Transformers Spotlights Part 1: Shockwave, Nightbeat, Hot Rod, Sixshot, and Ultra Magnus

Hello and welcome to the pull bag. This is episode

346 kicking off Autobotly April We're going back

into the IDW publishing vault folks. We're going

back in time. We're still not finished with the

IDW 2 .0 run or whatever you want to call it.

I don't even know the the Unicron years or whatever

the Roberts the main run The main rerun. We're

not finished with that yet, but we're doing a

little backtracking and going through the Transformers'

spotlights. These were one -shot issues, giving,

I guess, normal readers, not super hard G1 fanboys,

a look at each of these characters, which any

sane, normal person reading these, they're gonna

have so many questions, and I know that's the

point of comics, is to have questions, but I

still question... Why they did these one shots

and we'll get into all that and everything else.

I of course am TFG and Mike Joining me is Ryan

aka. Mr. Nightbeat over there. Hello, sir. Yo,

oh Boy the spotlights I've actually had this

planned like since the year before the pullback

started Originally, it was gonna be a five -week

thing with like out of the 30. I think I had

like 10 Issues per it was gonna be a written

thing I was gonna write about ten each of the

spotlights at the time and I don't even think

the run had finished There are 31 total spotlights

Featuring various characters tonight Ryan along

with Heather aka how he prime will be helping

me talk about Shockwave nightbeat hot rod six

shot and ultra Magnus you'll hear Heather on

the hot rod and ultra Magnus One shots later,

but for now Ryan and I are gonna talk about Mr.

Logic himself Shockwave. We're not gonna do all

31 in a row? Wow. No, sadly we can't because

you know why we can't? Because Comixology doesn't

have them all collected in trade. Yeah, you can

get to that later. Yeah, much later. Possibly

when somebody else is on. When cooler heads prevail

apparently sorry, I'm sorry I meant preferably

Yeah, so this is pretty much the so a little

background these were released alongside way

back when the initial run the initial start of

the IDW universe Came to be these were released

on alongside the firm and sort of shun series

and our meant to be supplemental things that

tie into it. Having said that, we're starting

with Shockwave. This is pretty much the beginning

of the entire IDW universe, and would be sort

of the focal point of absolutely everything in

the IDW universe, although we didn't know it

at the time, because we didn't know that Shockwave

was pulling the strings for every single event

in all of the IDW verse. from the beginning Yep,

so it's fairly important very very important

Before we get too far into shockwaves issue.

I just want to run down for shockwave and nightbeat

actually all of these are written by Simon Furman

The art varies from issue to issue in shockwaves

issue. The art is done by Nick Roche Who is familiar

yes to pretty much everybody Should be. And,

yeah, Josh Bircham, who's another one who's on

a lot of the... Yep. ...Transformers stuff. What's

interesting is this is before Tom Long, though,

so the lettering is done differently. The lettering

on each, or, sorry, on the first two that we're

doing is, yeah, Silico Studios. So is that...

I have no idea if that's a person or... Or a

studio. Yeah. I mean, clearly it sounds like

a studio, but whatever. And yeah, they do the

lettering on Nightbeat as well. We'll get into

the rest of that when we hit it, but yeah. I'm

pretty sure, and we've been doing this a long

time, folks. We've done a lot of Transformers

coverage here inside the pullback. I'm pretty

sure this is the first thing of Simon Furman's

I've ever read. I've heard of him. I know of

him, I know what he's contributed, I know he

has a super huge heart on for Grimlock. But honestly,

after reading specifically Shockwave and some

of the others that we'll talk about in this podcast,

I love the first person, the narration, the inner

monologue stuff that he's doing, specifically

with Shockwave. Because like you said, this sets

up. And he's not real talking of in general,

but yes, no, yeah So yeah, they set up the like

we said before the entire IDW universe. This

is shockwave when he is Seeding in this case.

It's earth by the way. Yep shockwave when he's

seeding the planets with his oars Which each

have different effects as we will see way later.

Yeah We've probably already talked about them

in this podcast. Like eight or nine years later.

Yup. But yeah, and he gets intercepted by none

other than the Dinobots. We're looking for revenge

for Shockwave messing up one of their schemes.

Yeah. Now, please explain to me, because I don't

know. I jumped on way later than this. I was

not reading the Shun series stuff. Why the hell

is it spelled dy and not di for dinobots? That's

the name of their team As for why that's a great

question. They were just called the dinobots

and It was a weird coincidence, I guess. Mm -hmm.

I Don't know how to so we discuss this on the

podcast I did with Javiev and Amy and I'm trying

to think of a nice way to say this, but there

isn't one, so I don't care. The early IDW stuff

wasn't as well thought out as the later stuff.

Whether you like that or not is up to you. Not

everything needs to be explained. Yeah. And I

generally feel like that. But having said that,

the way stuff clicks into place, most notably

the way Barbara tends to write, it's kind of

satisfying. It gives me that kind of Breaking

Bad -esque attention to the universe and every

sort of detail matters and that sort of thing.

There's way less of that here. And we'll get

into it a little more in Six Shot because...

I have read, obviously, all of the Shun stuff.

Listen, I've read every Transformer comic since

the initial Marvel run. I have every Marvel issue.

I have every Marvel UK issue. I have all the

Dreamwave stuff. I have, you get the idea, I

have every Transformer comic that has been released

in some form or another. In the last 40 years.

Yeah, since their inception. And I say this without

any malice or anything else intended, but the

back end of the IDW run is put together like

none, no other portion of the Transformers franchise.

The amount of care and attention to detail is

absolutely next level. However, All of that comes

off the back of this issue and the early Shun

series and runs. By the way, when I'm referring

to that, it's Infiltration was the first arc,

followed by, I believe, Devastation. Revelation

was the fourth one. And then Infiltration. Sorry,

yeah. Maybe Infiltration was the first one. I

don't know. I don't remember anymore. God, it's

been a long time. Listen, there were these like

13 years ago and granted I have them and I've

reread them a bunch of times, but I don't remember

the titles of the series. Getting old and senile,

but all of the rest of the IDW verse comes from

those and all of it is kind of seeded almost

literally in this issue. I doubt that was the

initial intent just because the franchise went

through so many different writers and changes

yeah i was abruptly i knew that this was going

to be different because obviously this is the

early days this is the this this is the that

early side of the run i knew james and john were

not on these i didn't i didn't remember off the

top of my head who was going to be on them and

then i realized oh right it's all simon of course

it is That was back in the day when whatever

he started it on and then it was followed by

a fairly abrupt switch and Shane McCarthy took

over Yeah, or the all hail Megatron sort of year

Yeah, and then after that we had costa for a

significant amount of time and then Barber just

absolutely kind of took over Yeah, and we had

Roberts coat writing. Yeah, or sorry writing

another series at the same time but Realistically,

in terms of people just sort of spearheading

or overseeing the entire universe, that was the

order. It went, you know, Furman, McCarthy, Costa,

Roberts, or Robert, Jesus, Barber. Barber and

Roberts, yeah. My favorite panel out of this,

for the art anyway, is the panel where Shockwave

says, I conclude that either it has suffered

some... inexplicable and catastrophic technical

malfunction or You know Or it is or is no longer

there. I Love the way his eye looks cuz he's

like doing a quick, you know quick whiplash around

and then the way his gun looks absolutely love

that in the art and Then the dino, but I like

swinging Okay, I'm one of my favorites was granted.

