Unicron: Difference between revisions

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Not Galactus, we swear.

Unicron is the eternal arch-enemy of his twin brother Primus. He is known as the Dark God, the Chaos Bringer, the Planet Eater, and he is dedicated to consuming the multiverse. His goal is to bring an end to the annoying creation boasting independence around him, and find peace by becoming the living center of a swirling, infinite torrent of nothingness at the end of all things.

To undertake this seemingly overwhelming task, Unicron is able to travel across realities at will, a meandering plague upon existence itself. ^[1] Integrated into his systems are incomprehensible quantum computers which calculate probabilities forward and backwards in time, in perpetuity, giving his processors an everchanging, evolving map of the multiverse.^[2]

The only thing that he fears is Primus's essence, contained inside the Matrix.

Frequently, Unicron will make deals with lesser beings, giving them vast new powers in exchange for their servitude. These minions are sometimes stripped entirely of their free will, but others follow him willingly. No matter their intent, Unicron's plans ultimately call for their consumption as well.

In the beginning

Before the dawn of time, Order and Chaos existed within an extradimensional entity known as the One. To explore the fledging universe, he created the astral being known as Unicron, and then subdivided him, creating his twin, Primus. Both brothers were multiversal singularities, unique in all realities, but whereas Unicron could only exist in one dimension at a time, moving between them at will, Primus existed simultaneously in all realities at once. It is suggested, in fact, that the two brothers embody the basic concepts of reality - good and evil, order and chaos - and that their continued existence is necessary for the stability of the multiverse.

As Unicron and Primus went about their appointed task, venturing through the cosmos, it became apparent to Primus that Unicron was a corrupt being, and he took it upon himself to stop the threat posed to all of existence by his sibling. In combat, Primus was no match for Unicron. In cunning, however, he proved himself to his brother's superior when he shifted their battle to the astral plane, and then back to the physical world once more, only to have both their essences manifest within metallic planetoids, leaving them both trapped. It was with this act of sacrifice that Primus hoped to contain Unicron's evil forever. Unfortunately for him, over time, Unicron learned to psionically shape his prison into a giant metallic planet, and Primus followed suit, becoming the mechanical world of Cybertron. When Unicron then learned to transform his planetary form even further, into a gigantic robot form, Primus adapted the idea to suit his own ends, creating a group of thirteen robots that possessed the ability to change shape, like Unicron.

The war between Unicron and Primus came to its seeming end during a climactic battle in which one of the Thirteen, who would forever afterwards be known as the Fallen, betrayed Primus and became an acolyte of Unicron. The battle ended when the Fallen and Unicron were sucked into a black hole and disappeared from reality. With Unicron gone for now, Primus entered an eons-long slumber, his self-imposed sleep preventing Unicron from detecting him through the mental link the brothers shared.

Evolution of the Primus/Unicron myth

The Primus/Unicron backstory has evolved and been rewritten a good number of times since it first originated in the Marvel Comics series. The version recounted above is the current iteration, which has slowly solidified across a wide swath of media (beginning around the time of Armada). Before the Primus/Unicron mythos reached its present form it went through several distinct versions in the Marvel G1 comics and elsewhere.

Unicron's story

The first time we ever heard the Primus/Unicron backstory was in the UK comic continuity, from Unicron himself, in the story Legacy of Unicron, when he recounted it to Death's Head. Per Unicron's telling of events, he was a primal force of evil at the dawn of the universe, who led a legion of Dark Armies against his mortal foe, Primus, Lord of the Light Gods (note the plural). Events proceeded to play out basically as described above, though the role of the Light Gods and Dark Armies would diminish with each subsequent retelling of the story, until the current version, in which Primus and Unicron are alone, and have a unique origin.

The Keeper's story

The second time the story was told was in the US book by the Keeper, an ancient mechanoid who guarded Primus's head at the center of Cybertron. This telling is effectively the same as the previous UK story, but mentions that their battle was towards the end of the era of gods, that Primus and Unicron were the last of their respective pantheons, and Primus had to defeat Unicron before he could take his place with the other gods in the "Omniversal Matrix".

