Void Rivals #4-6 Review

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, this is Jesse

Rast, and did you know that Inside the Pull Bag,

they've been telling you to make your great escape

into comics for the past 10 years? All right,

everybody, it's me, TFG1 Mike, back here again,

Inside the Pull Bag. This is episode 539. I thought

we were going to be able to get to episode 545

by the end of 2023, but that's just not happening,

so this will be the penultimate episode of the

year for the podcast. And then in episode 540,

I'm hoping to get out before the end of the year

as well, but this might actually be the last

episode of the year. I don't know yet. However,

this episode is Void Rivals, issues 4 through

6, with Jesse Early, a .k .a. Matrix Prime, and

myself. Jesse did all the editing on this one.

I'm not doing any edits in this episode other

than adding this little clip at the beginning

and then the pull bag intro and outro. So I hope

everyone enjoys it. Make your greatest game in

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have huge plans, folks. You've just jumped inside

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and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and

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

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

reading right now, here inside The Pull Bag.

Alright, hello everyone, and welcome to another

comic review with me, Jesse, and TFG1 Mike. Hello.

Hello. We are here to discuss not one, not two,

but three issues of Void Rivals today. That's

how far behind we are in reviewing these things.

Void Rivals is by Kirkman, DeFelici, and Lopez.

And like I said, we're going to be covering four,

five, and six. So let's jump right in here to

number four. So a quick synopsis first. This

brief synopsis here comes from ImageComics .com.

It says, The climactic return to the Sacred Ring.

Thrown before the highest authority for their

crimes against the Sacred Ring, while Derek and

Salila's newfound alliance hold strong. And then

my brief little synopsis here that I've put together

here is, so the... The comic kind of kicks off

with Salila presenting Derek as a prisoner, though

in reality she has a plan for both of them. Both

Derek and Salila are thrown into a prison cell

where leadership learns that Salila worked with

Derek to get back home. We learn that the leadership

of the two races on this secret ring have been

secretly working together to keep them apart.

And we get a cameo of Shockwave on Cybertron

where... The Skuxoid, who we've seen in previous

issues, attempts to sell the Quintesson prisoner

from a few issues back. So thoughts and review

or thoughts and yeah, thoughts and your review

on this particular issue. More shockwave, please.

Was not I mean, outside of seeing the covers

because solicits come up a few months before

the issue comes out, et cetera, et cetera, et

cetera. Other than seeing the cover, it's like,

oh, wow. OK. we get a full page spread of him

and then we get another page where it's the whole

scene like you said and then the rest of the

issue is back to Derek and Salila because they

are both prisoners and it's like oh yay I don't

understand these right like What's the big secret

here? Oh, right. They're working together to

keep them apart. Oh, my God. Like, get over it

already. I love their Derek and Salila's interaction.

I love that. I love that by the time that the

people capture or they take him away and they

have him strung up like it's shown on the cover

of the main cover of the issue. No, it's. No,

it's not this issue. It's the next one. Sorry,

jumping ahead. My head's confused here. But no,

I love the way that the characters are done.

I love the way the art is done. The colors are

amazing. And this whole handroid thing, I still

hear Billy West as Skeets from Justice League

in my head every time I see the handroid talking

to anybody. But no, I enjoyed this. I thought

it was fun. I thought it was a nice little twist

at the end. And yeah, what about you? Well, I

think the handroid might be my favorite character

so far in the series. Yeah, pretty much. Overall,

I thought this was a rather slow -paced issue.

It seemed to focus more on exposition more than

anything. which I guess we'll occasionally get

as we go through these. Like you had mentioned,

I think, a couple of episodes ago, right? Not

all of these can be bangers out of the gate with

a whole lot of action. There has to be exposition

dumps here and there. Well, yeah, and what I

said was basically normally with comics, it's

like every other issue. So let's say you have

the odds issues and then the evens issues. The

odds issues are the exposition. The even issues

are the action. Because there's only 22 pages.

minus or well there's technically 28 page what

minus ads it's like 22 28 18 whatever it is pages

of comic book it's a limited run per issue now

when you collect all these into trade it's a

full story everything else but yeah so if you're

reading single issues and it's a continuous story

like this is Each issue is not going to balance

everything well, but the overall arc of the story

will be balanced well between the issues because

you have the constant mix -ups. And it wasn't

really too exposition heavy. It was character

building, really, is what I saw it as, between

her and him and then the... What is this here?

The guards and... And all of that, you know,

I thought that was really fun. I thought it was

good. I thought it was interesting because you

want to be able to know what the characters are

about. The only way you're going to be able to

do that is have them sitting in a cell. Right.

Can't exactly, you know, do get to know you over

fire blaster, firing blasters and cannon fodder

and all that. Like, you know. Well, you can learn

about, I guess, their fighting skills and techniques.

That's true. Yeah, I mean, but they were on that

asteroid thing for quite a while. Seems like

they would have known, would have learned quite

a bit about each other, right? But the asteroid

stuff that we had already talked about in previous

issues was basically, you're from this race,

you're from this race. We hate each other, but

we don't really hate each other because blah,

blah, blah. You know, go back and listen to those

other episodes, folks. But I mean, that was more

of like the beginning. the opening salvo kind

of thing. And now it's like, we have a moment

to, and it's also to let us, the audience know

who the characters are, not necessarily let them

know who they are, but to let us know who they

are. Right. Cause you know, that's just the way

these things work in comics. Yeah. With regards

to the end of the issue here, I find it very

fascinating and obviously want to learn the backstory,

the reason why here, but I find it very fascinating

that the leadership on both sides secretly, secretly

or seemingly working together um and they're

they're keeping the two the two sides apart and

i'm i'm very curious as to why that is um and

as we'll learn here in uh an upcoming issue that

we're going to be talking about and i didn't

i don't know that i've noticed this before it's

probably been in in the pictures that we've seen

of the sacred ring but i had i didn't really

notice it before but on the very first page of

this issue um it doesn't show the full the full

ring but we do see sort of this gray zone at

the very top between the two different areas.

