Duke and Cobra Commander #4 Review

This is Jason Marsden, the voice of Duke from

G .I. Joe Renegades. You're listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Yo, Joe. Hey, it's Jesse

Rass here, and you've made the great escape into

comics by jumping inside the pull bag today.

Yo, Joe! And welcome to another Comerica View.

My name is Jesse. And as always, I'm joined by

TFG1Mike from GeekCastRadio .com. Hello, hello.

So we are here to talk about not just one, but

two comics today. And they are going to be Duke

No. 4 and Cobra Commander No. 4. First up, Duke

No. 4 by Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, Jordy

Belair, and Russ Wooten. Forgot you last time,

Russ. I just made sure I added your name this

time. From ImageComics .com, the quick synopsis,

Duke is close to discovering the truth about

the alien robots that have landed on Earth, but

who or what is Mars? And my quick rundown, so

we open with Blood and his men, yes, Blood, not

Bud, Blood, and his men continuing their assault

on the pit from the last issue. Baroness and

Duke form a truce, and the Joes head down deeper

into the pit to find a war machine storage area.

As Blood returns to the surface after having

been shot in the face, a door opens from the

ground, revealing the Joes, now in their war

machines, heading towards their attackers who

decide to retreat. The Baroness escapes in a

fang while Duke heads out in a jet towards the

mountain location on the device he previously

carried. Working for Destro, Scrap Byron field

tests some new weaponry from Mars and takes out

Duke's jet which crashes into the mountainside.

Somehow surviving, Duke makes it into the mountain

base where he comes face to face with a robotic

soldier. We close with Duke being held in the

air by robotic claw from the soldier he encounters.

So your thoughts and review of Duke number four.

When you calling it a robotic soldier soldier

with a claw my first thought was next time gadget

I did think of that but but Yeah, no by far out

of the four so far. This is my favorite. I like

the character set up in the other three, but

This is what we've been waiting for as far as

the action in the story, like all of issue three

up until the end, it's like, okay, okay, we're

gonna get this, we're gonna get that, fine, fine,

fine. And then we finally get the whole jailbreak

at the midway point to the end of three. And

now we're in the thick of it of they're escaping

Baroness and Duke Truce, like you said. and just

all the action. This is action issue. So which

means next issue, who knows how they're going

to close this off. But no, this is great. And

I love the art in this. I have always loved the

art in these comics. But man, this issue, it's

just so good. See, I was kind of surprised that

you said that not necessarily the art itself,

but the use of color, or I would say lack thereof,

because you had just recently mentioned that

You're not a big fan of the the Marvel Transformer

comics from the 80s. And I think even like the

G2 from like the early 90s because of like the

lack of color. And there's just like so much

lack of color in this issue. Are you crazy? I

mean, I know I'm I know I'm legally blind here,

but come on. So you got the desert type color

stuff as they're escaping. You got like the oranges

and the reds and the whatever. And then they

do the. the whites of where the vehicles are.

And then we go back to more orange and red. They

go back to where the jet and the tanks are. You

get all this action stuff here. And yes, it is

technically one color, but it is a good use of

color because you have the background being.

Red and orange and when the jet flies off, obviously

it has to be a white background with an orange

sun because the jets black and that makes more

sense than having the orange sky and a black

jet and a white sun. And then we get to the point

where it's the radar stuff and it's. I'm glad

you said mountains. Cause for half a second there

in my, uh, prednisone whacked out state because

of abnormal back issues. I thought the damn jet

was under water for half a second referencing,

uh, uh, uh, Atlantis arise from generation one,

season two. And then I'm like, all right, it's

not, it's going to crash into a mountain. And

then we get the black. No, man. Look, there's

a way to use five colors. Well, right now, 40

years ago, so much. Don't get me wrong. I don't

think the color usage here is bad or anything,

but I do think there's like several pages more

specifically like the orange pages where it's

like, it's just like orange and there's some

grays in there and some blacks and not a whole

lot of much of anything else. Okay, so I'm going

to zoom in on a couple of panels here. So the

pay, I think it's the page where the jet flies

off. So it's page 12, location 12 out of 30.

on, uh, on Amazon, uh, Kindle comics here. What

I was, I always want to call it comicsology because

that's what you call it. Before it was what it

is, but that page where she kicks out and she

says, thank you for the escape. Hope I never

see you again. Yes, you are absolutely 100 %

correct. The sky with the orange, but the character.

