Duke and Cobra Commander #1

Ladies and gentlemen, this is episode 542 of

The Pull Bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am just coming to you before this episode because

this episode was fully edited by Jesse Early

from Just Another Comic Review on his Matrix

Prime YouTube channel. Jesse and I talked about

G .I. Joe... G .I. Joe, wow. Skybound Entertainment's

Duke and Cobra Commander number one. Jesse did

all the editing on this episode, so I just wanted

to give that little preamble before we go into

the normal TPB stuff. Make your greatest game

of the comics and check out the G .I. Joe stuff

Skybound is doing today. This is BBQ, and you

are listening to CobraCast. Hi, this is Loren

Lester. and you're listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Hey, it's Jesse Rass, and do you

love comic books? Do you have opinions about

comic books? Do you like hearing opinions on

said comic books? Then you need to make the great

escape, and it's a small leap into another world.

We call The Pull Bag. Yo, Joe! and welcome to

another comic review my name is jesse i am joined

by tfg1 mike from geekcastradio .com hello hello

hello hello And we are here to talk about not

one, but two comics today that are also in the

Energon universe. We'll be discussing Duke number

one and Cobra Commander number one. Absolutely,

absolutely. And ladies and gentlemen, once this

is all said and done and we have this episode

completed, I'm stealing it and putting it on

the pull bag over on geekcastradio .com because

I need content. Yeah, I was just looking at that

actually yesterday. I was seeing what you had

pushed out there and I think you... You had one

in January, is that right? Early January was

the most recent one? Yeah, it's been slow going.

Gotcha. There's a lot of health issues that I'm

dealing with with my brain because it's a whole

thing. I'll be fine as far as I know. My brain's

not going to pop out of my head yet. But, yeah,

I find after 15 years podcasting, I'll do it

when I can. Well, don't let him fool you. Right

before we started recording, you said his head

might explode. Well, you know. Hey, as long as

J .J. Abrams isn't writing these comics, I think

I'm okay. He likes to put exploding chips in

people's heads all the time. All right. So let's

start with Duke number one here. I'm going to

read the quick synopsis from Image Comics, as

I usually do. And just a heads up, I know this

is something I could bring up in the past. And,

you know, when we're done talking about this,

but I want to kind of bring this up right up

front. If you go to ImageComics .com, you can

actually see that because what we're going to

be talking about, the Duke, the Duke miniseries

is a miniseries. It's a five issue series. If

you go to ImageComics .com, you can actually

see all five, you know, the covers for all five

issues, which I didn't realize were on there.

But yeah, if you head on over there, you can

see those. So the image, sorry, the synopsis

from imagecomics .com is when Conrad S. Hauser,

codenamed Duke, investigates the mysteries behind

the Transformers, the answers will lead to the

birth of forces for good and evil that the world

had never imagined. Dun, dun, dun. And then my

quick rundown here is - Wait, wait, wait, hold

on. Hold on. Quick rundown is good, but just,

we got to give the credits. So Joshua Williamson

Ryder. Tom Riley is the artist. Jordi Belair

is the colorist. And Russ Wooten is on letters.

The covers were done by Tom Riley, David Aja,

Tyler Boss, and Jason Woodry. Wordy, not Woodry.

Wow. And a bunch of other people. Because there's

a bunch of... That's what I love about comics

is that when you get a new number one from any

comic, you get like a million covers because

they want you to... find something that you're

going, like they want you to find a cover that

you're going to absolutely love that would make

you come back and pick up issue two, three, four,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I have never,

I've heard of, I know of Joshua Williamson. I

know he's done a lot with the flash at DC and

stuff like this, but this is my first time reading

his stuff. This is my first time seeing Tom Riley.

Obviously we know Russ from, uh, Transformers

with the lettering and Geordi. First time for

everything on this, but absolutely love it. Like

so far, so great. All right. Good call. Thanks

for that. I jumped over that. Okay. Not a problem.

All right. So my quick rundown. So we open with

Colonel Hawk talking to Duke about his encounter

with Starscream from Transformers number two.

It may be advantageous to read that before reading

this. The official story is that the jet crash

and loss of his partner was an accident, nothing

more. Duke leaves Hawk's office in disgust, saying

that he will get to the bottom of what the robot

jet was. Fast forward six months later, Duke

arrives at a UFO or alien meeting group, I guess

is what that's called, where he meets up with

Dr. Adele Burkhart. After hearing Duke's story,

she believes that he has stumbled upon a high

-tech arms race being led by a company called

Mars Industries. Duke sneaks into the company

factory and discovers war machines that any GI

Joe fan would recognize being built. So, thoughts

and... review on this issue oh my god like i

i've told this story a million times in the last

15 years as a child in 83 and 84 i had a choice

between but by the time 84 obviously by september

17th of 84 when transformers came out i had a

choice between gi joe and transformers i chose

to watch transformers i never really got into

gi joe i don't dislike it I never have. I like

a lot of this stuff. And then they had to put

him in a coma. Yay. Spoilers, folks, for 1987.

But this feels to me like the G .I. Joe that

was and a new beginning for me to be a G .I.

Joe fan now. This was cool. This was great. Because

when Duke got attacked by Starscream in Transformers

number two, I'm like, damn it. If they really

are going to only give Duke one issue of a comic

and then either put him in a coma or kill him,

because we've talked about this before, the Energon

universe isn't shy from killing humans at all.

I actually think it's a statement to all of us

Transformers fans that say, oh, why are there

humans in my Transformers? You don't want humans

in your Transformers? We'll have the Transformers

kill them. So it's just one of those things where

I really dug this. And I know you had said, and

you'll get into this with, with your thoughts,

but off air, we, you were telling me about how

something about the art, you didn't like the

art or you, what was your deal with the art?

I forget which way you went. Yeah. So I'm, we

look at the cover of this issue, right? And I

realized that the cover, I don't know what cover

we're looking at. Presently here. I'm pretty

sure that's cover number one, the blue background

with Starscream and Duke in the standing there.

I'm pretty sure. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's

the standard. Every person gets that cover kind

of thing. So is that one by Tom Riley then? I

would have to do a whole bunch of clicking and

stuff. All right. So the reason I ask is, well,

I'll get to that in just a second. But in looking

at the right, the inside of the cover here, his

name is listed first for covers. I would presume

this is like your A cover, but maybe I'm wrong

there. So if they're going in order of who designed

the covers, my guess is that would be from Tom,

but I don't know for sure. Yeah, I'm not sure

either. I mentioned that or raised that question

because I actually like the artwork on the cover.

