Some Grief, Some Joy, Memories are Made of These.
Last Stand of the Wreckers Issue 4. April 21st 2010.
It was always going to be one of us—the second stringers.
One of the more amusing things about this issue is it was released the same day as Spotlight: Prowl, a comic that was specifically designed to explain why Prowl has been such a nice, heroic guy in the Costa series.
Which would suggest that the opening here, set 8 months ago (so it really did take that long for the Wreckers to get to Garrus 9?), of Prowl calling “Fisitron” and offering him a place on the Wreckers because someone recommended for the new team has turned out to be unsuitable, is pure altruism on behalf of everyone’s favourite big hearted police car. Even when he asks in a very sinister sounding way “Just how badly do you want this?”. But I refuse to hear anything bad about lovely kind Prowl.
Even on this quick establishing page, Roche (sharing art duties with Guidi again) throws in some nice details into Ironfist’s lab, such as the Sky Sled that he’s previously mentioned having bought, a pad with the text of Fisitron’s rules for being a Wrecker and a very big display of a gun. The attention to detail remains very precise.
In the present, Kup and Guzzle have reached their destination, only to find it heavily guarded. At which point Kup hands over his Cy-Gar for safe-keeping with a cheeky “Get ready to take notes”, before single-handedly and brutally killing at least four Decepticons “Old-school style”.
It was always going to be one of us—the second stringers.
One of the more amusing things about this issue is it was released the same day as Spotlight: Prowl, a comic that was specifically designed to explain why Prowl has been such a nice, heroic guy in the Costa series.
Which would suggest that the opening here, set 8 months ago (so it really did take that long for the Wreckers to get to Garrus 9?), of Prowl calling “Fisitron” and offering him a place on the Wreckers because someone recommended for the new team has turned out to be unsuitable, is pure altruism on behalf of everyone’s favourite big hearted police car. Even when he asks in a very sinister sounding way “Just how badly do you want this?”. But I refuse to hear anything bad about lovely kind Prowl.
Even on this quick establishing page, Roche (sharing art duties with Guidi again) throws in some nice details into Ironfist’s lab, such as the Sky Sled that he’s previously mentioned having bought, a pad with the text of Fisitron’s rules for being a Wrecker and a very big display of a gun. The attention to detail remains very precise.
In the present, Kup and Guzzle have reached their destination, only to find it heavily guarded. At which point Kup hands over his Cy-Gar for safe-keeping with a cheeky “Get ready to take notes”, before single-handedly and brutally killing at least four Decepticons “Old-school style”.
Expect no follow up to this,
At the time, a lot of readers assumed Guzzle, with his vendetta against Kup, being alone with the Cy-gar, the one thing keeping Kup sane, was going to get some sort of payoff of him having messed with it. But this time at least, the fans were wrong, and this will never be mentioned again. Even if earlier outlines had Kup going crazy from the separation.
The cell they’re going for has a distinctive, airlock type door which will become an unexpectedly important visual eight years later, but having opened it, there’s no one inside, Grimlock has gone.
So, why were there guards outside?
This is when Snare appears, and rather breathlessly explains Grimlock is no longer there, but before he left, he was driven insane by having been made to watch footage of the torture and abuse on an endless loop.
There is definitely a shame here in Kup and Guzzle’s mission turning out to just be there for the same reason as the Shockwave flashback last issue: To explain why “Main” characters known to be in the prison are not in the story. Especially as where Grimlock has gone won’t be addressed for years, and why he’s gone for years more.
The cell they’re going for has a distinctive, airlock type door which will become an unexpectedly important visual eight years later, but having opened it, there’s no one inside, Grimlock has gone.
So, why were there guards outside?
This is when Snare appears, and rather breathlessly explains Grimlock is no longer there, but before he left, he was driven insane by having been made to watch footage of the torture and abuse on an endless loop.
There is definitely a shame here in Kup and Guzzle’s mission turning out to just be there for the same reason as the Shockwave flashback last issue: To explain why “Main” characters known to be in the prison are not in the story. Especially as where Grimlock has gone won’t be addressed for years, and why he’s gone for years more.
