Transformers Bumblebee: Win If You Dare Review

Hello, folks. Before we get to episode 349 of

The Pull Bag, I just want to say that in the

recording of this episode, my brain had diarrhea.

It just wasn't a brain fart, it was brain diarrhea.

And I screwed up a few times. I called this episode

349 .5, which will be the next episode of Batman

Beyond Target Batman. episode kicking off Batman

month this year inside the pull bag however wanted

to apologize profusely for my brain dysfunction

I guess you could call it I don't know so now

on with the show You've just jumped inside the

pull bag. Join TFG1Mike and the rest of the comic

reading crew here at the GCRN as they make their

great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel, IDW,

Boom Studios, Xenoscope, and more, we have everything

you wanna read right here. Transformers comics?

Yeah, we cover that. He -Man? Yeah, sure. DC

superheroes like Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing,

and Batman Beyond? Yup, we have those too. How

about TMNT from IDW and I Hate Ferland from Image

Comics? Yeah, we have all that here. Plus, so

much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So without any

further ado, it's time to talk about the comics

we are reading right now here inside the pull

bag. Hello and welcome to the pull bag. This

is episode 349 .5. Yes, that's right, a .5 episode.

I think the last time we had one of those was...

337 .5? I'm fairly certain or something. I don't

know whatever doesn't really matter I'm of course

TFJ or Mike and returning from some sort of Canadian

grave is JT from Saskatoon He's not entirely

inaccurate with that statement folks. I've been

sick for a good long while so Yes Don't you just

love allergies? No You know allergies brain surgery

i'd rather have the allergies but you know whatever

no one's gonna get that folks i have not made

an announcement about my situation that's currently

going on i will do that in a future episode uh...

once i have more information because as of this

recording i have no information uh... i think

that i say this is three forty nine point five

fuck this is that was a three forty nine them

and beyond next week is three forty nine point

five One moment, please. We are experiencing

technical difficulties See folks, I'm brain damaged

and not in the literal sense. Well, I don't know

it's Anyway Transformers bumblebee from IDW publishing

this is transformers mobile when if you dare

Which is kind of a line from the Stan Bush song

which will be in here somewhere It's an original

graphic novel, so this was an original story

that was published as one book. I actually asked

this question, and I know you know this answer.

I didn't know it at the time. I thought I knew

it, and I was pretty much right. I asked on Twitter

and Facebook... comics people i think i know

the answer what's the difference between a trade

paperback an original graphic novel my assumption

is the answer that the trades are collected issues

and the o g n is a one -shot full story any help

is appreciated of course people commented and

said yes it's basically the same more trade or

graphic novel are issues collected words original

graphic novel is a full -on story that is Just

separate from everything that's just a collection

or whatever All right, so the creative on this

is written by James Asmus Osmus I assume Art

is done by Marcelo Ferreira. I know I don't know

him, but I know his name and Ophelia Fabio colors

are done by Valentina Pinto and letters are done

by the always great letterer Tom B. Long who

has been doing IDW lettering for years now years

and years and years and this is Bumblebee when

if you dare it's all about Bumblebee and and

his various adventures on earth I do like the

art in certain places I like it on the classic

G1 characters My only complaint about the art

in this entire Book is Bumblebee's face just

looks weird like I'm glad he has a mouth and

all that that he isn't just Beeping out stuff

and whatever and he actually has a voice like

the stuff that he says I can hear Dan Gilvazan

in my head saying this stuff as the character

But there are times where his face just looks

really really really weird It doesn't matter

what expression he's doing. He could be screaming.

He's smiling. It just kind of looks creepy to

me That's not too bad Technical difficulties,

let's move on shall we yeah, so the art in this

folks I'll say this right now, and I'll probably

end up repeating myself as I already have which

you did not hear Bumblebee's face looks different

in every single panel. Sometimes it looks cool,

sometimes it looks interesting, but most times

it looks like a three -year -old did it. I love

the way all the other bots look. I love the way

Optimus looks. I love the way Blaster looks.

I think that's super cool. Even Ratchet looks

super cool. But this is basically a Bumblebee

story. Yeah, I mean the art's kind of classic

G1 comics mixed with a bunch of Transformers

animated. you know, especially that bit where

Bumblebee kind of snaps at everybody, and it

does that anime trope of one eye open, the other

eye squinted closed, and it was like, I'm yelling

right now! You know, that sort of thing. And

I like that, like you said, blaster look good.

