Christ Never Said Nothin’ ‘Bout no Clitoris.

Spotlight: Arcee. February 20th 2008.
You don’t even know you’re doing it, do you?
[Content warning: I suspect everyone going into this will know what discussion points come out of this this comic, but just in case: This piece talks about sexism, gender based attacks and transphobia]
As attentive readers will have noticed, Spotlight: Arcee has been approaching this project like a freight train speeding towards a puppy. It is, by a considerable margin, despite other issues that deal with difficult and not always handled well ideas, the most controversial Transformers comic IDW have ever done. One that can legitimately be called a millstone.
So, the clarify some things upfront, this issue deals with issue of gender and sexism and I am of course a cis man. The following people kindly gave this piece a quick (and paid for) once over to make sure there are no inadvertent blunders: Auto_Thots, Sammi_Letto and Daria Sigma (who is part of a Steven Universe podcast you should all check out, Not-So-Giant Women) . Though of course, the opinions are still mine and if any readers have any issue with them, I’m the one to take them up with.
And from years of talking to and, more importantly, listening to women and members of the LBGTQ+ community I think it’s fair to say a lot of what follows can be considered the overall consensus. Of course, no community or group of people is a homogenous hive mind, so disagreements are inevitable and welcome from those quarters, I’m not, for example, going to tell a trans person what to find transphobic. It should just be noted that fans of this comic from within those communities are very much in the minority.
You don’t even know you’re doing it, do you?
[Content warning: I suspect everyone going into this will know what discussion points come out of this this comic, but just in case: This piece talks about sexism, gender based attacks and transphobia]
As attentive readers will have noticed, Spotlight: Arcee has been approaching this project like a freight train speeding towards a puppy. It is, by a considerable margin, despite other issues that deal with difficult and not always handled well ideas, the most controversial Transformers comic IDW have ever done. One that can legitimately be called a millstone.
So, the clarify some things upfront, this issue deals with issue of gender and sexism and I am of course a cis man. The following people kindly gave this piece a quick (and paid for) once over to make sure there are no inadvertent blunders: Auto_Thots, Sammi_Letto and Daria Sigma (who is part of a Steven Universe podcast you should all check out, Not-So-Giant Women) . Though of course, the opinions are still mine and if any readers have any issue with them, I’m the one to take them up with.
And from years of talking to and, more importantly, listening to women and members of the LBGTQ+ community I think it’s fair to say a lot of what follows can be considered the overall consensus. Of course, no community or group of people is a homogenous hive mind, so disagreements are inevitable and welcome from those quarters, I’m not, for example, going to tell a trans person what to find transphobic. It should just be noted that fans of this comic from within those communities are very much in the minority.

And before going in, let’s deal with one of the arguments that, 13 years later, you still see from guys online.
Well, not the extreme one I once saw that compared disliking this comic to white genocide. That was a lot, even for the fringes of this fandom.
That being: No one complained about it at the time. That the complaints are a reactive criticism from women and Other People who don’t understand Real science fiction (to the point where I once asked someone how many women saying it’s sexist would it take for it to be sexist and was told no amount of women could manage that, presumably because he knew better) and were not fans of Transformers in 2008.
Which simply isn’t true. There were many active and established Transformers fans who were not cis guys in 2008, it was more you didn’t see many of them on forums at the time as they could often be off-putting boys’ clubs (as TFW2005 still is), so they occupied other spaces online, such a LiveJournal. For all its other sins, Twitter and its stablemates have just given them a more obvious to people who had never looked before presence.
Though 2008 did also coincide with a massive influx of new, younger and more diverse fans thanks to the double whammy of the recent film (never underestimate how popular Megan Fox was with young women) and Transformers Animated and its, whilst still very much for kids, slightly more knowing older humour. And of course, for 23 years prior to this, there had been female Transformers with no more explanation that the male Transformers in everything except Marvel and IDW.
Well, not the extreme one I once saw that compared disliking this comic to white genocide. That was a lot, even for the fringes of this fandom.
That being: No one complained about it at the time. That the complaints are a reactive criticism from women and Other People who don’t understand Real science fiction (to the point where I once asked someone how many women saying it’s sexist would it take for it to be sexist and was told no amount of women could manage that, presumably because he knew better) and were not fans of Transformers in 2008.
