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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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More Than Meets The Eye Retrospective Interlude: Last Stand of the Wreckers (Comissioned by Brotoman.EXE

Hello all you happy autobotsand get ready to wreck and rule as it's time for a short detour in our voyage on the lost light. As I mentioned last time Brotoman .EXE paid me generouslly, so as a result your getting a nice extra bonus, something that's a bit of a spirtual prequel and explains what the deal is with Fort Max and Overlord.

It's a fitting part of this retrospective though, as it's likely thanks to this book we GOT MTMTE in the first place as it's intial creative team worked on this book. Nick Roche, the artist for the first arc or two of MTMTE and it's cover artist for most of it's run, was tapped to write the book. As far as I can find from the transformers wiki edtiorial came up iwth the idea and just threw it at Nick. Oh and to make things worse, as he realized during an interview, the page quote for the TF WIki:

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!

One, Great Balls may be one of the greatest oh fuck exclimations i've ever heard, and two, I can't blame him and given how messy those comics were it's not a suprise the project really had no more planning or through than "Hey you make a comic based on these guys fans like. " Thankfully his friend James Roberts gladly jumped at the chance, cementing both's careers and gracing us with MTMTE. While Roberts cut his teeth a bit more with Chaos Theory, which we'll get to, this work, while co-written has a LOT of his hallmarks: it deals with the effects and grey areas of war, focuses on smaller time autobots, and has small flecks of his later worldbuilding. it also somehow has lots of setup for more than meets the eye depsite only one of it's main cast joining the last light. As I read it I forgot that Aquetius is VITALLY importnat for the MTMTE season one finale.

What seperates it is tone. MTMTE is an adventure story that while not remotely shying away from darkness, has plenty of comedy, heart, and a hopeful tone, about a bunch of people who are lost and find each other. LSOTW… is a grim war tale where characters die at a pretty even clip (though the finale does take the most), some of our heroes morals are questionable, and while our heroes do some good… if the result was worth it is left an open question. It's a fairly bleak work, but it's also easy to see why i'ts a fan faviorite and if you havne't experinced this yourself or maybe you just haven't read in a while, join me bellow as I chronicle the last stand of the wreckers… ironically the first of the trilogy. Had to get that out of my system.

We open with a flashback to three years ago at Garrus-9 Penitentiary. Garrus-9 was created earlier in the IDW Continuity, basically an autobot supermax prison. It's not a shock then that Fort Max is thee warden, as he's a city sized boy.

Said flashback takes place during All Hail Megatron, where thanks to Megatron getting the autobot master codes every autobot outpost fell at once. G-9 hasn't fallen yet as only Fort Max has the codes.. but it's still HEAVILY under siege as Megatron naturally still wants it and unlike Fort Max, he can actually send reinforcements.

Unfortunately for Skyquake, the bot running the op…. he gets a visitor.

So to my shock in doing research, i.e. going to the exaustive tfwiki, Overlord.. ISN'T someone Roberts and Roche created, but a villian from the Super-God Masterforce anime… and his origin there is while wholly irrelvant to our purposes, is gloriously ludcrious. Okay so some… orb looking growth named Devil-Z wanted to create super transformers known as godmasters, combining lifeless shells called transectors with humans who can turn into metal, with Overlord as the head of his own fleet of deceptions.

I now want to review whatever the fuck this is at some point as … seriously what. What was the sentence I just spat out. He begins roberts habit of using transformers born from the various post g1 anime for his works, though Overlord showed up in megatron origin before this. I honestly love it as it's a way for these formers to get a bigger audience, while also using a massive amount of prime and megatron level threats that are just lying around. Just because he can't use say beast wars or a lot of the much later stuff (I suspect as we only start getting that towards the end of this continuity), dosen't mean he dosen't have a wide bench to pull from.

Overlord is charismatic, powerful, giant even by transformers standards and terrifys the crap out of every con present, the exception being their commanding officer.. who makes the mistake of not getting Overlord is the captain now and thus gets a hole in him. Overlord succesfully takes G-(.. and more deistressingly lAYS OUT FORT MAX.

