Spotlight # 7
Written and Penciled by Nick Roche
Colors by Andrew Elder

KUP

Summary:

Somewhere on an unknown planet, an alien of an unknown species crash-lands its ship.  It notices a vehicle approaching and signals for help.  As it arrives, the vehicle transforms into the gaunt, ravaged robot form of the Autobot Kup.  The alien begs Kup for assistance, but the old Autobot’s only response is to immediately bash the alien’s head off with a makeshift club and toss the remains in a nearby body of liquid.  Kup transforms back to vehicle mode and keeps driving, noting that he doesn’t need any more “eyes staring into his soul“.  He drives over the landscape, noting the world’s twin suns and deposits of gleaming, golden crystals.  Kup has long since given up hope of being rescued from this place, nor does he want to be rescued at all.  The crystals “sing” to him during the day and that’s all he’s concerned with.  This “song” of the crystals has sustained him here on this alien world for a long time, at least during the daytime.  During the night, mysterious, hideous beings come out to haunt Kup and try to take him, but he fights them off.  As the twin suns set, Kup returns to a makeshift shelter and walks in.  He recalls how once, they tried to build a transmitter to send a distress call, but the transmitter overloaded and blew up.  As Kup enters his shelter, we see the half-shredded remains of the Autobot Outback propped up on a seat inside.  Kup notes that it was the exploding transmitter that reduced Outback to this state, and also taught him that energy weapons and devices can’t be used near the crystals.  Kup talks to Outback as if the deactivated bot were still alive; the old bot’s clearly a bit off his rocker.  We also come to the horrific realization that Kup’s makeshift club is actually Outback’s severed arm.  Later on, as night falls, Kup shuts his systems down and tries to get some rest.  But he comes back online as a phantom appears in the room.  The ghostly being tells Kup that they are “coming to get him” and he should stay there.  Kup reacts with horror, constantly trying to convince himself that the apparition isn’t real.  Suddenly, Kup hears his name being called from outside the shelter.  He crawls over to look outside, and finds himself face-to-face with the hideous monsters that have been constantly haunting him night after night.  They continue calling out for him, as Kup desperately yells at Outback to do something.  But the deactivated Autobot’s shredded remains are silent, and Kup instead moves to wearily pick up his makeshift club.  Although the creatures never try to come into the shelter, Kup knows they might try tonight, so when one reaches its arm in, Kup bashes it off with his club.  The creatures retreat, but continue to call his name out as Kup sits down and rides the night out, unable to go back offline knowing they are out there.  Finally, the day arrives and the creatures are gone again.  Kup lets out a laugh of relief as he hears the music of the crystals and leaves his shelter to bask in their glow.  He stays amongst the crystals all day; his one and only sustaining source of happiness.  The next night, the phantom returns again to Kup’s shelter, telling him that “they’ll be there soon”.  Kup just wants the ghost to go away, but then realizes he forgot to secure the shelter’s shutters for the night.  The creatures return and continue to reach into the shelter, as Kup screams at Outback’s prone form to help him.  Finally, Kup decides to bring the fight to the creature and grabs one of their arms as it reaches into the shelter.  He drags the creature inside and brutally bludgeons it into submission.  The other creatures try to move in and seize Kup, but he violently attacks them first, beating them mercilessly with his club, bashing off appendages and heads.  Kup pauses for a moment; his reserve power is nearly completely depleted, but gets a renewed burst of energy and resumes his attack on the creatures.  Finally, his spark surges, signaling a core meltdown and dropping Kup to his knees.  The only creature that remains standing beats a hasty retreat as Kup’s chest sparks brilliantly.  As Kup gains a temporary repreive, the creature moves some distance away…and then an orbital jump is activated, beaming it aboard a spaceship in orbit; the Ark-17.  The “creature” removes its helmet and we see that it is actually Autobot Siren in a somewhat ghoulish-looking external armor-suit.  An energy decontamination bath washes over him as Perceptor greets Siren and asks what happened.  Siren reports that he’s the only survivor and angrily asks why so many Autobots are being used as cannon fodder for this assignment.  At that moment, Springer arrives, demanding to know of Perceptor why this mission to rescue Kup from the planet’s surface has gone so bad.  Siren brazenly pipes up to explain the situation to Springer (and thus the readers).  The whole planet is filled with crystals that emit radiation and have damaged Kup’s mind.  