Released Wednesday, February 20, 2008.

The colorists did a fairly good job. It was muddy, but nowhere near the level of Megatron: Origin. I was actually able to tell Milne's characters apart from the background.

Making Fortress Maximus a prison warden was awesome, as was the whole concept behind the prison itself. Everything with Arcee, though...eck. She reeks of "Mary Sue" qualities even if she is an established character. I did kinda like Milne's redesign, particularly the unhinging jaw. The "BLAARRRGH JHIAXUS!!1!" stuff got old fast, though.

And her motivation for hating him? A sex change? I dunno whether to laugh or cry.

...

Goddamn you, Furman

I find it hilarious that the same writer who doesn't like the idea of female Transformers on the grounds of "they're robots" also introduced the idea of Transformers having a genetic code back in G2, and continues to use the idea in the IDW continuity with this "CNA" stuff.

Definately not impressed with this one. The art and coloring were good, and it was nice to see so many new (for IDW) characters, but Arcee as a badass just isn't a good read. Robo sex change= lose in this book!


On a good note though, they show the cover for the Grimlock(YAYYYY) and Mirage Spotlights both listed as due in March.

... the scary thing I find about this concept is, months ago when this was first announced, I posted a comment on his blog about the whole Oracle of Cybertron universe and the genderbending going on that. XD And then this comes out... I guess my idea on it was ahead of it's time, lmao.

I liked it. Arcee came across as a threat for once.

I'm more mad about Furman's total mis-characterization of Scattershot though.

"I wish there was a better way"

NO YOU DON'T! YOU'D KILL THEM YOURSELF WITH YOUR BARE HANDS IF YOU WERE WRITTEN CORRECTLY!

Anything that has Kick-Off and Axer in it gets points from me though.

So does Jhiaxus himself show up at all?

EDIT: Thanks, Robogeek. I wonder if he looks anything like G2 jhiaxus (or RiD/Universe Jhiaxus, for that matter).

As for the Arcee gender issue, I really don't see why Furman couldn't take the simplest explanation for female transformers: it's a variance in TF design. After all (and many have posted this explanation many times), there's no reason why most TFs have a physique based on human males, and there doesn't need to be a reason as to why some look like human females.

And anyway, what exactly is there to this "sex change"? Just some cosmetic superstructural changes? Or is there some more fundamental difference between male and female TFs in this storyline?

On a communications screen.

I'm mixed. On the one hand, it gives extra fodder to think about the whole gender issue amongst the TFs and play with it in fandom. On the other hand, handling of Arcee doesn't seem to... justify what little we know of the Jhiaxus part of the story's equation, I think. *scratches head*

Nega-core? Expansion? Hoo boy...

First five pages seemed a bit darker compared to what Milne posted on his dA, though I won't blame that as Perez's fault. I do like Arcee's altmode design here -- more fitting of "her" old tech spec position of Valkyrie.

Like how Jetfire, Fort Max, and Arcee went a bit on the "issue" of them calling Arcee "she", since they apparently always used "he". "Choice of pronouns" alright.

And before some complain about the pink background used in the Arcee design studies, pink was considered a masculine color (blue for feminine) back in the 1920s before the color switch happened in the 1940s in Western culture. Funnily, I'm already slipping into the Japanese thinking where pink is simply a shade of red, like how some Asian words don't differentiate the difference between blue and green. ;P

lg8:

She wasn't a Valkyrie until they made her into an emochnid. Previous to 2001, Arcee was a generic "warrior" like Sideswipe.

I am attempting to wait until I read it to say much more, but I have to say that this sounds kinda dumb. Is the book saying she used to be "male"?

WELL OBVIOUSLY DUH BECUZ GURLZ CANT BE TUFF

But like I said, I'm going to try and read it first.

BAWAHAHAHA!!!
Arcee's a TRANNIE!!!

Well that's just it though. The transformers really didn't have a gender before then, so you can't completely say she's a trannie. It's more like she's the Eve of her race, with no one having created a specifically male transformer yet. I like the potential this story brings, they never specify how far and what kind of modifications were made to Arcee to make her 'female'. BUt it's certainly more then just her outer casing, due to the level of angst and anger she has. She seems kind of like the process felt like a violation, and she's acting against it the one way she knows how... absolute rage. Reminds me of the movie where the radio speaker's boyfriend is killed and she's assaulted in the park which leads to her slowly becoming a vicious vigilante to some extent.

The way I see, Arcee is the way she is because of the conflicting programs. Her mind is a mess and the only thing that makes sense is to go and get revenge on the cause of it all. So I have no problem with her characterization. Though I would like to see her change later on and let go of some of the rage.