Primus's story

The third time the story was told was also in the US Marvel series, this time by Primus, when he gathered all his children together to prepare for Unicron's coming. It was with this telling that we learned that Unicron predated the current universe, and had destroyed the previous universe which existed before the current one. He had slept peacefully, alone in the void of uncreation that remained, until fragments of the old universe that he had overlooked reacted, causing the Big Bang and birthing the current universe. The "sentient core" of this new universe recognized the threat that Unicron posed, and so created Primus to counter his evil and be guardian of the new creation.

Fleer and DK

The first modern retelling of the origins of Primus and Unicron did not come from G1-oriented media, but from a set of Armada trading cards released by Fleer. It was the backstory printed on Unicron's card which introduced the concept of the two being brothers created to explore the new universe by an extradimensional entity, here named the "Allspark."

This was subsequently expanded on and combined with aspects of the various Marvel Comics stories in Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, published by Dorling Kindersley and written by Simon Furman, who had written all three prior tellings in the first place. Here, the entity Fleer had called the "Allspark" was redubbed "The One," and the modern iteration of the myth detailed above was firmly established, and went on to form the backbone of subsequent fiction such as Universe and Fun Publications' Cybertron comics.

Generation 1

Marvel US continuity

Eventually, millions of years later, circa the Earth year 1990, in one version of the Generation 1 continuity, a group of Transformers discovered the sleeping form of Primus at Cybertron's core. When a battle erupted, a stray laser blast struck Primus, briefly jolting the god awake and causing him to emit a multiverse-shaking "Primal Scream" that woke Unicron and alerted him to Primus' location. Primus himself immediately slipped back into his sleep, but it was too late. Primal Scream

A Unicron cultist with mask. Or a cosplayer. Same thing.

Unicron dispatched a group of heralds to attack Cybertron and pave the way for his coming, including a Galvatron plucked from an alternate future in which Unicron had succeeded in consuming Cybertron. Galvatron, however, was not content to serve under Unicron, and instead captured Autobot leader Emirate Xaaron, forcing him to fully awaken Primus, who possessed Xaaron's body and summoned Transformers from all across the universe back to Cybertron. Out of Time! At this point, a mental command that Unicron had placed in some of Primus's creations was activated, resulting in the formation of a cult of Unicron-worshippers, who gathered to destroy the leader of the united Autobots and Decepticons. Their assassination attempt was foiled thanks to the aid of Galvatron.

Having suspected treachery on Galvatron's part, Unicron decided to forego consumption of the planet Jhi and head straight for Cybertron, shutting down his higher mental functions and drifting the remainder of the journey to hide himself from detection by Primus. Transforming back to robot mode upon arrival, he was somewhat disappointed to find that the gathered Transformers were simply so terrified of him that there was no resistance to his attack. Unicron destroyed Xaaron's body, robbing Primus of his avatar, but was then attacked by his former servant, Galvatron, whose first strike snapped the Transformers out of their collective stupor and began a counter-attack against the Chaos-Bringer. Briefly fazed by the illusion-casting powers of the human Neo-Knight Rapture, Unicron's systems were attacked by the electrical powers of Circuit Breaker. Enraged that he had been made to feel pain, Unicron dispensed with his hands-on approach and transformed into planet mode to consume Cybertron, at which point Optimus Prime flew into Unicron's maw and opened the Creation Matrix, destroying the dark god. On the Edge of Extinction!

His body destroyed in this timeline, Unicron's essence moved to another plane of reality, and made continued attempts on Primus and Cybertrons across many other realities.

The Transformers: The Movie

Voice actor: Orson Welles (US), Mizuho Suzuki (Japan)

File:Unicronplanet.jpg

I see you down there

Unicron's next documented attempt on Cybertron was his most famous, occurring in the Earth year 2005. While heading towards the planet, he consumed the small world of Lithone, and then came upon the bodies of several wounded and dying Decepticons, who had been dumped into space following a recent battle on Earth. He extended a proposition to the Decepticons' leader, Megatron, offering to rebuild his body and those of his troops in exchange for their destruction of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Tortured into accepting, Megatron was transformed into Galvatron, and his followers became Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps.

