Scrapper (issue)

	; Yay, "Spotlight: Scrapper"!; Wait, what the—?
	"Scrapper"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	June 9, 2010
Cover date	June 2010
Written by	Mike Costa
Art by	Javier Saltares
Colors by	James Brown
Letters by	Chris Mowry
Editor	Carlos Guzman
Associate editor	Andy Schmidt
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era (2010)

The name or term "Scrapper" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Scrapper (disambiguation).

Spike Witwicky reflects on current events and attempts to come to terms with his position as a leader.

Synopsis

While working out, Commander Spike Witwicky reminisces about how he hates all machines, regardless of whether they make you stronger or more vulnerable. He recalls his childhood, most of which he spent outdoors, especially on camping trips with his father, who taught him about responsibility and duty.

He wins a sparring match at Skywatch headquarters against his teammate Joe Henderson, utilizing a practical and somewhat underhanded approach to fighting, rather than an artful one, although the aftermath shows that they have a friendly rivalry. Henderson then gets into a play-fight with another of his Skywatch teammates, Campolongo, in the mess hall, causing a window to be broken as he is tackled through it. Spike is less than impressed and orders Campolongo to clean up the mess, reflecting that he hasn't yet got the hang of leadership.

Spike then enters into a video meeting with General Witwicky, General Allenby, and the Joint Chiefs. General Allenby questions Spike over the circumstances surrounding Optimus Prime's "escape" and warns him that any further incidents could lead to his position being reviewed. Speaking in private at the end of the meeting, General Witwicky warns Spike that Allenby is ready to pounce on any indiscretion or error he makes, and to be wary, especially of his new Autobot allies.

Spike then enters into briefing with another Skywatch soldier, Sandra, regarding the latest intelligence on the positions of rogue Decepticons on Earth. He leaves halfway through, ordering that Henderson be deferred to if anything should occur.

He drives to a seemingly deserted construction site. Entering it, he calls to the hidden Scrapper to give up the charade, and that he has come armed with low-tech weapons for a confrontation. He pours some acid on Scrapper, causing him to transform out of vehicle mode and attack Spike. During their fight, Spike tells Scrapper that he has no backup, and then sprays acid on his face, which stuns him long enough for Spike to use a crane to drop girders on him, impaling him and pinning him to the ground. Spike explains that he came with low-tech weapons and no backup so he could prove that he could take on a Cybertronian without the need for high-tech weaponry.

Scrapper then asks Spike to put suppressors on and says that he will go willingly into Skywatch custody. Spike recounts to Scrapper the memory of Tim Simmons, whom Spike considers the bravest soldier he ever knew. He tells Scrapper that when the Decepticons invaded New York, Tim was involved in helping get the population out of the city center, but perished when Devastator collapsed the subway tunnels. Spike, having also seen the destruction caused by Menasor, wants to ensure a similar incident doesn't happen again by removing one of the Constructicons from the equation permanently. Despite Scrapper's feeble protest, Spike uses his gun against him, destroying his head with a single shot.

As Spike walks away, he again considers that he hates machines, especially the ones that take away your humanity and make you feel like a machine.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons	Humans
Scrapper (8) Devastator (10)	Spike Witwicky (1) Daniel Witwicky (2) Mrs. Witwicky (3) Joe Henderson (4) Campolongo (5) Emily (6) General Allenby (7) Tim Simmons (9)

Quotes

"I've always hated machines. The ones that make you stronger. The ones that make you more vulnerable."

—Spike Witwicky doing an impression of Captain Fanzone.

"And green. Really. That has to be the stupidest color for a 'disguise'..."

—Spike Witwicky taunting Constructicon Scrapper.

"I wanted to show you that one of us can beat you. No lasers. None of your technology. Just a solution that can be made out of stuff anyone would have in their kitchen."

—Spike Witwicky ruining all the fun by emasculating the entire Cybertronian race.

Notes

Continuity notes

Spike, a military officer, abandoned his post, pursued an enemy single-handed as part of a personal vendetta and then brutally murders a wounded enemy who had surrendered, constituting a war crime. Issue #27 would make it clear that this is not abnormal behaviour for him and he is a dodgy, law-breaking bastard that's been protected by family connections.
Spike's actions here leads into the "Police Action" storyline that ends the series.
It also turned out to be very important during John Barber's run. The loss of Scrapper will give first Megatron and later Starscream the room to swap in replacements to help them control Devastator; the Constructicons, enraged over Scrapper's death, will go on to bond with Prowl over their mutual hate of Spike.
During Spike's recollection of Tim Simmons, the flashback image of Devastator destroying the tunnels depicts Devastator with a much more monster-like appearance. While in the same pose and largely drawn the same otherwise, in the flashback, he has sharp teeth, a skull-like face and an evil grin, in contrast to his more conventional appearance during these events in All Hail Megatron #2.

Errors

Don't make me lift weights. You wouldn't like me when I'm lifting weights.

Even allowing for artistic variation, Spike's appearance has changed radically since last issue. In addition to the new haircut mentioned in the dialogue, he looks... well... just look at him!
In the first panel that General Allenby appears in, he's drawn with three stars (the rank insignia of a lieutenant general) on his collar. In subsequent panels, the stars just disappear and make way for a simple button instead.
There is an art error during Spike's battle with Scrapper. As Spike is climbing the ladder, Scrapper's visor is drawn as extending down to his chin, like that of a Cyberjet, whereas in the rest of the issue, he is drawn with his normal visor.
The issue title, which should be printed on the page on which Spike knocks out Henderson, is missing.^[1]

Other trivia

This is the first issue of the ongoing series (or any previous series) to not feature any prominent Transformer robots. The story mainly focuses on Spike Witwicky, and a robot isn't even seen until page 17.
On the IDW message boards, Guido Guidi said that starting with this issue, Spike's new haircut is official, meaning that every artist has to draw it this way from now on. Yes, this little change was apparently more important to the story than keeping the Transformers' designs consistent.^[2]
It's somewhat ironic that after Spike's line about how awesome humans are that they don't need lasers or Transformers tech to beat Transformers, he uses Scrapper's gun against him (which is both a laser and Transformers tech).

Covers (3)

Cover A: Scrapper busting through a construction site; art by Don Figueroa and colors by James Brown.
Cover B: Scrapper reaching out towards Spike Witwicky through a construction site; art by Javier Saltares and colors by James Brown.
Cover RI: Concept art of Jazz; art by Don Figueroa.

Oh scrap!
We're all rooting for Scrapper here.
Hasbro, get to making thi-nevermind, we're getting better.

Reprints

The Transformers, Volume 2: International Incident (December 8, 2010) ISBN 1600108040 / ISBN 978-1600108044
- Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #7–12.
- Bonus material includes art from all covers, including design sketches from Don Figueroa.
- Trade paperback format.

The Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume Seven (October 17, 2012) ISBN 1613774060 / ISBN 978-1613774069
- Collects Infestation issues #1–2, The Transformers (2009) issues #7–18, and Ironhide issues #1–4.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 46: Things Fall Apart (October 4, 2017)
- Collects The Transformers (2009) issues #2–8.
- Bonus material includes character design sketches by Figueroa, an extract from Decepticomments from The Transformers #4 by Mike Costa, and a bio on IDW Swindle.
- Hardcover format.

Volume 2: International Incident – cover art by Guido Guidi and James Brown
The IDW Collection Volume Seven – cover art by E. J. Su
The Definitive G1 Collection: Volume 46: Things Fall Apart – cover art by Makoto Ono and Don Figueroa