Unicron
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unicron is a fictional character from the Transformers universes and toyline. He was introduced in Transformers: The Movie as the film's main villain. Able to transform from a metallic planet into a colossal robot, Unicron roams the galaxy, devouring other worlds in his path.
Contents |
[edit] Generation 1
| Transformers character | |
 |
|
| Unicron | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | N/A |
| Alternate Modes | Planet |
| Series | Transformers: The Movie,G1 cartoon, Marvel comics, Unicron Trilogy |
| Voiced by | Orson Welles (English) |
Unicron made his entrance into Transformers fiction in the opening scene of 1986's Transformers: The Movie, immediately making clear his driving goal by consuming the small world of Lithone in the year 2005. Subsequently, when the battered bodies of Decepticon leader Megatron and several of his troops were set adrift in space, Unicron appeared before them and offered Megatron a deal—in exchange for a new body, new troops and a new starship, he would destroy the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, the only thing that could stand in Unicron's way. Thus, Megatron became Galvatron, and began to carry out his assigned task, although he was loath to do so; when Galvatron showed any signs of opposition to Unicron's will, Unicron inflicted agonizing mental torture on his servant to bring him back into line.
Following Unicron's consumption of Cybertron's two moons, Galvatron successfully accomplished his mission, but with the Matrix in his hands, foolishly believed he could use it to bring Unicron under his control. Attempting to open the Matrix to intimidate Unicron, Galvatron only prompted his transformation into robot mode, and was swallowed by the planet-eater. Unicron proceeded to lay waste to Cybertron, briefly halted when the young Autobot, Hot Rod crashed a Quintesson spacecraft through his eye. Finding Hot Rod inside Unicron's body, Galvatron suggested an alliance against their common enemy. Unicron inflicted his mental torture upon Galvatron, and he was forced to fight Hot Rod. Hot Rod grabbed the Matrix from Galvatron during the battle, and became Rodimus Prime. Rodimus threw Galvatron into space, and opened the Matrix within Unicron, destroying his body, leaving only his head drifting in space.
In Transformers: The Movie, Unicron (whose lips never moved when he spoke) was voiced by Orson Welles. Unicron proved to be Welles's final role, as he died a few weeks after completing work on the project; rumors persist that Welles did not complete recording of all his lines, and that Leonard Nimoy filled in for him, but director Wally Burr and actress Susan Blu refute the claim. There were two early attempts to produce Unicron toys for the Transformers toyline, including voice clips from Welles himself, but the unimpressive resultsnever made it to production. It wasn't until 2003 that a production Unicron was finally issued.For the upcoming 20th anniversary of the original movie, Diamond Select will be releasing an eight and a half inch tall statue of Unicron and Rodimus Prime. [1]
[edit] Animated series
The third season of the Transformers animated series continued Unicron's story from where the movie left off, as the planet-eater's deactivated head settled into Cybertron's orbit, a grisly monument to the moons he had destroyed. His head was soon visited by Cyclonus, who accessed the memory bank to discern the fate of Galvatron, who had been hurled from Unicron through space by Rodimus Prime. Some time later, the ghost of deceased Decepticon Starscream reactivated Unicron's head and entered into a bargain with him, performing three labors in exchange for the restoration of his body. Starscream (inhabiting and controlling Scourge's body) gathered for Unicron Metroplex's eyes (breaking one and replacing it with one from Trypticon) and Trypticon's transformation cog, and then began connecting his head to Cybertron, which would become Unicron's new body. Starscream demanded that Unicron restore his own body so that he could complete the required connections; but once Unicron had done so, Starscream, somewhat predictably, double-crossed him and refused to finish the job. Unicron's head was subsequently blown off into space by an explosion instigated by the Autobots.
Later, when searching for a new supply of anti-electrons, the Decepticons ventured to Unicron's head, where Cyclonus and Scourge accidentally awoke the slumbering demi-god. At the same time, Grimlock - who had gained super-intelligence through an infusion of anti-electrons - had constructed from pieces of Unicron's head the Technobots, and one of their number, Strafe, severed enough of Unicron's neural connections to shut him back down.