While Galvatron set about reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons, Unicron arrived at Cybertron, and proceeded to consume the planet's two moons. Outraged that Unicron would do this to a planet that he viewed as his, Galvatron found himself the victim of mental torture by his creator, and ordered to Earth to complete the task given him. The ensuing chase finally climaxed in a showdown on the Planet of Junk, where Galvatron seized the Matrix and returned to Unicron, only to reveal that he intended to use the talisman to make Unicron his slave. Amused by his pawn's arrogance, Unicron transformed into his gigantic robot mode and ate Galvatron. Unicron then tore into Cybertron, as Shockwave and the rest of the Decepticons on the planet fought back, to little effect. Unicron swallowed many spaceships, and one, which contained the young Autobot Hot Rod and his comrades, crashed through Unicron's eye. Hot Rod and Galvatron battled deep inside Unicron, and ultimately, Hot Rod was able to retake the Matrix from the Decepticons. Transformed by its power into Rodimus Prime, he defeated Galvatron and opend the Matrix inside Unicron, destroying his body from within. Unicron's head survived the explosion, however, drifting through space.

(Note: This attack on Cybertron was performed by Unicron in several different universes. While the events of the attack were largely identical in each timeline, the consequences in each universe were very different. These timelines are noted individually below.)

Animated continuity

Voice actor: Roger C. Carmel (US), Toshirō Ishii (Japan)

Incoming message from the Big, Giant Head!

In the wake of the 2005 attack, Unicron's head was caught in Cybertron's gravity and became a new moon for the planet, a grisly testament to the satellites he had destroyed. Seeking to locate Galvatron, who had been hurled into space at the conclusion of his battle with Rodimus Prime, Cyclonus and Scourge visited Unicron's head and accessed the remaining databanks there, replaying footage of the final battle that allowed them to extrapolate Galvatron's trajectory and current location. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1

In the year 2006, the ghost of the deceased Decepticon Starscream reactivated Unicron's head, in order to make a bargain with the Chaos-Bringer - in exchange for Unicron restoring his body, Starscream would recreate Unicron's. Stealing new optic circuits and a transformation cog for Unicron from Metroplex and Trypticon, Starscream was then direct to connect Unicron's head to Cybertron, so that the planet could become his new body. Unicron restored Starscream's body so that he could complete the task, but Starscream double-crossed the dark god and refused to finish the task. Just then, explosives set by the Autobots were detonated, hurling Unicron's head off the planet, beyond its gravity, and out into space. Ghost in the Machine

Later, seeking a supply of the dangerous particles known as anti-electrons, Galvatron and the Decepticons travelled to Unicron's head, only to come under attack from the defences of the barely-aware giant. Also present was the Dinobot, Grimlock, who used components from Unicron's head to create the Technobots to fight Galvatron's forces. The Technobot Strafe disconnected enough of Unicron's internal mechanisms to deactivate his systems. Grimlock's New Brain

(Note: The episode "Call of the Primitives" eventually revealed that, in this timeline, Unicron was created near the beginning of time by an ancient genius named Primacron, to destroy the universe so he could remake it in his own image - here, he was simply a gigantic robot, rather than any kind of godlike being. This, of course, is because the cartoons were written long before the Marvel Comic storyline that created the Primus/Unicron myth, and much longer before the retcon that applied the story to all Transformer continuities. Consequently, the animated universe is easily the one piece of Transformer fiction that is least compatible with this retcon, but there has as yet been no attempt in official fiction to re-write Unicron's animated origin to tie in with it.)

Marvel UK continuity

In the timeline of Earth-120185, Unicron's famous attack on Cybertron occurred in 2006, rather than 2005, but its events played out in essentially identical fashion to those noted above. Rather than become Cybertron's moon, however, Unicron's head floated off through space and crash-landed on the planet Junkion, where he used mind control to force the native Junkions to build him a new body out of the planet. At the beginning of 2008, he pulled Cyclonus, Scourge and Death's Head into his thrall and used them to re-ignite the stalemated Cybertronian war in order to keep the Autobots distracted from his activities. Ultimately, however, he was defeated by Death's Head and the Autobots. His head was destroyed, and his mind was sealed within the Matrix. The Legacy of Unicron!

