Comic Review...

Transformers Spotlight: Blurr

Writer: Shane McCarthy
Artist: Casey Coller

(covers by Casey Coller, Trevor Hutchinson)

Synopsis: Blurr races against other Transformers and wins easily. His pit crew congratulate him and he heads to the Circle, a popular nightclub to celebrate. He is adored and worshipped by all because he is the best. He wants to race forever! An explosion destroys the race way and Blurr is told the racing is over. Blurr is incredulous but the explosion was an act of terrorism and it's too dangerous to leave the stadium open. Piston, one of Blurr's pit crew tells him he's going to join the Autobots because Cybertron is changing... Blurr finds that even the Circle is empty now. He goes to drink but is interrupted by Starscream who tries to recruit him to the Decepticons. Blurr drives somewhere and ends up right in the middle of a warzone. Ironhide drags him to safety where he finds Piston dead. The Decepticons have retreated and the Autobot commander, Optimus, tells him they (the Decepticons) are on their way to assassinate Zeta Prime. Optimus appeals to him to help them out--with his speed he can get to Zeta Prime and save him in time. Blurr decides to help them--he's found a new purpose in life.

Comments: An interesting one shot from McCarthy, the writer currently putting us through twelve issues of All Hail Megatron. Unlike that exercise in tedium, this story shows us he can write a simple satisfying story. Spotlight: Blurr is reasonably good. It does suffers from one flaw--Blurr's character has never been a egotistical jerk. In order for this tale to work, he has to be rewritten as one so that he can learn his lesson. Without it, the story wouldn't work... which is not to say I can't accept that change. Hey, maybe Blurr was a jerk way back when. Who knows? The cartoon and previous comics have never really given us much personality for him--beyond him being really, really fast. Another point of interest is that Blurr's been redesigned for this continuity--why that was necessary is anyone's guess. He already was a futuristic hovercar thing. Also, AHM has undone most of the redesigns anyway, so why this? Generally though, I thought it worked pretty well as a one-off spotlight issue. I only wish we could get a little bit more actual storytelling out of IDW instead of the far too many dragged out decompressed comic series they've been doing.

Recommended.