IDW - Sins of the Wreckers #5

Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche

Colours by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Wreckers take on Tarantulas. Tarantulas knows the the Noisemaze is collapsing, but he's prepared this time, and activates a program that causes the entire lab to start mass shifting, however Tarantulas plans to keep Arcee and Verity to study them (as an experiment of Jhiaxus' and an "augmented" human) and wants to just keep Prowl for himself.

Springer decides to rig the pylon that has the Obtenteum growing out of it with explosives, whilst the others distract Tarantulas. During the battle, Tarantulas is being sliced up by Arcee, but appears to be mostly unaffected, until he learns that Impactor was the one who destroyed his original lab, which Tarantulas understands since he knows Prowl would never get his own hands dirty....then he realizes that Prowl lied before about killing Ostaros. Springer communicates to Impactor with progress on his mission, which causes Impactor and Prowl to awkwardly glance at each other, clueing everyone else on the fact that Springer is actually Ostaros.

Tarantulas starts running off towards Springer to reunite with his "child" but Arcee slices off the front of his spider mode's face and throws it to Impactor, to use the eyes to stop the mass displacement of the lab. Prowl drives off with Verity and the Obtenteum to join the other Wreckers outside.

Outside, Tidal Wave is punching Debris, which is still piercing through the wall of the Noisemaze, when the hull starts to breach and several dead Wrecker coffins fall plummet out, including Ironfist's body, which drives Verity to tears and further hatred for Prowl.

Prowl joins up with Kup and Guzzle, the former of which punches Prowl for his actions (totally justified) Verity then explains to the others that they need to feed Tidal Wave with the crystals to overpowerhim, forcing Carnivac to force him into his whale mode, and accelerate the Noisemaze's destruction.

This all goes to plan, and the Noisemaze begins to collapse quicker. The Wreckers run for Debris, except for Springer who is still planting explosives. He asks Impactor to leave without him, but promises that he doesn't intend to die there, and will escape somehow.

Tarantulas leaps into the tunnel to try and save Springer, but Springer still sees him as the enemy and attacks the spider-bot, despite the spider pleading that he loves him, and wants to save him. Springer appears to understand what's happened, just as Impactor sets off the explosives...

Kup, Prowl and Verity return to Debris, and Guzzle follows them in, immediately putting a gun to the heads of both senior Autobots, and plans to kill them for their war crimes, however Impactor stops him by returning to the station just in time and executing Guzzle with his harpoon.

Soon, Prowl runs back into the collapsing Noisemaze before Debris can escape it, so he can rescue Springer as thanks for his help.

In the aftermath, Arcee and Kup return to their work in Earth's orbit, whilst Prowl goes to parts unknown, hated by everyone, and everyone knowing that his crimes WILL be exposed before long. Impactor joins forces with the Mayhems so he can help them in their intended revolution against the people in charge.

Back on Earth, Springer and Verity are watching the Northern Lights and discuss how their reckless lives will one day catch up with them, but are both glad to be back to full health again.

The two of them do not notice a spider hanging from Springer's wheel well.....

Characters

Autobot

Springer/Ostaros - Rocket Car/Helicopter

Impactor - Tank

Prowl - Police Vehicle

Kup - Pick Up Truck

Arcee - Sports Car

Guzzle - Tank Killed by Impactor

Ironfist - Van Dead, Popped out of coffin

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Mentioned)

Stakeout - Police Car (Mentioned) Dead

Mayhem

Carnivac - Wolf

Stampy - Rabbit

Overbite - Shark

Tidal Wave - Whale Possibly killed in Noisemaze Implosion

Prowl II - Owl Dead

Random Mayhems

Other Cybertronian

Tarantulas - Spider Possibly killed in Noisemaze Implosion

Jhiaxus - Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Verity Carlo

Notes

• Amongst the dead/defeated Mayhems is one that looks like Prowl II from Beast Wars. Considering how there have been another Prowl in IDW already, it's totally possible that another Prowl who simply wasn't the "famous one".
• Springer manages to jump from car down a tunnel to the surface in one leap, marking the reason for his name.
• It's revealed that Impactor was the one to destroy Mesothulas' lab and knock him into the Noisemaze.
• Springer is revealed to actually be Ostaros, simply hidden as an Autobot. This explains why his spark and optics colour are connected and are "Matrix blue", unlike other Cybertronians.
• Tarantulas set his alternate mode eyes to control his lab's systems.
• What are the odds that Ironfist's corpse would land right near Prowl, the guy who essentially sent him to his death, who was carrying Verity, his friend!
• Considering  how big he is, and how quickly the Noisemaze implodes itself, it's likely that Tidal Wave was trapped inside it and probably died.
• Guzzle finally confronts Kup over him killing his friends when he was insane, and gets killed for his trouble.....YAY SUB PLOTS!!!
• We don't know where Prowl goes at the end of this issue, but no-one wants anything to do with him any more...YAY!
• Impactor joins the Mayhems at the end of this story, sort of emulating the "Survivors" story arc from Marvel UK, where the surviving members of the Wreckers and Mayhems (led by Carnivac) formed a new team on Earth.
• At the very end of this comic there's a tiny spider hanging from Springer's wheel well. It's possible that it's just a real spider, but it's more likely to be Tarantulas having shrunk to his tiny size. This ambiguous ending somewhat mirrors Stakeout's unidentified appearance at the end of Last Stand of the Wreckers.
• So...who wants to bet that this series gets followed up with Impactor/The Mayhems committing attacks on Cybertron's power structure in a mini-series called "Revenge of the Wreckers" or something?