Transformers: Beast Wars #1 Review

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inside the pull bag. This is the great and glorious

Megatron and this podcast will be filled with

spoilers Yes a comic book all about me you have

been warned yes That's right, Megatron. You've

just jumped inside the pull bag, and it is time

for us to unleash the beast in you on this all

things Transformers crossover adventure. That's

right, folks. One podcast for three feeds. I

am TFG and Mike. Joining me on this beastly adventure

is Steve Megatron. Hello. Yes. Are you ready

to enter the beast era of IDW Publishing's Transformers

Beast Wars? Yes, indeed. We are going to be talking

about issue number one just came out. This is

the first time I've done single issue stuff in

a long time. This is episode 398 of the pull

bag. And wow, was this good. First of all, the

creative to get that out of the way written by

Eric Burnham. Art by Josh Burcham, letters by

Jake M. Wood, the assistant editor was Riley

Farmer, the editor was David Mariette, and supervising

editor was Tom Walz. And we've had Tom Walz on

our interview here on the GCRN before. We've

got to get him back, but my next object of...

Getting interviews is Eric Burnham and Josh Birchham.

So that'll be very soon. I've already got approval

from Josh saying yes anytime So we just got to

get that scheduled folks. So so this one is called

Part one anyway is called Savage Landing. Mm

-hmm, and I honestly liked how they started this

out Yes, they they gave you know, you had the

tripartite council you have Him with his original

name Gallivar Gallivar, okay, I wasn't sure it

wasn't a different name in the Golden disk know

the the fun pub stuff. Okay right not The video

or the comic of the other but it was another

like an alt alt universe where he ran like a

production factory facility thing Okay it was

a different name entirely and it was like gnash

teeth or something like that or um but anyways

yeah so i i liked this and then i liked how he's

like yeah um just more or less telling them how

it's gonna go down how it already went down because

as he's telling them this he's already done it

yeah and you get to see the different versions

of the world forms they're not necessarily sticking

to the uh um the previous designs, which is fine.

I have nothing against it. Yeah, I mean, here's

the thing. It's one of those things where I trust

Josh implicitly with whatever he does, Transformers

-wise, and part of it does look like what we

saw in the cartoon, but otherwise, you know,

they have to, you know, improvise, change the...

Yeah. And he's adding his own touch to it. And

honestly, I like it. Obviously, I mean, I use

the fan art for Ultimus and it follows the same

aesthetic. Although I might have to get a Megatron

soon in my near future. You know, maybe Transmetal.

Just regular Transmetal. No, but I really like

how it came out. He's gloating over his hologram

which it took me a minute to realize it was a

hologram yeah yeah but when when i realized what

it was and then he's like yeah i've evolved from

now on i only answer to the name megatron and

then uh he he just kind of lays it out and they're

they're kind of like uh yeah he's he's kind of

out there but um You know Haley there had successor

failure and then you see like the the new renditions

of the axel on in the dark side Yes, and I love

the the axel on here. I love seeing the axel

on Actually out in space somewhere instead of

crashed on a planet. Yeah, I Love the design

of it. I think it's super cool Rhinox's design

was unique Yeah, it was it's very I don't know

if it's mainly because he's eventually going

to become the Rhino once we get to Earth and

whatever, but all of their pre -Earth designs,

I really dig because they're almost a fresh take

on what they used to be, but it's showing you,

hey, this is what's going to kind of happen.

But man, I'm telling you what, it was like Gary

Chalk was sitting right next to me as I was reading

these Optimus Primal lines. Was not only feeling

that with you know reading it with the voice

actors involved But I was also I kind of got

a TF animated vibe. Yeah Because primal was is

like I I need to get into the thick of it I want

some action and and Ryan axis like ratchet in

the sense of yeah, you sure you want that kid?

Yeah he's like I'll mop the floor with you right

now like and So it was it was rather funny and

then having You know them go. Oh, yeah, and then

you know, you get your typical rat trap and um

nyx the edition of nyx and um the snapper, uh

kind of I can't remember the exact name at the

moment. I'll realize it as we go through this.