His plans however are not megatrons and he intends to make G-9 his own twisted kingdom: No one leaves, but as long as they listen to him he'll protect and entertain them, starting with a rousing game of "do what you want to fort max as long as it dosen't kill him. " And this.. is the last we see of him this series. He'll surivive.. but we now see why his first response to two cons .. was a ptsd fueled nightmarish beatdown and honestly the tourture is worse than I remember: he spent TWO YEARS being tortured as a plaything for every non autobot prisoner on the planet and that's just the gen pop, it's hard to tell what Overlord did but it can' tbe plesant. The scene also sets the tone iwth a spray of purple robo-blood: this work is going to be gory, and not in a "their robots we can blow them up" way but in a "Charles Lee Ray would giggle wildly at what we're about to put you through" way. …. and having made that joke I can't help but imagine a buddy sitcom starring overlord and chucky. Maybe Me3gan could be the wacky neighbor.

We cut next to a fueling station 8 months ago where we meet 4 new recurits to the wreckers. The Wreckers are basically the suicide squad meets x-force; they have the latter's "black ops wing that takes on dangerous missions and offsets the more squeaky clean main team) and the formers very high morality rate and use of characters who aren't as high profile… so it creates actual tension of them dying and not coming back.

This trope is known as c-list fodder. It's a very tricky trope to use as there's a very fine line between "Using the fact a character isn't protected by editiroial to create dramatic tension with their death and to use the death as a story device" and "To pick characters off a list to murder because you needed some shock value". Or for you fellow transformers fans the diffrence between optimus prime's death, a big shocking gutpunch that while done for silly reasons, really changed the game and was done well.. and the various other transformers in the same film who were just murdered hand over fist because their toys were discontinued.

Roberts thankfully uses it well: he does what I love comic creators to do, take lesser known characters and really highlight them and give them personalitiy. It's thanks to him I even know overlord existed. He and Roche make these guys at least sympathetic.. but also are aware it makes them expendable. It's why MTMTE works as well: it dosen't squander it's characters.. but the fact only a handful are big names, means most of the cast dosen't have plot armor. Sure Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus and Ratchet are probably fine, but Tailgate, Swerve… their all far more vunerable. It means the actions of our crew have consequences and if someone does die.. they stay dead. Well… kinda. But we'll get to that.

So on a refuling station we get to meet Pyro, a big optimus wannabe wearing a nice faceplate, Ironfist, a wreckers superfan and weapons expert, rotorstorm, a cool as hell looking plane guy whose a tad trigger happy, and Guzzle… he sure is there.

And once again i'm plesantly suprised to find most of these guys .. arne't new inventions. Ironfist was a late g1/early g2 (i.e. they repackaged his toy ina g2label) lightformer… basically two transformers, one on each side, who transformed into a weapon for their altmode (along with a jeep for osme reason, dn't ask). Why this is called light former

Guzzle was part of one of the various uk only stories, which given Roberts is from the UK and grew up with those is probably not remotely a concidence, Rotorstorm was part of the turbomasters line and a europe exclusive (agan likely not a concidence), and pyro likewise was uk exclusive. In shor their all obscure, presumibly very hard to come by characters who only existed to pad toylines for the most part, with Guzzle being the only one in an actual story till this point. The fact I thought all of them were orignal creatiions speaks to both how deep a bench roberts and roche had to work with, and how deep they'll pull from it.

They board a ship which belongs to Ultra Magnus. Yes our faviorite tight ass is here though only in a supporting roll. But since he's busy probably dusting every inch of his giant ship, their greeted by verity.

Now i know you have a lot of questions such as "who is this', "Why is she here" and "Why is she in short shorts and a sports bra". In order this is Verity Carlo, one of the early human companions from this continuity, having been one of the ones to find out about the transformres. She actually had a fairly close friendship with Ratchet who disobeyed orders multiple times to help them all. She and her friends went through some shit , one of them becoming a headmaster and it was not plesant, before she ran off and became a friend of ultra magnuses. As for the latter.. I ssupect someone in editorial wanted some fanservice, and roberts and roche kept it to resonable levels, i.e. her wearing this since she has a robot exo suit and thus can't very well wear a full outfit under it.

