Rhinox's Amaze-ing Adventure
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 At one point, Rhinox considered going to Egypt. | |||||||||||||
| "Rhinox's Amaze-ing Adventure" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Beast Wars Annual | ||||||||||||
| First published | April 20, 2022 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | April 2022 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | David Mariotte | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Philip Johnson | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Jake M. Wood | ||||||||||||
Rhinox receives some unwanted assistance as he tries to escape a Predacon trap—but it's further than he thinks, and time is short...
Synopsis
While tracking a distress beacon from a fallen stasis pod, Rhinox discovers and easily disarms a crude Predacon snare... unaware of the second booby trap until the ground caves in under his feet and sends him plummeting into a dark dungeon. As a trapdoor slides shut over his head, Rhinox first tries to climb to freedom, but discovers that a mesh of electrified webbing prevents him from even touching the walls without suffering painful electrocution.
At that moment, a familiar voice introduces himself to Rhinox: Tarantulas! He and and Blackarachnia have designed an elaborate, trap-riddled labyrinth to trap him forever... but, as Tarantulas bickers with Blackarachnia, Rhinox hears another voice calling for help. With no other way to navigate the dark corridors, Rhinox voluntarily electrocutes himself to light his way; after following the sound of the other voice through laser grids and spider swarms, he finally stumbles across Waspinator, who Tarantulas and Blackarachnia used as a guinea pig before abandoning him in the maze. Although Rhinox grudgingly agrees to rescue Waspinator, the Predacon's constant bumbling winds up tripping trap after trap—swinging axes, spears rockfalls, and even a giant boulder—as the pair wind their way through the massive maze, inconveniencing Rhinox even further while miraculously leaving Waspinator unharmed, despite the Predacon's bumbling nature.
Finally, Rhinox spies a crack of light in the ceiling above: a way out! Waspinator quickly unholsters his blaster, shoots himself an exit... and promptly abandons the "Maximal scum", leaving a frustrated Rhinox grumbling to himself!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"If you haven't already given up and turned to scrap, you'll find this labyrinth layered with traps... it's not "helping" to reveal that there are more traps! He needs to know my genius... right, our genius... can I at least reveal part of it?"
- —Tarantulas argues with Blackarachnia
"Wazzzpinator sorry... usually universe hates Wazzzpinator."
- —Waspinator
Notes
Continuity notes
- This story can slot in basically anywhere after the events of issue #8, which featured Blackarachnia sabotaging the Axalon's cargo of orbital stasis pod network and causing them to crash. Of note is that the beginning of #13 suggested that some time had passed between it and the end of #12, providing a neat gap for this story to slot in.
Transformers references
- In a takeoff of a long-standing cartoon slapstick trope, a dazed Rhinox is shown encircled by an imaginary ring of Megatron's beloved Rubber Duckies.
- While reflecting on his bad luck, Waspinator muses that "universe hates Wazzzpinator", in reference to his famous lament from the Beast Wars episode "Deep Metal".
- On page ten, a startled ape-like creature is shown dropping Dinobot's improvised axe from the Beast Wars episode "Code of Hero".
- At the beginning of the issue, after Rhinox falls down into the labyrinth, and the end of the issue, when Waspinator backstabs him, Rhinox grumbles "that's just Prime", one of Optimus Primal's catchphrases.
Real-world references
- While searching for one another in the dark maze, Rhinox and Waspinator play a game of Marco Polo using Optimus Prime's name.
- Rhinox and Waspinator's journey through the maze sees them dodging spears, axes, and even a rolling boulder, a la Indiana Jones.
- In keeping with the planet's strange, hybrid fauna, one of the creatures on page ten appears to be a baby jackalope.
Other trivia
- While Waspinator has largely eschewed his idiosyncratic, Elmo-style dialogue from the original Beast Wars cartoon throughout the comic's run, his appearance here sees him revert to a more cartoon-accurate method of speech.
