IDW Transformers Spotlights Part 2: Soundwave, Kup, Galvatron, Optimus Prime, and Ramjet

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right now here inside the pull bag. Hello and

welcome to the pull bag. This is episode 347.

This is the IDW Transformers Spotlights Part

2. I am of course TF2... Volume 2. Yes, yes,

yes. Volume two, but this is part two of six.

Between this Autobotly April and this coming

Autobotly August, we're gonna get through all

the spotlights. They should do more of them,

but they probably won't. This is take two of

this, because I'm brain dead and I didn't record

the last thing we did. Yay. Dead, Aventus. This

one features Soundwave, Cup, Galvatron, Optimus

Prime, and Ramjet? You'll be hearing Litty Wreck

and Hahi Prime on Cup and Optimus Prime. Ryan

and I are here to talk about Soundwave, Galvatron,

and Ramjet. How are you, sir? Half dead. Sir,

I've turned from New Zealand with an illness.

Definitely do didn't do me any good the plane

flight that is which is exceedingly long. Yeah,

but I will Could have been worse. Yeah could

have been worse something could happen to the

plane get to see Avengers like four days early,

which was good and bad meant I couldn't talk

to anybody about it, but Didn't have to worry

about spoilers I don't know, it just, I don't

know. Like, there are those, and this is a completely

different discussion for a different podcast

or whatever, but there are those people who say,

oh, I don't mind spoilers. And then there are

those people who say, oh, don't spoil me, don't

spoil me, don't say anything about it. Like,

I'm sorry, if I go to a movie and I come back

and I say, hey, I really enjoyed that. That is

not a spoiler. Some people I know feel that that's

a spoiler of whether the movie is good or not.

No, but then you got LaShawn McCoy, Bill's running

back, douchebag extraordinaire who tweeted out

the ending, you know, so. Yeah, yeah. Then there's

douchebags like that. But we are here to talk

about more Transformers stuff from IDW and we

start with everyone's favorite cassette player

Soundwave Luckily, they've drafted replacements.

So we'll see if he's on the roster next year.

Oh, right I'm gonna start a Bill's podcast anyway

Technical difficulties, let's move on shall we?

Nobody would follow an uncharismatic bore like

you! Hey, nobody calls Soundwave un -chresimatic!

Yeah, let's kick til' game! So yeah, Soundwave.

My summary of it is as follows. So as we mentioned

in Spotlight Shockwave, this is a... Well, this

ends up being a follow -up to Spotlight Shockwave.

It also ends up being one of the more intertwined

Spotlights we'll be talking about. With the IDW

universe version 1 .0 kind of early times But

long story short We saw at the end of shockwave

bludgeon was sent to go find out what happened

to shockwave In this we discover sound wave is

then sent to go find out where bludgeon goes

and keep an eye on them And bludgeon it turns

out is not super interested in finding out what

happened to ol' Shocky. He instead uses the OR

-13, which Shockwave implanted into Earth, to

try to resurrect Thunderwing to just sort of

go mess stuff up and smash everything and everyone.

Pretty much, yeah. Thunderwing was last seen

at this point, I believe, in Stormbringer. Long

story short, Thunderwing... So Cybertron, this

is back in the IDW when Cybertron was uninhabitable,

but Thunderwing discovered a way for them to

survive, which was essentially the pretender

process. He tried it on himself, made himself

go cuckoo, and just started smashing everything

and everyone. And he got stopped in the past.

He gets resurrected in Stormbringer and he is

stopped in it. I believe this takes place before

Stormbringer actually, so this is why he comes

back and he gets stopped by an exceedingly long

speech from Optimus Prime, which to be fair would

put anybody to sleep. Yeah, you talk about IDW

stuff that just kind of Peters out Yeah, I Liked

Stormbringer, but a lot of the IDW early stuff

does not hold up all that well no Essentially

Thunderwing just runs out of energy. That's the

so you get all this build up for multiple issues

The entertaining stuff is the backstory because

the present -day stuff again essentially has

a not very good ending where Thunderwing just

kind of goes sleepy time Anyway, that is all

authentic to Soundwave. I like this, so get it

out of the way first. The art and all of the

ones we're talking about in this podcast is fantastic

again. It is. The creative on all of this for

written writing is Simon Furman, Nick Roche,

and Stuart Moore. More and more later, but yes

exactly art on sound wave was Marcelo Mattier

on Cup, Guido Guidi on Galvatron Don Figueroa

on Optimus Prime and Robbie Musso on Ramjet The

sound wave art is so impressive like I know how

Ridiculous it seems that you know communications

officer would be a cassette deck but the transformer

started in the eighties folks so and were based

off of a random robot line that all it was meant

to be was just everyday objects as transforming

robots with no yeah they had no idea they were

gonna do factions and have a war and have comic

series and have a franchise that would last 30

plus years yeah exactly 35 years this year yeah

Yeah, I think the funniest bit that I have in

here for me is when Bludgeon's two Pretender

human dudes when he hands them the the charges

They look like basically two Tylenol in Bludgeon's

hands yet when they when he gives them to the

humans they look like actual Explosives yeah

I love the size difference. Yeah very much. I

love the way sound wave narrates this Love seeing

and hearing from his point of view the art on

his transformations is Amazing. Yeah Just all

of it is so friggin good and one of the things

I like of sound waves characterization is it

references that a lot of the tech specs in that

He's kind of a douchebag in terms of so the first

thing he tries to do with bludgeon blackmail

him you know and previously especially in the

G1 cartoon Soundwave is just super loyal to Megatron

but in a lot of the tech specs and the write

-ups and that kind of thing it was always mentioned

that he was kind of for himself yeah so yeah

just I don't know kind of like that that they

reference the tech specs and It's a little more

interesting. I know It's a sad thing that happens

to sound wave though in this obviously he'll

go on to kind of be the Decepticon resistance

leader or whatever you want to call him on you

know on the on the station for everybody in space

and you know no matter faction whatever you can

you know as long as you want to be a safe Cybertronian

you can come and Be on the station. He eventually

goes on to run that but in this he ends up getting

Basically stuck in his tape deck mode Yep Kind

of said yeah, I was gonna say it's pretty bad.

