Last Stand of the Wreckers #5 (SPOILERS)

[Best First]

i think you are all being mean bullys. he gave it 4/5 FFS!

[Impactor returns 2.0]

He's taken on board what myself an emvee posted and is going to pick up T2006...

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Ok, finaly got round to reading this.

Great last issue, lots of action, good characterisation from just about every TF involved.

I still didnt enjoy the art work, I really cannot make out whats going on half the time, ive said this before and ill say it again, the G1 artist new how to draw a punch-up. ie, see Magnus V galvatron, Cyc & Scourge V Megatron, Megatron V Preadacons and Deaths Head V Shockwave... I can go on, but in general the artwork is clear and concise, more like single frames of animation...

Anyhows, I really enjoyed the series, it felt like a nutty adventure, and all the old characters I loved so much were there. Some dark moments with the torture scenes, and some interesting points of view from Guzzle. all good.

Overlord...who? OK, I dont mind new characters being brought in but he seemed nigh on indestructable for no apparent reason, to the point where I thought, why doesnt he just go and kick Megatron in, it doesnt look like he would struggle in anyway, hes super large, and stupidly powerfull.

I wasnt overally convinced about the wreckers tactics throughout, some of them seemed a bit pussy to be in the group. When i think back to Time-wars, T2006 etc... they all seemed a bit stearner.. or maybe its just Springer being a douche?

Welcome back Impy!

time for a new sig methinks...

[Legion]

yay, the guzzmeister lives! all is right with the world once more.

actually i was surpsied the casualty list wasn't a bit higher and that there wasn't a major character death - i was definitely expecting Impactor or Kup to buy it...

[Optimus Prime Rib]

wish I could find the first 4 books. I found this one and enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed how they had Impactor kill Macabre.

[Best First]

i like this so much i am scared to write about it in case i sully its brilliance with my poor use of the wordy words.

My one reservation about the whole thing is that Impactor appears to turn into an arm chair.

[Guest]

Pre-ordered the TPB. Roll on September.

[bumblemusprime]

I'll pre-post my review here. I actually should have done this for feedback, but I was in a hurry.

I love cookies. And if you took my love for cookies and squared it, you would have my love for dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips and almonds.

(They’re pretty easy to make, too; you just add six or so squares of melted chocolate and an extra egg to your standard cookie recipe. Let the chocolate cool to a nice gooey consistency so it won’t cook the eggs when you add it. Don’t say Uncle Orson’s site never taught you nothing.)

As my love to cookies is to dark chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips, so my love of comics is to Transformers comics. And like cookies, a bad batch of Transformers comics can really let me down. A good batch can make my month.

Last Stand of the Wreckers made my year.

I don’t think that shows you my enthusiasm.

It MADE MY YEAR!!!!!!! (degenerates into making explosion sounds and that “kee-koo-koo-koo-kee” transforming noise) !!!!!

For a comic about giant transforming robots, Wreckers makes a great war movie, an action-packed yet thought-provoking story of sacrifice among a brave coterie of soldiers. Writer James Roberts and co-writer/artist Nick Roche write with vivid power about the archetypal best-of-the-best soldiers, the Wreckers, an elite Autobot squad who get sent in at the last resort when everything looks hopeless.

Megatron and Optimus Prime are nowhere to be found here. The best-known character is Kup, a grizzled old trooper from the animated 1986 movie. If you owned the toys of Ironfist, Pyro, Guzzle or Rotorstorm, there is a good chance that your mom got to the store after the Transformer section was picked over.

As with so many other franchise comics, the obscure characters allow the writers to truly up the stakes with real risks and real characterization for story’s sake, not for the sake of selling toys.

The story goes thusly: Garrus-9, an Autobot-run prison, has been attacked and overtaken by a twisted Decepticon named Overlord. Overlord was Megatron’s fallback psycho for years, a wild card mostly good for razing the battlefield. When Megatron tried to rein Overlord in, he broke ranks and took over Garrus-9, where he now pits Autobots and Decepticons against each other in no-holds-barred pit fights for his own amusement, waiting for Megatron to return and confront him for his atrocities.

Overlord is a horrifically sadistic villain, despite an uninspired toy design (oh, the pitfalls of being a generic Transformer). He giggles at a helpless Autobot’s joke and then blows said Autobot’s head off. He tosses the Autobot leader Fortress Maximus to a crowd of Decepticons with the instructions, “Just try not to kill him.” He looms over the Wreckers’ human crewmember, Verity, cackling “Look at you, all brittle bones and ligaments and red, red ventricles. I wonder what sound you’ll make when I pop your seams?”

The Wreckers must liberate the Autobot captives, take out Overlord, and retrieve the mysterious MacGuffin called “Aequitas.” We see the action through the eyes of four new recruits to the Wreckers—cavalier Rotorstorm, taciturn Guzzle, glory-hound Pyro and Ironfist, who has a passion for Wreckers history and is basically Cybertron’s biggest nerd.

One of several juicy mysteries in the series is why weak little Ironfist is even on the mission. Others include what Aequitas is, what crime the former Wrecker Impactor committed and what it has to do with Garrus-9, and of course, how many Wreckers will die infiltrating a heavily fortified prison.

The story is crammed with great moments both character and action-oriented, from the rookie robots’ reaction to tough-as-nails human stowaway Verity Carlo (“You’re so delicate and in need of our protection!”) to the when robo-drill Twin Twist, attempting to make a way into prison cells, instead drills into a reactor core. The Garrus-9 chapters take us on a dizzying trip through a world gone mad, full of robot torture chambers, smelting pits, and hordes of Decepticons chasing our heroes, occasionally tearing them apart. True to the war movie style, our heroes go with brave or bravely ironic last words and spit in the face of death.

(Okay, so robots don’t actually spit, but it’s metaphorically true.)

Nick Roche and Guido Guidi’s art is kinetic, loaded with surprises and great shots of Wreckers leaping through the air, punching out Decepticons, and dying in a splatter of engine parts and purple oil. The Autobot’s faces are bright and expressive even when they are masked in the Optimus style and only readable by the eyes.

With the ending and the big reveal of the horrible truth of Aequitas, catharsis washed over me. I truly cared for these crappy toys. Wreckers is an example of how sometimes the medium doesn’t matter, even if it’s a licensed comic based on toys; sometimes a real, powerful story that says something about the human condition can emerge.

My only complaint is that the coloring by Josh Burcham chafes; it’s just too bright and shiny for this moody series. A better colorist, like IDW’s Liam Shalloo, would give this the moody bleakness it deserves.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

My one reservation about the whole thing is that Impactor appears to turn into an arm chair.

Yeah, I wasnt feeling that Alt form either, it was all a bit squat. I always imagined Impy would have been more tank like...

Oh well, I must admit, I did like it when Impy told Overlord he talked to much, quality...