Destro and Scarlett #1 Review

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You're a paradox Scott Welcome to another comic

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by TFG1 Mike from geekcastradio .com Hello. Hello.

Hello. Hello. We got a double shot coming at

you today So we're discussing Scarlet and Estro

number one together Just like we do with Duke

and Cobra Commander. It just makes sense with

how they're doing these and since they're individual

characters like the way I look at these because

we know specifically these are five issue miniseries.

That's five issues. You can take technically

10 between the two. You can take 15 minutes for

the first one, 20 minutes, whatever, and the

same amount of time for the second one. After

a few other little bit of edits, you have a 45,

50 minute podcast. Bob's your uncle. There you

go. We all have fun. I don't have an uncle named

Bob though. Don't you know I'm an old man and

I use old man references. Thank you very much.

Get off my lawn. Gotcha. Okay. Well, went right

over my head there. All right. So topic number

one, Scarlet number one by Kelly Thompson, Marco

Ferrari, Lee Luffridge, and Russ Wooten, our

buddy Russ man. He's just around here. Well,

he's the litter. He's the litter for the whole

company. For everything it seems. Well, it's

not bad. I mean, you know. Does he does he actually

do like the lettering for like literally everything?

As long as his name's on and I assume so. Well,

I mean, if his name's on it, but do you know,

like you said for the entire company, is that,

I mean, is that true? Well, I'm saying like,

as far as like the entire company, meaning like

all of the, like any, any comic that his name

is on, I'm sure that the Scarlet lettering for

the Scarlet title on the front page of Scarlet

number one and on the inside page, I'm sure that's

his lettering. Like who else would, they would

credit somebody else if he didn't do the work.

Right, but don't they put out other comics than

just the energon universe? Yeah, they do the

Walking Dead, I think. I don't remember off -topic.

It's an imprint of Image, and Image itself does

a whole bunch of other comics. I'm saying he's

the letterer for the Energon Universe titles.

OK, all right. Well, that's better. Specifically,

too. Yeah, so that's all I'm saying. I know you

knew that. Well, I'm saying, like, for all the

stuff that we're doing with it... If somebody

else is a letter, he must have been sick that

week. Sure, maybe. All right. So quick synopsis

from ImageComics .com. Again, we're covering

Scarlet number one here first. A miniseries premiere

of the next chapter of Codename G .I. Joe begins

here. Now, before I dive into that, can we just

focus on that for a second? The next chapter

of Codename G .I. Joe. Do you think that's what

the ongoing series is going to be called? Because

that's like. They've called that out explicitly

in the Free Comic Book Day issue as well. I would

like to think they would just name it G .I. Joe,

plain, simple, done, because that way it would

distinguish itself, and plus they're going to

have the inner, not necessarily on the top of

the scarlet, but on the inside of the scarlet,

it has the Inner John Universe logo above the

confidential scarlet thing. So I assume that's

how they're going to decide. Again, I'm assuming

here, so I'm making an ass of myself, but it's

one of those things where I assume naming it

just G .I. Joe for the Energon universe would

be fine because you have over here 300 and something

issues of Larry Hama stuff, which is G .I. Joe,

a real American hero. And that's a whole separate

thing. I don't necessarily think they need to

do a super long title. It could be codenamed

G .I. Joe, it could just be G .I. Joe, it could

be G .I. Joe Extreme, I don't know, Sigma Six,

Resolute. It could be something other than -

None of those please, none of those. Hey, Resolute

wasn't bad. Resolute was alright. So anyway,

I don't know. I'm just gonna, until I see an

actual cover, title, preview thing that says,

hey, this is the G .I. Joe Energon Universe comic.

I'm just going to assume it's going to be called

G .I. Joe. I think in the context of the comic,

they are calling it code name G .I. Joe because

of the fact of that it hasn't actively started

yet. They're still in the works of doing all

the stuff. I don't know. Maybe we should take

bats going into Comic -Con and see. Oh, God,

no. Loser has to read whatever the winner selects

as an issue for a comic. All right. All right.

Well, anyway, so Shayna Shayna Scarlett O 'Hara

is about to take on the most dangerous blackouts

mission of her career infiltrating and mysterious

rising power in Japan known as clan Arashic Yeah.

Clan or Rosh Akagi. Her one lead is her former

partner Jinx turned a Rosh Akagi enforcer. I

like how they put that right next to each other.

Double double Rosh Akagi. Now Scarlet must use

her very particular set of skills to survive

undercover and discover a shocking weapon that

could change the balance of power on Earth. Think

that's standard, John? It has to be. I mean,

come on, duh. We've already discovered it though,

right? Everyone seems to have their hands in

it. Yes, it's already been discovered, but now

we're trying to figure out who has it and who

shouldn't should not have it. All right, folks,

I'm going to mess up Arashikage about eight million

times here, so bear with me. So quick rundown,

my quick rundown. We open with Scarlett infiltrating

a private home a la Jeffrey Epstein on an island

of Monaco. Are there any changerines down there?

I don't know about that, but there's definitely

illegal activity going on, I can tell you that.

