Void Rivals #1 Review

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

Starscream, and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. You've just jumped inside the

pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest of the

comic crew here at the GCRN as they make their

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have everything right here. We cover things like

Transformers, He -Man, Super Heroes, TMNT, and

Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and so

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

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So, without further

ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now, here inside The Pull Bag.

Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This is episode

531. That's right, folks, 531 episodes. I'm,

of course, TF2 and Mike. Just wanted to come

to you before this episode of The Pullback to

let you know that this was originally a Jesse

Early slash Matrix Prime video on his YouTube

channel where he and I discussed the new Skybound

Entertainment Series Void Rivals number one by

Robert Kirkman and I don't have the artists and

things in front of me but amazing amazing stuff

with this new series so please enjoy this episode.

Of the pull bag slash jesse's youtube channel

matrix underscore prime welcome to a video that

most of you probably would never assume you see

on my youtube channel here but this is gonna

be a discussion of a comic. Right i know in the

past i said i don't care about comics don't like

comics don't read comics. But here we are, I'm

now reading a comic. So joining me on this episode

of whatever this is, I don't know if it's going

to be ongoing or continuing, or this is just

a one -off, but joining me on this is none other

than TFG1Mike from GeekCast Radio. Hello, hello.

Yes, normally if I was able to make room in my

own schedule in the comic podcast, I've run for

10 years on the GeekCast Radio network. This

would be an episode of my show, but because I...

Pre -produce and pre -plan everything I did not

have room for this and you wanted to talk about

it I'm like, holy crap. Jesse wants to talk about

the cut the world is about to break Like yes,

so just a little bit of background here. So a

number of months ago I had an interest in starting

to read some comics The Superman series was essentially

kind of starting over from number one Back in

the 90s, I had started reading Superman back

when Doomsday started to come around, and the

whole death of Superman, resurrection of Superman,

I was really into that. I then kind of fizzled

out a couple years after the return of Superman.

But I bought an iPad a number of months ago.

I wanted to start reading digital comics. I like

the idea of physical comics, but they take up

too much room. Yes, they do. Which is unfortunate

because like there's a really really nice comic

book shop this local here to where I live I still

enjoy going there. I still enjoy visiting there

More for the board games because they're kind

of split between board games and comics, but

I still love going there So, you know still love

checking out the the covers of the comics I just

can't you know see spending the money on these

physical things and then them taking up that

much room so I opted for an iPad. The size of

the one that I got is nearly identical to the

size of a standard comic, so you don't really

have to zoom in to read anything on it. You obviously

can, but you don't really have to, and it's pretty

one -to -one in terms of reading a standard printed

comic. Been enjoying that, been enjoying the

new Superman series. I've started to dabble a

little bit in the IDW Transformer comics. I have

not finished that, but I'm like seven issues

in, I think. OK, clarify your seven issues into

the 2019 series. Whichever one you and Ryan turn

me on to. Oh, God. Oh, no. OK. You're into the

good one. That's what I'm not saying that the

29. So you're starting with the 2005 continuity

with more than meets the eye. Yeah. Yeah. So

that's kind of that's kind of where I'm at with

comics right now. Cool. But there was something

I saw posted. Again, I'm not really much into

Transformers in terms of collecting or anything

much anymore. He used to be, folks. If you remember

years and years and years ago, the man had a

collection that would rival any comic book collection.

To be fair, I still have a collection, but I've

been selling it off to a guy locally. Oh, that's

sad. You're supposed to hand it down to your

kids, man. What she is very interested in transformers

but i mean i'm not i'm not selling them all but

there's a number of them i need to get rid of

so i'm with that said i still like to visit the

transformer new sites and a number of i don't

know weeks ago i don't think it's been months

but i would say a number of weeks ago i started

seeing this thing pop up on the transformer news

sites but a comic called void rivals and i'm

like how the hell does this have any like how

does this fit into transformers at all i have

absolutely no idea but it piqued my interest.

So there was two things in the last so idw publishing

held the license for transformers gi joe mass

pretty much any hasbro intellectual property.