And like I said, we'll be talking about that

here momentarily in one of the upcoming issues

that we're going to be discussing, but I didn't

notice that before. And now that I'm going back

and looking at photos of the ring, I'm like,

oh, or drawings of the ring. Yeah, I'm like,

yeah, there is a gray zone there. And then, yeah,

the cameo with Shockwave I thought was pretty

fun. I'm still... I think I'm learning a little

bit more as to kind of where the quintessence

are coming into play. I'm still trying to figure

out how the transformers relate to that. But

I, obviously I think that'll play out more as,

as the series goes on. Yeah. As the series goes

on and as eventually the actual. Transformers

series goes on as well because in the Transformers

series, as we've talked about, and we'll get

to that in a different episode for number two

for Transformers, like the crew on earth is completely

like, that's what I like about seeing some of

these characters and what rivals is it's not

the characters that are on earth. It's almost,

it's pretty much open. We've had, like you said,

we had a Quintesson, a Skuxoid. We had, we now

have shockwave. It's like, Hmm, I wonder who

else is out in space. Yep. But yeah, issue four,

absolutely loved it. It was super fun. Yeah.

I think you liked it a little bit more than I

did. I thought it was a bit, a bit exposition

heavy. You said more character development, but

overall in terms of advancing the story, I think

it did advance some, but in terms of like it

being action packed, I don't really think this

issue is for those seeking that out. Yeah, no.

And again, like I said, The suspense of it all,

because like you said, there's a gray part at

the top of the ring. And I wonder what's going

on there. And we need these kinds of issues to

pad that, not necessarily pad it out, but to

add to the whole of the story. This is why most

of the time I don't do single issues. I wait

for the goddamn trades so I can have the whole

story all at once. But it is what it is, and

that's what we're doing. So issue four, I really

enjoyed it. If I was rating it zero to five,

I'd probably give it a four, most likely. Well,

I guess I will say as a pro tip, right, if you

are reading this from month to month like I am,

if you actually wait a month, it actually drops

like $2. Yep. $2 to $3, depending on how the

price drops. Yeah, usually it's going to be,

I think. Regular MSRP is $4 .99, and usually

issue four, I think, ended up being $1 .99. Yeah.

You know, when I looked at it. So, yeah. All

right, so let's move on to issue number five,

then. Again, a quick synopsis from ImageComics

.com. It says, when Derek and Salila's return

to the Sacred Ring doesn't go as planned, a new

danger enter their lives. So my quick synopsis

is Derek is taken from a cell to be tortured

to the point of being bloody. So this is what

you were just discussing here a few minutes ago.

Between torture sessions, Derek is visited by

a childlike person who is carrying Derek's suit

and helmet. He frees Derek and follows him out

of the cell and through a maze of corridors underneath

the city. Turns out the kid is part of an underground

Zertonian resistance in both Derek and the kid's

service in a room filled with other resistance

members. We get another Transformer -related

cameo with a Skuxoid now visiting the Quintessons

in an attempt to sell back his Quintesson prisoner,

and the Quintessons instead capture the Skuxoid

and prepare him for trial until he drops the

word Zertonian ship, at which point the Quintesson

judge becomes very interested in learning more.

Now, one thing I do want to note here, just because

I noticed it. It is a different colorist this

time. Patrico de la Pichi is the colorist. I'm

probably butchering that. But that's the colorist

for this issue. And I noticed that because not

only is the name in the credits in the beginning,

these colors are way different than what Lorenzo

does in issue four. That is a good call. I'm

glad you caught that. I missed that, but I did

notice that the colors did look different, but

I didn't go back and look at the beginning of

the issue. Again, I always give credit. I always

go back because I always want to make sure it's

right because if I end up seeing or finding these

people on social media and I end up saying, hey,

we covered this and we really liked your work

and I want to be able to say, hey, we're also

able to give you credit too. Yeah. Well, so I

guess along, we'll run this topic here really

quick. The colors that are used during the torture

sequences, I think it looked fantastic. They

do. Yes. Yeah. They, they very much. Yeah. And

this is why, this is why I kind of got confused

earlier. We're talking about number four. Cause

I kind of wanted to skip to this because it was

like, Holy, you look at that front cover. Of

number five, it's got me written all over it

with the purple, because purple is my color.

And then you've got the blue chains kind of coming

down through the logo that are his hands. You've

got the executioner -looking dude behind him

with the red eyes. Just everything about it is

so good. It's such good art. And the quintessence?

I don't think the quintessence have ever looked

this good. I mean, they, they certainly look

better here than they do in the typical Transformers

cartoon that you would find them. Yep. Yeah.

The art choices on them are really good. And

I've never really seen like, cause in animation

you have to kind of be quick. This is why I like

comics is comics. You can take a page like this

first page with the judge where says, uh, what

was he saying here? I am more than prepared to

pass judgment on you. You know, that page, the

first page that we see them, the executioner

had just, it hasn't looked that good before because

half the time you have to speed it up. You have

to animate it. You have to make it move with

a static image like this. You can do all of these

facial expressions and like one of them is screaming,

you know, the other one's kind of like smirking.

