IDW - Bumblebee #4

Title: From Cybertron with Love

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Bee and his secret agent friends are surrounded by Malignus' Decepticons, where the leader discloses that his plan is to disrupt Earth by causing a nuclear war, thus allowing him to raid the planet of it's ancient Cybertronian artefacts. Before they can do anything though, Lux reveals that she secretly converted Bee's homing beacon, that he placed on Diabla, into a bomb, which she detonates.

Bee grabs his friends and transforms, deploying some submarine attachments and dives into the Sharkticon tank, he deploys his oil slick, darkening the water and blinding the Sharkticons. Bee escapes the water where he comes across Diabla, who shoots one of the Sharkticons, who was about to attack Bee, leading to Bee all-but confirming her loyalty to him.

Malignus, seeing this, sets Dead End, a cannibal, upon the Decepticons to teach them to not betray him. Diabla pushes Runabout in the way, leading to him being killed by Dead End. Bee thanks his old friend, but she reveals that she is working for EIDOLON, an evil human group and shoots Bee in revenge for him killing Wildrider on their last mission against the villainous team.

Malignus begins launching his missile, in order for it to spark an all-out war between various nations. Blitzwing orders Astrotrain to take out Diabla, but he decides that he's had enough and takes off alone. Lux takes on Malignus, and due to his small size, she manages to plant one of Bee's homing beacon bombs into him, and destroys the tiny Decepticon.

Diabla flies after the missile, as it is headed towards the Soviet Union, the homeland of her new Human allies, she manages to redirect the missile back down towards the Decepticon's base, allowing Bee and his friends to escape, whilst Blitzwing uses Dead End as a shield.

As the missile hits, Bee dives into the nearby ocean and shoots after Blitzwing as he escapes. Bee soon finds one of Diabla's wheels, and whilst the Humans take this to mean that she has died, Bee still has hope, but does vow to take down Blitzwing if he cannot find Diabla, since he still believes that he dragged her into the Decepticons.

Over time, Bumblebee continues to chase Blitzwing, eventually leaving his Human allies and one day finds him...and prepares to battle him....

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Aston Martin

Decepticon

Malignus Killed by Diana Lux

Blitzwing - Fighter Jet/Tank

Diabla - Lamborghini Islero Possibly Killed in Missile Explosion

Astrotrain - Space Shuttle/Train

Dead End - Porsche 365 Killed by Blitzwing

Runabout - Rolls Royce Limo Killed by Dead End

Sharkticons

Wildrider - Shelby Cobra (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Agent David Reeve

Agent Diana Lux

P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E. (Mentioned)

E.I.D.O.L.O.N. (Mentioned)

Notes

• Malignus mentions that Earth is home to a large cache of Cybertronian artefacts. This is quite true! Look at the Allspark, Star Harvester, Matric of Leadership, Staff of Merlin, UNICRON, and others just for a starter!
• Bumblebee is shown to be able to convert his car mode into a submarine (though not in a triple-changer manner)
• Diabla is revealed to be working with humans as well, but not the good guys, revealing that the original intel given to Reeve was correct, in that some Decepticons ARE working with Humans.
• Astrotrain escaping with his life in this issue leads to his later return in the Dark of the Moon prequel comics

IDW - Bumblebee #3

Title: Energon Is Forever 

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Bumblebee is hit by a bunch of missiles, by whom turns out to be Blitzwing, the Decepticon who Bee sees as having corrupted Diabla, still not accepting that she was always a Decepticon. Bee manages to escape from the larger Decepticon by blowing a gas main up and gathers up his human allies to escape, but is quickly chased by the other Decepticons.

Bee drives into Tottenham Court Station to try and escape along the train line, but is forced to reverse when the train races in the opposite direction. Diabla tracks him down and pins him against the train, until Bee transforms and escapes, forcing Diabla to reverse to avoid being crushed by the train.

Bee and his agent friends escape the train line and go into hiding, whilst Reeve makes contact with another ally of his.

That night, the trio make it to Hyde Park, where Reeve has arranged to meet his friend, only to find him seemingly dead, before discovering his body to be just a dummy. The group are soon surrounded by some Decepticons, led by Astrotrain, but all the Cybertronians are blasted by an energy weapon, shot by Reeve's friend, Agent Heath Donovan of Sector Seven, who also knows Bee and has been tracking him due to recent incidents. The three humans leave with Bee.

On the way to their next location, Lux and Reeve are informed by Donovan that agents across the world are being killed by the Decepticons, but the deaths are being blamed on other nations to try and force a war. Bee reveals that during their fight, he placed a tracer on Diabla, so he knows where the Decepticons are based, allowing them to attack them.

Later, Bee and the PROGRAMME Agents are hanging onto the outside of Donovan's jet, Jetfire in disguise, and perform a HALO jump from the stratosphere onto the island the Decepticons are based on. Bee quickly knocks out the guard, Darksteel, and they sneak into the base, where they find a pool filled with Sharkticons and are soon surrounded by the Decepticons, who had already found the tracer, and their leader, Malignus, begins to monologue about how his plan to cause the humans to go to war and destroy themselves is coming along well....

