Transformers Galaxies: Constructicons Rising Review

Join us as we dig out our latest comics and discuss

them with the rotating panel of the GCRN crew.

So sit back and enjoy this week's Polebag. Hello

and welcome to the pull bag this is episode 380

I am of course TF2 and Mike joining me is Steve

Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello How are you? Good

day, mate Doing pretty well That's good. That's

good. I would say that You know this this night

of recording is about all things transformers.

So Yes, yes it is In a galaxy far far away Yes

tonight folks today tonight whenever you people

are listening to this if you ever listen to this

This is as I said episode 380 This originally

was going to be One of the biggest things we

ever tackled in the seven years on this show,

it was originally going to be Spider -Verse,

and that collected edition is over 600 pages.

That's obviously not what we're doing here tonight,

but yes, it's another kind of not really milestone,

but as Steve said, all things Transformers. He

and I are going to be delving into the first

four issues of Transformers Galaxies. This was

the Constructicon's rising arc written by Tyler

Blisinski with art by Livio Remendelli. I really

dig this. IDW has since Ryan Merkley and I ended

our Are run on the original idw series that they

had going for the last thirteen fourteen years.

Since idw brought unicron in and you know once

your crimes in you know the universe is essentially

destroyed anyway. So idw rebooted the transformers

universe and this is going to be our first coverage

into that new universe you don't necessarily

have to read the main ongoing to get this specific

for issue story. But it's suggested that you

should because references are made to the main

ongoing. And at some point, I don't know if it'll

be Steve and myself or somebody else and myself

covering the main ongoing of the new IDW Transformers

universe. I figured Steve and I could talk about

the Constructicons because we like Constructicons,

don't we? Yes. What was the... Soundwave superior

constructor cons inferior Mm -hmm. Yep. That

was the line and Nobody calls Soundwave uncharismatic

whatever uncross a matic Carrots manic. Mm -hmm.

Uncarrot top like Tyler Blazinski is a new writer.

He I want to make sure I have this right because

I'm not actually... The only thing I'm looking

at is the artwork for this episode. But he was

creator or head of Viz Media at the time. He's

now doing other things, I believe. But this was

his first foray into writing for Transformers.

And overall, I really dig this four -issue arc.

I think it's really cool. I've actually had conversations

with him on Facebook about the covers and things

like that and whatever else and the overall story.

And I've been really pumped for this story because

what Transformers Galaxies as a title does is

it gives us what the spotlights used to be. So

in the old universe, in the universe that just

ended a couple years ago, They at one point or

another were doing these things called spotlights

Sometimes the spotlights would tie into the main

story. Sometimes they would just be one -offs

for whatever character. So you had Spotlight

Orion packs spotlight Megatron spotlight sound

waves spotlight jazz Spotlight insert character

name here. This gives it one whole series Transformers

galaxies because the characters can exist in

any galaxy and they do multiple arcs or individual

stories, you know, focused on a certain character.

Like after this one, after this four issue arc

that opens up the series, the next two are all

about Cliffjumper. So it's a two -parter, you

know, talking about Cliffjumper. So, or telling

a story with him. So I think that's really cool.

I like that IDW is kind of bringing back the

spotlights with this new series. As far as these

four issues go, I love Livia Remendelli's art.

I've always, ever since I've seen the guy's art,

I've always loved it. I do want to also bring

up that the letters were done by Tom B. Long,

who is an amazing, amazing letterer. The editors

on it were David Marriott and Tom Waltz. Tom

Waltz was the... Was and is a writer on trance

action transform T engine turtles from IDW We

had Joe and myself Joe Reed myself actually got

to interview him a couple years ago So basically

Livio Remedeli does all his own art. He does

the colors. He does the lines he does everything

and I just It just looks so damn good It is pretty

polished which I was kind of Surprised by because

I haven't really read transformers comics in

the recent years. Mm -hmm Yeah, you kind of stopped

with dreamwave and never really get into the

early eye because IDW this is IDW's I think Third

attempt at transformers. I guess I don't know

the early days of IDW transformers weren't to

IDW 1 .0 People didn't really like it as far

as I remember from what I've heard. It was pretty

hated on and then they focused more on like their

Robo kibble mm -hmm than anything else so like

honestly I didn't I Didn't get into it as much

as I would have liked at that time but The Beast

Wars series was pretty good. I just wish they'd

go back to that So this tells the story of the

Constructicons and how they all come together

as a team and it goes back and forth between

when they were on Cybertron and where they are

now on this energon mining asteroid or whatever

it is and it goes through and this is the cool

thing to me with telling this story, you see

each of their characteristics. You see each of

them as individuals and how they approach situations.

