Spotlight Blurr - Opinions

[Omegastoopreme]

OK, just read it, and it wasnt bad. Nice to see the guy get his character padded out, as lets face it he never really had much of a personality before, he was just fast.

A lot of cool cameo's, a young pre-Prime Optimus along with Kup and Ironhide, and if you look carefully Animated Bulkhead in vehicle mode as Blurrs truck.

Only thing is trying to place it in continuity, it must be after Origin, as the seekers are in it passing Decepticon badges around like they're the new thing, but so are the Autobots, and Origin seemed to place them as a kind of established peacekeeping force, so it seemed odd he hadnt heard of them either, especially as Origin states that the main event with the Decepticons rising was Starscream and Soundwave wiping out the senate.

Also who is Zeta Prime, IDW seemed to have goe with the pre-existing flow and listed Sentinel prime as Optimus' predecessor, as such if this is post Origin, Optimus should be Prime. They showed the previous holders of the position in Spotlight Prime, and Zeta was nowhere to be found.

I Hate Retconning!!!

I might be looking to far into it here but its just niggling at my brain.

What did everyone else think?

[sentinelprime2006]

Yeah I agree. It was nice to see Blurr's character like this. Gives him some meaning. Kinda reminded me of Pixars Lightning Mcqueen (my son's fave film, besides TF ) with his attitude.

I think this does happen after Origins, but I was having trouble placing Zeta Prime. I think that although it is nice to introduce new writers to the story, they really should converse more with SF, as this Zeta does not fit in anywhere within SF's IDW-verse. What they could have done was used Blurr to send a message to maybe Prowl or Optimus Prime of an imminent Decep attack. This is a shame really as Shane is writing some good stuff otherwise. Maybe Zeta's reign as prime was not very long!

[krypto]

Not that Blurr had a terrible amount of characterisation before hand, but I felt this was shoddy. Self-obsessed loner has been applied to so many characters already (Mirage anyone?) - seeing it here, written in a frankly generic, plodding manner with continuity seemingly abandoned, just annoyed me.

The whole portrayal of the war in the background was so out of sync with previously established material (AFAIK - Autobots was never a new faction, simply the name for bots in the army under the established Prime, yet here its portrayed as "new"). It was pretty by the numbers otherwise, nothing rising above low-grade fanfic in my book, definitely not deserving of a spotlight.

Marc.

[Omega Steve]

Continuity blips aside I really enjoyed it. The characterisation of Blurr as an up-his-own-arse celebrity really tickled me, from the mispronouncing of Piston's name to his line to the reporter: "Hey pal I don't watch the news I am the news". Enjoyable stuff.

I also liked the use of Starscream as a charasmatic recruiter for the Decepticon cause. Presumably if the cons can get a few celebs to wear their badge then it's great PR for their movement.

Megatron Origin wasn't particularly successful and I'm wondering if IDW is simply ignoring it and hoping we all forget it existed. But in so far as Spotlight Blurr and MO co-exist I'd say this spotlight happens afterwards. The Autobots could be a faction that's spun out of the old police force, and maybe Zeta Prime is a stopgap between Sentinel and Optimus. Perhaps not a matrix carrier. Zeta (named after Catherine Zeta?) might be filling in while Sentinel Prime is offline following the severe kicking he got at the end of MO.

I did think Sentinel was dead at the end of MO but IIRC it's never said explicitly.

[zedebo]

Had to read it a couple of times before it made any kind of sense. I think that SF has said in the past that there where other Primes who didn't hold the Matrix, so perhaps Zeta was one of these. Or as the Deceps that Optimus was fighting where an assassination team, with Zeta as there target, maybe Blurr couldn't reach Zeta in time to warn him and an advance team of Deceps was successful in killing him. Who knows?

However, as a Spotlight it seemed to lack a lot of the inner thoughts of Blurr, unlike other Spotlights.

[Dr Headache Rushing]

I've read it a couple of times now and I'd class it as an average Spotlight. Nowhere close to the best ones (Shockwave, Soundwave) but not as bad as the worst (Mirage, Kup). I know I keep harping on about it but the lack of attention to established continuity is irritating me somewhat, I think it shows either a lack of attention on behalf of the writers or a blatent disregard for all that's gone before.

Looking forward to the Jazz spotlight though, let's hope that is a bit better, the character is certainly there to work with.

[s2h6]

When reading it I would have thought it would be set during Origins of Megatron. Not after it.