It's small, but I enjoy the sequence And that

was him swinging Sludge with his one arm and

whacking all of the other ground -based Dinobots

with him. Yeah, so that was hilarious. I thought

it was a nice kind of touch, by the way, that

the Dinobots, A, we see them get the earth forms

of the dinosaurs, but B, it's sort of a Beast

Wars reference in terms of their flesh covered.

Well now throughout the battle that's get gets

kind of knocked off of them. Yeah slash torn

away Yeah, but it's still nice neat touch. Yeah,

it's a very very cool and neat touch and it's

very interesting And we didn't you know in this

issue talks about how shockwave Continually evolves

and yeah that that that ground shot It's like

shockwave is mow and the rest of them are the

three other other other stooges Yeah, crazy My

other favorite piece of the art here is when

shockwave transforms. Oh, that's such a good

two panel thing He's really So we haven't talked

about the man. I haven't talked about generation

one shockwave story and Forever but yeah, he's

got a pretty simple design of course and for

anyone who ever owned him The transformation

in this is pretty much the exact same. Yeah,

it's pretty spot on. But yeah, Roach. So is he's

we mentioned earlier, he's quite familiar. If

you haven't listened to any other Transformers

comics podcast, he's mentioned in most of them

because he is an artist or he does something

for so many different Transformers books. Mm

-hmm either doing the art some writing writing

the writing and the art I mean, yeah, you know,

it's just so so cool should be noted. He doesn't

do it often, but he's an excellent writer Yeah,

you'll run into that as you continue the spotlight

series, but Yep, absolutely. So as we've said

this issue is pretty much, you know shockwave

seeding the planet Him versus the Dinobots, which

it's always Shockwave versus the Dinobots it

seems Grimlock for some odd reason he actually

has a brain Which is fine. I don't have anything

against Grimlock's new brain but you know it

shows him staying behind in the ship and and

setting a charge or whatever an explosion to

Basically, hopefully destroy Shockwave Yeah,

they get bested by shockwave and As sort of a

last -ditch effort to make sure they get the

revenge and win Grimlock programmed the ship

to fire down on them. Yep Spoiler alert doesn't

work. Nothing killed shockwave in this universe.

Well almost nothing Why he yeah anyway, whoops

so So this one kind of comes to a close with

a couple of humans finding the hand of Shockwave.

Before that happens, we cut to Megatron and basically

he's telling... Who the hell is that? Another

SW character. Oh, okay. Or is this a speech to

bludgeon? Sorry, so I'm mixing this up with the...

Is that bludgeon? Yes, it's bludgeon. Sorry.

I'm mixing mixing up spotlight. Hmm sound wave

with this one. Yes Issue tells them to kind of

send to go looking for him. Mm -hmm. You'll see

the after effects in another spotlight, which

is They don't these don't make great standalone

issues. So this was released during like as I

said before during the run so doesn't completely

work as standalone. We see the after effects

of Megatron and Bludgeon, but of all the spotlights

we're going to talk about, this is probably the

most standalone just because it takes place so

early and sees so much more of the universe.

Yes. Take a drink everybody every time we say

he seeded something. Luckily I get to stop that

now because we're going on tonight beats and

there's yes, we're going on to my own spotlight

exactly Okay, so I said this earlier I like how

they do the shockwave thing what I like about

these spotlights is I didn't remember this from

reading them before Each opening page at least

in the trade. I don't know about the single issues.

I assume it's in the single issues as well They

have this introduction to the character and then

they eventually, you know say you know what does

it say here he loves nothing more than a mystery

the bigger the better and he never ever gives

up once he has the scent his name is nightbeat

i love that they do that i think that's super

cool that's an interesting way to they do what

his name is yeah for each of these yeah very

cool so we have a different team Although Simon

Furman returns and I mentioned the letter is

the studio apparently. Yep. But the pencils and

the inks and everything were done by MD Bright.

And I could be wrong, but I don't think they

ever returned in IDW. I think this was the lone

issue. Yeah, I think so too. And John Roach or

Roach or sorry if I'm butchering your name. I

would assume it's Roach. Whatever. Anyway. So

Nightbeat is basically a Cybertronian police

officer, detective police officer, whatever.

He's more of a detective and we saw more of his

kind of more of the fact that he's not necessarily

an Autobot Megatron actually says to him at one

point where he did any Decepticons ever try to

recruit you because he's not necessarily affiliated

with either side he just kind of works with the

Autobots the most and he generally tries to be

non -violent but yes this and this individual

issue we find him investigate investigating Gorlam

Prime which is a major planet much later in the

IDW universe again yep His investigation leads

to... I probably never thought we'd see the MicroMasters

in a Transformers book again. They were in the

Generation 1 comics, but they don't show up an

awful lot, and they don't show up much more than

this, although we eventually see why, but...

That was surprising. So Nightbeat is investigating

Gorland Prime, where one of the original ARC

ships sent out of Cybertron so long ago presumably

ended up, or at least that's the information

he's given by an informant who ends up dead and

Nightbeat decides to investigate what's happened.

While there, he is attacked and driven... to

a particular area in order to have something

done to him yeah by someone it's super creepy

and it ties in well with uh obviously this is

a fairly significant development and there's

no payoff until much later much like with a lot

of the idw books yeah And there's a few things

here. One I want to mention, so the artwork.

When I first picked this up and first read it,

it's very jarring. It's completely different

than Roche's work. And at the time, E .J. Sue

did an awful lot of the Transformers work in

that initial start of the universe. And it's

very different from that, too. I find it's aged

well. I don't know. There's something about it.

I kind of like Primes. Uh, Prime's face is kind

of a mess. Prime's face is always a mess. I mean...

I suppose, but this is even with the mouth plate.

Yeah, but see, here's... Okay, so since we're

talking about this, it doesn't... It's not as

decrepit as what I'm gonna reference it to be,

but... As he should you know as they're talking

at the end of this here where optimus says I

want you to rendezvous with arc 32 that image

Looks kind of okay. He kind of looks like I would

say Rebirth like season 4 g1 optimus did a little

bit, you know a different animation studio kind

of a thing but as it goes further through them

talking by the end of it where Nightbeat says

I'm fine. It's nothing. It's just a minor cerebral

surge You look at Optimus on there, I swear to

God that's Optimus from Dark Awakening. It's

Zombie Prime is what that is right there. I know.

