Transformers Dinobot Trilogy Review

Hey, this is Greg Berger and you are listening

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Pull Bag's Back Issue Classics. Join us as we

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Grimlock not Podcaster! Me Grimlock King! Hello

and welcome to The Pull Bag! This is Back issue

classics episode 95 and this is our final episode

for Autobotly August. Last week you would have

heard Ryan and I and Nicole Beatles Diva talk

about Angry Birds Transformers and this week

we're gonna hit the Dinobot Trilogy from John

Barber and Livia Roladelli. Punishment, redemption

and salvation. And I Remember when this came

out as a motion punishment came out as a motion

comic with made fire. Oh boy That was crazy I

Didn't know it was a motion comic punishment

was yeah originally Okay, I only picked it up

in the issues, of course, so these are They're

larger than normal issues of a comic book, but

much smaller than a trade is. Yeah, so they're

somewhere in between. There's supplemental info

slash pieces in each of them, I believe. Yeah.

Yeah, this is a 48 page issue, so it's pretty

much... Double morals. It's basically a double

-size issue of a regular comic. Yeah Which to

me is fine because I thought this was a full

-on like I thought this And read these before

I forgot they were one shots not yeah, I thought

they were a full -on trade like autocracy monstrosity

and primacy no, and You know I think this is

really cool of them doing a one -shot trilogy

kind of thing to focus on the DinoBots. My only

thing is, in between all the Transformers stuff

we've covered this year, I forgot what the fuck

happened to Grimlock. stole a shuttle, and he

took the rest of the Dinobots, and they went

after Shockwave way back when, when he wasn't

supposed to. And, uh... Harley, you're not helping,

as usual. Anyway, so he was incarcerated by Ultra

Magnus, eventually, many years later, and he

was sent to Geras 9, just him, and he took the

fall for everything that happened. And in the

end, you know, that's in more than meets the

eye as what's happened. Yeah, I remember that

now. I just yeah, I remember that now now that

you're bringing that up and you mentioned Garrus9

and I'm like, okay, so that's why he's not here.

I don't want to get this out of the way right

now. I don't care if slag is a curse word in

some other culture. I hate that slag is called

slug. I can't stand that. Oh well. Yeah, I know

too bad. I know I'm just saying, you know, it's

kind of like, you know, we were talking about

Optimus and Orion and all that and You know,

I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah Orion Pax was his original

name with his original Characterization and then

he became Optimus Prime. He still has the same

character. I don't care I'm still gonna call

the damn Triceratops leg No matter what. I'm

gonna try, but I'm sure I'll block it. To be

fair with these stories, another thing, because

essentially they're individual issues, they're

really easy to sum up, but everything that happens

in between is complicated, so I mean, to get

it out of the way, I'm just gonna tell people

to read these. This is a fantastic trilogy, and

I kind of wish IDW would do this more often.

I think something that might help sales is if

there were, say, two ongoing series and then

you have a third one that's just sort of these

every once in a while. Well, yeah, okay, so what...

I don't think ideally, by the way, the two series

should be Cybertron and then obviously the Lost

Light. Yeah. and then have the Earth stuff confined

to individual issues every once in a while. Yeah.

Yeah, that would be good. So if you're going

to have three books, and you're going to have

all three succeed, like you just said, have the

two ongoings be Cybertron and Lost Light, whatever.

For the third ongoing that you're talking about

with this kind of stuff, do what IDW is already

doing with TMNT and now GEM coming up here in

November. IDW, for the longest time now, has

a second ongoing for TMNT called TMNT Universe,

which it pretty much lets any and all creators

in, artists, writers, doesn't matter. They have

a set number of issues that are self -contained

stories, but, you know, that kind of thing. And

the new gem series, Dimensions, is going to be

an anthology series, and it's going to have two

individual stories in each issue of the comic.

So, if you did something like that with that

third Transformers book, because they've had

a third Transformers book the last few years.

Sadly, none of them have really... A lot of them

have done well, but they haven't done as well

as, I think, we as fans and IDW as a company

was hoping, because obviously most of them got

axed where they ended. In the end, too, yeah,

I think it would help the... sales I don't know

and you know admittedly I think one of the things

that's hurt them is even though yeah I mean even

though the till all or one was the series that

took place on Cybertron I think there's a lot

of people that are tired of or not all that interested

in seeing the Transformers on earth As well as

at this point, I mean, there's so much tie -in

and everything else. I mean, you know, if Transformers

fans, whether they're like us, they're diehards

or whether they're just general fans. To me,

even just as like putting aside my, you know,

30 some odd year history with the franchise and

being a fan of it. If... You tell me that there's

these giant robots from this planet. I want to

see those giant robots on that planet. I don't

want to see those giant robots on my planet in

a comic. If I want to see that, I'll go waste

$6 .75 and watch a crappy Michael Bay movie.

