Transformers Robots in Disguise Volumes 6-7 Review

Hi, this is John Barber from IDW Publishing.

You are listening to The Pull Bag. Welcome to

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discussion of the older continuities. As the

back issue classics are also what's in... The

Pull Bag. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag.

This is Back Issue Classics, episode 82. And

of course, I am TF2 and Mike, joined by Mr. Nightbeat

himself, Ryan, and even Bill Merkley. Hello,

sir. These issues are not classics. Yeah, I...

We'll get to that in a bit. Yeah, we'll get to

that in a bit. Don't, don't jump the gun on me

here, okay? Come on now. We already spent three

hours at Dark Cybertron. We don't need three

more hours of Dark Cybertron. So, this is wrote,

not RID, XRID, Transformers, Robots in Disguise,

the book formerly known as Transformers, Robots

in Disguise, just now called Transformers. We're

continuing on here on Autobotly April. We're

gonna be talking about RID, I'm just gonna call

it RID, I don't give a fuck. rid volume six and

seven uh... just like last week we talked about

more than meets the eye six and seven for the

volumes these two trades uh... have ten issues

total between them uh... twenty eight to thirty

two is don of the autobots and then thirty three

to thirty eight is days of deception yeah the

trade names are Robots in Disguise is volume

6, and then it's Combiner Wars First Strike is

the volume 7 name. Well, I mean, we know why,

but I would say for whatever reason. It's because

it leads into Combiner Wars. Well, the reason

why I said Dawn of the Autobots and Days of Deception

is because I was not... I only was missing issues

37 and 38 singly. On Comixology, I don't know

why, but I'd rather just spend the four dollars

on those than have to rebuy the trades themselves,

so I read these single issue. I still read the

whole story, obviously, but I just... Then there

was no Transformers sale when I was going to...

If there was a sale where the trades were like

$4 .99, $5 .99, sure, I would have bought them

both, but I didn't. I just didn't. As I said,

last week with More Than Meets the Eye, myself,

Lady Rek, and Ender originally did the RID stuff

as well. We spent, I think between the first

five volumes of Robots in Disguise, it was close

to 15 hours of podcasting. Those usually ended

up being two, three hour episodes. Jesus. Well,

it's gonna be a lot shorter. Well, yes, because

as we're recording this, we're about an hour

and a half away from... you know uh... uh...

here's why i can uh... here's my summation of

the entire first rate uh... optus prime in the

team go to earth uh... galvatron has a treaty

with the humans So the Decepticons and the humans

are allied. They fight. The humans are hiding

stuff from the Decepticons. Decepticons are hiding

stuff from the humans. And Prowl's hiding stuff

from everybody. Alright, so we're down one trade.

So I'm just gonna jump right into it. Remember

the more than meets the eye I said that sometimes

Roberts Can use an awful lot of dialogue and

there's a lot of interplay between the characters.

Mm -hmm. Oh God this book has more this traded.

All right, this first trade volume six has more

words in it I think than all of more than meets

the eye six and seven Second of all, it's needlessly

convoluted And then my last sort of overall thought

is Everyone acts like an idiot in these books

So the humans are dumb as hell for any type of

treaty with the Decepticons. Yeah Like they just

come off as complete morons in this book And

overall, I mean, I got to admit I wasn't happy

when the book went back to Earth, because I've...

There have been so many Transformers stories

set on Earth. There have been. And really, really

quickly, before you get through this, before

you continue on your rampage here, pun intended,

John Barber, Andrew Griffith, Josh Perez, Joanna

Lafuente, and Tommy Long are the main creative

with... editorial assistance by Rebecca Hoard

and the main editor is Carlos Guzman. I like

Barbara's writing. So do I, and I like Griffith's

art's great too. It is, but you're right, there

are a lot of words in these first five issues.

And they're words that don't say... Much is the

problem. I couldn't you know when I summed up

the volumes It's pretty much what happened. There's

not a lot of Yeah, there's so much stuff that

happens and then just gets forgotten about because

apparently it's not important and So to dive

in at least slightly more my first problem with

this And I had a problem with this when I first

read it Way back when, when Issue 28 first came

out. It was like, okay, Dark Cybertron's over.