It's one of those things that It's not the best

alt mode to have especially if you end up stuck

in it I love that they only focus on two of his

many cassettes they focus on laser beak and ravage

because those are the two that are I don't want

to say more sly than rumble and frenzy but like

you don't have to focus on which one is purple

which one is red you don't have to focus on you

know pile driving and all that stuff they might

be the best known to yes thinking about it that

I don't know they're two of the more popular

ones they're two of the first ones we ever saw

as well in G1 Laserbeak was the very first, Laserbeak

and Buzzsaw were both the first ones and I think

right after that came Ravage and Rumble and Frenzy

and all that. And Ravage getting trapped in his

little cage. Oh man, that episode. It's interesting

too to be fair that many years later we got a

lot of focus, especially on Ravage. In terms

of a personality and that sort of thing and more

than meets the eye Where he could speak and they

do an awful lot of They do he's got an arc with

Megatron's Redemption slash attempt that redempt

whatever you want to call it Isn't really get

redeemed anyway, that's a long story. But yeah,

anyway late much later on in the series it's

cool that he's given a lot more to do but this

was his first appearance yeah very very cool

uh sound wave i would probably give a four out

of five i really enjoyed it i don't know what

it keeps it from being a five but that's what

i said the first time we're recording cheating

stealing my bits now Yeah, I said the same thing.

It was a four point five out of five. I Definitely

enjoy it it is oh Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I'll

get to that when we hit ramjet anyway, but yeah,

it's another example of Why I wish they continued

with the spotlights. Yeah. Yeah the last thing

I'll say about it and I'll say that I've said

I'll probably say this throughout the podcast

folks I Love how they do the the opening narrative

for the characters I love that little character

bio thing, I guess you could call it, that they

do on the very first page for these guys. So

yeah, Soundwave, if you haven't read it before,

folks, go check it out. It's a neat little story.

Yes, it does, you know, it's kind of the, not

necessarily the middle, but it's, you know, bookended

around other things that are happening, but I

believe I could give this to anybody and just

say, hey, read a cool story about Soundwave.

Without them really needing to know everything

Yeah ties in really heavily with it But it's

not necessary reading all the other stuff to

at the very least if you're fan of the character

You will get enough of the character that yeah,

the rest of stuff doesn't really matter Absolutely

We're gonna take a quick break head on over to

talk with the ladies as we talk about cup and

him being on, you know, the nursing home planet

or wherever he is. And we'll be back after this.

All right. Up next is the old timer. It's Cup.

Oh, God. How can Nick Roche write something so

incredible as Last Stand and the other parts

of the Wreckers Saga, which parts of that were

depressing, but this is just really depressing.

It was like... Did you read Last Stand? Did you

read anything? Yes, I read it, but I'm sorry

if you... It was, but it wasn't as depressing

as this. I mean, this is basically Cup in a retirement

home. Don't know man records is pretty depressing

It is but I'm sorry until Nick cuts a button

half lengthways James has has the has the award

for Not not worse writer Exactly Don't do it

dangerous your option He's got something to prove

So, yeah, um I Said last week that I like how

they do the opening narrative of who the character

is And most of the ones that are done in volume

one Hot Rod night beat all that stuff. They're

like written in first person This is written

in like third person and then you and then in

the issue you have cup Talking in the for you

know giving you the first person. I don't like

that like I wish that the the opening narrative

piece here where it says He's seen it all done

at all. He's a treasure trove of knowledge. You

know that that whole thing. It's like I wish

that was him talking to us as it's him talking

to us throughout the rest of the story. I don't

know. It's just a little thing I noticed. It

gives you the way other people perceive him and

why they're going and sending so many people

after him. So he's not tooting his own horn and

be like, I'm awesome and I know everything. Well

that's Optimus that does that. I'm just flipping

through the first couple pages here. He does

do first person. Yeah when he shows up on this

on the song Mm -hmm. So you say that it was third

person or first person what I'm saying is the

intro Amy the very intro the the intro where

I didn't have the intro because I had seen it

all done it all he's a treasure trove of knowledge

and experience Mm -hmm. Yeah, I didn't know where

you were seeing that from because in mine I read

it literally out of the collection book which

did not have that in there really Well, because

it's, so it's the IDW collection volume. I had

it in volume two. I did not get it in trade.

I didn't hop in the scene and find this and I

think I might have, I don't know, but I actually

read this right out of the collection so it doesn't

have that in there. Well it sucks that it doesn't

have that in there because that's one of the,

like so far since I've been going back and reading

the spotlights, that's one of my favorite things

about the spotlights is that they give you, for

those of... The people out there that may have

never read these like me because I had never

I've read some of them But I I never I wasn't

following along as they were happening So I like

that they do that at least in the in the actual

trade paperback So yeah, I mean boy boiled down

its cup on you know old timers planet is really

what it is It's on drug world yeah exactly drug

world oh gosh yeah actually i think this is supposed

to be one of the planets that not to spoil it

because if anybody has never read this before

they'd be like uh i think this has ended up being

one of the the planets that um shockwave yeah

he seeded it with an ore he did it with an ore

yeah i bet you a million dollars that was john

coming up with an explanation afterwards though

Maybe. It was probably that. Well, Nick was supposedly

supposed to kind of wrote it in a way that it

could actually fit in anywhere. He tried to kind

of make it so that it would fit, which is understandable

when you didn't know where it was going to go

and what was going to happen to it after this.

