Let’s be honest: In geek media, women are usually done either really well or really poorly, with little in between. So when the results of Hasbro’s Fans’ Choice poll earlier this year got us a female character who we were promised was going to make it into the mainstream of IDW’s G1-based comics, there were concerns. Though it’s hardly the fault of the current creative staff, IDW’s Arcee was handled less than ideally, especially compared to other contemporary characters of the same name. With heteronormativity already tossed to the wind how would they approach another female Transformer?
But it looks like the lady will be in good hands. An early preview has now confirmed that Windblade will be introduced in her own comic (though whether a one-shot or a miniseries is as yet unknown) written by Transformers Prime writer Mairghread Scott with art by Sarah Stone. In addition to her female-character-friendly work on Transformers Prime, both the show and IDW’s Beast Hunters comic, Mairghread has been enthusiastic about encouraging the female side of the fandom. Sarah has previously done work for Hasbro-owned Wizards of the Coast as well as some very female-gaze-friendly Transformers fanart.
There are still no details about where Windblade comes from in a race that’s been Word-of-God-ed into definite genderlessness, but it looks like whatever the story, it’ll be told by people who have at least one very important thing in common with our new robo-lady.