IDW - Beast Hunters #5

Story by: Mairghread Scott & Mike Johnson

Written by: Mairghread Scott

Art by: Agustin Padilla

Inks by: Jose Aviles

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano, Josh Burcham & Josh Perez

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: Carlos Guzman

Plot

Snarl has been left in the Dinobot's encampment to deal with the problems of the other Autobots, while Grimlock and Swoop are at New Kalis, and Slug and Sludge are doing some work in the caverns. Snarl starts to get annoyed with his recent meeting with Scrounge when the planet is hit by a bright blue beam of light and the entire world starts shaking.

It soon ends though, and all the Transformers in the underground cities are feeling rejuvenated, and the caverns and planet's structure is reformed to an earlier state. Slug and Sludge are trapped in the caverns when the tunnel they were following is suddenly gone, but Sludge remembers that Last Spark is nearby in the other direction, so they head towards them for help.

In New Kalis, the walls in the city start to crack, and raw Energon starts pouring in, everyone, despite being rejuvenated all rush toward it out of habit, but Grimlock reminds them that too much raw Energon is dangerous. At the Dinobot's encampment only about six of the people present survived the quake, with Scrounge being one of the dead. Snarl takes charge though and starts a mission to escape the building.

In the caverns Sludge hears someone calling for help, but Slug doesn't care, but says he'll go find out who it is, as Sludge knows where the city is, and he doesn't. Meanwhile, Swoop bathes in some of the raw Energon, but gets worried when the Energon doesn't stop flowing. Slug finds the bot in distress, but finds out it's a member of the Forged, who managed to escape his settlement before it was destroyed by the quakes. Slug frees the Forged member from the rubble he's trapped under.

At New Kalis, Grimlock and Chromia are growing worried about the raw Energon, especially when others start rushing towards the Energon for themselves, despite the danger. Chromia, Swoop and Grimlock have to fight off their allies, which results in Grimlock going into beast mode and shooting fire off at them as well. Swoop transforms to fly people out, whilst Chromia goes off to recover anyone running away from Grimlock.

Everyone is in danger now, as Grimlock seems entranced by the raw Energon as well, Slug gets the Forged member out to safety, and Snarl watches as the Dinobot's encampment burns to the ground....

Characters

Autobot

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Snarl - Stegosaurus

Slug - Triceratops

Sludge - Apatosaurus

Swoop - Pteranodon

Chromia - Six Wheeled Car

Snarl's Assistant

Scrounge Killed in quake

"Cobra Commander"

New Kalis Denizens

Dinobot Settlement Denizens Several Killed

Last Spark Denizens (Mentioned)

Decepticon

"Blackout"

People in the Forged Settlement (Mentioned) Killed in quakes

Other

Robo-Squid

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue is set during the last couple of minutes of the Transformers Prime episode "Deadlock", and shows how bad things are for the Transformers underground on Cybertron when it's being revived.
• It's a bit odd that this issue, and the solicits seem to make it sound like the beam might destroy Cybertron, when the episode showing it revived came out weeks earlier....
• One of the Generics seems to have been coloured to resemble Cobra Commander, so that's what I'm naming him here!
• The only thing Snarl could find of Scrounge was his special arm...how ironic!
• Despite appearing many times here, Snarl's helper goes unnamed, same with the Forged member.
• The main problem the Transformers are facing here with the revival of Cybertron is that the caverns under the planet's surface are filling with Energon once again, meaning they'll probably all drown, if they don't escape.
• The Forged member shown here looks like he's based on Movie Blackout's design, so maybe he's Blackout here as well?
• Chromia's appearance here seems to be based on Prime Arcee's design, though she turns into a car instead of a motorcycle.
• Grimlock's actions and Chromia's reactions at the end of this comic seem confusing, all Grimlock did was shoot fire off to get the civilians to leave the area, granted this might ignite the Energon, but rather than being worried, she seems more disappointed in him for some reason with her "how could you?", and then Grimlock stating that he's King. I guess he could have killed some of them, but it's not clear from the artwork.
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