THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CLUB AND CONVENTION TRANSFORMERS COMICS

Transformers: Universe #3
Reviewed by Blackjack

"Deus ex machina, Primal. Do you understand? God is in the machine."
Nowhere as fun as the first two issues, since this is basically the good guys trying to gear up for a fight, while the spiders try to mess things up. The 'evil, uncooperative Council' scene is uninteresting and very reminiscent of similar rubbish in the Energon series, although actually having proper distinguishable faces like Magnaboss instead of just random Alpha Trion knockoffs does improve the delivery here. Optimus Primal is still a wee bit boring, though suitably obsessed with his goal, like his Beast Machines incarnation. As a new character that has gained the focus, Snarl is pretty fun, although again comes off as a little faceless. However, having a Council in the first place when last we saw Cybertron was in Cheetor's command...

Tarantulas and Blackarachnia come off as pretty fun, although Tarantulas is nowhere like his crazy BW self yet, rather coming off as a chessmaster of sorts, while Razorclaw and company have taken a backseat for now. Blackarachnia is pretty much enjoying being turned back to evil, but I do think it isn't a gret change. Rattrap comes off as pretty fun, so does Cheetor, but Depth Charge being all grousy and self-indulgent... well, I suppose Furman is aiming to be similar to how he was portrayed in the show, but falls flat. Rattrap's initial dialogue an unwavering faith in Optimus is pretty nice, but everything afterwards is pretty suckish. Silverbolt's distrust is pretty well portrayed, so is Trailbreaker, but these only happen for short scenes at a time. It's a pity that this series has to be axed when it seemed to have a well-thought of plan, while IDW's confused ongoing is allowed to go on.


Cybertron has a sea, and it's called the Rust Sea.

Alpha Trion is described as the link between Primus and the Cybertronians.

Both Striker and Ratchet has taken over as the medics and scientists of the Autobot-Maximals.

References to Vector Sigma and the Great War are made by Blackarachnia and Tarantulas.

Snarl is one of five Matrix Templars online at the moment.

Optimus Primal is allowed to pick anybody from any timeline, in order to create a small underground unit that Unicron wouldn't expect. Thus, Rhinox and Depth Charge, his former comrades-in-arms. Rhinox in particular is selected because Primal felt he needed a chance to atone for his sins as tankor.

Rattrap now carries a gun around in Beast mode, nullifying his disadvantage in the BM series.


The Maximal high council includes Bantor, Torca, Air Hammer and Magnaboss from the Beast Wars line, Battle Unicorn from the Beast Machines line and a miscoloured Cohrada from the Beast Wars Neo line.

The Piranacons share their name with the G1 Seacon combiner, but their appearance is more similar to a cross between the Sharkticons and Allicons of the G1 cartoon.

There are lots of Autobots and Maximals on the screens Alpha Trion shows to Primal to make his selection. Among those recognizable include Depth Charge, G1 Ratchet, War Within Grimlock, what I think is Primal Prime, G1 Thunderclash, RID Omega Prime (who will appear later), G2 Electro, BW Packrat, Energon Hot Shot and RID Side Burn.

Rhinox is in his original BW body, while Depth Charge has a new paintjob similar to his Universe toy.

Omega Prime are the main heroes from the RID series. We saw him last issue as well.


Cohrada is horribly miscoloured.

In the flashback Brawn doesn't have a face. Also, it's coloured like Ransack but it looks more like Jetstorm's toy body. Maybe it's supposed to be Jhiaxus (who's a repaint of Jetstorm in the Universe line) but someone realized that Jhiaxus was in his original body last issue, so repainted it into Ransack instead?


3H has plans of having Depth Charge and King Atlas running a refugee network within Unicron's body. BW Megatron's resurrection is planned with him returning in a repaint of the RID Megatron toy coloured like his Transmetal 2 body, but ultimately scrapped.

The ending of Universe would be summarized in Fun Publications. Optimus Primal, Omega Prime and the rest would've gathered a lot of fighters from across the universes, and battled Unicron's heralds in the Pit. Cheetor would be changed into his Night Slash body, Rhinox would beat up Tankor, but Unicron's death in the various continuities would cause him and his heralds to abruptly disappear, and the good guys would escape via transdimensional portals. Silverbolt would've rescued Blckarachnia, and presumably everybody went back home, but Omega Prime would be waylaid onto the Cybertron timeline.