Dead Men's Boots

« The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers Mosaic »
He'd know. He's done the spreadsheets.
"Dead Men's Boots"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	September 1, 2010
Story	James Roberts
Script	James Roberts
Pencils	Nick Roche
Inks	Nick Roche
Colors	Josh Burcham
Letters	Lo Baker
Editor	Shaun Knowler
Continuity	IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2010)

Springer puts out the call for new Wreckers recruits.

Synopsis

Springer recalls when Impactor first called him to be a Wrecker. He reflects on the irony of this being his job, now that Impactor is incarcerated on Garrus-9. The approach, he notes, is scripted. He tells both Pyro and Rotorstorm that their names are at the top of the selection list, though he is rather frank about the survival rate of Wreckers. Ironfist disputes this statistic, based on his own exhaustively researched figures. Springer notes that unlike his predecessor, he offers his recruits a choice, and sometimes they say no. However, the prospect of Kup on the team causes Guzzle to reconsider Springer's offer.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots
Impactor (1) Springer (2) Pyro (3) Rotorstorm (4) Ironfist (5) Guzzle (6)

Notes

• This is the second time IDW authors and artists have attempted to create a Transformers: Mosaic page that fits into existing continuity. The first was Simon Furman's "Hail and Farewell". Unlike that story, this one was published in the trade, without disclaimer, making it canon.
• Ironfist confirms that Rack'n'Ruin are dead.
• As well, the schematic displayed on the viewscreen behind Ironfist depicts the cerebro-centric bullet that was working its way towards his central processor at the time.
• Ironfist's scene here is repeated in the trade's text story, "Bullets," but Springer is said to be a hologram projection.
• The smoking guns the other three Autobots hold are also explained in "Bullets": they mistook Springer's hologram projection for the Shimmer.

Errors

• Continuing a recurring error from the series proper, Rotorstorm's guns are colored reddish at the wrong ends.

Survival Rate

• Springer and Ironfist's mathematics appear to be faulty. At this point in continuity, eight Wreckers are known to still be alive (Springer, Impactor, Topspin, Twin Twist, Roadbuster, Sandstorm, Kup and Perceptor). That means at least 19 Wreckers must have existed in the past to calculate a survival rate of 42.105%. A dispute about Rack'n'Ruin counting as one or two could only push the stats up to 8 survivors out of 20, or 40%, and wouldn't reduce it to the degree suggested by Ironfist, down to 38%. Raising the overall roster size would only further shrink the effect of counting Rack'n'Ruin twice for the roster.
• On the other hand, Roberts may have misspoken, and 42% was meant to be the death toll, not the survival rate. The difference between 5/12s and 5/13s would be mathematically accurate for the above figures, and incidentally would be the total number of confirmed Wreckers in IDW to date (the above eight known survivors plus the currently unaccounted for Whirl, Broadside, Scoop and Rack'n'Ruin). Unfortunately, this too wouldn't be quite proper, as the re-computation of the death toll should've changed both values of 5/12s, not just the denominator.
• Math is hard.

External links

• Dead Men's Boots @ Transformers Mosaic