Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: EJ Su
(Covers by James Raiz, EJ Su, Andrew Wildman and Guido Guidi)
Synopsis: The Autobots watch their new human guests on a monitor as Verity yells at the camera in their holding room and threatens to erase the data on the PDA she's carrying unless they're set free. Ratchet and Prowl argue over what's to come next--Ratchet insists that the Decepticons are going to act openly soon and Prowl is more interested in how Ratchet disobeyed orders, endangering the humans and alerting them to the Autobots presence. Prowl tells him to get that data from Verity and wanders off. Ratchet appeals to Ironhide then goes to the humans. He downloads the information from the PDA and finds several pictures of an abandoned Decepticon base in Nebraska--which is odd since Autobot intel had indicated the Decepticons were situated in Oregon. Meanwhile, Skywarp and Blitzwing go about the country, destroying evidence left behind from earlier--the trailer the dead man (who'd been carrying the PDA originally) was living in, the bus he rode on, the garage that Jimmy Pink owned, etc. Also, Ironhide decides to send a message directly to Optimus Prime, alerting him about what's going on (Prowl had decided not to alert Prime but Ironhide appears to feel otherwise). The humans convince Ratchet to take them to Nebraska so they can help him gather evidence that the Decepticons are moving into "seige mode". Ratchet is reluctant to take them but realizes they can probably get inside easier then he can and Bumblebee agrees. He decides to tag along with Ratchet and the humans. Elsewhere, Starscream orders Skywarp and Blitzwing to destroy the last piece of evidence--the Nebraska installation!
Comments: Like the first few issues, this comic continues the overall story and keeps things interesting. I speculate that Starscream was trying to start a coupe against Megatron, which is why there are two Decepticon bases (one was official, the other secret). His conspirators got sloppy, the humans noticed them and now they're trying to eliminate the evidence at all cost so Megatron doesn't find out what's afoot (notice how the first Decepticons we see are Runamuck and Runabout? Two of Starscream's conspirators from the original US comic!) I guess time will tell if I'm right or not...
The story is well written and the characterization is abundant even though there's not as much action (I prefer this type of approach, though). Pages two and three have an old school group shot with everyone's name in word balloon beside them--it's silly in a way, but like something Marvel would've done (silly, since the inside cover has their names anyway--assuming a reader is new and doesn't already know who everyone is).
The art is consistent with previous issues. For some odd reason, Su chose to inverse Bumblebee's chest design (the windows are on his back now). He still becomes a classic Volkswagen Beetle, though, which is weird (shouldn't he be the newer model?) Starscream also has a more sleek design, although I think I like it. Also, Bumblebee's driver hologram is a young attractive woman (I only mention this because it's neat that we get to see more "drivers" and that the Autobots didn't all make them men).
Highly Recommended.
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