Spotlight: Galvatron
Written by Simon Furman
Penciled by Guido Guidi
Colors by Eric Burns

Summary:

Deep in space, in an area designated the “Benzuli Expanse”, an exploration ship of an unidentified alien species explores a black hole-like “anomaly” that appears to be expanding and consuming planets.  Suddenly, they register a life form emerging from the anomaly.  The being- Galvatron, immediately begins firing on the aliens’ ship as they scramble to deploy countermeasures.  Armaments used for destroying comets are turned on the marauding Transformer and Galvatron is seemingly incapacitated after a concentrated barrage from them.  The aliens bring Galvatron’s inert frame aboard for study, hoping to learn more about the anomaly that he came from.  Unfortunately for them, Galvatron comes back online inside their vessel and kills those who were studying him.  He claims that the “Expansion” is upon them and no one can stop it, but Galvatron has been ordered to eliminate the aliens, as their presence is disruptive.  Galvatron makes his way to the power core of the ship, musing that while his “master” controls “the Darkness”, he is stuck in the role of his master’s herald.  But as Galvatron fires on the power core of the alien vessel, starting a chain reaction, he asserts that he won’t be content with serving forever.  The entire ship explodes as Galvatron flies out and reports that the secondary objective has been achieved.  Meanwhile on Cybertron at a small Autobot base-camp established in Thunderhead Pass, Sideswipe is feeling extremely agitated and restless.  Despite the protests of the guard on duty, Leadfoot, Sideswipe is bent on sending a pulsewave transmission to Earth.  The message is received by Ratchet on Earth, and Sideswipe asks to speak with Optimus Prime.  Ratchet tells him that Prime has gone on some personal matter, and they’re not sure when he will return.  Sideswipe just asks Ratchet to bring up the matter of his transfer request with Prime again; he feels he’s being wasted here on Cybertron watching over the site of the Thunderwing incident (Transformers: Stormbringer) while he should be on Earth, helping to look for the missing Sunstreaker.  At that moment, Sideswipe’s unit commander, Hound, enters the room and orders Sideswipe to immediately sign off.  Sideswipe begrudgingly complies, as Ratchet signs off on his end.  Jimmy and Verity, who were in the room and had heard Sideswipe’s message, note that Sideswipe had a good point.  Ratchet tries to explain to them that they’ve hit a dead end in terms of locating Sunstreaker or Hunter, but the two humans simply feel like the Autobots have given up on finding their missing friends and leave the room.  Back at Thunderhead Pass, Hound reminds Sideswipe that there is a communications embargo in effect and asserts that he is in charge here.  Sideswipe points out that there is nothing to be in charge of at this particular location; the Thunderwing mess is over, the rogue Decepticons are all in stasis-lock, and the focus has moved elsewhere.  Sideswipe maintains that he is being wasted here and he will continue to do whatever he can to get reassigned to Earth.  Hound orders him to relieve Leadfoot from sentry duty and stay until Hound decides to rotate the roster.  Sideswipe stiffly accepts his orders, with a bit of attitude.  Meanwhile nearby, Galvatron has landed on Cybertron and reflects on how long it’s been since he’s been on the planet.  It was before the war, before factions split off; Galvatron is from the Golden Age of Cybertron.  He flashbacks briefly to the launch of the very first Ark; he was a crewmember on it.  Back then, the Prime had ordered the Ark’s launch to explore the Benzuli Expanse, based on a deep repressed feeling, possibly from the Matrix itself.  But analyzing and probing the black hole-like anomaly that dominated the Expanse proved fruitless.  Aboard the first Ark, Galvatron felt that the anomaly would finally unlock vast potential he had felt in himself, and without the knowledge of the rest of the crew, set a course that sent Ark-1 directly into it.  Back in the present at Thunderhead Pass, Leadfoot becomes aware of an intruder in the area.  But it’s too late, as Galvatron grabs the Autobot by the throat and seconds later; Leadfoot ceases to function.  Galvatron feels a twinge of regret for a moment, but pushes aside the feeling as he hears a voice behind him.  Sideswipe has come to relieve Leadfoot from guard duty and see the intruder standing over his comrade’s inert body.  Enraged, Sideswipe activates his rocket pack, blazes in, and delivers a staggering blow that knocks Galvatron away.  Sideswipe grabs hold of Leadfoot’s downed form, only to find that the smaller Autobot is no longer online.  In a fury, Sideswipe pulls his rifle out and begins unloading on Galvatron, but the mysterious Transformer simply blasts the ground under Sideswipe with his arm-cannon.  Sideswipe is knocked away as Galvatron notices the rest of the Autobots stationed at this base-camp approaching.  Unit commander Hound orders his team to take the intruder down, but leave him alive for questioning.  Galvatron simply stands there and takes their combined firepower, until an explosive shell from Warpath’s tank mode staggers him.  Road Rocket drives around Galvatron in cycle mode at high speeds, trying to contain the mysterious Transformer with a ring of flames.  Skram notes to Hound that the newcomer has no faction insignia as Sideswipe slowly gets back up.  Galvatron simply stands, unimpressed, behind a curtain of flames.  Sideswipe raises his rifle, cranks the output to the max and fires on Galvatron before Hound can stop him.  The shot hits Galvatron cleanly in the head and blasts it near to pieces.  Galvatron’s body crumples to the ground, smoking profusely from his head-wound.  Hound yells at Sideswipe, having previously ordered to take the intruder alive, but Sideswipe just brushes it off.  However, Galvatron stands up again as Skram yells to Hound that the intruder is still alive.  Galvatron notes that Skram is “wrong” and transforms to cannon mode, aims, and unleashes a blast that incapacitates the whole group of Autobots.  While his master ordered him to kill everyone, Galvatron considers letting them live a small form of rebellion and moves on to complete his primary objective.  Sometime later, at the “metal lake” underneath Gorlam Prime (see Spotlight:  Nightbeat), Galvatron arrives with his objective.  Figures emerge from the lake, as Galvatron remembers way back when that once he had sent the Ark-1 into the anomaly, the Dead Universe claimed him and everyone aboard.  But unlike him, the other crew members are “dead, inside and out”.  Galvatron reports that his primary objective has been acquired, and we see what he traveled to Cybertron to retrieve; the inert form of Thunderwing!  THE END?

