Transformers Spotlights Part 4: Revelations Arc with Cyclonus, Hardhead, Double Dealer, and Sideswipe

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

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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 364

part of Autobotly August and what is probably

gonna be some sort of Transformers thing in September

because we've got a lot of episodes to get through

We've already done the spotlights parts one through

three now. We're at part four I'm of course TfU

and Mike joining me for this first part is Nicole

Beatles diva hailstorm. Hello. Hi And we're here

to talk about her favorite Her favorite robot

Rio Pachenko. I hate you so much sometimes. Okay,

I'll take Rio from the comp. Thanks. This was

a while ago, but as of from when people will

hear this, but you had posted a couple days ago,

post something funny for me to laugh at. I'm

like scouring the gifs. Where's Rio? Where's

Rio? Where's Rio? No one wants to see Rio. Oh,

stop. So this is Transformers Spotlight Part

4. In this episode we've got Nicole here for

Cyclonus. Ryan will be joining me for Hardhead,

Side Swipe, and Blur, and Haji Prime, aka Heather,

will be on Double Dealer. Ryan and I will talk

later in the episode about how this was IDW wrapping

everything up for Furman. And I personally don't

like spotlights that aren't actual spotlights.

Like see this is what I was gonna bring up to

I'm so glad you brought this up go for it because

they're not like Don't put a larger story in

and call it a spotlight put it in a regular issue

of whatever you're doing like Out of these I

would out of the these Five yeah, I say cyclonus

kind of feels like a spotlight at times, but

Yeah, and the last four pages. Yeah, the beginning

and the ending Yeah, well, it's really even truly

end with him it ends up with Well, we'll get

to it Yeah Yeah, so that's what's going on in

this episode and Cyclonus This is revelation

part one. So revelation had four parts to end

Furman's run. Art is done by E .J. Suh, and this

is my first since we've been doing these spotlight

things, and you'll probably hear me say this

later in this episode, folks, because I think

E .J. comes up later, too. This is the first

time I've seen E .J. Suh's art. I love his art.

I think it's beautiful. I love there is certain

panels in here. I'm like I want this as a poster

There are some gorgeous panels in here. Mm -hmm

Yeah, like that that first panel with cyclone

is zooming across the Cybertron. Oh, yeah that

splash Yeah, so cool because everything else

is just like blurry but he's down. I mean he's

a He's a muted purple a little bit. He sounds

at just a little bit Because it's a little bit

brighter than the devastated Cybertron. I love

it Yeah, so we've got cyclonus going back to

Cybertron, and this is he's not aligned correct

Yes, okay. That's what I thought Well he he Says

I am NOT a decepticon. I am NOT you know an Autobot

so apparently he is but he never really calls

himself a nail either So cyclonus goes back just

good. He's just him. Yeah So he's on Cybertron

and he's I don't know what he what is he looking

for oh he's there because Nova or nemesis or

whatever is wants him to do something Well, we

find out what he's looking for at the very end

yeah And then, for the Autobots in this issue,

we have Hound, Sideswipe, and a bunch of others.

Warpath. Warpath. I love Warpath. I'm always

happy when I see him. Yeah. There wasn't enough

Wham Bam Zowie in this, though. I know, I know.

What the hell? What the hell is wrong with you,

Simon? How does he sit in consoles? Does he sit

awkward in consoles? So yeah, because I'm coming

in the middle of this. Before Death of Optimus

Prime, I hadn't read any of this kind of stuff,

so I was not reading Transformers back at this

time, so it's like... Sideswipe, will you please

shut up about Sunstreaker like stop being a whine

little bitch What if you met if your other half

was lost somewhere what? If your your wife was

lost somewhere and everyone's like nobody ever

get that like you're like, but what about it?

What about her? What about what about my companion?

And it was like no about them later I mean I

can see his frustration you know I can see his

frustration but in a thing that says spotlight

cyclonus it's a little too much so cyclonus is

way too fast for their sensors he basically attacks

their ship they think they destroy him but he

comes back to life somehow Believe my gosh. I

remember reading it. I remember reading this

in The previous ones, but I cannot remember Yesterday,

I forgot my own nieces name for about 37 and

that tells you where it brings I Think he's coming

from the dead universe. So maybe it's he's already

dead I think that's maybe what it is. I could

be wrong. I don't know folks. I remember reaching

about it, but like it's... Yeah. My brain's mushed.

Mine too. And I apologize people. It happens.

So they call for help and Ultra Magnus is the

one to answer the call for help and they head

over there to help them and we get to Optimus

Prime and Geras 9 and Prowl and... He's not flipping

any tables, which is disappointing. I know. Yeah,

I mean, I think there's just too much going on

in this that is not centered around Cyclonus.

I love seeing all the characters. I love seeing

Nightbeat. Like I said, I love seeing Optimus,

even though Rodimus is a better leader. Well,

like I said, I love seeing... Like night be night

beat has his own spotlight though. And and then

even later on we we see RC again She she has

her own spotlight That was okay RC thing that

was just like thrown in there for some reason.

I'm just like it was only a few panels I'm like

what's you know? It wasn't necessary, you know

But in a way it might get people to be interested

in seeing the other spotlights To have the spotlights

other pick up the other spotlights. You know

I'm saying so I guess but again like this is

part one of four Ending Simon's run or getting

close to the end of Simon's run kind of a thing

like these spotlights I've used something like

what we'll talk about later, which is a blur

Which is a one -shot story featuring blur and

how he deals with You know what he's dealing

with kind of thing like It's just Blur blur was

great Spotlight RC, but my was also great my

favorite the one the spotlight that really took

off that I still remember It was really because

here you're taking a character that People aren't

really totally fond of The whole story was about

him and by the end in those 22 pages You were

a fan of his you're just like wow my whole opinion

about this little character This totally changed.

