I agree that the explanation for the whole gender thing didn't seem necessary. I don't know why Furman feels compelled to always explain it in an Arcee origin story - he did the same bloody thing in G1. But the explanation for gender here is waaaaaay better than in G1 (freaky experiment by Jhiaxus > trying to appease human feminists on Earth who were protesting against the Autobots' masculinity - like hello? You don't have genitals! Why are you listening to those stupid protestors and appeasing them to the point that you're expending resources to construct a female Autobot??!).

Quote Originally Posted by Paulbot
The earlier ones (like Hot Rod, Nightbeat, Shockwave) could be read all by themselves but they broadened the universe and laid seeds for future stories. But to me this one felt like a direct sequel to the Prime Spotlight and the prologue for the next chapter, not a self contained story.
Yeah, but IMO that's a natural evolution to the way that Spotlights have been written. As you said, the earlier issues were laying seeds for future stories, and later issues started intertwining with other issues and series - such as Spotlight Galvatron which showed Sideswipe's reaction to the news of Sunstreaker being abducted by humans on Earth. I think it's natural for later series to make back-references to previously seeded plot elements, like Monstructor, Nova Prime etc. As a regular reader I don't mind it - yes, I can see how it would be confusing for a new reader, but comic books have always been like that. Perhaps what IDW needs to do is to follow Marvel's cue from G1 and include footnotes that reference previous issues for readers to look up - very useful for hunting down specific back issues.

Quote Originally Posted by Sam
But I would have liked Arcee better as a calm, cool-headed, efficient warrior rather than a psycho fembot, is all I'm saying.
Maybe, but I'll give Furman points for trying something completely new.

Quote Originally Posted by Tober
Artwork and design were great, dialogue mediocre, story kinda sucked.
I liked the story. The dialogue was okay, but I agree that there was nothing terribly memorable about it, except for the first piece of dialogue where Arcee cries out, "JHI-AX-US!" -- the separation of Jhiaxus' name into three syllables like that is a really nice tribute to G2 behind-the-scenes history (i.e.: reference to Furman's attitude toward Hasbro about the G2 series at the time). ;D