Transformers Optimus Prime and Lost Light Volume 3

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

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Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This is episode

348, continuing on with Auto -Botley, April Lime,

of course TF2 and Mike. Joining me is Ryan, the

Uneven Flow Merkley. Hello, sir. Hello. And we

are continuing on towards the end of the universe.

We do have the six -part spotlight thing going

on, but that'll be continued later in August.

For now, though, we return to Optimus Prime and

Lost Light, Volume 3 of each of these series

from IDW Publishing. Optimus Prime written by

John Barber. Volume 3 is... I did not read First

Strike. I was not going to read First Strike.

I do not recommend First Strike. It was just

one more event that I just could not deal with

kind of thing. So this includes Optimus Prime,

First Strike, Transformers First Strike, and

Optimus Prime. The art on Optimus Prime First

Strike is done by Guido Guidi and John Iacani.

Colors done by Thomas Deer. Assistant edits done

by David Marriott for Transformers First Strike

done by Priscilla Tramontano, colors done by

Joanne LaFuente, very awesome that they're doing

that, and Optimus Prime art by Sarah Peter Dorache,

Fico Olso, and a bunch of Keizama. Andrew Griffith

did issue 12, Olivia did number 13 and 14, and

then colors done by Josh Burcham. Yeah, there's

also Paolo Villanelli did a portion of... Eleven.

Yeah. Yep. Which, hoof. So there's a lot of stuff

here. So the first two issues, first issue is

Optimus Prime First Strike, second issue is Transformers

First Strike, and then we have 11 to 14 of Optimus

Prime to end it off. But it makes it feel pretty

disjointed because the two other portions, so

First Strike, Optimus Prime, and then Transformers

First Strike. Is mostly a continuation of that

but still has stuff from Or that would be continued

in other books. So anyway in the end what happens

is this trade feels kind of disjoined it. Yeah

I'm just gonna go on so I ended up reading first

strike ended up reading it after the fact I didn't

read it as it was taking place because I had

no interest because to be blunt I don't know

or have any attachment to a lot of these properties.

I don't know who the Action Man was. Yeah, the

G .I. Joe, the Action Man, the Visionaries, all

of that stuff. Yeah, I know Mask. I grew up with

that. G .I. Joe, obviously. I think we've talked

about it on this. But the other stuff, no. And

then you add in, so you have Centurion here,

who is an idea that is from the Marvel U .K.

Transformers generation one series essentially,

so it's a reimagining of him. Yep, but So it's

weird these are two entertaining issues But if

you want the whole story you need to read or

pick up the rest of first strike. Yeah I liked

about the optimus prime first strike issue is

how they started off with the with Marissa and

optimus kind of doing the interview thing. I

like that. I think that's cool. And I like that

they kind of end it with that as well for this

issue. I thought that was really interesting.

It's a good book. It's weird to me that these

are two fairly solid issues and I still recommend

reading them, but I still really, I don't really

recommend reading First Strike. I mean, unless

you're a fan and you have some attachment to

some of the series, but in all honesty, I probably

wouldn't have included them in the Transformers

storyline, period, but whatever that they did.

In any case, yeah, they're fairly good issues.

They still tie in a fair amount, but it is kind

of jarring that some of these characters, i .e.

Cup, in particular, just kind of flat out disappear

after being a major part of the first two issues

of this. Yep. And then, you know, you go back

to obviously - We go to Sideswipe's funeral,

basically. Yeah, basically. We kind of jump around

here. Yeah, Sideswipe's funeral, and then later

on in the trade, it goes back to him being reborn,

sort of. Not really, but - Yes, it's a continuation

of the Dinobot trilogy. Optimus Prime, I understand.

Optimus Prime is the let's throw everything at

it book. Like let's throw everything in. We have

to make sure it connects to everything because

More Than Meets the Eye is not. More Than Meets

the Eye was left alone. More Than Meets the Eye

was James's story and it still is James's story.

But as you said before in other episodes of the

podcast, once Hasbro did the shared universe

thing and once whatever else happened it's like

once it stopped being robots in disguise and

started started being Optimus Prime I think even

in robots in disguise they had to throw some

stuff in there but I feel as if the early like

the early part of the RID run was John being

able to be more free with the writing and whatever

and this is like Feel like this is the point

in particular that Barbara stuff gets hurt a

bit by They had to hurry up because you know

the universe is ending And then to be blunt the

The end of till all are one or it's kind of ending

abruptly Mm -hmm. So then you kind of got a tie

up or have elements Maybe you were counting on

From that being in place for Unicron So all of

a sudden he's got to insert that stuff or get

characters To where he needs them to be for the

finale It just feels like there's suddenly like

all this stuff to do and So we see the reintroduction

finally because we haven't seen him in a while

of prowl. Yep as well as he returns with throttle

bots who haven't appeared since Spotlight Metroplex.