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Aston Martin

Jetfire - SR-71 Blackbird

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Malignus

Blitzwing - Tank/Fighter Jet

Diabla - Lamborghini Islero 

Dead End - Porsche 365

Runabout - Rolls Royce Limo

Darksteel - Corvette Stingray Knocked Out by Bumblebee

Astrotrain - Train/Shuttle

Sharkticons 

Human

Agent David Reeve

Agent Diana Lux

Agent Heath Donovan

Londoners 

Konrad Gotell (Flashback) Killed by Malignus

Zhou Zhen Fun (Footage) Killed by a Decepticon

Director Pelham (Mentioned) Dead

Agent Ian Byrde (Mentioned) Killed by Runabout

Agent Pierre Chavotet (Mentioned) Killed by Blitzwing

Queen Elizabeth II (Mentioned)

Sergeant Donovan (Mentioned)

Sector Seven (Mentioned)

P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E. (Mentioned)

E.I.D.O.L.O.N. (Mentioned)

S.D.E.C.E. (Mentioned)

The Soviets (Mentioned)

Italian Government (Mentioned)

Havana (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue gives us our first proper look at Blitzwing, the character seen in the Bumblebee Movie trailer that everyone believed was Starscream when it was released. This issue also confirms that he is a triple changer...or at least in the comic he is anyway.
• The police box sign, with a reference to travelling with companions is a reference to Doctor Who
• Heath Donovan, as mentioned in dialogue, is the son of a member of Sector Seven from the war era, as seen in the Sector Seven comic series
• Jetfire is shown being in his Blackbird alternate mode from Revenge of the Fallen...but he shouldn't be in that form until the model is actually in use, not before it was fully developed, which was late 1964/early 1965.
• So she's seen the Decepticons murder many humans by this point...but Diana thinks that Bumblebee punching Darksteel (he doesn't even seem to kill him) is "brutal"
• So turns out the Decepticons' human ally was just a small Decepticon pretending to be one....I wonder if we'll see the origins of Pretenders next issue?

IDW - Bumblebee #2

Title: The Living Headlights

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Having been given the intel from the EGGHEADS that one of the group is potentially a Decepticon allied spy, David returns to Bumblebee, unaware that Diana had hacked into his call and heard everything. David loads his gun, and the other two believe he is going to kill them, but then Diabla and Runabout appear from the river to attack them.

Bee makes a run for it with Diana, with David grabbing onto the rear of his vehicle mode, and the Decepticons chase after them. David tries to explain that he was going to attack the Decepticons, not them, but they aren't so sure.

The Decepticons catch up with the spies on Tower Bridge where Diabla fights Bee, and the humans are left with Runabout, who they fend off with David's "special round" bullet firing gun. The humans manage to escape using a hot-wired scooter and head towards a hidden safe house Diana knows about. Bee is attack by both Decepticons alone, but he also manages to escape by diving into the Thames.

The group meet up in the safe house, where they determine that due to another agent being sent to America to try and root out spies from Russia, which is how Bee came to the UK, perhaps that was the reason for him coming here too.

They decide that, due to the Decepticon interference during the mission in Berlin, and that Gotell was known to be linked to the Soviets too, they should stake out a known agent named Vladimir Vladek.

The agents disguise as a photographer and a model, with Bee as their car, and stake out Vladek's base of operations, where David notices Diabla around the area, so has Bee go "out of control" and knock into her. Using the distraction, the humans storm the base, which has a clothing store as a front.

The two agents break into the back room and fight the Russians, or rather David fights the goons, but Diana talks to Vladek, and explains that the Decepticons, or someone allied to them killed Gotell and will probably go after him next. In exchange they want information on their alliance, which Vladek seems happy to provide, as revenge on his former allies...

Bee and Diabla fight in the streets, but Bee asks to just talk again, which she agrees to. The duo go onto the roof and Bee asks why she's working for a human, but she claims that they are just using the humans to their own ends

Vladek is taken to his car and begins to leave, when the car starts to transform and reveals itself to be the Decepticon, Dead End, who crushed Vladek and his driver inside.

Diabla jumps away, claiming to have just agreed to talk to Bee so he would be distracted, leaving him shocked...unaware of a group of missiles heading right for him...