And oh, it went somewhere. That's definitely

sure. Yeah, I was not expecting this. Like, this

entire story, I felt lost. Oh. because this is

one of the spotlights that i had never read gotcha

so going back and reading this and whatever point

in time that this takes place i have no clue

i got the story i understood the story of the

of what this issue is saying but at the same

time i felt like uh... i need more explanation

here Yeah, I read this I can't remember I think

I got I read the Asian series I think first and

then I started because I didn't jump in until

around I think I all held Megatron was winding

down and that's when I got a hold of stuff instead

of like reading it and digging in so I had a

lot of stuff to look at and I think I read all

had Megatron first and then I started reading

the spotlights just little little bits and stuff

like that I think this was a standout one for

me just because it was just so Gritty and I did

not expect that in my transformers. I don't know

why maybe I just didn't expect that and so it

kind of was a little bit of a standout one to

me because It was the conflict was just so incredible

Whereas some of them kind of like it's all right.

It was all right. That's cool And then this one

hit and I was like, oh my gosh Holy crap Yeah,

this story. I don't know how we're gonna summarize

this because we're not going through every single

page here, but this story was It was wacky and

Heather's right this might as well be drug world

because it was like cup has been on LSD this

whole time It's pretty much rotted his brain

who knows I think he's been there for longer

than he should he should be dead People are trying

well. Do you want me to just kind of summarize?

So he should be dead. He's he he crash landed

on a world and and he's not Incredibly sure like

how long he's been there because all he cares

about now is the crystals and they sing to him

and at night they the song stops and then All

of these crazy things come after him and we learned

through the throughout the story that he's actually

trying to be rescued and springer is is in charge

of this op and he's trying to get him off the

planet and every single time they go down there

to get him he basically all of the voices and

the creatures that are coming after him are actually

Autobots that are trying to save him Oh, did

you not? I was like wait a second Yeah, because

when I read this I'm like, okay, so he's either

envisioning Springer in some sort of dreamscape

or Springer's really there and then I it's kind

of like when you know if I look at At Springer

and see a monster but springers looking at me

and seeing who I am and you know, it's the whole

hallucination Well, you know Mistaken identity

kind of thing. Okay. Yeah, I got it now Yeah,

that's that's a bit cuz it makes sense in last

stand of the records because guzzle is Not very

happy about all of the people that got sent to

try and rescue cup because a lot of them died

Yeah, there's a lot of death in this story Yeah,

I mean it's not it's it's not completely obvious

because all of the people that he's you know

All of the monsters that he's basically taking

so when he crashed there He also crashed with

another guy named out back or out back or out

back. Yes, who's literally there was an accident

and he got exploded and he's half the thought

he used to be and I don't know if you guys noticed

this but Cup is using his arm as a weapon. Yeah,

I noticed that and I'm like, oh So Yeah What's

not obvious I guess you know because when he's

throwing thing, you know throwing the arm around

and knocking heads off You don't really catch

cuz they don't look like Autobots. He's so hallucinating

over all of this He just doesn't see them as

anything other than Autobots, which is very interesting

because when they finally actually rescue him,

the last bot, who's Trailbreaker that gets him,

he looks like he actually starts to say his name.

Trailbreaker? Like, oh, I can't, why are you

here? And then he, so the other problem that

they're dealing with is that he's been not recharging.

He's literally non -stop awake for who knows

how long it's been. It's a meth planet. Yeah,

meth planet. So his spark is getting to the point

where it's going to destabilize and explode and

that's bad because these crystals are highly

destructive, they're like highly flammable, whatever.

That's what happened to Outback. They were trying

to get off there and they set it off and so it

exploded. And so what they're trying to stop

him, so every single time he starts to overload,

the creatures that are after back off and he

doesn't catch that. But the reason why they're

doing that is because they don't want to die

because if he goes, they could all die. They

could all explode. So that's the real conflict

here is what's going on. And then of course,

when it doesn't work out, every morning they

have to leave because the crystals become more

intense. And so they're trying to get him at

night when he's supposed to shut down and he

doesn't. And part of the reason why they don't

look like themselves is that they all have to

wear suits. Yeah, because of the crystals, the

energy. will also get in and addle their brain

like Cups has. So they're like, we don't want

to have that happen. You'd think that it would

just be, it's an impossible situation that they

would just let them go. But downside is is that

Springer is highly motivated to save him. And

I think going back and reading this, after reading

Last Stand, and then sins and now Requiem. Every

single time they've like just a little bit more

has come out. He gleaned a little bit more of

the story out of that. And I see it in a completely

different light than I did the first time I read

it because of that. I don't catch on a lot of

the reasons why Springer wants to save him other

than he's just, you know, stubbornness. But now

I see it differently just because, you know.

of what we know about the character now because

of that, so. I can see his reasoning, but at

the same time, I'm like, dude, is the body count

worth it? Yeah. And I, of course, was like, Springer,

why didn't you send Trailbreaker in the first

time? I know, and he says that. At almost near

the end of the issue, he says, I should have

waited. I should have been more patient. He's

like, yes, you should have. Guzzle should be

coming after Springer, not Cup. Springer yeah

Goodness So yeah, they save him and he almost

dies. He quite quite literally is combo toes

at the very end. Yeah, and that Opens cup for

other situations that happened to him after this

Yeah, and the funny thing is I'm like I I know

cup is in the books, but Like going forward,

but I don't remember anything that happened to

him after this It's so sad. He makes an appearance

in I'll have Megatron Mm -hmm at the end and

then I think he also courses in the after of

I'll have Megatron He's definitely an issue 15

I think he was in drift Not the Drift mini -series,

but the Drift spotlight? I wanna say, because

Perceptor was there, maybe I'm thinking wrong.

I can't remember. I need to go back and read

that again. I know he was in Infestation, the

little side story. That was his best story that

wasn't this one in my opinion. I enjoyed the

heck out of that. But he is a little scant for

a little while, and I think the reason why is

probably because of what... Nick wrote with this.

relation or being manipulated and used by Prowl

thing and then none of the writers knew what

to do with it and they were kind of saving it

for Nick and then Nick never really got to follow

through with it. He did. He was in The Last Night

of the Wreckers. He was in all of the Wreckers.

