For Every Sin, I’ll Have to Pay, I’ve Come to Work, I’ve Come to Play, I Think I’ll Find Another Way.
Spotlight: Hot Rod. November 18th 2006.
What I’d like, more than anything, is for us to be friends.
More than any other issue to date, this Spotlight is the biggest move towards the IDW continuity as it’s going to be remembered, introducing as it does one of the main lead characters of the golden years and all his attendant baggage.
Indeed, you can say Hot Rod starts as he means to go on, being an insane risk-taking daredevil as a means of covering his deep insecurities about past failings. Whilst being betrayed by a subordinate and friend.
There are also plot points and ideas that make it all the way to the end of the run, though not in a way anyone involved in this issue could have predicted.
It’s also Nick Roche’s second issue on art, and Furman clearly knew who he was getting (I suspect Nick probably did unspeakably sordid things to get to draw the debut of his favourite character) and has some idea of The Rocher’s talents by this point. Either because pages from Shockwave had come in whilst he was writing, or he looked into Roche’s fan work. He might even have remembered awarding young Master Nick first place in a fan art contest at a convention in the 90s.
What I’d like, more than anything, is for us to be friends.
More than any other issue to date, this Spotlight is the biggest move towards the IDW continuity as it’s going to be remembered, introducing as it does one of the main lead characters of the golden years and all his attendant baggage.
Indeed, you can say Hot Rod starts as he means to go on, being an insane risk-taking daredevil as a means of covering his deep insecurities about past failings. Whilst being betrayed by a subordinate and friend.
There are also plot points and ideas that make it all the way to the end of the run, though not in a way anyone involved in this issue could have predicted.
It’s also Nick Roche’s second issue on art, and Furman clearly knew who he was getting (I suspect Nick probably did unspeakably sordid things to get to draw the debut of his favourite character) and has some idea of The Rocher’s talents by this point. Either because pages from Shockwave had come in whilst he was writing, or he looked into Roche’s fan work. He might even have remembered awarding young Master Nick first place in a fan art contest at a convention in the 90s.
You can tell Nick loves Hot Rod a little bit too much.
But either way, we open on a sequence that is pure Nick Roche, of Hot Rod getting around the detection grid on a Decepticon prison by riding an asteroid storm down into the atmosphere. And I don’t mean in a spaceship, he’s basically asteroid surfing.
Which, considering Furman is going to do a lot of Bond nods during his IDW tenure, puts me very much in mind of the similar surfing sequence that opens Die Another Day. You know, the one where a mission goes badly wrong due to betrayal and Bond spends ages in a hell hole prison as a result. Remember that as we go forward.
It initially looks like we’re going to avoid the usual portentous narration Furman has been sticking too since Stormbringer, as Hot Rod is both elated and smug about how his incredibly clever plan that no one else thought was possible has worked.
But the problem with falling down to a planet is you hit a planet, and as he’s briefly knocked out, he starts to remember his reason for being there and the narration becomes much more Furman.
But it works this time, largely because there’s a contrast between how Hot Rod acts (brash, cocky and smug), and the seriously introspective and guilt ridden inner-monologue he has. It actually adds some depth rather than making me want to repeatedly punch myself in the face.
The rest of the issue is then effectively split between two narratives, a series of flashbacks to The Day It All Went Wrong and Hot Rod’s sneaky mission on the Decepticon penal colony of Styx. Because the Decepticons love a good classical allusion.
Which, considering Furman is going to do a lot of Bond nods during his IDW tenure, puts me very much in mind of the similar surfing sequence that opens Die Another Day. You know, the one where a mission goes badly wrong due to betrayal and Bond spends ages in a hell hole prison as a result. Remember that as we go forward.
It initially looks like we’re going to avoid the usual portentous narration Furman has been sticking too since Stormbringer, as Hot Rod is both elated and smug about how his incredibly clever plan that no one else thought was possible has worked.
But the problem with falling down to a planet is you hit a planet, and as he’s briefly knocked out, he starts to remember his reason for being there and the narration becomes much more Furman.
But it works this time, largely because there’s a contrast between how Hot Rod acts (brash, cocky and smug), and the seriously introspective and guilt ridden inner-monologue he has. It actually adds some depth rather than making me want to repeatedly punch myself in the face.
