Spotlight # 5
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Robby Musso
Colors by Hieran Oats

ULTRA MAGNUS

Summary:

On the planet Zull, Decepticon Swindle seeks refuge with an alien known as Karzai Lorcha from a rather relentless pursuer.  But even as Lorcha guarantees Swindle’s safety; the walls of his fortress rumble and Autobot law enforcer Ultra Magnus breaks down the door.  Seeking to arrest Swindle for outlawed weapons trading, Magnus wastes no time making his demands known.  Lorcha has his personal troops move to attack the Autobot, as Swindle retreats, but Ultra Magnus easily disarms all of them with a volley of accurate blasts.  As Magnus confronts Lorcha, Swindle calls out from a catwalk above, armed with an “R-Infinity Accelerator” weapon, which he then fires at the Autobot.  Ultra Magnus dodges the blast and sends a rocket from his shoulder launcher at Swindle, knocking him back to the ground.  Securing the Decepticon with restraints, Magnus puts a word of warning towards Karzai Lorcha about aiding Cybertronian criminals.  A short time later, Magnus has left the planet in his personal spaceship, having captured his quarry.  Locked in an energy cage, Swindle offers the Autobot a deal; information for freedom.  Ultra Magnus is uninterested until Swindle brings up the name “Scorponok”.  Mulling it over in another room, Magnus scans his comprehensive files on Scorponok, a Decepticon criminal who has thus far eluded him.  Scorponok’s M.O. is to share Cybertronian science with other alien species and mesh the technologies to create even deadlier militaristic variations.  This is in violation of a Cybertronian wartime law that restricts this type of sharing.  Once Scorponok has produced a choice result, he destroys everything that could link him to the interaction and moves on.  Ultra Magnus is troubled; capturing Scorponok is a top priority, but dealing with Swindle goes against everything he stands for.  Grudgingly, he decides that this is worth compromising himself in the short term, and releases Swindle on a less-than-reputable trading outpost, albeit tagged with a tracer that will allow Magnus to find Swindle when he inevitably breaks the law again.  After verifying Swindle’s info, Magnus travels to the planet Nebulos, where Scorponok is reputed to be currently hiding.  According to the intel, Scorponok is in cohorts with an establishment called the Zarak Consortium, and specifically with the Consortium’s chairman, Mo Zarak.  Magnus knows that if he can find Zarak, he’ll likely find a link to Scorponok.  Parking nearby in his vehicle mode, Magnus sends a holomatter avatar into the Consortium’s building, to infiltrate into the deepest core of its research facility; the Cranium.  He then begins a process of immobilizing and replacing Nebulan security guards, scientists, and others until he gets the proper security clearance to penetrate to the Cranium.  He finds Nebulan scientists, working on a stasis tube that contains another being.  This being appears to be a Nebulan, internally enhanced with Cybertronian technology that allows it to transform.  But as Magnus’s holo-avatar examines this new life form that is being developed, he suddenly registers a silent alarm being tripped.  Magnus realizes that the eyewear that all the Nebulan scientists in the room are wearing allows them to see that he is not what he seems.  He barely pulls his cognitive functions from the avatar and back into his real body before security systems in the room destroy the holo-construct.  Knowing that the element of surprise is gone, Magnus drives up into the Zarak Consortium’s main complex; he has to get in before Scorponok tries to retreat again.  Security forces deploy from a nearby sub-surface lift; three auto-piloted battle armor drones.  Magnus simply drives through them, knowing they don’t pose a threat or consideration from him at the moment.  He drives onto the lift and trips the recall sensor, planning to ride it down and hoping to find Scorponok at the bottom.  Magnus transforms as the lift reaches the lowest depth and calls the Decepticon criminal out, noting more battle armors that are being manufactured nearby.  Suddenly, Scorponok ambushes Magnus from behind, easily knocking the Autobot’s rifle away.  Bashing Magnus again a wall, Scorponok intones that he would usually leave at this point of detection, but his project here on Nebulos is too important; therefore, Magnus must die to prevent further interference!  Another blow sends the Autobot through a wall, into one of the Cranium labs, causing Nebulan scientists to scatter.  Scorponok notes that he has made refinements to his form since Magnus has last seen him and transforms into a daunting scorpion alt-mode.  The giant Decepticon hammers Ultra Magnus with an electro-blast, when suddenly Mo Zarak himself enters the room, running up to Scorponok and pleading with him to stop before the labs are destroyed.  Unfortunately, Scorponok had been powering-up another electro-blast at this point, and can’t stop from firing a second time.  Magnus manages to avoid this blast, but Zarak is caught in the explosion, throwing the small Nebulan violently away.  Scorponok quickly transforms with a note of concern and rushes to examine his downed alien cohort.  A look at Zarak’s shredded form reveals that HE was the Nebulan that was being enhanced with Cybertronian technology in the stasis tube that Magnus saw earlier.  Enraged that Magnus has caused him to harm Zarak and setback his work, Scorponok moves in on the Autobot for the kill.  Magnus manages to recover his rifle and issues a brief warning to Scorponok to halt, but the Decepticon doesn’t oblige.  Ultra Magnus squeezes off a point-blank shot with his rifle that hits Scorponok in the face and staggers him.  Wounded, Scorponok trudges from the room as Magnus gets to his feet and follows.  But by the time Magnus catches up, Scorponok has already left via a wormhole generator in the next room.  Further; the Decepticon has made it impossible to follow him by having the wormhole generator automatically wipe out its last coordinates.  Defeated, but not deterred, Ultra Magnus vows to bring Scorponok to justice one day.  Much time passes, and Magnus eventually apprehends Swindle again on the planet Buras.  He radios the capture in to Optimus Prime, as the Decepticon criminal again asks to deal.  Ultra Magnus internally wonders how far he will go and what rules he’ll have to break in the future to do his job.  THE END


Slagged!:

-Ultra Magnus is able to bust into a supposedly impregnable fortress to apprehend Swindle.  I’d imagine he’d have to bust quite a few heads getting there.