We now have to, you know, tell a story of rebuilding

the universe or trying to come to grips that

Shockwave tried to destroy the universe. Oh God,

I want to kill Thundercracker. I don't care what

anyone says. I don't care if it's an unpopular

opinion. I don't care if people try to come to

Kentucky to kill me. I fucking hate Thundercracker

and this stupid screenplay. it is the wall i

know it's supposed to be cliched and stupid and

bad but all my god my big issue is the so you

can see that it go for the biggest issue is he

a dark summer trying it all the stuff that happened

and instead of dealing with any fallout or anything

resulted from that they decide to go there All

hail Megatron was by pretty much all accounts

an absolute disaster for IDW It did not boost

sales. It did not bring new readership It basically

resulted in one of their writers being gone for

pretty much ever Because it was god -awful and

people knew it was awful So, why would you decide,

hey, you know, we should really deal with the

aftermath of this thing that we've tried to ignore

for years because it was so bad. Now, you know,

you said last week about Roberts and how he tries

to improve on things that were bad. He tries

to correct the continuity at certain points.

Yeah. And I think Barbara attempts to do this

as well. Now, I've interviewed John. I've talked

with John. We didn't talk too much, Transformers,

because that was at the time of that interview.

Gem had just got announced and released, did

the first issue and things like that, and it

was the 38th anniversary of Gem. But anyway,

I think Barbara tries to do that, but I don't

think he does it as well as Roberts does. I think

he can. As a whole, the one thing Barber does,

and I would argue he does it better than Roberts,

is when he tells insular character stories or

has interplay with only one or two characters,

his stuff is great. The sound wave sort of one

-shot story, the Starscream... individual stories,

later on he's got a story told from Wheeljack's

perspective. Stuff like that he does great with.

What he doesn't do well is balance a gigantic

cast and he has these little moments that are

neat, like there's a conversation between RC

and Prime in the first issue of this. Of volume

six that I really enjoy But then you asked me,

you know what I liked it from that of that issue

There's very little so issued issue 28 the first

issue of volume six here my The Thundercracker

stuff aside because we know he's on earth. We

know that the the Earthlings and the Decepticons

have struck some sort of deal. We don't know

why. I don't understand why it has to open with

Thundercracker and his... Other than the fact

that Marissa needs his help, you know, I don't

get it. We then travel back to half a million

years ago, the fall of Metroplex. And in this,

because we hadn't seen the little guy since he

died... It's fall of Cybertron bumblebee now.

I like that because we hadn't seen I wasn't sure

You know you know how comic companies are unless

it's uncle Ben death is not constant death is

in flux all the time and to this point and Even

after this point they've pretty much kept bumblebee

dead except for this flashback and a few others

But this this flashback here. I just love seeing

bumblebee again in a more classic G1 -ish type

of look. Because, I'm sorry, by the end of Dark

Cybertron with Bumblebee's death, he looked more

like the shattered glass version of Gold Bug.

I was okay with it, but it still wasn't Bumblebee.

So you're touching again on stuff that I didn't

like from this entire trade, and that is that

I still don't know why the hell the humans allied

with the Decepticons. By the end of the book,

it's still not clear. They were using each other,

okay, fine, but why did the humans need them

or anything? Also, the... So Marissa is another...

contend just point i really like the character

and ideas i can't hear susan blue's voice in

my head when i read her she's not uh... you know

good sir i like the character my issue is that

they do these stupid things that kind of undermine

her usefulness so for example a the whole treaty

with the septicons but the you know holding the

dog buster at the final scene of the first issue

when she's giving her speech essentially undermines

her usefulness as a soldier commander because

it just makes her look dumb as we head into issue

two and that's we get the whole you know Prowl

is doing things and operating on his own And

Prowl's subplot goes nowhere in this too, which

is another thing that was really annoying. So

for anyone that doesn't know or doesn't remember,

Prowl was mind controlled by the Decepticons

earlier. Briefly, yeah. And everybody assumes

that he's still kind of, you know... Yeah, when

people were reading the individual issues the

other question people had was is merging into

Devastator affecting him because he starts getting

nosebleeds after That thread is never picked

up or explained Which which that's wonderful,

I mean that's really the biggest issue they they

start threads and never finish them yeah they

set up stuff and there's no resolution or mention

of it ever again and we'll probably never know

some of this stuff so yeah yeah uh when i was

reading 29 first note and this i'll actually

have us discussing this later because it comes

up at a later point with a different character

Daniel Witwicky, really? He grew up fast. Oh,

wait, that's not the one I'm thinking of. This

is some other... I'm like, what? The way that...