And like with this one, I absolutely love Cyclonus,

but as of right now, we've only had, what are

we at? Like 10 pages almost into it. And he's

only been in maybe a page and a half of panels,

you know? Yeah, that's not good. But that's just

not good yet when he does come back, and he is

the center You know as they're fighting to Stop

him from doing his mission. You know accomplishing

his mission. It's like oh, that's great It's

cyclonus versus the Autobots, and you know that's

very very cool But it's the other bits and pieces

that just take you out of what is supposed to

be a character spotlight And then we find out

the ultimate thing here is that he is releasing

Thunderwing. Woohoo! See, this is another character.

I like Thunderwing. I will say that even though

Cyclonus is not as prevalent in most of this,

I do love that they keep up his narration throughout

as he's doing what he's doing. So there is that.

Yeah, and we... I don't know. Like we keep saying,

there's just way too much going on in here. I

do love EJ's optimist design though, that's very

cool. I like the panel. See optimus and the way

that he designed that he's looking back and forth

and having a conversation with two different

individuals I really like that one, but EJ Let

me and I gotta give kudos to Chris Carter too

for his coloring because when cyclone yeah when

cyclonus is in His cavern in the cavern and he's

debating whether to do this the coloring and

oh it's it's like Beautiful glow and Cyclonus

is almost the same color as the glow, but he

makes it work, you know, um So you I don't know.

It's just beautiful I there's some panels here

that are just gorgeous between between Chris

and EJ. I believe This is the best part of the

comic it's just the artwork it's gorgeous What

else do we want to say about this one? Well,

I mean it's kind of a quick review because it's

yeah Like you said it's part of a bigger story

and You kind of understand who cyclone is says

I mean He he is torn between so many different

worlds because he doesn't know what where he

belongs actually But, and he does have like that

rage where side swipe like kind of pushed him

a little bit and you could see his power. He's

a very powerful, very powerful transformer and

both mentally and physically, but he's still,

you know, that's what I like about him because

you never know what side you're going to get

from him. And yeah, I, I just wish there was

more about him. Because you just you just see

this little just this little spark of who he

is. And there's so much more I think we got more

out of Hound and side swipe in the spotlight.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I still find the the

story interesting. But to put like you said to

put the name spotlight on there. Yeah, spotlight

cyclones I Mmm, I think that's where they went

wrong because even at the very end The big reveal

at the very very ends He's not even in the the

big reveal at the end. Yeah, no Yeah, so you

don't even end with him So, I don't know I Said

the story's fine, but it's the title that's getting

to me. Yeah It's the title and it's the circumstances.

Again, you can have this story. You can have

these four issues that are, you know, this issue

and the other three that we'll talk about later

in the podcast. You can have them. You can have

this story. Just don't put it under the spotlight

banner. Put it under something else. And like

I said, I enjoyed reading it overall. The art

is amazing. OK. Just love the art. And yeah,

I just wish there was more spotlight on Cyclonus

as the title says. Yep, absolutely, because this

is not the Cyclonus we will come to know later.

No, no, no, no. This is still the Cyclonus that's

under Galvatron's thumb. It is subordinate. Absolutely.

What would you rate this 0 to 5? Is there the

fight? Let's see. Cause I really love the artwork.

I really love the artwork. And like I said, the

storyline's not bad. I'm going to give it a,

let's just do straight three. There we go. It's

I have a lot of enjoyment of it, but it was kind

of a dick tease call it spotlight cyclonus. Yeah.

Uh huh, I'm gonna - That's the only way I could

think about it, I'm sorry. Okay then. Good thing

this is an explicit show, folks. I'm also gonna

give it a three. Again, I wish all of the spotlights

were what I personally understand the term spotlight

to be, which is a spotlight on a single character

and I thought that's what - all of these were

going to be. Sadly, that's not the case, and

I get it. At this point, this is IDW in the past,

so it's not like they can do anything about it

now. So, there's that. Up next, we've got Ryan

and I talking about Hardhead. Until then, though,

where can people find you online? Uh, just Google

Beatles Diva. Beatles like the band, not the

bug. That'd be me. All righty then. That's about

it. Yep. All right. Stay tuned, folks. We'll

be back after this. We are back here inside the

Pull Bags Auto -Botley. August, I almost said

April. I am, of course, Steve Chiu and Mike.

Joining me is Ryan, the Onion Flow Merkley. Hello,

sir. Auto -Botley, October, or whenever this

ends up being released. yes octobotly october

or something uh yes we're continuing on with

the spotlights uh nicole beetlesdiva and i just

did the cyclonus one which i guess is revelation

part one this is revelation part two with hardhead

yes bro so this is the warp speed ending to firman's

run Apparently, yeah. The hammers sort of come

down. They have decided to go in a different

direction and have somebody new take care of

the Transformers franchise for a bit. And it

is not Simon Furman. So this would be the cutoff

point into a new launching point, which is all

hail Megatron. But yeah, Furman was tasked with

wrapping things up. There is this series and

Maximum Dinobots which serve as an ending to

the Shun series, or CRI, whatever you want to

call them. Anyway. Yeah. I gotta say, even though

this is supposed to be spotlighting Hardhead,

Nightbeat kind of steals the show in this. Yeah,

so this issue is terrible. It's the worst issue

of comics of all time because Nightbeat died.

No, anyway. Well, it's the first time he dies,

yeah. It's the first time, yeah, Night Beat dies.

We've covered the second one already. Already,

yeah. This is going back in time. Hey, look,

we're both shockwaved now. We're going back in

time, huh? Yeah. No, it's funny. Night Beat had

a good run, and it's continuously had good runs

in the comics. So, yeah, it was fine with it.

