Void Rivals #8 Review

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Welcome to another comic review. My name is Jesse

and as always I'm joined by TFG one Mike from

geek cast radio comm Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello

our topic of discussion today void rivals number

eights by Kirkman day Felicia Del Pesce and Wooten.

So how you say your name? Okay, and Wooten the

quick synopsis here from image comics comm Derek

and Selena go face to face with Proximus face

to face with Certain death? Question mark, exclamation

point, ampersand. Quick rundown, my quick rundown.

We opened in the past with a younger Selila and

her brother, children of war, talking about their

mother. They break out into a physical squabble

with an unseen figure stating that these two

are ready. Back to the present day, Derek and

Selila continue their trek across the wastelands

as we see Proximus introduced in the last issue

on the hunt via his motorcycle. After tracking

them down, Selila recognizes Proximus and exclaims,

they will not survive this encounter. The three

begin an all out brawl. After a good old fashioned

ass weapon, Derek is able to distract Proximus

with a blast from his gun, while Selila impales

Proximus with her weapon. Proximus grabs Selila

by the neck and begins to strangle her as the

hand droid gets one up on Proximus and detonates

an explosion that knocks everyone backwards.

Upon awakening from the detonation, Derek is

seemingly alone, but the hand droid picks up

traces of Selila's armor and Derek begins walking

in that direction. We close with Derek finding

Selila impaled by her own weapon that is staked

into the ground with Proximus nowhere to be seen.

So what are your thoughts on this? I'm one of

those that I probably will say this every episode.

I'm one of those types of people that if it's

right at the beginning of a story arc, I will

go back to the beginning to get a refresher.

Even though I know we already did the number

seven issue, but I reread number seven to see.

Cause you, you will message me every once in

a while during the week before we record these

things and you'll say, yeah, I like this. Or

I didn't like, you don't spoil or anything, but

like. you'll say oh 32 pages or 47 pages or whatever

i'm like okay yeah and i'm looking at this and

i'm like the story itself goes from page three

to page 21 out of 30 that's roughly and this

is like the second art this is the second part

of the new story arc a lot happens here i was

surprised because we got a lot of Derek's stuff

in issue seven, as far as his past, because issue

seven, as we know, starts out 10 years ago with

his past. And then this one starts out with her

past. So I like that. I think that's good. I

think that's an interesting way for us, the readers

who have never seen this before, because this

is a brand new comic, to get to know these characters.

I think that's good. And then it mixes in with

what the current... escape from Proximus is.

So I like this. I think this is good. So I'm

the opposite of the tractor here. Yeah, I completely

disagree. I do I do really like the backstory

we get at the beginning. I think that's a nice

contrast to kind of the rest of the issue. And

like what you just said, right, we did get a

backstory for Derek. So having some backstory

here on Salila is great. And what it alludes

to I think makes for a very interesting story.

But for me, again, I've never read the Walking

Dead comic series. Neither have I. So I don't

know how close the Walking Dead comic series

is to the Walking Dead TV show in those early

seasons. I think it's somewhat close. But later,

as the TV show progressed, I don't know how close

it was to the comic series. But what I can tell

you is I did watch the TV show up to a certain

point, and through numerous seasons, kind of

like after a large portion of the main cast that

was in that first few seasons was gone, you could

skip full episodes, kind of like full episodes

in a row of that series, and you would miss nothing

story -wise. I feel like with this, outside of

those first three pages, which again is the backstory,

we get some backstory there on Selila and her

brother, I feel like this doesn't advance the

story at all. The whole issue is just a fight

scene. And other than Selila being hurt at the

end, the story doesn't really change much. OK,

so in my opinion, it's it's slow in that sense,

right? It doesn't really progress the story.

The fight scene, I think, is great in the way

that it's it's drawn out here. The scene of Proximus

on the motorcycle, which I think we saw in a

preview before, maybe. Yeah, it's pretty bad

ass. Yes, a lot about that. And I do like the

fight scenes and kind of the way they're drawn.

The colors, I think, are fantastic. I just feel

like there is not much story progression here.

So this is why I love that this is my first ever

thing that I have read or done or seen or whatever

with Mr. Kirkman. I don't care about zombie apocalypses.

