Transformers Spotlight: Drift

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zigzagger
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Transformers Spotlight: Drift

Post by zigzagger »

Receiving his very own Spotlight is Drift, a character created by writer Shane McCarthy. Other than clearly having a penchant for very large swords, who is this mysterious mech named Drift? This is your Transformers Spotlight: Drift reaction and discussion thread.

Be like water. ;)

Scheduled to arrive April 8th.

Preview pages are up for viewing @ comicscontinuum.com, or simply view the images below.

Mirrored

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Halfshell
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Post by Halfshell »

zigzagger wrote:Be like water. ;)
Transparent and lacking much in the way of real substance? :o
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Commander Shockwav
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Post by Commander Shockwav »

First, the art. Fantastic. Casey and Joana knock this sucker out of the park. Very clean art, I would say, almost on par with the likes of Guido. In particular, the settings were beautifully done. My favorite artists in comics are the ones that tend to place as much emphasis on the character's surroundings and they do the cast. It adds to the whole artistic experience. Well done to both of you.

The story, though not on par with the art, was also engaging and a worthy addition to the spotlight run. In no way did I find Drift annoying, and I found this outing by Shane to be superior to his Blurr spotlight.

Finally, we get a TF issue that gives us some galactic scope to the whole war, with interaction with other races and action on other planets. Haven't really seen this in a while, not since Gorlam Prime or Thunderwing's romp through Nebulos in Stormbringer. Because of this, it felt very much like one of Furman's older runs during his stint with Marvel, as in Matrix Quest, where Simon wasn't afraid to take chances with other races.

It was nice to see other generic bots for a change, and Commander Turmoil in some way reminded me of Straxus. Could swear some of those Cons under his command weren't generic though. Spinister maybe?

On the downside, Drift's origin story didn't really add anything in the way of surprise, as his former Decepticon allegiance was pretty much telegraphed by Bumblebee in AHM. Not a good move, IMO, as it detracted from the mystery surrounding Drift in this issue. The idea of a third neutral faction done with war is interesting, but has been done before when Fort Max left for Nebulos, and the Headmasters were born. Still, I think it opens doors for some cool stories.


One other niggle I had was, though Drift's saving Perceptor in the end had a certain 'coolness' factor to it, it wasn't really believable that the Wreckers would leave a helpless bot behind. Especially if Perceptor was the one who saved Kup's sorry ass from insanity. No way Kup would leave Perceptor like that.

Overall, give it a "B". Nice story with some flaws, but quite pretty to look at.
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Post by Halfshell »

I disagree with every single word you type.

Not because I have read the issue, but out of principle!

I have nothing further to add.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I'm looking forward to reading just to see how it manages a more galactic scope than the entire universe almost being destroyed.
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Post by StarscreamX »

One other niggle I had was, though Drift's saving Perceptor in the end had a certain 'coolness' factor to it, it wasn't really believable that the Wreckers would leave a helpless bot behind. Especially if Perceptor was the one who saved Kup's sorry ass from insanity. No way Kup would leave Perceptor like that.
Seems perfectly in character IMO. After all, The Wreckers are a more "Hard edged" group than the rest of the Autobots, willing to do things more "Morally Grey"
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Post by Commander Shockwav »

inflatable dalek wrote:I'm looking forward to reading just to see how it manages a more galactic scope than the entire universe almost being destroyed.
'Galactic', not epic.

It's 'galactic' in the sense that the Transformers and their war have garnered somewhat of a bad reputation with other races throughout the galaxy.
Seems perfectly in character IMO. After all, The Wreckers are a more "Hard edged" group than the rest of the Autobots, willing to do things more "Morally Grey"
Maybe. But I never really considered Kup to be a Wrecker. Maybe Springer would leave him behind. Kup though?
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

Its not bad but it suffers from some bad set-ups.

First off, this really should have come out instead of blur. It explains Kups return a bit better (even if its a lightweight explanation, its still an explanation) and also sets up the drift character.

Then theres the battle which doesnt hang together too well for me. It goes to incredible lengths to get kup and drift to have their moment together while also setting up a one-on-one confrontation with the big bad. It seems very contrived and unreasonable. Much like the fact that theres no real show of springer and his crew escaping (they just do and once again we are told instead of shown) or that they leave perceptor behind (seeing as its a rescue mission it seems extra silly)

There are nice touches to drifts character but the issue would have benefited from having some of drifts actual thoughts linking up the action, a-la the furman spotlights. I feel it would have helped developed the character further. As it is, I still feel they need another issue to show up a little more of the backstory of drift as regards the third faction and his body upgrade. Maybe thats the next big arc.

It was an ok issue but not one I'll be re-reading anytime soon.
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Post by Denyer »

We could generously assume Kup was detailing himself to go back for Percy but got pushed out before that became an option.