I mean, you know? Yeah. Oh, well. I also think

it keeps the writers fresh because this is the

I would argue this is the best stuff John Barber's

ever written Yeah, we we actually did these podcasts

out of order folks. This was written before Angry

Birds Transformers was The reason why I know

that is because at the end of this at the end

of the it's either the Punishment or redemption

and one of the two One of the two where John

has his little afterword or letter to the fans

or whatever else in it, he says, you know, this

is a really dark story for me and, you know,

it allowed me to, you know, eventually go and

do something light and fun like Angry Birds Transformers.

So I'm loving being able to see John just do

what he wants to do without being tied down to

whatever event thing Hasbro would like him to

do. To be fair, I mean, the IDW... They're conflicting

reports, but for the most part, the IDW events

seem to be their idea, not Hasbro's, but anyway.

I'm not privy to those meetings, so I have no

idea. I don't know, I'm just saying, every time

I see that it's, oh, it's January, February,

or March of whatever year. Oh, it's IDW Transformers

event. It's time. And it's not because of whatever

John and whoever else cooks it up. The reason

why I say it's Hasbro is because Hasbro wants

to make money off of that and they end up making

toys for this or toys for that. I mean, we still

have Titans Returns toys going on, and the series

have already rebooted at this point. But the

Titans Return line is still in stores. Anyway.

So, City of Steel. What could possibly go wrong?

That's a terrible episode of the show. That's

the name of the story! I know, I'm just saying,

it was a terrible episode of the show. It was.

Optimus lost his arm. So essentially this is

what happened when in the Not RID series or whatever

we're calling it, the post... The Season 2 Transformers

series, when Optimus Prime briefly left the group

at Earth, this is the story of where he went.

and we open with someone you know and it's all

kept in shadows through this is killing Decepticons

in what is essentially and it's referred to as

the Decepticon ghetto a couple of times it's

on the outskirts of Metroplex where Decepticons

are being killed by someone Starscream I mean

The Starscream just wants Optimus to leave, and

so he doesn't say anything to him about him.

It's actually Sludge that brings it up to Prime,

who's visiting. Starscream, like I said, just

wants Optimus gone, because Prime being there

kind of... it damages his power base. Yeah, and

this was back when I couldn't stand Starscream.

Not because I mean I always can't stay in Starscream,

but this is back when I didn't like his design

because this was the armada coloring I Liked

all those designs. I don't know he changes them

constantly which is amusing so anyway Prime eventually

goes down to see what's up and see if he can

find out what's happening there, and he's fairly

quickly attacked by Former or current whatever

you want to refer to them as he's attacked by

Decepticons and he ends up saved by Optimus or

saved by Optimus Prime Yeah, he ends up saved

by Starscream. That would be a prime problem

if you know if he was saved by himself So anyway

prime is there he gets saved by Starscream another

Decepticon gets killed in The vicinity of all

of this prime gives chase He doesn't in the end.

He's not able to catch whoever it is and Yeah,

so there's another murder and the most of most

of this is being investigated by prime wind blade

and The Dinobots are sort of keeping the peace

at this point with optimus prime barricade is

in this series and sort of leads the badge lists

and his star screams kind of police. He is also

interested in figuring out who's guilty of this.

So Prime ends up going to one of the Decepticon

bars. He's not exactly well liked there. Obviously

not. And he has a conversation with Sandstorm.

