Out Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

Say what you will, 2-pagers ain't gonna cut it - we'd need freaking POSTERS.

Well, this was cool. My only major gripe is that they misspell Jhiaxus' name throughout - for some reason, it's rendered 'Jiaxus'. Kinda annoying.

That aside, this establishes that Sixshot was how Megatron got the space bridge tech he used in AHM, and suggests that may be the same method Megatron obtained the codes needed to disable and attack the Autobots. I may be wrong, however.

The double-page spreads were a good idea - say what you will, they sell the idea that Metroplex is huge. The fact that he dwarfs Sixshot in more ways than one comes across pretty well. And speaking of Metroplex...what do you suppose he's keeping safe? The Magnificence, perhaps?

Anyway, yay for the Throttlebots surviving and for Sixshot still keeping active. Also, yay for confirmation that the 'Bots on Earth aren't the only survivors - here's hoping the rest are still out there. The war may be over, but the fight isn't over yet. Bring on Coda!

Also, did anyone notice a potential Scrounge cameo on the first page?

Are Bumblebee and Goldbug two different characters? I dont read IDW. and I kind of picked this up on a lark.

Are Bumblebee and Goldbug two different characters? I dont read IDW. and I kind of picked this up on a lark.

Yep. It was pointed out in the Preview discussion.

In this continuity, yes they are.
In the IDW continuity Galvatron and Megatron are two different characters too.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. Actually, I'm not sure if I liked it because it was good or liked it just because it was easily better than any one issue McCarthy has put out in months and better than Spotlight: Jazz (which I thought was decent) to boot.

Gotta say though, we could do a lot worse than this Andy Schmidt guy on the ongoing, if he is indeed supposed to be its writer.

Sixshot Landmaster-crashing Freeway was awesome.

2 weeks in a row i get screwed! this time, diamond shorted my comic book store's order!!! so angry!! i was really looking forward to getting this on time

Enjoyable enough. Best Spotlight of this recent batch to be sure. Wasn't much of a "Metroplex" Spotlight...hell, it wasn't even much of a Goldbug Spotlight, his narration suddenly drops off.

And then Searchlight kinda takes over as "audience-surrogate" when Goldbug is downed.

But everyone was in-character, continuity was referenced in a non-obtrusive way, and the art was great. A thumbs-up.

here are a list of things that Metroplex COULD be guarding.

The obvious answer is the Magnificence... since it is important, and has disappeared between ation and AHM
The Real Matrix of leadership... With Prime either Out-or out on the field its never been strategically sound for him to be carrying that thing around with him has it?
Spark of Primus, Vector Sigma, key to the plasma energy chamber ... all historically important artifacts... that would seem to valuable to leave on a dead Cybertron if they exist in this continuity.

The Dead Universe characters ? perhaps... Metroplex is certainly big enough to hold a cell block or 20
Monstructor, and or Thunderwing... maybe even Bludgeon... all of whom represent technological advantages the autobots would want to keep away from the Decepticons.

what I hope it is however.

Evidence of the Beast wars

Same. My store received NO IDW comics or trades.


Sigh.

I was looking forward to this one too. New writer and all.

I don't bother with stores, I just buy them on Ebay and usually get them a few days later after and always in perfect condition.


As for the story, it wasn't much of a Spotlight but it was an enjoyable read, more so than Cliffjumper's say. And other than the bots with Scrounge at the beginning (who I don't recognise), everyone else is an established character which is great. It wouldn't have had the same impact if the six Throttlebots had been six generic Autobots.

Now that we know Goldbug is a different Autobot... does anyone else wish he was Bumblebee?

I don't mean the same way he was in G1... more like Goldbug is his superhero identity.. You never see him and mild mannered Bumblebee in the same place at the same time ...

I could see it easily happening like this.

Cliffjumper- "hey what are you doing with that pulse rifle squirt?"
Bumblebee - "distress call just came in."
Cliffjumper - "aaah Gimme that gun before you hurt yourself."
BB -"but I want to help!"
CJ -"you did, you told me about it."