The rest of the issue is then effectively split between two narratives, a series of flashbacks to The Day It All Went Wrong and Hot Rod’s sneaky mission on the Decepticon penal colony of Styx. Because the Decepticons love a good classical allusion.
Do you think Backbeat and Nightbeat are brothers?
The flashbacks are the meat of the plot, concerning Hot Rod’s first ever mission in command of a unit, and the only time he ever failed.
Oh, my sweet summer child, you have no idea what’s coming.
Said unit is a four-bot team, and gives us our first ever created by IDW Transformers, starting a long and noble tradition of OCs who will become beloved favourites, with many even getting toys. Though here, Gizmo, Backbeat and Download are in the more traditional vein of comic only guys of being born to die. Meaning, sadly, that despite some great and imaginative designs by Nick, they’re very much also runs.
The fourth person on the team is Doubledealer...err... I mean Dealer. Which should make the ending fairly obvious. But the last issue proved a comic all about heavily featured in previous comics Nightbeat is a tough sell because he’s still fairly obscure, so it is entirely possible a lot of people reading this had never heard of Doubledealer...err...Dealer and it was a surprise.
Said mission is to the planet Ki-Aleta, to perform a raid on a mysterious Omega Bunker that’s protected by fearsome Omega Guardians to grab a powerful McGuffin.
And that’s not Omega Guardians in the original cartoon sense of Autobots that look like Omega Supreme, but stone machines with odd holes in their chest, left behind by a race that’s as mysterious as anything else about this to guard their McGuffin.
Oh, my sweet summer child, you have no idea what’s coming.
Said unit is a four-bot team, and gives us our first ever created by IDW Transformers, starting a long and noble tradition of OCs who will become beloved favourites, with many even getting toys. Though here, Gizmo, Backbeat and Download are in the more traditional vein of comic only guys of being born to die. Meaning, sadly, that despite some great and imaginative designs by Nick, they’re very much also runs.
The fourth person on the team is Doubledealer...err... I mean Dealer. Which should make the ending fairly obvious. But the last issue proved a comic all about heavily featured in previous comics Nightbeat is a tough sell because he’s still fairly obscure, so it is entirely possible a lot of people reading this had never heard of Doubledealer...err...Dealer and it was a surprise.
Said mission is to the planet Ki-Aleta, to perform a raid on a mysterious Omega Bunker that’s protected by fearsome Omega Guardians to grab a powerful McGuffin.
And that’s not Omega Guardians in the original cartoon sense of Autobots that look like Omega Supreme, but stone machines with odd holes in their chest, left behind by a race that’s as mysterious as anything else about this to guard their McGuffin.
Hot Rod loves a magic ball.
It’s all a fairly flimsy pretext, though one that’s now hard to take seriously because there will be eventually be a whole explanation for the Omega Guardians that... well, I’m still not sure makes any sense but is certainly a thing.
Of course, a flimsy pretext isn’t such a problem when it’s the team itself and what happens to them that’s important, but it does feel odd to know the actual McGuffin, something called the Magnificence, is going to be very important going forward.
Cocky Hot Rod’s plan is simple, use drones to drill a tunnel right through to the bunker (I guess Scoop was busy off doing Wrecker stuff) whereby Hot Rod and Download can sneak in, whilst the others run interference up on the surface to distract the Guardians.
Said interference being quite smart as, rather than risk themselves, they use Holomatter Simulacrums of the team to attack and draw the monolith machines away. Which is the first time, and indeed one of very few times despite its obvious potential applications, the technology gets used tactically.
All seems to go well, and once in the chamber they are presented with a glowing magic ball, the Magnificence. Download is worried about stealing a cultural artefact, even if the culture is long gone, but Hot Rod explains that if it’s true the Magnificence has super future seeing powers that let it answer any question, it has to be kept out of the hands of the Decepticons.
Of course, a flimsy pretext isn’t such a problem when it’s the team itself and what happens to them that’s important, but it does feel odd to know the actual McGuffin, something called the Magnificence, is going to be very important going forward.
Cocky Hot Rod’s plan is simple, use drones to drill a tunnel right through to the bunker (I guess Scoop was busy off doing Wrecker stuff) whereby Hot Rod and Download can sneak in, whilst the others run interference up on the surface to distract the Guardians.
Said interference being quite smart as, rather than risk themselves, they use Holomatter Simulacrums of the team to attack and draw the monolith machines away. Which is the first time, and indeed one of very few times despite its obvious potential applications, the technology gets used tactically.
