Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Transformers Spotlight: Blaster
IDW Comics
Furman & Santalucia
A comic that lies outside of the main Transformers series delivers subtle, but important threads to the overall main plot of Transformers. While this issue isn’t necessary for those that follow the main series, it will serve as a good enhancement to the story and I have no doubt that elements from this story will eventually tie into the main one. And since it is an entertaining story in of itself and it is a self contained one, it serves as a good point for the casual, but passive fan to get a taste of what is happening in the Transformers domain. Also known as a jump on point.
Blaster gets a background piece on the inside of the cover that explains him to be a loud-mouthed, crazy Autobot motivational speaker. The story kicks off with him left for dead in space and picked up by some aliens. From here, we launch into a who-dun-it mystery. Someone, an Autobot, set up Blaster and botched the job in killing him. Now, Blaster is back and looking for the guilty party. A good plot in its own right, but it uses mostly Autobots that have not been seen in the main series yet. This makes the story that much more interesting.
Blaster has one Autobot with whom he works with and apparently trusts, Perceptor. It is not fully explained why Blaster doesn’t suspect him, but he simply isn’t looking at him as a possible traitor. Blaster’s paranoia is present as he wanders the ship getting greeted by his fellow Autobots. He quickly realizes that he has to find the culprit sooner rather than later when a second attempt is made on his life while he reviewing some tapes of the first botched hit attempt. Now, why cant a robot erase the tapes I don’t quite understand. I mean, if Nixon could then surely an alien robot wouldn’t have a problem, right?
With the help of Perceptor he is able to narrow it down to Mirage, Inferno, Bluestreak and Beachcomber – all of which are classic characters that haven’t been seen yet in this series. We also learn of some background of when the first hit on his life happened. He was about to deliver a motivational message to some Autobots that were bad need of help on a distant planet. He failed to deliver the speech and the Autobots were slaughtered. Based on the images, it would seem that this makes reference to some of the events that took place in the Stormbinger series from a year or so ago. This is excellent, but subtle, use of the bigger picture of the various series.
The assailant takes out Perceptor while Blaster lays the trap. Blaster broadcasts to the ship how he plans to reinvent the motivational speeches and make up for lost time. This draws out his assassin. Ultimately the Autobot is revealed and Blaster and he fight it out. I am not revealing the traitor.
What was interesting about this sequence was what they Transform into. I have no idea what either vehicle is supposed to be. Apparently Blaster can make some sort of sonic boom. From the battle we get what happened to make the traitor Autobot and there is a twist involving two other Decipticons. One who hatched the scheme and the other who implemented it. One of these Decipticons hasn’t been seen at all in the recent series, which makes this issue even better.
In the end, Blaster is out for some serious revenge and it will lead him to Earth. This sets things up for a nice battle in the main series. This issue has some excellent future planning.
This issue is fantastic. It makes use of the Transformers universe that hasn’t been tapped into yet. It shows that Autobots can turn or be manipulated. It shows that a comic can entertain with a little mystery in a one and done format. This issue has it all. As a bonus, this issue’s art is great. No confusing the Autobot’s faces or the flashback sequences from the present. It all makes for one great read.
5 out of 5 geek goggles.