I like that he's sitting on the side of the road,

which is kind of, I think, kind of a nod to the

episode two or three of the original G1 cartoon

where, you know, spikes Righting his journal.

I think optimus would be a great president and

then he finds this like prist Yeah, there's nothing

untowards if finding a pristine Micro cassette

recorder next to an almost active volcano with

a spaceship sticking out of it. No, absolutely

Nothing wrong there. Anyway, I I hate to be a

g1ist but that wasn't blaster blaster actually

wasn't introduced until the movie that was soundwave,

but that's what that's that's what this is referencing

with blaster in this comic sitting outside of

the arc that is what exactly what it's referencing

the blaster wasn't actually introduced until

way later and then you know out of place because

you think this is a straight -up g1 comic then

we see wind blade in the background and her design

is not doing her any favors no it's not There

are some times that Windblade is drawn amazingly

and she looks great. This is not one of those

times sadly Yeah, I mean honestly if they put

like the blue Like I just I call that effect

Tron lines if they had the blue Tron lines on

her face like in every other incarnation of Windblade

It would add a lot more Yeah, you know it's just

that's the effect. It's like having optimus without

the mouth shield. You know it's just there are

some things you just don't do So so bumblebee

is trying to find his place amongst his fellow

autobots. He's trying to capture his moment He's

trying all this stuff He goes out to kind of

relax and kind of think and whatever and he ends

up seeing these street racers One of whom looks

really familiar. Yes, exactly purple girl and

all very familiar Jeep and bumblebee kind of

breaks up the race and he kind of well actually

the the Jeep actually knocks into the other dude's

car and the other dude's car almost You know

goes over the cliff. Well bumblebee transformed

saves the dude. We learned that the dude's name

is Matteo Matteo Cruz and He's the spike wit

wiki of this story pretty much. Yeah And I do

like the whole bumblebee like trying to like

I'm as good as any of you guys You know, and

it's very Transformers Prime bumblebee, you know

because in this one he's the straight -up kid

brother of everyone else Yeah, you know learn

to use your strengths bumblebee optimus says

enough bumblebees halfway to telling prime to

Go get an oil change or however transformers

cursed at each other But yeah, yeah, so bumblebee

saves Mateo and Mateo's truck and mumblebee toes

the truck back to Mateo's garage Which would

never happen in the 80s? Yeah, and you know we

find you know Mateo's this kind of gearhead.

He's got a prosthetic arm and like This would

be a cool setup, you know, if they turn this

into an animated series, you know, like have

Mateo be this new kid and you got somebody literally

different than any other point of view human

character that's ever been in Transformers. You

know, he lives in the house with his mom. He's

got all these planes. Maybe he creates the aerial

bots. You know, this would be a cool setup, I

think. Mm -hmm. Yeah, it would. His mom is this

hot shot aerospace engineer and pilot. She doesn't

just, you know, make the technology. She doesn't

just, you know, build the plane. She flies them

to a point that I feel is, um, grossly overused

in this story. She says it like three different

times to three different people. I think she's

the Tanya stark of this universe. uh... we meet

up with uh... we find out that it is swindle

and it is the combaticons that are here looking

for top secret project or they're on some sort

of redemption mission from megatron or something

uh... so we do see swindle and all of that and

we get a scene with mateo and his mom talking

about the demonstration that they're doing uh...

tomorrow and and everything else the military

demonstration I do love the backgrounds. I think

the backgrounds, the art and the colors in the

backgrounds is really, really cool. That kind

of sunset scene earlier where Bumblebee's on

the cliff just before he goes and saves Matteo.

I do love the background art in this. Yeah, and

I agree with you on the colors, especially that

scene where Bee and Matteo are cruising into

town. You get that awesome kind of... Almost

like a matte painting in a classic movie. Just

that awesome Vista shot like that and yeah, you

see this kind of small well small ish or Decent

sized town, you know, it's kind of middle America

slice of life kind of thing going on. I like

that design and We go by the garage and well

80s cliche number 57 tomboy girl who's good with

cars Nicole who Over the course of this thing.

