Transformers Optimus Prime and Lost Light Volume 2

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

You are listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

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right now here inside the pull bag. auto volley

august continues here as we talk about transformers

as always this is episode 323 of the pull bag

i am tf2 and mike joining me is ryan the uneven

flow merkeley hello sir yo and we're back at

it with transformers optimus prime and lost light

volume two for each respectively continuing on

with our idw transformers coverage uh quick note

um Someone on Facebook had asked for podcast

recommendations, and I half -jokingly said, but,

but, but, what about ecastradio .com? And they

had mentioned something about the fact that,

oh, but I want more than just nostalgia. We do

more than just nostalgia, folks. I even mentioned

the full bag, and then they're like, oh, but

I want more than just IDW coverage. IDW's a great

company, they have a great product, they have

great licenses, just because... This person isn't

into the Transformers comics or the TMNT comics.

I'm sorry. However, I pointed out to this person

that the pullback has done far more than just

IDW stuff. We've done Sex Criminals from Image

Comics. We've done a lot of stuff from Image

Comics. Sex Criminals, Adrian's Wall, Cowl, Kennelblock

Blues from Boom Studios. You and I have... You

and I have done Punisher. We've done Batman comics.

My thing is, so first of all, the IDW stuff,

in particular Transformers, Lost Light, and More

Than Meets the Eye, I put it up against any of

the comics from Marvel or DC or Image. It's really

good. And Jason Aaron, who is one of my favorite

writers, regularly tweets and gushes that James

Roberts might be the best writer in comics right

now. I mean, he's right up there with Tom King

and some of the other ones that have been doing

a consistently great job. Brian K. Vaughn, et

cetera, et cetera. Anyway, so there's that. Two,

I think the IDW stuff could use a spotlight.

More people should talk about it and do podcasts.

Three, how the fuck more do you need to talk

about Batman? So it's funny. mentioned the facebook

comment and everything else batman's quickly

becoming one of the most boring characters to

talk about i love tom king his run on it is great

it's been really interesting my problem is batman

as a character has become boring as hell lately

so you here's batman and you know he's out there

you introduce okay here's the world's greatest

assassin batman beats them Okay, well, here's

Kane, the world's greatest ninja. Batman kicks

his ass, too, for some reason, even though the

other person's supposed to be the world's greatest

whatever. Batman just beats everybody, and it's

annoying at this point. And Kane concentrates

on other things, but so many writers don't. There's

so much bad Batman stuff. okay so right now and

i've said this before i'm barely like right now

i have one marvel title that i'm reading the

new tony stark iron man that dan slott's doing

because dan slott is now on that instead of being

spider -man um When it comes to DC right now,

I'm trying to read the Nightwing Rebirth series.

I'm not fully through it. I do have the first

volume of Tom King's series, but my main go -to

for DC right now is either their He -Man and

crossover things. I haven't read He -Man and

Injustice yet, but it's that and the Batman Beyond

Rebirth series. Those are my DC titles at this

point. I have not... Well, those are just nostalgia,

though. No, they're not. Yeah. No, they're not.

They're all new stories. So my friend on Facebook,

after I made the initial comment, but, but, but,

what about geekcastradio .com? He said that I'm

not in a headspace where I want nostalgia. I

want adult conversations that come with interesting

opinions, insight, and education. I like nostalgia.

That's why I listen to something to wrestle with

first, Richard. How is talking about Transformers

comics not, like, people need to understand that

the Transformers comics from IDW. They're not

nostalgic. Yes, IDW reprints the old Marvel stuff,

but these are all new, interesting stories. Not

to mention, few of the characters bear any resemblance

to the Generation 1 characters. I mean, maybe

physically, but for example, we'll be talking

about Skids, who died a trade ago, but Skids,

for example, bears absolutely no resemblance.

resemblance to his generation one character who

by the way basically had no character unless

you count the getting molested by Carly issue

in the in the Marvel US comics which was a little

weird but the anyway but no it's very different

storytelling not to mention all the LGBT themes

and a lot of the other stuff that You know, the

More Than Meets the Eye series before 50, I can't

remember the exact number, but anyway, had a

pair of issues dedicated to a very mature discussion

on mental health involving the deteriorating

health of Grimlock at the time. Right. And the

scavengers essentially try to kind of take advantage

of him and pointing out how wrong that is. Exactly.

And so there's a ton of stuff like that. There's

a lot of real world politics in Lost Light, particularly

in the next trade. But as soon as I saw that

one line. Sorry, I meant in the previous trade.