Specifically transformers for seventeen years

at the end of twenty twenty two they lost the

license has bro then said. We have a science,

there was one comics news story in 2022 Hasbro

at that time said, we have a new comics partner.

We are not yet ready to divulge who that partner

is. There had been no news of this at all until

June 13th or 14th, basically the last this, this

week that we're doing this video, whatever this

is. Uh, and they were like, Oh, guess what? We're

now ready to tell you that everything everybody's

been speculating for the most part, Skybound

through Image Comics, the Image Comics imprint

Skybound, the Robert Kirkman driven walking dead

guy Skybound is now getting Transformers and

GI Joe. So finally, we know that's my only, that

was my only gripe. I didn't care where the license

went. I just want to know where it went. I need

to know the basic info, because Marvel had it

for years in the 80s, and my thought was, of

course, this would have never happened. My thought

was, it would be kind of cool if DC got it, but

I know that would never happen. Right. So with

that, that brings us to Void Rivals number one.

So before we dive into our thoughts and kind

of our review on it, I do want to read the quick

synopsis from ImageComics .com here. So this

says the blockbuster oblivion song team of Robert

Kirkman and Lorenzo de Felici. I believe that's

how you say his name? I think so. They debut

the biggest new comic book series of 2023 with

the launch of an all new shared universe and

a surprise you won't see coming. War rages around

the sacred ring where the last remnants of two

worlds have collapsed around a black hole in

a never ending war. However, when pilot Derek

and his rival, Solila, both crash on a desolate

planet these two enemies must find a way to escape

together but are they alone on this strange planet

and what dark forces await that threaten the

entire universe question mark so that was the

synopsis for like i said from image comics .com

so i'm gonna turn it over to you kind of what

are your thoughts on this issue i dug it i thought

it was interesting and cool and i at first did

not think that i didn't really think that they

were in like, I just thought they were some sort

of robot life form. I didn't really realize that

there were humanoids under helmets. That's exactly

what I thought. I was not expecting that. So

that was kind of a shock. But the bigger shock,

I mean, you know, you go back to an old cartoon

series from the 80s, folks, I'm just too darn

big to be sneaking around like this. Anybody

that Most people won't remember that quote, but

yeah, no, I dug this. I've been getting into

more of the, not that I don't read DC and Marvel,

I do. I read DC more than I read Marvel, but

you know, you need something different after

a while. And I've been getting into more of Image

Comics. I love their radiant black and the massive

-verse stuff that they're doing with the new

superhero universe that they want. that they're

starting and all that. So I dig this kind of

stuff. I thought this was really cool. And at

first, of course, oh, you're my enemy. I'm your

enemy. Well, neither one of us want to die. So

we have to work together. And then, like I said,

there's a panel. There's a panel in here somewhere

where she says something. I had screen capped

it and sent it to you. What does she say? She

says, what made you so reckless all of a sudden?

And my first thought was, why? Why? you know,

Megatron's line from the movie, like, why throw

away your life so recklessly? And I'm like, hmm,

I kind of see where they're going. Okay, that's

just me inferring. But like, you know, you go

with what you know, and you don't know what what

you don't know yet. And yeah, I love the art.

The art's really cool. It's a mixture of to me,

it's a mixture of it's sci fi, it's space exploration,

it's whatever. But there's also like this Sort

of earthbound like like when they're on the planet

after their two after his ship explodes because

they crossed the wrong wire. Yep. It feels like

they're in a desert. It feels like they're in

the sand. They're buried on some planetoid kind

of thing. And that also goes to what they have

to dig out of the sand, which we will get to.

But what were your Overall yeah, so I didn't

I didn't know what to expect from this going

in like I said I've only recently just learned

of this comic and it kind of my interest from

the from the transformer new sites Kind of like

you when I first when I saw this cover. I'm like,

okay, these this is some sort of robotic civilization,

or I guess two different robotic civilizations,

right? Because the cover kind of has the two

different, I guess antagonists is what we're

going to call them. Or sorry, protagonists, we're

gonna call them kind of split down the middle.

So we're like seeing half of each one of them.

