Transformers #13 might be considered the “squeaky bum” issue. The “high sphincter factor” issue. There’s a whole lotta butt-clenching going on as this issue opens with Bumblebee opening up a big ole can of whoop-ass on Skytread. He’s got some major reservations about what went down in issue #11, refusing to believe that everything that happened during Barricade’s escape was simply a coincidence.
Bumblebee is often the butt of jokes in a lot of TF stories, and in the fandom. He’s small, he’s yellow, he’s never exactly been the most respected of warriors (even though there was that time he was leader of the Autobots) but in this arc we get to see him squaring off against bots twice and three times his size, and give a damn good accounting of himself.
<Yoda>Judge me by my size, do you?</Yoda>
Pissed off and determined to get to the bottom of things, he ends up enlisting the help of Elita-1 to go snooping around in Soundwave’s files to see just what might be going on. An action that surely won’t come back to bite him or end badly in any way.
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Meanwhile, things are getting ugly all over. Sentinel Prime looks ready to shoot himself and everyone around him, there’s random security sweeps all over the planet raising tensions, riots, protests, and in the middle of it all is Prowl, still trying to put all the pieces together before things go sideways for good but he’s struggling to make much headway.
Out in the wastes Springer and Sideswipe have run into a group of Risers and things get physical, to say the least. A good chunk of this issue is spent switching between Bumblebee and his investigation and the ongoing battle out in the wastes and it’s both entertaining and satisfying to see the Transformers taking the reins off and showing what they can do.
We’re also introduced to the concept of an “Immersant” which seems to be a Titan that has actually merged with the landscape of Cybertron, and the issue ends with a delicious little hint about the return of another G1 character in the form of Frenzy.
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This is a solid issue. Stepping away from Megatron’s political machinations and turning the focus back onto the day to day struggles facing the Autobots and their attempts to keep things under control while at the same time progressing Bumblebee’s story within the Ascenticons. The banter between Sideswipe and Springer is well written, with this being our first open reference to triple-changers in this continuity.
Little by little, the story threads are progressed, the lore is deepened and there’s still plenty of fighting to keep the more action-oriented fans happy. Roll on issue #14, though knowing the way they’re writing this we won’t get to see Frenzy until #15 or even #16!
Transformers #13 is out now from IDW Publishing.