And to be fair, by the way, that is the sign

of a good ending that you know where it starts

to feel like there's some sort of finality. Like

it feels like everything's kind of clicking into

place on the chessboard. We finally see Jazz

again and start getting his storyline closed

off. Yep, so there's all these elements that

are kind of starting to click into place The

issue is that it means that these issue Issue

of issues anyway that these three issues of Optimus

Prime kind of jump around a lot Ie in particular

once we reintroduce prowl you mentioned or I

mentioned, you know We go from prowl saving the

throttle bots to let's go to side swipes funeral

back to prowl saving the Yeah. Autobots. Over

to Starscream and Windblade. We previously saw

him till all are one. So it has all these things

that he's got to mesh together. And we introduce

Bludgeon and... I will say I think the Throttlebot

stuff because aren't they the ones? No, it was

the Dinobots that found Starscream's Throttleform.

Yeah, the Dinobots, Trypticon, and Sam Storm

are all guarding them. And so we finally get

the Dinobot trilogy gets kind of merged into

the main continuity, too. I mean, when I first

saw the Throttlebots, I'm like, hey, he's not

just plain old Bumblebee anymore. He's a gold

bug. Two different characters, come on. I know.

I know they are. Speaking of which, this is the

first trade where we get a sense there's something

else up with Bumblebee because he appears with

Bludgeon and can see what Bludgeon's doing and

then report back to Starscream without him being

in the room. Yeah, that was a little strange

and they even say in some of that one. That's

one of the things I love I don't know. I assume

it's John's writing but the one of the things

I love of How the like the the bot titles are

in this like, you know RC Autobot warrior kind

of thing, you know that kind of descriptive thing

like bumblebee ghost period period period or

something question mark question mark yeah you

know i love that they did that because you know

we've seen panels and things hinting at it yeah

uh but this is flat out we've seen them appear

without star scream but this is i believe the

first time he can actually like see events that

start there's no way star scream could be aware

of Right nor was he there for so at that point,

you know He's not just in Starscream said even

though Starscream seems to be the only one that

could see him. Mm -hmm So I was interesting this

They're good issues. It's just there's an awful

lot of stuff condensed and placed into them Yeah,

when I was reading the story, I felt even even

the first strike stuff. I liked the way the first

strike issues. were presented as i said earlier

with the beginning and ending an optimist prime

of the interviews things even the interview stuff

throughout the other for strike issue i like

that i thought that was interesting as you said

you know getting back to jazza story finding

the throttle was dealing with that dealing with

the dino -bot stuff having prowl come back of

all people as long as you start flipping tables

i think we're all right uh... You know just having

it all kind of come together and honestly, I'll

say this now until I Opened this I was figuring.

Oh, we're gonna start at Optimus Prime number

11, and I'll be fine. No Obviously not but even

when I got to Optimus Prime number 11. I'm like

I have to go back to volume 2 to catch myself

up because I don't remember any of this I was

able to follow along and get the story to where

it's going in this specific trade, but I mean

we did Optimus Prime and Lost Light volume 2

last year for August or whenever it was kind

of thing and it's like when you go a year will

like Read for trades now read for trades read

for the podcast kind of thing. I'm not getting

these single issue I'm not keeping up with it

month to month to month kind of a thing and it's

like damn it does all read better if you can

sit down and Read the entire thing, you know

start to finish Also, I'll say that so I received

my physical copy of the unicorn trade Yes, a

little while ago. And anyway, so despite it being

the exact sort of finale to the entire universe

they had established, it flows better than these

issues. I think no, no, it does. It flows. It's

a little more. It's way less disjointed. And

again, I feel like it's because this series like

these issues and to a lesser extent, the earlier

Optimus Prime ones, a lot of it just feels like

moving chess pieces on a board and setting up

for the end game. And as we get deeper into Optimus

Prime, it becomes a little more clean and clear

as well, which is nice. I feel like this trade

in particular just feels kind of disjointed because

they bounce around a lot. And it's because they

have to. It's not because somebody messed up

writing. or something like that. It's not because

of a lack of talent is what I guess I'm saying.

It's mostly because of a lack of time. It's a

lack of time. It's, you know, hey, we have to

finish everything because of the lack of time.

We have to give, you know, this audience has

been with us for the last 13 years. I mean, most

everybody that I would assume most everybody

that started out with IDW way back when is almost

still there, or you're like me, where I started

at a certain point, Death of Optimus Prime, and

then I went to Robots in Disguise and More Than

Meets the Eye, as I've said many times on this

show in past episodes. I think me starting at

death and going through the two ongoings and

now these ongoings that were the other ongoings

It's okay because I know the whole story but

there are times in any comic not just this series

not just anything IDW does where things get convoluted

things get to a point where you know hurry up

and finish hurry up in this hurry up in that

like there's so many and it's not just comics

either having the tv movies all that kind of

stuff but you're right i i'm hoping and you've

already said that it gets better you know as

volume four and whatever goes goes yeah optimus

prime i find gets a lot more straightforward

and cleaner uh lost light becomes It kind of

loses its attention to detail to a certain extent

and certain plot lines were flat out abandoned

slash They didn't They got kind of cut off Versus

being explored a little more fully and that's

the after effect of being told Hey, I know you've

got 13 I'm trying to remember the exact time

frame here. I want to say they were told with

roughly 12 issues or so left. I think it might

have been less. But either way, I suspect Roberts

definitely thought he had more time. I would

suspect Barber, even though he might have been

the one who pulled the trigger on this, I think

he probably thought he had a little bit more

time as well, too. But again, I think I've said

this, made it clear a few times, I wouldn't trade

this for anything. The fact that there is an

ending at all is something that is extremely

impressive. I've said it before, I'll say it

again, X -Men's not gonna end. And you mentioned

that it's not just in comics that stuff gets

wrapped up because somebody gets told, hey, this

has gotta end or hey, you're leaving or whatever.