Cliffjumper leaves.

Bumblebee's face plate slides up

"this looks like a job for Goldbug!"

I'd like to see Sixshot get his arrogant ass handed to him more often.

Perhaps the most unfufilling Transformers comic I've bought in a long while.

The big turning point feels like the revelation that the big city is Metroplex. Something everybody with prior knowledge of the series knows already. The extra candy on top being the suggestion that Metroplex is holding something else, but we aren't told what it is feels kind of lame - like this whole comic is just a teaser instead of something effective on it's own. And, whatever he's carrying - I hope it's not another plot device on the pile which so far includes The Matrix, The Magnificence, and oh hey - maybe it's the Zodiac energy since Spotlight Mirage didn't happen.

I wonder if the spelling of Jiaxus will stick around. I'd attribute it to a common error, but this story was written by an editor. I don't mind that much since the difference is minor considering the Transformers likely don't write in English anyway.

This has been raised elsewhere, and it's quite possible we will see more Andy writing in the 'ongoing', whatever form that may take. So it doesn't surprise me that it reads that way. I have yet to read it myself yet, but I am glad to read that some people think this comic, despite it's shortcomings in terms of being a Spotlight on Metroplex, reads more like the 'older' IDW comics and less like AHM.

Well I think it's statistically impossible to write something as bad as AHM in so little time.

Ditto.

Then you need to read the comic book Battle For Bludhaven which was a last minute production tossed together to deal with, well, the wreckage of Bludhaven un-addressed in other comics. It laid a good deal of foundation for the difficult year known as Countdown.

I
WEEP
FOR
MY
FELLOW
AUTOBOTS

BUT
I
CAN
NOT
HELP
THEM

so sad. the Metroplex "words" delivery technique works though. [and I love how his STOP is accompanied by a tiny * speech bubble from Sixshot.]

Minor quibble [probably already popped up in the Preview discussion]: does Goldbug call Chase "Freeway" while they're loading up on Energon in the 'ghost town'?

I finally found Spotlight: Metroplex, and it was ok. I hope that this sets the direction for the new ongoing. And I hope that IDW will not reboot it again after a year.

Hopefully, they won't. IDW seems pretty good about noticing the fans' complaints - I somehow doubt Coda was planned from the beginning - so with luck, they'll stick with a storyline for the time being.

Balls. From all the acclamation last week about this issue being a throwback to the old IDW, I think my hopes were raised a bit too high. First off, I'd like someone to point out to me WHEN Searchlight showed up in Revelation? It seems very vaguely like something I should remember... but his appearance in Stormbringer was certainly more memorable... as I recall a lot of people big excited about a Throttlebot showing up for the first time since... I guess since they got their asses handed to them in Headmasters. This definitely is the first time they've appeared as a team since then. And I have to say... their adeptness at fleeing was both impressive and humorous.

As everyone else as mentioned, Scrounge once again makes a cameo. And what appears to be Wheezel as well! And then they died. Not that someone won't decide to easter-egg them in again somewhere down the road...

And then there's Sixshot. Who I thought was pretty well-written in this story. And his restoration makes decent enough sense. The Autobots were fighting Thunderwing; they deactivated him. The Cons (who really weren't so much of an army, as Searchlight said, but the fledgling remains of Banzai-tron's unit) fought Sixshot; they didn't want to waste a valuable asset so they undid Jhiaxus' tampering and put him back to work. Metroplex... eh. The only time I thought Metroplex was decently written was, surprisingly, in Headmasters, when he was competent enough to take over for Ultra Magnus as earth-commander after his demise. I honestly thought that role made SENSE. I'm not displeased with how he was written into the story. It made sense enough, I guess. But then there's the Throttlebots. I like them as a unit, but individually, with the exception of Goldbug and Searchlight, they were pretty interchangeable. And even at that, Goldbug only stood out as the narrator/team leader and Searchlight as Mr. "Previous Experience."

