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==Synopsis== | ==Synopsis== | ||
While on their latest fantastical exploit, gentleman adventurers [[Walter Simmons I|Walter Simmons]] and [[Joseph Wells]] run afoul of a race of inhuman subterranean monsters beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains. After escaping the beasts and re-entombing them beneath the Earth through a combination of Joseph's fondness for firearms and Walter's predilection for rational thinking, the pair are approached by [[United States of America|United States]] Secret Service agent [[Billy North]], who has been sent to draft the two men on orders of the [[President of the United States|president]]. Walter and Joseph's history of endeavours into the worlds of the unreal make them the ideal men to study the case of Captain [[Archibald Witwicky]], who has returned from a voyage to the [[Arctic]] blind and man, spinning "delusional" tales of a giant mechanical man frozen beneath the ice. After questioning Witwicky in Boston, Walter is intrigued at the possibility, while Joseph scoffs at the notion, enraging Witwicky's first mate, [[Reginald Danco]], who accosts him. Defusing the confrontation, Walter and North learn that Danco also saw the metal man, and begin putting together an expedition to follow Danco's directions back to the Arctic and see it for themselves. | |||
A short time later, Walter, Joseph, North and Danco set sail for the Arctic, joined by metallurgist [[Jack Arden]], explosives expert [[Philippe Bowen]] and geologist [[Theodore Grant]]. Witwicky's claims prove more than mere fantasy when the team discovers the frozen form of [[Megatron (Movie)|Megatron]], and Walter begins speculating about the true nature of the alien marvel before him. As Witwicky's presence did before, however, the arrival of the seven activates something within Megatron, and one-light second away, in [[Havana]], [[Cuba]], the long-dormant [[Jetfire (ROTF)|Jetfire]] senses the Decepticon leader's energy signal. Having been disguised as a boat, Jetfire promptly transforms and flies away, leaving his crew none the wiser, thinking that their ship has merely been sunk by the Spanish. | |||
Danco advocates destroying Megatron to North before he can pose a threat to humanity, while Walter and Joseph argue: the former shocked by the latter's incredulity, the latter fearing the former may be consumed by the enormity of what they face. Arden, meanwhile, studies Megatron's metal body, coming to the frustrating conclusion that he is made of no metal he has ever seen; information without which Grant cannot calculate where Bowen should place his charges to free Megatron. The whole matter soon becomes a secondary concern when Jetfire comes crashing through the roof of the ice cave, having followed Megatron's signal there. Ignoring the humans, who look on in awe, he converses with the reactivated Megatron, but upon learning that the Decepticon is not [[The Fallen]], upon whom he seeks revenge, he simply punches his prone form. Jarred out of their shock by Jetfire's violent act, the seven spring into action, with North firing upon the Transformer with his six-guns. Irritated by the "insect's stings", Jetfire seizes North, and hurls him over his shoulder to his death. At Danco's direction, Grant and Bowen set up charges to blow the ice out from under Jetfire, while Walter, Joseph and Arden distract him from either side. The resultant explosion sends Jetfire plunging into the depths of the freezing sea, and partially immerses Megatron as well, knocking him offline; as he shuts down, Megatron gasps out his name, which Walter mis-hears as "Mega-Man". | |||
The death of Agent North weighing heavily on his conscience, Walter tells Joseph that to be consumed by the extra-terrestrial mystery is inevitable. He tells the others he expects nothing from them, their duty to him and the mission done, as they have done their duty. Arden, Bowen and Grant all object, insisting that the group stay together. And so ends the first and only adventure of the [[First Seven]]... | |||
==Featured Characters== | ==Featured Characters== | ||
Revision as of 13:30, 21 October 2010
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| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 29, 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | September 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Writer | John Barber | ||||||||||||
| Art | Joe Suitor | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Chris Mowry | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Andy Schmidt | ||||||||||||
| Cover | Brian Rood Joe Suitor | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Live-action film series | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 32 | ||||||||||||
| Price | $3.99 | ||||||||||||
1898: by order of the President, an investigation is undertaken of a blind mental patient's claims of a thirty-six feet tall steel man...
Synopsis
While on their latest fantastical exploit, gentleman adventurers Walter Simmons and Joseph Wells run afoul of a race of inhuman subterranean monsters beneath the Sierra Nevada mountains. After escaping the beasts and re-entombing them beneath the Earth through a combination of Joseph's fondness for firearms and Walter's predilection for rational thinking, the pair are approached by United States Secret Service agent Billy North, who has been sent to draft the two men on orders of the president. Walter and Joseph's history of endeavours into the worlds of the unreal make them the ideal men to study the case of Captain Archibald Witwicky, who has returned from a voyage to the Arctic blind and man, spinning "delusional" tales of a giant mechanical man frozen beneath the ice. After questioning Witwicky in Boston, Walter is intrigued at the possibility, while Joseph scoffs at the notion, enraging Witwicky's first mate, Reginald Danco, who accosts him. Defusing the confrontation, Walter and North learn that Danco also saw the metal man, and begin putting together an expedition to follow Danco's directions back to the Arctic and see it for themselves.
A short time later, Walter, Joseph, North and Danco set sail for the Arctic, joined by metallurgist Jack Arden, explosives expert Philippe Bowen and geologist Theodore Grant. Witwicky's claims prove more than mere fantasy when the team discovers the frozen form of Megatron, and Walter begins speculating about the true nature of the alien marvel before him. As Witwicky's presence did before, however, the arrival of the seven activates something within Megatron, and one-light second away, in Havana, Cuba, the long-dormant Jetfire senses the Decepticon leader's energy signal. Having been disguised as a boat, Jetfire promptly transforms and flies away, leaving his crew none the wiser, thinking that their ship has merely been sunk by the Spanish.
