Quest for Fire

« The Transformers: Punishment #3 »
"Quest for Fire"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 2014
Cover date	2014
Story by	John Barber
Art by	Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2014)
Price	Free (Windows 8 Madefire app, initial) ??? (Other digital platforms)

Evidence leads the Firecons to being the primary suspects of the Decepticon murders.

Synopsis

Optimus Prime, Sandstorm, and Windblade arrive back at the smoldering ruins of Gutcruncher's bar, with the proprietor himself burning in the middle. Sandstorm snaps, accusing Optimus of being responsible for killing all of his friends, but Optimus points out that Gutcruncher was on the line of fire for his illegal engex operations. After calming down, Sandstorm notes that the shell they found belongs to a specific ammunition called the infernus bullet. Reverse engineered from the Firecons on Varas Centralus by the Decepticons, it enters the circulatory system and overloads the spark, burning up a Transformer from the inside. Sandstorm was part of the Wreckers that made sure that it would never see the light of the day, so its current presence is a mystery.

Starscream soon arrives on the scene and, hearing Sandstorm's explanation, accuses the Firecons of causing all the recent trouble. Gathering together a team, both leaders decide to confront the Firecons. It turns for the worse when Slug decides to outright attack the Firecons, beginning a battle with the Dinobots and their associates against the Firecons. Optimus is too late to arrive as the Firecons are brutualized by the Dinobots and Sandstorm, who blames the trio for killing his friends. Flamefeather and Cindersaur are taken down by the Dinobots, but Sparkstalker is saved from Sandstorm's kill shot by Optimus, who internally berates the team for acting rashly and betraying Autobot principles.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

* see "Errors", below

Quotes

"You know what they say—where there's smoke, there's Prime."

—Starscream

"Calm down, I'm sure he's got other thing on his mind, Sparkstalker."
"I shot at Optimus Prime, and then somebody burned down his friend's favourite dive bar? Yeah, he's probably contemplating some classic cerebro-chess matches."

—Flamefeather and Sparkstalker

Notes

Continuity notes

• Varas Centralus was introduced in Stormbringer #2. Optimus calls it a "hellhole"; Robots in Disguise #5 established that the planet was the site of wartime atrocities so extreme that even other Decepticons fled the war upon witnessing them.
• He doesn't appear on-panel, but Swindle is credited with providing the Firecons' location. Swindle hasn't been seen much since Robots in Disguise wrapped up its first "season", but he's fairly cozy with the establishment and a regular at Maccadam's in Windblade #1 and Robots in Disguise #33.

Real World References

• Curiously, this is the only issue of Punishment that does not take its title from an episode of the Generation 1 cartoon. Quest for Fire was a famous book and film about early human cultures. Perhaps they meant to use "Quest for Survival"?

Errors

• Though unnamed, Hot Spot and Streetwise appear; the former using his alternate mode to help to extinguish the blaze at Gutcruncher's, and the latter joining the hunt for the Firecons. Whilst both had been shown to be on Cybertron in Robots in Disguise issues prior to "Dark Cybertron", at this point, they and the other Protectobots should now all either be aboard the Lost Light, as seen in More than Meets the Eye #41, or on their way back to Cybertron, as depicted in The Transformers #40. They explicitly wouldn't arrive on Cybertron until Windblade #2, which (like the entirety of Combiner Wars) is set after the events of Punishment. Who knows, maybe Streetwise was actually supposed to be Grotusque? Or, given the prevalence of lookalike Japanese counterparts of Generation 1 characters throughout this story, maybe they're supposed to be a miscolored Fire Chief and Streetstar?

Foreign Localization

Swedish

• Title: "En jakt på eld" ("A Hunt for Fire")

Covers (2)

• Digital cover: Optimus, Windblade, and Sandstorm survey Gutcruncher's flaming bar, from the issue's first page, by Livio Ramondelli
• Print cover: Optimus Prime and the Dinobots, by Ramondelli

Reprints

• The Transformers: Punishment (January 21, 2015)
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5.
  • One-shot format.

• The Transformers: Redemption of the Dinobots (March 14, 2018) ISBN 1684051835 / ISBN 978-1684051830
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
  • Trade paperback format.

• The Transformers: The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 (December 5, 2018) ISBN 1684053722 / ISBN 978-1684053728
  • Collects More than Meets the Eye issues #35–38 & #39–40, The Transformers (2012) issues #35–38, Punishment issues #1–5, and Drift - Empire of Stone issues #1–4.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment (October 30, 2019)
  • Collects Punishment issues #1–5, Redemption, and Salvation.
  • Bonus material includes an article about the Motion Book Tool app used for the digital version of Punishment, a "Brief History of the (IDW) Dinobots", and a Livio Ramondelli sketchbook, a cover gallery and an introduction by Simon Furman.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Optimus Prime - Tillbaka till jorden (February 15, 2023)
  • Collects Robots in Disguise issues #28–32 & #34–38, and Punishment issues #1–5.
  • Swedish reprint. Hardcover format.

• 

  Punishment – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

• 

  Redemption of the Dinobots – cover art by Livio Ramondelli

• 

  The IDW Collection Phase Two: Volume 8 – cover art by Marcelo Matere

• 

  The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 70: Punishment – cover art by Don Figueroa (Snarl) and Livio Ramondelli

• 

  Optimus Prime - Tillbaka till jorden – cover art by Casey Coller and Joana Lafuente