I don't care about zombies. The closest thing

I come to zombies is the cranberry song. That's

it. Like, I don't give two shits about undead

things. What about the bad wolves version? Do

you like that one? Uh, I haven't heard the bad

wolves version of it. Okay. I'll have to listen.

That's for another time. So for me, go again,

going into this as never really had anything,

any exposure to Mr. Kirkman's creativeness and

style and whatever. I like this. I think this

is good. I think, yes, this is the second issue.

I believe the second arc is issues. It's going

to be issues seven through 12, I think, because

as we'll find out later, issue nine, according

to certain press releases from sky bounce says

that that's the midway point of the arc. So this

being like, like we said, the second chapter

of the arc, like you have to do something here.

Like the first issue to set it up is. This is

Proximus. We have his whole backstory, but we

have his re -creation or whatever. Okay, then

the next issue is obviously we see him going

after Derek and Selila, which is this is the

chase, which is, as I've said to you before,

comics need to have a balance, and this is the

action part of the story, whereas you're not

going to get, like you said, those first three

pages of the story for Selila's... Backstory

thing that's that's cool. That's great. I love

that but I also love this and the rest of this

as an action piece of Holy crap, they're getting

their asses handed to them. They try to Injure

Proximus they do it a little bit but then Derek

is like, oh crap and the sad thing the sad realization

I had here folks in this episode in this issue

is Derek is essentially booster gold and hand

droid is skeets I'm not kidding. I swear. As

I was reading this, as I, where, where, where

Android says, uh, where, where Derek says, I

just like to lay here for a little while and

just whatever, like, don't worry about my life

and hand roads. Like that is my entire existence

is to make sure you stay alive. I'm like, Oh

God, I can hear the voice of whoever voiced the

character of Booster Gold. And I know Billy West

did the voice of Skeets in the DCAU Justice League.

I can hear them in my head. And I was not expecting

to see Celila on a pike to end the issue. That

was kind of a shocker to me. So yeah, no, I'm

really enjoying this. So I guess what do you

think about the the biggest shocker in this issue.

I guess, do you know what I'm alluding to? No,

what are you alluding to? So, the Proximus is

actually her brother. Oh, yeah. That's... Did

you not pick up on that? Yeah, I was like, because

I've read this three times. Well, okay, so really

quickly, folks, I'm going to make a Pup Named

Scooby Doo reference that probably nobody but

me is going to get. The schnook who took my comic

book. So I remember the issue seven and when

we were going to be getting issue eight, I was

like, oh, okay. It'll just auto charge. Cause

I have it set up as a, as a subscription on,

on Amazon. And you're like, I'm like, I didn't

notice anything. You messaged me that morning.

Uh, yeah, it disappeared. What do you mean it

disappeared? It disappeared. The elephant just

He disappeared like okay fine it disappeared

i message again i i'm still using twitter i don't

care i will use it until it's dead. Is it's the

easiest way to get a hold of people i tweeted

at skybound hey where's void rivals issue eight

at amazon at amazon underscore help because it's

gone where'd it go. And they're like, oh, we

don't know. And then like, I think it was like

10 or 20 minutes later, you're like, it's back.

I'm like, oh, okay, it's back. Let's go go ahead

and get this thing. So I'm reading it and reading

it and reading it. And like I said, I've read

it like three different times now, because that's

just how my brain works, folks. I have to reread

things over and over to make sure I can actually

talk about them. And there's a scene in here

where is it when they first, when they first

meet where she asks him, do you Who is it her

that says it or is it him? Is it Proximus that

says, do you recognize me or whatever? One of

them says, do you recognize? And I kind of figured

some, I'm like, Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was Proximus

who says you, do I recognize you? And then some

of the response with, if only you could, if only

you could. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. No, I think

this is going to be good because this is not

just Derek and Solila. strangers from warring

worlds between each other. This is each of their

stories separately, but together. And we're getting

the fact that like, that's a twist. Like, okay,

great. That's a twist. Let's go. Let's get this

done. Because I think that's really cool that

she's on the quote unquote good side and he's

on the quote unquote bad side. That's fun. That's

very fun to me. Yeah, now if you if you go back

in issues, right so back in issue seven and when

we see like I guess either the the cyborg II

version of him before they put the armor on him

or the Again, the the red world which I think

is still some virtual computer prison type thing

If you look at the jewel, it's more pointed down

at the bottom, right? Gotcha. So that that's

a way to tell you that yeah But then if you look

at it here in issue in issue eight here, like

it's the same shape, but it's a little flat on

the bottom as opposed to being pointed. So is

it actually him? I feel like they allude to it.