But it happens a lot in comics. Off the top of

my head, I can think of a number of writers who

flat out abandoned books or had to drop storylines

or got canned or whatever, you know, and it's

nice that this 13 year one actually got a finale.

Absolutely. And it's nice as far as like not

pulling the... The trigger on the unicorn thing.

Yeah any sooner than they did Like, you know,

it's nice that there was a build. Yeah, there

was some suspense. Absolutely, but having said

that like I say for all those Positives and there's

a ton of them. It just kind of stinks that when

you're sitting here reading this one of the last

trades you read Involved side swipes death. Mm

-hmm, and it's only now you know another trade

in not to mention multiple issues we finally

get his funeral yeah it just feels a little odd

in theory you you would prefer if you went character's

death funeral next issue yeah well you know Can't

always happen that way I guess kind of a thing.

No, it can't and it doesn't always happen that

way in comics or anything either It's just when

you break it up It just starts to feel a little

Different or off. I don't know how to say it.

Yeah Like I said with Optimus Prime. I'll volume

three. I liked all of the stuff with the throttle

box I liked all the stuff with jazz Aileron is

cool. I like that. She's trying to step up to

be a leader kind of a thing, but She's getting

a taste of how difficult it is yeah, and she's

starting to empathize more with Optimus and the

fact that it's difficult and it just seems like

crap choice after crap choice and she's just

getting a taste of it her growth is one thing

that's that I really enjoy through these books,

and then subsequent ones. Another thing I definitely

want to point out, I know we say this every time,

but whatever, the artwork's fantastic. It is.

All of the artists, Kei Zama, Sarah Pichard -Dorachet,

Sarah needs to do covers for everything. Yes.

I love Sarah. Sarah has covers for Optimus Prime

and Transformers First Strike. She did one of

Optimus and one of RC. I mean, they're like paintings.

They're so damn good. And I like the first strike

artwork, too. It was nice to see Guido get another

shot at Transformers. Priscilla Tramontano. Tramontano,

dammit. You almost had it. It's the Canadian

accent, I tells you. Anyway, is excellent. Yeah.

Yeah, the artists, and it's so strange doing

the way that I'm doing Autobotley April and Autobotley

August only having read a certain number of the

spotlights at this point versus having to have

read all of them and recorded all of that, which

I haven't yet, obviously. But going back to this

and seeing the difference in the IDW artist timeline.

Like, all of the art in the spotlights, at least,

you know, Shockwave through Remjet is great,

but looking at the art in Optimus Prime, it's

gotten so much better over the years. Yeah, part

of it's practice, too. I mean, we'll hit on it

during Lost Light, but Lost Light's another conglomerate.

Alex Milne returned for issue 13 and, you know,

his stuff. is always amazing. But then when you

move on, it's Sarah Pitcher de Roche, Brandon

Cahill. But the one I want to point out to your

point is Jack Lawrence, who myself and a lot

of people, I think when Lost Light restarted

and it was announced there was going to be somebody

new. who wasn't milled on it weren't sold. And

Lawrence's stuff as he goes on through the series

keeps getting better and better up until those

final issues where it's absolutely some of his

best art he's done on the Transformers series.

So I think a lot of it's just practice. A lot

of these people just keep getting better and

better. But yeah, the styles are so different,

you know, in this trade alone, we've talked about

Livio and how different he is from everyone else.

But Zama's stuff too, just gorgeous and completely

different from everyone's work. Yeah, absolutely.

It's one of those things where when I was reading

More Than Meets the Eye, I absolutely love Alex's

art. I think he's a wonderful, great artist.

However, after 57 issues and however many, whatever

other things that were done within Lost Light,

I was ready for a change. Now I know Alex, did

he leave it all during one of the meets the eye?

He had some issues off. He didn't do every single

page, but yeah. But he was the majority artist

on the series. And I was so refreshed. from time

to time when he would not be on an issue to see

other artists renditions of what james was writing

for for more than meets the eye yeah when jack

was in i was just gonna say and none of that's

a combination of alex or any of the regulars

art it's the fact that idw somehow just always

finds amazing artists exactly i thought you were

made of sterner stuff When Jack Lawrence took

over for Lost Light, as soon as, honestly, it's

mainly because of my buddy, it's mainly because

of my guy, it's mainly because of Rodimus. As

soon as I saw Rodimus in the, what I'm gonna

call the shattered glass color, when I saw him

in the purple and the black, I'm like, oh damn,

this is gonna be good. And I'm looking at the

cover right now. We're not going to get into

Lost Light just yet, folks. We're going to take

a break here in a few minutes about that. And

we'll finish up talking about Optimus Prime.

