Transformers: Wreckers— Tread & Circuits #1 »
"Tread & Circuits Part 1"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	October 13, 2021
Cover date	October 2021
Written by	David Mariotte
Art by	Jack Lawrence
Colors by	Candice Han
Letters by	Jake M. Wood andNathan Widick
Editor	Riley Farmer andTom Waltz
Continuity	2019 IDW continuity

When a terrorist group threatens the most important race on Velocitron, Thunderclash and his high-octane team of Wreckers investigate.

Synopsis

To the inhabitants ofCybertron's myriad colony worlds, there are fewTransformers as popular or daring asThunderclash and his team ofWreckers, a troupe of travelling stunt-bots renowned for their livestreamed performances. Broadcasting live as he and his team freefall toward the surface of a barren, rocky world,Hot Shot reveals that today's stunt is a death-defying skydive from their starshipStuntmaster without any levitators or safety equipment. The thrilling aerobatic show that ends with all five Wreckers—Thunderclash, Hot Shot,Ricochet,Aileron, andCircuit landing safely on their feet; as they take a bow, strike a pose, and congratulate one another on another successful adventure, however, their broadcast suddenly cuts out...

Having successfully hacked Thunderclash's broadcast,Mayhem spokesmanOctopunch and his minions have a message of their own: the time for chaos is now. For too long, the inhabitants of the colonies have been fed a steady stream of mindless entertainment to turn them complacent and incurious, and no world better exemplifies this complacency thanVelocitron. For years, the winner of that planet'sSpeedia 500 race is traditionally appointed head of the planet's senate; currently,Road Rocket leads the senate afterthe previous winner chose to abdicate his position. To the 'bots of Mayhem, the Speedia is a fundamentally broken system, one that deliberately locks out the majority of Cybertronians from ever effecting meaningful change. To illustrate this point, Octopunch turns his attention to their prisonerElectrons; he ran the race last kilocycle not to help his fellow 'bots, but to seek wealth and glory—and this selfishness earns him a quick execution. Octopunch's demands are simple: if the upcoming Speedia race isnot called off, Mayhem will ensure thatthey take control of Velocitron instead. Mayhem might not hold the Wreckers in high esteem, but when it comes to the business of revolution, Octopunch concedes that their famous slogan gets it right: "wreck and rule".

Although Thunderclash initially writes off the outage as an ordinary glitch, their medicMinerva flies theStuntmaster down to meet with the other Wreckers, and informs them what's really happened: terrorists have somehow hjacked their signal and used it to broadcast a threat to the people of Velocitron. With their cameras off, Thunderclash reverts to full business mode and demands a sit-rep from Aileron—because, although the Wreckerslook like civilian thrill-seekers on camera, they'rereally top-secretAutobot agents who operate outside the remits ofColonial Security and use their travelling stunt shows as a pretense while handling dirty jobs the Autobot government can't tackle. When Circuit traces the pirated signal back to its source, the Wreckers follow it to Velocitron, where Speedia fever is already mounting; although Aileron planned a discreet landing, she's dismayed to see crowds thronging their landing pad. Thunderclash steps up to podium to greet their adoring fans and establish their cover story: the Wreckers have come to Velocitron to show their support for the Speedia; he, Aileron, Ricochet, and Hot Shot will all be entering the famous race as a show of goodwill. As reporters bombard the Wreckers with questions, Circuit takes advantage of the chaos to leave the ship through a back hatch and slip into the city unseen...While tracking the mysterious pirate signal, Circuit passes the time by recording another one of his ongoing personal logs: since theIron Hope disaster, Circuit's struggled to cope with the loss of hisalternate mode, and his self-esteem issues are only exacerbated when aVelocitronian passerby hurls junk at him for walking in analternate mode-only lane.

Aboard theStuntmaster, meanwhile, Aileron lays into her commander for going against their carefully-laid out plan on the spur of the moment—they were only supposed to monitor the race from afar and intervene as needed. Thunderclash, however, has a reason behind this controversial decision...

