IDW - Beast Hunters #4

Story by: Mike Johnson & Mairghread Scott

Written by: Mike Johnson

Art by: Agustin Padilla

Inks by: Jose Aviles

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano & Josh Burcham

Additional Colours by: Thomas Deer

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

At Last Spark the three Dinobots working there are getting worried about Grimlock and Swoop not being back yet, and consider going to look for them, Zoom, the annoying kid of the city asks to tag along, but they just say no, because he's not a Dinobot (jerks).

Meanwhile at Shockwave's hidden lab, Grimlock and Swoop take on the Dinoclones, with Grimlock going all out against the T. Rex, however after a short battle, all the clones run away, so the two Dinobots have to hunt them down. Swoop gets ambushed by the Pteranodon, who then escapes to the surface, Swoop follows it, and chases it in the air, until the Pteranodon seems to lose the ability to fly, so Swoop catches it, and takes it underground again.

At Last Spark, Zoom is moaning at himself for sounding pathetic to the Dinobots when suddenly the Dinoclones smash through the wall and knock him down. Before long, the three Dinobots at the city engage the Dinoclones, however before long all the clones start to glow with Energon and blow up, leaving just puddles behind. Grimlock turns up and says he knows what they were.

All the Dinobots go down to Shockwave's hidden lab, where they find in the database Shockwave's experiments on some creatures he scanned from another world (Earth) and pumped them with Energon for his experiments which eventually led to the Dinobots, the Dinobots now feel sorry for the poor creatures they just witness die (due to not being able to survive out of the tubes for long) and resolve further to hunting down and stopping Shockwave once and for all.

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Swoop - Pteranodon

Slug - Triceratops

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Zoom Injured by Triceratops Dinoclone

Last Spark Denizens (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Shockwave (Footage only)

Dinoclones

Tyrannosaurus Rex Blew up due to defects

Triceratops Blew up due to defects

Pteranodon Blew up due to defects

Stegosaurus Blew up due to defects

Notes

• Still no sign of the Apatosaurus clone (except in the last image where they imagine them all) Which again could be because Sludge was recreated before the others
• These Dinoclones must be made of some strong stuff, Grimlock bites the T Rex one and it seems to have no effect on it in the long run.
• As a possible reference to the TV series, Swoop mentions that they don't go too far away from the Energon Deposits underground, which would explain why none of the characters have encountered the Dinobots etc when they've come to Cybertron in the course of the series.
• I'm guessing that Last Spark isn't too far away from Shockwave's Dino-Lab as they all arrive at the city quite quickly (considering that they can't survive long out of their tubes)
• It seems here that Shockwave's first experiment with "Dinobots" was to infuse fossils or real Dinosaur with energon to give them life. All of this of course, including the Dinobot's creation, seems to be precursors of the Predacon experiments.