Written by: James Asmus
Art by: Marcelo Ferreira & Athila Fabbio
Colours by: Valentina Pinto
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Plot
Bumblebee returns to the Ark following a test drive of his new body frame, and gets warned by Optimus against being so reckless in the future and taking on foes larger than him. Soon, the other Autobots are sent out on missions, whilst Bee is requested to complete another test drive, which he does, and starts to question his role on the team.
Soon, Bee sees a couple of racers, and disguises himself amongst them, only to get rammed by the racing jeep. The driver of the pick-up truck racer, Mateo, who has prosthetic limbs, berates the jeep driver for doing that, only for him to get rammed too, sending him over the side of the mountain road. Before he collides with the ground however, Bee transforms and saves him and his truck, shocking Mateo, who isn't aware of the Cybertronians.
Bee tows Mateo's truck back to his house for repairs, where Mateo explains that he lives with his mother, an aerospace engineer, who has been busy on a top-secret project recently.
Meanwhile, at her top-secret military hangar, Mateo's mother, Angela, is making last minutes plans for her upcoming presentation on a new stealth bomber, unaware than Swindle, the jeep from the earlier race, has been spying on her!
The next day, Mateo has breakfast with his mother, who explains that her presentation is the next day, so she can spend more time with him after that.
With his mother gone, Mateo goes to their aircraft hanger, where Bee is hiding, as he plans to work with Mateo to find out who their race opponent was, and bring him to justice for trying to kill him. Mateo directs Bee to a garage where he meets with his friend Nicole, who works there and he thinks may know the identity of the racer. They awkwardly talk and Bee realizes that they like each other and tries to bring them closer. Nicole tells Mateo that she's going to the dance that night with some friends, and asks him to join them, before directing him to a military surplus and museum.
At the surplus, Mateo confronts the owner, Herman, who he thinks is the racer, when he notices his mother's bomber design on his boards. Realizing this is bigger than he though, he runs away to Bee, but is rammed by Swindle, who has been hiding there, knocking off his prosthesis, but managing to get into Bee. Bee and Mateo chase Swindle, unaware that the other Combaticons are still at the surplus, continuing their plot. Swindle manages to escape from the duo, and they return to Mateo's home, where Bee convinces him to go to the dance that night instead!
Angela's car breaks down on the way home from the airforce base, when she is captured by Swindle and is taken back to the surplus, where she is shown footage of Mateo, to force her to help them build their own stealth engines....
Mateo goes into the dance hall and starts awkwardly hanging out with Nicole, but Bee has a plan, he takes control of Mateo's prosthesis and makes him dance to impress Nicole, and the two have fun (with Bee revealing he only started him dancing, he's been doing it himself for a while now).
Soon, Bee notices Vortex in the area filming the school and chases him. Mateo and Nicole follow him (with the latter just believing the car was stolen) in Nicole's car. Bee tries to contact the Autobots, but Vortex is jamming his signals.
Back at the surplus, Onslaught starts yelling about Vortex going after Bee, instead of staying with the kid, giving Angela her cue. She grabs the planning board and smacks Swindle with it, allowing her to escape into one of the planes in the yard, allowing her to escape in one.
Angela flies to Sierra Station, where her bomber is based, hoping to get help against the Decepticons, but discovers that due to the presentation the next day, the base has minimal live ammunition on-site.
Bee and his humans friends arrive at the air field just after Angela, just in time for the Combaticons to combine into Bruticus. Despite the difference in size, Bee goes up to him in vehicle mode, and manages to drive around his legs, causing him to lose balance and fall, forcing him to de-combine. Soon, the Autobot and his human allies have gone missing, and they soon know why...they are on the stealth bomber and use it to bomb the Decepticons, with Bee knocking them out with an EMP as well.
Bee calls in the other Autobots, who round up and capture the Combaticons, and Bee tells Optimus what he learned from all this. He needs to concentrate on what he IS good at, and not what he lacks in. Bee says goodbye to his new friends by having one last race with Mateo....
Characters
Autobot
Optimus Prime - Truck
Bumblebee - VW Beetle
Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
Sideswipe - Lamborghini
Blaster - Boom Box
Ratchet - Ambulance
Wheeljack - Race Car
Prowl - Police Car
Hound - Jeep (On Screen)
Ironhide - Van (On Screen)
Jazz - Porsche (On Screen)
Mirage - F1 Race Car (Mentioned)
Trailcutter - Camper Van (Mentioned)
Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex (Mentioned)
Decepticon
Onslaught - Anti-Aircraft Truck Capture by Autobots
Swindle - Jeep Capture by Autobots
Brawl - Tank Capture by Autobots
Vortex - Helicopter Capture by Autobots
Blast Off - Space Shuttle Capture by Autobots
Bruticus - Combaticon Gestalt
Megatron - Gun (Mentioned)
Starscream - Fighter Jet (Mentioned)
Human
Mateo Cruz
Angela Cruz
Nicole
Herman
Captain Devlin
Random Humans
Sierra Station Personnel
Other
Diagnostic Drone
Notes
- This new graphic novel series is set in a variant of the G1 animated cartoon. Though I guess it COULD be the same continuity, but set in the years between season two and three...but then where did Windblade go after this series?
- Due to the stealth bomber's role in this comic, the story seems to be set in the mid-nineties, putting it after season two, however Mateo doesn't seem to know about Transformers, who have been active on Earth for at least a decade this means....maybe he's just very unattentive?
- The title of this volume is, of course, based on the line from the Stan Bush song "Dare", a prominent piece from the 80's G1 movie.
- Bumblebee is mentioned as being in a new body, explaining why he looks so different to his original cartoon look, despite the rest of the characters looking fairly authentic.
- Optimus points out to Bee that he cannot fly....well he COULD in the pilot episodes!!
- So....why exactly is Swindle getting involved in street races?
- Bee's use of the radio and making himself break down to try and get Mateo and Nicole together is clearly a reference to the similar scenes from the Live Action movie.
- Bee having a display with his face on it to interact with his drivers is taken straight from the original Robots in Disguise series, and Rescue Bots.
- So...I can buy Bee being able to control Mateo's prosthetic limbs with radio signals...but how is he controlling his ORGANIC arms?!
- Swindle has been mentioned as being out of favours with Megatron again, like he was in Aerial Assault and B.O.T. from the cartoon, though at least his friends, the Combaticons are still willing to work with him....surely that's not because of him forming a leg in their gestalt form though!
- Trailbreaker is referred to as "Trailcutter" in this comic, despite his original name being available again now....
- Wheeljack is mentioned as being "the smartest"...don't tell Perceptor or Brainstorm!!
- Despite them being captured at the end of this story, their reappearance in Season Three of the cartoon would tell us they get released/escape between now and then.
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