Transformers Spotlight: Arcee

Written by Simon Furman

Pencilled by Alex Milne

Coloured by Josh Perez and Kris Carter

Lettered by Chris Moway

Edited by Andrew Steven Harris

Arcee. The very name inspires images of a head moulded into a permanent Princess Leia haircut, a pink colour scheme and the derision that came, not from introducing a female autobot but introducing a single female autobot. On the one hand, she’s a favourite character, on the other she’s as much derided as Wheelie. Until now.

This is not your parents’ Arcee. This is not the amiable, maternal hover car of Transformers: The Movie. This is an autobot who is fiercely competent, relentlessly aggressive and completely, and totally, out of control. When we first meet her here, she’s done so much damage in her search for Jhiaxus, that Ultra Magnus, neatly repositioned by Furman as effectively an Autobot Federal Marshal, is assigned to bring her in.

She’s incarcerated at the Garrius 9 penitentiary, her spark yanked from her body in a neat, and intuitive twist on solitary confinement. This isn’t just a nice touch, but feeds into a fascinating conversation between Fortress Maximus, the chief warder, and Jetfire, in charge of the rehabilitation of prisoners. There’s a question raised, but not answered, about whether reform is even possible for decepticons and autobots like Arcee that’s both morally complex and arguably one of the most fascinating developments in the series to date.

But as is always the way, this discussion is cut short as a Decepticon assault and attempted prison break lands the Garrius 9 facility in serious trouble. With limited options, Fortress Maximus lets Arcee go to join the battle and all hell breaks loose. She decimates the Combaticons in a brutally effective and savagely depicted one sided battle and as the issue closes, Furman unveils the reason why she’s so angry and in an instant, places her in a fascinating context. It’s a completely intuitive, completely logical and utterly unexpected reveal and to say anything more here would spoil it. Suffice to say that in the space of a single issue, Furman and co have ensured that no one laughs at Arcee, ever again.

Milne’s art is expressive, kinetic and handles characters and action sequences with equal ease and the colouring and letters are equally impressive. All in all, this is a revolutionary look at a very old character and one of the most impressive Transformers titles to date. Highly recommended.