Danco advocates destroying Megatron to North before he can pose a threat to humanity, while Walter and Joseph argue: the former shocked by the latter's incredulity, the latter fearing the former may be consumed by the enormity of what they face. Arden, meanwhile, studies Megatron's metal body, coming to the frustrating conclusion that he is made of no metal he has ever seen; information without which Grant cannot calculate where Bowen should place his charges to free Megatron. The whole matter soon becomes a secondary concern when Jetfire comes crashing through the roof of the ice cave, having followed Megatron's signal there. Ignoring the humans, who look on in awe, he converses with the reactivated Megatron, but upon learning that the Decepticon is not The Fallen, upon whom he seeks revenge, he simply punches his prone form. Jarred out of their shock by Jetfire's violent act, the seven spring into action, with North firing upon the Transformer with his six-guns. Irritated by the "insect's stings", Jetfire seizes North, and hurls him over his shoulder to his death. At Danco's direction, Grant and Bowen set up charges to blow the ice out from under Jetfire, while Walter, Joseph and Arden distract him from either side. The resultant explosion sends Jetfire plunging into the depths of the freezing sea, and partially immerses Megatron as well, knocking him offline; as he shuts down, Megatron gasps out his name, which Walter mis-hears as "Mega-Man".
The death of Agent North weighing heavily on his conscience, Walter tells Joseph that to be consumed by the extra-terrestrial mystery is inevitable. He tells the others he expects nothing from them, their duty to him and the mission done, as they have done their duty. Arden, Bowen and Grant all object, insisting that the group stay together. And so ends the first and only adventure of the First Seven...
Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Maintaining a scientific demeanor might have proved the better part of valor, Joseph."
"They made the first move."
"They growled at you."
"That's a first move, Walter."
- -Walter Simmons and Joseph Wells
"I am but a humble servant of progress. Or at least that's what I tell myself when I lie awake at night."
- -Simmons
"Who piloted this--or, good god, man! What if this is the creature itself?"
- -Simmons is stunned by Megatron
"We killed a space-robot! Do you know what a metallurgist usually does? Lemme tell ya, it ain't as fulfilling as you musta heard!"
- -Arden is having fun
Errors
- While the art keeps our heroes Joseph and Walter consistent (Joseph has dark hair and mutton chops, silver-haired Walter has a mustache), the script does not do them such favors. On page four, North refers to them as "Joseph Simmons" and "Walter Wells", and on the following page, Joseph mispronounces "Witwicky" as "Wickety", just as Seymour Simmons did in the first movie, a joke to seemingly prove the two characters' relation. From page eight onward, however, the pair's surnames are switched, and the whole story becomes framed by excerpts from the journal of "Walter Simmons", indicating that he is actually supposed to be the Simmons in this story.
- Despite the correct design of Megatron being used on the cover, the inside pages depict Megatron as he appeared in Revenge of the Fallen.
- John Barber's continuity notes at the end of the issue confirm that Walter is Simmons, but give Wells's name as "Theodore"!
Items of note
- The issue has "FIELD NOTES From Agent John Barber": continuity notes and behind-the-scenes info about how the issue was created. Barber says this was editor Andy Schmidt's idea.
- Joseph, Walter and Danco all previously appeared, unnamed, in the second issue of the Movie Prequel comic. A building containing mysterious objects that appeared to be Sector Seven's headquarters appeared in that comic, at a time before the movie itself claimed the organization was supposed to have been founded, but is here retconned away as being Walter and Joseph's trophy collection from the various strange adventures and treasure-hunts they've been on (in his notes, Barber says these guys were presented as adventurers in the Prequel, which is a bit of a fudge). Barber also says that since the Prequel says Seymour Simmons' great-grandfather was part of the original Seven, he had to be one of those guys.
- The yet-to-be-named Danco appears in Witwicky's crew and a guy quite like him is seen with Sector Seven's crew later in the Prequel; Barber decided to make them both the same character.
- The human cast are meant to represent "disparate parts" of the era, according to Barber: Simmons and Wells are "Jules Verne/HG Wells gentlemen scientist-adventurers", North is a "cowboy", Bowen is "basically... Oscar Wilde as an explosives expert", Grant is a "rugged hero in the mold [sic] of... fictional colonialist Allan Quatermain", and Arden is a throwback to the vanishing "pre-Industrial Revolution master-apprentice era".
- Walter evidently passes his name on to his son, since another Walter Simmons appears in the first movie prequel novel, "Ghosts of Yesterday".
- The ship's manifest seen on page nine is the list of the "First Seven" released on the internet during the Sector Seven alternate reality game promotion for the first movie. The names are here established to be aliases for the real men.
- Jetfire's appearance in this issue comes during the time he was wandering the Earth, previously glossed over in the final pages of Tales of the Fallen #3.
- Jetfire's maritime accident is a little unclear. It's based around the real-life sinking of the USS Maine, which started the Spanish-American War. Barber's notes at the end of the issues claim that Jetfire was responsible for accidentally sinking it, but the art itself actually appears to suggest that Jetfire was the Maine (observe the anchor chains, masts and gunnery cannons that decorate his robot mode), and that him transforming was mistaken for the ship breaking up and sinking.
- On page fourteen, Bowen is reading The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (for whom Joseph is named).
- Early online solicitations for this issue accidentally claimed it was being written and drawn by the creative team of IDW's True Blood comic. Copy-paste cock-up!
Covers (3)
- Cover A: Archibald discovers Megatron, sepia version by Brian Rood of art originally by Josh Nizzi.
- Cover B: Sector 7 flotsam and jetsam by Joe Suitor.
- Cover RI: An incentive cover of the flotsam and jetsam in lovely black borders.
