Spotlight: Shockwave

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The Transformers: Spotlight #1 »
File:Spotlight Shockwave a.jpg
I've been repainted black... not logical!
"The Transformers: Spotlight #1 Shockwave"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 13, 2006
Cover date September 2006
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Nick Roche
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Sulaco Studios
Edits by Dan Taylor
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology various

Shockwave discovers that logic is not always efficient...

Synopsis

Six hundred thousand "Meta-Cycles" [sic] ago, while the Great War on Cybertron rages, the Decepticon Shockwave foresees that the incessant fighting between Autobots and Decepticons will cause an energon crisis which will have a devastating effect on the planet itself. Acting alone, Shockwave commences a project he called "Regenesis", distilling raw energon and loading it aboard missiles which he sends to various planets, one of which is pre-Ice Age Earth.

"Much later", after the last Ice Age is done and mammoths are dying off as a result, Shockwave travels to Earth to regulate the planet's wild energon reactions. Unbeknownst to the Decepticon, the Dynobots have tracked him to the planet. During the war, the Dynobots lost face to Shockwave after he had foiled a vital energon-gathering mission, and all five Transformers are hungry for revenge.

The energon reaction on Earth's surface is causing energy fluctuations dangerous to unshielded Transformers. Shockwave is prepared, but the Dynobots have no protection. Slag's novel solution involves using the CR chambers of their ship, the Skyfire, to re-design the Dynobots' secondary modes to resemble native animals; the alternate modes' synthetic flesh will act to buffer the energon radiation. When Grimlock rejects Earth's Ice Age mammalian lifeforms, Slag discovers fossilized remains of dinosaurs, which Grimlock immediately takes to.

As he goes about his business, Shockwave observes that Earth is in a state of environmental flux, and species who evolve in the cold temperatures are unable to survive in Earth's warmer climates, let alone understand their predicament. Shockwave finds many parallels to Cybertron's current condition. The Transformers are unknowingly destroying their world. To survive, they must evolve, and those who cannot change will die. Regenesis will insure that the Transformers will be able to survive on other worlds, and will also allow Shockwave to control the balance of power.

The Dynobots locate Shockwave on the surface and attack him. Shockwave had anticipated that the Decepticons might come after him, but the Dynobots are completely unexpected. As the battle goes on, Shockwave realizes that this is about the energon raid he had been sent to clean up, and is further confused. With his core logic failing to be of any use in combating the Dynobots' irrational actions, Shockwave abandons calculation and allows a new primal sub-routine to take over. In a synthetic form of rage, he brutally retaliates against the Dynobots, quickly stripping them of their protective synthetic flesh and thus forcing them into stasis lock. With mental effort, Shockwave returns his neural cortex to normal operations and prepares to steal the Skyfire (his ship had been disabled by the Dynobots), but before he could do so, the Dynobots' ship acts on a command pre-programmed by Grimlock and fires upon a nearby volcano. The blast cracks the earth open, spilling Shockwave and the Dynobots into a pit of molten lava.

Elsewhere, Megatron takes note of Shockwave's absence, and assigns Bludgeon to look into his research.

Thousands of years later, in 2006, a team of archaeologists digging in Eureka, Nevada, unearth a massive, metal, purple hand...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Notes

  • Furman's script said to reimagine the Dinobots as Beast Wars characters. Nick Roche decided to apply this to their robot modes as well, including giving them different heads. Giving them dinosaur modes with realistic proportions also led to the Dinobots deliberately having differing sizes. [1]
  • This is the second continuity in which the team has been known as the "Dynobots" before coming to Earth; they previously used the name in Dreamwave's The War Within series.
  • The story rather cleverly finds a way to bring a group of transforming chrome dinosaurs to modern-day Earth, explaining what would otherwise be an aberration in the Cold War cloak-and-dagger world of IDW's G1 continuity.
  • Slag's creative solution to the energon radiation problem is very similar to the original premise of the Beast Wars cartoon.
  • But seriously, Slag, the destructive, brawling, no-friends flamethrower, is the one who came up with this?
  • Megatron orders Bludgeon to find out what the missing Shockwave was working on, tying the story in to Stormbringer.
  • A supposed throw-away line on the Mechatopia.com website, which mentions a find in Nevada and "dinosaur-variant mechanoids", bears fruit in this issue.
  • The story is a bit of an homage to the original Marvel Comics series, wherein Shockwave battles the Dinobots on pre-historic Earth, and they all end up buried for millions of years.
  • The Dynobots' ship is unnamed in this story, but would be named as the Skyfire in Spotlight: Grimlock.
  • The comic is currently available for free on Comixology, an official comics distribution platform.

Covers (5)

  • Cover A: Shockwave at console; art by James Raiz and Josh Burcham (colors).
  • Cover B: Shockwave in snow by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham (colors).
  • Cover RI-A: cover A, uncolored
  • Cover RI-B: cover B, uncolored
  • Retailer Summit: Shockwave gold foil-stamped wraparound by Nick Roche and Rob Ruffolo (colors).

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Reprints

References

  1. ↑ http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?t=5196&start=237#117726 Nick Roche: "Back when they reformatted themselves for Earth combat in Spotlight: Shockwave, the script that Simon left on my doorsteo [sic] (aflame, and smeared in what I hope was animal excrement) said to reimagine the Dinobots as if they were Beast Wars characters. So rather than just apply this aesthetic to their alt-modes, I utilised it across the board, and gave them robot modes that were less G1, and more Beast Era. [...] The realistic Dino modes had an effect on the physique of the Dynos too, hence the burden of tail and neck kibble (HATE that word!) on Sludge and the lack of mass on Swoop. In his case, there's just no where for his robot mode to hide on his beast mode and have him be a bulky robot. Add to that, he needs to be able to fly too, so while odd-looking, it's all in-keeping with semi logic!"
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