Spotlight:

[138 Scourge]

Dr. Light's gonna have to get really drunk for this one...

Anyhoo, I really enjoyed the "Wheelie" spotlight. While a good portion of it seemed dedicated to makin' the lil' dude's life horrible, the rest showed him winning nonetheless. The rhyming gets a reason in this story, and even if it's a bit of a stretch, I'll take it and not care. Sure, the universal translator can only translate stuff in rhyme, why not? The Spotlight also used the Wheelie described on his tech specs way back in the day, the survivalist who was marooned on (maybe) Quintessa. Probably the most respect the character's gotten since the movie, so as a fan of the lil' guy, I'll take it and like it.

[Dominic]

It need not be Doctor Light. I would even settle for a "Kiss Play" cross-over. Or, Galvatron could just fall into a sun and die. The point is that he needs to be broken and disposed of, at both a literal and meta level.


As for Wheelie, the little guy does get a bad rap. He was not bad in the old UK comics either.

Dom
-has both TFU variants.

[andersonh1]

Posted on the front page: the Spotlight series will resume in April with Spotlight: Prowl.

I have the Legends-class Wheelie from Universe. Was there a second version?

[Dominic]

There is a Japanese recolor of TFU Wheelie. It came in the same package as 2 others.

Dom
-looking forward to "Spotlight: Prowl"

[Shockwave]

Dibny was a fun character whose defining trait was being useful and competent. Then DC decided to not only kill her, but back-write a rape that more or less nullified that. "Identity Crisis" did not seem to bring in new readers so much as it annoyed established ones.

So, yeah, it is kind of funny.

I want to see Galvatron go down in a similar fashion just to be rid of the character.

Dom

Well I can certainly see the concept of a useful competent character getting gimped out and pointlessly killed off as funny. Hell, I've seen some instances where it was downright hilarious.

Granted. In the middle of a huge battle between Shockwave, Razorclaw, Starscream and Megatron, Galvatron suddenly loses his "dark matrix" thingy and becomes a moaning, stumbling standard issue robot zombie mumbling something about wanting to consume processors as fuel. Then Shockwave uses his gun arm for a Resident Evil style headshot that blows Galvy's head off his body which stumbles a few steps spurting energon everywhere before falling down dead. Cyclonus then cries like a little bitch because he has no sense of purpose or direction. This time, Shockwave doesn't even bother with his arm. He just logically points out that since he's pointless Cyclonus should just kill himself. Cyke then grabs Galvy's arm cannon and headshots himself.

[Shockwave]

Sure, the universal translator can only translate stuff in rhyme, why not?

I got the impression that it was more like the TNG episode "Darmok" where the translator can translate the words, but the syntax is so goofy that it still comes out sounding like gobbledygook.

I love this issue. They not only made Wheelie not suck, but they actually made him bad ass.

[andersonh1]

Yeah, I enjoyed Wheelie's spotlight story. He did come across as a pretty tough and determined little guy, and you really feel for his plight, trapped on a planet with little to no hope of rescue.

So out of all the stories in Spotlight vol. 3, the only one I really don't quite get is Mirage. What's going on there? I get that what we're reading is a story from another dimension where Mirage is a Decepticon, and that in some way he's interfacing with the Mirage from the proper IDW continuity in a way that feels like a dream. But what's the point of the story? Is it setting up the "Mirage might be a traitor" plotline for All Hail Megatron? The story is devoid of any real context, and I just don't quite get the point.

[138 Scourge]

I was a lil' confused about Mirage's story, myself. Okay, so he coulda easily been a Decepticon, but seriously, would he be that badass a Decepticon that he ended the war? Because that's what the story strongly implies.

Now, it could have been all in Mirage's head, because he probably does think he's that awesome. Or maybe it's like in Hitchhiker's Guide, it's not a "real" universe, but more of a artificial projection of one, meaning that it's generated just for Mirage and as such he's the most important thing in it? Does that make a lick of sense, or have I just done lost my mind?

Anyhoo, I liked the Mirage bit okay, it worked as a kinda filler story. Would make a lot more sense if it was part of a regular series instead of a special one-shot though.

[andersonh1]

I suppose it could be one of those "it was all a dream..." type stories. That makes sense. It's just unclear to me what the writer was going for.

[BWprowl]

I suppose it could be one of those "it was all a dream..." type stories. That makes sense. It's just unclear to me what the writer was going for.

The point of the story was to show how Mirage's dodgy beliefs could easily lead him to being a Decepticon, but that he still had qualities that caused him to side with the Autobots. It was character exploration, something all the Spotlights are supposed to be (even though a lot of them usually aren't).

I really liked the story, myself.