Also, did that first part take place before the launching of Nova's Ark? Or do we know?

No.

Transformers had no gender, Jhiaxus decided to change that, and made Arcee female.

So Arcee is basically Smurfette. That would make Jhiaxus the Gargamel of Transformers wouldn't it?

The explaination isn't that bad of one really, considering all the experimentation with organics we've already seen. It does beg the question: What was Jhiaxus hoping to acomplish with Arcee? I don't think he did this because he was bored one Sunday.

Perhaps Brawn does it too?

According to Arcee, it was arbitrary. He did it just to see if he could. Of course, that's just her view of things, which I suppose may not accurately reflect Jhiaxus's motivations.

Okay.

I hated this.

I really tried to go into this with an open mind. But the idea that Arcee is some kind of pissed off warrior because she's *female*? Good god. That's just plain offensive to me.

I just dont buy into the "they don't/shouldn't have genders because they're robots" argument. If your going to put that out there, then why do they speak out loud with moving mouths? Why don't they just use wireless transmissions to communicate? Why does Cybertron have an atmosphere? It doesn't need one... it 's a mechanical world full of robots who don't breathe!

I'm sorry, but it just isn't that big of a leap to imagine that mechanical beings with emotions who emulate humanoid lifeforms in EVERY OTHER WAY might have gender roles as well. I'm sorry Mr. Furman, but this just sucked. I honest hope this gets rethought quickly and Arcee can lighten up.

Edit: corrected spelling errors. ^_^

Indeed. I also hate the idea that the existence of female Transformers has to be "explained." The way I see it, Transformers have gender, most of them are male, some of them are female, and that is simply The Way It Is. It no more requires an explanation than a race of alien robots having (for the most part) human-shaped, two-legged, two-armed, one-headed bodies.

Honestly I never had a problem with female Transformers. I just don't agree with the idea that they would have things like mechboobies. Realistically their robots. Even if they sexually reproduce it just could be cause they started off as mechanical life forms that evolved the same way biologicals did on our world. I figure them being humanoid and resembling human males and females to an extent is more because it makes them relatable to us.

That in by no means it's imposible for a living race of robots to reproduce, sexually or to have gender designations. Honestly I think TF's only loosely resemble human genders. The males have features of human males the females only lightly resemble human females. To me thats a fine enough way of putting it.

Considering it's fantasy/Sci-fi cartoon genre. It's not something to make much of a big deal over anyways. Much as I like good well thought out stories that can captivate a mature reader. Transformers is also about having fun. Not everything about it has to be something to take seriously.

Just so long as the stories are good and we get meaningful character interaction and have fantasy characters thrust into beleivable situations im happy. So really I agree there dosen't have to be an explanation for female tf's.

As for how Arcee's an experiment. I guess it's rather controversial. In one way it's interesting since Jhiaxus and Nova are trying to alter their race in many ways. I'm fine with Furman's Transformers are aesexually reproduced. Or just built by the matrix and Vector sigma from the cartoon.

Seems to me that Nova and Jhiaxus were trying to mess with TF physiology to create an evolution of sorts. They probably wanted to begin colonization of the universe by Cybertronians. In this vein Acee makes a lot of sense. Considering the Star Trekish science fiction style where worlds tend to be populated by male and female humanoids. I can accept this concept for that reason.

I mean it seems like making the TF race mimic the ways other living species reproduce would be a viable experiment. It also better explains why Female TF's aren't more blockier like the male or aesexual TF's. I mean Jhiaxus probably could have used the design of a organic female humanoid because it's body is designed to give birth to other lifeforms.

This actually is interesting when you consider it in the right way. TF's could already be an evolved species with a genetic code or sorts. Just that their creation methods have always led to either asexually produced robots or manufacturing new designs that are modifications of the old ones. As factories and technology improved biological reproduction lost favor in favor of custom building new Transformers off of whatever was the original template.

I can see Nova and Jhiaxus thinking that this factory production has weaknesses. If they waged war with the universe and tried to conquer or assimilate worlds. Then Cybertronians would be held back by the need to build factories to build new Transformer life. In other words having mobile units that could reproduce would certainly give a large advantage to their species. Specially when colonist may get cut off from Cybertron.

It would also benefit if they go to war. Nova is clearly not the same like Prime. I'm not surprised if in the end Nova turns out to just be an Autobot with controversial values. Doing what he thinks is right for the Autobots and calling himself Nemisis Prime because not many of the Cybertronians shared his views. I actually think it would be rather interesting if it were Prime's more conservative views against Nova's more authoritarian views and his willingness to genetically alter and modify their species.