Yes Um, but having those two new female characters

added to the the lineup kind of adds an added

twist to the current Saga that we already know

Right. Yeah, and so it's kind of nice to see

that but you get to see Lot of variation in things

Giving their mission yeah, which he basically

like because he later turns into the elephant

of Magna boss So that's why he looks the way

he does but But yeah that that was kind of cool

seeing him kind of make a play in it yeah Yeah,

I love how this is written. I love how Eric Burnham

seems to just on I mean, I know they're both

Beast Wars fans, but just like Waspinators lines

close to the end of the issue you know Megatron's

lines to everybody and Just the way, you know

again the fact that optimus primal seems to be

like this young Lee's not He's not the Optimus

Primal we met in season one of Beast Wars 25

years ago. This is the 25th anniversary of Beast

Wars and It's a it's a younger primal and I like

that because it gives him chance to grow I don't

know how long this comic book series is gonna

go on as far as I know it is a ongoing series

It is not a five issue miniseries or anything

like that as far as I am I am to understand from

IDW It is a new ongoing Beast Wars comic. So

who knows depending on sales and whatever else

how long it will actually be going but Man, I

am love it just this first issue so far. I'm

loving what they're doing with it Yeah, I'm totally

loving the direction they're going with this

I love the art. I love the colors. I love the

new direction I love how he manages to capture

the identities of all of them. Yep And even the

new characters even writing for the new characters.

It seems like they were there in the original

Exactly. It just seems like they should have

always been there As always and I love how the

crash happens I Love the crash to planet Earth.

So basically you have Megatron stealing the Golden

Disk Stealing the dark side which has trans warp

or maybe he already had the dark side. I don't

know I don't what I don't remember off top my

head but you know getting the ship Oh, yeah,

he did steal the shape because he destroyed all

the other ones. That's why the that's right.

Yeah yep yep yep yeah and uh you know i love

that he's going to do this whatever it is that

he's going to do and he's going to this energon

rich planet and then we get the crash and before

the crash happens we get the stasis pods in orbit

so we're setting up for later characters to show

up when stasis stasis pods eventually will crash

to earth And that crash man, I love the I love

how the time passes and then you just see the

the dueling systems System booting up running

diagnostic and all this and all that you see

the return repairs required and waspinators.

Mm -hmm. Yep Well, of course, I mean waspinators

always in pieces I mean these you can't have

a beast towards anything without waspinator being

torn to shreds And then there's one panel, there's

one little panel where it's scanning for compatible

options. This is the Maximal computer. It doesn't,

but it almost looks like a Sky Spy, just a little

bit. And then we get... Oh yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, just a little bit looks like Sky Spy. And

then we get the awesome image of the ape, the

bat, and the rat, and the cat, and the spider,

and... The Wasp and the Scorpion is so, so good.

We even have the Recharge Chambers because he

steps out of the Reboot Complete. Oh, he, you

know, Optimus steps out of the CR Chamber, which

is really cool. That's something I wished as

a kid that we had toys of. yeah who knows maybe

i'll make them now well there there's a guy that's

been making them uh like 3d printing uh these

things and he's selling them as part of his patreon

model you can get the cr chamber or the uh restoration

chamber the the cr tank um the predacons have

you can get um The hover board things that they

use to fly around in the dark side to hover over

the lava and in and all those things And it's

and they have the stasis pod and honestly, they're

awesome. Yeah Very cool. Very cool. If I could

get my hands on something like that, that would

be great, but they're not Anyways, I'd love the

new take on the design and then they're making

commentary about it Yeah Absolutely. And then

obviously Megatron's like, well, if we survived,

then the Maxibles must have survived as well.

And, you know, a new war has come, my friends,

and this time it is ours to win. And that's how

the first issue ends. What I'm loving about the

the first issue besides it being the first issue

is what's included in the back of the book because

you have at least in the digital version you

have all the variant covers normally they don't

end up doing this they usually do that in the

trade but because this is a number one issue

well it's also a six box true but i think that's

why it is because they included all this other

stuff they included the nyx design the skull

today Yep, the Q &A and the them in their sizing.

The blueprints of the Maximal, of the Axelon

of the Dark Side. Oh man, it's just so good.

Yeah, I'm very, very happy with what we got here.

And at the very end of the book, we have a 25

years with a Maximal logo. I'm hoping the next

issue at the back of it, it has a 25 years with

a Predacon logo. That would be kind of cool.

That would be very cool. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

No, I love this. I thought this was so cool.

I thought it was great. Like I said earlier,

the writing from Eric, I can't wait to see how

these characters develop. The art from Josh,

Burnham and Burcham are my team for 2021. Oh

yeah, totally. This is definitely one of my favorites.