No more was heard from Unicron himself, but it was after this that his origin in the animated series was finally revealed. Unicron was created near the beginning of the universe by the diminutive genius known as Primacron, who intended for him to devour all life in the universe, leaving a blank slate that Primacron could use as he saw fit. However, Unicron turned upon Primacron, deciding that he would rule the universe and subsequently setting out to fulfill that would-be destiny.
In the series, Unicron's role was taken on by Roger C. Carmel.
[edit] Marvel Comics
Controversy surrounded the revelation of Unicron's cartoon origin, with many fans taking a dim view of his origin as the creation of a primate. The wildly different origin for Unicron presented in Marvel Comics proved to be overwhelmingly more popular, and has shaped Unicron in fiction twenty years hence.
Far more than a mere product of science, as in the cartoon, Unicron was a fallen god from before the universe existed, who sought the ultimate peace that would be granted by the destruction of all life. Amazingly, Unicron accomplished this task, wiping out all life, planets, stars and nebulae, even "the stuff of space itself" (possibly dark matter) in the universe and leaving only a nothingless void. His lust for destruction finally sated, Unicron entered a deep sleep - but he had not been thorough enough. Tiny fragments of the old universe reacted with each other, and a new universe was born. As Unicron slept, the core of this new universe - somehow a sentient being - became aware of Unicron's threat and created a defender to battle his evil - Primus, the Lord of Light. Unicron awoke to find himself surrounded by another universe, and simply began to destroy it again. He and Primus clashed many times, the force of their battles wiping out the very life Primus had been created to protect. To stop this physical destruction, Primus shifted the battle to the astral plane, where he fared little better, forcing himself into what seemed to be a sacrifice play - in shifting the battle back to the physical universe without time to properly generate their energy forms, Primus entrapped both himself and Unicron in two barren asteroids. But this was not the end of Unicron - over the eons, he learned to psionically shape his asteroid, and transformed it into a metallic planet, and then again into a gargantuan robot. Primus, fearing that to follow suit by forming himself in a similar manner would simply pick up the conflict where it had left off, sought an alternative way to defend the universe against the threat of Unicron by turning his asteroid into the planet Cybertron; a planet that he populated with robotic beings that, like Unicron, could alter their forms. And thus were born the Transformers.
[edit] Marvel UK
This origin was not revealed immediately, however. Unicron's slightly convoluted comic tenure began in the United Kingdom's exclusive Transformers comic series, which interspliced its own original stores with reprinted American material. Jumping at the chance to work with a new cast of characters not involved in the American comics, writer Simon Furman decided to cannibalise the best elements of the movie and work them into his stories, creating a future universe based on the movie's events, but different from the cartoon. In the first use of this timeline, in the mega-serial, Target: 2006, Galvatron travelled back in time in an attempt to escape the control of Unicron, but Unicron was able to ensnare the minds of three Autobots - Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr - and send them back in time after him to foil his plot. Though Unicron's role in the story itself was suitably minor, it offered the first glimpse of his greater mental power.
In the comics' version of post-movie events, Unicron's head did not enter Cybertron's orbit, and instead crash-landed on the Planet of Junk. Still active, Unicron used his vast mental powers to enslave the minds of the Junkion natives, who set about rebuilding his body. Cyclonus, Scourge and the bounty hunter, Death's Head, also fell prey to him, and he used them to exacerbate the stalemated war on Cybertron to keep the Autobots busy, so that they would not learn of his impending resurrection. When Death's Head fought back against Unicron's mental control, however, Unicron rewarded his temerity by revealing the comic book version of his origin. Death's Head then aided Rodimus Prime, projecting his mind into Unicron's where they battle, until Unicron's head was destroyed by explosives, and his essence was sealed within the Matrix. Rodimus and several other future Autobots subsequently travelled back in time to 1989 and participated in the "Time Wars," but when they attempted to return to their own time afterward, they discovered that disruptions to the timestream and erased their future, and replaced it with one where the Decepticons ruled Cybertron. In this dark future, Unicron's essence emerged from the Matrix and briefly took over Rodimus Prime, before he was thwarted by the removal of the Matrix from Rodimus's body. In 2010, however, Unicron attempted this again and succeeded, controlling Rodimus's body and reshaping it into his own image, before being defeated by Rodimus's own force of will.
