Transformers Spotlights Part 7: Bumblebee, Trailcutter, and Hoist

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

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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 368.

I'm, of course, T .F .U. and Mike. Joining me

is Ryan, the uneven flow, Mark Lee. Hello. Hello.

And we're concluding the Transformers Spotlight

coverage here inside Autobotly August, Autobotly

April this year for 2019. We end with Bumblebee,

Trailcutter, and Hoist. Creatives, John Barber

on writing for Bumblebee. Art is done by David

Daza. Colors done by Zach Atkinson. All the letters

are done by Sean Lee. Trail Breaker, because

I refuse. I just refuse. Written by Roberts.

Art by Matt Frank. Colors by Thomas Deere. And

then Hoist is written by James Roberts. Augustin

Padilla is on art. Colors done by Joanna LaFuente.

So this is all collected in the prelude to Dark

Cybertron. Yes, yes, yes. Which is weird because...

So, of the entire trade, only one of these has

anything to do with Dark Cybertron, and that's

Trailcutter. Yep. But we'll get to that. The

Bumblebee one is really weird, so that's what

we're going to open with, but... It's weird in

terms of the timing. So this takes place back

when the Transformers are all on Earth. Dark

Cybertron was 50 issues into R .I .D. and More

Than Meets the Eye. That's way after this. So

the Spotlight Bumblebee's inclusion here is a

little weird. Yeah. The only thing I can think

of off the top of my head is that, hey, we're

no longer doing spotlights anymore. These are

the final three. We need to put them in somewhere

so we can get them traded somehow. Also, to be

fair, I mean, it's Barber's version of Bumblebee.

Yeah, absolutely. Who was fairly important in

Dark Cybertron. Well, yeah, I mean, the guy died.

Mostly for getting shot. Yeah, exactly. um throughout

this entire thing throughout all of bumblebee's

uh issue here every time they do the narration

i'm like get out of my head dan gilvezan because

i can hear dan i can hear his voice like yes

this is not 84B, this is not Generation 1 Cartoon

B, but I still, I don't care. I can still hear

Dan's version of Bumblebee's voice in my head

when I'm reading the narration, the internal

monologue that Bumblebee does throughout this

issue. I almost, I didn't, but I almost emailed

the guy and said, hey Dan, can you record this

for me? And then he would have said, who are

you? We've interviewed him once a couple years

ago. Anyway. Bubblebee is, this is back when

he was on Earth in charge of the Autobots. He's

having trouble keeping track of slash commanding

the Autobots at this point. He comes across the

Decepticon. He's on the space bridge who are

heading out to join Megatron on Cybertron. And

long story short, he ends up stopping five of

the Stunticons from joining all the Decepticons

on Cybertron. And it's one of those, it's, it's

funny. This is a better Bumblebee learns to be

a leader issue than some of the entire arcs and

some of this stuff. was during the costa run

it pretty much managed to do it in one issue

so still again going to what yeah going to what

the spotlights should have been like the one

-shot stories the character building story like

you know bumblebees this starts out with bumblebee

having a bad day you know and then it ends with

him having One of his best days. He's learning

lessons as he goes. There is no drop off in this

issue. There is no will he or won't he. Figure

this crap out. You know. I mean he does. It could

have been just another. Bumblebee learns a lesson

story. It was solid. Yep. Absolutely. It was

enjoyable. The art is very different. I don't

remember. I can't remember what else the artist

Zach Atkinson has worked on. Or, sorry, he did

the colors. David Daza, but, you know, solid

art. Yeah, solid art. I like the close -ups on

B. Prowl looks like a, I mean, Prowl is a jerk,

but he looks like to be drawn as a full -on jerk

here. Which is, I guess, great because that's

part of his character. What I love, specifically

for the Comixology guided view part, is all of

the pages that are Bumpy's internal monologue

and telling the story. If you put it in guided

view, it basically will give you the... As you're

going through, it'll give you the zoom in on

the... on the actual dialogue like you'll you'll

see the page of the of the scene uh but then

it zooms in on the dialogue so you can read it

so love that as always um interesting to see

thundercracker here he's on his way towards you

know becoming a great playwright or something

or other i don't know i just thought that was

so weird with thundercracker But yeah, I mean,

the colors are great. The story is interesting.

The art itself, David does on the art, very interesting.

And it works. It works for what it is. It doesn't,

you know, I can say, oh, you know, out of all

the Bumblebee stuff we've done lately between

the quote unquote movie prequel and When If You

Dare and then this, I'm like, I'll hand this

to anybody easily because it's easily a great.

one -shot Bumblebee story. Yeah, and it's accessible.