Sorry. The functionalist universe had significant

references to fascism and not to mention Brexit,

which Roberts, of course, being British. is very

familiar with. So yeah, it's not just based on

it. And to be fair, I think any comics, if, if

your criteria is long running or something that

existed a long time ago, all comics are nostalgia

that every single one of them, Batman, Batman's

older than the transformers. That's right. 80

years next year. I also want to state that even

though, Transformers, TMNT, to a lesser extent,

the Gem Comics from IDW, the Back to the Future

run we did. Even though TMNT and Transformers

are the two big mainstays for the podcast for

the five years we've been online, we've also

done a bunch of other stuff. As I mentioned,

stuff from Image, stuff from Boom. The Boom Studio

stuff is continuing because next month you and

I are going to do Lunatic Fringe, WWE Volume

2. It has been almost a full year since Joe Reed

and I did a TMNT episode. So there hasn't been

a TMNT episode on the pullback since almost last

September. We're going to be doing a first five

-issue thing. Comixology was running a sale at

one point or a promotion where you could get

five, I guess, creator -owned Brian Michael Bendis

titles for free. So we're going to be doing that.

You know, I'll say this for DC. They sure do

do interesting things at certain times because

we're going to finally get around to doing their

Kentucky Fried Chicken comics. And no, I'm not

kidding. More nostalgia. Not when, you know,

Green Lantern has to go up against the Colonel.

That's not really nostalgia. That's nostalgia

for the colonel is obviously a representation

of owning slaves. And so, oh, sorry. Wow. Okay,

then. All right. So today, in the penultimate

episode of Autobotly August 2018, as I said,

Optimus Prime and Lost Light, volume two for

each. Optimus Prime. So speaking of nostalgia,

so let me just say what we were talking about

before, and that is Optimus Prime Volume 2 works

really well. It works really well because I know

what happens up to Issue 23. The issue here is

that the majority of this trade is set up for

things to come. It's retconning stuff that previously

had been shown and kind of merging everything

together. So having read that forward stuff,

rereading, sorry, having read the future stuff,

rereading this, everything kind of clicks into

place. But when you're reading this on its own,

i .e. when I picked it up or when I read the

issues individually, it's not great. Every one

of these issues contains significant numbers

of flashbacks and past stories. And of the group

of them. We continue on with Jetfire's, which,

I'm not going to lie, it's nice to get some backstory

for Jetfire and have him be more, hey, here's

another character, by the way. There's very little

resemblance to his Generation 1 version, but

it's nice to give him more backstory than just

being a generic scientist. However, again, they're

fairly intrusive. They have... a lot less to

do with future events than the flashbacks of

Pyra Magna and Optimus Prime. Particularly Pyra's.

All the Onyx Prime stuff is exceptionally important

very soon. And then, by the way, the final issue

of this trade, I'm just going to skip ahead now,

is Alpha Trion telling another story from the

past. And again... This would have been better

served being part of the trade, which is the

next one, which will unveil Onyx Prime and everybody

else. As it sits at the end of this trade, out

of context, it doesn't work. And in its defense,

Lost Light suffers from this with the first issue

of its trade as well. It's an issue of the comic

that should have been in the previous trade.

This is an issue of the comic that should have

been the next one. So lastly, I ask, how the

hell do I evaluate this as a whole? Because these

are good issues telling a really good story,

but it's a story that doesn't snap into place

until another trade or two after this. And it

doesn't work well on its own. And the other problem

I have is the second last issue of this is an

absolute masterpiece and one of the best individual

issues of a Transformers comic I think I've ever

read. That's The Life of Sideswipe. And it is

Sideswipe's... Ugh. They try to give Sideswipe

a good send -off, we'll say. Sideswipe was mortally

wounded way back in Robots in Disguise. Sorry,

way back in the Transformers. In the run -up

from... Was it before 50? I don't even remember

anymore. I don't remember. We just went through

all that stuff last year and I don't even remember

at this point. Well, it's been a year. I can't

remember every... I read a lot of comics. I know.

I've got to post pictures of my trade room now

that it's done. I have a room, and it is just

trades. It is just bookshelves of trades. And

by the way, every bookshelf has Transformers

on top of it. Of course. What I love about Optimus

Prime Vol. 2, I love the jazz story. Yes, I was

going to bring that up. I love finally getting

the, not necessarily comeuppance, but the whole

thing with jazz. I love that. I love the Bumblebee

stuff. I love the Sideswipe stuff. I think it's

probably the most... It's the most character

I can remember Sideswipe ever getting. Yes, exactly.