Nova and Jhiaxus are clearly expanstionist like Megatron but probably more in the name of the Autobots than with the same facist, barbaric mindset the cons have.

I mean the evil of Nova Prime and Co is more the disgust towards the willingness te experiment on TF's with no conciousness about what their doing. Just the benefits it may have to the Autobot empire. To Prime this is evil because it's science without morals or restrictions. So at the very least it's a new idea for the TF mythos that gives us a very original group of villains. Ones that you can ask are they really villains? Or do they just spook the core values of the Autobots.

The Decepticons are different in that they use barbaric methods to achieve their agenda. This is a whole new thing altoghether.

I think Arcee's capture had to have happened after the launch of the first Ark. Prevalent Autobot symbols and the Tyrest Accord were almost certainly post-war phenomena, meaning the flashback postdates Sentinel Prime, much less Nova Prime. Of course, then how do we explain Jhiaxus's presence?

(1) He's transmitting to the Archive from the Dead Universe. Seems unlikely.

(2) He could have left the Dead Universe. Galvatron seems like the primary harbinger, but there's no reason I know of to assume Jhiaxus COULDN'T have left as well if he chose to, besides the unclarified ramifications from the Galvatron Spotlight as to how Galvy is "different" from the others.

(3) Maybe Jhiaxus was never on the first Ark to begin with. I believe we've based that assumption on the line from Optimus Prime Spotlight where Omega said, "After Nova Prime -- and Jhiaxus -- disappeared, I..." Read it a slightly different way, and Omega may have been referring to two separate disappearances.

Anyway, it was nice as always to see so many cameos. Arcee's fellow inmates include such infamous 'bots as Longtooth, Repugnus and, of course, Bludgeon. Some more interesting names were Skyjack (presumably the G2 Cyberjet) and Ransack. Since we saw the Insecticon Ransack in Sixshot Spotlight, I'm ASSuming this was the Rotor Force member. Kind of a random set of names -- I wonder if we'll be getting stories behind their imprisonments.

Much love for the Actionmasters in this issue. The Decepticon assault force includes Banzaitron, Gutcruncher, and Axer, while the Autobot defense shows Rad and Jackpot (blowing up), Kick-Off, Rollout, Overrun, Skyfall and Sprocket! By my count, that means IDW has now shown EVERY American Actionmaster at one time or another! Other characters shown include the Combaticons (minus Swindle) as an elite siege team, Roadblock, Vroom, Fastlane and Cloudraker.

Well said, Skull. *claps*

Ok, well I didn't really like this issue, but my biggest complaint here wasn't the Arcee=Tranny thing.

I'm a bit split on this new Arcee character; On the one hand I liked what Furman did here, but more because I think it paints a nice picture of what Jhiaxus is all about. That Jhiaxus sure is a sicko....I like
Arcee's character on the other hand still doesn't interest me much, and I can see why some readers would take offense to her.

Now, the stuff that really made me go bleh this issue, was the whole prison break thing. Everything in this IDW Universe goes by very slowly, yet the Monster Pretenders haven't even been doing hard time for more than an astro-second, or a fleet of Decepticons is already trying to free these guys. I'm sure Bludgeon will be pissed when he finds out nobody sent the cavalry to come and get his ass. (what was Ransack doing there anyways? He was in SL 6-shot)

So Banzaitron sends in some high-tech warships.....ehhh, guess the empire doesn't have a lot of resources to go around for regular jobs (like conquering worlds), but they will send in the fleet to go pick up some dudes that may or may not be of great importance? I mean, they're just going of what Doubledealer told them.....that could have been disinformation from the Autobots y'know???
And Doubledealer???? WTF....I know he's a mole and all, but are the Autobots spreading the news of Monstructor's capture around in the Autobot Gazette or something? NO body should know about this except for the people that were there when they caught him, and some top brass. Guess DD just goes through top-secret autobot data during his off-time. I think having another Bombshell agent here would have made a lot more sense.

Then there's the little matter of the prison being easier to penetrate than......well let's not go there. Fort Max you're FIRED! Not only was your contingency plan for this prison a joke, you took your sweet time to show up and guard your most important convincts. Maybe he's not as powerfull as Marvel Max, but come one....he trailed Arcee by like 10 minutes.

