Spotlight: Arcee

« The Transformers Spotlight #12 »
Graduated from St. Trinians with honors.
"The Transformers Spotlight: Arcee"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 20, 2008
Cover date	February 2008
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Alex Milne
Colors by	Josh Perez and Kris Carter
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Andrew Steven Harris
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Devastation

As a Decepticon strike force threatens to overrun Garrus-9, Fortress Maximus cuts a deal with his most dangerous inmate...

Synopsis

"Oh, I finally get it! 'Jhi-ax-us?' Gee, ax us!"

Arcee has been tearing a path of destruction across the galaxy in an attempt to eliminate Jhiaxus and purge his handiwork from the universe. In the Van-Dema Sector, Arcee rampages through the Stellar Cartography Archive until she runs into Ultra Magnus, who's been authorized under the terms of the Tyrest Accord to bring her in. As they fight, Magnus demands an explanation for her erratic behavior, but he can't understand her cryptic ramblings that she's the only thing standing between them and the end of the universe. Finally, after a protracted fight, Magnus knocks her down with a shock grenade and hauls her away. As they leave, a pair of Cybertronians watch them go; some time later, those same Transformers report to Jhiaxus that the Nega-Core hidden in the facility remains unharmed. Pleased, Jhiaxus confirms that they will continue their preparation for the Expansion...

Some time later, Arcee has been transferred to the Garrus-9 prison, where her spark has been extracted from her body and interred in "The Rig" alongside the sparks of many other notorious Autobots and Decepticons. Warden Fortress Maximus is eager to transfer the recently captured "Monstructor Six" into similar accommodations, but Jetfire and the Technobots remind him that spark extraction is always an option of last resort, and that their remit is to attempt reformation before incarceration. However, Monstructor's components have resisted all forms of treatment thus far. Maximus is concerned that their unique combiner physiology will draw the attention of the Decepticons... and he's proven right when Banzaitron, acting on a tip-off from Doubledealer, sends the Combaticons to steal this so-called gestalt technology for his Decepticon Secret Service. The Combaticons strike at precisely the right grid-sensor-shuffling moment, breach the facility, and easily overrun the Autobot garrison. With no reinforcements on the way, Fortress Maximus makes the drastic decision: recruit the most dangerous Autobot prisoner on the docket and convince them to help them...

As Arcee comes to, Fortress Maximus explains that they're under siege from some of the toughest Decepticons around. Initially, Arcee has no interest in helping her captor, but Maximus explains that their newest prisoners owe their existence to Jhiaxus, and the Decepticons want to get their hands on this revolutionary combiner technology. Arcee immediately changes her tune, but Fortress warns her that she's been fitted with a synchronized g-force crusher to keep her in line—if she turns on her nominal allies, Maximus can terminate her by remotely crushing her spark chamber.

As Jetfire and the Technobots struggle to hold the line against the encroaching Decepticons, Scattershot and Afterburner prepare a contingency measure that will immediately kill the Monstructor Six and keep them out of Decepticon hands. At that moment, however, Arcee leaps into battle; although she easily fights her way through the Combaticons, she's too late to prevent Vortex from tripping an orbital bounce that teleports their six targets of interest directly out from under the Autobots. Arcee proposes that she be released to hunt them down, as her own history has given her an uncanny ability to track down Jhiaxus and his creations. When Jetfire asks what really happened between the two, Arcee finally reveals that she was one of Jhiaxus's early experiments, an attempt to introduce gender into the Cybertronian species by altering her CNA; it is for this reason that the other Transformers around her unconsciously refer to her with female pronouns. Traumatized from his mistreatment and subsequent abandonment, all the vengeful Autobot can think of now is wiping out Jhiaxus and expunging his influence from the universe.