Weapons can’t be fired or the whole planet could explode; the crystals are more volatile than raw Energon.  Plus, if Kup’s spark goes into meltdown again, that could also caught a detonation of the entire planet’s crystals.  The Autobots have to use the antiquated haz-mat armors to try and extract Kup at nighttime when he’s offline, but his proximity sensors warn him and he fights them off.  Siren isn’t sure how Kup is lasting this long; he hasn’t recharged in a long time, but he still had enough fight in him to offline Siren’s entire team.  Springer asks if stealth armor is an option, and Siren angrily rebukes this idea, saying that the antiquated anti-rad armor they are using is the only thing that prevents them from falling into the same radiation-madness that Kup has succumbed to.  Siren demands to know where the “specialist” that Springer promised to send is, where the Wreckers are, and what Springer has been doing to help the situation.  Springer tells him that the Wreckers are on the other side of the universe at the moment, fighting a larger battle, and he’s been trying to send Kup a message by hacking into Outback’s holo-projector (the “ghost” Kup was seeing).  Springer informs Siren that the “specialist” is on his way to help, but Siren angrily tells Springer that no Autobot deserves death at another Autobot’s hands, especially Kup’s hands.  A short time later, Springer is in conference with Prowl, who is stationed on Earth.  Prowl tells Springer that committing further resources to this rescue mission is foolish and he should just let Kup go.  Springer angrily calls Prowl “sparkless” and notifies him that Kup means too much to just let him die alone on that planet.  Prowl brings up that Autobots have died needlessly trying to recover Kup and its all he can do to hide this mission from Optimus Prime.  Springer counters that if Prime knew, he’d personally come and try to rescue Kup himself.  Prowl decides to leave the issue to Springer, but warns that a wasteful exercise like this can’t continue for much longer.  As Prowl signs off, Perceptor enters the room and informs Springer that Prowl’s assessment is correct; even Kup himself wouldn’t justify such a loss of life on his behalf.  Springer still believes that the Autobots as a whole owe Kup too much to just give up on him.  Suddenly, Sizzle runs into the room and informs Springer that the “specialist” has arrived in a shuttle.  Springer eagerly begins preparations for another attempt at rescuing Kup.  Back on the planet‘s surface a short time later, Kup sees the “ghost” again; Springer’s holo-image tells the old-bot that they’re bringing him home.  The “creatures” return, coming into Kup’s shelter, but Kup won’t give up without a fight.  He goes swinging wildly again, decapitating another “creature” who gets too close.  A “creature” tries to grab him from behind, but knocks Outback’s remains onto the floor, where they fall apart.  Seeing his downed friend, and perhaps the realization of Outback’s death finally sinking in, Kup goes berserk, attacking the “creatures” as his spark core begins its final overload and meltdown.  The other “creatures” (Anti-rad armored Autobots) back off as Kup’s chest begins emitting brilliant flashes of light.  He manages to make it through the front door of his shelter where he comes face-to-face with the “specialist”- Trailbreaker.  Encased in his personal force-field, Trailbreaker is able to be on the planet’s surface without the anti-rad armor, and Kup perceives a rescuer as a fellow Autobot for the first time.  Unfortunately, Kup’s spark core is on its last legs, and begins to explosively melt down.  Trailbreaker quickly reaches into Kup’s chest and seals the exploding core in a force field, dampening the surges and preventing a melt down that might have detonated the entire planet’s radioactive crystals.  Kup collapses into Trailbreaker’s arms as an orbital jump is activated and they return to Ark-17.  The last thing he sees before going offline is Springer and Trailbreaker standing over him.  Sometime later, Springer and Trailbreaker confer about the whole situation.  Springer thanks Trailbreaker for his assistance and curses himself for going ahead without him.  Springer says that Kup is the only Autobot he’d do something like this for; lay everything on the line.  Trailbreaker asks about Kup’s condition, as they arrive at the stasis chamber that is currently sustaining the old Autobot.  Springer says that Kup has a placeholder power core to maintain his spark, and its hard going trying to keep him alive, since Kup had a stubborn refusal to upgrade his systems to current Autobot tech.  We see Kup is locked into a life-support device, as Springer and Trailbreaker look upon him.  Springer doesn’t think his mind will ever heal fully, and Trailbreaker doesn’t level any judgment as far as what was sanctioned to get Kup back.  But Springer knows that Kup himself would likely not approve of what he’s done and wonders if it was all worth it.  THE END?