The other one's frowning and the other one just,

oh my God, dude. The quintessence? Dude, I just,

oh my god, I cannot believe I'm going to equate

this to this, but the quintessence are the emotions

from inside out. Disgust, anger. There's no joy.

I don't know which one would be joy, because

there's no joy in the quintessence, but seriously,

I looked at the last one there with his face.

What's he say there? Where is it? that guy i'm

like yeah that's disgust yeah that's a good call

i never really thought of them as being like

different emotions but i mean that's clearly

what kind of what's being conveyed here and in

this yeah absolutely and yeah another good point

about them never really looking this good before

because when you watch i mean i think it looks

pretty good in the transformers movie or Transformers

The Movie. But if you go back post -movie when

the Quintessons do show up in some of the episodes,

I mean, it looks like there's just faces on top

of these egg -looking things, and they don't

look great at all. No. But yeah, they look pretty

good here in this issue. Yeah, absolutely. So

I guess overall thoughts on this issue. What

do you think? I'm still really enjoying this

story. I'm still really enjoying the character

stuff. The art is... I can't sing the praises

of the art enough. It's just so cool. So the

pages where Derek is being tortured, like you

mentioned, with luckily, because... Oh, that's

the other thing, folks. Since the time the last

we recorded in now, Comixology is fully dead.

Kindle has fully taken over because Amazon is

Amazon and whatever else. But... on the app on

the biggest my biggest issue with the kindle

app when it first was like hey let's do this

they did not have the comixology guided view

which is the panel by panel view and they now

do thank god because i would have gone crazy

and i we probably wouldn't be doing this because

i'd probably have retired the pull bag by now

after 10 years because oh my god if i i I've

loved that guided view for so long because it

just pulls you through the story. And it is one

of the reasons why I love issue four so much

is reading panel by panel. I, I get little snippets

of the story and the page where you see Derek

tied up. If you go panel by panel on Amazon,

it shows like the individual fractions of his

face as he has been tortured. Whereas if you

just look at the full page, you see one, two,

three, you see four. And then the ha ha ha at

the end of the fifth panel. Oh, my God. This

page is I don't want this page is like a thing

I would hang up on my wall, but it's so good.

Yep. So good. Yeah. And story wise. Again, we

have a little bit more exposition here. Like

you said, the girl frees him and gives him back

his glove and his talking glove. I love how she's

like, yeah, the glove that talks, and I'm like,

yeah, he never shuts up. He, she, they, them,

whatever the glove wants to be called. I don't

know what the glove wants to be called, but yeah,

no. Yeah, issue five. Again, this is a new thing

for me. I don't normally get into new things

a lot. I like having... like optimus and megatron

and blah blah blah things i've known for 40 years

now almost 40 years next year you know but this

is really cool and i'm really invested in this

story speaking of the android i like the let's

see what page is this it is uh i guess page 18

again i'm also using the kindle app here but

uh derrick is derrick is like stuck inside of

this little tunnel he's crawling through and

his arm is just kind of outstretched. And it's

like the hand droid is like doing the work. Just

a little further, just a little further. That's

right. Yep. I see it. That's pretty hilarious.

Yeah. So this is kind of a side tangent really

quick, but you brought it up. So using that guided

view, I also, I don't use that all the time,

but for panels where you, as you were just describing

for like the torture sequence, I do like doing

it that way. What I found the difference between

the guided view inside of the Kindle app versus

what was in comiXology. at least in my experience

of using the Comixology app was when you got

to the end of the page, it would then zoom out

and kind of show you the whole page. I'm not

experiencing that inside of the Kindle app. No.

Well, okay. So yeah, guided view never to my

knowledge. And I've been, I had been using Comixology

as a website for years. I think I started, yeah,

it was 2014 when we did Punisher month. Welcome

back, Frank, that, that omnibus of the 12 issues

of welcome back, Frank. I've told this story

before many, many, many, many, many times in

the last 10 years. I sat there in my chair reading

that book, trying to read the whole omnibus all

at once. I fell asleep. The book fell out of

my hand. It shocked me and woke me. I'm like,

the next day I was like, Comixology, let's go.

And no, Comixology never really did that before.

It didn't show the full page. if you're in guided

view, it usually just does what it's doing now,

or it's just each panel. Because if you, if you

just take it off guide, basically I do it, I

do two taps to get in and get out of it. So I,

it's just easy to see the whole page and it's

nice to see the whole page. But when you, for

me, when I want to read the story, because the

other issue with me is I'm legally blind. So

I need to be like, I can see. but my vision is

like 2200 kind of thing. So I need to see things

close up. I don't do very well with distance.

So in the torture scene, for example, when he

says, when, when Derek starts laughing, ha ha,

I need to be able to zoom in on that or find

a way to see that closer up. And the guided view

does that for me perfectly. Thank God they got

rid of pinch to zoom. At least I think they did

for the most part, because that was just stupid.

So I'm looking at it on my iPad and there's still

pinch to zoom that's on there. But yeah, whenever

I use the guided view in the past, when it was

the comiXology app, I could do the guided view,

which is, again, is just showing you panel by

panel. But once it got to the end of a page,

right, you've looked at all the panels and you

did a swipe or a tap to go to the next one, at

least from my experience on the iPad, again,

before it switched over to. to the Kindle app,

it would zoom out. So you could then see the

entire page before going to the next page and

just focusing on the single panel. And I don't,

I don't experience that anymore. No. And I'm,

I never experienced that because again, like

I said, I can. So when comiXology was what it

was, you had single page, double page or guided

view. Those were the three things. So, so right

now I'm looking at page 18. Yep. Where he's got

his little handroid doing all the work for him

because he sucks. Not the handroid. Derek apparently

sucks and just can't get through the tunnel.