Their banter is interrupted by Springer, the leader of the wreckers who I forgot was in transformers the movie, and thus is part of the second generation of g1 autobots. He's also a triple changer which is neat and heavily assocaited with the wreckers. Twin Twist and Top Spin are brothers and jumpstarters, robots with the gimmick of being able to change in a fraction of an instant. The duo were actually OG wreckers, debuting in their first apperance along with Impactor, the original leader who Springer took over for there too. We also have perceptor who I liked in what i've read of the g1 comics but here is just kinda walpapery, and that applies to lost light too as he only makes a big move.. later. Shall we say, and Kup.

Yeah I love Kup, having met him in transformers the movie as a grouchy old vet helping some new fresh faced autobots. So the fact he's here and still has the cigar, fucking amazing. I love him.

There are a few bits here from the original pitch I wish were kept: Springer being reluctant to welcome more bots to their death and having to brace himself, said bots being recurited in part because after the Megatron Incident, their strapped for recurits. Not really missed is springer and co going to earth for white castle and underwear for verity. I mean I do wnat to see a bunch of autobots go to a white castle but I get that that bit migh tof been a bit too much for this gritty war epic.

Anyways the mission is to take Garrus-9 back.. but with no knoweldge that OVERLORD is the one behind it. Wuh-oh.

We get a brief flashback to two years ago again: ther'es a hunting party going on, which amounts to just overlord letting cons loose after an unlucky autobot. Overlord comes along but only watches because as he puts it "the result would be the same every time." Overlord, evne before we get to his actual motive, is already a compelling foe, charasmatic, sweeping.. and utterly terrifying, gladly killing both the target and the con he nearly killed while one Decepticon, Snare, looks over the scene pensively.

Back on the ship, Ironfist has a bit of an episode but wakes up fine. We also find out he's fistiron, the wreckers unoffical bigorapher and #1 fan, something the vetran wreckers thik is cute at best, but break it to him his heroes are just.. guys.

Meanwhile Kup tries to get through to Springer whose both bothered by sending more fresh faced bots out to di… and while he denies it to Kup , they both know someone here.

Another flashback, this time overlord oversees a pit fight where Kickoff, another autobot kills a decipticon to surivive and gets to choose.. his reward. We'll get back to that later. Like Roberts, Roche is VERY good at setting things up.

Issue one ends with our heroes nearing G-9 when they find a deceipticon ship that looks badly beat up. They try hailing it.. only for it to explode and we end issue one with Impactor coming out of it asking to come aboard.

Issue 2 opens with another flashback

Yeah this one reveals at least part of his motivation as Overlord dominates a battlefield only to have to leave for an office meeting with megatron. He's finalized his invasion protcols, something from Furman's run. He's made Overlord a phase Sixer, basically once a planet is near collapse he comes in and finishes it. Overloard isn't entuhsed but this being megatron.. he gives him two options…

Back on Magnus' ship, the younger wreckers are left in a room bantering a bit while the vgetran guard and magnus oversee impactor. As it turns out he was sent to G-9 and why we don't know why just yet, it's clear Impactor hasn't forgiven him while Springer is still fully behind doing so, even if he deeply regrets what im'pactors been through. Also if yoru curious what Magnus was up to he was kinda just floating in space doing justice things and being awesome.

Impactor.. was also the founder and dosen't take kindly to springer bossing him around. He does find out about overlord and the basic situation. We also find out why Magnus isn't coming and why they'v eneeded his ship: his ship can barely carry him and verity at warp, and he's both needed on earth.. and needs plausable deniablity. Given what a stickler he is, he coudlnt' relaly stomach what their going to have to do for a job like this.. and this is before he had a stick jammed up his ass so far you can see it when he talks, so you can imagine what MTMTE Magnus would feel about this… if he could feel at this point in the series.