Like, oh, what's his name? The dude with the

beard that looks like my Uncle Robert. Oh, fuck,

what's his name? Anyway, but where he says, that's

enough coverage. You're clear for a good, for

a takeoff, good buddy. Like, because it's an

orange background and because they kind of want

you to think desert and whatever else, he's in

these, like... It's not tan, it's not beige,

it's more of like a greenish grayish type of

thing. So those colors match to me. I think really

where it doesn't is that middle panel when we

see Duke in the jet. Yeah. Cause the jet itself,

even though I know the jets not orange because

they want the color to kind of blend on that

part of the panel. And then you see the two of

them saluting each other and all that. And then

that's at the bottom. We get the white with the

black in the art. I, yeah. I mean, I kind of

see your point, but I liked it. I don't need

the, what I need to pop for color in comics.

If you're just doing a scene like this, where

we see a helicopter flying off and we see a jet

flying off. Need the characters color to pop

and the background to be I don't want to say

a static image, but It just needs to exist the

background is not the The focus here the focus

here is the action of the escape Yeah, but I'd

say I'd say two pages after that so as as Duke

is like flying towards the mountain, right? You

said that the colors pop on the character like

we don't actually get that there though He sort

of just sort of blends in the background. Well,

right To pay you mean the blue page. Yeah Yeah,

because he's still flying into the location there.

He's not like we don't even I'm pretty sure we

don't see a close -up on Oh, we see what the

top right panel we see a close -up on him on

the inside of the jet But that to me is more

of a don't panels down as well Yeah, but that

to me is hey don't focus on Yeah, focus on Duke's

face, but focus on the word below again for me.

There's a huge difference in how Guess how I

personally read comics I read it for the story

first and then I go back a second time and Really

appreciate the art. So as I was reading this

for the story I was looking at the word balloons

first on those two specific panels but in between

in between all that you have the top left the

middle the middle right So after his after he

says his second thing and then the bottom where

they're looking at him Through their scope and

whatever else so everything else on that page

outside of his two character show We know what

Duke looks like we don't need a full like I mean

even now I can count like I don't know 20 whiskers

on his face Let's be honest. We know what Duke

light. It looks like I'm still questioning whether

or not the artist here knows what Duke looks

like Artist interpretation exactly. Yeah, it's

not gonna be like it's not gonna be you know

clean shit. And again, he's been in prison I

mean, yes, they give razors and whatever else

in prison, but whatever but the point is is that

it's a slightly different Look for Duke. He's

he's out on the run. He's not So worry, even

though he's obviously full military and I'm not

taking anything away from that when you're supposedly

a deserter Etc. Etc. Etc. You're not really worried

about having a clean shave So it's okay that

he needs I mean hell I gotta go get a haircut

next week half the time My hair is like I'm legally

blind. My hair is hanging halfway down into my

eyes I get so many I get more bangs than Madonna

did in the 80s Yeah. So yeah, I think this issue

here is pretty monochromatic in several instances.

But then if you go to the first page, so just

shortly, I think it's a page right after the

one we were just talking about. So after the

blue page, where we see scrap iron there, then

it just goes back to what I would expect a normal

colored panel to be. So it's less monochromatic

there. So I'm just calling it out because I thought

it was interesting. Yeah, no, no. Absolutely.

But in terms of the overall issue, I think you

were pretty dead on with it. This is probably

one of the most action oriented issues we've

seen so far. Yeah. Which I think, again, I'm

always wanting to see something advance here

in these comics. I don't know that it really

advanced the story all that much. We can talk

a little bit more about that when we talk about

Duke five next time. But yeah, I think it was

a good I think we're definitely moving here towards

the conclusion of the of the series. Well, you

have issues one, two and three that are pretty

much the setup. And I don't remember off the

top of my head which ones of those three like

I know the first one kind of had a mix of both

action and story. The second one might have been.

