“Spotlight Sixshot” (22 pp) was originally published by IDW Publishing in Transformers: Spotlight #4 (December 2006)

The “Spotlight” format is the model opportunity to delve deep into a Transformer’s character, to really get under their armour and see what sparks their circuits. So far, with the Spotlight series, each issue has been more of a story that happens to feature the spotlight character rather than any in-depth psycho-examination.

“Spotlight Sixshot” goes some way to resist this trend. Quite the opposite in fact, as “Spotlight Sixshot” is a little incoherent in terms of plot and story but is certainly revealing in terms of Sixshot’s character. But since, in twenty two years of Transformers comics, Sixshot has never been featured before now, furnishing his character is probably easier done than said.

Working with a blank slate, writer Simon Furman chips away at Sixshot offering the reader an uncomfortably lonely Decepticon with no direction. In and of itself this more than piques the reader’s interest. Oddly, though, the story written around this particular personality seems to run a course that’s all-too steady and merely treading water for most of its pages. The denouement—AKA “Sixshot’s Choice”—feels more like a lacklustre prelude of Things To Come rather than the emotional punch it needed to be.

“Spotlight Sixshot” also introduces The Reapers, an each-member-is-a-different-species group of world destroyers meant to mirror Sixshot himself. In theory, they make a good metaphor but in practice, with their uninspiring designs, they fall flat. But still, readers old enough to remember the Marvel UK Transformers comics will appreciate that one of the Reapers is a Deathbringer.

Artist Rob Ruffalo—of Dreamwave infamy—turns in a competent 22 pages of art in his first (and to date, only) Transformers comic for IDW. The colouring is nice and bright but sometimes out of place considering all the world destroying that’s going on.

There’s a lot of empathy to be had for Sixshot in this issue, but the story here doesn’t quite provide enough resonance with the character; and with Sixshot being a previously unmined gem, this particular story is a little rough around the edges.

Category: IDW
Tags: Rob Ruffalo | Simon Furman

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