Her mission, gather evidence to confirm buyers

of female hostages. Things quickly go south when

her former partner Jinx makes an appearance at

the party along with his, along with her sword

wielding accomplices. Fighting breaks out and

Scarlett engages the attackers as Jinx makes

her way with the hostage to a waiting helicopter

and escapes. Back in Washington DC, Scarlett

gets chewed out by her superior and heads for

home when she notices that someone has broken

in. After sneaking around to the back of the

house, she sees a man sitting down inside holding

the confidential folder. He introduces himself

as Stalker, who, you know, we were introduced

to back in Duke, and is interested in knowing

more about her report to DC. Scarlett goes into

her backstory with Jinx, saying that she is like

a sister to her. Stalker offers her the chance

to infiltrate Clan Arashikage to get back to

Jinx. Scarlett accepts and is taken deep into

the mountains by Harlan Moore, aka Snowjob, to

seek out the Clan. She's quickly tracked and

attacked by several Clan ninjas, all of whom

she quickly disposes of. in bloody fashion, I

will say. We close with Scarlet at the gates

of the clan temple offering yourself to the clan

master, which I know sounds nasty, but hey, I

just referenced Jeffrey Epstein. So realizing

he's not taking the bait, Scarlet thinks she

might be in trouble, but is knocked unconscious

by Storm Shadow before having a chance to react.

So your thoughts and review of Scarlet number

one. So first of all, I need to say Kelly Thompson

is amazing. She is a great writer. She has written

for IDW. She's written for Marvel. She's written

a bunch of stuff. She wrote a Black Widow series

that I need to get back into that I actually

need to continue. I need to start it actually.

But a few times in here when I saw Scarlett,

especially when I see Scarlett in white, I'm

like, hey, wait a minute. Is that Black Widow

or that's Scarlett? Okay. So I personally through

two different interviews have spent over three

hours with Kelly Thompson from 2015. up until

2021. We did, like I said, we did her Jim interview

back in 2015 when she was writing for Jim for

IDW. And then in 2021, she did a Kate Bishop

Hawkeye story for Marvel, a series for Marvel.

So my friend Alison and I at the time, we had

interviewed Kelly way back in 2021. And she's

a great writer. I love, like, when I saw that

it was going to be her writing this, I was like,

oh, that makes so much sense, and I can't wait

to read this story. As far as review of this,

as always, the art is amazing. Marco Ferrari

is the artist and Lee Lockeridge is the colorist.

I love how these, again, what is so great about

the Energon universe is every title, the colors

just work well from the opening to where she's

You know doing the whole you know water to land

thing and she's doing the the the change from

the from the wetsuit to the dress and all that

and then we get into the party and we get all

those colors and the lines and the way that the

way that she moves man she jumps off that balcony

or they um the the banister the railing and stairs

there oh it was just so good and this is this

is the type of comic That people that like suspense

comics. This is the type of book you should be

reading because at the end of this I was like,

please feed issue to into my brain right now,

please Like can I can I have it now? I don't

want to wait. I know And before we even go any

further the only thing I'm gonna say is Thank

you Russ and thank you to everybody else and

the GI Joe team for the letters page being black

and white Well, to be fair, there is no letters

page in this True. Okay. Well, but I'm saying

like hopefully they keep up with this coloring

with this introduction That they did from from

Kelly the the the right up here at the end of

the book I'm hoping they stick with this In issues

two three four and five as far as just plain

black and white You don't need any other colors

for the letters in the and the stuff Yeah, I

think that looks I'm trying to remember. I've

got it. I mean, I've got the issue right here.

I can guess I can pull it up. I think that looks

let me scroll to the end here really quick. I

want to say that looks very much like G .I. Joe,

a real American hero. Yeah, I was laid out. Yeah.

Well, and the same thing like with the with the

opening page and how they're doing all of the

G .I. Joe titles are doing this, the creative

page where it tells you who who are in a confidential

like. That's awesome. That's cool. That looks

like either a bulletin or a newspaper or obviously

a confidential newspaper, a confidential file

folder type thing. I'm loving that. That is so

cool and everything else in between that and

the opening letter from Kelly at the end. I can't

wait to read more of this story. I am so in on

this one. Yeah, I think so. I don't I didn't

know anything about. about Kelly Thompson here,

because again, I'm relatively new into reading

comics, I would say. It hasn't quite been a year

yet. So I didn't know anything about her or her

writing. When I finished reading this for the

first time, I believe I told you, maybe we talked

about it in the last episode, I don't remember,

but at the very least I told you, I actually

left a written review of this on Amazon. I gave

it a five star. The writing is absolutely fantastic.

I was worried because as I was looking through

this, because typically what I'll do is I'll

sit down and I'll just kind of thumb through

it just a little bit. Like if I want to kind

of spoil myself, just in terms of the artwork,

but then I'll go back and I'll obviously read

it. And I was a little concerned about the amount

of speech bubbles that were in here. And there

are several pages like where she's talking with

Stalker and it's like going back and forth, but

it's very easy to follow. Yeah, there's a lot

of information there. And it's it's it's not

boring. It doesn't dull the story down or like

drag the story down. It's yeah, it's just very

interesting read from, you know, from start to

finish and very impressed with the writing overall.

Like you said, the artwork is great. The colors.