Circuit has finally tracked the signal to an alley in a run-down warehouse district, but on an unfamiliar planet that doesn't cater to mode-locked Cybertronians, the timid Autobot is briefly overwhelmed by his own self-doubts. As he pounds a wall and tells himself to pull it together, the roar of an engine and a blinding set of headlights catches his attention...

Thunderclash and Aileron's argument interrupts a gaming session between the other three Wreckers on the ship: Thunderclash's idealism may have served him well during theWar of the Threefold Spark, but they're nothere to take stands or make point: they're here to do a job. Thunderclash admits that he might've made the wrong call now, but they'll have to live with it. When Minerva exults at defeating the other two Wreckers, Aileron runs a headcount: why hasn't Circuit returned? As it turns out, Circuit's discovered that the wall he's pounded is a façade, concealing a metal building... but before he can investigate further, a blast from his mysterious pursuer sends him running further down the alley. Pinned against a dead end, Circuit can't believe who's found him:Axer!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Organize your chaos. Use your voices and, when it fails,your violence. Let Mayhem lead the way."

—Octopunch

"All I'm saying, Ricochet, is that I could protectand win the race."
"Didn't we already establishyou're a slowpoke? How about I win theSpeedia while you cover for me?"

—Hot Shot andRicochet

"Why is there acrowd outside the ship? I thought this was acovert mission."
"Right. And how do Wreckers do covert?"
"Poorly."

—Thunderclash andAileron

"Now, a lot of you weren't back home during the war. Or were forged after Exarchon's downfall. You experienced the death and carnage wrought by the Threefold Spark from a distance of space and time. I have seendeath before, but that never makes it easier. And while I may no longer be a soldier, I will do mydamndest to make sure you never see death again. This is mypromise to you. We show no fear. We don't bend to extremism. We face our problemshead-on."

—Thunderclash

Notes

Continuity notes

• The floating camera drones used by the Wreckers to broadcast their stunts have cropped up over in IDW's ongoingTransformers reboot a few times—for instance,Andromeda used several inTransformers #26.
• While hyping up their free-fall, Hot Shot notes that most Cybertronians know someone who's gone skydiving with the assistance oflevitators or other mechanical aids; inTransformers #6,Orion Pax remembered a time when he andMegatron pulled off such a feat, although unlike the Wreckers they used a levitator disk to slow their descent.
• AlthoughTread & Circuits marks Velocitron's first on-panel appearance, the planet received a prior namedrop inTransformers issue #17, which featuredLightbright dancing to a song about the planet.
• InTransformers #3,Bumblebee briefly mentioned Blurr in a conversation withRubble. This issue reveals that he won a previous Speedia, but declined the position of leadership and left Road Rocket to rule in his place.
• In his personal logs,Circuit notes that, like fellowAction MastersTreadshot,Catgut,Charger, andFire Beast, he was a survivor of theIron Hope disaster.
• Aileron sardonically wonders if Thunderclash hasrust worms in his brain module, destructive pests who were formally introduced inTransformers #34. Later, she sarcastically wonders ifMortilus is somehow responsible for her lot in life;Transformers #25 previously established Mortilus as a folkloric figure whomGroove occasionally prayed to.