things i've read in quite some time. And there

wasn't really anything i didn't like there wasn't

anything that i felt was out of place because

it just it gets set up it introduces characters

but it does it in a way where you don't feel

like you said earlier you feel like the new characters

have been there the whole time. already so it's

not like oh yeah they fit perfectly and that's

and that's a testament to their ability to craft

a new story using the original story and they

were able to also tag in the golden discs instead

of starting right out in the space battle and

so that that added that added depth that you

almost needed for the backstory for anybody that

wasn't familiar with the original that came out

in 2006 to know you know all of that rich detail

and so And so yeah, I'm definitely definitely

psyched for the rest of it Absolutely. And ladies

and gentlemen, let me tell you right now here

inside the pullback and on all things Transformers

and the Beast Unleashed podcast We will be doing

this series individually issue by issue for the

rest of the year in 2021 celebrating 25 years

of Beast Wars and yeah What would you rate it

zero to five for no honestly? It's very difficult

for me to do this, but I'll give it a five. I

honestly had nothing I could find wrong. Yeah,

I read through the story and then I went back

and I looked through the art for little things

and to see various things. And honestly, there's

nothing in this first issue that I don't absolutely

love. There's no concerns I have yet. And I'm

sure concerns and things we may not like as it

goes along might happen. But so far, just off

this first issue, I'm giving it a five as well.

Absolutely dug it thought it was great. It's

so fun Yeah, five out of five. It's excellent.

Yes You can quote me on that Steve Megatron But

anyways, yeah, it's it's very excellent. I I

I don't give that rating lightly. No, you don't

I I very much Skate on the 4 .5 is the high for

anything. Yeah. Yeah, even then it's hard for

me to hit that level. So I honestly didn't have

anything I thought wrong with it. I enjoyed the

banter. I enjoyed the differences from the original,

but also keeping with the familiarity of the

original. Right. And because this is only the

first issue, there's so much character depth

yet to happen. Even just being introduced to

these characters for the like if somebody was

reading this for the first time. Well, you already

get a taste of some of them. Right exactly but

my point is like rhinox and primal okay we see

the primal is a younger version this time and

that's fine that's great we see that rhinox is

kind of this old wise whatever and they're not

even on earth yet he hasn't even become a. What

ever yeah yeah whatever he's supposed to be anything

so we kind of see it where it's gonna go and

that's great for us as fans but i also think.

if you gave this to anyone who is a transformers

fans of say the last 10 years or so from like

animated or prime or whatever cyber verse whatever

they could still look at this and begin oh this

is cool this is interesting i want to come back

every month i want to go to my local comic shop

or i want to order from my local comic shop or

go on comixology .com or whatever to get it and

it's yeah i can't help it I have to go get it.

I still have some of the universe. I actually

dug out the universe comics and I have the gathering

and the ascending. Oh, cool. And I have the theft

of the Golden Disk. And up to this point, after

the Golden Disk has been my pinnacle, like main

go to out of the various series. Right. But that

being said, I think this tops it. Deft is very

close because you get a lot of the pre -transformation

to Beast. Right. In some of the backstory. Right.

But in a different way. And so, out of all of

the other ones though, I definitely think it

tops them. Like, I didn't enjoy gathering and

ascending as much as I did this. Right. Very

cool, very cool. Alright folks, we're gonna give

you a sneak preview here because we can. Again,

thanks to Comixology .com. On March 3rd, 2021

is the print and digital release date of Beast

Wars, Transformers Beast Wars 2. Celebrating

25 years of Beast Wars, the Maximals led by Optimus

Primal and the Predacons led by Megatron have

crashed on a strange new world, and they are

not alone. To survive the planet, much less each

other, They'll have to explore their surroundings

and their new bestial alt modes in search of

an advantage. The Beast Wars begin here. And

then issue number three releases April 28th.

It does say here digital release. It does not

say digital and print on Comixology. Unbeknownst

to the Maximals, the Predacons have taken their

first prisoner. As Megatron and Tarantulas run

their interrogation, dissent stirs in the Predacon

ranks. Who will give first, the dissatisfied

Dinobot or the captured Maximal? The Beast Wars

rage on. I don't know, all I know is just reading

these, I don't want to say solicits, but they're

on comixology .com so anybody can read them.

It's one of those things where that gets me excited.

And at some point, once you're back in your normal

studio... I'm going to have you record as Megatron.

Oh, I want to record. No, no, no. I know you

do. I want to record a lot of the lines from

this. I'm tempted to just go through and just

record all of his lines just for random use.

Yep. Exactly. Because they're just golden. Like

I could see him like just the arrogant, um, tyrannical

way of bringing it up. Like, I just love it.

Absolutely. Yeah. Eric, you did an amazing job

with the writing so far. Josh, superb on art

and colors. Absolutely love it. Can't wait to

read more. Where can the people find you online,

sir? Oh, they can find me on the Twitters at

scp21. And you can catch me at TF2 and Mike on

Twitter. You can follow at all things TFV3 on

Twitter at the pull bag and all the other good

stuff. We're gonna get the heck out of here.

Next up, next week, is our first issue, probably

non -spoiler review of Image Comics' new series

written by Kyle Higgins with art by Marcelo Costa,

Radiant Black, number one. You've just heard

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