But also, I always liked Hardhead. He was the

first headmaster I got as a kid. So... I am somewhat

attached to him from that and I don't know he

actually got to feature a bit in the comics.

Yeah which is nice because he really okay I don't

know about the Headmasters series in Japan but

at least in the version of the Headmasters we

got here in the states with Rebirth he kind of

got a little bit of a spotlight like a headline

thing but not much yeah yeah which is like i'm

hardhead blah blah blah you know intro you know

inserts introduction here yeah but yeah um yeah

i i will say this i love the art in this i think

the art in this is really cool nick roach is

on the art again and he's fantastic He is one

of the best of all the Transformers artists we've

covered. And that's saying something, because

the art's always phenomenal. But yeah, he's very

expressive, too. And yeah, this... So this is

the return to Gorillam Prime, which, if anyone

recalls, Nightbeat visited when we did Spotlight

Nightbeat. Nightbeat went down there and... Somebody

sort of nabbed him and did something to him.

Well, we get the end of that story, but I just

Yeah, when we talked about that issue not I wasn't

big on the art, especially when I first read

that issue and Then you read this one and see

Gorlin prime and the characters drawn by Roshan.

Holy cow Yeah, it's not fair to compare them.

It's not really fair to compare Nick's work to

most artists but oh man he just nails it out

of the park and I like the story here but I'll

say this so there's a lot of jumping back and

forth between we have night beat and hard head

which is they're supposed to be the spotlight

here yeah however because this ends up being

a finale we have everybody else doing other stuff

in it We have Optimus Prime and Jetfire chatting

about the evil plot forged from the dead universe.

We catch up with RC who's killing her way towards

G -axis. I have to say, Nick's Optimus Prime.

I mean, a lot of IDW artists can do G1 Optimus.

I personally love Livio's G1 Optimus the best,

but the panel here where Prime says, I know Prowl,

but if they don't at least try, they wouldn't

be the Wreckers. I love the way Nick, and whomever

the color, I assume Nick's doing his own colors

sometimes, he does that, I don't know. I love

the way Prime looks right there because he looks

like G1 Prime. Yeah, I should have mentioned

that too. So the colors are actually, it's Chris

Carter. Not to be confused with the X -Files

creator, but this is Chris with a K. And yeah,

he does, you're right, does an excellent job.

Well, in that case, we can't confuse him also

with Christopher Carter, who is the composer

for Batman Beyond's score, which is 20 years

old this year. Also spelled with a K. Good segue.

So on this issue of Batman B .O .O. So the stuff

I liked, I love the stuff with Hard Head and

Night Beat. They work really well together before

Night Beat's inevitable sort of turn to being

controlled. And I liked the difference in their

characters. I thought that was well done what

I didn't like and again, this is because this

is just a part of a larger story But the interludes

really just kind of break it up. Yeah, they do

and it's two there two pages each each time they

go to another character or Series of characters

or group, but it really kind of breaks up the

story And I've always been curious what the end

to the Shun series and then to everything that

happens on Earth, which was also part of the

Dunn series. I always wonder what that would

have been like if he had had the time to flesh

it out and finish it off the way he wanted. And

this is one of those issues that I kind of read.

And you and I will get to another one, but...

This is one of those issues that I read and I

really wish they had had more time. I really

wanted to see more of uh, Nightpeed and Hardhead

could have been kind of like a buddy cop or some

sort of duo. They just they worked really well

together and it's interesting. It's the first

time they've ever interacted. I don't know. I

want to see more of it, but I really like this

issue. Yeah. Absolutely. I thought this was really

fun. I thought it was interesting. It's neat

to see Hardhead just kind of tear through the

poor MicroMasters, at least for a bit. Yes it

is. They still get hit down, but that's the differences

between them too. Nightbeat's not a fighter.

No, Nightbeat is more of a thinker, more of a

I'm going to take you down with my wits thing.

Also the Hardhead bit. It's not just a name,

you know. Yeah, I like that. I thought that was

great. Personally, again, I will say this now.

I've said this already and I'll say this in the

future when we do more spotlight episodes for

covering these things. If IDW ever does this

again. I want them to be individualized stories.

I understand back then at the time, like you

just have already said, this was like wrapping

up the run kind of thing. I don't want that.

If they're going to take character spotlights

and do a spotlight, be a one -shot story or be

something like the way I see the spotlights after

reading almost all of them at this point. Right

now today in 2019, if you're, if IDW is going

to do this again, take whatever characters you

want. I'll name three off the top of my head.

Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Rodimus, or whatever,

or Rung, or Nightbeat, we could do Nightbeat

again, whatever. Take them and make... have them

have the character traits that they've had in

the previous universe, because now we're into

a new universe. Have them have all that character.

Give them a one -shot story to get people that

aren't us. into the comics. Like, hey, this is

a character you might like, and this is why.

Without having to tie into every other little

thing. I don't know. Well, I'm hoping that's

what they do. They have announced the Constructicons

series, mini -series, and I hope that's their...

I hope this is them jumping into it. Yeah, Transformers

Galaxies is supposed to be an anthology series,

as you just said. The Constructicons are going

to be the main focus of the first story arc.

Yeah, and this is an issue that kind of proves...

It's not a coincidence that our favorite issues

of the spotlight stuff that we've reviewed are

the ones that really kind of shine put a shine

on Characters who don't necessarily always get

the focus just on them Yeah for an issue and

this is one that kind of proves that again because

I really wanted to see more of hard head and

We don't he doesn't get a lot to do again for

a while either but he still gets kind of usurped

in his Debut here with not really debut. Sorry,

but is his own spotlight here with the cutaways

and I'm okay if there's you know, one or two

other transformers in the mix, but Yeah, they're

kind of jumping around is It breaks up what was

a really good focus on a character and if you

want to tell a story, obviously that's perfectly

fine I love the transformer stories in the comics,

but Just don't do it in a spotlight. It's just

kind of weird. Yeah, very weird. What would you

rate this zero to five? Give it a solid four.