But it was an amusing enough story. Definitely more like older IDW stuff than like AHM. And definitely the best spotlight we've had since Blurr. I still miss the self-contained nature spotlights like Blaster and Wheelie had, though... Of course, since there's an on-going to work with now, hopefully we'll see more character-driven stories like those down the road even without spotlights... :\

It was ok. Standard Spotlight stuff.

The first Metroplex splash-page was worth the price of admission alone.

Nice use of vehicle modes in a chase/action sequence.

Sixshot was more fun than he usually tends to be. The laughing while being dragged segment was particulary amusing.

They wouldn't be the Throttlebots if no one messed up their names.



Searchlight made a brief appearance at Garrus 9 in Spotlight: Doubledealer, when Nemesis Prime showed up. As for Sixshot, I thought Arcee and Banzai-Tron's team were fighting Monstructor. Due to the truncated nature of Revelation, I don't think we ever even SAW who was fighting Sixshot. It might very well have been an Autobot army, including Searchlight.

Yep, in Revelation, we only saw Sixshot in a montage "Everything that's going on currently" page, where he was shown standing at attention in beast mode. Tiny image. He could have been fighting anyone or doing anything, as we didn't even really get to see much of what was around him, so no contradiction there.

Searchlight was with Prime, who was monitoring every battlefront, so he would have been privy to all ongoing battles without having to leave G-9.

In any case, MAN, I had forgotten how much I enjoy the -Ation style of storytelling. I even like how the art harkens back to those stories, being less overtly G1-styled.

I can safely say (Without playing Devil's advocate) that this story was wholly satisfying; reading it, I don't have some of the hesitations and qualms or qualifications that I had over parts of AHM. Really hope this is the direction we're going back in. It was tightly scripted, had snappy dialogue, and good action scenes, and easily felt like a part of the overall continuity. If the biggest explanation I have to come up with is "Sixshot could have been up to anything, since we didn't really see him in action," it's a good comic. Looking forward to Mr. Schmidt's Galvatron story in CODA, and hope that either he's writing the ongoing (A Marcelo/Schmidt team would be cool) or it will follow on this storytelling style.

Oh, and one thing I liked is that continuity is referenced, but it's not absolutely necessary to understeand what's going on, unlike AHM, where all of a sudden around the middle you're supposed to have read everything that has come before or you won't understeand anything.

Yeah, continuity in this was very well done. I think it would almost work as a wholly new introduction for someone who hadn't read anything before, and yet it somehow sits neatly with both AHM and the -ations.

True enough the Throttlebots were interchangeable, but they had charm and character - particular Searchlight, whose own introspection was given a thoughtful nod in the final page.

The only real downer for me was Searchlight's face, which seemed to be a copy of Rollbar's, rather than the one sported by his toy, his Sunbow model, his Marvel incarnation or his earlier IDW incarnation. Of all the silly face-kibble that Transformers have been given, I think that recessed mouth n' chin is the worst, its major effect being to give the characters the appearance of a Mexican moustache.

All that.

On its own, it's unsatisfying in a way -- but at the same time, it's great, 'cause it makes me want to come back for more. This is the first book since Max Dinos that has made me really wonder about its mysteries, and care about what happens next. That was the thing that made the entire *ation arc so enjoyable: the edge-of-your-seat action and cliffhangers, combined with enough mysteries to leave you thinking and wondering just a bit.

Loved seeing Metroplex's battle station mode used as a starship. I wasn't the only one who noticed those little thruster port things on his toy's back and legs!

Also, I really love IDW's Sixshot. He may or may not be an outstanding villain, but he's just been used so well in his appearances (well, mainly here and in Devastation... the others are sufficiently forgettable that, well, I kinda forget them!) The battles he fights in are terrific pressure cookers for the reader.

LOL, I tought the same thing while reading it!