Anyway Kup talks up overlord a bit more: he was Megatron's last resort: if someone couldn't get the job done he sent him in, as powerful as any of his strongest. Unlike the rest though he didn't have a gun pointed at Megatron's back or shout "MEGATRON IS DEAD OVERLORD IS THE NEW LEADER" every time Megatron got a cold. He just wanted to commit genocide and was good at it and Kup implies the reaassigment (which he isn't aware of), was because Megatron is apparently so bad at picking and choosing his inner circle that the ONLY ONE not wanting to put a bullet between his eyes is soundwave. He's also the only one tha tgets him a birthday card without being threatned. Had a 50 dollar Decipticon Outback Steakhouse giftcard in it too. Really nice guy that soundwave.

The plan though is largely the same and has two goals: save the autobots prisoners and find aquetius. They'll be taknig two droppods piloted by rotorstorm and hopefully surivive. I also love how springer closes the breifing "What could possibly go right?". It sells these guys as loveable brusiers.. though sadly this story own't be as sunny as tha tmakes it sound.

We get a nice page of character stuff: the rookies minus rotorstorm get cerebro senstive bullets, they target the brain module basically, Impactor sits silently, the twins talced about how their thoughts overlap, magnus worries about ironfists brekaout and verity prepares to stow away not wanting ot go back to earth. And because she apparently has just as much of a death wish as all of themn.

The wereckers split into two parts: Rotorstorm, Perciptor, Topsin and Ironfist, and Springer, CKup, Impactor, Twin Twist and Guzzle.

Verity is also on team Rotorstorm as our heroes crash into the barrier and while our heros have a decent short action sequence with Percy doing the one cool thing he does and having someone hol dhim while he shooots.. our heroes both crash and Verity ends up right at Overlords feet "Now? Now things go from bad to much worse"

WE open issue 3 with ANOTHER flashback. Yeah I rib these.. but they are a valuable part of things as they really help flesh overlord out. He lets Shockwave go, whose fine with letting him run wild as it helps his own plans. Shockwave besides being one of the most famous and awesome looking g1 transformers and as you can probably guess a faviorite of mine will be vitally important to the overal story of season 1 of both More Than Meets the Eye and it's sister series Robots in Disguise, so i'm happy to see him cameo here. Shockwave can see what this really is:

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And Overlord has every intention of finishing megs when he finally does notice him. Back on G9, we have a nice bit as the wreckers handbook fistiron describes is torn to shreds as Team Springer fights. Back with Team Rotorstorm.. he makes a combiner joke in the face of their imminent death.. and of all people to find it funny… (finger poke of doom)

Yeah that finger poke of doom signals our first death of MANY. And to help sell just how much of our cast does not make it out of this i've made this handy graphic, to update each time one of our heroes doesn't make it, to hammer home just what a shit show this mission is. I'm also throwing Snare in ther eas whlie he dosen't FULLY join the team, he helps out enough that the possiblity of him dying counts.. and we needed an even 12 for this graphic to work so he'll do. So a long time ago during one of the various event comics, Wizard Magazine's website did a graphic where it x-ed out characters as they died in an event. While I do feel that's a bit.. bleh given how event comics tend to treat bodycounts, the visual did stick.. and sicne this one treats it's own bodycount seriously, i'm doing something similar every time one of the wreckers bites. Ther'es a point to this I assure you but for now

Back with Team Springer he decides to split up gang so we have Team Kup with just.. him and GUzzle and Team Springer is now just him, impactor and one of the twins who drills his way in whiel the other feels the injury. Yeah these two have that twin pyschic connection you often seen in media but less bullshit because their robots so it's plausbale their souls are literally linked.

Back at the pit with team.. i guess Ironfist now, I mean perceptor takes lead but scrap if i'm giving him top billing, though he does put up a decent fight with overlord, the team gets smacked around pretty easily and while Team Springer has more luck… they quickly get overwhelmed by a security device leaving all three incapacitated. This gets overlords attenion so he sicks his hoard on them: Bring him a wrecker head, you get to leave. We also get a nice joke as they pause a second "What are you waiting for a starting gun? Get them!"