I just I really Enjoyed this and I don't know

if the writers of this got like a preview of

the bumblebee movie or it's just You know coincidence,

but you know, I kind of got a slight Charlie

vibe with Nicole's character You know with her

being a grease monkey and being kind of slightly

fiercely independent and all that And then we

find how much of Steve Urkel is in Mateo's character

because she slips into the car and he's like,

ha ha ha, ha ha ha, what are you doing? Yeah,

exactly. Bubbly tries to woo them and everything

else with the music and all that and you know,

he and Mateo kind of get into this little tiff

about the whole thing and whatever and... Like

the bumblebees face on the on the the radio there

where he's like so Nicole seems cool wink yeah,

then Mateo loses his shit He's like bro. I was

helping you out gosh So they end up going to

the demonstration they end up at the The airfield

here and As soon as they... I wonder who some

of those guys are sitting on the field. As soon

as they got there, I'm like, oh my god. It's

the combaticons. So... I even like how Bee's

horns turn down in like a dog's ears in that

one shot. He's just like, oh, yeah, I'm not worried.

Everything's fine. Everything's totally fine.

and we go in and Mateo's looking for people and

Well swindles behind everything apparently mm

-hmm well go answer them because I we both know

I can't And with tail he's looking for He's basically

he's looking for swindle. Yeah, he's trying to

track him down and then this guy here does not

look like a friendly or helpful sort and Then

they keep going on bumblebees kind of tooling

around and Matteo Comes running after him. It's

like we got to find our mom my mom and Next thing

you know swindles after him. Yeah swindles after

him. So the chase is on We get the other combaticons

in there as well not chasing after B but you

know they're at the at the airfield place and

we have this really cool chase and Matteo was

going to try to jump the train but or jump in

front of the train kind of thing with B but that

was not gonna work and again it's back to the

lesson of be slightly more careful don't be so

reckless all the time kind of a thing I believe

this did come out right around the time of the

Bumblebee movie release at the time. I could

be wrong. I don't remember off the top of my

head. Oh, I do like Swindle. Unlike the previous

characterizations, like, God, I can't remember

the guy's name, the voice Swindle in animated.

That would be Fred Willard. Thank you. It was

right there Fred Willard swindle like he played

him as just this kind of like smarmy car salesman

huckster type and this that Characterization

is here with swindle, but I like how he he does

like the tough talk Which is not something swindle

in comics or animation is really known for right,

you know And he's like and if I see you again,

I'm gonna hurt you or your little friend Yeah,

and they sorry you go swindle eventually kidnaps

his mom or mom naps his mom or whatever you want

to call it um because they want this the cons

the uh well the constructed cons well the combaticons

want this you know super giant uh uh experiment

that she's working on and everything else and

obviously it's a thing of it if i refuse well

We know where your son is right now and we have

our helicopter friend kind of floating around

there and whatever. Part of this also is Mateo

asking Nicole to the dance that's happening that

night and everything else. So there's kind of

a high school dance kind of scene there. and

a lot of these character designs it's not any

specific thing but I think you know they they

made an effort to design like these are analogs

to like archetypes you've seen in like the Breakfast

Club or you know Pretty and Pink and all these

like classic John Hughes type teen movies that

one dude sporting a very you know Captain Planet

Wheeler mullet yeah but yeah so you know Mateo

shows in and You know, the calls are like, you

came and he's like, yeah, yeah, I I'm here. Mm

hmm. This is honestly one of my favorite parts

of the book is, you know, they they kind of it's

cliched, but they get the whole, you know, self

-conscious kid trying to, you know, break out

of his shell and all that. And. Yeah, I love

how Bumblebee is just like creeping in the background.

He's like. Well, I might not be a total tech

whiz, but I added a little something to our two

-way signals. Oh God, he's turned Mateo into

a puppet. Yes, yes he has. Eventually they're

on the run from the combaticons. They come after

kidnapping his mom and is like, you're gonna

make us stealth. Okay. From a distance sure,

but eventually when they see like a helicopter

space shuttle in a two cannon more Rocket truck

rolling down the highway stealth kind of goes

out the window. Yeah, really On slots alternate

mode is not exactly very stealthy. Yeah good

action and we have the mom fighting and then

we have the combination of the combaticons into

Bruticus so that's kind of awesome yeah i love

the the whole like they they go outside and like

we knew Nicole was a gearhead but she's essentially

got the beast from the fast and the furious as

her own ride she's got Dom Toretto's charger

there he's like you drive I'm still getting used

to heels. You know, then they tear off after

and we get Bruticus who in terms of like in the

way of like them assaulting this aerial base

and they want to get all this military tech and

you know, take over the world. I mean, Bruticus

is you can't say who your favorite Decepticon

combiner is without mentioning Devastator, but

that's kind of like saying who's your favorite

Superman Christopher? For me, that sort of thing.

Yeah, I still think the best is Christopher Reeve,

but that's a conversation for another podcast.

