#Monstructor

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, what can you tell me about IDW1 Treadshot? What was life like before Impactor ended him via harpoon?

Dear Gunman Gleaner,

Treadshot was originally incepted as part of the Silver Harvest, the mass population boom that filled Cybertron's city streets with life, and was assigned a fairly prestigious position as part of the artisan caste, like many who shared his body-type. Given a particle magnetizer, it was his job to paint murals depicting Cybertron's glorious past onto public buildings. Treadshot saw this as his calling, greatly admiring those ancient heroic deeds. He would speculate at length as to what life must have been like in those times, imagining what he might have done if he’d been there, and dreaming about what he’d say to various important historical figures—many of whom were still alive, naturally.

Misfortune first befell Treadshot during renovation of the Primal Basilica. While working on a fresco of Onyx Prime, a stately piece in the traditional triptych form, Treadshot fell from his hover platform, and impaled himself on the statue of Primus.

Though he recovered to working order fairly quickly, Treadshot found himself reassigned to lower-profile tasks. The official word was that Treadshot’s absentmindedness meant he posed a risk to others, but it was clear to everyone involved that his demotion would never have happened were it not for the fact that he had splattered a senator with his spilled oil.

Reduced to maintaining public buildings, he soon fell in with his fellow artisans Atomizer and Bricolo. The brothers spent both their work-cycles and off-cycles together, dreaming of bigger things. Their bar crawls eventually took them to the Dead End, where the three were introduced to the violent world of gladiatorial combat. Watching the combatants, Treadshot felt each and every blow in his spark—at one point almost literally, when a stray spear sailed into the crowd and pierced his abdomen. Once he came back online, Treadshot found he had a new calling… spraying elaborate warpaint onto gladiators like Skyquake. And much like he had while painting heroes of myth, he daydreamed of how it would feel to be the one fighting.

When Megatron’s grand uprising began, Treadshot finally got his wish. He joined up with the Decepticons to take part in the "Liberation of Kaon" (what Autobots would record as the start of the Fall of the First Five Cities)—and was even able to personally take revenge on the senator who'd been responsible for his fall from grace. However, when Megatron had his legendary battle with Sentinel Prime, Treadshot wound up pinned under the Prime’s Apex Armor. Had Megatron not thought to make the ruined battle suit a throne, they might never have discovered Treadshot crushed beneath, one of its many cannons nearly puncturing his spark. As it happened, Megatron took inspiration from the sight, and tore loose a warped piece of Treadshot’s spark casing, commanding that it be forged into a new Deceptibrand for Treadshot—the first instance of this barbaric practice.

This was as close as Treadshot ever came to entering into Cybertron’s mythology. He spent much of the war acting as just another soldier, with long periods of boredom punctuated by brief intervals of shocking violence. Through diligence over the millenia, he worked his way up the ranks, eventually finding his way into the Decepticon Secret Service as a troubleshooter—but after a disastrous mission to track down Monstructor and Jhiaxus, he was captured by the Autobots, who had to physically pry him from the wall where he’d been skewered.

Placed into Spark Extraction in Garrus-9, Treadshot was eventually reactivated during Overlord’s takeover, and was offered a position as one of the new prison guards. It’s impossible to say whether Overlord knew anything of Treadshot’s history for which to favor him, or if he was selected by chance—but if it was luck that governed his fate, it was certainly bad luck, and over the following three years Treadshot partook in brutality unlike anything in the Cybertronian legends which had once enthralled him. Perhaps, when his spark was reunited with his body, it fell through the holes that lingered from those old near-misses, leaving only an empty chamber to await Impactor’s harpoon.

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #546 - "Supreme Recall"

Originally posted on September 24th, 2010

Story, Letters - Franco Villa Art - Jeremy Tiongson Colours - Eman B. Zubia Edits - Zac DeBoard Thanks to - Peter Istyle

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

Later revised and annotated for Transformers: Seeds of Deception

wada sez: Basically, this strip is one of many Seeds of Deception stories that exists entirely to reconcile inconsistencies between The War Within and Furman’s later IDW work; in this case, the prevalence of combiner teams in The War Within versus the near-total absence of combiners in IDW. Turns out, everyone forgot! See the original annotations at the link above for more specific details beyond that.