He's only in four panels of it. But anyway, that

was a little weak. But still, overall I feel

like the art actually aged well. I only cut more

now than I think I did initially. Plus I'd say

probably a little more open to different art

styles than I was way back then. But I also think

the sequence... we see briefly of night beats

whatever you want to call it dissection slash

torture being implanted whatever yeah it works

really well for it and the colors and everything

are well done for it and it looks like a memory

or flashback yeah well still seeming kind of

creepy it's well done yeah I Honestly, like I

looked at this and I'm like, oh sure There are

several shots of nightbeat that I don't mind

in this but some of those up close shots. I'm

like I prefer the the the Roberts version and

it's not Roberts that obviously he's a writer

But whoever was what I think it was Alex that

did nightbeat in the beginning a lot of it Yeah,

it's Alan and then Jack Lawrence Right when Alex

did nightbeat like the very first when they first

got on to the lost light and swerve was holding

the cruditions and you have you know nightbeat

pointing to it like i'm pretty sure that's not

a thing swerve or whatever it is that he says

that's the character design of nightbeat that

i absolutely love yeah i mean to defend that

miln's nightbeat is gorgeous so well true there

is a yeah there's a reason he is one of the artists

i have a Commissioned and have an actual night

beats like original Drawing of and it's framed.

Oh sweet. Yeah, it's one of the only ones I've

ever gotten But yeah, this is a good so the majority

of this issue is set up and At the time for the

records like you as somebody who hasn't read

the shun series I should know you know as much

about this and this event, as really we did as

readers at the time. And that was the idea. It

was just kind of filling in the blanks. In the

actual series, we saw the sequence of Optimus

Prime asking Nightbeat to come to Earth and why.

Right. But yeah, we really didn't know anything

more of this at that point either. Yeah, and

I'm not sure I want like we're going back and

doing this because like I said earlier It's like

oh, it's part of the the universe kind of thing

But we're also going forward and finishing off

this universe as we speak And I'm not sure I'm

ready right now to go back and read the shun

series I might go back and read it as a new reader

a couple years down the line or something Yeah,

yeah someday We're going to take a quick break.

I will be back with... And then if you feel like

hurting yourself, you can read to the Acosta

run and... Yeah, I already know that's not happening.

I'll be right back with Haji Prime as we're going

to talk about my favorite Autobot, Hot Rod. And

then Ryan and I will be back for Six Shot. We'll

be back after this. Up next, folks, is one of

my favorite characters. Good thing Nicole isn't

here because she just likes seeing him get hurt,

and I don't like that. I know she's going through

a whole bunch of stuff in her personal life,

but joining me is Ha -He Prime. Wrong Prime,

but Ha -He Prime. Hello. The only true Prime.

Is called Rodimus. He tells you that. hey that's

that's the truth but this isn't rotamus right

now this is hot rod this is before he became

more brash than what he already was um as you

this is his true self yeah As you've heard so

far, folks, the one -shots, the spotlights were

during the Ashen series, which is something I've,

as I've already said in the episode, I've never

read it. I started on Death of Optimus Prime,

and then I went to More Than Meets the Eye and

Lost Light. So anything before Roberts and Barber,

I most likely have not read, except for these

one -shot, supposed one -shot spotlight issues.

Okay, have you talked about what that experience

was like then to read these without the other

story? The way that I thought and the way that

I understood that IDW, yeah, kind of, the way

that I thought that IDW was doing it was, hey,

this is a character spotlight, so this is a moment,

this is a snapshot in each character's life.

And obviously, in this episode so far, to this

point, we've had Shockwave, Nightbeat, we now

have Hot Rod, we'll have Sixshot and Ultra Magnus

later. uh... and obviously the shockwave one

is ron and i've already talked about is one of

those things where that with the whole seating

of the or and uh... the regenesis and all this

and all that that obviously kinda is the beginning

and ending not really full ending but beginning

and ending of shockwave himself kind of thing

so yeah we've kind of talked about it and i had

read them like i said back when i was still getting

print comics on that anymore um... and i like

them i think the spotlights are the whole series

because i thought you were saying you hadn't

read the whole series no i haven't read the whole

asian series but the spotlights i like the spotlights

i thought i was okay because i think the spotlights

kind of they tease you pretty much like hey look

at a snapshot in the life of this character and

then go read whichever one it either follows

around kind of a thing Would say this first volume

of spotlights. They're very successful on their

own They're just they're cool teasers. Just like

you're saying as it progresses they become much

more integrated into the ongoing story until

it's Impossible to just kind of take them on

their own there They are part of the story and

so if you're trying to do it without reading

the Asian stuff good luck Infiltration is epic

and yeah, anyways, I have opinions but we're

not talking about that right now We're talking

about blinking hot rod. That's right And what

I love about the way that the spotlights in the

in the trade are set up and I assume this is

what it was in the in the single issues they

start off with like this character page of an

image of him in this little introduction where

it says if there's a line he'll cross it if there's

a knot he'll cut it if there's a risk he'll take

it smiling in his solitary world there's no room

for second thoughts no margin for error out there

is a permanent state of mind And the more impossible

downright insane the mission, the better this

daredevil Autobot likes it. His name is Hot Rod.

I will say this issue made me understand why

Nick Roach loves Hot Rod so much. To the point

where I talked to him, he was like one of my

very first conventions and I'm like, oh my gosh,

that's Nick Roach at the other table eating breakfast.

And I was a dork and I'm like, Nick, would you

sign this? like hot rod and it made him okay

I'll do it he didn't he had a good attitude but

but I was like okay I get it yeah if they were

ever to do another hot rod Rodimus thing or whatever

on his own I love Nick's art on Rodimus it's

it's so It's a combination of being so g1 but

also being his own thing at the same time as

far as hot rods design that it's just Amazing.

Well, he's drawing himself like hot rod is him

but like that that that picture of hot rod falling

through the meteors That's the distillation of

hot rod. Yeah, and when someone Can do that with

a single image like literally thinking of hot

rod Even now I'm like, yeah, he's the guy who

falls through meteors and looks like that with

his face grinning off, you know Absolutely It's

almost at odds with Simon's writing cuz you know

how Simon Furman's like I'm gonna write Words

on the page and they're gonna be portentous and

I'm like, okay But but you notice that this is

about a guy jumping through meteors, right? Yeah,

really. You know this is about a daredevil, right?

I mean, you know... Hot Rod is the, um... If

only Cybertron had a Hell's Kitchen and Hot Rod

was blind. It's fun, though. It was weird to

go back to this style of writing, though. It

was very weird. I mentioned to Ryan in this episode

that... Don't remember because I I'd never read

the original Marvel US UK stuff. So This is kind

of my fur. I don't remember reading anything

else from Simon. So this is kind of my first

you know exposure to him and The writing is okay.

So far. It's just yeah different. Yeah, it's

it's not You know, yeah, not not everyone can

be James Roberts and cut out Autobot in or cut

out whatever in lengthways and all that Yeah

Simon Furman was my major introduction into Transformers

because I jumped in right at the beginning of

IDW and war within and so end of Dreamwave and

beginning of this and so he was my Version of

what transformers was for a very long time And

it almost took me a while to to get out of that

in my own head to get out of that Everything

is heavy and portentous and meaningful and and

you've got to kind of delve in between the lines

and be like What's going on in their heads at

this point? You know James is completely different.