Fortress Maximus initially disagrees and threatens to trip Arcee's g-force crusher unless she returns to captivity, but Jetfire ultimately persuades his comrade to let her go—after all, at this point, they've got nothing to lose. As Arcee stalks away, Maximus comments that, if Jhiaxus really is still out there, he almost feels sorry for him...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Continuity notes

• Jhiaxus and talk of the Expansion is part of the growing Dead Universe storyline, which will pay off in Revelation, and then again in Chaos, and then again in Dark Cybertron.
• Later stories will clarify it's not being a lone female in a boy's toyline that traumatises Arcee, but the fact of being experimented on against her will and then discarded.
• Arcee states that she was the first female Transformer experiment and it is implied she is something rare and (perhaps) unique. However nothing in the issue states that she was the only female Transformer created due to Jhiaxus's program. Indeed, in Megatron Origin and All Hail Megatron a number of female Transformers make cameo appearances. However, as the comics went on, Arcee would be treated as the only female Transformer by other writers until "Dark Cybertron" introduced ones from other worlds. Lost Light #8 would later retcon that the female Transformer cameos were Cybertronians but weren't the result of Jhiaxus, instead the result of Cybertronians going offworld and coming to self-realisation that they were female.
• Arcee's reference to gendered pronouns makes little sense in the original context. It stands to reason that a race originally entirely devoid of gender would lack sexually-oriented pronouns in their native language. So the use of "he" and "she" would likely be supplemented with a uniform variation of "they" for everybody. Once female Transformers were retconned as having previously existed, the existence of the pronouns makes sense.
• Arcee's backstory of being an unwitting experiment comes up in "An Uneventful Night", where she's out to destroy the Enigma of Combination so nobody else can be altered against their will, and more broadly in the second half of Barber's Transformers ongoing as she's mistrustful of 'great men' figures on a cause.
• Arcee stabbing Blast Off with her sword gets a minor call back in Till All Are One #1.
• First appearances: Arcee; Repugnus, Longtooth, Skyjack, and Ransack appear as disembodied sparks only; Cloudraker, Fastlane, Jackpot, Rad, Skyfall, Windbreaker, Over-Run, Turbofire, Vroom, Rollout, Sprocket; Roadblock, Brawl, Vortex; Jhiaxus.

Later retcons

• After bringing Arcee to the fore in the Robots in Disguise and Optimus Prime comics—and introducing numerous other female Transformers along the way—author John Barber would sporadically touch on the events surrounding Arcee's origin story, fleshing out background details and providing some subtle retcons.
  • Spotlight: Arcee depicts Arcee with an Autobot insignia, implying that she was, at one point, an ordinary Autobot, presumably before her encounter with Jhiaxus. When Arcee became a prominent character in Barber's Robots in Disguise comic, this conceit was quietly dropped; Robots in Disguise #18 shows her carving an improvised Autobot insignia into her arm, and Bumblebee reacts with surprise when she announces her intent to join the faction. Subsequent instalments would establish Arcee as an ancient warrior, a contemporary of the Thirteen who predated the rise of the Autobots by several million years.
  • Windblade would introduce the lost colony world of Caminus, where female and male Transformers naturally coexisted. '"The Transformers vol. 2 #37 revealed that ancient Cybertron did possess female Transformers and an understanding of gender; Jhiaxus's experiments on Arcee and his creation of Monstructor (G1) were both part of a larger effort to restore lost elements of ancient Cybertronian society.
  • In Sins of the Wreckers #3, Arcee's internal monologue implied that she had, at least to some extent, consented to Jhiaxus's experiments, as she hadn't seen the malevolent scientist for who he truly was. Later issues suggested that Arcee was struggling with identity issues even before the incident; narration from her point of view recognized that her prior self was a "lie [she] told herself" ^[1] and that her current form is "who she was always meant to be".^[2] Flashbacks in both Optimus Prime and Unicron showed Arcee's original body more closely resembled her brother Galvatron. Finally, Optimus Prime #25 laid out what had really happened between the two: Arcee explained she had been "forged male", and that she'd deliberately sought out Jhiaxus for assistance in transitioning. Her violent behavior was not a product of the transition itself, but instead stemmed from a combination of unforseen side effects and Jhiaxus's non-existent aftercare. Arcee's mental state in this issue was retroactively attributed to the recent disappearance of Anode, a fellow transgender Cybertronian whom Arcee had befriended offscreen at some point after Jhiaxus abandoned her.