[autoacafiles]

[queen-of-heretics]

Quick head shots of some of the decepticon combiners in my fan continuity

[strangeduckpaper]

TF136: Combiners Pt. 2

Artificial Combiners: Following the loss of the Enigma, an arms race began to create artificial Combiners to supplement Devastator and Computron. The Decepticons held the upper-hand in this matter, with Shockwave’s reverse engineered Combination Core forming the nucleus of Project Black Mamba. But the Autobots would launch their own projects, including systems based off of Devisiun biology & MTO’s made for the purpose. But their true watershed would come with data stolen by a turncoat named Ambulon.

Bruticus (Inactive): The first (successful) result of Black Mamba, Bruticus was comprised of a unit of consummate soldiers, hoping the resulting Combiner would turn out to be the perfect soldier. What they got instead was a lumbering hulk of a ‘Con with more guns than his severely handicapped intelligence could count, little more than a weapon to be aimed. Nevertheless, Bruticus quickly became a threat to rival even Devastator, and the capture and/or elimination of his component ‘cons soon become top priority. A lucky break would result in the capture of Hardtop and the subsequent neutralization of Bruticus as a threat, but there are murmurs of enlisting Hardtop’s Spark brother Swindle as a replacement...

Members: Onslaught, Vortex, Blast Off, Brawl, Hardtop-Swindle

Abominus: Following the success of Bruticus, Shockwave’s attention would turn to the Terrorcons, several beastformers who had joined the Decepticon cause. Just as vicious as Bruticus, but just as unintelligent, Abominus would face off against Computron several times, with the Combiner eventually meeting its end with the death of several of its components.

Members: Hun-Gurr, Rippersnapper, Sinnertwin, Blot, Cutthroat.

Predaking: The combination of two of Shockwave’s experiments, with the component “Predacons” also being the result of reformatting beastformers with Predacon CNA. Though his components would be perfectly competent and loyal warriors, Predaking would prove too “individualistic”, a hunter who would disregard orders in favour of pursuing his own agenda.

Members: Razorclaw, Divebomb, Rampage, Headstrong, Tantrum

Monstructor (Deactivated): An ancient, deactivated Combiner dating back to the Age of Primes, Monstructor would only see one battle during the Great War, a corpse reanimated by the earliest experiments with Dark Energon and promptly embarking on a mindless rampage that required both Autobots and Decepticons to bring it down. The corpse would be captured by the Autobots, and used to further Nexus’ experiments.

Sixturbo (Deactivated): Originally the subject of the Autobots’ Devisiun Combiner project, Sixturbo would achieve a rare unity that would unfortunately result in their defection to the Autobots and shuttering of the Devisiun projects. Unfortunately for them, there defection would not spare them from death in battle.

Menasor: Victorion’s creation came as a severe blow to Decepticon morale, their superiority in the field of Combiners shattered once and for all. In order to counteract this, Shockwave turned to the Stunticons, Velocitronian road bandits with mild delusions of grandeur. These delusions would carry over to the resulting gestalt, a boastful warrior who, while nonetheless formidable, didn’t provide the counterbalance the Decepticons sorely needed.

Members: Motormaster(Torso), Deadend (LArm), Wildrider (LLeg), Drag Strip (RArm), Slashmark (RLeg)-Offroad, Heatseeker, Wildbreak, Breakneck, Breakdown (Formerly)

Megaempress: Still hoping for a counterpart to Victorion, Shockwave would turn to Galvatronia, a decorated and brutal ex-gladiator, alongside her all-femme “Elite Guard”. The resulting Combiner kept her components’ prowress, charisma, and sinister nature, more like an extension of Galvatronia than a true fusion

Members: Galvatronia, Trickdiamond, Flowspade, Lunaclub, Moonheart- Skyjack, Riotgear, Treadshock, Cyberwarp

Liokaiser: Commissioned behind Megatron’s back by Deathsaurus, Liokaiser was comprised of the warlord’s finest non-Predacon warriors. Although somewhat scatterbrained, Liokaiser would serve his leader with distinction until the death of his component Leozack would render him inert. The addition of Leozack’s spark-sister Lyzack would see the Combiner returned to the field.

