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Devisive

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« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #4 »
RID4 cvrA.jpg
"Devisive"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published April 25, 2012
Cover date April 2012
Story by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith
Colors by Josh Perez
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

A murder rocks the already-unstable political climate of Cybertron, and Prowl has to deal with his own instabilities while hunting down the culprit.

Contents

Synopsis

Things are starting to look up for the Decepticons on Cybertron since Starscream joined Bumblebee's government: no longer serving as enforcers because brutishness is expected of them, several of them have been given jobs in the reclamation tunnels beneath the city sorting refuse, including Dirge, Swindle, and the Constructicons. Swindle is in the process of testing Dirge's patience, nattering on about the changes Starscream has made, but his day suddenly gets exponentially worse when he comes across the dead body of Skydive atop a mound of garbage, and turns to see the murderer.

Far less enamoured with Starscream's entry into politics than Swindle is Prowl, who grimly watches as the Seeker leader runs rings around Bumblebee and Metalhawk in a public speech. Arcee, lurking nearby, coldly taunts Prowl over recent events, including the death of Ratbat, how he has worked with Starscream to cover it up, and the fact that at least some Transformers believe he was responsible for destroying the Lost Light, but Prowl shrugs it off, telling her he doesn't have the luxury of doubting his decisions. Wheeljack arrives with the news of Skydive's murder, and Prowl leaves to investigate personally after learning that the only witness, Dirge, is "acting real weird". After sorting out the confusion over the victim's name—he's the Decepticon Predator, not the Aerialbot—Prowl questions Dirge, who merely repeats that he did not see anything over and over again. Fortunately, the mystery has an easy answer: Dirge is being controlled by one of Bombshell's cerebro-shells! Wheeljack is able to easily whip up a device to track the shell's signal back to its source, and Prowl sets off with Arcee and the mesmerized Dirge to track Bombshell down.

They soon find Bombshell in a techno-jungle on the outskirts of the city, where he has taken control of Sunstorm and is chittering about bringing their race closer to being part of "all-who-are-one". Arcee bursts from the foliage and disables Sunstorm by cutting him off at the knees, but Bombshell reacts by reasserting control over Dirge and ordering him to seize Prowl. While Arcee is distracted by the crippled Sunstorm, Bombshell makes a break for it, racing back into the city and into the reclamation tunnels, with Blurr, ordered to pursue by Prowl, hot on his heels. Prowl soon gets the better of his hypnotized opponent, while Arcee simply kills Sunstorm outright, prompting him to chastise her for the unnecessary act, but she doesn't care in the slightest. The pair take Dirge and follow Blurr into the tunnels, only to find he has been set upon by the Constructicons. Prowl leaves Arcee to deal with the Decepticon team while he continues his pursuit of Bombshell, using Wheeljack's passcode to override the tunnel systems and corner the Insecticon in a dead end. Bombshell refuses to talk, and that's the last straw for Prowl: he remembers the time he believed he had changed for the better on Earth, how Spike Witwicky's treachery undid that, and how, after Ratbat's murder, he is now as guilty as Spike was of breaking the law and conspiring with Decepticons to hide that fact. Filled with anger and already having crossed the line, Prowl gives in to his rage, and mercilessly executes Bombshell.

With Bombshell's death, Dirge is freed from his control, and a very tense moment follows as Prowl aims his gun at this one witness to his brutal actions. A sudden wave of trash drops into the tunnel through a nearby chute, jostling Prowl's arm and causing him to shoot Dirge in the shoulder, and the Decepticon makes a break for it, prompting Prowl to call Arcee in to pursue him while he takes over her battle with the Constructicons. Prowl orders the 'Cons to back off or have their I/D chips detonated, but they merely laugh, knowing that the chips don't work. Having been made aware of this fact by Bombshell, Prowl simply uses Wheeljack's passcode to override the network and re-activate them, killing all five Constructicons in one fell swoop. Arcee, meanwhile, corners Dirge, but when he promises to keep quiet, wishing just to live his life, she allows him to go...

