Spotlight #1 - Shockwave...SPOILERS!!!!

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:00 am

Have to say, this is getting pretty damn good...

It's becoming clear that

1) Infiltration was by far the weakest thing that we might EVER see from IDW while they have TF

2) Giving the entire continuity to Furman was a stroke of pure, unadulterated genius!

Better hurry up before Yaya beats me to it...on with the spoilers...:P

600,000 metacycles ago, Shockwave sees the future (now present) of Cybertron, a dead world depleted by civil war. He initiates a program called regenesis, which basically involves seeding numerous planets with refined and distilled Energon using big ass missles launched from Cybertron. One of these, of course, is Earth

He waits....and waits.....and then goes to Earth, right around the end of an Ice Age, to regulate the Energon reaction. He knows his actions will brand him a traitor in Megatron's eyes, but he also knows that the future will be decided by who controls resources.

MEANWHILE....IN EARTH ORBIT....

Dinobots, in all the Cybertronian alt mode goodness. They've tracked Shockwave the whole way. They have no idea what he's doing here, but they don't care. All they care about is revenge. Revenge for Shockwave blowing up an Energon cache the Dinobots had taken in a raid. The Dinos got busted up, but Prime told 'em just to forget it. But of course, Grimlock does not forget.
Problem is, the Energon levels on Earth are so off the scale, if they were to go down there without protection, they'd go into stasis in nanokliks. So what to do?

Looking at pictures of Elk, Mammoth, and Sabre-Teethed Tigers, Snarl says the only way to be able to go to the surface is to wrap themselves in synthetic mammalian flesh, and adapt their alt modes to fit local life-forms. Grimlock: "No. No way. Never." Snarl's like, dude, it's the only way. Grimlock's like, allright, "but find something better than those miserable specimens." They find a dinosaur skeleton. A T Rex. Grimlock says, "Perfect."

MEANWHILE...BACK ON EARTH......

Shockwave's signaling his ship. His ship does not respond. Something must be up. And BOOM!

Grimlock: "DYnobots, BEAST MODES!!"

Nice homage to the old Marvel series later, Shockwave's getting his ass handed to him. He can't compute why they're here, what purpose...it's not logical....he learns through listening to them that it's about revenge....can't process the anarchy.....as Shockwave is bathed in flames

Shockwave: "I simply shut down my higher functions. A new primal sub-routine takes root, facilitating a synthetic equivalent of rage."

And Shockwave emerges, grabs Sludge by the neck, and swings him around, knocking all the other Dynos. He continues to kick ass, then transforms and gives them a huge blast from above. The Dynos are out of commission.

But Grimlock doesn't give up. He transforms into robot mode, despite the Energon levels, reaching to grab Shockwave. Shockwave simply stands still and watches the stasis lock take over. Grimlock's got a real bad habit of freezing in place, apparently.

BUT...FLASHBACK...

Grimlock's set the ship's weapons on auto fire before they left, aiming for a nearby volcano. Boom! Volcano explodes, lava everywhere, Shockwave gets pulled in. At least it wasn't tar.

BACK ON CYBERTRON....

Megatron says Shockwave's gone missing. His lab's sealed until further notic. I want YOU to find out what he was working on. Understand?

Bludgeon: "Oh...completly."

BACK ON PRESENT DAY EARTH....

Some archeologists find a robotic purple hand sticking out of the ground.....

*Nice job, Nick Roche.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:33 am

Of the issues IDW has released to date, this one is my favorite of all.

Just when I thought it difficult to surpass Stormbringer as a complete Transformers tale of top notch quality, Simon, Nick, and Josh put together something for the ages.

Granted, featuring my favorite TF character of all helped. But it was more than that.

It was the genius of Shockwave and his internal dialogue. If there is such a thing as a writer's Fountain of Youth, Simon has found it and drank from it plentifully. Yes, the dialogue fits Shockers perfectly.

It was Nick's gorgeous pencilling and inking. What an incredibly ingenious style. Something quite different than what we're really used to, making this the freshest TF art since Don's introduction.

It was Josh's stellar coloring, which continues to improve with every issue.

It was the tie-ins with Infiltration. The cultivated Energon source that Starscream discovered on Earth in present times can only be the handiwork of Shockwave. And Shockwave saw Cybertron's collapse coming long before anyone else in Stormbringer. How cool is that!

It was the nostalgia. Many years ago, children most of us, we cracked open Marvel #7 Warrior School to see an embattled Shockwave go fist to fist with the Dinobots, only to be buried alive together. Again, we are treated to the same matchup, under different circumstances, but with no less an exciting conclusion as the first.

As a succinct tale, as a tale that stands on its own within the binding of but a single issue, it doesn't get any better than this.

My first "A+" TF issue from IDW.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:02 am

Avoiding spoilers for this until Satuday when I get back from France. Will post my review then, though I fully expect to be raving about this one.

Legion · Post by **Legion** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:00 am

Ugh, couldn't resist reading spoilers!!

Some of that sounds like a bit of tie in/tip of the hat to Beast Wars too... fantastic!! I can't wait to read it properly!!

Post by **snarl** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:10 pm

SPOILINGTON

Yeah, it doffs the proverbial to Beast Wars I felt.

Cool issue, prefer Don's art although I do like NR's style.

At first I thought Shockers caned em a bit too easy, but then realised that's down to him just burning their flesh shileds off them.