It sort of has a classic G .I. Joe, at least

as it refers to the cartoon. That, to me, is

very similar to the cartoon. Not quite the same.

His face is a little bit different, but it feels

very cartoonish. When you get into the first

pages of the comic here, it's almost like a...

Again, I have not read like old, old comics.

I've looked at comics. But when you look at the

one page where it says a man of action, it's

almost like it reminds me very much of like the

old Superman cartoon. Um, so whatever era that

was, is that like the forties? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Fleischer Superman was the forties. Yeah. So

that to me, like he has a very, uh, similar,

uh, look and feel there to kind of like that

era of art. But then you like jump into or to

the very next page and it's like, what, what

the hell happened? Right. As we get through the

comic, it just feels like a generic, just like

any, any generic like drawing of, of like any,

you walk into like a comic shop now and you just,

you pick up like any, any comic to me. And it

feels like this is just like the generic artwork

you would find in a lot of those. But, and that's

funny you say that again, ladies and gentlemen,

I want to remind the audience that Jesse is like,

he's just dipping his, his eyes and ears and

things into comics. Like he's, He's like I was

40 years ago. I was a cartoon kid. I wasn't a

comics kid. So I understand where you're coming

from. But man, do we have differing opinions

on this art? I guess a thing I do want to point

out, which I don't know what this is called as

it relates to comics or the comic artwork. But

so to me, again, I feel like the drawings of

everybody just is sort of like very generic.

But they also, right, they're not like. fully

colored in with like a solid color. They have

like the dots on them, which is also kind of

very old school. And I don't know what that,

like what that's called. Give me an example.

Like, okay, I'm on the first page. Give me an

example of what you're, where are you talking

about here? Literally like any page. If you,

if you zoom in, like zoom way in, everything

is like made up of dots inside of it. I mean,

I see that on the first panel where Duke is doing

his exercises, but that's like part of the background.

It's literally like on every page. Really? You

must have a different version because I don't

see that. Oh, yeah. It's like, I guess I'll have

to send you a picture, but it's like every, I

mean, the people do, the backgrounds do. Like

I'm currently in the. I don't know what page

this is. It's where he's meeting up with a doctor.

And they're like, they're like in some laboratory

slash office area. He's got a computer there.

Yep. So the bottom left of that page, the bottom

left panel on that page, like if you zoom in,

you can see it on the background there. You can

see on his face and his hair. You can see it

on her face, her hair. Oh, okay. Yeah. So basically

like, okay. So where she says leaving so soon

is what you're talking about. uh one more page

one more page oh okay oh the computer okay the

bottom left okay so i think that's just to show

like it's a style of artwork though yeah i don't

know what it's called but i'm not a i'm not a

huge fan of it i guess is what i'm saying well

i mean just and again folks we're not trying

to be sexist we're not trying to be misogynistic

or anything like that but just looking at her

where she says But then I started to ask questions

about their plans, looking at her face and the

way she is drawn and the way her neck, like it's

like Tom Riley needed to define where certain

parts of her face and neck are. Like maybe the

lines on her forehead are stress lines. Maybe

the fact that her neck kind of, it doesn't jut

out, but it has a line like right above her blouse.

where it's like, hmm, maybe it's just a definition

thing. I don't know. Because at first I was like,

what is he talking about? Because all the lines

on Duke's face are his facial hair. Yeah. Again,

I'm reading these digitally. I've got it on my

iPad here. I'm going to send you a picture, like

a zoomed -in picture of this, so you can see

it and let me know if you see the same dots here.

Again, it's not just the lines on his face, but

all those little dots. right and those the dots

are like defined and like everything is drawn

throughout the comic okay i see what you're saying

now yeah yeah so what you yeah that's that's

a level of zoom that most comic artists are not

expecting people to do yes i i see that and that

huh that's weird and i don't know i see it on

his face too and i see it in the background oh

wow i don't know maybe maybe they're digital

dots that Cobra Commander is going to take over

their faces. I don't know, but you're right.

Holy crap. That's like what old style comics

used to have. And I feel like it's just like

a design choice. And I don't know if that's called

something, like if it's a specific style. But

that type of style, I'm not a huge fan of. But

the dots aside, even if the dots weren't there,

I still am not a big fan of the artwork here.

To me, it doesn't seem like it's as big or epic.

Um, as rough or kind of gruff as what we see

in like the transformers comic, which to me would

make more sense to actually see it in GI Joe.

Let me ask, cause I don't know if I've ever asked

you this. Do you have, have you, or do you have

any family members who have ever been in the

military? I had a, yes, I had a grandfather who

was, but okay. All right. So for me, I had. A

couple of uncles, a couple of cousins. My uncle

Keith was a Navy CB back in the 90s. He went

through Desert Shield, Storm, all that stuff.

And every time I read comics that take place

in war zones like G .I. Joe and things like that,

even though I know this is kind of made up, like...

This first page, seeing Duke doing his exercises

in the gym, I'm like, oh, okay. It's going to

be camouflage. It's going to be the tan camouflage

stuff. And the way I look at this is we're seeing

him as a character, like when he's in Colonel.

And I have to say this now before I forget. I

don't know why they made him Colonel Hawk. Like,

Colonel Hawk is fine. Hawk is fine. But, like,

it was always General Hawk. And just Colonel

doesn't. Roll off my tongue as good as General

does. Anyway, but like I see all the differences.

I see the subtleties in the fact that this is

a soldier who is trying to figure out this conspiracy

thing. And the art changes when we get to six

months later. We kind of get the top part there

with the six months later. It kind of has the

same styling of colors. But once we get into.

the present day of being six months later we

have more they're not muted more uh more different

it's a different color background it's not the

tan anymore it's got blacks it's got greens it's

got you know it's to show that the time has passed

and he's in a different place so i am perfectly

fine with the colors in this i thought when you

said you didn't like the art style i mean i Some

of the action stuff, like when – what's his name?

The dude that attacks him. Mercer. Mercer, yeah.

First of all, when I saw Mercer, I'm like, what

the fuck is X -Men's Colossus doing here? He's

starting the crossover, man. Yeah. X -Men G .I.