Extras- Some design sketches of Kup, the anti-rad hazmat suits, and a lay-out of a page or two


Slagged!:

-Kup’s in pretty poor condition the entire thing, both physically and mentally.  Not only that, but he doles out quite a lot of violence on those he perceives as enemies while in his fevered state.  He kills an innocent alien at the beginning of the story, and causes the deaths of some of his would-be rescuers when he perceives them as evil-looking creatures.  Siren manages to get off with only a severed arm, but many other nameless Autobots are not so lucky.

-Outback was apparently killed when a signal transmitter he and Kup built blew up, likely thanks to the radiation being emitted by the crystals on the planet.  I don’t think we’ll be seeing our Aussie Autobot for a long time, if ever, unfortunately.


Sightings:

-Kup gets a new “stripped-down” design, courtesy of Nick Roche.  I’m sure there was a little more figurative “meat” on his bones before coming to the crystalline planet, but he’s most been stripped-down to skeletal proportions by the time this story begins.  Everyone else looks pretty much how you’d expect them to look; Prowl’s his Infiltration/Escalation design, Springer’s the same as Stormbringer.  Trailbreaker appears to be his War Within design, or a close approximation.

-Outback looks as if he’s seen better days, but more or less what we can see of him looks like he’s always looked.  Siren’s the lone survivor of the first rescue attempt in the story, he was last seen on the same orbital command platform as Optimus Prime in Stormbringer # 1.  Nick Roche uses the Marvel comics “two optics” head design for Siren, not the toy design.  This marks Perceptor’s second appearance in IDW continuity; the first was as a “floating holo-head” also in Stormbringer # 1.  And Sparkabot Sizzle is the bot who informs Springer of Trailbreaker’s arrival on Ark-17.

-With Prowl having his Earth mode and mentioning having to keep this mission from Optimus Prime, this story likely takes place sometime in-between Stormbringer # 4 and Escalation # 3.


Hearings:

-The inside cover blurb that sets the issue up mentions that Kup has fought “Igyaks, fended off the Shrike-Bats of Dromedon and remembers the day they inverted polarities.”  This is of course, a nod to some of the war stories Kup told in the original Transformers The Movie.

-Springer mentions that Kup’s had a hand in training Prowl, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Hot Rod, and Optimus Prime himself.


Wreck and RULE!:

-Nick Roche pulls double-duty on this issue, writing and penciling and pulls it off quite well in both quarters.  He proves he’s got the chops to handle characterization and dialogue, and also tell a good story while he’s at it.  And of course, the artwork is his usual great stuff.  The fluctuations between the panels between the scenes taking place in Kup’s mind and the scenes happening in the “real” world were a nice touch.  Roche uses a manic, exaggerated style for Kup’s delusions and contrasts this with the more subdued style he used in the Shockwave Spotlight aboard the Ark-17 with Springer and the others.  A very unique issue, art-wise, to say the least.

-Nick Roche’s strongest writing point is undoubtedly his characterization.  The reader totally can understand Springer’s bond with Kup, which is important when faced with how far Springer is willing to go to save his mentor and friend.  Prowl is his usual pragmatic, dick-ish self, and you can’t help but see that he’s utterly correct when he points out the folly of Springer’s rescue attempts.  Even Trailbreaker, though only in the story briefly, makes a strong impression as a serious guy who still can make lighthearted comments even in a dark hour, quite in keeping with his original tech spec portrayal.  And lest we forget; Roche shows us a deep and dark, almost heartbreaking version of Kup.  It is almost painful to see him reduced to this state; especially painful to see him try and interact with Outback’s remains and deliriously fight and kill his own would-be rescuers.  Ironically, we don’t get quite a view at the “real” Kup, but Roche tells us all we need to know about what kind of bot he was through Springer’s dedication to saving him.
  

Wreck and ROT!:

-The narrative’s a little wordy, and Roche has to get a lot of exposition out there to fully explain the situation to a reader.  However, in another well-thought out move, he has Siren do the expositing, which fits perfectly with the character’s mouthy persona.  I think he could have done a little more “showing” and less “telling”, but all in all it turned out alright.

-Why does Springer send yet more Autobots to their apparent deaths when Trailbreaker has already arrived?  The first rescue attempt was understandable; Springer likely didn’t expect Kup to put up such a fight and maybe expected more out of Ark-17’s crew.  But it doesn’t make a lot of sense to sacrifice more lives when Trailbreaker is there and can fix the problem faster.  I guess you could say the group of Autobots who went in right before Trailbreaker came were already on the planet and weren’t called back in time, but it just seemed like Springer overzealously wasted more of his comrades’ lives.


Final Judgment:

A labor of love from start to finish.  Roche’s first turn at writing goes fairly well, and with some polish, he could be one of the greats.  Add the fact that Mr. Roche actually set up a MySpace blog for Kup as a clever bit of promotion for the issue, and had some of his design sketches included at the end, it’s clear that he is someone who loves this property.  A couple of nagging complaints here and there, but the end product is solid cover-to-cover.  Watch out Furman; there appears to be another reliable Transformers writer at IDW.  Pick this zombie puppy up.  Peace.

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