Spotlight: Mirage

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File:Spotlight Mirage a.jpg To be, or not to be... a Decepticon.
"The Transformers Spotlight: Mirage"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	March 5, 2008
Cover date	March 2008
Written by	George Strayton
Art by	Guido Guidi
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Andrew Steven Harris
Continuity	IDW continuity

Somewhere in the multiverse, Mirage helps win the war for his allies... the Decepticons!

Synopsis

Mirage dreams of an explosion, Hound asking if he is all right, Starscream spearing Optimus Prime, himself injured, and himself in a mirror, and is disturbed that in the dream, he is an Autobot.

Decepticon Mirage awakens and speaks via a comm channel to Megatron, who is waiting for Mirage to deliver his promise of Prime and the Autobots. Mirage bargains for a share in Megatron's energon mining operations to ensure the end of the war.

In the Pegasus Star Cluster, the battered Autobots are out of energon, but Hound is working with Zodiac energy, a source with cross-dimensional properties. Ratchet tends to an injured Jetfire. Bumblebee bypasses the security perimeter, and they open the blast door to let him in. Once in, he blasts the security system, revealing he is actually Mirage in disguise. With security down, the other Decepticons rush in, and the two sides do battle. Soundwave is beheaded by Hound, but Mirage takes Jetfire hostage, saying that he will spare his life if the Autobots surrender. Under initial protest by Hound, Prime surrenders after Mirage guarantees the safety of the others.

Mirage contacts Megatron and informs him of the news. Though Mirage states the Autobots should be treated as prisoners of war, Megatron insists that Mirage kill them or he won't get his payment. As Mirage prepares to spear Hound, Optimus Prime reminds Mirage of his conflict when he joined the Decepticons and how the two of them were friends before the war. Mirage grows angry and kills Hound, enraging Prime, who runs into Mirage and sends him crashing into the Zodiac energy chamber.

Mirage once again has a dream, similar to the one just before, but is disturbed that in the dream, he is a Decepticon. But of course, it is just a dream...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Hound (2) Optimus Prime (4) Mirage (5) Bumblebee (6) Ratchet (7) Jetfire (12)	Mirage (1) Starscream (3) Astrotrain (8) Megatron (9) Soundwave (10) Blitzwing (11)

Errors

• It had been previously established that both the Autobots and the Decepticons had subsisted on an inferior artificial energon substitute ever since the exhaustion of the natural energon supply on Cybertron and the abandonment of their home planet. In this issue, Mirage demanded from Megatron a majority share in energon mining operations after the war ended to help track the Autobots down. However, as that conversation was set in an alternate reality, it's possible that the Decepticons found other sources of natural energon to mine.

Items of note

• How and when this issue fits into the IDW continuity is up for debate. Mirage did come to Earth (as did Hound) in the year prior to All Hail Megatron. If the alternate Mirage's contact with the Zodiac did have an effect on IDW's main Mirage, that may have happened on Earth prior to the Autobots' exile to Cybertron, perhaps even during the last major skirmish with Megatron's forces seen in issue #7.
• After the story is an IDWords section about The Reign of Starscream.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: 3 images of Mirage by Guido Guidi
• Cover RI: B&W sketch of cover A

• Cover A
  Cover A
• RI cover
  RI cover

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• Spotlight: Grimlock
• Focus on Decepticons
• All Hail Megatron series
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• Transformers Animated books
• Journey, Crossfire and Licensable Bear^TM comics
• Obscure: The Aftermath game
• The Reign of Starscream (back cover)

Reprints

• 2010 — The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Two