Yeah, I read this, and the whole realism thing Furman has been trying so hard to achieve in this series just went straight out the window. It just feels everything happened here, because it's convenient for the overall story to have Gestalt tech back in play.....and all this becuase Banzaitron wants better bodyguards....hmmmmmm

Liked Brawl and Onslaught's lines though.....I feel I have to point that out. Nice seeing Actionmasters etc, but you really don't have to keep them grouped like that. I like it when Furman picks characters for scenes becuase they fit in to that scene....don't have to just plop like half the Actionmaster line-up into a sitation.

Art: Much better Milne. Much better than that Origins and Movie muck. I'll never be a fan of his work, but as long as I can read it without getting completely confused on what's going on, I'll be happy. The lighter coloring really made it easier to make out stuff.

Another question to ask. Now, is manufactured Tf's the result of creating individuality among the TF species. Okay heres what I mean. Lets say on Cybertron mechanical life evolved in a simalir way to how biological life did.

Only the real difference is that they developed an Asexual form of reproduction. Now this bears a good possible explanation to why manufactured TF's could have gained favour. Individuality started when technology on Cybertron evolved so much that you could create variations in Transformer forms.

What may have been thousands of different species of asexually reproducing robots became lifeforms constantly modified through upgrades. Eventually I figure Tf's started getting custom built. This allowed different vehicle modes, robot forms, weapons modes.

After that I guess the reproductive abilitys could have been scrapped and eventually forgotten to time.

The thing is how to reproduce and still create new individual transformer forms? Thats where the creation of a female transformer suddenly makes some sense. Information from two robots can make new individuals without having custom made transformers, or any form of factory work.

Anyways I guess there can be more than one theory on why Arcee is the first female TF. And why Jhiaxus would do this.

Hmmm. What to think. I suppose in the end, we should chalk this up as "another" way there could be fembots. I agree (and have often made the arguement) that since TFs have so many similarities in shape to humanoids that the similarities are more than armor deep. If you believe that TFs are constructed on a nano or less scale, then it is perfectly logical that there could be gender (repeating the same sorts of processes that we do biologically)...... In the end, there is still room for other fembots. They could have still been in Cybertron's deep past (Jhiaxus just rediscovered the fact, and sought to bring them about in the same way we'd like to bring back extinct species).... On the other hand I really don't like that example. Arcee just isn't an "Eve" to me. She could have easily been another character (much like the movie bots). Art was good, but a bit too dark on the page.

Was it a good story? Yes. Do I think its the end word on how female TFs came to be, and Arcee is the only one? Not on your Spark.

Agreed. I've always felt this way...we get interested in the stories because we enjoy the characters, and the characters are based off humans. If it was all just about giant robots we'd be Gundam fans. (Nothing against Gundam, of course, but it's a big difference). As Skullgrin said, it's simply something that doesn't need to be seriously delved into. The idea that robots have gender is just something that we accept in the suspension of belief, along with robots that talk out loud and mass shift.

Also agreed with Kil that it's silly that Furman has such a problem with the gender idea, when he keeps up the CNA stuff. Aaargh.

Shes not pissed off because she's female persay. More because she was made into a "freak" What happenned to her was probabaly very violating and confusing. Wouldn't you be pissed off as hell if you woke up tommorrow and you were the opposite sex? I'd imagine it would mess you up pretty bad, especially when you had absolutly no say in the matter, and it was done to you for no apparent reason.

Sorry, I was pissed off when I wrote that... I probably should have elaborated more. I get why - in the context of the story - she's upset. But you're wrong about one thing... she didn't wake up as the *opposite* gender - she woke up as *a* gender. Female. Even though, in Furman's eyes, gender didn't exist before this, even though they all use masculine pronouns instead of gender-neutral ones.

Which is one reason I'm so upset over this... because the concept is SO stupid! Exactly WHAT did Jhiaxus do to her to make her female? "Alter her CNA?" Please. Did her personality change? Doesn't look like it, cause she acting awfully butch (not to say she couldn't be a butch female). Is she emitting some sort of signal that forces everyone refer to her as "she"? That doesn't make female. Did she have her robo-genitalia changed? Oh yeah, TF dont have any (that we know of, aside from Megatron's well-placed trigger)!

What pisses me off the the most - the MOST - is that, in Furman land, for "female" to exist... she had to be a VICTIM. In the IDWverse, female TFs now only exist because Arcee was "gender raped".

Arcee is a pissed off rape victim. I'm sorry Mr. Furman, but I DON'T THINK SO.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN SO GOOD. Arcee could have just been a kick-ass female warrior, kicking Decepticon ass and taking names. She could have be a well-developed, awesome character. Instead, we didn't get a spotlight on Arcee, we just got a spotlight on her GENDER.

