The Transformers: Spotlight

Extremely logical that I was given the first *Spotlight*!

The Transformers: Spotlight (later The Transformers Spotlight), published since 2006, is an ongoing series of one-shot comics published by IDW Publishing and set in the primary IDW continuity. Each issue focuses on a particular Generation 1 Transformer.

Initially intended only to consist of five issues, the series evolved into an intermittent "ongoing" of sorts until the end of 2009, at which point it was shelved. One additional issue, Spotlight: Prowl, was published in April 2010. The series returned for six issues starting in December 2012 as part of a tie-in with the Generations toyline.

	Transformers: Spotlight issues:
Shockwave Nightbeat Hot Rod Sixshot Ultra Magnus Soundwave Kup Galvatron Optimus Prime Ramjet Blaster Arcee Mirage Grimlock Wheelie Cyclonus Hardhead Doubledealer Sideswipe Blurr Jazz Drift Cliffjumper Metroplex Prowl Orion Pax Thundercracker Megatron Bumblebee Trailcutter Hoist

Overview

The Spotlight series is set within the IDW Generation 1 continuity. The format allows more free-ranging story settings—many issues are set on alien worlds—and serve to give a wider view of the overall IDW Transformers universe. As such, the issues are not set in any kind of absolute chronological order, taking place at various points in the IDW timeline, sometimes expanding upon pre-existing plot points, sometimes setting up ideas to be explored later, and sometimes—get this—just telling a story.

For the vast majority of its first three years, during Simon Furman's tenure as the chief Transformers writer at IDW, in addition to spotlighting singular characters, the series served to visibly set up plot points that would tie into the main ongoing story Furman was telling at the time. Roughly speaking, five issues were released per year across 2006, 2007 and 2008, collected into three trade paperbacks; Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, Ultra Magnus, Soundwave and Kup were also reprinted in hardback library editions and sold through ABDO Publishing Group and its aptly named subsidiary, Spotlight. After this, when Furman's run on the Generation 1 universe was truncated, four additional Spotlight issues published at the end of 2008 played home to the finale of his story, "Revelation".

Spotlight continued to run concurrently with the new "main" series, All Hail Megatron, publishing another set of five issues in 2009 which were collected as All Hail Megatron Vol. 3, despite having almost nothing to do with that series itself. Following this, the launch of the ongoing series, Last Stand of the Wreckers, and The Transformers: Bumblebee miniseries led to Spotlight being put on hold. A planned spotlight for Cosmos was canceled, and only one further issue was published in 2010: "Spotlight: Prowl", containing a story intended for the ongoing series itself which was only released in this format as a means of quickly addressing fandom concerns about the characterization of the title character.

The Spotlight series returned in late 2012 as part of a joint effort between IDW and Hasbro, developed first for release to comic book stores, and then as pack-in comics included with new Generations figures of the IDW characters' designs. These six issues again told stories that fleshed out moments of characters' lives at various points in the IDW timeline—broadly speaking, two of the six were set in the distant past, two during the ongoing series, and two in the "present" era of publishing—filling in key moments in their history with a connecting thread between issues that centered on a Decepticon search for Metroplex and the space bridge technology in his body. In addition to promoting the high-profile new Generations Metroplex toy, the six issues together served as something of a stealth prequel to the "Dark Cybertron" crossover event.

Creative teams

Of the first nineteen Spotlights, all but three were written by Simon Furman: the exceptions were Spotlight: Kup by Nick Roche, Spotlight: Ramjet by Stuart Moore and Spotlight: Mirage by George Strayton. Klaus Scherwinski co-wrote "Spotlight: Wheelie" with Furman.

All Hail Megatron writer Shane McCarthy penned three of the Spotlights that accompanied that series—Spotlight: Blurr, Spotlight: Drift and Spotlight: Cliffjumper—while Josh van Reyk & Shaun Knowler wrote Spotlight: Jazz and editor Andy Schmidt handled Spotlight: Metroplex. The writer of the ongoing series, Mike Costa, wrote Spotlight: Prowl.

