Spotlight: Hot Rod

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« The Transformers: Spotlight #3 »
File:Spotlight03HotRod.jpg
The Big Astro-Kahuna
"The Transformers: Spotlight Hot Rod"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published November 15, 2006
Cover date November 2006
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Nick Roche
Colors by Liam Shalloo
Letters by Robbie Robbins
Edits by Dan Taylor
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology various

Hot Rod takes enormous risks to rescue the one he left behind.

Synopsis

Hot Rod, Dealer, and three Ensign Smiths.

Hot Rod hitches a ride on a meteoroid to travel to the cold moon with the Decepticon penal colony Styx. His landing is not smooth, and in unconsciousness, he flashbacks to a mission on Ki-Aleta, with him in charge of a tactical unit including Download, Gizmo, Backbeat, and Dealer. Their mission was to infiltrate the Omega Bunker to obtain the Magnificence using drills to create tunnels.

Hot Rod regains consciousness and sneaks into Styx, using a viral carrier wave, a device the produces apparently random, but actually timed, gaps in the security system. Gutcruncher, monitoring the system, reports those issues as they come up, unaware that Hot Rod is passing through some of the blacked out areas. Further inside Styx, Hot Rod flashbacks again: Gizmo uses his holomatter generator to distract the Bunker's Omega Guardians while Hot Rod and Download follow a tunnel into the Bunker. There, they see the Magnificence. However, the holomatter generator malfunctions, and Gizmo is killed shortly after. Without distractions, the Omega Guardians aim their sights at Download and destroy him as well.

In the present, the alarms sound; thanks to the virus, every cell is open. Hot Rod disguises himself as a Decepticon and finds a cell containing Dealer, his objective. Hot Rod flashbacks to the end of the Ki-Aleta mission. While Hot Rod escapes with the Magnificence, Dealer radios that he has been ambushed by a Decepticon attack squad and requests help. Hot Rod, under orders to put the Magnificence at the highest priority, abandons Dealer and follows a secret tunnel known only to him. Hot Rod blames himself for the death of his teammates.

Back in Styx, Hot Rod, carrying a disguised Dealer along, hijacks a Decepticon ship and returns to an Autobot base. There, Hot Rod tries to apologize to Dealer, but Dealer states he understands and just wants them to be friends. Later, in a secret conversation with Banzaitron, Dealer states that the holomatter generator failure was the result of his sabotage and assures him that Hot Rod will eventually trust him enough to reveal the location of the Magnificence. Banzaitron grants him the name "Doubledealer".

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons

Notes

  • These are the first official fictional appearances of Gutcruncher and Banzai-Tron, although both were given profiles in Dreamwave Productions' More than Meets the Eye series.
  • Backbeat's fate is never shown, though a close reading implies (subtly) that he was manning the holo-matter generator with Gizmo. "Spotlight: Doubledealer" would later reveal that he died as well.
  • The Magnificence is colored to resemble the Pearl of Bahoudin.

Errors

  • Banzai-Tron's name is misparsed as "Banzaitron", though this may just be a "reinvention" of the name since it is consistent in later issues.

Covers (4)

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