Members: Leozack (KIA), Drillhorn, Guyhawk, Hellbat, Jallguar, Killbison, Lyzack.

Autobot Combiners

Defensor: Seeking to balance the scales of the war, “Project Nexus” the Autobots’ answer to Black Mamba, would look to Groove, an auxiliary member of Computron, using him and the reverse engineered corpses of Abominus and Monstructor as the basis for a new Combiner. The resulting gestalt would be comprised of Groove’s new unit, a search and rescue outfit known as the Protectobots. Though their individual units were either less than willing or less then capable in combat, Defensor themselves has proven an incredible defender and stalwart champion of the Autobot cause.

Members: Hot Spot(Torso), Rook, Blades, Streetwise, First Aid, Groove- Medix.

Superion: The second successful Autobot Combiner, helped along by Ambulon’s defection and reverse engineering Monstructor’s corpse. Her components are an oddly fractious bunch for a successful Combiner,  carrying both Neutral and Decepticon sympathies, but the gestalt herself is a dedicated and even somewhat cocky warrior, if socially aloof.

Members: Silverbolt, Slingshot, Air Raid, Fireflight, Skydive-Alpha Bravo, Airazor.

Divisiun Combiners: Most of the Autobots’ early successes with Combiners came through exploiting Devisiuns’ natural combination abilities. But in a surprising turn of events, these Devisiun Combiners proved less powerful than their Cybertronian counterparts, unable to equal Bruticus or Predaking, but they found their place nonetheless.

Subjects: Sixtrain (Deactivated, KIA), Sixliner, Sixbuilder, Sixwing (Deactivated), Sixturbo (Defected, KIA)

Landcross: The ultimate culmination of the “Six-Series” Landcross is capable of standing toe-to-toe with their Decepticon counterparts, even with their startling penchant for aggression.

Members: Wing, Waver, Dash, Tacker, Mach, Tackle

Computron V2: Following the recovery of the Enigma of Combination, Computron would find a new lease on life, with several of their former auxiliary bots forming the new gestalt.

Membership: Scattershot, Strafe, Javelin, Flareup, Backstreet, Drillbuster.

[backup-datatrax]

[paddockpatrol]

[transformers-the-hunted]

The Terrorcons

And alt-mode faces

most of their time is spend far from Decepticon territory, where they can devour Autobots without dealing with other Decepticons

When not on the hunt the group is collectively fangirling over Sixshot or attempting to providing emotional support to the Monstructor Six.

They may not be loyal to the decepticons or Megatron but, they Are devoted to their compiner siblings, the Seacons and Monstructor Six.

[siphersaysstuff]

What says "Holidays" more than rubbery monsters and dinosaurs? NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT.

December's Patreon-backed @tfwiki picture batch is all up in the PRETENDER MONSTERS and their Takara doppelgangers the DINOFORCE. Micromaster-sized robots that fit into rubbery monster/dino shells, who can also combine into the tiny terrors MONSTRUCTOR and DINOKING!

The original pics were taken over a decade ago (I sold the toys shortly after these were taken), so there's some lighting/focus issues I'm not wild about, but I've done what I could to mitigate. Speaking of mitigation, these toys are NOTORIOUS for their rubbery shells just being... gross. Physically. They sweat oily plasticizer (I bought Dinoking MIB at BotCon 1998 and was washing the slime off them in the hotel sink that very night), and many have discoloration problems, especially the Dinoforce, whose gold paint typically turns a nasty green, and the silver ends up pretty splotchy to boot. Again, I've done what I could to present them as close to intended original deco as possible.

Add onto that two of the Pretender Monsters suffering from Gold Plastic Syndrome (where the gold metal-flake plastic will shatter/crumble with no warning with sometimes-minimal stress), and, well, good luck finding "mint" samples.

