Sins of the Wreckers issue 5

« The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers #5 »
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 29, 2016
Cover date	May 2016
Written by	Nick Roche
Art by	Nick Roche
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	John Barber
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2016)

The final secrets come out as the Wreckers make their last stand against Tarantulas.

Synopsis

Using mass displacement to enlarge his spider mode to massive size, Tarantulas interfaces with a retinal scanner to activate his backdoor escape plan: shrinking the Tor itself down to pocket size so that he can safely transport the facility out of the collapsing Noisemaze. The spider then turns on Arcee, Verity, and Prowl, gloating over how he has healed Verity's illness purely to score imaginary points by accomplishing something Prowl could never do. Impactor and Springer, in the process of planting charges in the pit below to destroy the Tor, know they cannot abandon their task to help, and so are forced to split up: Springer—weary and determined that this will be his final job as a Wrecker—continues to place the explosives, while Impactor takes the Obtenteum they need and goes to aid the others. The pair agree to use a call-and-response system, and if Springer stops transmitting at any point, Impactor is to trigger the charges. At Impactor's direction, Arcee slices Tarantulas's web out from under him, sending the mad scientist tumbling into the pit, but he just keeps growing bigger and bigger and climbs his way back out. Tarantulas pontificates about his need for revenge on Prowl, prompting Impactor to drop a bombshell—it was not Prowl who pushed Tarantulas into the Noisemaze all those years ago, but Impactor himself. This news matters little to Tarantulas; it was done at Prowl's order, after all, so Prowl is still the one he wants. After a moment, however, he realizes the deeper meaning of the revelation: Prowl never gets his own hands dirty, which means that he would never have killed Ostaros as he claimed he did. Tarantulas once again demands to know what became of his greatest creation; Prowl struggles for words, but betrays the truth with a mere turn of his head at the sound of Springer's voice crackling over Impactor's comm. Positively insane with delight to realize that Ostaros is Springer, and that he is in his presence, Tarantulas forgets his vengeance and instead turns to climb into the pit so that he can reunite with his child. Impactor hands the Obtenteum off to Prowl and orders him and Verity to get outside and follow through with their plan to feed it to Tidal Wave, while he and Arcee try to stymie Tarantulas. Arcee does so with characteristic flair, slicing the spider's beast mode head clean off and tossing it to Impactor, who uses it to activate the retinal scanner and halt the Tor's contraction.

Prowl and Verity emerge from the Tor to the dramatic sight of Tidal Wave punching his way through Debris. Coffins spill from the shattered space station's mausoleum; Verity is brought to tears as Ironfist's body lands right in front of her. The pair link up with Kup and Guzzle and explain the plan—though not before Kup get in one strong and very satisfying slug across Prowl's jaw. Resisting his own desire to consume the Obtenteum himself, Guzzle uses his own cannon to blast himself up into the air, jamming the crystals into the startled Tidal Wave's mouth. Tidal Wave is driven to gleeful madness by the sudden power surge and takes out his frustrations with his life in general by attacking the Tor itself, forcing Carnivac to unwittingly play into the Wreckers' hands by using his outlier power to forcibly convert Tidal Wave to whale mode. The g-forces of the giant's transformation—amplified by the Obtenteum—are the last push needed to trigger the Noisemaze's complete and irrevocable collapse.

Arcee and Impactor sense the increase in instability as the maze crosses the point of no return... but so does Tarantulas, still very much alive despite the loss of his beast head. The spider leaps into the pit after Springer; Impactor tries to radio him to warn him, but Springer contacts him first, explaining that he can no longer hear Impactor's transmissions, and insisting he stick to the plan. Arcee, now understanding the depths of Springer's determination and heroism and why Prowl chose him for the rescue mission, convinces Impactor that Springer is right, and the pair escape outside. Tarantulas reaches Springer, but his words are distorted by the Noisemaze, and Springer, unaware of what the spider is trying to tell him, attacks. Consequently, he can no longer transmit his part of the call-and-response signal, and Impactor, with the utmost reluctance, presses the button to set off the explosives.

As the Tor is consumed in white fire, Kup, Prowl, and Guzzle all clamber inside Debris, but no sooner are they onboard than Guzzle plants the barrels of his pistols into the backs of Kup and Prowl's heads, still determined to claim revenge for the deaths of his friends on Tsiehshi. Verity tries to talk him down, but he is unwilling to listen... forcing Impactor to end the threat by putting his harpoon through Guzzle's brain.