And it's also the most, quote -unquote, humanizing

RC has ever been, I think. And it doesn't feel

out of character. No, at least the IDW RC, not

RC. Again, IDW RC bears little to no resemblance

to Generation 1 RC. You nostalgic piece of shit.

Oh, sorry. But no, yeah, I loved all that. Can't

talk about the Transformers comics without bringing

up the artwork is phenomenal again. And we have

a number of different artists on it. There's

Keizama, who's, oh, jeez, she's good. Her work

on the Sideswipe issue is some of my favorites.

Some of my favorite stuff she's done. And then

we just get a ton of other people. Casey Collar

did an issue with Priscilla Tremont. Yeah, Tremantano.

Tremantano. There we go. And then, of course,

we have Olivio Ramondelli returns to do an excellent

job on Alpha Trion's story from the past. I love

his work on this. It's some of his best work.

And he's another guy like all of the IDW artists,

really, who has improved over time. So Priscilla

did the number seven and the annual. And the

annual, yeah. Casey did number eight. Kay Zama

did number nine and ten. And Livio did number

ten. Obviously, he's in the past part. And then

Priscilla, John Paul Beauvais, Josh Burcham,

Livio, Thomas Deer, and Josh Perez on colors

for all of the various things. Tommy Long and

Chris Mowry on letters as well. Yep. Yeah, I...

It's the story that perplexes me here with this

trade, with the Optimus Prime series at this

point, because I feel so out of it at times.

So you haven't read ahead? No. Just so people

know, by the way. But I have. I've been reading

the individual issues. I started reading them

around the end of this trade, I think. Okay.

What I did was when... Comixology was having

an IDW End of the Universe sale up until July

30th of this year. It was actually their longest

IDW Transformers sale that I can remember on

Comixology. It was like at least two and a half

months worth of sales of the same sale going

through. So I went through and I got Lost Light

Volumes 1 and 2. I got Optimus Prime Volumes

1 and 2. For doing these specific podcasts, I

have not, up until then, I had not read either

title. I'm catching up. I'm reading it for the

first time now. The only thing I'm doing currently

in conjunction with reading these trades is I'm

reading the six -issue Unicron series. So that's

the only current thing I'm reading for Transformers

right now. Yeah, so you potentially know some

of Hawaii things are the way they are here, but

definitely not all, because a lot of it's in

the later stuff of Optimus Prime, which is running

right now yeah so yeah this is just i i hate

saying anything bad about robert's stuff because

he's a brilliant writer barber or sorry barber

stuff well i hate saying anything bad about robert's

too but no i hate saying anything bad about barber

no you're right sorry and his stuff clicks together

so well uh it is a great story overall but oof

the sum of its parts is better than those individual

ones there are too many working parts here for

me like i said the jazz part i got because we've

been dealing with this whole jazz thing that

he killed a cop on earth years and years and

years ago and this is why earth hates the transformers

and blah blah blah amongst other things i love

that I love that we finally get, you know, because

the universe is ending, we finally get an answer

or a great story to send Sideswipe off. I thought

that was great. But the lead -up, the Pyra Magna

story, not her flashback, but just her being

here, all of that, like, I am just so lost. I

mean, I understood the story, but when I was

first reading it, I'm like, okay. So that happened,

that happened, and that happened. Oh, hey, look,

there's Shockwave. Yay. Maybe he's there in another

form. Oh, anyway. Maybe they're going to call

him Longarm Prime or something. Well, you know,

anyway. All right, anyway. So Onyx Prime returns.

Okay. Yes, Onyx Prime. And he's the big bad of

this trade for the most part. Well, not really,

since he's only really mentioned, but... He only

appears via flashback, and we get his backstory,

and why all of this suddenly happens, we understand

much later on. Right. But for now... Swipe issue,

yeah, this is the most characterization we've

ever gotten for Side Swipe and Sunstreaker. Like,

Side Swipe even points out Sunstreaker is just,

you know, Sunstreaker is essentially the G1 version

of Decepticon Knockout. No, I'm saying with what

I'm about to say, don't tarnish my finish, you

know, that kind of thing. That's what I remember

Sunstreaker being. I was just going to say that

Sunstreaker got a lot of characterization much

earlier. Remember, he was one of the stars in

the Shun series, becoming the first headmaster.

And then he was a big part of All Hail Megatron,

being revealed as one of the Autobot traitors.