All the Wreckers series and we learned more that

way. Aside from that. Yeah. I think everybody

just kind of like again like I said he was in

All Hail Megatron but he made more of a cameo

kind of thing at the end of All Hail Megatron

so you could see that he was actually there,

maybe not doing everything there. Let's see what

else. I'll have Megatron 15 as well. And then

I don't remember if he ever saw, I don't think

Costa ever wrote anything with Cup, to be honest,

except the infestation, but that was Nick with

the after Costa. So, or that was a side thing.

It wasn't the main ongoing. So, yeah, I think

he just kind of stood. in the outskirts for a

while he didn't get he wasn't a part of the main

group but he did have like story when the when

the records came on he was always there so yeah

he just shows up leading the records and being

like what's up i'm awesome and have a cigar yeah

i love that they did an alternate cover for for

this that has basically him fighting the things

with with outback's arm that's hilarious That's

Nick's cover, I think. This is one of the most

pure horror stories that they've ever done. Yeah,

it very much is. I don't want to say it's when

Freddy met Jason, but it's like Freddy and Jason

and Pinhead all rolled into one. I think he was

going for a I am legend kind of vibe. I saw the

Wix page before. So I was like, there's a couple

of little tidbits in there. So it's definitely

one of my all time favorites. Yeah. When you

kept saying in the, in the Facebook chat before

we started recording this part of the podcast,

you're like, Outback is coming. We're going to

have Outback. I'm like, Did you really message

Dan Gilvazan? No, don't do that. I know you didn't.

He's a good butt. He always lends a hand. Oh

my gosh. There were parts of humor in this. They

were very dark. It's dark. Yeah. And they were

just kind of little underhanded little things

that you didn't catch if you weren't really paying

attention. Oh, and like things where people are

like, we're coming for you, Cup. We're not going

to leave. And, you know, for him, it sounds horrifying.

And they're just like trying to be all kind and

whatnot. Yeah. And encouraging. Yeah. Yeah. I

do sort of hate going from if I went to check

and if I understand correctly Bircham did the

colors That are good and other people did the

colors that are bad go from this like really

really cool nightmare scape to like garbage colors

and then sorry person who did the other colors

and then back to you know good birchham nightmare

scape and then yeah oh well yeah it's it's crazy

i mean it was a fun little story it was interesting

like i said at first it felt like you know You

know cup in a nursing home type of scenario,

but obviously What kind of nursing homes do you

have in your town? Yeah Well, not here in Illinois,

but in Kentucky One of them killed my mom. So

there's that I That's a long story. So yeah,

yeah nursing homes. No Yeah, oh boy I don't know.

We have been rating these things. I don't know

what I would rate Cup, though, because it was

just so out there for me. Yeah. I don't know.

0 to 5. I'd probably give it a 3 and 1 half,

and that's not bad. No, that's not bad at all,

yeah. Like I said, I enjoyed the story. And obviously,

once I understood the story, I enjoyed it more.

But, you know, I like Nick's art. I've always

liked Nick's art from the stuff that I've read

from him. I think one of the reasons why I was

confused during some of the daytime scenes is

because I was not expecting the super bright

colors and the super color contrast. Like, Cup

ends up turning pink at one point. I'm like,

uh, what the... Is this the same issue? What's

going on here? This is not the same... It is

the same art, but it didn't feel like the same

art because it was so dark at first. And then,

hey, let's put a flashlight on it. Yeah. When

the sun came up, it was like, literally, it's

like a desertscape with nothing but crystals

around. And they're like, you know... It goes

from extremes. It goes from dark to bright, so...

Yeah Absolutely Zero to five. What would you

give it Amy? I'd absolutely give this a four

Okay, what about you Heather? Same four because

it's it's really experiential you like if you're

in it you're in it But it's it's got rough spots

So it definitely works so much better coming

back to it now because when it first came out

like you I was kind of like wait what? Yeah,

I know what's going on All right, well we're

gonna kick it back to Ryan and myself as we talk

about Galvatron and then Heather and I will be

back After that to talk about the worst leader

in Transformers history Amy where can the people

find you online? You can find me at a Twitter

lady rec. That's me. There you go. We'll be back

after this folks No, there will be no Operation

Interference. I am TFG1Mike and you should be

listening to my very first podcast, the TFG1

Podcast. 24 episodes covering the entire US run

of the 1984 Transformers cartoon. I also have

a few supplemental episodes and an interview

with Stan Bush. I bring in guest hosts who will

be full -time co -hosts in Steve Megatron and

fan of the show now co -host Pecan Court Michael.

So check out the TFG1 podcast. You can find it

on iTunes and the web at www .geekcastradio .com.

Transform and roll out! With this I shall make

you my All right folks it is time to talk about

Not Megatron. It's Galvatron. Chop was my favorite

of my spotlights or of the spotlights not my

spotlights. Well anyway Yeah, so Galvatron he

is He can't die He does stuff for other people

but has some autonomy And that is about it here.

He comes across Hound's division who are guarding

over the sleepy time corpse of Thunderwing. Previously

put to sleep by one of Optimus Prime's speeches.

And yeah, he is a bad guy. He is not Megatron

in this. No, he is his own character. Which I

personally appreciate so with the discussion

previously That my issue has always been Aside

from astro train mentioning it There was never

anything that showed him to be any type of version

of Megatron or anything He's just kind of right

and I always disliked him as a leader because

he's terrible I mean all he does is beat the

crap out of his own guys occasionally killing

them He has no charisma Or anything else it always

bugged me in g1. I always wondered you know when

somebody to shoot him in the back. He's terrible

Yeah, well you know Starscream if he wasn't wearing

that silly crown would have probably shot him

in the back, but you know Galvatron Yeah, don't

get me started on cyclonus never a big fan Really

kind of a never in g1 just a kind of mindless

Follower that has no interest in like he was

the only one that had any type of intelligence,

but he always like Galvatron Be the leader and

mess everything up. I mean How dumb? How bad

a leader do you have to be that Megatron's plans

of every week building a solar needle or stealing

something the humans made for energy seem like

great plans compared to what you can bring to

the table there, Galvi. I mean, come on. Within

this, I love Galvatron's narration. He references

someone that he's being a herald for, and I know

it's not, but the first thing I thought of was,

ooh, Unicron, they're planting the seed extremely

early, even though they're not. Ooh, Mike Kosta

run. Oh, no. Yeah, I love the art. I think Galvatron

looks Amazing. I love all of his his his alt

modes I feel extremely sorry for side swipe in

this Side swipe gets a gets a raw deal and then

even even poor lead foot gets an even rar deal

course, you know Yeah, standard Furman rules.