I like the way that Barbara wrote that, but at

the same time, it's like, um... Know you want

to forge your own path, but that's not technically

how that happened And I have a whole diatribe

at a later issue. I think I'm trying to remember

which issue it was That are all that down. I

think it's in I think it's in the next trade

Yeah, because the next trade is is the is when

the other kid the the other annoying human character

that everyone hates comes back So yeah, Daniel

Wicke, I'm like, really? Seriously? They name

a random general that? OK. I do like Prime and

Prowl and their debate. I think that's fun. I

think having the two of them. Well, let's face

it, folks. Optimus has always been the fatherly,

grandfatherly type of leader. He's always been

the John Wayne in any form. Except for the crappy

live -action movies Where he slowly slowly slowly

turns into a murdering give -me -your -face asshole

You know, I like seeing the two points of view

for prime and prowl and prowl is just Intense

is probably the best word I can use for him at

this point Prowl and shockwave are essentially

two Sides of the same coin They both plan way

in advance They're both very sort of cold and

calculating about it. So yeah, I mean they're

very similar So in case anybody hasn't figured

it out, I'm not a huge fan of this trade and

Yeah, you mentioned some of the human characters.

So if general wit wiki which I could have lived

without seeing him again, but no, thank God that

it allows them to bring Spike into it. Well,

yeah, it allows to bring Spike back into it.

Yeah, because Spike wasn't an awful, horribly

written character or anything. There's so much

stuff that I just, I wonder why they did it.

The other problem here is when you put the two

series together, and I'm jumping ahead to issue

three here. uh... mainly because i've already

summed up what happens i mean there's just not

much to these books so but in issue three we

see galvatron's history and we see more of what

he believes in that sort of thing how do you

reconcile the stuff that's in more than meets

the eye with megatron with the decepticons now

follow galvatron and i say that because megatron

was portrayed as this charismatic leader who

knew what was best for his troops and who actually

sort of cared about them, i .e. Soundwave and

the story in Robots in Disguise where Megatron

wants the cassettes and everybody to be treated

equally and that sort of thing. Then you have

Galvatron who treats his troops like garbage,

refers to the cassettes as basically like sub...

uh... subspecies yeah yeah uh... you know treats

uh... skywarp as a thing to be used he's an awful

commander there's no reason any of these people

sound wave in particular would follow them and

that's another huge sort of plot issue that Galvatron

is terrible. His beliefs are directly in opposition

to Soundwave, yet for some reason Soundwave is

following him or subservient in this series.

It never made sense to me. No, it never made

sense to me either. And the things that I liked

about that were introduced into 29 that carry

over into 30 was that we do see the other side

or sort of the aftermath of the trial. So more

than meets the eye, I had the trial. Robots in

disguise is like okay. Well that happened and

whatever else I do like Because you know I Started

with the IDW stuff. I've very I as a kid. I never

read any of the Marvel US UK Dreamwave I've never

really read I mean I've read at this point you

know a couple a couple years ago Steve and I

did Marvelous March with we did the first Marvel

US trade The Marvel US classics trade with Optimus

on the cover so you know that was really my first

exposure to that whole run and it's one of those

things where I Had other than the cartoons obviously

I had never really seen the transformers on earth

So I kind of liked it only because we saw Galvatron

and soundwave and then for a split second astrotrain

until you know obviously And then what I like

about it, what I don't like about it, and I've

always been of this mind ever since, you know,

the greatest Transformers movie ever, you know,

1986. Megatron is Galvatron. They're not two

separate characters, damn it. Megatron dies.

much prefer them being two separate characters

because really yeah because the cartoon show

did a garbage job with the two characters being

the same they're not I mean there's no way to

reconcile one being the other And at the very

least, I mean, I'm okay with the fact that the

IDW stuff just keeps them separate. I mean, yeah.

