#Spotlight: Stunticons

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Breakdown (Pages 3, 8-9 & 16-17)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Jamie Roberts Colours - Roy Stiffey Letters - HdE

wada sez: Breakdown’s Budiansky profile reads: “When Breakdown is in his car mode, he thinks everyone else is staring at him. [...] The root of his concerns is that someone will see him for what he really is - an alien on a strange world. [...] Often Breakdown's extreme self-consciousness negatively affects his performance, particularly in his role as a scout in which he must venture into numerous tension-producing situations.”

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Jamie Roberts #Roy Stiffey #HdE #Breakdown #Motormaster

[arceespinkgun]

One thing I've been fascinated by in the G1 Marvel comics (especially the UK, future stories) is the dynamic between Rodimus and Kup—in the cartoon, they were together for most of the movie but then only interacted a little in the rest of season 3. Kup being a supportive mentor to Rodimus was still a thing, but I don't feel like it got to shine much.

In the comics, by contrast, they're inseparable! I feel like Kup's role as a mentor is de-emphasized since they met when Hot Rod was already a soldier under Fortress Maximus's command, and then Kup joined the troop himself, but they're very close comrades. I really liked Kup's spotlight issue that showed their first meeting—it revealed that old, shell-shocked Autobots used to drift out in space to die as not to burden the rest of the forces (!) and Kup was in this position until Hot Rod needed rescuing. Hot Rod's brashness and desire to do good sparked something in Kup because he was reminded of his younger self. In a way, they saved each other?

There's a comic in one of the annuals that I really think showcases their relationship well. Hot Rod's told that Kup's going to transport a tape containing the secrets of Autobot City's construction, and that Hot Rod needs to stay back at the Ark on guard duty no matter what. But when he sees Kup getting beaten up by the Stunticons on a monitor, Hot Rod goes against orders to save Kup and gets beaten up instead, and the tape gets taken by the Decepticons. Then this happens:

But... there's a lot more to this, too. Huge spoilers ahead: in one really memorable future story, Rodimus has to seal Unicron away inside of the Matrix. But that means Unicron keeps attempting to corrupt him from the inside. Eventually, this comes to a head when Rodimus despairs enough that Unicron is able to take over and start slaughtering the other Autobots. Kup can't bear to fire upon Rodimus with a blaster set to anything but "stun," but as Arcee keeps pointing out, there might be no other way to stop the slaughter than to use lethal force.

This hesitation is a huge departure from how Kup usually is. In fact, in an earlier issue, Galvatron tries to bait Rodimus into losing control of himself and Kup encourages Rodimus to do it—Arcee is the one who has to talk Rodimus down! In another story, Kup demands that Optimus kill Ratchet because Ratchet and Megatron have been fused together—Kup is very much a hypocrite, and I think that's really strong writing. It shows how important Rodimus must be to him.

That being said, Kup is right to think Rodimus is still in there somewhere. Rodimus was still in the Matrix, fighting against Unicron... but when Kup realizes this fight has something to do with the Matrix, he rips it out of Rodimus in order to save him.

This means Rodimus's chance to destroy Unicron once and for all was lost. And about 500 years in the future, the fact that Unicron is still inside Rodimus causes the corrupting influence to remain, eventually even turning Rodimus's student to the side of evil and potentially dooming the entire transformer race. Rodimus seems to be left friendless and alone, either ill or dying.

So Kup's love for Rodimus both may have doomed him to a lonely death and have caused the demise of all transformers. If that's not tragic, I don't know what is!

#transformers g1 #transformers marvel #Kup #Hot Rod #Rodimus Prime #I really liked Arcee Kup and Rodimus as a trio too they play off each other really well #my analysis #long post #maccadam

[elfdragon12]

Lowkey, the other Stunticons question about Breakdown sleeping with his boss aka Knockout and he just shrugs. They are just in shock about it.

whether it is out of concern or to poke some fun on him later, I have no idea.

As long as the boss in question isn't Motormaster. Yikes™️

But there's no reason to be concerned. Breakdown is more comfortable with Knockout than he is even with his fellow gestalt. Knockout doesn't show in interest in exerting any power over Breakdown and is quite affectionate. And Knockout is glad to be the focal point of outsider attention when they draw it, which Breakdown really appreciates (though KO fully believes that Breakdown deserves his own spotlight, but never forces the issue).

#Ask #Anonymous #Transformers #Normalverse

[kirisakin]

Trickdia: Hey, boss? I've got a few questions about our evil schemes.

Megampress: Yes, what is it?

Trickdia: So, our main plan is to dethrone Megatron, brainwash all the Decepticons into following us, then kill off Optimus Prime, right?