Anyone Generation 2 or anyone who's never appeared

before and is a new character is going to die.

They're not hollow avatars. They're pretender

humans. Some of them are alright. There's one

that's just completely stupid, though. But this

is about Galvatron, and this is basically about

Galvatron... Destroying this this this area as

you said basically just freeing thunder wing

or whatever. He's doing here and I Just thought

it was interesting. I thought it was super cool

that that you have a spotlight on him Where as

we've already said he's not Megatron He had established

them well in universe It is not It's not completely

required reading. I mean when I summed it up

That was pretty much it Everyone appears everyone

from this issue who survived appears later on

but it's not super imperative, you know, what's

what's is going on with each of them and get

summed up pretty quickly, but Yes, and one of

the things I liked was Sideswipe gets a little

bit something to do. It's mostly that he wants

to find Sunstreaker, who at this point has been

kidnapped by Scorponok, along with Hunter, on

Earth. And Sideswipe's mad because nobody seems

to be doing anything about it. And I don't know,

I always liked Sideswipe, but again, we talked

about this the first time around, that he never

got a lot to do. And we talked about this during

his funeral, way back when, when we reviewed

Optimus Prime, I think it was volume two, the

trade, something like that. But anyway, that

he was always just kind of there. He's the dude

that had Jet Pack, and if you were lucky and

a big fan, he got one or two lines per episode,

but he never really, never got into his head

or anything. And here he's a bit of a hot rod

character. That he's impact, you know impetuous

and Jump first think later Yeah Yeah, he very

much is I do love seeing hound in this I think

that was really cool making a hound the leader

of the Autobot Force here Now, they're just on

a planet, right? They're not in the dead universe.

No. Okay, I just wanted to clarify that. I wanted

to make sure. Yeah, I mean, I enjoyed reading

this. I enjoyed Galvatron as his own character.

I would love to read a story where, which this

was never explained or explored, as you already

said, they never, you know, Astro Train made

a joke about it, but I would love to have a story

where Megatron and Galvatron basically... Split

personality, okay, you know, I thought you're

gonna say me too. I was gonna say well It's happened

in the generation one comics a few times. No

time travel shenanigans. Yeah, no no split personality

basically combined split personality with Optimus

primals for optimal modes so you have Megatron

and his two alt modes his robot mode and his

alt mode Galvatron basically it would be some

switcheroo type thing but basically yeah but

yeah absolutely dug it once again four out of

five for me yeah I give it a four out of five

as well I prefer the later kind of depictions

of Galvatron As in, I liked the extremely aged

warrior, make Cybertron great again version,

even though I hated him. He bears resemblance

to somebody, but anyway, he... No, I liked that

version of the character, so I mean, I kind of

prefer that, but as an initial exposure to the

character in the IDW -verse. What were you saying

about Galvatron, you know, he's he's the mega

trumpetron to everybody's optimus i guess uh...

anyway uh... we're going to take another break

you're going to come back in here me and the

ladies talk about optimus prime the worst leader

ever and then we'll talk about ramjet we'll be

back after this yes you know this is one of the

better issues come on man a empty exosuit is

a better leader than optimus prime we're back

here inside the full back it's something to come

to your house i'm gonna drive to your house i'm

gonna run you over i'm gonna die by truck uh...

as you can tell amy is still here yay she hasn't

you know snapped her fingers and disappeared

on us. So we're here now to talk about... I survived.

...for now. I've heard nothing but tears coming

from theaters around the world at this point,

or at least here in the US. For those of you

that don't know, we're talking about Avengers

Endgame, which as of this recording is out, but

by the time you people hear this, it wouldn't

have been out because this episode is like three

weeks late. It's nobody's fault. I'm just saying

it's a time thing. So yes, he is the ultimate

idiot the figurehead Because like this is so

I'm realizing that this issue is how I perceive

prime I'm like, whoa, okay He is the ultimate

authority the figurehead of an entire race. He

stands for integrity, virtue, and honor, his

title representing a single -minded commitment

to safeguard life and liberty throughout the

universe. He stands apart, aloof, an island,

encapsulating an ideal and an archetype. He understands

he must be more than his fellow Cybertronians,

inviolate and incorruptible. But scratch the

surface and prime is just a mortal being, steel

and sinew, as were those who came before. The

moron that just goes back to playing basketball

after the Decepticons attack Written by Simon

Furman art by Don Figueroa I believe this is

my first time seeing Don's art in it like I've

seen it before I've seen pages of it, but actually

reading a comic that he's done so That was interesting

What did you think of it? I I Liked it it shows

us that yes, even though I joke with Heather

about how horrible leader optimus is I think

it does show what a good leader how much of a

good leader He is and it shows his inner thoughts

on like, you know, I you know nearly died You

know, it's just one of those things that happen

That's true. How many times has Optimus Prime

died? Exactly. Have you accepted Optimus Prime

as your lord and savior? No, no, I have not.

Thankfully, I'm not what's -her -name. No, I

thought it was good. I thought it was interesting.

I'm getting used to Simon's writing now, because

as I said last episode, when we did part one

of this Transformers Spotlight thing, I had never

really read Simon's stuff before, so I enjoy

it, I think it's interesting and fun, and this,

for me, is almost like a history lesson, just,

you know, with Optimus Prime driving the whole

thing, and of course, hey, Omega, yay! No! Omega's

so underappreciated. You're here. Yes, he is.

