Police Action: Part 1

	; Here come the fuzz.
	"Police Action: Part 1 "
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 7, 2011
Cover date	September 2011
Written by	Mike Costa
Art by	Brendan Cahill
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2011)

Prowl investigates Scrapper's murder, and finds that the rabbit hole goes deeper than previously suspected.

Synopsis

During a meeting, Prowl and the other Autobots on Earth recruit Pennington for their investigation work. Later, Spike Witwicky comes to Prowl, asking him to do something about Ben Simpson and his spreading mistrust for the Transformer race on television. He refuses, and upon learning that Spike is going away for some time, decides to spy on him. Meanwhile, Jazz asks Bumblebee for permission to hunt down the remaining Decepticons on Earth, but is denied due to his killing of a human last time he was in the field.

Prowl secretly tails Spike around Albuquerque, but spots nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly, Breakdown shows up and tries to run down Witwicky, and Prowl is forced into action. Streetwise chases the Decepticon off, but breaks protocol by transforming into robot mode in the process, earning both cops a chewing-out from Ultra Magnus once they return to base. Prowl takes this opportunity to tell Magnus about his suspicions of both Ben Simpson and of a Decepticon conspiracy, but is told to stick to one investigation—Spike's.

Following orders, Prowl travels to the place where Scrapper was killed, where he discovers liquefied remains of the Decepticon's face. His suspicions are raised, as the weapon that killed Scrapper shouldn't have been able to melt any part of him, but when he's busy taking a sample he's suddenly hit by an explosive shell. As he tries to crawl away, more shells hit the building, which begins to collapse on him...

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in video footage.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Prowl (2) Bumblebee (3) Ultra Magnus (4) Streetwise (5) Omega Supreme (6) Hot Spot (9) Inferno (10) Jazz (12)	Breakdown (14)	Kyle Pennington (1) Nina (7) Ben Simpson (8) Spike Witwicky (11) Spike's affair (13) TV anchor lady #2 (15)

Quotes

"You're letting this investigation sprawl. You've got Spike. Now you've got Ben Simpson. And you're trying to bring in a Decepticon conspiracy, too. That's a lot of loose threads. You really think you can tie them together?"
"It's what I do."

—Ultra Magnus takes his frustrations out on Prowl.

Notes

Continuity notes

Breakdown knows the residence of Spike's affair because Spike used Breakdown (while incapacitated) as his ride when he visited her back in "New Arrivals, Old Encounters".

Errors

Despite it being Prowl tailing Spike, the narration (being less clinical and more pop cultural-y) implies it's Streetwise. Streetwise is the one who breaks cover and transforms to rescue Prowl.
Even though the place where Spike's affair lives is identified as "3453 N. Mouno Avenue", the very next panel on the same page shows the number "783" on the door of her house.

Trivia

This issue is listed on the Chaos checklist as "The Last Story on Earth Part 1".
The behaviour of Prowl (methodical, calm) and Streetwise (hotheaded) here is something of a reverse from issue #1 of the Ongoing.
"Police Action" was meant to be yet another playing in the genre, a 1940s cop/noir story, and a "Prowl solves a mystery" story had been intended for a while. It was meant to happen earlier, with Spotlight: Prowl as part of it, but other stories pushed Action back while Spotlight was moved forward.^[1]

Covers (3)

Cover A: Prowl being buried under debris; art by Marcelo Matere, colors by Priscilla Tramontano.
Cover B: Prowl, Bumblebee and Jazz; art by Brendan Cahill, colors by Priscilla Tramontano.
Cover RI: Black & white version of Cover B; art by Cahill.

I'm getting too old for this shit!
We're here, we're clear, we don't want any more bears!
Cover RI

Reprints

The Transformers, Volume 6: Police Action (February 15, 2012) ISBN 1613771649 / ISBN 978-1613771648
- Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #25, #27 & #29, and Spotlight: Prowl.
- Bonus material includes art from most covers, plus a B&W art page from "Police Action: Part 1".
- Trade paperback format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Eight (May 7, 2013) ISBN 1613776276 / ISBN 978-1613776278
- Collects Heart of Darkness issues #1–4, and The Transformers (2009) issues #19–31.
- Hardcover format.

The Transformers: Chaos Theory (February 28, 2018) ISBN 978-4-86491-370-6
- Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #19–23, #25, #27 & #29.
- Japanese reprint. Trade paperback format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 51: Chaos Theory (December 11, 2019)
- Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #21: "Police Action: Prologue", #22–23, #25, #27 & #29, and Spotlight: Bumblebee.
- Bonus material includes a one-page article exploring the origins of the "Chaos" arc and beyond, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Volume 6: Police Action – cover art by Brendan Cahill and Priscilla Tramontano
The IDW Collection Volume Eight – cover art by E. J. Su
Chaos Theory – cover art by Kazumasa Yasukuni
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 51: Chaos Theory – cover art by Don Figueroa and Alex Milne