Maybe it's just slightly drawn differently and

wasn't done on purpose, but I. Until they tell

us otherwise or until the story tells us otherwise

I would like to believe that it is him because

I like that as a storytelling thing Where it's

okay. This is who you think it is, but might

not be it's it's ambiguous But it's ambiguous

enough where it's also, you know, it's also telling

you. Hey look Left hand over here to distract

from this right -hand thing that's happening

this way like it It's fun. It's good. It's why,

again, now that I've really grasped for that,

I'm like, okay, I'll hold on to this straw for

a while. And actually, if you go to page five,

in this in this issue, issue eight, in those

panels where he's drawn there, it's actually

pointed. So it's not even consistent within the

same issue. So my assumption is that, yes, he

is proximus. Like I said, the jewel sort of matches

up depending on what pain. Uh, or panel you're

looking at. Um, and it heavily alludes to the

fact that that's, that's who he is. So, yeah.

And I, again, I like that. I like that. It's

not exactly. Again, if it doesn't match up, it's

them, it's Mr. Kirkman, it's the artists, it's

whomever is doing it on the, on the creative

team. It's them trying to say to us, is it or

is it kind of like, is it, or isn't it, is it,

or is it whatever, whatever, whatever. And then.

We get to that point where he's like, I should

remember you. You should, but you don't. Uh,

and I, again, I like that. I think that's, that's

what makes this fun. My only complaint about

this issue is has nothing to do with the actual

comic itself. It has to do with how they do the

promotional material in the back. So we get a

preview of. the monsters, the creature from the

Black Lagoon lives. Yeah, I don't give two shits

about this, but as much as I don't give two shits

about it, all of their promotional material at

the back is Enter John Universe this, Enter John

Universe that, go get these, collect all these

exciting Enter John Universe, and I'm like, wait

a minute, where's the, and I'm like, oh, okay,

well. that's kind of where Springer belongs in

the lower right hand corner, really small. Like

I was expecting a full page, like every book

that we've talked about in this universe, whether

it's void rivals, the GI Joe books, because I

can say they are the GI Joe books, even though

there isn't a book called GI Joe yet, there probably

will be in the future. Uh, and transformers,

we always get a single full page viewing of the

next issues, comic cover. I had to look at this

three different times. I'm like, You mean to

tell me we wasted one, two, three, four, four,

four pages on a preview and you couldn't even

give us the full. Wow. So that's my really only

complaint. And I know that's just a whatever

kind of complaint thing. So it doesn't really

matter. I mean, they've they've really been pushing

that creature from the Black Lagoon because that

was also in one of the last energon universe

comics. I don't remember if it was void rivals.

I got to look at it now. It really doesn't matter

in the long run. I think it was one of the G

.I. Joe issues then, because I'm not seeing it

in Void Rival 7, but it wasn't one of the previous

comics that I saw. Yeah, and that's, again, that's

fine. I was like, I don't know. I don't want

them to take away, and they didn't hear. I know

you're not so big on this issue as far as like

they're not. You even told me there wasn't enough

words. I'm like, really, you counted them? I'm

just counting the bubbles, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, but, uh, but it's just one of those things

where I don't ever want advertisements. What,

even if it's just the next issue or Hey, collect

these other great issues that have already come.

I don't ever want advertisements in single issue

comics to take away from how many pages of story

we get. And I think this. issue didn't do that,

but at the same time, I don't know. Maybe if

we had instead of those four pages, maybe just

a two page thing for Creature from the Black

Lagoon, which would give two more page story

to maybe do something more with Proximus. But

I think because this was a fighter issue, not

necessarily a story driven issue, it works overall.

