WRITER: ZANDER CANNON
ARTIST: CHEE
Post-All Hail Megatron it was clear someone at IDW thought Optimus Prime was mined out and things needed shaking up; the drastically increased profile of Bumblebee after two successful films made him an ideal candidate to take over the central focus and try and claw back some readers. The problem was Bumblebee had after a few initial appearances been largely neglected by both Simon Furman and Shane McCarthy, both of whom who had stuck to the late-Marvel-era characterisation of "yeah he's not as small and useless as he was but actually he's still small and useless in the grand scheme of things but just quieter and in it less". So some work had to be done and one of these decisions was to run a four-part mini-series alongside the new ongoing to beef up his case. Unfortunately IDW seems to have neglected to tell the two titles' respective creative teams until some way down the line.
While Bumblebee makes some attempt to thread through the events of the ongoing it just doesn't feel organic wedged between the pages, its' events (like the entirety of Bumblebee's Autobots being under the thrall of yet another faction of a secret organisation out to manipulate things) barely referenced. It feels like the work of IDW's already incapable editorial team at three in the morning over black coffee than an organic process; while there's little outright contradiction that really matters it feels like a cheat, like a prequel jammed into place with the one difference that it was written and published concurrently and thus had no such excuse. That totally different character models to those used by Figueroa - not just in style but in total layout - hardly helps the feeling of disconnect.
It doesn't help that the plot is hugely contrived, requiring the Autobots to be incredibly dumb to get them into the mess with Colonel Horiuchi - putting on badges without actually checking what they are, which is a shame as said badges have the phenomenal power of totally overriding the will of Transformers. It's the sort of tech which would be pretty handy for rounding up all those pesky Decepticons and rogue Autobots; instead of wasting money on gigantic Ironhide-killing guns just pack a few of these into an A-10 and fire them at your target. The badges do have one major fault, though - if a hassled former ally shoots directly at them and nowhere else they totally absorb the damage but stop working. Despite realising this instantly the Autobots don't think of shooting the rest of the badges off either because this is a Bumblebee focus story so he needs to go off and prove himself.
All this wild contrivance gets some sort of justification, however, as once out on his own Bumblebee shows some guile and begins to hammer out some sort of path as a leader. He's the saving grace of the whole series, which means it does at least do what it says on the tin, and for once it actually feels like the character makes some genuine progress rather than the low self-esteem/esteem boosted/does nothing until self-esteem falls cycle he's been trapped in for much of his fictional life. His friendship with the little girl actually works and plays with expectations while the bottom line is that he's likeable and believable. The rest of the Autobots generally come off better than in the ongoing as well while there's a scene-stealing turn from Skywarp as the main Decepticon presence, ransacking warehouses and bases while mooning to the skies for Megatron's return without ever becoming a whiner. It's the sort of dumb loyalty that's often ran through the character and he's served well by Cannon's narration.
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