More action. The third one was a little bit more

story, et cetera, because you have them in. If

you're in prison, there's, I mean, unless you're

going to do a prison riot, every other page,

there's not much, you know, cause and we have

the surprise of the Baroness, et cetera, et cetera,

et cetera. So I like how they've set this up

and I like how they have, even though there were

parts of the other three issues that we didn't

like. Now that we're here at this penultimate

issue of. My gosh, what is next? Are we actually

going to see met and we'll probably see Megatron

either in Cobra commander or whatever whatever

order but the point is I'm excited now because

it's like, okay, we've gotten past the point

of All of the Duke being on the run because of

whatever and meeting up with whomever and we've

got all the setup out of the way So now I'm not

expecting full -on Explosive action from the

start of issue 5 but This is a damn good action

issue with some story that it basically again,

like I've said in other episodes that we've done

You need a mix of both story and action and this

has most of the action and the only time it really

has parts of the story is when Duke is Duke or

other characters are saying things to advance

the action Yeah, and that's okay in my mind.

I I would probably buy this comic again in a

physical form if I was doing that etc etc because

I really like this and I was like at the end

I was like oh crap he's in trouble so speaking

of the end there on I guess again location 20

of 30 you had mentioned you know maybe we'll

see Megatron show up in Cobra Commander that

very first panel here on this page I'm like oh

this is Megatron right like an outline that looks

like a face Other than you go down one, it's

like, oh no, that's not his face at all. That's

not Megatron. So I guess, how did you like the

issue ending on this sort of cliffhanger? This

is good. This, again, it's a penultimate. We

know that these are five issue miniseries. Yep.

And we know that not, like I said, the first

three are for all of them, not just this, but

for Copper Commander, Duke, Probably when we

get to Scarlet and Destro and everybody else,

the first three issues are probably going to

be mostly set up. Obviously there's probably

going to be a little bit of action, et cetera,

et cetera. But that to me makes a good comic.

And this like, I was like, where the hell is

this? Like after I read this, when it came out

last month, this one in originally, whenever

the hell Duke number four came, I don't care.

I'm not looking at it, whatever. But this is

what I like at the end here where it's like,

okay. you've got my attention like let's let's

see how this is going to end and then let's see

with what we've already said about how oh about

the mini series and whatever and if they're eventually

going to do a full -on GIGO ongoing at some point

etc i'm very interested to see where where Duke

will end and where Skybound is going to put his

character because that's my interest now as we

get to the close of this is where the G .I. Joe

character is going to go after we do their specific

character miniseries. Well, I'm really looking

forward to talking with you about issue number

five. Yeah, I haven't read that one yet as of

this recording, but I will soon. So before diving

into Cobra Commander, I did want to comment.

I know we keep doing this, but I want to come

in the letter section again because it went back

to a font color you can't read. Oh, no. Yeah.

Back to yellow on the white. And it's just like,

no, not accessible at all. So we got to keep

doing better, Skybound. I mean, really, if that's

only the real major code. Okay. Yeah, I'm looking

at it. Yeah. So the, yeah, the replies, uh, again,

the only thing you care about is from the creative

team. But again, like, no, it is, and it isn't

like, I know, I know, I know you have this, this

weird, you know, X files like conspiracy about,

are these real people writing into this thing

and all this and all that, but like no i want

to be able to like yes i can read uh yo jo when

oblivion song ended so oblivion song was um oblivion

song is another comic series but anyway uh yeah

it needs to all be legible it needs to all be

readable it needs like again like i mentioned

last time don't use yellow on white like we just

said but also you know you can have white on

black just make the so instead of Instead of

where Mr. Brian Hands says, and they did this,

I don't think Brian did this in his letter, but

they bolded the black. Shout out to Jordy, she's

worked color magic across this miniseries. That's

all bold and black. Okay, how about maybe, I

don't know, just... Find a color palette that

works if black gray yellow on white don't work

Then use a different background. I mean hell

we've said I've said this before with with how

the Like you can do the yellow background with

all black because if you look at the very back

of the panel You look at the very back of the

book Caution the contents of this booklet are

confidential. The caution is in bold black letters

And so is the rest of it, but you could use the

unbolded black on that yellow. So do that or

just, it's not horrible, but it's not good either.