If you like these pics and the work I do, you can toss a tip in the jar at my Patreon, at "gregstfwikipics"!

Monstructor

Birdbrain

Bristleback

Icepick

Scowl

Slog

Widlfly

Dinoking

Goryu

Doryu

Gairyu

Kakuryu (older pic)

Rairyu

Yokuryu

[richard1005]

A little info about my AU

-SPOILER WARNING FOR EPISODE 3 AND 4-

There reason that I put some random characters as the survivor of the Lost Light was that if I introduced to many relevant character in just one season it would be much more difficult to control the story. Character like Ultra Magnus, Whirl and Fortress Maximus are among the survivor and have a central role in the series, while others like Swerve, Rung and Tailgate will be introduced later and won't be explored much.

So the survivor of the Lost Light are the following:

Ultra Magnus-since Rodimus is a sparkling-is the commander of the Lost Light, or what's left of it. He isn't Minimus Ambus in this AU, but rather the brother of Optimus Prime (I liked the idea of the white convoy inside the armour), but the role of the Magnus Armour is the same as in IDW.

Fortress Maximus is the second-in-command of the Lost Light, the history he has with Overlord and Garrus-9 will still be there. I also thought of the idea that he is a baby Titan that is growing in his titan form like in Generation 1.

Whirl of Polyhex was definitely going to be included in the season 1 cast. I thought that his craziness and personality would somewhat match to Overlord's and now I can't stop thinking about him and Overlord just annoying the hell out of Fortress Maximus. The scraplets that he befriend will be added later, but unfortunately his rival/friendship with Cyclonus won't be added. He also has a thing for the other cyclops of the Lost Light.

I just couldn't let this two out of the main cast of the Lost Light. There won't be any Dominus Ambus shenanigans because in this AU he is an actual Decepticon agent. I also kept the backstory of Chromedome and Sixshot of Headmaster with Jack and Abel. Chromedome is an headmaster, but Rewind doesn't know. They are is also the bartenders since the original one of the Lost Light died in the crash (Not Swerve). And for their sake I won't put any Prowl problems, they don't deserve it.

Brainstorm this time has no affiliation with the decepticons, he is an autobot and his name is Genitus. He is the scientist/ Wheeljack of the crew. Since Perceptor is in the Wreckers there won't be any rivalry with him or any backstory with Quark. He's like the Headmaster Brainstorm, but with the personality of the IDW one.

Nautica is practically the same of her IDW counterpart. She is the biologist and the mechanic of the Lost Light, with just one tiny little difference between her and the canon counterpart: She is Tarn's sister. Yup...

Drift is an member of the Circle Of Light, the only good one at least (We will see why in season 2). He still has his past as Deadlock, but since Ratchet isn't in the story there won't be any romance for him. While he has the IDW body, I thought of giving him the Bayverse personality.

Even if she wasn't in the Lost Light crew (If we don't count the Vis Vitalis thing) I thought that this femmebot deserved more love. I love the one eye thing even if she isn't an empurata. I changed the story a little so she is a little more interesting. She is a sort of Strongarm, but she doesn't know every single law or doesn't question her commander. Whirl has a thing for her, but the feelings aren't appreciated.

Ignoring the Starscream and Getaway in the picture, the Protectobots were added to give a combiner team to the Lost Light and come on, they deserve a little more than appearing in Combiner Wars, almost dying in Lost Light and then reappear at the end. In this version Rook is in the original roster from the beginning, Hot Spot is a major like in Animated, Blades is an ex rescue bot, Groove and Streetwise served under Ultra Magnus and First Aid was the medic that saved Fortress Maximus after Garrus-9. They don't have the enigma, but are rather an artificial combiner, like Monstructor. Defensor can still generate his shields like in G1 and it is the first combiner of the series. Also, First Aid is a femme, she is still a fan of the Wreckers, though.

