The Hunting Party (IDW)

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This article is about the IDW issue. For the Marvel comic story, see The Hunting Party (Marvel).
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File:SpotlightTC cvrA.jpg
"The Hunting Party"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published January 16, 2012
Cover date January 2012
Written by John Barber
Pencils by Chee
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Assistant editor Thomas Boening
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Post-Autocracy

Searching the galaxy for Metroplex, Thundercracker finds his loyalties divided.

Synopsis

Still seeking control of the space bridge technology that is inherent to the legendary Metrotitans, Megatron has tasked Bludgeon and his crew with seeking out the last known surviving titan, Metroplex, who was raised by Optimus Prime at the start of the Great War, but later vanished off the face of Cybertron. Among this unit is Thundercracker, drafted for the task because he happened to be present at an earlier meeting between Bludgeon and Alpha Trion, during which the titans' existence was confirmed. Now, he has spent years searching the boundless ocean of space, surrounded by short-tempered team-mates and led by a megalomaniac for whom he has no lost love, telling himself that as a Seeker, the hunt is all that matters to him. Their latest lead brings them to an asteroid outpost of the Nibarian race, which they promptly annihilate; no visible sign of Metroplex can be found, but Thundercracker detects some odd readings and finds a piece of unusual metal. Hiding it from his belligerent comrades as they return to their ship, the Empirion, he runs a computer analysis of the shard and discovers traces of a rare radiation wavelength, tracking similar emanations to a small planetoid a few quantum jumps away. Keeping the precise nature of his discovery a secret for reasons that even he cannot explain to himself, Thundercracker informs Bludgeon of the planetoid's location with the claim that it is merely a "hunch", and the Decepticons set off.

The Empirion arrives at its target days later, a surface scan confirming the presence of a reservoir of pseudo-energon within the planteoid that supports the idea of Metroplex's presence. Detecting a small city constructed atop the reservoir by an alien race, Bludgeon orders the Decepticons to simply kill them all, striking right through the city to catch the titan off-guard. Thundercracker is reluctant, but cannot openly disobey; as such, he opens the attack with one of his sonic booms in the vain hope of alerting the resident aliens and prompting their evacuation before serious loss of life. The suspicious Bludgeon orders an orbital bombardment of the city, and Thundercracker, appalled, takes refuge in his identity as a Seeker and his dedication to the hunt by venturing into a geothermal vent in order to reach the reservoir, and hopefully, Metroplex.

Unbeknownst to the Decepticons, they have been followed by an Autobot contingent consisting of Bumblebee, Jetfire and Nightbeat; a group entirely too small to face Bludgeon and his crew, but who have pursued them to the planteoid anyway, and have decided, on Bumblebee's command, to intervene in order to save the aliens' lives. They ram their small shuttle into the Empirion, crippling and destroying it, and then take the fight to the ground. As Nightbeat gets the aliens to safety, Bumblebee pursues Thundercracker into the tunnel, and one of the aliens decides to follow him. Bee catches up to Thundercracker just as he discovers that Metroplex is indeed hiding within the planetoid, slumbering and absorbing energy from the reservoir. A firefight ensues and Thundercracker gets the upper hand, but before he can finish Bumblebee off, the alien jumps into the fray, throwing off the Seeker's shot. Although Thundercracker is able to toss the small organic aside with ease, the bravery of his action touches the Decepticon, and he comes to understand the reasons for his own dishonesty: like the alien, he was acting not for his own glory, but in the name of protecting others by keeping Metroplex and his powers out of Decepticon hands. He radios Bludgeon with the lie that Metroplex is already gone, and with a wistful parting word to Bumblebee, transforms and thunders out of the cavern. His sonic boom splashes Metroplex with energon, causing him to awaken for a moment before immediately departing to continue his ever-enigmatic "mission". Bumblebee and the alien return to the surface safely and reunite with their fellows.

Without a ship, the Decepticons depart the planetoid in their alternate modes. Having concluded that Thundercracker accidentally led them into an Autobot trap and with his team-mates displeased, Bludgeon decides to remove him from their unit and send him back to the war. And so Thundercracker's hunt reaches it its end... but he wonders, has he really found what he was looking for...?

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Okay, Decepticons. Let's... see how this goes."
"That wasn't a very inspiring line, Nightbeat."
"It's been a long day."

—Nightbeat and Jetfire


"Concentrate on the hunt. I'm a Seeker. This is what I am. That is what I do."

—Thundercracker


"You know, if all Autobots were like you... well, never mind. That just isn't the case."

—Thundercracker, to Bumblebee


"This isn't another one of those "Bumblebee makes a friend" stories, is it?"

—Nightbeat

Notes

  • This issue was accidentally released early through digital retailer Comixology, on January 2nd. It was taken down after about an hour and released properly two weeks later.
  • The capture of Orion Pax and Alpha Trion that Thundercracker mentions occurred in Orion's own Spotlight issue.
  • Optimus Prime raised Metroplex in issue #10 of Autocracy. The giant became the Autobots' headquarters in issue #12 of that series; his subsequent disappearance was first mentioned in the 2012 Robots in Disguise annual, bringing his depiction in Autocracy into line with his original IDW continuity appearance in his self-titled Spotlight issue, which introduced his mysterious mission.
  • Bludgeon's ship is the Decepticon heavy transport from the Marvel UK story, Time Wars. It's not inappropriate for Bludgeon to command this vessel, as in that story, it was the transport of the Mayhem Attack Squad, the group that Bludgeon would go on to be a member of in the post-Time Wars era of stories.
  • Waspinator seems based on the Beast Wars 10th Anniversary figure, specifically due to his yellow shoulders and pelvis.
  • The Autobots' shuttle is based on an escape pod which appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Dark Awakening", but colored differently.
  • Though no members of the race appear, the outpost destroyed by the Decepticons at the story's beginning is identified as being Nibarian, a race from the Fun Publications story, "The Razor's Edge".
  • Though unnamed, the multiple identical robots staffing Bludgeon's bridge are based on Fasttrack, the little dude who came with Scorponok. Given that there are a bunch of them, we've taken the route of considering them Guardminders, mass-produced duplicates of the Fasttrack mold from Super-God Masterforce.
  • Also unnamed are the organic aliens that wind up caught in the middle of this issues events, whose porcine features, prominent tusks, jagged teeth and large, pointed ears appear to mark them as Urtuskians, a race previously only seen in issue #52 of the original Marvel series. They're a more real-worldish grey-brown in this issue, though, where the example from the Marvel story was red.
  • Bludgeon appears to possess an aerial mode, something no prior incarnations of Bludgeon have ever been shown to have.

Errors

  • The name of Bludgeon's ship is inconsistent, it being referred to as the Empirion on page 7 but the Emperion on page 15.

Covers (3)

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