So while percy is able to get them some room, tha tleaves team iron fist up shits creek looking for aqutis and fist himself in a pancked ball in the corner. Topspin.. is a dick to him for seeing this as some big adventure, despite the fact he's clearly naive and has caused a lot of death as we'll find out. Percy get sthem to can it and they head down. He does explained the branch spark problem and the fact that he was a cartographer: he was fine as a non ncombatant.. but feeling his twins pain meant it was kinda hard to do that, so he joined the team to keep an eye on his brother.

The issue ends as our team finds aquetias and one of the deciptcons prepares to start toruturing team springer, starting with Twin Twist, the kind of sentence that reminds me why I do this job as I can type that like ti's a completely normal sentence.

Issue 4 and we're at the Kimia weapons facility which i'm sure is close to the Alluria weapons facility. Anyways Prowl shows up

And turns out to be why Ironfist is on the team as he vetoed one of Springer's selections and agreed to give Ironfist his dream job.. if he agreed to do something. And given this is prowl and in the small time we've seen him so far he's railed against peacetime, flipped tables and gotten butthurt at his ex boyfriend for you know.. NOT wanting to do brain reading psy ops anymore. And somehow "convincing someone with a head injury, who badly wants a job to do his dirty work" .. is n't even close to the worst shit he's both done and will do at this point.

Team Kup is at the cells in present day, trying to free Grimlock

… only for him to be gone already.

Granted we will catch up with my faviorite Autobot later, but it's still sad to not see everyone's faviorite barbarian asshole murder T-Rex. Snare shows up though admitting both he was the one who freed impactor and that he's on their side.

At aqueatis it's.. a thing a super computer. Understandably Verity has a few questions

Both valid questions. I mean I think the first is because the transformers themselves.. are mostly massive and even the small ones are still pretty touring hence a super computer for them is the size of god's faviorite testicle. We'll get to what that means as Topspin has an attack, so while Verity and Ironfist take care of him, Percy explains what it is to pyro: this area is a courtroom and Aquetius is the judge of all judges. It's still not 100% clear but part of why this work works is the reveals are slow.. but well paced. THeir done in a way that feels organic and makes perfect sense in hindsight: Aquetius obviously wasn't a person and it makes perfect since trials would be done at a prison, especially when Autobots will not hestiate to send their own here if they did bad enough.

Back in the torture chamber, Twin Twist has thankfully passed out from the pain. Springer and Impactor decide now as their getting a break from being tortured to death… would be a good time to argue about their split: Springer admits he thought Impactor would get therapy or something, not this, and Impactor bites back after his testimony, he would. He also thought Impactor would get spark extraction, which is what this chamber is usually for; putting a spark aside and likely putting it back in. Problem is you have to admit guilt and while Springer feels bad, he's still pissed.

We FINALLY find out why their at odds and why Springer did what he did from Ironfist, a nice use of both having Verity around, who for the first three chapters feels entirely superflous, ahnd of iron fists fandom: the rest of them would all know on some level what actually happened or at least guess, but Verity woudln't. Vcerity isn't a bad character, she was great in the furman run, but she feels quippy in a way that just dosen't quite mesh with the story. Her lines feel more manufactured in comparison to the rest of the jokes, like our dynamic duo are more writing lines for a sitcom than a war drama with jokes in it.

Ironfist explains that the conflict boils down to Squadron X, basically the wrecker's evil knockoff, with Impactor being undrestandably obessed with bringing down his twisted mirror and finally doing so on pova: the battle was fierec,e even icnluding our old buddy whirl, but Springer made the sacrifice to have Impactor shoot through his midsection. Our heroes won, but Squadron X Escaped forcing IMpactor to tkae them down single handed.

What I like here is that it tells the story.. but even before the big twist on it later.. you can tell something is off. Thi sis more a typical transformers tale, minus the ribcage shot.. but it dosen't seem like what IMpactor did was bad or worth imprisonment. That Ironfist has the tsory to a degree.. but something important is missing, something he dosne't know. It nicely sums up his problem and a key theme of the work: To Ironfist these are rouge heroes doing what they must to get by , but really.. these are just people and people can be heroes, the two aren't exclusive.. but sometimes people fuck up, or have to do questionable things to surivive. It undercuts the whole franchise which despite being a war.. is often just colorful heroes fighting colorful villans. There's nothing wrong with that.. but it undercuts the parts of war that are hard: sacrifice, the hard choices, the grey areas. IT's really something that leaks into Robert's entire work: as i've said before he dosen't demonize the autobots but he also dosen't make it where Decipticons being evil.. means every autobot was a clear cut babyface hero who did the right thing. It's not a "one side had flaws therefore neither ar eblameless", it's hammered in just how brutal and cruel the cons were. He avoids that trap.. but he adds shades of grey that are just hard to put into a children's cartoon at times. The closest we've gotten is animated adding a thick layer of beuarcary and even then it was mostly just one smug jackass who was only effective a few times. |