I love the way Tyler wrote that. You see how

potentially them combining into, at first it's

just called the combiner because, you know, you

have to have a big reveal of when they all come

together at the end for actually calling. the

dude what he's supposed to be called but they

have this big accident because apparently the

six of them combining into the seventh form the

giant overall gestalt form there's another voice

in there and they're like oh it scares us oh

we didn't want to give into it oh it wanted to

take us over i think that's cool because you're

approaching the personalities psychologically

And that's interesting. It's not just, oh, hey,

we built these bots on earth and they're just

here to build things and destroy things. And

the one thing I noticed on my reread of this

is even though the Constructicons are, I don't

want to necessarily say with the Autobots, but

I mean, the Autobots kind of are there and like

they don't have Autobot insignias on them. They

don't have to set they haven't they don't have

the septicons in Sydney is on them. They're just

bots that are there Mm -hmm. Yes, they have the

classic colors because how can you not do I'm

sorry. There are six construct icons. They are

green and purple With a little bit of gray and

black and whatever else They're not yellow or

orange and there aren't seven individual ones.

There are six individual ones that turn into

a giant seventh bot Looking at you Michael Bay

Anyway, so the first issue I think sets it up

nicely of how basically telling us the story

of how they're dealing with this potential new

form and the fallout of that and how they basically

essentially get punished for doing what they

did. What did you like in this first issue as

far as the writing goes? Well, I actually enjoyed

the Kind of their inception and bringing into

it and wheel jacks kind of like apprehension

of using them Mm -hmm Yeah, it was nice to see

wheel jack and and a couple other bots as well

in here I believe it's I'll see it later, but

I think it's nominous prime that's here now at

this time So that was that was pretty cool. I

can't wait until this is actually collected in

a trade to see how the story Just because I I

don't know. This is a discussion for another

day kind of thing, but For the longest time now.

I've never really been a single issue reader

I understand why there are single issues cause

you need, you know, monthly, you know, cash and

fusion of, of being able to purchase it so you

can get that trade later kind of thing. But I've

always been at least the last five or six years,

like, Ooh, give me the trade, give me the story

all at once. That's why we haven't, besides the

fact of life and whatever other things happened

with me and whatever lately, it's like. That's

why we haven't done this until now until like

when the first three issues came out, I'm like,

Oh, I want to do this, but I have to wait until

the fourth issue comes out because I don't want

to do it half -assed or part one or part two

or whatever. I didn't want to just have four

individual episodes for each issue. I wanted

to talk about the story all at once. And yeah.

And I understand why other podcasters do individual

issues per kind of. Episode. I get it. But I'm

that whole story kind of guy. Uh, the first issue,

I really dug it. I thought it was cool. I like

where it's going because it's not often we see

the construct icons and the insect icons at the

same, you know, in the same kind of battle area,

interacting kind of thing. And I'll say this

as much as I love this story. I hope in the future

and I don't know what Tyler has planned if he

has anything planned if IDW is gonna go back

to him with these characters I hope they do I'm

really hoping they go up against Omega Supreme

at some point. I know this isn't the secret of

Omega Supreme I know they didn't technically

build Crystal City and whatever and the Robo

Smasher and all that and everything else I don't

know how it's gonna play out with the Constructicons,

but if Tyler does get another shot, hopefully

he does because really good writing. I hope that

they can bring in Omega Supreme against the Constructicons

because I just want to see that, especially in

Livio's art would be amazing. So the second issue

brings up, you know, as I said, the Insecticons.

It brings up the fears each of the Constructicons

have with the whole combining thing and all of

that. And it really shows you how kind of young

these bots are, all of them, not just scavenger

who is the newest member kind of thing. It just

shows you like they're growing into the roles

that they will eventually be. Yeah. And that

was kind of nice to see that. how they kind of

play that out as far as their character arcs.

And then they have this growing need, and they

know they have the connection, but the growing

need of that extra voice in the back of their

head. They're like, should we listen to the voice?