Yeah, they're just on point with, you know, depending

on what scene that we're in, the colors are just

completely on point with with how they should

look. Um, but yeah, so being a first issue, uh,

this has gotten me completely hooked. Uh, unlike

what I had with Duke and Cobra command. So, um,

very, and I, and I, and I think the other thing

is, is that with Duke and Cobra commander, even

though we, well, you may not know, but the comic

community at large knows, uh, Joshua Williamson.

and all that and everything else. I think it's

because Duke and Cobra Commander are so in the

forefront of the G .I. Joe franchise, obviously,

as they should be, and we didn't know what we

were gonna get until the writer, like until I

saw an interview with Williamson where he said,

yeah, the Cobra Commander book is essentially

a full -on horror book with G .I. Joe characters.

I was like, okay, all right, well, I'm not that

much into horror, but it's G .I. Joe, it's Cobra

Commander, we're doing this, I'll whatever. But

with Scarlet, man, it's like I know her from

the episode. She was in the original cartoon

in the, in the sunbow cartoon, specifically not

the decoy. Uh, so I knew her from that, but I'm

like, Hey, this is a fresh new start for me.

So let's just go with it and see what happens.

I don't mind that there are so many speech bubbles

in this first issue because you need explanations

you need to like she's in the background of this

whole scene and talking to control and talking

to this and talking to that and and doing this

reconnaissance stuff meanwhile everything else

at this party is going on so you need those speech

bubbles I think to figure out the story thus

far and honestly all comics should be a full

-on mix of writing and art Sometimes there is

more art in some issues and sometimes there is

more writing in some issues, and that's OK, because

it's still at the end of the day of balance between

the two. Yeah, like, for example, on, I guess,

location 16, I don't know if that translates

to page 16, but probably she's talking she's

talking to stalker. And at the bottom of that

page, right, there's like there's five speech

bubbles, but it's like a back and forth conversation.

It's very easy to follow. And I just like the

way that I guess. Well, I guess, again, I don't

know who does the speech bubbles. Is that the

artist? Is that Russ? I don't know. I assume

potentially it's the artist doing the speech

bubble, maybe Russ doing the letter. Again, I

don't know. One of these days, I think I'm going

to have to start bugging him on Twitter. Need

to get Russ. Oh, so funny thing. When Scarlet

number one came out, when we first like the day

we were going to read it. After I read the issue,

the first thing I did was send Kelly an email

and saying, Hey, I want to catch up. And I would

love to have you on this podcast that I'm co

-hosting with that this guy's doing called another

comic review. And she emailed me back and she

said, my schedule is currently overbooked. I

said, okay, fine. The invitation is always open

anytime you want to come on. So, you know, uh,

and who knows, maybe we. could get Russ, I don't

see why we couldn't. Well, I mean, at this rate,

though, he's literally literally doing everything

for the company, he told me. Funny guy. You know

what I mean, damn it. Yeah, location. Yeah, that's

yeah, that is a lot of speech bubbles between

the two of them, but it works very well. Yeah.

So the reason I call that explicitly was because

I like whoever's doing the layout of it. It works

really well in this comic. I mean, there's numerous

pages where there's there's back and forth conversations

between multiple characters and just the way

that the speech bubbles are laid out. Very easy

to follow. And I just I just like that. Again,

whoever is doing it, I like the way they laid

it out. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the way

it should be. Yeah. Yeah. The whole point of

comics is you should be able to number one. Enjoy

the art for what it is and what you like is what

you like. And if there are some things you want

to nitpick, fine. But there's not a lot of in

here with the art that I didn't want to nitpick

at all. And then number two, you need to be able

to read the story because this is not a This

is not your standard novel where you're reading

just a wall of text and you have to imagine the

things yourself. Like, this isn't us reading

the Hardy Boys from the however the hell long

ago. You know what I mean? But I'm saying, like,

it's that type of thing. Like, yes, novels and

things like that have their place. But with comics,

as I said earlier, it needs to be a full mix.

And you are absolutely right. The speech bubbles

do work. There have only been in my 11 and a

half years of doing the pull bag there have only

been a handful of comics where I could not read

Like I could probably like maybe 20 different

titles and I'm talking titles not issues like

right there's a In the early new 52 days like

most of the Batman and Superman and stuff like

that Sometimes they'll do like this look like

they'll do a I'm trying to see if they have it

in here They don't normally they would do like

location blah blah blah blah or actually no it's

on the first page even though i think she is

it she that says that or yeah so basically the

bottom of the first page when her head comes

up out of the water and it says monaco okay normally

like and again i'm comparing skybound to dc whatever

their apples oranges whatever normally if this

was a dc book the monaco would not be where she's

popping up out of the water it would be up at

the top left and in some weird blue background

speech bubble with yellow text. And I can show

you specific examples of DC Comics doing this.

And I know this is not DC. I'm just saying as

far as you talking about the lettering and the

speech bubbles and all that, this is excellent.

This is the way to go. This is, again, balance.

You need balance in comics. And yeah, absolutely.