Yep. So we get to Trailbreaker, because I refuse.

Matt Frank is on the art, as I said earlier.

Colors done by Josh Perez. So we're on The Lost

Light. Yep, and like I said before, this is the

only one that actually ties into anything to

do with Dark Cybertron, because this is all about

Metroplex's thumb. Although it's mostly about

Trailbreaker, Sir Trailcutter. Whatever. Whatever,

anyway. I'm just going to interchange them, who

cares. So, Trailbreaker is sad because he didn't

get one of... None of us is Rodimus's star which

anyone who reads more than meets the eye or lost

light knows he gives out like candy and he feels

overlooked and Well, this one's his chance to

shine because everybody on board ends up being

frozen By lockdown and co who if you're red more

than meets the eyes Fifth trade slash fifth arc

remain employed yes hunting titans uh for terrorists

and co but in any case here yeah there we don't

know that um but yeah they're on board looking

to steal metroplex's thumb and don't really care

about the crew trail breaker's the only one left

on line and has to defend the ship against them

using more smarts than brawn and it's a really

good story and it's a really good spotlight it

is yes i actually and the support and cast shines

too by the way stuff like swerves brief two panels

whirl giving him advice on how to stand out yep

It is terrific. Yeah, absolutely. I actually

remember picking the, I, back when the spotlights

were being released, I picked up Megatron and

I think I picked this up and I had gotten a few

others as well, but they like jazz and a few,

but those were older at that point. And I remember

reading this and I'm like, Oh yeah. And this

is a year, this is years ago. This is at least

three, four or five years ago that that happened.

And I'm like, oh yeah, very, very cool. And I'm

reading it again, thinking, oh, Trailbreaker,

Trailcutter, change name because of copyright,

at least in the story, you know, world, just

like instead of Trailbreaker coming up with the

thing of himself, you know, of changing it himself,

you know, you have another character suggested

to him, and that works, that's cool. Erotimus

Star. That's just, that thing is just so funny.

And then Rodimus is like, part of the whole thing

why he doesn't get one is like, well, I don't

get, Rodimus is like, I don't get one just for

being a leader. Like, you created the damn thing,

you can give it to anybody you want. I mean,

he gave it to Magnus for good punctuation, if

you recall. So, he gives him that for pretty

much everything. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Yeah, but

Trailbreaker, Trailcutter, whichever you want

to call him. Absolutely interesting. Really dug

it. Very, very cool. It is one of the best spotlights.

And one of the best for getting inside a character,

too. More so than a lot of the other ones. Yep.

And then we get to... And this is the final spotlight.

They did away with the spotlights after this.

I don't know if it's because of... I blame him.

It's all his fault. No, I'm joking. I don't know

if it's because they weren't getting the numbers,

they weren't getting the sales, they weren't

whatever. I don't know if it was just a purely

story thing of, oh, well... Yeah, it's difficult

to do when you've got two ongoings that are...

Right, yeah. built on continuity as well and

as much as our id and one meets the eye were

yeah very true um but yeah i was just gonna sum

up the story which is hoist is trapped on a planet

with we've got sunstreaker and bob uh swerve

of all characters which oh it's just Being stuck

on a planet with swerve is pretty much hell.

So... Well, anywho. So yeah, that's where we

open with this book. And... Ah, screw it. But

anyway, the twist is that there are a planet

that manifests your worst nightmares and swerves...

Sword of Swords Nightmare was Sixshot, Megatron,

Overlord, and Shockwave. Shockwave. And of course

they merge into Over Mega Sixwave. One of them's

worst nightmare too was Tarn, so we see him briefly

in the open as well. But, yeah. Yeah, I... I

don't feel... Like, I don't know, and you'll

tell me because I don't remember. It's not really

that I don't know. It's more of I don't remember.

I don't know what you're going to say, but I'll

tell you. Is Grapple anywhere in the IDW universe?

Yes. Okay, where is he at this point in time?

I flipped up Perceptor, by the way. He's in this,

but he's halfway there. Anyway, Grapple... Yeah,

Grapple's on the Lost Lights as well. Yeah, that's

what I thought. Okay, so going back to... You

don't need the two of them together all the time.

Not all the time, no, but just my idiot 80s brain,

all I can think of is Hoist Goes Hollywood or

the time that Grapple wanted to build something

or other. Like... Well, you're getting to...

So, I like this issue. I do too. It's a fun one

-shot. Yeah. But I don't know that it gives me

a great amount of insight into Hoist. That's

my point. So that's what you were pointing at.

