Personal tools

Spotlight: Shockwave

From Transformers Wiki

The Transformers: Spotlight#1 »
Spotlight Shockwave cvrA.jpg
I've beenrepainted black... not logical!
"The Transformers: Spotlight #1 Shockwave"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 13,2006
Cover date September 2006
Written by Simon Furman
Art by Nick Roche
Colors by Josh Burcham
Letters by Sulaco Studios
Edits by Dan Taylor
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology 8390 BCE

Shockwave discovers that logic is not always sufficient...

Contents

Synopsis

Shockwave Regenesis.jpg

Six hundred thousand years ago, theGreat WaronCybertronrages between theAutobotsandDecepticons— a state of affairs thatShockwavecan no longer abide. Having extrapolated from the data that constant fighting between the two factions will cause anenergonshortage and eventually leave Cybertron a dead, energy-drained planet, Shockwave initiates a new plan: a project that he dubs "Regenesis."Raw energon is distilled into special warheads and fired at suitable planets — one of which is prehistoricEarth.

Never tellingMegatronabout his plans, Shockwave bides his time for many years until his samples bear fruit. Arriving on Earth as the very end of the lastIce Age,Shockwave begins the next component of his plan: regulating the planet's wildenergonreactions. Shockwave knows that his fellow Decepticons will brand him as a traitor for his unauthorized experiments, but no longer cares; ultimately, logic is his only master.

Unbeknownst to the Decepticon, theDynobotshave tracked him to the planet aboard their vessel, theSkyfire.Having once lost face to Shockwave after he foiled a vital energon-gathering mission, all fiveTransformersare hungry for revenge. Team leaderGrimlockis eager to land and mete out some vengeance on their enemy, butSlagadvises caution: the unchecked energon radiation on Earth's surface is causing energy fluctuations dangerous to unshielded Transformers, and while Shockwave is safely insulated against its effects, the five Dynobots possess no such protection.

SpotlightShockwave GrimlockSlag trexscan.jpg

As Shockwave plants a series of special energon dampers to rein in the energon storms, he observes a herd of dyingmammoths,and further mulls on his plans: as cold-climate organisms fail to adapt to changing climates, so too must the Cybertronian race continue to evolve, a process that will only succeed if Shockwave is allowed control of the balance of power...

Aboard theSkyfire,Slag has come up with a novel solution to their dilemma: by using the on-boardCR chambers,they will be able to adoptbeast modesbased on the native creatures, protected from the energon radiation thanks to artificially synthesized flesh. A hesitant Grimlock agrees to go ahead with the plan... but only if Slag can find him better organisms to scan than the "pathetic" mammals who roam the Earth. It doesn't take long before Slag discovers creatures more to their leader's liking: the fossilized remains of ancientdinosaurs.

Having finished his business on Earth, Shockwave prepares to summon his ship and leave... but is momentarily confused when his ship fails to arrive. His concerns are well-founded when, seconds later, the five Dynobots, now clad in new, saurianalternate modes,arrive viaorbital bounceand lay into the Decepticon scientist. A creature of logic and rationality, Shockwave is unable to comprehend the savage, chaotic behavior of his foes before having an epiphany: their mission is one of pointless revenge for his actions.

Shockwaveg1idw.jpg

As he is consumed by another barrage of enemy firepower, Shockwave realizes that his core logic will not be of any use in the fight against his irrational foes and retaliates as only he can: by simplyshutting downhis higher functions, allowing a synthetic form of rage to take over. In this primal sub-routine, he brutally retaliates against the Dynobots, quickly stripping them of their protective synthetic flesh and thus forcing them intostasis lock.The battle seemingly won, Shockwave returns his neural cortex to normal operations and, with his ship disabled by the Dynobots, prepares to steal theSkyfireto escape Earth. Before he can do so, however, he discovers that Grimlock will get the last laugh after all: the Dynobot ship acts on a command pre-programmed by Grimlock and uses its onboard weaponry to open fire on a nearby volcano. The mighty blast provokes a volcanic eruption, and all six combatants are swiftly entombed in a pit of molten lava.

Elsewhere, Shockwave's absence hasn't gone unnoticed. A suspiciousMegatron,wanting to learn more about Shockwave's pet projects, assigns the loyalBludgeonto investigate the errant Decepticon's findings.

And, many thousands of years later, in the year2006,a team of archaeologists digging inEureka,Nevada,unearth a massive, metal, purple hand...

Featured characters

Characters initalic textappear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"Ultimately, I serve onlyonemaster...pure logic."

—Shockwave's mission statement.


"Do it. But find us something better than thesemiserablespecimens. "
"Easier said than done. They're pretty much thebestthis planet has to offer. "
"Look again. Find me something with some...bite.Unless the plan is to make Shockwave dielaughing."