Joe coming soon, folks. Not really. But basically

on page 19 where Duke gets consumed, I can see

why somebody might not like that because it's

just a little bit too much. There's too much

of the gray as you're seeing Duke get consumed

by the soldiers. But overall, I enjoy this. Again,

I haven't read any other G .I. Joe stuff, other

than obviously we'll talk about Cobra Commander

later. And I have. Well, I take that back. I

have read some other G .I. Joe stuff recently,

but that was IDW stuff, and it was a completely

different thing. And, I don't know, this art

did not turn me off to this. book at all, really.

It kind of enhanced it for me. I guess I'm coming

at it with a bias. Again, I have, like you, I

grew up watching Transformers, not G .I. Joe.

But I mean, I have watched even as a kid, right?

I've watched G .I. Joe episodes. I just don't

know the series well enough. I don't know the

characters well enough to be able to speak intelligently

about it. But in looking at the artwork here

and seeing like how they've, how they've, you

know, how they drew Duke. It's like, I don't,

this just does not come off as like the Duke

character that I know. And that we get like on

the cover of the issue. Yeah. It just seems like

two completely different characters to me. I,

so when I look, when I look at this and I see

this in the beginning before the, his like, okay,

so page, page five, when he's sitting there in

his cell or whatever he's doing, where it says,

yeah. Yeah, but he's in Hawk's office. It doesn't

mean Jack now. Looking at Duke here, I'm like,

okay, that's clean -shaven, blonde Duke. That's

fine. He's in his uniform. Great. Six months

and you don't shave, you're going to have, trust

me, folks, I don't shave a lot. My girl likes

the beard, so it's one of those things where

I get it. After six months, if you don't shave,

you're going to have facial hair. He doesn't

have much. He has very scruffy stuff. It's at

least a different style to show the reader that

even though six months, even though they say

in letters six months later, you still see that

for six months he has been consumed with trying

to figure out who this stupid ass robotic jet

was like. Yeah. So I get it. I mean, but even

I guess even like looking at page nine, for example,

like when he's leaving, he's leaving the office

there. It's like. So the second panel up from

the bottom, that's like one face right there.

But then you look down at the last panel, bottom

right, it's like the face looks completely different

to me. It's almost like it's different characters.

And they don't have a guide that they're following

on how he should be drawn throughout the issue.

That's just what it comes off like to me. Well,

the thing with comics is when they do shots like

that, like if you go up in that page a little

bit where Duke says, what did the black box show?

General Hawk is in the background. His face is

not going to be as defined as it would be if

he was in the foreground. That's the same thing

with Duke here where it says, I have followed

every order to the best of my ability, sir. He's

not. necessarily in the background or foreground.

He's just there and the shot of where he is is

not showing his face definitively, but then you

get that close -up showing. I don't think it's

drawing different faces. I think it's just the

way the angles are that's throwing you off of

the design. Well, something's certainly throwing

me off and I'm not a fan of this. But yeah, I

do like, so again, whatever the dots are called

in the artwork, again, that's reminiscent of

comics of yore. But even some of the panels where

it's like, where he's fighting Mercer and it's

like, you got like that pink and black and then

black and white and like red background, which

also feels like very old school comic. Like,

I'd like to look at that. So some of the stuff

in here I'd like. I just don't know that I necessarily

like the, you know, the character designs. Or

the character models that they've come up with

for the characters in this issue, I guess. Yeah.

Destro looks evil as hell as always, though.

Yeah, I don't know. I guess I don't know why

obscure his face right now. Is it just to say,

hey, here's a tease? Yeah, that's pretty much

it. Okay. And again, I don't know too much about

Destro. Whenever I watch G .I. Joe, it's like,

oh, right, he's working with Cobra and Cobra

Commander. So I don't know. I don't know what

the division of labor there is. I know at some

point, even in the opening theme, it was like

at some point they talked about Cobra and Destro

together, and then when they changed the theme

song, it's like, well, now it's not. So it's

like, I don't know. I don't know the hierarchy

or the structure there. Well, when they changed

the theme song, it was a different series. Like

when it went from G .I. Joe, Real American Hero

to... No, they even changed it within that, though.

Oh, did they? I got to go back and watch that

show. I don't remember. And yes, the cover a,

the Duke Starscream cover is, is Tom Riley. I've

been trying to find like a definitive thing to

tell me that it is, but it is. Yes. And then

everybody else is, is, is everybody else. So

even when we get to that, that final page where

it says next issue, man on the run, right. And

it introduces us to stalker and rock and roll.

I feel like that artwork or how those two characters

are drawn. Completely different type of style

than what we get for the rest of this issue.

Well, yeah. So again, I will say it's time passing.

I will say it's events happening. I will say

when we see the whole Destro thing and everything

goes red, that's to show that this is Destro's

kind of thing. And obviously when Duke comes

back and sees all of them dead and the entire

page is red. That's to signify that they're all

dead. And it was very bloody without actually

showing a lot of blood because you change the

color of the background to red. And then, yeah,

when we get to the, I mean, I like it. I think

it's cool. You got stalker in one location, you

got rock and roll in a different location. So

they're fighting around the world somewhere.

So who knows? But yeah, no, I still. I found

this very enjoyable. Right. I mean, I get the

color choices and color decisions. I just wish

that the artwork throughout the issue was like

the characters were drawn kind of similar to

what we see on this last page here. Because to

me, looking at Stalker, looking at Rock and Roll,

it's a lot grittier type of feel. And that's

not what I get out of the rest of the issue,

in my opinion. The rest of it, it feels like,

you know, very cartoony. And I wish it was just

a bit grittier. I think it's going to get great.

I think what you're used to right now is Starscream

ripping people in half. You want the blood. I

don't even need the blood. Like I said, going

back to the first couple of pages here where

I realize it's drawn to look older because it's

showing Duke going through basic training or

whatever and then different missions. I even

like that style, but that's not what we get in

the very next page. It just feels like it's disjointed

because of that. I guess the other thing I would

like to mention about this is I also found this

to be the case with issue number two, which I

know we're not talking about here in this episode.

But I feel like this story, just like kind of

what I mentioned about the artwork, is very disjointed.