who is, for anyone who doesn't know, Sandstorm

in G1 was a triple changer. In this, he is not

particularly fond of Optimus, for reasons which

become much more clear later. But in any case,

they have a confrontation. Optimus has a confrontation

with Gut Cruncher, former Decepticon, slash current

Decepticon. Yeah, I was surprised seeing a Decepticon

bar I Mean I figured they had them but I mean,

you know, it's either swerves or it's or it's

McAdams for me Yeah, obviously and the reason

optimus goes there is that one of the cons that

was killed was carrying ngex that's illegal there

and That's what the bar sells, so... In the end,

I mean, the only clue Prime gets is from Sandstorm,

who reluctantly helps and shows him a particular

type of shell. Yes. And in the end, the bar is

burned down with everybody inside killed. With

the help of these shells which essentially are

its injury rounds that burn through whatever

they hit I was gonna say I'm loving this I just

think this is just so great and again Livio's

art What I like here is how the variant on colors

like the scene where it's a sandstorm meeting

up with optimus well not meeting up but they

talk to each other in the bar and just the color

on like the aqua green color on prime when he's

when he says we didn't come here to debate history

gut cruncher just such good colors yeah the art

works perfectly in this is another one of those

series that uh really plays up let me uh livio

livio's strength me use english good um And yeah,

it helps that it matches the tone. It's this

darker story, darker tone. So his artwork completely

matches everything that we see going on. Yeah.

And to sort of conclude, because the rest of

the book is things move along quicker. We're

actually halfway through at this point, too.

So Prime and Co continue investigating the use

of the rounds and the fact the bar was burnt

leads them to believe it's the Firecons, who

in Generation 1 were a subgroup of Transformers.

The Firecons are the Decepticon ones, obviously.

And they would create sparks, the toys would.

Which, man, give kids a bunch of... Yeah, no.

They wouldn't do that today, yeah, they wouldn't

do that today. But anyway, so it leads them to

investigate them. The Dinobots and Samston get

sent in to apprehend them and, holy shit, they

take some liberties and maul the hell out of

them. Nearly killing all of the suspects in the

process. Optimus stops them, as does Windblade

and others, but Prime at this point seemingly

starts to suspect the Dinobots and holy cow,

so he has a really good speed here and he talks

about the fact that the Dinobots in a lot of

ways aren't any better than the Decepticons or

any of the others. you know we've had references

especially in the records our last stand of the

record slash sins of and in more than meets the

eye that a lot of the autobot teams have done

just as many atrocities and terrible things as

the djd and the decepticon ones and here they

reference yeah the dino bots massacring a group

of decepticons essentially for no reasons and

A, it works really well. B, it angers Slug and

the Dinobots and Slug is absolutely incensed

at it because Prime basically tells them that

they should have died in the war because they're

relics, they can't let go of the past animosities.

Prime, by the way, is not entirely inaccurate

because i mean the dynomots depictions up to

this point they still hate the decepticons they

still and that's what this whole arc is about

too they're still very much trapped in that cycle

yep and go ahead i think my favorite part about

this is when optimus is driving down wherever

he's driving and his speech there begins Part

of it is, my reputation as a leader drove me

from Cybertron when the Battles and a war hero

is little more than a peace villain. That's an

awesome line. And technically it's right. I mean...

I don't know. But no, I absolutely love that.

I thought that was great. the whole speech with

Optimus to slug and I wonder if Optimus really

means this or believes this because we find out

that obviously it's it's a setup for later. Yeah,

so just skip forward and finish it off. I mean

it was essentially a setup as somebody goes to

kill off the Dinobots and in the end It was sandstorm

Letting old animosities get to him sandstorm

also trapped in sort of the same cycle as the

dino bots and You know prime is able to subdue

him. There's a really good action sequence, etc

here, but yeah to close it off, I mean The stuff

with the dino ball. I suspect I'm like I said

before he's not wrong don't think he you know

wishes they had died in the in the in the war

but yeah I mean I can't imagine he's too happy

with them either I mean he clearly sees they

just hate the Decepticons period yeah having

said that I mean prime basically uses them here

which So to use another series for example, I

mean Sideswipe, I don't want to you know ruin

issues for other people but Sideswipe hates the

Decepticons as well and they take the chance

and they Very sort of slowly try to erase that

animosity Whereas with the Dinobots, they end

up getting used to sort of set a trap here. Now,

having said that, I don't know that Prime had

a lot of better options at this point. Sandstorm's

doing a pretty good job of covering his tracks

and getting away, but... Yeah, this is... I mean,

this is... That was the point of this series,

too, is that... the Autobots aren't this just

the good guys and that They do bad things or

have done bad things or worse things than the

Decepticons have and The war has changed everybody

and not for the better So this was this is just

a great book Cannot recommend it enough. It's

still fairly easy to find. I mean, it's they're

all available in comics ology, obviously But

I mean, I'm pretty sure there's the fairly freely

available at local comic book stores and that

kind of thing. So Yeah, absolutely punishment

was great again the reason why I know this was

originally on motion comic for made fire is because

Beetle Steva had it on her Windows 8 .1 tablet

or whatever because it was a Windows exclusive

thing way back when and She would always tease

Litty Wreck like yeah, I'm reading punishment

and there's sounds and there's this and there's

that and later Yeah punishment for being the

first chapter in this absolutely dug it I thought

it was great I think... I think it's in the next

one. I don't think it was in this one. Because

we don't see blur until Redemption, right? Yeah.