But I mean I felt I felt like this gave him the

appropriate weight Mm -hmm. Yeah But then after

this poor Omega. Yeah this he gets shafted kind

of literally In a corner This though when this

issue landed it landed Heavily like really heavily

because this was the first time we got A, all

this history, and B, this was the first time

we got a previous Prime who was evil. Mm -hmm.

And so... This is the first when they first started

hinting at... Yeah, yeah. And it's also the only

time when Prime himself is the audience surrogate.

So we are reading this and experiencing it with

him. We're experiencing this revelation of, oh,

Nova Prime... was a scumbag. And just that we

experienced that letdown with him and through

him. And so it's about the only time in IDW when

Prime gets to be an actual person. And yes, he's

still written with Simon Furman's verbiage. But

he feels real. And so this is Oh, you know along

with the fact that oh the art is so good. Yeah

Don's art amazing Yeah, it's it's peak peaked

on figure of really good Josh Bertram and I You

know a pretty powerful story once once monstructor

shows up. I kind of stopped caring but like,

you know It's fine You know the story is Prime

has kind of a weird vision when he gets basically

His spark crushed by Megatron and he almost dies

and he's like I saw Nova Prime and he felt evil

I gotta go talk to The one person who might be

able to help me because he doesn't have anybody

he can ask questions of yeah He says it yeah,

like he's like there's only one person, you know

that I can really Here's this I stand alone an

island in times of personal crisis. There is

no one to counsel me No one in whom I can confide

save one Yep, and that's where he goes and yep

So that was really kind of a good build to because

of that. Well, who could that possibly be? It

makes complete sense that it would be Omega Supreme

Yeah, it's the one that doesn't talk very well

I know. He talks different than everybody else.

Yeah. But I mean, Omega always talked different

than everybody else. Yeah. Whether it was comics

or cartoons or... Yeah. Yeah, and I'm not saying

this to be negative, I'm just saying he was always

like that and there was, at least to my knowledge,

and I haven't, other than IDW's first run of

Transformers starting with Death of Optimus Prime,

I haven't read... the Marvel, much of the Marvel

US or UK run or any of that. I've not read any

of the Dreamwave stuff, so I'm basically basing

my Omega stuff on G1, where yes, he did talk

the way he talks now, but there was one point

in there where he told the story of the Crystal

City and the Constructicons as a regular robot

being, you know, normal talker bot thing. And

this feels like that version of Omega Supreme,

which I enjoyed. I like that episode. Yeah, this

is very, very G1 styling with Dawn on the art

and with Simon on the writing as well. I mean,

this is like the cup story that we did a little

while ago does not feel like a G1 cup story.

It really departed a lot. Just saying. That's

probably why I liked it so much, just because

it was a very fresh voice. When I first read

it, I was like, OK, that's dark. But the more

I thought about it, the more it grew on me. So

there you go. Absolutely. I actually like the

Monstroctor stuff because I I've only ever seen

monstructor as monstructor like I've never really

like I never got the origin for that character

So I kind of like seeing that stuff here Yeah,

I think that's a cool part whether it should

have been tied into optimus's story I don't know

but since it's part of omegas I figure why not

right? Yeah, yeah, it all flows. It's just it's

fine I think it's just because I don't have the

personal connection to Monstructor, and so it

felt... That was the part where I was like, oh,

okay, Simon, this is you being like, and here

I have to put my chess pieces out on the board.

Well, at least you didn't put Grimlock out on

the board. I like the fact that they brought...

I mean, because you can't have an Optimus Prime

story without having a little bit of, you know,

kicking ass, so... He had to have a smack down

thereafter. I love where the instructor's just

picking them up and crushing him. He's like,

I'm still trying to help you. Oh, well, I tried

and he does the punch them right here and they'll

fall apart thing. Yeah, that was awesome. I liked

that. That was cool. But then he says one way

or another, you will be helped. And then I'm

like, that sounds ominous, dude. That's that's

what John ran with. Yeah. Yeah, and I still haven't

quite forgiven him for it. Yeah But it makes

sense for what they put in here. Yeah, I can

see what how he could interpret it that direction

So yeah, this is an incredibly pivotal issue.

I'm just thinking of everything that springs

from this. I'm like, holy crap Couple 100 ,000

words of fan fiction I care about a lot You know

the first time I read this issue I did not get

it I was like what you guys were doing saying

about cup because I read it before I read the

whole Brad Brosnia thing and so it completely

I was like I didn't know where to put this at

all And I think I think that's why I went and

decided to get that story and to read it so that

once I did and then I ran came back and read

this and it made much better sense because I

was concerned at the fact that the very beginning

of this quite literally he's sitting in a chair

and he's getting reports from several different

people and. Prowl is also giving him report about

some really important things too. Not only just

the stuff that's going on. But he's also telling

him, hey, the humans are showing no ill effects

from the gas that rendered them, blah, blah,

blah. But I was like, all of that didn't make

sense. It was bothering me, because for me, Optimus

Prime would have paid attention to all of these

little details that are coming at him. And yet

he's not. And the reason why is because he's

incredibly distracted by the fact of his own

emotional fallout from almost dying. So that

made this. put it in context. And so I like this

issue much better now, because you have to read

the other stuff first before you read this or

else you're like, what? Yeah. And see, like,

I don't know what IDW was doing back then. I

mean, I know I know about the Asian series and

all that I'm saying internally. Yeah, I don't

know what the meetings were like that said, hey,

let's because the spotlight so far to me are

on on In your left hand, hey, let's do character

one -shot things spotlighting certain characters

and we'll pick and choose from whatever we do.

On the right hand side, let's make all of these

tie in somehow. Now I know later, as you said

earlier Amy, John and whomever else wanted to

be able to tie it in to make it feel like it's

also all part of the one continuity that they

have, but I wish they would have Just been I

want to say that I remember hearing me and Matt.