I don't know how we get from one place to the

next, like the six months later, he's like driving

around in his Jeep. And then all of a sudden

we're at this UFO alien meetup. And I was talking

to this doctor and like, I have no background

on who the doctor is. Like I, I Googled her while

we were talking here. And apparently Dr. Adele

Burkhart is a character from like going away

back in the GI Joe comics. Yeah. I have no idea

who she is. We don't get any, any more information

on her here. So it's like, You threw all this

stuff at me, but I don't have any background

on it. Well, and again, that's the thing with

comics, is that number ones are supposed to pull

you in. Number ones are supposed to have you

asking these questions. So that way, when issue

two, issue three, issue four, and issue five

come out, you're going to be like, oh, okay,

they told me who she is, what she's about. It's

number one issues, whether it's ongoing, miniseries,

whatever it is, they're always a giant tease.

The one image that I wanted to talk about was

the, I forget where it is in the comic, but it's

during the alien meeting. They got little green

men piloting them inside the heads. I know it.

I'm like, oh, Joshua Williamson, you just made

a Headmasters reference. That was the first thing

I thought of when I saw the conspiracy theory

stuff on there. I think you just have to get

used to it. And I think you just have to figure

it out as you go along, man. I don't, you know,

I'm not trying to say you shouldn't dislike it.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I'm just

saying, you know, after all these years, it's

like I'm trying to teach you, my son. Right.

So, so here's the thing, right? So this is a

mini series. It's only five issues. I'm going

to stick with it. But as you just mentioned,

right? Issue one should pull you in. I don't

know that this did that. It did for me. All right.

So that's the thing, right? This issue in particular

has gotten praise all around. It's highly reviewed.

If you go out on the internet and look at reviews,

it's sold out, I believe. I just don't get it.

I've reread it a couple of times, and I'm like,

I don't get it. So again, I would have to do

a whole bunch of mouse clicking and typing and

whatever else and all that. I forget. 87. Was

G .I. Joe already over or was it still going?

I don't remember. So when they put him in a coma

because, oh, G .I. Joe the movie. So the G .I.

Joe the movie was past the series. I do know

that. So I know that much, folks. So when they

put him in the coma. It went to 86. Yeah, okay,

yeah. So 83 to 86. And because I need to go back

and rewatch the show. I, all as I remember about

Duke is, oh my God, Duke's in a coma. That's

all I remember. Like, I know he's a good character.

I know he's an awesome character. He's a kick

-ass. And they mentioned this in here about certain

parts of the military, and they do mention grunts

and how Duke is kind of a grunt. And that's fine.

He would rather be on the front lines than be

in the office, like General Hawk. And I'm going

to call him General Hawk, even though they call

him Colonel Hawk, because that's just in my head.

You know, Colonel Hawk is the one in the office

and yada, yada, yada. So that's another thing

that I'm interested to find out here with Duke

is to actually learn about the character, even

though at some point I am going to watch the

show because I don't have any attachment to Duke.

I have a very loose attachment to the character

only because I remember, like, bits and pieces

of watching G .I. Joe as a kid. So, I don't know.

I always thought he was the leader of G .I. Joe,

and apparently that's not the case. That's not

the case, no. He's just essentially leading the

team on the battlefield, right? Yeah, he's kind

of like the platoon leader on the battlefield

kind of thing. Well, I can tell you, whenever

I think of Duke in G .I. Joe, I think of, because

he provided the voice, I think of Michael Bell's

voice for him. But in looking at the character

here in the comic, I can't put that voice with

this character. It's funny you say that, because...

I didn't put the voice with the character either.

And I think for me, again, I'm sorry, folks.

I repeat, repeat, repeat myself a lot. I think

it's because I haven't seen the show. Like I've

seen the show, but I haven't seen it in 40 frigging

years. So like, yeah, I'm going to have to go

back and rewatch some G .I. Joe and probably

do podcasts about that and whatever else. Yeah,

so before we move into Cobra Commander, I wanted

to highlight Joshua Williamson's letter in this

first issue. And I'm going to do, it's pretty

much the second part of the bottom right part

of the page. He says, This will be the G .I.

Joe that you know and love, but it will also

not be. We can't just repeat what's come before.

We took the pieces that we all love and... shined

a new modern light on them. We have the room

to tell a multi -year story that will take these

characters into new directions. It'll allow us

to spend more time with the characters themselves

and continue to show why this world has stood

for the test of time these past 40 years. He

goes on to say, my hope is that you see that

everything we're doing with Duke and the G .I.

Joe world comes from a place of respect for what's

come before it. That you join us on this wild

roller coaster ride that's familiar yet still

new and exciting. There are times we will shock

and surprise you, but it's all within the spirit

of what made us all fall in love with this world

to begin with. As I write this, my own son plays

on the ground of my office with some G .I. Joe

toys. He loves to play with the Cobra toys the

most, like father, like son. Now I'm going to

go watch some of the old classic cartoons with

him, his old VHS tapes, and that doesn't matter.

It's just about us enjoying it together. I'm

liking where he's coming from. I'm liking this

direction that they're going. So, hey, if they're

going to shock and awe us, I'm all for that.

And then Cobra Commander is just a horror story.

It's not just a horror story, but they have said

that it leans on the edge of horror. It leans

on the edge of something. Speaking of which,

let's jump into that. So, yeah, topic two here

is Cobra Commander No. 1 by Joshua Williamson,

Andrea Milana, and Elisa Leone and Russ Wooten.

That guy gets around, huh, Russ? Hey, look, so

Russ Wooten, again, I've never seen his letters

before, but he is to Image Comics slash Skybound

as to what Sean Lee was to IDW. Sean Lee was

the letterer on almost... everything I read from

IDW publishing. So, you know, and, and, and I

like that. I like that. We have a, a steady letter,

a letter that is the same throughout the whole

thing, because again, folks with my vision issues

and everything else. And for those that don't

know that are listening or watching for, for,

from Jesse's wonderful YouTube channel over there,

I was. born with optic atrophy with nestigmatism.

So basically I'm technically legally blind, even

though I can see. So for me, I need to be able

to read the letters like we've been talking about.

with the letters pages and the creative pages

at the beginning. If I can't see it, how the

hell am I going to read it on a podcast? Don't

use a white background and blue lettering. Please

stop that. Knock it off. Right. Issue four. Where

is issue four? Issue four is missing. We don't

know where it went. If only we could read it,

yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah. Go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah, so I guess what I wanted to highlight here

right away before I even jump into the synopsis

is that, hey, we've got females on this comic.