This is making my head hurt. And then his semi

-redemption arc during the Costa years. He's

had a decent amount of focus over the years.

it hasn't been great focus yeah i haven't even

read any of the stuff that you you've been saying

here so yeah i don't recommend reading it either

uh so that's why i said this is the best so i

feel terrible but oh sorry go ahead no go ahead

i was just gonna I was going to flat out just

give the rating at this point because I have

very little interest in it. So, I feel real bad.

It's going to... If I was going to rate Optimus

Prime as in the series as a whole, at this point,

unless they absolutely don't stick the landing,

it's a 4 .5 to a 5 out of 5. But this book, as

an individual trade, which is how I'm going to

end up scoring it, is going to... I'm just going

to give it a two and a half. And that's almost

exclusively on the strength of Sideswipe. The

other issues just don't do it for me. The flashback

sequences, again, just don't seem to meld with

the... tone of the current ones. I realize what

he's trying to say with regards to the post -war

Transformers, not to mention with the transformation

going on on Earth, but I don't feel like it flowed

the way he had wanted it to. Right. I liked the

sides... Like I said, there's four things. Jazz,

Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Alpha Trion. Specifically

the Alpha Trion Livio stuff. Love that. I think

the best comedy moment in this trade is at the

end where they're like, the Earth representative

is the dog? And then obviously Marissa comes

in and, you know. So, there's that. That is one

of the best panels. of this yes it is i thought

it was funny so it's tough and this is to me

this is the equivalent of what if i took what

if i took a middle of third season episode of

breaking bad and decided to essentially evaluate

the entire series based on that It doesn't really

work, because it's just a part of the story,

and it's not meant to be the story. So, yeah,

reviewing this sucks. I don't know what to say.

If I was reviewing it based on the rest of the

series, I'd give it a 4 or so. But again, as

an individual series of issues... I was only

a big fan of a couple of them, and I'm only a

fan of sort of half of the story told in the

annual as well. So we head out to deep space

with Lost Light. If I was giving... Sorry, I'm

losing my mind here. Yeah, you didn't even give

a score. It's your show. You're supposed to know.

I know, right? Well... I still do not like...

I like the flashback and the purpose of its different

artists between the current and the flashback,

but constantly having the flashback still, I

still don't like. Yeah, I don't find it confusing

where it begins or ends, and a lot of that I

like. I agree. I like that they changed the artists.

Yeah, that's great that they changed the artists.

I still don't like jumping time from current

to past, current to past, current to past. I

don't like that. Other than that, Three and a

half, maybe? That's the best I can give it. It's

probably not the worst I can give it, but there

are the moments, like I just said, with Jazz,

with Bumblebee, with Sideswipe, with Buster,

with Alpha Trion, especially Livio. Livio needs

to get his own series nowadays. I know he did

the whole thing with... Flint Dilly and all that,

with the ones we covered last year with the Autocracy

trilogy, but I want Livio to have his own stuff

nowadays, too. Okay, so Lost Light, Volume 2,

obviously written by James Roberts. Art, we have

lots of artists in here as well. Jack Lawrence

is on main art for 7 and 10 through 12. Priscilla's

on arc for 8 and 9. Additional arc by Alex on

11 and Andrew Griffith on 12. Colors by Joanna.

Additional colors by Priscilla and John Palmore

Bay. Letters by Tommy Long. Story consultant

Rachel Stevens 8 and 9. Why did they need a story

consultant on this? That's a great question.

I have no idea. That's a good... So they had

a consultant on the... two episodes on uh troja

major yeah and getting into it so the first one

is sort of the denouement to the previous trade

which i've said a few times it should have probably

just been included in the last trade that would

have made more sense but yeah all right uh the

oof So first of all, I can sum up this trade

by saying, fuck you for toying with my emotions,

James Roberts. I love you. Don't ever change.

So we open with the denouement of the functionalist

universe and that trip for our main characters.

We have the fallout from that. We have the fallout

from... Cyclonus' damage and Whorl telling Tailgate

why it was happening. We have the horrifying

last few panels where noted piece of crap Fangry,

who... Last time I remember Fangry being featured,

he gets beat up by Grimlock in Marvel U .S. near

the end of that series, too. sort of kick -off

Autobot Decepticon relations going south again.

Right. So it's interesting that he gets featured

again here. He was in the earlier stuff of Lost

Light as well, which is this is him getting his

revenge on Tailgate, burying him for six million

years. Yep. Seems a little excessive. Yeah, very

excessive. And speaking of Breaking Bad... That

is a real, yeah. I swear it only goes off on

a podcast. Nobody cares about me any other time.

