The third volume of the Transformers Spotlight series features stories about Blaster, Arcee, Grimlock, Mirage, and Wheelie, an odd lot of Autobots in my opinion. Four of the stories are written by long-time Transformers scribe Simon Furman and the fifth, Mirage, by screenwriter George Strayton. The artists include, in order of the stories listed above, Emiliano Santalucia, Alex Milne, Marcelo Matere, Guido Guidi, and Klaus Scherwinski. Now that the boring stuff is out of the way...

Blaster, the "Voice" of the Autobots, was silenced by an unknown assassin. Fortunately, an alien race finds his body floating through space and returns him to the Autobots where he's revived and repaired. With some detective work by Blaster and Perceptor, the list of would-be assassins is narrowed down to four Autobots and a trap is set to catch the traitor. But is this Autobot really a traitor? There's a twist at the end I won't spoil, but it's a good one.

In this version of the Transformers, Arcee is the polar opposite of how she's portrayed in the 1986 movie and the cartoon episodes that followed. This Arcee is a one-bot army bent on finding the Decepticon Jhiaxus. She's brought down by Ultra Magnus and taken offline until the war hits the detention faciilty where she and the Monstructor-component Decepticons are held. She's released by Fortress Maximus and helps turn the tide of battle. Unfortunately, the Decepticons escape, but she goes after them after explaining why she is after Jhiaxus.

Grimlock's tale is a sad one. Found by humans, he is supposed to be used as their weapon. But, he breaks free and begins to wander Earth, alone and confused. Scorponok notices this and arrives to offer Grimlock to stand beside him as he prepares to take over the world. Grimlock refuses and a fight ensues. As Scorponok is about to deliver the final blow, Grimlock activates a teleportation device to his crashed ship. Little does he know that the other Dynobots will soon enter the fray and not on his side.

Mirage's story is that of a dream, where he's imprisoned and remembers two time lines. In the first, he's a Decepticon that betrays the Autobots to Megatron. When the last of the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, surrender, Mirage is charged with their termination if he wants his money. Despite Prime's pleading, Mirage terminated Hound, Enrages, Prime charges Mirage, knocking him into a mirror of Zodiac Energy. Mirage awakens briefly in his restraints and then dreams of when he was an Autobot. What does all this mean? Only future issues will tell.

The final story also happens to be the best and stars one of the most hated Autobots of all time, Wheelie. Wheelie does his best to help out in the war, but his small stature makes him easily overlooked until one day when he's sent on his first solo mission. Unfortunately, his ship malfunctions and Wheelie is forced to land on an alien world that seems bent on snuffing him out. Time passes and Wheelie survives until a ray of hope arrives in the form of another space ship. This one is manned by Decepticons however and after a small skirmish with the help of another alien Wheelie befriends, the Decepticons are dealt with and Wheelie and Varta live happily ever after. Or do they?

Simon's writing is at it's peak in the four stories he contributes. George, however, should stick to screenwriting as his Mirage story was convoluted and difficult to follow. The art in four of the stories was top-notch, with the exception of Grimlock's tale. Marcelo's artwork seems cartoony and unfinished, a definite low-point compared to Emiliano, Alex, Guido, and Klaus.

This book is great at a stand-alone piece, jumping on point, or as a part of IDW's massive Transformers storyline. I highly recommend Transformers Spotlight Volume 3. I'd have given if 5 stars were it not for the reasons listed above.

Four of Earth's mightiest heroes, Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Mr. Fantastic tricked the Hulk into going on a mission to space he wasn't designed to come back from. Hulk ended up a slave on a far off world and eventually became it's king. A warp core breach on the ship that brought Hulk to Sakaar destroyed most of the population of that world, killing almost everyone on it including Hulk's wife, child, and unborn child. Blaming those that brought him to Sakaar, Hulk and his Warbound make their way back to Earth to seek justice on those that destroyed their world.

World War Hulk starts and ends with a bang. There is a lo of action, a lot of fighting going on in this book as the Hulk takes his revenge on those he believes took his peace away. But, there's a good story in here too, a story that follows on the heels of the Marvel Civil War that shows that the good guys don't always make the best decisions.

Greg Pax writes every character well. He has a firm grasp on the characters in this book, from the old favorites like Ben Grimm and Spider-Man to newer characters like the members of the Warbound.

John Romita Jr. is not my favorite comic book artist. I dislike his line work and shading techniques and that all the men seem to have the same faces with giant, rectangular noses. However, for this story it works. There is a lot of rage, a lot of energy in World War Hulk that suits Romita's style.