Yes. Two of them, the artist as well as the colorist,

which I don't think we've seen on any of the

other Energon universe stuff. Not yet, but that's

cool as hell. Yeah. So yeah, the quick synopsis

here from ImageGamics .com. In a world where

the Cobra organization hasn't formed, one man's

sinister plans to utilize the mysterious alien

substance known as Energon sends shockwaves around

the globe. Who is Cobra Commander? Where does

he come from? And what horrors is he planning

to unleash that will rock the world? And maybe

the universe? to its core? I don't know. So I

did put together a quick rundown here and I think

quick is like a misnomer because I don't know

that you could do this quickly. So let me say

this. If what I'm about to read makes zero sense,

it made zero sense to me as I was going through

it. So just kind of keep that in mind as you're

listening to this. So I'll try to get through

this and I'm going to throw it over to you to

maybe you can help explain it. All right. So

my quick rundown is we open in the snowy mountains

at a truck stop where a man wearing a hat, trench

coat and silver mask walks into the bar, indicating

that he is in need of a vehicle. After a verbal

exchange, the trench coat man follows another

outside, remurders him and takes his vehicle.

A bloody Cobra logo is left in the snow. We cut

to some time in the past labeled as quote unquote

before to a society of other beings at a place.

called Cobra Law. A mob of said beings attacks

a scientific research facility while yelling,

Cobra -la -la -la -la -la! One of the lead scientists

yells for everyone to retreat, but is shot and

killed by one of his own who is decked out in

a guardsman drab. The mob breaks in and detonates,

or sorry, the mob breaks in and a detonation

by the scientist causes a giant explosion, which

critically injures the guardsman. Told through

a series of images only, we see the guardsman

being treated by scientists, which includes the

use of a three -headed snake biting various places

of the guardsman's body. Sometime afterward,

we see the guardsman recovering, with most of

his body wrapped in a blue bandage and a new

snake -like eye growing above his right, now

injured, or sorry. Above his now injured right

eye. Sitting next to him on a stand is the all

too familiar blue helmet with the silver face

shield. The guardsman is summoned by Lord Globulus

in an attempt to kill him, but the guardsman

is victorious. We cut to the guardsman walking

into a laboratory. Don't know what point in time

this takes place. With the Decepticon leader

Megatron restrained and on his knees where attempts

have been made to rip. an energy source from

his very body. As the guardsman leaves, Megatron

is shown being very much alive with an evil grin

and kind of one -eyed damage, burnt out, something.

We close back in the present time with the guardsman

talking to a man who is traveling with him. They're

on their way to the Everglades to meet up with

the Dreadnoughts as the guardsman proclaims that

the world will fear Cobra Commander. That's right.

So that was a rundown, all right. Yeah, this

is wow. This is good. I enjoyed this. I don't

know if I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Duke,

but I really liked this because, first of all,

it's a number one issue. Usually you'll want

to see origins in number one issues. And the

guardsman, as you call him, becomes Cobra Commander.

So we see how he became the Cobra Commander we

know. That's cool. You say the vehicle he steals.

That's a his tank. You can't call it a his tank.

That's a his tank. I don't care. It's a his tank.

I like the art. I like the backgrounds. The only

thing, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Russ. I'm so

sorry. The only thing that gets me on this issue

is the screaming lettering that he does, like

where you say the Cobra logo is left in the snow.

Like, oh, my God. Like, I did not need the letters

that big on the page kind of thing, but I get

it. I understand why. Even the Cobra, whatever.

Like, okay, I get that. That's fine. And that's

okay because in that panel and on that part of

the page, it's at the top. It's not in the center.

The boom right there. Like, it's kind of center,

but it's okay because it's a larger part of the

panel, whatever. And again, I'm not I'm not sitting

here saying negative things about Russ's lettering

at all. I'm just saying that sometimes it takes

me out of the issue. However, the Jesus, the

the bang when he gets shot in the head. Oh, my.

That is amazing. Yeah. You put letters as a background.

That works for me. Like, holy crap. That's good.

It almost seems because it's like the entire

background more impactful than just having the

lettering over the top of the. Yeah, exactly.

That's cool. That's good. I like this issue.

I think it's fun. I think it's good. It's a nice

start. And what have we been... How many Transformers

have we done so far? We're up to number four.

Yeah, we're four in. We've been asking, where's

Megatron? Where's Megatron? Where's Megatron?

Well, here's fucking Megatron! So... Anything

else? No, I think I'm good. All right. Well,

I can say I like the artwork better than Duke.

So I think the artist here is doing a better

job. As it relates to the story, man, I know

you said this is issue number one, but I don't

know what the fuck is going on. Again, I know

nothing about G .I. Joe as it relates to anything

regarding backstory. And I think maybe it changed

a little bit for Cobra Commander as the series

went on. I think maybe the movie introduced something

additional. Is that right? I honestly could not

tell you. Really, I could not tell you at all.

All I know is this is separate from that. Right.

But I think at some point they introduced Cobra

Law in that, and I don't know. Yeah, I think

so. I don't know anything about the background

of that or if it's at all similar to what we're

seeing here. But when we're shown the quote -unquote

before, it's not identified as Cobra Law. I only

know that because it was mentioned way back here

somewhere. And then the group that's like, trying

to attack the scientific building is is yelling

the cobra la la la la that we get in like the

cartoon too or the movie i think is where it

was introduced first but yeah like i don't know

anything about this area like i don't know who

these people are these beings are uh and it just

all seems like too much without having enough

backstory for me in issue number one i know i

know you said it's to kind of uh you know, gets

you to kind of buy into the rest of the series,

but I got to have a little bit more than we got

here. Well, again, both of these series are five

issue miniseries. They're going to lead somewhere

at some point. Cause all stories have to lead

somewhere. And I think these are going to leap

right over to transform. Okay. Well, yes, but

you know what I mean? Damn it. I think that the

reason why, like, Like, my little headmaster

joke. Okay, I got that. That's cool. That's fine.

That's whatever. But because neither one of us

really have too much experience with the old

cartoons, or at least I don't remember having

so much experience with them, for me, the way

I look at this is this is a new beginning. This,

like... none of that matters. They're doing homages

to various things in the cartoon. Sure. Fine.