I'm like, these are clearly some sort of robotic

life forms. And then we get to the, what is it

page two, I believe, page two, page three, where

it's The hand starts talking and I'm like, what

is this? Yeah, I was like, wait, what? And then

they call it a hand droid. And I'm like, that

was hilarious. OK, hand droid. OK, we got hand

droid here. We got man droid in Earth Spark.

And I'm just like, huh? Yeah, so once I saw the

hand start talking, I'm like, oh, well, this

clearly must be a person inside this thing then.

And it just has this robotic hand of some sort.

Yeah. So yeah, so as I kept going, I mean, that

was obviously apparent that we're dealing with

actual people here, at least with this character.

And then we get to the, there's a panel inside

that actually has the title of Void Rivals in

there. And that's kind of where you see our two

protagonists inside there, kind of in a standoff.

I really dig the art. I'm not really much of

a sewer of Kirkman comics, so I don't really

know what his writing is yet. I did watch the

Walking Dead TV series, which I know is drastically

different than the comics, especially later in

the series, but I've never read any of his stuff.

Right. So I'm right there with you. I did not

know about any of it like i did not know what

his writing style was but also i am the complete

opposite of you i do not care about. Zombie apocalyptic

things i do not care about zombies the closest

thing i come to zombies is rob zombie and living

dead girl that's it that's why i call robert

kirkman the living dead guy because that's all

like. I'm not trying to belittle the man or anything,

but like that's what I knew him from was he was

the creator of The Walking Dead. So this is the

first time I've read anything he's written and

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it has nothing to

do with zombies yet. Yet. Yeah. Yeah. So I enjoyed

the writing. I really liked the art. The art

is kind of what you described. It's sort of a

sci -fi ask. It sort of reminded me of like retrofuturism

in some aspects, which I really dig. I really

dig that art style. So yeah, overall, I liked

it. I'm very curious to kind of see where this

is going. One thing that I did note here in the

kind of interesting is, let's see, what page

is this on? page I guess I didn't write down

the page but towards the very end it says send

your questions to void rivals at skybound .com

at the very bottom it says that void rivals and

all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro

Hasbro that's page 27 page 27 okay yeah which

I found very interesting because I I know that,

and we're gonna get to this in just a few minutes

here, I know where this is leading to, or at

least kind of where some things are jumping off

to, but I found it very interesting that this

property here is a property of Hasbro. Yeah,

that's interesting to me. I think that's because

maybe this is, again, they're wanting to start

this shared universe, and they're wanting to

bring in two of our favorite franchises. And

like we've said transformers in GI Joe. Are now

with skybound under image under Hasbro under

whatever Rock Lords you want to say they're under

but yeah I said like so that was the thing like

I didn't really so when I reached the end of

the comic I was like okay that's the end and

yes I knew there was the the preview for. Transformers

which we'll talk about in a moment but i skipped

to that image i did not even look at the letter

i did not even look at the letter from mr kirkman

i didn't need initially when i first i want to

i've read this how i read comics so i can maintain

and retain for when i eventually do a podcast

or a video cast or whatever the hell this is

we don't know what it is yet folks you know.

