Clue issue 5
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| Publisher | IDW Publishing | ||||||||||||
| First published | November 1, 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | October 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Paul Allor | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Nelson Dániel | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Neil Uyetake | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
The places of every player in the mystery start to fall into place as Professor Plum confronts the guests' host — but not everything is going to plan.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
In the entrance hall of the mansion, Detective Amarillo and Upton are shocked to find Miss Scarlett lying dead on the floor, Mr. Green having apparently pushed her from the balcony above. While Amarillo arrests the businessman for the murders of the night's various victims, Upton muses that the night is turning out to be most terrible... and though he didn't think it was "okay" before, it was, at least, according to plan. At that moment, though, the plan is unravelling elsewhere, as Professor Plum prepares to enter Mr. Boddy's library and confront him, even as Dr. Orchid tries to dissuade her fellow scientist, thinking that their host is still dead and that Plum was mistaken about seeing him. Plum will have none of it, though, and bursts into the room, surprising the very much alive Boddy; but their host is merely disappointed that their "conversation" has come ahead of schedule, and he manages to overpower Plum. The scientist manages to make Boddy release his grip by kicking him in the shin, and Plum and Orchid flee to elsewhere in the house. After they leave, an irritated Mr. Boddy, activates a secret switch that reveals a hidden set of stairs behind his bookcases.
Promising the reader a degree of explanation, Upton introduces the next segment of the issue — which, as Carlos Guzman smugly points out, is one of Upton's hated flashbacks. Insisting that there's a difference in it being a flashback within the comic's timeframe, Upton implores the reader to turn the page.
After Mr. Green leaves to search for the Surobi zinnia flowers, Senator White returns to Miss Scarlett's room to give her a word of advice on avoiding the attention of men like Mr. Green, advising her to be less "frivolous". Scarlett is infuriated by White's claims that she's "desperate for attention", pointing out that she needs attention for her career to exist; she's trying to take advantage of the situation for her career survival, just like White is, but for White it's "cunning" and for Scarlett it's "frivolous". The two part ways, with Senator White heading to the conservatory and her ill-fated encounter with Colonel Mustard, while Scarlett takes a different tactic — if she isn't going to be a murder suspect, why not an attempted murder victim? Scarlett plans to throw herself from the banister above the entrance hall, giving her the notoriety she craves as a near-murder victim. Spotting her own reflection, which she calls a "clever little minx", she prepares to go through with her plan, but decides against it, not wanting to be dragged down to the others' level. Unfortunately, Mr. Green at that moment comes up behind her, wanting to know how she came across the flowers... and when the repulsed Scarlett backs up against the balcony's banister, it snaps beneath her weight, and sends her falling to the ground below...
And so, Mr. Green was mistaken for Miss Scarlett's killer, though he wasn't responsible for killing her, or any of the other guests — or even Detective Ochre, clubbed to death with a lead pipe by Senator White so that she could destroy the blackmail material that Boddy had collected on Green and herself, having moved a pile of heavy furniture twice to ensure herself an alibi.
Unaware that White is dead and the evidence of their collusion is destroyed, Mr. Green tries to bribe Detective Amarillo to destroy it for him, but the detective is unimpressed and takes him away. Meanwhile, Plum and Orchid are back in the pantry; though Orchid wants them to work on a way out, Plum insists on exposing the murderer and clearing their names first... but he doesn't get a chance, as Mr. Boddy bursts from the cupboard next to him and knocks him out by placing a chemical-soaked rag over his face! With the professor unconscious, Boddy berates Orchid, as his plan has gone off the rails. Orchid was meant to keep Plum out of danger until they were ready, but she failed, and all she can do is apologise to Boddy... who is, in fact, her father.
Upton recaps: four of the suspects are dead, one is in custody, and one is colluding with the mastermind behind the whole thing. In the next issue, things will come to an end... but until then, the storm that has been keeping the guests trapped in the mansion has passed...
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
Characters in italics are shown only in flashback. (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Suspects | Detectives | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"And as that exciting chase commences, I fear the time has come to start providing you — our faithful readers — with some explanation of tonight's events. Starting with the most recent."
"With a flashback."
"Ah — no! Well, yes, but to an earlier point in tonight's events. It's completely different. Just turn the page!"
- —Upton is frustrated by Carlos Guzman
"You may not have noticed, but hip-hop is a bit of a male-dominated field."
"Don't you dare lecture me about that. I'm a woman of color in the Republican—"
"Yeah, that's not something to brag about."
- —Miss Scarlett has some hot takes about Senator White's politics
"You want me to sell out a murder investigation for gold bars and a private plane?"
"A private plane? I was thinking more in the line of stock options, or—"
"Or nothing."
- —Detective Amarillo isn't taking Mr. Green's bribes
Notes[edit | edit source]
Suspect tracker[edit | edit source]
- What a twist! Dr. Orchid has been colluding with Mr. Boddy the whole time! (That explains why she was familiar with Upton back in issue 2.) It isn't clear if she's responsible for any of the deaths, however, since her role in the scheme was to keep an eye on Professor Plum.
- Mr. Green, despite Amarillo's beliefs, turns out to not have been responsible for any of the deaths — he's just a jerk.
- Senator White is revealed to have been the murderer of Detective Ochre back in issue 2. There, it seemed like she had an alibi, having barricaded herself into her room, but she apparently moved it out of the way and then back to give herself that alibi.
- Miss Scarlett is apparently dead, as irrelevant to the ongoing mystery as everyone assumed she'd be. Is that the end of it?
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- The "family recipe" that Boddy uses to knock out Plum is presumably prattotoxin, used by Boddy to fake his death.
- Mr. Green gets to be the first character to have his full name revealed: Nicolae Martin Green.
Clue references[edit | edit source]
- Weapons check: on top of the candlestick from last issue, Miss Scarlett also carries a rope.
- Dr. Orchid being Mr. Boddy's daughter comes from the 2016 version of Clue, in which she debuted.
Real life references[edit | edit source]
- Miss Scarlett mentions Popify, a parody of the real-life Spotify music streaming service.
- Senator White is established to be a member of the Republican Party. Miss Scarlett refers to her as a "Tory", an Australian pejorative for members of the Liberal Party.
Other notes[edit | edit source]
- Originally scheduled for September, this issue is ever-so-slightly hit by IDW's ongoing series of delays, being pushed back to the first of November.
Covers (3)[edit | edit source]
- Cover A: The usual suspects around a map of the
game boardmansion, by Jon Sommariva - Cover B: Miss Scarlett, by Nelson Dániel
- Cover C: Dr. Orchid with the glass of wine/rope, by Nicoletta Baldari