Whatever. But like none of the events that happened

in any of the cartoons are here. Like this is

a whole new story. And I like that. And I like

learning about that. And I understand your frustration

with it being a little slow and not telling you

right up front, look, this is what we're doing.

That's again, to pull you in, to get you to buy

issue two. And with, with your comments of, of,

with your, um, Where you feel like it's all over

the place or you don't know the passage of time.

I felt that way too with Cobra more than Duke

because like Cobra just says, like you've been

saying, if I can talk, oh my God, work brain

work. Like you were saying, it just says before.

Whereas Duke, it was like, oh, this is Duke.

This is what Duke is going through. And here

is Duke six months later from the time that you

saw him. going through what he went through.

Right. We don't have a, again, we don't have

a specific time. And I think because the way

that Cobra number one, Cobra commander number

one is set up is it's set up in the present.

It goes back to the past and it deals with things

in the past. And then at the end, it comes back

to the present where he's stealing the, the,

the, his tank and all that. So it's a timey wimey

wibbly wobbly thing. that they don't exactly

explain. So I can understand why someone might,

and I have problems with, oh, as much as I will

recommend you reading IDW, be careful when you're

reading some of the IDW Transformers stuff, especially

with James Roberts, because as much as I love

the man and as awesome as his comics were and

are, they do time jumps like it's jumping jacks

at times in those books. And I hope that they're

not going to start doing that here. And I know

this is a completely different company and completely

different team and everything else, but. Comics

in general, they love doing the time jump stuff,

and it just takes me out of it. So I can kind

of understand that. But I felt the way that this

book read was, okay, this is what's going on

now. Let me tell you what happened then, and

then we're going to bring you back to now, if

that makes any sense. Yeah. I guess what I don't

get, so when Cobra Commander has defeated the

guys that are trying to kill him, He's living

globulous, I guess is his name. The very next

page is like, he's walking into his laboratory

or something somewhere. Yep. Presumably because

he's wearing like the same, the same clothing.

It's like immediately afterwards. That's taking

place at the same exact time, but we don't have

any information that states that. I mean, it

could very well just be like, you know. Eight

years later. Yeah. I don't know. Well, I, I don't,

I don't think that I think if it was eight years

later, they would have said something. At least

I hope. And I mean, what, so on that very next

page, so we're, I'm looking at page 24, I guess,

which is where he's walking into like the giant

doors that are sliding open. So that very next

panel, it's got like, you know, organic, like.

type tree looking things, but they almost look

dead, which is why I'm like, I don't know if

this is taking place the same exact time as what

the, uh, globulous stuff was because during that

time period, like everything was alive on the

planet or the region that they're in dimension.

I have no idea where the hell this place is.

Um, but it looks like everything was alive in

here. It looks like it's potentially dead and

he's trying to get this energy on from, from

Megatron. And I don't know. Yeah. I'm not sure

either. What I did want to call out is on page

26 here at the very top, we get an interesting

look at what I presume is Cybertron. I've never

seen Cybertron drawn that way before. Yeah. But

we also get, it looks like there's an Insecticon

flying on there with one of the cyber jets. Yeah.

Oh, that's weird. And then we get, I forget what

they're called, but he looks like Omega Supreme.

I forget what that guy's name specifically is

called. But yeah, so that's an interesting looking

Cybertron, I thought. But yeah, then the Megatron

stuff, it's like... So here he's alive, which

presumably is the now, because we just saw that

it said now. But in Transformers, we saw him

in ice right at the end of that issue. Yeah,

so I could be completely wrong, folks. And if

Mr. Williamson is listening to this, I'm sorry.

I'm assuming, and usually when I assume things,

it makes an ass out of myself. But I think because

all of these comics started at different points,

all of the stories, as we've seen, are at different

times. So maybe in Transformers, it's going to

be how Cobra Commander discovers Megatron and

then gets him to the lab. I don't know, dude.

I don't know. Who knows? I mean, what I am seeing

here in the drawings, presumably seeing, is that

Megatron has no arms. Not just because we're

not physically seeing them, but if you look at

the shoulder joints, it looks like there's nothing

there. Yeah, there's nothing there. Plus, Optimus

has Megatron's arm now. Right. But again, if

that's taking place in the past, he could presumably

have it if this is the now. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So, yeah, I don't know. Past, now, then. What

is this? Spaceballs? Did you catch the drawing

of Optimus Prime? No, I did not. Where is that?

So that is on page 27. He's in one of the monitors

that Cobra Commander is standing at. Oh, interesting.

Got it. So in the left monitor is Cybertron with

that battle we were talking about. Right monitor

is Optimus Prime. Wow. Cobra Commander is on

the ball, man. Yes, then I guess, again, I...

i had a very hard time kind of following where

we were at in this i know again we've got the

now we've got the before uh so that helps out

some but again not knowing anything about these

stories or these characters specifically because

i don't know a lot about gi joe And coming in

with a bias of me thinking that, oh, you know,

G .I. Joe is just like, OK, they're a terrorist

organization. They're a group of special military

group forces. And they're essentially just battling

each other. To me, that seems more like warfare,

whereas here it's almost like we've got we've

got a whole lot of elements of sci fi. And I'm

not really seeing any anything that. I would

expect to see in like the G .I. Joe cartoon,

which again is my really only connection with

G .I. Joe. Right. But again, like I said earlier,

you have to throw all of that out the window.

That was very hard to do though. I understand.

But you have to. You have to throw all that out

the window. You have to approach this as, okay,

if I don't know anything about these characters,

these comics, these ten issues between Duke and

Cobra Commander are going to tell me about these

characters that are now in this Energon universe

and what they're going to be going through. My

favorite lines from Joshua Williamson in his

letter in this issue. Oh. And as for Megatron,

don't worry. It'll take some time. But the leader

of the Decepticons will play a big role in the

Energon universe very soon. All right. I love,

because G .I. Joe is a military and terrorist

organization with Cobra and everything else.

What I love is these pages at the front and the

back where we get the red and the black. And

at the back, it says, caution, the contents of

this booklet are confidential. This unauthorized

disclosure of information within is prohibited.

I love that. That's amazing. So the Dreadnoughts,

what do you know about them? Nothing. All right.

I know the name. I've heard of them, but I haven't

looked into them. And again, that's why I'm loving

this is because I get to learn something new.