[kudosmyhero]

Transformers: Robots in Disguise (Phase 02) Annual 2012: Primus: You, Me, and Other Revelations

Read Date: October 26, 2022 Cover Date: September 2012 ● Writer: John Barber ● Art: Brenden Cahill ◦ Guido Guidi ● Colorist: Joana Lafuente ● Letterer: Chris Mowry ● Editor: Carlos Guzman ●

Synopsis: In the past… Ages ago, on the war-torn planet of Cybertron, home to a race of shape-changing robots, a leader emerged who ended the fighting: Nova Prime. Seeking to rediscover the lost principles of their legendary gods, Primus and the Guiding Hand, Nova gathers his closest friends and advisors, Jhiaxus, Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Dai Atlas, and leads them on a quest into the bowels of the planet. There, they find the home of the Guiding Hand, Crystal City, and its guardian Omega Supreme, who allies himself with Nova to help accomplish his goal of bringing peace and prosperity back to the wounded world. Together, they raise Crystal City to the surface and usher in a new age of freedom… but in time, Nova's ambition begins to grow, and he has an Ark built that he may travel to countless other worlds and share his gift of freedom with them. Additionally, further studying the legends of the Guiding Hand, he explores ways to fulfil the prophecy that claims "all shall be one", and tasks Jhiaxus with re-engineering six volunteers, giving them the ability to combine their bodies and minds. Horrified at this perversion of the ancient texts, Dai Atlas informs Omega Supreme, who shares his concern: it's not just freedom Nova seeks for all, but freedom from individual will. Omega attacks the monstrous new combined Transformer, Monstructor, causing the beast to rage out of Nova and Jhiaxus's control, resulting in a battle that devastates Crystal City. Dai Atlas despairs, but Nova dismisses the city as having outlived its usefulness, and departs to make ready for the launch of the Ark. In time, Omega triumphs over Monstructor, and reveals to Dai Atlas the great secret of Crystal City, which he never shared with Nova: beneath it dwells Metrotitan, a slumbering Titan. It is not for them to awaken it, however; that task will be carried out by a great Cybertronian in the future. For now, its energies will be used to aid Dai Atlas in leaving the planet himself when the time comes, to preserve the teachings of the Guiding Hand when Cybertron once again feels the inevitable grip of war. As the Ark departs and Crystal City collapses back beneath Cybertron's surface, Dai Atlas remarks on Omega's apparent knowledge of the future, but Omega explains he knows merely the path, not the destination. Uncertainty allows Dai Atlas a measure of optimism, but Omega sees little point in having hope.

In the present… Disregarding Bumblebee's instructions, Starscream takes Metalhawk into the wilderness outside Iacon to help search for the missing Ironhide and the Dinobots. There, they spot Blurr doing the same, forcing Metalhawk to realise that Starscream was correct: Bumblebee was lying about waiting until morning before sending anyone out, fearing that Metalhawk and Starscream would curry favour in public elections if they helped find the missing Autobots. When a patch of ground explodes in front of Blurr, the pair decide to go down and help, but he rebuffs their offer and instead calls in Autobot High Command to secure what he had found in the subterranean cavern revealed by the explosion: an underground city, and the dormant body of a Titan. Rather than Bumblebee—who is busy dealing with a disappeared Decepticon spaceship—the call is answered by Prowl, Wheeljack and Sideswipe, the latter staying up-top to guard the entrance while Blurr leads the others into the cavern. Wheeljack is quick to detect teleportation energy and realizes that the Titan has quantum jumped to Cybertron with foreboding results: its molecules enmeshed with those of the city, Metrotitan's anti-protons are interacting with the city's regular protons, threatening to cause the impending explosive collapse of local reality.

