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20 October 2026

Marvel's The Transformers Year Three, Part V: The Legacy of Unicron! (US #32 & 35-36 / UK #138-50)

Year three of Marvel's Transformers comes to an end here. We skip over US issues #33 and 34 because those of course reprinted the UK story Man of Iron, which I did way back in my very first post of the series. I mostly follow the compendium order here; my one switch was to read Headmasters #3 between US issues #35 and 36. It actually came out between #34 and 35, but I wanted to distribute Headmasters a bit more evenly.

"Used Autobots" / "Child's Play" / "Love and Steel!" / "Spacehikers!" / "Stargazing" / The Legacy of Unicron!, Parts 1–5, from The Transformers US #32 & 35-36 (Sept. & Dec. 1987–Jan. 1988) and Headmasters #3 (Nov. 1987) / The Transformers UK #138-50 (7 Nov. 1987–30 Jan. 1988), reprinted in The Transformers: Til All Are One Compendium Two (2025)
written by Bob Budiansky and Simon Furman (with Ian Rimmer); pencil breakdowns by Don Perlin, Frank Springer, Jose Delbo, Jeff Anderson, Geoff Senior, and Dan Reed; finishes/inks by Ian Akin & Brian Garvey, Baskerville, Geoff Senior, and Dan Reed; lettered by Pat Brosseau, Jack Morelli, Diana Albers, and Annie Halfacree; colors by Nel Yomtov, Euan Peters, and Steve White
 
from The Transformers US #32
This span of stories gives us both approaches to Transformers stories, both Budianskian and Furmanist. Interestingly, we kind of get both Budiansky and Furman doing both Budianskian and Furmanist. The three regular US tales, "Used Autobots," "Child's Play," and "Spacehikers!", are very much Budiansky doing his usual thing: the Autobots get entangled in a used car lot in the first story, and then Blaster befriends a bunch of kids in the second. The used car story is kind of like Budiansky's "Mechanic" stories; the Autobots come across as dopey chumps when their enemy is of this stature.
 
from The Transformers US #36
My guess is that "Child's Play" and "Spacehikers" are derided. In these, Blaster befriends a group of kids while he tries to elude Decepticons hunting him as well as Autobots who believe he's gone rogue. I actually like Blaster's relationship with the kids a lot; this is Uncle Bob at his best. However, it does work a lot better in the first part, where he happens to bump into them, than in the second, where he takes them into a joyride inside a mode-locked Decepticon in a space for no readily apparent reason. What ruins the story is the Transformers-focused elements: the idea of Grimlock as Autobot leader has potential, but Grimlock is telling the Autobots to murder human children in cold blood, and everyone's like, "well i guess we have to do it because he's the leader" even though he's only the leader because they made him the leader! Stand up for your principles, dorks! Every time Optimus Prime has died or seemed to have died, the Autobots become stupid, it's an embarrassment and doesn't really make any sense. I don't remember how long this goes on, but I hope it ends soon.
 
from Headmasters #3
"Love and Steel!", the third part of Headmasters, is more of a Furmanist story, which competing factions of Transformers on an alien world—though I guess Nebulos is kind of an Earth stand-in in a way. And in fact, I think this is the best issue of Headmasters yet, because it's mostly focused in Lord Zarak, who finds himself in a bit over his head, as he tries to ally himself with the Decepticons but not be overwhelmed by them, while still trying to keep his daughter safe. He's by far the most interesting of the Nebulan characters.
 
from The Transformers UK #145
From this, we go back into a run of UK-only stories. First is Furman (with Ian Rimmer) doing the Budianskian mode in "Stargazing," where Starscream wakes up (in a field? no explanatory footnotes reminded me why) and encounters a random human kid on Christmas Day; the kid tries to teach Starscream the true meaning of Christmas. It's hilarious and I loved it. 
 
Then we go into pure Furmanist spectacle with the first five parts of The Legacy of Unicron!, a 2008-set story about Unicron's giant head reviving itself on the planet of Junk; Unicron seizes mental control of the Junkions and attempts to instigate an Autobot/Decepticon war to distract from his plans. I don't think it's one of the great Furmanist epics, but it is a solid one, with some good twists and turns. I like the story as a whole, but I find it a bit too Death's Head–focused. I do like Death's Head a lot, but I think it's kind of a mistake if he becomes the protagonist of a Transformers story, which is what happens here. Give me more Rodimus and Kup! There is some good Wreck-Gar stuff; I particularly liked the end of part 5. I also liked the sacrifice of Inferno, though I wish he'd been in more stuff earlier on!
 
from The Transformers UK #150
The exposition about the origin of Unicron and Primus is fine on its own; it's not his fault later writers got too wrapped up in this kind of stuff. 
 
This is the fourteenth in a series of posts about Marvel's The Transformers. The next covers US issues #37-39 and UK issues #130-31, 142-45, & 151-59. Previous installments are listed below:
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