And I don't dislike this comic book. So you know

what at the very least they would have if they

would have done two less Pages for creature from

the black lagoon. You could have got your full

page issue or sorry your full page photo Yeah,

we're nice. Yeah void rivals number nine worst

Autobot ever home I have lots of childhood issues

with Springer. Before we actually dive into that,

I want to talk one more thing about the talk

to the Android, which is the name of the letter

section, which I like the name of that here.

I did want to mention that at least in this particular

issue, I did do an accessibility test on this.

The colors work. They're just barely like the

text for the actual letter itself from the person

who's sending it in supposedly I I still question

whether or not some of these are real They are

they are now Okay Like it's it could be slightly

bolder But it's still technically accessible

based on like the color contrast and then the

responses from the creative team Very easy to

read because it's bold. Yeah I wish they could

translate this over into the G .I. Joe comics

into the Transformer comics. Well, OK. So let

me look at this because I forgot about the fact

because we're we I'm trying to impress upon him

to wait for certain things. And I completely

forgot that Duke number four came out because

I'm like, oh, we're waiting on Cobra Commander

number four. Right. OK, fine. And I have not

read Duke number four yet because I don't read

it until it's ready for whatever. But I'm going

back to the, I'm in Duke number four and I'm

going back to that letter, back to the back with

that, where that letter section is. Which by

the way, is, is the issue that has creature from

black. Oh, okay. Good. There you go. Uh, so Duke

number four, other than for me, other than having

to actually zoom in on it to actually be able

to read the text because digital comics and letters

sections don't really work as far as just looking

at the single page. Uh, I can read all of it.

I don't really like the yellow text, but I think

they're listening to us if they are listening

to us. Thank you. Uh, but I think they are getting

better between what rivals and Duke. I can't

say, I want to see what happens in Cobra commander.

Number four is letter section and the transformers

letter section. We'll find out about that next

week. Hopefully, hopefully they've improved it.

Um, but in the past so far, yes, you are absolutely

correct. They've all been horrible, but I think

they are learning as, as we yell at them through

podcasting. Well, I mean, yeah, everything in

the Duke, the Duke one, for example, and the

most recent Duke, Duke number four is readable

with the exception of that gold. Like you said,

you could read it, like if you zoomed in. Yeah,

I have to zoom in on it, but I can still read

it. Like there, like there are some of the other

ones that we've talked about where. Even zoomed

in, I couldn't read it because the text was so

against a white, a light white or a light gray

background. Having a light color text is stupid.

The text, whether it's unbold or bold needs to

be a darker color than the back of the page.

Like nobody's going to write in black ink on

black paper. You're not going to be able to see

that. So here with Duke as an example, the thing

they could have done, because yellow on white,

and I realize the background here isn't fully

white, but it's a white -ish. It's white -ish,

yeah. So yellow on white is always a no -no.

But what they could have done for that yellow,

or that gold, or whatever you want to call it

is, that's one of the, who is this? This is Josh.

The gold is Josh. They could have just made that

a dark blue. The other one is like... just a

dark black right it's a bolded black you could

have just made it a bolded blue and it would

have been perfect it would have been absolutely

perfect but yeah it didn't do that it's still

gold um so like half of the letter section is

good or three quarters of the letter section

is good but uh but yeah i did notice that it

was like i said i tested it in side of void rivals

it was easier uh the the letter text itself right

the the the letter or the the words from the

person sending in the letter i guess is what

i'm trying to say that still technically could

have been a different color it should have probably

been a different color but it's a it's at least

accessible in this case yeah yeah well that's

um but i i love the name of the letter section

by the way i talked to the handroid yeah talk

to the android yep yep yep that's that's hilarious

Um, all right, so anything else on issue eight?

I don't think so. We go into the solicitations

now Yeah, so our first look at issue number nine.

I want to read this here really quick before

you dive into whatever you got So the so the

solicitation here for number nine is as derek

and selila cling to life deep in the wasteland

They find springer. It's the first energon universe

appearance of everyone's favorite triple changer

autobot I like triple changers, just not that

one. All right, so I'm gonna go get on the couch,

folks. 1986, everybody remembers that most infamous

movie from 1986, right? He's a home wrecker.