Extras:  Design sketches from Guido Guidi of Hound, Skram, Road Rocket, Sideswipe, and Leadfoot, as they appeared in this issue.


Slagged!:

-Galvatron takes A LOT of punishment this issue, but he’s apparently something akin to “un-dead”, so he’s never hurt for long.  But he is hit with spaceship weapons capable of destroying comets, shot relentlessly by Hound’s team, and shot in the head by Sideswipe, and he gets back up with very minor lasting damage.

-Galvatron destroys the unidentified aliens that are examining the Benzuli Expanse anomaly by blasting the main power core of their ship, blowing it up.  He also crushes a few of them and vaporizes another on his way there.

-Galvatron apparently kills Leadfoot, by grabbing the Autobot by the throat and well, you don’t really know.  When he throws Leadfoot’s body down, it looks beaten, cracked, and with a hole in the torso area.  But there’s not much passage of time apparent between him grabbing Leadfoot and then letting him go, so it’s possible he killed him just by touching him.  Interestingly, the alien trader Krakon was found by Nightbeat in a similar condition in Spotlight: Nightbeat- dead with a hole in his torso.  And Nightbeat noted that the “life had been drained out of him”.  Assuming Galvatron was responsible for Krakon’s death, it’s possible he killed Leadfoot in the same, mysterious fashion.

-Sideswipe manages a rocket pack-assisted punch that knocks Galvatron off his feet and blasts him through the head, but Galvatron blasts everyone with his cannon mode and knocks them all off-line.


Sightings:

-Everyone’s been redesigned, more or less, by Guido Guidi.  Sideswipe appears to have the same or similar form to how he appeared in War Within: Dark Ages, although with a few tweaks.

-Hound’s team includes Leadfoot, Skram, Road Rocket, Warpath, and Sideswipe.  Leadfoot, Skram, and Road Rocket are all from the Generation 2 toy line, which I think is the first appearance by Generation 2 characters in this continuity.

-An Autobot base-camp, complete with protective energy-dome has been established over Thunderhead Pass on Cybertron, likely over Bludgeon’s old lair.

-The other crew members on Ark-1 that we see during Galvatron’s flashback are of the same design as the ones we saw when Nightbeat recalled the Ark-1 incident early-on in Spotlight: Nightbeat.

-This is the second time that Galvatron’s had half his face blown off in a Simon Furman-written Transformers comic.  The last time was in Marvel UK’s Time Wars arc, by Roadbuster.

-Galvatron implies that the figures that emerge from the metal lake under Gorlam Prime are the other dead crew members from Ark-1.  Unlike him, they presumably are mindless conduits for Galvatron’s “master” to project through, as Galvatron “reports” to them at the end.  We still don’t know who or what this master is, aside from it calls the Dead Universe it’s home.  It isn’t Unicron though, according to Simon Furman.

-Galvatron had traveled to Cybertron to claim the inert Thunderwing’s frame for his master.  Thunderwing appears mostly as he did last we saw him in Stormbringer; in his shell’s Ultra Mode, somewhat scratched up by Optimus Prime’s point-blank gunfire.


Hearings:

-Ratchet mentions that Optimus Prime is away on some personal business.  We will see what that business was in Spotlight: Optimus Prime.