So I'm looking at the full page. If I go to the

very top and I tap my thumb twice, it goes into

guided view, which means I'm using it on my phone.

And yes, I can do pinch to zoom, but initially

when Kindle took over... they did not have the

comiXology guided view. They only had pinch to

zoom. So yes, while I can still do that and that

is great. What I was missing was the storyboard

paneling because it takes your eye from each

section of the story. And I don't need, if I

want to see the full page, I just zoom all the

way out and look at the full page and admire

it for what it is. But if I'm reading it for

the story, I need those panels because man, they're

just so it's for me, guided view is story driven

for you to figure, at least for me to figure

out what the story is and to be able to enjoy

the writing overall, not just the art. Right.

Yeah. I mean, that's also a good point. So if

you're looking at the entire page, which is again,

is more often not how I do read the comics that

I've got here. Like I said, occasionally I'll

go into the guided view, but more often than

not, I'm looking at the entire page. Sometimes

it's really overwhelming depending on what's

going on. So it is hard to focus on each individual

panel. So that's where I think that guided view

certainly helps in instances like that as well.

I think, and this goes to this conversation,

again, it goes back to welcome back, Frank. I

think I've, well, I just told you about the legal

blindness, but basically, let's just say my,

Well, I don't have this yet, but let's say I

had the Pixel Fold, okay? Pixel Fold is essentially

a giant book when it's unfolded. For me, reading

a comic book, a single issue or a trade, I have

to hold it less than five inches away from my

face to see the bubbles. That's how bad my vision

is. So with, like, looking at this main page,

I'm on page 21 right now. So, yeah. I can see

that there's writing there. Yeah, I can see all

the looks on the characters' faces, but for me

to be able to read it, I have to go back to the

guided view. This is some kind of underground

resistance then. That's what's going on. Something

like that. Like, that's easier for me to read

because it's zoomed in on the panels themselves,

which is why the guided view technology when

Comixology came out with it was such a groundbreaking

thing because... You can't get this with a physical

comic book. You still have to look from panel

to panel by yourself. This is basically taking

you through the comic in a way that had never

been done before. And nobody else does it better

than this format as far as what this comiXology

or what formerly was comiXology, the guided view

format is. They had perfected it for so long.

and then amazon came along bought them and whatever

and but we have it now and it's fine and i'm

happy and i can continue doing the podcast for

the next 10 years or until i lose my voice yeah

i mean that that guided view almost makes it

like a single cell uh cartoon yeah it's panel

by panel yeah yep so and it sometimes it makes

the Uh, it makes the, the, the original MSRP

price fine for me because it's five bucks. Okay,

fine. As long as I can read it the way I want

to read it, I am perfectly fine paying $5 for

a digital comic. I don't care. And there are

some times I'm trying to see if it's an issue

four or not four. I'm sorry. Five. Um, maybe

it'll be in issue six that we have. Okay. So

if you go back to page 10, okay. Yep. So the

bottom of page 10 where the Quintesson is, and

you go to the next page, which is obviously page

11. You see Derek. You slide it over in the guided

view. It pulls out, so it gives you the larger

image without having to see the full page. That's

what I love is when guided view gives you that

small moment, but it also then gives you sort

of a splash page. And it's like in your face,

kind of like, Oh, that's kind of cool. There

are other issues of other comics that it does

it better with, but, but yeah, no issue five.

Very, very cool. Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I guess

overall, personally, I liked issue five as well.

I'm, I'm very interested in learning more about

this resistance. And like why, obviously there's,

there's this underground team of people who,

I guess they're trying to stand up to current

leadership, maybe trying to unify. Maybe they

don't care about unification at all. Maybe they're

only looking to do away with the current leadership.

I don't know, but I'm interested in learning

more about that. And I guess, let's see, I'm

trying to scroll here to the end. Sorry, not

the end. Back to where we saw the quintessence.

when the Skuxite brings up the word Zertonian

and the Quintessons become very intrigued by

that. We learn a little bit more about that in

the next issue that we're going to be talking

about here. But I'm very curious as to what's

going on here. Yeah, yeah, no. And this is why

comics are so good is because it gets you, it

sucks you in. In the future, folks, Jesse and

I will be talking about G .I. Joe stuff, and

at the back of issue five is a preview for Duke.

So Duke will be here, I think, in December? Issue

one available December 27th. Yeah, so. Yep. Yep,

yep, yep. All right, so moving on to the last

issue, issue number six. Again, the quick synopsis

from Image Comics. This is the end of story arc.

Premier Zalilic will stop at nothing to prevent

Derek and Salila from escaping Zertonia, but

what secret awaits at the center of the Sacred

Ring? And then my quick rundown I've written

here is Salila is broken out of prison by another

Resistance member, where she is taken to meet

up with the rest of the Resistance and Derek.