He's like Here's what's going on in their heads

and occasionally we fight stuff but Yeah, just

interesting to go back to. Yeah. And this issue

where he's kind of reflecting on, you know, how

brash he thinks he used to be, even though he

still is now, you know, it's, it's kind of a,

it's kind of that mishmash of this is what happened

years and years and years ago versus what's going

on today. And it works. I think it does work.

I think it's interesting. I love The way the

lettering is done for the monologue for hot rod

where it's just that red Orange yellow thing

with white text on top. I think that really fire

color doesn't yeah Yeah, it's very fiery and

it works. It works for him. I think it's it's

interesting. I think it's probably the best Lettering

combination in this one I like like the I don't

want to say chalkboard, but almost like chalkboard,

like yellow on black lettering. Like where...

Oh yeah, I see what you're talking about. Like,

it just, it looks too flat, whereas the Hot Rod

stuff looks almost glossy a little around the

edges, because it's got the red around the edges,

yeah. Okay, that's cool. Good call. I just checked

to see who did the letters, and it was Robbie

Robbins, who I've never heard of. Never heard

of him either. Go you it's well. It's one of

those things where again. This is it as we said

This is a diff completely different time in the

IDW transformers universe This was more so at

the beginning of it within the Asian series as

before Mike Costa ruined it for everybody They're

doing an interesting thing to where it's like

everybody's speaking over the radio where they

cut out the corners of the the speech bubbles,

so it's kind of subconsciously goes that's a

radio transmission even when they're just talking

to each other because they're very much in the

these are robots kind of thing yeah we are robots

we are one you know kind of thing it's like where's

casey casen when you really need him oops too

soon not really i just watched that special again

oh oh so heartbreaking So what I think is interesting

here is the in this the whole hot rod disguising

himself. Oh Yeah, I thought that was fun I thought

it was fun and interesting for him to be able

to infiltrate this this place that he's doing

this and and We have this other character named

dealer Yeah I think is on drugs. Oh Wait, you

think dealers on drugs? I don't know. He's a

little weird. Oh, uh, yeah, you just wait, young

man. Oh, I'm sure. He's not a nice boy. He was

like the getaway before there was getaway. Oh

boy. Spoiler alert. Well, you know, at least

you, you know. At least you can't always blame

Getaway on something, I guess. Exactly. I mean,

even though he is one of the most despicable

human beings on the lost - or robots on the lost

lives of human beings, the hell am I talking

about? I don't know where I am tonight, folks.

I have no friggin' clue. I just love this hot

rod art. My husband has laughed at me for saying,

in real life, when I'm meaning actual Transformers

canon versus fanon. Oh no. Please don't start

calling it Fannin, that's not a good name. Wait,

wait, what? You said real life versus Transformers

canon and then you said Fannin. Please do not

start calling it Fannin. No, meaning, meaning,

real life is, you know, when I say real life,

it's shorthand for this is actual canon. Actual

stuff and fanon is stuff that the fans have made

up that we all just kind of start to accept over

time That's one of the creepiest words. I've

ever heard though. Don't do that. That's like

having you know What's it overlord lick his lips

at you or something? Stop it Yeah, all right

Back to the story. Are we going through the story

in these or are we just kind of discussing the

whole thing? Yeah, all of the above. We can do

kind of whatever. It can be summarized fairly

quickly. Yeah, what I got out of this was pretty

much that Hot Rod, no matter when in his lifespan,

he's always going to be that hot shot daredevil

kind of guy, always going to take risks even

though he has to face the consequences, and then

it's basically, at least for me, a introduction

to the dealer character who we will eventually

see at the end turn into double dealer, which...

Yeah. Uh, okay. Sure. You know, I just now realized

this is also the seed of Hot Rod slash Rodimus

as the daredevil, but who also really, really

hates it when he gets his own guys hurt. Yeah.

you know how and then they really continue that

James really continued that on lost light where

he's like you do not mess with my people you

do not hurt my people because i will have guilt

about it yeah i mean but that's what all of his

his concern is and why he basically this is a

story of him going back into this decepticon

prison to rescue the one guy who survived this

earlier mission yeah But was captured in the

process and he just has so much guilt for getting

all of these guys killed on this mission to retrieve

the Magnificence, but then you find out that

it was actually dealer that got them all killed.

Yeah So that's the short version of the story

because why should anything be hot rods fault?

I mean, come on. He is the best Transformers

character ever Uh, Nick is the best Transformers

artist. He loves drawing people just absolutely

destroyed. I was flipping to the page where you

very first see dealer and he's just... He's a

wreck. I mean, it's like he's got, you know,

it's like a tornado just whirled over him or

something. Yeah, he's really busted. I remember

really enjoying what you were saying about these

disguises, these sort of holographic disguises.

There was a lot of fun, somewhat hard sci -fi

concepts, which I've always enjoyed in Transformers.

I've always really liked it when they go hard

sci -fi concepts, which Simon actually really

was good at. Yeah, reading this back made me

think of later on, way later on, like I believe

it's close to the end of More Than Meets the

Eye, when Brainstorm comes back and Rodimus pulls

off his Autobot insignia and is like, look, it's

really a Decepticon. As soon as I saw him being

disguised in this, I'm like, hey, that's where,

yeah. You mean where he's putting on a Decepticon

symbol? Yeah, yeah, where Hot Rod is putting

it on now, but it reminded me, because I read

this, I read What He Meets the Eye before I read

this, I'm like, hey, that's kind of where you

got that from, is to do the whole reveal kind

of thing, obviously, putting the disguise on

here and then doing the stuff to... It's kind

of fun, because they have a physical little Decepticon

symbol that when they magnet it onto themselves,

It holographs armor over them that makes them

look like somebody else, which is really cool.

I found it a lot easier to understand the story

coming back because my first time through, I

was really new at the comic book medium. And

so there'd be times where I'm like, I'm paying

attention to all this stuff, but not quite getting

it. And I'm like, hey, cool, I can just read

this and understand what's going on. I feel good

about myself. Yeah, I think we're all, even though

I'm coming to some of these for the first time

in a long time, I think we're all... so screwed

up from the end of the universe at this point

that going back is like hmm I can just read this

to read it I don't have to I feel things but

I don't really have to if I don't want to that's

true yeah because at the time it was like here's

what's happening now mm -hmm yeah there were

I'm sure I could be wrong about this and I probably

am I'm sure James and or John Bart James Roberts

and or John barber We're around at IDW maybe

at the time, but they weren't doing anything.

I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't think they

were. I don't think John Barber was around at

all. James would have been. I don't even know.

I'm not going to speak for him. Cause I don't

know. My point is, is the reason why this is,

I think this is so accessible is that it's not.

The core of the 13 years of the first IDW transformers

universe. It's all people before James and John

and Alex and Andrew and Everybody else that that

came after this I think of this This beginning

era as the core. I think of this as the foundation

It is the foundation, but I mean out of the 13

years I would say James John and all them are

are are more prevalent as far as the core. Yeah.

