THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

TRANSFORMERS TITLES FROM TITAN BOOKS / MAGAZINES

Titan Transformers #19
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

A nice fast paced comic that sensibly doesn’t give you time to question some of the plot holes (such as leaving Mikaela in charge). Unicron being kept as a mystery works well for the character and gives him more of a sense of menace than he’s had for a while. On the negative side this does makes things fell a bit like one of those Star Trek: Enterprise episodes where they run into the Borg or the Ferengi and the whole thing is skewered towards the characters not finding out more than they should about them.

We get some very nice stylised art from Cosmo White (the bastard child of the Autobot and the Editor?) that again shows the versatility of the Movie designs. And with The Revenge of the Fallen getting closer and potentially meaning the comic leaving the alternate Universe to plug it there’s a nice added sense of danger in that it feels like anyone could die now. Good, if shallow, fun.


It’s made clear that none of the Autobots have heard of Unicron. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has no connection to their past as the Autobots in the Furman written The Legacy of Unicron knew nothing about him either despite him being a keystone of their origin in the Marvel Universe. For Unicron’s part, he’s revealing nothing more than he’s a devourer.

After merging with Cybertron, Unicron is able to change the planet’s shape so it more matches his classic look. Of course, merging his essence with a planetary body and altering its shape was part of his back-story in the Marvel comics as well. On his way to Earth unicron flies past Saturn. It might be too big for him (and Mars could well be on the other side of the Sun in its orbit, still leaving Earth as the closest solid planet).

The Straxus is named for the Marvel character Lord Straxus. As he’s recently featured in the IDW Revelation saga Furman likely had him on the brain.

The Savannah/Hilton Head Airport is the real life airport for that area. Google Earth is Furman’s friend.

After several issues as a slow burning subplot Starscream’s plans kick into high action here. Evac and his team are now the only Autobots on Earth.

This was the Christmas issue, and as such it features a new star shining in the sky over Earth. Oddly enough this isn’t the first time Unicron has stood in for the Star of Bethlehem; he also fulfilled that role in the Devil’s Due GI Joe Vs. The Transformers IV: Black Horizon.

For the second issue in a row the cover has changed for the “Next Month” ad in the back of the previous issue. There Optimus Prime was a stock CGI shot from the Movie, here it’s been replaced by original art. Both are clearly a last minute addition as the poster is missing Prime entirely. Clearly someone thought a cover with no Transformers on it all would be a bad idea.


The Autobots leave Mikaela in charge of the base. Even if she wasn’t evil now how much use would she be running a room built at Transformer scale? Why not get one of Evac’s team to come in and take over?

And speaking of Evac’s team, they’ve reverted to being that after a couple of issues under Camshaft’s command. It’s possible Optimus Prime is the only one who thinks Evac is in charge.

Lets assume for a second Unicron has a specific good reason for coming to our System. How does he get here so fast? One of the key plot points of the film is that Earth is out in the sticks compared to Cybertron, that’s why it took so long to find the Allspark.

They’re reprinting Megatron: Origin.


A notebook and pencil, the notebook apparently being a reuse of the one given away with issue #7.


Competition for Nintendo Wii and Animal Crossing game;
Double sided poster, one with a Primeless version of the cover and one with the first part of a Many Faces of Megatron poster. As with the Prime version from issue #17 the second half is in issue 2 of the Animated comic;
How to Draw… covers Bonecrusher in a cityscape;
Top Gear for the first time branches out to cover non-Transformers stuff. As well as the Animated DS game we get features and competitions for Doctor Who season 4, the Cows In Action books, Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Space Chimps DVDs and a remote control helicopter;
Starscreams incorporates the Team Titan gag comic.

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