The Transformers: Infestation issue 1

« The Transformers: Infestation #1 »
"Prime, does it have to be a headshot if you're using a huge laser cannon?" "I don't know, but I'm looking forward to finding out!"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 2, 2011
Cover date	February 2011
Written by	Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Art by	Nick Roche
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Robbie Robbins
Assistant editor	Bobby Curnow
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2011)

Galvatron's here to stop interdimensional zombies, whether the Autobots want it or not.

Synopsis

A Cybertronian shuttle crash-lands on the Las Vegas strip. Coming out of the shuttle is a swarm of zombiefied humans, giant robots, and Sweeps that make short work of the local police. Coming out as well are former Dead Universe inhabitants Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge, and the mysterious Bayonet. Galvatron screams for Optimus Prime and his Autobots to come… and they do, along with Skywatch agents. Galvatron demands that the Autobots surrender command to him, riling Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to attack Galvatron. Bayonet, Cyclonus and Scourge attack the Autobots, telling them that while their primary mission is to destroy the curse of unlife, the Autobots are in their way.

While fighting, Optimus Prime asks Galvatron to explain himself, but Galvatron orders Optimus to bow down before him. Kup leads the Skywatch crash suits to battle the zombies, but the scene brings Kup back to the time when he was stranded and was assaulted by monsters, causing him to lose his cool and sanity, and drop his cy-gar. In battle, several of the Skywatch agents are infected and turned into zombies themselves. Bumblebee and several other Skywatch crash-suits manage to latch three inhibitors to Galvatron, forcing him to transform into his alternate mode. Cyclonus surrenders, but tells the Autobots that they are not their enemy this time. Noticing the Infestation as the larger threat, Optimus Prime orders the Autobots to seal the city, and Prowl suggests a force dome. Wheeljack sets it up, sealing Las Vegas, but the dome can only hold for twenty hours.

Prowl and Optimus Prime interrogate Galvatron, who explains that they had found a mass of frozen remains of organics and machines with the telltale energies of the Dead Universe coming out of a distortion in space-time. They had brought it aboard their ship, but the dead mass awoke with unlife. During the ensuing battle, the ship was damaged, causing them to plummet to Earth. Galvatron had then determined that only with Optimus' help could they end the plague. A crazed Kup stumbles towards them, screaming incoherently that nothing makes sense, that the truth is in disguise, and begins to point a finger at Bayonet, asking where she popped out from. Kup screams that the threat is right in front of them… and Bayonet thrusts her hand through Kup's torso. She opens her face mask to reveal an organic face and calls herself "Britt", giving the Transformers a greeting from the Undermind.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Wheeljack shows up for one panel to do his thing. There's no sign of him elsewhere in the issue.
• Galvatron shows amazing restraint. He turns up to enlist the Autobots' help, and they spend the first part of the issue demanding his surrender, attacking him, shooting him, throwing inhibitors on him, and all he ever does in return is knock Optimus away and shoot the ground in front of the Autobots to get them to retreat. He even tells the humans to get out of their cars before he throws the vehicles at the zombies.

References

• Optimus declares that he "Put [Galvatron] down once before", referring to "Spotlight: Sideswipe".
• Kup experiences flashbacks to the events of his Spotlight issue. Roche reuses the art style he used in that issue for Kup's POV.
• Kup says there is "More Than Meets The Eye" to current events.

Errors

• Spike refers to Galvatron as a Decepticon, when Galvatron and his crew are actually unaffiliated. While this may have simply been a case of generalization on Spike's part, the next issue would feature the Autobots themselves using the term to refer to the Dead Universe characters, and the classification would persist all the way through The Transformers: Heart of Darkness and "Chaos", until Cyclonus finally began refuting it in "The Death of Optimus Prime" and More than Meets the Eye.

Covers (4)

• Cover A: The Autobots stand off against Zombies; art by Nick Roche with Joana Lafuente on colors.
• Cover B: Optimus Prime holds an unconscious woman while Bumblebee trashes a car and humans look frightened; art by John K. Snyder III.
• Cover RI A: A zombie hand "rips" the cover; art by Gabriel Rodríguez.
• Cover RI B: Cover RI-A with added unique sketch of either Optimus Prime, Starscream, Megatron, Galvatron, Bumblebee, Prowl, Jazz, Kup, Rodimus Prime, or Soundwave by Dan Khanna.

• 

  The cowboy in the background is laughing at Bumblebee.

• 

  Attack of the 50-foot Autobots

• 

  Dammit, you're ruining the re-sale value!

• 

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• The Transformers: Infestation #2
• Previews of other Infestation comics
• Infestation comics checklist (back cover)