InsaneJournal

Current mood:	contemplative
Entry tags:	char: mirage, publisher: idw, title: transformers

Spotlight: Mirage
Spotlight: Mirage is, quite literally, the first comic book I ever bought. I thought it would be a fitting first post to S_D, too.

Until August 16th, 2008, I had subsisted on old issues and TPBs of my father's, leading me to have read most of Sandman when I was twelve, been left on a cliffhanger in Elfquest for five years, and have most of the Superhero comics I could get my paws on being Superman (usually The Death Of) and Batman. A few months before that lovely day, I had been introduced to Transformers through TFA, and had been working through the various animated series and diving into the wiki as often as I could.

And, on the 16th, I got paid for a commission I'd done for my mother, in the form of my first TF toys and this comic.

Best choice I ever made. (Until I went back a couple months later and picked up some awesome Marvel issues. Goldbug! Blaster! :D )





The basic premise of Spotlight: Mirage is that Mirage is hot.
... no, wait...
The basic premise of Spotlight: Mirage is that of just-barely-alternate universes, and choices, and dreams. Mirage is one of the very few characters on the good guy's side that is at all uncertain about his place in the war-- a war that ripped apart his home, left him landless, nobility in an ignoble situation. Mostly, he wants the war to end.
In the usual G1-based canon, he's an Autobot all the same, though there's been times where he was suspected of being a traitor. (Usually by hot-headed suspicious trigger-happy little red 'bots named Cliffjumper.) But... what if...


Mirage has dreams. Dreams which are wonky.




Dreams where he's the other faction.

Mirage and Megatron (who is evil, for those of you who missed the movie, the cartoons, Beast Wars, etc.) arrange a contract where, if Mirage can get the Autobots to surrender, he can get his lands and titles back after the war. Which is depressingawesome. Poor Mirage just wants some dignity...


So, true to his name, he sneaks into the Autobot base under the holographic guise of Bumblebee, and disables the security system. Everyone's in bad shape, low on energon (fuel), damaged-- in poor Jetfire's case, dying.

A squad of Decepticons burst in, and Mirage holds them back for a moment, offering the Autobots a chance to surrender.


The Autobots graciously decline.


Mirage offers again.


They accept, because Jetfire needs repairs, the repairs they might be able to get as POWs.


A mirror, Hound says?

Megatron, being evil, is not in the mood for having POWs when he could have corpses instead. Mirage tries to reason, and is asked if he wants his reward or not.

So, Mirage the Decepticon, what's the choice you'll make? Killing the people you promised safety for your own gain? Remembering your old pre-war friendship with some of them? Listening to Prime's pleas to keep your word, and listen to your conscious?




Does it matter?


I encourage anyone with even a vague interest in Transformers to look up this comic. It's an interesting character study, and a definite stand-alone, unlike most of the Spotlights (though a lot of them are pretty damn shiny), a good choice for anyone who likes a bit of trippiness and depressing in their comics.