Maximum Dinobots issue 5

	; Old Klingon proverb: Revenge is a dish that is best served cold.
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 15, 2009
Cover date	April 2009
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Nick Roche and James Raiz
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Neil Uyetake
Edits by	Denton J. Tipton and Andy Schmidt
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Maximum Dinobots

Is this the Dynobots' last stand?

Synopsis

In Dallas, Texas, Grimlock stares down at Sludge's dead body, brooding about how it's his fault Sludge is dead... while there's still a battle raging on around him, as Snarl points out while tackling Grimlock out of the way of a stray blast. The battle in question is between Scorponok and Shockwave, unable to agree on who has the greater claim to killing Hot Rod and the Dynobots. The mechs being fought over, meanwhile, are watching the spectacle with bemusement. Eventually Snarl, Slag, and Swoop decide to get to the Monsterbots' ship while the getting's good, but both Grimlock and Hot Rod choose to stay in the fight for their own personal reasons.

Elsewhere, Agent Red gets word from one of his field units that they have reacquired Seekers One and Two from the coordinates Shockwave provided them with. He also learns that Shockwave is currently battling an "unidentified mecha" in another location, and one of the techs asks if she should transmit the disarm code for the bomb in Shockwave's head. Red tells her to hold off as long as possible, as he wants all of their stray robots recovered first. If Shockwave recovers them all before the time is up, she should let the bomb detonate instead.

Back in Dallas, Grimlock tries infusing some of his spark energy into Sludge to revive him, but it seems to have no effect. Meanwhile, Shockwave notes that, while the Headmaster process has increased Scorponok's abilities greatly, the fear from his organic component has decreased his overall functioning just enough for Shockwave to get the upper hand. He pins Scorponok down and further notes that, though he could kill Scorponok easily, he has no real reason to do so, and is willing to let Scorponok escape. Scorponok takes him up on the offer, and uses his "exit strategy" as soon as Shockwave lets him up. Grimlock turns from Sludge's body and tries to attack Scorponok in vengeance, but he's too late to stop Scorponok's escape. As he yells in frustration, Shockwave tells Grimlock how many years he's cost him. That goads Grimlock into attacking Shockwave, as the timer on the bomb in Shockwave's head counts down to being 12 minutes from going off.

Shockwave and Soundwave strike a deal—Soundwave will clone the Skywatch disarm code, if Shockwave will tell him how to break the alternate mode lock he's been placed under.

Somewhere east of the battle, Slag, Snarl, and Swoop have all arrived at the Monsterbots' ship. Repugnus notices that there's only three of them but doesn't seem to care, telling them to hurry up and board the ship. He says they should just accept the fact that they and the Monsterbots are the same type of mech—rebels who only care about themselves. The Dynobots don't seem at all happy at this revelation.

While all this was going on, Hot Rod had struck out on his own to re-enter Machination central, and he finally locates Scorponok's original head. Hunter O'Nion arrives soon after and explains that the head is what's keeping Scorponok alive, and how Hot Rod can disconnect him for good. Before Hot Rod can do so, however, he gets yanked into the air by the rest of Scorponok.

Grimlock and Shockwave are too busy fighting to notice the return of Slag, Snarl, and Swoop, who reasoned that, while helping Grimlock might not be much of a cause, it still beats being no better than the Monsterbots. They are noticed by Sludge, however, who seems to have recovered due to Grimlock's treatment after all. The four of them dive into the fray proper, but Grimlock orders them to go after Scorponok instead, then tackles Shockwave through the wall of a nearby building.

Agent Red boards a helicopter, wanting to see the battle first-hand, and tells the tech she can transmit the disarm code. As she does so, Soundwave intercepts the code and clones it for Shockwave, who in turn tells Soundwave how to free himself. As Soundwave does, he wakes up Ravage and Laserbeak, who easily escape their own re-confinement. Shockwave then tells Grimlock that their battle this day has all been a charade, and that he never cared one bit about vengeance. He tries walking away with a statement that he's willing to forget the matter entirely as long as Grimlock doesn't interfere with him further. Grimlock will have none of that, and activates a grenade that blows the building they're in sky-high, the blast narrowly missing Agent Red's helicopter.

Underneath, in the middle of Machination central, Hot Rod is about to get squished by Scorponok, until the remaining Dynobots show up in just the nick of time. At Hot Rod's urgings, Swoop severs the connections keeping Scorponok's head conscious. But before they can kill the rest of Scorponok, Ultra Magnus shows up (having been sent a message earlier by Hot Rod) and tells them that Scorponok will be revived and made to answer to a tribunal instead. He then says they should purge the entire Machination facility, gather up all related Machination technology, and get as far away from Earth as possible as soon as possible—a plan that the Dynobots, Hot Rod, and Hunter are all perfectly okay with.

Most of the cast of Maximum Dinobots, pictured here trying to follow Michael Bay's camerawork.