All seems to go well, and once in the chamber they are presented with a glowing magic ball, the Magnificence. Download is worried about stealing a cultural artefact, even if the culture is long gone, but Hot Rod explains that if it’s true the Magnificence has super future seeing powers that let it answer any question, it has to be kept out of the hands of the Decepticons.
You wouldn't Download a Download.
Which is the point things start to go wrong. First the holomatter projector explodes, and Gizmo is killed. We don’t see what happens to Backbeat, but I hear the word on the street is the fire in his heart is out.
With the distraction ended, the Guardians in the chamber come alive and Hot Rod’s Download is interrupted... permanently. Leaving only Doubledealer...err...Dealer up on the surface, under attack and begging for help over comms.
But what no one knew is Hot Rod had super-secret special orders, that if anything went wrong, the entire team was expandable as getting the Magnificence was more important. So, using a secret extra tunnel he’d had dug, Hot Rod abandons his colleague, his screams running through his head.
Which is why he’s on Styx, atoning.
The present-day plot (how much later isn’t specified, but it’s clearly been some time) is just straight forward heist stuff, but it’s great fun as Hot Rod runs rings around the guards and prison warden Gutcruncher, setting off fake trails and alarms (including one in refuse collection) to draw attention away from himself and make it look like there’s a mass prisoner escape in progress that has them all withdraw to a secure area.
With the distraction ended, the Guardians in the chamber come alive and Hot Rod’s Download is interrupted... permanently. Leaving only Doubledealer...err...Dealer up on the surface, under attack and begging for help over comms.
But what no one knew is Hot Rod had super-secret special orders, that if anything went wrong, the entire team was expandable as getting the Magnificence was more important. So, using a secret extra tunnel he’d had dug, Hot Rod abandons his colleague, his screams running through his head.
Which is why he’s on Styx, atoning.
The present-day plot (how much later isn’t specified, but it’s clearly been some time) is just straight forward heist stuff, but it’s great fun as Hot Rod runs rings around the guards and prison warden Gutcruncher, setting off fake trails and alarms (including one in refuse collection) to draw attention away from himself and make it look like there’s a mass prisoner escape in progress that has them all withdraw to a secure area.
The Chin of Sorrow.
He even uses holomatter to impersonate a guard, again showing he has a better grasp on the potential of the technology that anyone. Creating a nice comedy beat when he runs into the real and now very confused Decepticon (“Surprise!”).
His computer trickery also involves unlocking all the cells in the prison. Because he’s there for one reason, he doesn’t dare look in any of the open doors he passes, but as the prisoners are so broken none of them try to leave, the implication of what the place is like is pretty brutal. This all feels very influential on the later work of Nick Roche (and then James Roberts), but they’d be keener to show you what terrible things had been done to the POWs, which will create some memorable nightmare imagery, but there’s also something to be said for the power of suggestion approach here.
It’s only one door he’s interested in though, one with a tortured and in a terrible state Doubledealer...err... Dealer behind it. The atonement for his failure that, though he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing, meant Hot Rod has always felt untrusted by his colleagues and so unsure of himself that he’s only ever worked alone since (so the mission wasn’t just his first command, it was his only command).
His computer trickery also involves unlocking all the cells in the prison. Because he’s there for one reason, he doesn’t dare look in any of the open doors he passes, but as the prisoners are so broken none of them try to leave, the implication of what the place is like is pretty brutal. This all feels very influential on the later work of Nick Roche (and then James Roberts), but they’d be keener to show you what terrible things had been done to the POWs, which will create some memorable nightmare imagery, but there’s also something to be said for the power of suggestion approach here.
It’s only one door he’s interested in though, one with a tortured and in a terrible state Doubledealer...err... Dealer behind it. The atonement for his failure that, though he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing, meant Hot Rod has always felt untrusted by his colleagues and so unsure of himself that he’s only ever worked alone since (so the mission wasn’t just his first command, it was his only command).
Eugenesis (2001)
Which is very Hot Rod really, he’s making all the terrible things that have happened to Doubledealer...err... Dealer about him.
Hot Rod is also in his disguise when he finds Doubledealer…err… Dealer. An Autobot pretending to be a Decepticon rescuing a Decepticon pretending to be an Autobot.