I will read it twice i will read it once for

the story so i can feel the story out whatever

else and then i will read it to the second time

to prepare to be able to discuss it without having

to. Oh, hang on a second folks. I have to cut

this out in the editing because oh my god I don't

remember what page that was on and then it's

I don't really take I take notes, but it don't

take notes So basically when I got to the end

of the story, I'm like, okay, that's the end

of the story I know there's the preview page

for the Transformers title. I Completely skipped

over send your questions to whatever but I did

go back and I reread that I was like, oh right

and then I saw the giant head like I haven't

even zoomed in on this. It's the full page of

that letter page for Mr. Kirkman. The, the two

images of the two characters at the top and the

giant ass Hasbro logo at the bottom left. Like

you can't miss that. I'm like, okay, I will zoom

in on that. I'm like, Oh, so yeah, that is very

interesting. And this is their second attempt

to start a shared universe. Yes so i'm i'm i

mean now that i know that these are right these

are characters this this whole world is kind

of has grown i'm curious to see if like these

characters may pop up anywhere else in other

media i'm curious to know if so far without doing

any google searching and typing if there are

going to be any action figures of these two characters

yet that's what i'm wondering because this isn't

like i. If you if you read this and you kind

of get to the end where we talked about, I mean,

we haven't gone into what we've seen in in this

particular issue yet. But we know that the Transformers,

we know that G .I. Joe are coming, right? This

could have just been like a one off issue. But

we know that there's right. This is going to

be an ongoing series. So I'm very curious to

kind of see what happens with this. Is this is

this going to show up in other media? Are there

going to be toys to this? Are they trying to

introduce a brand new property to get new toys

out there? So yeah, I'm very curious to kind

of see where this goes. This is like the last

pane of the comic itself. Each character takes

off their helmet and we see that they're very

human -like, but they also have jewels on their

forehead. And they're two opposite colors and

two opposite shapes. So it's showing you that

one is from one race and one is from the other.

It's basically an autobot symbol in a decepticon

symbol without saying that they're out of like

serious seriously i mean granted they're on their

foreheads and not on their like shoulders or

legs or whatever but like. That's what it makes

me think of is the autobot decepticon logo because

the whole comic they're like at the beginning

they're like oh. You're my enemy. Well, you're

my enemy. Well, I hate you. And they don't really

show, they don't really show off the, the emotion

of hate, but they come to the point of, well,

if we want to stay alive, I want to stay alive.

I pretty sure you want to stay alive. Then that

means we have to work together in order to stay

alive. Cause we can't just disco dance our way

through the seventies and we're not staying alive

that long if we did that. So great. It's like,

I mean, this is obviously a story that plays

out right all throughout humanity. It's like,

oh, I don't like you and you don't like me. So

we got to we hate each other. We got to fight.

But when I was reading this, what it sort of

reminded me of, and I'm a big, big Robotech fan.

I noted this in the show notes here that I shared.

It sort of reminded me of the Micronians and

the Zantrati from Robotech or Macross. Yeah.

And that it's Yeah, once they like take off their

helmets, it's like, they're pretty much identical.

Right? I mean, the people here, I mean, one happens

to be male, one happens to be female, just based

on how I'm seeing this. That's what my assumption

is. But yeah, so we have that. And then we have

the, right before that, we have the reveal of

really why we're here. Why we're here. Yep. And

Jetfire, what is the one thing you notice about

Jetfire? I'm wondering if we notice the same

thing. The one thing I notice about Jeff. Well,

I mean, should we explain like how they come

like how he comes to be? Sure. Yep. All right.

So the the two the two protagonists here, right?

They're stuck on this planet. They each had their

own ship. Each one of their ships is no longer

functional. And when they attempt to repair one

of the ships using pieces from the other ship,

it ends up blowing up and then just kind of stuck

there on the planet. So the female protagonist

kind of walks off. The male protagonist is trying

to figure out how to fix one of the ships. Female

protagonist comes back. Again, her name is Solila,

I believe. And she's trying to get Derek to follow

her saying that she found something that may

help here. And what ends up being is this spaceship

that's seemingly stuck in the ground and has

been buried there for quite a while. give it

some, some energy just to kind of check out the

systems and what ends up happening is the ship

transforms and it ends up being jet fired. Now

you say they give it some energy. What kind of

it? Okay. So, all right. So you say yellow, it's

yellow here. Right. That's what I've never heard

of yellow energon. I mean, what did they do?

Did they make him drink piss? Really? Seriously?

