Last Stand of the Wreckers issue 4

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File:Last Stand of the Wreckers4 Cover A.jpg
Straight Outta Iacon
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published April 21, 2010
Cover date April 2010
Writers James Roberts & Nick Roche
Pencils Nick Roche (pp. 1, 10-22) & Guido Guidi (pp. 2-9)
Inks Andrew Griffith (pp. 1, 10-22) & Guido Guidi (pp. 2-9)
Colors Josh Burcham
Letters Chris Mowry
Editor Andy Schmidt
Associate editor Denton J. Tipton
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era (2010)

The Wreckers find out that sometimes the truth really doesn't set you free.

Synopsis

Kimia Weapons Facility, eight months ago. Ironfist is in his lab, doing stuff and talking to Prowl via video. Prowl praises Ironfist for his datalog works on the Wreckers, jokingly calling him by his web alias, Fisitron. He informs Ironfist that of a new team of Wreckers being put together. He offers Ironfist the job, but asks him how badly he wants the job (meaning he’s probably gonna get killed).

Back in the present, on Garrus-9, Guzzle and Kup are sneaking up on some Cons. Kup asks Guzzle to hold his cygar and proceeds to single-handedly kill all four Cons. Retrieving his cygar, he opens the cell door they were guarding, expecting to see Grimlock (whom they came to rescue so he could help). But he isn’t there. Snare - the Decepticon who freed Impactor – comes up behind them and informs them that Grimlock is long gone - made to watch footage of G-9 being overrun, powerless to intervene, he was driven mad. Guzzle thinks Snare is full of it, but Snare pleads for them to listen.

Meanwhile, a few floors away, Pyro, Perceptor, Topspin, Ironfist and Verity look at Aequitas - revealed to be a gargantuan supercomputer. The Wreckers are there to download the contents of its hard drive. Topspin is furious at this, thinking the mission a fool’s errand. Verity asks Perceptor why Aequitas is so big, to which he replies that it’s a culpability drive that calculates guilt. Suddenly, Topspin goes into spasms, clawing at his face and saying, “Get out of his mouth...” Perceptor and Pyro go to boot up Aequitas, while Verity and Ironfist watch over Topspin - his “vicarious perception” will apparently last only a couple minutes. Verity asks Ironfist to tell her a story.

In the Spark Extinction Chamber, Springer wakes from unconsciousness. Impactor – inexplicably still online, informs him that Stalker, their torturer, went away to get something called an endoscopic claw. Changing the subject, Springer says he thought that Impactor would have been sent to a rehab institute for his unknown crime – or one of the open prisons. Impactor contemptuously replies that after Springer’s testimony, when he was plugged into Aequitas, tore the Wreckers apart. Springer hates himself for reporting Impactor to command. He wants to forgive Impactor - he wants to forgive himself. But he says he can't do that until Impactor accepts that he violated every tenet of the Autobot code. Twin Twist comes online – revealed to have been horribly disfigured; he asks how the two can argue at a time like this. Stalker comes back in, holding an evil looking "endoscopic claw". He says he was thinking the exact same thing, and believes it is time for one of them to die.

Back in the Aequitas chamber, Ironfist begins his story. He tells of Squadron X – a twisted Decepticon Wreckers equivalent - comprising of Crosscut, Earthquake, Fang, Ferak, Tornado, Triton, and leader Macabre. Impactor was obsessed with tracking them down. Their battles came to a head on Pova, where Springer was left trapped under rubble, in the firing line, while Squadron X advanced ever closer. Impactor reluctantly agreed to Springer’s idea of blasting at them through Springer’s midsection. It worked, and the Wreckers were able to defeat Squadron X. With their foes in custody, the Wreckers cleaned up. Impactor fixed Springer up and calls Prowl, telling him to pick them up. Then Sandstorm staggered out of the cell, missing an arm - Squadron X was loose. Impactor left Springer and led the others into battle. They killed the entire Squadron.

Back in the present, Ironfist finishes his story. That story, he says, epitomises everything he admires and loves about the Wreckers. Meanwhile, Topspin comes out of his spasms and gets up. Perceptor calls everyone over. There’s a problem; Aequitas is password-protected and the only other way to activate it is by spark donation – someone has do die to switch it on. Topspin suggests force-feeding it a Con, but Perceptor says that won't work – the donor must die willingly, or it won’t work. I can’t be Perceptor, since only he knows how to work the supercomputer. Not Topspin – no sense in he and Twin Twist dying needlessly. Ironfist resignedly says that it’ll have to be either him or Pyro. At this, Pyro freaks out. He self-righteously says that he shouldn’t have to switching a computer. He says he’s supposed to go out all guns blazing, saving a planet of innocents or something. As he spouts his dream death, Topspin sees through Twin Twist Twist's eyes. Stalker leans over him. Pyro keeps saying that he wants to die like a Prime. Verity says that Ironfist is better than him, and that Pyro is barely an Autobot Ironfist gets angry at the two talking as if he’s not there, so Verity asks him to speak.