A call from Sideswipe brings Prowl back to the surface, where it turns out Starscream has had the Decepticons and several NAILs peacefully assemble with the express purpose of letting them know the Autobots are hiding something from them. Prowl gives them some sparse facts about what has occurred and tries to get a perimeter set up to protect lives (though Blurr objects to his taking charge of the situation), and then angrily returns below for an update from Wheeljack, who has discovered that the Titan is still alive. Their options are two: use a containment field to contain the impending antimatter explosion, or save the titan by halting the flow of anti-protons with the possible side-effect of collapsing Cybertron and its star system into a singularity. Prowl chooses the first option, but then realizes that Starscream is spying on them, and leaves Wheeljack to work while he chases after the Decepticon. The chase brings Prowl and Starscream directly in front of the Metrotitan's head, with a most unexpected result… the Metrotitan awakens. The titan credits the presence of Starscream as the cause, identifying him as the great Cybertronian who will unite the planet, something even Starscream himself has trouble believing. Labels of "good" or "evil" matter not: in Starscream, the titan sees a conqueror. Happy to have been activated one final time, the titan shuts down, and a dumbfounded Starscream asks Prowl what they should tell everyone. Prowl advocates silence, naturally… but unfortunately for him, all the other Decepticons and Autobots entered the cavern while they weren't looking, and heard the whole exchange.

Everyone pulls out so Wheeljack can contain the explosion, and the Decepticons return to Iacon carrying Starscream on their shoulders, spreading the word that he is their new conquering savior. Wary of the Metrotitan's choice of words and the populace's acceptance of a power they do not understand, Metalhawk watches from afar, and is approached by Omega Supreme, who knew the titan from ages past. Asked by Omega for his opinion, Metalhawk admits his long-held opposition to the idea of conflict and conquest as the only way to unity is badly shaken, and Omega ponders his own long-standing belief in the hopelessness of the Cybertronian race. But perhaps, Omega speculates, the Metrotitan returned to make them question their beliefs and paths… and in questioning them, allow them to change. Having departed Cybertron in the past because of his fear that the war would change him, Metalhawk is given pause to realise that change is not immutable or inevitable—it is something brought about by the individual, and it is something he can help bring about for his planet.

(https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Primus:_All_Good_Things)

Fan Art: Monstructor by Dan-the-artguy

Accompanying Podcast: ● Married with Comics: Rod Pod - episode 12

[pluralsword]

Super Mode Pyra Magna

Some things we want for the eventual 40th anniversary of Transformers regarding toys:

1) Anode & Lug

2) EXRID Arcee

3) Torchbearers (IDW1) & Companions (IDW2) with any four of the bots plus Rust Dust (Prowl retool?) & Pyra Magna combining into Victorion. Pyra Magna's top half of her alt mode can become: a base, a comb skel, and supermode armor a la Galaxy Optimus Prime in Cybertron/Yellow Splendid Convoy etc.

Listen the Motormaster comb skel has us thinking is all. There are so many possibilities.

4) Monstructor

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: War Journal - The Covers

Originally posted on December 30th, 2007

Story, Colours, Edits - John-Paul Bove Letters - Bernie Lee Covers A, D - Tom Parrish Cover B - Josh Burcham Cover C - Kent Lin Cover E - Andrew Wildman

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: Today, I’m re-serialising the entirety of Transformers: War Journal. Click through to the blog to read the whole thing! War Journal was a full 22-page one-shot spin-off from Mosaic (with each individually-titled page approximating the usual format) masterminded by John-Paul Bove and Josh van Reyk, set in a random corner of IDW continuity—in effect, an entire mock IDW issue, complete with variant covers! It featured the Autobot combiner teams as its principal cast, as at the time they hadn’t appeared in the continuity, which treated combiners with a bit more pomp than previous stories had; in Spotlight: Optimus Prime, Monstructor was shown to be the first and only gestalt. However, Silverbolt, the Combaticons, and Hot Spot would all appear officially in a matter of months, in Spotlight issues for Blaster, Arcee, and Wheelie respectively, immediately throwing this fan-project out of continuity; it’s likely the depiction of Superion was conceived before Monstructor was introduced. One imagines that Bove hoped this would lead to official work from IDW, and sure enough he got his first big job colouring Regeneration One a few years later. Cover A here is an homage to Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, an iconic WWII-era photograph. Of particular note here is Andrew Wildman’s sketch cover, branded with the logo of his charity, Draw The World Together. This was referred to as “Cover E” on deviantART, but as “Cover RI A” in the “cover checklist”, the latter implying it’d be a “retailer incentive” cover (sent free to comic stores that order a certain number of issues) if this was actually a real print issue. Released just over a month in advance, a preview image featuring Cover A in silhouette initially teased the project’s release date as 2007/12/31, but so far as I can tell it actually came out on the 30th; perhaps it’s a time-zone thing. That initial preview was followed by four more, revealing the four characters on the cover in turn, associating each with a particular trait—of these, only the first was posted to the main Mosaic account. One of the previews quoted Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem “The Charge of the Light Bridgade”, which the final pages’ title riffs on, as you can see on the credits page here. I’ve put all the previews, the cover checklist, and the available clean art below the break.