Which simply isn’t true. There were many active and established Transformers fans who were not cis guys in 2008, it was more you didn’t see many of them on forums at the time as they could often be off-putting boys’ clubs (as TFW2005 still is), so they occupied other spaces online, such a LiveJournal. For all its other sins, Twitter and its stablemates have just given them a more obvious to people who had never looked before presence.
Though 2008 did also coincide with a massive influx of new, younger and more diverse fans thanks to the double whammy of the recent film (never underestimate how popular Megan Fox was with young women) and Transformers Animated and its, whilst still very much for kids, slightly more knowing older humour. And of course, for 23 years prior to this, there had been female Transformers with no more explanation that the male Transformers in everything except Marvel and IDW.

And finally, before diving in, it’s worth noting that whilst Furman gets the majority of the blame for this issue (largely because he’s still a defender of it, as I’ll come to), this went through a lot of hands at IDW and Hasbro before making it to print. People in editorial and approvals who should have frankly known better on every level. It would be nice and neat to pin everything on just one person to avoid asking more difficult question of the two companies attitudes as a whole (and senior IDW people have in recent years made a habit of Unexpectedly Resigning to Pursue Other Opportunities), but this does not reflect well on anyone involved with it.
But before we get into the deep reeds, let’s talk about the surrounding story. Because even if you removed every contentious element from the writing of Arcee herself, this would still be a fucking terrible comic on just about every level. Including some poor, and in one moment I’ll come to, poorly judged art from Alex Milne that is probably his low point on IDW.
So, rapid-fire synopsis: Super psychopath Arcee attacks the Stella Cartography Archive in the Van Dema sector (named for the guy from Time Cop), before being captured by an Ultra Magnus who doesn’t realise the people there are working for Jhiaxus and preparing something called a “Nega-Core”.
Sometime later, as Autobot prison Garrus 9, Jetfire is trying to rehabilitate The Guys Who Make Monstructor, but, thanks to Doubledealer, Banzaitron leads a devastating attack to capture them. With his own troops falling, warden Fortress Maximus decides to use a prisoner, sending Arcee out to stop the Combaticons (without Swindle) getting the gestalt.
But before we get into the deep reeds, let’s talk about the surrounding story. Because even if you removed every contentious element from the writing of Arcee herself, this would still be a fucking terrible comic on just about every level. Including some poor, and in one moment I’ll come to, poorly judged art from Alex Milne that is probably his low point on IDW.
So, rapid-fire synopsis: Super psychopath Arcee attacks the Stella Cartography Archive in the Van Dema sector (named for the guy from Time Cop), before being captured by an Ultra Magnus who doesn’t realise the people there are working for Jhiaxus and preparing something called a “Nega-Core”.
Sometime later, as Autobot prison Garrus 9, Jetfire is trying to rehabilitate The Guys Who Make Monstructor, but, thanks to Doubledealer, Banzaitron leads a devastating attack to capture them. With his own troops falling, warden Fortress Maximus decides to use a prisoner, sending Arcee out to stop the Combaticons (without Swindle) getting the gestalt.

Which she completely fails to do, but after giving a sad speech about how Jhiaxus did to her the worse thing that could be done to anyone—made her a woman—Jetfire persuades Maximus to let her go pursue Jhiaxus in her own way.
So, let’s deal with the other awful stuff first.
The idea of Nemesis Prime having staff in the real Universe is a very odd one, and I can’t remember if it is ever expanded on or explained, especially when it comes to what they’re getting out of destroying all reality. The fight with Magnus also makes him look an idiot, he knows how tough Arcee is (and in this issue she basically has superpowers, something that will be downgraded to just good at what she does as time goes on), he wastes time giving her his full and lengthy catchphrase as she’s trying to kill him. OCD Magnus starts here.
Speaking of odd character behaviour: Meet Fortress Maximus. Though his Armada Megatron inspired redesign is probably the closest thing to a visual highlight in the issue, he’s also a strong contender for most incompetent Autobot of all time. He’s the prison warden whose prison is constantly and easily taken down by Decepticons, with this being the first of three major visits to Garrus 9 and three times where this happens on his watch.
