Beast Hunters issue 4

« Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters #4 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	August 28, 2013
Cover date	August 2013
Story by	Mairghread Scott & Mike Johnson
Written by	Mike Johnson
Art by	Agustin Padilla
Inks by	José Avilés
Colors by	Priscilla Tramontano & Josh Burcham
Additional colors by	Thomas Deer
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	Prime cartoon

Dinobots versus dinosaurs—fight!

Synopsis

At Last Spark, Slug is starting to grow concerned over Grimlock and Swoop's protracted absence. Snarl is confident their leader can handle anything, but Sludge believes that if their two teammates do not return soon, they will have to go looking for them. Enthusiastic Dinobot fanboy Zoom takes this as a cue to offer to join them when they leave, but they shush him and warn him that being a Dinobot isn't all fun and games.

In Shockwave's subterranean laboratory, Grimlock and Swoop are confronted by a raging quartet of dinosaurs, which Grimlock quickly concludes were grown in the lab by its Decepticon owner. Grimlock engages his double, the Tyrannosaurus, which proves able to take the punishment he dishes out, but soon retreats as Grimlock continues to mercilessly pummel it. Discovers that the wounded creature is bleeding energon, Swoop follows the trail to scout ahead for his leader, only to be ambushed by his own counterpart, the Pteranodon. The airborne beast leads Swoop a merry chase, up through the tunnels to the ruined surface of the planet, but after only a few moments exposure, it falls from the sky, unable to survive in the alien atmosphere. Sympathetic to his progenitor's plight, Swoop grabs the Pteranodon before it hits the ground, and takes it back underground.

Back in Last Spark, Zoom is chastizing himself when the Triceratops suddenly comes smashing through the city walls, knocking him for a loop. The other dinosaurs are hot on its heels, and barrel in on Sludge and Snarl just as they're arguing over whether or not to go after Grimlock. Slug and Snarl adopt their alternate modes to battle their Triceratops and Stegosaurus doppelgangers while Sludge tackles the T. rex, but before long, they start tripping over one another as the dinosaurs prove tougher than expected. Slug and Sludge swap opponents, while Snarl insists on taking his counterpart down himself, and as the fight continues, the three beasts begin to glow brightly. Mere moments after the Dinobots realize that the energon in the creatures' systems is overloading, the dinosaurs dissolve in a brilliant flash of light, leaving nothing but energon puddles behind.

Presently, Grimlock and Swoop arrive and leads the others back to the remains of Shockwave's lab, where Grimlock details what he has discovered. Shockwave, Grimlock explains, grew the dinosaurs there as one of his experiments, but when even the energon-based modifications he made to their genetic makeup failed to grant them the ability to survive in Cybertron's atmosphere, he instead chose to use the creatures as a basis for the alternate forms he then gave the Dinobots. As Sludge picks up one of the bones that litter the lab floor, realizing that it belonged to the Apatosaurus that was used as his model which evidently escaped and perished before the others, Grimlock reveals one last discovery: the beasts originated on another planet. Studying a video image of the little blue-green world, the team wonders what makes it so special, and vow to one day hunt down Shockwave and find out.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Snarl (1) Slug (2) Sludge (3) Zoom (4) Swoop (5) Grimlock (6)	Shockwave (7)

Quotes

"Wow, Grim, you look terrible!"

—Snarl mistakes the T. rex for someone else

Notes

Covers (3)

• Cover A: A victorious Grimlock stands over some defeated Insecticons, by Ken Christiansen
• Cover RI: Animation artwork of Optimus Prime and Predaking in battle
• Cover SUB: Megatron, by Michael Lark. This cover was available to order in any quantity by retailers, with the notional intent that it be given only to customers who had placed Beast Hunters on their pull list.

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