You know what I mean? Like it's not, it's that

they just need to figure out what's going to

work and they need to stop doing shit that isn't

going to work or that people can't read. Cause

you, you're a bigger person. Pick bigger. God,

I can't talk. You are a big person about all

about accessibility, as am I, because I am legally

blind. And as you said in one of the, I'm legally

sighted and I can't read this stuff. So they

just need to figure out something and stick with

it. Don't change it every issue. Yeah. They're

certainly not trying at this point. So, I mean,

like you, you commented, right? So one of the

replies is in bold. That one is from Sean and

who I don't know who Sean is. Cause I'm part

of the creative team here that I can see. And

then the other one is from Joshua Williamson

and that's the one you can't read. That's the

one that's in the yellow, the piss yellow or

whatever here. So gold, I guess. So yeah, so

just wanted to comment on that again. I know

people are probably tired of hearing that. So,

all right. I guess anything else on Duke? No,

I'm looking forward to the finale and see what

happens. Yeah, I'm looking forward to talking

to you about that. Oh, no. See, this is the thing,

folks. Like I said, I haven't read it. He has,

because my thing is I read these for enjoyment,

but I don't just read them to enjoy them. I read

them to enjoy them, to have the enjoyment of

these discussions on podcasts. I've been doing

this for 11 years. And if I read it before, like,

a week before recording or a month. I'm like,

oh, crap. I won't remember it. So it's like I

know. At this point, I'm so invested into these

because I've told you before, Ray, I had subscribed

to the series on Amazon. And for whatever reason,

they don't download like at 12 or 1 a .m., they

should be downloading to my device and they don't

do that. So like when I wake up in the morning

at 6 a .m., they should be on there. They're

not. So I unsubscribed and I just purchased them

on a weekly basis when they come out. or monthly

basis when they come out. Yeah, that's an Amazon

thing, I think. But I'm at the point now, so

I'm so invested in these that I'm not even waiting

to read it on my iPad where I can see the entire

page. I just read it from my phone, like one

panel at a time. So it's like, like I said before,

and I, you know, that's the wonderful thing about

even though we're doing this on our, I'm doing

it on my Google pixel six pro, you're doing it

on whatever I device you have, whichever one

it is. Uh, that's the greatest thing about the

guided view technology. That's always been the

greatest thing about the guided view technology

is because it takes your phone and turns your

phone into a. slideshow of panels like I'm just

not even really reading Cobra Commander right

now because I don't want to get to it but like

I'm just thumbing through all this in guided

view and it's pulling my eye to where it wants

my eye in the book to be whereas if I had this

as a single issue in my physical hand in my a

physical single issue in my hand like I would

have to have my eyes adjust to the top left read

that go to the middle to read that text. And

I mean, I can still admire the page, but that's

why I love the digital with the guided view,

because it points me in the direction they want

the story to be told. It's like a it's like a

watching a cartoon, like one frame, one frame

per per scene. But it works because and that's

what works so well. It's worked so well for however

the hell many. many years that they've had it

and it just, it makes for me the guided view

technology makes my comic reading experience

more enjoyable because I get more out of it than

just staring at a page in a physical book. Yeah.

Yep. Um, okay. Cobra commander. Sure. Alright,

so moving on to Cobra Commander number four,

again by Joshua Williamson, Andrea Milana, Annalisa

Leone, and Ross Wooten, shout out to Ross, woo!

Quick synopsis from ImageComics .com, the Energon

universe is in danger. Uh -oh. Cobra Commander

has found a new ally, willing or not, that may

just make him unstoppable. Unless, of course,

someone is one step ahead of him. What do you

think that might be? Yeah. My quick rundown.

So we open with Cobra Commander wiping the silly

ass blood smile from his mask as seen in the

last issue being led to a hatch in the ground

by one of the dreadlocks. After opening the hatch

and climbing down, Cobra Commander comes face

to face with the scientist who has been locked

away to work on energon. The enforcer continues

his bloodbath assault on the remaining dreadlocks

while the scientist explains that he was locked

away to produce more energon, but that production

is impossible. Instead, he figured out how to

expand it by diluting it with other forms of

energy into energon cubes. For a demonstration,

a table of robotic insects are supercharged with

a blast of energon and Cobra Commander is pleased

with what he sees. Back on the surface, Cobra

Commander is ready to return to Cobra law, but

Nemesis Enforcer reveals his true mission isn't

to protect Cobra Commander, but to kill him.

