« Transformers: Prime #4 »
Publisher	Titan Comics
First published	5 January 2012
Editor	Rona Simpson
Senior editor	Steve White
Designer	Dan Bura
Publishing manager	Darryl Tothill
Price	£3.99

Video games are bad for you.

Tinker, Tailor, Gamer, Spy!

• Script: Robin Etherington
• Art: Dario Brizuela
• Lettering: Comicraft
• Continuity: Transformers: Prime

Bumblebee hauls up outside Plug and Play, Jasper's computer store, and Raf jumps out. He's there to buy Invasionauts II, and as Dan hands him a box containing the game, Raf announces his life is complete.

On the Nemesis, Megatron asks Soundwave if they can be sure Raf will take the bait, and Soundwave confirms with a quote from one of Raf's blog entries.

Ratchet is bemused that Raf and Bulkhead have managed to spend the last three hours playing the video game, but Raf asserts that video games do not turn kids into mindless zombies. Unfortunately, at that moment, his argument is undermined when the video game turns him into a mindless zombie and glowing eyes on the screen order him to open the GroundBridge. Bulkhead knows he's going to get blamed for this somehow. Indeed, Optimus Prime immediately looks to him for an explanation, but Bulkhead's claim that it's not a problem comes a moment before Vehicons start flooding through the open GroundBridge.

While the other kids get Raf to safety, the Autobots activate the defense systems and start fighting back. Jack tries to snap Raf out of his trance, but Miko finds the problem: the Invasionauts box has a prominent Decepticon insignia on the side! Once Miko disconnects the gaming console violently and throws it aside, Raf recovers and sees the chaos he's wrought. As Bumblebee is about to shut the bridge off, Raf yells at him to stop, as doing so may potentially reveal the position of Omega One to the Decepticons. Instead, Raf reconfigures the GroundBridge into a loopback, which creates a vacuum, sucking the Vehicons back into it. With the threat gone, the Autobots pick themselves up, and Raf swears off video games for a while.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Well, that's just how intergalactic wars always start! Just a little harmless fun!"

—Ratchet

"Bulkhead! What have I told you about playing with machinery more complicated than a blender?!"

—Ratchet

Notes

Trivia

• Raf's online handle is "Rafman".
• The co-ordinates the Decepticons give Raf place the other end of the GroundBridge in the middle of Grand Canyon Village.
• The story is named after Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a British spy novel, TV serial and subsequent 2011 film adaptation.

Contents

Articles and features

• Use Raf's codebreaker to crack the Cybertronian codes in this comic!
• Mystic Megatron — horoscopes
• Optimus Prime poster
• Invasionauts board game
• Episode Guide: Volume 1: Darkness Rising, Part 4
• Starscream's Stumpers
• Competitions to win Dark of the Moon on DVD, MechTech Leader Bumblebee, or a Lightsaber.
• Bulkhead's Wordsearch
• Mega-Mouth: Megatron and Arcee answer your letters.

Free Gift!

• Cyber Blaster!

Mystic Megatron

"Leo: You like to be in charge, but doesn't everyone? I like you, Leo. You can be my second in command this year if Starscream continues to be such a grovelling fool."

"Libra: You like fairness and equality, and Optimus Prime is your hero. You like playing with ponies and plaiting your hair (just like Optimus! Mwa ha ha ha!). Get out of my sight!!!"

Mega-Mouth

Reader: Why does Megatron wear a hoodie at the start of Dark of the Moon? Is it to make him look 'gangster'?
Megatron: The 'hoodie' of which you speak was in fact my cowl and served as a secondary disguise following Prime's dastardly attempts to quench my spark.
Arcee: Yeah, or perhaps you just got tired of looking at that ugly mug every time you passed a mirror?

Notes

• "Mystic Megatron" is a reference to Mystic Meg, astrologer in the The Sun and (now defunct) News of the World newspapers.

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