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Night and the City

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« The Transformers: Robots in Disguise #9 »
Combiner Wars #2 »
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"Night and the City"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published September 5, 2012
Cover date September 2012
Story by John Barber
Art by Andrew Griffith
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Shawn Lee
Editor Carlos Guzman
Continuity 2005 IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2012)

As Bumblebee continues to struggle with the burden of leadership, the Dinobots stalk Ironhide through the Cybertronian wilderness.

Contents

Synopsis

The demands of planetary governing weighing heavily upon him, Bumblebee takes a brief moment of peace to perch on the hull of Turmoil's captured spaceship, stare up at the stars, and wonder about using the time machine in the ship to undo past mistakes. His reverie is abruptly ended by the crash-landing of Sky Lynx, who has just barely made it back to the city after the disorienting effects he felt while transporting Ironhide and the Dinobots into the wilderness. His report gives Bumblebee pause to wonder if some external force could be controlling the Autobots, Decepticons, and NAILs, causing their conflicts, but Wheeljack debunks the theory when he scans Sky Lynx and confirms that the mind-altering effects are not occurring within Iacon. Wheeljack offers three possible reasons why: simple luck, some still-active mechanism in the heart of Kimia is protecting them, or... the planet itself is responsible, wanting to keep the Transformers together. As if on cue, Metalhawk and Starscream arrive to offer their help finding Ironhide's team, but Bumblebee turns them down; Starscream thinks he is attempting to prevent him from currying favour with the populous in the face of upcoming elections, and although Metalhawk disputes so outlandish a claim, Bumblebee remains silent...

Out in the wilderness, the wounded Ironhide awakens to the sight of Slag and Swoop in battle, and attempts to sneak away, only to be stopped by the still-living Sludge—largely unaffected by the destruction of his dino mode head—who has also come under the same uncontrollable rage that has seized the others. Snarl, too, proves to still be alive, and his entry into the fray gives Ironhide a chance to get to safety. Activating his comm device, Ironhide picks up a recording from the missing Silverbolt, locks onto its source, and begins heading toward it.

Bumblebee visits Maccadam's Old Oil House to speak with Blurr, hoping his disaffected comrade will rejoin the fold to help search for the missing Ironhide. Blurr is reluctant, seeing in Prowl the same unemotional, black-and-white views on life and death as those held by Zeta Prime—whose life Blurr saved upon joining the Autobots—but Bumblebee is able to talk him into helping. Their conversation is observed by Ravage and Reflector at the behest of Shockwave, who has charged them with a special mission... although unbeknownst to the Decepticons, they are also being observed by the gun-toting Arcee.

Making his way through the wilds, Ironhide listens as Silverbolt's recording explains that the madness also took hold of the other four Aerialbots, but that over time, they all began working together to hunt their leader down. Ironhide soon learns that the same has happened to the Dinobots as they catch up to him and attack, but he is able to push them back and breaks into a run, covering the last of the distance to the source of Silverbolt's signal. What he finds, however, is anything but expected: somehow, the five Aerialbots have become merged into one single being, a titan who scoops Ironhide up into the safety of his grip and turns on the Dinobots, introducing himself as The Superion!

Bumblebee returns to Turmoil's ship to try and clear his head, and finds Wheeljack there, still working on the time machine. Bumblebee half-jokingly proposes several uses for the device, but Wheeljack explains that it does not allow for travel back and forth through time, only sideways, meaning that there will be no easy answers. Unfortunately, the ship chooses that moment to vanish; whether stolen by enemies or departed of its own volition, no-one can say, but it's just one more problem for Bumblebee's list... as the weight of leadership grows ever greater...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons NAILs

Quotes

Starscream: "We figured you guys could use a couple of fliers to help find Ironhide and the Monsterbots."
Bumblebee: "Dinobots."
Starscream: "Whatever. I figure four morons and a 'bot who's already crazy are probably going to be worse off than Lynx."
Bumblebee: "You—what? Ironhide's not crazy—"
Starscream: "Bumblebee, he thinks he can't die because he saw a vision of the future."
Metalhawk: "You do know what "crazy" means...?"


"I... ron... hide... You... you have... found we... Us... am... were... Aerialbots. Now... Dinobots... you answer to the Superion."

—Superion is obviously a little mixed-up

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Wheeljack has a panel welded to his chest, covering the hole blown in him by Turmoil back in issue #7.
  • Bumblebee snarls "is something making us crazy ... is something controlling Prowl?" in a fit of anger, sneakily telling us about "Before the Dawn" five issues in advance!
  • Blurr refers back to his saving Zeta Prime's life, the setup for which occurred in Spotlight: Blurr. The unfortunate ramifications of this, as Zeta descended into zealotry, were chronicled in Autocracy.
  • Given that Turmoil's time-travelling ship matches the craft piloted by the Reflectors that crashed on LV-117 in Spotlight: Wheelie, and their talk of being "fated" to carry out this mission, it looks like author John Barber is poised to resolve one of the most notable longstanding continuity errors in the 2005 IDW timeline: the fact that the Reflectors have been appearing alive despite their deaths in Spotlight: Wheelie. Time travel fixes all ills!
    • Issue #10 would finally give the details on this scenario.
  • The debut of Superion is the first time an Autobot combiner has shown up in IDW continuity.
  • Bumblebee talks about going back in time and undoing what's gone wrong with the world. This will be the central plot point of the Elegant Chaos arc of this comic's sister series.

Real-life references

Errors

  • The description on the Story So Far page doesn't fit in its box.
  • Wheeljack's first speech bubble on page 7 is missing punctuation.
  • In between pages 11 and 12, Circuit is suddenly colored like Rumbler.
  • On the first panel of Page 19, Ironhide calls Silverbolt "Silverbot"

Foreign localization

Japanese

  • Title: "Yoru to Machi" (夜と街, "Night and City")

Covers (4)

  • Cover A: The shadow of Superion looms over Ironhide, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez.
  • Cover B: A model city made of glass crumbles in Bumblebee's hand, with Ironhide, Starscream, Silverbolt, and Blurr reflected in its shards, by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente.
  • Cover RI: Swoop breathes fire at a jet, by Marcelo Matere and Joana Lafuente.
  • Hasbro Exclusive Cover: Brawl standing over pieces of other Transformers, exclusively available with Generations Deluxe Class Brawl. Rebranded as Combiner Wars #2.
  • (thumbnail)

    "NOTHING, LITTLE ONE? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY... ABOUT ME?"

  • (thumbnail)

    Bumblebee's world is crumbling like broken glass.

  • (thumbnail)

    Me Swoop heat up me lunch!

  • (thumbnail)

    Combiner Wars #2 cover.

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Reprints

  • (thumbnail)

    Robots in Disguise Volume 2 – cover art by Andrew Griffith and Joana Lafuente

  • (thumbnail)

    The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 2 – cover art by Saren Stone

  • (thumbnail)

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

  • (thumbnail)

    The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 56: City on Fire – cover art by Don Figueroa and Andrew Griffith

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