The two break out into a fight that ends when

the robotic insects in the lab transform into

a glove for Cobra Commander that blasts and kills

Nemesis Enforcer. We end with Cobra Commander

asking the remaining Dreadnock who they intended

to sell the energon to. Who responds with the

name Destro? So your thoughts and review of Cobra

Commander number four. Okay, so do we ever get

a name for this prisoner doctor dude? Does he

ever say his name in here? I do not see a name

anywhere in here. No. They may if they really

wanted to get us with this. He missed a huge

opportunity. Dr. Bud. No, no. Dr. Arkeville.

They could have used Dr. Arkaville as this guy.

Would have been a nice fan wank, yeah? Yeah!

Like, I'm not always out to get the fan wanks

and all that, but like that could, that would

have been really cool. No, seriously, like if

you, you know, you could do that, but whatever.

But yeah, no, uh, again, just like Duke number

four. I love this. I think this is cool. I love

seeing the energon being made. I love that we

are getting to the point of finally figuring

out what the ultimate mission is for Cobra Commander.

I'm glad that Nemesis Enforcer is gone, because

that character was a little wacky. Like T -Bob

Mask kind of wacky. He's violent, but yeah, no.

But I like the fight between them. Again, the

art, is it like the... the fight between them

with the blue background, with the yellow and

the whatever, with the shock effects. That's

good use of color and change and everything else.

As far as the story goes, again, we are far advancing

to this and we are getting to the point of the

end and all that and whatever. Again, good cliffhanger

because we haven't really had Cobra Commander

and we haven't had them meet yet to my knowledge

as far as I know. He's on this mission to find

it, find all this out. And so for issue five

for Cobra commander, that's when Cobra and Destra

are most likely going to meet, obviously, and

we'll see what happens there. But just like Duke

number four, this is like, okay, we're on the

road. We are on the road and we are in a, in

a path of figuring out what in the hell is next.

We get all the mystery out of the way. We got

all the, the spontaneity. It's not in any while.

That's not what I was looking for. We get all

the stuff with, you know, him having Megatron

done. We get the Energon cubes and all that.

And again, just like Duke number four, I love

the way most of the background colors are here.

They lend themselves to the point of being good.

for the matching action around them, which is

really interesting because that's always a good

thing. But no, I really enjoyed it. So I think

the colors in this one pop a hell of a lot more

than they did in Duke. Yeah. Well, because the

action here is brighter than what was. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think I think the last time

we talked about Duke and Cobra Commander, I think

I said that. I was pretty much done with Cobra

Commander. And then I was of the two. I much

prefer Duke. This one kind of I kind of came

around back to Cobra Commander after reading

this particular issue. I'm glad, like you said,

they did away with the nemesis enforcer guy.

I still don't know what this thing is, what he

is, how he was able to mutate into what he became.

Don't know if we'll get any sort of answer to

how that happened. But Yeah, I like the introduction

of the doctor here or the scientist guy and kind

of seeing what he's doing with Energon. So knowing

that this character has a lot of experience now

working with Energon, I'm almost willing to bet

that he's going to pop up again. Probably. Whether

it's in the Cobra Commander series, right? Again,

we've got one more. He may pop up in Destro or

Scarlet. Or I would even be opposed to seeing

him pop up in Transformers if that actually happens

to come to fruition. But I think, like you said,

it was sort of a missed opportunity not to call

him Dr. Arkeville. Maybe his name's actually

still Dr. Arkeville. We just haven't been introduced

to him yet. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, I think between

Duke and Cobra Commander, this one was probably

my favorite of the two. I feel like this one

actually had a little bit more action to it than

Duke, although I feel they're both pretty action

heavy. They're both pretty action heavy, but

it's a different style of action. So in Duke,

throughout Duke, you've kind of like had this

desert motif. You've had this sun and sand and

tan and beige and mauve and all this and all

that and everything else. And in Cobra Commander,

we've had most of the first three issues. He's

in the jungle. He's doing this. He's doing that.