To be fair, nobody cares about me now. Oh, stop

it. They just randomly text me. So then we skip

to a two -parter on Troja Major, which is more

Fallout from, this time it's back from More Than

Meets the Eye. Yeah, before we get to Trojan

Major, I have to say, Issue 7, you are completely

correct. This should have, like, if this had

ended the first trade, we would have recorded

this episode, like, right after that one. Because

ending on Tailgate being buried alive for six

million years, holy shit. I have to say, though,

the whole Cyclonus -Tailgate thing was great.

Rodimus. Rodimus is easily the best leader. I

love this guy. Well, he's improving as a leader.

He ends up being a fairly good one. Whatever,

I'm skipping ahead while I'm doing that. I mean,

just his one line. I like how he knows to motivate

Magnus, and he's motivating Magnus because Magnus

legitimately believed Megatron was turning good.

Or trying to be a better person at least. And

we know that he's not wrong about it. That Megatron

was tricked into staying there. But obviously

our characters don't. Yeah. There's one panel

in here. It's actually my current... I just switched

up my Facebook profile picture for this because

I just love, absolutely love Rodimus where he's

like, okay, if you can't hear me, you better

find someone who did hear me because we're leaving

in five minutes. It's like, I just love that.

Yeah, I love the Magnus stuff. I love the Cyclonus

and Tailgate stuff in this issue. As someone

who had read all of this, like More Than Meets

the Eye, Lost Light, like I'm reading Lost Light

now, but going through all of More Than Meets

the Eye, and we're now finally getting answers

that we so richly deserve. Yeah, which brings

me to the Trojan Major stuff, which is an awful

lot of the overall story regarding the Grand

Architect and that insignia we've been seeing

throughout. more than meets the eye up into lost

light and the basis of the story though is around

nonica a being angry at her friend velocity over

skid's death and b her sadness over skid's death

and wanting to bring him back and roberts just

loves twisting the knife and Anode and Lug, it

should be mentioned, by the way, I finally started

to like Anode here and Lug. I found them not

annoying and much better, deeper characters through

this. But they also get through a lot of the

backstory I mentioned. But again, it's around

the plot of wanting to resurrect Skids. And in

true Robert's fashion, it ends horribly. I mean,

in the end, they erase Nonica's feelings for

Skids. She doesn't even care that he's dead or

anything. She's just kind of... She hasn't forgotten

him, but she doesn't remember the fact she loved

him, even as a close friend or whatever they

were. but that's brutal and it should be noted

too I howled with joy at the final panel of this

book because A the magnificence has been missing

since the Shun series way back at the start of

IDW yeah and B so has the character holding it

uh Old Scorpy's been gone for a long time, and

it was nice to see him remembered and brought

back. So that made me ecstatic. And the rest

of this trade are the three issues which show

us what the crew of the Lost Light, the titular

ship led by Captain Getaway, has been up to with

our heroes away. And Jesus Christ, James, what

is wrong with you? Who hurt you as a child, James?

Why would you do this to us? Like, seriously.

We get wanton slaughter of most of the Lost Light

crew. It's brutal. Yeah, it's very brutal. I

understand Getaway's thing of Megatron is evil.

I get that part of it. But if you look at what

Megatron has done since his trial. And joining

a lot, like, he's become a lot less Decepticon

-like. Yeah, but we know that as the readers.

Right. Because we get to see his motivations.

We get to see Skids taking him to task for wanting

to leave a planet. We get to see him change.

Getaway and a lot of the other crew here didn't.

And I don't think that Getaway was wrong originally.

I don't want to call it an issue because it still

sort of makes sense. But afterwards, he has become

very much the sort of mustache -twirling villain

who he wants to be recognized and he wants to

be remembered. And there's nothing wrong with

that. The problem is he'll go to any length for

it. He literally sacrifices a significant amount

of the crew to meet those goals. Yeah, like,

Getaway is... Wait, is he originally an Autobot

or a Decepticon? I don't remember off the top

of my head. Ghetto was originally an Autobot.

He always was. That's fine. Now that I see the

Autobot symbol on his chest, I just... And he's

an MTO. He was a made -to -order during the war.

