it's clarified in the recap section at the back of this issue (see "Other trivia," below).
• The destruction of LV-117 took place inRobots in Disguise#10.The visuals of the planet's destruction strongly suggested Unicron at the time, years before his formal introduction. Optimus Prime was there to witness it; from his perspective, it was years ago, but as Windblade explains, LV-117 moved freely through time, and was only destroyed a week ago.
• The dead colony of Prion was introduced inThe Transformersvol. 2 #57.
• A little strange to hear that Gorlam Prime has been consumed, given that, when we last saw it inRobots in Disguise#19(when Optimus rose theTitanhe speaks of here), it collapsed into a portal into theDead Universe.Maybe Unicron ate the portal?
• Velocitron was visited by the Transformers inWindbladevol. 2 #4-#5.The body of the planet's leader,Override,is among the corpses seen in this issue, next toCliffjumper,who Optimus notes took a team to Velocitron when Unicron attacked it and disappeared with it. Cliff's only madeone cameo appearancein the last four years, so he was pretty expendable.
• Bumblebee's specific concern for Cliffjumper presumably stems from his old pre-war friendship with him, as depicted in2017Transformersannual.
• It's been unclear for some time now exactly what the relationship between the planets Shockwave chose for his thirteen Regenesis ores (explained inRobots in Disguise#34to be the final resting places of theThirteen Primes) and the thirteen colony worlds of Cybertron (one for each Prime, founded by a Titan connected with that Prime). We'd initially assumed that they werenotnecessarily the same group of thirteen planets, since multiple ore worlds had no colonies, multiplecolonyworlds had noores,and multiplePrimeseither died or never left Cybertron, and so could not have been lain to rest on those worlds. Well, with the explicit identification of Elonia as one of the thirteen Regenesis planetsandone of the thirteen "colony Titan" worlds, and the mentioning of other colonies (Velocitron, Eukaris, Prion) and Regenesis worlds (Gorlam Prime, LV-117) in the same breath, it looks like that's been soft-retconned; theyarethe same thirteen planets, and the worlds are not theresting placesof the Primes, just connected with them. This would indicate that the colony worlds we've seen have (or had) ores of their own we never saw, which seems massively coincidental, until you remember that this isaaaaallbeing pinpoint-precisely executed as an ontological paradox by the time-travellingShockwave.Further, this implies: 1) that theNecrotitanwas the colony Titan of Gorlam Prime; 2) that the biomechanical transhuman civilization that existed on Gorlam Prime may therefore have been of Cybertronian origin; and 3) that it's even possible theArdurian rocsof the Regenesis world ofArduriaand theshapeshifting natives of LV-117have similar Cybertronian connections. The rocs were evencalled"cousins" of Cybertronians back inRobots in Disguise#6!We know we say this a lot, but... Johnfriggin'Barber, man.

Transformers references

"I don't think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things."

• The title of this story is, of course, a reference to the Transformers' "darkest hour",part of the prophecy surrounding theMatrix of Leadershipand connected with the coming of Unicron, introduced inThe Transformers: The Movie.
• Like Optimus, Soundwave, Windblade,Starscream,andShockwavebefore him, Bumblebee's return to life has seen him redesigned into his "evergreen"character design.
• In addition to Cliffjumper and Override, a Transformer based on theEnergonversion ofHot Shotappears among the dead Velocitronians. But we know this is just ageneric,because therealHot Shotlives onCaminusand has anArmada-based design! Alex Milne has previously demonstrated his love forUnicron Trilogycameos by includingEnergonHot Shot inMore than Meets the Eye#35.
• As Unicron opens fire on Elonia, Bumblebee despairs: "Oh Primus... what are we gonna do now?" —a, ahem,sanitizedversion ofSpike Witwicky's infamous reaction to Unicron inThe Transformers: The Movie,"Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?"

Prowl 3?...4? Ahhh, who cares.