He tries to get with, no, it's Hot Rod NRC. It's

Rodimus Prime NRC. It's not Springer NRC. It

just isn't. No, no, no, no, no. That's really

my only issue with Springer overall. I love the

toy. I don't remember having the toy, but friends

of mine had had the toy when I was a kid. I love

the whole thing of triple changers in general.

What I like about this and what Skybound's website

continues to say is how they're using Void Rivals

to give us quote unquote fan favorite characters.

And I'm only saying that because of Springer,

not because of Shockwave or anybody else that

we've seen so far. They're using this to sprinkle

those throughout because as we know Daniel Warren

Johnson has his own shtick with the ongoing.

So I like that they can use void rivals as the,

not generic, but the general basis for. Introducing

various things because wood rivals is out in

space it's on different planets it's on different

asteroids it's doing this doing that so i like

that i think that's gonna be interesting and

i'm interested to see what take they take with

the character you know. Generally i don't like

the character what is the what are your thoughts

about them and again they've they've spoiled

this like i don't know what months ago. Yeah

but it's not really us again most of the people

listen to my voice know this you may not remember.

But that's how comics work comics because they

have to do all this advance notice stuff that's

unfortunately that's how spoilers with comics

work is because they have to do all the solicitation

so the comic shops can order the books and. You

know see a reason to order the books to make

sure the comic shop customers want the books

etc etc etc So that's why they do spoilers and

solicitations and stuff But like why not do something

like and they've I've seen them do this and like

the the the little blurb They write as the preview

where it's like rather than writing in right

like Springer for example. They'll just put in

spoiler and then what they What they could have

done here was rather than actually write show

Springer they could have just had like a darkened

outline of him and it's like oh well who is this

this is clearly a transformer they could have

even left like the Autobot symbol on there and

then it's like now it's like a guessing game

it's like who is this yeah i don't know it's

the way they do these things man it's just the

way they do these things well so i guess how

much And this is just throwing this out there

to you just to kind of get your thoughts on this.

Like how much do you think he's going to be featured

in the next issue with him being on the the initial

first print cover? I don't know. I assume he's

gonna have some sort of interaction with our

characters from void rivals or something maybe.

It's him and Proximus or something. I don't know.

I don't know how much I don't know how many pages

out of the whatever story pages we're gonna get

and if Because how they say it in the skybound

websites thing where they say that issue Nine

is the halfway point between which it is Of the

story arc, maybe they're gonna I don't know.

I Hope something really cool happens. That's

all I know Like well, you know, we know this

is a trash compactor We know this is taking place

at the same time Presumably as transformers as

we saw with jetfire who left the rock and landed

on earth So do you think with his introduction

here? We're gonna see him rolled into the transformer

series in the not -too -distant future Did we

get we didn't get promotional material with him

because he wasn't a part of the original Lineup

that Warren Johnson wanted to use So, I don't

know. I don't know where he's gonna go Or what's

gonna happen with him? Okay. I just know that

right the the unveiling of jet fire Jet fire

sky fire jet fire jet fire. Yep. Yes, whatever

same thing Is it? No, it's Skyfire, right? It's

all the same damn thing. It's the same thing.

Skyfire was a toy. Skyfire is the character.

OK. Yeah. So with unveil of Skyfire, is that

right? Now I got to Google this. It's OK. It's

fine. Keep going. Oh, God, dude. Skyfire. Let's

see. Jetfire is the name of several fictional

characters in the Transformers franchise. Jetfire.

Uh -huh sky fire. That's sky fire Jetfire a cave

sky fire Yeah, whatever he's called in the damn

comic series We didn't get it we didn't get a

comic cover of him until like several reprints

later and he was like it what two three pages

So with him with Springer being on the cover

for this initial first print I'm just wondering

like he was gonna play a large part In this next

issue and if so, this is kind of the thing that

Derek has been alluding to that he had seen previously

in the Wasteland Yeah, that's probably what's

gonna happen. Maybe I don't know but I assume

he's gonna play some sort of major role other

than just standing back in the shadows like shockwave,

so You know, there's that Yeah, find out for

a new sky fighter. There you go Sky fires the

character jet fires the toy. Uh -huh It's all

the same It's all the same character unless you

give him ugly Michael Bay designs and give him

a walking stick Hey, I I like that character

in the movie though. Yeah, he's probably the

best part of that second movie They could have

called him literally anything else, but I still

like the character. Yeah Yeah, I'm looking I'm

looking at the TF wiki it says sky fire. There

you go. So I'm going with sky fire All right.