Okay. And his ability... So he's an outlier,

although it doesn't come up a lot. Right. And

his ability is that he's able to kind of... He's

got a silver tongue. He can talk his way into

and out of anything. and we see an awful lot

of that because the things he does are horrible

but he's able to convince other people but he's

also able to convince himself and it's what makes

him a little deeper than just sort of a mustache

twirling villain i also like that again i agree

with his initial i mean i agree with his initial

treatment of Megatron because he's not wrong

I don't agree because it's not what I would have

done and because I as a reader know he's better

than what they were pitching him as or what they

believed him to be but I understand where he's

coming from it's just beyond that he just goes

way over the edge and oof he's a there's a lot

of death in these issues and yeah what i you

know you said earlier about james and screwing

with all of our emotions and everything else

i had to actually double check where i was in

this trade because of the fucking time loop i

thought i'm like wait didn't i just read this

already i was like Which I really like. That

was well done. It was well done, but as I was

reading it, I'm like, wait a minute. Didn't this

already happen? Which is the idea, and it's terrible

that, yeah, that's what they do. Don't worry,

though, because the Protector Bots don't stay

in one. One of them gets murdered, and then everybody,

oof, Defensor gets taken out. We had the return

of Star Saber, too. This whole trade is a lot

of the long -running plots coming back to fruition.

And that's a great thing. Yeah, I mean, they

mention that Star Saber is lured back because

of his hatred of Cyclonus, who bested him and

took out one of his eyes. Not to mention we have

Ambulon, who... was sawed in half way back in

the fifth trade of More Than Meets the Eye, and

we knew he turned into a leg. I was sure at some

point it was going to come up again, and I wasn't

wrong for once. Because it comes up here, we

get the payoff of Riptide being stupid. He's

too stupid to have a nudge gun slash memory gun

used on him. Which was an interesting way to,

it seems almost kind of mean, but. So, obviously,

Getaway has kicked off Rodimus and Megatron and

everybody. Rodimus gets a message back to them.

He's like, you know, this is Rodimus and I am

incredibly pissed off. By the time, like, this

was a pre -recorded message. This is him live.

on the thing, right? Because he's in his classic

colors here. He's not in the purple colors that

he's been in. So the first issue, or sorry, the

first issue after the time loop is Ronimus and

the message he sent in 50 of More Than Meets

the Eye. It is live. It's when he discovers Getaway

and everybody mutinied. Okay, so it's basically

before he does the colored... Okay, I got it,

I got it. The next message he sends, the one

about wanting to be melted down, and by the way,

it's a nice reference to Death's Head. Anyway,

that message is when all of the Autobots record

their final message, when they know the DJD is

coming. Before the Necrobots save them. And they

expect to all be killed. Well, the Necrobot didn't

save them. He gets killed by the DJD. So, they

save themselves. Actually, well, technically

it's Skids that saves them, because of course

he dies, giving them the extra power temporarily,

which keeps them alive for a bit. And then Megatron

took the battlefield, and well, he's Megatron,

so. He's a very angry Transformer. Have we ever,

like... Okay, so they always talk about the oil

reservoir on the Lost Light, like people have

gone down there and this, that, and the other

thing. You're going to ask if we've seen it?

Yeah, because I don't remember. Now, the only

reason I would remember this specific thing if...

Chromedome looks into Skid's memories originally

and tells Skid's that he won't tell him what

they are for fear of what Skid's would do. in

the oil reservoir. That's where that scene takes

place. It was also used where Red Alert killed

himself or tried to kill himself. Right, I remember

that. But what I'm saying is, up until right

now, at this moment, when I'm going to say what

I'm going to say in about two seconds, have they

ever actually stated that these things are in

the reservoir? No, because they're added. It's

a reference to... In reference to Transformers

Prime. No. Because they're scraplets. They're

red scraplets. The more they eat, the more they

reproduce. So first of all, scraplets are from

the Marvel U .S. Generation 1 series. Oh, okay.

Sorry, the comic series. Second of all, so one

issue that so far has not been reprinted is the

Lost Light Annual. And it contains Whirl raising

a group of Scraplets. These are the ones placed

in the reservoir. Okay. I thought the annual

was in here. Nope. No, it's not. It is not. Huh.

They had the Optimus Prime annual in the other.

Are they going to put the annual in the next

track? I don't know. They better, since it becomes

fairly important later on. You think, yeah. So

I would assume so. But yes, at this point, it

is not important. However, yes, the getaway put

scraplets in there to eat Riptide, which they

failed to do. Yeah. Because Riptide is just too

stupid to be eaten by scraplets, apparently.