• Bumblebee introduces the Transformers to the Elonian girl as "rescue bots."
• Unicron's size increasing following his consumption of planets is an obscure fact about the character first established inThe Transformers Universe.
• During Unicron's attack on the planet, the other Eukarian Transformer seen in addition to established Eukarian tribe leaders Cheetor and Manta Ray isBeast WarscharacterTransmetal 2 Prowl.That's probably not his name inthiscontinuity... and robots based on him had also previously appeared as a Cybertronian member ofMayheminSins of the Wreckers#5and one of Onyx Prime'sMaximalsinOptimus Prime #15,but it... uh, well, it hardly matters now, does it?

Real-life references

• Bumblebee uses the extremely mild swear "Hokey Smokes!" which was the catchphrase ofRocky the Flying SquirrelonThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.
• When introducing himself to the Elonian girl, Bumblebee more specifically refers to the Cybertronians present as "friendly neighborhoodrescue bots ", almost certainly a reference to one of hisG1 voice actor'smost famousother role.
• Unicron's declaring "I Hunger" to introduce himself may reference a line (made famous as an Internet meme) from the classic arcade gameSinistar,where it was the introductory line used by the game's villain—himself a very large, animate spacecraft that devoured all it touched...

Errors

• Elonia is referred to as the "capitol of the Solstar Empire" when it should be "capital". A "capitol" is a legislative building; a "capital" is the geographic location. This is corrected in the trade paperback.
• "Space Bridge" is spelled as two words in this issue when IDW has been spelling it as one word for the past half-decade or so.
• Optimus calls the teleport jump he and Arcee take down to Elonia an "orbital bounce", but he should be calling it an "orbital jump". A "bounce" is when one teleports upfromthe surface, to the orbiting craft, then is beamed back down to another location right away.
• Page 9: Elonia is "one of Cybertronian's 13 lost colonies. "This is corrected to" Cybertron's "in the trade paperback.
• Also page 9: "And it'sdown usto fix it. "Though anattemptwas made to, well,fixthis error for the trade paperback, it instead merely relocated the error: Now the sentence reads "And it's down tous fixit. "; in other words, rather thanaddingan extra "to" between "down" and "us", the "to"followingus was simply moved in its position so it's now missing where it had previously been.
• One sentence of "The Writers Guide to Unicron #0", contains an extra "was" causing it to say "...and learned was that Onyx was..."
• In the "Read More About..."Transformers Windblade: The Last Cityis misspelled as "Lost City".

Other trivia

"Permission to strike this from the record, Sir?"

• This issue was released onFree Comic Book Day2018. It includes the 16-page main story, summarized above, and numerous additional pieces of backmatter, including:
  • A letter from IDW associate editor David Mariotte, describing howTransformers: Unicronmarks the end of the current IDWTransformersuniverse.
  • The announcement image for the series bySara Pitre-Durochershown atSan Diego Comic-Con2017, in print for the first time.
  • Preview images forAlex MilneandAndrew Griffith's covers toissue #1andCasey Coller's cover toissue #2,and layouts ofJames Raiz's six interlocking covers for the whole series.
  • A reprint of the double-page spread of Unicron's first appearance fromFirst Strike#6.
  • "The Writers Guide to Unicron #0" by John Barber, summarizing the events leading up to the series. In the process, it gives away a few more details of Shockwave's scheme over inOptimus Primethat hadn't been entirely explained at the time of publication.
  • A "Read More About..." section offering an overview of the IDWTransformerslibrary of graphic novels.
• This issue was originally solicited with a very different logo that incorporated his maw as the "O". The logo was likely updated because it obscured much of Unicron himself (see right).

Deathlist

• The populations ofVelocitron,Eukaris,andLV-117— eaten by Unicron
• Wheeljack, Cliffjumper — devoured by Unicron on Elonia and Velocitron, respectively
• Most of the Solstar Order — disintegrated by Unicron
• Emissary — stabbed in the brain by Arcee

Covers

• Regular cover:Starscream, Arcee, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Windblade stare up at Unicron, bySara Pitre-Durocher;Starscream and Arcee are hidden by a white box commonly added to Free Comic Book Day comics where stores can stamp their name.

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• Transformers: Requiem of the Wreckers
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• Transformers: Unicronchecklist

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