-Magnus suffers a little damage fighting automated power-armor drones, but simply drives through them as if they weren’t even there.

-Once inside the Zarak Consortium, the tables turn as Magnus gets his butt handed to him by Scorponok.  It only ends when Scorponok accidentally injures (or possibly kills) Mo Zarak with an electro-blast from his tail.  A point-blank blast from Magnus to the head, even accounting for Scorponok’s visor-shielded face, is enough for the giant Decepticon to decide to cut his losses and pull out.


Sightings:

-Ultra Magnus is slightly tweaked by artist Robby Musso, although not significantly.  There is no readily-apparent separate cab robot mode when he transforms from vehicle to robot mode; the cab just folds up into the trailer.  Swindle is also tweaked, showing hints of a Cybertronian alt-mode, but sadly we never get to see it.

-Scorponok is mostly the same as his original toy, albeit with a visor for eyes like his old original Marvel comic design.  There is no evidence that he transforms into a city-base in this issue; just a scorpion.  He appears to be merely a head or so taller than Magnus; not city-sized.  In other words; comparable to his Marvel comic self in stature, not his cartoon self.

-The battle tank that Magnus views on a screen as he pulls up his files definitely shows Scorponok’s hand in its design, or should I say claw?  It could even be Scorponok’s pre-scorpion Cybertronian alt-mode.  The automated armor drones that Magnus fights on Nebulos also have an obvious hint of Scorponok’s influence in their design.

-Just to be clear; Magnus goes to Nebulos likely BEFORE Thunderwing’s rampage there over in Stormbringer.  The fact that the final scene takes place many “stellar-cycles” later and ties in with Escalation # 1, speaks to this.

-It’s quite obvious with the whole enhancement of Zarak’s body, Scorponok’s usual M.O. as stated by Magnus, and the notably headless automated armor drones, that Furman is hinting that Scorponok is developing what will become the Headmaster tech on Nebulos.  However, with Zarak now injured or dead, it’s unclear how far we’ll get into this aspect of Transformers technology in the future.

-“Mo” Zarak is supposed to represent Lord Zarak, or Scorponok’s Headmaster partner from Gen 1.  In the original Marvel comics, he was portrayed (as were all Nebulans) as looking quite human, but IDW comics have gone with the greenish-skinned, pointy-eared, more alien-like look of the cartoon with Nebulans.  Zarak here, of note, is pretty much looking exactly how he appeared in the cartoon.


Hearings:

-It’s likely only irony, but Magnus utters “I don’t deal” to Swindle at one point; a coincidently humorous nod to an oft-repeated line amongst the fandom by Ultra Magnus in Transformers the Movie- “I can’t deal with that now!”.  I doubt this was intentional, but it’s still funny.

-Part of Ultra Magnus’s transmission at the end can also be heard in Escalation # 1 as received by Optimus Prime; “-up to his old tricks again.  I’m bringing him in.”


Wreck and RULE!:

-Another solid look at a character in this new universe; IDW’s Ultra Magnus is every bit the stern, dependable soldier he always was, but now he’s got a new vocation- law enforcement.  It’s a good role for the character to take and Furman introduces some moral quandaries for this straight-shooter to struggle over.  Swindle is also key-note in character compared with previous portrayals, willing to sweet-talk and deal until he gets what he wants, and always concerned with profit.

-Scorponok is a fairly interesting villain here; somewhat more scientifically-minded than previous portrayals of the character and with no compunctions about dealing with other races to mutual benefit.  His notable anxiety when he inadvertently maims Zarak is a nice look into the character; is he distressed that his plan has gone foul, or is he actually concerned about the Nebulan’s welfare?

-Newcomer Robby Musso’s art is fairly solid overall and he is a welcome addition to IDW’s growing stable of dependable artists.  The Magnus transformation sequence and Scorponok alt-mode depiction are two particularly great pieces of work.


Wreck and ROT!:

-Musso’s art is mostly good, but there are some niggles.  A few strange perspective shots and weird proportions gave me unpleasant flashes of Dreamwave’s worst stuff.  And I don’t think he portrays action all that well; a lot of stuff seemed stiff and weightless.  Key examples of this would be Scorponok’s fight with Magnus, Ultra Magnus’s driving into the drones, and Scorponok’s escape.  On the whole though, I thought Mr. Musso did pretty well for his first outing.

-Most Nebulans have pinkish skin here, whereas in Stormbringer, they were a greenish-skinned people.  Minor, I know, but something I just thought I’d note for the sake of nagging.  Zarak, at least, has greenish skin.

-Swindle’s word bubble “So, let’s deal!” is mistakenly re-printed in the panel above the panel he actually says it on the final page.

-“MO” Zarak?  The hell, Furman?  I was willing to let “Jimmy Pink” and “Mumu-Obscura” slide, but really, I do have a limit.


Final Judgment:

Furman sets up another possible plot thread to follow up on in the future with ease and his universe-building progresses smoothly.  I can’t help but have the gnawing fear that IDW will go bankrupt and all these plot threads will be for naught; I’m still stung by Dreamwave, despite their sporadic output.  But thankfully, IDW is quite the stable company at the moment, and so far they have produced content that is just as enjoyable as Dreamwave’s stuff.  Another solid installment of Spotlights, and I hope this is one series that IDW keeps around for a long while.  Peace.

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