Not important, but no more prevalent in the in

the fact of they're the ones that are like if

anyone recommends any part of this Yeah, anybody

else no one's recommend. I don't know the man

I don't want to speak ill of the man, but I'm

sorry ain't nobody gonna recommend Mike costas

run to anybody They're gonna have you start at

death of optimus prime Yeah, and move on to more

than meets the eye or robots in disguise or whatever

for my custody I'd give people a couple of his

issues, but yeah It was interesting. I was reading

these issues to review them while my kids were

at a virtual reality place and I was talking

to the kid there and I'm like, no really, Transformers

comics have had this amazing run. Not necessarily

these ones I'm reading now. He was like, they

look really good. I'm like, but the other ones

are so much better. Anyway, yeah. This art though.

was so cool. Yeah. Nick is so good. He was just

like, you could tell that he was just having

a ball and really throwing everything he had

into this. Cause this was one of his first things

he'd done for IDW and you know, they're letting

him do his favorite guy. And so just every panel

he's really doing. And this is also sort of classic

Nick where I'm like, Oh yeah, there's that thing

that he does. There's that thing that he does.

And It's just a lot of fun. The colors, though,

are not good. And it's sad. They have somebody...

Like, I know Liam Shalhoub, but sorry, dude,

you were not on your top of your game. It depends

on which colors, because most of Hot Rod's colors

for, you know, accuracy kind of thing... Like

we mentioned earlier about the, um, the, um,

him falling with the meteors. I think that's

spot on coloring for him. Uh, it's not like it's

not like movie magenta or anything, but it's

still the hot rod colors. Maybe that's what,

you know what? That's what it is. You're right.

Because that page is amazing. And then we go

to a far less amazing page. And then the third

page is sorry, Liam garbage. The flashback pages.

Yeah, I'm for sepia tone and it just ends up

being Really flat like there's no shadows. No

No sense of weight or presence in the world.

Like everybody's just kind of floating above

the ground and not Not having yeah, no shadows.

Hey take what Alex Melm did and what? Livio Remindelli

did in more than meets the eye Okay, Alex would

do the like current the present -day Stuff and

Livio in the grand Livio style that he has would

do the flashbacks Livio's flashbacks are Almost

what I would almost have would have wanted here

instead of the almost sepia tone off color off

this off that Thing that we have in these flashbacks

But then we wouldn't have had Nick drawing them.

True. I do like where he's got like this green

light happening, like where he's showing location

through colors of light. It gets better again.

I'm just going to flip through here. So. But

yeah, in in general. It's garbage, like when

you when you're trying to when you when there's.

You know, as someone who spent like 12 years

trying to figure out how to color. reflective

armor. I'm looking at some of these things and

going, oh man, you can be better than that. You

know, everybody was still learning and we had

not had. good colorists at this point. At this

point in IDW, they had not hired good colorists

yet. And then Lo, Josh Birchham did come along

in Stormbringer, and choirs of angels did sing

Unto the Skies, and I did prostrate myself before

him and crown him number one god of color. Wow.

Okay then. I think that reveals a little bit

too much about you. We're going to take a quick

break. Ryan and I will be back with six shots.

One shot story spotlight after this. We are back

folks from talking about hot rod and His one

shot Ryan is with me as per usual and it's now

time to talk about I know right It's now time

to talk about six shot. We his life is defined

by his sheer almost limitless capacity for destruction

and Mayhem with six distinct alt forms all of

lethal design and intent. He is one of a kind

feared almost equally by both Autobot adversaries

and Decepticon allies. He is in every sense of

the expression a living weapon, but he is also

alone, isolated, and shunned. His name is Sixshot.

Well, he thought he was alone, but he would eventually

discover Storm Shadow and Overlord, but yeah.

Yeah. So the only other... Thing six shot wise

besides the actual original g1 toy That I ever

remember is like his one line in one g1 cartoon

You know five up five down. It's like shooting

cyber ducks in a barrel. What's a cyber duck?

Yeah, I don't know but That's the one line that

I remember him ever saying which is from the

finale of the series. Yeah Yeah, it's yes from

rebirth I have an interesting theory if anyone

wants to take this and run, just give me credit.

Oh, don't worry. No, it's... Is it about him

being at the mall? No, no! Come on, you gotta

get on board with that. That's hilarious. Anyway,

come on, it's a fresh new... I'm a busy, insane,

bitter man. Yeah, well, it's a fresh new idea.

Anyway, um, no, it has nothing to do with Six

Shot at the mall. It has to do with the description

that I just read. Where, you know, Six... What

the hell does it say? With six distinct alt forms,

okay? What if Sixshot has multiple personalities?

Like, each form, each alt mode, is a different

part of his personality. Kind of like, a la the

Starscream clones from Animated. Like there are

one part of his personally make it like a Psychological

thriller starring six shot with you know him

going to see rung at $400 an hour every week

or something I don't know first in general just

have him yeah He's got different sort of personalities

based on that's an interesting idea. Yeah, see

it would be a good one shot exactly However this

was written by not you but Simon Furman. Heart

and colors were Rob Ruffalo. I have no idea if

that's any relation to Mark Ruffalo or the Hulk.

Letters this time, it's Robbie Robbins. I don't

think that's any relation to Robbie Rotten, the

villain from LazyTat. Why do I know this? What

is wrong with me? Whatever. All right, my growing

insanity aside, this is the introduction in the

IDW verse of six shot we have not seen him and

his appearance in the devastation portion has

not occurred yet so as with the other sort of

series you as in mike reading this or anyone

else that chooses to read this afterwards this

is what we know of six shot right And I think

that's cool. I think, you know, starting whatever

thing they're gonna do here... Like, I think

all of these one -shots should have been a character

arc starting point, which some of them are. Others...

This whole series, I wish it had continued. I

think I mentioned that during the long -ass podcast

about the finales, but it would have been nice

to fill in the blanks and... Would have been

a good opportunity for the writers who I don't

think knew the Universe was ending when it was

so they thought they had time, but yeah anyway

continue sorry You know I think it's fun, I think

it's interesting, I think it's getting the start

of a character, learning who the character is

as the character is learning who he is. His internal

monologue throughout all of this, yes, he knows

who he is, but he doesn't really know that he

is or is not alone. And it's basically him versus

the Reapers. Yep. So this one's more difficult

to evaluate for me than the others, mostly because

I know the future here and the Reapers are MacGuffin's

at best. They are aimless plot device at worst.

They should not have appeared in the main series

because it was essentially pointless and there

was no reason for it. But they do and I was not

a... I was a bigger fan then than I am now. Now

I'm definitely not a fan. They're just, they're

not interesting and they're given very little

development character or there's no particular

reason for their existence outside of it advancing

conflict here. They do not advance conflict or

do anything useful in their other appearance,

but whatever get to that someday In any case.

