The Impossible Knot

« The Transformers: Bumblebee #2 »
"Cybertronian, Motherfragger... DO YOU SPEAK IT?!"
"The Impossible Knot"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 20, 2010
Cover date	January 2010
Writer	Zander Cannon
Artist	Chee Yang Ong
Colorist	Moose Baumann
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Associate editor	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2010)

Bumblebee's ability as leader of the Autobots is put to the test as he and his team are tasked with finding and apprehending Blurr.

Synopsis

Blurr is racing across the New Mexico desert. After unsuccessfully trying to contact Hot Rod, Blurr notices a figure in the distance, which causes him to transform and come to an abrupt stop right in front of Bumblebee.This startles Blurr to the point where his concentration is broken which causes him to speak at an uncontrollably fast rate.

Blurr notices the new Skywatch badge on Bumblebee's chestplate and is flabbergasted when he hears that Bumblebee and his team are now working for the humans, to which Bumblebee states that working with the humans is much better than hiding out in a cave. Bumblebee then apologizes to Blurr and tells him that he's surrounded, this causes Blurr to pull out his gun and shoot Bumblebee. Hound orders the rest of the team to take down Blurr while Ratchet tends to their wounded leader, only to find out that the shot from Blurr's blaster only damaged Bumblebee's skywatch badge. Bumblebee asks Hound and Wheeljack if Blurr is secure, then tells them that they are not waiting for the heavy transport.

Colonel Gordon Horiuchi contacts Bumblebee at the Autobot hideout demanding an explanation as to why they did not deliver Blurr to the heavy transport. Bumblebee states that he an his team understand the mission objectives and that they have Blurr with them, while refusing to turn him over to Skywatch custody. Colonel Horiuchi is furious about this, stating that almost getting shot at by one of your comrades is just a pitfall of command. Bumblebee disagrees and tells Colonel Horiuchi that he and his team are done doing his dirty work. The colonel isn't pleased with Bumblebee's insubordination and proceeds to activate the kill-switch in Bumblebee's badge. Bumblebee and Ratchet are both surprised to learn that Bumblebee did not transform back into vehicle mode after the kill-switch was enabled, Horiuchi calls Lieutenant Klonowski over to find out what's going on with Bumblebee's badge. To which Bumblebee starts to explain that the damage caused by Blurr is what's causing the badge to malfunction. Ratchet stops Bumblebee from letting the colonel know that he is immune and tells Bumblebee to feign a forced transformation. Klonowski is pleased to see that the badge still works (or so he thinks) and then releases the kill-switch. At this point Ratchet steps in and states that Bumblebee is now stuck in his vehicle form due to Bumblebee's badge being stuck in lock mode. Horiuchi asks Klonowski how the badge could be damaged, to which Klonowski reassures that Ratchet is correct because he is the mechanic, and that they will have to travel out to the Autobot hideout in order to replace the badge. Bumblebee transforms back into robot mode and quickly decides that they need to find a vehicle that closely resembles him when the Colonel is replacing the damaged badge.

Meanwhile on top of the U-Stor-It complex, Skywarp has assembled a communications array and begins to transmit a message to Megatron Stating that he has collected a variety of weapons and that the killers at Allodyne and Dynomic (The companies that made the weapons that fought the Decepticons) shall die by their own swords, and that he is only days away from completing a weapon that is capable of crippling every single Autobot in a single strike.

Bumblebee asks Blurr if he would be willing to help him find a car that matches his (Bumblebee's) vehicle form to serve as a decoy, to which Blurr asks why, to which Bumblebee replies that they need him and that it's not any more complicated than that. Blurr races through the city searching for a car that is a direct match to Bumblebee, and eventually finds one, while back at the headquarters, Bumblebee gives a passionate speech to his Autobot comrades.

Bumblebee then makes his way down to the shipyard while Wheeljack communicates to him through a text only frequency and that he needs to find some very rare element called Darmstadtium. Bumblebee travels to the shipyard at night to avoid detection and locates a container that is labeled Darkmatter Logic Systems when he catches a glimpse of a power shovel and immediately recognizes it to be the Constructicon Scavenger in disguise. Scavenger transforms and tells Bumblebee to be quiet and that it took him a week to sneak into the shipyard so that he could sneak onto one of the outgoing containers and escape the stranglehold of Skywatch. Bumblebee explains to Scavenger that Autobots and Decepticons need to work together now if they want to prove that they are equal to the humans as opposed to being beneath them, Scavenger then attacks Bumblebee stating that that is the problem with the Autobots, always wanting to live in peace with the humans rather than rule over them, the book ends with Bumblebee racing off into the desert against the night sky.

Featured Characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Blurr (1) Bumblebee (2) Ratchet (3) Hound (4) Wheeljack (5) Blaster (7) Roadbuster (9) Cliffjumper (10) Jazz (12) Sideswipe (13)	Skywarp (11) Scavenger (14)	Colonel Gordon Horiuchi (6) Lieutenant Klonowski (8)

Quotes

TBD

Errors

• Blurr sported an Earth-based alternate mode in A Rude Awakening, however here he is drawn in a Cybertronian alternate mode. What gives, IDW? (The answer, of course, is simply that Chee is drawing nearly everyone based on their toys and/or original Generation 1 character models, regardless of what they look like elsewhere.)
• Although not apparent last issue, this issue's dialogue makes it's fairly clear that the badges Horicuhi gave the Autobots are supposed to be covering their Autobot insignias: Blurr claims there is something wrong with Bumblebee's insignia, and is described as shooting him "dead center" (where his insignia is) and yet only hits his badge. The art doesn't reflect this, putting Bumblebee's badge on his upper-right breast, leaving his insignia unobscured and making Blurr's dialogue and the fallout of his actions make little sense.

Items of note

• Writer Zander Cannon wrote Blurr's text all smashed together to simulate Blurr talking a mile-a-second. This was done to emulate John Moschitta's voice acting from the original cartoon series as well as the Transformers: Animated Series. This is the first time Blurr speaks like this in the IDW continuity.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: A stern-looking Bumblebee and Hot Rod against a black and white background with Blurr's head in a set of cross hairs; art by Guido Guidi with colors by Josh Burcham.

• Cover B: An upward angle closeup of Bumblebee pointing his blaster; art by Chee Yang Ong with colors by Moose Baumann.

• Cover RI: Black and white sketch version of cover B.

• 
  Where the hell did you come from, Hot Rod?
• 
  Go ahead... Make my day.
• RI cover
  RI cover

Advertisements

• The Transformers: Bumblebee #3
• The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers #1
• The Transformers #3
• G.I. Joe: Operation Hiss
• G.I. Joe: Cobra II
• The Adventures of Digger and Friends
• The Adventures of Simone and Ajax
• Star Trek Captain's Log: Sulu
• Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Cardassians
• The Family Circus Library, vol. 1
• Bringing Up Father
• Little Adventures in OZ, vol. 1