Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Transformers Spotlight: Blurr
IDW Comics
McCarthy, Coller & Lafuente

A one shot that has little to do with any current continuity as it is set in the golden age of Cybertron. Blurr is a story about a ‘bot needing to pick a side when war breaks out, but first he needs to get through his denial phase. This comic provides an interesting look at what the scene looked like on Cybertron when it all fell apart from a side that wasn’t involved in the makings of the war. It’s a very good story that is aided by the use of a small, but familiar cast. The story moves through the phases quickly and is marked with clear and sharp artwork. It’s a good exploration of an underused character.

My only impression of Blurr was the extremely fast talking friend of Hot Rod from the 80s cartoon. This incarnation has Blurr as a major Cybertron celebrity racer. The comic opens with him prepping, racing, winning and celebrating his achievements. The arrogance and massive ego is jumping off the page. The most interesting part of this opening is his treatment of one of his handlers. He barely knows his name and it helps to push across just how self-involved he is.

Then the war breaks out. The racing ends. The parties end. Blurr’s handler offers an Autobot membership to Blurr. Blurr scoffs at the concept, but the scene makes Blurr look like uninformed fool. It’s a good way to reverse their roles quickly and effectively.

Blurr then gets propositioned by the Decepticons. Starscream makes the sales pitch and it’s very convincing. Blurr is fast, special, why shouldn’t he sit among the ruling class? Blurr still can’t bring himself down to the level of the masses and make an actual choice. He’s still delusional enough to think the old life will one day come back. He’s a celebrity, why should he have to fight?

The comic ends with a couple of other old school characters bumping into Blurr and helping him find out who he really is. The comic brings the other characters full circle, even if some of them are throwaways. Blurr finally comes to a decision.

It’s a very good story. It explores aspects of this universe that I hadn’t seen. It asks questions that you’d think most of them needed to answer at some point. It is set way in the past so it has the ability to show all the main characters as a little green but with seeds of greatness.

The artwork doesn’t have a huge cast to work with, but it finds a strong voice with those that make an appearance. The aspect of the art that I liked the most was how deserted the city looks. It has that empty war zone look to it without having to collapse all the buildings and have the streets on fire.

The only component to the comic that I wasn’t a fan of was the ‘bots that have small cameos but aren’t introduced. For example, Kup seems to make an important appearance but his name isn’t explicitly said so I can’t be 100% sure if it’s him. Beyond that the comic is really excellent.

If you like Transformers one shots you cant go wrong with this one. This comic had a great concept and was executed to near perfection.

4 out of 5 geek goggles