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Aston Martin

Decepticon

Diabla - Lamborghini Islero

Runabout - Rolls Royce Limo

Dead End - Porsche 365

Human

Agent David Reeve

Agent Diana Lux

Vladimir Vladek Killed by Dead End

Vladek's Driver Killed by Dead End

Vladek's Goon

Londoners

EGGHEAD operative (Voice Only)

Konrad Gotell (Mentioned) Dead

Agent Ian Byrde (Mentioned)

Director Pelham (Mentioned) Dead

Sector Seven (Mentioned)

Notes

• ...how did Agent Reeve see the Decepticons, and yet Bumblebee and Lux (who were facing where they were coming from) didn't?
• Bee claims that he "never trusted humans"...I guess he got over that over time huh?
• Apparently Bumblebee was brought into PROGRAMME as part of an exchange with Sector Seven to root out spies...so why doesn't S7 know who Bee is later?
• Also, the mentioned soviet spy in Sector Seven storyline is shown in the S7 comics
• Dead End appears for the first time in IDW's continuity here, and he is based seemingly on his scout class toy, rather than his deluxe one. When he appeared in Titan's series, it was the reverse.
• So...were there humans inside that car that Diabla threw onto the roof? It had it's headlights on, and was in front of her on the road....did she kill them?

IDW - Bumblebee #1

Title: The Man with the Golden Car

Written by: John Barber

Art by: Andrew Griffith

Colours by: Priscilla Tramontano

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

David Reeve, an agent of P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E. infiltrates an E.I.D.O.L.O.N. facility in Germany and makes his way to the office of their leader, Konrad Gotell, only to find him dead in his chair, and just manages to ump out of a window as the building explodes. He radios for his partner, Bumblebee, to catch him as he plummets, but he is instead "rescued" by the Decepticon Wildrider, whilst Bee is being chased by the German police in Berlin.

Bee soon makes his way to the captured agent and the Decepticon, and manages to smash the latter into the Berlin Wall, damaging it, and knocking out Wildrider in the process. Bee and Reeve drive away to return home to the UK...

After getting back home, Reeve heads to their disguised HQ, which fronts as a music studio, where Agent Lux informs Reeve that they haven't gotten anything from Wildrider, but thanks to footage from America they know he has been in contact with two other Decepticons, Runabout and Diabla, and thanks to a contact within Sector Seven, she also relays that the Decepticons are seemingly working for a human, which is concerning as it isn't their usual style.

Outside, Bumblebee is waiting for Reeve to return, when a limo appears behind him carrying the director of the agency, Pelham, however as the director leaves the limo, he is stabbed in the chest and dies. The limo races away, setting off a bomb at the studio, sending Bee flying. The Autobot gives chase to the limo, but is stopped by the Decepticon Diabla, with the limo also being revealed to be Runabout in disguise.

Inside the studio Lux and Reeve escape, after finding another agent there dead, but are encountered by the Decepticons, who throw Bee to the ground in front of them. The human agents fire on the Decepticons, but to no real effect. Bee tries to convince Diabla to change her ways, as she was once an Autobot, but she reveals that she was ALWAYS a Decepticon, and was just acting as a spy for Megatron when she posed as an Autobot.

Following this disaster, the agents and Bee drive away, with Bee using an oil slick to keep the Decepticons from following for now, much to their irritation.

Later, the group stop at a payphone, so Reeve can contact the "E.G.G.H.E.A.D.S." of their organization to figure out what to do. They inform him that they have been suspicious of a Decepticon spy within the studio for a while now, and are disavowing the three survivors until the spy can be identified...Reeve states that he understands and loads his gun....

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee/Agent Goldwheels - Aston Martin

Optimus Prime (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Diabla - Lamborghini Islero

Runabout - Rolls Royce Limousine

Wildrider - Shelby Cobra  Captured by PROGRAMME

Megatron (Mentioned)

PROGRAMME

Director Pelham Killed by a Dagger

David Reeve/Agent Omega Zero

Agent Diana Lux

Agent Parson Killed in Studio Explosion

EGGHEAD Agent (Voice Only)

Other Human

Konrad Gotell Killed by a Dagger

EIDOLON Staff

EIDOLON Operative 37

Berlin Civilians

German Police Force

London Civilians

"Human Big Villain" (Silhouette Only)

Sector Seven (Mentioned)

Queen Elizabeth II (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story is very obviously a play on spy-themed movies/programmes like "James Bond" and "The Man from UNCLE", including the hi-tech gadgets, use of acronyms and the cheesy theme song.
• This is the first full-on comic series set in the Movie universe by IDW since the adaptation of "Dark of the Moon". Whilst it hasn't been stated anywhere, it seems likely that this was due to the disgusting amount of spoilers shown in the previews for that comic, which spoiled just about every major detail of the then upcoming film (Sentinel being on the Moon, him being evil, him killing Ironhide amongst others)
• Following the revelation in the movie "The Last Knight", that Bumblebee has been on Earth since at least World War II, we see a further adventure from him approximately twenty years before the upcoming Bumblebee movie, set in the 1980's
• Despite being majorly into Transformers, I've never been too interested in cars, so I had to use a combination of TFWiki, google searches and asking Andrew Griffith on Twitter for the types of vehicles the Transformers shown this issue turn into (I figured that would go over better than just naming them all "car")
• Lux mentions how the Decepticons working for a human is unusual behaviour. However, as we learned in "Dark of the Moon", several Humans have been made to work with the Decepticons for a future plot, so maybe this is alluding to that?
• I would not be shocked if it is revealed that the mysterious human villain is also the main human villain in the upcoming movie.