This is fun. Now I want to know, does Russ put

in Monaco? I'm going to beat you. Speaking of

Hardy Boys, tune in for the next episode where

we review Hardy Boys number one. Dead Target,

where Joe Morton, Joe Hardy's girlfriend, Iola

Morton gets killed. Dude, trust me, I was a Hardy

Boys fiend in the 80s as a child. We need a podcast

on that next. We'll work on it. Coming next year

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Yeah, but anyways,

yeah, so I think of everything we've seen in

the energon universe so far outside of Transformers

number one, I think this is my favorite debut

issue. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I mean, I'm really

looking forward to issue two, similar to what

you were saying. So kind of going back to that.

I think going into Duke and Cobra Commander,

the main reasons I was not a fan of them in the

end, other than Again, I don't think the end

of Cobra Commander lived up to or was earned

based on everything that came before in the preceding

four issues. I think I came to those with my

own baggage and preconceived notions of what

those characters are and what they should be.

And I think with that in mind, I don't know that

I gave it a full. fair chance in reading it.

I mean, even I've gone back and read a couple

of the issues of both Duke and Copper Commander,

and they're still not great, in my opinion. I

don't think the writing is all that great. But

again, I came into those with preconceived notions

of who those characters should be. When it comes

to Scarlett, I don't know much about Scarlett.

Again, I watched very few episodes of the 80s

GI Joe cartoon, so I don't know much about her.

So I'm not really coming into this series with

any preconceived notions of who this character

is or what she is. So, yeah, I'm really looking

forward to seeing where this series goes. Absolutely.

Anything else on Scarlet? Five out of five. Five

out of five. That is what I gave a five out of

five on Amazon. You can go out to Amazon, verify

that my review is there. Mike has seen it. Yep,

I've seen it. All right. So Destro? Yeah, Destro.

I'm going to say this right now. I don't know

how Destro is going to end up in issues two,

three, four, and five, but I think I like the

whole of Cobra Commander more than I did Destro

number one. We can get into this. So from Destro

number one, from Dan Waters, Andrea Bresson?

Andrea Bresson? Adriano Lucas? Andre, I believe.

Andre? Andre Bresson? Andre Bresson. I don't

know. Adriano Lucas and Russ. Everyone knows

Russ at this point. Quick synopsis from ImageComics

.com. Miniseries premiere, the next chapter of

The Cobra Threat begins. James McCullen Destro,

the 24th, is the man behind Mars Industries,

the undisputed leader providing high -tech weapons

to world powers. for the right price. But the

emergence of Energon has changed everything as

Destro's ambitions grow, the Crimson Twins, Tomex,

and Zammet. Paoli emerged to destroy their competition,

and Cobra Commander realizes his current ally

could be his future greatest enemy. Is that how

you pronounce her last name, Paoli? I assume

so, because it reminds me of Paoli Peaks here

in Indiana, which is a ski lodge. So, OK, and

it's it's Zammet, right? Yeah, Tomax and Xamarin.

Okay. All right. And here's my quick rundown.

So I'll say this right up front. I had a hard

time coming up with the synopsis. So bear with

me a lot goes on in this issue. And it's very

hard to kind of summarize everything. So Here

we go. We open in the Republic of Darkelonia,

where protesters are storming the gates of the

Prime Minister's residence. The Prime Minister

orders some of the protesters be shot to quell

the uprising, but when the gates are open, the

hired guns are met by a battle android schupper

with lots more dropping in from the sky. Led

by Destro, the schupper storm the palace to confront

the Prime Minister, who after a short exchange,

shoots himself in the head. We cut to a conversation

between Cobra Commander and Destro, with Cobra

Commander expressing his displeasure about drawing

attention while Cobra is still amassing its army.

Pissed at the conversation, Destro ends it by

saying he is not Cobra Commander's subordinate.

We cut to the Scottish Highlands, home of Clan

Destro, where we see Destro climbing through

the snowy mountains to seek the wisdom of his

ancestors and apparently talk to these statues.

Three weeks later in Darklonia, Destro is hosting

an illegal arms fair where he downplays and denies

the existence of his robotic soldiers. Mercer

does a sweep of all the vendors to see if anyone

else has access to energon, but finds none. We

cut to Sierra Gordo, South America, where Zamet

and Tomax, the head of extensive enterprises,

are visiting one of their clients, a small military

camp. Their crimson guards take out the camp

and appear to be working for someone they refer

to as General. We close back in Darkelonia, where

combat drones drop bombs on Destro's arms fair.

Not knowing who is doing this, Destro declares

that he is now at war. Thoughts in review? First

of all, Dan Waters. I had never heard of his

name and I'm on his Twitter account because it's

the easiest thing to find autobiographical things.

Writes the comics Frederick Wortham warned you

about the Six Fingers, Destro, Doctor Who, Loki,

Sword of Asriel, Homesick Pilots, Lucifer and

more. So I've never heard of this writer first

for me. He's apparently doing Creature from the

Black Lagoon that we've seen advertised in John

Universe comics. And I wish I had written I like

I wish I had read his letter I wish I actually

I wish I really paid more attention this time

around to the first issue letters because I didn't

realize The letter originally was obviously from

Kelly and scarlet and it's from Dan here in the

back of Destro But before all of that Destro

number one Shoot me now Don't wait till you get

home, just shoot me now in the words of Daffy

Duck. Maybe the Prime Minister could shoot you,

but he's dead. Yeah, he's dead. So, I mean, it

does a good job of introducing the main characters

of the rest of kind of Cobra. We have the Bat

Troopers, we have Destro and his Mars industries.