Yes, there are starring Characters the tarot

cards get a rare appearance as well. I Don't

they just don't show up much and they don't show

up in the IDW verse much even X number of years

later and have the two universes concluded Maybe

they'll show up in a new one. Who knows? Yeah,

they don't appear often though. We get Abominus

a couple times in the old G1 cartoon. They appeared

sporadically in the Marvel UK series, but other

than that. Yeah. Didn't they cripple what's -her

-face? The daughter that led to... Marissa Fairborn?

No, the daughter that... It was a fight between,

yeah, it was a fight between the Tarakons, or

sorry, Abominus, and man, I'm getting way off

topic here, but whatever. Was it Defensor or

Computron? I think it might have been Computron

that injured the daughter of the scientist who

gets mad and unleashes the hate plague. That's

the return of Optimus Prime, yeah, Jessica what's

-her -name, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was,

yes, but I... could be yeah yeah it was the tarot

cards i forget who they were facing that is yeah

that is so random that i'm remembering talking

about this well again they didn't you as as you

said they don't really appear very much uh no

it would have been nice to have had some more

we really just kind of learn that six shot has

a kin feels a kinship with them and he works

most closely with them but we don't see a lot

of them outside of that Which is a little too

bad. What I liked about this issue is seeing

how the artists worked in all six modes in the

various scenes that Sixshot was in. But there's

no ducks. Yes, there's no cyber ducks. Missed

opportunity. The art is gorgeous. Yeah, the art

is amazing in this. The panels are great. all

of the explosions as he's firing on people are

amazing. The action is very clear as well too

and just it's it's reminiscent of a lot of the

styles or some of the styles I should say we'd

see later on in the IDW stuff but yes really

good and just I had there's With this many characters

and with a main character with multiple modes

it would have been easy to lose Him or lose,

you know where his placement would be or lose

characters to the action, but you don't it's

really well done And it's one of the standouts.

I feel like it's one of the standout Spotlights

for art it is it the art is so amazing and I

completely agree with you. They Don't lose anything

For from any of his modes and they use them so

uniquely and individualistically That it's a

really really fun interesting read Yeah, and

it's funny because I haven't read this in a while.

I didn't I'm trying to remember the last time

hasn't been that long. But yeah, I just I didn't

even know his arts very reminiscent of Milne's

I'm not gonna lie here that That's who I thought

initially might have done it But it's a little

it's hard to describe it's a little cleaner But

yeah, I had forgotten how good it was Yeah, and

I did not even know because like I said I read

if When I heard when I heard about oh spotlights,

you know, I thought oh character one -shots like

you don't really have to read the whole sit like

I read several of them kind of a thing and um

you know and I liked each one some I didn't like

some I did yada yada yada and we'll find out

about all that as we go through these um yeah

I've got I think I've got six parts to do all

31 issues so six podcasts in total and it's interesting

because so Ruffalo worked initially with Dreamwave,

which was a train wreck. Yeah. Just because of

everything that happened behind the scenes, but

he got a fair amount of, and by the way, I don't

remember it all, so sorry, but he got a fair

amount of criticism for whatever reason from

fans during the MicroMasters series. But whatever

is artwork here. It's excellent. I'm glad he

got another chance is Essentially what I'm saying

with IDW feels that way with a lot of the dreamwave

people though they got another shot much later

on with the Company that wasn't going into the

toilet by yeah through horrible mismanagement

and people stealing other people's arts Yeah

It's a whole other thing uh... six shot was done

very well i'd like all of these so far i don't

find any of them where it's a certain all that's

not the way it's supposed to be your own really

didn't like that are there now again it's it

feels like character one shots is this a snapshot

in time of what's going on with these characters

you know yes we we have the little moments of

you know are they seeding this or they seeding

that seed seed seed yada yada yada whatever don't

hear me i didn't say it this time yeah yeah yeah

how can they look at you this is audio ha ha

ha i meant you whatever ha ha ha not that you

can see me either exactly see that's my point

yeah i know and i it's kind of Sad to me that

so storm shadow was just sort of mentioned and

he gets killed by the DJ D I've always been saddened

that we didn't see much more six shot I won't

get into it or spoil it but of the face sixers

the one we see the most of of course is overlord.

Yeah Which to be fair I'm perfectly okay with

cuz man I loved his He's such a jerk. Yeah I

loved to hate him so much. We're six shots. There's

some sympathy here. You know, they position him

as he's alone. He knows he's literally a living

weapon. He's sort of stuck with the knowledge

that he can enter a room and kill everybody in

it. Yeah. And that's essentially what he's designed

to do. Yeah. It's an interesting take. it and

I wish we'd seen more of him especially considering

he is In a lot of ways the exact opposite of

what we know of the other phase six or we know

Right. Yeah, he's not overload or the Lord was

just a sadistic Asshole bitch essentially Yeah,

like it's a common. Yeah was more than that It

seems like he has more remorse for it like he's

resigned to it the fact that this is his job

This is who he is, but he's not out to be a homicidal

Decepticon main. No, he doesn't have the perverse

enjoyment of it. Yeah Which is good, I think

yes So it's also why I kind of wish we had gotten

to see more of him But right this is one of those

things that says we've gone through The IDW universe

and especially when we go back to the early stuff

Mm -hmm that I'm happy it got an ending and it's

something most comic books don't get right There's

never gonna be a finale of the x -men or anything

like that but On the other hand, there's some

characters that you go back and you read through

and you kind of go You don't want to kind of

wish we'd seen more of them and then I think

Speaks to a lot of the quality and It speaks

to the idea that the spotlights were Good. It

was a it was an idea that I wish they had kept

with Yeah, I do too. I was I was so disappointed

like hoist is the last spotlight. No more spotlights

really come on IDW All right, so This is the

last time you'll hear Ryan in this podcast, folks,

so where can the people find you online, sir?

You lucky, lucky people. I'm at NightBeat on

Twitter. There you go. I will be back with HotE

Prime once again as we talk about her son, Magnus.

Open. Damn it! Open! We are back here inside

the pull bag, so we've talked about Shockwave,

NightBeat... Hot Rods, Six Shot, and it is now

time to talk about Heather's son. That was the

best possible way to introduce this. I was not

prepared. So you want to explain to everybody

what I mean? Oh my gosh, I wish I hadn't put

him to bed. I'd have him come in here and say

hi. Holy crap. Okay. My 10 year old son is named

after this blinking issue. Because and it started

as a joke that somebody on a little forum I was

on was like you should name your kid Magnus and

I'm like actually though that's a really good

idea and I can tell everybody that he's named

after all of our Scandinavian ancestors because

we have them but he's really gonna be named after

Ultra Magnus the guy who tries to do the right

thing and not cross too many lines So let me

ask you this because I don't think I've ever

asked you this how did you get this to float

past your husband? He was fine with it. Okay.

He was totally fine with it the only Everybody

was totally fine with it and amused and like

that's great. I had one next -door neighbor who

was like No, that's a bad idea and I'm like Magnus

is a cool name But that was funny I think the

only people who think it's weird are people who

are like... who think the name Magnus in and

of itself is not a great name, but at this point

he has a kid in his school also named Magnus.

