Spotlight: Sixshot

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Sixshot and his playmates
"The Transformers: Spotlight: Sixshot"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 20, 2006
Cover date	December 2006
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Rob Ruffolo
Inks by	Matt Moylan
Colors by	Rob Ruffolo
Letters by	Robbie Robbins
Edits by	Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Various

Sixshot, an engine of destruction, meets a group just like him.

Synopsis

Sixshot is stationed on a Decepticon orbital outpost waiting for his next assignment, reflecting on destroying the planet Ys'devian. With no more carnage to distract him, time crawls.

The other Decepticons stationed on Sixshot's outpost are scared of him, and Sixshot misses the camaraderie of battle. The exceptions are the Terrorcons, who look up to Sixshot as a kind of role model. Sixshot hasn't seen them around in a while and misses their company, so he interrogates Squawkbox about their whereabouts, rationalizing that this is a way of easing his boredom. Squawkbox, terrified, informs him that they went missing on the planet Mumu-Obscura, which has fallen to the Reapers. Sixshot immediately leaves to investigate.

Upon arrival at Mumu-Obscura, Sixshot easily fights his way through the Reapers' automated perimeter defenses, finding that Mumu-Obscura is completely devastated. He is met by the Reapers and the Deathbringer welcomes him to their planet and reveals that they've been watching him, but Sixshot is only interested in recovering the Terrorcons. The Deathbringer claims Sixshot will have to fight his way through them.

Sixshot calmly fights the Reapers one by one, believing that he's holding his own, but when the Reapers kick the fight up a notch, he guesses that the Reapers were testing him. The Reapers, unharmed, teleport in the Terrorcons, and the Deathbringer tells Sixshot about the mission of the Reapers: they seek to end war by totally obliterating any location that has strategic importance, so that there will be nothing worth fighting over. The Deathbringer offers to let Sixshot join them if he will first destroy the Terrorcons, demonstrating that he has left his old life behind.

Sixshot considers the offer long enough for the Terrorcons to get nervous and plead with him out of friendship. Sixshot then takes off into the air, shooting the ground around the Terrorcons but sparing their lives. The Deathbringer allows them to leave, but vows that they will find Sixshot again. Sixshot watches them leave mournfully, but recognizes that he has some of his old flame back: there's enough left for him in the Decepticons to make his life worth it.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Where I consider myself something of an apt pupil when it comes to the gospel of apocalypse...clearly the Reapers wrote the original covenant."

—Sixshot

"I remind myself that these six beings laid waste to an entire planet. So nothing fancy, just get the job done."

—Sixshot

Notes

Continuity notes

• Spectro and Spyglass appear in toy-based character models. In Spotlight: Wheelie, they have adopted character models based on the Generation 1 cartoon.
• First appearances: Sixshot, the Terrorcons, and the rest of the Decepticon cast; the Reapers

Transformers references

• On the first page, Sixshot's guns make a ZARAAAK sound, possibly an in-joke reference to Scorponok's Nebulan partner Mo Zarak, who appears in the following Spotlight comic.

Errors

• There's some wonky composition going on in the first group shot of the Reapers. The Tank Reaper is behind the Deathbringer, yet in front of one of its wings, basically occupying the very limited space between the Deathbringer's arm and its wing when it is clearly too bulky to do so.
• When he first meets the Reapers and transforms, Sixshot is drawn without most of his altmode kibble.

Other trivia

• Sixshot changes form 18 times this issue, which is almost certainly a record of some sort. He never uses his "armored car" mode, but it does appear on Rob Ruffolo's cover.
• This marks the first time that Simon Furman has used the Sixshot character in his fiction.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: Sixshot with Terrorcons; art by James Raiz.
• Cover B: Sixshot, multiple modes, with the robot mode pose being an homage to the original toy's package art; art by Rob Ruffolo.
• Cover RI-A: cover A, uncolored
• Cover RI-B: cover B, uncolored

• 

  Terrorcons, terrorize!

• 

  6 toys in one!

• 

  Cover RI-A

• 

  Cover RI-B

Advertisements

• Infiltration TPB
• The Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD
• Spotlight (first 5 issues)
• Transformers posters
• IDW trade paperbacks of Infiltration, Stormbringer, The Gathering, Prime Directive, War and Peace, and Generations
• Escalation series
• Manga editions of Stormbringer and The Gathering
• Generations series
• CSI: Dying In the Gutters comic miniseries
• 24: Nightfall
• G.I. Joe with Kung Fu Grip (back cover)

Reprints

• The Transformers: Spotlight Volume 1 (May 30, 2007) ISBN 1600100686 / ISBN 978-1600100680
• The Transformers: The Premiere Collection Volume 1 (December 5, 2007) ISBN 1600101186 / ISBN 978-1600101182
• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Two (October 6, 2010) ISBN 1600107516 / ISBN 978-1600107511
• The Transformers: Spotlight Omnibus Volume 1 (April 15, 2015) ISBN 1631402463 / ISBN 978-1631402463
• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Compendium, Vol. 1 (July 6, 2016) ISBN 163140637X / ISBN 978-1631406379
• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 37: Escalation (March 8, 2017)

• 

  Spotlight Volume 1 – cover art by Nick Roche and Rob Ruffolo

• 

  Premiere Collection Vol 1 – cover art by Klaus Scherwinski

• 

  The IDW Collection Volume Two – cover art by E. J. Su

• 

  Spotlight Omnibus Volume 1 – cover art by Jeffrey Veregge

• 

  The IDW Collection Compendium, Vol. 1 – cover art by Jeffrey Veregge

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 37: Escalation – cover art by Don Figueroa (Starscream) and E. J. Su (retro)