Well, it's too stupid to forget how to transform

when... The memory gun is used on him, slash

nudge gun, is what it's called. But anyway. Yeah,

so this trade and these series of issues end

with A, the slaughter of a whole shitload of

the crew, but B, they find Getaway discovers

cyber utopia, which is what Rodimus and co. have

been looking for this entire time. Right. So

Getaway, best captain, because he actually made

it to the end. Sure, most of the crew is dead,

but he did pretty well. And so yeah, this is

a happy ending. Don't worry, this all goes really

well in the next few issues. Everything's happy,

nothing bad happens to anybody else. And yeah,

James Roberts certainly does not make me feel

sad or anything again. Ever. He's lying, folks,

in case you're wondering. So the series is really

good. It is. It is very good, yes. More Than

Meets the Eye, when it started, tells a very

segmented from the rest of the Transformers universe

story. Right. And I really like it. I like how

a lot of the stuff from the past, individual

lines, that sort of thing, are important and

used much later on. I like the change of... So

one thing I don't think we mentioned... We certainly

mentioned the artist change. Alex Milne did an

awful lot of More Than Meets the Eye. And he

is excellent. One of the best... transformers

artists of all time he's responsible for a lot

of the redesigns which would eventually become

figures because the idw designs were so nice

and he always did a great job and then we changed

to jack lawrence for lost light his art has a

different feel and the book has a different feel

and unlike a lot of people i don't necessarily

i don't see the big difference between one and

the other i know there is a switch in tone to

a certain extent yeah i'm okay with that i don't

mind that sort of the world -hopping giant encompassing

stories switched and now those are in optimus

prime and lost light has become the sort of individual

character study yeah I'm okay with that. Yeah,

I am so okay with that. I don't mind that they've

swapped them. Yeah. Because Optimus Prime has

to deal with the Council of Worlds and Cybertron

and all these now dead worlds because of where

we are currently. Well, I was going to say, yeah,

to be blunt. Barber's kind of got a really tough

job because he's got to deal with Unicron. He's

got to wrap all of this stuff up. He's got to

wrap up the entire universe before Unicron gets

there. And I'm not trying to take anything away

from Roberts, but he has his own story that he

had decided on an end five or six years ago.

He already knew how this was going to turn out.

so all he has to do is get to that point and

i say that like it's easy it's definitely not

it's not easy but but i think but i don't envy

what barber's got to do which is why i hate kind

of you know bashing or crapping on any of his

stuff because he's done just an amazing job on

it And I'm getting way off topic, but I'm just

gushing. You know, we're now talking about both,

and that's fine. We're still talking Transformers.

It's not like we went into, oh, James Roberts

is now going to write Breaking Bad comics. Oh,

God, that'd be amazing. I know, right? Except

everybody's dead. Well, actually, he'd be good

at that, then. So, the Until All Are One is super

character -driven. I don't think it's a coincidence

that... In my opinion, my two favorite books

that were running during this time were Till

All Are One and Lost Light Slash More Than Meets

the Eye. Because one of the reasons Transformers

has survived this long is because the characters

are interesting and there's an awful lot you

can do with them. And a lot of them, to be blunt,

are a blank slate because we didn't get characterization

from them in Generation 1. Skids appeared in

what? One episode of the cartoons? No, sorry.

Three. He appeared in three episodes of the...

He appeared in three episodes of the G1 series,

if I remember right. But he gets next to no characterization

or an awful lot. So he had... So you get a scenario

where Roberts could just do whatever he wanted

with the guy. And he does a great job with it

and tries to incorporate some of the tech specs

and that kind of thing. But really, it's a new

take. Yeah. And it just... His character work

is brilliant. So is Barber's. But Barber has

an overall plot to get through that's very convoluted.

He's got to do a lot of world building, that

kind of thing. Whereas Scott and Roberts had

the opportunity to look at individual characters

and ask themselves, how would this character

deal with blank? And a lot of the best shows

come out of that. Vince, you know I love referencing

Breaking Bad. Screw it. Hey, let's reference

The Shield, which you love too. Absolutely. But

one of the great things about The Shield is that's

what it was. It was, okay, how would character

X, Dutch, Vic, Acevedo, whoever, react to this

happening? Right. And that's how you tell a lot

of the best character stories, is trying to logically

figure out how somebody would react to whatever

event it is. And I don't think it's a coincidence

that those have made some of the best Transformer

comics ever. Yep. It's hard for me to read some

of the other stuff. We've only covered one volume

of the Marvel U .S. run that IDW had reprinted.