So we're at Aquetius where this becomes horrifyingly apparent: The key is locked and without max there's only one way to gain access: spark donation. Pyro.. is a dick about it, saying he shoudl die in a blaze of glory. He's not at ALL wrong about part of it, that him, ironfist and presumibly the other rookies being here in case they needed a warm body, was fucked up as Percy is the one operating it and killing one twin kills the other. But him throwing Ironfist under the buss? Saying he hasn't lived? Basically throwing one of his own companions undre the bus so he can live just because he's delusional enough to think 'hes good enough to shine optimus' boots…

We do get Iron Fist's backstory even fi he dosen't say it..a dn it's tragic

It decnoustcts the gadgeter type of transformer like wheeljacks.. inevfeitbly.. they'd of had to make weapons… he's lived his whole life loosing anything, creating dangerous weapons, and wishing he coudl do things diffrent. His whole fantasy with the wreckers.. was to be the hero for once.. but now he's just fodder. They never cared about him or if he lived or not and at least Percy, who as you can tell I do not like and this story does not help at all nor will later events, dosen't seem to care at implicilty bringing companions just to kill one.

Thankfully Topspin is getting please kill me messages from his twin.. well okay tha'ts not necessarily good but it means he can make the sacrifice and is glad to: instead of dying screaming.. they can die having done something good, activating the computer and saving two lives. It's a truly tragic yet awesome moment.

The decepticons at the door are close though so Percy downloads Aequitus into Ironfist.

Team Kup thankfullys hows up to save the torture victims, but sadly Snare is killed by mr. torture man whose name I forgot, and has to be mercy killed by impactor, but gets a nice closing speech about how Overlord giving him the right to choose.. and realizing form that he could choose to do better.

And thus Springer, who originally was going to sidestep overlord if possible… decides fuck it. He's going down. And since he's coming their way that makes it easy. So as that fight prepares to begin another kicks up as Percy can kill all the cons…. but would kill impactor as a former prisoner too. And while Pyro refuses and Percy votes yes becaus efuck him… Ironfist shockingly ALSO votes yes now knowing exactly what happened, bringing us to our final issue.

We get some great narration from fistiron as we we go for this one "It's a story of sacrifice, and betryal of good people dying in stupid pointless ways"

Guzzle gets torn in half.. but shockingly ISN'T dead. Yeah he'll be fine and apparently shows up in the sequel. The fight is brutal, and awesome, and Impactor even takes out one of overlord's eyes. Shockingly his reactoin isn't this

But "Come and get me bitch". I mean he didn't say that but i'm shocked no character in transformers ever has. I knokw Starscream would. We all know he would.

And we get to why verity is here as she convinces Ironfist that this isn't what the wreckers do.. not the real ones… but Fistirons. As he puts it he made them heroes and no matter what impactor's done.. killing him to save their asses isn't waht they do. Or what they shoudl be. It's a call to be more from someone whose seen what a wrecker is firs thand.. but can also see their good people who can do better. So Pyro offers to hold the line and die to save them .

The others are able to run.. but Pyro dies fast.

And now things are safe, Verity admits that.. ti does kinda matter what impactor did. I mean it didnt' in the broader since but she's curious.

So it turns out in one of the best once more with clarity flashbacks i've seen… everything was about the same.. but starting from the gutshot… it was all one big lie. Impactor came up with the idea to shoot through springer, he coudln't turn off pain receptors as the previous version said and Springer begged him not to. That enoguh is to show Impactor isn't a great person and to see why Springer didn't like him.