Yeah, the IDW stuff, yes, you're right, but I'm

used to the whole thing of, hey, they're the

same guy, you know? Galvatron's just been the

worst commander in all of fiction, probably,

so... So basically, he spends more time shooting

his own guys than actually fighting the Autobots.

So I've actually much preferred his depiction

in these books. But having said that, there's

no reason for any of the Decepticons to follow

this guy. No, there isn't. And that always bugs

me when I was reading it. And we get a search

for Alpha Trion, because we get to find him.

He's still alive. Well, he ended up on Earth.

For various reasons. I mean it leads into combiner

wars Yeah, and that's the other thing I have

to say and if John Barber if John if you listen

to this I'm sorry man. You know I like talking

to you. You're a cool guy is no offense, but

some of the writing here Like we start off with

the aftermath of Dark Cybertron not really But

that's what it's supposed to start off with because

issue 28 opens up with this big previously page

of the you know you know, whatever, but it's

one of those things where you've got, like we've

already said, you get the Galvatron Decepticon

human alliance thing, and then all of a sudden,

without warning, at least to me, and you can,

you know, argue this or not, it's like, oh, we

need to now find the enigma of combination. That

wasn't part, like, it's a natural progression,

finding Alpha Trion and then Alpha Trion telling

Prime about it, but transitioning from... like

what happens in twenty nine thirty into what

happens in thirty one thirty two it's like okay

that just happened well i mean whoever's choice

it was to just one of the things that's really

hurt the transformer books and more than meets

the eye has been better off because they're true

they've chosen not to take part but i mean the

other thing that's heard it is just running from

event to event and marvel you know this week

uh... famously talked about diversity the a couple

things yet they're blaming diversity no it's

the facts people i mean that's you can go through

the comments on all of the marvel at articles

people are just annoys you know going from event

to event and there's never there's never break

and it's annoying because they go oh and you

have to buy you know these eighteen other yeah

comics which by the way are all now uh... more

expensive just to follow along yes thanks i'll

get right on that and unfortunately that's what

IDW's fallen into yeah with the yeah that's really

kind of sad when you think about it well the

big ones been uh... the events keep getting worse

i mean dark siren had its issues combiner wars

had some major issues But I liked Combiner Wars.

Obviously I'm gonna go back and reread it, but

at the time when I read Combiner Wars, I enjoyed

that a little more than Dark Cybertron. I could

see that. I don't think there's anything wrong

with the... And I think the reason why I enjoyed

it a little more, not just because of the story

or anything like that, but honestly, because

they didn't have 20 million different artists

on it. Dark Cybertron had at least six artists.

on each issue. Yeah, that's a problem, and then...

That's a huge fucking problem. So... Yeah, and

then... Well, in any case, here, just getting

back to it. I mentioned before, I think Barber

is a fantastic writer, but again, it's all about

kind of smaller casts I think that he really

excels at. You know, you recently did Doctor

Strange and The Punisher. Magic bullets, which

was a crossover and it was really really good

You know again when he has a smaller group to

work with and can actually explore relationships

and dynamics He's fantastic yeah, but yeah when

he's got a giant like that's the other thing

the cast in this book is You know, there's 200

characters on the lost light The focused on cast

in this first trade is probably bigger than the

focused on cast in the other book and the cast

is much much smaller in this one, but We just

kind of jump around everybody kind of gets a

moment, but it doesn't always go somewhere i

mean we have to ask you all of us as oh yeah

we have to ask you kind of relives his killing

a human which was from the uh... absolutely wonderful

mike costa run which i highly recommend to anybody

we're we're we're we're uh... is god awful and

some of the worst of the red yet it will forces

last week too so we have that but the issue is

that It's just sort of there, you know, like

a lot of the other things they get mentioned

or brought up it doesn't go anywhere and It happens

near the end of the book and you know jazz sneaks

on board finds alpha try on Prowl comes up behind

him and stabs him in the back or shoots him in

the back or does something to jazz Boy puts his

gun up to his back and tells him not to take

try and it turns out that it's because it would

kill him but instead of Instead of, by the way,

saying something to him, Prell makes it seem

like he's gonna kill him, which... Prell has

serious communication issues, apparently. Yeah,

he does. You know what the sad thing is? The

first thing I thought of, and this is really

sad, that I've been able to find a way to work

in a certain actor reference into Transformers.