I expect some cocks will get up in a huff and bleat about SF rewriting old stories again - although they all do end up deactivated, this is different to Warrior School and expands the new mythos very nicely.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:29 pm

Man... can't wait to read this one!

"Ultimately, I serve only one master... pure logic!"

Maybe even better then "Anything else would have been illogical" though I like both... still best Shockwave phrase since TWW 2's "all are one?"

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 2:29 am

And that Super Energon that Starscream discovers in Infiltration...

Hate to say it....no, actually, I want to say it...

SHOCKWAVE DID IT!!!

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 9:28 am

Sheer, badass story, I especially like how it explained why the Dynos are in the form they will be later - they got the flesh coating burned off. This also raises the question that Pretender tech was already avaliable so mayn years before Stormbringer?

Also, anyone thinks that in Spotlight #2 - Nightbeat, we'll see Nightbeat and Bludgeon conduct their spearate investigations about what happened in this issue?

All in all, great story, but I was not too crazy about the art myself. Though, the Dinos-Shocky battle was excellent, some way mirroring the old Marvel Battle, just with more battle damage...

Btw, loved the panel where Shocky elbows Sludge and the poor guy is seeing stars...

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:40 pm

(Finally got after Diamond screwed over Steve.)

Awesome.

Best TF comic IDW have done so far.

This was fast, explained itself as it went along and pushed the overall story forwards. New -- Beast modes. Disdain. Shockwave switching off his higher processing functions. <strike>Dinobots</strike> Dynobots without comedy accents.

Josh has excelled himself on the fight effects. I love how dynamic Nick's style is. Furman has a handle on the characters and the bigger picture; even the brief appearance of Bludgeon tells us things about the Decepticons.

Looking forward to the rest of the oneshots most of everything now.

veritech · Post by **veritech** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:20 am

Yup, this was the best TF story I have read in a long time .. . .and the most satisfying. And all in one issue!

If only Infiltration could have been as action packed.

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:36 pm

This was fantastic. Best issue of Transformers I have read for a long time.

I love Roche's artwork too.

Blacksword · Post by **Blacksword** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:37 am

I'm with everyone here, this was an excellent one shot story.

But I have to say, one reason why it's so good, is because of all the lead up work Furman's done so far. I value Infiltration a lot more now because while it is a bit slow, it's Furman taking some time to carefully lay a foundation for his universe, unlike the haphazard job Dreamwave did. Yes a little boring to start but it makes sure that everything together works as a single narrative, makes sense and plays well together.

This story only makes sense in light of Stormbringer, and the events in Infiltration. Otherwise it serves no purpose other than to retell a classic story (though as that it's still quite good as it updates the classic nicely, and removes some of the more riciculous elements like the Savage land, and why the Ark thought that metallic dinosaurs would be a good disguise among flesh and blood animals).

This is the first time that Furman's had a truly clean slate and I have to say that now that the groundwork's been done I'm quite interested in seeing where this all goes.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:25 pm

Lovely stuff. Great to see lots being packed into a single issue, very old school. For me the Spotlights have turned from curiousity to Must Haves now (Evolutions has gone the opposite way).

And Grimlock talks like he did back in the Marvel UK days. Bold move.

BB Shockwave wrote:it explained why the Dynos are in the form they will be later - they got the flesh coating burned off.

Genius.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:24 pm

Check the Botcon panel with Simon and Don!

http://tformers.com/BotCon-2006-Simon-F ... /news.html

Apparently we won't see Grimmy again for a while - good thing, he was overused in DW just like Shockwave.

Galvatron? Ratbat? Nightbeat and another dimensions? Ultra Magnus steps over the line? Sounds really promising...

Blacksword · Post by **Blacksword** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:25 pm

When asked if there are any plans for more female characters in IDW series:
Simon: There has to be a rational for any character he uses. Like for Pretenders, the outer shell never worked for him, but now they have a rationale for it so he is happy to use it. Females never worked for him. Why are there female robots? Until he has a reason why, he won't use them.

Thank you Mr. Furman

Post by **Best First** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:07 pm

hmm, you lot bigged this up so much (which is naturally your fault for doing so and not mine for reading spoilers) that initially i was a bit dissapointed.

However after a few rereads - yes, great stuff, the amount of tie in to the central plot is actually quite remarkable & the use of BW synth - awesome.

I was hoever a bit dissapointed with the use of motion blur on teh art - Nick's pencils capture movement more than sufficently and i hate it wheh this is obscured by a cheap photshop effect - for me this was a real shame and i would much rather have seen the line art.

I also think it would have been cool if Bludgeon had his full face at the end, prior to 'bringer, which woudl ahev created another slice of intrigue.

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:27 am

I liked this a lot. My favorite IDW piece so far, and though I haven't been impressed with Roche before, I am now. Great rationale for the Dinobots (Dynobots?) I'm guessing on Cybertron they were DYnamic, now on Earth they're DInosaurs.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 5:26 pm

Best First wrote:
I also think it would have been cool if Bludgeon had his full face at the end, prior to 'bringer, which woudl ahev created another slice of intrigue.

I think it was nice to see him all damaged, as this confirms that he looks like a walking undead robot BECAUSE he choose so... not because he got whupped up at one point. I wonder, for once since he appeared in Marvel, will Bludgeon's beliefs, his religion, if you will, be explained in detail? In Stormbringer he was all religious in some monents, then later talked about Thunderwing, whom the other Pretenders worshipped as a god, like some simple remote-controlled drone.