All right. So anything else on issue nine? No,

wait and see. Looking forward to it. All right.

So closing thoughts. We don't have anything else

on issue anything beyond issue nine at this point,

right? No. No, because May is coming up and they

will probably do solicitations for 10, maybe

at the end of this month, which is April, folks.

Of course, for me, you actually won't hear this

episode on the pull bag until the middle of whatever

the hell middle of May, actually, because of

how my schedule works on that podcast. So one

more question I have right there was a big break

within void rivals when it launched, there was

a big break transfer caught up. They launched

G .I. Joe, or not G .I. Joe, but the mini -series

for G .I. Joe. Do you think we'll get another

break? Is having a break within a comic series,

is that a normal thing? Will we see that happen

again in the future? Unless issues are happening,

unless there's a print issue, unless there's

an issue with the publisher, unless something

has to be redone, unless something... Heaven

forbid this never happens, but unless something

unfortunate happens to one of the artists or

one of the creators and has to, you know, go

on break or, but the way Skybound is doing it,

at least from what we've seen, they're not doing

it like any other, like DC, Marvel, they, they're

almost a hundred year old machines. They're over

80 years old. Batman is celebrating his 85th

anniversary this year. Right. You know, they're

machines and the machine will go on. Skybound

under Image is new to this. They're probably

not completely new because obviously Kirkman's

been doing the Walking Dead comic and television

show and everything else, but I don't know and

I don't think so unless they are going to be...

Fully like, unless they're going to start a G

.I. Joe ongoing, which so far we don't, I don't

think they're doing that yet. I think they're

still going to give us these G .I. Joe mini -series,

which as I've said before, in the G .I. Joe episodes

we've done, I like that because it's an easy

thing. It's a easy way to get to know the characters

before the team comes to get, it's kind of like

how Robert Downey Jr. built the Avengers. over

X number of movies before we got 2012, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera. So if Void Rivals takes

another break at the end of issue 12 for the

next arc, I'm more than fine with it because

I was fine with it the first time around because

you had to launch all these other things or whatever.

I'm okay with it. Hey, the podcasts go on breaks

all the time, folks, you know, and as long as

the listeners are still there, they'll come back,

you know, kind of thing, so. Don't know. I I

think it's fine I don't I don't think anything

is gonna happen to it because they are so when

they are on they are going so gung -ho With the

promotion and promotion now for comp for anything

really you've got Twitter blue sky Instagram

Facebook threads What else is out there? What's

app or what? I don't even know what the hell

you know, you've got all these social media apps

and you've got all this other stuff that you

can use now in 2024 that we didn't really, I

mean, we've had Twitter and Facebook for years,

but like, I don't know, it is what it is. You'd

be surprised how catchy Instagram reels or stories

are to catch certain things. I've caught more

new music in the last year and a half from Instagram

reels than I have ever listening to the radio.

So I don't think this is a problem. Again, if

it happens, if we get to issue 12 and they say,

okay, issue 13 is going to be, when is it? I

don't even know what room or that she calls supposed

to go. Let's say issue 12 is supposed to be out

the July, August, whatever. We're going to take

a break until November or we're going to do that.

I'm in. I'm fine. I'm okay. I don't know how

the rest of the comic reading fandom is going

to be, and other than you and I, I've heard people

talking about void rivals, but... I don't know.

Audience members who are listening to or watching

this, let us know. How are you... enjoying void

rivals. If you're reading it and will you stick

with it kind of thing? Cause I'm all in, I'm

ready. I'm ready for whatever. And if I have

to wait, I have to wait. Cause again, at this

point in my podcasting career and my comic book

reading career from doing a podcast for 11 years

about comic books, I like waiting for the trade.