But I'm looking at the cover of the trade of

Lost Light. It's Cyclonus with everybody behind

him kind of a thing. The juxtaposition of the

oranges and reds versus Cyclonus, his purple

and his blue kind of stuff, it's so good. So

good. Absolutely love it. Optimus Prime Volume

3. It may seem like it's disjointed, but as I

was reading the actual story, I felt as if it

was all one story. Yes, there were certain things.

I was like, okay, sure, I'll go with that because

I knew it was gonna be part of First Strike,

even though I never read it. The other issues,

11 to 14, I liked bits and pieces of them. Um,

the art throughout, even though the art constantly

changed, uh, I still enjoyed it very much. Um,

I didn't find that, that it was too wordy. We've

talked about this before and I'm not trying,

I love John Barber to death. Love the man to

death. I'm not trying to, you know, throw shade

at him or anything, but. the man can talk, the

man can have his characters talk, whether it's

in, you know, internal dialogue or... We always

say it's wordy. We never say or, you know, we

always say wordy. I like to say verbose or that

kind of thing. But having said that, the dialogue

is always entrancing. It's well done. It flows

well. It would be a much bigger problem if it

didn't. And I always hope that sounds clear,

like... Anyway continue on with your review,

and I mean it's one of those things where he

You're right when we were reading volume 1 and

volume 2 of Optimus Prime. I felt like I was

sitting here for hours on end reading it because

it was there was so much because again I understand

this is quote -unquote a new series for most

readers. No, you know No one that's gone into

a comic shop that hasn't been reading this stuff

for the past 13 years is gonna be like, ooh,

Optimus Prime. How am I gonna be able to get

into that without having to read the 57 issues

or whatever it is of Robots in Disguise? Okay,

sure, I understand. He has to write for the new

readers as well as us as well, and it just felt

like there was more heft and weight to the words

in that, whereas this felt like... fluid story

even though as we've said in this this podcast

it's a little all over the place because he has

to throw all the stuff at you he basically you

know throws all the transformers at you including

the kitchen sink oh I'm sorry rung are you around

you know it's one of those things where it absolutely

worked for me I love the way they did the format

for this trade and it's just it's Super fun.

I was not expecting where this was gonna go and

I love what what they did with what John did

with the writing and we've already gushed about

the art enough Yeah, we can just insert that

in every podcast about the IDW stuff I just Wherever

they find everybody or found everybody or that

everybody found them They did a great job Yeah,

so What are you giving it as a score? For Optimus

Prime, I'll give it a three and a half. I did

very much enjoy it. There were times when I was

looking back on it that the the art changes were

not jarring, but were a little different for

me, but overall I loved all of the art. I love

the story, but three and a half out of five for

me. What about you? So we're ramping up with

Endgame now. I'm gonna flat out spoil My review

for the whole thing barbers run from start to

finish Either whatever you want to consider the

start be it our ID be it This yes Optimus Prime

or the Transformers whichever the Series you

want to say I flat -out give it a five at a five.

I get near perfect the individual trades Are

real hard to evaluate because they're You're

just reading pieces and he does the whole so

much better yeah So yeah, I mean I don't want

to I'm just gonna say like I would give it like

a three out of five Being really harsh, but it's

The whole is so much better than the parts and

the parts are still really good It's just I don't

know if I find it difficult to evaluate this

stuff. It's like evaluating the middle of the

story arc in the shield or You know, it's like

a middle. It's like a midseason episode of the

shield. Yeah, or Yeah, middle of The story arc

in Babylon 5 or something there can be standout

moments but it doesn't necessarily work without

the rest of it. Yeah. I'll say this originally,

and I had to move it to next year if we even

do it at all. When DC was putting on some of

their holiday sales this past Christmas, I finally

was able to get the three volumes of Batman Nightfall

that comprise that entire story for six bucks

or whatever it was. Originally they're like $29

.99 or $25 .99, whatever it is. So I'm like,

okay, five bucks for Nightfall, sure, great,

I'll buy all three of those. I just looked through

the first volume of Nightfall. It's 600 and something

pages. It's six, I went through that and I'm

like, there's no way we can do this this year.

I don't have enough time to read. I feel like

this could be a whole other show. Oh, and it

would be. One of the things with comics is there's

some great stories, but. One of the differences

between comics and the other mediums is that

they get cut down Nightfall is an awesome example.

One of my favorites is no man's land another

Batman series where it's gigantic Hundreds and

hundreds of page trades. I have the entire thing.