On New Year's Day 2009, Unicron reached out from within the Matrix and took control of Rodimus Prime's body, Edge of Impact only to be stopped when Kup ripped the talisman out of his chest. Unfortunately, this meant they lost their chance to purify the Matrix and that Unicron would be ready for them next time. White Fire In 2010, he repeated the trick and succeeded in transforming Rodimus's body into a copy of his own before being forced back. In the far future of 2356, Unicron's essence still resides within the Matrix, steadily withering the struggling body of Rodimus. Aspects of Evil!

Kiss Players/Teletraan Go! Go! continuity

In this timeline, following his destruction in 2005, Unicron's lifeforce was scattered across time and space, fragmented and paratized into Autobot and Maximal leaders throughout history. Three of his servants, the Sparkbots, sought to recreate their master, and tricked the human singing group, the Kiss Players - Marissa Faireborn, Atari Hitotonari and Shaoshao Li - into helping them on their task by telling them that they were gathering the fragments of the so-called "Allspark."

Primus was forced to take action to stop their mission, appearing as a giant golden hand to steal away the energy fragments before the Sparkbots could collect them, but eventually, the evil trio collected enough to accomplish their dire task. Fleeing back in time to Earth's prehistoric past, they unleashed the energy and Unicron began to form around them. Following the Sparkbots back to the past, Primus unleashed the full firepower of his mobile battle platform's cannon, sealing Unicron's energy and the Sparkbots deep within the planet. He then created the mighty Fortress Maximus to serve as a guardian and ensure that the evil being was never again reborn.

Note: In keeping with the relentless toy-accuracy of Kiss Players art, this Unicron seems to be based on the unproduced Generation 1 figure.

Beast era

Omega Point

The Evil Galactic Starfish of Conquest served as a container for Unicron’s power.

In yet another timeline that followed his destruction in 2005, Unicron's essence was again sent spiralling through time and space, to crash on prehistoric Earth, prior to the conflict known as the Beast Wars which would occur on the planet. It is unclear if this was a deliberate attempt by Unicron to preserve his power or not, but this "dark essence" seemed to lack any real sentience, suggesting that it was merely Unicron's "power," while his spark remained in his intact head in the future.

The dark essence was discovered by a Predacon known as the Hunter, who recognized the dark god's power, and fashioned from the essence the Matrix of Conquest, a twisted version of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership which he used to conquer and rule over an apocalyptic 32nd Century future, under the name "Shokaract." Resistance against Shokaract resulted in an attempts his opponents to travel back and time and destroy the dark essence on prehistoric Earth, thereby erasing Shockaract from history, but the villains travelled back in time to stop this effort. A massive battle between him and Transformers from throughout the multiverse ensued, but eventually, thanks to the efforts of the Covenant, history was altered so that Unicron's essence never arrived on prehistoric Earth, erasing this timeline - and Shokaract - from existence.

Beast Wars II and Neo

Voice actor: Tetsuo Komura (Japan)

Unicron didn't take kindly to being part of the Macy's Parade.

This timeline follows on from the events of the Kiss Players' tale, which concluded with Unicron's lifeforce being sealed within Earth. There it remained for millennia, but with the departure of its guardian, Fortress Maximus, from Earth in 2007, human beings were at some point in the far future eventually able to discover it and attempted to harness it for their own means. This resulted in the devastation of the planet Earth, reducing it to a ruin, but the fame of this "mysterious energy" that had been called "Angolmois" was far-reaching, and eventurally, the Predacon leader Galvatron attempted to harvest it for himself. Using his massive spacecraft, the Nemesis, he sucked all the the Angolmois energy out of the planet and into the craft. However, after the interference of Lio Convoy and Lio Junior, all the Angolmois energy was sealed into capsules and ejected from the Nemesis as it self-destructed.