I don't need single issues. I want the whole

story now. So I'm perfectly okay with whatever

they do. All right, before we get to plugs, I

got one more question for you. Sure. This is

sort of all encompassing. So we are 21 issues

into the Energon universe. What are your thoughts

just kind of overall so far? I'm liking it. I'm

digging it. I think it's cool. I think it's fun.

I think it's good. All right. Well, that's nice

and succinct. Well, it's just one of those things

where. I guess what is your what is your favorite

so far of the of the four series? I'm going to

include the G .I. Joe mini -series. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Absolutely. I like them all for different

reasons, but I think the aspect of something

completely new and something I don't need 40

years to catch up on, and you don't really need

40 years to catch up on with Transformers or

the G .I. Joe mini -series. You don't really

need that. But as people who have been in the

fandom, Since we were kids, like we kind of sort

of sometimes expect that kind of thing. But I

like void rivals because it's characters I've

never seen before. It's a story that has grabbed

my attention and I'm interested to see what happens

next. And because, as I said earlier, they're

using void rivals to introduce us. to other characters

that we may not get in the main Transformers

ongoing. I'm interested to see how that plays

out with the void rivals story. Sweet. I would

probably say, again, I think as we've we've talked

about these more and more, I think it's pretty

apparent that the G .I. Joe mini -series really

aren't grabbing me. I think I would put both

Transformers and Void Rivals kind of up on the

same area on the pedestal. I think for me, maybe

Transformers has a slight edge for two reasons.

Really, I love the art from Daniel Warren Johnson

as one. And two, it's just like a little bit

more familiar to me because I know the characters

than Void Rivals. But I've been a big fan of

of kind of the world that void rivals has introduced

up to this point. Yeah, I do think some of the

issues, like I said, this one included are a

little slow. I wish they would advance the story

a little bit more. But I really dig the world

that is building. And I'm I'm a fan of the characters.

So, yeah. And that's the thing about comics and

story. We have. Seven to twelve, so five issues,

we've got five issues. Sometimes you need to

breathe or sometimes you need to have that action

sequence of not like the action advances the

story. The fight in Void Rivals number eight

advanced the story because holy crap, Derek woke

up or Derek finally got up off his ass from having

his ass beat by Proximus to find where the hell

Selina is. She's 400 nanometers, nanoseconds,

whatever away. And, uh, and Billy West is the

voice of skeets, AKA hand or it is like, go this

way. And, you know, we find her on a pike. I

would say that's a pretty good cliffhanger to

come back. That's more of a cliffhanger, even

if we hadn't gotten spoiled on the cover of issue

nine for the most hated Autobot in the world.

Uh, you know, the end of issue eight, I'm, I'm

ready. What, what, what happened? Uh, we know

what happened. Proximus. Put a bike through her

or put her through a pike. So. But like, what's

going to happen next? Yeah, I need to know and

I'm fine. I'm good. Well, the worst thing that

could happen next is we don't find out until

issue 10. Don't give them any ideas and don't

jinx us like that, man. What the hell's wrong

with you? Issue 9 will be nothing, nothing but

springers. All right, so plugs. What do you got

for plugs? All right. So right now over on the

pull bag over on GeekCast Radio Network, we've

got out now we have the big Duke and Cobra Commander

issues two and three combined episodes since

I forgot to put out issue two beforehand. We've

got, we just released almost three hours. My

buddy Joe Reed and I talked about all five issues

of IDW Publishing's TMNT The Last Ronin. So we

did that. My buddy Adam Ray and I. Did Deadpool

does Shakespeare? That was interesting. And I

heard nothing but Ryan Reynolds in my head the

whole time I was reading it. We've got more stuff

coming up. Like I said, folks, you won't actually

hear the pull bag syndicated version of this

episode, probably until May, just how I do things.