Yeah, it's in Redemption. In Redemption, there's

a couple of good things there. But Punishment...

It was such a deep, dark story. and it was so

cool like there's a there are ways to do dark

stories correctly and John obviously knows how

to do them correctly um there are ways they can

go wrong and I even I was you know assuming that

it was going to be slug in the Dinobots I was

not even expecting Sandstorm at all I mean you

know what's John going to do have you know Octane

coming later no probably not but Yeah, punishment

was awesome. What would you rate this one zero

to five? No five Absolutely five all the way

from me as well. I'm just gonna be giving all

them a five because I mean this They make up

a really turret. They're great individual issues

They obviously they work better if you've read

to the earlier stuff, but they function better

than most as individual issues if you you know

where to read them out of order so because of

you know and then they form just a terrific story

as a whole and very much sort of the redemption

of the dino bots or the changes to them because

of what happens yeah absolutely so getting into

redemption Same crew, John Barber, Livia Remindelli,

Tom B. Long on letters, and Carlos Guzman on

edits. We start off with snarl, or not snarl,

slag. Drunk slag, actually. Slug, but anyway.

This is also from Not R .I .D. Season 2. We saw

the open of this. But yeah, he's getting hammered

at Blur's bar McAdams and gets busted by barricade

and I mean he They hate I mean they hate Decepticons,

but they hate Optimus Prime at this point remembering

The pretty awful stuff you said to them in the

earlier trade. Yeah And yeah, they all end up

in jail My favorite line is when we see blur.

Surrendered now. Surrendered like, oh, he put

a Seinfeld reference in. That is hilarious. And

all I can hear, I can hear John Machida Jr. in

my head. Surrendered now. Surrendered just really

fast. Wow. It's crazy. So after this, I mean,

Barricade gives the DinoBots an offer to get

them out and not to mention make some cash in

the process. And to... Well, I mean, after this

point, the rest of the story is essentially a...

You talk about pop culture references, it's Mad

Max Fury Road, only as Transformers. And if you're

gonna make me happy or butter me up, that's a

great way to do it, because that movie was absolute

bliss. So... Yeah, the Dinobots... complete with

strafe and barricade are running a truck and

we don't know what's in there nor do the I mean

the Dinobots aren't supposed to but they do because

yeah they yeah distract everybody and they look

inside and it's filled with new sparks Sparks

being the essence of what makes the transformers

alive. Yep And so we continue on they get attacked

by it seems to be sweeps which are long dead

And yeah, they go through they actually run into

the Transformers that make up Victoria on briefly

they only sort of see them but yeah they're not

really there for to do anything they don't attack

or anything like that so we continue on uh they

get attacked repeatedly there's a lot of stuff

in here that happens but i'm sort of summing

it up quickly my favorite line is from swoop

and this whole issue i disarmed one ha ha ha

ha Yeah, you did, Swoop. When they're fighting

the Bajalas. Yes. It's hilarious. So, yeah, in

the end, they are confronted by the person who

was in charge of everyone that's after them.

And it's Bludgeon, who we haven't seen in forever.

And it should be noted that they get contaminated

energon falling on them at one point. And this

eventually results in Strafe becoming a new Dinobot.

Which is interesting as they get back to having

five again. Right. In the midst of this, Bludgeon

kills Barricade and stops the truck. and they

confront each other and yeah the legend is knocked

down into a pit whatever you want to call it

into the contaminated energon the dino bots now

with strafe as a fifth member fight off the rest

and they end up with a field of new Cybertronian

sparks in other words a new hotspot, which hasn't

happened in four million years. It's mentioned.

Yeah and That's how we sort of flows off is the

Dinobots know about this Yeah, but they're gonna

tell anybody because that's the Well in the end,

I mean we discover that Starscream knows about

it and a handful of others But yeah, they keep

it quiet. Yeah Because the last thing anybody

needs is to restart the war and there's some

debate as to the nature of the sparks Has Bludgeon

corrupted them that kind of thing. So, you know

Cuz I'm pretty sure that's what Bludgeon would

have done if he had the time to do it so the

so again like i've summed up the issue really

quickly but the focus on this like you know the

story or like mad max fury road is the interpersonal

stuff that happens in between it and the dialogue

etc etc and like that movie this is really well

done and it's really deep and it's well written

it looks gorgeous again The only issue I have

is some of the arts or some of the action sequences

are not 100 % clear in that sort of Livio way.