Like, um, but yes, it is jet fire. and the one

thing i noticed even though he goes on to say

it's been millions and millions of years i don't

i assume this was a specific art choice or maybe

this is hasbro saying no don't do that yet he

does not have a faction symbol anywhere on his

robot mode normally jetfire would have a decepticon

symbol right there on his chest or not about

symbol if he's already been you know come around

to the right side of thinking uh and That's the

one thing I noticed about Jetfire was, damn,

he ain't got no symbol, man. Yeah, and I think

that's so we'll see what page is this? Probably

one because he doesn't have like the actual page

numbers on it. So, yes, so on page 21 is kind

of his chest is like kind of center focused in

that that panel. Yeah. And yeah, you absolutely

do not see anything there. And if you go two

more pages, the very first panel on that page

is kind of like. uh almost framed in the forming

sound that is making where again you see his

that chest with absolutely no no no faction symbol

on it whatsoever and again maybe that's something

that maybe it rubbed off under the sand maybe

the sand corroded it whatever kind of like there's

all kinds of story what might be a pre -rub symbol

version very rare But yeah, no, I thought that

was that that was a really good, interesting

thing. And obviously, they need a ship. The only

thing I did not like about this was that it was

very abrupt. He's like there and then boom, he's

gone. Yeah, he leaves them in the left. Like,

like, what do we I mean, I think it's interesting

that he needs to get back and he transforms and

he flies off. But they're like, wait, we want

to go with you. Right. We don't have ships, so

we don't get trip. Please tell me you got that.

I got it. Okay. Just want to make sure. But yeah,

so I mean, I think it's good in a way that we

leave it off on this first issue. And I know

the second issue is coming out, I think. uh next

yet probably next month most next month yeah

yeah uh that we kind of leave it off on a cliffhanger

like oh shit what do we do now but yeah and the

one thing i did not know about any of this voids

rivals stuff or the hasbro thing or image or

skype owned or anything the one thing i did not

know and somebody else told me for an episode

i had already recorded that they'll be out this

week next week no net no next week um they're

calling this The energon universe. Well, that

makes me think that energon is going to play

a key part in all of this. Hence why I'm like,

why are they making them drink yellow piss? Why

are they making them drink yellow energon, making

a jet fire drink yellow energon? That's why I

asked you what the energy was, because I was

like, hmm, could that be some form of new energon

that we don't know yet? I mean, they introduced

red energon back in prime speed energon. Hasbro

getting kids to do drugs don't do drugs kids

Yes, I'm like I said, I'm very curious to see

where this goes Especially interested now that

we know that there's gonna be a Transformers

ongoing series and ongoing GI Joe series I'm

very curious to see how this void rivals fits

into that universe Absolutely Um, yeah. So void

rivals is, I believe it's going to be an ongoing

for the most. I, I, I do not see anything here

saying or anywhere else saying that it's a specific

six issue series to launch. Right. Sky bounds

transformers. It's the energon universe. They,

they've got it already set up. And, uh, what

do you think of the art on optimus prime here

for the cover teaser that we got? Yeah. So that's,

uh, still, yeah. So that's what I wanted. That's

fine. That's one of the things I wanted to talk

about. So yeah, at the end of the at the end

of the comic here, there is a, I don't know,

what do you call it, a preview panel? Yeah, it's

a preview page. A preview page of Transformers

number one. It says, you know, October 2023.

Below that, it says Duke number one, December

2023, and then Cobra Commander number one, January

2024. And I have a few thoughts about that. But

in terms of this, Maybe it is a preview of the

issue number one. Maybe it's just a Preview of

a panel that's gonna be in one of the future

comics I don't know but when I look at this picture

of Optimus Prime what I do notice right away

and if we if I go back a couple pages here and

look at Jetfire what I notice right away is that

the designs appear to be of Very closely reminiscent

of the Sunbow designs from yeah, that's what

I'm liking so far Yeah, and I absolutely love

those designs. So yeah. So this image reminds

me granted that he's not like he's on man. How

in the hell is it 2023 and I can make a boys

to men reference in regards to Transformers.

He's on bended knee essentially because he's

knelt down and there's an explosion behind him.

But it reminds me of in more than meets the eye.

I would have said Iron Man pose, but okay. Well,

you know, it is what it is. I, yeah, he's too

big and bulky to be like, not even, not even

Tony's bulkiest Iron Man armor looks like Optimus

Prime. Anyway, it reminds me of the scene where

he first encounters spike and spark plug and

more than meets the eye and Spark plug and spark

like where are you from he points up to this

we're from far away We're from cyber to the like

that's really because again They're going with

like the the Sunbow design type stuff with the

which I love like you said I love that I I'm

very happy if this is and I know that Daniel

Warren Johnson is going to be both writing and

Doing the art for the series for Transformers.