Steve, who is the co -creator of the Geekcast

Radio with the name Steve Megatron, if he already

does art for banners for me, I'm not moving that

episode. So 550 and 551, I've already got art

for it. I'm like, I'm not switching that, so

I'll just move this to this. So you won't be

hearing this on the pullback till May. And then

geekcastradio .com itself, we just released episode

333 of the flagship show Geekcast Radio, the

2024 Geek Smorgasbord part one, where Steve and

I talked about just how. either out of touch

we are, or just not that, there's not much so

far in 2024 that is exciting us, whether it comes

to movies and TV and things like that. And I

did mention that the comics with this stuff with

Wood Rivals and what Skybound is doing with that

and Transformers, that was exciting me and stuff

like that. We've also got a Transformers episode

of All Things Transformers where... The 40th

anniversary live stream the fans celebrate had

the 40th anniversary of transformers more than

Hasbro ever could 12 months of Star Wars the

Empire Strikes Back is currently out on studio

2009. We've got a whole bunch of stuff folks

So go check it out get cast radio .com. We've

got 15 years this coming June 15 years over 3

,000 episodes of audio content content. That's

right. I'm a machine. I am a podcast machine

Is that it you know reminds me of an old Marvel

quote I can do this all day All right my plugs

you can find our Instagram we do have an Instagram

here for the podcast that is another comic review

I Did say that correctly another comic review?

Not another podcast review. You can find me on

YouTube at youtube .com slash matrix underscore

prime. Of course, I'm blue sky. You can just

search for my name, Jesse early. You'll find

me there. One thing I did want to plug that is

not void rivals related, but is energon universe

related. And this is not something I'm selling.

But the till all are one Transformers 40th anniversary

reunion screening. Has been announced this so

this is gonna be like a three day event. I guess

so Wednesday May 15th May 18th and 19th so this

is gonna be an airing of the first four episodes

seems odd because right the The series opens

with a three -part miniseries Yeah, well, it's

gonna be the the first four episodes of the transformer

the original transformers cartoon the transformers

And yeah, tickets go on sale April 10th at Transformers

40th cinema event dot com. Don't know how much

the tickets are. But what's interesting about

this is the very first episode, I guess, is going

to have a split screen. So you'll see the episode

play out. And then on the other side, you will

see a table reading with looks like Peter Cullen,

Frank Welker and then Greg Berger. And I don't

know Frank Tadoro. Frank Todaro. Yep. Frank Todaro

is so Frank Todaro is a voice actor. We actually

interviewed him I will send you a link to that

interview if you want to put it in your show

voice of Starscream in the war for Cybertron

cartoon series the Netflix cartoon six episode

thing Frank is an awesome dude. He's great There's

Nobody else I can think of right now in voice

acting that could live on with the legacy of

Lata. Since he's doing Generation 1, since they

are doing G1 in the Netflix War for Cybertron

cartoon, he did a kind of very G1 Chris Lata

Starscream. As much as I love Steve Bloom's Transformers

Prime Starscream voice, that's not... That's

you bloom Starscream voice. It's not him putting

on a lot of impression, right? So but yeah Frank

Todaro amazing amazing dude. He rocks minutes.

It's very hard to replicate that Chris lot of

voice I'm telling you he does a pretty good damn

job of it Okay, well, so I'm interested in checking

this out. If it's playing local, I'm hoping it

is. I don't know why this isn't like a traditional

like fathom type event, because those are local.

But yeah, I was like, wait a minute, why isn't

this fathom events? What's going on here? Because

even if the tickets aren't on sale until April

10, which right now, as we're recording this

focus, folks is a Wow, is April 6, you would

think that they would want people to know what

The ticket prices would be or where the that

the stuff would be available kind of thing Yeah,

so that's a it's a little bit of a mystery there

But again if it's playing local I plan on going

if I do In one of our transformer comic reviews,

I'll I'll talk a little bit about that. So very

cool. Very cool All right. I think that's it

unless you got anything else. I don't think so

All right. Well, then this is it for issue number

eight avoid rivals coming up this week. We have

Transformers number seven That's coming out on

Wednesday. So looking forward to that. Yeah,

he says reluctantly Well, hey, I'm still glad

that Daniel Warren Johnson is writing the art

that we've seen so far very close to what Daniel

Warren Johnson was doing so I've got high hopes.

Just don't squash them here. Just don't squash

them. All right, everyone. Until next time, Jesse

signing off. This is Mike. See you later. Autobots,

roll out. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pull Bag. the GCRN's first comic review

and discussion podcast. There are several ways

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