The Reluctant Specialist

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« The Transformers Spotlight: Trailcutter
File:SLTrailcutter cvrA.jpg
"The Reluctant Specialist"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published April 3, 2013
Cover date April 2013
Written by James Roberts
Art by Matt Frank
Colors by Thomas Deer
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor John Barber
Assistant editor Thomas Boeing
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology 2012, between "How Ratchet Got His Hands Back" and "Interiors"

Feeling underappreciated, Trailbreaker must face down a group of invading Decepticons alone after the rest of the ship's crew are felled by one of Brainstorm's cock-ups.

Synopsis

The Lost Light suffers a hull breach when it scrapes against debris floating in space, but Brainstorm, Chromedome, Highbrow and Trailbreaker are able to fix the damage before it tears the ship apart. While working, Trailbreaker praises the others for their skills, but Chromedome responds that none of it would be possible without Trailbreaker's forcefield to seal the breach until they can finish their parts.

36 hours later, Rodimus is holding a ceremony to honor the ship's saviors: Brainstorm, Chromedome, and Highbrow. He awards each with the Rodimus Star, a medal in the likeness of his own visage. Trailbreaker, bitter at being passed over, drowns his misery in drink at Swerve's bar. He confesses the source of his unhappiness to Whirl, who then, against Trailbreaker's protests, asks Rodimus the reason for the omission. Rodimus explains to Trailbreaker that generating forcefields is just what he does, like Drift carrying swords, and thus doesn't warrant special recognition.

Hearing all this, Whirl takes it upon himself to help Trailbreaker re-make his image. Among his suggestions is a name change, since "break" makes him sound like a screw-up, and Trailbreaker decides on "Trailcutter." Trailbreaker/Trailcutter contends his real problem is that everybody only thinks of him as "forcefield guy," not as an individual, so Whirl suggests he get a new weapon. Towards that end, they find Brainstorm, currently in Shuttle Bay 3 examining the space debris, but the weapons engineer's creations are all back in his workshop. Besides, Brainstorm asks, why would Trailbreaker want some handheld weapon when he has his built-in... "magnawheels"?

A tired Trailcutter heads back to his habitation suite to recharge. His roommate Hoist away on a mission, he savours the solitude... only to be interrupted by a video call from Swerve. The ship's resident chatterbox has been promised a Rodimus Star if he can get through a sponsored silence, and he'd like the aid of a forcefield to cover his vocal synthesizer. Trailcutter angrily hangs up and goes to sleep, truly unhappy to be "forcefield guy."

Twelve hours later, he wakes up to find that things are amiss. Everyone else on the ship is frozen in place, in some kind of mysterious stasis. Worse, Decepticons have boarded the Lost Light! An encounter with the bloodthirsty pair of Chop Shop and Venom brings with it the discovery that his forcefield's not working, either. Instead, he escapes the duo by means of his magnawheels -- magnetic wheels that let him drive on walls -- and leads the hunters to the the Medibay, where he's able to take them out with the equipment on hand.

He then heads off to confront the remaining Decepticons, who number practically a small army and are gathered in Shuttle Bay 3. Their leader, Lockdown, explains their M.O.: They're Titan hunters. They hunt space for Metrotitans, kill them, and then scavenge the mythic giants' technology for their employer, who goes unidentified. They're here because the space debris from earlier was actually part of Metroplex's body, shed in transit.

Trailcutter bluffs that he's an incredibly powerful Autobot with amazing forcefield capabilities, so they had better retreat. To lend credence to his lie, he secretly hits a remote he grabbed from Brainstorm's lab, deactivating the artificial gravity for a few moments. With his magnawheels to keep him grounded, this gives off the illusion that he levitated the Decepticons with forcefields. He tells Lockdown that he's also generated a tiny forcefield in his spark, which he can expand to kill him. Psyched into believing he can feel the forcefield's pressure, Lockdown agrees to retreat.

