Dinobot Hunt (IDW)

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This article is about the IDW issue. For the Marvel UK story, see Dinobot Hunt!. For a list of other meanings, see Dinobot Hunt (disambiguation).
« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #8 »
"Dinobot Hunt"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published August 8, 2012
Cover date August 2012
Story by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith
Colors by Josh Perez and Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

Ironhide and the Dinobots search for the missing Aerialbots, but unexpected surprises lurk in the wilderness...

Synopsis

Just as the Dinobots make their return to Cybertron, the Autobots detect a signal coming from deep within the unexplored wilderness that now covers most of their planet. Knowing that most of the Autobots are unsettled by him following his return from death and his talk of a vision of the future, Ironhide volunteers to investigate the signal, believing it may have been sent by the Aerialbots, and recruits the Dinobots, equally as ostracized for their refusal to give up their Earth-borne dinosaur modes, to join him. The team are flown out over the wilderness by Sky Lynx, but before long, some form of interference begins to play havoc with his guidance system, and Ironhide orders him to safely return to the city while he and the Dinobots air-drop to the surface and continue on foot. Unfortunately, they drop straight into the lair of a mutated turbofox, and although the Dinobots are able to destroy it with brutal swiftness, the discovery of Silverbolt's wing among the detritus indicates that the team are on the right track to discovering what became of their former comrades. Ironhide advocates finding a place to set up camp for the night, much to Slag's consternation; Swoop, in turn, is amused to hear the two grizzled warriors trash-talking one another.

Back in Iacon, Starscream and Metalhawk have begun pushing for free elections, with Bumblebee resisting out of private concern that Starscream will win. Surprisingly, however, Prowl voices his support for the idea, and when Bumblebee questions him, Prowl encourages him to provide for the voters a counterpoint to Metalhawk and Starscream's romantic spin on the history of the war. Megatron was no freedom fighter, no hero—Bumblebee was a hero, and Prowl believes that if they hold elections, Bumblebee will honestly win.

At the Decepticon pen in Iacon, Swindle approaches Shockwave to talk, though the cyclopean Decepticon has no interest in hearing him, claiming he is content not to interfere in current events. Refusing to believe him, Swindle brings out Dirge, who relates everything that he has seen and heard Prowl do, explaining that he is on the run from the Autobots and wants Shockwave's help. When Shockwave asks what he wants him to do, Swindle grins and dubs that the real question.

Back out in the wilderness, Ironhide and the Dinobots' explorations have turned up signs of a battle that indicate the combatants were not simply wild animals. Ironhide suspects with some concern that Megatron may yet live, hidden in the wilds, prompting Slag to mock him for his new, reserved attitude. By way of explanation, Ironhide details his premonition for the Dinobots, and surprisingly, this placates Slag, who understands the idea of putting your faith in something intangible: after all, he explains, he didn't join the Dinobots out of rationality. Discussion of Ironhide's vision continues as they cobble a shelter together to spend the night in, with Sludge asking if the Autobots will win in the future. Ironhide reluctantly admits that in his vision, the Autobots have spread to all the corners of the galaxy: expansion, the same goal Nova Prime saw for their race. And if that's the case, is that really a victory? Unsettled by the talk, Ironhide is unable to fall asleep as night sets in, and as such, when noises begin outside, he is first into action. The unseen enemy has made short work of half the Dinobots: Snarl's apparently-dead body is hurled at Ironhide from behind, and as he struggles to get his bearings, he stumbles across Sludge's decapitated beast mode head. Bellowing challenges into the darkness, Ironhide is unprepared for the next attack...

...as Slag and Swoop run him through from either side!

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons NAILs

Quotes

"You had a vision."
"What's what I call it, but it's more'n that. It's somethin' I know in my Spark is true. Don't matter if you believe me."
"Those things... they do have truth in them."
"Huh. Guess I didn't expect you to believe in things like visions."
"You think I decided to become a Dinobot because of, what? A rational philosophy?"

—Slag and Ironhide

Notes

  • This issue is, of course, named after the Marvel UK story, "Dinobot Hunt!"
  • The Aerialbots left Iacon for the wilderness back in issue #3.
  • The Dinobots were last seen at the close of the Maximum Dinobots mini-series, over three years before the publication of this issue. Their return in Robots in Disguise coincidences with that of their leader Grimlock across issues #7 and #8 of sister title More than Meets the Eye and in The Transformers: Regeneration One #82 for a micro-event called out on the August covers as "Dinobot Month!"
  • Prior to this issue, IDW continuity has consistently named the team the "Dynobots" (in-story), a term that originated in Dreamwave Productions' War Within: The Dark Ages for the team as they existed on Cybertron before they had dinosaur modes. With this issue, that's obviously been abandoned. This may be an error, but it ties in somewhat into the fact the Dinobots have obviously become attached to their dinosaur forms and refuse to abandon them, suggesting they might have changed the spelling themselves.
  • The layered, honeycomb-styled landscape Sky Lynx flies over on page 6 is reminiscent of Cybertron as it appeared in Dark of the Moon.
  • Sludge calls Sky Lynx an "oversized Ardurian roc".
  • Prowl's flashback to the war shows images of Megatron battling Sentinel Prime from Megatron Origin #4, assassinating Zeta Prime and casting Orion Pax into the Undergrid from Autocracy #8, and ripping the Matrix of Leadership out of Optimus Prime from All Hail Megatron #7.
  • Megatron has been missing since the final part of "Chaos", the penultimate issue of the previous ongoing series, having failed to reappear on Cybertron post-reformatting.
  • Dirge has been on the run since issue #4, in which he was briefly mind-controlled by Bombshell, an event he alludes to in this issue. He had hooked up with Swindle for protection by issue #5.
  • Swindle tells Shockwave that Dirge comes with "cone-shaped hat in hand" — a reference to the fan-coined term, conehead.
  • Ironhide's vision of the future, Pax Cybertronia, was seen in issue #31 of the ongoing series.
  • Sky Lynx mentions a place called Leghuz Bregiv. It is a reference to his hungarian (Légi Hiúz), and russian (Brevij) name.

Real-world references

  • The opening scene, in which Ironhide addresses his "troops" while marching in front of a giant Autobot symbol, pays homage to the opening of the movie Patton, in which the title character does the same in front of a giant American flag.

Errors

  • Dirge's optics are yellow in the second panel of page 17, before switching to red. His "eyebrow" piece is also colored blue like his helmet for the second and third panels, but gray like his face in the rest.

Covers (3)

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