Me Grimlock star, Scorponok. Slag off!!!!!
| The Transformers: Spotlight > Issue # 14 | |
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If even Grimlock gets a Spotlight, what chance then, do we have?
Synopsis[]
Agent Red and Skywatch scientist Weston discuss activating Grimlock. Red feels the recent extraterrestrial robotic activity is a precursor for an invasion and wants Grimlock under their control to help counter the threat. Weston urges caution, stating that the other robots under their control have gone rogue and fears the same with "Thunder-Lizard 1". Red considers this but gives the orders to begin the process.
Grimlock is zapped with electricity, which activates his memories — one where Optimus Prime lambastes him for insubordination, one where he tells his Dynobots not to mind Prime since their controversial methods work, one of the battle against Shockwave and their subsequent entombment in lava. With this, Grimlock awakens, breaks his restraints and after a brief skirmish with security, he escapes the facility. Agent Red tells Weston to find out what went wrong and "fix it" so that they can try again with the other "Thunder Lizards". A Skywatch employee named Kloss ducks into a room and calls the Machination, revealing that a planted virus has had the desired affect on Grimlock and that he is "yours for the taking."
As Grimlock makes his way down the streets and through inhabited areas, he wonders what the local humans are, and notes that his vocal processor is damaged and his internal chronometer and sensors are not fully functional. He does, however have a transporter chip he can use to recall him to his ship, the Skyfire, but he assumes it's been destroyed.
Abraham Dante combines with Scorponok and transports to the Lahontan Dam, where Grimlock has arrived. Grimlock takes an aggressive stance, but Scorponok tells him that his Dinobots are dead and that Ultra Magnus has him on list of wanted Cybertronians. He offers Grimlock to join him in the Machination plot to dominate the Earth by running interference and delaying Megatron's plans long enough for the Machination to put their plans into action.
Grimlock considers for a second, but smashes Scorponok in the face. He refuses the offer for two reasons: he could turn Scorponok in to Magnus for redemption, and as revenge for Scorponok once robbing an installation the Dinobots were guarding. The two do battle and Scorponok quickly gains the upper hand, mostly due to his Headmaster upgrade. To be fair though, Grimlock's out of ammo.
As Scorponok chokes Grimlock, Grimlock's nearly passes out, but remembers having betrayed the Dinobots in their battle with Shockwave, dooming them to a living death. He activates his transporter chip, which remarkably still works, beaming him back to the Skyfire, which is somewhere buried in ice. He hopes he can use the ship to find the other Dinobots, make his peace and bring the Machination down.
As scientists repair the damage to Dante, he is informed that Skywatch have begun work on the remaining Dinobots. He instructs Kloss to install software that will let Skywatch believe they have control of the 'bots, while they will be used to dispose of their former leader.
Credits[]
| Writer(s): Simon Furman | |
| Art: Marcelo Matere | |
| Colors: Zac Atkinson, Liam Shalloo and Andrew Elder | |
| Letters: Amauri Osorio | |
| Editor(s): Andrew Steven Harris | |
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Featured characters[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Errors[]
- The door that Kloss walks through has a hand-scrawled "Control Room" sign on it, with a still-visible artist's note below to "put better font".
- Grimlock's speech balloon, speculating about taking the captive Scorponok back to Cybertron, is incorrectly attributed to Scorponok.
- One of Grimlock's captions typos "strength" as "strenght" (amusingly, it's shortly after he notes damage to his vocal processor.)
- As Scorponok boasts about his upgraded speed, his speech balloon is partially cut off at the edge of the page, truncating some words.
Items of note[]
- Cameos: Starscream, Reapers , Sixshot, Shockwave, Soundwave (in flashbacks)
- The Dynobots' ship is named the Skyfire, a homage to Jetfire's name in the cartoon, and like Skyfire in that continuity, it ends up frozen beneath polar ice.
- Despite a rather purposeful moment commenting on a damaged vocal processor, Grimlock speaks in perfectly normal speech here, as he did in Spotlight: Shockwave.
- After the story is an IDWords section about The Reign of Starscream.
- Contains the Transformers: Mosaic "Rank".
- Advertisements originally stated that Grimlock and Mirage's Spotlights were "1 of 2" and "2 of 2", respectively, due in March 2008. Due to a delay in Grimlock's, Mirage's was released first (March 5) and Grimlock's was pushed back to 7 weeks later. [1] Amusingly, both the Mirage ad and the "Focus On Decepticons" ad retain their "March 2008" notes. Even the IDWords section features releases for March.
Covers (2)[]
Now we know where BotCon got the idea for Shattered Glass.
- Cover A: Grimlock in front of Scorponok's shadow by Marcelo Matere
- Cover RI: B&W sketch of cover A
Advertisements[]
- Spotlight: Mirage
- "Focus On Decepticons"
- The Reign of Starscream
- Transformers Classics Volume 1 TPB
- The Ascending and The Gathering TPBs
- Target 2006 TPB
- The Art of IDW's Transformers
- Obscure: The Aftermath game
- Transformers: Animated books (back cover)
References[]
- ↑ Ryall, Chris; IDW forums, Mar 24, 2008 — http://idwpublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=64871#64871