IDW - Rage of the Dinobots #4

Written by: Mike Johnson & Mairghread Scott

Art by: Agustin Padilla

Colors by: Thomas Deer

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Shockwave is engaged in battle with the Dinobots and Ultra Magnus, after a short battle however, Shockwave releases an EMP and knocks out the Autobots.

Later, Grimlock wakes up in Shockwave's lab, strapped to a table, with Shockwave planning to remove Grimlock's sentience to make him more obedient. Elsewhere, the other Dinobots and Magnus are in a jail and try to figure out how to escape, Magnus picks a fight with Slug and the Decepticon jailers lower the forcefield  to break it up, however the Autobots attack, with them revealing that the fight was just a trick to see if they were stupid enough to let them out this way.

Shockwave gets on with his work on Grimlock, however he'd soon attacked by the others and all tear apart and kill Shockwave, Grimlock is freed from his restraints.

All of a sudden Shockwave appears via a hologram and reveals that the body they just destroyed was just one of many duplicates he has set up, just in case of being killed.

Soon, the Autobots have all left the lab and have a ship set up to leave, Magnus boards it intending to join Optimus and the others, but the Dinobots decide to remain behind to help deal with the remaining Decepticons and to take care of any Autobots still on the planet too. Magnus bids them farewell as the Dinobots head off through the mostly deserted planet as Magnus' ship blasts off.

To be Continued in Beast Hunters

Characters

Autobot

Ultra Magnus - Truck

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Slug - Triceratops

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Swoop - Pteranodon

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Shockwave

Fake Shockwave Killed by Dinobots and Magnus

The Forged

Starscream (Flashback)

Other

Predacons (Mentioned)

Sentinel Prime (Mentioned)

Notes

• So...what happened to Backbite after issue one?
• Also, where did the other Autobot prisoners who escaped disappear to?
• I also guess Ser-Ket is dead then...though I can't see how her injury was fatal...
• Grimlock is shown here to have a regular face under his visor and mouthplate one, and his "mask" seems to help him to think in some way, possibly implying that without it he's die or something
• Shockwave is shown to use duplicates of himself to keep himself safe...this could give an explanation to his apparent return in Prime season 3 despite being seemingly killed by Arcee and Cliffjumper in the Space Bridge accident
• The other Dinobots were mere tests before Grimlock was completed
• Sludge's Dinobot body isn't explained here, despite it being a bit of a big plot hole, since he was meant to be dead....
• The flashbacks shown here are based on the Fall of Cybertron game
• The Dinobots attacking Shockwave near the end of this comic seems to be in homage to a similar scene in Spotlight Shockwave
• Sentinel Prime's palace is apparently still standing at this point
• The upcoming Beast Hunters comic seems to be set on Cybertron, as opposed to the Prime TV series' Beast Hunters sub-series being set on Earth (obviously set in the modern era, not just after the Exodus)