Maybe a botched abortion? Or a bad miscarriage? Didn't one of the panels on the final page(s) refer to the death of a baby? I can't remember exact words right now, and I'm at work and can't look it up. Otherwise I'm going stage 4 cancer.

 

okay wait....if ostoros is springer....and he has such a deep connection with impactor, if we're to believe the feels and all that, why in the hell did impactor just blast a hole in springer to hit squadron x on pova like he did?

that's the only thing tossing a monkey wrench in that idea for me.

we're to assume they have this bond now but impactor still could have killed him on pova.

 

Now oh now that would be a twist.

 

No, the stuff Prowl hears are the things Arcee, Roadbuster and Springer feel guilty about. They're locked into the machine Tarantulas describes as reading and sharing guilt.
Springer feels guilty about leaving Kup behind.
Roadbuster about killing his recruits (the ones that could have grown to be anything).
Arcee about being so sadistic that the only time she was happy was when she was killing Jiaxus over and over, and admitting that she wanted to know what sound humans make when they're squashed. (something she contemplated when first traveling to Earth in Not-RID).

He shot Springer through the chest because he went kill crazy and went over the fine line of being a Wrecker and being completely not OK. But even so, it was pointed out that he shot Springer in such a way that he missed all his vital parts, so Springer was not in danger of dying, but would feel pain.

 

Yeah it was a dick move but had he not they'd both would have died. Part of me thinks the element of surprise is what made that attack so effective.

Yeah I really like the regret/guilt machine. The parts you mentioned before were great. Springer's Guilt about not stopping Impactor and tattling were a good look into his character, I can't wait to find out what Roadbuster did, I assumed that the Road buster affair had to do with something they flash backed to in MTMTE but maybe the stuff mentioned in this issue is the true affair. When Arcee was talking about not being used by following "him" and not being strong enough does she mean Jiaxus or Prowl?

 

Looking at the panels where the Mayhem squad transform, you do actually see them in-between robot and beast mode and it looks more like the beast shells rip apart during transformation and then sew themselves back up when they go back to beast mode.

 

First Acree, then Tarantulas, Prowl do have some strange charisma
(To some degree Tarantulas' reason is understandable, but I don't get why did Acree follow Prowl at first)

I don't think so. Rattrap's alt-mode don't have those additional functions, and he assist Prowl before the last scene of CW. From their dialogue I think Rattrap is another Prowl's undercover agent like Skid.

A great issue, but one thing about Prowl bothered me for a long time(not from this series). To made Prowl unscrupulous is one thing, but made him look like a clown is different. Even you want to made him a villain, a powerful villain would be much popular than a stupid one. However, till now IDW rarely show us the achievement of Prowl, even if there are some they just get generically mentioned, but his abject failure got much more pages. Get brainwashed by Chromedome, get controlled by Bombshell, made Tyrest even crazier, and now, been kidnapped by Tarantulas and may leak Aequitas data to the whole world. Couldn't him just shot Tarantulas on his head, and save all these problems? And IDW call this Prowl a calculating Machiavellian, sounds much like a joke.

 

Don't forget him and Chromedome had a thang, Prowl got that mad game. 

 

Sadly they just see Prowl as the prick no one likes instead of a Machiavellian chessmaster.

Hahaha yes. In an alternate reality, he's a harem king.

 

Hmm. Frankly, I think it makes a stronger story if Prowl really did throw Tarantulas into the Noisemaze. It gives Tarantulas a reason to hate Prowl, and I'd hate for this reason to turn out to be based on a lie. The story is just juicier if Prowl really did do it.

I, too, think Ostaros is Springer. In Issue 1, we see Prowl's hologram command Springer to rescue Prowl. In Issue 2, we see that Springer is (bizarrely) devoted to rescuing Prowl.

It's also possible that Ostaros is a tease or seed for a future storyline. Maybe Nick Roche doesn't even know who Ostaros is. To draw a similar example, Prowl's Overmind Protocol on Kup was used in All Hail Megatron, then seemingly not touched upon for years....until now. I doubt anyone had Sins of the Wreckers in mind when Prowl did the Overmind trick. Thus, it could be a simple as Nick planting a seed for him to come back and harvest and he's ready to deliver a payoff.

 

Either way, I'd imagine it was Prowl's decision. It's more like him to plan it out and send someone to execute the plan, than impulsively throw Mesothulas into the maze and burn everything down. Also makes for an interesting twist if Impactor had been told to kill Ostaros and couldn't (and Prowl doesn't know). Would also hint at early Impactor being one of Springer's better role models.

 

I'd personally like to see Impactor be the one to destroy the lab. Then, when he's preparing to off Ostaros, Prowl, who has had an attack of conscience, bursts in and tries to stop him.

 

Just thought of an interesting aside on the discussion on this issue, could the noisemaze contain overlord? It was a serious issue for the Autobots considering spark extraction wasn't a possibility and overlord successfully got out of Brainstorms fancy time prison ridiculing it by describing it as paper chains. Would the noise maze work any better and if so for how long?

 

I disagree, I don't think Prowl's conscience works that way. But if Roche can come up with a justification for it, it could be some interesting character work. Which leads me to some Prowl related musings... (forgive the length, please)

Prowl's conscience hasn't really been of the "This is awful, how can we do this?" variety, but more of the "Oh no, what have I done?" after the fact kind. He's the bot who has convinced himself that he's willing to make the hard, difficult choices. The kind of choices that no one else is willing to make, or clever enough to make. His conscience only seems to wake up when the consequences of his actions are no longer theoretical, when he can actually see what he's sown, so to speak.