What the hell is it with torturing Arcee? First there was that damn Botcon comic where they killed of Daniel and made her brooding spider-lady. Then poor Animated Arcee... well I dont want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen that yet. Now this, Arcee the rape victim.

Sorry if this comes off as a bit rant-y, but Arcee was the character I latched on to as a kid so I could go, "SEE? It's OK for girls to like TFs!" She was someone I could identify with, someone I could cheer on.

Finally... since when does gender have to be *just* about reproduction? Its personality, it's identity, and yeah, it's sexual roles. Just because TF don't have sex to reproduce, it doesn't mean that TFs, as emotional lifeforms cant be intimate with each other or have partnerships. To not have that possibility there limits them, it makes them *just* robots. I always liked the idea of TFs "sharing data" as part of being intimate. That just in my mind though, and has nothing to do with Spotlight: Arcee. I'm just trying to show there are *SO* many ways to go with the concept of TF gender. It's such a shame Furman had to go with "violence and victims".

i think Arcee's less pissed about being made a female and more pissed about having been tampered with in general, then left to figure herself out after having been discarded. probably like the toys from Sid's room [Toy Story] should be, with gender instead of recombined body parts. [it's somewhat awkward that it's about *gender* of all things, yes, but it's more the unwanted surgery than the results.]

i do agree though that Furman could at least have been clearer about what made her female -- is it a radiated sense, a signal she emits, or spark resonance?

Maybe the mighty Furman is just Sexist?

Furman channeling some Millar then?

There's no scientific way I *couldn't* enjoy an angle this juicy. For one, I simply love the twisted researcher types who screw around with peoples' lives simply for the purpose of seeking greater knowledge. Human experimentation (Or robot, in this case) is such a wonderfully moral gray area: you have to wonder what the benefits are to the group versus the costs to the unfortunate individual. It's intriguing, and makes my skin crawl. I'll be interested to see what Jhiaxus has to say about his justifications should he and Arcee cross paths again. Something sweeping and moralistic about "evolving" the race, I'm sure.

I like this explanation of gender/sex. Why? For one, having the race set up as genderless in default just lets Jhiaxus seriously screw with the genetic structure of the species, through Arcee, in a way that goes way beyond what he did with Monstructor. Sure, the idea of CNA makes it possible for natural differentiation to occur, but...I think it's a fun storytelling idea to have him force it with traumatic consequences, one that wouldn't really be possible if there were two sexes as a default. I don't think liking robots to originally have no sex makes me sexist since, hey, now humans are making robots with appearances that reflect different sexes, but originally, they were all devoid of such differentiations. It's not beyond the pale for me.

Moreover, on a deeper level, I enjoy how the sexual differentiation came about in this story because when it comes to characterization, I guess I really just like seeing characters suffer the worst indignities, and Arcee really seems to have been made to go through the wringer psychologically and physiologically. Evil of me, I know, but pathos and personal crises, they feeeeed me.

A female being remade into a male, that'd be just as interesting to me, by the way, as this "gender neutral being remade into female" is. Ryuunosuke in Urusei Yatsura had some serious rage and confusion with having been raised as a male despite being born female, and she's one of my favorites from that series. In any case, gender transformation and alteration just interests me in general; I think it's a great subject for storytelling.

...Being re-engineered at a genetic level against one's will into something that isn't only fundamentally different than your own nature....but something foreign to a gender-neutral race...and having it done in an (presumably cruel) way, that produces these levels of suffering and anger...well, being screwed with on that level...? And then cast aside? It's tough to imagine something more upsetting.

But as much as I like to see her messed with, I equally like that she isn't a moping victim, but to extract justice, has made herself deadly, the most dangerous Autobot in that whole facility, out for blood. I guess I just prefer her being assertive, taking action to eliminate the bastard rather than taking it lying down. What can I say? Crazy knife-wielding girls who can give the men a run for their money in a fight? Nothing wrong with that.

And at the same time, it's fun that we can't quite cheer for her outright: she's obviously not quite right in the head, or in her brutal methods, either, nor are we asked to celebrate them. So although her idea to eliminate her tormentor is justified, she takes things a wee bit TOO far. I look forward to seeing her grow in a more balanced character.

I also look forward to seeing Hot Rod try to hit on her at some point. Hope you weren't using that arm, boy!

In any case, I like that they have sort of an equivalent to DNA, but didn't end up with sex differentiation. I'm fine with Transformers being like humans in many ways, but I don't want them to be JUST like us. The things that make them alien interest me as much as their "humanity" does.