I just I still it's this is tough. It's I love

the stuff with Hardhead and Nightbeat and the

cutaways. You know, you mentioned the Optimus

Prime talking with Prowl and discussing the records,

not to mention. Talking with Jetfire, the other

stuff that advances the story is entertaining

as well. It's just, I wish this wasn't the issue

to put it in. So I kind of wish what they had

done is just have the spotlights and have them

go however they were originally supposed to go,

but then just have one more issue. You know if

you would combined all the cutaways that are

in this and then oh say a subsequent one we might

talk about And just put them all together I Feel

like that would have worked better. Yeah, I'm

the same way I'd give it a I'll give it a four.

I liked it. I thought it was cool. I thought

it was cool Like you said we like the stuff with

nightbeat and hardhead Arts and colors are amazing.

Arts and colors are always amazing. I don't know

of any bad Dreamwave art. Think you mean IDW.

I know lots of bad Dreamwave art. No, I meant

bad parentheses Dreamwave art. I don't know of

any in IDW, but when I think of bad Transformers

art, I'm like... Dreamwave was a little screwed

up surprise on all humans Look adults if if people

haven't already look up dull surprise on the

transformers wiki just TF wiki It's phenomenal

TF wiki net all right We're gonna head on over

to double dealer Which is part three of four

for this thing and I'll be back with how he prime

after this Part three of four for revelations

here inside the pullback folks. I'm of course

see if you and Mike, you know me I've been here

throughout the whole thing. I'll be here after

this Joining me for the double dealer transformer

spotlight from IDW is ha he prime. Hello Yeah

Like we've already said and like we will continue

to say through these four comics specifically

Spotlights should not be a four -part story They

should be individual comics for that character

But hey, hopefully they learned Well, yeah, hopefully

they haven't done spotlights since they did these

so the creative on this Simon Furman on writing

Dan It's Dan Connor who usually just does fan

art. Yeah, that's so good for him on getting

a sequential. Yeah, absolutely Inks are done

by Frank Milkovich with Robert Atkins. Colors

are done by Liam Shalhou. Ooh, I have no idea

who any of those people are. He's a nice person.

His colors are garbage. Nice person, but your

colors are in the trash. Letters are done by

Chris Maree. He just always makes things too

brown. He still does. I love him. He's nice.

Everything's too brown. Liam, lay off the brown.

this is double dealer or dealer who is all inner

and outer self show in one face to the world

and hide the true one let no one in be an island

self supportive and insulate incredibly clever

and a manipulative double dealer will smile at

your face and stab you in the back often for

self advancement or material rewards but sometimes

just because he can it reinforces the belief

that he is utterly superior to those around him

better smarter more cunning the war is a means

to an end faction for fools friendship artifice

uh whatever But sometimes a Decepticon can be

so good, you can't even fool yourself. I'm just

going to come out and say this. I don't like

this comic. This issue? Yeah, this specific issue

of the spotlights. I don't like what is wrapped

around it. All the Dark Universe stuff going

on in the background? Yep. I love the stuff with

Double Dealer, Double Dealer, whatever you want

to call him. I love the stuff with him and Hot

Rod. I think Hot Rod looks great here. The art

on him is very, very Hot Rod -y. But everything

else that's in this, I don't care. Well, it's

because by this point, it was really difficult

to care. Even at the time, I remember being like,

why? Should care about this, but I don't really

I mean, there's a couple of good panels that

I'm like, oh, you know the the art pulls me in

but yeah, so it is when prime smoking so I Care,

but like not smoking a cigarette. I just pictured

that now We need to get Nick Roach to draw it

because it'd be funny. But um Yeah All the because

it's kind of the the middle of the action all

that the preparing for the final Daniel of of

the dark universe Stuff and so It's just little

bits here and there just kind of stuck in mm

-hmm Yeah, like the best part about this was

them going back to Whatever the plan it is and

and hot rod figuring out why none of this makes

any sense and Basically figuring out. Oh, hey

You betrayed me kind of thing with double dealer

like that is no we Good. Sorry. No, good. But

yeah, we totally we totally agree that the hot

rod double dealer stuff is by far the best part

of the story. So in that sense, as a spotlight,

it's one of the stronger ones in this little

quote unquote spotlight section, trade, whatever

you want to call it, because it does actually

feel sort of like an actual spotlight on double

dealer. Mm -hmm. Yeah, he He gets you know we

get to fully he gets fully revealed as a character

and You know he has this You're watching his

friendship with hot rod fall apart. So there's

an arc. It's That part's good. So, you know as

one of these last kind of mess by like something

else. This one's okay But all the other stuff,

it's harder to care about unless you've already

gotten the whole story and then you feel like,

okay, that's that. But to be fair, this story,

the big overarching story, I never, it was so

convoluted that even now when I'm like, okay,

I kind of know what they did, I'm like, I don't

care, Simon, I don't care. It's like they have

to get all these Thingamajigs on different planets

set up Like the whole we're gonna unite the dead

universe and the the living regular universe

thing I'm like, that's you know usual Scooby

-Doo villain stuff. I and I can grok it but the

whole mechanics of it like we've got the four

big bads guarding these four spots on different

planets and everybody's Gonna have to go in and

just and the good guys and destroy these Whatever

the heck they are at that point. I start to tune

out Yeah, and also the magnificence is ridiculous

And see this is funny because you had read this

before right you were reading this to see I wasn't

I've said this before I'll say it again i came

in on death of optimus and then went to more

than meets the eye and then robots in disguise

so i hadn't like i had read a few of the spotlights

here and there but i hadn't actually back then

three or four years ago hadn't actually read

anything pre More than meets the eye lost light

and robots in disguise optimus prime kind of

thing So I was on phase two of the IDW transformers

universe I had not read a lot of stuff from phase

one at all. So reading this now and like I said

these four spotlights it just We're spoiled.

