Spotlight: Arcee

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File:Spotlight arcee.jpg
Graduated from St. Trinians with honors.
"The Transformers Spotlight: Arcee"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published February 20, 2008
Cover date February 2008
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by Josh Perez and Kris Carter
Letters by Chris Mowry
Edits by Andrew Steven Harris
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Devastation

This ain't the Fembot we all know and love, folks... She's an entirely different stereotype!

Synopsis

File:IDW Arcee mad.jpg
Must be that time of the quartex...

An enraged Arcee has been tearing a path of destruction through the universe, necessitating Ultra Magnus to hunt her down and bring her in as authorized by the Tyrest Accord. After a protracted battle, she gets knocked out by a flash/concussion grenade and taken into custody by Magnus. As they leave the area, a couple of apparent drones surface and talk to a monitor—promising that the Nega-Core has not been detected and/or taken, which elicits a confirmation from their red-helmeted, gold-shouldered master that preparations for the Expansion will continue.

Garrus-9 penitentiary: Arcee's spark is being held in a cell, along with some notable others. Apparent warden Fortress Maximus confers with Jetfire and the Technobots about when they can incarcerate the Monstructor components in the same way; Jetfire notes that they can't break through the destructive programming far enough to rehabilitate/reform the sparks (as per Optimus Prime's orders), and as such, haven't pulled the sparks from the frames. As they confer, the Decepticon Onslaught leads his Combaticons in a perfectly-timed (as monitored by Banzaitron) assault on the facility, striking at precisely the right grid-sensor-shuffling moment and breaking into the penitentiary.

Fortress Maximus has no choice but to unleash the "threat-level-9" Arcee on them, with the sole caveat of destroying her spark (via a spark casing g-force crush) if she attempts to escape. A furious battle ensues, but after she cuts through Blast Off and plows through Brawl in vehicle mode, the Combaticons (who recognized her when she first attacked) manage to teleport out with the unconscious Monstructor 'cons (whom Banzaitron wants to join his Secret Service).

Arcee proposes that she be released to hunt them down or killed on the spot. When asked for her motivation she grows angry, commenting that "you don't even know you're DOING it...you unconsciously SENSE a difference." She then reveals that Jhiaxus tampered with her CNA at creation, turning her into a female, "because he was curious, because he could," just to see what introducing gender to the Transformer race would do. He then discarded her and left her to her fate. Traumatized and vengeful, all she can think of is wiping out all trace of his tampering in this universe.

Maximus disagrees, pointing the remote spark-casing-control unit at her, but Jetfire tells him to let her go (he'll back up whatever story Maximus concocts for her escape), as they have precious little to lose at this point.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Errors

  • Maybe not an error, but Fortress Maximus's shoulder's design differs from the one seen in Spotlight: Blaster.

Items of note

  • On page 3, Arcee mentions Jhiaxus's "dark designs". This was the title of a Generation 2 issue.
  • One of the Autobots defending Garrus-9 mentions them being overrun. Let's hope this didn't lead to anyone being distracted during the battle.
  • Arcee's reference to gendered pronouns makes little sense in context. It stands to reason that a race originally entirely devoid of gender would lack sexually-oriented pronouns in their native language. So the use of "he" and "she" would likely be supplemented with a uniform variation of "it" for everybody. Then again, who here really knows how the Cybertronian languages actually work?
  • Cover B was colored in a style that pays homage to the cover of Akira Vol.1. [1]
  • Arcee states that she was the first female Transformer experiment and it is implied she is something rare and (perhaps) unique. However nothing in the issue states that she was the only female Transformer created due to Jhiaxus's program. Indeed, in Megatron Origin a number of female Transformers make cameo appearances. It may be that Arcee isn't completely alone and that her trauma stems more from being the first test subject, as well as being used, altered (perhaps against her will), and abandoned than anything else.

Covers (3)

  • Cover A: Arcee, Nova Prime, the Pretender Monsters, Ultra Magnus, Fortress Maximus and some dead guy by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.
  • Cover B: Arcee being assembled by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.
  • Cover RI: Uncolored sketch of cover B.

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References

  1. ↑ http://dyemooch.deviantart.com/art/Spotlight-Arcee-alt-cover-72893344 Colorist at deviantART]
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