I'm very interested to see what crisis is so big that Prime decides to leave Earth to fend for itself.

Go to rescue Arcee to repent for what he did when he left Elita-1 behind on spider's lair, resulting the rise of Blackarachnia? Oh wait, that's a wrong story.

I'm looking forward to reading this, see where they are going with Arcee (from a review I read and what Alex Milne wrote, she sounds pretty psycho...should be interesting) And Fort Max and Ultra Magnus are in it apparently, which is sweet. I wanna see what direction Magnus has gone in since the Swindle incident...

Magnus' appearance is earlier than his talk with Swindle. Arcee is pretty friggin psycho. I thought Furman's explanation for fembots was a little weak,
Jiaxhus *arbitrarily* decided to experiment with gender on her. and it didn't explain why there would be fembots in Megatron: Origin, either. I can over look the last part, since they were all background characters, but it's there.

Gah, I'm dying to read this, but the place I usually get my comics from over here said they won't have it til next week -_- The horror.
So this Spotlight is based before the Magnus one?

part of it. The first few pages are 'some time ago', but the bulk of it is set in the current time period.

Just finished reading and...

WTF? So, Arcee's gender WAS altered? Oh gosh, first shemale in TF universe? O_o
Anyway, liked the drawing more than the Devastation #5, probably I could hope for the art improvisation for the forthcoming Devastation #6?
Oh well, last but not least, getting impatience and curious about where this story leads to. Probably will collide with the arrival of Galvatron's force to earth, and Combaticons become the first gestalt group within the rank of Decepticons?

idk but man, how bad ass can one fembot be?

i'm deffinatly ripping some of that art to use as a wallpaper on my cellphone, the art in this book was so bad ass. we need art like this for devastation!

From what I understood, Nova Prime left before the rise of Megatron. Nove's second-in-command, Jhiaxus, disappeared with him. Therefore, it is not all that unreasonable that there were fembots during Megatron's Origin, especially not if, as is said, Arcee was the first Transgender (what else can you call it?) experiment, and following experiments in this field were more psychologically balanced, like Elita-1.

And, seriously, feral women turn me on, fembots or not. <_<

according to arcee gender didin't exist until jhiaxus Powerglideed with her so technically she wouldn't be transgendered. at least i think... we need an expert on the subject SOMEBODY CALL FREEFALL!!!

ok, i kid, but srsly though, wow great comic.

Not quite... I'll admit this may sound confusing, but please bear with me:
Arcee draws attention to the fact that the personal pronouns "he" and "him" are generally used in Transformer language to indicate being close to Transformers, while "she" and "her" are used for beings reminiscent of Transformers, but not quite exactly the same. Similar to how humans use "him" and "her" for beings like humans, and it for animals, like apes and monkeys. However, by doing so Arcee and every Transformer who uses the feminine pronouns betray an inherent knowledge of gender, irrelative of how it is used these days (within the IDW established continuity, ofcourse). They merely changed the language to make a relatively odd and near-obsolete pronoun relevant again in a way close to its original function.

This all, ofcourse, assumes that Transformers use the English language, or a language with gender pronoun parameters practically identical to those of the English language.

If gender didn't exist prior to Arcee's alteration, then there wouldn't be any gender pronouns at all, and Arcee would just be considered odd.

Also, the way she talked, Jiaxhus made her into a 'she', and then abandoned her (which is mostly why she's so piss. A woman scorned and all that). Eh, I kinda hope the gender isn't ever acknowledged again, but I'm sure it will be.

From my analysis, Furman is building up to an event which concerns the merger of Cybertronian and organic elements. Thunderwing, the Gestalt, Arcee and the other fembots, the Machination and the Cranium, with the forces of Nova...excuse me, Nemesis Prime (), mostly thanks to Jhiaxus, use Cybertronian tech in organic ways (Gestalt Technology, Fembots and Pretender Technology do not rely on organic compounds, but the structure of their technology has a certain organic form to it) while Skorponok actually merges and fuses organic compounds and cybertronian technology (Headmasters, and I'm sure Powermasters and Targetmasters aren't all that far away)

Well then, assuming from your thoughts, I'd really be damned if it leads to "G1, but with the ending resembling to that of Beast Machines'." Hope my guesses are wrong, and that nightmare won't happen.

Well, I would say that that would be out of the question, actually, since both 'evolutionary' forces, Nemesis Prime and Jhiaxus on the one hand, and Scorponok, the Machination and the Cranium on the other, are portrayed as being "evil", and everybody knows the bad guys can never win.

Stuck between these two forces are the Autobots and Decepticons, ofcourse, who will probably join in a temporary alliance against both these forces. It would be my guess that Skorponok will at one point join Nemesis, find out how dark and twisted the denizens from the 'Dead Universe' really are, and try to turn to the Autobot-Decepticon alliance.

Stuck between all these four 'factions' is Galvatron, in name allied with Nemesis, but having an agenda of his own. Brilliant, but a rogue.

I think you lost me on some of that. So, is Arcee pissed because she's a "she", or is she pissed because she was abandoned? Did "she" look the same before he "fundamentally altered her CNA"? Pink and white autobot dude?! Is she cool with being a girl, but wants payback for being tossed out, or does she want to change back and then kick his can? I liked this book, but I have more questions about Arcee now than I ever did before! As a side note, I liked the way her mouth had that split effect with the exra row of teeth and the fangs!

She's angry about being made a 'she' (I didn't get the impression it was volutary, but maybe it was), and angrier that she was abandoned. There wasn't an image of her prior to the change, so who knows if it changed her appearance.

bump

i don't think it was being made a fembot that pissed her off so much as it was having it done against her will imo

that was what i got from it myself, i personaly cant wait til the next arc in TF, which should bring in the rest of the spotlighters ..ie soundwave , blaster, arcee, the dinobots, magnus, shockwave.

I liked it. She seemed more pissed about just being used and then thrown on the scrap pile rather then being physically changed... maybe it was because before then she was just a protoform and thus had no past life? I guess that can be left up to retcon but it would make her a true fembot rather then a trans gender transformer

any ways I've never liked the idea of Fort Max being just tall rather then a huge fortress but it worked out ok this design reminded me of cybertron metroplex in the shoulder and chest area

also I liked the little bits of humor like when fortmax asked them to stop and vortex says " does that ever work?" and they just beam out of their

one thing that is on my mind is how many story arcs are going on and how will they tie them all together

Well, I *finally* got my issue today, after the delay with it being shipped over here. The horror.
I really liked it- Arcee is badass. Lots of action, lots of awesome characters- it was great seeing Fort Max and the Combaticons (I hope we'll be seeing a lot more of Fort Max in the future, it would appear so.) I've always liked Alex Milne's art, but I really liked it in this. I loved the parts where Arcee was being reassembled. Shame some of the pages came out very dark, but it didn't distract me too greatly. Yep, I liked it.