“Yesterday’s” Comic> Transformers Spotlight: Jazz

“Aw man, it’s one of those Chinese knockoff guns.”

Transformers Spotlight: Jazz

IDW Publishing (March, 2009)

WRITERS: Josh Van Reyk & Shaun Knowler

ARTIST: E.J. Su

COLORIST: Priscilla Tramontano

SELECTED COVER ART: Andrew Griffith

LETTERER: Chris Mowry

EDITORS: Denton J. Tipton & Andy Schmidt

To boost morale Tracks tells the story of how he met a mystery Autobot, although his optics and most of his body was too damaged for him to know who it was. It turns out it was Jazz. He and his team came to rescue Tracks but the ship was shot down by the Predacons, Megatron’s elite squad. Jazz uses his ingenuity and some help from Tracks to defeat the Predacons, inspiring the younger Tracks just as his story does the Autobots in the story’s present day.

What they got right: Tracks tells a good story. The art is good (of course given it’s E.J. Su but the colorist keeps up nicely), and it’s just overall enjoyable seeing what Jazz comes up with to slowly whittle the Predacons down, inspiring Tracks to take a risk of his own.

What they got wrong: However, continuity placement is questionable. Some Autobots appear to be in their IDW Earth forms, some in their TOY Earth forms from the old days even though they haven’t been on Earth at this point, Jazz in the flashback has a new Cybertronian mode (it’s a personal disappointment when they don’t use the G1 cartoons’ alt modes, especially the ones who never had an Earth mode like the post Movie G1 toys) and I don’t know what problem they were facing that led to Tracks’ story.

Recommendation: I don’t know where it goes but I’m glad I have it. It’s a good story overall and worth checking out, although not necessary to continuity.