Stumbling for words, Ironfist flashes back to his unpublished biography; of how he killed his first Decepticon, his brief meeting with Optimus Prime, his many weapon inventions that killed thousands, his closest friends dying, and how he’d do anything to live his life again. But he doesn't speak and instead prepares to die. But Topspin - seeing the pain Twin Twist is enduring - says enough is enough, and plugs himself in. Aequitas thanks him for his donation, then drains his spark. In the Spark Extinction Chamber, Twin Twist blows up. Stalker is disappointed, but shrugs it off and starts on the others. Perceptor plugs a headphone-like plug into Ironfist's head. He transfers the contents of Aequitas' hard drive to Ironfist's head and then wipes the hard drive.

Back in the chamber, Stalker is about to gouge out Impactor’s eyes when he’s blasted away by Guzzle, arriving with Kup and Snare. Calling Snare a traitor, Stalker blasts Snare's head. Springer gets released, grabs the discarded endoscopic claw and stabs Stalker through the head. Impactor watches over Snare as he slowly dies. He says that the "choice" Overlord gives you after 12 pit wins (the choice Kick-Off was given way back in issue 1) is this; either fight Overlord or commit suicide. "What’s the difference?" He says. Overlord is coming - Snare heard Stalker radio for help before he died. He asks Impactor to kill him before Overlord gets there. Impactor obliges, crushing Snare's brain module. Springer is about to ask about Overlord, but the wall promptly blows up. Overlord emerges, asking if they're ready. Springer replies, "ready".

Back in the Aequitas Chamber, Ironfist says he now knows everything, and that everything they’ve been told is a lie. With the Decepticons about to break through the doors, Perceptor suggests using Aequitas to detonate the deterrence chips inside their heads (every ex-convict has one). Pyro doesn't want to, saying that it’ll kill ex-con Impactor as well. Perceptor asks Ironfist for the casting vote. Verity scoffs that Impactor’s biggest fan will never kill him off. But Ironfist replies that everything has changed. Knowing what he does now, he says to do it.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans

Quotes

"Well, unless it contains a fully sequenced cyber-genome, or the uncensored version of the Autobot code, or—let's think the unthinkable—a roadmap to peace, I'd respectfully suggest that High Command have sent us on a fool's errand!"

—Topspin is not impressed by Aequitas.


"It was never gonna be Perceptor, was it? Or Springer or Impactor or Kup, if they were here. No, it was always going to be one of us—the second stringers".
"Yeah, just because we're not famous—not Ark-worthy—one of us has to bite the bullet.. well, I'm sorry, but this isn't how I'm supposed to die!"

—Ironfist and Pyro are uncannily aware of Transformers literary convention

Errors

  • The quadriplegic, comatose Fortress Maximus, who was recovered by Perceptor's team just outside the Aequitas‎ chamber, is nowhere to be seen this issue.
  • In the flashbacks, Impactor is clearly shown with his trademark hook on his right hand. This contradicts previous fiction - he only got it in issue #2 from Ironfist to replace his hand, destroyed in issue #1.

Items of note

  • In his weapons lab, Ironfist displays the sky-sled that Impactor used to rescue Xaaron, which he mentioned earlier as having purchased from a blind dealer. He also has the gun that he'll give to Guzzle in issue 2 on a table.
  • Squadron X is composed of random hi-then-die non-toy Decepticons from the Marvel Generation 1 comics, both US and UK.
  • Hey, look, it's Rack'n'Ruin!
  • And holy crap, Nautilus!
  • According to Snare, Overlord told his Decepticons that "play makes you free." This is a twist on the real-life German political slogan "Work makes you free", which the Nazis co-opted ironically by displaying it at the entrances of many concentration camps.
  • Impactor kills Snare by crushing his brain module, as Death's Head did to Shockwave in the Marvel UK story, "The Legacy of Unicron!".
  • The Rung-penned personality profiles return (for this issue any way). This time, they feature the bottomless well of Wreckers trivia, Ironfist, of all bots.
  • Last Stand's UK roots are on show again in Ironfist's profile: the two Wreckers datalogs mentioned, "The Wreckers' Lightning Strike" and "Wreckers at the Pole", are named for two of the Ladybird Books, "Autobots' Lightning Strike" and "Decepticons at the Pole".
  • Just like last issue, you can definitely tell which pages were done by Nick Roche by the hand-drawn insignias, where Guido Guidi's pages use digitally-inserted templates. Roche does, however, forget to draw Topspin's chest insignia again, though this time Burcham noticed the omission and inserted digital ones.

Covers (3)

Let's see what you can see...

This article is in need of images.

Specifics: Covers
  • Cover A: Bottom-up view of Springer, Sandstorm, Roadbuster, Whirl, and Broadside all staring down at something unseen, art by Nick Roche and colors by Josh Burcham.
  • Cover B: Springer firing his weapons with a profile silhouette of Ironfist in the background, art and colors by Trevor Hutchison.
  • Cover RI: "Virgin" title-free edition of cover B.

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