[edit] Marvel US
In 1989, Simon Furman began writing the US Transformers series in addition to the UK comics, and immediately set in motion an epic Unicron-themed story. The alterations made to the timeline by time-travel and disruptions to the fabric of reality in the UK comic set the comic book universe on a path that would not lead into the movie/post-movie timeline originally depicted as its future, and Unicron soon made his presence known to the Transformers much earlier than 2005.
A battle between the Autobot Classic Pretenders and the Decepticons' Mayhem Attack Squad at the centre of Cybertron had the unfortunate side effect of waking the slumbering Primus, who was struck by a stray laser blast and awoke with a scream. Although he immediately sank back into slumber, Primus's scream echoed throughout the universe, to the fringes of known space... where Unicron heard it. Now aware of his old enemy's location, Unicron immediately headed towards Cybertron, but, seeking a herald to sow chaos in his name ahead of his coming, used his formidable powers to send three agents - Hook, Line and Sinker, forward in time to an alternate future version of 2009. In this timeline, Unicron had succeeded in consuming Cybertron in the year 2005, and Galvatron and the Decepticons ruled Earth. This timeline's version of Galvatron was pulled back to 1990 by Hook, Line and Sinker and press-ganged into Unicron's service, but, like his predecessors, turned on his master by forcing Emirate Xaaron to awaken Primus in hopes of destroying Unicron. Primus possessed Xaaron's form and attempted to hold off Unicron, but he was weak, and his attack was a ruse, leading to his own destruction, which in turn (along with a direct attack by Galvatron) succeeded in galvanising the Autobots and Decepticons to attack Unicron together. Ultimately, they did little damage, and many Transformers died before Optimus Prime was able to use the Matrix to destroy Unicron, exploding his body from within.
[edit] Dreamwave Comics
In contrast to his major roles in the Marvel comics, the cancellation of the Dreamwave Transformers comics meant that Unicron would play a much lesser role in events. His presence was first hinted at in the second War Within arc, where the Fallen enlisted the Chaos Trinity (Bludgeon, Bugly and Mindwipe) to capture a number of Transformers (Grimlock, Blitzwing, Jetfire and Hot Spot) for an arcane ritual to summon the Fallen's Master. It failed, due to a combined strike by Prowl's Autobots and Shockwave's Decepticons, with the Fallen being killed by Primus himself.
He would make his first mainstream appearance in volume 3, issue 1 of the main Generation One series, seemingly summoned by Shockwave at the end of the previous volume. Here it is revealed that he had dispatched Scourge at the head of a huge armada of Sweeps to search the galaxy for Cybertron. Scourge located it, but was shot in the back and deactivated by Shockwave, who used analysis of his body to create the Triple Changers. Unicron then destroyed Lithone, before beginning to journey to Earth. Unfortunately Dreamwave would go bankrupt at this point, although writer Chris Sarracini has indicated that he would have followed through on the Unicron storyline, and also would have had the Dreamwave version of Cyclonus rescue Scourge from US government study.
[edit] Devil's Due
Unicron would also make a cameo appearance in the second G.I Joe/Transformers crossover between Devil's Due and Dreamwave. At the end of the arc COBRA operative Doctor Mindbender would meet with the cult Cobra-La and discover they had allied themselves with Unicron. A subsequent crossover would apparently have been based around Cobra-La creating Galvatron, but as Dreamwave folded and the Transformers licence passed to IDW Publishing, this crossover took a different tack, using Serpentor as a threat. However, one of Optimus Prime's visions of the future show Mindbender and Unicron as a coming threat, indicating Unicron may still appear. Indeed, advance information indicates that Unicron and Cobra-La will be a major threat in the fourth crossover Black Horizons[2]. Interestingly a description of the series is indicated to give Unicron's origin.[3]
[edit] Beast Wars
Although the real Unicron did not make any appearances in 1996's CGI animated series, Beast Wars, his legend held strong. Starscream's ghost spun a lie that claimed Unicron had destroyed him (and the Chaos Bringer's planet mode was seen in Starscream's fabricated flashback), and when the mysterious alien race known as the Vok directly communicated with Maximal leader Optimus Primal, they searched his mind for an image that he would fear and respect, found Unicron and took his form. Later, in Season 3 of Beast Wars, it was revealed that Tarantulas had attempted to destroy both Autobots and Decepticons in the Ark, as he and the Tripredacus Council were descended from a different lineage than Autobot or Decepticon, and would hence inherit Cybertron all to themselves. Although never directly stated, it is implied that the ancestor of Tarantulas and the Council is in fact Unicron. A possible clue was given when Megatron referred to Tarantulas as "Unicron's spawn" in the Beast Wars episode "Nemesis Part 1". However this could also just be another of Megatron's snide remarks. Writer Bob Forward claims the former, while David Kaye's flat, matter-of-fact delivery of the line as Megatron implies the latter. There is the possibility that it may have been both - that Megatron called him that with out knowing just how accurate it really was.
