Comic Review: In Word and Deed [uploaded]

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Blackjack
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Comic Review: In Word and Deed [uploaded]

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In Word and Deed
Bonus one-page comic only found in the Hardcover TPB
Written by: Nick Roche
Art by: Nick Roche
Colours by: Kris Carter
Letters by: HdE

Synopsis: Verity reflects about missing Ironfist and Hunter (remembering how she’s left Hunter and Jimmy with merely a letter) and reflects upon the meaning of words – how they can be damaging and useful at the same time. She also reflects about how they’ve both gone without warning, with only words to leave to the word. Verity also remembers how she’s left ‘Uncle Magnus’ with only letters. Magnus, reading the letter, without changing his expression orders the computer to decontaminate her former room. Verity reflects that words, to her, was merely a handy tool to get out from whatever she wanted to run away from, but sometimes words become weapons, and Ironfist’s words are all that’s left of him. She reflects that despite all the destruction that Ironfist has done with his guns, Ironfist’s biggest bomb and last bullet… is a second data slug of Aequitas.

Featured characters: Hunter O’Nion, Jimmy Pink, Ultra Magnus, Verity Carlo,

Review:
One last bullet in the chamber, Fisitron.
It only takes one page, and it makes up the last page of the mighty hardcover Wreckers trade paperback, and it focuses on Verity… but in addition to showing some characterization for Verity and drawing some parallels between her constantly jumping from place to place, abandoning first the small ‘family’ of Hunter and Jimmy, and then the second one of the Autobots, and also hinting at a nice little attachment with ‘Uncle Magnus’ the whole scene feels pretty sad and melancholic – Verity is one of those characters who eventually grew on me, and as she reflects on how only words are left of her and Ironfist, it’s revealed that Ironfist left a small legacy – a second Aequitas slug. I do love how effective the art is. The somber, sad scene of Ultra Magnus just looking before turning his back on the screen and offhandedly ordering the decontamination of Verity’s room (and considering what we know of Magnus from future stories, it’s a bit of a subtle character moment there)… and Verity just seemingly looking at an iPad (cleverly a guy next to Verity is playing on a smartphone) as the camera pans around and shows her with the Aequitas slug. It’s a great stinger, a well-written epilogue and a really nice note at the end that doubles as a stinger. I do also like how ‘Zero Point’ and this story are both placed at the very end of the hardcover, after all the other extra bonus stuff, acting as some kind of post-credits scene to hint at the return of both Springer and Verity and Aequitas. It’s a nice, melancholic little story.

(4.5 out of 5)

Notes:
Hunter O’Nion and Jimmy Pink’s scene here takes place all the way back after Maximum Dinobots. Hunter is shown wearing the Autobot shirt with Headmaster implants on his elbows. This evidently takes place before Hunter’s capture and subsequent torture and death in All Hail Megatron.

Verity’s letter to Hunter addresses him as ‘Mulder’, a reference to their first meeting in Infiltration #0.

Verity refers to Ultra Magnus as ‘Uncle Magnus’ like she did in the first LSOTW issue, a fact which Magnus would later bring up while on a drunken haze in More than Meets the Eye #13 that Verity was the only real person who ever liked him. While Magnus remains impassive, considering he uses Verity as his holomatter avatar seems to imply that Magnus likewise has some fondness for the human.

Verity signs off as ‘Veritron’ in her letter to Magnus – and as Last Stand of the Wreckers #5 implies, she’s taken up the Fisitron mantle.

The idea of a second Aequitas data slug being left behind by Ironfist to Verity was an idea cut out for space from the original Last Stand of the Wreckers script, also included with the hardcover.
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