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Sins of the Wreckers issue 3 - Transformers Wiki

️Sun Apr 16 2028

The face of Prowl's captor is revealed, as is his true plan, and his most dangerous creation yet.

Synopsis

Many years ago, during the war, Prowl rushes into Mesothulas's lab to inform him of the success of his "Decepti-Bomb"—an explosive made entirely from Decepticon-traceable components which has just destroyed the Neutral city of Carpessa, killing nearly 1500 civilians, but causing the survivors to blame the Decepticons and sign up with the Autobots. This has proven to be the final straw for Prowl... the morality of his actions has overcome him, and he is no longer willing to work with Mesothulas on such questionable projects. Mesothulas pooh-poohs Prowl's desire to change his path, and instead decides to show his newest work: the Noisemaze, a pocket dimension that torments the senses of all those incarcerated within it.

In the present day, somewhere within the Noisemaze itself, now that Prowl has agreed to talk to him, Mesothulas unveils himself. Prowl gapes at the gigantic, organic spider that comes slithering down the webs that surround him, the new form worn by Mesothulas, which the twisted scientist reveals goes hand-in-hand with his new name: Tarantulas. He goes on to explain that he has a mole within the ranks of the Autobots, a gifted communications expert who helped him track down the Aequitas data slug so that he could use it to get Prowl's attention. Lifting the webbed Autobot onto his back, Tarantulas carries him through his facility, "The Tor"—built in the heart of the Noisemaze but designed to shut out its effects—on a twisted tour. Tarantulas shows off the bio-disguises he created for the forces of Mayhem in return for their help in capturing Prowl, then brings him to with the facility's power source, a small crystal he calls "Obtenteum", the energies of which have facilitated everything Tarantulas has done. Prowl is rightly amazed by the incredible technology on display and cannot understand why Tarantulas does not simply take whatever it is he wants, but Tarantulas then reveals that what he wants is to give everything to Prowl!

Back in Nome, Alaska, the battle between the Wreckers and Mayhem continues. Presently, Carnivac receives word from Leobreaker, inside Tidal Wave, that the source of the giant Transformer's immobilized transformation has been discovered; Carnivac calls off the fight, and Tidal Wave reluctantly retreats back into the ocean, whinging and moping all the way. Kup catches Impactor up on what they have learned from Prowl while he and Guzzle were away; at the mention of the Noisemaze, fear crosses Impactor's features, and he insists they all return to Debris immediately. Meanwhile, inside the retreating Tidal Wave, Carnivac is presented with the cause of his transformation problem: the missing Stakeout jammed in Tidal Wave's transformation cog. Fatally injured and near death as a consequence, Stakeout is surprised to see Carnivac, who turns out to also have previously worked under Ultra Magnus before defecting. Carnivac assures his old friend that the other Wreckers are still alive, if not particularly safe, and Stakeout asks him to stay with him as he dies.

Tarantulas gleefully reveals that he wants to resume his old relationship with Prowl; in his mind, the two of them were never better than when they were together, each providing great and terrible inspiration for the other. Prowl refuses to accept that was true—that he was ever responsible for anything Mesothulas made or did—and turns his offer down. Tarantulas is saddened, and the pair's thoughts turn back to the day their partnership originally ended: the day the anti-rad armor-clad Autobot came blasting into Mesothulas's lab and hurled him into the Noisemaze in order to get rid of him and all the evidence he and Prowl had been involved. Tarantulas explains that he had a personal jumpgate fitted in his body that allowed him to escape the Noisemaze, but it took centuries before he was able to overcome the torturous delirium of the maze enough to remember about it and activate it. Returning to Cybertron to find his lab stripped, he decided to follow in the footsteps of the planet's other scientific giants, which eventually led him to follow Shockwave's trail to Earth. He created Obtenteum from a sample of the Ore-13 he found on the planet, and was inspired to perfect bio-disguises by Earth's wildlife—his second greatest achievement, he claims. He then reminds Prowl of his first: Ostaros, the first ever successful example of artificial Cybertronian life, built and animated in his old lab. Tarantulas inquires as to Ostaros's fate, and Prowl relates how he falsified papers for him and made him an Autobot... and that Ostaros then died on the battlefield. Tarantulas is consumed with rage and sorrow, and with a spray of furious spittle, extends his offer to Prowl one last time—with the caveat that if he says no, Tarantulas will visit the same fate upon Prowl as he has suffered, mental and emotional devastation through the destruction of everything he has ever built, out of nothing more than spite. Still Prowl refuses... and then finds himself surrounded by a cube of pure darkness...