[edit] Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo
Conversely, Unicron played a large role in the two Japanese-exclusive cel-animated Beast Wars series, Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo. Following the events of Transformers: The Movie and Unicron's demise, the Angolmois energy that gave Unicron life was left sealed in planet Gaia (a future version of Earth). When the war on this planet between the forces of Maximal leader LioConvoy and Predacon leader Galvatron (a different individual bearing the same name as Unicron's original creation) culminated in the explosion of Galvatron's Nemesis battle fortress, the resultant energy surge revived Unicron's consciousness. Seeking to complete his resurrection, he created the Blendtrons to gather the Angolmois Capsules his life-energy was now sealed in, and then proceeded to possess the lifeless body of Galvatron as a temporary host. After gathering the capsules, Unicron attempted to make Cybertron his new body, but was finally defeated by Maximal commander Big Convoy and his Matrix Cannon.
As with his G1 self, there was a failed attempt to make Unicron into a toy for the Beast Wars Neo line, and although regarded as quite impressive, the prototype - which, notably, does not resemble Unicron from the BW Neo series at all - did not make it into the production.
[edit] Transformers: Universe
Unicron again appeared as a character in the Transformers: Universe line, seemingly the same Unicron as seen in Armada. Set after Beast Wars and Beast Machines, and his defeat by The Wreckers, he gathered Transformers from across different realities to create an army. These Transformers were forced to fight inside Unicron, where he feasted on both the excess Energon they gave off and the Sparks of the losers. In response to this Primus and Alpha Trion resurrected and reformatted Optimus Primal to lead the fight against the Chaos-Bringer. After freeing Unicron's captives, the Chaos-Bringer gathered an army of his own, dubbed "the Decepticons" to fight against Primus, led by Razorclaw, an alternate version of Tigerhawk, and alternate versions of Obsidian, Tankor and Reptilion.
Although the end of Universe would preclude a proper conclusion, the Cybertron Club Comic would offer a resolution. When Optimus Prime would be called to another dimension to fight Unicron's heralds, he would reflect back on the final battle between Primus' forces and Unicron's army - where Unicron suddenly disappeared, his existence ended by the black hole created by his defeat in Transformers: Energon. This implies that Unicron is capable of existing in more than one reality at once.
[edit] Unicron Trilogy
Although Unicron had played a major role in the above-mentioned Japanese series, he had not been featured as a major player in American fiction for over a decade. That all changed with the advent of the three co-produced series Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon and Transformers: Cybertron, which reintroduced Unicron to American audiences and finally rendered the chaos-bringer in toy form, with the Mini-Con partner, Dead End. In reference to Unicron's key role in these three series, Hasbro's head of Transformers, Aaron Archer, has collectively dubbed them "The Unicron Trilogy."
This incarnation of Unicron was never shown to physically consume planets in the same manner as his G1 predecessor, only to blast and absorb the remains, although several references were made to consumption, so he may indeed perform the action (Note: In one of the mini-comic books packed in with the later Armada toys, Unicron is indeed illustrated literally eating an asteroid or moon whole). This Unicron was voiced by Mark Acheson in the US, while in Japan, Katsumi Chou provides his voice.
