Hidden (G1)
From Transformers Wiki
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| "Hidden" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | October 14, 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | October 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Zander Cannon | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Chee Yang Ong | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Moose Baumann | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Chris Mowry | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
| Assistant editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
| Associate editor | Denton J. Tipton | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | 2005 IDW continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | All Hail Megatron | ||||||||||||
Bumblebee finds himself on the run.
Contents |
Synopsis
Bumblebee finds himself hiding out in the ruins of New York City shortly after the rout of the Decepticons. Unable to contact base, he is forced to run when a squad of Cybertronian-hunting militia approach. However, his distinctive wheeled footprints give him away.
As they follow his tracks, two of the soldiers comment on a colleague's belief that there are both 'good' and 'bad' robots; however, their orders are to take down any alien machines. Bumblebee manages to elude these first trackers, and continues to attempt contact with the Autobots, broadcasting 'in the clear' in the hopes that they are listening.
He mentions that most of the city's inhabitants have been moved, leaving their belongings behind, and considers turning himself over to ones of the human bases. He stumbles across a severed Cybertronian arm, and questions how the humans could do such a thing. Across the street from his position, another squad blows up an ordinary car, mistaking the car's alarm for alien 'chirping'. The car's owner remonstrates with the soldiers, and reveals that he, his wife, children, and their friends have holed up in one of the buildings, not trusting in the safety of the camps set up for dispossessed refugees.
Bumblebee detects that the car's explosion has damaged the structural integrity of the building, and with no other choice breaks into the open to hold the wall up until the inhabitants can get out. The soldiers open fire on him as he does so, and as the last of the refugees escape, he collapses.
Before the soldiers can finish him, they are forced away by the arrival of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound, and Jazz. Bumblebee reawakens with Ratchet standing over him; the latter tells him that they found him thanks to the soldiers' radio conversations, and that Prime told them to listen in, believing that Bumblebee would eventually break cover to save someone.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
"Hey, Dan-o, y'hear what Collins was sayin' back at Sat-Com?"
"No, what?"
"He said that the cars are the good robots, it's the planes that are bad."
"Pff! What does Collins know? He just sits in front of a screen while we're the ones takin' these machines down. Besides, I saw that big construction one take out the Manhattan Bridge. That was no plane. It was like 60% cars - more if you include bulldozers."
- — Lopez and Klonowski debate the finer points of factional altmodes
Notes
Continuity notes
- Karen's husband claims the Decepticons have been attacking fleeing refugees and bombing refugee camps. He thinks this is still going on, but he's panicked and unlikely to be reliable.
- It seems rather odd that Bumblebee didn't consider that the severed arm was a Decepticon's. A damaged Thrust was even shown in the previous story.
Transformers references
- Bumblebee swears by the Allspark, its first reference in IDW continuity.
- Although Ratchet's design is based on an older piece of IDW artwork by Guido Guidi, he features Animated Ratchet's electrocardiogram graphics (which in turn are based on the logos on Movie Voyager Class Rescue Ratchet) on his shoulders, rather than the red cross logo from the Guido Guidi artwork. The real-life explanation for this is that the red cross symbol is a trademark heavily enforced by the Red Cross organization, even within the context of fictional works such as video games where the symbol is not used as part of advertising for the product itself. On the other hand, the red cross symbol would be inaccurate on Ratchet to begin with, since it's actually not a standard medical symbol, but only refers to military contexts. While Ratchet is technically a military medic, his alternate mode is a civilian ambulance.
Errors
- Bumblebee appears not in his IDW body, but in a design that resembles the Bumblebee Guido Guidi drew for one of the covers of Infiltration #1. (The same mistake was made in the Avengers crossover. Perhaps Bumblebee occasionally moonlights in this design?)
- In fact, most of the Autobots are not in their IDW bodies. Ratchet in particular is strictly based on this IDW lithograph art by Guido Guidi.
- Devastator is said to have trashed bridges in Manhattan. He didn't.
- The soldiers refer to "these cities" being evacuated, which implies multiple ones across a large area. That doesn't quite fit with what happened in All Hail Megatron proper (though it does sound cooler!).
Trivia
- The story is followed by Decepticomments with DoubleDenton.
- Also included is an IDWords section featuring the upcoming ongoing series in an interview with Mike Costa and Don Figueroa.
Reprints
Other than full or partial collections of All Hail Megatron.
- Transformers: Best of Bumblebee (September 7, 2022)
- Collects The Transformers (1984) #16: "Plight of the Bumblebee!", Transformers Annual 2017: "Ghost Stories", Robots in Disguise #27: "Black Planet: Dark Cybertron Chapter 11", Transformers (2019) #2: "The World In Your Eyes Part Two", and All Hail Megatron #16: "Hidden".
- Bonus content includes an art gallery.
Best of Bumblebee – cover art by James Biggie