Throttlebots run away from Sixshot then Sixshot is crushed by Metroplex...who flies away.

I paid $4 spread over twenty-odd pages for that simple sentence.

I'm seriously becoming pissed at decompressed storytelling. I want more then two things to happen per issue! Is that so much to ask?

But you get pretty pictures too.

Yeah but it's a run-on sentence.


I guess the fact that it's Metroplex kills a bit of the climactic finish, but the fact is there isn't supposed to be Cybertronian life on the planet, and when the Throttlebots seek it out in hopes of assistance, they find that they're instead in a "ghost town".

And unless whatever Metroplex is guarding is as throwaway a plot point as the Zodiac energy from Spotlight Mirage, it's setting up storylines right there just like Furman's Spotlights were.

Unfortunately, the focus on setting up the mysterious "IT" deflated a lot of the impact that Metroplex could have had. He gets one great 'giant fist outta nowhere!' moment, and then bam, he's fully transformed, posing and flying away into the sky. Even the Throttlebots don't seem surprised or too impressed that their ghost town just turned into one of them.

I still don't get the point of having the gimmick of having only double slash pages, if metroplex only shows up in three of them.

Actually, I was glad that Metroplex didn't dominate most of the pages; the spreads (These weren't splash pages; those would be large single panels, which AHM abused to a certain degree; this issue had plenty of sub-boxes.) made for a slightly unusual and refreshing storytelling method. I was more concerned that we'd get page after page of him walking around, with little room for anything else.

Plot progression...meh. The fun is often in the adventure, in this case, seeing the Throttlebots take on Sixshot, and then Sixshot getting a whupping. Sure, you can summarize the plot in a sentence or two, but plenty of action and well-scripted lines were packed into the issue. I defended this a lot re: AHM, where I enjoyed seeing pages upon pages of damage or dialogue, but the plot moving along slowly. But, that said, this comic was better-balanced in terms of having the lines uttered while the characters were in action; AHM seemed to prefer to often divide the action and the dialogue into their own sections of "Fighting, then standing around talking". This made for an interesting storytelling method, too, but on evaluation, I think I prefer the jazziness of the traditional, tried and true "talking while fighting" approach as seen here. It jibes with Furman's storytelling, as well, a good thing in terms of consistency.

I feel like Sixshot is a substitute Galvatron for the continuity, while Galvatron is busy being dead universe'd. Only Sixshot isn't constantly screaming.

Simon does love his invincible badasses. I do like that Sixshot rather has a sense of humor about it, though. There's a nice dichotomy between his thoughts being rather brooding and dark when he's left alone without anything to do, and then his becoming a wiscracking jerk on the battlefield. Works well with the idea that he only feels "alive" in battle.

I say this because it came as a pleasant surprise to me that he was jokey in Devastation, after thinking thoughts like "I am the void" in his Spotlight issue.

IMO it works for villains. Fortunately Furman only sees the need for Prime and Grimlock to be invincible badasses (and even then his Prime gets an ass whumpin on a regular basis). But with villains it helps to highten the level of fear. Tell me you weren't on the edge of your seat while Sixshot chased down Ratchet during Devastation.


And people say Furman writes everyone the same way.

oh I want to try one-sentencing the other spotlights.

here goes.

Prime- Optimus Prime Is Awesome.
Blaster - It was Beachcomber not Mirage.
Wheeler - Friend Find, stayed Behind.
Kup - How are you feeling Outback?
Cyclonus - It was an honor to gUT yOu lIkE A fiSh! BWAHAHAHAHAAA...
Cliffjumper - I don't want to talk about it.
Mirage - This time it was Mirage
Ramjet - likes toast, doesn't like being toast.
Hotrod - ...and knowing is half the battle.
Hardhead - Its not just a name.
Doubledealer - He really wasn't.
Galvatron - cause this is Thriller, thriller time. dun do do dodo do dundun do do do do (cause he's a zombie)
Grimlock - Me grimlock Badass, and me sorry...but don't tell that part.
Jazz - Jazz saves Tracks from the Predacons
Drift - I'm getting a toy you know
Arcee - never cross a tranny with a knife
Sideswipe - The bromance is over.
Blurr - gotta go fast, gotta go faster, gotta go gotta go sonic X
Soundwave - in today's world a tape deck is so under valued a little kid can buy one at the pawn shop with the money he has left over in his weekly allowance after buying a $4 comic book.