[edit] Animated series
[edit] Transformers: Armada
A primal force of evil from the beginning of time, his origins lost to the mists of history, the Armada universe's incarnation of Unicron was the embodiment of all darkness and hate that lurks in the hearts of all beings. Having been defeated by the Autobot warrior, Omega Supreme, at some time in the ancient past of Cybertron, Unicron hid himself in plain sight of the Transformers, disguised as the planet's moon. In order to re-energise himself, Unicron implanted some of his own cells within Cybertron, where they grew and "hatched," giving birth to the diminutive race of robots called the Mini-Cons. It was Unicron's intent that these small robots would increase the ferocity of the Autobot/Decepticon war, allowing Unicron to feed off the hatred that the war fermented - but as a result of interference by human children, displaced in time from the 21st century, the Mini-Cons developed sentience, and fled Cybertron, crashing on Earth, where they lay dormant for a million years. And Unicron waited.
The subsequent awakening of the Mini-Cons once again increased the pace of the war, and to hasten the proceeding, Unicron created another being from his own body, Sideways, to serve as his agent for the purpose of constantly manipulating the events on Earth to keep the balance of power forever shifting, the ferocity of both sides constantly increasing. At the culmination of his plan, the Decepticons came into possession of all three Mini-Con weapons - the Star Saber, the Skyboom shield and the Requiem Blaster - which Sideways and Thrust then stole and used to reactivate Unicron. Shedding his lunar skin, Unicron transformed to robot mode and turned on Cybertron as the combined Autobot/Decepticon armada attempted in vain to stop him. Optimus Prime and Megatron (now Galvatron) entered his body with the human children, and Unicron addressed them through Sideways's form, absorbing all but Optimus into his collective consciousness and bringing the Mini-Cons back under his control. However, from within Unicron's mind, Rad was able to use his connection to High Wire to restore the Mini-Cons' individual minds, freeing the weapons and deactivating Unicron. With the danger apparently over, Galvatron challenged Prime to a final battle, but the hatred between the foes stirred Unicron to life again, and Galvatron realised that to break the circle, he had to sacrifice himself. Plunging himself into Unicron's maw, Galvatron ended the hatred, and in a mighty flash, Unicron vanished without a trace...
[edit] Transformers: Energon
Alas, it was not to be, for there is always hate in the universe, and so there would always be a Unicron. However, Unicron's body was inactive, badly damaged from his previous battle, and it was at this time that a former victim of his chose to strike. Within Unicron's shell, the spark of Alpha Q, ruler of Planet Q, which Unicron had consumed in the past, still existed, and from Unicron's body, he created the Terrorcons to gather Energon, which he would use to regenerate all the worlds Unicron had devoured. However, Megatron's corpse and spark remained within Unicron, and slowly siphoned off some of the gathered Energon, allowing him to be reborn in a new body through the unintentional actions of Scorponok. Hunted by Megatron, Alpha-Q then jettisoned Unicron's head and escaped in it, while Megatron took over Unicron's body, and continued to gather Energon in order to rebuild Unicron to use as his ultimate weapon. As the climax of this plan neared, a joint attack by Alpha-Q, the Autobots and their human allies saw all of Earth's Energon channeled into Unicron's head, which Alpha-Q then rammed into Unicron's body. The positively-charged Energon of Earth reacted with the negatively-charged Energon running through Unicron, tearing open a fissure in reality leading to a new area of space where planets Unicron consumed were recreated, and sustained through the Energon radiated from Unicron's head, which had now become a glowing red sun.
Unicron's body, damaged once more, lay in the dark reaches near the fissure, and the Decepticons began to raid Alpha-Q's new planets for the Energon necessary to revive Unicron again. This time, they succeeded, and Megatron directed Unicron's body to retrieve his head, extinguishing the Energon Sun and killing Alpha-Q in the process. But the power of Unicron proved too much for Megatron to control, as Unicron began to take over Megatron's body. In the ensuing battle between Unicron and the super-powered Optimus Supreme, Unicron's body was successfully destroyed - but unbeknownst to anyone, he lived on in two forms: his minuscule Spark, and his consciousness, which lay buried in Megatron's mind. With quiet, subconscious nudgings, Unicron led Megatron to a massive reservoir of "Super Energon" beneath Cybertron's surface, which transformed him into Galvatron upon his first exposure. After a series of failed battles, Galvatron proceeded to expose himself to the Super Energon once again, and this time grew to a gigantic height. Unicron seized control of his body again for a new vessel and set out to rejoin with his Spark, but a Primus-empowered Optimus Supreme engaged him in battle once more, and drew all of Unicron's consciousness out of Galvatron and sealed it within his own Spark. Enraged, Galvatron prepared to destroy Unicron's Spark, but it merged with him, enlarging him again, leading to another battle with Optimus Supreme, this time bolstered by the combined energy of all his troops' Sparks. Meanwhile, Primus merged with the Super Energon, creating a foundling sun which arrived at the site of the battle. Taking control of his body for a brief moment, Galvatron once again sacrificed himself in order to stop Unicron, plunging himself into the infant sun, which ignited and gave new life to Alpha-Q's worlds.