This might be completely off my rocker here I

want to say that I might have remember hearing

Chris McFeely say something about this like the

right that the story the actual story that was

being told like the one shots were kind of like

to kind of be the overflow of like Simon I guess

does this at times where he's like he's got the

main story But he's got all these offshoot little

ideas that he wants to you know and that's where

the spotlights came in but he didn't have them

all filled in obviously because other people

came in and did some of the spotlights like Nick

and you know a few of the others that have done

the spotlights, but in some instances like There

were pieces of the story that didn't get finished

and so the spotlights later also ended up, you

know kind of being like stuff that Simon wanted

to tell additionally. So I think there was, and

some of those things he didn't always like, you

know, put all of his cards on the table. He's

kind of building things up and then, you know,

just keeps on doing issue after issue. We had

Simon Furman on this until I want to say Maximum

Dinopods. And then after that, he... left IDW

at least in that capacity for the time, and Shane

McCarthy did all Hell Megatron. So I want to

say that I think it was more like it's just what

was negotiated. What ended up happening is the

spotlights. I think they were also there to kind

of try and pull people in that maybe hadn't read

the main line. So like, hey, if you could take

an issue here, an issue there, and start getting

interested in Transformers, then, you know. There's

that as well. So cuz Simon was writing he's written

a lot James and John It was the guy. Yeah, he's

written all of the Marvel stuff He he wrote a

lot of the Dreamwave stuff and then to have him

back again in IDW especially I mean, this is

the beginning of IDW 1 .0. So Why not get something

that, you know, hey, everybody's read Simon,

or they could have, and maybe that's a pull to

get people to come and say, hey, we have somebody

experienced that knows what they're doing with

Transformers, and this is a new tale from him.

And so, you know, it's kind of good to have that.

You know, they had just gotten the license, so

they got Simon. Why not? I know he's made it

successful because he's done all of the the Marvel

stuff so and you know he also did Dreamwave as

well and no matter what anybody says about Dreamwave

the stuff that was written that actually got

published that Simon put some real good stuff

out I liked some of it so I did too half style

aside it was it was pretty good story so you

know Him jumping on and starting with the Asian

stuff because you know infiltration was I think

the first one so there you go This kind of stemmed

out of that so it's all good All right optimus

prime zero to five Heather. What are you gonna

give it? This is hard because I can't be like,

this is deathless literature, but it's really

good and really beautiful and really foundational.

Yeah, you've never experienced this unless you've

looked at it in 3D. Oh yeah, I do have it in

3D and it's awesome. Okay, good, good, because

I did eventually get... glasses and I did have

an actual one that was pretty cool. It is pretty

fun. I own a lot of copies of this because people

know me and give me presents and I love them.

Um, I don't care. I'm giving it a five, especially

for compared to the other stuff that was coming

out at that time. I think this is some of the

best, some of the best from that era. Yeah, I'll

give it a four. What about you Amy? I'm gonna

give it a four as well because there's a lot

that I like about it but I think a lot I like

more of it now because I've read more after it

as well so I'm like when and nothing really happens

he goes and talks to you know Omega Supreme and

he kind of confirms that they just didn't get

along But the real depth of what he actually

sang doesn't really hit you until later. So I

think this is the beginning. It hit me at the

time. Slug you, Amy. I see you with love. It

hit me more as I got to see really what it was

because I like actually, you know, seeing what

it is that... did that was bad, rather than just

being told. Actually, he did a few things that

I didn't like. I was like, OK, Omega Supreme,

I'm all right with that. I respect that. But

it did boggle his brain. You're right. So I'm

going to go with the four. The art is really

gorgeous. I really like Don Figaro's in this.

I wish he'd stuck with this when he came back

as on Casa's era ongoing. That would have been

so much better. Just tell Hasbro to go away.

Make things movie -verse. I thought that it was

more of a Dawn's choice to do it like that. I

don't know. I don't know. I've heard both things.

You know, the rumor mill of the internet. Yeah,

that's true. Can I just take a moment to say...

the number of times people redrew the part where

I get my spark ripped out there's at least like

three times that people revisited that and it

was like yeah that that was the one that I was

reading and I can tell you exactly where I was

where I was sitting on the couch and I went ow

ow ow ow ow and my husband was like what are

you reading calm down it's just a comic It's

not just a comic Mike. It's an experience. It

is an experience. I agree because the first time

I read that as well I Had to stop the comic and

put it down ago. I don't know if I want to keep

reading if they're gonna kill Optimus Prime And

then when it and then and then afterwards I was

like, yes, he's not dead. Yes like see I am smart

and Also played basketball Mike You can be smart

and play basketball not while Megatron is destroying

the nevermind Yes, so I Remember I was what I

was reading this and everything and I was had

a table right in front of me I almost knocked

the table over. That's how excited I was My kids

are looking at me like, what is mom going? What

is she smoking? Oh, to clarify, we're talking

about escalation now. Some people are probably

going, what? Yeah. Sometimes. All right. That's

going to do it for now. I will be back with Ryan

for Ramjet. Why does Ramjet get a spotlight?

I don't understand that. Oh, poor Ramjet. There's

some person that loves that spotlight. I can't

remember who right now. One of the other podcasters.

They're just like, Ramjet is the best spotlight.

I'm like, you can have it. Where do the people

find you online, Heather? I'm Hockey Prime everywhere

on Twitter and everywhere. Awesome. Amy, remind

the people. Find me on Twitter at Lady of Rack.

We'll be back after this folks because of Megatron

thought you were cheating him You could be in

big trouble the final spotlight in volume 2 from

IDW publishing focuses on ramjet. Why? Actual

worst leader ever was Grimlock generation 1 Marvel

Comics anywhere Think and we said this in the

first time we tried to do this you said this

and again I'm stealing your lines here because

apparently my brain is actually working when

I can steal Ryan's lines This is a true form

of what the spotlight should have been a one

-shot story Spotlighting the character that has

nothing to do with anything else that's going

on in the rest of the IDW universe at the time

Yeah, Ramjet thinks He should be leader He's

got big plans. We see him prepping everything

He wants to usurp Megatron and it goes about

as well as you'd think Meg's finds out and You

know, it's not real friendly about sharing power

that sort of thing No, he never has been if anyone

has learned anything from Starscream don't try

to overthrow Megatron and Technically, this is

ramjets own fault like the reason why? He ended

up being you know, basically decimated and destroyed

by Megatron, is because in the beginning of this

he blabs to Skywarp his entire plan, and obviously

Skywarp ain't no dummy, he's loyal to Megatron,

you know. Also he's not looking to get killed,

so. True. I mean, I don't necessarily want to

say that Skywarp is like the sweeps in the movie

when You know, I belong to nobody. Well, we work

for him. You know, the whole thing with Unicron

in the movie. But yeah, Ramjet, Skywarp, The

Seekers, all that stuff. This is the comic that

has the stupid human... Chess of the Moes, yes.