I didn't realize Cobra Commander was going to

show up, so that's kind of nice seeing Cobra

Commander in this. after what we've already discussed

with his own series. Yeah, Destro standing in

front of what I can only say are the great spirits

of evil from Thundercats, where Mumrah used to...

No, I'm not kidding! Look at them! They're four

statues, and he's standing in front of them talking

to them. And if you... Mumrah, ancient spirits

of evil, transform this decayed form to Mumrah,

the ever living! Like I remember that like it

was 1985 and I was five years old all over again

So seeing these statues that was the first thing

I thought of Should we address the? location

16 the 18 issue here In a second, okay Overall,

I I am not looking forward to issue two for this

I'm just not was not like when I reached the

end of this I was like okay I guess I'll wait

till next month but yeah the the 2b continued

the battle here the running on and no this is

not the only thing I will praise from this comic

is as Same thing I praise all the time, because

I don't have an issue with it, is the art. The

art's amazing. The backgrounds, the colors, the

lines and the drawings, the pencils for the characters.

The characters all look great. Cobra Commander,

oh my god. The panel where he says, I am displeased.

Destro. He doesn't say Destro, but it's where

it just shows his face. That's awesome. I love

that. But the writing... To me, I think I'm right

there in the same boat with you. Same page, same

boat, same thing. I feel like the story of this,

the reason I had, as I was going through my quick

rundown, I opened with, bear with me because

it was hard to summarize this. I think it's because

this series or this particular issue is literally

all over the board. We jump from location to

location to location and it's like, I'm not really

following what's going on. I had a hard time

understanding until I reread it. So at the very

beginning here, right, the the protesters are

storming the gates. Right. And when they open

the gates, right. And the guys are coming out

with the guns to shoot them. Right. We've got

that robotic. What's the the bats, the battle,

the battle? Yeah, the Android. Yeah. So he's

standing there and then he like he takes some

of them out. And then he turns around and he

shoots the people who are storming the gates.

And I didn't pick up on that at first, because

I thought maybe like, oh, the robot guy, like

the Android is coming out with the guys with

the guns and is killing the protesters. But I'm

like, oh, that's not it. Because then he's...

Destre was leading them in to see the Prime Minister.

So I was confused as to what the hell was going

on. And then it wasn't until after he was talking

to Destre was talking to Cobra Commander where

I realized they were talking about the androids

and that at the moment they just shoot anyone

with a face. Yes. So it says the bats needed

testing in the in the field Cobra Commander their

IFF programming remains volatile at best and

Cobra Commander asks. So what does that mean?

and then Death Star goes on to say, it means

they shoot anything with a face in that face.

That's why the androids had turned around and

were killing the protesters. The first read through,

I didn't get that. I'm like, I have no idea what

the hell's going on. And then after rereading,

I'm like, okay, that makes more sense now. But

just jumping around from place to place, the

Scottish Highlands, where Destro is going to

talk to these statues, I'm like, I don't know

what the hell the statues are. He's talking to

nobody. There's nobody there. It's like, it doesn't

say what this place is, other than he refers

to clandestro. So it's like, is it the home of

clandestro? That's what I called it in the rundown.

But I don't know. uh i'm not familiar with that

from gi joe like the the cartoon again watched

very uh little of that but is that like a thing

do you know i don't know okay and then like i

said it's just all over the board i don't know

i don't know what this series goes from here

Yeah, it's all over the board and I don't know

why he didn't join us tonight, but we have incoming

messages and commentary from Ryan His biggest

issue was the ideas surrounding its attempts

at being political are kind of a 13 year olds

idea of what politics is Okay, that's what he

said in the chat to us. So I Don't know Yeah,

I do not like this writing Yeah, I don't I don't

know anything about this writer But I I don't

think I'm willing to give him a chance, but this

first issue does not have me Sorry, I was just

I was just gonna say with as much as what was

packed in scarlet number one Uh, and with all

of the word bubbles in there, it was very easy

to follow the entire story from start to finish

of that, that particular issue with this. I'm

having a hell of a time doing so. Yeah. You have.

So again, I think what they're trying to do here

is number one, they're trying to bring Cobra

Commander over into Destro because Cobra Commander

Destro. Hello. They're obviously whatever. And

then you're introducing Tomax and Zaymott. And

it goes between Destro, Cobra Commander, them,

and whatever other things with the villagers.

It's all over the place. Yeah, I think it's jam

-packed with too many quote -unquote main characters.

And I don't know who I should be focusing on,

right? It's called Destro, but I don't feel like

this issue focuses on Destro. I feel like it's

trying to introduce us to all these secondary

and tertiary characters. Will they be playing

some sort of part in G .I. Joe once that series

happens? Yeah. I mean, they do introduce him.

They introduce him as the head of Mars Industries.

They tell you his name. They have him go to Momorah's

tomb with the ancient spirits of evil and all

of that in the Scottish hills of Normandy or

whatever the hell. We were introduced to Destro

as the head of Mars Industries in several issues

of the other mini -series. But I think they kind

of have to cover their asses on this because

Destro number one came out June of 2023. Cobra

Commander has been running since - 2024. 2024.