Out in the chaos of the Noisemaze itself, Springer, Roadbuster, and Arcee writhe in sensory agony. Verity is unaffected, as is Claw Jaw, who laughs at their pain... until Hubcap, apparently able to screen out the maze's effects thanks to his mastery of signals, deactivates Claw Jaw's blockers and amplifies the maze's signal, causing the squid's head to explode. Verity calls upon Hubcap to use his powers to help the other Wreckers, but the little 'bot seems hesitant—something Verity does not have the time to notice, as she once again collapses in spasms of pain. Hubcap bends over to pick her up, congratulating her on her bravery, and telling her she must be brave one more time...

On Debris, Kup watches as Impactor digs up his own pre-emptive grave site. He tells Kup what little he knows about Mesothulas and the Noisemaze, and the pair start to put together a plan to protect themselves from its effects. Finally, Impactor unearths what he was looking for, buried beneath his own grave to keep it hidden: the original gate to the Noisemaze from Mesothulas's laboratory.

Huddled in darkness, Prowl suddenly hears the voices of Springer, Arcee, and Roadbuster echoing in the void, each one confessing their guilty secrets. Then Tarantulas's voices joins theirs to offer an explanation: as the inventor of Aequitas, the guilt-calculating computer, he has now invented its successor, the guilt-extracting computer, Impetus. Emerging from the darkness, Prowl sees his friends strapped into the computer, and Tarantulas—with Hubcap at his side—indicating that the remaining empty chair is for Prowl to sit in, that his sins might be released into the world...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"One touch and it's all out there; the war reignites, the Autobots are disgraced and I'm a walking symbol for where it all went wrong. So, just simple, boring, unambitious blackmail, then?"
"That's just the by-product; the afterbirth of a poor decision you've yet to make."
"What do you want, Tarantulas?"
"Come... I want to show you something naughty..."

—Prowl and Tarantulas

"Come off it—I was just your conduit to—what did you call it? The specimen, do I have that right? The concept that Cybertronian civilization—and the war itself—was some living macrocosmic organism. Our race was your lab animal, and you were obsessed with finding new ways to prod it 'til it squeaked."

—Prowl, on Tarantulas's thought processes

"I want... to ask you... the question... one more time. If you say no, I will see you destroyed, as I was. Not physically, but mentally; emotionally. All you've worked for—all you've lived for; toppled over for the vulture to feast on, just because you denied me. I have felt true loss, Prowl. And I want you to be alive and aware and cogent to feel it, too."

—Tarantulas

"Usually, someone has to be dead before they take their secrets to their grave."

—Kup, on what lies within Impactor's grave

"Your friends have proven more than adequate—if less than willing—test-subjects for Impetus. I've saved you a seat, Prowl. Come: I want you to show me something naughty.

—Tarantulas

Notes

Continuity notes

Prowl wears anti-radiation armor of the kind seen in Spotlight: Kup to cross the "radiation moat" surrounding Mesothulas's lab.
Though he is clearly regretful of his actions, it's not hard to imagine Prowl being willing, on some level, to kill Neutrals for his own objectives. Prowl hates Neutrals, as we saw throughout the first story arc of Robots in Disguise, which The Death of Optimus Prime explained was because he used to be one, and they serve as a reminder of his own weakness and failure.
Tarantulas describes how Prowl goes through "cyclical phases" of "trying and failing" to change. Most recently, Prowl went through one of these phases during the 2009-2011 ongoing series, when he tried to be a better 'bot, only for Spike Witwicky's betrayal to push him back onto his original path.
It turns out Tarantulas was responsible for inventing the "Overmind protocol" Prowl used to mindlink with Kup, as seen in All Hail Megatron #15.
Tarantulas mentions Cybertronians having used "rudimentary bio-disguises" in the past; the Dinobots used such alternate modes in Spotlight: Shockwave.
The guilty confessions we hear at the issue's end include:
- Springer blaming himself for the outcome of Spotlight: Kup and all the deaths that took place in it.
- Roadbuster remembering when Whirl attempted to euthanize the comatose Springer, as related in More than Meets the Eye #6, and revealing that secretly, he wished he had been brave enough to end his friend's suffering.
- Arcee blaming herself for "following" someone, for letting that person "do that" to her, for not seeing "what he is." If she's talking about Jhiaxus, this would be the first tiny droplet of information about Arcee's life before she became the 'bot we know today.
- Arcee again, claiming that the only time she ever knew happiness was when she was killing Jhiaxus over and over, as seen in Spotlight: Sideswipe.
- Springer again, lamenting his failure to stop Impactor from executing Squadron X. It is noted that he could not switch modes at the time, and Springer was suffering extreme bodily injury, able only to drag himself slowly across the ground, when that happened, detailed a bit more clearly in "Zero Point" than in Last Stand of the Wreckers.
- Someone remembering how they killed a group of young lives while they slept for fear of what they would become. By process of elimination, this is logically Roadbuster, and it certainly sounds like something he'd do, but what it refers to is unclear; it is apparently an event that has not yet been recorded in IDW history.