—GrimlockandSlagreview potential mammalian beast modes.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • MegatronordersBludgeonto find out what the missing Shockwave was working on, tying the story intoStormbringer.
  • A supposed throw-away line on theMechatopia.comwebsite, which mentions a find in Nevada and "dinosaur-variant mechanoids", bears fruit in this issue.
  • Later authors would revisit the idea of Shockwave's Regenesis plan that were first outlined in this issue—a plot point that would reach its fruition in 2013'sDark Cybertroncrossover.Issue #34ofRobots in Disguisewould note that Shockwave had sent his ores to where he believed the originalThirteenhad gone; Shockwave's comment in this issue about him targeting planets with a "specific geological profile" arejuuuustvague enough not to count as a directretcon.
  • Shockwave briefly wonders if Megatron has sent thePredaconsagainst him; this offhanded comment tied into Furman's original plans for the team, which would have seen them as Megatron's pet enforcers. This idea fell by the wayside, andJames Robertswould later introduce an entirely different set of murderous enforcers in the shape of theDecepticon Justice Division.
  • We would learn more about Shockwave's activities on Ice Age Earth inRevolutionariesissue #5.
  • According toMaximum Dinobots,the Dynobots' mission to hunt down Shockwave here is actually an illegal, unsanctioned op and none of them know it because Grimlock lied to their faces and insinuated that Optimus Prime had relented and approved the mission, all so he could go get revenge. They werealsodeliberately not told about the preprogrammed command for theSkyfireto shoot the volcano if they lost, presumably because Grimlock knew they would object. Ouch.

Transformers references

  • The story is something of a modern re-imagining of the originalMarvel Comicsseries, wherein Shockwave battled the Dinobots on prehistoric Earth, and they all wound up buried for millions of years. (It's also a rather clever way to bring a group of transforming chrome dinosaurs to modern-day Earth, explaining what would otherwise be an aberration in the Cold War cloak-and-dagger world of IDW's G1 continuity.)
  • This is the second continuity in which the team has been known as the "Dynobots" before coming to Earth; they previously used the name in Dreamwave'sThe War Withinseries. Their Cybertronian forms are lifted almost directly from that series.
  • From its setting — a prehistoricEarthravaged by concentrations ofenergon— to the quasi-organicbeast modesof the Dynobots, this issue is chock-full ofBeast Warshomages. These storytelling conceits were a deliberate choice on the part of the authorSimon Furman;his script asked artistNick Rocheto re-imagine the Dinobots asBeast Warscharacters. Roche decided to apply this to theirrobot modesas well, including giving them different heads. Giving them dinosaur modes with realistic proportions also led to the Dinobots deliberately having differing sizes.[1]
  • Slag's creative solution to theenergon radiationproblem is very similar to the original premise of theBeast Warscartoon; indeed, the characters even reformat into their new beast forms by usingCR chambers,a concept lifted wholesale from theBeast Warscartoon.

Other trivia

Covers (6)

  • Cover A:Shockwave at console; art byJames RaizandJosh Burcham(colors).
  • Cover B:Shockwave in snow with the Dinobots' shadows in the background byNick Rocheand Josh Burcham (colors).
  • Cover RI-A:cover A, uncolored
  • Cover RI-B:cover B, uncolored
  • Retailer Summit:Shockwave gold foil-stamped wraparound by Nick Roche andRob Ruffolo(colors).
  • Micro-Comic Fun Pack:Grimlock breathes fire skyward, byLivio Ramondelli.
  • (thumbnail)

    Shackwave?

  • (thumbnail)

    It's snowing and I'm purple... is this the future Minneapolis?

  • (thumbnail)

    Cover RI-A

  • (thumbnail)

    Cover RI-B

  • (thumbnail)

    Retailer Summit Cover

  • (thumbnail)

    Micro-Comic Fun Pack cover

Advertisements

Reprints

  • (thumbnail)

    The IDW Collection Compendium, Vol. 1– cover art by Jeffrey Veregge

  • (thumbnail)

    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 36: Stormbringer– cover art byGuido Guidi

  • (thumbnail)

    Best of Shockwave– cover art byJames Biggie

Micro-Comic Fun Pack

In2014,the issue was re-released in a Grimlock-themed "Micro-Comic Fun Pack", which includes:

References

  1. ↑http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopic.php?t=5196&start=237#117726Nick Roche: "Back when they reformatted themselves for Earth combat in Spotlight: Shockwave, the script that Simon left on my doorsteo[sic](aflame, and smeared in what I hope was animal excrement) said to reimagine the Dinobots as if they were Beast Wars characters. So rather than just apply this aesthetic to their alt modes, I utilized it across the board, and gave them robot modes that were less G1, and more Beast Era. [...] The realistic Dino modes had an effect on the physique of the Dynos too, hence the burden of tail and neck kibble (HATE that word!) on Sludge and the lack of mass on Swoop. In his case, there's just no where for his robot mode to hide on hisbeast modeand have him be a bulky robot. Add to that, he needs to be able to fly too, so while odd-looking, it's all in-keeping with semi logic! "
Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Spotlight:_Shockwave&oldid=1694432"
Advertisement
TFsource.com - Your Source for Everything Transformers!