So, that spotlight Pax...

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:01 pm

Woooow it sucks

And WTF Roberts? When did you go all "Well let's create more discontinuities with established canon from only a few months ago! It'll be a laugh!"
I mean, like, REALLY sucks.
Like, McCarthy levels of suck.
I mean seriously, he's clearly READ Autocracy, it's referenced in his damn stories enough, hence he should at least have a vague understanding of the events of it. So why the need to refer to Metroplex as Metroplex in a story set before he took that name?
Back when he was still asleep. And Acroplex.
And WTF with the art, why does he have his Spotlight:Blurr body back?
I mean seriously, all that clean, smooth continuity between Chaos theory, Shadowplay, and Autocracy just got hit in the face with a shovel. Autocracy really neatly picked up with that nice sweet body Shockwave gave him after Chaos Theory, and now he doesn't have it any more and has to....get it back sometime before Autocracy?

Seems like a really lame attempt to tie Spotlight Blurr into continuity by messing it up more.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:06 pm

If anyone's thinking of picking this up, I'll save you the trouble.
A3 being pointlessly obtuse.
Cameo by Rack'n'Ruin.
Witty one liner.
Bludgeon "Mwahahahaha kill people".
Pax saves the day.
Nothing has really happened.
The end.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:15 pm

Best comment so far I've heard on it from a friend - "Zeta looks like Professor Chaos, FFS!"

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:21 pm

I think you didn't like it, Sunya. I think.

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:19 pm

It was OK but not up to the standards of MTMTE

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:25 pm

Fun bit of fluff let down by some horrific art, imho.

Can't be arsed to look up who drew this but he basically raped Rack 'n' Ruin in the faces. And why the **** is Roberts running with the utterly, utterly lame Megatron Origin "let's make it so their heads are really helmets" concept in the first place?

Bludgeon was great, and it was nice to finally see Kaput. And Rung again, obviously. Couldn't care less about Alpha Trion, he bores me rigid.

Didn't know about the Metroplex discontinuity as I haven't read Autocracy but it did seem like a reasonable explanation for why Pax switched bodies for a bit.

Overall - sadly, for all the set-up, what this really lacked was an ending.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:34 pm

According to the wiki, the Acroplex was something different to Metroplex, though if we're going to get picky about continuity Ratchet, Wheeljack and Acid Storm are all in the wrong bodies which - considering one of the plot points of this issue was to explain why Prime was in a different body - seems to miss the point somewhat. Eh.

Post by **snarl** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:13 pm

It's ok, though the art does have a touch of flying AIDS.

Didn't read must of Autocracy, forgotten what I did already - ergo don't know how this clashes... although I thought it was made pretty ******* clear why he was in this particular body and how that was going to play out.

Re: story inconsistency, I tend to just ignore the **** stuff, so if it is inconsistent with something like Autocracy or Spotlight Blur, who really gives a flying ****?

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:38 am

Wow, that was sub-par for Roberts, I agree. Seemed like a very contrived story about the significance of Prime's faceplate.

Actually, this poster at the IDW boards summed up my feelings best on the issue:

"I wasn't impressed with this issue. Didn't have too much trouble with the art, but the script was a fairly simplistic paint it by numbers approach with 'filler' written all over it.

I was surprised to see Roberts write it, really. Felt like someone imitating his style. Didn't really get an insight into Prime, bar the fact that he likes wearing his faceplate. In the meantime we find out Bludgeon is fairly one dimensional (Four million years later he's still a lunatic with zero development to now be had for him) and the Decepticons made the transition to being cartoonishly evil before the war even began. Major disappointment, that - so much for getting to see it play out slowly or subtly over time.

Nice to see Rack and Ruin. Not nice to see them used to provide a hilariously inept get out of jail free card for Prime. Same with Alpha Trion - whose legendary status is now entirely debunked. And what of Metroplex? Was so sure the reveal would be that the reason he was a high-command secret was because they were trying to recreate the Metrotitans in order to get an edge. Now he's ancient, just like everybody else these days as the dates fall further into disarray and the series makes less and less sense. "

Gotta agree, this issue certainly does greater harm than good to the mystery element of the Transformers past. Whatever good came from this issue (which was little, IMO), it is overwhelmed by it's having sucked so much mystery out of the story that to this point has been so cleverly crafted.

Alpha Trion was so much a mystery character, I thought there really was something special about his hermetic ways. Turns out he was just another old bot floating around that everyone knew.

Nightbeat, a character that is well-known for being cleverly inquisitive and more of a detective-type, could have been replaced with, say, Ironhide, with the same dialogue and you never would have noticed.

Even a great writer has his duds. This is Roberts first dud since he's been writing, and even as a dud, I would say it's there with some of Costa's best work.

Art was strange too, with it getting progressively worse as the issue went on. Clearly, the artist had to rush to get this out.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:54 am

Myself and one of my friends have filed it under the Spotlight:Blurr Knots' Landing continuity and left it at that.

COME ON, NICK, GIVE US A GOOD MEGS SPOTLIGHT.

Mr_Tigg · Post by **Mr_Tigg** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:21 pm

I for one am just glad to know that Batman was driving Alpha Trion around in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

I mean the tumbler was badass enough of it is, but now I know it's actually Alpha Trion in disguise - shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeet the b-man's street cred has gone through the roof in my books.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:01 pm

I thought A3's paint job in TDK was way more suited to his alt-mode than in this spotlight.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 6:26 pm

Finally got it. Reads like (and is animated like) a good episode of the original cartoon. That's the kind of praise Brad Mick aspired to. James Roberts is off a bit here.

Have not yet read Autocracy but I'm interested to see how a story about Megs and Prime working together is going to work in conjunction with this... It'll be Megatron: Origin mess all over again, methinks.

Bludgeon becomes a bit of a Bond villain and ties Pax to a rocket. Erm. I still like the occasional takedown of Alpha Trion, though. One of Costa's good contributions to the IDW mythos was mocking Trion's self-importance. This does take away from his image as a mysterious hermit.

Would read a million times better if Coller had drawn it.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:15 pm

Okay, I really don't see any incongruity with Autocracy. Other than Prime briefly having his silly Spotlight: Blurr body, and it's obvious by the end that he's itching to get back into the old faceplate.