Transformers - Spotlight: Arcee

Christ almighty. Okay, let's get the good stuff laid out first. And there is some really good stuff in here; structurally the issue does a fine job of naturally dovetailing several plot threads from previous Spotlights in an organic way as opposed to Furman's recent habit of just skipping from one to another with no narrative connection.

Firstly there's the appearance of Banzaitron's secret service-y unit from Spotlight: Hot Rod, clearly acting on information passed on by Doubledealer. It's nice to see the guy get something solid to do even if all those years haven't made that name any less wince-inducing. He makes for a nice clutter-free villain, though it's a shame the Combaticons, one of the better defined Special Teams, are reduced to generic Decepticon psycho-saddhists.

Also followed up on is the fate of Monstructor from Spotlight: Optimus Prime, being examined at the Autobot prison on Garrus-9 by - in a nice callback to Stormbringer - Jetfire and the Technobots. They're a bit of a plot device here as the reason for Banzaitron's attack but it's still nice to touch base. Other elements worthy of praise here are a good flashback showing for Ultra Magnus and the decent recasting of Fortress Maximus as a no-nonsense warden, meaning the guy's name can make sense without him having to turn into a city. 

Now the problems. You'll notice how Arcee herself wasn't mentioned in any of the positive sections - that is because here she is terrible in every possible way - as a character , as a concept, as a narrative device. It's hard to know where to start.

The most immediate I suppose is that this is another issue where narrative clarity is sacrificed so that Furman can bang on about a hot potato from the line's history - in this case gender. It's not actually an area I'm too fussed on personally; I'd rather the female characters weren't sexualised or stereotyped  (much like the handling of gender in Challenge of the Gobots, of all things) but I really don't think it's worth getting steamed up about or bogged down on - something on the level of the Transformers - Prime cartoon, where some Transformers are male and some female and that's about it for depth is fine by me.

However, thanks to the semi-humorous UK strip "Prime's Rib" and the asexual reproduction shown in Generation 2 we already know what to Furman thinks and it's really not worth yet another element being added to the straining IDW continuity to find out that he still basically thinks the same - that Transformers aren't gendered. It especially isn't worth it when it's done this badly.

The twist here is that Jhiaxus has introduced gender to the species by experimenting on Arcee. The why isn't so bad - because he could, he's a mad bastard playing God. It's the how that's really wrongheaded. The issue never really bothers explaining what precisely Jhiaxus does to Arcee - adds a reproductive system that has no male counterpart as the rest of the Transformers are gender neutral? Adds female character trails cribbed from observing other species to Arcee's neural network? A half-hearted mention of CNA doesn't even start covering this. Because on what the comic shows us, all he's actually done is painted Arcee pink, added curvy bodywork and told his experiment they're female now. 

At the risk of sounding offensive it's more a case of forced transvestism than a gender swap, straying into non-consensual sissification. Surely Jhiaxus can't introduce gender into a whole genderless species in this way anyway as he's changed nothing about anyone else to make them male. I'm not especially versed in gender politics but surely at best he's somehow changed the species to however many million gender neutral members and one female than however many million males and one female, otherwise we're left with the crass idea of male gender being defined as anyone not male. And the whole thing is muddied by Arcee effectively choosing to identify as female by going around telling everyone she's female rather than claiming to be a genderless robot mutilated by a mad scientist.

Arcee's characterisation is that of a vengeful action chick from an exploitation flick (though given Furman's propensity for being slightly behind the pop culture curve a homage to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill seems more likely). It's possible to read a bit too much into this and say the writer is trying to convey that being female is something to be angry about or that she's a balanced example of what a female Transformer would be like. In the context of the insane mechanics of gender as per this story though it makes some sense - Arcee is the result of an enforced change through Jhiaxus and no attempt at some sort of empathic female archetype is seriously attempted. While it's unimaginative the idea of a discarded experimental subject out for revenge is simply a dull old trope, and Arcee's quite openly presented as being completely mental. And anyone know why Jhiaxus also made his creation insanely powerful? No?

Annoyingly there was a perfect alternative to much of this literally right there on the page. If Furman had needed a revenge-crazed powerful loose cannon hell-bent on tracking down Jhiaxus, why not Monstructor? No part of the issue wouldn't work with this switch - they'll get nothing but used by the Decepticons and could have some development in putting their faith in Jetfire's honest scientific graft, so they could even be Garrus 9's last resort. Instead Furman introduces another 'new' character to carry out this function, opening an unpleasant can of worms in the process while also answering a question surely nobody was asking. A look at gender in this continuity might have been interesting some point down the line, but the question once again is why the Hell Furman's just throwing so much shit at the title when there are already a preposterous amount of things going on.

One final point should be made - the dialogue in this issue is appalling. It's never really been Furman's strong suit - yes, there have been memorable lines over the years but actual frame-to-frame dialogue's always been a bit of an area to work for even before he found out about the Furmanism thing and prolapsed into self-parody. But here is a low - everything Arcee says is a ridiculous level-breaker only matched by the Combaticons' Saturday morning cartoon evil speeches.

Oh, and Arcee apparently has a homing instinct which means Jhiaxus can't hide from her but is unaware that he's in the next room in the flashback. Rubbish.

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