He’s too Kind for a Policeman, He’s Never Known to Frown, and Everybody says, He’s the Happiest Man in Town.
Spotlight: Prowl: Ride-Along. April 21st 2010.
Jeez… My Captain is gonna kill me.
Here we have the most infamous Transformers comic of 2010, one that only exists to desperately try and square the circle on why Costa has been writing Prowl as a Really Nice Chill Guy.
The official line was that the story here was always going to be told in the ongoing but was brought forward into a special Spotlight to address reader concerns. Which, frankly, has always felt complete bollocks because if there was a big plan to intentionally give Prowl an arc of change, editorial would have made sure his portrayal in Last Stand of the Wreckers, the fourth issue of which came out the same day as this, matched it.
So, this feels less like bringing a planned story forward, and more like the sort of desperate running around like a headless chicken attempt to deal with complaints we saw during All Hail Megatron, when different writers having very different takes on characters is a Transformers comic tradition, and one we’ll see again, especially when James Roberts gets his hands on a few of them.
Jeez… My Captain is gonna kill me.
Here we have the most infamous Transformers comic of 2010, one that only exists to desperately try and square the circle on why Costa has been writing Prowl as a Really Nice Chill Guy.
The official line was that the story here was always going to be told in the ongoing but was brought forward into a special Spotlight to address reader concerns. Which, frankly, has always felt complete bollocks because if there was a big plan to intentionally give Prowl an arc of change, editorial would have made sure his portrayal in Last Stand of the Wreckers, the fourth issue of which came out the same day as this, matched it.
So, this feels less like bringing a planned story forward, and more like the sort of desperate running around like a headless chicken attempt to deal with complaints we saw during All Hail Megatron, when different writers having very different takes on characters is a Transformers comic tradition, and one we’ll see again, especially when James Roberts gets his hands on a few of them.
Describing the ongoing.
This means our first titled Spotlight starts prior to the ongoing. Prowl is working undercover as a police car in LA, under Prime’s orders. Undercover with his Autobrand front and centre on his hood in a world where everyone knows about and fears the Transformers.
This is despite him having advised Prime that they shouldn’t get involved in human affairs. Turns out Optimus just loves being a dick as this makes him send Prowl to work with them for 8 months.
During this time, Prowl sees lots of petty crime and meaningless violence, but also how humans adapt and survive. Yes, it’s that thing about how Transformers don’t change, but humans do. Again. Costa’s one big idea.
He also sees the cops bring down a building on an injured and defenceless Thrust, which is a very American cop thing to do, and kind of sums up Thrust’s role in Transformers media that he dies off-page.
After this run, Prowl returns to find more new Autobot arrivals, and Bumblebee (presumably having his Coda adventure) missing after being sent on a mission by Brawn…
This is despite him having advised Prime that they shouldn’t get involved in human affairs. Turns out Optimus just loves being a dick as this makes him send Prowl to work with them for 8 months.
During this time, Prowl sees lots of petty crime and meaningless violence, but also how humans adapt and survive. Yes, it’s that thing about how Transformers don’t change, but humans do. Again. Costa’s one big idea.
He also sees the cops bring down a building on an injured and defenceless Thrust, which is a very American cop thing to do, and kind of sums up Thrust’s role in Transformers media that he dies off-page.
After this run, Prowl returns to find more new Autobot arrivals, and Bumblebee (presumably having his Coda adventure) missing after being sent on a mission by Brawn…
You know it's good when the characters are pointing out what nonsense the story is.
Wait, Brawn has some seniority now? No wonder Prowl is worried.
Still, as New York recovers, the Autobots will need to move bases, and Prowl, like the reader, does not understand the point of his mission. A question Prime basically ignores as he instead talks about how they’re no longer a military unit and it might be time to try something more democratic, as he looks out on the under-reconstruction Statue of Liberty.
So they’re in New York just for that visual, even though it makes no sense to be sending Prowl all the way to LA to do cop work if that’s the case.
It’s clear Prowl is not the only thing this comic is hoping to shut readers up about as it tries to explain the whole odd voting in a new leader thing as well.
Prowl carries on patrolling, musing on how the 5 billion humans (which means about a billion died during the invasion, something that should have huge consequences that we never see) should be worth less than any of the 10 thousand surviving Cybertronians by the math, but in seeing their sacrifice and growth, he’s having to adapt to the fact the basic math is wrong.