Yeah, but really the main story Which was released

as a novel form and I believe is Greg Rucka that

wrote it Mm -hmm. Anyway the novel like cuts

out so much of the extraneous stuff I ended up

reading the book first Yeah before I ever had

the comics and then I got the comics and I thought

well It's kind of neat to have all these side

stories, but none of them are important my point

in saying the the Batman nightfall thing is a

150 page trade that includes two issues that

are From a separate event even though it all

ties in but the first strike stuff was a specific

event It's like combiner wars. It's like, you

know dark Cybertron kind of a thing Having those

two issues plus 11 to 14 of the ongoing This

trade for me read a heck of a lot better than

I thought it was going to and I wasn't Sitting

here for two and a half days reading all of it

kind of a thing But a three from you and a three

and a half from me, out of five, those are not

bad scores. Like a bad score for this would be

like if we gave it a one and a half and a two.

Like if there was really things in here that

we didn't like. If we didn't like the direction

that Optimus himself as a character was going.

If, you know, for some odd reason Alleron killed

R .C. or something, not that that's happening,

you know, thing. You know, it's just one of those

things. Like I said, I've read the whole thing

and Barbara's stuff isn't near perfect. Like,

I don't can't think of much I would change if

anything. And he wrote what is to me the absolute

one of the absolute must read best trans was

best transformer stories ever. Don't play with

change or podcasting folks. Don't play with change,

don't drink soda, don't do this, don't do that.

I stopped that, didn't I? Maybe it was one of

Dodd's podcasts where I just kind of burped straight

into the mic. And I stopped that after that.

That's funny. We still have one more to go, folks.

We still have to talk about Lost Light Vol. 3,

so we will be back after this. And now it is

time to get lost with The Lost Light Vol. 3!

Yay! Obviously, written by James Roberts, art

on this is done by Alex Milne, Sarah Peter D

'Arche, Brandon Cahill, and Jack Lawrence. So,

this is the first time Alex has been back on

the series, correct? Yes. Okay, cool, cool. That

works. Love seeing Sarah's art, Brendan's art,

and Jack's art as well. Callers done by Drenel

Fuente, letters done expertly by Tom B. Long,

series edits by David Marriott. And, holy crap,

wow. So some stuff happens, yeah. A lot of stuff

happens. Yeah, so this was, uh, just reading

it, it was pretty clear that things kinda got

sped up by... the impending end, in particular

the stuff with the scavengers, or scavengers

as they call themselves, but anyway. Yeah, we

open with... I mean, we open on the Necrobot's

planet, again, this time being checked out by

Fortmax and Co. I was ecstatic to see Fortmax

back, by the way. He is my second favorite Transformer.

Shockwave is third. You can guess what number

one is, but anyway. Well, yeah, I mean. I was

a big fan of Max, though, and I like him in IDW.

Yeah, they actually give him something to do

that isn't just... Be a city? That, and I always

felt, and as much as I love Corey Burton, as

much as I love the G1 cartoon, I always felt

that at the end of Rebirth, it was more like...

Cerebros not Fort Max. Yeah, I'm actually really

a character. Yeah, you can kind of say the same

with It's one of the things I like about the

IDW stuff is big doesn't necessarily denote dumb

Yeah, so for example, Metroplex has actual intelligence

motivations and things Trypticon in particular

is given he actually has a story in an arc and

Trypticon is awesome. Yes. Yeah and Max in the

Generation 1 comics was very different. But his

arc starts, stops, and doesn't go anywhere for

the back half. And then he gets just offed in

Generation 2, which was... G2 was not a good

comic series. And then he returned in the rebirth

series, which was the... continuation of the

Marvel Generation 1 series, which was also terrible.

So, yippee. Anyway. So yeah, we open with Max

and co. And we get an answer as to what's happened

to tailgate. Yep. Sort of. Sort of, yeah. More

on that later. Again, I'll say this now, I saw

this more in this than I did in Optimus Prime.

You know, we mentioned earlier in this episode

when we were talking about Optimus Prime, how

much jumps around. This jumps around a lot and

it seems like Fort Max and Co get maybe a page

and a half. Maybe two, like two full pages, two

or three full pages or something. And then it

goes quickly to Anode and Swerve and their prank

war. Well, is everybody on board the Decepticon?

Who the hell is it? Flip? No, it's Skip. Skip,

yes, geez. I have the Ip part. But anyway, yeah,

we pick up with the sort of our main cast, Team

Rodimus on board Skip, now Saw Megatron. And

so the thing I most wanted to point out about

it is everyone's in close quarters. So there's

a ton of things in the background and different

transformers in the background. And holy cow

is the art to it. Yeah, it's amazing. Like most

of these shots contain at minimum two to three

transformers, some with many, many more. And

it's really well done, unsurprisingly, by Milne.

Yeah, I mean, as I said earlier, when we were

talking about Alex, um, you know, earlier when

he was on the original more than meets the eye,

when he did most different on all of that whole

run, there were times when he did leave, um,

or not do an issue or two, but seeing his style

again in this, it's like, Oh, wow. I absolutely

still love Jack Lawrence. I love the new approach

to it. in the lost light, but with everything

that's going on, bringing Alex back was super

cool. Yeah, it's just nice to see him. And then,

so, sort of skipping forward and moving forward,

the next few issues are, well actually it's the

next two issues, are the continuation slash mostly

a wrap up until we'll see them later on. not

really spoiling anything, but of the scavengers.