But it works in the context of this series. Because

I mean, one thing about Fury Road, if you're

going to reference it, the action in that was

frenetic and crazy and that kind of thing. Now

granted, you could see everything, but there

was always so much going on that it made it complicated.

And that's kind of the way it works and is supposed

to work in here. So it works for this issue.

Issue, trade, whatever you want to call it. Yeah,

it does. And again, it's the Dinobots. There's

supposed to be frantic action with them. They're

not those clear and concise and... you know perfect

shot characters they're you know rage -filled

they're going to go off they're going you know

majority of them breathe fire for crap sake i

mean come on you know you're not gonna see slug

or sludge or snarl sitting up top of a roof with

a sniper rifle waiting it's just not gonna happen

And you want it to not happen like that because

you want to see their frenetic action. There

were a couple of scenes in this where it was

like, what did they just do? But I, you know,

I went back and I looked through it again and

I pretty much get all of it. You know, the second

part of the story here, I absolutely love it.

I think it's great. I think it's fun. I think

that the Dinobots are finally getting the character

attention that they need in IDW's universe. Because

we've talked about this before, Simon Furman

loved the DinoBots and he gave them all the attention

he could. That ended up probably giving us a

little bit too much DinoBots than we needed.

But it is what it is. And this is going to sound

really bad, but I don't really care. I would

argue in these three stories... We get more characterization

to the four other Dino bots then Furman gave

Even in you know when you combine Transformers

UK Marvel era and everything else Then we did

in his entire run. I mean Yeah, it just works.

I don't know they it's crazy how much There is

to each of these issues Yeah, I mean there's

there's so much you've got the whole thing with

Optimus Starscream and Windblade We didn't really

talk too much about Windblade. She doesn't have

a starring starring role in this but she's still

there a Few good key points One of the things

is it advances her disillusionment with the transformer

Cybertronian society Yeah, because she sees that

you know, they can't let go of the animosity

They had this war for millions of years all this

stuff is unfathomable to her being from Caminus

Or cannabis whatever and Yeah, they she can't

believe it and then yeah, she sees them continue

to be kind of scumbaggy it sort of continues

her Disillusionment with them And that's kind

of the point of her being there and again it

works It helps the stuff we see in season two

of robots in disguise as well So I mean it's

worth reading just for that, but I mean they're

also absolutely perfect It's just great story

without all of that. Like, even if you didn't

know the IDW stuff, this works pretty well on

its own. Yep. Because it doesn't really tie,

well, at least the first two don't really tie

too much into, I mean, they're in the continuity.

Like you said, this is the adventure that Optimus

had to go on in the middle of the beginning of

Season 2 of RID when he had to leave Earth. But

that's pretty much the only tie You look what

like you're saying earlier, you know someone

could go into their comic shop or go on Comixology

and pick up these three issues and read them

as a completed whole story and You know, you

wouldn't need to read anything else although

you should because it is all very well done Yeah,

no salvation Redemption was really, really awesome.

We'll have to see what happens with Salvation

coming up next after the break. We are back here

inside the pool bag and it is time to talk about

Transformers Salvation V3. Punishment and Redemption.

As always, John Barber and Livia Romanelli on

writing and art, with Tom Luong on letters and

all that good stuff. Kermit Bismar is the editor.

Publisher Ted Adams writing W. And this is the

final chapter of The Dino Bot Art. This was...

interesting. Why? Interesting ending. I was not

expecting this ending. Okay. I guess we'll get

there eventually. Same sort of stuff as the other

trades. The art here is really good. I'm not

going to talk too much about some of the intricacies

and things this time. I mean, it's the same as

the others, third part of the trilogy, and it's

still really good. So getting into it, it's told

out of order. Eh, I like that. Worth a while.

I think it's one thing that... They also point

out when is when, so... Well, yeah, they do,

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

back and forth, and so, uh... Stop trying to

be James Roberts. Please, stop it. Because he

does that all the time. He does that in one issue,

one issue, and I go nuts. The time issue where

it's like a negative amount of this many minutes.