Transformers references

As we theorized last issue, Mesothulas turns out to be Tarantulas. He appears with an organic version of his Transmetal body, while his younger self, appearing only in flashbacks, is a mechanical version of his original organic Beast Wars design. His older design uses his original toy's robot head, as opposed to the mutant head made famous by the Beast Wars cartoon.
Another Chimeracon, Leobreaker, is introduced this issue, a Generation 1 version of the Cybertron character of the same name. Physically, he is based not on his namesake, but on the shared "big cat" body-type of Cheetor and Tigatron, with the Cybertron character's color scheme—though his organic/furred parts are colored grey-black, which would make for a pretty rad, goth-lookin' lion.
In what is perhaps a surprising move for so avowed a fan of Marvel UK as Roche, Carnivac's robot-mode head is based much more closely on his original toy (complete with the little "scored-out box" on his forehead) than on the character's (malleable) depiction in the comics.
If you haven't had enough Beast Wars references yet, Tarantulas quotes the "originators" referring to the act of perfecting an alt mode as "attaining the maximal." It is currently unclear if these originators are a formal group, or if Tarantulas is simply referring to the creators of bio-disguises.

Real-life references

A "tor" is a kind of rock formation that juts out of a smooth surrounding, which seems like an apt description of Tarantulas's Tor, a fixed point of stability jutting out of a landscape of incoherent chaos. Given the themes of Sins of the Wreckers, though, it might also be a reference to the computer network of the same name, which was created to maintain anonymity and secrecy of users. This "anonymous" portion of the internet is called the "deep web"—web, see, he's a spider—so it could well be a deliberate reference.
Obtenteum appears to derive its name from the word "obtention," meaning "the act of obtaining something," since it is, after all, the means by which Tarantulas has attained everything he now has. Well that's... straightforward!
The name of the substance may also derive from rocket scientist (and occultist) Jack Parsons' motto "Thelema Obtentum Procedero Amoris Nuptiae" - Grammatically incorrect Latin for "The establishment of Thelema through the rituals of love." The law of Thelema is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." Yeah, that's not creepy at all...

Production

Originally the inspirations for Tarantulas/Mesothulas included physician and rock star Brian Cox, along with the occultist Allister Crowley (who's mantra of 'Do What Thou Wilt' was the amoral scientist's creed). These elements were mostly dropped as the more personal history between him and Prowl was developed.
Ostaros was a later addition to the series plot (and originally called Proteus). Without this emotional connection, Tarantulas just planned on using Prowl to study the impact the Noisemaze would have on society.
In the first draft a character called the Fear Angel roamed inside the Noisemaze. He was designed to seek out fear to further terrorize anyone who ended up inside the maze. Mesothulas would have also built a secret escape route into the creature in case he ever ended up trapped inside his creation, but his inability to feel genuine fear caused him to be stuck inside the maze for much longer than intended, and that the Angel would have 'shredded' his mind once they finally meet. On top of this the Fear Angel was going to be revealed as the future version of one of the series characters....
- An early draft had Springer run into the Fear Angel while escaping the disintegrating Noisemaze.The creature would have stared straight at him before swooping away. (Is this the Angel recognizing it's past self? Maybe? I don't know.)
When Tarantulas recounted all the damning information he'd gathered on Prowl, he would have mentioned finding a scribbled-out note suggesting 'Assassinate Prime?'. It was cut due to a lack of space to sell the gag.

Errors

On the recap page, "Noisemaze" is misspelled "Noicemaze" in one instance.
On page 9, Prowl's second speech bubble in panel 4 is missing the "i" in "having".

Soundtrack

The soundtracks for issue #3 and #4 were chosen months after their releases.

"Lovesong" by The Cure^[1]
"We Used To Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols^[2]
"Lullaby" by The Cure^[3]

Covers (3)

Regular cover: Impactor's hand bursts out of his grave as Kup looks on, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
Subscription cover: Human police officers open fire on Prowl, by Andy MacDonald and John-Paul Bove
Retailer incentive cover: Verity sits atop a pile of corpses, by Priscilla Tramontano