This is, like, beyond sad. You know... Looking

back at that panel with prowl sticking the gun

in jazz's back and things all I can think of

is fucking Charlie Sheen in the chase with with

Christy Swanson when he gets the damn candy bar

and Puts it in her back and says you're coming

with me. That's all I can think of I have no

idea what you're talking about and I'm happy

with that. So continuing on the last issue features

probably Most of my biggest issues. So the final

issue of this the Autobots attack the human slash

Decepticon sort of base and All is that panel

is missing is hydro foils The panel where optimus

and everybody is running in where he's like,

you know stick with the plan or whatever that

giant panel The only thing they're missing is

hydro foils from the g1 cartoon Feel like you

probably Can't pick on me for bringing up random

shit for like three years Just from this one

podcast so The issues here as in the problems.

Yes number one We have the Autobots attack the

base and we clearly see later on that attacking

the base has injured or killed a number of humans

so the fuck optimus I mean yeah that's some bad

work next I mean you know to nobody's surprise

Galvatron double -crosses the general and kills

him which again any person who as any brains

whatsoever i mean they try to frame prowl for

it anybody knows that you know one of the septicons

would've done it i mean the humans are so stupid

in this though so i guess maybe they can blame

them for things uh... and i mean lastly so the

enigma of combination and that kind of thing

When I summed up all of this it basically ends

with the big reveals that the humans have transformer

technology More specifically, it's the corpses

of ramjets and thrust thrust. Thank you Forgot

his name The red one. Yeah, I just forgot which

seeker it was Okay, fine. They've got that, you

know, we already sort of knew that so it's not

a huge revelation, but it just There there's

so little from first issue to last issue that

happens in the end Yeah, and Way back you had

commented that you hadn't read more than meets

the eye volume six Because the trial was slow

for you But you compare where more than meets

the eye volume six started out to where it finishes.

Yeah, and Even though even though you know a

criticism more than meets the eye is yeah, it

can definitely sometimes be slow and sometimes

the arcs Are maybe a couple pages longer than

they really needed to be uh... but holy cow it's

got nothing on this you know i mean if we're

picking my least favorites of the uh... the current

generation of i d w trades so post might cost

a nightmare obviously uh... volume six gotta

be up there there's very little i have to recommend

i mentioned a couple of character interplays

i liked that's pretty much it i mean at the very

least volume seven opens up with the issue with

uh... with wheeljack uh... that's here from his

point of view which i love that i love that issue

the interplay and it is great you know the whole

thing with with with volume seven is at least

with the release of issue thirty three is that

barber rights Singular characters well like giving

a character the narration and giving wheeljack

the story from his point of view that works well

to me Yeah, and volume seven just in general

everything kind of works better the dialogue

works better There's more of that singular interplay,

you know, there are good conversations between

Soundwave and Thundercracker and stuff like that

now you know spike who is spikes a convoluted

character in this but he's not a good character

uh... he's been written so many different ways

that it's really hard to care about him or find

it interesting uh... i mean the biggest issue

with seven at least is the enigma of combination

comes out of left field and you know there's

all this stuff on earth as we find out much much

later in this series too which is basically an

excuse to just keep the transformers coming back

to the friggin planet because for some reason

nobody except for roberts wants to write anything

anywhere else oh wait and uh sorry in the wind

blade slash uh all our one series which takes

place on cybertron Yeah, see, I love the stuff

on Cybertron. I said earlier in this podcast

that I enjoyed the stuff on Earth, seeing characters

I hadn't seen in a while, like Galvatron, specifically

more Soundwave than Galvatron, honestly. But

Barbara on Cybertron, honestly, Barbara or Scott.

you either met with margaret or john doesn't

matter anything on cyber trial anything due to

do a cyber trial i absolutely love i have more

more notes for issue thirty three that i did

for the end of volume six i think he did uh...

yeah and the wind blade series ran concurrently

with him with his ends Despite wind blade didn't

stick the landing. That's the only Sort of thing

I'll say but yeah It's still a much better individual

trade and I still really like that story and

I like the fact that we get to see the fallout

from this gigantic event in Dark Cybertron Where

the other two series no more than meets the eye

I don't count that like I count more than meets

the eye, but I don't count that in with no because

it's yet should be which is why I like that he

doesn't have to take part in these in the giant

events anymore because that's how it should be

he's you know these characters and this ship

are well you know out of the area so yeah it

makes more sense not to and yet it's but even

then it dealt with more of the fallout than volume

6 did Then volume seven comes along and we're

basically full tilt into everybody's looking

for the enigma of combination Yeah this thing

this thing that we you know was never Mentioned

or referred to before no it you know it's just

a MacGuffin they created to drive a story One

of my notes from 33 was well. I really do hate

The Armada body on Starscream. I'm sorry. It's

too much Hot Rod Red Iron Man. It really is.