And we also get Scorponok and his sort of plan.

Scorponok's plan got cut big time because we

had to play a whole bit, remember, on Trojan

Major where Skids's brain was left, by the way.

But we had all of that with him developing the

transformers that could repair themselves and

instantly regenerate and everything else that

kind of gets pushed to the wayside there's never

really a conclusion to that even later on unfortunately

but we do get some answers about early on in

the series most notably Grimlock being in the

shuttle filled with wooden transformers yes I

had forgotten, because again, I haven't read

any of the Transformers ongoing stuff since the

last time we did podcasts, I had forgot that,

and I should have noticed this when we were talking

about the Dinobots in Optimus Prime, but completely

forgot that Grimlock is not with Dinobots. No,

and it's nice here because he finally gets to

return to normal, quote unquote, for Grimlock.

And it's well done. It's always fun. So one of

the things with the scavengers is they were never

overused They appeared for a couple issues here

and there and that's about it, which I think

was smart or else some of the Recurring jokes

and some of the banter might get old Like they

were used really well is my point. Yeah, and

It was really nice to see Scorponok again who

had not had a starring role In Transformers,

Synths, Spotlight, Ultra Magnus, and Maximum

Dinobots. I love James' titles for these stories.

I think the titles he came up with for the stories

are super cool. Kill All Cods? Yeah, all of those.

What? There's a few different ones, anyway. Well,

you know, we get to, I mean, we're not there

yet, but I'm just cycling through looking for

the titles and stuff. We get to like the everlasting

voices one, part one, and just the everlasting

voices, I think is a really cool title. Um, but

it's one of those things where it always surprises

me. And I've said this numerous times over the

years. It always surprises me where. the title

of the story comes into play in each issue, whether

it's this series or another series or whatever

it is, because it's not always just at the beginning.

Sometimes they put titles and things at the end.

So very, very cool. Well, I was going to get

there. I'm just going to say that we jump back

into Team Rodimus and A, we get the conclusion

of the entire series point, essentially. In terms

of, we discover that they found the Knights of

Cybertron, they found... Cybertopia. Cybertopia,

which was the entire reason Lost Light was launched.

More importantly, we have the death of Nightbeat,

which is terrible and a tragedy. No, anyway.

But yeah, we also have the Scavengers and Team

Rodimus meet for the first time, finally. Yep.

I remember being surprised. I was purchasing

it in issues at this point. And I remember being

really surprised at the end when Nautica opens

the door and... It's the Scavengers. Yeah, are

sitting there. Minus Grimlock who... sacrificed

himself to stay on board Scorponok's ship to

save them. Yeah, I absolutely love what they

did with the scavengers. I love what they did

with Nautica. And I know everyone says Ronimus

is just a bad leader. He's really not. I mean,

as you said earlier, you know, he always has

all this guilt and everything else and just the

stuff that happens to him. in this story. And

the things that he goes through are just absolutely

hilarious to me. I just love the guy more and

more and more in this continuity. He grows a

little more during Lost Light. It was during

More Than Meets the Eye in particular that he

didn't grow... Did I just reverse them now? Yeah,

sorry. It's More Than Meets the Eye that in particular,

especially the end... So in the finale, when

he again uses Chromedome, risking Chromedome's

life just to sort of get what he wants. And as

Rewind tells him, you're an enabler when he punches

him, which was completely accurate. But yeah,

it's really during Lost Light, he starts to shine

and he's got some more growth later on. We'll

see. So. Yes, he definitely improves. in this

series and i think like i've loved him throughout

the entirety of more than meets the eye and now

here in lost light he's still a good character

it's just he has lapses and he's not a great

to be blunt megatron's the better leader of the

two um yeah but you know megatron where is meg

he's on wherever the hell he is He was in the

functionalist universe where he got left behind

when Terminus tricked him into being stuck. That's

a thing, like, now that you've said that, I'm

like, hmm, is that gonna be resolved before Unicron?

Nah, they wouldn't bring... Megatron's not important.

They wouldn't bring him back. Alvatron's more

important. Megatron, really? Galatron's been

beheaded and his head is sitting on the White

House lawn. So... Galatron ain't coming back

anytime soon. Unicron can fix that! But Lost

Light Vol. 3, I dug the story. I thought it was

really fun. I thought it was... not as heavy

of a story. as what James has written for the

last, you know, 13 - I mean, there were some

heavy beats in it, there were. Like, the whole

thing with Grimlock is just, like, heart -wrenching.

Like, figuring out, you know, that, hey, his

brain is in a different place when he transforms,

or all of that and everything else is like, oh,

boy, I just want Grimlock to have a happy ending,

but everything else with them, you know - Obviously

we end on a cliffhanger here, and I'm kind of

wondering how is James gonna, you know, make

it be a happy ending because there is only one

more trade for the Lost Light. He killed 10 in

Nightbeat. Not everybody's getting a happy ending.