Yeah, we are It's It's a like you said it's a

good story when it focuses on the characters

of dealer slash double dealer and hot rod. That's

when it's a good story. When it's trying to rope

in all this other stuff to get to the next part,

which is the side swipe part, it's like, eh,

I don't care. Yeah. It, like I said, it's less

frustrating now cause I, I know what it is and

so I'm not Hoping that it'll be something that

it isn't but at the time it was just like I did

it at the Time it was annoying and frustrating.

Mm -hmm I really did enjoy the art the colors

Whatever I think the best part of the colors

for me was how hot rod was colored the rest of

it. It's okay The story itself, like we've said

multiple times already in this little short review,

it's good when it focuses on the characters,

it's not so great when it's trying to rope in

every other piece of the thing to set up the

finale in the next part. Should we do just a

quick summary of it for people who don't remember?

Yeah sure. It's just basically hot rod taking

double dealer back to the planet where um his

first mission went poorly in his spotlight and

all the rest of his guys got killed and he got

double dealer out or dub dealer he got dealer

out of prison but he has realized hey you know

all the other guys got killed but dealer got

taken prisoner that's fishy and it's they're

going back to Dealers like, hey, you know, you

totally need to get the magnificence. It'll tell

you everything you want. It's a magic eight ball

of life. And so they go back and get it and it's

hidden where, where the hot rod spotlight happened.

And he finally asks it, did dealer betray us

and gets the answer. Yes. And he shoots double

dealer and he dies. He falls off a cliff just

like a cartoon villain and he falls into a billion

pieces. But yeah, other stuff has happened. Putting

in the background about which it is difficult

to care It's difficult to keep up again. I think

if these four issues had the background story

or the the overarching story as Out like take

all of that out of these and just have it be

character for these each of these characters

Fine. Put the revelation thing in something else.

Don't put it in something called spotlights where

you expect, especially new readers, where you

expect them to think that, that it's a spotlight

on the character that's on the cover of the book.

Yeah. I guess I don't find it super useful to,

I mean, sometimes we all know I love to winch,

but a lot of times when it's like this. are in

the past. I'm like, eh, this is where everybody

was. This is how they thought they had to tell

the story. This is, you know, possibly Hasbro

said they had to do something. Or I think at

this point, it was just IDW being like, crud,

our sales are going down. Simon, you got to wrap

this up. And so it's just everybody doing the

best they could. And I'm like, you know, it is

what it is. And so I tend not to to complain

about it too much. Because it's not affecting

me anymore, you know, it's it's it's at this

point like It feels like Now when you go back

and you read something out of the past like you

go and you you read a book from the 1800s And

the language is just very different Yeah, and

you know, it's kind of sometimes annoying you're

like, oh my gosh use a period once in a while

But so that that's what it feels like it's like,

you know that they just hadn't learned and and

hadn't Realized what these comics could be at

this point. So I tend to be like, you know, there's

a couple good art pages in here, you know, good

good job to Dan Connor who really did some good

art and there's a couple like there's a few panels

in here that are Quite memorable like that. I

go. Oh, yeah, that's that one. I have that in

my brain like a like there's a there's a couple

cool panels of Optimus Prime, okay, but like

there's also a neat panel that's just double

dealer being like I'm starting to doubt and hot

rod disappears into the clouds above as they're

climbing this cliff and he kind of starts to

freak out and then you just see hot rods hand

reaching down to grab him. That's cool and Like

there's a pretty cool Nova Prime being evil with

black Kirby dots or whatever they're called and

Yeah, like I think You know, it's just unfortunate

that the colors serve this art so poorly because

I think he could have done more work in the future,

but I Don't think he ever did. I think he's just

continued on doing Just a lot a lot of fan art

that he sells at conventions. Mm -hmm. I mean

good for him But yeah, yeah, it's very his art

is really Nick Roach II to me like It's like

he's He's aping Nick style rather than having

his own thing, but yeah, it'll do Yeah comparing

him to Nick Nick is This feels like the Trying

to think Yeah, you're right. It does copy Nick

just a little bit, but it also like Nick stuff

is so sinister sometimes This does not, like,

I did not feel anything out of, even Optimus,

worst leader ever, like, even him facing off

against Nova or Nemesis or whatever he's calling

himself these days, like, you know, whatever,

but like, and again, you're right, this is actually

in the past, it doesn't, like, the universe ended,

so it's not like it's, you know, any big deal,

but because the way I wanted to do... Autobotly

April and August this year was I Was gonna do

the spotlights like six years ago when the show

first started I was actually gonna do a written

blog about it back in like 2011 or 2012 when

I first started reading this stuff again, and

it's like Okay, well that that'll wait so basically

doing covering all these spotlights after the

fact is like going back to doing what I was originally

gonna do in written form except it's on a podcast

and The fact that I hadn't read this before,

it's like, hmm, this feels weird. Like, like

I said, like, you know, it's spotlight character.

Multiple part story, multiple part story that

has multiple parts that's going in this one direction

that will eventually affect all these other things

at some later date. I don't know. Yeah. Mean

no, you're totally allowed to be like this is

garbage. Yeah Hopefully and I don't know because

I haven't I'm not reading the new current IDW

universe yet. It's not that I don't want to it's

just I'm Biting my time on it Hopefully if they

do decide to go back to spotlights again for

just like a little short run that would be cool

But hopefully they actually stay spotlights and

don't rope them into a multi -part story. What

have you heard about the little anthology stories

that they're doing? Because those sound promising.

