THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

Transformers Spotlight: Blurr
Reviewed by Inflatable Dalek

This one’s just a pampered arrogant little upstart

A strange beat this, it has all the dullness of All Hail Megatron with none of the insanely bad stuff... resulting in something as memorable and exciting as The New Avengers In Canada. The problem, as with McCarthy’s other work, is that its hard to give a toss about any of the characters; Blur being such a unlikeable prick him picking the Autobots seems totally out of left field even with the contrivance of him stumbling across a battle where two people he knew slightly got killed.

Collier provides some impressive art and the portrayal of cusp-of-war Cybertron has some interesting ideas but it’s still one of the most average Transformers comics you'll ever read.


This is set very early in the Decepticon/Autobot war, with the early part of the issue perhaps even overlapping with the end of Megatron: Origin. Blurr likely lives on a totally different part of the planet to Kaon as well, as it’s plausible he might be unaware of a minor conflict a great distance away but not noticing fighting on his doorstep would be pushing it a bit.

Zeta Prime hasn’t been mentioned before. Whilst Sentinel Prime has been Optimus’ predecessor in all other G1 media where he’s been mentioned there has been nothing within IDW continuity to say there wasn’t one, ten or fifty Prime’s between the two. He likely didn’t last very long though, and it’s left vague at the end whether Blurr succeeded in saving him or not. Blurr’s future appearances in All Hail Megatron may clarify this.

Starscream and Skywarp have different alt modes from Megatron: Origin. If you take the “War Within Prime with Orion Pax’s head” character in that comic to be Optimus then he has a new design as well. Soundwave doesn’t appear but is obliquely referenced as the source of the communications interference.

Blurr’s races are inspired by the one that opens the cartoon episode The Rebirth Part 1 (without the laser fighting) and is effectively a combination of sprinting and F1 racing, with Piston and his colleagues as the Pit team.

Blurr, as a rich celebrity, gets to be driven about rather than having to transform. His car is based on Animated Bulkhead but it’s not clear if it’s an actual Transformer (combined transport and chauffer) or just a car. The Circle serves Energon in cube shaped glasses that when full look like Energon Cubes from the cartoon.

It’s worth noting that Blurr thinks Starscream is an Autobot and it’s not clear if he’s dissuaded of this notion before agreeing to help Optimus.

Fasttrack is not the same character as the G1 toy that comes with Scorponok (unless he comes back from the dead and has had a insanely major redesign and personality shift).

The Simultronic Reality machines work in a similar way to Better Than Life from Red Dwarf, with the addictive qualities especially being like the book version.

After four months of the Revelation saga this sees the return of the regular Spotlight format. This is the first one to be written by All Hail Megatron scribe McCarthy and utilises several characters -- Kup and Blurr most noticeably -- who’ll be playing a part in that title.


Even someone as up himself as Blurr should have heard of the Autobots, who seem to be the planet's main security/police/armed force. Wayne Rooney isn’t the sharpest tool in the box but show him a warrant card and he won’t need explaining what a police constable is.

Then again, he decides Starsceam is an Autobot despite the badge he gets shown looking totally different. Perhaps he is that thick?

Blurr arrives at the Circle for the second time in his Bulkhead car but leaves by driving off under his own power.

Starscream and Skywarp walk to assassinate Zeta Prime. And though Optimus makes it sound like the Decepticons have a massive lead they have in fact only just left the battle scene and Optimus could probably catch them himself if he wasn’t standing about talking.


Blurr: Celebrate?! That doesn’t even begin to describe what we’re going to do tonight!
Piston: Really?
Blurr: For sure!
Piston: Great! We thought we could go-
Blurr: Hey, there’s only one place to go on a night like this.
Fasttrack: The Circle!
Blur: Drinks are on me.
Pit Worker: The Circle? But bots like us… we can’t get in there…
Piston: Come on. Lets clear up the gear.

Piston: This is where I’m going. They’re called Autobots. They need our help. All of us.
Blur: The… what is this, some sort of party thing?
Piston: Cybertron is changing Blurr. Pretty soon you’ll need to choose a side.

Starscream: What we believe is simple. Only the strong should rule. You are strong Blurr. Superior to everyone around you.

Optimus: All those times in the arena, was it the victories that kept you going? Or was it the chance to constantly inspire others to strive for more?