I know he changes it again. I know he changes

it again, but I'm saying, like, I remember I

was severely... I guess I was getting these.

I got issues 30... 28 to 36 in... physical form

when they were coming over there were being released

back when i got them from the comic shop and

every time i saw star scream in that stupid ass

armada body i a you didn't think we change it

and iron hide well i've heard the guy doesn't

come out much anymore i am on it thanks for noticing

me because i don't go anywhere either uh... i

really thought Stars cream was going out of his

mind turns out. He's actually on some sort of

visual comlink with somebody Wheeljack and wind

blade we need a Team up with them more. I don't

I don't know because I have not read the the

distant stars trade I don't remember. I've not

finished that so But when we don't get much,

okay? Well when wind blade and wheeljack meet

for the first time here. I absolutely loved it

uh... sarah stone i like her art i think it's

great uh... she's not going to be around much

as far as i can tell because the next issue is

done by what i believe is the best transformers

artist ever but anyway i can i i can libya's

are all day long doesn't matter going on and

we'll get into this uh... if i do combiner wars

with you okay uh... but the one thing you can't

do is action I cannot make out what the hell

is happening in half of the combiner wars panels

And and when I couldn't I tried to find out if

it was just me. No, it's pretty much everybody

Like he he's really good. It's yeah the characters

and artwork and Yeah, everything except action

sequences And as for Sarah Stone, I love having

her on Scott's work they seem to work really

well together and it adds sort of a district

different feel because Scott has more comedy

than Roberts or Barber tend to include Everybody's

sort of paired up with an artist that seems to

work well with them You know, I'd argue like

for my money overall Milne's done the best work

overall for the Transformers Series in IDW. I

also think I also don't think sorry. It's a coincidence

that when you look at the Titans return and the

other figures or even the third -party figures

they tend to take the Milne designs more than

anyone else when they do the comic stuff Yeah.

Well, I mean, like, okay, in 34, in the Galvatron

stuff, like, first of all, Galvatron's not a

tank yet. He's not white with a purple gun. He's

purple with an orange gun. And just the whole,

like, the panel where he says, I believe in no

prime, that, to me, is a good action shot. Now,

maybe Livio gets a little wonky when it comes

to Combiner Wars. Again, it's been a while since

I've read Combiner Wars. So... but like this

is the stuff that i'm talking about you know

uh... the the panel with him uh... saying uh...

you know that is this fallow creature nova and

we see you know the classic movie looking g one

season three looking galvatron of course is that

the subject on signal is just that The reason

why I like Livio's art a little bit more than

some of the others that have been on RID at this

point, and I like Andrew, and I like Sarah Stone

as well and all that, but seeing Optimus and

Alpha Trion together in Livio's style I think

is really cool. Poor Rhinox. And then after that

we go, oh yeah, I should actually sum up these

trades. So after that, that was our, the first

issue is Wheeljack post getting shot in the head

by Prowl in RID way back when in the fourth trade

of that. After that fourth trade or fifth I can't

remember anyway after that the next issue that

you brought up is all flashbacks And explains

where the enigma of combination which nobody's

ever talked about Came from right and then after

that we are back to sort of present -day Yeah,

Optimus and his crew are up in Orbit and we're

brought back to Earth with G .B. Blackrock, who

is a character from the original Generation 1

comics, who's sort of been redone for this story.

And it would turn out, of course, that he has

the Enigma of Combination and a lot of the Cybertronian

technology. So that's why he's introduced and

he's in this. Beyond that... So getting into

35 from mine just really quickly from my notes

for 35 how much of an asshole is spike in this

series? Like it's like it's just not interesting

and that's one of the problems none of his stuff

And then I think I think it was Galvatron or

it was one of the other it was either Galvatron

or sound wave a Revolution against the humans.