When Spotlight returned in 2012, writing duties were predominantly shared between the two writers of the current series: More than Meets the Eye's James Roberts, who scripted Orion Pax, Trailcutter and Hoist, and Robots in Disguise's John Barber, who penned Thundercracker and Bumblebee. Nick Roche wrote and drew the sixth, Megatron.

The list of artists throughout the series is diverse; please see each issue for credits.

Collections

The Transformers: Spotlight, Vol. 1 (May 30, 2007) ISBN 1600100686 / ISBN 978-1600100680
- Collects Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot and Ultra Magnus. The spine bears the number 1.
The Transformers: Spotlight, Vol. 2 (February 20, 2008) ISBN 1600101542 / ISBN 978-1600101540
- Collects Soundwave, Kup, Galvatron, Optimus Prime and Ramjet. The spine bears the number 2.
- Includes covers art for each issue and bonus art for each issue.
The Transformers: Spotlight, Vol. 3 (September 29, 2008) ISBN 160010245X / ISBN 978-1600102455
- Collects Blaster, Arcee, Mirage, Grimlock and Wheelie. The spine bears the number 3.
- Includes covers art for each issue and bonus art for each issue. The cover is an unused incentive cover from "Spotlight: Grimlock"; art by Marcelo Matere.
The Transformers Spotlight: Revelation(February 4, 2009) ISBN 1600104215 / ISBN 978-1600104213
- Collects Cyclonus, Hardhead, Doubledealer and Sideswipe. The spine bears the number 4, putting it clearly in the Spotlight series rather than in the "-ation" series.
- Bonus material includes each A and B cover, and sketches of the 4-part image, Cyclonus, Nightbeat, Doubledealer (including a dragon-like alternate mode), Grindcore and Straxus (the last 2 in robot and alt mode).
All Hail Megatron, Vol. 3 (October 28, 2009) ISBN 1600105416 / ISBN 978-1600105418
- Collects Blurr, Jazz, Drift, Cliffjumper and Metroplex. Instead of being Volume 5 of the Spotlights, the TPB is labeled as part of the All Hail Megatron series.
- New cover art by Trevor Hutchison.
- Bonus material includes the alternate covers of each issue, as well as art of each Throttlebot by Marcelo Matare. For some reason, the Drift and Cliffjumper issues were swapped from their original order.
The Transformers: The Premiere Collection Volume 1
- Includes the contents of Spotlight Volume 1 (December 12, 2007) ISBN 1600101186 / ISBN 978-1600101182
The Transformers: The Premiere Collection Volume 2 (July 1, 2009) ISBN 1600104371 / ISBN 978-1600104374
- Includes the contents of Spotlight Volumes 2,3 and Revelation.
The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume One (May 26, 2010) ISBN 978-1600106675
- Includes Blurr, Cliffjumper, Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, and Soundwave.
The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Two (October 6, 2010) ISBN 978-1600107511
- Includes Sixshot, Ramjet, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Mirage, and Optimus Prime.
The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Three (March 2, 2011) ISBN 978-1600108563
- Includes Galvatron, Blaster, Arcee, Grimlock, and Wheelie.
The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Four (May 25, 2011) ISBN 978-1600109386
- Includes Cyclonus, Hardhead, Doubledealer, Sideswipe, Drift, Metroplex, and Jazz.
The Transformers, Volume 6: Police Action (February 15, 2012) ISBN 1613771649 / ISBN 978-1613771648
- Includes Prowl.
- Bonus material includes cover art
The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Six (May 9, 2012) ISBN 1613771835 / ISBN 978-1613771839
- Includes Prowl.
The Transformers: Dark Prelude (August 14, 2013) ISBN 1613777167 / ISBN 978-1613777169
- Collects Orion Pax, Thundercracker, Megatron, Bumblebee, Trailcutter and Hoist.
- New cover art by Nick Roche and Josh Perez.
- Each of the characters receiving the Spotlight also had new Deluxe Class toys as part of the 2012–2013 Generations line, 'Thrilling 30'.
- Cover gallery