Why would we listen to the voice? We have our

own voices kind of thing. And then when the insecticons

come in and try to give them, you know, raw unfettered

energon, all hell breaks loose. Um, I listened

to, uh, I've known about the show for a few years,

but I wanted to, cause I wanted to kind of prepare

for this. I listened to the interview that the

transmissions podcast did with Tyler Blazinski.

And I actually listened to their, their episodes

that they did of these four issues. I don't agree

with some of the stuff they said, but I also

think that they did a really good job in reviewing

it and they were objective and everything else.

And I just love how we can all have differing

opinions and still get along. Cause that's the

whole point of a fandom is everybody brings something

different to the table. I think the insecticons,

making up the raw energon and giving it to the

constructicons was a genius move because The

insecticons seem like they've been around a lot

longer And obviously the insecticons are more

devious than the constructicons are at least

at this point. Oh, yeah the Constructicons are

actually pretty well off Mm -hmm and in pretty

balanced as long as they're not Devastator Yeah

Yeah, and it's so interesting to me to see how

the evolution of the characters goes over these

four issues. Now I do know that the guys over

at Transmissions, Charles and Jeremy, and I'm

sorry if I've forgotten Darryl. I'm sorry if

I've forgotten anyone else's name. They had mentioned

that the flashback stuff from issue three and

four was kind of unneeded. As I reread through

this, I felt it worked to give us context of

who the Constructicons were and where and who

they are now and where they could potentially

go. Because by the end of this four -issue arc,

Devastator is ready. Yeah, and it's nice too

at the end of the the arc that you get to see

Devastator and you get to see them actually say

We built the security we only have a few seconds

anyway And then they just take the the big cannon

use it as a rifle And then they just go off and

just destroy everything that they just built

And nominous primes Statue and they're like we'll

go wherever we feel at this point and then just

kind of Said we'll build as we feel inclined

to but not for anybody else Yep Yeah, and I'm

wondering with where this ends Where it's gonna

pick up with that because again I have not read

the main IDW ongoing for this this new universe

this bold new era of Transformers as IDW calls

it so I'm not sure however With that ending I'm

like, ooh, I wonder where this is going to go

because this is really cool and it's really interesting

I know some people and even me Even in this reread

sometimes the insecticons stuff was a little

much But I understand why it's there and I understand

it just to further the plot of the construct

icons That devastated reveal though. Oh man,

if I could If I could have that as a framed poster,

I believe it's page 15 of issue four. Oh, that

art is amazing. Yeah, most of the art I found

myself really enjoying the coloring and the style.

I really didn't have any complaints as far as

that's concerned. Yeah, I don't either I I've

always loved Livio's art it depends on what colors

he uses but these colors for this like The whole

time in issue four when the insecticons are doing

the energon thing how it's pink and purple and

and everything else I think that matches well

the Devastator reveal how the bottom of the the

page is all orange and explodey looking in the

top is kind of sky i don't want to say dark black

or gray but it's like a purplish gray black thing

and what i love about comics is how when lettering

for characters is done all this time every construct

a con all six of them have just had the normal

white bubble with black text Sometimes you'll

have like internal monologues with a different

color and then black text or whatever But normally

it's it's white background black text, but when

they merge into Devastator Because it's a different

consciousness, it's not just the six of them

You know black with white text. It's like oh,

that's so cool, and it's just a little thing

It's a little thing to to notice in the In the

art and the lettering because man Comics letters

don't get enough credit for what they do especially

when they're legible and they actually look good

Mm -hmm. I've read some that have been very off

and it was by DC Yes DC that distinguished competition

Distinguished? Have they put out a good book

in the last ten years? That's what Stan Lee used

to call them. Distinguished? Distinguished competition.

Is that a nice way of saying that overall sucks?

I mean, Beyond's not bad. No, I actually enjoy

it. But it collectively appears a lot of issues.

Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Overall, I love

this. I have not actually read this since the

four issues came out, so rereading it again in

order to record this was really fun. And I know

that Neil Ross voiced Hook. I know that I think

Michael Bell voice Scrapper maybe in the original

cartoon series I don't remember off the top my

head and I'm not looking up any information at

this point. I'm just sitting here talking about

this I Could hear all of the original g1 voice

actors in my head as I'm reading these lines

and I could hear those voice actors doing this

in a way that shows the trajectory of each of

the characters personalities from where they

start to where they end up once they've actually

combined into Devastator. It's fun looking at

Transformers in this way. It's really interesting,

I think. You know, Transformers don't just have

to be consumer goods and military hardware fighting

a four million year long war or nine million

year long war or whatever they can be more than

meets the eye and robots in disguise that be

true that be true I know this is kind of a short

episode folks and whatever else but I'm not at

100 % and I'm working off my phone so Sorry,

hopefully the audio is good at least because

you know Steve can work magic on audio. That's

crap most of the time. It's a crap It's a crap

But yes, no overall I felt this story on on this

reread i felt it was fluid i felt that the art

match the writing i felt that. It was almost

like. Tyler and livio were in the same room together

working on this i know they probably weren't

i know. You know tyler would write the script

or whatever and send it over to livio or vice

versa livio would show tyler some art and. then

that would maybe make Tyler go write a different

line or something or whatever so I just love

the way these two creators made this arc of this

series and I hope against hope that they get

to do more in the future I want to continue on

with transformers galaxies as i said earlier

i don't know if it's gonna be the two of us doing

it it's just gonna depend but it's one of those

things where if you have like i said multiple

issue arcs where you know it's not just oh 50

years of one character you know it's Various

characters at various points like you could jump

on to this series at any point You don't have

to like I suggest everyone start here at the

beginning, but this is not Like the main ongoing

where it's a fluid story. This is Compartmentalized

stories and if you're a cliff jumper fan, you

can jump on at issue five. However You know,

you should check out this constructor con story

because to me It is the definitive origin of

these six characters seven characters, whatever

Either way, it's still it's still pretty cool

to see this absolutely Yeah Absolutely, so it's

gonna be so fun to see what happens from here

and The pull bag is gonna go through some changes

as it often does over the next few weeks, hopefully

As long as other people can do the work for me

We're gonna be having a multitude of origins

episodes released the first one being the next

episode where I talked with my buddy Jeremy fine

the honey outcast guy he's been on the network

several times over the years he and I do the

the sex criminals series from image comics with

Matt fraction and Chips that are ski so you'll

be hearing an episode of from him and hopefully

the next episode will be. More origins and I

just figure to. Get the pull bag to have an episode

count I actually went back and asked a bunch

of people. How do these questions actually read

and what would you add or are they any questions

you know because originally the the pullback

origins episodes had I think. 20 or 21 questions.

And I'm like, oh, let's go more in depth. Let's

go this, let's go that, let's do this and let's

make it 25 questions and see what happens. And

so I did that with Jeremy. So hear that next

time folks. After that, hopefully I'll have another

guest or two on here for episode three 82. Cause

even though this isn't the longest running podcast

on the network. I'm hoping to get to 400 episodes

before the end of the year. Hoping, anyway. I

would say it's possible. Yeah. Anything's possible

for a possible. What? Sorry, I've been... Why

you do that, man? I've been watching way too

much Disney +, and I've been watching a good

friend slash voice actor of ours that we love

in other things that he does. You know, he was

batman. He was eric matthews. He's also ronstoppable

in disney's kim possible. Sorry. It's I knew

it referring to I let you blunder it anyway And

the mole rat will be cgi Seriously folks check

out transformers galaxies constructicons rising

issues one to four Go into it with an open mind.

Uh go into it with you know Expectations of a

cool story and some really amazing looking art.

They also did character profiles for each of

them for each of the six characters and and The

seventh character of Devastator. So that's very

very cool. I think I have those somewhere I don't

know where they're probably on my computer, which

is in storage But very very cool. I could always

ask Tyler to send those back over and see or

whatever We can find them on Google or something,

but I thought that was really cool in order to

promote this series or this new Book to start

with this arc. They actually wrote out character

profile teaser things. That was very very cool

What have you got going on in your podcasting

world sir as always alter geek and All Things

Transformers and Future Imperfect and Studio

2009. That's right. Mike sounds tired. No, it's

just hot in here. Don't. What? Nothing. Yeah,

no, that's no, that's not a line you're going

to finish. Don't you do that. This is comic books,

damn it. Not. Yeah, I'm not going there. Uh -huh.

This is not a Nelly song. Thank you That stuff's

garbage anyway Anyways Anyways We will catch

you next time here inside the pull bag make your

great escape into comics. See you next time folks

You just heard the latest episode of the pull

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