Still, as New York recovers, the Autobots will need to move bases, and Prowl, like the reader, does not understand the point of his mission. A question Prime basically ignores as he instead talks about how they’re no longer a military unit and it might be time to try something more democratic, as he looks out on the under-reconstruction Statue of Liberty.
So they’re in New York just for that visual, even though it makes no sense to be sending Prowl all the way to LA to do cop work if that’s the case.
It’s clear Prowl is not the only thing this comic is hoping to shut readers up about as it tries to explain the whole odd voting in a new leader thing as well.
Prowl carries on patrolling, musing on how the 5 billion humans (which means about a billion died during the invasion, something that should have huge consequences that we never see) should be worth less than any of the 10 thousand surviving Cybertronians by the math, but in seeing their sacrifice and growth, he’s having to adapt to the fact the basic math is wrong.
E.J. selling the unsellable.
So when a politician is giving a speech in front of a building that’s being cleared out and some construction workers accidentally set off a Decepticon gun, collapsing a skyscraper, heroic friend to all children Prowl leaps in to save a small girl.
Deeply embarrassing the cop who was driving him for not having realised, but having seen Prowl save the kid, he decides he’s like a “Real beat cop.” Presumably from the lying and hiding thing, so he “accidentally” sends out a call to Skywatch that will be overheard by the Autobots, letting them come dig Prowl out of the rubble he’s half buried in before they arrive.
A year later, Prowl repeats the breaking cover trick as we saw in issue 1. But he has no regrets, and even now is still working as a cop car because “There comes a time when plans fail, when results are unforeseen, when the math doesn’t work. The numbers: Five billion human lives, ten thousand Cybertronian lives. I’d risk my life for any one of them.” Over a shot of him with his new cop partner, with “To protect and serve” proudly displayed on his door in what’s presumably a “Fuck you” to Movie Barricade.
Yes folks, Prowl said “ACAB.” That’s “All cops are beautiful.”
This may actually be the most nothing issue Costa has yet given us, only existing to answer a question to which the only real answer is “Bad writing.” It’s boring, almost nothing happens, and it just repeats the same old “Humans are special” stuff three different characters have now given us, almost word for word the same. Jeez Mike Costa, if you like humanity so much, just get a room.
Deeply embarrassing the cop who was driving him for not having realised, but having seen Prowl save the kid, he decides he’s like a “Real beat cop.” Presumably from the lying and hiding thing, so he “accidentally” sends out a call to Skywatch that will be overheard by the Autobots, letting them come dig Prowl out of the rubble he’s half buried in before they arrive.
A year later, Prowl repeats the breaking cover trick as we saw in issue 1. But he has no regrets, and even now is still working as a cop car because “There comes a time when plans fail, when results are unforeseen, when the math doesn’t work. The numbers: Five billion human lives, ten thousand Cybertronian lives. I’d risk my life for any one of them.” Over a shot of him with his new cop partner, with “To protect and serve” proudly displayed on his door in what’s presumably a “Fuck you” to Movie Barricade.
Yes folks, Prowl said “ACAB.” That’s “All cops are beautiful.”
This may actually be the most nothing issue Costa has yet given us, only existing to answer a question to which the only real answer is “Bad writing.” It’s boring, almost nothing happens, and it just repeats the same old “Humans are special” stuff three different characters have now given us, almost word for word the same. Jeez Mike Costa, if you like humanity so much, just get a room.
"There's a black guy over there who looks like he's going to resist arrest, let's go!"
And yes, all the “US cops are amazing” stuff wouldn’t have been great at the time and has only aged like a mug of cold vomit. Especially as even if this issue bigging them up, they twice break the rules by making their own decisions about a Transformer (killing Thrust, freeing Prowl) without waiting for the proper authority that’s meant to deal with this stuff to arrive.
The only real plus is we get some genuinely nice E.J. Su art, in what I think is pretty much his last interiors till close to the end of the whole run. But being pretty is not enough, and the only remotely good thing to come out of this is that later writers will call out Prowl on being full of crap.
Next week, it’s more Costa as he wraps up his first story arc on the ongoing with Menasor Vs Everyone.
ADDENDUM 10
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
The only real plus is we get some genuinely nice E.J. Su art, in what I think is pretty much his last interiors till close to the end of the whole run. But being pretty is not enough, and the only remotely good thing to come out of this is that later writers will call out Prowl on being full of crap.
Next week, it’s more Costa as he wraps up his first story arc on the ongoing with Menasor Vs Everyone.
ADDENDUM 10
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
