Spotlight: Cliffjumper (Spoilers Within!)

Didn't see a topic for this yet.

Anyway this was really good. Very stand alone. If the spotlights really are going on hiatus thats a shame because they've been my favorite book IDW puts out.

IDW has been finding some wonderful artists lately and Robby Musso is yet another to add to the list. His style is somewhat anime with the human characters. His layouts are great, but he's one of the few artists who seemed to remember what a splash pannel is for - not an overused devise for decompression but to show off a dramatic point of the story at the apropriate time. Cliffjumper never looked so badaft but its the dramatic impact of the story that really make that page work imho.

McCarthy strength again lies in these small character pieces not long epics. Cliffjumper is the Autobots top assasin who has crashed on a peaceful planet (Nebulos?) where he makes friends with a local pascifist girl and her little brother. Cliffjumper has a chance to sorta do a Stargate's Jack O'Neil in 100 Days before the Cons show up looking for him. It's a nice story about war and pascifism about appearances not being what they seem and Cliffjumper wondering why he does the job he does but in a way that is is very "show not tell" that I really liked. Won't spoil the ending though, go buy it!

The most praise though should go to the unsong colorist Joana LaFuente. It's the mood of her colors that really make the success of this issue. From the dark of Cliffjumper hiding from the Cons to the sunny pannels of him with the natives to the red of the violence when Cliffjumper attacks the Cons to the shadows of the forest and the setting sun at the end. This is a really beautiful book.

Again this is a great character piece, very stand alone, with some truly beautiful art. Highly recommended, especially for fans of the little red bot. Stories like this are truly what I think IDW does best, imho.

The spotlights aren't going on hiatus, they're just doing movie-verse based spotlights for the next "volume". If I remember right its going to be six different ones with characters like Bee, The Fallen, Ravage, and Arcee (assuming I've remembered that right, not 100% sure on Ravage).

I thought that was going to be a mini of one shots, not under the official spotlight banner but I could be wrong, either way, movie universe character focused one-shots are cool.

I dunno. I remember the next movie series is supposed to be "Tales of the Fallen", but Ryall outright calls them Spotlights RyallTime: IDW's new releases for June 3

Probably riding off the back of movie hype to boost sales, best case scenario is we'll see more IDWverse spotlights in 2010 when that line is done.

You've got those four right. Also there's a spotlight somewhere in the series for Sideswipe and, I think, Jetfire.

Anyways, regardling Spotlight: Cliffjumper-- I dunno. I didn't really see the point of this comic at all, moreso than any other IDW TF comic that's been put out. Usually in a spotlight issue, if it doesn't move the overarching plot forward it at least gives a lot of background history/characterization to the TF in question. This one really just kinda seemed to be... there. Not bad, not good, just... totally "meh" in every way.

Last updated November 10th
(This update: 5 new TF Universe 2.0 toy reviews, 2 more of VBBN's toy reviews)

i thought it was a touching story. the scene where CJ is hiding at the end is heartbreaking. that said, the story had no relation to the overall -ation/AMH series and didn't bring anything new to the table like spotlight blurr did. but i don't take great offense to that and will shelve it with the rest.

I wasnt expecting much from it but it was actually a pretty good read. Cliffjumper really is a badass

Just Who The Hell Do You Think We Are!?

My Sale Thread

Loved it when they realized it was Cliffjumper and he came running out

I didn't understand anything of what happened in this comic. O_o

I thought the writing for the Cliffjumper series wasn't that great. Cliffjumper was as unemtional as you could get. Especially seeing as how the little girl dies at the end. He has not reaction whatsoever. He left so callously too. I had a lot more respect for the Wheelie spotlight because at least Wheelie gave a damn.