Story/Art/Lettered by: Dash Shaw
Production Design by: Neil Uyetake
Assistant Edits by: Megan Brown
Edits by: David Hedgecock
Plot
Professor Plum wakes up from a strange nightmare of a mysterious woman whistling through his window, when he hears a door bell ringing.
The postman brings Plum his usual mail of correspondence, coupons, and a parcel from his old friend Mr Boddy, which intrigues him, due to it being in code. He manages to decode the message, and learns that Boddy feels threatened by someone and wants to offer some of his old friends a part of his prized collection of antique murder weapons.
On the night of August 3rd, Plum heads to Boddy's manor, where he recovers a key for him from a plum coloured stone piece and joins the rest of the guests at dinner.
There, he meets Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mr Green and Mrs Peacock, as well as Mr Boddy's chef and housekeeper, Mrs White.
Whilst beginning their meal Boddy refuses to explain his reasons for believing he is due to die soon, and he implies that everyone is likely to die at any moment. This leads to Mustard agreeing, due to his developing a paranoia, following his time in the military, that everyone could be out to get him for his actions during the war, which has led to him not trusting anyone.
Mrs White brings out the trunk of the prized weapons, when he sees the candlestick and freaks out that it has intent of murder within it, when suddenly Mustard is shot by an unseen shooter and dies.
Green is quick to accuse Plum, who was sitting closest to the pistol that was in the trunk, and is now on the table, but no one saw due to the lights going out. Peacock points out that the doors were open, so someone could have shot him from the hallway and ran off.
Accusations start to fly around, whilst White proceeds to phone for the police. The group soon decide that there was probably another person in the house, who shot Mustard and split up into small groups to try and find the killer, or at least some clues. Boddy and Scarlett take Mustard's body to the kitchen to keep it cold in the cooler, whulst Peacock and Green search one side of the house, and Plum and White take the other side.
On their way to the Billiard room, Plum notices that Boddy has a lot of paintings of Scarlett in various styles, and appears to have an obsession with him, but also asks White about where she got the knife of Jack the Ripper for Boddy's collection. She explains that her former husband proposed to her with the knife and she later gave it to Boddy. However Plum noticed that the knife in the collection wasn't old at all, so she admits that she lied to Boddy about it being Jack the Rippers, but only because she wanted to make him happy, since he was in a depression spiral following his wife's death, and he loves historical weapons.
White suddenly gets an idea, and goes outside alone to check uinder the stone pieces outside, only to find Mrs Peacock's key was never taken, before being approached by someone from behind....
Whilst White is checking the keys Boddy and Scarlett are in the conservatory, when Boddy is struck by someone with the lead pipe, killing him instantly, Scarlett screams, bringing everyone to the room, bar White and they find her with the dead Boddy. They accuse her of the murder, but she says that she didn't kill him, she didn't love him enough to kill him...
Characters
Mr Boddy Killed with the Lead Pipe, in the Conservatory
Professor Plum
Miss Scarlett
Mrs White
Mrs Peacock
Mr Green
Colonel Mustard Killed with the Pistol, in the Dining Room
Ollie, the Postman
Saint Peter (In Heaven)
Dog Walker (Flashback)
Mustard's Date (Flashback)
Hugo White(?) (Flashback)
The Killer (Mentioned/Implied)
The Police (Mentioned)
Mr Peacock (Mentioned) Dead
Mrs Boddy (Mentioned) Dead
Officer Ketchup (Mentioned)
Mustard's Former Team Members (Mentioned)
Calico Jack (Mentioned) Dead
Jack the Ripper (Mentioned)
President Garfield (Mentioned) Dead
Albert Camus (Mentioned)
Gallienus (Mentioned)
Notes
- This story is NOT a sequel to the earlier IDW Clue series, or at least there's no apparent connection so far.
- This issue includes an article on how Cluedo/Clue is a game about murder by Tim Hodler, used for recreational purposes..it's an interesting read!
- We aren't outright given any information on the location and date of this story, but from the letter sent to Plum at the start, we know he lives in London, implying this may be set in the UK, much like the original game.
- Due to the stamp being noted as from 1940, and only a collector having it, we can assume that this is set in a relatively modern age, but with Mustard seeming to be a pretty openly gay military man, we can assume it's from the past decade or so.
- The date given for the night of the main story, August 3rd, is a mystery to me, I can't find any connection to Clue/Cluedo and that date anywhere. Please tell me if you know the connection! Thanks!
- The main characters in this series are mostly based on the original design for the characters in the game (Here's a reference pic from Wikipedia of them) with Green being pretty much untouched. Mustard and White look the same, but a bit younger than their game counterparts, and Scarlett is more pronounced as Asian. Plum and Peacock are completely different though.
- The series uses Mr Boddy as the host, as he was in the American version of the game, Clue, where in the UK versions he would be Dr Black
- All of the usual murder weapons in the game are revealed here to be gifts from the six usual suspects, and were originally, supposedly, connected to famous deaths and killers.
- The rope hanged Calico Jack, and was authenticated by Plum. The lead pipe was used to kill Gallienus and was given by Mustard (though he was actually stabbed...). The pistol was used to assassinate President Garfield and was gifted by Green. The wrench was used to fix Albert Camus' car, who later died in a car crash, and was given by Scarlett. The knife supposedly belonged to Jack the Ripper by White. And the candlestick was just an item that fascinated him, and was given by Peacock after her husband's premature death.
- The stone pieces in the garden where people's keys were hidden are based on the game pieces from the original game
- Mustard reveals that his force from the military took on code names based on condiments upon returning to civilian lives
- Any time there's a "Kra-boom" sound effect, it seems to be based on what would normally be a player action in the game, such as an accusation, deduction, movement, getting ideas etc. This implies that this scenario is actually happening in an actual game being played by an unseen character.
- In a stark inversion of normal events, the murder that begins this story is Colonel Mustard, and not Mr Boddy! (Though Boddy dies at the end of the issue regardless)
- After a character is confirmed dead, they appear in heaven with Saint Peter..this makes my job of figuring out if someone did die or not SO MUCH EASIER!!!
- The map of the manor is the traditional game board to the actual game
- Given the evidence so far, it appears that Peacock is probably the killer. She is mentioned by Green to have withheld some information, and her key was still under her stone piece, so she shouldn't have access to the house. Someone could have replaced their key with Peacock's to incriminate her, but it seems unlikely. Also, her gift to Boddy was the Candlestick, which is what set off Mustard's rant that led to his murder, it is also the only item in the set that was not mentioned in connection with a famous death, but with Mr Peacock's instead. Also, given the characters available, Peacock best fits the mysterious woman in Plum's opening nightmare, could this have been a warning? She's also apparently a vegan, so there's another red flag! :)
- The back page features a set of cut-out custom Cluedo character cards, and a Candlestick weapon card, with the promise of more to come in future comics. Since there are nine loactions in the map shown in the comic, and five more weapons, that makes fourteen more cards, perfect for seven an issue (assuming this is indeed a three part series)