And it's all this and all that. And the art and

the colors and the way it's drawn and the way

it's laid out. Is this is more of the action

that i think you and i are kind of used to the

kind of action we love this honestly remind this

issue specifically over commander number four

i can see this being an episode of the old sunbow

cartoon series because of how even though it's

not like. bright in the way of oh my god it's

so bright I can't see the colors are so different

and they so match every scene which is you know

you want to make sure every all the colors match

and you make sure everything is legible thing

yeah anyway uh you know But yeah, it's it's very

very well done And like I said, I like both of

these on an equal playing field for different

reasons because I'm matched for me I am matching

them to the main characters that the stories

are about Duke and obviously Cobra commander

and Cobra commander as I had said in I think

it was either the first issue or second issue

What I read leading up to the start of this series

is they wanted this to be a horror story for

the character of Cobra Commander. And it has

been just that throughout this. And like I said,

with this cliffhanger of Destro and Mars, the

Mars project and all this and all that, holy

crap. But it was so good. Absolutely loved it.

The cliffhanger in this one we get to see Destro

overlooking People working on the war machines

here at Mars Industries. That's the very last

page here in this issue Do you actually think

in the conclusion to this miniseries that the

two are going to meet or Do you think maybe that

would those they'll save that until the end of

the Destro miniseries if this was just it? If

we didn't know that they were going to do a desk,

if there was not a Destro mini series coming,

I would have said, yes, we are going to see them

meet in issue five of Cobra commander. And again,

I don't know because I haven't read it. Nobody

has obviously at this point is not out yet. But

my point is, is that. To answer your question,

if it was just going to be this, yes, I would

want to see them face off in issue five of Cobra

Commander. But since we know that a Destro mini

-series is coming, I assume we're going to get

some sort of origin for Destro in at least the

first maybe one or two, I don't want to say three,

but one or two, maybe three issues of the five

issue series and then issue four and five. Here's

a, oh man, if they did it this way and I don't

know, cause whatever. Issues one and two potentially

the first, let's just say the first three issues

of Destro. Let's say it's all like very, each

issue was a flashback of how he became who he

is. And then by issue four, we have, we see his

whole plan. And then issue five of his series

is the two of them meeting and having whatever,

whatever's going to happen. I don't know. It

is a whole lie. And again. We don't know. We

don't know what the creators are going to do

with that series, but that's what I would like

if we are not going to see him, them meet up

in the next issue, the finale issue of Cobra

Commander. They got to meet at some point because

it's Death Star and Cobra Commander. Those two

go together like peanut butter and jelly. I can

easily see them doing what you just described

or a combination of that plus I think we've seen

Destro in every issue of Cobra Commander up to

this point. I don't remember if he's in the first

one. I'd have to go back and look, but I think

at least from two up to this point, we've seen

Destro in every issue where we get maybe a page

or two of Cobra Commander showing up in the Destro

miniseries. And then kind of like you said, them

ultimately meeting up to kind of close out that

one. But yeah, I think certainly sooner or later

it's going to happen. Let's hope. If not, it's

going to be pretty shitty. It's not going to

be shitty. It's just going to be a different

story. It's like, aha, we've been teasing you

all this time. Yeah, so all right. So anything

else for Cobra Commander number four? No, like

I said, with Duke, I almost called it Destro.

Wow. With Duke, I... I'm ready to see where these

stories end or where they cliff hang into whatever's

next for these two characters. As this being

my first real true foray into a ongoing G .I.

Joe universe, because I've covered previous G

.I. Joe titles over on the pull bag, but I've

never been into the G .I. Joe comics at all.

And it's been... 40 something years since I've

seen the cartoon, even though I have all the

DVDs and my DVD case in the other room. I'm loving

this. Are there things I don't like about it?

Yeah, sure. But there's nothing in either of

these eight issues, four for Duke and four for

this, that have made me be like, no, I don't

care. I don't want to continue. It takes a lot

for me to get to a point in a comic. The comic

has to do something just really, oh my God, unbelievably,

I don't make me not give a crap anymore. And

so far, I feel like I've nitpicked a bunch of

stuff, but most of it I've really enjoyed because

of it being my first foray into the universe.

And I'm very interested to see where these characters

end up and go in the future. Yeah, I think I'm

right there with you. Again, I've kind of hated

both of these series going back and forth as

each new issue comes out. But ultimately, I'm

kind of happy where both of them are as we head

into issue number five. So I'm really interested

to see how these stories wrap up. And again,

I've already read Duke number five. I'm not going

to comment on that here for the next episode.

But so knowing how that ends, I want to see how

Cobra Commander ends. And I'm hoping that it's

it's satisfying. Yeah, absolutely. All right.