It's what makes Prowl such an effective villain. He absolutely and completely thinks he's the hero of the story. That he's the only one good enough, and smart enough, and serious enough to bring about change. His conscience fuels his ego. After he's brought about awful consequences, he assuages himself with the knowledge that he feels bad, and tells himself he'll never do it again. But then another problem emerges, another crisis, and he looks at it and sees that nobody but him has the right answer, the answer that gets things done. That nobody else is "willing to be the bad guy". Because that's what Prowl really is. The bad guy. He's followed the path of good intentions all the way into the pit.

And Tarantulas is calling him on it, and trying to get him to embrace what he is. Tarantulas is saying, "Hey man, you're evil, you like doing messed up shit. And you like doing it because you can, and because you're damn good at it. So drop the facade and just go with it. Because who can stop you?" Tarantulas wants to be the mad scientist supplying the evil weapons to the Blofeld of the TF universe, and he believes Prowl is his guy.

And Prowl really wants to be behind the wheel, driving the whole show. Not publicly, as the face or leader, but from the shadows, controlling everybody's actions and deciding the course of society. Because in his mind he's the only one who sees how things have to be. Prowl wants to be the true power behind the Prime, so to speak. The shadow-King. The Wizard of Oz(bertron).

So this is Prowl's big chance. To either really lean into villainy and become what Tarantulas thinks he is, or to recognize that he's done nothing but made excuses and hidden behind his so-called conscience for all this time. This is Prowl's chance to change. For real, not just for show. Perhaps Tarantulas will be the Impetus for change? (sorry, couldn't resist the awful pun)

Honestly, I think Overlord has been presented as being just crazy enough that the Noisemaze would be probably be happy-fun-land for him. I think it's the kind of place that probably makes him more dangerous, not less. Who knows what IDW's writers might think though?

 

If the Autobots have to use such an inhuman way to contain overlord, they might as well not to repair him from the beginning.

To be fair, we should not take Prowl's rejection of Tarantulas that lightly. Judging from what he said, he still believe in the "Autobots way", although he also believe for the greater good he must breach it.

 

I think that actions trump statements of belief.

I think that it's an easy thing to say you believe in a code, especially when what you're doing is functionally anathema to that self-same code. It's all just excuses and obfuscations. At least until he genuinely does something to change.

Put another way, I'll believe Prowl actually, genuinely feels sorrow or remorse for his actions when he takes positive steps to change himself. And not just to cover up his activities or enable new dirty tricks.

 

Will, Prowl was tortured by the noisemaze, and know Tarantulas could throw him back there, totally ruin his reputation, even kill him if he refuses. I think under the circumstances his word itself is already an action.

 

Some thoughts because I haven't really weighed in on this series yet...

First off, hot damn, this is good! Secondly, Roche has almost... ALMOST... made me like beast-formers!
On that note... I find that IDW's planning for this stuff is amusingly messed up...

- So first Barber is like: "Hey, let's make beast-formers one of the lost ancient 13 tribes! Easy peasy. Who cares if it makes no sense?"

- Then Scott is like: "Hey, we already did a fembot planet. Now how about we just have a Cybertronian colony world that is all Beast Wars guys, and we can call it something cool like Eukaris? Beast planet solves all of our problems! Now let me do a racecar planet!"

- Roche: **MIC DROP**

And... at the same time, he basically ties in and rationalizes Pretender technology in ways that make way more sense than whatever the hell Furman was doing with Stormbringer. AND manages to link it back to the tech that Prowl used to fix Kup... and THEN links it back to Tarantulas. *applause*

I still don't like beast-formers or Pretenders very much... but he's making a good go of it. Come to think of it, maybe that 13 tribes/Onyx Prime stuff came directly down the pipe from Hasbro with their 'Aligned' continuity, rather than Barber. But still...

I have no idea who Ostaros is going to turn out to be. Tons of possibilities right now. Ha.. what if it's Arcee? She wasn't forcibly turned into a "female" at all. She was some kind of blank that Jhiaxus got his hands on. Y'know, just to mess up her messy origins even MORE.  

But seriously, no idea. But I'm sure it will turn out to be a dramatic reveal.

It does seem pretty heavily hinted that Prowl didn't raid the lab or dump Mesothulas into the Noisemaze. Impactor seems like the obvious candidate... that was my immediate impression.

Poor Stakeout. He and Verity never got to say goodbye.

Also, loving the total 'fatal attraction' vibe thing between Prowl and Tarantulas. It's a smart way to play on the whole non-sexual quasi-romantic attraction that Cybertronians feel for each other... and where it can go way wrong. Nicely played, Roche.

Lastly... I'm sort of liking Prowl taking some sort of stand with Tarantulas, but honestly... for such a longtime manipulator, string-puller, and deceiver, it really doesn't seem to be a very strategically smart way for him to play this. He could have simply lied in order to get the upper hand, and then flipped things on Tarantulas. I mean, it's the most LOGICAL way to handle the situation, no?

Dammit Prowl! Letting your pride get in the way! What kind of Vulcan are you??  

zmog

 

I agree with everything solid comments except I think they are only making Prowl seem on his heels. He will pull it altogether at the last minute for a decisive win.

 

^HA! Nice one Fallout. Good to see you weigh in as always Smog now if only we could get some Zac Williams up in this piece. I really feel like Roche doesn't get the props he deserves when it comes to writing. How he doesn't get his own series is beyond me. I would absolutely love to see a full time Wreckers series that takes place in the past & present depending on the story arc written by Nick edited by Barber, letters by Tom Long, colored by Josh Burcham and if Nick doesn't wanna Draw art by Casey Coller or Sara Pitre- Durocher . Called Wreckers Classified or The Wrecker Chronicles.