Sorry. June of 2024, Cobra Commander has been

running since December of 2023 for five issues.

So maybe the people like me kind of stopped with

Cobra Commander and were like, okay, well, whatever

happens with Cobra next, we'll see, but I don't

know. Yeah, I don't. I just did not want to,

as I started reading this, I'm just like, I don't

like where the story's going. It seems like it's

it's more like a political type. Yeah. I don't

know. Storyline that I'm not interested in reading

anything about. A question I did have for you.

Again, I think you're more familiar with G .I.

Joe than I am. A little bit. Not much, but maybe.

So at the end there, when Destro is getting right

when they're getting bombed by those those drones.

Do you see somebody or something, I presume they're

robotic maybe, flying those drones? I guess,

do you know what those things are? Are they people?

Are they robots? Do you know where they come

from? So it's like location 29 of 39. At the

very first panel there. They look more like friends

of men at arms from... If only Skybound could

get a master's license for comics, but I think

that's still on to DC. Let me zoom in. Yeah,

that is somebody. I don't know who the hell it

is, but there's somebody flying that thing. I

don't know what they are, but I was curious if

you knew what they were at all. You're kind of

right. They kind of look like the... What the

hell is the name of this stupid flying thing?

The Wind Raider. God, that took me too goddamn

long. The Wind Raider from Masters. The flying

things kind of look like that. I don't know who...

So we got the formation coming up of G .I. Joe

between Duke, Scarlett, all of that. We've got

Cobra coming up with Cobra and everything else

and all this and all that. And now it's like,

whose side are these guys on? Because they're

firing on Destro. And Destro is a part of Cobra.

Don't know I don't like this I will be trying

issue too, but This might be a series where I'm

like, yeah, I don't know if we need to finish

this If it gets worse than this like I want explanations.

I want to know what the hell like I'm just getting

angry now because scarlet was so good scarlet

was so me god dude maybe we should have started

with the bad comic first he's the good one because

holy crap yeah again i think i think the best

part of this issue for me were just again despite

the fact that i hated the Cobra Commander mini

-series were the pages that Cobra Commander were

on. Whereas in this comic, I actually like the

pages that Cobra Commander was on. He's on two

pages here, and the way the character is presented

here feels like the character that I know from

the TV show. Yeah. Right. And so like the whatever

we got in the Cobra Commander mini -series. I,

I don't know, dude. And I'm just like, I'm at

a loss because again, like we already said so

far, this issue is all over the place and it

doesn't have like, if it started with Cobra,

like you can start by introducing Destro as whatever,

as the character that he is and all that and

give us a little bit of backstory. Fine. Sure.

Great. go into the Cobra Commander bits, have

Cobra Commander send him out on some sort of

mission, and then maybe that's why these other...

Like, again, I don't freaking know, and I...

and literally, not kidding, between the time

this issue released and the time of me saying

this right now to you fine people who are listening

at some point in the future, I've read this comic

seven different times to make sure I understood

every bit of it. And I understood practically

five and three quarters percent of this issue.

I'm not kidding. Dude, it's a bad first issue.

Like if you come out, if you're supposed to come

out of the gates with like by putting your best

foot forward, this is not it. They did a poor

job. Yeah. And again, it's the writing. That's

what the poor job is. It's not the art. It's

not the colors. It's not the letters. It's not

any of that. It's the story. It's the beginning

part if you have a beginning bad beginning part

of the story Are people really gonna want to

stick around to see what the middle in the end

is? No, probably not Hey, look, I'll say this

and I don't think I've said this to your audience

before our new audience here before but a couple

of years ago when DC was doing this number year

five six years ago now DC was doing black label

stories. So it was full on adult stories. It

was this, it was that, it was whatever. It was

like Batman. I just can't even. So they did one

called Superman Year One or whatever, and it

was a Frank Miller book. And everybody, even

if you've never, even if you're only a year into

your comics enjoyment or whatever you want to

call it, fandom, whatever, it doesn't matter.

Everybody has heard the name Frank Miller at

some point or another. Dark Knight Returns, Dark

Knight Straits, again, all this stuff, whatever.

So we know Frank's writing style. We know his

story style. I went into Superman year one and

these DC Black Label things were three issues.

Three oversized issues. So instead of... 20 pages

or 40 pages or instead of a 40 page book with

20 or so 20 so or 28 so pages You had like a

60 page book with 40 page story pages or whatever

the hell it is So I went into this thing. Okay,

you're gonna tell Superman's origin Obviously

starts a Krypton goes to earth goes to the farm

goes to metropolis blah blah blah my buddy Joe

Reed and I covered the first two issues I Because

again how? Comics works is you see the solicits

first to see if you're going to want to read

the other ones. I saw the solicit to the third

issue. I sent it to Joe. I said two words to

him. I said, I'm out, period. Because in the

third issue of the Superman origin story, what

does Frank Miller do? He Frank Millers it up

and has Batman and Wonder Woman come in. And

I'm like, that's not what I'm here for. Like,

you can end your series, like, if you want to

end your series on that, like, the final part

of the story is Superman meets up with Batman

in Wonder Woman and, like, you leave it on a

cliffhanger or something, because it's only three

issues anyway. Fine. But I was like, dude, I

can't. And we have never finished it up until

right now today. And I'd sent Joe a message the

other day. I'm like, I guess at some point, I

guess we should really finish that stupid story.