So I pulled up the Jopedia while you were talking

there. It says they're a reprehensible group

of mercenaries, vandals, and thieves who have

worked for both Zartan and Cobra over the years.

Got it. Specializing in violence and destruction,

they have no regard for anyone or anything but

themselves and fast money. Fast money. Oh, boy.

It's a family feud of G .I. Joe versus Cobra.

Now, that's a family feud episode with Steve

Harvey. I'd love to see G .I. Joe on one side,

Cobra on the other. That would be crazy. You

mentioned earlier about how you didn't hear Michael

Bell's voice as Duke. Yep. I so heard. Lotta.

I so heard Chris Lotta as Cobra Commander throughout

the entire issue. I couldn't get it out of my

head. Yeah, I had a much easier time putting

that voice in my head to this character than

I did for Doot. But yeah, I was very similar.

Harder to do when I'm looking at him without

his helmet off and I got this snake eye above

his right eye. Well, I mean, obviously, but once

he gets the helmet on, it's very easy to talk

to Baroness in this kind of voice, even though

I can't do a Cobra Commander voice. I know a

couple of people that can do a Cobra Commander

voice, but that ain't me. I'm also glad, by the

way, that they went with the face shield as opposed

to the hood. Yes. I'm sure they'll bring the

hood in at some point. I did like the transition.

Like, when he gets injured and then they go to

do whatever they're doing to him to fix him up

or whatever. Like, the gold hood with the red

face. I like seeing the evolution of it. And

maybe at some point, maybe in the future of the

G .I. Joe comic or whatever, we will see the

hooded version. But I have always liked Face

Shield Cobra Commander more than... Hooded Cobra.

I think you and everybody else. All right. The

last thing I wanted to ask you about was, so

when they are, you know, quote unquote, fixing

him up, rehabilitating him or whatever they're

doing with their science here, what do you think

the three headed snake is doing? Like what, right.

Obviously it's biting him. We can see that, but

what do you think that is accomplishing other

than Cobra commanders, right? That's what we

know him as. Okay. So. What did you call him

earlier? A guardsman? Yeah. Yeah. So if he's

just a guardsman, if he's just a no -name soldier

kind of thing, they need to mold him and create

Cobra Commander. So I think that's what the snake

and the venom and the this and the that and the

whatever, that's what turns him into. It's kind

of like. It's kind of like taking the skinny

ass Jason character or whatever from Batman and

Robin and putting all this venom in him and turning

him into Bane. That's what this reminds me of

because we don't know what's going to happen.

Cobra Commander was not established as a pre

-existing character in this unit. They're making

him here. This to me is like the one of the many

Megatron origins we get in Transformers where

the Constructicons are down under Cybertron building

Megatron. That's what this reminds me of, is

that they are having to create the character

here. So the snake venom or the snake biting

him, that's what makes him go crazy? I don't

know. How about if you go to page... What is

the page here? Page 15? What's that little goldfish

guy doing swimming around? Because we never see

him again. Well... Reminds me. Polly, you want

a cracker? Goldfish. Yeah, it's like there's

like this white glowy orb thing of light and

a little fish swimming around in there. I think

that's just, I think that's him just hallucinating.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if he's dreaming, he's hallucinating,

if this is an actual physical thing in his presence

because it's not shown in any other panel. Yeah,

but the problem – okay, so the problem I have

with this panel, so you see him in the bed or

whatever this is because it looks like a bed

of rocks. Like that doesn't look like a pillow

behind his head. That looks like a giant -ass

boulder. That's a big one. Normally you would

– yeah. Normally you would see some sort of –

if it's coming from – like if it's a thought

from him, if it's a thought bubble, you would

see like a couple – I don't know. We've talked

about dots already, but the white light that's

around the fish, you would see a couple of white

light. bubble things coming like showing coming

from his head so i don't know and we don't yeah

you're right like he turns to the right to look

but there's nothing there except the helmet and

then he puts the helmet on so i have no idea

what the fish are for it's almost like hey we

need something to hide this helmet until we get

to a couple more panels back What can we do?

I know. Let's draw a fish. Something, I guess.

I don't know. I mean, it's clearly layered over

the top of the helmet. Like, the helmet is definitely

there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I feel like

that was like an afterthought of like, hey, what

can we put here? I know. We'll use Betty over

here who's in my goldfish bowl and draw him on

here. All right. So, yeah, I guess overall closing

thoughts on both of these issues? I'm interested

to see where they go. I like them. I'm not. I'm

not going to not read the next issues because

obviously we're going to cover them. But it's

just one of those things where it's a wait and

see. It's a thing where you have to figure it

out as they go along. So, you know, we'll just

have to see. And I'm liking what I'm seeing so

far. So, yeah. Yeah, so I guess I'm... It's a

mixed bag for me. I'm going to keep reading them

because I'm interested in, well, really what

I'm interested in is reading the G .I. Joe series

that's going to come out of this. But I think

in order to do that, I'm going to need to read

these issues here. Do we know when the G .I.

Joe series is going to launch? Good question.

I guess I still haven't even seen anywhere where

it's been stated that after these miniseries,

we're going to launch G .I. Joe. I know that's

going to happen. I guess I just haven't read

that anywhere that it's officially a thing. I

don't know. Who knows, dude? I assume that the

way that comics usually works, if they start

with too many series. And I remember seeing on

Instagram on one of the reels, I forget if it

was Robert Kirkman or if it was Joshua Williamson

or whoever it was that was talking about it.

The Energon universe is starting out with Void

Rivals, Transformers, Duke, and Cobra Commander.

That's four. And I remember them saying, we only

wanted to start with four. So that way we don't

overload everybody. Because you can either do

this one or two ways. You can read everything

or you can pick and choose kind of thing. I'm

sure there's going to be a G .I. Joe series at

some point. Yeah, I mean, that's my assumption

as well. I guess I don't know if it would potentially

hurt the other G .I. Joe series that's ongoing.

No, because here's the thing. So Duke is called

Duke. Cobra Commander is called Cobra Commander.

Those are the miniseries. The G .I. Joe, what

are they calling the Hama series? Real American

Hero. Okay, so G .I. Joe, Real American Hero.