Derek, Salila, and the Resistance attempt an

escape to a ship. When leadership learns of the

escape, a force is sent to stop them. A battle

breaks out and Derek and Salila are able to escape

on a motorcycle and onto a monorail train leaving

the city. The plan is to go as far north as possible

by train and then keep going by foot into what

is dubbed as, quote, the wasteland. Leadership

learns of this and sends orders for someone to

hunt and track them down, stating that they must

prevent unity between the two races. We get another

cameo by the Quintessons and the Skuxoid. The

Skuxoid is showing off the Zertonian spaceship

referenced in the last issue. We learn that there

is some sort of history or connection between

Zertonia and the background of the Quintesson

civilization. So what are your overall thoughts

and reviews on six? Well, six. Again, what I

love about each of these issues, the four, the

three, well, I almost said four, the four, the

three that we've covered today. You had Matthias

Lopez on issue four and now six. You had, uh,

Patrico on the other, on issue five. And again,

the colors so different. You open with this and

you have this kind of like, give me your helmet,

your, your boots and your motorcycle. It really

feels like. or whatever her name is that comes

in to help Salila. It really feels like an Arnold

Schwarzenegger jail breakout. And then we go

to this island thing dealing with the scuxoid

and the ship and all. Just the colors, man. The

colors. There's only been, so far in the last

two years, one book that rivals the way the colors.

are done in this, and that's Radiant Black and

any of the Radiant stuff also from Image. But

that team over there is doing amazing things

with color, just like this team is here. I just

love the colors. Yeah, the colors are a lot more

muted in this compared to the last issue, which

were a lot brighter. Yeah. Um, but you're saying,

so you like the muted colors versus what we saw

in issue. I like them all. No, I like it all.

I like how, what I like is I like how different

it is. Like I said this back in this summer when

Steve Megatron and I were finishing off the Marvel

U S run. Give me a friggin' break. I need more

than five friggin' colors. I don't just need

red, blue, yellow, and black and white. This

is why I love comics for the modern age, because

these artists, these colorists, these letterers,

these line drawers, they're doing all these really

cool things with how the thing is drawn and then

how it's colored. And these three issues specifically...

They each have such a different color palette,

even though two of the issues are done by the

same guy, Matthias. You look at issue four and

you look at issue six. They are two very, even

though it's the same artist or the same colorist,

I should say, two very different color palettes.

And that's to show that the story has moved to

a different part of where we're going with this.

And I just love, like you want it to be able

to stand out. And that's my point. Every issue

has stood out so well. What's interesting is

the majority of this issue. is working with those

muted colors but when you get to um i guess page

15 and 17 where there's some explosions that's

kind of thrown out the window and then it gets

like super bright colors yep uh specifically

on page 17 there where there's Derek and Salila

are on that motorcycle and there's like a large

fiery explosion behind them. It gets very bright

and colorful despite, right. So they're still

kind of muted, but they're against this big,

colorful, bright background. Yeah. And that's,

what's so great about it is because you can see

like the fire smoke, like the way the explosion

happens, the smoke is still engulfed by the flame

of the explosion. So it's not just. black smoke

or gray smoke or whatever it's fiery smoke off

of the the explosion from when they got hit and

it just looks so good because again you have

to balance the colors so the background needs

to be brighter whereas the character stuff can

be muted ish or can be their own colors and it's

completely different colors than what the actual

background of the panel is and it's so good yep

yep totally agree Now, my question for you is,

all right, so they've escaped. They've taken

a train north. We see them now on foot entering

into the wasteland. What do you think is in this

wasteland area? I don't know. And I kind of like

that I don't know because. they are going to

show us and tell us in the future issues. So

The Wasteland has a scene in it where I'm like,

oh, Kirkman, you bastard. Because my first thought

is not of anything. So it's, where is it? It's

on page, the top of page 19, the very first panel,

where they're hanging off the thing there. Do

you trust me? Really? You're going to throw an

Aladdin line in a Void Rivals comic? I'm like,

oh, Jasmine and Aladdin. Okay, sure. Derek and

Salila can be Jasmine and Aladdin if they want

to. But I thought that was funny. But no, this

Wasteland just looks so interesting. It's such

a... And again, you have like in that top panel,

they're not... Okay, so their colors are kind

of... in blending in with the rest of it but

you have the night sky the space sky whatever

under the under where he says or where she says

do you trust me uh and then you have the rest

of it where it's like it just blends into the

environment so well and it's so cool and it's

just it this comic series folks is just fun it's

just fun and enjoyable and refreshing And it

doesn't have to, because it's obviously brand

new. It doesn't have to worry about 80 years

of bullshit. It doesn't have to worry about 17

different reboots in the last two years or however

the hell long kind of thing. This is why I like

finding comics that are like this, where we can

start fresh and it's so fun. Yep. Totally agree.

I'm, I'm very curious to see what the wasteland

brings. I'm hoping. So this, like I said, the.

the synopsis from image comics said, this is

the end of the story arc. Uh, so I guess that

means now they're both, obviously they're, they're

running away together here or escaping together.

Uh, my guess is they're going to be working together

from here on out. And then we're going to see,

I guess that's the end of the story arc, right?

So they were, uh, they were enemies. Now they're

friends. That was the story arc. And now we're

moving on to maybe surviving together. I don't

know. Um, Well, what I find interesting is what

the leader at the end here says. There's no choice.

We must prevent unity no matter the cost. No

matter the cost. Kirkman, you bastard. In a good

way. You bastard in a good way. That is our sacred

charge, to avert the coming of Goliath. And then

he says at the very end, Zerda, help me. We must

revive Proximus. And even though it may be the

end of the arc, it's still a cliffhanger. It

still leaves, like, who the fuck is Proximus?

We don't know. Like, I don't remember seeing

anything or hearing it, but it leaves them in

a position of wondering, it leaves us in a position

of wondering what Derek and Selina are going

to be doing in the wasteland, and then what this

side of the leadership is doing with Proximus.

