Insight
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| "Insight" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Fun Publications | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #68 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Jake Isenberg | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Evan Gauntt | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Of Masters and Mayhem | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2020 | ||||||||||||
While Spike and the Pretenders try to evade detection, Impactor tries to help his wounded friend.
Synopsis
Though the mugger's bullet has done enough damage to splash some of his mech-fluids onto Spike's shirt, Metalhawk is none the worse for wear, but the glowing blue wound in his chest has blown his disguise. Terrified at the revelation that the "man" he shot isn't a man at all, the mugger shouts for the others to stay back, but Vroom and Crossblades restrain him before he can do anymore harm. The group is unsure what to do with the man now that he knows their secret, but before they can decide on anything, the police show up to arrest them all. Several hours later at the Merida Police Station, Metalhawk has almost finished his self-repairing his Pretender shell, when two investigators show up to interrogate them. With the mugger-Mendez-unwilling to talk and implicate himself in any crime, the pair question the five. When asked about the mech-fluid on his shirt, Spike passes it off as being oil from the family he helped out of the car accident the previous day. Unimpressed, the pair then question them on several inconsistencies: a gunshot was heard by the officers and confirmed by ballistics, but neither a bullet or a ricochet strike was found at the scene. Vroom, worried, nearly blabs the Autobot's secret, but Elizabeth shuts him up, using her history as a field medic for the army to claim that she checked for wounds on everyone nearby. Satisfied, the investigators let them go, though one of them, attracted to Elizabeth, gives her cell phone number in case they can think of anything else, to her partner's annoyance. The group prepares to leave, as Metalhawk listens to the investigators discuss how they hope the "robots" never come back...
Several galaxies away, on the mechanical paradise of Paradron, hidden from sensors by the Stremus Nebula, former Wrecker leader Impactor wanders through a marketplace. The Autobot grimly reflects on this world of "peace", believing that they've done nothing more than give up, considering that though they've outlawed weapons, none of them are willing to force Impactor to remove his. Returning to Lifeline's medical center, the medic's snide attempts to aggravate Impactor are ignored, as she leads him to her patient, Impactor's "friend". Lifeline explains that the patient suffered damage that, normally, would be fatal. However, thanks to his dual-robot mode, they were able to save him...by removing the most damaged robot mode. Disgusted, Impactor refuses to listen to Lifeline's explanation that it was either this or death, and storms out...only to force himself to turn around.
Back on Earth, the freed Ramjet surveys the land as the sun rises, disgusted that by the humans inhabiting this universe that serves as his prison, vowing to find the source of power he detected and free himself. At the police station, Spike and the others prepare to leave, when the man who observed them the other day confronts them, realizing that some of them are robots from Cybertron. Ignoring Vroom's feigned incredulity, the "man" tells them that he doesn't care what they're doing, and that he has come to simply deliver a warning.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
- Impactor:"I brought him here for your help, and instead you turn him into that! You say you abhor butchery but this..."
- Lifeline:"It was the only way to save him. It was this or let all of him die.
- Impactor:"Then he should be dead!"
Notes
- Lifeline is noticeably antsy when Impactor notes that her medical tools look a lot like weapons—a nod to her profile, and the fact that her medical tools are simply a redeco of Generations Arcee's weapons!
- Impactor's friend is Punch—now permanently stuck in his Counterpunch form. This would be addressed in further detail in "The Truth We Make".
Continuity notes
- As Metalhawk is leaving the police station, he overhears one of the investigators mention that her brother was a RAAT, as well as a RUNT Driver.
Transformers references
- Metalhawk notes after being taken into custody that his "Holo-Frame" is nearly repaired from being shot. This implies that he and his fellow Pretenders' smaller size is a result of some sort of use of holomatter avatars, as opposed to their regular pretender shells.
- One of the police officers who interrogates the Autobots mentions that her police captain still has nightmares due to past encounters with Transformers. She also mentions others who took part in the captain's mishaps: Jed, Allan, and Sam, revealing the captain to be a grown-up Robin Lindley, the last member of the Spacehikers.
- When Impactor is walking through the Paradron Marketplace, you can pick Sandstorm's back out from the crowd—in the original cartoon, Sandstorm was native to Paradron.
Real-world references
- In the police station, there's a human with a Autobot logo on his shirt, with the text "I Still Believe"—probably a call-out to alien conspiracy shows and memorabilia.
- Two of the robots in the Paradron crowd-shot bear a resemblance to Peridot and Garnet from the television cartoon Steven Universe.
They must have taken the wrong warp pad. - In that same shot, what appears to be Bender from Futurama is in the far back of the crowd.
