Movie Prequel issue 1

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<tr style="background-color:#e7d492;text-align:center;font-size:12px;"> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> <table width="100%" style="background-color:transparent">

<tr style="font-size:14px;"> <td class="tti_buttonlink">« </td><td align="center">Prime Directive #1 </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink">» </td></tr> <tr class="tt1_secondarynav"> <td class="tti_buttonlink"> </td><td align="center"> </td><td align="right" class="tti_buttonlink"> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 12px; background-color:#ffffff;" align="center"> <img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/8/88/Prime_Directives_1a.jpg/230px-Prime_Directives_1a.jpg" width="230" height="353" border="0" /><br />Stealth Bumblebee? </td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; background-color:#e7d492; color:black;font-weight:bold;" align="center"> "Prime Directive" issue 1 </td></tr> <tr> <td>Publisher </td><td> IDW </td></tr> <tr> <td>Date published </td><td> February 28, 2007 </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Story </td><td> Chris Ryall </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Script by </td><td> Simon Furman and Chris Ryall </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Art by </td><td> Don Figueroa </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Colors by </td><td> Josh Burcham </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Letters by </td><td> Robbie Robbins </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Edits by </td><td> Dan Taylor </td></tr>

<tr> <td>Continuity </td><td> Movie continuity </td></tr>

</table> Their war.

Synopsis

Bumblebee narrates as he travels through space in protoform mode. He attempts to find the All Spark before the Decepticons do. He explains that the All Spark is responsible for all life on Cybertron and that it was basically worshiped for eons. Peace flourished under the rule of Optimus Prime and Lord High Protector Megatron. Eventually though, Megatron secretly assembled an army to help him possess the All Spark for himself. He started a global war and many died. The once peaceful Tyger Pax was now a war-ravaged wasteland. The All Spark was moved to Tyger Pax in secret but Megatron soon learned of its location.

Bumblebee's mission was to delay Megatron while others made preparations. His unit of six, including Arcee and Inferno, was under fierce attack while Optimus Prime's forces held off Megatron's main forces at Simfur. Megatron arrived and the tide turned against the Autobots. Bumblebee led the survivors into a building and planned to lead the Decepticons in and sacrifice the remaining Autobots to take out as many Decepticons as possible. They take out the roof supports and it collapses, but the Decepticons survive. They torture the remaining Autobots to find out the All Spark's location.

Megatron arrives and Swindle apologizes for not extracting the information. Megatron sends him away and questions Bumblebee, who tells him nothing. He breaks off Bumblebee's arm and throws him across the room. Before Megatron can do more, he hears the rumbling of the All Spark being shot into space. Before he can transform into jet mode and follow though, Bumblebee trips him, allowing the All Spark to speed away. Megatron crushes Bumblebee's voice capacitor and transforms to follow the All Spark.

The other Autobots soon arrive and repair Bumblebee's arm, but his voice capacitor is beyond repair. He learns to communicate in other ways and alerts the others to Megatron's actions. When it's decided to also travel into space to find the All Spark before Megatron, Bumblebee is the first to volunteer. He laments that the war is spreading to other worlds.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

<table border="5" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" align="center" style="border:#800000"> <tr> <th style="background:#FFEEEE"> Autobots</th><th style="background:#EEEEFE"> Decepticons </th></tr> <tr> <td style="background:#FFEEEE" valign="top">

• Bumblebee (1)
• Arcee (2)
• Inferno (3)
• Optimus Prime (4)
• Jazz (10)
• Ratchet (11)

</td><td style="background:#EEEEFE" valign="top">

• Megatron (5)
• Starscream (6)
• Dreadwing (7)
• Swindle (8)
• Payload (9)

</td></tr></table>

Errors

• Bumblebee's voice capacitor is said to be damaged beyond repair, yet later in the movie, it is repaired by Ratchet. Were they lying or exaggerating? New technology?
• Also, it was called a "vocal processor" in the movie by Ratchet, not a "voice capacitor".