Transformers references

• TheWreckers have enjoyed a flexible lineup across multiple continuities: their original appearance in "Target: 2006" consisted primarily of random toys who hadn't yet appeared in the comic, with a few original characters likeImpactor thrown in for good measure, and this anything-goes attitude has translated over to most of their other fictional incarnations. In a surprising but welcome return to this grab-bag origin,Tread & Circuits eschews the traditional Wrecker big names—Impactor,Springer,Whirl, etc.—in favor of an entirely new roster pulled from odd corners of theTransformers mythos: in addition to team leaderThunderclash, there's alsoHeadmasters extraRicochet, a Cybertronian version ofMinerva fromSuper-God Masterforce, a "Generation 1" incarnation ofUnicron Trilogy protagonistHot Shot, Action MasterCircuit, and IDW's original characterAileron, whose put-upon dynamic with Thunderclash evokes her combative relationship withOptimus Prime in theRobots in Disguise andOptimus Prime comics.
• Ricochet and Hot Shot are drawn using theirGenerations Selects toys, while Minerva is based on the, at the time yet to be revealed,LegacyElita-1.
• The Mayhem terrorist cell is based on theMayhem Attack Squad from theMarvel comic, andOctopunch, who ran with the group of the later days of the originalTransformers comic, appears to serve as its spokesman. The group's abbreviated name, and their depiction as a loose-knit group of anti-authority radicals not formally allied with the Decepticons, is lifted from theSins of the Wreckers miniseries.
• While skydiving, Hot Shot calls Thunderclash "Big 'Bot", a nicknameCheetor used forOptimus Primal in theBeast Wars cartoon.
• The planet Velocitron was one of the four Cybertronian colony worlds central to the plot of theCybertron series. Although all previousTransformers stories have depicted the planet with an arid climate—ranging from a dry desert world inCybertron all the way to a Mercury-like hellscape inWindblade, this universe's Velocitron is temperate in nature, with green continents and a liquid ocean.
• TheSpeedia 500 debuted in thefinal episode of theCybertron cartoon; it later cropped up again inTransformers: Exiles and theWindblade miniseries. Blurr is shown to be a previous winner of the race, but it's unclear if he's a native Velocitronian or not:Exiles established him as a native Velocitronian, while in IDW'sprevious continuity he briefly travelled to the planet to race in theBenefit 500.
• The videogame controller that Minerva is holding resemblesHigh Score 100 from theReal Gear Robot subline, but with the buttons colored likeNintendo's Super Famicom controller. As the controller does not transform or display any sentience, we cannot assume it actually is High Score 100.
• Although he's lost his ability to transform on his own, Circuit's shown wearing the transformingexo-suit that came with his original toy. In his monologue, he notes that he used to be a "chronicler" with a camera alternate mode, recalling his role as a news reporter in the pages ofRobots in Disguise andWindblade.
• Circuit's fellow Action Master Axer is shown ridinghis original Action Master accessory, the bespokeOff-Road Cycle.
• A pair of background Velocitronians sport bodies based onJazz and"Aligned" Sideswipe'sFall of Cybertron toys, although they're both coloured light blue with red highlights.
• In her rant, Aileron namedrops thePit, a hellish location occasionally alluded to inBeast Wars media.

Real-world references

• As the team prepares for their show, Thunderclash counts down from three before crying "Let's jam!", evoking the famousCowboy Beboptheme song.

Errors

• On page ten, the phrase "sit-rep" is erroneously hyphenated.

Other trivia

• The opening scene of this comic features Ricochet riding Hot Shot's jeep mode like a skateboard; just a few months earlier, thesecond story of 2021'sMy Little Pony/Transformers crossover featured Rubble doing almost the exact same thing. It's not clear if this is adeliberate callback or just a particularly bizarre coincidence, but it's definitely noteworthy!

Covers (3)

• Cover A: The team strikes a pose, byJack Lawrence andCandice Han
• Cover B: Wreckers in action, byAnna Malkova
• Retailer incentive cover: Skydiving out of the window, byNick Roche andJosh Burcham

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Reprints

• Transformers Volume 5: Horrors Near and Far(June 8,2022)ISBN 168405883X /ISBN 978-1684058839
  • CollectsTransformers (2019) issues#31–36 &Annual 2021,Transformers Halloween Special, andWreckers—Tread & Circuits issues #1–4.
  • Bonus material includes alternate covers.
  • Hardcover format.

• Transformers: Wreckers: Tread & Circuits(September 23, 2022)ISBN 2383730130 /ISBN 978-2383730132
  • CollectsWreckers—Tread & Circuits issues #1–4.
  • French language edition.
  • Trade paperback format.

• 

  Volume 5: Horrors Near and Far – cover art byCryssy Cheung

External links

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