The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers

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They're all gonna die.

The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers is a 5-issue limited series published by IDW Publishing in 2010 set in the main IDW continuity.

It follows the re-assembly of the Wreckers team after the events of All Hail Megatron maxiseries, among other things.

The premise of the series was generated editorially. Nick Roche asked to do art for the series, only finding out later that he would also be writing the series. James Roberts is his co-writer, but only started being credited for the script from #2 (though he did #1's Rotorstorm profile). The prolific Josh Burcham provides the colors. Incentive covers were provided by Trevor Hutchison.

A sequel miniseries again written and drawn by Roche, The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers, was announced at San Diego ComicCon 2015. It began release in November 2015.

KP: "...and obviously, we've got Wreckers."

NR: "Wot?"
KP: "Wreckers... no? Um, a bunch of guys..."

NR: "Great balls, I'm supposed to be [expletive deleted] writing and drawing that!"Nick Roche suddenly realizes the enormity of his looming workload in the midst of an August 2009 interview
The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers issues: »
Bonus stories:

Overview

Hey! You look like a mark: wanna buy some action and adventure? Sure you do, you gullible chump. And what better place to find it than in Roche & Roberts' 'Last Stand of The Wreckers'! It's about a prison that fell to the Decepticons a coupla years back, but since then something screwy has occurred, and neither side - Autobot or Decepticon - has had any communication with The Last Resort since. When the Dinobots aren't available, and when you've got a bunch of Euro-exclusive toys that aren't too busy, then it's time to send for The Wreckers!Nick Roche [1]
It's a story of sacrifice and betrayal, and of good people dying in stupid, pointless ways.Verity Carlo

Notes

  • In an interview, Roche said that he would be playing with the idea that the Wreckers has "an ever-changing line-up".[2]
  • This series is like Christmas if you love minor characters. New Wreckers Ironfist and Pyro had not been in any previous fiction before, and Rotorstorm had only had a minor cameo; the same is true of most of the evil Predators, and Overlord's only previous English-language fiction had been cameo appearances. Hell, even Fearswoop shows up at one point. All of these guys had European toys in the early 90s: it's time for a new decade to get the nostalgia!
  • The violence is deliberate, to make it absolutely unambiguous when Transformers are getting killed.[3]
    • The deaths of protagonists are uniformly all horrible and potentially avoidable, and none of them are glorious battles to the death. A recurring theme, brought up in #3 and #5, is of good people dying in pointless ways.
  • Overlord was chosen as a villain since Roche and Roberts figured nobody else would be using him, so there'd be no contradictions.
  • Both Scorponok and Grimlock were originally intended to be large players in the series. Scorponok (his consciousness taken out of Abraham Dante and put back in his body by Shockwave) would have acted as Overlord's go to guy for crazy science and would develop Nucleon as a steroid analogue. The nucleon would power fighters up but damage their mental state. Scorponok would have solved the problem of not having a head by stealing Fortress Maximus'. Grimlock would have been dosed up on nucleon, trapping him in his dinosaur form, and rendering him a psychotic beast. Overlord was to have gone on to use him as the final opponent for anyone who progressed far enough in the arena. It was then intended that Overlord's defeat would come from the Wreckers knocking him into the arena with the enraged Grimlock. Although Grimlock did indeed have a minor part in the series, it was decided to deliberately minimalise any 'big name' characters at Garrus-9 so as not to overshadow the Wreckers.[4][5]
  • In the first draft, Springer, Perceptor and Kup all die. In later plans, one of them was going to die during planning, but in the end Roche and Roberts weren't allowed to do it[6] and one they could do, they say in the trade, they chickened out of. Impactor, however, was never going to die!
  • The back of the comic features character profiles, designed as entries on an internal Autobot database called "Autopedia". The entries are stubs, but you can help the Transformers' wiki by expanding them!
  • The trade paperback features different profiles than the individual issues. The TPB profiles use British spelling.
"Nick, James and Josh actually did those [profiles] completely free of charge to add something EXTRA to the comic for you because they love you."Andy Schmidt [7]
  • At least two panels featuring Verity are edited from the trade paperback release in the hardcover. Her shocked face after Kup tells her about Overlord is altered in the hardcover, and the panel of her rolling past the room where Springer and Impactor are arguing gives her a redrawn head. These changes appear to be for aesthetics.

Collections

  • Last Stand of the Wreckers TPB (September 1, 2010) ISBN 1600107168 / ISBN 978-1600107160
  • Extras include the 11-page prose story "Bullets", the Transformers: Mosaic "Dead Men's Boots", profiles for Snare and Overlord, a "movie poster" of the series, a page of "Fisitron's Facts," and a page of sketches called "Prison Slops".
  • A cover gallery is not included, but in light of what we got, who cares!
  • The profiles that were in the miniseries aren't in the trade. Roche told Moonbase 2 in 2010 that this was deliberate because he and IDW want to sell more comics. We still love ya, Nick!
  • Last Stand of the Wreckers Hardcover (February 22, 2012) ISBN 1613771266 / ISBN 978-1613771266
  • On top of the regular Hardcover extras, the Red Label extras include a mounted signature page signed by Nick Roche, Guido Guidi and James Roberts and hand-numbered to 250. This special edition also contains a portfolio of six lithographs featuring the team-up illustrations Guido Guidi and Nick Roche drew for the Blue Label edition. Stamped with the IDW Limited Red Foil Imprint, this edition also includes: an exclusive cover only available through this IDW Limited release; a limited-edition, custom-designed tray case; a vellum title-page overlay; new end pages; and a red satin ribbon bookmark. The original price was $125. More info here
  • Last Stand of the Wreckers Hardcover Black Label Edition (August 21, 2013) No ISBN
  • The Black Label Edition was limited to only 50 copies and cost $250.
  • Last Stand of the Wreckers Hardcover Blue Label Edition (August 21, 2013) No ISBN
  • The most rare of the 3 labeled editions, the Blue Label was limited to 10 copies at $350 a pop. A detailed "unboxing" of the set is described here.

References

  1. ↑ Transformers Ireland Online
  2. ↑ Nick Roche interview by Moonbase Two
  3. ↑ Moonbase 2 interview
  4. ↑ Auto Assembly 2010 Last Stand of the Wreckers Panel
  5. ↑ Moonbase 2's AA2010 interview, 30:06 - 31:03
  6. ↑ Moonbase 2's AA2010 interview, 19:00 - 19:40
  7. ↑ IDW forums
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