Steve and I had done that episode a couple of

years ago, and I had a really hard time. I'm

not good with old comics. I'm just not. I don't

know what it is. if it was the color schemes

that they had to use back then because look at

it this way art colors inks all of that in let's

just use batman for example 80 years have come

a hell of a lot of a long way than black blue

red and white yellow and green but i feel like

even if so i own all the marvel us and the uk

stuff And the UK stuff, which a lot of people

consider the best Transformers storytelling,

TV, movies, comics aside, the UK stuff is really

good when it's on. But it's not on as much as

the IDW stuff has been on. The issue is, for

every Time Wars in the UK series, is there are

three or four stories that quite honestly are

forgettable. And Furban deserves an awful lot

of credit for taking these characters who had

maybe one or two lines in a tech spec and trying

to do things with them and make them interesting.

But a lot of the characterization, because the

cast is so large, lacks depth. Right. And it's

weird for me to say that because the cast in

these books is still frigging huge. But it feels

like almost everybody is three dimensional or

at worst, two dimensional getaway. And it's so

it's just better. I mean, there's not another

way to put it. And I've said it before, I'll

say it again, I know he doesn't appear in these

series, but the character, well, he sort of doesn't

appear. The characterization that Megatron's

been given over the past 50 issues, well, 25,

in More Than Meets the Eye, that's my favorite

version of Megatron. And that includes the excellent

V -Stores version, which I adore. I know it's

not the same character, by the way, but he shares

the same namesake. He, by the way, is a close

number, too, because he's fantastic. But the

Megatron the Autobot story was just so interesting

and added so much nuance to a guy we thought

is just an angry desperate. And that's what these

comics do, and when they're on, that's what they

excel at. The end. So, 5 out of 5 for Lost Light

with a giant middle finger for murdering so many

characters. Yeah, absolutely 5 out of 5 for Lost

Light. I absolutely loved it. See, this is what

I was trying to say back when we were doing the

stuff for More Than Meets the Eye last year.

I can read this stuff in trade and get it and,

you know, not have an issue. But that whole thing

of having to read single issue month to month

and having to, like, no, it's that instant gratification

thing. I want to read it all. Read it all right

now kind of a thing. And, yeah. I think the one.

Yeah, and I think the one thing that Roberts

really excels at more than a lot of writers in

comics, and you could argue television has this

issue too, there's a lot of shock death in these

books, but you genuinely care for at least some

of it. Adamizer was a piece of crap who did some

awful things to tailgate. And he went along with

an awful lot of getaways, horrible plans. But

seeing him dismembered and murdered is pretty

bad. I mean, that's almost like seeing a Transformers

character cut in half lengthways. Yeah, well,

that was poor anyone. Yeah. I mean, this was

just brutal. Yeah, and it's... It's shocking,

but alternatively, you feel something. And a

lot of it is about the absolute depth that Getaway

is it. Sorry, when I say depth, I mean how depraved

and awful he is. But, you know, we see the awful

things that happen to First Aid and his group.

Thunderclash gets put into a coma. I just love

how they were able to bring back the protective

odds and defense. I thought that was cool. Like,

I never expected... A combiner to be on. Rodimus

and Bruce. Yeah. Although they don't last real

long. No they don't. They don't have like. Are

you expecting. The protective bots to be a full

on. No I was curious. If they were going to return.

Because they and everybody left. To take part.

In combiner wars. Because they needed them there.

So Hasbro could sell toys. Anyway. Curse you

editorial mandates. Still, this is terrific.

Absolutely. If a comic, game, or piece of media

can make me actually feel something without...

Without me feeling like it was just an attempt

to manipulate or an attempt to shock. That is

very good. Yes. So thanks for making me feel

bad, James. He broke bad on you. Lost Light Volume

2. Absolutely love it. Continue to love that

series. I'm so happy. They are allowing James

to wrap up his story. I cannot wait to see where

he goes next. Oh, well, actually, so in the next

issue. Oh, sorry. Oh, he meant that. Once Unicron

destroys everything. Yeah, so I think we're going

to close out this episode of The Pull Bag. Where

can people find you online, sir? At Nightbeat

on Twitter. I'm at TFG1Mike on Twitter. You can

follow at ThePullBag and at GeekCastRadio on

Twitter as well. Check us out at GeekCastRadio

.com. We have tons of current podcasts as well

as a lot of nostalgia too. Make your great escape

into comics and we will catch you next time as

we wrap up Autobotly August 2018 with myself

and the Fembots as we cover Transformers Till

All Are One, Volume 3. You've just heard the

latest episode of The Poll Bag. The GCRN's first

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