Firstly known for usually being comprised of antiheroes and coerced villains, DC’s Task Force X is equally defined by the cause of its colloquial nickname. As the Suicide Squad, their missions are infamous for their mortality rates. Meanwhile, on the television side is The A-Team. Being the Suicide Squad’s extreme opposite, its heroes are recognized for jumping into adventures with a near by-the-numbers action-packed success. Just as citable is their consistent survival rate in the face of these odds. Somehow, The Transformers combines the headline elements of these teams to effectively propel their own.
The plot of The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers (by Nick Roche, James Roberts, Josh Burcham, Wycough, and Neil Uyetake) kicks off in the overrun prison, Garrus-9. There, one of Megatron’s most feared ex-generals has taken the planet for himself, allowing no one on or off. Fifty Autobots have been held captive, and one-room houses a secret that if not recovered, could damage the Autobots’ efforts in the war. Enter the titular Wreckers, a team of A-list heroes who seem to always pull through and self-aware B-listers who can only hope to go in a blaze of glory when they die.
Last Stand of The Wreckers Showcases Lesser Known Characters
The Suicide Squad’s roster often includes a core of DC mainstays. As such, while acknowledging that death is not the only aspect of a Suicide Squad story, readers will rarely feel relief when one lives. Nor are they likely to care if one dies since their return is near guaranteed. Last Stand of the Wreckers uses this dynamic to focus on what kind of character would then be required of a B-lister willing to take on such a mission. Thus, it becomes in part a study of bravery.
For one soldier, it presents a more productive end than their pre-existing terminal illness, for example. While for another, hero worship subsides to a realization that “dying to save the people you care about is the most that anyone can do.” Placing these individuals on a team with their seemingly select indestructible heroes also has the benefit of holding the two mindsets up to each other. For at least one character, it contrasts external affectations of bravado and desire to live up to the Wrecker demands with the internal sense of self-doubt that immediately follows. But its B-listers aren’t the only ones affected.
The Wreckers' Roster is Ever-Changing
Consistently putting teams together only to see them destroyed bears an expressed weight on the Wreckers’ leader. Meanwhile, like the A-Team, the Wreckers’ more famous war heroes have bordered on invincible more often than not, particularly in the eyes of their admirers. As a story about a “last stand,” Last Stand of the Wreckers gets to treat this conceit as more of a meta premise, steering it toward its narrative conclusion. Here, historic legends are measured against less inspirational archived facts. Every documented rule of Wreckers operation is systematically discarded as the odds mount.
As part of a wider continuity, the elements of LSW spread outward into other books in the franchise. Naturally, the team's history, resulting traumas, and altered life paths are further examined outside the main story. But within is a unique blend of elements rarely so well-balanced with its own beginning, middle, and end. As one Wrecker says, “It’s a story of sacrifice and betrayal, and of good people dying in stupid, pointless ways.” It also provides one of the most engaging pieces of IDW's Transformers lore.