Sixshot - Me Sixshot Badass, me has friends... I don't know why I was talking like that, but if you say anything about this to anyone I'll kill the planet I find you on.

Nightbeat - woke from darkness, some time loss, secretary out getting coffee -she likes the kinds you just can't make with grounds and a filter, I indulge her; the case a mystery... aren't they all: only clue me and I don't know why I know that.

Ultramagnus - If you know the whereabouts of tonight's profiled criminal Shockwave call us now.

Shockwave - Don't mind me... just a lingering plot thread... nothing to see here move along, go see Startrek, that Spock fellow does well for an organic.

these are fun

Ation - We aren't Dreamwave! there we said it
AHM - I think only Skywarp means it.
MD - See Spotlight Grimlock, Re: Spotlight Shockwave

BW1 - Razorbeast is Awesome!
BW2 - Razorbeast is dead!

Animated - Off screen Adventures.

Lam Prequel, sequel and sequel prequel - Repaint Showcase! with one Arcee.

Stormbringer - Like "war within" but with less "hurt me more" Starscream.

and that steam punk one... it just got punk'd

(these are all in jest. I've enjoyed everything IDW has done. with the exception of Animated -because I didn't read it.)

I liked it. Wasn't the best issue, as it was a little sparse, but it was nice to see Sixshot again, and the story held together quite well. Hopefully whatever Metroplex has will be used in following stories and isn't just a throwaway...

Hey, I agree with you in every sense. I was mentioning the upstoppable guys (Specifically, I mean villains, I should have clarified) out of love. Nothing like a Galvatron whom it takes a time storm to destroy, only for Rodimus to return to the future and find that Galvy won after all. (Poor Blurr...)

I kept arguing back during the "Furman writes everyone the same way" period (This cropped up during the Ations) that his characters had unique personalities and motivations that came through in the stories; I have said some nice things about AHM and characterization/artwork, but I never bought into the "Shane is better because Furman made everyone sound the same" argument in support of the series.

Anyway, it's nice to have something to agree with you guys about again. *nod nod* I admit to playing "Devil's Advocate" to a certain degree with AHM, by focusing on things I liked (Art, characterization) or thought could be explainable (Not that they shouldn't have been obvious to the readers, instead of requiring lengthy explanations; such plot holes are...uncomfortable things to encounter. But it made a good opportunity to say, "Hey, let's talk about explaining this..." Sue me, grew up with the No-Prize).

Guess I wanted to encourage a little counterbalance to the criticism, which was better-represented than support. Call it stirring the pot, maybe? It was just fun to get some back and forth going. But I certainly had my issues with AHM, one of which would be subdividing the action scenes and dialogue/character-building scenes so cleanly, and another the jumpy pacing and setting up of cliffhangers only to skip over the resolutions. But if I brought that up more, I pretty much would have been saying, "Yeah, I agree with you guys," and that's a lame contribution to a topic. (Well, I was actually too lazy to write up an intellectual reply to the above statement, but just wanted to put my two cents in. In fact, I wrote "I was actually too lazy to write up an intellectual reply to the above statement, but just wanted to put my two cents in. In fact, I wrote "IAWTP" but since a lot of people find that offensive and innane, it seems the board has changed it:(" but since a lot of people find that offensive and innane, it seems the board has changed it:( is worse.)

Oh no, I wasn't saying it was you who claimed those things.

Just some extremist AHM supporters seem to always say "Furman's characters are all the same!" when truly, they aren't, in spite of using identical turn of phrases now and again and not having dialog explicitly written to sound like the cartoon voice actors would say it.