Facsimile, yeah, there you go. Yeah, so Skywarp,

wow, no, Ramjet has to do all of this with substandard

parts. So he builds his little mini Constructicons,

who are not real swift, and he has his own facsimile,

who is also a few bricks short of a load. Yeah.

My favorite line from RamJet out of this entire

thing. It was a mistake to equip you with satellite

radio receivers. You've been tainted by this

planet's foul culture. The mini constructicons

are basically really, really bad rap station

DJs. If that, yeah. They're pretty low on the

totem pole here. Yeah. And yeah, Ramjet is now

his plan is to make the Decepticons more autonomous,

not have to depend on humans or other things

for power. However, he never really comes up

with a plan to get rid of Megatron, which might

have been a good idea at some point since, you

know, he's really big and strong. Yeah, exactly

like he has zero plan to get rid of Megatron

And I like that you mentioned this at the start

that this is a one -shot so that sort of thing

I like that it eventually does tie in because

the humans make Cybertronian technology based

off of ramjets corpse We eventually see one of

the mini construct a cons in optimus prompt him

Actually, no, sorry. That was before it was re

-branded. It was in the insurance Yeah, it's

a standalone, but it eventually has implications.

But in any case, I just really like this because

we got to see sort of the viewpoint of one of

the grunts. And we don't often get that. I mentioned

the first time around that it would be neat to

see the viewpoint of some Autobot who As Ryan

realizes he has other windows open anyway Don't

podcast while sick, but not good enough to podcast

and I'm not sick and anyway, so But yeah, it'd

be nice to see the viewpoint of one of the Autobot

grunts for example who maybe he's never even

seen Optimus Prime You know, maybe he doesn't

agree with the decisions. Maybe he does agree

with the decisions. There's a lot of options

there You know who really deserved a spotlight,

and I don't even think he's in the IDW universe

if he is he's only in there Like in a cameo role

gears Yeah gears doesn't get much Huffer is on

the lost light Yeah, it doesn't get a lot. He

might have been interesting There's a few different

options here at least wheeljack got some individual

issues that focused on him because he was he

was done well and his friendship with Starscream

and Some of the other characters that you miss

don't necessarily expect him to interact with

Made it really interesting. I was I'm surprised

going just going back to ramjet here and looking

through the art I was surprised at the scene

where Megatron says when we are done here The

world will be forever changed in that scene.

I just now noticed that's blitzwing. Yeah next

to Skywarp. That's cool. I wish I had noticed

that the first time. So yeah, I mean, this was

interesting. As you said, the only real implication

is that Ramjet's corpse basically is fought for

humans to reverse engineer the parts and all

that stuff. I'm loving the spotlights. I think

they're super cool. I do wish that They were

completely autonomous, but I understand why they're

not why some of them are not I Liked this this

was Stuart Moore's only I Don't know what to

call new Avengers transformers because he wrote

that as well, but this is the only transformers

Only kind of appearance that he wrote in IDW,

right? Yeah, Ramjen, I'll give it a probably

a three and a half out of five Really? Okay.

I give it a four I Enjoyed it quite a bit. I

would have liked to so this is an example of

why in with IDW relaunching as we record this

three issues in They should really consider doing

the spotlights in the new universe Yeah, another

reason to do it would be to kind of Show readers

who? Read the original IDW stuff the differences

in some of the characters if they want It's an

opportunity for a lot of do -overs, but yeah,

I was sad they did not continue the spotlights

they Really should have this is the last so this

is the last issue in the volumes of spotlights

now we get more of them Later on as part of the

run -up to dark cyber drawn. Yep Well, no we

have more before the dark cyber drawn stuff Yes,

but not in volumes and true So this is the last

volume of spotlights. The next one is the Dark

Cybertron sort of volume or sorry prelude to

Dark Cybertron which contains a number of spotlights

as well. Yeah it contains the tail end ones and

sadly the only time that the other ones in like

after this is like Blaster and RC and Grimlock

those were collected but Those are collected,

yeah, volume 3. Whoops, this is volume 2. Yeah,

well, I'm done. Yeah, this is volume 2. Yeah.

Sorry, I'm confused because, yeah, we talked

about this. That's right. Yeah. We talked about

this in reverse order last time around that,

yeah, volume 3, for some reason, is not available

on Comixology. You can buy the individual issues,

and I have the volume 3 trade paperback, which

physically you can purchase. But it's not collected.

It's weird. I tried asking Comixology about it.

I tweeted that. I mentioned them and IDW. Nobody

ever replied to me. So it is what it is. I mean,

that universe has ended. They have a new universe

now, yada, yada, yada. Our good buddy Jesse over

at Bots and Panels over at Iacon Media, he...

All C says is that they just walk around in the

new series. There's more talking than actual

stuff happening I don't know. I've only read

like the first issue of the new universe I have

no comment yet. Yeah, exactly Where do the people

find you? I'm trying to keep an open mind Where

do the people find you online sir? I am at nightbeat

on Twitter where I will cough less As we've said

in the other parts of this episode you can also

follow at lady of wreck on Twitter and at how

he prime on Twitter as well for Amy and Heather

I'm at TF2 and Mike follow the pull bag at the

pull bag on Twitter at geek cast radio for all

the other network updates Make your greatest

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time here inside the pull bag as auto bodily

April 2019 Rolls on. Send us an email, feedback

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