-Obviously, Sideswipe’s concerned with finding Sunstreaker because they are brothers.  This dynamic has been part of Gen 1 lore since the beginning.

-Sideswipe mentions that Jetfire’s forensics team has moved on from Thunderhead Pass; we last saw Jetfire hard at work at decrypting Bludgeon’s files at the end of Stormbringer.

-Galvatron isn’t part of either faction; he’s originally from Cybertron’s Golden Age, clearly not an upgrade of Megatron in this continuity.  He mentions a “Prime” who sanctioned the launch of Ark-1, and Galvatron also mentions that this Prime carried a Matrix within him.  We have seen no evidence that Optimus Prime currently carries a Matrix, but apparently it does, or DID, exist at one point in this continuity.  Spotlight: Optimus Prime will deal more with the lineage of Primes, and possibly identify which Prime Galvatron was referring to here.

-When Skram refers to Galvatron as “alive”, Galvatron thinks “wrong”.  Which makes Galvatron some kinda un-dead minion or something, which explains how he can keep healing from all the punishment he takes.  Of course, being at the beck and call of an entity that calls the “Dead Universe” its home, that makes sense.  Apparently, he’s the only one gifted with his own will, though, as he refers to the others from Ark-1 as dead “inside and out”.


Wreck and RULE!:

-We get our IDW-verse intro to Galvatron, and he really isn’t much different from classic Furman-written Galvatron, aside from origin and being actually quite sane (or so it would seem).  He is the herald of a dark, mysterious entity, is super-powerful and nigh-indestructible, and has a rebellious streak against his master.  Yup, that’s Galvatron for ya.  But then, why should he be any different?

-I rather liked how this issue seemed like a continuation from Escalation, rather than a standalone story.  Very rewarding read for someone who has been intently following the series from beginning, with links to Stormbringer, the Nightbeat Spotlight, and Escalation.  Of course, this has the downside of not being a very coherent read for one who HASN’T been following this continuity too closely, but it still has some great characterization and fight scenes.

-Guido Guidi makes his main universe art debut and does not disappoint.  His redesigns for everyone, especially the title character, are awesome and he is probably one of, if not the best visual storyteller amongst the reliable stable of Transformers artists that IDW has at their disposal.  Although he has a sort of cartoon-y style, it evokes the original cartoon well, and still manages to pull off some of the darker scenes with flair.  I especially liked the “Galvatron wreathed in flames” panel.  I hope we see much more from Mr. Guidi in terms of main IDW-verse stuff.

-We meet IDW-verse Hound and Sideswipe here too, and both make an impression.  Hound is a bit stricter and less personable than usual, but being a unit leader with the rebellious Sideswipe under his command probably toughened him up quite a bit.  Sideswipe is a bit less carefree as well, although one can understand that with his boring assignment and his itching to go help find his missing brother on Earth.  We see a bit of bloodthirstiness on Sideswipe’s part, reminiscent of his portrayal in the Marvel Generation 2 comics.

-We can add “Dead Universe” to the ever-increasing list of factions and rogue elements in our new Transformers comic universe.  Supposedly they are the main focus of the fifth main story arc “Revelation”.  And with Thunderwing in their possession now, they appear to be the most dangerous faction of all.


Wreck and ROT!:

-Some noticeable coloring inconsistencies here and there.  The most noticeable would have to be Ratchet’s color scheme, which is different than any other appearance he has had yet in this continuity.  It’s based on his cartoon model color scheme, but Ratchet has thus far used his toy/Marvel comic color scheme in this continuity so far.  Also, Jimmy’s hair is bright orange, where it previously has been a light, sandy color.  Perhaps the colorist confused him with Hunter?

-As mentioned before, this comic isn’t by any means a “jump-on point”.  You need to be fairly well-versed in IDW continuity to understand Galvatron’s objectives, his origin, and pretty much the whole plot.  In this manner, it isn’t really a good standalone story, but rather an “in-between” point between Escalation and Devastation.

-A minor note; although I always love seeing obscure characters being trotted out, it’s embarrassingly obvious who is going to die or get scrapped in Furman-written Transformers.  Points for killing off a “real” character this time and not inventing a red shirt, though.


Final Judgment:

A very engaging and rewarding read.  We get more answers about the Ark-1 mystery and basically a lot of loose ends from Spotlight: Nightbeat are tied up or at least touched upon.  But Furman isn’t giving us the whole enchilada yet, and that has the potential to get annoying soon.  In the meantime, we get some great characterization and an awesome fight scene that I got so wrapped up in that I forgot that Galvatron was on Cybertron for a reason, and so the last page with Thunderwing was a nice surprise for me.  Very few comics of any genre can surprise me nowadays, and I gotta give credit to Furman for producing Transformers comics that keep me entertained and guessing.  Another intriguing and entertaining installment of Spotlight.  Pick it up.  Peace.

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