“Every war has its casualties.”

“FEAR.”

“Comes before a fall...”

“Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them Volleyed and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell...”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

[autoacafiles]

Since Combiners have access to each of their components's Talents, does that mean Monstructor can make a pretender shell?

In theory, yeah, but he doesn't really NEED it. If anything, one can speculate the psychological effects of so many pretender shells being generated by a combiner made of multiple killers, and shudder in terror at the idea.

(the biograph we have even addressed this)

[virovac]

Hasbro to stop giving monstrous combiners stoic faces please

I mean it might work with Monstructor as a “the real monster is man/robot” joke but even the boxartists clearly disagreed with Transformers Prime Abominus

[kryptonitecore]

Reread: Spotlight: Arcee

I had somehow never been struck by the desire to read this comic, mostly based on its sterling reputation. Even if I was to leave out the way it handles female characters and gender in general, I think this would be a strong contender for Furman’s worst work in the IDW1 continuity so far.

To address the pink elephant in the room, Arcee is portrayed as a menace to everyone around her, contrasted against the (presumably intended to seem) more reasonable Autobots, like Ultra Magnus. She’s clearly motivated, but otherwise this seems like it’s going to be difficult characterisation for later writers, especially considering Furman implies that the only time Arcee is happy is when she is suspended as a spark in a jar. I also want to note that she spends most of her own Spotlight unconscious or in said jar. The fact that the Autobots bring her out like a weapon does establish her as a threat, but combined with the rest of the book, I’m tempted to say it still comes across as a very unsympathetic approach to the character.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why it’s ‘she’ and ‘her’ with me? It’s because you unconsciously sense a difference’. Furman seems to imply that Arcee being a girl causes some sort of… field or cue that somehow generates feminine pronouns from what, according to his own narrative, has been an entirely masculine-pronoun-using species up until this point. As if having a ‘she’ pronoun is a reflex action and not a function of language and culture? Anyway, it’s very strange and poorly integrated, but that’s quite possibly on purpose given the author’s Views. Other gems include “Jhiaxus arbitrarily decided to introduce gender into our species” because Furman clearly believed really hard in te whole male-as-default thing, so doesn’t register male/masculine as gendered. Also, love the idea of it being done ‘arbitrarily’ here, so it’s not even part of a scheme. Was he drunk? Who knows.

There’s plenty of other issues to look at, I’m sure, from the implications about Arcee’s gender identity that would later be retconned, to the ambiguity of what Jhiaxus is even supposed to have done, to how this presumably effected the rest of the continuity and made it more difficult to introduce other female characters. However, I think a lot is summed up by the last pages of the book.

The book closes as Arcee sets off on her quest and Fort Max stands by, looking at her retreating form, and commenting to Skyfire about how he almost feels sorry for Jhiaxus. Because that’s absolutely how he would feel about a fellow Autobot being sent off on a super-dangerous mission alone. (And oh look, the men are talking behind the backs of the women again about how emotionally volatile they are… See Ratchet, Jimmy, and Hunter talking behind Verity’s back, I suppose). 

Besides the gender politics, this book also isn’t very good, even by the standards of the Spotlight issues, which are pretty unremarkable. There’s not a lot of insight into or empathy for Arcee’s character, the book takes 24 pages to establish that she is angry and wants revenge on Jhiaxus with some exposition about Monstructor in between. The dialogue, particularly in the scene relating to Arcee’s gender, is very clunky, the story is unfocused and it really feels as if Furman was pushing an issue he'd had for a very long time through this book.