What sets this off though.. is Prowl. WHen Impactor calls it in, it turns out the Povans have an exemption treaty and they have to let Squadron X go, who were fitted with dampaneers and entirely helpless. Impactor.. dosen't take this and while him being pissed a tthis is understandable and refusing to comply equally so, as it's a bunch of rampnt murders.. his next act.. is every bit as horrible and worthy of punishment as built up to: he goes into the room, locks it.. and slaughters EVERY LAST ONE ONE OF THEM in cold blood> No heroic stand, no nothing.. just murder. They may be bad people… but it dosen't justify slaughter.

We get back to the battle though where Overlord's almost won.. and part of their obejective.. is done. Turns out Team Kup didn't free the prisoners.. because Overlord ordered them all killed the second he had a wiff of the wreckers coming. This mission.. was almost all for nothing. Thankfully team Ironfist arrives, and saves our heroes, with iron fist gifting Springer a gun… sadly springer can't enjoy it as he gets his face torn off seconds later. That's not me being glib that's what happened and i'll spare you the site. Once again he's somehow NOT DEAD.

Ironfist does get an awesome moment though as it turns out th egunw as infecting him with compliance chips, the kind that go off in the brain that our heroes almost acitvated… and having aquetius he has the code.. and simply nods his head to lite overlord up, his brain shortcircuting afterwords. Overlord rises because he has the resilance of a chucky doll btu Verity is able to truly defeat him in spirit as just like the autobots.. his goals amoutned to almost nothing: Megatron is dead and never cared before he died. He'll be back of course, we'll ge tto that, but it means this was once again pointless. Which feels ironically like the pipnt: war is often pointless and the goals.. often don't equal the cost.

This allows ironfist to sucker him but he dose not kill the bastard. This will naturally backfire eventually.. but he did it for the right reasons: He realized Springer was right; even if they deserve dit.. he had no right ot kill them. It wasn't his place.. so he's going to make sure overlord stands trial for all he did.

We end on the ship with Magnuses report: The deciptcons fled, most of the team is dead, and impactor got pardoned but took off with guzzle. As for Iron Fist… he died in transit, verity sobbing over his corpse. Another pointless causlaity of this mission. and our final one thankfully.

But as you can see out of the bots that went in only half walked out, nad none of them okay: Springer is on life support and as we learned in MTMTE, was nearly kileld by Whirl as a mercy, so he hasn't gotten better in present day and might never recover, Ironfist has reformed but he and guzzle have left the autobots for parts unknown, and Kup and Verity are left emotionally scarred. Magnus asks Prowl abotu the aragment and the two talk. As it turns out Prowl wanted aquetius despite being against it and acountablity of any shape and form

Yeah prowl was against the tons of autobot attorcite sbeing laid out and worried it'd be ultimate con propoganda if it got out. Magnus gives the slug to prowl.. but urges him not to destroy it. No one would know.. but all of this would be worth nothing. IT's about acountablity, tha tno one is above the law and what they did was right. it was also held over by chief justice tyrest, whose accords Magnus enforces..a nd who likewise will be very important later. So we end on Verity who decides the moral of this is life persists. That even in the grimmest darkness.. we move on.. and hopefully learn from our mistakes. It's why Aquetius was necessary: it's easy to say something was for the greater good.. btu the hardest thing is to admit your mistakes, what you did and face up to them. It's why I hate prowl so much: He cars more about the neublous "Mission" than about keeping the high ground while pulling it off. about being a good person. It's hard in war.. but as we saw today it wasn't possible.

As should be clear by now Last Stand is a classic and if you love transformers, worth a read. It's a tragic tale of war, loss, and life persiting and while it's not necessary for MTMTE it really ties into it well and is worth a quick read after the first arc or so. and it was well worth this review. The Wreckers would ge tfollowed up on, something I both haven't read and will likely get to at some point but for now we pivot back to the lost light next time.. just int ime for a hostage situation!

Thanks for reading have a great day

#james roberts #nick roche #transformers #springer #kup #overlord #perceiptor #ironfist #pyro #guzzle #idw #Youtube

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