Transformers Galaxy. Oh, no. Transformers Galaxy

is going to be good. I don't know if I've actually

mentioned it in the entirety of this podcast

because, ladies and gentlemen, when recording

with multiple podcast co -hosts, you sometimes

have to record out of order. So I don't know.

what is i can tell you all fair at some point

but yeah uh... i've heard nothing but good things

so far awesome yes uh... double dealer on a whole

i'll give it a three i'll give the art of four

i don't know if you just doesn't If the background

setup for the next issue was not there, and obviously

I know it can't not be there, if it was just

Hot Rod and Double Dealer, the whole thing is

easily a four for me. But since the other stuff

is there and it takes me out of what I'm supposed

to be paying attention to, I don't know. Man.

What would you rate it? What would I give it

See I want to give it a 2 .5, but like There's

enough good things in it, I think I have to give

it a three There's enough good character stuff

in it that I think it's actually Okay Yeah, there's

enough in it to warrant a three I find it I do

find it compelling enough that I am invested

as I read. You know how sometimes you're reading

a thing and you're just like, I don't care about

any of this. I do care about the hot rod and

double dealer stuff. And going back, I did know

at least most of what... was what they were talking

about in the background stuff so I was you know

like okay this is this and this is this and I

I wasn't like completely bored on those parts

so yeah I'll give it a three and give the line

art the three and the colors a one sorry Liam

we're so sorry you need to work on your colors

and obviously this was years and years and years

ago when this was made so maybe he Has worked

on his colors? He still makes everything brown.

Okay, then. Alright, well, I was trying to hold

out hope for the guy, but apparently not. Coming

up next, we've got... Well, in fairness, I haven't

seen much of his work recently, but every time

I do see it, I'm like, dag nab it, Liam, lay

off the brown. It's brown. Yeah, sounds like

that guy needs a chocolate -covered pretzel.

Anyway... We're gonna get on to sideswipe after

this and then we close this episode out with

Blur here inside Autobotly August 2019 only on

the pull bag. We'll be back after this. Rodimus,

what happened to him? The Prime's random fan

theory corner is this. The double dealer is standing

in for punch -counterpunch because they did they

knew people wanted that because it was like a

thing that there was a certain corner of the

internet that really wanted and it still exists

there's still people who want it and double dealer

feels like a character that They grabbed and

went. Okay, we can do the whole Moral ambiguity

working both sides thing with this character

So any fan theories by prime? You gotta leak

that in, that's hilarious. I have a hard prior.

Okay, so I often say this because I don't care

that they came first, but I often say that go

-bots are the knockoffs of Transformers, even

though go -bots, the toys were released before

Transformers. And I'm sorry, Double Dealer is

a piss -poor stand -in for punch -counterpunch.

I didn't say he was like better. No, I know I'm

just saying like like Yeah, like maybe they were

great. You're right there. Maybe they were grasping

at the straws there, but I Want a punch counter

punch story in IDW damn it Who knows maybe it'll

happen in galaxies, you never know Maybe we can

talk somebody into using that guy because I even

though he only ever really appeared once in the

animated series And he has such a cool iconic

appearance in it because, you know, fine, you

deal with my Autobot counterpart. I hear he's

nearby, real nearby, and I'm doing that from

memory, folks. Nice! I'm not looking at anything

other than I can hear the voice in my head. Um,

you know, yeah. I, yeah, I've been wanting a

punch, counterpunch thing in IDW for a long time.

And I think because of the way his character

is, it does not need to be like putting him into

the main ongoing. It needs to be him on his own

story or something. Not necessarily a spotlight,

but we have, we have this new galaxy transformers

galaxy thing, this anthology series. Maybe you

could put them in there somewhere, whatever.

I don't know. It could happen. Wingspan and Pounce,

what are those spies up to? Time for me to do

a little spying of my own! As a Decepticon! Galvatron

told me to check up on you! Be the kind of punch

we don't need your help! Fine, you deal with

my Autobot counterpart. I've heard he's nearby.

Real nearby. Alright, so we've dealt with the

double dealer. And now it is time for the finale

here with Revelation Part 4 with Sideswipe's

spotlight. Hey, remember what we talked about

in Hardhead about characters getting usurped

in their spotlight issue? I know. Sideswipe's

got like six pages in his own issue. I know,

it's crazy. Remember when we did the Completely

Brilliant, which did more for Sideswipe than

any other media? The Sideswipe's funeral, slash

essentially his death. Yeah. Yeah, I talked about

it back then that Sideswipe's been in a lot of

stuff, but he's never been a three dimensional

character in much. And they started to try to

do something with him here. But yeah, it just

gets rammed out by the fact they had to conclude.

