Comic Review: Transformers Spotlights (2012 - 2013)

[i_amtrunks]

For some reason phantomzone parramatta said this weeks shipment will only be in on Friday, so you may want to ring your local beforehand if you make special trips in to your local store. Guessing the public holidays may have something to do with it.

[bassbot]

Yeah I saw that for parra as well.

[i_amtrunks]

Spotlight Trailbreaker/cutter is fantastic.

A true spotlight issue that has some great ties to the ongoing MtMtE story and to Metroplex and the Titans. Art is great, far more detailed and fluent than his work on the Mars Attacks cross over.

Really funny and enjoyable comic with great writing once again, Whirl was a highlight, but Rodimus and Sweve get a line or two. Even introduces Hoist, some Armada characters (Landmine and I thought it was Hotshot flinging his arm infront of first Aid, turns out it was Dipstick) as well as Lockdown and Lugnutz in very animated style bodies. Makes sense since the Insecticons were previously part of Thundercracker's team long ago.

Be nice to get a story following their exploits at some point.

Spotlight Hoist sounds interesting too, it might be the mission mentioned in Trailcutter, but it's the who he meets while on the mission intrigues me.

[i_amtrunks]

Spotlight Hoist preview.

And we finally get to see who we've been expecting to visit the Lost Light for a while now.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Spotlight Trailbreaker/cutter is fantastic.

A true spotlight issue that has some great ties to the ongoing MtMtE story and to Metroplex and the Titans. Art is great. Really funny and enjoyable comic with great writing once again, Whirl was a highlight, but Rodimus and Sweve get a line or two. Even introduces Hoist, some Armada characters (Landmine and I thought it was Hotshot flinging his arm infront of first Aid, turns out it was Dipstick) as well as Lockdown and Lugnutz in very animated style bodies. Makes sense since the Insecticons were previously part of Thundercracker's team long ago.

Not sure I can add much here - I agree with everything above

Well spotted it was Hot Shot, I missed that.

Did Trailbreaker/cutter always have Magnawheels? I know it's not in the original tech specs. Has he ever demonstrated them in any genre of fiction before? Or did he just get them for the purposes of this comic?

[GoktimusPrime]

Did Trailbreaker/cutter always have Magnawheels? I know it's not in the original tech specs. Has he ever demonstrated them in any genre of fiction before? Or did he just get them for the purposes of this comic?

It's a new thing. In original G1 Afterburner's the Autobot who can drive up sheer surfaces, although it wasn't because of magnetics, but rather because his tyres can secret a special adhesive. Plus he looks like a Tron bike, which is hell awesome.

[i_amtrunks]

What can I say about Spotlight Hoist?

It's a true standalone issue that barely has much focus on the spotlighted character. It's gives more screen time to Swerve and Sunstreaker, who rightly have their characters fleshed out more. At one point Hoist laments/revels in his neutrality, unamazeingness and general background character traits, and even in his own spotlight he fades into the background.

Perceptor is the strange addition to the crew, but he is mostly there for exposition and sciencey stuff that propels the (rather silly) plot forward. His circumstances are funny and different. He seems to be one of the characters that never seem to catch a break.

One thing that this spotlight does bring is the chuckles. Swerve is the main reason, his jibe at Cons always wanting to merge is a great gentle jibe at Chaos and RiD both. His imagination with Sunstreakers "death", vanity and pet are all pretty amusing too.

The link to Metroplex is tenuous at best, the concept behind the story is good, but overall is feels a little like a cop-out, easy way out way to make a spotlight one shot. It reminds me more of Mirage than anything else. I felt this was a poor spotlight for hoist, would have made a great MtMtE side story issue.
It has also made me want more Sunstreaker stories, I know he was a main focus from Maximum Dinobots through to AHM, but it feels like there is a corner turned from his whiny self. Roberts could do some nice work with the sloppy treatment and finish he received at the hands of previous authors.

The art is by Padilla who has done much better work in this issue than the lesser quality Prime Dinobots story. Other than Sunstreaker the characters look great, Sunstreaker is some weird twist of his Maximum Dinobots Headmaster look and he looks out of place with the other characters in this issue. Some other Decepticon "big wigs" look weird and undetailed in some panels. The artwork is a little inconsistent and is disappointing because of it.
Lafuente does an amazing job on the colours, the bots looks scuffed and beaten, but their eyes light up. Between Burcham and Lafuente, Idw have all the colourists they need.

[GoktimusPrime]

Bob shines in this issue.

I'm still not a huge fan of Padilla's art, but I will admit that it's better here than in Rage of the Dinobots (<shudder>). I like his inking... but his actual 'core art' strikes me as being mediocre at best. The ship's meant to be upside down, but the doorway looks "right way up"... which means that when this ship was upright, people would've constantly tripped over when entering that door! I can see that he's made an effort to make the ceiling look like a floor... but then he somehow forgot to make the door look topsy turvy too! The gestalt was... disappointing. It was just a big generic looking robot w/ a Decepticon badge rather than being a mish-mashed assembly of the Decepticons that formed him.

[Bidoofdude]

Spotlight Trailbreaker/cutter is fantastic.

A true spotlight issue that has some great ties to the ongoing MtMtE story and to Metroplex and the Titans. Art is great, far more detailed and fluent than his work on the Mars Attacks cross over.

Really funny and enjoyable comic with great writing once again, Whirl was a highlight, but Rodimus and Sweve get a line or two. Even introduces Hoist, some Armada characters (Landmine and I thought it was Hotshot flinging his arm infront of first Aid, turns out it was Dipstick) as well as Lockdown and Lugnutz in very animated style bodies. Makes sense since the Insecticons were previously part of Thundercracker's team long ago.

Be nice to get a story following their exploits at some point.

Spotlight Hoist sounds interesting too, it might be the mission mentioned in Trailcutter, but it's the who he meets while on the mission intrigues me.

I also absolutely loved this comic. I felt so much for Trailbreaker and it really felt in the moment and it was quite humorous at the same time, which was good. Whirl was pretty hilarious too.

[Sinnertwin]

I also absolutely loved this comic. I felt so much for Trailbreaker and it really felt in the moment and it was quite humorous at the same time, which was good. Whirl was pretty hilarious too.

Indeed. Even Moist went one better than his Rodimus Star