Unicron - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Before the dawn of time, Order and Chaos existed within an extra-dimensional entity known as The One. To explore the fledgling 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 universe 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 be 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, Megatronus Prime, 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.

The Primus/Unicron backstory has evolved and been rewritten a 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 Transformers: Armada). Before the Primus/Unicron mythos reached its present form it went through several distinct versions in the Marvel Generation 1 comics and elsewhere.

The first time the Primus/Unicron backstory appeared was in the UK comic continuity, from Unicron himself, in the story "The 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 Gods against his mortal foe, Primus, Lord of the Light Gods. Events proceeded to play out basically as described above, though the role of the Light and Dark Gods 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 second time the story was told was in the United States 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".

The third time the story was told was also in the United States 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 un-creation 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.

The first modern retelling of the origins of Primus and Unicron did not come from Generation 1-oriented media, but from a set of Transformers: 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 extra-dimensional 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 Transformers: Universe and Fun Publications' Transformers: Cybertron comics.

Although many of the official television and comics appearance of Unicron appear to present separate and distinct incarnations of the character, some writers have presented an interpretation of the sources that ties all the versions of Unicron together into a single continuity. Likewise, Primus is also a "multiversal singularity", but while Unicron is limited in this ability, and can only exist in one reality at a time, travelling between them, Primus co-exists in all realities simultaneously.

This concept began with the release of a series of Transformers: Armada trading cards by Fleer. The biography printed on Unicron's card presented him to be one of two heralds created by the Allspark to explore the newly-birthed universe. Inspired by his Marvel Comics origin, the other herald was Primus, and the brothers set about this task, until they came upon a region of space teeming with pure Energon. Unicron wanted this power for himself, and cut Primus down before he could report it to the Allspark, casting his brother's body into the orbit of a nearby star. And so Unicron went on to become the engine of destruction that menaced the universe in recent years.

Not long after this, the publication of Transformers: The Ultimate Guide by Dorling Kindersley cemented this notion. Writer Simon Furman incorporated the various aspects of the Dreamwave comics story, some elements of the Fleer storyline and his original Marvel Comics origin to create what is now essentially the "definitive" origin for Unicron. In this version of events, Unicron and Primus were again twin heralds, giant metal planetoids created by the "One", who were sent to explore the universe. But Unicron was an imperfect being and turned to evil, adapting his form to transform into a giant robot. To battle him, The One gave Primus this power also, but Primus opted to remain in planet mode, and passed the transforming abilities on to thirteen robots that he created from himself; the first Transformers. One of the thirteen turned on Primus and sided with Unicron, however, and the war culminated in a battle that saw Unicron and this traitor, the "Fallen", sucked through a black hole into another universe.

This new origin is part of the G1 timeline laid down by the Ultimate Guide, which is apparently being taken as the "official" G1 timeline for future projects that require it. This means that there is only one Unicron who has travelled from universe to universe across all the assorted Transformers continuities. This interpretation of the character is evidenced by the parallel universe spanning Transformers: Universe toyline and convention-exclusive comic books — in which the singular Unicron captured Transformers from various alternate realities and pitted them against each other, feeding off the energies released — and the Transformers: Cybertron comic strip in the Transformers Collectors' Club fan magazine, which depicts Unicron's actions in the various realities in a chronological order and claims that Cybertron is the stable heart of the Multiverse.

The idea of a singular Unicron and Primus remains the official take on the subject, despite any contradictions in other official Transformers fiction.

Unicron's size is never specified in any canon materials, aside from the vague term "planet size". In Transformers: The Movie, Unicron's height appears to be anywhere from several kilometers (as when handling Galvatron) to several hundred kilometers (as when attacking and destroying Lithone and Cybertron's moons, and attacking Cybertron). A planet-mode diameter of 1000 km has been suggested and robot-mode dimensions would follow from that estimate, provided that there is no change in size (compression or expansion) common among so many Transformers. In fact, one scene in the movie shows Jazz driving out of one of Unicron's eyes, just small enough to fit through them, though in another scene the Quintesson ship Hot Rod arrived is tiny compared with the eye. Unicron is also small enough to stand on Cybertron's surface. In season 3, it is shown that the eyes from Metroplex and Trypticon (both city-sized Transformers) are the perfect size to use as replacement parts when Unicron orders the ghost of Starscream to steal them. However later in the episode when Trypticon moves Unicron's head, the head is larger than Trypticon's entire body. (Note: However, the eyes could be only small components for his Optic Sensors to be reformed and/ or completed.) In the storyline "The Ultimate Doom", Cybertron appeared to be smaller than Earth's own moon (and by extension, this would indicate Lithone would be too small to be a planet), making Unicron's dimensions in the cartoon harder to define.

The comic version of Unicron may be far larger. In the first issue of Marvel Comics Generation One Transformers comic, Cybertron is said to be around the size of Saturn (which has a diameter of roughly 120,000 km at the equator). As Unicron's planet mode is seen to be as large as Cybertron (if not larger) in the comics, this would suggest a diameter of 120,000+ km. The Dreamwave equivalent of Unicron may be the same size, as the Cybertron of the Dreamwave universe was also said to be the size of Saturn.

In the Transformers: Cybertron comics, the tank version of Unicron is only the same size as an average Transformer, and is shorter than the Autobots Sentinel Maximus and Omega Prime, whom he fought.

The Transformers Prime iteration of Unicron depicts him as the center of Earth, making him a planet with sustainable life, though it has not been seen if Unicron wishes to consume other planets like his other incarnations.