Back at the Autobots' headquarters, the injured Blurr lambasts Prowl for breaking his own rules and ordering him in without back-up. Prowl counters with the claim that Bombshell's actions are evidence of a Decepticon conspiracy, but Blurr believes this is merely another symptom of his growing paranoia. Bumblebee attempts to calm Prowl down, but the police 'bot is beyond the point of listening: Cybertron is the Autobots' planet, and he's going to see it that they maintain control of their world, no matter who gets in their way.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons NAILs

Quotes

"Cold, calculating Prowl. I know what you did to Rodimus' ship."
"What?! I didn't—"
"Come on. I know you didn't destroy it. You're not that hard. But you are cold and calculating enough that even Bumblebee—even your only friend—thinks you might've."

—Arcee prods Prowl with a big, pointy stick


Wheeljack: "System bypass: lock trash chute 18-11."
Prowl: "Handy. Can I get the password?"
Wheeljack: "The three most important words in the Cybertronian language, buddy."
(Later...)
Prowl: "Subsystem bypass. Password: Wheeljack Wheeljack Wheeljack."


"That looks bad. Can you handle it?"
"Can I handle five Constructicons?"
"Try not to let Blurr see you."
"That's more like it—I was hoping for a challenge."

—Prowl and Arcee


"I—look. I don't want any part of this. You did what you had to. Just leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. I just want to get on with my life."
"We all want what we can't have. That's life."

—Dirge doesn't have Arcee's experience when it comes to being stuck with a life you don't want.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Swindle mentions "all the stuff [he] managed to do on Earth", referring to most of the second year's worth of events from the ongoing series.
  • Swindle also recalls the old Cybertronian saying first heard in Spotlight: Ramjet, "Always bet on the leader".
  • Skydive and Drift are noted to have had a friendship in the past, in reference to Skydive's only previous appearance in IDW continuity in the Drift mini-series, where Drift was his superior officer.
  • Bombshell's antics come up again in "Before the Dawn", as will the reason why Prowl calls off Arcee so he can bump off the Constructicons.
  • A bit of continuity juggling from Barber sees the rather anomalous and all-but-forgotten portrayal of Prowl from Spotlight: Prowl finally mentioned again, and explained to have been a temporary change of mind for him that was subsequently undone by Spike's betrayal, returning him to being the behind-the-scenes schemer previous stories had featured.
  • Spotlight: Blurr is called back to when it is noted that Blurr has been with the Autobots since before Optimus Prime had the Matrix.
  • Prowl's internal monologue notably stops at the point in the issue where he shoots Bombshell. Hmm...

Transformers references

  • Bombshell utters a warped variation on "'Til all are one". In that respect, the choice of Sunstorm as his victim for his scene on the part of the writer is probably a deliberately Easter-eggy one, as Sunstorm has a history of these kinds of pseudo-religious ramblings in other continuities.
  • Among the NAILs that Blurr nearly runs over in his pursuit of Bombshell are the Tonka Rock Lords characters Nuggit (the yellow one), Brimstone (red), Boulder (green), Granite (grey), and Spearhead (blue).
  • Warpath, unlike other characters who have War for Cybertron alternate modes, is drawn in the style of his 2011 Generations toy.
  • Sometimes small model ships can be seen in the garbage piles. Probably from when Rung dropped all of his.

Errors

  • On the first panel of page 3, in Starscream's speech, it's should be its.

Other trivia

  • It's spelled divisive. According to Barber, the title is meant to be a pun.

Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Bunretsu" (分裂, "Division")

Covers (3)

  • (thumbnail)

    Go ahead, make my day!

  • (thumbnail)

    They're comin' to gitcha!

  • RID4 cvrRI.jpg

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Reprints

  • The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (July 25, 2012) ISBN 1613772912 / ISBN 978-1613772911
    • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–5.
    • Bonus material includes art from most covers and notes on issue #3 by the author/artists.
    • Trade paperback format.
  • The Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (Reissue) (May 21, 2014) ISBN 161377964X / ISBN 978-1613779644
    • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #1–5.
    • New cover by Livio Ramondelli.
    • Bonus material includes cover gallery and notes on issue 3 by Barber, Griffith, and Josh Perez.
    • Trade paperback format.
  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Volume 1 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez

  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Volume 1 – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

  • (thumbnail)

    The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 1 – cover art by Saren Stone

  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Box Set – cover art by by ???

  • (thumbnail)

    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 54: A Better Tomorrow – cover art by Don Figueroa and Andrew Griffith

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