So even though this may be, and again, six issues,

five or six issues of a comic is usually... full

story arc and then they'll go on to the next

because that's usually the way how the trades

are done so when trades are collected for those

that don't know is they'll do the first story

arc and then like issue 7 or 12 or whatever it

is is the next arc I don't know what they're

doing here as far as how many Issues are going

to be in their arcs, but if I follow the logic

that I have for the last 10 years, I would assume

issue 7 of 12 is going to be the next story arc,

because obviously issue 7 would have to start

the next story. You don't think Goliath is a

pseudonym for Unicron, do you? Well, I think

it's Goliath, so no. God, I hope not. It's too

early. It's too goddamn early to bring the chaos

bringer in here. So jumping back to, I guess,

page seven here. So I want to read this really

quick. This is the Quintesson talking here while

looking at the ship the Scuxoid brought. And

the Quintesson, I guess one of the faces says,

this is but an echo from our deep past, a memory

of a rebellious child, something that has plagued

us Quintessons far too many times. Still, this

is a quest that could result in revelations that

would shock our civilization to its core. There

is much to consider. I guess when you read that,

what are your thoughts about what might be going

on here? My thought is that Kirkman here, and

I don't think the Quintessons have anything to

do with Daniel's run over in Transformers, but

I think Kirkman is setting up his own origin

story for the Quintessons, which is great. Once

again, we don't have to worry about... Whether

the cartoon is right or whether the comic is

right, I prefer cartoon logic because it's just

better for me. As far as, you know, the military

hardware and the consumer goods and all that

stuff from G1. But I like this, that they are,

again, every aspect that Robert Kirkman is writing

for this series is giving us various hints and

various things going forward. again, leaving

us hanging off of a cliff. And that's not a bad

thing when you don't know what the story is or

what story is going to be. So I think this is

really cool. Like he's really setting up the

quintessence to be something we may have, even

though we recognize their faces and we kind of

recognize the face, the personalities that go

along with the faces. This is a, this ain't your

granddaddy's quintessence folks. Yeah. So, I

mean, I think it's, I think it's obvious that

maybe, uh, the Quintesson that we're looking

at here. And again, I think we've only seen,

uh, one of these five phase Quintessons, right?

I don't think we've seen several of them. Um,

so there's obviously more if he's talking about,

or it's talking about, uh, the civilization here

of the Quintesson. Uh, my, my thought in looking

at this was the same as yours, that they're talking

about their, uh, their origin, um, or who created

them. Um, and I, I think that this one that we're

seeing in the comic probably knows more or has

at least heard about, I don't know, a story of

someone else creating them than kind of what

has been told traditionally through their civilization.

Because this one, like I said, the Quintesson

we see here seems to know something about Zertonia.

So, but no, I think you nailed it. When I was

reading this, that was the first thing that came

to my mind. They were talking about the origins

of the Quintessons and it may be related to Zeratonia

somehow. Yeah. And again, like I said, this series

with what Kirkman is doing with it. He's giving

us a whole new character thing and a whole new

whatever with the Zertonians and the Aragorians

and the Ring of Whatever and Derek and Salila

and leadership. That's all new. That's a whole

new creative thing. At the same time, he's sprinkling

in... through various little cameos and little

scenes, basically sowing the seeds of Transformers

characters within this series without having

to have them directly interact with the two races

that we're seeing with Derek and Salila. So it's

very, very well done. I totally agree. I guess

overall, my thoughts, I enjoyed this issue. I'm

very curious to see where things go now that

Derek and Celula have escaped. They're now in

the Wasteland. I want to see what the Wasteland

brings. I want to see how the two of them work

together. And we did see the Quintessons here

over the last two issues. I don't know if that's

going to kind of die off as we're going into

this next arc or if we're going to continue to

see them in this next arc as well. But I hope

they pop up more. I want to know more about this

background and this origin for them. Yeah, absolutely.

Let me just see if I can find. Okay, League of

Comics. Oh, wait, what? This is March 2024. I

was like, no wonder we can't. Okay. All righty

then. All right. Wow. Wait a minute. This is

December. Well, yes, technically this is December

now. So we got Duke coming out this month. We

got Cobra Commander coming out next month in

January. And then Transformers is going to do

its thing. So, hmm, that's interesting. They're

going to take two and a half months off between

issues. He has a question for you. As a resident

comic reader, what does that usually mean? Like

when there's a large break in the thing? I...

The only thing I can think of is that Kirkman

is either going to be doing something else in

the meantime, or he's going to be working on

the next arc. He may work on issues 7, 8, and

9 all at the same time. I'm sorry for the background

noise. We've been having people in our building

replace the floors, which they're already replaced.

Why are you people here on a Sunday, you bastards?

Get home. Watch some football. Something. But

yeah, no, as far as that goes, I don't know.

Maybe it is just a holiday break. Maybe that's

why we're left on the edge of the cliff with

issue six. And look, I'll say right now, we don't

need a special episode, which I probably will

do a full episode down the line when the trade's

collected on the pullback. But like the first

six issues of this series, I can think of maybe

three complaints. I can't think of them, but

I can probably think of like three or four things

to complain about, about these first six issues.

And most of it is like nitpicky stuff. It's nothing

that's going to change my opinion of these six

issues. They're solid. They're good. If you're

looking for a good story, if you're looking for

a story to get into that you don't need, like

I said a second ago, 80 years of baggage, check

out... Image Comics, Skybound Entertainment,

Void Rivals, issues one through six. It's fun.