One does actually wonder if Furman knew the basics of All Hail Megatron by this point and the “Taking down Autobot security thanks to codes from a traitor” things is pre-empting that on purpose. Either way, it does make the Autobots look somewhat dumb not to have covered that flaw after this though.
So, let’s deal with the other awful stuff first.
The idea of Nemesis Prime having staff in the real Universe is a very odd one, and I can’t remember if it is ever expanded on or explained, especially when it comes to what they’re getting out of destroying all reality. The fight with Magnus also makes him look an idiot, he knows how tough Arcee is (and in this issue she basically has superpowers, something that will be downgraded to just good at what she does as time goes on), he wastes time giving her his full and lengthy catchphrase as she’s trying to kill him. OCD Magnus starts here.
Speaking of odd character behaviour: Meet Fortress Maximus. Though his Armada Megatron inspired redesign is probably the closest thing to a visual highlight in the issue, he’s also a strong contender for most incompetent Autobot of all time. He’s the prison warden whose prison is constantly and easily taken down by Decepticons, with this being the first of three major visits to Garrus 9 and three times where this happens on his watch.
One does actually wonder if Furman knew the basics of All Hail Megatron by this point and the “Taking down Autobot security thanks to codes from a traitor” things is pre-empting that on purpose. Either way, it does make the Autobots look somewhat dumb not to have covered that flaw after this though.

Now Fortress Maximus has knee guns and a big canon on his back, so naturally when his own security in under threat, rather than going out to help, he lets out a prisoner. And luckily, like all prisoners, they keep the inmates own weapons on site, just in case they need them.
It’s a pity, because the idea of Spark Extraction as means on imprisonment is probably the one decent SF idea in the whole issue (and interestingly here it’s too inhumane to be used on the Monstructor boys, when later on not doing it to prisoners is the punishment for bad behaviour), and it is a hilarious background detail that Longtooth is one of the sparks in sing sing. This would have been a much better comic if he’d been the guy Fortress Maximus had unleashed.
And having built up to it the whole issue, Arcee is actually entirely useless as an unstoppable killing machine. She does manage to stab Blast Off through the chest, but not lethally and the one job Fortress Maximus gives her, that she’s passionate for because Monstructor was made by Jhiaxus, she fails at. Making Jetfire, completely out of character as a reckless rule-breaking maverick, persuading Maximus to look the other way and let her go at the end rather than using his security measure of a spark crusher seem especially daft.
It’s a messy issue, that may well have been another casualty of Furman having to quickly wrap-up plots (which Furman suggests was the case in the introduction to the Hachette book. Mind, he also says there that he left the series to focus on ReGeneration One, so clearly some revisionist history going on there), but it’s still a disaster even before you get to Arcee.
It’s a pity, because the idea of Spark Extraction as means on imprisonment is probably the one decent SF idea in the whole issue (and interestingly here it’s too inhumane to be used on the Monstructor boys, when later on not doing it to prisoners is the punishment for bad behaviour), and it is a hilarious background detail that Longtooth is one of the sparks in sing sing. This would have been a much better comic if he’d been the guy Fortress Maximus had unleashed.
And having built up to it the whole issue, Arcee is actually entirely useless as an unstoppable killing machine. She does manage to stab Blast Off through the chest, but not lethally and the one job Fortress Maximus gives her, that she’s passionate for because Monstructor was made by Jhiaxus, she fails at. Making Jetfire, completely out of character as a reckless rule-breaking maverick, persuading Maximus to look the other way and let her go at the end rather than using his security measure of a spark crusher seem especially daft.
It’s a messy issue, that may well have been another casualty of Furman having to quickly wrap-up plots (which Furman suggests was the case in the introduction to the Hachette book. Mind, he also says there that he left the series to focus on ReGeneration One, so clearly some revisionist history going on there), but it’s still a disaster even before you get to Arcee.

Which actually raises the question of why bother to “Explain” girl Transformers at this point, as he’s coming off and being replaced by a new writer. It’s rather limiting and unfair on his successor, who will actually use the 1986 film Autobots as a team and almost certainly would have had his own take on Arcee without this hampering him. It seems ridiculous, with so many plotting constraints coming in, to introduce a new character with a major arc to pay-off. It’s like Furman is more committed to his checklist of Explaining Transformers Things than the actual story.
