Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man

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Is that an AM/FM piledriver?
"Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 8, 2010
Cover date December 2010
Written by Mike Costa
Art by Don Figueroa
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse
Letters by Dave Sharpe
Editor Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2010)

Things quickly escalate into disaster for the Autobots after the attack on Bumblebee.

Synopsis

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Joe Gladki and his daughter look at the rings of Saturn through a telescope in their back yard, though Joe seems somewhat perturbed. As they head inside, Joe's newly installed perimeter lights and burglar alarms activate. Joe has also purchased a gun and stores it in his closet. After tucking his daughter into bed, Joe pensively watches BNN news coverage of the Decepticon invasion...
Driven by his worries about his family's safety, Joe had researched the Transformers online and purchased a certainly illegal item, kept hidden from his family, but his fragile mental state isn't helped by the fact that his radio began talking to him. Joe listens...

Bumblebee is shot and severely wounded, and Skywatch agents immediately restrain the shooter, Joe Gladki, who screams that the Cybertronians must be stopped. Pennington tells the agents not to hurt him, a request Brawn is less than enthusiastic about. Gladki's rants are picked up by the media. As Joe is taken away, the agents present Pennington with Gladki's weapon: a gun resembling Megatron's Walther P-38 alternate mode, complete with Decepticon insignia.

Aboard a Skywatch jet heading to the scene from Korea, Optimus Prime grows antsy, trying to understand how human civilians managed to get hold of a weapon that could harm Bumblebee. Smokescreen accuses Skywatch of spreading around Transformers-derived weaponry. Witwicky denies this; Skywatch doesn't want the weapons around unaccounted for any more than the Autobots do. Smokescreen points out that Skywatch didn't want anybody knowing about their prior mission either, and that didn't go so well. At that point, Campolongo pipes up from the cockpit that something is coming in, moving way too fast. Jazz yells at the humans to don their crash suits immediately. Something hits the jet, and it explodes.

At Skywatch's base, Brawn argues with Pennington about keeping Gladki's weapon on site. Brawn recognizes the weapon as Megatron, but Schwalbe is less sure, as a shot from Megatron should have been fatal. Brawn angrily disagrees with this, but Ultra Magnus orders him to let it go; if Brawn doesn't check his temper, Magnus will restrain him.

At the least, Schwalbe is confident he can keep Bumblebee on-line until Ratchet returns with the others. At that point, Silverstreak comes in, bearing the news about Prime's group on the jet. Recovery teams are on the way to the crash site, but the ETA is in 5 hours. Maria comes in to tell Pennington that there are protesters outside and that it's also on the news. Pennington is dismissive, having larger problems to worry about, but Maria insists he see it and turns on a news broadcast.

Beware unscrupulous distributors selling foreign Transformer knockoffs.

The news reporter interviews Ben Simpson, a spokesperson for a loosely affiliated anti-Cybertronian group known as "Earth's Children". Simpson is quick to disavow any link to the assassin, and even questions the use of the term "assassin", as it's not clear to him whether the Cybertronians are even alive. Questioned about Gladki's visits to his group's website and whether its reactionary rhetoric could have been an influence, Simpson denies responsibility and insists that the people must be able to protect themselves from "invaders", especially if the United States government colludes with them. Watching this at the base, Silverstreak worries that things are about to go further downhill.

Outside the base, the guards order the protesters to disperse when an explosion rocks the area. Using the explosion and confusion as cover, Soundwave arrives with Rumble and Frenzy in tow and liberate the Decepticons that were imprisoned in Skywatch's holding cells.

Four months ago, in Quetzaltenango, Mexico, a young boy named Carlos Tuyuc had discovered something that had fallen from the sky. Whatever it was, it burned for days and glowed at night, continuing to glow once the flames had gone out. Carlos had told his uncle about it, and shortly thereafter some guerrillas came. Carlos told them that what had fallen was a silver god and that it had brought weapons. The weapons are the same as the gun used by Joe Gladki against Bumblebee, and the "silver god" is the heavily damaged head of Megatron's P-38 body.

[edit]

Characters in italic text appear only in news clips.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

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"Brawn, leave it."
"Or what, Magnus? You'll arrest me?"
"Enough. I'm stuck here, just like you. And I don't like this either. But if you don't get a hold of yourself now, you will be restrained. Do you understand me? I don't want to do this. I'd rather have you up here with us."

—Ultra Magnus tells Brawn to wise up or shut up, because he can't deal with anything right now.

Notes

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Continuity notes

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  • After Pennington is presented with the Megatron-based weapon, the scene changes to the jet transporting the Autobots, where Spike informs Prime that "the weapon was recovered, then it was lost". The following scene shows the weapon in a Skywatch lab, still in Pennington's custody. Spike's dialogue may be a glitch in the narrative, but it more likely indicates the confused reports he had received at that point.
  • For some reason the Stunticons appear to be fully repaired and rearmed despite being heavily damaged and out of ammunition when we saw them being arrested by Skywatch in issue 6.

Real-world references

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  • The issue is named after The Demolished Man, Albert Bester's 1953 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel.
  • Joe owns a Ghostbusters t-shirt. Ghostbusters is another licensed property of IDW Publishing and featured in the Infestation crossover. His daughter owns a Mr. Potato Head, a popular Hasbro toy.
  • Campolongo has a mug with "Mo' Joe" printed on the side next to him as he sits in the Skywatch jet, parodying the G.I. Joe's signature catchphrase "Yo Joe!"

Errors

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  • Nina is once identified by Ben Simpson as Maria.
  • The colors of Rumble and Frenzy are switched on both Cover B and in the contents, relative to how they've been portrayed thus far. Unless, maybe, they swapped signature powers or something. To say nothing of the fact that when we last saw Frenzy, in Bumblebee #2, he'd been captured by Skywatch.
  • Spike had blown Scrapper's head off in The Transformers #8. When Blitzwing is carrying Scrapper away, the Constructicon still has his head.
  • Quetzaltenango is in Guatemala.
  • Joe's hair is brown in this issue, when it was gray in his previous appearance.

Trivia

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  • Don Figueroa has again slightly modified his semi-movie-inspired art style, which debuted in the first issue. This time, some of the facial detailing has decreased (making the faces more emotive), the beady eyes are now drawn in a more traditional style, and the human characters are slightly more cartoonish in design.

Covers (3)

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  • Cover A: a paper target of Optimus Prime is riddled with weapons fire; art by Don Figueroa, colors by J.Brown.
  • Cover B: Soundwave, Rumble and Frenzy; art by Nick Roche, colors by J.Brown.
  • Cover RI: Concept drawing of Megatron in the body that debuted last issue; art by Don Figueroa.
  • This doesn't happen.
    This doesn't happen.
  • FIRRIB
    FIRRIB
  • Back in black
    Back in black

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Reprints

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  • The Transformers, Volume 3: Revenge of the Decepticons (July 27, 2011) ISBN 1600109810 / ISBN 978-1600109812
    • Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #13–18.
    • Bonus material includes art from all covers, including design sketches from Don Figueroa and Marcelo Matere.
    • Trade paperback format.
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