I should also note that I love how every "upgrade" is some kind of abomination. Females came about in the most cruel and twisted way, Pretender tech drives the users insane, Combiners, well, Monstructor speaks for himself, Headmasters are disturbing to say the least, and Micromasters work for the Dead Universe. Can't wait to see how they tackle Powermasters; Transformers fueling themselves on organic bio-energy is perhaps the most disturbing of all of these premises.

Ugh. Not only is this "direction" for Arcee's character dumb, offensive, and devoid of merit, the explanation proffered is in direct conflict with the visual continuity of Megatron: Origin, which featured a Polyhex filled with "Girls Girls Girls!" signs and an Elita One cameo. Can we motion to have this stricken from continuity?

Simon said that he would try to strike those females from the continuity (explain them away, I believe were his words). Which pissed my gf off.

K:

Now that just plain doesn't make sense. If gender had no meaning with respect to Cybertronians, just how does one come up with that? It's like a mad scientist gleefully announcing he had invented a third human gender. It would certainly prove the madness of the scientist, but it really wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course, Furman could just mean "Jhiaxus made Arcee pink and gave her characteristics similar to some humanoid females". That would be comprehensible, and probably stupid. I really need to read this thing to see just how crazy it is.

Alternatively, Furman could mean "I don't like this character, I don't want to write this character, and if I can't kill her off then I'll write her into a convenient parking place from which I'll never be forced to drive her again."

Acree's exact words: "Jhiaxus arbitrarily decided to introduce gender into our species and I was his first test-subject. He tampered with my fundamental C.N.A., and you know why? Because he was curious. Because he could!"

Actually, he kind of explained HOW they came to be in this one Skyquake. As mentioned earlier in this thread, Arcee didn't say she was the only one, merely that she was the first.

After talking to a friend about this, he actually explained a reason for making a female transformers that will probably polarize people one way or another that fits with what we do know for certain about Jhiaxus and his era. I'll have to post it when I get home, but the idea was basically Arcee works as a minituare factory for planets they want to colonize with limited resources, such as a gas giant. Which would explain the fact she counts as 'female'.

ST:
She would be a walking, robotic axolotl tank, in other words. Interesting notion. I'm not sure Furman is as big a DUNE fan as your friend clearly is.

Kil: Thanks for the quote. Of course, it only makes me even more puzzled. If we are to take it as more than
technobabble, we have to look at what type of change, exactly, would introduce gender to a genderless species.
Our chromosomes, of course, are all paired, except that males have an X and a Y and females 2 X's. An asexual species would have no reason for this. I'd expect the Transformers' techno-DNA to be haploid, with one set.

If we are going to use silly DNA analogues, I suppose we might as well stretch the analogy further. Perhaps Jhiaxus doubled all Arcee's technochromosomes. This rather conveniently would end up with a conventional "female" set, from our way of looking at things, with all chromosomes paired. More accurately, since a singleton gender is quite meaningless, she would be polyploid. This might actually provide the evolutionary advantages Jhiaxus was looking for; it often does in plants.

This of course sidesteps the silliness of giving Transformers "DNA", and of assuming that a species with no reason for sex-linked traits would suddenly acquire them if you doubled their chromosomes...bread wheat is hexaploid, but it didn't grow Titaniums...so we are back to assuming that Jhiaxus just added all that stuff because that's the kind of crazy fun guy he is.

A good question probably is really why choose Arcee to be this first female Transformer. I kind of agree that it's dumb to use her in this way. Mostly because she was never meant to be violent badass femme fatale. It just stinks of comic book writer making female character cool in order to accept writing her in. Arcee hardly needs to be a badass or femme fatale type, or a Misanthropic psychopath in order to be a strong warrior.

I've always wanted them to ditch the pink in favour of a more maroonish color but thats because I felt pink was just far too kids toyline stereotyping. Otherwise Arcee was pretty much fine the way she is.

That said I do think this idea is interesting, because it shows what kind of intentions Jhiaxus and Nova may have had for their race. I think it's clever I just think it was a bad idea to make Arcee the first female. It would have been a lot better to have Jhiaxus and Nova commission an experiment to make male and Female Transformers for the purpose of non factory based reproduction. Doing it with blatant disregard for the test subjects. I would be fine if the character used was a criminal to justify the experimentation.

It just would have been a lot nicer if Arcee was one of the first female transformers created and not the first gender experiment. That way she could have been born innocent and with a neutral view of the world and be the same character as in the cartoon. I think that would have worked a lot better.

I don't think it's sexist for Transformers to not start off without the male and female gender. That said It's not really important like I listed earlier. Just that I think it somewhat makes sense in the transformers univere that it could have been a new concept. Transformers seem to be of all kinds. I wouldn't have minded the idea of them having asexuals, males, and females.