Honestly, as far as AHM goes, the only "character moment" I genuinely liked was Cliffjumper's "Showtime."... which of course was completely not-played-up during Spotlight Cliffjumper, where Cliffy really could have been played by any other Autobot.

It was meeeeeee.

Well, most probably

I've always said this about Furman, even back when I was defending IDW's decision to adopt him as the writer for their new Transformer series. My being an AHM supporter didn't influence My opinion of Mr. Furman's ability to write dialogue in any way.

"Not that Furman's stories are devoid of character, only that it is generally harder to differentiate between his individual characters...his new Starcraft comics are a good example of this. His Death's Head stories (not his horrible 3.0 run) are full of fun characters with interesting dialogue though, maybe it's just a Transformer thing."

Certainly their given actions within a story and their reasons for those actions are generally governed by the unique personalities of the character themselves, but the crux of my argument is that being able to convey the personality and individual charm of a given character through their respective dialogue alone is not Furman's forte.

I'm not arguing that characters should neccesarily be written in the same way that their respective cartoon counterpart spoke (although if there is only relatively limited space availiable to flesh out a certain character, or it's just a cameo appearance, maybe that "cop-out" approach should be adopted), but there should generally be a clearer distinction between each Transformer that makes you think "Oh, that Trailbreaker!" which Roche was able to aptly do in Spotlight: Kup.

Furman's Starcaft comics, as I mentioned above, are a confusing, dull read as a result of characters (with whom we as the reader have no previous attatchment to) being written poorly and in an indistinguishable manner. Again, like I said earlier, I have also bought two trades of Death's Head comics recently and the stories and characters within both are written in a rich, funny and original way.

Indeed, Furman's stories are full of interesting and insightful character moments, in Infiltration for example, the page dedicated to Ironhide somberly crossing his arms and contemplating whether he should push a button and disobey Prowl's orders gives me a greater feel for the Ironhide character Furman is presenting within the story than a page full of thought bubbles and narrative boxes could've hoped to have done. It's just when push comes to shove, the dialogue he brings to the table is a little hokey and samey (there are a few gems though, such as his ability to write a very good Shockwave, prickish Prowl, and his Omega Supreme ("Speak" ) was fantastic...better than most other interpretations of the character at any rate).

------

At the end of the day, Furman is one of the main reasons I got into writing for comics, I really respect what he was able to do with the Marvel Transformer mythos and the way he opened my eyes to the many possibilities that a relatively simple concept such as a robot civil war could present is something for which I will always be grateful (my thanks to Budiansky too). I would be more than happy for him to continue to write Transformer stories for IDW as I still enjoy his work.

I'd sort of half-agree with Reload myself. I don't think Furman's characters are hard to tell apart or all are the same... but I do agree that Furman is not good with dialogue specifically, and characters often don't have uniqueness based on just that alone.

And unique voices certainly involve more than just transcribing odd accents... things like word choice, how they structure their sentences, etc. factor in as well.

(Coming from someone who enjoys writing dialogue, has been told that she's not half-bad at it, and knows how hard it is to keep one's own natural speaking style out of the dialogue you're writing.)

Yeah, I tend to agree with both Jeysie and Reload on that. Anyone who says Furman doesn't do characterisation doesn't know what characterisation is, but the dialogue is sometimes a sticking point. It's mostly, for me, the Furmanisms. There are points - say, where Beast Wars Ravage refers to a 'big bad' - where it's almost farcical. It's something you either have to embrace as a lovable flaw, or are destined to become jaded by.

Still the best or one of the best Spotlight stories.

You can tell by the little "Nick Roche" in the credits box.

Huh, sort of like Spider-man.

...Spider-bot?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Oh, great, now I want to see a scene where Sixshot is thinking long, rambling thoughts about his job and girlfriend and school, while blowing away Autobots left and right.