"Created by a very sane person"
Also being underwhelmed are the Wreckers in Aequitas. Literally in Aequitas as it turns out not to be a person, but a giant supercomputer (as Verity asks, “Why are Transformers such a bunch of size queens?”), and they’re not here to do a rescue, but to download the contents of its hard drive. Because the culpability drive is able to use some serious mathematical algorithms (and Roche and Roberts were a few years ahead of the curve of making a thing of those) to calculate guilt. When Pyro needs this “Capability drive” explaining more carefully, Perceptor makes it clear that Aequitas is a judge. An infallible judge.
The mission being all about an abstract concept that’s kind of hard to get your head around is of course very deliberate, it’s exactly the sort of thing no one would sign up for a one-way suicide mission for. A hero might be prepared to fight and die for justice, just not that literally. It’s such a gloriously rubbish McGuffin that it’s actually a surprise that a lot more will be made of it and its mysterious and totally sane creator in years to come.
All this seems a bit too much for Topspin, but his collapse in pain is actually because the torture of Twin Twist has reached the “Barely has a head left” stage. Luckily, Stalker has given everyone a time out to go get an “Endoscopic claw”, giving Springer and Impactor chance for a heart to heart. With Springer saying he thought they’d send Impactor to an open prison, whilst Impactor is disgusted Springer managed to destroy the Wreckers with five words when he was plugged into Aequitas (“I saw him do it”) and refuses to answer the question over if he now accepts what he did was wrong.
The mission being all about an abstract concept that’s kind of hard to get your head around is of course very deliberate, it’s exactly the sort of thing no one would sign up for a one-way suicide mission for. A hero might be prepared to fight and die for justice, just not that literally. It’s such a gloriously rubbish McGuffin that it’s actually a surprise that a lot more will be made of it and its mysterious and totally sane creator in years to come.
All this seems a bit too much for Topspin, but his collapse in pain is actually because the torture of Twin Twist has reached the “Barely has a head left” stage. Luckily, Stalker has given everyone a time out to go get an “Endoscopic claw”, giving Springer and Impactor chance for a heart to heart. With Springer saying he thought they’d send Impactor to an open prison, whilst Impactor is disgusted Springer managed to destroy the Wreckers with five words when he was plugged into Aequitas (“I saw him do it”) and refuses to answer the question over if he now accepts what he did was wrong.
The five words women love to hear during sex.
Despite Impactor being the one in jail, it’s Springer who detests himself and hates what he did, but he can forgive neither himself nor Impactor till his former leader acknowledges how he broke every tenet of the Autobot code.
It’s a tense, character filled scene, but a bit much for both Twin Twist and the returned Stalker, neither of whom can believe they’re managing to argue at a time like this. Luckily Stalker has the solution: Time for someone to die.
In Aequitas, Verity helps Ironfist by getting him to talk about the Wreckers under the excuse of taking her mind off things. So, he comes in with their greatest moment: The final defeat of their arch enemies, the yin to the Wrecker’s yang, Squadron X. A team made up entirely of one-shot Marvel UK characters like Fang, Triton and—most relevantly—original killer of Impactor, Macabre.
You wait five years for a Marvel UK character to show up in IDW and then they turn out to be like buses. Adding to the fan wank, this final fight happened in the Redan Quadrant (as in the address of Marvel UK), though the planet being called “Pova” is a different sort of joke, “Point of View: A”.
It’s a tense, character filled scene, but a bit much for both Twin Twist and the returned Stalker, neither of whom can believe they’re managing to argue at a time like this. Luckily Stalker has the solution: Time for someone to die.
In Aequitas, Verity helps Ironfist by getting him to talk about the Wreckers under the excuse of taking her mind off things. So, he comes in with their greatest moment: The final defeat of their arch enemies, the yin to the Wrecker’s yang, Squadron X. A team made up entirely of one-shot Marvel UK characters like Fang, Triton and—most relevantly—original killer of Impactor, Macabre.