I mean I can easily see that division on a scientifically advanced world like Cybertron. I mean what happens when humans can tamper with themselves down to a genetic level? We would actually be able to become male or female as we please and there would probably be those that would prefer being gender neutral. Honestly if you think of where actual science is going in real life this is hardly something twisted or taboo. What happens when humans can decide how long they will live. When we can control ageing as well. Tamper with our bodies. If we can change our appearence, physical strength, intelligence etc. It wouldn't be too hard to imagine a lot of changes in gender that go beyond what is done today. What if a man or woman is born unhappy with having a gender in general? I can see that person wanting to be stripped of both if they so please. Anyways we do have real asexuals in real life. Though usually thier just people that for whatever reason do not feel stimulated by sexual imagery and find sex to be disgusting. Their both still male or female in gender of course. Also some of them still have relationships because affection is still very important to humans. Still I can see there being a real asexual someday. What if someone wanted to be neither male or female. I mean what makes us male or female is biological anyways. It's only spiritual and a form of identity in a cultural sense. Anyways thats how I've always looked at it.

If you look at TF's as a highly advanced society where Gender lost it's importance instead of an overglorified boys club. This makes for interesting science fiction that in some ways is actually ahead of it's time. I do agree though that it could be handled better. I have yet to read the issue. Still, I can see it being offensive to female fans and fans of Arcee. I don't agree that she should have been turned into a bad cliche. We have enough femme fatales and widowmakers in comics. A good deal of them getting raped and violated at the beginning as well to explain their motivations. I'm fine with a female character having gone through something like that to explain their violent motivations. Just that it's an overused cliche by now.

It would have been a lot better if this was a story about whatever female came before Arcee. So that way we can see a scope into how rotten and twisted Jhiaxus and Nova Prime are and how lacking of a moral compass they are. It's not the creation of a female Transformer thats the crime. It's the methods to achieve that end. Victimizing a gender neutral entity to see what they can come up with.

Anyways, I think dark creation stories are a TF staple anyways. The older I get the more I love the Quintesson origin for Cybertron. Imagine if your God was your worst enemy and created you to be a slave? Thats a very interesting premise for how a race/species was created. Though, with that we actually have a reason for female TF's even without actual sexuality. Still that reason is probably a little more sexist than this one is. Since it makes females originally intended to be servant bots and entertainers. I don't see Nova's or Jhiaxus' aims as sexist. They probably would highly value the creation of female TF's. Especially from a militaristic and expansionist point of view. It's the lack of conscience thats disturbing.

Just that yeah Furman could have better handled it.

Yeah, when I read this issue it occurred to me that Jhiaxus will give us shades of Marvel G2. Furman has a serious TF reproduction fetish.

Man, I'd be mad too, if I had to be a female. Females are dumb! Arcee has a right to be so pissed.

I'd like to think it's more than that. Anyways I never thought it was silly for TF's to have a code of sorts. If they transform all the time they would have to be self healing. How do we explain unique powers like Skywarp's that no one else can obtain?

How hard is it to consider that maybe TF's started of as a silicon life form that evolved and eventually they started manufacturing themselves and started to become more blocky and machine like as a result. I mean humans are starting to grow meat from test tubes.

I don't think it's beyond the realm of disbeleif for there to be mechanical creatures with DNA. They probably would look nothing like fictional TF's though. Which have that old sci-fi manufactured machines look.

Also I figure the changes are more than genetic. Lets say she can reproduce, it would explain a humanoid female figure. In order to carry a new offspring possibly? So the changes might have been both surgical and genetic. I wouldn't mind the explanation that the changes were surgical but that Jhiaxus then made a custom genetic code to keep Arcee's body that way and functional the way he wanted. Tf's are self repairing so there has to be a programmed map of the design. Especially to have a body that can support living millions of years.


I figure TF's are made with nanites, how could they live for millions of years? Also how could they transform. There has to be some form of self healing thats beyond that of any creature on earth.

She's pissed because of all the girly hormones making her crazy! Uh, I mean the "contradictory sensory input."

But of course this isn't sexist at all, cause Furman said it wasn't.

Yeah.

i just find it funny how people are getting so pissed off about a comic book, really its simple

if you like the book, read on
if not dont read it, dont buy it

its not the end of the world if you dont agree with are artistic choices.

I, for one, am not really "pissed" about this comic. More like... disappointed.