That's the title of Larry's series. The new Skybound

series that Williamson may end up doing, or when

they do it, I'm sure it'll be like, it might

just be G .I. Joe. Or it might be G .I. Joe,

some other subtitle that isn't – they will define

it. It's not going to hurt Larry's series. Larry's

series is over 300 issues. You can't – that's

a machine you can't kill. Seriously. And I'm

saying that as a good thing. IDW had the Larry

Hama series and they did their own G .I. Joe

stuff. Look at G .I. Joe World on Fire was a

miniseries. that IDW did. So, you know, no, I

don't think that this is going to hurt that or

vice versa. So, I mean, again, I'm fairly new

to reading comics here. So, you know, having

multiple, I guess multiple of the same property,

even if they're not the same continuity, does

not tend to hurt? No. Okay. No, because they're

different stories for different people. Specifically

to G .I. Joe, the Larry Hava stuff, and I'm sure

we've already talked about this off -air that

we're going to jump into it, but I've never read

that series, so I would be starting fresh at

301 with whatever they're doing currently. But

no, that's not going to hurt it because each

series, separate series is more... Dude. We would

be here all day long for me to tell you about

DC and Batman. Batman at one point 10 years ago

was in or had seven different series for Bruce

Wayne. He's in everything because DC knows that

Batman is the moneymaker for them. So it doesn't

give people – again, it gives people the options.

But Skybound is starting out slow with our options.

So that's a good thing. So if this culminates

into a G .I. Joe series, right, we're done with

the miniseries, then we'll be back down to three

books, right? Unless they do a different miniseries.

Right. So my question for you is then going to

be, so if we're only down to three at that point

and we get the G .I. Joe series, do you think

they would maybe introduce another Hasbro property

into this? Oh, I don't know. I don't know about

that because the Energon universe so far is pretty

large. Right. I mean, you've got the void rivals

of the story that that's telling. You've got

Transformers and everything that they're going

to do with that. And then everything they're

going to do. I don't know if the Energon, you

know, maybe, who knows, you know. Yeah, I'm very

curious. Yeah, it would be easy for them, I think,

if they have the rights to do so, if they have

the permission from Hasbro. It would be easy

for them to bring Mask in because Mask, at one

point or another, was a part of G .I. Joe. But

again, I'm looking at this as a fresh start.

So if we're going to get Mask, it's going to

be brand new, not based on anything else, not

continuing from anything else kind of thing.

Right. And I know nothing about Mask, so it would

be all new to me. Yeah, it's okay. And that's

good because, again, they want new readers. Right.

The thing with this new Energon universe is we

are all new to this, even though we know certain

parts and certain characters and we don't know

what the stories are going to be. And that's

exciting to me. Yeah. Yep. All right. So plugs.

What do you got to plug? Oh, boy. My head, please.

Put a plug in my head. Something. Put something

in my head. I don't know. As you folks are listening

to this, I will say that in January of this year,

episode 540 of The Pull Bag, my buddy John M.

Wilson and I talked about the journey he took

through comics last year. One year, 1 ,000 comics.

That's a lot of comics. He read a thousand comics

in 2023. So we did that episode. Episode 541

will be what you're listening to here with Duke

and Cobra Commander, because like I said before,

I'm going to yoink the audio and throw it on

the pullback feed. After that, we'll probably

do an origins and comic reading with somebody.

I don't know. If anyone wants to come on the

show, let me know. And then I've got to get with

my buddy Joe Reed so we can get back into TMNT

for the next two volumes of TMNT Reborn. And

then at some point. A new buddy of mine, Adam

Ray, and I are going to do Deadpool Does Shakespeare.

So that's what's coming up on the pull bag. The

rest of the Geekcast Radio Network, I am not

sure. We've got a whole bunch of stuff that's

coming up. We've got new All Things Transformers

episodes. Steve and I are starting Altered Trek,

which we are going through all of our... quote

-unquote favorite. We're starting with The Next

Generation and then going to other favorite things.

We're doing Next Generation, DS9, the TNG films,

and Picard. So those are the three that we're

going to start with, because personally, I cannot

stand the original series. You want to talk about

a lot? Okay, so imagine this, folks. Again, this

is a whole other podcast that we could do about

this, but... 1987, I was seven years old. I saw

Star Trek The Next Generation. It was the first

Star Trek I was ever exposed to. And then later

in the 90s, my dad showed me the original Kirk

series. I was kind of like you with the Duke

art. Like, what is this? What the hell? Like,

where's Geordi? Where's Riker? And it's not that

I don't like the characters. Like, I love Spock.

I love... you know, Dr. McCoy and all that stuff

and everything else. But I, I just, I was never

an old school Trekkie. I was an eighties TNG

Trekkie. So altered track. Uh, I am actually

in the midst of, I think I'm on episode 23 of

season one of TNG. So Steve and I are going to

record that soon and that will be launching.

So yeah, that's, uh, that's pretty much what's

going on. Sweet. Well, if you're listening to

this, you may be listening to it in a couple

of different places. You might be listening to

it on my YouTube at youtube .com slash matrix

underscore prime. You might be listening to this

on the Geekcast radio, or you might be listening

to this on the new podcast site that I'm trying

to get set up, which I can't share with you yet

because I don't know the URL. Matrix .crime .com.

But I will be sharing that out in our next episode

of this. So I'll be on the lookout for that.

So in addition to the video version, in addition

to being able to listen to it on Geekcast Radio,

I'm also going to be putting this up on a podcast

site that I'm in the process of creating. You

can also find me on Blue Sky. I'm at jessieearley

.bsky .social. Maybe at some point in the future,

that'll become more than invite only. I don't

know. But at the moment, if anyone wants an invite,

I got a whole bunch of them. Yeah, so do I. I

don't use it as much as everything else. I did

create a – so for those of you that don't know,

you can create your own feeds on there and people

can follow those feeds. I created the first Transformer

feed on there and it's got quite a following

on there now. Awesome. So yeah, if you're interested

in following just Transformer -specific news,

you're on that. uh, platform, you can find that,

uh, find that feed and it's anything, everything

transformers from people talking about the comics

to, uh, custom artwork to people posting the

toys and pictures of toys and stuff like that.

So, uh, check that out if you want. Uh, I think

that's all I got. Anything else from you? That's

it for me, I think. All right. Uh, until next

time. Goodbye, everyone. See ya. Be sure to leave

us feedback. Become a fan of us on Facebook.

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feedback at geekcastradio .com. Follow us on

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So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.