Transformers references

• This issue's cast is another deep dive into the tail end of the Generation 1 line. Most of the Garrus-9 guards are Action Masters; we also get a smattering of later-run Pretenders.

Trivia

• Part of Furman's work in early IDW was coming up with new, coherent reasons and rationales for various toy gimmicks. This Spotlight controversially aimed to give a reason for why Transformers have genders, something Furman thought didn't make sense for robots that don't reproduce sexually. ^[3] It was not considered by him to be a story about Arcee's gender being changed or touching on any trans issues (both things fans had brought up at the time) as, to him, there was no gender.^[4]
• Six years later, the comic caused a brief conflict between Furman and Mairghread Scott, who developed IDW's second female Transformer, Windblade. Scott implied that Windblade wouldn't have a special origin for being female and when asked about Spotlight: Arcee, she said she found the implications of Arcee's gender making her mad and a woman being the aberration "upsetting". She clarified that she didn't believe Furman was trying to make any gender comments, that "in a vacuum, Furman’s story is completely legitimate" (but sadly stories do not exist in a social & cultural vacuum), and pinned the blame on how rare female characters were in the brand; "Arcee’s origin is offensive because we don’t have any other female origins to balance it".^[5] Furman considered this a personal attack, "accus[ing] me of apparently setting out to be offensive to women", and also took issue with another creator "sling[ing] mud", believing they had a duty to be respectful when discussing each other's work. "However ‘carefully’ Mrs. Scott chose her words, the message was the same: Spotlight Arcee was some derogatory and misguided portrait of all women and we’re going to fix that."^[6] Scott and Furman talked and "ironed out the bumps" a few days later.
• The issue contains bonus sketch art by Alex Milne, including color tests for Arcee.
• Cover B was colored in a style that pays homage to the cover of Akira Vol.1. ^[7]

Errors

• More of an inconsistency, but Fortress Maximus as previously (and briefly) seen in Spotlight: Blaster appeared to be based on his traditional G1 design, whereas Milne debuts a brand-new original design for him in this issue. Seeing how close the two comics were released, this is probably just a matter of reference material not being available at the right time.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Arcee, Nova Prime, the Pretender Monsters, Ultra Magnus, Fortress Maximus and some dead guy by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.
• Cover B: Arcee being assembled by Alex Milne and Josh Perez.
• Cover RI: Uncolored sketch of cover B.

• 

  Kiss me deadly

• 

  Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors...

• 

  RI Cover

Advertisements

• Spotlight: Grimlock
• Spotlight: Mirage
• Transformers Classics Volume 1 TPB
• Megatron Origin TPB
• The Ascending TPB
• Transformers: Target: 2006 TPB
• Animated books
• All Hail Megatron series
• Star Trek: New Frontier (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: Spotlight Volume 3 (September 17, 2008) ISBN 160010245X / ISBN 978-1600102455
• The Transformers: The Premiere Collection Volume 2 (June 17, 2009) ISBN 1600104371 / ISBN 978-1600104374
• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Three (March 2, 2011) ISBN 1600108563 / ISBN 978-1600108563
• The Transformers: Spotlight Omnibus Volume 1 (April 15, 2015) ISBN 1631402463 / ISBN 978-1631402463
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 42: Revelation (October 17, 2018)

• 

  Spotlight Volume 3 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Premiere Collection Volume 2 – cover art by Nick Roche & Josh Burcham

• 

  The IDW Collection Volume Three – cover art by E. J. Su

• 

  Spotlight Omnibus Volume 1 – cover art by Jeffrey Veregge

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 42: Revelation – cover art by Don Figueroa and Nick Roche

References