Wreck, Rule
(Spoiler free-ish)
SynopsisTHIS IS THE END! Will PROWL get his comeuppance? Will TARANTULAS conquer all? Will any of the WRECKERS survive? It’s wreck and rule one last time, with everything on the line!
Quite the hookRemember when we
last talked about Sins of the Wreckers? Remember how I mentioned that issue #4 felt very much like an ending, and hoped that the actual end would live up to it? Even if you don't, I say it here, again: issue #5 is the ending that the series built to, prepared for, and ultimately, deserves. Let me tell you why.
This guy, mostlyI will not spoil the book, there will be plenty of time for that in the discussion that will follow, I will point out, though, some of the highest notes that Nick Roche has achieved in this brief but in-depth plunge back into the world of one of more messed up teams in the IDWverse. Above all, the scheming and betrayal that runs deep and leads back to Prowl, always Prowl, and his machinations, and his creations - Tarantulas, Kup, Verity, the secret police, is everything his fault?
Pretty muchWe found out some of the dirty secrets last issue, but even more comes out this time: feelings of hurt, revenge, coping mechanisms, catharsis, and violence. A lot of violence, and characters forged through that violence and *bad stuff*. What we obtain is the strange mix of strength and weakness, as the two sides of the same coin - with emotion running all along the thin edge, the gut-wrenching type that comes with *bad stuff*.
WhodatIf you're looking for Overlord levels of manipulation, but with an even stronger psychological connection between characters themselves, and creator and readers, this is the book you should pick up. It's raw, and still edited. It's hard to swallow, but it flow smoothly. It's good. You should read it.
ArtRoche is still very good at the storytelling happening in visual form too, though it should come as no surprise by now. Where the dialogue might risk to overpower the scene, the quieter frames actually allow for a wider scope, and a much deafening, visually speaking, effect. Towards the end, at the climax of the Tarantulas confrontation, you will explicitly see how words are not always needed.
...'Josh Burcham needs a lot of credit here, as the issue and the series look like nothing before in the IDWverse - even considering previous Roche projects, and
Spotlight: Kup, of which we see many references in the series - as his colours are exquisitely apt and decisive for the full spectrum of greys (metaphor) used in the strands of the book. And some of the wider pages would lose a lot of their power without the colours.
And of course, the NoisemazeThe lettering is fantastic, as it has been for the series so far, combining the visual power of size and colour with the fontwork that Tom B. Long can bring to a Transformers book. The silences become clearer, the beastly fonts give voices extra layers, and you can see-hear everything, even in the mess of the Noisemaze. As for covers, not only do we get another Roche/Burcham piece mirroring the first issue, we have the return of two Transformers favourites in E.J. Su (see
preview thumbnail) and Guido Guidi (this thumbnail), with their takes on Wreckers past and present.
ThoughtsSpoilerish aheadThere have been delays, and they were fully justified - read more by Roche himself
here - but even before knowing anything about the author's personal life, the issue, and the series as a result, is a strong, emotional, intense, heartfelt, harrowing, powerful, and most of all human piece of art. It deals with the horrors of emotions, of war, of betrayal, of anguish. It reaches, hard, for hearts and sparks alike. It wrecks.
Those eyesThe conclusion is satisfying without being exhaustive, it keeps threads closed where they should and others open where they can. This was never one story, but a knot in a web of stories: there is no one single thread that would allow for a neat resolution. So it gives many, and does so in words, it does so in pictures, it does so in in ways that only this medium allows. It rules.
it's good to know for my reading order.
)
NOT--wish we were, but I can't be one of those social media stalkers...) went through his family's struggles and losing someone too early, and the birth of his child the ultimate in positive life energy-- to get to issue #4 and then finally #5. 