Megampress: Of course.

Trickdia: But then like, what's this part about forcing all the men to be our slaves and letting all the other women go on with life as normal? Ain't the girls gonna fight back against us, too? And what about posting all of our bi-weekly car washes online for everyone to see? What's the point of all that?

Megampress: I can't believe you've lost sight of our goals, Trickdia. You wound me. If you'll just open your Coalition of Women Stealing The Rightful Spotlight of Men handbook and get to chapter "Simon Furman was right", subsection "Phyllis Schlafly was a martyr", you'll find-

Trickdia: That's it, I'm joining the Stunticons.

#megaempress #trickdiamond #megatronia #There's a secret good Megaempress that lives in my head but I'd be remiss if I didn't joke about how awful canon is. #If it wasn't obvious this is satire.

[soundwavereporting]

some tangentially connected headcanons on decepticons, autobots, and   relationship culture for my fics.

thank you to everyone that shared their thoughts on poly/relationship culture, directly on tumblr, via dms, or discord :D

-decepticons having more of a cohesive, group/cohort-based social structure vs the autobot’s more individual/partner-based structure, based on class hierarchy and prewar functions.

-laborers, miners, and gladiators developing their own community-based relationships outside of the traditional conjunx/amica. in my fics they go a step further and intentionally subvert conjunx practices by turning the conjunx ritus into the equivalent of a joke/’vegas wedding’ that no one takes seriously (unless they want to. but usually they don’t.)

-these groups are flexible and pretty open, with lots of overlap (example: a/b/c/d are in a romantic relationship, but c/x/y are in a fwb relationship, and a/x/z consider themselves brothers. speaking in more direct, prowlcoswave-y terms: soundwave wouldn’t think twice about spending a couple nights not with prowl and cosmos, but with the cassettes, because they’re his family, and also, ravage wants to cuddle :P)

-i’ve been playing around with the idea of ‘con claiming culture (based on gh00sth00st‘s fics/worldbuilding) of a claim being the last (and strongest) part of bonds (not necessarily romantic, nor does it always have to occur), but it makes others stop and take notice. specifically, i’m reading the constructicons’ matching paint as a claim, them telling each other (and everyone else) we are together, we are one.

-decepticons being more comfortable and accepting of poly relationships/qprs/non nuclear relationships than autobots. decepticon combiners tend to be more openly intimate with each other, whereas autobot combiner teams tend to be temporary, and if they’re not temporary, they’re far more professional than anything else

-jumping off from that point: decepticon combiner relationships get really pushed as an all or nothing, so as to prevent contention within the gestalt (example: Hook and Scavenger are dating, but they’re currently fighting. Devastator is less efficient in a fight, since they’re fighting the autobots and each other). another thing to consider is if one of the gestalt members is in a relationship with someone who’s not in the gestalt (example: Cyberverse Dead End/Perceptor, if the Stunticons had been in the series), that affection/interest potentially leaking through the gestalt bonds, which could lead to some awkwardness down the line.

-i’m also genuinely interested in the idea of feelings and ideas leaking through the bond (see: prowl no longer seeing the decepticons as enemies thanks to his time as a gestalt), in addition to the constructicon’s upgrades making them lose their sense of individuality

-autobots overall having at least some internalized polyphobia (or more specifically non-monogophobia?) due to class differences and millions of years of anti-gestalt, anti-decepticon propaganda and a touch of functionist/senate philosophies. probably not in a conscious, really malicious prejudice, but one nonetheless (example: Swerve’s joke about combiners and his literal fear of a Megatron/Overlord/Sixshot/Shockwave combiner in Spotlight: Hoist).

-autobots also asking weird or borderline invasive questions to former decepticons, especially combiners (like ambulon). it’s a mix of well intentioned curiosity, nosiness, and flat out morbid curiosity.

#transformers #keep tag #i'll update this later as i think of-slash-remember more of these #long post #headcanons #idw meta #helloshepard meta

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Menasor (Pages 21 & 22)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Sterling Gee Letters - HdE

wada sez: At last, the big reveal! The Stunticons are trapped in their own minds, thanks to the inhibitor programs installed by the Contructicons. With the force of will needed to dominate, Motormaster has ended up commanding the gestalt, overcoming the usual self-doubt that cripples combiners. The Autobots fighting Drag Strip are revealed to be some aspect of the minds of his teammates, with the specific identities matching up with the cartoon episode “Masquerade”, where the Autobots posed as the Stunticons. The voice heard by Breakdown is revealed to be that of the Constructicons, discussing the experiment from the outside. Evidently, Sterling Gee did not get the memo that Marshall was using the Generation 2 color scheme for Sideswipe. Note that in the second part HdE has rendered Menasor’s dialogue boxes using little squares with the team members’ colors, in contrast to Motormaster’s normal speech boxes; I wonder if this is meant to imply that the other team members have influenced the combiner after all? I also wonder if the idea is that the name “Menasor” is a portmanteau of the insults “Menace” and “Monster” heard by Motormaster in his pages.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Sterling Gee #HdE #Scrapper #Scavenger #Hook #Menasor #Motormaster #Dead End #Wildrider #Breakdown #Drag Strip #Windcharger #Jazz #Sideswipe #Megatron

