Shockwave/Soundwave and Optimus Prime were all really solid and fleshed out the Universe quite a bit.

Wheelie's was good too.

yeah, it was really non-sensical and didn't seem to have anything to do with, well, anything. Seems like this would have been much better served to have given us some background on WHY Ironhide though Mirage was the traitor in AHM other than the basic G1 callback of Mirage being somewhat untrustworthy.

Cliffjumper's was pretty random too and didn't really enhance AHM, but at least it was a good story and had great art.

Kup was OK, but i think it's a tad overrated.

I really hope we get some follow up on Metroplex, that story left me really hanging...

 

Spotlight Metroplex got followed up in Transformers Ironhide.

 

oooohh. interesting. (I'm reading via "The IDW Collection"s so i won't get Ironhide until vol. 7, proably in the summer)

 

Kup, and Jazz are my faves.

 

Hmm, there were so many good ones... Metroplex was surprisingly good, and I loved the artwork. The Optimus issue just because it stands as Don at his absolute peak imo (before the bizarre style change) and Blaster because it was a solid, standalone story.

Hot Rod's story pips them all though, it was true to the character, had some great storytelling and was nicely ended in Spotlight: Doubledealer.

I really hope it's a format they return to - I always felt there was a lot of backstory to characters like Bluestreak and Thundercracker that went completely neglected.

 

Quite difficult to pick just one, but for me the nominees are:

Nightbeat (always love a mystery with Furman's Nightbeat)

Prowl (my favourite Transformer and I love the art. Plus I always love the cliche where an indifferent or evil character makes a last minute heroic decision)

Arcee (actually makes the original, and most boring, fembot slagging interesting. AND in a very daring way!)

Galvatron (love the art and the fact that this Galvatron isn't necessarily evil or insane. Even forgave the no connection to Megatron)

Kup (Roche has to be commended for making me like a character I've always hated, despite killing off my first TF, Outback. Just a great tale)

Soundwave (Again I love uncharacteristic heroism)

Cliffjumper (Nice art and I do like having my heartstrings tugged)

Metroplex (Amazing art. Love the Throttlebots. Shame we later find out he's just a ship for Alpha Trion. If only he could be erased from TF lore)

Blurr (hate the winghead design but great art and he did show remorse over poor Piston)

I totally agree with the negative reaction to Mirage but have to say I despise the Ramjet and Blaster Spotlights moreso.

Blaster was just boring, a far cry from Budiansky's hero.

Ramjet just doesn't strike me as a 2nd rate Starscream. I think the story would have suited the cowardly braggart, Thrust. Dreamwave got Ramjet perfect with one pic in issue 2 of "War and Peace".

"Bring it on you slaggin' cowards!!!"

On topic, I have to go with Prowl. He rarely gets shown in a heroic light. As much as I like this though, it's a shame the Prowl/Kup story from AHM wasn't used and expanded on for the Prowl Spotlight. Would have been an easy decision then.

 

Wheelie, such a great little comic. I like most of the spotlights until All Hail Megatron but Wheelie is selfcontained and badass on its own while many of the others is dependent on the other comics at the time.
During the All Hail Megatron era I did like the Cliffjumper spotlight quite much, Pretty cool and sad little issue. Even though Shane played up the 'OMG the red little guy is such a beast' angle a bit much to my tastes.

 

Yeah, this is why Spotlight: Cliffjumper never sat too well with me. I don't think it's a bad story really, it's just that I've grown so tired of the "Ultimate-Most-Bad-Assestest-Bad-Ass-He's-the-best-at-what-he-does-and-he-makes-Chuck-Norris-weak-at-the-knees" type of character who chicks want to be with and enemies cower at the mention of his name. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, even for an established tough guy like CJ.

 

I've only read a couple (Arcee and Nightbeat). I really liked Arcee. Story was interesting and it was cool seeing her kick some ass. Since it seems everyone likes Kup I'll have to pick that issue up if I ever see it at a comic shop.

 

I really liked Jazz's absolutely fantastic issue, I haven't read a that many but so far it's been head and shoulders above the rest.

Speaking of the rest Soundwave's and Sixshot's were very good, anything which shows the Cons as more than just one dimensional bad guys.

 

I think I've loved most of the spotlights. Certainly the Hot Rod, Arcee and Ultra Magnus were favourites of mine

 

I love the Kup, Hot Rod, Arcee and Ultra Magnus praise, even if people think i'm some kind of TFTM fanboy after that lineup! Magnus' especially, this was the first time we saw IDWs Magnus who has easily become my favourite version, and it featured amazing Swindle and Scorponok characterisation too.

I really hope IDW consider bringing the format back. The Spotlights are the comics I have enjoyed the most from them, and were easily the ones I most anticpated every month.

 

Especially with so many new characters in the ongoings, Spotlights could really give some nice backstory. But they should be able to stand on their own.

 

Spotlight Optimus was one of my fav IDW books thus far. SHockwave was really good, too.

 

Good call. Rung, Metalhawk: in fact any of those NAILS, plenty of stories there, what have they been doing all this time?

 

Of the one's I've read, I don't think there's a weak one amongst them. my favourites though are probably Jazz, great story that brought a tear to my eye at the end, and Ultra Magnus, cos IDW Magnus is fast becoming one of my favourite characters.

 

At first I was going to say Shockwave, because it so neatly sets up the rivalry between the calculating Decepticon scientist and the chaotic, agressive Dynobots, and streamlines the old Marvel story into the IDW-verse.

But so many other great ones have been mentioned that slipped my mind.

Kup for the artistic out of left field approch

Cliffjumper for seeing an Autobot alone on a world that is not earth

Wheelie, just for making Wheelie likeable (to me)

After the production of MTMTE & RID gets settled in, I'd love for them to bring back Spotlights,,, at least quarterly.

 

Spotlight UM was great. It's too bad his relationship with Swindle went south the way it did. I would like to see Ultra Magnus do more odd jobs for the Decepticons despite being an Autobot.

 

Seconded on a Spotlight: Metalhawk. He's pretty much the leader of the NAILs right now, so it'd be interesting to see what got him into this position besides just arriving at some point after Cybertron's environmental reset. (It would also be nice to have an explanation for his big redesign, as well as perhaps stating when The Transformers: Drift took place.)

 

Thirded, hard!   Partially because Metalhawk is awesome, but also if he's going to be a major character for a significant part of the series (which may not happen, depending on how the story goes), it would be nice to have a better insight into what's going on in his head without taking up too much page space in the main title.

And Spotlight:Rung would be brilliant, if only to see the kind of messed up patients he's been seeing for centuries. Judging by the psychological profiles we saw in LSoTW, a day in Rung's professional life has to be hugely entertaining.