But... That's the reason why I'm saying all of

this stuff. Listeners is because that's the same

way I feel about this issue. I don't want to

read number two after this. I'm going to just

because you know, I want to get to the next episode.

No, no, no. It's fine. I mean, I've read worse,

but you know, the point is like at like. Well,

like I said, maybe we should have started with

the bad book first and ended on the good book.

But it's one of those things where we weren't

sure. I mean, yeah, we love Scarlet, but we weren't

sure about Destro. And now it's like, we know,

and it's like, I don't know. I just need a more

linear, cleaner, sleeker side of the story. Right

now, at this point, I want answers. I want you

to take three to seven pages of the second issue

and explain the first issue to me. Yeah. At this

point, I'd rather get more of the backstory of

Destro than anything else. I agree with that,

yes. But I don't think going forward that that's

what we're going to get. No, probably not. I

mean, does he show up in Rise of Cobra? I haven't

seen the other one. I haven't seen the second

G .I. Joe movie, Retaliation, so I don't know.

I think it's in Rise of Cobra where we see his

origin of how he got it. How does the skybound

version of Destro get his face melted and painted

silver? That's what I want to see. I want to

see his face melt off. Yeah. All we know is Cobra

Commander has three eyes. That's right. All right,

so the other topic here. Yes. So as I was reading

this, I came across something that stood out

to me or jumped out to me that I floated by you

just to see if you caught it or what your thoughts

were on it. So on page, I guess, again, location

18, him and I are both reading the digital version

here. Yeah, we're on Comixology. So folks, if

you're using the digital version on, well, I

say Comixology, Kindle Comics, but it really...

That's a whole, yes, location 18. So there's

this woman whose name is Miss Carlton Ritz, right?

So she's apparently the head of, she's the CEO,

I guess, CEO of - The Ritz Carlton. That's an

Instagram reel right there. I mean, that's probably

where you got the name from, to be honest with

you. Unless she's in like GI Joe Laura that I'm

unaware of, but so she's the CIO. She is the

CEO and has a male assistant. And there's a panel

on here. I'm going to read it. She says, Brandon,

that's the name of the assistant. Which one of

us is the CEO and which one of us is the executive

assistant brought along because looking at his

fabulous butt cheeks or sorry, his fabulous butt

cheers me up when I get bored. And he goes, I

only meant And then that's kind of, it just kind

of dies from there. So again, as I was reading

this, it jumped out to me because again, it's

2024. I'm not a prude, but it seems like this

to me would be classified as sexual harassment.

And it just seems odd in 2024 that it would be

thrown into the comic just so nonchalantly. I

was asking around where I asked you. uh what

your thoughts were of it i asked ryan right we

just got his uh feedback here on what he thought

he said when i saw what you guys said i thought

we were looking at any at and any comic martin

miller has written we're not working for marvel

sort of situation i don't know what that means

what that reference it's a whole it's a whole

thing but basically ryan's thing is it's a meant

as a look at what a jerk she is sort of thing

rather than being serious yeah so The reason

I asked the question, so I also asked this question

online on Reddit, and people were like, you're

okay with the dreadnoughts dragging people behind

their car or taking them out back behind their

shed and mutilating them, but you're not okay

with this? I'm like, I seem to recall saying

that was also violent. And then I wasn't, I don't

condone the violence, but. This jumped out to

me because I had a similar situation, not a superior,

but this happened to me at work. I learned about

it after the fact. It wasn't said to my face,

but I learned about it after the fact that there

were two people who I didn't directly work with,

but one person was in my office, another person

was part of the office, but in a different location

that I worked at. than what I worked at, I should

say. And those two were like communicating back

and forth about me. And I didn't learn about

that until after the fact. And it made me feel

like really icky. Yeah. And I didn't, I never

confronted them about it because again, it was

like secondhand knowledge. And after learning

about it, the person who told me I know wasn't

lying. Oh boy. So, um, so this thing jumped out

to me only because I've had a somewhat similar

experience, not the same exact experience, because

again, it wasn't a superior who said it to me,

they didn't say it to me directly. But again,

it happened to me. And after I learned about

it, I felt icky. And I just kind of wanted to

stay away from those people. Yeah. Again, in

my situation, it wasn't something I could really

report because I didn't have any evidence to

back it up. Again, it wasn't said to me directly.

But after reading this, it just kind of jumped

out to me like I'm like, it's 2024. It seems

like this shouldn't be a thing in the comics.

Yes, to Ryan's point, this is typically something

that would happen to a female character within

the comic, and they just kind of turn the tables

here. But I don't think it's right to happen

to either male or female characters in the comic.

No, and I agree with that. So, yeah, I just wanted

to call that explicitly. I don't think that should

have been in there. They could have just dropped

that panel altogether or changed the... They

could have changed the word. Again, it's the

writing. The writing is the problem with this

issue. End of story. If R gets a five, the writing

gets a zero. I'm sorry. I've been doing this

for a long time. I'm sorry for repeating myself,

but have I read worse comics? Yes. But at the

same time, like we've already said so far in

this episode, this is your first issue. This

is your chance to introduce the skybound version

of Destro and whomever else is gonna be with

him on his team or on this part of Cobra, whatever.