Items of note

• This issue was originally scheduled for a February 21st, 2007 release; however, there were several problems which delayed its release:
• Initially, artist Don Figueroa had drawn pre-Earth Bumblebee in a design more closely based on an unused Earth mode concept art. However, Hasbro demanded that Bumblebee's Cybertronian form was to look more like the "Protoforms" seen in the movie (the Autobots' robot forms after emerging from their interstellar travel pod modes, before scanning Earth-based alternate modes) and the "Protoform" Optimus Prime toy, so Figueroa had to devise a new pre-Earth design for Bumblebee and redraw all panels from the issue depicting Bumblebee to reflect the new design.
• Furthermore, the initial printing run of this issue featured a printing error, with the text captions from page 2 repeated on page 5. Because of this, the release of this issue was officially pushed back to March 7th; however, some stores still received a shipment of the error-ridden version of the issue on its originally intended release date, February 21st. IDW then shipped out the corrected version to stores and recalled the error version, even asking retailers to replace their customers' already-purchased "error" versions with the corrected ones at IDW's expense.

• This issue was also available as a "black and white" edition, with both regular cover variants (also in black and white). Instead of simply featuring Don Figueroa's uncolored inks, however, the already colored pages were grey-scaled.

Covers (9)

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<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">

They're actually both looking for characterization.

<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">Let's see what you can see...</span><hr /> This article is in need of images.

</div><small>Specifics: alt covers</small> </td></tr></table> </center> —all by Don Figueroa

• Cover A: Bumblebee
• Cover B: Wraparound battle
• Cover RI-A: Uncolored sketch of cover A
• Cover RI-B: Wraparound silhouettes
• Virgin Cover RI-C: Front half of cover B without the titling
• New Dimension and Brian's Toys Retailer Exclusive: Autobot symbol
• Wizard World, Los Angeles 2007 Exclusive: Uncolored sketch of cover B
• Grey scaled cover A
• Grey scaled cover B

<table class="gallery" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/8/88/Prime_Directives_1a.jpg/78px-Prime_Directives_1a.jpg" width="78" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> That you, Bumblebee?

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 27px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/c/c1/Prime_Directives_1b.jpg/120px-Prime_Directives_1b.jpg" width="120" height="92" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> Shit, meet Fan

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div style="height: 152px;">Prime Directives 1ria.jpg</div> <div class="gallerytext"> Cover RI-A

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div style="height: 152px;">Prime Directives 1rib.jpg</div> <div class="gallerytext"> Cover RI-B

</div> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div style="height: 152px;">Prime Directives 1ric.jpg</div> <div class="gallerytext"> Cover RI-C

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div style="height: 152px;">Prime Directives 1nd.jpg</div> <div class="gallerytext"> New Dimension cover

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div style="height: 152px;">Prime Directives 1wiz.jpg</div> <div class="gallerytext"> Wizard World cover

</div> </div></td> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/a/a0/Prime_Directives_1abw.jpg/78px-Prime_Directives_1abw.jpg" width="78" height="120" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> Also in color!

</div> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><div class="gallerybox" style="width: 155px;"> <div class="thumb" style="padding: 13px 0; width: 150px;"><div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 120px;"><img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/9/92/Prime_Directives_1bbw.jpg/78px-Prime_Directives_1bbw.jpg" width="78" height="119" border="0" /></div></div> <div class="gallerytext"> Also in color, Part Deux!

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• Movie Prequel remaining issues
• IDW trade paperbacks (Infiltration, Stormbringer, The Gathering, Hearts of Steel, War and Peace, Generations)
• Manga versions of The Gathering and Stormbringer
• Transformers posters
• Generations series
• Transformers: Spotlight TPB
• Star Trek: The Next Generation series
• Adventures in Oz book
• Angel: Auld Lang Syne miniseries
• The Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary DVD
• Transformers film (rear cover; not on wraparound cover versions)