[edit] Transformers: Cybertron
The place in this trilogy of Transformers: Cybertron is somewhat harder to define. The storyline for the series conceived by Hasbro and consistently used on their toy packaging clearly marks it as the third part of a trilogy - with Unicron's destruction in Energon, the collapse of his body resulted in the creation of an enormous black hole which, if left unchecked, will consume and destroy everything. This necessitates that the Autobots find the Omega Lock and the four Cyber Planet Keys to save Cybertron and the universe.
However, the direction the story has been taken in by the Japanese production team responsible for the animated series does not follow this. Mention of Unicron in the story is only in casual, passing manner, and in general, the events do not seem to line up with the end of the Transformers: Energon series.
However, the official comic has revealed that when Megatron interfered with the creation of the Energon sun, Unicron died, while Primus fled back to Cybertron. Soundwave, a resident of Planet X who had pledged his allegiance to the evil demigod, used Nemesis Prime's Dead Matrix to revive the chaos bringer in a new form, who immediately set out to devour more planets.
[edit] Dreamwave comics
Although Dreamwave Productions' Unicron Trilogy comics were cut short halfway through their Transformers: Energon series, they were able to establish a very important piece of information that would be used to shape Unicron's story in future fiction. The Armada comic established that its version of Unicron did not merely consume worlds and seek the destruction of the singular universe - it moved from universe to universe, throughout the entire multiverse, destroying entire realities and moving on to the next until all of causality and existence was completely obliterated.
His coming in the comic Armada universe was first foreshadowed when he pulled Optimus Prime into a parallel dimension where Cybertron had been devastated. In return, Unicron sent something into our universe - the near dead Optimus Prime of the parallel universe, who warned them of Unicron's coming before dying. Susequently Unicron sent his Heralds - Galvatron, Scourge, Thunderwing, Dirge and Bludgeon - ahead to destroy those who could oppose him (including Megatron) and capture the Mini-Con Matrix. Galvatron was eventually killed by Megatron using the Star Saber, and the other Heralds were eventually destroyed in their captured Decepticon base by an explosion engineered by Jetfire. Unaware of his Heralds' failure, Unicron now threatened to destroy Prime, but the Mini-Cons and Jetfire managed to rescue him, with the power of the Mini-Con Matrix upgrading them and combining them into their Powerlinked mode. They held off Unicron long enough to escape back to their universe. Unicron then came to the Armada universe himself, where he was attacked by a combined force of Autobots and Decepticons. They distracted him long enough for the Mini-Cons to acces power of the Mini-Con Matrix and destroy the Chaos-Bringer. Here Unicron never even transformed to robot mode.
As in the cartoon, of course, Unicron survived, but his body was crippled and he no longer had the power to transform or even move. As in the animated continuity he had to employ servants to do his bidding: here Alpha Q and the Terrorcons: disgruntled former Decepticons upgraded by Unicron in return for harvesting enough Energon to repower him. While they attacked Earth, a rich source of Energon, Unicron sent his four Horsemen - Rhinox, Airazor, Terrorsaur and Cheetor, absorbed by Unicron in the previous battle - against Cybertron, devastating much of it before being stopped by Optimus Prime. Many of the latter Energon stories were set inside Unicron himself as Megatron, whose Spark had also survived the previous battle, attempted to convince Prime to resurrect him in a new body, with the planet eater seemingly unaware of their actions.