And this is the story you start us with? What?

And like Ryan said, it's like, oh, hey, look,

this is what a 13 -year -old thinks of as politics.

Oh, God. Yeah, it's not great, and I'm not a

fan. Me either. So I looked up this character

here while you were just talking. Yes. And this

says that she appears in Transformers Season

2, Episode 38, The Girl Who Loved Power Glide.

Oh, God, no, I. I know. Historia Carlton Ritz.

Oh. No way. Well, that makes a hell of a lot

more sense now. Actually. They didn't say her

first name intentionally. Because if they had

said Astoria, all of us Transformers fans would

have freaking known. I did not realize Carleton

Ritz was her last name. Oh, man. God damn it,

you guys. Honestly, seriously, at this point,

getting Astoria into the Energon universe? That's

a stroke of genius. I don't like the whole...

You know, 13 year old, whatever politics in this

whole, you know, she's a jerk thing. But oh,

mother. How did I not see that? I don't know.

But I just Googled the girl who loved Power Glide,

which I'm familiar with the episode, but I just

want to see a picture of her. And it's she's

got red hair in that, I think. Oh, my God. That's

about the same color. It's like a it's like a

brown color. Yeah, something brownish, reddish,

whatever. I'll uh, I'll share the image with

you here. There she is in all her G1 Transformers

glory. Yeah, so as you were sharing the photo,

I literally, I'm like, I think it's a genius

move that they got that character into the Energon

universe. I'm just such a dumbass for not realizing

who it actually was. Cause again, like I said,

and if people have heard this already, sorry,

but I don't remember her last name. I remember

Astoria. I don't mean, I don't remember Ms. Carlton

Ritz. Right. You know, so that makes all kind

of, oh, that's going to be interesting. Now I

kind of want to know what the hell happens in

issue two. Now that I know that that's her. Like

at this point, I'm following this comic to see

what happens to Astoria and to see if power glide

actually shows up. Don't think you will no I

Think I broke my own brain Okay, I'm not I mean

granted. I was born with brain damage anyway,

but like All right, so issue two previews. We

do have those. Do you want to cover those or

do you want me to cover those? I'll cover those

really quickly. So same artist, writer, colorist

for Destro, story for issue two. The world is

changing and Destro means to come out on top.

But with Cobra Commander breathing down his neck

and mercenary Zaymott and Talmax seeking to dethrone

him as the world's premier weapons manufacturer.

He'll have to survive the future in order to

build it. Oh, Lord. The covers here that they

show off. I absolutely love. I think it's the

yeah, it's the second cover. It's the cover B

by Riley Rosmoe. I think that's a really cool

cover with with Destro and them in there. I'm

liking the main cover by Bresson, but it's all

right. And then we have a. another action card

cover at the bottom there for that. Without his

metal face. Yes, without his metal face. All

right, Scarlet number two. Oh, man. So this is

more of a preview than anything else that I have

here. Scarlet number two, it's called book shops

and July 3rd, 2024 on the same day, a second

printing of Scarlet number one will return to

shops. as fan demand prompt an immediate sellout

the same day it originally released. Now I want

to see information about Destro on that because

I don't think that happened with Destro. In order

to find her missing friend Jinx, Scarlet goes

undercover deep into the belly of Clan Arashkage

to discover the truth, but the man known as Storm

Shadow might have other ideas. I love the preview.

The preview is really cool. I love the covers,

and I think that... I love when comics always

do variant covers, because sometimes you're not

a big fan of the main cover, but honestly, with

the second issue, the main cover is my favorite.

That looks so cool. Her with the sword there.

Is it glowing green because of the energon? Probably.

Okay. I mean, we've got... Pink energon and purple

energon and some universes red energon. Why not

green? It's like kryptonite all over again. Oh

Superman crossover. Mm -hmm. Yep. I mean maybe

that yeah, they're in the mountains, right? Maybe

it's the fortress of solitude is there maybe

Never know Yeah, so looking forward to issue

two of at least scarlet mm -hmm at least scarlet

so uh... plugs we get for plugs uh... as of this

recording the cashier dot com is still we're

still going under construction we're still doing

our fifteen -year uh... redux and redo and everything

else but you can still go out to the cashier

dot com you can still check out all things transformers

altered geek the pull bags here two thousand

nine uh... toy cast where uh... in most episodes

i'm asking people forty two questions about toy

collecting uh which is usually about an hour

and a half to two and a half hours about them

telling me their story and toy collecting and

it's usually really really fun and and all that

good stuff but yeah geekcastradio .com check

it out all right uh my plugs you can find this

podcast at anothercomicreview .com you can find

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prime oh you can also find the podcast on instagram

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on Blue Sky. I'm at Jesse Early. Alright, so

until next time, this is Jesse saying so long.

Thank you for listening to The Bullbag here on

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great escape into comics and unleash the geek

in you scarlett are you all right duke it's about

time you guys showed up a girl that's tired hanging

around the house