Time passes, and Impactor recounts the events that followed. After the Wreckers extracted Debris from the Noisemaze, Prowl ran back inside and dragged the still-living Springer to safety before the maze's final collapse. Kup and Arcee returned to Optimus Prime's ranks on Earth, their ties with Prowl now thoroughly severed. And Impactor himself has taken up Carnivac on his offer to join Mayhem, joining their crusade to bring down those in power who use 'bots like Impactor as pawns.

Back in Nome, Alaska, Verity and Springer stare up at the Northern Lights together, fulfilling Verity's long-held dream of seeing them—only now, she will live to see them again and again. The pair wonder how long they have until the insanity of their lives catches up to them once again, and conclude that it could happen at any time, so they should enjoy the normalcy while it lasts.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Hey Tarantulas... spinnerettes are for chumps."

—Impactor uses his harpoon-hand to show Tarantulas a better way of swinging from a thread

"Some stuff simply can't be taught. Otherwise, I could tell you what it was I just did."

—Impactor

"A helpless life, cut short, in need of nurture and care. What would that mean to you, anyway? Do you not see? This is what I was capable of too, Prowl. Giving life, instead of taking it. The human is whole again; repaired. You could never give that gift. In this way—a way that counts—I will always be better than you."

—Tarantulas overuses bold emphasis

"Wrap yer baleens around this, kelp-licker."

—Guzzle force-feeds Tidal Wave

"Kup and Prowl. All those Autobots, lookin' up to you. Red badge might as well be purple to you two. Sign of a sucker. Kup, you killed some of my friends a while back. A lot of 'em. They said cuz you were crazy; sick. That's not good enough for me. And Prowl—never seen a murderer's hands so shiny white. But we ain't your toys. None of us are."

—Guzzle gets in on the excessive bold emphasis game

"After all we'd done for him, after all we'd risked, that idiot ran back in. We asked him afterwards, what was he thinking? He said he'd run every permutation of every scenario through his head, and none of them could guarantee what he did would work. So he asked himself, 'What would a Wrecker do?' and that's when he decided to go back. That's when Prowl decided to go back for Springer."

—Impactor

"How long do you think we have?"
"Till it catches up with us? Till our lives go back to normal and stop being... normal? Could happen any time. Today. Tomorrow. This could end at any moment."
"Sounds like being human to me."

—Verity and Springer

Notes

Continuity notes

Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Issue.

• In issue #4, Hubcap related how Roadbuster had been released from prison by Prowl as a favor to Impactor, and wondered how he could possibly owe him one so big. Now we know: it was Impactor, not Prowl, who was the masked figure who broke into Mesothulas's lab, as seen in the flashback in issue #3. This explains why Impactor knew about the evil scientist and the Noisemaze, and why he knew where the gate to the maze was in that same issue: because he hid it himself. If you were being attentive, you might have noticed that in that scene, the figure's right hand was constantly hidden or off-panel, thereby concealing the presence of Impactor's harpoon-hand and maintaining the illusion that the disguised 'bot was Prowl.
• Springer being Ostaros means all of the flashbacks, including Prowl collaborating to false-flag massacre a city, happened before the events of Autocracy (where Springer shows up) and the war fully kicking off. It's not... unworkable, but it feels a bit iffy.
  • Requiem of the Wreckers would shed some new light on the potential placement of these events in the timeline, making Ostaros's history more believable.
• Guzzle makes his play for revenge for the events of Spotlight: Kup.
• For the second to last page of the issue, Nick Roche had to revise the artwork for one panel. The original version featured Prowl back on the Ark-7 with Kup, Arcee, and Optimus Prime watching on, but as elaborated on in the "Noisemaze Logic" commentary for the issue in the Sins of the Wreckers trade paperback's bonus material, "concurring events in the Transformers ongoings had moved on", prompting Nick to revise the artwork by removing Optimus Prime entirely, flipping Arcee from left to right and putting her and Kup at a slight angle while reworking the background to imply Prowl was communicating with them on a screen from elsewhere, with the Ark-7 visible on a screen on the side. Supposedly, when pitching this issue, Nick Roche was under the impression that Optimus, Arcee, Kup and Prowl would all be back together on the Ark-7 following the events of this series, but alas, this was not the case. Chronologically, Kup and Arcee are next seen in issue 45 of The Transformers, which was published two months before even the first issue of Sins of the Wreckers came out. By that point, Optimus Prime was still on Cybertron (he originally departed the Ark-7 in issue 35 of The Transformers and arrived on Cybertron at the beginning of Punishment; subsequently, he aided Windblade in her attempts to establish a Council of Worlds throughout the events of Combiner Wars and beyond); ultimately, he wouldn't return to Earth until The Transformers #49. Prowl's next chronological appearance, meanwhile, was in The Transformers #50, which was published four months before this issue, although in that appearance, he was still missing his left eye (see "errors" below).
• Springer and Verity end the series by watching the Northern Lights, which Verity previously talked with the Autobot about in issue #2.