What's this? Find it? I'm like, no. Don't do

that. Anyway. Hey, it's fun and different. Make

a long story short, essentially what happens

here, and I'm just going to say this in order.

The Sparks... Jesus, what is the order? The Sparks

we saw previously are missing. And in the end,

for the record, it turns out Bludgeon's taken

them and put them into a now revived crypticon.

Bludgeon has sort of perfected the corrupted

energon we saw previously in the other parts

of this series, as well as in Autocracy's trilogy

as well. And perfected in that, well, it kind

of brings things back to life. So anyway, Tripticon's

back. We actually get him remembering things,

which is interesting because they kind of retcon

his existence as a titan into things. It works

really well. Again, long story short, the Dinobots

get involved trying to find out what happened

to the Sparks. They move to go into Tripticon.

As well, at the same time, they're being hunted

by Sandstorm. Previous to entering Tripticon,

Slag is slash Slug, and for the rest I'll just

refer to him as Slug, is killed by Sandstorm,

which was kind of surprising. What's surprising

about that is his lining. I put this on Facebook,

and so I live in lining. I always knew being

in kind of what was... Oh damn. Anyway, so, uh,

I mean, he's not a huge character, but he's been

their leader since Grimlock's been gone. And

yeah, he's killed by Sandstorm, who was sent

by Starscream to see what was happening. And

Sandstorm should be completely 100 % noted, so

I've read Barber write the Punisher now. But

Sandstorm's clearly meant to be the Punisher

in this. He's got the internal monologue. He's

even got the Autobot insignia on his chest. So

it's 100 % clear. But anyway. See, Slug is killed.

The Dinobots with Devastator's Help are able

to enter Trypticon. They... confront Bludgeon.

Now earlier, Snare, the newest dino bot, confronted

Bludgeon single -handedly. The rest arrived later.

And in the end, they're able to... Really, I

mean, all that happens is they break Trypticon

free of Bludgeon's influence, and Trypticon kind

of takes it upon himself to completely obliterate

Bludgeon. What I love about this is... part of

this is the mission where it's Devastator helping

them fight Drifticon. Devastator looks like a

freaking mouse compared to, uh, uh, Drifticon.

Oh yeah, the combiner can't fight it's height.

As what? It has absolutely no chance. I mean,

Metroplex would... Kick them around. By the way,

there's some scale issues here because previously

Devastator was a little taller actually quite

a bit taller Compared to Metroplex This is more

in scale with what it should be because the Titans

are humongous AI Tripsy gets rid of Legend goes

briefly goes off -planet and lands back down

with a thud, to put it mildly. Turns out the

sparks are all inside Trypticon. They're reactivated.

Something begins growing, the culmination of

everything that's now inside Trypticon. And new

transformers begin growing inside him, where

the remaining alive Dinobots, now down to...

Four of them are with sandstorm And that's about

it our ending is blood when survived although

he's Not exactly in great shape He's barely live

and Starscream is talking about the idea that

well, there's a bunch of mutated sparks from

the well one left from legend sweeps that he

used earlier in this series, not to mention in

the second issue, and, you know, starts considering

combining the remaining spark with the deceased

corpse of Slug. He says, we weren't born in the

war. He says, this is the girl with the Decepticon

symbol from the boy we gave these up. I think

that's just really great. The one on the star

screen. The other one I like is, he has a bug's

bum on his knee. Yeah, I was not expecting this

story to be... I don't know what I was expecting

out of this. Even though he's not a main character,

I definitely wasn't expecting Slugby to be killed.

He was the leader of the Dino Box. And yeah,

I'm curious what the... end result's going to

be, uh, I mean, the mutated sparks didn't do

the sweeps any good, not that they, they were

depicted as pretty much mindless anyway. But,

uh, I mean, I'll just assume that, you know,

it works and it brings him back. I can't imagine

slugs going to be the same. Even though race

is pretty much the same each time. Well, yeah,

his madness is worse each time. I mean, sort

of. It depends on... At least in BCAS. But yeah,

I enjoyed this. I thought this was fun. I didn't

think we were going to see Sam's fun again. I

thought he was just going to sit in prison for...

God knows how long. Honestly, I miss Grimlock

with the Dinobots. Which I think is the idea,

to have him away this long at this point. I mentioned

it before, but the Dinobots got overused between

Marvel US, Marvel UK, really heavily using them,

and then Furman's initial run. was reasonably

Dinobot heavy as well so it was fine to kind

of remove him and I mean he was the main character

in the animated series quite frequently as well

so it didn't bother me that didn't bother me

that much that he's been gone but yeah there

is part of me that I wanted to see him back in

the reaction to slugs leading to Dinobots I was

curious about that not to mention the fact that

with him at the helm, and he in particular can't

kind of leave the war behind at all. Yeah, Slug

hasn't been able to. Yeah, Rimlock probably could.