Oh wow. I'm like, gosh dang it! So wait, how

old's the other kid? Which other kid? The other

kid in the school. Oh, he's actually older! He's

like, a couple of years older. So technically

that makes your kid... Yeah, so technically that

makes your kid Minimus Ambus. I should tell him

that. As long as you don't call him Maggie, he's

fine. Wow. That was like before he was born,

people were joking, we're gonna call him Maggie.

And I'm like, yeah, he's not gonna like that

one. That's funny. It was hilarious. Yes, we

are talking about the one and only Ultra Magnus.

Take it away. All right. So the intro text reads,

Above his you know Okay, there he is. He's standing.

He's very tall. He's very broad -shouldered even

in war there are codes of conduct that must be

abided by and When there are transgressions and

forced in this respect he is the law Though an

Autobot by allegiance he fulfills a largely autonomous

role investigating assessing and if necessary

Punishing those who cross the line drawn in the

sand his name is Ultra Magnus. The line where

it says, he is the law, I'm like, okay, next

Transformers reboot, sliced alone, I am the law.

That's Ultra Magnus, that's funny. Mike, are

you aware that this is the first time we've had

this version of Ultra Magnus, though it was very

cool. When it first dropped I was like, yeah,

I am down with this because in g1 ultra Magnus

is this really cool You know, I am a soldier

kind of guy But it really did him a disservice

to be just kind of a second -in -command who's

holding himself down to serve others Whereas

this giving him an autonomous lawman role Really?

felt like a good fit for his character to the

point where obviously we've kept that all through

IDW and just really settled into that. Yeah,

I mean, it works. I think in G1, he was kind

of that as he was, it wasn't a full on lawman

kind of thing in G1. He was more of a, I want

to say, I want to say he was Iago to Rodimus's

Jafar, but it's one of those things where. If

you look at G1 after the movie, Season 3, Rodimus

is a young, brash leader who is learning the

ropes as he goes, and all of the people that

are the main core that surround him, between

Cup and Ultra Magnus and Springer and R .C.,

obviously R .C. is the law of interest for Rodimus,

not Springer, it's one of those things where,

like, in Five Faces of Darkness he's like...

You're gonna be late. You're gonna be this you're

gonna when Magnus is talking to Rodimus about

making the speech or whatever Do you have your

that nagging Father figure kind of thing where

is here and what IDW did with him throughout?

Hopefully they continue to do this with him in

the in the new universe I don't know I have not

read past issue one at this point. I will at

some point but what they did with him here was

basically turn him into this huge lawman kind

of character, and it really does work for him.

Yeah. Really, really does. Yeah, I like it a

lot better than the uncle who's settled with

the kid whose parents got killed and... doing

his best. Yeah. So this issue basically has...

it's almost Ultra Magnus versus Swindle. Yeah.

Sort of. And it was the first time Swindle had

really been fleshed out like this, at least in

IDW. I'm not nearly as fluent in the Marvel comics,

so I know Swindle probably had some development

in there, I don't know. But this really settled

Swindle's character as well. Yeah. What I love

about this is the art on Magnus on a lot of his

shots Like wow like these first few pages when

swindles up there getting ready to fire on him

any Dodges like that shot and when he fires back

at him with the with the side rocket from his

left arm That art is gorgeous There's it. It's

funny. I had almost the opposite experience coming

back through this cuz I These colors are a lot

better. These are current notes So that helps

the art but and also Robbie Musso is a really

really nice person and I love him a lot But this

art is so influenced by Dreamwave Mm -hmm that

it doesn't hold up quite as well because like

the that first or actually it's it's page two

that you're referencing where he's Ultra Magnus

is like swindle you are coming with me and it's

a great angle very dramatic but Magnus's head

is not I'm like, what's even going on there?

That's a that's a sort of a classic Dreamwave

problem where Yeah, his bodies are just not fitting

together, right? There's a lot of perspective

issues there and and it's not the perspective

issues are usually not there usually the perspectives

Okay, but there's a lot of balloon former influence

in the poses, the angles, and the heft of Ultra

Magnus, which I don't mind heft, but it's got

a Dreamwave feel to it. Yeah, and I'm sure for

those of Transformers comic fans out there that

love Dreamwave and didn't want to see it go down

the way it went down, I'm sure that's really

nice. And you're right, looking back at some

of these art things, His head is a little bit

too tiny, but I mean that those are still awesome

shots Like like I mentioned the rocket shot the

side rocket shot where he goes up the thing The

way swindle falls looks really Awkward I mean

it it looks like he's falling, but it I don't

know it just looks weird and then obviously you

know we get other shots of Magnus and his Big

body tiny head like There's a page where he's

there's a page where he's saying you're going

back to the regional Decepticon command hub swindle

no doubt to face a military trial tribunal and

court -martial You look at his head you look

at his body. Yeah, it is ultra Magnus, but I

mean It looks like his head just needs to be

on a swivel in it Swivel and put in a jar like

one of those decapitated heads. It doesn't look

like it fits on his body. Yeah, it's just a thing.

However, once we get into... You know how a lot

of Transformers artists, they can draw robots

really, really well, but they can't draw people

quite as well? Robbie's doing some great people

drawing in this. I really... really enjoy all

the Hall of Matter stuff. This one can be summarized

by Ultra Magnus Capture Swindle. Swindle says,

you want to get Scorponok? You want him more

than me? You know you do. So he takes, makes

a deal with Swindle, lets him go with a tracker

on him and goes after Scorponok. And he, Scorponok's

got this factory where he's working with Nebulons

who are humanoid bald people and doing like...

incorporating robot tech into people tech and

so Magnus has a big fight with Scorponok and

Scorponok escapes and he goes back after Swindle

and Swindle is still trying to make a deal with

him. That's the summary of this. It's so good

though. It's really good. Like the feeling that

you get as you watch him kind of James Bond his

way into this factory deeper and deeper changing

his hall of matter and then when he gets shot

and that whole I Feel it thing where you see

in the cab of his truck where there's all this

lightning going off as his Hall of Matters just

got shot through the chest is doing that movie

fall backwards explode a thing That's really

cool I'll say this the art kind of changes slightly

it's not a bad thing but like you know when he

gets to the point of doing his internal monologue

and doing the more assault on the factory where

he's like what's he say he says if so then stopping

him just became an even greater priority so I

love all of this art I love the way he looks

in his alt mode absolutely amazing when he transforms

he's great he's fine and then we get to a point

where he's facing Scorponok and the two of them

where Scorponok says will insist sticking your

oil factory sensors where they don't belong Is

it just me, or is that almost photorealistic?