And then there’s Arcee herself. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with reinventing her a damaged and dangerous character, even if it is very 90’s grimdark and feels rather boring after damaged and dangerous takes on every other aspect of Transformers lore. And this version of Arcee, complete with deadly swords, will actually wind up a popular character, once there were other women.
Which is the key thing, it is a problem to not only have just one woman in the entire species, but to make her an unstable psychopath to the point the guys who’ve been fighting for four million years go “WHOA she’s nuts”. It reads as little more than thinly disguised misogyny.
And that’s before we get to The Page. And the fact that it’s awkward to try and sell Transformers, a species who call each other “He” and have characters based on John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, as genderless comes across from how Furman struggles to have Arcee describe the concept. So Transformers don’t have gender, but their own language does have gendered pronouns with everyone “Choosing” he as a default and somehow not noticing how they’re calling Arcee “She” till she points it out.
Now, the idea that being gender neutral is a SF alien concept is a pretty insulting one in and of itself, there are no shortage of gender-fluid, non-binary and gender-neutral people in real life. Some present themselves as traditionally masculine, some as traditionally feminine (plus those who are neither or switch between both) and the pronouns they chose to use can vary from person to person. Effectively, reality presents a nice and easy way for Transformers to not have gender and to still be hes and shes if they wanted with no fuss or bother.
And then there’s Arcee herself. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with reinventing her a damaged and dangerous character, even if it is very 90’s grimdark and feels rather boring after damaged and dangerous takes on every other aspect of Transformers lore. And this version of Arcee, complete with deadly swords, will actually wind up a popular character, once there were other women.
Which is the key thing, it is a problem to not only have just one woman in the entire species, but to make her an unstable psychopath to the point the guys who’ve been fighting for four million years go “WHOA she’s nuts”. It reads as little more than thinly disguised misogyny.
And that’s before we get to The Page. And the fact that it’s awkward to try and sell Transformers, a species who call each other “He” and have characters based on John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart, as genderless comes across from how Furman struggles to have Arcee describe the concept. So Transformers don’t have gender, but their own language does have gendered pronouns with everyone “Choosing” he as a default and somehow not noticing how they’re calling Arcee “She” till she points it out.
Now, the idea that being gender neutral is a SF alien concept is a pretty insulting one in and of itself, there are no shortage of gender-fluid, non-binary and gender-neutral people in real life. Some present themselves as traditionally masculine, some as traditionally feminine (plus those who are neither or switch between both) and the pronouns they chose to use can vary from person to person. Effectively, reality presents a nice and easy way for Transformers to not have gender and to still be hes and shes if they wanted with no fuss or bother.

Though of course, there are completely gender neutral pronouns as well, and you can bet your bottom dollar the “No girls” people would throw a fit if Optimus Prime started going by “They”.
The issue, especially now we’ve seen all the real life AI systems like Siri be given female personas, is treating “He” as a default neutral term when it isn’t, and acting like it is treats anyone who goes by “She”, or anything else, as an aberration and completely unrealistic for the fictional outer space robot people with glowing blue souls you can take out and put back in.
It’s frankly a writer out of his depth talking about things he doesn’t understand any better than he did when he wrote Prime’s Rib two decades earlier. And yes, he’s a product of the 60’s British education system, which was as flawed on this as the 80’s British education system when I went through it (and I suspect the Twenties British eduction system today), but equally, if you’re going to write on a subject that you know is going to be controversial, it’s on you to do the research.
And that’s before you get to the gender reassignment issue. And why getting advice from people who really know there stuff helps is best shown by the fact I originally called that a "Sex change" issue, unaware that is an extremely outdated term at this point. But that older phrase is definitely how the comic is thinking of it, and it's actually hard to use a more accurate expression that properly conveys how uncomfortable this is.
So, Jhiaxus is a mad scientist who forced Arcee against her will to become a woman, something that has left her a deeply unstable psychopath. That was in bad taste in 2008, in 2021, with the trans community under more and more direct attack than ever before, it’s hideous. A terf wet dream where transition is the work of an insane men playing God, ruining the lives of those it is done to.