Oh my god seeds of the future Because yeah revolution

obviously and I haven't even read any of the

revolution stuff yet I like prowl versus spike.

I like Marissa versus Black Hawk or Black Rock

The whole spike thing is gonna be bad, isn't

it? The whole thing because this is the note

that I was mentioning earlier about the whole

lineage of the Witwickies Can we talk about Daddy

Daniel, Son Spike, and then what Spike has a

son named Sparkplug who has a son named Spike

who marries Carly and they have a son named Daniel?

What? Time travel is less complicated than this.

Eh, yeah, but I don't think, uh... I don't care.

I don't care! I really don't care about, like,

the... any of the... ties to g1 or anything like

that i mean a lot of the people who are reading

this like an awful lot of people i know as well

that read these books have no experience with

those so i mean yeah my issue is just he's not

well written from a even if you don't know anything

about this character standpoint either like he's

just not all that well done these are two These

are not great trades Either of them And there's

too many unanswered questions too much stuff

that doesn't make sense too much of Characters

just going off and doing whatever Everybody has

14 different agendas and double crosses going

Yeah, it's everybody else at the same time and

It's Part of it in the end this stuff Works out.

Okay But we're talking three trades down the

line that we get any resolution to any of this

really And that's one of the issues that this

is so slow you know none of this is self -contained

you can't just read one trade and get any of

the story no that's why there's a previously

page at the beginning of every single issue yeah

and normally that's fine and i don't have an

issue with that but again this is extreme like

we're talking three trades down the line into

ten where there's some answers to some of this

stuff That's a little much. And I've mentioned

before, I love that Roberts plays the long game,

but he does it subtly, whereas this, it's the

main storyline that doesn't get a payoff for

forever. And that's an issue. It's one thing

if it's, you know, oh, there's this throwaway

line. I wonder if that'll be important later

to, oh, this is the entire book. I wonder if

any of it will be important later. Yeah, that's

not good. No, and I seriously doubt it's I would

definitely give barber the benefit of the doubt

Because he's you know got a plan for all these

events and he's keeping track of all these different

Series and the continuity with them which I think

is really difficult to do and I think he does

a really good job of it but Yeah, just these

aren't great volumes so as 37 and 30 36 37 and

38 we have Andrew back on on art and I like Andrew's

art a lot I don't know I just when I see Livio's

stuff cuz I think it was dark Cybertron that

I first got it that uh... introduce libya stuff

i could be wrong because it's a mouse number

but you are i'm wrong well he did uh... individual

issues much earlier than that right robots in

disguise series yeah and in particular he did

all flashbacks and all of the dead universe that's

right yes stuff uh... even in our service now

so that's presumably where but he's been doing

it for a little bit Yeah, and I just like seeing

more of his stuff because I like his style. I

think it's fun. I think it's interesting. It's

a different style than any of the other artists

that they've used in this entire series. So yeah,

36. The only note I have for 36 is the transformation

scene with Prowler RC was kind of cool when they're

running off to fight whether they're going to

fight or she's trying to protect him from doing

something stupid or something i can break it

down why they're going there but i just don't

i just don't care at this point i mean this uh...

these two trades i find for whatever reason to

it takes a lot out of me to read them These are

the two probably I would say overall that I go

back to least of all of the IDW trades I have

them all lined up in one, you know giant bookshelf

And these are the two that probably spend the

most time sitting on that bookshelf Whereas all

of the others I find I read and reread them exceptionally

often. Yeah. Yeah, I was Obviously The when we

recorded this We were gonna record it a day before

we actually did But something came up with my

neighbor and if something hadn't come up with

my neighbor I needed to help her out It was like

I was sitting by the time I got to issue 31 like

my head was about to hit the keyboard I'm sorry

John, but I was just falling asleep of boredom

and 33 through 38 Parts of like I like 38. I

think 38. It's a good issue But damn it IDW rumble

is purple frenzy is red Anyway, that's just me

and my cartoon stuff anyway yeah Days of deception

to too much deception is honestly every like

you said before everybody's lying to everybody

And it really does go nowhere like there really

is no There is an ending in issue 38, but again,

it's to set up combiner wars which starts in

39 and runs through 42 and then combiner wars

also is part of wind blade as well at this point,

so Yeah So Alright before we get out of here.

