Comic Review - Transformers Spotlight: Sixshot

Published third in the Spotlight series but set an undetermined time before the 'present day' of Infiltration, Sixshot is something of a lightweight piece. It's basically the title character - a "Phase Sixer" sent in by the Decepticons to level worlds at the end of their use, and his meditations on whether he can retain some sort of individuality or if he's simply a living weapon. 


It's not an uninteresting angle to take and the character himself is basically interesting, especially his matter-of-fact evaluation of his own capabilities - it's not arrogance or ego, he really is that powerful. Enjoyably for a Decepticon with combat prowess he also doesn't consider overthrowing Megatron at any point for the 22 pages.

However, the issue's largely derailed by the uninteresting Reapers - an ad-hoc group of super-powerful super-emo mechs who plan to end war by destroying any flashpoint outright. It's a silly, tacky idea and tugs the issue down the all-too-familiar paths of combat tests, refused offers and last-minute reprieves. Sadly they would also later show up in the main series, where they proved no more interesting. Rob Ruffolo gets art duties as part of IDW's unofficial line for putting work the way of unpaid former Dreamwave workers. His art is a lot cleaner and clearer than it was before but doesn't really stand out, and the designs for the Reapers are bland, but the action comes across nicely.

Overall this is one of those issues that isn't particularly good and isn't particularly bad. It doesn't add much to Sixshot beyond a basic internal conflict which, IIRC, was largely ignored come the main series, but at the same time it's inoffensive enough.