Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Transformers Spotlight Jazz
IDW Comics
Van Reyk, Knowler, Su & Tramontano
This comic was a pleasant surprise. It doesn’t seem to fit in with any current storyline continuity making it truly a one-shot and yet it packs an awful lot into a fairly simple story. This is the type of Transformers comic that anyone can pick up and follow. I would also think if you are even a little bit of a fan, that this is the type of Transformers comic that most would like a lot.
An Autobot, Tracks, finds Bumblebee and some of the others at each other’s throats and generally down in the dumps. He then tells a story where he was stranded on a planet and one Autobot that survived a failed rescue attempt manages the impossible. The Autobot that finds him is Jazz and what he accomplishes is both astounding from a morale perspective and a strategic one. It’s such an easy story it’s hard to imagine this could be this good. And yet it is.
Tracks is blind so he has no idea who is rescuing him (Jazz withholds his name) and he is wounded to the point he can’t fight. The Predacons (numbering five) show up and clearly have the upper hand. Jazz crafts not just an escape, but a plan to fight back allowing his injured companion to stay safe and help in the fight at the same time. Eventually Jazz ends up turning around all that was wrong with Tracks’ attitude. The ending has a great little twist that is aided by the blindness factor. The story puts Jazz into terrific perspective.
The comic is very good. It shows some terrific action scenes and has clear and crisp art to make sure the action is easy to interpret. There are scenes with karate style kicks and disarming opponents that I don’t know I’ve ever seen shown off quite as flawlessly as in this comic.
The story lacks in one small area and that’s the initial set up. Jazz is part of a larger group and he is the only one to land. Why? Also, Jazz is barely armed. This doesn’t stack up very well. Plus, there are plenty of dead Autobots lying around. Don’t they have some weapons? Once Jazz and Tracks get away from the scene of the dead Autobots this all becomes moot anyway.
Jazz is an important Autobot in any era. He’s gotten a small amount of page time in the IDW series thus far so it is very good to see him in a one shot all to his own. Not only does he get show off his wit, grin and cleverness, but he also gets to play hero and he shows some humility in it all. It’s quite a lot of angles that all get played up pretty well. I highly recommend this comic to any Transformers fan.
4 out of 5 geek goggles
