Transformers - Spotlight Blurr

Written by Shane "Drift" McCarthy - presumably as part of a plan to bring the character of Blurr into the mix before the writer was superseded by Mike Costa - this single issue suffers from a slight storyline against an interesting backdrop. Set in the lull between the initial rise of the Decepticons and the fall of the old-style establishment (headed here by Zeta Prime), there are some interesting looks at pre-war Cybertron and the script is one of the few to give much of a look at what Cybertronians did for entertainment while also highlighting that it wasn't necessarily a Golden Age for everyone (such as Blurr's mechanics, a clear underclass).

The problem is the lead story is just the same old one of a self-interested neutral eventually finding himself a better person for joining in with a good cause and helping out. The actual turning is perfunctory and would have felt like just as much of a foregone conclusion even if Blurr was an unknown character, and I'm not entirely sure why McCarthy chose to tell this story about this character apart from to indulge his street-racing fetish. Still, this is probably about the first time Blurr's been written as something other than a joke character and some of his abundant potential is at least hinted at.

2/5