Transformers references

• As with last issue, there are several "generic" Chimeracons who do not appear to be based on pre-existing characters, including a puffin-bot who gets blasted by Kup on page 1. However, on the same page, lying on the ground, smoking, is the Beast Wars character Prowl, recognizable by his owl alternate mode, winged shoulders, and taloned feet.
  • The walrus-faced Chimeracon on page 21 is not Longtooth but rather a Nick Roche-original character named "Tuskmaster".^[1] It is unknown to this wiki's editors if this has anything to do with Roche's stated distaste for Longtooth.^[2]
• Several times this issue, Springer actually uses the leaping ability for which he is named, which is an extremely rare occurrence for the character.
• Impactor's line about spinnerettes, quoted above, seems like a callback to Kick-Off's line, "Alt-modes are for wimps!", from Roche's Last Stand of the Wreckers #1.

Errors

• On page 12, panel 1, there's an uncolored Chimeracon who's just lineart with the background colors showing through him.
• Prowl's eye is fixed at the end of the issue, despite it still being missing in the previously released but chronologically later The Transformers #50, even though Nick Roche did revise the artwork for this panel to reflect concurrent events in the ongoing series between the pitch of Sins of the Wreckers and the publication of this issue (see above). The broken eye wound up persisting in the later-still More than Meets the Eye #56.

Other notes

• Following the January 2016 release of issue #3, family issues for Roche led to a two-month delay for the final two issues which saw this issue solicited for a late release in May. Unfortunately, some further production delays held the issue back and it did not see release until the final week of June.
• Guzzle's last moments are an adaptation Roche's original pitch for Last Stand (as revealed in the second hardcover), where Guzzle would kill Kup at the end of the Garrus-9 mission and be gunned down himself.
• On the final page, just above "The End", a tiny spider hangs from a web inside Springer's wheel well. Whatever it means for the possibility of Tarantulas being alive, it was inspired by a moment when Roche sat down to write the issue, and "on the page he was about to write was a very small spider crawling across the page. Oh, the Alan Moore-ness of it all..."

Production

• In earlier drafts Prowl actually did kill Ostaros. After editor John Barber noted that Prowl doing bad things wasn't surprising any more, Roche decided that Prowl actually sparing the young robot would be more shocking. The suddenly now-alive Ostaros needed to be accounted for in the story, with Roche realizing that Springer would be perfect for this role.
• Impactor, Springer and Arcee fighting Tarantulas together would have shown the three Wrecker leaders coming together....if Arcee's new Wreckers team hadn't been dropped very early on. In this version Springer and Impactor would have gone underground (for different reasons) leaving Arcee as the active leader of the Wreckers.
• The cut character Carrion was at one point planned to fire the obtenteum into Tidal Wave using his jet mode.
• Before Springer became Ostaros, an early draft had him be unable to radio Impactor because Tarantulas had webbed his mouth shut.

Soundtrack

• "Kooks" by David Bowie^[3]
• "Optimistic" by Radiohead^[4]
• "Face The Day" by The Negative Way^[5]
• "Wall of Death" by Richard Thompson ("Acoustic Classics" version)^[6]

Covers (3)

• Regular cover: The Wreckers in Tarantulas's web, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
• Subscription cover: Arcee, Springer, and Verity by E. J. Su
• Retailer incentive cover: Perceptor by Guido Guidi

• 

  He spins a web any size; He catches Wreckers just like flies.

• 

  Springer's gonna have some fun.

• 

  World's best armed scientist.

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Reprints

Other than reprints of the full series

• N/A

References

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