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Covers & Page 1

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Jeremy Tiongson Colours - Josh Perez Letters - HdE Cover A Art - Andrew Griffith Cover A Colors - Joana Lafuente Cover B - Kris Smith Pin-Up Art - The Boo

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: This week, I’m going to be re-serialising Josh van Reyk’s full-length fancomic, Spotlight: Stunticons! Conceived in the same vein as Transformers: War Journal, the comic is a big collaboration between a bunch of different Mosaic contributors. This time, there’s a much smaller set of creatives, with Josh van Reyk handling the entire script, and each artist team contributing the pages devoted to a specific Stunticon. The Stunticons are a favorite of van Reyk’s, and he’d written several Mosaic strips focused on them in the run-up to this project’s release: in order, these were “Hail To The King”, “Forgive And Forget”, and “The Bigger Picture”. This first page serves to re-establish the team, communicating their simple character traits: Wildrider is reckless, Breakdown is paranoid, Dead End is depressed, Drag Strip is a try-hard, and Motormaster hates all of them. We briefly see Hound, Ironhide, and Starscream in the background, all using their Cybertronian designs from The War Within. Now, for the rest of this series, I’m actually going to be shuffling the pages around a bit, which I realise is bad archival work but which is logistically necessary (and shouldn’t affect the story too much due to its already-unconventional structure); if you want to read the story exactly as it was originally published, visit the deviantART gallery above. In case you were wondering, “CWP” is van Reyk’s own brand, Choose Wisely Productions, which I’m not sure is a real company. Artist Boo had to drop out of the project at an early stage due to his IDW workload, but contributed two pin-ups for fans to color; you can find those below along with clean art for Griffith’s cover and some preview panels.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Jeremy Tiongson #Josh Perez #HdE #Andrew Griffith #Joana Lafuente #Kris Smith #The Boo #official creator #Motormaster #Drag Strip #Wildrider #Dead End #Breakdown #Hound #Ironhide #Starscream

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Drag Strip (Pages 12-14)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Ger Hankey Colours - Matt Marshall Letters - HdE

wada sez: Drag Strip’s plotline is kind of the odd one out, in that it doesn’t directly play into his weaknesses from his original Budiansky bio. Note Drag Strip’s line about a “Masquerade”...

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Ger Hankey #Matt Marshall #HdE #Drag Strip #Windcharger #Jazz #Sideswipe #Motormaster

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Drag Strip (Pages 2 & 5-6)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Ger Hankey Colours - Matt Marshall Letters - HdE

wada sez: We jump forward to the present day, where Drag Strip is trapped in a cell, being interrogated by Jazz, Sideswipe, and Windcharger. But what connects these characters...? Matt Marshall has given Sideswipe his inverted Generation 2 color scheme, for some reason; it’s technically possible that he was inspired by The Death of Optimus Prime, released just over a month prior and featuring that same color scheme, but that would depend on lead times for the project. Drag Strip’s plotline is the main thread of the comic, which originally intercut between this and the other team members—so don’t worry, we’ll be revisiting him shortly. Unfortunately, Tumblr puts a limit on the number of images that can be in a single gallery, which is why I’m splitting the comic across multiple posts. It made sense to organise these by plotline for tagging purposes, and speaking more subjectively, I personally found the wildly different artstyles between the different threads—which don’t have meaningful transitions on a script level either—to be jarring.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Ger Hankey #Matt Marshall #HdE #Drag Strip #Windcharger #Jazz #Sideswipe #Motormaster

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Motormaster (Pages 11 & 19-20)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Andrew Turnbull Colours - Sara Rude Letters - HdE

wada sez: Motormaster’s Budiansky profile reads: “[...] He'll brutally barrel through any traffic tie-up - he'd even roll over a baby carriage if it were in his way. [...] His Stunticon followers tremble before his commands, which he gives with a thundering voice that has the hollow, doom-laden tone of an echo from a bottomless well. They hate him, but they fear him too much to disobey him. [...]” See below for a tongue-in-cheek edit of some of the panels from Page 19.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Andrew Turnbull #Sara Rude #HdE #Motormaster

