Together

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No doubt about it We fight and we tout it! We're the very best at being baaaaad guys!
"Together"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	November 24, 2010
Cover date	November 2010
Writer	John Barber
Art	Chee Yang Ong
Colors	Andrew Crossley
Letters	Chris Mowry
Editor	Andy Schmidt
Cover	Brian Rood Joe Suitor
Continuity	Live-action film series

1934: Let us tell you a story of two bank robbers named Bonnie and Clyde... and their transforming death car!

Synopsis

On January 8, 1934, infamous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde complete another successful bank robbery in Sowers, Texas, only to have their getaway driver W. D. Jones crash into the police car that arrives in response to the crime. With Jones out cold, the two criminals seek an alternative means of transport, and spy an old car nearby with its engine running. A cop draws his firearm on them before they can board the vehicle, but he is as surprised as they are when the car transforms into a giant robot!

Two days later, veteran Sector Seven officer Roy Thompson arrives in Sowers to investigate the cop's report, on assumption that it may be connected to the car which was brought to life by the power of the AllSpark over twenty years beforehand, though he is highly skeptical. He is accompanied by Margaret Simmons, daughter of Sector Seven founder Walter Simmons, who has been given the job by her father following the recent end of her marriage, on the belief that it will be a safe assignment that will keep her out of danger. Walter's assumption, however, is soon proven very wrong when Roy and Margaret discover that the cop is bandaged from head to toe, and his description of the creature that attacked him is identical to the robot they are looking for.

At Bonnie and Clyde's hideout, Clyde attempts to get the car to transform again by shouting various phrases at it, while Bonnie works on her poetry, penning a morbid prediction of the deaths the couple are destined for when they are caught. When Bonnie comments that she wishes the car had windows like their other vehicle, the pair watch in amazement as the AllSpark Mutation disassembles the other car and incorporates its parts, reshaping its appearance to Bonnie's liking. Convinced of the car's willingness to help them, the pair prepare to employ its power in staging a jailbreak to free the captive W.D. Jones.

Deducing Clyde's plan, Roy Thompson readies the Texas Rangers at Eastham Jail for the criminals' inevitable attack, and arms himself with a gun created by Sector Seven's Dr. Oppenheimer that will disrupt the robot's mental functions. As Roy is explaining the history of the gun and the AllSpark Mutation to the bewildered Margaret, Bonny, Clyde and the car arrive and open fire on the jail. The robot breaks down the prison walls and frees all the inmates, but during the chaos, Margaret is able to shoot Bonnie in the arm. The robot takes this badly and unleashes a furious barrage of firepower, causing Roy to drop the gun, but Margo is able to recover it and blast the robot, reverting it to vehicle mode. Nevertheless, the criminals are all able to board the car and drive off, leaving Bonnie behind. But Margaret has observed that the robot has sentience and feelings, and quickly concocts a plan...

Some time later, Clyde and the inmates make camp in the wilderness under cover of night, while the recovered robot wanders off into the woods. Without his mechanical bodyguard around, the inmates start to argue with Clyde: many of them only had short sentences, but they now know they will get the death sentence if they are re-captured. One particularly vocal inmate is suddenly silenced when the robot returns and grasps him in its hand, crushing the life from him. As the other crooks flee, the robot reveals that it has found a map in the woods, showing Bonnie's location. Clyde can tell a trap when he sees one, but the robot is insistent that they not leave Bonnie behind, and Clyde can't help but agree with the sentiment. Following the map, they naturally walk straight into a Sector Seven ambush... at which point the car transforms to robot mode, and guns Bonnie down, preferring to see her dead than behind bars! The agents return fire, and Clyde is killed, leaving only the crippled robot. Margaret walks up to it, and as it apologizes, deeming its actions "the only way", she unloads the gun into its head at point-blank range. After a moment, the robot explodes, as the Sector Seven agents wonder how to cover up the whole bizarre affair. Recovering Bonnie's poem from the rubble, Margaret quotes it as an answer to their question: it was death for Bonnie and Clyde.

Featured Characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

Continuity notes

• A note is added to the inside front cover apologizing for the name goofs that have peppered the first two issues, clarifying that Walter Simmons's partner is named Theodore Wells and promising the errors will be corrected for future editions. The recap written on the same page attempts to harmonize the errors by noting that Wells's full name is "Theodore Joseph".
• Margaret previously appeared in the last issue as a child. Since then, she's grown up, got married, and had a son. Since her descendant Seymour still bears the Simmons name, an explanation is required, and so we see in this issue that she has become separated from her husband (be it through death, divorce, or something else) and retaken her maiden name.
• Roy Thompson calls Walter Simmons "The Old Man", the epithet Walter was referred to by in the original movie prequel novel, Ghosts of Yesterday.
• Roy mentions that the best agent he ever worked with was a woman. Presumably, he's talking about Lou Hoover, seen last issue.

Real-life references

• As in the previous issue, real-life figures and events play a big part in this story. Bonnie and Clyde were, of course, infamous real-life outlaws in the Dust Bowl era, as was their young accomplice, W. D. Jones. The setting of Sowers, Texas was the site of a real-life shoot-out involving the criminals a few months before the events of this story are set, and the jailbreak led by Clyde in this issue did indeed happen in real life, at the time of the story. The couple's real-life deaths happened a few months later than this story places them—presumably a Sector Seven cover-story!
• The poem written by Bonnie during the story, paraphrased by Margaret in the issue's final panel, is a real-life work, though it was written some time before this story presents it being penned.
• According to writer John Barber's continuity notes at the end of the issue, the unnamed Texas Ranger who appears in this story is based on Frank Hamer, the real-life Ranger who hunted down and killed Bonnie and Clyde.
• The "Doc Oppenheimer" referenced by Thompson is Robert Oppenheimer, theoretical physicist and scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which created the nuclear bomb. He was previously noted to be involved with Sector Seven and to have studied and reverse-engineered Megatron (hence how he could develop the gun in this issue) in the third issue of IDW's Movie Prequel comic.

Other trivia

• This issue is dedicated to the memory of Arthur Penn, director of the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde, who died while the comic was in production.

Covers (2)

• Cover A: Art by Brian Rood, depicting Bonny and Clyde and their transforming car (looking a lot like Jazz).
• Cover RI: Art by Joe Suitor, the third of a series of interconnecting exclusive covers depicting archival Sector Seven documents and photos that cover the events of this issue.

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