Nightbeat, investigating the disappearance of the Ark-1 and the murder of a trader, is captured by the Micromasters and Galvatron. Megatron gives Bludgeon the task of investigating Shockwave, while paleontologists uncover Shockwave and the Dynobots in present-day Eureka, Nevada.
Grimlock set off a trap however, causing a volcano to erupt and bury them all in lava.
The Dynobots attack in dinosaur forms, but Shockwave defeats them, blasting off their synthetic skin and rendering them subject to the Energon's radiation. Shockwave, predicting the end of Cybertron, seeds prehistoric Earth with Energon. In addition to being stand-alone, most of these issues tie into the main series, and offer additional context. Although the Shockwave and Nightbeat issues were numbered #1 and #2 respectively, individual numbering for the series was abandoned with the Hot Rod issue as the series expanded beyond five issues. The third featured Blaster, Arcee, Mirage and Grimlock and Wheelie, with four more issues comprising The Transformers: Revelation. The second featured Soundwave, Kup, Galvatron, Optimus Prime and Ramjet.
Split in volumes of 5, the first volume featured Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, and Ultra Magnus. The series consists of single-issue stories based in IDW's Generation 1 fictional universe, each featuring an individual character. The Transformers: Spotlight is a comic book series of one-shot issues, published by IDW Publishing.