So It's going to be very interesting to see what,

and as you already pointed out, Jetfire very

much looks like his generation one cartoon. So

yeah, I, Hey, I'm all for, at first I thought

like they were doing something specific with

optimus's windows here. Like I thought there

was going to be like some sort of like city mirage

in his, no, they're just shattered glass. Yep.

Yep. Which is fine. So. But yeah, no, man, I'm,

I'm excited. A lot of people I've talked to about

this stuff that since the news hit everybody

is like, when can I be on the podcast? When can

I be like, okay, calm down. We can't have more

than four, three or four or five people on a

Skype call without it turning into just all hell.

But, uh, yeah, no, everybody I've shared the

news with everybody. Everybody's excited about

this. I'm excited about this Voids series too,

because again, I like new things. I don't always

like new things, but when I'm introduced to new

things and I latch onto them, I'm like a loyal

dog with a bone. I very rarely will give it up

unless I have to. So yeah, it's going to be interesting

to see what Skybound does and I'm excited for

it. Yep. W didn't really leave me with, I don't

know that 2019 Siri. Don't go through what you're

reading currently and then let Ryan and I know

once you're done because we, I want to make sure

I can. Okay. If you liked that, you may want

to skip 2019. Yeah, I mean, what I'm reading,

what we've read of Void Rivals number one, I'm

enjoying. I do want to continue reading this

to see where it goes. I'm very interested in

seeing how it ties into Transformers, how it

ties into GI Joe. I want to continue reading

this. By the time Transformers comes out, we'll

probably be five issues deep into void rivals.

OK. Because it's coming out monthly. Again, I

buy them digitally on Amazon. I can already get

up to issue three, like preorder up to issue

three. And it seems to be releasing monthly.

So if that follows that trend, then we should

be up to about issue five at that point, I believe.

So we should know our protagonist from this series

a little bit better than what we currently do.

Um, maybe there'll be another transformer that

pops up before we actually get transformers.

Number one, don't know. Um, but who knows to

learn about that. Or do you think maybe we'll

see anybody from GI Joe pop up? Uh, not unless

they hit earth. If, if, um, Derek and Selena

or Salina or Salinas, whatever her name is. Solilo

there you go. If they get to earth I could see

them interacting with GI Joe but GI Joe has never

really been interplanetary. So they may only

interact with transformers until they may or

may not. I don't know where void rivals is going

to go. So we're also unsure at this point. kind

of what the time period is Earth -wise, right?

Right, yeah. So I've included some notes here

from, this is from thepopverse .com. This is

Hasbro's VP of Global Publishing talking here.

See, launching in October, setting around Optimus

Prime and the rest of his team of Autobots now

that they've, now that they're stranded on Earth

and removed from the war -torn Cybertron. So

my question to you is, do you think this is sort

of a, not necessarily a retelling, but sort of

a redo of G1? Like, are we going back to the

eighties? Everything is a redo. Have you not

been paying attention to Transformers the last

20 years? You got me in the toys. I know that.

Yeah. Okay. But yeah, but like, and that's again,

new publisher, new place, new whatever. Of course

they're going to start with what, you know, that

they're going to start with Jenner. No comic

company I think would start in 1996 with Beast

Wars. They wouldn't start there. They would start

with G1. They would start with Of course, you're

always gonna use Optimus Prime Megatron Starscream

sound or whatever and we don't even know yet,

but like You look at the core seven bots from

Transformers, you know, whether it's toys comics

cartoons movies, whatever it's always those it's

always that you know course six seven or eight

and Like I said, I'm perfectly fine with them.

Starting wherever they're gonna start like i

said i'm on board you give me a cool g one animated

looking comic version of optimus prime you give

me the ultimate i'm just too darn big to be sneaking

around like this you know jet fire on a planet

who and he specifically says it has been millions

of years so we know that whether it's been four

million years or however many million of years

it's been. that we're going to, I don't know

if this is because we haven't seen earth. We

haven't seen earthlings. We haven't seen humans.

We don't know if this is going to start 1984.

It could start 1986 and who knows? Optimus might

not die. Who knows? Well, you know, I mean, there

is always one bot that can take his place and

do a better job, but that's my personal opinion.