What I liked best about World War Hulk was that you don't need to be familiar with the entire Hulk story line to follow what's going on in this book. It helps, no doubt about it, but World War Hulk can stand on it's own and I think it does so well. It doesn't have a happy ending, but it has the best ending possible for the story. If you want to see Hulk at his strongest, at his maddest, then this is the book for you.

A week from today, September 16th, the long-awaited, highly anticipated video game Star Wars The Force Unleashed will finally see release after almost a year of delays. Even though most of the toys to support it have come and gone, the books started to hit last week (and earlier) including this graphic novel chronicalling the adventures of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, which you play in the game. The books follows the canonical path of redemption for the character, but you can play differently in the game as I understand it.

Haden Blackman worked on the production of the game and also provided the script for the graphic novel. In his introduction, he explains what it was like to pitch The Force Unleashed to George Lucas and details some things that were changed or never made it into the story, which I believe are good things as the story, as written here, is fantastic.

Brian Ching provides the pencil work for the book and does a fantastic job. There are a couple panels here and there where it's difficult to tell what was going on, but over all, Brian did a great job.

The Force Unleashed is a good read and fits well between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope." The characters are well written and the artwork beautiful. I'm on my third read-through now and I can't get enough. There's plenty of action, drama, and a few good twists that make me want to read it a fourth time before the game comes out. If you like the expanded universe of Star Wars, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

In the days that immediately followed the passing of my Dad, I sought out self-help books on the subject. I almost gave up after a visit to Borders, where all I could find were books on daughters that lost their mothers but nothing on sons losing their fathers. Thankfully, my wife is more eagle-eyed than I am and found Fatherloss by Neil Chethik after I looked through the grief books. And though it has been three months since I started this book, I have yet to finish it as a standard read.

Fatherloss is a great book that can help any man after the loss of their fathers realize that you are not alone in what you're going through, which is exactly how I felt. Over 300 men were interviewed for this book and many examples are cited throughout. Mr. Chethik does a wonderful job in categorizing different types of feelings surrounding the loss of a man's father, usually by age. Even though I fell into the third category (out of four), I read through the other categories and found examples of people younger and older than me who experienced similar feelings.

Where this book fails is in it's repetitive nature. A little over half-way through Fatherloss, I discovered the pattern and it ruined my enthusiasm to completely finish reading it. An example is given, the author will talk about, cite another example that is contrary to the previous, talk about that one, spout off percentages and numbers that I feel only a statistician could benefit from, and repeat. Even in the final chapters of the book, this is the case, and so I write this review with two chapters left to read as I've skimmed them and they fall into the same pattern.

Despite that, I do recommend Fatherloss: How Sons of All Ages Come to Terms with the Deaths of Their Dads. Read it like a manual, skip to the sections you feel will be of the most use, and not as a standard book. I've come away from the book with this, we may all experience the same loss at some point in our lives but no one will ever feel exactly how you feel because they didn't have your relationship with your Dad and, for better of for worse, that's okay. Have a strong support group in family, friends, online buddies, co-workers, or a therapist and you can get through it. The pain may still be there, but you don't have to go through it alone.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the novelization of the upcoming feature length animated film from Lucasarts. It takes place after Anakin Skywalker has been knighted during the years between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith." The Clone Wars also serves as the beginning of the television series that will begin broadcast sometime later in the year.

Those familiar with the expanded universe of Star Wars novels will no doubt recognize the author from her work on the Republic Commando and Legacy series as well as a plethora of other science fiction work. She does a wonderful job translating the movie into print form Well, I haven't seen the movie yet, but she wrote the book very well and I had no problem visualizing every word, every action in my mind.

Karen has a firm grasp on characters from the live-action films, like Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Count Dooku, in addition to bringing to life newcomers like Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex. The dialogue was well scripted, though i was surprised that some of the dialogue featured in the previews for the film aren't in the novel, but there could be a number of reasons for that.

As for the story, someone has kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta. Both Republic and Separatist forces want to bring Rotta back alive to Jabba so that they will gain use of Hutt controlled space lanes. Anakin is given his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, and leads the Torrent squad of his 501st Battalion, led by Captain Rex, to rescue Rotta from the planet Teth. Meanwhile, Asajj Ventress and her droid armies plan, plot, and later ambush the rescue attempt. Will Anakin succeed in his mission, despite his loathing of the Hutts? You have to read the book, or wait until this coming Friday to watch the movie, to find out.

The Clone Wars is a fast read and worth every minute of it. Karen Traviss does it again with another great Star Wars novel. If you don't see the movie, you owe it to yourself to read the book. If you do see the movie, well, read the book at your own risk or use it to compare against the film. I think you'll like it either way if you're a Star Wars fan.