Alpha Q showed signs of rebelling against Unicron, andd Prime prepared to fight back from inside Unicron in the final issue, but the series was cancelled before these plot threads could come to fruition. Writer Simon Furman has let it be known that if the Energon comic had continued one of the storylines would have been another attack by Unicron.
[edit] Fun Publications comic
The Transformers club comic has further developed Unicron's story for the Cybertron era, attempting to fill in the plot holes. Clarification states that Primus' chosen task in Energon was to imprison and burn away Unicron's disembodied spark within a fledgling sun. This sun was the one that was born to save Alpha-Q's world. Unfortunately, Megatron's spark, also inside, interfered and the sun collapsed, trapping Unicron's spark inside (bridging it between other universes). The black hole was born, and Megatron was freed. He used pieces of Unicron to remake his body, as well as revive Starscream, his most loyal subject. The black hole itself has begun to devour space and time, unravelling historical events and billing new ones. This is the reason for the "errors" in the Cybertron toon, as it is following a constantly reshaping universe.
A new Unicron figure was released at the end of the Cybertron toy line as a Deluxe-class figure with a tank-like alternate mode [4], apparently as an indication that Unicron cannot truly die, since, as the embodiment of evil, he is a balancing force in the universe. The character did not appear at the conclusion of the Japanese version of the Cybertron animated series (Transformers: Galaxy Force), but the Fun Publications comic served to introduce this new version of the chaos-bringer.
In this story, the Black hole contains Unicron's essence and also links him simultaneously to all Cybertrons across the Multiverse giving him the potential to wipe out Primus in one fell swoop. This course is currently being held at bay by Transformers from across the Multiverse, usually consisting of characters derived from Convention and Club exclusives as well as Cybertron, figures that play no role in the television series. In the most recent issue, Soundwave was dispatched to Cybertron after Ramjet and Nemesis Prime's failure. He tosses the dead matrix into the black hole, releasing Unicron's spark which quickly overtakes a nearby world, converting its inhabitants into savage maniacs, and stealing the planet as his new body.
When Unicron eventually attacked Cybertron in the midst of the chaos caused by a Mini-Con civil war, Sentinel Maximus and Omega Prime fought him off with the help of their allies. In the end Unicron was driven off badly wounded again, this time by Primus himself. Bizarrely, it seems that during his attack on Cybertron Unicron was barely larger than his two Autobot foes, rather than planet-size as his earlier absorption of an entire world would seem to suggest.
[edit] Across the Multiverse
Although all the above related accounts seem to depict different characters in different scenarios, as more time has passed, more fiction has been written which steadily ties all the different incarnations of Unicron together, resulting in the declaration of one fact - that across the multiverse, in all realities, there is only one, singular Unicron, who travels from dimension to dimension.
This concept began with the release of a series of Transformers: Armada trading cards by Fleer. The biography printed on Unicron's card presented him to be one of two heralds created by the Allspark to explore the newly-birthed universe. Inspired by his Marvel Comics origin, the other herald was Primus, and the brothers set about this task, until they came upon a region of space teeming with pure Energon. Unicron wanted this power for himself, and cut Primus down before he could report it to the Allspark, casting his brother's body into the orbit of a nearby star. And so Unicron went on to become the engine of destruction that menaced the universe in recent years.
Not long after this, the publication of Transformers: The Ultimate Guide by Dorling Kindersley cemented this notion. Writer Simon Furman incorporated the various aspects of the Dreamwave Comics story, some elements of the Fleer storyline and his original Marvel Comics origin to create what is now essentially the "definitive" origin for Unicron. In this version of events, Unicron and Primus were again twin heralds, giant metal planetoids created by the "One", who were sent to explore the universe. But Unicron was an imperfect being and turned to evil, adapting his form to transform into a giant robot. To battle him, The One gave Primus this power also, but Primus opted to remain in planet mode, and passed the Transforming powers on to thirteen robots that he created from himself - the first Transformers. One of the thirteen turned on Primus and sided with Unicron, however, and the war culminated in a battle that saw Unicron and this traitor, the "Fallen," sucked through a black hole into another universe.