I mean, he learned a lot before he was in prison.

And now he's kind of well, now he's with a group

of Decepticons. And he seems to actually want

to be there. during his times when he's not speaking

nonsense or when he's able to speak, and not

to mention he had the chance to leave them, he

decided to stay with them, so... I mean, it's

just one of those things where, yeah, you're

right, they did get overused, and I have not

read a lot of that stuff, so luckily I was not

bogged down by that, hence why I say I kind of

miss him being... I think the DinoBots have worked

in IDW Transformers in little sporadic mini -series

kind of things where they have their own. Because

the DinoBots have never really been, never, in

any continuity, whatever you want to say, Q1,

whatever. They've never really been a full part

of the Autobots. They're with the Autobots, they

have the Autobot symbols and all of that and

everything else, but they're not... You're not

going to see the DinoBots inside the Ark. So

I think that they work better if it's one -off

kind of stories that still tie into the overall

content. I think the characters can work in the

ongoing but it's been a while since that's happened

and you know the whole idea though is you want

your audience to actually want to See them meet

up slash see them back. So It's obvious something's

going to happen for him off by the way Before

the end of this season's lost light just because

he was in for his vision Drift's a good character

in More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light. Drift

was a not good character under his invention

by that and his invention by Shane McCarthy in

general as well. And then in the Costa run too,

we just... I mean, yeah. It just never worked

as a character and... In the initial stuff with

McCarthy, I mean, we're talking about a series

where basically none of the characters worked

all that well, nor were they written with any

sort of consistency in All Hail Megatron, and...

Anyway, we're getting way off the top of this,

yeah. Although, to be fair, I summed this up

pretty quickly as well, but I kind of had to

because of the jumping, and I didn't want to

do page by page and go, and this happened earlier!

Yeah, but I think it worked in sequence of this

the other thing that surprised me and delighted

me and I mentioned this last time around that

or during the sorry during our review for the

autocracy trilogy and That is tripticon in this

is his tech specs version essentially, so he's

not the groaning Can only speak, you know a couple

words version in the animated series. He takes

after the Intelligent Crypticon that he was supposed

to be in the tech specs. So, I like that. I much

prefer... I don't like the idea that if a Transformer

is big, he's gotta be dumb. That's one thing

that always bugs me in the animated show, that

as soon as a Transformer is large, unless it's

Computron, they're an idiot. He was pretty dumb.

He never strung together more than a sentence.

And he spoke in that slow, deep voice. Honestly,

at this point in time, I mean, I can't say I

was nervous here. I really dug the whole re -engraving

of Metroid's life choices. Yeah, I like that

he's reasonably intelligent in this, too. It's

just... He's not happy with the Transformers

or I should say the Cybertronians as a race and

just chooses not to speak with them because He

yeah, like I said, he's really not happy with

the fact they were at war forever and all the

things they've done To the point that he ended

up leaving Cybertron or having to leave Cybertron

and you know Magnus mentioned or it was mentioned

to Magnus that yeah he can speak to them he chooses

not to because they don't deserve it so he yeah

and that's also why you won't tell them about

the Knights of Cybertron or anything else he's

clearly not happy with them and yeah I like I

said I was really surprised the Trypticon was

because even in the comics he wasn't he could

speak in sentences in the old Marvel G1 comics,

but he wasn't that sharp and in this he seems

to be fairly intelligent. It's 30 years ago this

year since this series ended, and it's more than

that since it began. And it's one of those things

where that was then, this is now. There's no

reason. As long as, for me, when it comes to

Metroplex and Tiktokon and all that, as long

as they have the look of the T -1 character,

you can characterize him any way you want in

my mind. Well, they seem to follow, yeah, they

seem to follow the tech specs more than the...

animated show which i'm okay with because i mean

they're still following something but you know

and it also makes sense because i mean Devastator

and Monstructor are both dumb as a post because

they were experiments and it was before they

sort of knew slash re -new relearned there we

go how to make combiners again not to mention

had the uh combination yes whatever but anyway

the new matrix but yeah it was before they had

that so they're not sort of natural combiners

uh my favorite uh panel from this entire book

from salvation is the one uh close to the end

where i believe it's swoop flying towards uh

flying towards tripicon where he says it stopped

I love what Lydio did with the bluish sky background,

and Cypricon's kind of in the shadow, and his

eyes. I just love, that's still my favorite interview.