You wait five years for a Marvel UK character to show up in IDW and then they turn out to be like buses. Adding to the fan wank, this final fight happened in the Redan Quadrant (as in the address of Marvel UK), though the planet being called “Pova” is a different sort of joke, “Point of View: A”.
Those guys!
With all the deep-dive Marvel UK stuff, it’s actually a surprise this team isn’t just called the Mayhem Attack Squad. Squadron X sounds more like a placeholder name till they thought of something better that accidentally got left in.
Still, in the bright and sunny skies of Pova, the Wreckers are bravely and boldly fighting their foes, with the heroic but trapped Springer even volunteering to let Impactor shoot through his midsection to get out of a difficult situation. Even though he’ll just engage his circuit dampers and feel no pain, Impactor is still reluctant to do it, but eventually agrees as Springer shouts “Wreck and Rule!”, and this becomes the turning point that lets the happy Wreckers capture Squadron X and call up Prowl for an extraction.
Except, the Decepticons escape (taking off Sandstorm’s arm in the process), meaning Springer has decided “It ends here, now”. And after one, last, battle, the Wreckers stand victorious over their dead foes.
Now, it is incredibly obvious that Ironfist’s take on all this is pure cloud cuckoo land stuff, and there’s a nice, understated moment of Topspin giving him a big L Look as he says this story represents everything he loves about the Wreckers. And even in his version, he has to gloss over that the Wreckers all have their guns whilst the Xers are all unarmed in the final fight.
The real question for the reader therefore, is how much of this has any basis in reality. And the prior conversation between Springer and Impactor suggests there’s going to have to be some reality facing for Ironfist along the way.
Still, in the bright and sunny skies of Pova, the Wreckers are bravely and boldly fighting their foes, with the heroic but trapped Springer even volunteering to let Impactor shoot through his midsection to get out of a difficult situation. Even though he’ll just engage his circuit dampers and feel no pain, Impactor is still reluctant to do it, but eventually agrees as Springer shouts “Wreck and Rule!”, and this becomes the turning point that lets the happy Wreckers capture Squadron X and call up Prowl for an extraction.
Except, the Decepticons escape (taking off Sandstorm’s arm in the process), meaning Springer has decided “It ends here, now”. And after one, last, battle, the Wreckers stand victorious over their dead foes.
Now, it is incredibly obvious that Ironfist’s take on all this is pure cloud cuckoo land stuff, and there’s a nice, understated moment of Topspin giving him a big L Look as he says this story represents everything he loves about the Wreckers. And even in his version, he has to gloss over that the Wreckers all have their guns whilst the Xers are all unarmed in the final fight.
The real question for the reader therefore, is how much of this has any basis in reality. And the prior conversation between Springer and Impactor suggests there’s going to have to be some reality facing for Ironfist along the way.
Even in Ironfist's imagination, Impactor is terrifying.
But now there’s a new problem: Without the Garrus 9 command crew, the only way to download the data is for “Spark donation”, someone willingly (so they can’t use a Decepticon) killing themselves as a password.
Oh, and how sad, Perceptor can’t do it himself as he’s the only one who can work the machine. So, volunteer time!
Now, Star Trek fans know Starfleet trains their officers to be able to order subordinates to kill themselves for the Greater Good, but it seems the Autobots don’t have anything similar because, other than ruling out Topspin because that will kill Twin Twist as well, he’s happy for the two remaining candidates to argue it out amongst themselves.
And it’s the snapping point for both Ironfist and Pyro, as they suddenly go all meta and realise they’re second-stringer characters and it was never going to be a main “Lead” Autobot like Kup.
Pyro especially is insistent he’s meant to die in a blaze of glory that will make Optimus Prime finally realise “Me and him, we’re the same” (a turn of phrase that will turn up again the next time Primus Apotheosis claims a victim), so he’s clearly not going to sacrifice himself when there’s a never done anything his entire life nerd there who won’t be missed.
Oh, and how sad, Perceptor can’t do it himself as he’s the only one who can work the machine. So, volunteer time!
