Transformers: Universe (comic)
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| This article is about the comic series from the 2003 Universe franchise. For the Generation 1 comic miniseries, see The Transformers Universe (Marvel). |
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The Transformers: Universe comic series was produced under the auspices of the then-Official Transformers Collectors' Club. It was released at each year's BotCon convention.
It encompassed three storylines:
- The Wreckers, rebranded as Universe featuring The Wreckers in 2004
- Primeval Dawn, a back-up story behind The Wreckers
- Universe, a separate book built around the Universe toyline.
After an erratic publication schedule, the series came to an end when the license for both the club and convention was taken away from 3H Productions. All three storylines were left hanging and unfinished... though a few years later, Fun Publications would wrap up both The Wreckers and Universe, the former directly, the other in a flashback in another story.
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Transformers: Universe featuring The Wreckers
| The Wreckers issues: | |||
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Overview
The Wreckers, later folded into the Universe franchise, overlays its story onto that of Beast Machines, bringing in several new teams based on then-current toylines as well as various convention exclusive characters. In addition to the titular Wreckers (an ad hoc team of all-new members), the Dinobots and Mutants are featured. These varied teams are summoned by the Oracle to carry out a series of mysterious missions off-world. En route they encounter Optimus Primal and Nightscream, in the midst of their struggle with Megatron. The story primarily follows the Wreckers as they leave Cybertron and travel first to the 9th planet of the Archa system, where a mysterious artifact awaits, as does betrayal from within their ranks. Recovering, the group moves on to another world where they take on a Quintesson passenger. The other teams, meanwhile, have walked into traps, as their Oracle-given missions turn out to be false messages sent by the Quintessons. Eventually the Dinobots and Wreckers return to Cybertron, to join the population there in defending it against an all-out Quintesson invasion.
The series also suffered heavy interference from Hasbro, who reportedly required multiple changes to fit their ever-shifting toy plans.[1] Originally, 3H intended for The Wreckers to be an ongoing comic that would serve as their main fiction for the foreseeable future, released via conventions and the fan club. As of summer 2002, shortly before the release of The Wreckers #2 at BotCon 2002, the plan was that the book's opening story arc, titled "Enter the Wreckers", would conclude in a 48-page issue #4 at BotCon 2003. This would be accompanied by two additional 16-page books: an interlude issue leading into the next Wreckers story arc, and a double-sided issue featuring side stories set during "Enter the Wreckers".[2]
These plans were derailed by Hasbro's insistence that 3H instead focus on producing fiction for the new Universe toyline, which led to no new Wreckers issues being released at the 2003 convention. Eventually, the series would be renamed Transformers: Universe featuring The Wreckers, and continued with issue #3 and a "Director's Cut" of issue #2 at OTFCC 2004. With the main Universe title now set to become an ongoing series, The Wreckers was reworked into a limited series. Listings for The Wreckers #3 on the OTFCC website indicated a total of four issues, although by the time issue #4 was scripted, the series had apparently been extended to include at least a fifth installment. Ultimately, only four pages of issue #4 were drawn before 3H Productions lost their Transformers license, leaving the series incomplete.
Eventually, in 2007, those four pages were colored and printed in Fun Publications' club magazine as "The Wreckers: Finale Part 1", and the script for the entire issue was unofficially released to the fandom not long afterwards. A few months later, the story was concluded in the prose story "Wreckers: Finale Part II" on the Collectors' Club website, under a new creative team.
The series was rather heavily criticized by fans, in large part for starting off with an unmanageably huge cast, then solving that problem by brutally killing much of that cast off. The series also seemed to contain implicit criticism of the then-recent Beast Machines story, working hard to "undo" some of its events and concepts, as well as overt "fanwanking".
Creative team
The original series was scripted by Glen Hallit and Rob Gerbracht, with art by Dan Khanna and Guido Guidi. The concluding prose story was written by Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop.
Primeval Dawn
| Primeval Dawn: | |||
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Overview
Primeval Dawn was a backup story published in parts behind the main Wreckers story. Like Wreckers, Primeval Dawn was never completed as intended, with only the first three of four parts released.
Creative Team
Primeval Dawn's script was begun by Bob Forward, and continued by Simon Furman; the story was illustrated by Dan Khanna and Makoto Ono.
Transformers: Universe
| Transformers: Universe issues: | |||
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Overview
As if 3H didn't have enough to do, this short-lived series introduced a third storyline alongside "Primeval Dawn" and "Wreckers". Universe existed largely at the behest of Hasbro, who Glen Hallit says pressured 3H to drop the two previous storylines completely (specifically: "We don't care about the Wreckers") in favor of stories based on the then-current Universe toyline.[3]
Transformers: Universe tells the story of the struggle against Unicron, who is renewing himself by feeding on the Sparks of consumed Transformers. The story is set shortly after the conclusion of Beast Machines (and, presumably, after the conclusion of the Wreckers storyline.) On a united and peaceful Cybertron, a group of Autobots and Maximals is abducted by mysterious energy beams. They soon find themselves trapped in a sinister arena deep within Unicron, forced by powerful overseers to fight one another to the death. On Cybertron, Alpha Trion conspires with Primus to counter Unicron's plans by bringing back to life a series of Cybertronian heroes, starting with Optimus Primal.
The story's cast relied largely on the first few waves of Transformers: Universe toyline product, as well as convention exclusives and characters from the Beast Machines toyline.
The live-action script readings at OTFCC 2003 and OTFCC 2004, though tongue-in-cheek, are part of the story's continuity.
Like its two sister storylines, Universe was released in erratic fits and starts, only to be left unfinished when 3H lost the Transformers license. Though the story remains unfinished, a brief glimpse of its conclusion later appeared in the Fan Club comic issue "Revelations Part 2".
Creative team
Stories were conceived by Glen Hallit, Dan Khanna, and Simon Furman, with scripting by Furman. Pencils were largely by Dan Khanna, with additional work by several others.
See also
References
- ↑ Steve-o Stonebreaker's OTFCC 2004 notes
- ↑ ASM report from Wizard World Chicago 2002
- ↑ AllSpark: "3H fiction versus modern club fiction""I would also have pushed back against Hasbro for dropping The Wreckers storyline as unceremoniously as they wanted us to during the 2003 convention, in favor of Transformers: Universe. We had to beg to let them allow us to even continue the storyline. The exact quote was: "We don't care about the Wreckers. Kill the story. We want you to tell the story of Universe." Kind of tough to plan these things out well in advance, especially when you were given only several months to change directions."