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Dead End (Pages 7, 10 & 18)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Chris Vera Letters - HdE

wada sez: Dead End’s Budiansky profile reads: “Sullen and fatalistic, Dead End sees little reason to continue the Autobot-Decepticon War since all Transformers eventually become inoperative anyway, even though it might take tens of thousands of years. [...]” See below for Vera’s storyboards and clean renders.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Chris Vera #HdE #official creator #Dead End

[transformers-mosaic]

Spotlight: Stunticons - Wildrider (Pages 4 & 15)

Originally posted on January 28th, 2012

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Lindsay Smith Colours - John-Paul Bove Letters - HdE

wada sez: Wildrider’s Budiansky profile reads: “[...] Some of his fellow Stunticons attribute his reckless behavior to be a calculated attempt by Wildrider to enhance the atmosphere of fear he tries to create in his role as a terrorist. But those who know him better realize it's not an act - he really is that nuts! [...] Wildrider fears quiet. He suspects enemies are lurking, ready to pounce on him, if all he hears are the sounds he produces himself. This gets him very nervous and hampers his effectiveness.”

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #original continuity #Spotlight: Stunticons #Josh van Reyk #Lindsay Smith #John-Paul Bove #HdE #official creator #Wildrider

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #559 - "Forgive And Forget"

Originally posted on November 25th, 2010

Story - Josh van Reyk Pencils - Paul Vromen Inks - Jake Isenberg Colours - Sara Guyon-Gellin Letters - HdE

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: Following on from “Hail To The King”, we have another Stunticons strip from Josh van Reyk presumably tying into his fanproject Spotlight: Stunticons. This specific plotline would later be revisited in "The Bigger Picture". While it’s not exactly made explicit, the burning city is probably Praxus, home to both Bluestreak and Prowl following a series of retcons. Bluestreak’s original profile had originally established that his then-unnamed home city had been destroyed by Decepticons, which is presumably what we see here. The Autobot scientist Flame comes from the Marvel UK comics. See below for the clean pencils and some Prowl artwork.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #Maccadam #IDW Transformers #Josh van Reyk #Paul Vromen #Jake Isenberg #Sara Guyon-Gellin #HdE #official creator #Bluestreak #Prowl #Drag Strip #Motormaster #Dead End #Wildrider #Flame

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #593 - "The Bigger Picture"

Originally posted on April 14th, 2011

Story - Josh van Reyk Art, Letters - Paul Vromen Colours - Sara Guyon-Gellin

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005

wada sez: This strip is a sequel to "Forgive And Forget", and is another Spotlight: Stunticons tie-in. Sara Guyon-Gellin had intended to add some SFX to the panel where Motormaster punches Wildrider, and Vromen said he’d upload a corrected version of the strip, fixing the “bare witness” typo as well—but he never did.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #Maccadam #IDW Transformers #Josh van Reyk #Paul Vromen #Sara Guyon-Gellin #official creator #Motormaster #Bluestreak #Prowl #Breakdown #Wildrider #Drag Strip #Flame #Megatron

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #532 - "Hail To The King"

Originally posted on August 20th, 2010

Story - Josh van Reyk Art - Ibai Canales Letters - Franco Villa

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: At the time of this strip’s release, work was underway on Josh van Reyk’s fancomic Spotlight: Stunticons—which I plan to later serialise as part of this archive, so stay tuned for that next year. Evidently, this strip was an idea that crossed his mind during its production, or perhaps was deliberately conceived as a teaser for the project. He explained on TFW2005: “This scene is kinda how I saw Motormaster initiating Dragstrip into the Stunticons, and also kind of explains why Dragstrip is so afraid / obeying of him.”

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #Maccadam #IDW Transformers #Josh van Reyk #Ibai Canales #Franco Villa #Motormaster #Drag Strip

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Mosaic #27 - "Obsolete"

Originally posted on October 29th, 2007

Story - Jen Kerner Art - Kris Carter

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | TFArchive | BotTalk

wada sez: Visually very much grounded in the Sunbow cartoon, this strip shines a spotlight on Trailbreaker’s characterisation from his original Bob Budiansky profile. The Stunticons are seen driving into the distance in Panel 6, the fight already over by the time Trailbreaker catches up.

#Transformers #Transformers Mosaic #Maccadam #Sunbow Transformers #The Allspark One-Shot Project #Jen Kerner #Kris Carter #official creator #Trailbreaker #Optimus Prime #Sunstreaker #Sideswipe #Motormaster #Dead End #Wildrider #Breakdown #Drag Strip