Because Magnus does not look as glossy, he doesn't

look like he... Like, you look at his neck and

where his head is, yes, his head is still too

small, but his whole compartment doesn't have,

like, any of the stuff it had before, like, where

his neck is and things. It's like it's just a

blank slate, and the body of the two of them

are more photorealistic than anything else. I'm

not exactly certain what... You're meaning do

you mean that the colors are less glossy or that

the drawing itself is less detailed? No, it's

more detailed, but less glossy There is no gloss

it's more of like Like that may just be that

may just have been a page where he didn't have

as much time to do the colors or something I

mean, it's not a bad thing, it's just it looks

like a completely different art style from what

has already come so far in this issue. I do see

what you're talking about. It's kind of a lighting

difference, I would say. Yeah. I mean, it almost

looks like they have, you know, masterpiece action

figures fighting each other. I'd like to think

so. That would make me happy. He's like playing

with his toys and being like, hey cool, there's

a cool angle, hold still. Getting sticky tacked

to hold everybody in place. Yay. That's fun.

It's still better coloring than Hot Rod. Yeah,

a little bit, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I really dug

this issue. I thought it was interesting. I thought

it was fun. Even though you have this giant battle

with Scorponok, you still have Magnus going after

Swindle and, you know, Swindle's like, so let's

deal. Yeah. Kind of a thing. I think the reason

why this issue made such an impact on me was

this was one of the first times where each of

the three main characters felt like a person

with feelings. Magnus, you can see him struggling

with what is the right decision and the best

way to be a righteous person of integrity kind

of thing. But also like, you know, he's just

this cool, tough guy, but also like you can feel

him in danger, you know, and all those things

are cool. And then also, Swindle is a skeeving

little conniving little dude, but he feels like

a person. You feel him afraid. You feel him desperately

trying tricks. And Scorponok even. He feels like

a person. He's annoyed that Magnus has messed

up his cool plans. And he feels really bad when

he accidentally kills Zarek. I was not expecting

like I love that they did the whole nebulon thing

because I'm a huge fan of the rebirth three -parter

Which ended the the cartoon series, but I was

really surprised that he killed Zarek Yeah, I

I knew at the time that I should recognize that

name and that's about I'm like I bet that guy

was a person in something He was the hive mind

leader, voiced by Vincent Price in the Tartick

series. Okay, that's awesome. Tell me he's voiced

by Vincent Price and I'm like, never mind, I'm

down! Oh man, okay, now I'm like super intrigued.

What was he in again? Where can I find this?

It's the Rebirth three -parter. It's season four.

It's the final three episodes. It's on a DVD

set somewhere. Yeah. I'll go see if I can find

it on YouTube or something. Oh my gosh, Vincent

Price. That's awesome. Okay, sorry. I will stop

squeebling about something totally not this.

I also really did like the ending because it

feels, it had a good emotional punch where you're

like, and now you're going to make this decision

again, Magnus, whether or not to let Swindle

go. How many times are you going to choose this?

And it's, yeah, this issue just really struck

me. I really, really liked it. Yeah, it was it

was a very fun issue. It was one of those issues

that you Got to know more about Magnus and the

way he is but It's just other Coolness that it's

one of those things where you just never know

what's gonna What's gonna happen and what Magnus

is gonna be doing? Yeah This good stuff Yep,

absolutely So I think that's gonna do it for

us For this episode next time around we'll have

part two of the spotlights with I don't even

know who's joining me on that one Correction

he sounds like Vincent Price, but the voice actor

for Zarek in G1 was Stan Jones. I always thought

it was Vincent Price, though. But if you want,

I'll... Yeah, I was like, how did they get Vincent

Price to do it? Well, I mean, you never know.

Yeah, you never know. I mean, you know, Orson

Welles was Unicron, so I mean... Come on. You

grew up revering Orson Welles. So yeah, that's

gonna do it for this one. Next time around we've

got, who do we got next time? It's Soundwave,

Cup, Galvatron, Optimus Prime, and Ramjet. Amy

will be here for Cup, and Heather will be here

for Optimus. Because that's her inner self. It

is my inner self. Worst leader ever. It's like

you! What the hell, it just sits there and plays

basketball while Megatron takes over the world.

Anyway. I love these these these these first

few. I love this first trade. It's really fun

read I can't wait to read the other one and sadly

and I I'm going to be looking into this I'm actually

gonna be tweeting it IDW and Comixology Ryan

the uneven flow I can I be told me that there

is a third volume of spa They did collect like

Grimlock and Bumblebee and Grimlock and RC and

all that Comixology does not have it on the trades

for the spotlights, which is stupid. They don't

even have it available? No. They don't even have

it listed. They have volume one, which is these

four. They have volume two, which is, as I just

mentioned, Soundwave Cup, Galvatron, Optimus,

and Ramjet. And then they have the dark prelude

ones, which is like Megatron, Bumblebee, Hoist,

and Trail Cutter. Weird yeah, they don't have

that middle section collected on comixology.

I don't know if it's an IW thing I don't know

if it's a comixology thing. I'm not sure what

it is. It's crazy though RC is not that problematic

don't just rub things into the nothing I Don't

know if it's because of her. I mean, I'm just

saying that that's the collection because uh...

ryan showed it to me on like amazon canada like

rimlock is on the cover of volume of transformer

spotlights volume three yeah so uh... uh... it's

it's weird and crazy yet yet they have all thirty

one single issues of the spotlights but they

can't collect they can't get the uh... uh...

so where can the people find you online ma 'am

I'm hockey prime everywhere. I'm on Twitter and

Facebook and tumblr and deviantart and everywhere

so Google hockey prime. It's me There you go.

I am at TFG1 Mike on Twitter You can follow at

the pullback and at GeekCast radio for the show

and the network Join us next time as I said other

than amy and heather don't know who else i'm

gonna have on this thing but for a spotlights

part two and as i mentioned earlier in the episode

i have i broke down all thirty one spotlights

uh... for them to be featured in six podcast

episodes so uh... part of it'll be here in auto

bali april and the next part of it'll be in auto

bali august later in the year Make your greatest

game in the comics and we will catch you next

time here inside the pull bag Fully So I threw

okay Sorry, I hope you're not getting too many

page sounds, but you're probably gonna get some

that's fine Be like proof that I had the hard

copy See, that's why I like pressing arrows because

they don't know if I'm doing the digital thing

or not, which obviously I am I can whenever I

do anything any of these episodes I have to be

looking at the comic like I can't go I blame

Amy this is all her damn fault when I first heard

several of the moon base to comic reviews the

under base comic reviews before I before we did

our wind blade stuff and whatever else the way

Amy's oh we're gonna go page by page panel by

panel I'm like that's it great way to go. You

go through the story as you go along, you stop

and talk about points in the story, and I'm like,

I'm going to adopt that. And sometimes it works,

and sometimes it doesn't. Anyway. It's really

fun to listen to it that way, because when you

can't get the comic right away, or when you have

read it, either way, it's really fun going through

it in order like that, where you can have a sense

of what people are talking about specifically.

Yeah, exactly. um... and again one of the reasons

why it's all her fault and i i can't reprint

ever since she went on and on and on about the

comics ology guided you and how it goes paneled

by the plates you know i can read comics i cannot

reprint anymore it's just crazy it is and listen

up you've just heard the latest episode of the

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