I'd say Devastators number one, the Combaticons

Bruticus is number two. Oh, is it kind of like,

I forget what the Seacons combiner form is. I

forget. I don't remember off the top of my head.

Yeah, they get into it like and bumblebees kind

of running rings around him because he's so much

quicker and he's taking them down and eventually

the bee stings them enough that yeah, they become

Bruticus and You see him towering over be and

bees like oh Slag and You know we get to a point

where bumblebee eventually, you know, they eventually

have to you know, not be Bruticus they have to

be their individual selves and And, uh, Bumblebee

says, uh, I guess I just believe we each can

do more than that way. Maybe together. We can

fly, and Bumblebee's on the stealth bomber jet,

ready to come in and destroy him and all that

stuff. It's a fun story, it really is. It's just,

for me, it's getting used to some of the art.

Even late, like, even later, um, after, like,

As we're closing this out a few victory laps

later when optimus and ratchet and them or not

ratchet wheeljack Are shown loading uh the combaticons

into the prison or whatever they're doing. I

think that's optimus's trailer Oh, okay. Well,

well then we do know where it goes when he transforms.

Um Optimus's trailer or whatever into the void.

Yes optimus himself He looks worse here than

he did in the rebirth the final three episodes

because the rebirth was animated from somebody

different completely different student I think

it was Canadian studio that did the rebirth three

-parter in the g1 cartoon and he looks worse

here than he did there At least in that one panel

where it says a few victory laps later He just

his face looks off and his headlights look like

they're dead. It's the way he's posed but it

just the art is just and then later as he's you

know talking to bumblebee and he you know he's

saying it's too easy to define people by what

you've seen of them he looks fine there he looks

like he's supposed to look he doesn't look like

he's battle damage doesn't look like he's supposed

to be a zombie or anything like that So I wish

that the artists would have just stuck with one

style like I can understand two different styles

if it's two and it is Two artists on this because

it's this person and the other person as well

But I wish they would have gotten together and

said hey, let's stick with one style and not

have So many different things Overall I do like

the story the art Is middle ground at best for

me, but the story is very good. It's a very good

bumblebee story very interesting What did you

think of the end and all of that? Well, I I like

the end the comment like no Bruticus lose target

Bruticus tear through everything and I could

hear Fred Tata shores halt voice coming out of

them although I did like As I blast off, he's

like, it's always excruciating to feel my intelligence

blunted by your dims. I love, that's classic

combaticons. And then B gets like the A1 Stallone

Schwarzenegger action hero moment, like, you

know, surfing on a stealth bomber, pitching a

missile right into their face or missiles. And

I'm just like, you go, B, you go. And yeah, it's,

I mean, again, it's the panels, it's... Not like

they're trying to mix like these the angular

lines of what you would think the transformers

have with This animated effect in the eye in

certain shots it it's it's very hit or miss I

love the whole like the the best thing I can

say about the optimus in this thing is like Maybe

it's the design. Maybe it's the the language

I hear Peter Cullen and that's not just because

Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime You know, Gary

Chalk did a Grey's voice as Optimus Primal in

Beast Wars in the Unicron Trilogy. It's just,

no, this, something about this story, the setup,

the execution, it comes through as purely G1

in my head. So, you know, I hear Dan Galvin saying,

I hear, you know, Peter Cullen, and I love how

at the end you get that kind of 80s coming. It's

like, wait, you did go to the dance? And yeah,

we were pretty much the MVPs. Yep, that's awesome.

And you get that great, you know, they race off

into the rising sun and Optimus is like, go have

fun, you crazy kids. Yep, absolutely. I love

the story. Just the art leaves me not that satisfied,

but the story is awesome. It's a great one -shot

bumblebee story focusing on him and... how his

life is and how he affects others as well as

how others affect him very very cool i love i

don't want to say side characters but supporting

characters that they use in this because yes

it is all about optimus and and and the and the

war and bumblebee and all the other wheeljack

and everybody else i love that those bots had

a cameo blaster by far has the best cameo in

my mind as far as like you said being outside

the ark and all that um... I love seeing Swindle

on the combaticons, that's super cool. Overall

though, I would probably give this a 3 .5 out

of 5, mainly because, as I said at the beginning

of this, Bumblebee's face never looks consistent

at all. Yeah, I'll agree with you on that. It's

definitely a 3 out of 5 for me. They kind of,

when you think about it, they kind of treat Bumblebee's

horns like Spider -Man's eye pieces. A lot of

artists tend to use, like, the eyepieces will

squint or they'll get really large or, you know,

like the way Bumblebee's horns droop down like

a dog's ears sort of thing. I enjoyed that. The

art... Excuse me, I don't want to sneeze there.