Now, Star Trek fans know Starfleet trains their officers to be able to order subordinates to kill themselves for the Greater Good, but it seems the Autobots don’t have anything similar because, other than ruling out Topspin because that will kill Twin Twist as well, he’s happy for the two remaining candidates to argue it out amongst themselves.
And it’s the snapping point for both Ironfist and Pyro, as they suddenly go all meta and realise they’re second-stringer characters and it was never going to be a main “Lead” Autobot like Kup.
Pyro especially is insistent he’s meant to die in a blaze of glory that will make Optimus Prime finally realise “Me and him, we’re the same” (a turn of phrase that will turn up again the next time Primus Apotheosis claims a victim), so he’s clearly not going to sacrifice himself when there’s a never done anything his entire life nerd there who won’t be missed.
The secret origin of Prime's gun.
What a Pyro maniac.
Verity desperately encourages Ironfist to speak up for himself, talk about why he should live as well. Which makes him think about his creation before the war, his fear of rust, his seeing a Decepticon badge for the first time three days before Zeta Prime was assassinated (which we’ll see is kinda what happened, bit also not really). About how he built Optimus Prime’s gun, but Prime thought he was someone else (more on that in Bullets). His first kill, both direct and through the millions he’s killed by proxy through the weapons he’s made. How his 11 best friends (including another Marvel UK character in Nautilus) all died, and the death of each one hurt a little less and that’s what he hates the Decepticons for most of all. And he’d do anything to live his life again.
It’s a beautiful, powerful sequence, but in the end all he can say out loud is “I didn’t think I was ready, but I am. Thank you, I’m done”.
Topspin however has had enough and, feeling his brother can’t hold out much longer anyway, plugs himself into the machine so they can die with some dignity. And just like Springer in Ironfist’s imagination, he tries to shout “Wreck and Rule”, but death and pain cuts him off halfway through.
Verity desperately encourages Ironfist to speak up for himself, talk about why he should live as well. Which makes him think about his creation before the war, his fear of rust, his seeing a Decepticon badge for the first time three days before Zeta Prime was assassinated (which we’ll see is kinda what happened, bit also not really). About how he built Optimus Prime’s gun, but Prime thought he was someone else (more on that in Bullets). His first kill, both direct and through the millions he’s killed by proxy through the weapons he’s made. How his 11 best friends (including another Marvel UK character in Nautilus) all died, and the death of each one hurt a little less and that’s what he hates the Decepticons for most of all. And he’d do anything to live his life again.
It’s a beautiful, powerful sequence, but in the end all he can say out loud is “I didn’t think I was ready, but I am. Thank you, I’m done”.
Topspin however has had enough and, feeling his brother can’t hold out much longer anyway, plugs himself into the machine so they can die with some dignity. And just like Springer in Ironfist’s imagination, he tries to shout “Wreck and Rule”, but death and pain cuts him off halfway through.
This will end well.
In the extraction chamber, Stalker is deeply surprised at Twin Twist just shutting off, but Impactor is able to work out that they just saw an assisted suicide.
Which is a bit on the nose.
Ironfist meanwhile, has one dangerous job still to do, take all the downloaded information into his brain for safekeeping.
Which is as good a time as any to ask, why not just destroy the computer to stop it getting into Decepticon hands? Yes, they might lose some confidential trial information, but with the prison now fallen, it seems rather a moot point. There doesn’t seem to be any desperate need to get the data out of there.
But of course, that adds to the general feeling of pointlessness.
Kup and Guzzle have been led to the extraction chamber by Snare, resulting in a shoot-out that takes down both Decepticons, before Springer cheerfully finds the “Off switch” for Stalker by using the Endoscopic Claw, hard.
Which is a bit on the nose.
Ironfist meanwhile, has one dangerous job still to do, take all the downloaded information into his brain for safekeeping.
Which is as good a time as any to ask, why not just destroy the computer to stop it getting into Decepticon hands? Yes, they might lose some confidential trial information, but with the prison now fallen, it seems rather a moot point. There doesn’t seem to be any desperate need to get the data out of there.
But of course, that adds to the general feeling of pointlessness.