It's cool. Whether you're a Transformers fan

or not, it doesn't matter. It's a good comic

series on its own. It has a good story. Between

Derek and Salila and all that, it's so very,

very good. You know, I would agree with that

completely. As someone who has not traditionally

been interested in reading comics, I decided

to pick this up because I wanted to give the

Energon universe a chance. And Void Rivals was

the thing that kicked that off. And again, you

said this is kind of the traditional way with

comics. But for me, other than a few issues being

a little too slow for my liking, I really don't

have any complaints about what we've seen from

issues one through six. I just touched on a few

things, but I wouldn't really consider those

major complaints. Those are just a few hit or

miss things here in some of the issues. But yeah,

overall, issues one through six, I think is a

great story arc. I think it's introducing some

very interesting characters. And while they may

not be super relatable because I'm not living

up in space on a sacred ring, they are easy to

follow and they're characters I'm interested

in learning more about. So yeah, I think if you

have any hesitations about this series, don't.

Just kind of dive right into it. And I think

you'll enjoy it, especially if you enjoy sci

-fi. Yeah, absolutely. This is... sci -fi done

well like really well yep it's fun very fun well

since issue seven doesn't come out till march

i guess that gives us a chance to catch up on

transformers transformers duke commander who

knows um and you did mention void rivals number

seven so i am also looking at league of comic

geeks .com and i don't know if this is true or

not but there is a uh a comment down below that

says Again, I don't know if this is true or not,

but it says Kirkman said they wanted to give

the Transformers and G .I. Joe series a chance

to catch up to Void Rivals. Maybe there's a crossover

in the works? Mark seems like a long time ago.

Yeah, well, I don't think they would do a crossover

this soon, but Void Rivals is at six issues.

Transformers, as of this recording, is only at

two issues. Issue three comes out, I think, this

coming week? Yep, December 6th. December 6th.

Oh, boy. So, you know, it's – yeah, I get it.

They want to get – normally what would happen

is if they were doing a break like that, like

I said, they're either working on other stuff

or they're trying to prepare for the future for

this series. But with them doing – and by them

I mean – Kirkman and Daniel Warren Johnson and

all the artists that are working on all these

books and Joshua Williamson who's going to come

in and do some of the G .I. Joe stuff and all

that. They need time to prep all of that and

catch up, which is more... I'm satisfied. I can

go through the holiday season. I might think

about it every once in a while. I wonder what's

going to happen in issue seven, like March needs

to hurry up and March. It says here already,

but I'm perfectly fine. Wait, no waiting and

knowing that something cool is going to happen

because in the meantime, I've got transformers.

Number three, I've got GI Joe, whatever, whatever,

whatever. Number ones. And we can go and do those.

Yup. Yup. Uh, and. Again, I'm really enjoying

the Transformers series so far. So I'm looking

forward to issue number three this coming week.

Hey, welcome to the Last Comic Shop Podcast.

A comic book podcast that actually talks about

comics. Yep, each week we open the shop up and

read and discuss a comic. Sometimes we pair that

up with comic book movies or TV shows. Or not.

Lots of times it's just comic books. And sound

effects. Oh, yes. Definitely lots of sound effects.

So tune in on all the major podcasts and platforms

to The Last Comic Shop Podcast. Or check out

our library of evergreen shows at www .lastcomicshoppodcast

.com. All right. Yeah. And as I had mentioned

to you, I believe the other day in chat, I did

pick up issue 301 of the new G .I. Joe series

or the continuing G .I. Joe series. And that

kind of pulled me in. So I seem to be hooked

on all of these Energon Universe comics. But

yeah, so Duke is coming out this month. And then

we've got... December 27th. And then Cobra Commander

is January 17th. Yep. So next year. And then

I think G .I. Joe 302 will be out also in December.

Right here on 302. Ooh, from Image Comics. Yay.

December 20th. Oh, okay. Nice. So, December 20th

for 302. 301's already out. And then Duke is

December 27th. That's good. That's, yeah. No,

seriously. No, no, no. Seriously, like, folks,

for those of you who are listening to this or

watching this or whatever, however you're consuming

our content here, for the past decade, I would

have to twist this man's arm to get him to even

look at a comic book cover. He was not – how

he is in his adulthood is kind of how I was in

my childhood. I was a cartoon kid. I was not

a comic kid. Obviously, that has changed over

the last decade or so. But I love that you're

into this and I love that we're doing this. Did

they start it at 300 or was 301 the beginning?

I forget how that – Yep. So the IDW series ended

at 300. The first issue here is 301. 301. Got

it, got it, got it. All right. I guess we can

talk about this series at another point in time,

but I did want to mention something really quick,

just in case anyone out there is watching, listening

to this, and may be interested in the new G .I.

Joe series. So what's interesting is, and let

me pull it up here on my iPad. So on the very

front cover, it says... Hold on a second. I've

got to go all the way to the front. All right.

It says kind of down in the very bottom left

corner in a large yellow dog tag, you'll notice

it says first issue. But then just to the left

of that in smaller font, it says 300 and, and

that is first issue. So a question I had for

Mike several episodes back of talking about Void

Rivals was, When they're going to roll this series

out, is it going to start over from scratch or

are they just going to pick it up from where

it was? From what I understand, from what I remember

when we were doing the research on that before,

they're just carrying over the numbering. That's

all they're doing. It's still Larry Hama. It's

still his story. I haven't read it. So I don't

know. So again, I'm going in fresh. I might actually

have to pick, I might actually pick up the 300th

issue from IDW to see how that story is going

into 301, 302, 303, all that stuff. So no, I

don't think it's... I don't think between IDW

and sky image slash sky bound, they're doing

the D like, Ooh, we need new number one money.