I may even be a bit too harsh in my assessment, and maybe Furman didn't really intended the sexist overtones of "girl robot = hormonal psycho," but that was the vibe I got from this story. Perhaps I am misreading his intent, but nevertheless I simply did not enjoy this comic. I find myself wondering why, if Furman doesn't care for the idea of "female" Transformers, that he even wrote this issue at all.

Yeah, I figured old Jhiaxus refined the female-creation process at some point after Arcee. In fact, I tend to look at things in a story at face value, so I thought the appearance of other female Transformers was evidence that the process continued, instead of a contradiction. I'm starting to wonder if he's actually IN the Dead Universe with the others, or rather remaining in contact with Nova Prime from somewhere in our own.

And I dunno, I think I'd be angry and confused if the process was done against my will, painfully (That scene of her being experimented on looks pretty torture-esque to me; she's clearly NOT having fun... ^ ^) and I found myself turned into something that I personally didn't even have a conception of in my species (Gendered). And yeah, I figure being reworked down to a physiological level would heap more emotional issues created by feeling...different sensations...than before onto my existing anger at being violated and then discarded.

In terms of what the actual sex differentiation is, I think there's a danger of taking the "Humans are like Transformers" thing too far. I mean, they are like us emotionally, but physiologically and genetically, I don't know if it's right to try to make comparisons beyond "They both have something like DNA". Who knows what CNA exactly *is*? I just figure he changed something fundamental in her design that would set her apart from the genderless ones, and then the genderless ones became "male" by default. Considering Nova wanted to conquer the universe, I'd say that Jhiaxus probably very much took inspiration from species with gender and decided to force this on his own species. (The idea of creating gender, and thus maybe some method of reproduction works with Nova's evolution plans; it would be an evolution in tech for Transformers to be able to reproduce somehow besides factories.)

And there's a world of difference between being wanting to have your gender changed, and being perfectly content to be one way until someone grabs you and makes you the other (In fact, creates the "other" in this instance.). I sure as hell know it would take a hell of a lot of adjusting to wake up one day and have had my sex changed...it would be tough to adjust to hormonal differences and such (I have enough trouble as a male with hormones...!) not to mention physical ones. I wouldn't just be magically used to it...particularly if it was done in a borderline-rape manner. I would NOT be happy...at the very least, even if the process had been painless and I'd been unaware of it, I would be extremely uncomfortable.



I mean, heaven knows she wasn't turned into a stereotypically weak, cowering type of woman by the process. She's not moping around because of what was done to her--she's pissed!

Guys, aren't we really forgetting the most important thing here?

VROOM! IN A COMIC!!

Seriously, though, I will say the treads on Fortress Maximus's back bothered me a bit, if only because that seems to be the "default" Cybertronian design for so many characters. Either the treads are facing straight back like Maxie's, or they're turned inwards on each other like Megatron's. It's a relatively cool design, but aren't there other possibilities for Cybertronian looks?

In truth, Hound's characterization in Spotlight: Galvatron bothered me alot more than Arcee's did here. I can kinda see where Furman wanted to take a new direction with Arcee. The wholesome, fiesty female hanging off Springer or Hot Rod's shoulder doesn't really fit in with this universe. Hound, though, went from laid back scout to in-you-face drill sergeant. I realize the tone Furman is setting in this universe is a bit grittier and more mature. But damn could we ever do with some variety here. Spotlight: Ramjet was a good example of comic relief. We need more of that and less in-your-face grit.

MA:
Well, to be fair, there *is* more than one stereotype floating around.

Good post. Lots of good posts in this thread, actually.

Personally, my problem with techno-DNA is that it is lazy. It works for us to do our computing chemically, but TFs are never really presented as electrochemical organisms - electrical, electronic, even optoelectronic, but not fundamentally chemical. While there must be some fundamental physiological code, can't we be creative with it? Etch it into a crystal, burn it into a semiconductor, set up permanent conduction paths in an ultrastabilized superconductor field. Be creative.

My main concern with the story, which may or may not be valid, is with the mechanism, not the results. You're right in saying that anger would be a very probable outcome if, say, I was to wake up one morning and find myself a Tralfamadorean. (The fourth-dimensional powers are cool and all, but...)

I won't say the idea of taking an asexual organism with some analogue to a haploid set of chromosomes and doubling or multiplying the set isn't ingenious, and couldn't plausibly lead to interesting mutations. Perhaps Nucleon caused "polyploid" mutations to the Actionmasters, leading to rapid mutations and making them stronger, faster, more alive...perhaps I am going to use this in a fanfic one of these days...but anyway, it seems like this CNA-tampering business would just result in explaining an improbability with a bigger one.

The good news is that we'll reach Magrathea in no time!