Infestation (Dreamwave)

The name or term "Infestation" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Infestation (disambiguation).

« Transformers: Generation One Volume 3 #7 »
"Infestation"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	August 25, 2004
Cover date	August 2004
Story	James "Brad Mick" McDonough and Adam Patyk
Pencils	Don Figueroa
Inks	Elaine To
Colors	Espen Grundetjern and Jong-Im Lee
Letters	Ben Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave continuity
Chronology	Modern era

Something is afoot in San Desto, so the EDC and their robot pals go to get to the bottom of things.

Synopsis

In a San Desto theater, two soldiers casually joke with each other while watching the airing of some legitimate cinema (while they're supposed to be investigating why the rest of the town is mysteriously abandoned). From the shadows, one soldier is stung on the back of the neck by some kind of metallic bug. The other soldier inquires as to why his partner has suddenly gone silent, but is ambushed by something frightening. Halfway through sending out a radio message for help, he too is silenced.

It was either join the EDC, or join G.I. Joe and get hit on by sailors.

At the EDC HQ located in Area 51, Marissa Faireborn replays the unfinished radio message to a repaired Jazz, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe. Jazz understands that the three Autobots have been recruited to help investigate the potentially Cybertronian urban anomaly. Before Jazz complies, Marissa takes Jazz and the other two Autobots on a tour of the facility. After a security scan, the group meets up with Warpath and Bumper, while Wheeljack and Windcharger are undergoing repairs from EDC personnel. After some friction between Warpath and Sunstreaker, Warpath agrees to stay behind while the rest of the Autobots go along with Marissa to San Desto.

Starscream, after surviving Sunstorm's insanity, returns to the Decepticon base, where Rumble and Frenzy were wasting time shooting fish in a barrel.

In Area 51, the Autobots are being briefed for the mission to San Desto, which suddenly went into a communication blackout. As Marissa explains how human reconnaissance has failed, Sideswipe notices on a monitor a brief flicker of an image of Scourge held in captivity.

Later, on the flight to San Desto, Marissa hits on Jazz, Bumper acts insecure, and Sunstreaker is jerky. Everybody parachutes out of the helicopter and lands softly, but Bumper earns Sunstreaker's disdain when the amateur gets tangled in his own parachute lines. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe head in one direction, while Bumper and the human soldiers head in another, leaving Jazz teamed with Marissa. Although everybody feels something is off about the town, none of them know that they're being watched.

The humans exploring the town with Bumper aren't ready to put their lives in the hands of an alien so quickly, while Marissa and Jazz grow closer to each other.

The screams of Bumper bring the entire infiltration team back together outside of the theater, where the human soldiers recover from being ambushed by something that leaves a green residue on them. Sideswipe heads into the theater to back up Bumper, his size causing considerable damage to the theater. After Sunstreaker heads inside after his brother, Jazz and the soldiers are surrounded by hundreds of Insecticons!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Sideswipe (3) Sunstreaker (4) Jazz (5) Windcharger (7) Wheeljack (8) Bumper (9) Warpath (10)	Bombshell (2) Starscream (11) Rumble (12) Frenzy (13) Soundwave (14) Scourge (15)	Colligan (1) Marissa Faireborn (6) Cruz (16) Dorry (17)

Quotes

"Now you're talking, Ms. Firecracker!"

—Jazz

"I didn't know giant robots had testosterone."

—Marissa

Notes

• The movie one soldier is watching stars Nightbird, a plot device from The Transformers cartoon episode "Enter the Nightbird", which shares its name with the movie.
• Enter the Nightbird is a double feature with a film called Demon Swamp, which was the location where the Insecticons first appeared in The Transformers cartoon episode, "A Plague of Insecticons".
• One of the soldiers calls the other a "real American hero", which was a tagline for the related toy line, G.I. Joe. The toy line is alluded to later when Jazz tosses out the name G. I. Jane.
• "At the movies, no one can hear you scream," is a variation of the tagline used by the film Alien.
• A soldier discovers a Tako Tank and mistakes it for a GoBot.
• Marissa makes a reference her grandfather encountering the Transformers 20 years ago, prompting the establishment of the EDC. Jazz later compares Marissa to Nathaniel Faireborn.
• The theater which Bumper's team explores has a poster with art from Duel Masters, a separate Hasbro property which also briefly had a Dreamwave comic.
• On the "Prime Transmissions" page, reader mail is answered by copy editor Matt Hansen. There's also fan art of Arcee and Marissa Faireborn submitted by Silas Zee.
• The "Wavelengths" page has a letter from the desk of Rob Armstrong.

Covers(1)

• Regular Cover: Sideswipe and Sunstreaker surrounded by Insecticons, by Don Figueroa

• 

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• Energon #27 (interior front cover)
• Micromasters #4
• Bubblegum Crisis lithograph
• The War Within: The Age of Wrath (three pages: centerfold and the preceding page)
• The War Within: The Dark Ages trade paperback
• Dreamwave online store (double-page)
• Transformers/G.I. Joe: Divided Front (interior back-cover)
• Dreamwave pocket digest collections (back cover)

Reprints

• Due to concerns around if Dreamwave employees got paid for their work around the time of this issues publication, this issue has never been reprinted.