Okay, not everybody, but I mean... But yeah,

when you're talking about Grimlock, I wanted

to point out actually a couple things I want

to point out with him specifically before you

move on. I really liked the bit where he tells

the firstborn that somebody looked after me for

a while, did a good job to now it's my turn.

I really liked that where he references that

the scavengers, for Grimlock's hatred of Decepticons

and everything else, he acknowledges that they

were friends and they looked after him and everything.

I liked that a lot. Yeah, that was amazing. Again.

It goes to show you whether you prefer dumb old

Dinobots, whether you prefer Grimlock's new brain,

whatever it is, it just goes to show you what

these writers have done with the Dinobots specifically

in the last 13 years are by far the best characterization

each of them. has ever had. Well I loved Slags

and we'll eventually get to it because of course

with the series ending the other Dinobots are

obviously gonna have an ending everybody has

an ending in this. Yep. So yeah Slag has for

example an arc that he's never had anything close

to that much to do. It doesn't matter the iteration.

Yeah. And Grimlock has his arc, and it's interesting.

They're all very different. I'll say this. I

think Swoop didn't get as much characterization

as he did, say, in the Marvel G1 UK stuff. But

the others, it's astounding what they've done

with characters who really didn't do anything.

So Rewind's another one. Who he was just a database

Yep my uh my heart sank when Swerve or anode

tried to save swerve and cyclonus's sword ended

up cutting into rewind I'm like no do not kill

him again Yeah, oh my god He survived I know

he survives Mostly yeah, we haven't gone in super

into detail because I mostly want to avoid spoilers.

I definitely want to avoid ruining the future

of the series for you We also got so I mentioned

earlier there was the resolution to tailgate

that whatever happened He wasn't in the grave

max couldn't find him. Yeah But it turns out

he's alright at the end I mean, we'll get a reason

for that eventually, but all of the other people

who had died, trail breaker, trail cutter, whatever

you want to use anyway, roller got to see strong

arm and ride them around as a motorcycle. Again,

we got pipes returned, but the one that really

made me sad, of course, is skids because as set

up by everything on Troja Major, Nonica doesn't

care. she's kind of like yeah you nice to see

you again and obviously this is how we further

the plot because without her we don't find the

scavengers we don't find that we don't necessarily

find that this planet is just showing everybody

what they want to see Yeah, there she goes against

the grain and it's like but they're trying to

keep us away from this door We need to find out

what's behind the door You know, she's kind of

pulling a night beat there. We need to figure

out this mystery of this door Getting a night

beat figures out what rung is for But that's

what he's always wanted so he ends up ascending

Ascending to his death. I mean, yeah a little

rough. Yeah closed off. That was sad too. I liked

10. I always hated that Ratchet or Ratchet Ravage

just kind of used him and got him beat the hell

up by the DJ D way back when. But yeah, he gets

to speak finally and then dies. Well, you know,

talk about having some, you know, last words

because swerve only has 400 left that was that

was a funny story beat to me i was like that's

the best thing you've done this entire series

james is cut down like basically give swerve

a twitter a twitter message or whatever like

that's all he could say and then the pranks are

pretty well done so yeah one of the things with

swerve is i talked about this on the super long

podcast with amy and jen but I picked up the

series, I think it was issue 15, and I hated

Swerve. I just found him annoying. And the thing

with Swerve is, he can be that way if you don't

know him or... If I hadn't read the earlier stuff

later on, I'd probably still dislike him, but

he's got... Swerve has a lot of issues. He's

very sort of lonely. He's not sure of himself.

The jokes mask a lot of instability, we'll say.

And it makes him a more rounded, as well as sort

of, I don't want to say tragic, but he's a, he's

definitely relatable anyway, in any case. And

so when you have him do stuff, like pull the

pranks and that sort of thing, it could be easy

for him to descend into being annoying. And they

do a good job that he's not here. Yeah, I think

again like we were saying about Rodimus that

he's grown throughout the series I think this

shows that Swerve has grown, but he's also still

That Frankster kind of guy and I think that's

cool. I think that that works I feel like a lot

of the so known is not a lot of people's favorite

character and I think a lot of that is related

to the fact that she she essentially comes in

as the new Swerve and just because of the nature

of the series and where it is doesn't necessarily

get the same amount of time to be built up the

way he was. Also it means that there's essentially

two fairly similar kind of window on the characters

characters in the book so I wonder if that's

a bit of it too. That could be it She never bothered

me though. I'm actually happy that yeah, they

added some more characters later on It was nice

that you know, one of the things They talk about

is that Roller? Didn't necessarily get as much

time and didn't get as much of an arc because

of the series being cut but It was nice that

he was there and yeah, it would have been nice

if he had more to do because I was always interested

in him This is the first series I can remember

where Roller is a separate character and not

just the thing in Optimus Prime's trailer True.

Yeah, it's the only thing that I know that is

Yeah, usually that name is just the name for

the Roller in Prime's trailer. That's it. He's

not an actual character All I have stuck in my

head is, Roller, what happened to him? Yeah,

the one time Optimus shows any, seems to care.