The art is... it's passable. It's decent. You

know, the designs on most of the Transformers

are good, especially the Combaticons. I think

this is some of the best... designs they've ever

used for the combaticons Like the one thing I

was gonna say and I didn't really have the words

until I was thinking about my sum up here is

Mateo's mom Like she does keep bringing it up

that I not only design it I fly it and she's

got this attitude and I was like Again, I do

like Carol Danvers Captain Marvel as a character.

I've enjoyed many of the com she's been in But

this predilection for Continually, you know crowing

about what you can do in your accomplishments

like that for any character Be they male or female

does get very draining after a while So that

that's another thing that it took a little bit

of points off. Yeah overall three and a half

dug it and I realized reading this there was

that Bumblebee go for the gold One shot that

came out a few weeks ago at least before we recorded

this wondering because he ended up by the end

of that story he kind of got jacked up you know

trying to impress all the Autobots I'm wondering

if that is like a pro like a prequel to this

or something hmm I don't know I'd have to look

into it yeah like I said this was this was supposed

to be an original graphic novel was not supposed

to tie into anything that any other stuff that

bump that That that IDW was doing like they released

the I actually bought it all we'll do it at some

point or I don't know whatever They had released

the bumblebee movie prequel comic So they had

released that Right when this was being released

so Obviously that's different because it's more

based on the movie and I haven't really looked

at I've looked at the cover That's all I've seen.

I haven't seen the interior art on that. So yeah

Quick the Transformers movie continuity It's

the one that looks like poster kind of looks

like a James Bond sort of thing it's if that's

the if it's the miniseries that I'm thinking

of the That one is a prequel for The Bay Formers,

not the Bumblebee standalone film. Because that

film is completely out of continuity with The

Bay Formers, no matter what the higher -ups at

Hasbro or Platinum Dunes would have you believe,

because clearly it's not, and again, that's an

episode unto itself. Overall the art and I was

good. It was kind of cool. It's you know What

if James Bond had a transformer sort of story?

If it's the one you're thinking about so I could

be wrong Well, I'm looking at the one that you're

talking about the transformers mobile be go for

the gold. It is the same Author and art team

that are on this but it had the one I was talking

about was the man with the golden car funny funny

guy no that's the name of the comic no it's go

for the gold isn't it yeah no that's that's the

one I thought that's the I think that's the prequel

to this graphic novel and the one that that could

be yeah the transformers like bumblebee man with

a golden car is a prequel comic, but it's a prequel

comic to the Babyformers movies, not the 2018

Bumblebee film. Oh, that, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,

that's, no, no, it is a prequel to the, it is

a prequel to the Bumblebee film. It specifically

says, Transformers Bumblebee, official movie

prequel from Cybertron with love. I have it,

I own it, it's right here. Bumblebee launches

from Cybertron in 1987 and lands on earth in

1987 in the Bumblebee film. It's the first time

he's been on earth. It's Anyway that again, that's

a whole argument for another episode. I I don't

believe this to be It's a prequel to the Bayformers

comics The one we're talking about now when if

you dare is not a prequel. No, no Go go go for

the gold could be a prequel to what we're talking

about, but the actual movie prequel is something

completely separate yeah Yeah All right now that

that confusion is over with where can the people

find you online sir you can find me Every so

often because we don't really have a set recording

schedule on the comic connoisseurs with Ben Carver

and red ink We talk about everything in and around

in involving comics. Sometimes we agree, most

of the times we don't. You can also find me on

Facebook, Instagram, and the Twitter is at JT

from Saskatoon. Awesome. I'm at TFU and Mike

on Twitter. You can follow at GeekCast Radio

on Twitter as well as at The Pull Bag on Twitter

and find us on Facebook as well. Make your greatest

gift to comics and we will catch you next time

when we kick off Batman Month as we target Batman

Beyond. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pullback. The GCRN's first comic review

and discussion podcast. There are several ways

to get in touch with us and leave feedback for

the show. You can visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can comment on the episode and

all of our different podcasts. You can rate and

leave a review for the show on iTunes. Be sure

to leave us feedback. Become a fan of us on Facebook,

facebook .com slash The Pull Bag. Send us an

email, feedback at geekcastradio .com, follow

us on Twitter at ThePullBack and at GeekCastRadio.

So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.