Teams of Maximals and Predacons, led by Big Convoy and Magmatron respectively, then raced to collect the Angolmois capsules, as their energy effects were wreaking havoc on planets all over the galaxy. They eventually collected all the capsules only to find themselves attacked by the mysterious and freakish Blentrons. The Blentrons, in truth servants of Unicron seeking to engineer his rebirth, proved nearly invincible, and stole the capsules from each team. They released the Angolmois energy and allowed it to possess Galvatron's dead body, restoring Unicron to life in a new form. Unicron proceeded to absorb the last remaining ounce of stray Angolmois energy - the Blentrons themselves - and left to settle his score with Cybertron. The Maximal Elder, Great Convoy, attempted to hold Unicron off with the entire Maximal armada, but Unicron's fiery serpent mode proved too much and he effortlessly destroyed the armada and Great Convoy along with it. Unicron then possessed Vector Sigma, the mother computer of Cybertron, effectively possessing the planet, and morphed Cybertron into his new body.

Unicron then briefly exited Vector Sigma to deal with the last remaining Cybertronian resistance. Big Convoy, his Maximal new recruits, Lio Convoy and Magmatron all fought side-by-side against Unicron, but all they managed to do was stall him. Big Convoy then powered up his Big Cannon with his own Matrix, transforming it into the Matrix Buster. Big Convoy shot Unicron with the weapon, the powerful blast seemingly destroying the Chaos Bringer. Unicron's spirit was then evicted from Vector Sigma, returning Cybertron to normal.

Universe

Unicron's next documented appearance began with him floating in deep space, his body shattered and ruined. The conflict that caused his has gone undocumented, but Unicron's next actions were not. Using what energies he had left, he culled Transformers from across the multiverse, gathering them inside his body and pitting them against each other in battle. He feasted upon the sparks of the losers, growing ever more powerful, while weakening Primus in turn. To counter the evil work of his brother, Primus called upon his own army from the multiverse, led by Optimus Primal. Primal was able to set free the captives inside Unicron and begin a new war between the Minions of Unicron and the Children of Primus.

(Note: This war was ended abruptly when, during the final battle, Unicron disappeared from their reality underneath them, sucked away into the Unicron Singularity in another timestream. See Cybertron.)

Unicron Trilogy

The Unicron Trilogy, the series of Transformers franchises that includes Armada, Energon, and Cybertron, was so named by Hasbro designer Aaron Archer because of Unicron's importance in each story.

Dreamwave comics continuity

Armada

File:Unicronarmada.jpg

For a time... I considered sparing your invisible sandwich.

After successfully devouring the Cybertron of a previously unseen dimension, Unicron sent a group of heralds - incarnations of Bludgeon, Dirge, Galvatron, Scourge, and Thunderwing - to prepare the next universe for his coming. As forewarning, he also sent the near-dead body of the Optimus Prime of that other dimension as a forewarning.

Unicron was ultimately defeated by Jet Optimus, the combined form of the this universe's Optimus Prime and Jetfire, who were infused with extra Mini-Con power. However, during his attack on Cybertron, he had managed to kidnap Airazor, Cheetor, Rhinox and Terrorsaur, and would see them forged into new heralds in the interim. This universe's Megatron, having made a bid for Unicron's power, was standing on the surface of the planet-eater when he was destroyed, and his body was also lost, his spark trapped within Unicron's remains.

Energon

His broken body left floating in space after his defeat, Unicron employed the go-between Alpha Quintesson to see to his continued survival. Alpha Quintesson gathered together a group of Decepticon dissidents and transformed them into "Terrocons", although he himself was not overly thrilled with his position of enforced servitude. At the same time, Megatron had been using Unicron's powers and internal mechanisms to fashion a new body for himself, unbeknownst to Unicron himself.

(Note: Due to the sudden demise of Dreamwave, the conclusion of this story remains unknown. Presumably, since you are alive and reading this, Unicron did not go on to consume the Omniverse.)