Extremely generic plotwise, but looked nice and I liked the focus on aliens / generic Decepticons / concept of switching allegiances -- more fleshing out of the universe in general is always good. And the generics were quite Marvelesque.

That "cigar" still looks bloody stupid, though.
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Post by Red Dave Prime »

That "cigar" still looks bloody stupid, though.
Nonsense. Its the only thing that stops him going la-la again. I'm betting after the giant sized Spotlight:Metroplex we get Spotlight:Cigar.
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Post by Commander Shockwav »

I would forgive McCarthy everything if that cigar ends up being a Decepticon spy.
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Post by Halfshell »

Denyer wrote:We could generously assume Kup was detailing himself to go back for Percy but got pushed out before that became an option.
Mmm. Not sure if it was the explosion that knocked him out of the ship, Drift pushing him out or a combination of both... but it sure as hell wasn't Kup's choice to fall out.
more fleshing out of the universe in general is always good.
Yup. Nice to have Kup's resurrection addressed too. Awful infodump about the unfactioned, though.

If the cigar's some form of life support system I could kinda forgive it. Doubtful though.

Decent and passable if not spectacular.

Commander Turmoil is an awful name and can sit alongside General Grievous and Commandant Naughty in the pantheon of crap names.
Took me several studies of the panels to realise that Drift had jumped uuuuup onto the ship.

It can have 3/5.
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Post by MeGrimlock »

zigzagger wrote:I also concur, the story would have benefited more if McCarthy went the Furman route on this one. A little internal monologue, just a little, would have given us a clearer picture as to who Drift is
I suspect that McCarthy isn't capable of handling a story using the internal monologue, but at this point I don't think the choice falls on him: I strongly suspect that IDW (or a specific editor) is "imposing" this new, simplistic style to all the writers working on The Transformers.
Well, maybe "imposing" is too strong a verb, maybe they are just "requesting", but I get this distinct feeling that they are now aiming only to produce very superficial products, filled with characters that HAVE to be cool (or, failing to be so, must continually remind us that they are cool), no character's in-depth examination, endless dialogues with no purpose (except filling 22 pages, like the dialogues in a soap opera) and very simple plot with a pretense of greatness that crumbles to pieces after a quick analysis.
Sorry to sound so negative and embittered.
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Post by Denyer »

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Post by MeGrimlock »

:lol:

This lifts my spirit a bit. ^^

And I should add that Maximum Dinobots is the big exception, but alas, it's over. And it doesn't seems as if we'll have a chance to see another story conceived by mr Furman very soon.
No, I don't think that his AHM coda's chapter counts: he has just been asked to write a piece for someone else's project, and... surprise, surprise... it's a set up for some incredibly DRAMATIC upcoming event. Another of the issues I have with IDW's current products: they constantly shock the reader (well, they try to do so) with drama and emo reactions, but when you scratch the surface, there's nothing left.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Commander Shockwav wrote:'Galactic', not epic.

It's 'galactic' in the sense that the Transformers and their war have garnered somewhat of a bad reputation with other races throughout the galaxy.
Something that's dealt with in about three lines at the start of the issue before not having any bearing on anything. Not helped by the woman expressing those opinions seems a bit dim, how could she not have noticed Drift was a Cybertronian before? Unless the different speech bubbles really don't signify anything at all.

Otherwise, a nice looking harmless issue that shows McCarthy should be kept on a short page count. Drift was very much the weak link with his silly posturing and brooding but Kup was actually bearable for a change. Though returning to the idea of Perceptor as scientist seemed a bit odd after AHM has him as a gun toting kick ass mother****er just like every other good character McCarthy writes.
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Post by Halfshell »

inflatable dalek wrote:Though returning to the idea of Perceptor as scientist seemed a bit odd after AHM has him as a gun toting kick ass mother****er just like every other good character McCarthy writes.
Ah, but what are you willing to bet it's getting a great big hole blown in him and rescued by The Holy Drift that precipitates his rebirth as ubersniper?
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Post by AndyTurnbull »

Thought it looked pretty enough, but pretty dull storywise. Besides there already exists a perfectly good robot called Deadlock with a big ass sword thank you very much!

Andy
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Post by bowspearer »

Halfshell wrote:Ah, but what are you willing to bet it's getting a great big hole blown in him and rescued by The Holy Drift that precipitates his rebirth as ubersniper?
Considering the damage that Perceptor was shown to have at the end of the issue, that's a given.
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Post by bowspearer »

AndyTurnbull wrote:Thought it looked pretty enough, but pretty dull storywise. Besides there already exists a perfectly good robot called Deadlock with a big ass sword thank you very much!

Andy
Yeah not to meanion that we already had a pacifist 3rd faction at the start of the book that met their end in Revelations :p
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