Now, if this series does kind of go back to the

eighties, We've seen that recently with the Bumblebee

film. We've seen that with Rise of the Beast.

If they go back to the 80s with this, do you

like that as opposed to just starting fresh in

2023, for example? Yeah, because it's any fictional

medium, no matter which medium it is, whether

it's comics or written prose, or you want something

that is not current year. You want some, at least

I do. In my fiction, I want it to be fictitious.

I don't want it to be like, you can go as far

as 2056, which really isn't all that far away.

Or you know what I mean? But like, you know,

you, you could go far flung into the future.

You can go far flung into the past. Cause let's

face it folks next year is the 40th anniversary

of, of Transformers. And we are 40 years away

from where we started. So yeah. Again, you also

need to give that. Comic reader who has never

read a single Transformers comic you need to

give that general audience Like this is a great

I would recommend voids rivals number one to

anyone Who wants to jump on to a cool sci -fi

thing but also gets the bonus of oh, hey, by

the way Here's this character that is going to

set you on a path if you would like to check

out Transformers I would recommend this to any

non Transformers fan if they would like to get

into Transformers because they can start from

the beginning without 40 years of baggage. Yeah.

Yep. No, I would, I would absolutely agree with

that. I was just gonna say, I think if they go

back and they start in the eighties, which Again,

I really think that's what they're probably going

to do based on the fact that they're using these

Sunbow designs. I feel like they're shooting

for a target audience. It'll probably be have

broad enough appeal so that anyone can come in.

But I feel like they're really trying to target

a specific audience here. And if that's what

we end up getting is like an 80s based Transformers

comic, I'm really interested in. Obviously, being

born in the 80s, I'm very nostalgic for that

time period. So I would really like to kind of

see that happen and kind of see some fun 80s

things that pop up inside there. Whether it's

like, oh, we're going to throw out this MTV joke

or we see like jazzercise videos, like play in

the background or something and a store display

or just fun things like that. I'm very interested

in kind of seeing where this plays out or how

this plays out and where they go with it. if

they do happen to go back to the 80s. So yeah,

absolutely. Most definitely. So a couple of closing

things here. So I did want to note that the initial

run has already sold out. There is going to be

a reprint coming in July, which kind of gives

away the we talked about on page. What was it?

Page 20, 19, 19, 20, 21. Yeah. 2021. So yeah,

those covers feature Jetfire right on the front.

Nice. The one is just a I guess just a standing

version of Jetfire. The other one is a really

funny parody of Monster at the end of this book,

which is a which is a Sesame Street book that

my daughter actually has. Really, really funny,

really comedic. drawing of Jetfire. If you haven't

seen it, you can check all the transformer new

sizes on there. But yeah, the last thing I guess

I want to touch on here with you is the GI Joe

stuff. So this preview page that we have with

Transformers, it says Duke number one, December,

Cobra Commander number one, January. So why go

with the name Duke and Cobra Commander as opposed

to GI Joe and Cobra? Speculating other than your

lovely Google document here. I'm not looking

at any news websites or anything like that. My

speculation is, is that because Skybound has

the transformers and GI Joe license, if they

have a GI Joe license, from what I know from

recording my other podcast, that'll be out next

week from my buddy who's a GI Joe nerd and who

is there at all 300 issues of the Larry Hama

run. issue 301 of real American hero will be

published under sky bound. So they are having

GI Joe, a real American hero continue from where

it was at IDW. And so they're continuing on the

X number of decades long stories from Larry Hama

that they can. Okay. Hence why I think that's

why you have the Duke series and the Cobra commander

series. And I don't. The way I look at it is

it's a similar, it could be a similar thing as

to what IDW's More Than Meets the Eye and Robots

in Disguise was. So as you know, because you're

currently reading it, you're seven issues, and

I believe More Than Meets the Eye is the Rodimus

show. It is the Adventures in Space. Robots in

Disguise is Starscream and all his political

bullshit on Cybertron. That's what Robots in

Disguise is, at least for the first 30 issues

or so. So it's two very different stories. So

maybe with Duke number one and Cobra commander

number one, Duke is the leader of GI Joe Cobra

commander, obviously commander of Cobra. It's

a way to tell two different stories, even though

the same guy is writing both series. Joshua Williamson,

uh, head, head cheese over there at DC comics.