[sandhog]

Nov 14, 2008 12:24:27 GMT s2h6 said:

When reading it I would have thought it would be set during Origins of Megatron. Not after it.

I had the same idea; the idea of the two factions recruiting suggested it was early days in the war. Overall I thought the spotlight was ok; I've re-read it about 4 times so it is not up there with the best of them Shockwave being my all-time favourite, Mirage being the poorest IMO

On the whole I liked the artwork; the characterisation of Blurr was good as has been pointed out he never really had any character before. Storyline was linear so pretty much run of the mill. All the Zeta Prime references didn't bother me, if there is a brief run of primes before Optimus so be it, Rome had 3 emperors in one year so it is possible to have a fast turn over of leaders



Did someone mention spotlight Jazz? and I heard that spotlight Cosmos was getting axed!

[partholon]

well just read it myself and i have to say it didnt suck.

and that praise as i dont actually like blurr as a character. or rather the blurr we had known before.

for the life of me i dont know why i never even thought of him as an athelete. it works well and provide some nice moments. i dont know much about the sporting community so macarthys insistance in everyone seeming to know "he's special" kinda threw me but the notion of him as a celebrity fits in nicely with the culture we have around us and is in continutity with the types of socialites we've seen in megatron origin.

on that point i'd like to say that i view this as being set just after MO wherein the deceps are analagous to a terrorist force which holds its own territory in kaon. you'll notice its never actually said where on cybertron they are. as such stuff like the faction badges and even the names autobot and decepticon can be seen as foreign names and badges for a police force in whats essentially another country. i mean WE dont know the names of all the security forces in the world so why would blurr, a guy who doest pay attention to world affairs by his own admission, particularly a place like kaon which has already been called a cesspit where people like blurr would never go. just like paris hilton would never go to angola .

weve been assuming that the security forces across cybertron are all called autobots . that may not be true. in fact they could be called other things elsewhere ( for instance, protectobots anyone )

anyway getting back to the story i thought a good job was done illustrating how you can get sucked into the celebrity ego thing and it was nice to see how getting that ripped away from him by changing political circumstance left him so isolated and illustrated to him just how little he REALLY has outside the racing.

the bombing scene of the racetrack stood out for me.

just one page but you get the idea that everythings changed and funnly enough for a TF book i actually saw parralels with OUR world and how something like that could actually happen to us nowadays. i dont want to sound like im reading TOO much into that but it DID hit my mind.

the best thing though was prime's speach. we can see for all the ego blurr isnt really totally involved and competes for the fans. thats why starscreams propostion failed as it was all about being superior and self agrandisment, where primes speach showed him he could still make a difference and be apart of something more (which on an idealist level is whats sport is meant to be about).

and i LOVED the poetic way the words used to starscream are reiterated at the end. that sort of writing isnt done that much anymore and it lends the book a bit of mythic significance..

all in all i think this was very good, especialy like i said as im not a fan of the character, and its a good start for shane in the spotlight book. by the way fastrack, wast he scorponks drone in the toys? be fun if thats whats happend to his body afterwards !

oh and the art, how can i not mention that. gorgeous in places and coloured beautifully but i cant rave about hutchinsons cover enough. lord i can just keep lapping that stuff up.

[rb]

So I read it once, then put it away for about two weeks an re-read the thing. Conclusion: It´s good in that it gives Blurr as a character a profile (a very fitting one at that as well). It´s not nearly as good or continuity relevant as SP: Shockwave or Sound wave.

[zedebo]

I suppose he just needed a Spotlight for his character because he's in AHM just as Drift needs one. I'd like to see Springer or Perceptor get a Spotlight.

[Omega Steve]

Presumably Springer has a good chance because he's starred in the Furman stories and in Shane's All Hail Megatron, PLUS (and perhaps more importantly) he's one of the few remaining characters in the 1986 Transformers Movie who have still to get a spotlight.

[zedebo]

Very good point Steve, I hadn't realised that most of the Spotlights where from the main movie cast of '86. Maybe we'll see Wreck-Gar soon then!

[Omega Steve]

They are running out of characters to spotlight, because aside from the original gwunners who appeared, I can only think of Scourge, Springer, Wreck Gar, Sharkticons/Quintessons, Kranix, and Unicron. Maybe Rodimus too if he counts, after all we've had a Hot Rod spotlight.

[killer]

I would gladly welcome a Rodimus Prime spotlight of any kind. I have always like this character. Only Rodimus Prime and not any "Rodimus" where he doesn't have the matrix or he is not leader.