Ad Infinitum

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Transformers: Unicron #1
backup story
Unicron-1-Rom-backup.jpg
"Ad Infinitum"
Publisher IDW Publishing, Ted Adams
Published in Transformers: Unicron #1
First published July 11, 2018
Cover date July 2018
Written by Chris Ryall
Art by David Messina
Colors by Alessandra Alexakis
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor David Mariotte

In the darkest hour, the last Knights of the Solstar Order look towards the future.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

Elonia is gone. Only Cybertron remains, and it is here that the Space Knights have fled. In their lodgings, Rom attempts to rally his friends. Though it may seem pointless to fight with the Solstar Order gone, it is now more important than ever, he argues, to not give in. With Unicron on the rampage, the universe has never so badly needed warriors that will give them hope!

The speech does not have the desired effect. Q'b is suicidal, Nikomi mourns his cubs, and Plor believes Rom's leadership led to this tragedy, while Livia simply takes solace in the fact that Unicron didn't devour them too. Refusing to let panic settle in, Rom reminds his friends that they have faced loss before and now, more than ever, they must stand together. Q'b finds Rom's words hollow and attacks him with a Neutralizer blast. Allowing his friend the space to vent, Rom patiently listens to Q'b's fears that they face insurmountable odds.

As it happens, Rom agrees. Cybertron, and consequently the universe, might very well share Elonia's fate, but that is why they must keep fighting. It is the way of the Space Knights to fight for those who cannot defend themselves, he proclaims, and to abandon that duty now would be an insult to all their departed loved ones. If it is their destiny to die, they will do so in the defense of the universe, because that is what heroes do!

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Space Knights Transformers

Notes[edit | edit source]

Continuity notes[edit | edit source]

  • This issue follows on from the Knights' evacuation to Cybertron following the destruction of Elonia in Unicron #0.
  • Rom remembers the birth of the Space Knights way back in the 2017 ROM annual.
  • Rom considers Unicron a threat even deadlier than the Wraith gods, referring to the Absence and the Presence.
  • It's barely visible given the angle but the highest holo-screen shows Unicron's awakening from First Strike #6.
  • In Unicron #0, Q'b and Nikomi were seen among a group of Space Knights later vaporized by the Chaos Bringer, but neither were shown dying on-panel, allowing them to escape death and appear here.
  • Rom eulogizes all those that perished during his comic:

ROM references[edit | edit source]

  • "Ad Infinitum" pays homage to the ending of 1983's ROM Annual #2, in which Rom impresses upon his allies their duty to defend the innocent and continue their fight as Spaceknights. This story's final splash panel mirrors the composition of Annual #2's own last page, and Rom's speech is similarly paraphrased from that issue.
  • Rounding out the homage is the presence of an unnamed new Space Knight, recognisable from elements of his design and his position in the final splash page as an IDW version of Marvel's Plor the Pulsar. Use of Marvel-original ROM concepts by IDW is... legally dicey, to say the least, hence why Plor goes unnamed and has been redesigned to the point of plausible deniability.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • Ryall's co-writer on the ROM ongoing, Christos Gage, didn't contribute to this story, but is given a nod in the form of a "victim of Unicron" credit.