"Spotlight" discussion thread

[BWprowl]

So Spotlight Drift hit this week, and in the biggest surprise since Maximum Dinobots didn't suck, this one...didn't suck. Okay, it didn't really make me any bigger a fan of Drift (Balsa from Moribito called, she wants her shtick back), but hot DAMN does it explain a lot of issues from AHM in a comprehensible and entertaining way. Namely, Kup and Perceptor more-or-less get their AHM 'Origin Stories' here. And at the very least, it's shut me up about Drift being the other traitor (I'll admit now that I was wrong, and he's not). My only complaint is that I'd really have liked to see them use *real* TF characters for all the guys that show up here, rather than the generics they went with. I don't care how many of them get killed off.

-BW "I concocted a character named 'Deadlock' ages ago, but I'll let them slide on this one" prowl

[Onslaught Six]

Shit, that came out this week? Didn't Jazz just hit last week?

Time to hit the comic shop and see if they got it.

[Dominic]

I largely agree with Prowl. (Though I am happy to not see hoardes of minor characters die to up a new guy's kill-count.) There is nothing fantastic about the Drift special, but nothing terrible.

The art was a bit vague in places, but not to the point of being incomprehensible.

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

Hit the comic shop, they didn't have it and won't be getting it, apparently. Damn it all to hell. And they wonder why I download comics.

[Dominic]

If TF sells as badly in your area as it does mine, the shop likely orders sell-out threshold and now more. My local store orders for 4 readers, meaning I often do not even get my pick of cover variants. This is objectively a minor thing. But, after the last few years, and being spoiled by getting the covers I like, it is irksome.

Set up a subscription. The only down side is that you are likely to be obligated to buy the book for about 2 months after you drop it. (Most stores order about 2 months in advance.) On the other hand, it just about nullifies your odds of missing an issue. (Diamond becomes the biggest worry at this point.)

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

I really should, but I don't want to be immediately tied to buying a book when I'm likely going to pick up the trade later anyway. (I skipped the entire first half of AHM in single issues.) I do have one set up for Atomic Robo V3 when it comes out (Next week) so I dunno. I'm only just now overcoming my negative feelings whenever I show up and don't buy anything. I feel like a douche. This doesn't happen 'anywhere' else, either.

[Dominic]

With a comic shop, you likely have a closer relationship with the seller. I know the guys at my local store. (One of them was someone to talk to when my cat died a few years back.) You know what they read, they know what you read. You debate the finer points of a given book with them.

I have not had the "show up and not buy anything" problem for a while now, as I read enough there there is usually something every week, or at least something I left behind from a previous week.

I am actually dropping books now though. That Morrison/Quietely "Batman" book is off my list. Turns out it will be in continuity. And, the new "GI Joe" books are just......unreadable. (Yes, we know, "GI Joe" is hard-core.) I am keeping the TF books and that new Marvel 2099 series.

I have had an in-store sub for most of the last 15+ years, making it possibly my longest running expense. When I nearly got out of comics in mid-2000, I did not have any books I was obligated to get. I worked near a hobby shop,and lived near another, making it easy enough to pick up the few Games Workshop publications I read, (WH Monthly and Inferno), but eventually settled into a newly opened shop near where I worked at the time. (Still there to this day.) By early '02, I was ready to drop the GW books, but Dreamwave was relaunching TF, sooooooooo........

This is the first time since Dreamwave first launched TF that I have been consistently reading comics for "Transformers". From '04 to early 06, I was reading comics primarily for "Star Wars", which went bad at some point after Episode III. Every so often, DDP's "GI Joe" would jump to the top of my must read list. "All Star Superman" kept me in from early '07 up through it ending last year.

A combination of rising costs, diminishing time, more books being published, and less interest from me has driven this latest cut.

[Dominic]

Spotlight "Drift": (AHM tie-in): This issue largely provides back-story for "All Hail Megatron" that would have been cumbersome if added into the main series. It is a pretty standard "fill in the blanks" story of the type that Marvel used to run as back-ups in annuals and double-sized issues. Aside from some explication about changes happening to some characters before AHM, this is a character study of Drift. It is hard to know if the "second chance" theme from this issue will tie-in with AHM or not. Grade: A A readable, if predictable, outing.


Dom
-cutting books from his pull-list this week.

[Dominic]

Spotlight (Cliffjumper): Kind of a generic story, with the rowdy hero finding a measure of peace....only to have it taken away. It hits all the points this sort of story should, and is better than average. But, the basic story hardly breaks any new ground. And, considering the title character, the tone is a bit grimmer than one might expect. It does not ruin the character, but it is an unorthodox use of said character. Grade: B/C

[Onslaught Six]

Cliffjumper is said to be McCarthy's favourite character, so it's interesting to see that.

I still haven't read it because...well, I can't find it to download. I don't like downloading comics like this, but there's literally no way I could get out to the Indiana comic shop in any capacity for A While Now, and on top of that, they're unlikely to get it without preordering it anyway. (And even then it's iffy, apparently they never got in my Atomic Robo issues.)