Like, yeah, I tend to agree with that. This is

more of Hoist gets to do something. Although

I like the ending that, of course, yeah, it turns

out that his biggest fear is being alone. Yeah.

Which is definitely a great insight into him,

obviously. yeah that's yeah real dark or downer

kind of ending although we know he turns out

okay because he ends up back on the on board

the lost flight but right yeah i think i agree

with that but yeah in terms of insight into the

character i almost feel like we get more into

swerve who i already kind of know and sunstreaker

yeah Yeah, like, see, that's the thing. Like,

okay, so we had, you know, a couple weeks ago

back in episode 364 of the show, we had, you

know, Cyclonus, Hardhead, Double Dealer, and

Sideswipe. And rightfully so, but I'm going to

say it this way because I just choose to say

it this way. Sideswipes entire spotlight, he's

bitching about, where's Sunstreaker? Where's

Sunstreaker? I have to find my brother, which

absolutely is right. It's his family, it's his

whatever, yadda yadda yadda, but... It's the

same thing I've said about others of these spotlights.

Do not take away from the character that you

say the spotlight is about. And they're way...

The Lost Light has way too many personalities

on board. And you take a couple of those personalities

and put them in something for Hoist, especially

Swerve. And this is sad. This is really sad.

My two favorite things in this is when Swerve

is showing, you know, idolize me or whatever

kind of thing, like that panel. And then the

one later where he's like... 96 % chance of wanting

to talk. 96%, 97 % chance of, you know, going

to say, and then obviously he eventually starts

talking. Like this is more about swerve almost

than it is hoist. And that's kind of sad. I guess

it's still a good issue though. So I have a hard

time kind of punishing it. And at least it gives

insights into somebody. Yeah. Sure. Some of the

others, not so much. I don't know. That's yeah.

This one's a little tougher because you're right.

It doesn't necessarily fit what we always talk

about is needed or is the idea of these spotlights,

but it's still an enjoyable one shot story, which

is also partially what the spotlights are supposed

to be. You don't need to have read 50 issues

of more than meets the eye or something to understand

this one too. This is. pretty self -contained

so yeah no you don't but at the same time it's

like when nicole and i talked about the cyclonus

issue cyclonus is at the beginning and at the

end of that issue like he's barely in his own

like it says transformer spotlight cyclonus he's

barely in the book he's not even in he's maybe

one or two panels in the middle of that story

well it was in that area where they were trying

to tell or they had to finish off another gigantic

story. So at least it had an excuse for it. Yeah,

this doesn't. It was telling a story that didn't

necessarily fully involve its character, but

this is at least. Yeah, at least. I think we've

said this before, and I'm sure we'll say it again.

Hopefully, maybe, IDW will... do more spotlights

with the new current ongoing universe that they're

doing um so who knows if they will or if they

won't um i don't know uh overall i like these

stories but they're not something i would go

back to and read they're no oh and it's kind

of nice that they're all in one trade at least

for me so like i said before physically this

makes up the prelude to dark cybertron right

trade paperback uh even though it does not have

much to do with dark cybertron but in any case

i'm glad they kind of put them together because

i'm not sure really don't have a theme or anything

to put together anyway but i'm glad that they're

all together because every once in a while i

don't know i'll be curious about it or yeah i

don't necessarily seek out any of them but i

don't know every once in a while it's fun to

revisit or if i'm reading season two of more

than meets the eye which has trail breakers unfortunate

death um might go back and read it to kind of

you know one of the things uh a nice touch to

you is in that issue when he's deceased and they're

looking at his corpse they have he's got his

that he got from this in one of his hands yeah

that that was nice with a nice sort of heartfelt

touch yeah and this is more of an inside joke

for me but i'm like drill breaker's not dead

he's sitting in my garage right now, because

we have a Volkswagen, 2016 Volkswagen Touareg,

and it's not all black, but it's dark gray enough

where it could pass for Trail Breaker. Yeah,

these three stories, I enjoyed them. Bumblebee,

I would probably give a three and a half out

of five. Wow. I'm so horrible. I know. I just

talked to Bumblebee, Trailbreaker, and Hoist.

Yeah, Trailbreaker, Trailcutter. I'll give it

a four. I enjoyed it. I thought it was super

interesting. Hoist, only because I feel it doesn't

have enough. It does deal with him and it does

show his character and it shows his inner fears

and things, but the majority of the middle part

of the book almost has nothing to do with him.

Because they focus on like Swerve and other characters.

I give a three. Wow. All right. So Bumblebee

is a three and a half for me as well. The Trailcutter

is a four and a half, which I really like. It

was a really fun story. So there. And Hoist,

three and a half as well. Still there. Alright,

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