Last Stand of the Wreckers discussion

[andersonh1]

James Roberts commented on my comments about LSOTW over on the IDW boards.

Andersonh1 wrote:
I'm not sure the ending of this series carried enough weight for me. And what I mean by that is that after sitting through five issues of death and torture, I expected the Wreckers who died to have done so for some good, solid reason. But we don't get that. Instead we get undisclosed secrets that Prowl thinks would tear the Autobots apart, but which Ultra Magnus isn't so sure about.

As readers, we're not given the opportunity to make that judgment call ourselves, because we don't know what information is contained on that chip that Prowl's holding, apart from the truth about Impactor.

Sorry the ending didn't work for you, Andersonh1, but I'm pleased you liked the rest of the series.

I just want to clarify that the undisclosed secrets relate to a series of war crimes perpetrated by a variety of Autobots. From the flashback to the Aequitas Trials you can see one Autobot, Flame, being accused of some pretty specific stuff, including desecrating corpses and torture. And in his narrative, Prowl alludes to there being lots of Autobots and lots of 'atrocities'. He makes reference to civilian executions, among other things...

These were heinous, concrete crimes that, until Tyrest ordered the trials, were being covered up or swept under the carpet, even if some of the alleged perpetrators had been locked up and High Command had put out bland cover stories to explain their incarceration.

Prowl sent the Wreckers into battle to stop evidence of horrific war crimes falling into Decepticon hands. He was worried they would use it to destabilize the Autobot ranks, who were already reeling from a recent betrayal. He was also worried - although this isn't made explicit - that the information would threaten various treaties and pacts High Command have made with other races over the years (of which the Non-Intervention Treaty agreed with the Povians is one example).

I'm not saying all this because I think you missed it, but to put it on record. I have read comments on other forums which suggested that some readers did not pick up on the point that in the epilogue Prowl was describing his horror ("...it nearly killed me") not at the fact that bad things happen in war, but at sitting through a lengthy series of trials involving exclusively Autobot war criminals.

The Wreckers thought that their primary objective was to rescue Fort Max and the others. Securing the data on Aequitas was secondary. Not to Prowl, who didn't even ask Magnus how many Autobot guards had been rescued...

Was the ending supposed to be a downer? Well, it certainly wasn't intended to be triumphalist. The Wreckers are shown to be pawns, used by Prowl and by High Command as a means to an end. Theirs is not to reason why... etc. As it happens, as well as preventing the Aequitas evidence from falling into enemy hands, they saved Fort Max and they brought down a phenomenally powerful Decepticon who wouldn't have been content to sit it out on G-9 forever. A real downer ending would have seen Fort Max burn out on the operating table and Prowl crush the data slug, thus rendering the entire mission pointless. Not that I'm saying those two things can't/won't/didn't happen...

[Dominic]

Much of that is the arguement I made. But, I totally missed Prowl not asking about any other survivors.

I have to wonder why Prowl did not just trash the files. Even post-AHM flower-child Prowl might consider the fact that those files are nothing but potential trouble.


Dom
-wondering what Tyrest was thinking, keeping a paper trail in the first place.

[Dominic]

And, kudos to Roberts for answering.

Dom

[andersonh1]

I have to wonder why Prowl did not just trash the files. Even post-AHM flower-child Prowl might consider the fact that those files are nothing but potential trouble.


Dom
-wondering what Tyrest was thinking, keeping a paper trail in the first place.

Presumably both characters are quite sincere in their desire for justice to be done, and for the truth to be made public in the end. I'm guessing that with Prowl, he simply doesn't think the time is right for all the reasons stated above.

And, kudos to Roberts for answering.

Dom

Yeah, that was great.

[Dominic]

Last Stand of the Wreckers (compilation):

What is there to say about this series that has not been said somewhere, by someone?

Put simply, Roche and Roberts delivered with the original mini-series, and they deliver here as well. This incredible volume reprints not only the 5 issue series, but also the 1 page (and apparently official) "Mosaic" story as well as various cover images.

In addition to the reprinted material, there is also a short text story by Roberts and character profiles for Snare and Overlord. The text story is a bit unfocused in places, but is generally consistent with the tone and feel of the comic.

The one real problem with compiled "Last Stand of the Wreckers" is the ommission of the character entries that appeared in the single issues. Given how illuminating Pyro's entry is to the story as a whole, it is fair to say that something is missing from the compilation.

Part of me wonders if IDW is planning a master edition of "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

Grade: A Missing entries or not, "Last Stand of the Wreckers" is a damned good read.



Dom
-still has not heard diddly burb about NEFX.

[Dominic]

Ryall said, (in a recent email), that there are no plans to do another edition of "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

Dom
-would just keep buying them and buying them and buying them....

[138 Scourge]

Ryall said, (in a recent email), that there are no plans to do another edition of "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

Dom
-would just keep buying them and buying them and buying them....

Yeah, well. Remember when some jerk at DC said there wouldn't be another edition of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" after the big expensive hundred dollar hardcover? You may well get your chance to keep buying those suckers.

[andersonh1]

The one real problem with compiled "Last Stand of the Wreckers" is the ommission of the character entries that appeared in the single issues. Given how illuminating Pyro's entry is to the story as a whole, it is fair to say that something is missing from the compilation.

Part of me wonders if IDW is planning a master edition of "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

Regarding the missing bios:

http://forum.idwpublishing.com/viewtopi ... c&start=30

And to clarify, there's stuff in the individual issues that is NOT in the trade. So you get something extra for buying the monthly and you'd get something extra for buying the trade.

The ONLY way to get all the extras is to buy the monthly and the trade.

So if you were waiting for the trade, well, you missed out on the bios that were in the monthly book. They're called EXTRAS for a reason. They are EXTRA. And they're given to you free of charge and because the creators took the extra time to do them for you. Same as the extras on the monthly did not cost you a penny more.

[Dominic]

Ryall said, (in a recent email), that there are no plans to do another edition of "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

Dom
-would just keep buying them and buying them and buying them....

Yeah, well. Remember when some jerk at DC said there wouldn't be another edition of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" after the big expensive hundred dollar hardcover? You may well get your chance to keep buying those suckers.

The fact that the big expensive edition of Crisis had a really intrusive typo goes a long way to justifying the later editions of Crisis. (And, yeah, as far as I know, DC did not replace the editions that were missing that bottom 20% for an issue's worth of pages.....)

For the record, I am not happy about IDW's decision on this. It effectively obligates me to archive two largely identical copies....for the sake of a few pages. Granted, I have done this before. But, I usueally keep the single issues as reading copies while archiving the compilations. This arguably means I have to buy a redundant copy of one or the other, while archiving both.


Dom
-dirty pool old man.

[Dominic]

"Last Stand of the Wreckers" 2nd printings:

This is more a speculative review than anything else, (prompted by O6's post in the hauls thread).

I picked up a copy of the second printing the other day. More accurately, I am 90% sure it is the second printing. (Borders did not have any a few months ago when the first comilation came out. So, I assume this is the second printing.)

There are no differences from the first printing that I can see. But, I have yet to do a side by side comparison.


Dom
-Wreckers rule....