So the summary here for Cobra Commander number

five, it says mini series finale, the rise of

Cobra Commander to build an army Cobra Commander

makes a deal with a powerful ally that can't

be trusted. Now that it started, can the Cobra

threat ever be stopped? Well, then I assume that's.

That's gonna be Destro Well, so so one of the

variant covers it shows Cobra commander and then

in the reflection of his Or sorry in the mirror

of his face mask there. We see Destro space.

Yeah If we don't get him in this next issue Yeah,

it's gonna be the ultimate tease here. Come on

Joshua Williamson. Yeah And Duke number five

of five The miniseries finale code name GI Joe

is here Duke has been betrayed by his allies

and hunted by new enemies time has come For Duke

to start fighting for something bigger than his

country bigger than he ever could have imagined

Get ready for the last page shocker that no one

will see coming Okay, you know, they're gonna

pull on second. Yes It says the last page. I'm

going to the last page. I'm not going to spoil

it, but I want to see. Let's see. I'm going to

go backwards here. Yeah. So as he's going backwards,

I'm going to sit here and talk, folks. I can

only assume that they are eventually like we've

been saying. going to go into a full GI Joe miniseries

at some point, because I think once you do the

character spotlights, that's the only place you

can go. And if we did do that, you'd have GI

Joe, Transformers and Void Rivals, three series,

individual of each other, but sometimes they

can connect, obviously, because this is a new

share universe, et cetera, et cetera. So if we

do get a new GI Joe title, I think where they've

taken at least so far after reading the fourth

issue of both Duke and Cobra Commander, I'd be

really excited to see where a GI Joe ongoing

in 2025 would be going. Yeah. So I'm on the last

page here and I don't think it's a shocker. Okay.

Yeah, they're hyping it up too much in my opinion,

but guess you got to to sell the issue. Yeah,

exactly. That's that's how they make the money,

man. Yeah. All right. Anything else for closing

thoughts here? No, I'm I'm excited to get to

number five and see where the finale is. Leave

it. Leave it. Leave us. Lead us. When did we

say Cobra Commander was coming out? That is it's

May 22nd, May 22nd, the end of next month. Yep.

So I feel like that's when did number four come

out? It's been a bit, right? Hold on, hold on.

Number four was April 17th. So it's about 30

days away, give or take a few. It's whatever,

May 22nd to April 17th. So again, if you're looking

at these as single series, mini series, trajectory

of... January 17th, February 21st, March 20th,

April 17th, May 22nd. It's all kind of in lining

of being a 30, every 30 days almost, you're getting

a new issue because it's a monthly thing for

the mini series. So, and then June 19th of 2024,

we will get the collected edition for Cobra Commander

trade paperback. So this this is actually what

I was thinking up here. So so not that I pulled

up something else So void rivals number nine

comes out the same time. This has been pushed

back Yeah, it's not the same day May 22nd. Okay,

so Really? We just have the next Transformers

issue to look forward to till the end of May.

Is that right? Probably probably For anyone interested

the Duke trade paper bag June 5th 2024 so that's

when the Duke trade is coming out. Let me look

for the Transformers yada yada yada And then

yada yada yada Galvatron did this because Galvatron

is Megatron and blah blah blah blah blah Transformers

what are we up to on that number? It's gonna

be number eight. That's me number eight May 8th,

okay So we have a wait for Void Rivals and Cobra

Commander. Yeah, May 8th, June 12th is Transformers

9, July 10th. Okay. And then Void Rivals is...

Yeah, so, but again, it's in line with... Like

I said, if you look at them all as individual

series from each other, because even though they're

in their shit, they're all in their own production

trajectory. We can't expect all of these series

to be produced all at once, even though they

are all produced by different people. Right.