Something made even worse by a choice of Alex Milne’s during a flashback panel of Arcee being experimented on. In which she has what is presumably a Vaginal Excavator plugged into her groin and what everyone involved was thinking of there is one of the great mysteries of our age.
Later writers, largely by actually listening to trans people and even arranging for them to consult on the work professionally, actually turn this around, especially John Barber (in particular bringing in the idea Arcee was always a woman at heart, it was the doctor rather than the transition that was the issue). But as far as this comic goes, this is a disaster.
The issue, especially now we’ve seen all the real life AI systems like Siri be given female personas, is treating “He” as a default neutral term when it isn’t, and acting like it is treats anyone who goes by “She”, or anything else, as an aberration and completely unrealistic for the fictional outer space robot people with glowing blue souls you can take out and put back in.
It’s frankly a writer out of his depth talking about things he doesn’t understand any better than he did when he wrote Prime’s Rib two decades earlier. And yes, he’s a product of the 60’s British education system, which was as flawed on this as the 80’s British education system when I went through it (and I suspect the Twenties British eduction system today), but equally, if you’re going to write on a subject that you know is going to be controversial, it’s on you to do the research.
And that’s before you get to the gender reassignment issue. And why getting advice from people who really know there stuff helps is best shown by the fact I originally called that a "Sex change" issue, unaware that is an extremely outdated term at this point. But that older phrase is definitely how the comic is thinking of it, and it's actually hard to use a more accurate expression that properly conveys how uncomfortable this is.
So, Jhiaxus is a mad scientist who forced Arcee against her will to become a woman, something that has left her a deeply unstable psychopath. That was in bad taste in 2008, in 2021, with the trans community under more and more direct attack than ever before, it’s hideous. A terf wet dream where transition is the work of an insane men playing God, ruining the lives of those it is done to.
Something made even worse by a choice of Alex Milne’s during a flashback panel of Arcee being experimented on. In which she has what is presumably a Vaginal Excavator plugged into her groin and what everyone involved was thinking of there is one of the great mysteries of our age.
Later writers, largely by actually listening to trans people and even arranging for them to consult on the work professionally, actually turn this around, especially John Barber (in particular bringing in the idea Arcee was always a woman at heart, it was the doctor rather than the transition that was the issue). But as far as this comic goes, this is a disaster.

And it’s a disaster that has effectively destroyed Furman’s legacy. Especially when, five years later, he firmly stuck by it after writer Mairghread Scott (the first woman to write a Transformers comic. Odd how the cartoons were better on that. And though we didn’t know it at the time, her initial artist on Windblade, Saren Stone, was the first gender neutral “They/Them” person to work on the comics as well), correctly pointed out HERE these issues when coming on to write for the new female Autobot that Hasbro created for IDW to feature in the comics.
And yes, the implications of this comic were only eventually undone by a corporate mandate.
The entire situation was rather nasty, with Furman (HERE) putting sarcastic air quotes around “Professional” when describing her as a writer and saying he disliked her retconning his stuff as he hates retcons because of how they insult the audience. Which is odd as he had done the retconning Generation 2 ReGeneration One by that point. And also suggests either he was being disingenuous or was unaware it was two guy writers who retconned his Arcee take in Dark Cybertron, before Scott’s first issue.
And whilst it’s true women are not homogenous in their views, him producing one to say she was fine with his take did reek of the old Richard Herring joke, “I’m not a sexist, I’ve actually got a friend who’s a woman”. Notably he seemed unable to find any trans people to push back against those complaints. It also doesn't help that the Jenbot1980 he quotes seems to have signed up at TFW2005 just to make that post, as they only have one other (also on why women in Transformers is a bad idea) before vanishing forever. Which is certainly suggestive.
And whilst he’s largely stayed quite on it in the years since then, the mobile computer game he writes for that
only ever gets any attention paid to it when he puts in little digs at how gender has been handled after he left.
And yes, the implications of this comic were only eventually undone by a corporate mandate.