Yeah, exactly. Optimus Prime care about anybody?

No, really? Well, usually he does. Roller's just

a thing in the other... Roller's just a thing

in the trailer that disappears every time he

decides to stand up. But no, I'm really digging

this. I've said before in other Autobotly months

that we've done the coverage for More Than Meets

the Eye. Both James and John are very wordy storytellers.

In the early days of Robots in Disguise, it was

all the political stuff and everything else and

all this and all that. And some of the stuff

that James did in the middle of the run for More

Than Meets the Eye was, like, I felt like I was

reading... something that was 600 and something

pages or something or other at times even though

it wasn't that long of a trade pay, you know,

the more than meets the eye trades or maybe 150

200 pages something like that. They're not that

bad because it's usually five issues per trade

I was actually surprised with this. I thought

this was gonna be like 13 to 17 or Whatever.

I didn't realize that it was also gonna be I

didn't realize it was gonna be five total issues

so But it works and I like it. I enjoy it. I've

enjoyed reading it It's one of the traits that

ends on you're mentioning the issue breakup it

ends on a cliffhanger Yeah, it does that doesn't

usually happen in trade and again part of that's

just because the way the story ends up breaking

down with It's the way the story ends up breaking

down the five, normally it's five or six issues

per trade paperback, usually, unless it's a mini

series where there's only four issues or whatever

kind of a thing, but this leaves you on a cliffhanger.

It's like, hey, you need to go to comiXology

.com and buy our final volume right now so that

way you can, you know, not be hanging off the

cliff. Like Sylvester Stallone was. Anyway. But

yeah, Lost Light Volume 3, absolutely dug it.

There wasn't too many things, and as I've said

before, usually artist changes kind of don't

work with me very well, but since it's a certain

set of artists, like each issue has an artist,

and it's not like, here's Alex's stuff on page

one, and here's Brendan's stuff, or whomever,

it doesn't matter. insert whatever names that

you want that were on this. Here's Alex's stuff

on page one and here's Brendan's stuff on page

five of the same issue. That tends to irk me

a lot but with each artist getting to do their

own kind of issue thing that was really cool

and I think they all really kind of kept in with

the lost light more than meets the eye character

design type stuff. What if I enjoyed it more

if it was all Jack Lawrence probably but It is

what it is. It's not that big of a deal. And

it gave, you know, three, four, five, six different

people a chance to work on each part of this

story for the artists. So I really, really enjoy

that. Anything else you want to bring up before

we get the heck out of here? No, I'm just trying

to make sure I don't bring up too much more in

the end. Alrighty then what would you rate volume

three zero to five It works yeah, I think it

works better as a standalone than Optimus Prime

did but it's still a little tough because obviously

the scavengers are there and If you don't have

any clue about them, it's fairly jarring. You

don't necessarily know exactly why they don't

get along super well with nickel initially, although

it's summed up pretty quick. Anyway, I give it

a 4 out of 5. I'm also going to give it a 4 out

of 5. It's not the scavenger's fault I don't

like nickel. Yes, I have to laugh at my own Nickelback

joke. Thank you, folks. Good night, everybody.

Yeah, I was nauseated by it. Uh -huh. Where can

the people find you? Uh, it's at TFG and Mike

on Twitter. You can also follow at GeekCaster

or at the pullback. What about you? At nightbeats

on Twitter. Uh, closing out Autobotly April will

be somebody joining me, I don't know who, talking

about Transformers Bumblebee, when if you dare.

This was the original graphic novel, but... So

that's going to end Audubotly April. I do have

to, before I even forget, I should have done

this at the beginning of the podcast, but before

I forget, I have to thank a huge contributor

to The Pull Bag, Bondo Mike, at Bondo Mike on

Twitter. He has given me donations to Comixology

to get a lot of these comics that we've been

doing the last couple of years. So huge thanks

to Mike for... Taking care of the podcast and

helping us do all the hard work that we do here

with reading the comics and talking about the

comics and all that good stuff After Otto Butler

April, it's gonna be Batman month again, but

we are just no April It doesn't this that bit

doesn't rhyme with me this Really do I really

have to explain may 1939 really come on, you

know better than that There are no months that

rhyme with Batman I'm trying to figure out if

there's an M words involved with a lot of Batman

that would fit Man -bat man -bat may I mean pretty

rough. Well, it's the only thing I can think

of yeah So yeah coming up in May after next week

we've got Batman month where we're gonna celebrate

80 years of Batman JT is going to be with us

for Batman Beyond Rebirth, Target Batman. Ryan

will be with us for the first time on a Batman

thing as we talk about Paul Dini's Dark Knight,

a true Batman story. I believe Steve and I will

do Scott Snyder's Batman Volume 7 Endgame where

the Joker came back. And then I don't know what

else is going on. Well, you should do Batman

Beyond in June and call it Juergens June. Funny.

funny guy we're gonna get the heck out of here

folks make your greatest game the comics we will

catch you next time when jack took over for loss

Hey, at least it's not your phone this time.

Yeah, geez. you can rate and leave a review for

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