Uh, not head cheese, but one of the biggest.

pieces of, of, of writing godliness that DC has,

he's writing both of these series. So that's

going to be interesting to see how he writes

each series and what each series is going to

be because we don't know, just by the title,

I assume Duke's going to focus somewhere around

Duke and Cobra Commander is going to focus around

him and the Baroness. Maybe it's a, maybe it's

a MTV, what is it? Sixteen you're pregnant maybe

berenice is pregnant with with um death throws

baby or something i don't know. What is it you

know what i mean like you who knows i do like

that transformers is in october they take a month

off of any new series yes i'm sure we're gonna

have avoids rivals issue in november i'm sure

will probably have transformers number two in

november. But you take a month off of introducing

any new series, and then in December, hey, it's

Christmas time. Let's all gather around the Christmas

tree with Uncle Duke from G .I. Joe. And then

in January, oh, it's the winter of our discontent.

Let's all go spend time with Cobra Commander.

And it's a new year. It's a new thing. Let's

go. And the universe is launched for what they

want to launch it for now, I guess. Are you interested

in reading that series or those two series as

well? Oh, yeah, I've already. So again, because

I record things, pre -record them and all that

stupid crap. My buddy, Eduardo, who covered the

IDW world on GIGO World on Fire and Castlefall

with me, he's already unless Steve Megatron,

who I always give number one dibs to, unless

Steve wants to do it. Eduardo and I are probably

going to be covering Duke and Cobra Commander

over on the pull bag. And then as far as Transformers,

I don't know yet. I assume Ryan and I are going

to do it. We have not recorded our own separate

speculation stuff that we're going to be doing

next week on all things Transformers over at

the GeekCast Radio Network. So you heard it here

first, folks. I have no idea what the hell I'm

doing. Well, I can say that at the very least,

I'm going to check out the first issue of all

of them. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You always want

to at least check out the number ones. Yeah.

So, I mean, I guess just in closing here, I would

say that, yeah, kind of along the same lines

that you said, if you're interested in sci -fi

type stuff, I would check out Void Rivals number

one. Very curious to kind of see where it's going.

I think it was a good first issue. I think once

it got to the Jetfire stuff, Little less so,

but I think overall it was it was a fairly good

first issue that is leaving me wanting to know

and learn more. So I think that's good. And again,

that's why I think it's good that he didn't stick

or like the point was for them to potentially,

oh, this is just a ship. And then all of a sudden,

holy shit, it it. transforms into this Joe. Oh

crap. It's more than just a shit. It's more than

meets the eye. It's a robot in disguise. Right.

But he doesn't stick around. He leaves. Right.

So that's okay. Like I'm again, perfect placement

of a character that we know. And he doesn't outstay

his welcome in this new unique original series

to skybound. I mean, it leaves the protagonist

wanting more. It leaves the reader wanting more.

Absolutely. I'm ready for next month. Let's go.

I think it did a great job in that regard. All

right, so I think that's it for our coverage

here of Void Rivals number one. Anything else

you want to say in closing? I guess just visit

geekcastradio .com. We have got a bunch of stuff

going on. We're in the middle of planning and

hoping to get more than... three people uh to

join us in our we actually have more than that

but 25 people it's hey the transformers one had

33 so there's you know uh we're getting gearing

up and getting ready to do the top 100 toys podcast

project countdown so that's going to be Happening

we have my buddy optimus solo kevin thompson

has curated and put together along with steve

megatron steve put together the visual guide

kevin put together the text guide. He has gotten

together over 300 toy listings. So basically

we're gonna send a new We've been sending emails

out to people. Hey, do you want to join? Do you

want to join? Here's all the research just pick

from this list Make your list and then that list

will go into all the other lists that will end

up making our eventual Official list if that

makes any sense, but yeah keycast radio comm

check it out All right, so I think that's it

for this episode of Whatever This Is. If Mike

and I happen to read Void Rivals number two,

maybe we'll be back on here again. You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pullback, the

GCRN's first comic review and discussion podcast.

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