Maximum Dinobots issue 2

« The Transformers: Maximum Dinobots #2 »
It is now believed Triceratops saw more action against other members of its kind than against T. rex. Slag clearly disagrees.
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	January 7, 2009
Cover date	January 2009
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Nick Roche
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Edits by	Denton J. Tipton
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Maximum Dinobots

Hot Rod joins Grimlock in finding out just how much worse it can get.

Synopsis

A badly battered Hot Rod is hurled against a wall by Scorponok, who gloats that he is merely playing with the young warrior as he wants him alive to witness his plan unfold. After crippling Hot Rod, Scorponok has his clones take him to an observation room showing him the situation in Fallon, Nevada. The police have opened fire on Grimlock but all they've done is enrage him. After demolishing the immediate area, Grimlock calls out to Scorponok, letting him know he's fully aware of exactly what's going on. Transforming, he tells Scorponok to bring it! Scorponok muses, reminding himself of the mind lurking beneath Grimlock's bestial nature. After a brief bit of explanation to Hot Rod, Scorponok sits back to enjoy the show as the Dynobots are released onto the field.

Near Nashville, Sunstreaker is flooring it, heading for Dallas, Texas. Hunter O'Nion thinks they should head for Fallon instead, but Sunstreaker points out that by retrieving his head, they disable the Headmasters, which makes everything else just collateral damage.

Grimlock is ready for a fight. What he isn't ready for is the Dynobots bursting through some nearby buildings. Scorponok loosens his hold on them slightly to let a bit of their savage nature shine through, as Grimlock realizes they are no longer in control of their own actions. Meanwhile, police are prevented from calling in help thanks to Skywatch's blockade. Agent Red is updated on the fight, including the drop in the efficiency of the neural net. Understanding that something more is going on, he boards a chopper, ready to do something he should have done the moment they lost Grimlock.

Back in Fallon, Grimlock is trying to get through to his team as they slam him into a nearby building. Breaking free, he quickly takes out Snarl, Sludge, and Swoop, but when he tries to get to Slag, he is blasted straight into a petrol station, which promptly explodes, knocking all five Dynobots flying. As the police check to make sure everyone is evacuated, Scorponok revels in the destruction, to Hot Rod's disappointment. Scorponok however, thinks it is a ploy to get him to tell all, a wasted one as he meant to, anyway. He plans to place the blame on Skywatch, while using the Dynobots to take out Grimlock, and then using the Headmasters to take out the Dynobots. His team will be regarded as heroes, he will get government contracts in order to protect against aliens, and from there on, there's no stopping him.

In New Zealand, a ship touches down near the Skyfire. The occupants are looking for Grimlock, and intend to track him down.

Scorponok is intrigued by Grimlock's admittance of guilt and reduces his hold on the Dynobots enough for their personalities to surface. Meanwhile, Grimlock has recovered from the blast and detects a human caught in the fire. Transforming, he grudgingly goes to help, when Slag and company, now transformed, reappear and demand the truth. Grimlock tells them of his endgame move, but says it was something any of them would have done—Dynobots may be down, but never out. Slag agrees but says that by going behind their backs, Grimlock assured they ceased to be a team. Grimlock points out that Slag usually went out of his way to stress they were never a real team, that they followed no one's rules or conventions but their own, and that what Grimlock had done had been "them", all over. He proceeds to rip the rail car diner with the human trapped inside from the ground and takes it to safety. Amused, Scorponok sends in his Headmasters.

At Salt Lake City, Agent Red decides to have a heart to heart with the last of the Eureka Six: Shockwave!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"It's easy to forget that behind Grimlock's angry white noise lurks a brain. He understands."
"Which is more than I can say. What is the Machination?"
"It is the culmination of a plan conceived long ago and far away. On a planet called Nebulos, if you're interested."
"I'm not."
"Hn."

—Scorponok gets cruelly denied the chance to Bad Guy Monologue by Hot Rod

"Tell me something. If all hell's about to break loose in Fallon, why are we headed to Dallas? Shouldn't we be doing something about these Dinobots?"
"It's Dynobots. D-Y-"
"Dinobots. Like dinosaurs. You see that, right? Work with me here, Sunstreaker."

—Hunter and Sunstreaker discuss the finer points of helping the audience keep all of the alternate spellings straight

"Remember when we first hit on the idea of the Dynobots, you and I? You said there's only one rule: there are no rules! No conventions, no precedents, no company line. What I did, in the final analysis, was so completely and utterly "us"."

—Grimlock justifies orbit-nuking his mates

"Now if you'll excuse me, I feel curiously obligated to put this lackluster lifeform out of harm's way."

—Grimlock, not quite feeling like himself.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Based on Joshua Red's dialogue, Shockwave has been online for some time.

Transformers references

• The Dinobots' more realistic dinosaur forms, and the resulting look of their robot modes, is a deliberate attempt by Nick Roche to give them a Beast Wars aesthetic.^[1]

Real-world references

• Joshua Red quotes Auric Goldfinger's statement from Ian Fleming's Goldfinger (the book, not the movie) that "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."
• The burning diner that Grimlock rescues the human from is named "Jimbob's Diner", no doubt after Nick Roche's friend and frequent collaborator James Roberts.
• The A cover stating "Maximum Dinobots No More" with the Dinobots walking away from a dejected Grimlock is an homage to the Amazing Spider-Man #50 cover.

Errors

• A Fallon resident on Furman's blog has said that the real town looks nothing like it does here. But he also encourages Furman to smash the town up more because it's a "craphole", so never mind!^[2]
• Grimlock and Slag met in a brig during the war... while being team-mates years before in illegal gladiatorial matches, as shown in Megatron Origin #3. This was fixed years later in Monstrosity #4, where they were explained to have met while serving in the Primal Vanguard.

Other trivia

• Hunter's conversation with Sunstreaker about the spelling of "Dinobots" (quoted above) would make no sense spoken aloud, unless "Dynobots" is pronounced 'Deenobots' or something similarly outlandish. Perhaps their mental link accounts for this, but that would mean that Hunter spells his words as he says them. He is a strange guy.
• This issue was delayed in many markets, finally arriving on February 25, a week after issue 3.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: The Dynobots walking away from a dejected-looking Grimlock, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham.
• Cover B: Grimlock fighting with Slag, by Marcelo Matere and Priscilla Tramontano.
• Cover RI: Inks-only and text-free version of cover A.

• 

  Cover A - Me, Grimlock am lonely.

• 

  Cover B - Slag warms Grimlock's heart.

• 

  Cover RI - "Colors NO MORE!"

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Reprints

Other than collections of the full series.

• N/A

References

External links

• Nick Roche's gallery of the inks-only pages