the entire arc which So they had it boiled down

to about three quarters of a spotlight issue

having to close out years of Story and what about

as well as you'd think it was no So it's funny,

you know, you mentioned this sideswipe is only

in like three pages of his own spotlight The

cover B cover is basically him in the in the

center and then Prime Magnus RC Nemesis I assume

Galvatron and Omega all of their heads on the

sides of the pay of the cover and I'm like hmm

are we really thinking this is gonna you know

be a side swipe thing cuz that's a lot of characters

on the cover even though it's just their heads

to give into the access but anyway very true

uh yeah it just uh so sideswipe is tasked with

holding off two transformers grind core and other

transformer whose name i can't even remember

that's not a good sign oh boy no um Grindcore

and who is it? Oh, Straxus. Geeze, I can't remember

that. So, Straxus is a character who was pretty

much from the Transformers UK comic, way back

when, like Generation 1 era. Although, he would

appear in the American... No, actually, no, sorry,

he originated in the American ones when Blaster

went back to Earth. Or was that just when he

became a head? I don't know, anyway. whatever

uh in any case they're not major characters here

but side swipes tasked with holding them off

while fort max and hound run off to the portal

to help shut down the infusion of the jet of

the dead universe into our own right and meanwhile

we get Everyone else appearing so we get the

generation one pretenders or essentially well

not essentially they are Shutting down another

piece we get the wreckers who have managed to

Get past this sentinel guarding theirs the sentinel

being Thunderwing who is Thunderwing is pretty

much a phase six Early IDW phase six or pretty

much in that he could just wreck entire planets

of transformers blah blah blah then they confront

bludgeon, but as He is distracted by jetfire

bludgeon gets shut down. Meanwhile optimus is

fighting Nemesis I Gotta say I like the optimus

nemesis stuff in this. Yes. I thought that was

really good That was interesting and he gets

saved by Galvatron Spoiler alert anyway Still

it's just there's so much here Long story short

they shut down the portals they RC confronts

G axis Optimus gets saved by Galvatron. He throws

him into the void to G -axis tries to run, gets

confronted by Hardhead who cuts him off. Turns

out Hardhead's okay. Sort of ish. Sort of ish,

yeah. And yeah, we end up with the conclusion.

Through all this, we lose sight of Sideswipe.

Pretty much. This was not his story, even though

it's got his name on it. Yeah, they cut back

to him and he's somehow beaten Grandcore. and

straxas and even he's surprised yeah yeah this

was not for us if we were reviewing the shun

series as a whole this would be a lot different

type of review we'd be focusing on that stuff

but this is part of the spotlights and it's supposed

to be a spotlight on sideswipe and it's not no

it is not as an individual issue it is atrocious

because I mean it's the end it's the end to years

of build up it's not meant to be a standalone

issue which is why it's weird that they called

all these spotlights because none of them are

even slightly standalone at all yeah no not at

all I mean they all have revelation part one

two three and four on them so like yeah that's

not a spotlight so you know so Let's bring up

the art, which is excellent here. I really like

Sue's style on this. I love E .J. Sue's style

on this. Yeah, E .J. Sue is on art and does a

fantastic job, as always. And, yeah, he's the

only one. So there's no colorist this time, should

be noted. Writer Simon Furman, surprise, surprise.

It looks really good. There's just so much going

on. and it's not a single issue kind of thing.

It feels weird to be reviewing it here, but this

is how IDW ended up wrapping up the first multi

-year arc. Yeah, so weird to think I can't speak

English. Anyway, it's so weird to think that

this is the same company that would let Roberts

and Barber do a run for years and years and That

seemed a little rush Rushed in the end, but it's

got nothing on this, you know Oh, no, yeah, they

at least got some time to wrap it up a good number

of issues This it just you know, they kind of

told Furman like yeah, you got four issues to

wrap it up. Oh gee. Thanks I'll get right on

that. Yeah Because I wasn't reading IDW back

then and because I'm looking at it in the scope

of it Being what I thought it was supposed to

be which is a spotlight. I gotta give it a two

and a half the art is amazing, but this like

The story is just rushed there's not yeah way

around it I again I mentioned it before I'd be

really curious to see What this was supposed

to be originally I just It yeah Yeah, it's just

not great and yeah, it's a new green. Ah No,

yeah, I can can't really go any higher. Yeah,

I'd say two and a half as well It just it's not

great as a spotlight. It's not great at shining

anything on Sideswipe we don't learn anything

more about him really or anything at all and

As somebody was reading IDW at that point and

still does and has the entirety of everything

in trades It's not a great finale either. It

just and it's unfortunate. I don't blame Furman

I don't think he's a terrible writer for this

or anything like that. It just it was really

rushed yeah it's not his right it's not his style

it's not you know it's not about that it's not

about his expertise as a writer it's about the

fact that like you've said hey we got to put

a bow on this thing because we're gonna go hail

a leader or something I'll hail the chief or

something whatever you know kind of a thing And

it just doesn't work in spotlight form, personally.

These four things should have been kind of like

Revolution, which we will never cover. Revolution,

Revelation, wow. Anyway, the Transformers Revolution

thing that IDW did in the just -ended universe.

Whatever Revelation entails besides these four

issues... That should have been one whole trade

including these. There should have been more

to it at least, yeah. If only even a single comic

or something like that. It's interesting that

they let them kind of go back and do maximum

Dinobots to close off some of the stuff on Earth,

but just didn't do much with anyone else in the

IDW universe at that time. Does Max is does Maximum

Dinobots serve as a decent like Go to everything

there. I mean, does it serve as like what we

did with the Dinobot trilogy? Oh hell no. Okay,

so it's not even close to that level. It's It's

okay It's not great either and it still ended

up feeling rushed phase one of the IDW stuff

did not exactly Ended with a whimper rather than

a bang Absolutely, we'll be back after this We're

going to talk to that fast talker, Blurr himself.

Because the world needs another movie podcast.

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head first in the landscape of movies as we discuss

movie news. play movie games, go in -depth on

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Machete Jr. You got to play Blur in the Transformers

while you are listening to GeekCast Radio Network.

All right, we are back and it is the conclusion

for us here in episode 364. Yeah, 364, that's

right. I'm losing it, folks. Finally up today

we've got Spotlight Blur from Transformers IDW

Publishing. It was a time before the Great War,

and Cybertron was experiencing the end of its

golden age, and was in desperate need of heroes.