Three days later, on the Ark-32, Hunter is told by Ratchet that Sunstreaker will need time in the CR chamber, but should recover, as his spark kept him going after Hunter disconnected him. Furthermore, Ratchet was able to make so that Hunter will no longer be able to hear Sunstreaker's thoughts, though he doesn't know how to remove Hunter's implants completely. Hunter then receives a happy surprise in the form of an apparently perfectly healthy Jimmy Pink and Verity Carlo, who run over to give him greetings and hugs.

Ultra Magnus tells Optimus Prime that, while he purged as much of the Machination as he could, Skywatch still knows all about them. Optimus says it can't be helped and that he hopes Skywatch believes everything Cybertronian was destroyed, as an unhappy looking Agent Red walks away from the debris left behind by the day's carnage.

Down in the brig, Ultra Magnus tells Grimlock that having Scorponok and Shockwave in custody should help offset Grimlock's own sentence. Grimlock says he doesn't care, so long as it's clear that it was his decision alone to go after Shockwave. Ultra Magnus assures him that the other Dynobots' warrants have been canceled, and Grimlock is content with that and the fact that Sludge is alive again thanks to him. The Dynobots meanwhile happily repair the Skyfire.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Sludge (1) Grimlock (2) Snarl (3) Hot Rod (6) Slag (7) Swoop (8) Repugnus (13) Ultra Magnus (15) Sunstreaker (16) Optimus Prime (17) Ratchet (18) Ironhide (19)	Scorponok (4) Shockwave (5) Laserbeak (10) Ravage (11) Soundwave (12)	Joshua Red (9) Hunter O'Nion (14) Jimmy Pink (20) Verity Carlo (21)

Quotes

"Sludge. Loyal. Resolute. Dependable. Dead. Because of me."

—Grimlock

"See, generally it's easier keepin' tags on who we haven't ticked off."

—Slag on the Dynobots' popularity

"Sludge got his circuits crispy fried, sure, but that goes with the territory. We don't do recriminations and we never, ever get all 'band of brothers.'"
"I know, Snarl, I know. More's the pity. Because if we did, this might actually mean something. Instead it's just another meaningless statistic in a miserable excuse for a life."

—Snarl and Grimlock

"At this distance, a focused ion blast will penetrate even your armour plating. The creature at the heart of you will perish. As I have no overriding imperative to truncate your existence it would be logical to stand down your weapons systems immediately."

—Shockwave

"The humans have a saying, payback's a bitch!"

—Grimlock picks up the local lingo.

"I care nothing for this inconsequential duel, Grimlock. Here, today, it served a purpose. But now I say... let it end. If you follow me, or persist in harassing me, I will kill you."

—Shockwave

"Strange... it's like half of me is missing... I'm not sure who I am anymore.
"You're our friend."
"Welcome back Hunter."

—Hunter, Jimmy and Verity are finally reunited.

"Sludge. Loyal. Resolute. Dependable. Alive. Because of me."

—Grimlock

Notes

Continuity notes

At the end of the story, Hot Rod reformats to his original Generation 1 form, thus ~~excusing~~ explaining (almost) his appearance in All Hail Megatron in that state.
Likewise, in the CR Chamber, Sunstreaker is in a kind of transition from his IDW body to his Universe body. The transition looks almost complete—the only bit left from the IDW body is his head.
Verity's hair has grown somewhat since she and Jimmy were last seen in Devastation #5—her hair now spills out onto her shoulders, instead of just touching her neck.
The Dinobots, sans Grimlock, would next be seen years later in Robots in Disguise #8. Meanwhile, Grimlock would reappear in More than Meets the Eye #7.

Errors

Sludge is still drawn continuously with two different robot mode heads.
Even though he carries Sludge's discarded energo-sword when he re-enters Machination HQ, Hot Rod apparently trades it for a dinky little metal pipe by the time he reaches the chamber that houses Scorponok's real head.
In one panel, Shockwave's gun arm has a normal hand instead of the gun.
There are some text balloon mix ups in a few areas. These are corrected in the trade.
The "Before" box describing Shockwave's conversation with Soundwave is a panel too soon.
Grimlock's T. rex mode is considerably less accurate in this issue, with the hands, head and posture all portrayed in a more "generic killer dinosaur" fashion, than the more realistic versions seen in earlier issues.

Trivia

Shockwave and Scorponok, two of the strongest Decepticons, engaging in a duel has its roots in the original comics.
Snarl can use his Stegosaurus mode's dorsal plates as daggers.
This issue was released on the same day as All Hail Megatron #10. Coincidentally, both issues feature someone (Ultra Magnus here) arriving after having received a distress call sent by Hot Rod in a previous issue.
Hasbro wouldn't let All Hail Megatron #1 show a bit of blood on a shoe.^[1] They don't seem as bothered with sprays of the stuff being caused by Ravage and Laserbeak murdering people here.

Covers (2)

Cover A: Scorponok, the Dynobots, Grimlock in dinosaur mode, and Hot Rod all look on over Sunstreaker driving away from an explosion: art by Nick Roche and colors by Priscilla Tramontano.
Cover B: Grimlock battles Shockwave as the Dynobots look on, with art by Marcelo Matere and colors by Priscilla Tramontano.