Later, after everything's gone back to normal, a battered Hoist returns from his away mission. Trailcutter explains what happened: The ship-wide stasis was the result of one of Brainstorm's inventions acting up. Trailcutter had fallen asleep while angrily making forcefields, so there was one protecting him when the effect occurred. His forcefield generator shorted out in the process, but it's been fixed now. He proudly shows off the Rodimus Star he's earned for his little adventure... only for Hoist to one up him: He pulls out a giant badge, the size of a large shield, emblazoned with Rodimus's figure. Hoist explains that everyone who was frozen received one for "exceptional endurance in the face of adversity." He's about to explain why he himself received one as well, but Trailcutter stomps off. He's going to Swerve's to get drunk... but first he intends to give Rodimus a piece of his mind.

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Fantastic job, Chromedome! You too, Brainstorm! No wonder everyone calls you The Genius Twins!"
"No one calls us the Genius Twins."

—Trailbreaker and Chromedome


"I had this friend called Scalp...
""Scalp"? Ha! Did he turn into like a massive head or something?"
"Hey. That was his real name.
"Why was he called that, then?"
"'Cos he turned into a massive head."

—Tailgate and Brainstorm


"I'm not in the mood, Whirl."
"I can tell. You people with mouths - you're so transparent."

—Trailbreaker and Whirl


"Never mind that. Trailcutter's looking for a new weapon - Preferably something so powerful you'll need to take a week off after firing it."
"All my newest inventions are in the workshop - Magma frag launchers, scatter blasters, static rays, laser lancers..."
"Don't stop. I could listen to you all day."

—Whirl would be so empty without Brainstorm in his life.


"What do people without forcefields do? Oh yeah! They use guns!"

—Trailbreaker


"I'm the Autobot who lands the final punch. I'm the Autobot who gets to decide if you live. I'm a force of nature. An apocalypse on legs. The furious sound of symphonic brutality."

—And with that, Trailcutter is born.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Issue #14 revealed that Chromedome received his name at the New Institute, where he worked alongside Brainstorm. As such, this issue's revelation that the two and Highbrow all received their current names while working together would seem to indicate that Highbrow likewise worked there.
  • In the background, we see what looks like Ratchet taking stock of boxed medical equipment. Since the issue takes place between #5 and #6, he is presumably checking on supplies from Delphi, whose medical facility he visited in issue #5.
  • The frozen Rodimus is in the middle of holding two golden disks while angrily confronting Rewind. Rewind mentions this incident in #6. In that issue, he states that it was Red Alert who tattled on him, and sure enough Red's frozen self can be seen watching in the background.
  • Barrage, Chop Shop and Venom's roles in Lockdown's group can be seen as a continuation of their positions in Bludgeon's Titan-hunting party from millions of years back, seen in Spotlight: Thundercracker.
  • Hoist's away mission and injured state on return from it will presumably be greatly elaborated on in his own Spotlight issue, out one month from this issue.

Transformers references

  • We get a single flashback panel of Whirl versus one truly hulking, scary-looking Decepticon. The monstrosity goes unnamed, but if we look carefully, we can see that he's holding a wand.
  • The large orange Autobot who's helping with Metroplex's debris is based on Energon Landmine in his Brute Mode, although without the missile launcher on his left shoulder.
  • In addition to pre-existing Animated immigrants Lockdown and Lugnut, the invading Decepticons include a 'Con directly based on Animated Blitzwing.
  • The image of Rodimus on Hoist's huge crest is based directly on the package art of the original Rodimus Prime toy.

Real-world references

Trivia

  • Trailcutter name-checks several of Brainstorm's weapons... and gets each name slightly wrong. His ignorance is understandable when we consider two factors:
    • As established earlier in the issue, he's never much needed guns because his forcefields have always sufficed.
    • In the prose story Bullets, he is shown to be a member of the Autobots' Ethics Committee and depicted with a particular distaste for inhumane weapons technology, a.k.a. Brainstorm's specialty.

Errors

  • The two times we see Tailgate's arm, the lettering just says "osal", where it should say "Bomb Disposal" at this point.
  • Page 8, panel 1: "Mission" is spelled "misison."


Covers (4)

  • Cover A: Trailcutter behind his forcefield as the Decepticons bear down on him, by Matt Frank and Josh Perez
  • Cover B: Trailcutter with his new arm gun, by Livio Ramondelli
  • Cover RI: Trailcutter by Clayton Crain
  • Cover RE: Dynamic Forces exclusive, cropped-in version of cover RI with DF logo

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