Kup and Guzzle have been led to the extraction chamber by Snare, resulting in a shoot-out that takes down both Decepticons, before Springer cheerfully finds the “Off switch” for Stalker by using the Endoscopic Claw, hard.
No more ensnaring.
Snare gets time to explain his helping the Autobots, with Overlord having promised that “Play sets you free”…
Wait, honestly, Nazi slogans? Now that’s more on the nose than an Endoscopic Claw to the face.
Still, he reveals that Overlord’s final choice for winners of the gladiatorial fights was to now fight him… or commit suicide. And what choice is that.
He then asks Impactor to make it quick, which Impactor cheerfully does, crushing Snare’s brain module before he can even finish asking for a quick death. Which is very on point, Impactor has no sentiment to him when it comes to Decepticons.
The problem is, Stalker managed to get out a distress call to Overlord, meaning he now blasts into the room, ready for a final-face-off with Springer.
Wait, honestly, Nazi slogans? Now that’s more on the nose than an Endoscopic Claw to the face.
Still, he reveals that Overlord’s final choice for winners of the gladiatorial fights was to now fight him… or commit suicide. And what choice is that.
He then asks Impactor to make it quick, which Impactor cheerfully does, crushing Snare’s brain module before he can even finish asking for a quick death. Which is very on point, Impactor has no sentiment to him when it comes to Decepticons.
The problem is, Stalker managed to get out a distress call to Overlord, meaning he now blasts into the room, ready for a final-face-off with Springer.
He's back!
Which is the point you realise Overlord hasn’t been in the issue at all outside this one panel.
Ironfist is finally having to confront the realities of life, the trial transcripts having made him realise that everything is a lie.
Which comes at the wrong moment for Perceptor to have a new plan: From here he can detonate all the deterrence chips in every Decepticon prisoner, effectively killing all their attackers.
But this will kill Impactor as well. Something Pyro votes against, but which Perceptor votes for. Verity tries to vote as well, but is told to stay the heck out of Autobot business by a Perceptor who is clearly very pissed off in general this month.
Leaving the casting vote to Ironfist. Impactor’s biggest fan.
Who votes “Yes”, because what he knows now changes everything.
With fans like that, who needs enemies?
It’s a bit of an odd issue this, taking place almost entirely in two rooms, with the only characters moving about not actually contributing anything to the plot bar ticking off a question for the Wiki. In terms of real plot advancement, there’s almost none. Especially as the point of Aequitas is that it is meant to feel pointless.
Ironfist is finally having to confront the realities of life, the trial transcripts having made him realise that everything is a lie.
Which comes at the wrong moment for Perceptor to have a new plan: From here he can detonate all the deterrence chips in every Decepticon prisoner, effectively killing all their attackers.
But this will kill Impactor as well. Something Pyro votes against, but which Perceptor votes for. Verity tries to vote as well, but is told to stay the heck out of Autobot business by a Perceptor who is clearly very pissed off in general this month.
Leaving the casting vote to Ironfist. Impactor’s biggest fan.
Who votes “Yes”, because what he knows now changes everything.
With fans like that, who needs enemies?
It’s a bit of an odd issue this, taking place almost entirely in two rooms, with the only characters moving about not actually contributing anything to the plot bar ticking off a question for the Wiki. In terms of real plot advancement, there’s almost none. Especially as the point of Aequitas is that it is meant to feel pointless.
Sad little boi.
But the character work remains incredibly strong, with every discussion within those two rooms really hitting hard, especially everything to do with poor, simple but lovable idiot nerd Ironfist.
Even the Jumpstarters get to have some decent moments, how rare is that?
And the stage is now set for a full-on action-packed finale.
What’s also packed, is the extras in the hardback trade. Meaning another Addendum, looking at the various remaining non-story bonus features.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 5
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
Even the Jumpstarters get to have some decent moments, how rare is that?
And the stage is now set for a full-on action-packed finale.
What’s also packed, is the extras in the hardback trade. Meaning another Addendum, looking at the various remaining non-story bonus features.
THE TRANSFORMERS ISSUE 5
2010
COMMENT
KO-FI
