Transformers: Galaxies #5 or “Who Calls Their Kid Deathsaurus?” introduces us to everybody’s favourite Little Red Machine – Cliffjumper. Not yet a badass one-bot army, he’s instead a second-class, half-size Autobot, pushed around and sneered at by the far bigger and more intimidating Deathsaurus who has brought him along on an energon collecting mission as sidekick, lackey and walking diversion.
Why? Well because he bears a more-than-passing resemblance to everyone’s favourite Little YELLOW Machine – Bumblebee, and the local natives: 1. Adore Bumblebee, and 2. Use echolocation for vision, so they don’t realise he’s a completely different colour. While Cliffjumper is dealing with swarms of adoring fans and learning about how these particular folks are producing the energon that Cybertron needs, Deathsaurus goes off to do, well, what you might expect from a bot with a name like that and by the end of the issue Cliffjumper has had the veil of innocence rather forcibly torn from his eyes. Even here, on this remote little planet, it’s time to pick a side.
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This is shaping up to be a fun series, wasting little time in getting straight to the death and destruction. The design of Deathsaurus is just downright badass, with him looking like some sort of Zoid-esque gryphon or dragon. There’s almost near constant mockery of Cliffjumper’s name, with bots from Starscream to Orion Pax mistaking him for Bumblebee, much to his frustration, a fun little callback to the fact that the Gen 1 Cliffjumper and Bumblebee were basically identical except for the paint jobs.
There’s not a lot else to say about this issue; it’s a lot of set-up for what comes next, with everything concentrated around these two individuals. Deathsaurus himself doesn’t really have a lot of personality beyond “Sneering Arrogance” as you might expect from, and I need to restate this, SOMEBODY CALLED DEATHSAURUS.
That’s it for now, folks. The next issue promises to have a lot more going on it, with more room to wax lyrical about things.
Transformers: Galaxies #5 is out now from IDW Publishing.