I'm almost afraid to ask this what would you

rate volume six? I Need yeah, I mean for me There's

two major things Like versus quality generally

is two separate things for me Mm -hmm. So while

I don't like issue six and there's a lot of stuff

I don't like about it as in You know, I just

I hate them going back to earth, etc, etc It's

not super poorly written, although there's definite

issues with it. So right It's crying out loud.

Oh, no hell with it. I'll just give it a two

out of five I'm gonna give it a one and a half

out of five. I enjoyed moments here and there,

but volume six is nothing to write home about.

The Autobots technically won, but at the same

time they're trying to make, like, they're trying

to throw out the classes, Autobots, Decepticons,

Nails, whatever, and they're trying to just make

it all Cybertronian. That's never going to work.

it's just not because every you know as much

as we want to you know live in the present and

and forge ahead with the future sometimes you'd

just can't not forget about the past yeah volume

six is a one and a half for me you start reading

the expanse what about uh... volume seven for

you volume seven is greatly improved uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... You

prefer him, you know in his construction outfit

and you know sitting atop, you know Mount St.

Helens. Yeah as annoying as Spike could be in

the TV show and anything else he's so much better

than this version anyway So let's see my negative

point off. So it ends up getting a 2 .5 What

I was gonna give it a 3 no, oh man Don't even

know the hell with it it gets a 2 .5 out of Five

just because it's better than the previous volume,

but still not all that good We're still in the

not so good era of transformers Yeah Yeah, it's

kind of sad Which is really sad considering how

much we all hate well, I don't cuz I've never

read it but we all hate the mike costa run and

you'd think and i thought the whole point when

someone was like oh you should read the transformers

comics now they're actually good and i'm like

okay cool that works and and whatever i guess

they all can be diamonds in the rough right uh...

i don't know when somebody told you that they

meant more than meets the effect yeah obviously

The way I was told about Robots in Disguise,

at least when it first started, it was, it's

the political book. It's the, you know, because

back then, the first five volumes, it was Bumblebee

and Starscream and Metalhawk and trying to fight

over who's gonna rule the planet and yada yada

yada and free elections and this, that, and the

other thing and everything else, and obviously

now, Bumblebee's dead. I don't, it's been so

long since I've read those early stories, no

idea what the fuck happened to Metalhawk. uh...

no i was killed by star screen to uh... okay

there you go point it was really good uh... i

like that's uh... stuff anyway uh... yeah volume

seven for me i'll give it a three by comparison

to volume six is six is an improvement i mean

it's not a vast improvement but it's an improvement

I I'm sorry John. I'm sorry artists, but yeah

It's not It's not that much of an improvement

and How much more of a how much more of a dick

does optimus turn into I mean is he gonna start

saying give me your face in this like seriously

So Join us next week folks when we and I did

this on purpose. We start with the good stuff

We end with the good stuff. So next week is our

third week of autobotly April where we talk about

rid volumes eight and nine I'm sure Ryan's like

just shoot me now. Let me remember them man sweet

I'll just pretend that I really liked them then,

so then I won't be dreading reading through them

again. And then in two weeks, we've got more

than meets the eye, volumes eight and nine, and

then right before, yay. And then right before

Batman Month starts we have Transformers, More

Than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise, Volume

10, both trades for both series, because that's

the finale, so that's going to happen probably

the same day, or maybe... No, actually, no, I

know what I'm doing that way. Free comic book

day this year, folks. The first Saturday in May.

I forget what day that is off the top of my head.

I'm not looking at the calendar, but the first

Saturday in May this year is free comic book

day as it is every year. It has been for the

last, I don't know how long. so we're in a kickoff

uh... kind of conclude in the kickoff uh... all

of the april with the more than meets the irid

volume ten discussion for both trades and then

after that it's batman month here in the pullback

so that's what's going on there uh... where can

the people find you online sir at nightbeat all

right i'm at tf2mike you can follow at the pullback

on twitter for the pullback stuff please do Make

your greatest game in the comics. We will catch

you next time Just heard the latest episode of

the pullback the GCR ends comic review and discussion

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