Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man

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Is that an AM/FM piledriver?
"Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published December 8, 2010
Cover date December 2010
Written by Mike Costa
Art by Don Figueroa
Colors by Andrew Dalhouse
Letters by Dave Sharpe
Editor Andy Schmidt
Assistant editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2010)

Things quickly escalate into disaster for the Autobots after the attack on Bumblebee.

Synopsis

Joe Gladki and his daughter are looking at the rings of Saturn through a telescope in the Gladkis' back yard, though Joe seems somewhat perturbed. As they head inside, Joe's newly installed perimeter lights and burglar alarms are activated. Joe has also purchased a gun and is storing it in his closet. After tucking his daughter into bed, Joe watches some BNN news footage talking about the Decepticon invasion and looks pensive.
Driven by his worries about his family, Joe has been accessing websites of dubious legality and made a purchase (the gun) that was definitely illegal and may not be entirely sane. Joe has been keeping the gun hidden from his family, and his fragile mental state isn't helped by the fact that his radio keeps talking to him. Joe listens...

Bumblebee is shot and severely wounded. Pennington and Silverstreak react unhappily. As he regains his composure, Pennington tells the Autobots not to hurt Bumblebee's would-be assassin, a request Brawn is less than enthusiastic about. Skywatch agents immediately restrain the shooter, Joe Gladki, who claims the Cybertronians have to be stopped. Gladki's comments are picked up by a Channel 8 news reporter.

As Joe is taken into custody, the Skywatch agents present Pennington with Gladki's weapon: a gun resembling Megatron's Walther P-38 alternate mode, complete with Decepticon insignia.

Aboard a Skywatch jet heading to the scene, Optimus Prime is growing antsy, but Spike informs the former Autobot leader that the jet is traveling as fast as it safely can. Prime is trying to understand where the human civilians managed to get hold of a weapon that could harm Bumblebee. After Prime is counseled not to jump to any conclusions and informed that the weapon was lost in the confusion after being initially recovered, Smokescreen angrily accuses Skywatch of spreading around Transformers-derived weaponry. Spike denies this, pointing out that Skywatch doesn't want the weapons around unaccounted for any more than the Autobots do. Smokescreen points out that Skywatch didn't want anybody knowing about their prior mission either, and that didn't go so well.

Prime orders Smokescreen to calm down, but states that after the Bumblebee situation is addressed, he's going to be discussing the current status quo. At that point, Campolongo pipes up from the cockpit that something is coming in, moving way too fast. Jazz yells at the humans to don their crash suits immediately. Something then hits the jet, and it explodes.

Back at Skywatch's base, Brawn is arguing with Pennington about keeping Gladki's weapon on site. Brawn recognizes the weapon as Megatron, but Skywatch's repair guy is less sure, as Megatron's shots tend to be fatal and Bumblebee is still probably alive. Brawn angrily disagrees with the repair guy until Ultra Magnus tells him to leave it. Brawn snorts that Magnus can't do anything about it. Magnus dismisses Brawn's attitude, stating that he's equally unhappy about being stuck on Earth and that if Brawn doesn't check his temper, Magnus will restrain him.

Chastened, Brawn asks the repair guy how Bumblebee is doing. The Skywatch operative isn't sure, but is confident he can keep Bumblebee on-line until Ratchet arrives. At that point, Silverstreak comes in, bearing the news about Prime's group on the jet. Magnus inquires about recovery teams and is told that they're on the way to the crash site, but the ETA is in 5 hours.

Maria comes into the base and tells Pennington that there are protesters outside and that it's also on the news. Pennington is dismissive, having larger problems to worry about, but Maria insists he see it and turns on a news broadcast.

The news reporter, Nina, is interviewing Ben Simpson, a spokesperson for a loosely affiliated anti-Cybertronian group known as "Earth's Children". Simpson is quick to disavow any link to the assassin, and even questions the use of the term "assassin", as it's not clear to him whether the Cybertronians are even alive. The reporter follows up by pointing out that Gladki's wife has already told the media that Gladki had been spending a great deal of time on Earth's Children's message boards in recent weeks. Simpson plays it off, saying you can't hold his group responsible for who visits an open forum. Nina asks whether the somewhat reactionary rhetoric of the group could have been an influence. Simpson is unsure how non-violent protests of the United States of America government colluding with extraterrestrial robots can be seen as reactionary. Nina wonders how anyone could refer to Bumblebee's shooting as non-violent and changes tack, asking Simpson about allegations that Earth's Children is supplying powerful weaponry to its members. Ben states that they are doing nothing illegal. Nina alludes to pending legislation that may change that. Ben Simpson asks what use the government is if it won't let its people protect themselves from invaders from space. Watching this at the base, Silverstreak is worried that things are about to go further downhill.

Outside the base, the protesters are being ordered to disperse when an explosion rocks the area. Using the explosion and confusion as cover, Soundwave arrives with Rumble and Frenzy in tow and proceeds to liberate the Decepticons that were imprisoned in Skywatch's holding cells.

Four months ago, in Quetzaltenango, Mexico, a young boy named Carlos Tuyuc had discovered something that had fallen from the sky. Whatever it was, it burned for days and glowed at night, continuing to glow once the flames had gone out. Carlos had told his uncle about it, and shortly thereafter some military men had come. Carlos told them that what had fallen was a silver god and that it had brought weapons. The weapons are the same as the gun used by Joe Gladki against Bumblebee, and the "silver god" is the heavily damaged head of Megatron's P-38 body.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"Brawn, leave it."
"Or what, Magnus? You'll arrest me?"
"Enough. I'm stuck here, just like you. And I don't like this either. But if you don't get a hold of yourself now, you will be restrained. Do you understand me? I don't want to do this. I'd rather have you up here with us."

—Ultra Magnus tells Brawn to wise up or shut up, because he can't deal with anything right now.

Notes

  • The issue is named after The Demolished Man, Albert Bester's 1953 Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel.
  • Don Figueroa has again slightly modified his semi-movie-inspired art style, which debuted in the first issue. This time, some of the facial detailing has decreased (making the faces more emotive), the beady eyes are now drawn in a more traditional style, and the human characters are slightly more cartoonish in design.
  • For some reason the Stunticons appear to be fully repaired and rearmed despite being heavily damaged and out of ammunition when we saw them being arrested by Skywatch in issue 6.
  • Joe owns a Ghostbusters t-shirt. Ghostbusters is another licensed property of IDW Publishing and featured in the Infestation crossover. His daughter owns a Mr. Potato Head, a popular Hasbro toy.

Errors

  • Nina is once identified by Ben Simpson as Maria.
  • The colors of Rumble and Frenzy are switched on both Cover B and in the contents, relative to how they've been portrayed thus far. Unless, maybe, they swapped signature powers or something. To say nothing of the fact that when we last saw Frenzy, in Bumblebee #2, he'd been captured by Skywatch.
  • Spike had blown Scrapper's head off in The Transformers #8. When Blitzwing is carrying Scrapper away, the Constructicon still has his head.
  • Quetzaltenango is in Guatemala.
  • Joe's hair is brown in this issue, when it was gray in his previous appearance.

Covers (3)

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