Another bit of evidence supporting a multiverse-travelling Unicron is that in all incarnations have little to no difference. This is contrast to other transformers who has significant changes to complete overhaul of the design(a good example would be Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Hot Shot). He also retains his history as a feared planet eater that almost destroyed Cybertron. Other Transformers(with the exception of Megatron and Optimus) have almost completely different backgrounds in each universe.
This new origin is part of the new G1 timeline laid down by the Ultimate Guide (apparently the timeline of the Dreamwave comics, but that has been debated), which is apparently being taken as the "official" G1 timeline for future projects that require it. This then means that canonically, there is only one Unicron, who has travelled from universe to universe across all the assorted Transformers continuities. This interpretation of the character has been evidenced by both the parallel-universe spanning Transformers: Universe toyline and convention-exclusive comic books - in which the singular Unicron captured Transformers from various alternate realities and pits them in battle against each other, feeding off the energies released - the most serious being the exclusive Transformers: Cybertron comic strip in the Transformers Collectors' Club fan magazine, which depicts Unicron's actions in the various realities in a chronological order, and even goes so far as to establish Cybertron as the stable heart of the multiverse.
The idea of a singular Unicron and Primus has met with mixed reaction from fans, but for now, the idea remains the official take on the subject. Nevertheless, it does require some alteration of established storylines to properly function, most notably the Generation 1 animated series.
[edit] Physical Dimensions
Unicron's size is never specified in any canon materials and has been left to fan speculation. "Planet size" is often stated but that covers so large a range as to be useless for anything exact. In Transformers: The Movie Unicron appears to be anywhere from several kilometers (such as when handling Galvatron) to several hundred kilometers (when attacking and destroying Lithone and Cybertron's moons, and attacking Cybertron). A planet-mode diameter of 1000 km has been suggested [5] and robot-mode dimensions would follow from that estimate provided that there is no change in size (compression or expansion) common among so many transformers. In fact, one scene in the movie shows Jazz driving out of one of Unicron's eyes, and by comparison, Jazz is just small enough to fit through. Unicron is also small enough to stand on Cybertron's surface(some fans have also noted that, in comparison to scenes from the movie, the 3" tall Micro Machines Titanium series Unicron figurine is to correct scale with the Cybertron planet mode of the Transformers: Cybertron toy Cybertron Primus). In season 3, it is shown that the eyes from Metroplex and Trypticon (both city-sized Transformers) are the perfect size to use as replacement parts when Unicron orders the ghost of Starscream to steal them. Oddly later in the episode when Trypticon moves Unicron's head, the head is larger than Trypticon's whole body. In the storyline of The Ultimate Doom, Cybertron appeared to be smaller than Earth's own moon (and by extension, this would indicate Lithone would be incredibly small for a planet), making Unicron's dimensions in the cartoon harder to define.
Interestingly the comic version of Unicron may be far larger. In the first issue of Marvel Comics Generation One Transformers comic, Cybertron is said to be around the size of Saturn (which has a diameter of roughly 120,000 km at the equator). As Unicron's planet mode is seen to be as large as Cybertron (if not larger) in the comics, this would suggest a diameter of 120,000+ km. The Dreamwave equivalent of Unicron may be the same size, as the Cybertron of the Dreamwave universe was also said to be the size of Saturn. If Unicron is the larger of the two, as an overwhelming odd character, he could be the size of Jupiter.
[edit] Trivia
- The Armada figure (and its Energon repaint) came with its own Mini-Con, which transforms into a cannon-equipped 'moon' to Unicron's 'planet', looking not too dissimilar to the Death Star of Star Wars fame. At various points in production, Unicron's Mini-Con was originally going to be called Nebulon, the name of the homeworld of the Headmaster, Targetmaster and Powermaster partners, and also Gobotron, the homeworld of the Transformers' competitive toyline in the 80's, the Go-bots. Designer Aaron Archer did not want such a historical action figure to be overshadowed by a Go-bots pun, so the name was changed to Dead End, re-using a name of one of the original Stunticons. A multitude of these Mini-Cons were featured in the Armada cartoon, although they were portrayed simply as non-transforming internal defensive "laser pods," instead of actual Mini-Cons.
[edit] See also
- Heralds of Unicron
- The similar Marvel Comics character Galactus.