Escape is managed thanks to more smart planning from Hot Rod (for a story about him dealing with failure, he’ll never be this much of a chess player again), and sometime later, once the wounds are healed, he sheepishly approaches Doubledealer...err... Dealer and apologies.
And is forgiven. Doubledealer...err... Dealer would have done the same and just wants them to be friends. Maybe they could even Getaway together some time.
But the twist that anyone who has ever heard of the character would have seen coming is revealed on the last page, as Dealer...err... Doubledealer reports to Decepticon Secret Service chief Banzaitron! Though thankfully, Action Masters will not be one of the gimmicks Furman gives a dark and miserable new take on (he’ll save that for Regeneration One).
Hot Rod is also in his disguise when he finds Doubledealer…err… Dealer. An Autobot pretending to be a Decepticon rescuing a Decepticon pretending to be an Autobot.
Escape is managed thanks to more smart planning from Hot Rod (for a story about him dealing with failure, he’ll never be this much of a chess player again), and sometime later, once the wounds are healed, he sheepishly approaches Doubledealer...err... Dealer and apologies.
And is forgiven. Doubledealer...err... Dealer would have done the same and just wants them to be friends. Maybe they could even Getaway together some time.
But the twist that anyone who has ever heard of the character would have seen coming is revealed on the last page, as Dealer...err... Doubledealer reports to Decepticon Secret Service chief Banzaitron! Though thankfully, Action Masters will not be one of the gimmicks Furman gives a dark and miserable new take on (he’ll save that for Regeneration One).
What pals.
Where, to the tune of Agatha All Along, Dealer...err... Doubledealer explains to Banzaitron things he already knows about how it was really him who betrayed the team and killed everyone else, only to be outfoxed by Hot Rod. But he’s got the Autobot wrapped around his finger now, so it’s only a matter of time before he finds out where the Magnificence is hidden...
So, wait, the Autobots get this super-McGuffin that can see and know everything, and Hot Rod’s order is just to hide it, rather than, say, they taking full advantage of it?
Boy, do they deserve to lose this war.
Still, all this makes Banzaitron joke that Dealer is such a sneaky mercenary (he’s very open about only being interested in the money he’ll be paid) they’ll have to start calling him...
Doubledealer.
DUH DUH DUH.
So, wait, the Autobots get this super-McGuffin that can see and know everything, and Hot Rod’s order is just to hide it, rather than, say, they taking full advantage of it?
Boy, do they deserve to lose this war.
Still, all this makes Banzaitron joke that Dealer is such a sneaky mercenary (he’s very open about only being interested in the money he’ll be paid) they’ll have to start calling him...
Doubledealer.
DUH DUH DUH.
"And I killed Backbeat too!"
Like the previous Spotlight, there’s a lot of setup here for storylines that will ultimately underwhelm. But it also works much better as a standalone piece, deftly balancing the two time periods and, whilst Hot Rod is probably dourer than feels right for him, it’s also largely the point that he’s on a journey of healing rather than just all the characters thinking in the same way.
The art from Nick is also really on game, supported by some nice lush colours from Liam Shalloo. From the surfing scene to the final reveal, every panel is fantastic and he’s already on his way to being the defining Hot Rod artist.
It’s not as bold in trying for a different style of story as Nightbeat was, but as a straightforward action-packed Mission: Impossible style story (indeed, the flashback has elements of the opening of the first film), it continues the trend of this being a strong series.
But next week, it’s back to the miniseries format, as the second (though really third. Retroactively fourth. No wonder people got confused) major salvo in Furman’s plans begins, with the first issue of Escalation.
SPOTLIGHT NIGHTBEAT
2005-2006
COMMENT
KO-FI
The art from Nick is also really on game, supported by some nice lush colours from Liam Shalloo. From the surfing scene to the final reveal, every panel is fantastic and he’s already on his way to being the defining Hot Rod artist.
It’s not as bold in trying for a different style of story as Nightbeat was, but as a straightforward action-packed Mission: Impossible style story (indeed, the flashback has elements of the opening of the first film), it continues the trend of this being a strong series.
But next week, it’s back to the miniseries format, as the second (though really third. Retroactively fourth. No wonder people got confused) major salvo in Furman’s plans begins, with the first issue of Escalation.
SPOTLIGHT NIGHTBEAT
2005-2006
COMMENT
KO-FI