But Void Rivals number eight came out on April

3rd. So that's like almost two months. I mean,

not quite two months. It's like a month and a

half. Yeah. uh void arrivals volume one released

february wow really oh that's the volume one

uh yeah april 3rd for 8th may 22nd for 9 june

june 20 so yeah that's a little bit of an extra

a little time lengthy thing between eight and

nine but it's not bad because you got again They

want to be able to pace themselves on these releases

and because they are doing three or four or five

like between the two two GI Joe books Transformers

was four series so between four series you need

to divvy all that up because you need to give

the readers time to ingest and digest and Unicron

the hell out of these comics and whatever So

the timing is is fine. I think I don't just like

when you you kind of had an issue with void rivals

taking a break at the end of last year so transformers

and whatever could what it's all part of the

comic timeouts thing to to make sure that the

readers aren't we don't want to be overloaded

so much like comics is a vast world of having

like if we were comparing this to every other

release that i read or that you read or that

anyone read it's like Holy crap. Like, you know,

I would go into the comic book store when I was

doing physical books 11 years ago, you got Batman,

Nightwing, Batgirls, Superman. You got like five,

six, seven damn different comics all out in the

same day and roughly about the same time the

next, you know, 30 days later in the next new

month, you're going to have all those next issues

for those. So I think this is fine. I don't think

if we were only reading void rivals and it was

a little bit, you know, Like we said April 3rd

to May 22nd if we felt that that was a little

bit too like it That the anticipation on that

would be great, but we have all of this stuff

together So I think it's okay. I don't have an

issue with the timing on any of the series releases

All right I just find it out that we got to wait

Rick because really all we're getting is we've

already got due and that's this month and really

all we're getting Until the end of next month

is gonna be transformers number eight. So But

that's okay, because, you know, Unicron needs

time to digest his consumption here. I guess,

yeah. All right, so plugs. What do you got for

plugs? Over on the GeekCastradio .com, we've

got Transformers one and done. We've got Steve

and I did a why so serious cult brands and you

stuff like Apple and and all that that just you

know They get you locked into their system and

they never want you to get out of it The pull

bag I don't know if I mentioned this on air or

not But I have this insane ambition and I'm planning

on I think I did mention this earlier in the

episode 150 episodes before the end of the year,

so that'll get us to 700 overall in 11 years

We are doing Studio 2009, Episode 82 at some

point. I don't know what that's gonna be, but

that's gonna happen sometime soon. But yeah,

geekcastradio .com, we've got 15 years of content,

folks, over 4 ,000 published episodes. Because

I'm a machine. It's a lot of episodes. Yep, I'm

a machine. Yep. Is that it? that's it all right

uh plugs from my end you can find this podcast

on another comic review .com uh if you're depending

on how you're listening to this right if you're

getting it from some podcasting software somewhere

some podcast index be sure to like and leave

us a review if you could I realize we don't have

like an email address for people to leave comments

so we can talk about them or ask us questions.

But we do have an Instagram account. You can

find us on Instagram at another comic review.

So you can hit us up there if you want. Maybe

it'd be advantageous to get an email address

so people could comment and send. I mean, you

know, sure. I don't know. In 11 years and over

4 ,000 episodes, I've gotten some emails in 11

years or 15 years overall, but I wrote up a blog

post a couple of years ago. Is email truly dead

as a communication form? I went through this

whole reasoning why in the social media world

that between Twitter DMS and Facebook Messenger

and Google chats and what like do I mean? Yes

emails are needed for verification for identification

for blah blah blah and then whatever else but

like I don't remember the last time I had an

email chain specifically for It's great, you

know for for listeners that want to write in

and we've had several people write into feedback

at geek castor .com over the years, but I can

So I want to say I've had in in 15 years 16 years

of podcasting maybe 250 emails or less I Think

I don't know we always used to get them on TF

wire. So I was happy answering questions Well,

I'm always happy answering questions. I just

think the form and the way the questions are

asked is different now than it was all those

years ago. Like, again, just the concept of email

has changed so much. And like you just said,

they can message you on Instagram or they can

find us on Blue Sky or Twitter or wherever, you

know, all that. So I just think the landscape

of the listener communication has changed. Yeah,

maybe You could also you could also find me on

YouTube I'm at youtube .com slash matrix underscore

prime and you can find me on blue sky at Jesse

Jesse s I can't say my name at J e sse early

e ar le y and Before we sign off. I want to give

a shout out to Belgium Population of Belgium

is eleven point five million Just imagine if

we had all of you as listeners Another morning.

I'm making waffles. I Love me some waffles Me

too. Yeah All right. So I think that's it for

this episode. So up next we will have transformers

number eight Maybe Ryan will join us for that.

We'll see until next Till next time. This is

Jesse signing off You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's first comic

review and discussion podcast. There are several

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