Instead, it found itself with celebrities, the

greatest of which was Blur. But changes swift,

and Blur was faced with a decision that could

send Cybertron into its darkest hour. I'm sorry,

the Comixology thing says Darkest Age. If you're

putting Darkest Anything on My Transformers,

it better have Hour After It. Yeah, Darkest Age,

I think, looks better there. Eh, whatever. Anyway,

I love, love this issue. This is awesome. Yeah,

this is so cool. So we've got Shane McCarthy

on writing. We've got Casey collar on art colors

by Joanna Lafuente Letters by Neil you could

say and the edits at the time were done by Denton

J. Tipton Yeah, I love that they because it's

a whole celebrity thing I love that they make

the the main cover like a tabloid thing Yeah,

it was different from anything Else idw had done

at that point. Yep, not to mention speaking of

that. It was nice that they let them kind of

go back to the spotlight Spotlights just for

another minute pretty much. Uh, I I'm trying

to remember the publication order and I cannot

that's why I paused but Uh, I could be wrong,

but I think this is one of the last ones they

ever did period I don't remember. I don't know

how I got them listed on TFWiki is how they were

published. Yeah, I don't know either. But in

any case, this was one of the things that would

proceed slash be a portion of McCarthy's era

on the series. Yep. And yeah, it's like the other

spotlights. It actually focuses on a character.

and actually gives insights into that character.

So it does pretty much everything that the spotlights

were supposed to do. Right. And it's interesting

to see blurred depicted as. I don't know what

to call it, a glory hound, thrill seeker, like

a little bit of both. He's got a lot of Sunstreaker

kind of in him with the ego and the like, but.

He's capable of backing it up I Love Casey's

art. I love Casey's art. I love the story The

story with blur and you know how you know Inevitably

everything changes that's kind of what this story

is for blur that everything does change It's

got this thing of hey I was a racer, I was a

celebrity, and now I have to be something else

eventually. Yeah, it's a fish out of water tale

for him. He's somebody who knew his purpose and

knew his place in life. And the oncoming war

changes that. And he can't can't just live sort

of what was at the time a comfortable life for

him. And it gets broken up by, gee, I don't know

the entire planet. Falling into a civil war that

would last forever in this series Yep Yeah, but

I was really surprised in this in this story

with a few bots that show up Because I was not

expecting The bot to show up that showed up Mean

I expect somebody to you know Have blur hey come

to the Autobots like I expect to see somebody

whatever I was not expecting who I saw for the

Decepticon side Feel feel like you could say

a spoiler, you know, well, yeah, no, no, I know

the books a little old I'm just kind of teasing

it up because like the Autobot side is Piston

Uh, you know, Piston was a fan of Blur, kind

of thing, and Blur being the celebrity he is

or was, you know, he's, oh, fan, whatever, and

that'll obviously come back to haunt him. But

Piston gives him the Autobot symbol, and then

later, fucking Starscream, really? Starscream

shows up at the empty bar to give him the Decepticon

speech? Really? Yeah, Starscream wouldn't be

my first choice for recruiter. No, I Wouldn't

think so. It's almost obviously, you know, they

couldn't tell what was gonna happen with the

Universe at this point not to mention, you know,

it's a different writer but man would have been

nice if they somehow had swerve somewhere there

because You know from the more than meets the

eye series swerve was blurs biggest fan. Yeah,

see that's the thing I Thought at first when

I saw a blur come back into this bar. I thought

this was eventually gonna be his bar Kind of

a thing. That's the first thing I thought of

because of everything. We've already covered

with more than meets the eye Kind of a thing

Yeah, not disappointed that it isn't I'm just

saying that was my first thought Is it crazy

that I actually want these Autobot and Decepticon

Metallic looking symbol things those are cool

Yeah, I suppose that hasn't been done. Yeah,

really? You think it would be, you know, they

are robots made of a type of metal, depending

on what series you read that varies. But in any

case, they're made of metal. Nobody's just manufactured

that metal insignias for them. Ah, that's weird.

Anyway, yeah, this series does everything we

wanted with the spotlights when we keep talking

about them again. You get a sense of blur, you

get a sense of... It's very brief, but I mean

you still get a sense of Pista and Starscream.

It's just... It works really well, and... It

is definitely one of the better spotlights. I

don't know how high I rank it. It's tough, actually.

In any case, luckily I don't have to rank all

the spotlights. Yeah, so instead of that no,

it's a solid four four. Yeah, it's a Yeah, it's

a four for me I Gotta give it a five. I absolutely

dug it. I can hear John machete. I Can hear John

machete in my head even though in the comics.

He's not he's not fast -talking. That's how we

always hear him Obviously because of what John

did I love that they have like I guess Orion,

Optimus, whatever. I love that they have Optimus

and Cup in this. I think that's super cool how

Cup is just kind of dismissive of him and Optimus

is like, well, you know, if you stay out of it,

you get to keep your old life. And then Optimus

questions him, do you like to keep your old life?

I think my favorite panel out of this entire

issue. the one where Optimus says all those times

in the arena wasn't the victories that kept you

going that panel right there where blur kind

of has his head hung and Optimus's face is in

shadow because in this he doesn't have a faceplate

sadly but the shadow makes it look like you know

traditional faceplate of Optimus Prime I love

that panel that panel is so cool But yeah, I

gotta give this a five. This was a wonderful

story. I love what Shane did with Blur, with

how he reacted, and how it ends. Basically, you

know, Blur retelling the story of why he loved

his old life, except now it's his new life, you

know, running from the Decepticons and being

who he is. So that's more spotlights, folks.

We're not done yet. We got more coming up next

week and then in two weeks after that and all

that good stuff. And then never. Oh, sorry. Yes,

and then never. We know. Yeah, the spotlights

for us end in episode 368 with Bumblebee, Trail

Cutter, and Hoist. Hoist was the last published

overall spotlight, but that was obviously in

IDW. Phase two So where can the people find you

online sir at nightbeat on Twitter? There you

go. I am at TF2 and Mike on Twitter You can also

follow at the pull bag and at geek cast radio

Join us next week for part five of the spotlights

where we have jazz drift cliff jumper Metroplex

and wow Make your greatest game in the comics

and we will catch you next time Jazz jumper cliff

drift plexing prowl You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's first comic

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