The entire situation was rather nasty, with Furman (HERE) putting sarcastic air quotes around “Professional” when describing her as a writer and saying he disliked her retconning his stuff as he hates retcons because of how they insult the audience. Which is odd as he had done the retconning Generation 2 ReGeneration One by that point. And also suggests either he was being disingenuous or was unaware it was two guy writers who retconned his Arcee take in Dark Cybertron, before Scott’s first issue.
And whilst it’s true women are not homogenous in their views, him producing one to say she was fine with his take did reek of the old Richard Herring joke, “I’m not a sexist, I’ve actually got a friend who’s a woman”. Notably he seemed unable to find any trans people to push back against those complaints. It also doesn't help that the Jenbot1980 he quotes seems to have signed up at TFW2005 just to make that post, as they only have one other (also on why women in Transformers is a bad idea) before vanishing forever. Which is certainly suggestive.
And whilst he’s largely stayed quite on it in the years since then, the mobile computer game he writes for that
only ever gets any attention paid to it when he puts in little digs at how gender has been handled after he left.

All of which means, there’s a huge amount of fandom, especially younger and newer fans, who dislike and, in cases I’ve seen at conventions, are even scared of him.
I think there’s definitely ignorance in his writing, and stubbornness in sticking to his outdated ideas (at least when it comes to Transformers, his handling of women in other comics he’s written is never going to win awards but is perfectly serviceable), but not active malice.
But ignorance is as dangerous as malice, especially when applied to marginalised groups who can’t afford to give any benefit of the doubt. Furman and his writing is an important and vital part of my childhood. It’s hopefully made me a better person over the years by hitting at exactly the right age when I was a kid.
But I cannot deny that the critics are 100% on this one. This is a bad comic, with a bad legacy (anyone who hates women Transformers will still mention it as The One True Way) and it permanently wrecked Furman’s efforts to reinvent himself as a modern comic writer. From here it’s a retreat fully into nostalgia and retro books where he doesn’t have to be confronted by the an audience that isn’t middle aged white guys.
This is the comic that killed Simon Furman’s take on Transformers. And worse of all, it’ll be a full year till the corpse stops twitching and even longer till something that can replace it properly comes along.
I think there’s definitely ignorance in his writing, and stubbornness in sticking to his outdated ideas (at least when it comes to Transformers, his handling of women in other comics he’s written is never going to win awards but is perfectly serviceable), but not active malice.
But ignorance is as dangerous as malice, especially when applied to marginalised groups who can’t afford to give any benefit of the doubt. Furman and his writing is an important and vital part of my childhood. It’s hopefully made me a better person over the years by hitting at exactly the right age when I was a kid.
But I cannot deny that the critics are 100% on this one. This is a bad comic, with a bad legacy (anyone who hates women Transformers will still mention it as The One True Way) and it permanently wrecked Furman’s efforts to reinvent himself as a modern comic writer. From here it’s a retreat fully into nostalgia and retro books where he doesn’t have to be confronted by the an audience that isn’t middle aged white guys.
This is the comic that killed Simon Furman’s take on Transformers. And worse of all, it’ll be a full year till the corpse stops twitching and even longer till something that can replace it properly comes along.

So what does that give us in terms of the goal of Revisitation to find the positive in every comic? Well, and amazingly, every idea introduced here will wind up being handled in more interesting and (usually) nuanced ways down the line. Even something as throwaway ridiculous as the incompetent Fortress Maximus will make for some great stories. Much gold will be spun out of this faeces covered straw.
And as many people have pointed out, there is a great irony that by Furman (and the IDW editorial after him) keeping women Transformers out of the comic for so long meant that when new writers explored more personal and romantic relationships, everyone had to be gay. Which is probably as far away as you can get from the intent.
But the issue itself needs burying at a crossroads with a stake through the heart.
But hey, Devastation issue 6 next week.
ADDENDUM 4
2008
COMMENT
KO-FI
And as many people have pointed out, there is a great irony that by Furman (and the IDW editorial after him) keeping women Transformers out of the comic for so long meant that when new writers explored more personal and romantic relationships, everyone had to be gay. Which is probably as far away as you can get from the intent.
But the issue itself needs burying at a crossroads with a stake through the heart.
But hey, Devastation issue 6 next week.
ADDENDUM 4
2008
COMMENT
KO-FI