Enemy Mine: Windblade # 3!

THE good news is that our new female Autobot protagonist Windblade will be returning in another mini-series from IDW Publishing in 2015, a series called—what else—“Windblade Returns.” That revelation does give away that fact that Windblade will be surviving her current series, “Transformers: Windblade,” but then again, it would have been a real shame if this intriguing new fan-favorite creation met her demise at the end of her first four-issue solo run. That doesn’t mean writer Mairghread Scott and artist Sarah Stone won’t be putting Windblade in dangerous situations because it can be argued that Windblade is dangerous situations throughout the entirety of “Transformers: Windblade” # 3. At the end of “Windblade” # 2, Windblade had rallied some Autobot back-up (and Swindle) to dive deep into the bowels of Metroplex’s filtration system in order to stop Strascream from mining a powerful ore. Unfortunately, the motley group of heroes (and Swindle and Waspinator) get pinned down by the Terrorcons. While they put up a pretty good fight, the heroes are captured when Starscream himself shows up to do the dirty work.

You Go Girl: Windblade # 1!

It’s safe to say you have never seen a Transformers comic book like “Transformers: Windblade” # 1. No one has. The first issue is immediately provocative and inspired, one certain to be divisive. I’ve always been a little confused by the big deal about Arcee, especially since she first appeared in “The Transformers: The Movie” in 1986. I just assumed she was simply designed differently. What, we can have a jive-talking Autobot (my optics are on you, Jazz) but we can’t have a curvy Autobot? Anyway, Arcee eventually managed to get toys made and was sort of part of the wirework already when Prowl turned her into, literally, his personal assassin in the IDW continuity. Then the “Transfomers: The Covenant of Primus” hardcover hinted at the possible origins of bots like Arcee and basically got the fandom all ruffled up (The book has nice art and a nifty case, though). But IDW’s “Dark Cybertron” arc really pushed buttons when it introduced three more female Autobots, Chromia, Nautica and their leader, the sword-wielding Windblade, who now gets her own limited series written by Mairghread Scott and illustrated by Sarah Stone. Significantly and fittingly, this is the first time ever that a TF comic book is being written and illustrated by an all-female tandem. Interestingly, the new “Dawn of the Autobots” arc begins with the dawn of the newest Autobot’s limited series.