IDW - Spotlight Trailcutter

Title:The Reluctant Specialist

Story by: James Roberts

Art by: Matt Frank

Colors by: Thomas Deer

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assistant: Thomas Boeing

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Whilst on it's merry way through space the Lost Light is hit by a fragment of something, which tears open the hull, which requires Highbrow, Brainstorm and Chromedome to patch it up, with Trailbreaker helping them with his forcefields. Later, the team, minus Trailbreaker are all awarded medals for their actions, which leaves Trailbreaker annoyed. 

At the after after-party in Swerve's bar, Trailbreaker drowns his sorrows whilst the trio are admired by everyone, when Whirl turns up and tries to cheer up Trailbreaker by mocking him, and taunting him with his own medal, and makes Rodimus admit that the reason why he doesn't have one is because all he does is use forcefields.

Later, Whirl continues to try and "cheer up" Trailbreaker, he convinces him to improve his name and says that people respect fear and an attitude. He takes him to see Brainstorm to see if he can have a new weapon, but Brainstorm points out that he already has the best weapon (Magnawheels, not Forcefields) and Trailcutter gets annoyed and drives off to recharge. Whilst getting ready to recharge Swerve contacts him and annoys him by asking for him to put a forcefield around his mouth so he can stay quiet long enough to earn a medal too.

12 hours later, Trailcutter wakes up to find himself feeling somewhat hollow, and then finds the whole ship seemingly frozen. Trailcutter makes his way up to the bridge where he finds an incoming message from Hoist, which he goes to answer, when suddenly some Decepticons board the ship and shoot the communicator screen. Trailcutter tries to put up a forcefield, but his generators aren't working, so he uses the frozen Whirl as one instead.

Trailcutter makes a run for it and hides in the medibay, where he sets the doors to close violently, and it slams into Venom's head, knocking him out, after which, Trailcutter shocks Chop Shop with some resuscitation pads. Lockdown contacts Chop Shop, so Trailcutter imitates him and learns that the other Decepticons are all in Shuttle Bay 3, so he heads to Brainstorm's lab to get his "secret weapon", a remote.

In the Shuttle Bay Trailcutter arrives and acts tough against them, and learns from them that the fragment earlier is actually a part of Metroplex that was shed off some time ago due to his age, and that his team is hunting him down. Trailcutter tricks the Decepticons into thinking he's some unholy creature who's able to use his forcefields to do anything, like make them levitate (by using the remote to turn off the artificial gravity and using his Magnawheels to keep him on the ground. Next he tricks Lockdown into thinking he's going to make his spark explode with a forcefield, and scares off the Decepticons, who speed away.

Trailcutter returns to the bridge and watches them leave and relaxes in Rodimus' chair just as everyone recovers from the freezing and Rodimus goes to ask why he's in his chair, and freaks out the poor fella.

Later Hoist returns from his mission a bit dinged up and Trailcutter tells him what happened, explaining that Brainstorm was the reason for the freezing as one of his inventions went wrong. Then he reveals that he finally has a medal because of his actions during this...just when Hoist reveals that he has a giant version of the medal for his actions on his mission, as well as everyone who was frozen too. This leaves Trailcutter annoyed again, and he heads out to Swerve's bar to get courage to talk to Rodimus about this....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Trailbreaker/Trailcutter - Van

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Brainstorm - Jet

Highbrow - Helicopter

Chromedome - Car

Swerve - Van

Fortress Maximus - Tank

Skids - Van

Hoist - Crane

Ratchet - Ambulance

First Aid - Ambulance

Ambulon - Leg

Perceptor

Sunstreaker - Car

Rewind - Giant Memory Stick

Energon Landmine - Armoured Tow Truck-Plough

Rad

Huffer - Truck

Dipstick - Car

Smokescreen - Car

Red Alert

Metroplex (Mentioned)

Rest of Lost Light Crew (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Lockdown 

Chop Shop Injured by Trailcutter

Venom Injured by Trailcutter

Barrage

TFA Blitzwing

Lugnut

Rest of Titan Hunters

Killmaster (Flashback)

Other

Tailgate - Car

Bob

Diagnostic Drone

Metrotitans (Flashback)

Lockdown's Employer (Mentioned -  Probably is Megatron...but maybe not.....)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Scalp - Massive Head (Mentioned)

Notes

• Trailbreaker's name change to Trailcutter is explained here as being Whirl's doing, because having "break" in your name sounds weak.
• This issue is set between issue 5 and 6, of course it's very unfortunate that it has some appearances from characters who've just died in the most recent issue.
• Chromedome, Highbrow and Brainstorm all received their names from the Institute...wonder if Hardhead got his from there too?
• I wonder what Whirl did to earn his medal!!
• Energon Landmine is seen in the scene in Shuttle Bay 3, this is either an artistic mistake (ie it's meant to be G1 Landmine) or this is a new look for Landmine's Pretender shell, or just another character who uses this body type, but was mis-coloured as Landmine
• The scene where Red Alert turns in Rewind for his golden disks is shown here during Trailcutter's trip through the frozen ship
• Lockdown has taken over command of the Decepticon's Titan Quest from Bludgeon it seems. It's also worth noting that last time we saw Lockdown he was at the Crystal City, a known location for a Metrotitan.
• It's implied here through the silhouettes that Metrotitans can have different body types.
• Lockdown's team is filled with characters from other continuities, including Animated Blitzwing, who has a G1 Counterpart already active in this time period.
• Hoist's off-screen adventure alluded to here seems likely to be te plot of the next Spotlight issue.
• Trailcutter later gets Brainstorm to upgrade his legs with weapons like Fort Max's, also his heading to the bar at the end of this issue seems to lead right into the events of issue 6
• Ratchet is shown seeming to take stock of medical supplies from Delphi.