No, it's not that right. It's just, they're not

creating a whole new story here. It's just being

able to keep the legacy numbering because I mean,

yep. You get to like, okay. I have currently

the pull bag is that. whatever episode this is

going to be. I don't know which one it's going

to be, but we're just under 545 episodes in 10

and a half years of this podcast. Do you think

if I get to episode 550, when I, not, not if,

but when I get to episode 550, that I'm just

going to completely throw all that out and renumber

it to number one? Fuck, no, I'm not. What are

you, crazy? Yeah. So one of the questions I had

for you at that time was whether or not when

things like this happen, where they may switch

studios and they don't necessarily start over,

they just kind of continue the story, like would

there be a recap? And you said typically that

is the case. And I can confirm that. So the very

first two pages of issue 301 give you a recap

of kind of who and what G .I. Joe are. and who

and what Cobra are. But this issue does not really

give you any sort of background on the story

that's been told so far in these issues. So yeah,

it just kind of jumps right into, okay, 300 happened,

and now we're just continuing that in 301. So

if you're interested in knowing what the hell

is going on, you're going to have to read some

back issues before kind of diving into the story.

Even if you can find them. Because here's the

problem, folks. Since IDW lost the licenses,

those books are going to be going out of print.

I can't even get the rest of the trades for Transformers

from IDW on Amazon anymore, I don't think. Not

at a decent price, digitally anyway. Physically,

probably not at a decent price either. But when

comics go out of print, any comics, it doesn't

matter if it's IDW losing licenses or Image Comics

slash Skybound gaining licenses. Any comic that

goes out of print, that price will skyrocket.

Scarcity will just skyrocket those prices. So

here's hoping we can get issue 300 digitally.

I would like to start at 300 on that specific

series because I've never read that series. So

I want to start at 300 where it ended with IDW.

That way, when we start with 301, I'll have to

look into it and figure it out and see where.

hopefully issue 300 is not like the end of a

big six arc eight arc eight eight issue arc so

i don't know if the rest of the series is available

available but i do know that uh they did re -release

issue number one so that's like right that goes

back to the 80s um and then the i guess page

two or page one right after you get into the

actual comic so you know one past the cover.

I don't know if that's technically page one or

whatever you call it. But there is a, there's

two paragraphs written by Larry Hama that talks

about some of the errors that were in the original

release that have been corrected in this, as

well as a, something that was changed that was

kind of, he was not aware of. He didn't make

that change. No one asked him to make a change,

but that has been restored in this issue. So

I do also have that issue, but in looking, I

mean, And when you're looking at these older

comics, just the style is just completely different

from anything that modern comics are. Modern

comics all the way, 100%. I do not. So in reading

newer comics, it's very hard, at least for me,

to look back at some of these older ones and

be like, ah, these are something I have to read.

Yeah, so when we started the pull bag, Steve

and I started with, we were on the flagship show

Geekcast Radio or the Geekcast Radio Network.

We did New 52, Scott Snyder, Batman Death of

the Family, which is issues 13 to 17 of New 52

Batman series. And it was the return of the Joker.

It was him with his face off. It was all this

Joker stuff. At the end of when Steve and I finished

that run there, Steve was like, yeah, that's

how the pullback got created because we needed

to have a specific separate thing. And I had

only ever looked at what was currently, like

we were doing single issue week to week to week

episodes of Batman and Nightwing and Batgirl

and Iron Man and Spider -Man. And then I went

to trades and I'm like, okay, trades are fine.

But yeah, pretty much anything that's before

2000. It's really rough. Like, the 90s was a

color explosion, but some of those 80s comics

are just too damn rough. And I am looking at

this right now. G .I. Joe, Real American Hero,

number 300A, whatever, VFNM, I think that's near

mint. IDW comic book, it's $31. And I don't...

Let me look at this here. Let's see. And knowing

is half the battle. I think we'll be fine starting

at 301, even though I would like to read the

300th issue. I think we'll be fine. I'm not advocating

for this, but there are ways to find old issues

out there. Yes, yes, we know. I know. But yes,

the reprint of number one is available legally,

as well as 301. Very cool. Very cool. Yep. So

yeah, so I guess that's it. Uh, any closing thoughts?

No, I don't think so. Got any plugs? Geekcast

Radio Network, geekcastradio .com, check out

all of our stuff. We are currently, as of this

recording, in the middle of the Top 100 Toys

countdown, so we're doing that. I've got the

first two episodes of that fully edited and uploaded.

I haven't published them yet, but yeah, so that's

going to be a six -part series like all of our

other countdowns are. So that's going on. The

Pull Bag, normally in... November, December,

I usually slow down. Apparently, I'm speeding

back up again. But next year, with the pullback,

I am doing something that I have never done.

I am going to try my damnedest to just produce

a bunch of content and then release it all. I'm

going to Netflix it, folks. Binge it when you

want. Here's 10 episodes of the podcast in one

week. Steve's going to kill me. You need to do

like a 24 -hour stream one time. No, I don't.

No, I don't. 24 -hour stream of content. No,

I don't. No. Any other plugs? I think that's

it. All right. Well, if you're watching this,

you're already on my YouTube. But if you're listening

to this some other way, you can find me on YouTube

at youtube .com slash matrix underscore prime.

And you can also follow me on Blue Sky, which

has now hit 2 million users. It's still sort

of closed beta, but eventually they'll be open.

So you can find me at Jesse, J -E -S -S -E, early,

E -A -R -L -E -Y dot B -S -K -Y dot social. And

I think that's all I've got to plug. Awesome.

All right. So until next time, this is Jesse

and Mike signing off. Thank you. I'm comic fan

Jesse Rass, and I hope you enjoyed this episode

of The Pull Bag. And after 10 years, we will

always tell you to make your great escape into

comics and jump inside The Pull Bag today.