We get a lot of his backgrounds in this, and

sometimes, I mentioned this in Combiner Wars,

and some of the ones, I wasn't huge on his art,

sometimes it blurs together. In this, the colors

and everything seem to pop, and it's... it's

weird because there's a couple sequences there's

only a couple where it had difficulty kind of

making out that it was bludgeon this is near

the end of what happened um but it for the most

part it's quite clear this is some of his again

it's some of his best work and i think partially

because a lot of the sequences inside trypticon

there's sparks around there's a lot more light

than usual than he usually depicts But yeah,

for the most part, the Artemis is near flawless.

It's really easy to tell what's going on. I don't

know, maybe it's my imagination too, but I'd

also argue it feels like the Dinobots are drawn

a little more light, which I think is, it kind

of matches the story as they kind of find their

redemption for their salvation. I mean that's

the idea of this trilogy and so I think I think

that was intentional too that Livio is helping

tell the story through his artwork which obviously

is what you're supposed to do as an artist but

he doesn't hear he doesn't hear better than I'd

say he has before like it feels like he's getting

better as time goes on which is not surprising

but I mean he was quite good to begin with even

when he debuts where it's scenes of the dino

-bots, where it's, where it's Krippetons monologue.

You know, they are bright, because most of them

are green and red, or orange, yellow and red,

or something. They're not the dark blues, purples,

things like that. But it's almost, it's a very

sort of light gray. point whereas previously

especially you know go back and read the early

stuff in the series it was always the dark gray

and in shadow and again I think it's intentional

it's really smart it's I really like what he's

done in the series If you're on Comixology and

you move forward in that panel, if you're using

the Guided View, it splashes out a splash page

of all four of them. Swoop is the only one out

of the four of them that really has mostly dark

gray on his body, but not his wings, but just

like his shoulders, his chest, his stomach. He's

got the red things on his knees and things like

that. The only other one that's... slightly darker

but he had you're right the grays are not as

dark as they used to be which is a really really

good thing yeah so in the end I mean sum it up

first of all this story tells a pretty coherent

story like we had the introduction of Trypticon

to this saga here in the third one But it still

makes sense. He didn't appear in the second one.

The second one we had the debut of The Sparks

and Strafe and some of the other story elements.

But again, it didn't feel like it came out of

left field. And the first one, oddly enough,

mostly focused on Optimus Prime. Or rather, he

was sort of the central character. But again...

It never felt out of place that we kind of segue

into the Dinobots being the main characters and

just everything in this worked really well. Again,

I'd say this is Barbara's best stuff. I think

it's Livio's best artwork and the two of them

combined to make... I feel like even if you're

not familiar with the IDW universe, these are

really good trilogy books to read. I don't think

it... It obviously helps a whole lot if you're

familiar with it, but I think they'd work just

as a series of comics for pretty much anybody.

because the rest of the first, the rest of the

punishment was all about a boss, and redemption

and salvation was all about a boss. And again,

having them central stage in their own kind of

thing that is and is not, it's tied into the

overall IDWG1 continuity, but it's, you don't

have to read 25 or 30 comics to get this. So

you're gonna be more familiar with the characters

and probably feel a little more when something

happens like, you know slug being killed or Barricade

or some of the other things that's happened to

them in this video Yes, he's a cop car, but he

doesn't really do anything with, like, they don't

portray him as a police officer. He's just a

cop car. And this series portrays him as a Cybertronian

police officer, and I like that we finally get

actual characterization for this guy. He's not

just our Hugh Blazeman 22111. Yeah, and we mentioned

this before when we got off on the tangents and

one of the other shows and that is that I think

IDW as a whole works better when they do these

kind of one -shot stories versus having three

ongoings and And you know, I don't have any issues

with that too because I mean I like the I like

I really liked each of the three ongoing series.

I'm sad to see it go but It just, I don't know,

I really like these one shots and it gives the

authors the chance to work with different characters

and or work outside of the universe and do something

different or have something that has a different

feel to it. Like this feels different than anything

Barber's done and he's done dark stories, especially,

you know, lately in Optimus Prime, but this just,

it feels very much unlike all of his other Transformers

work. like I said, this allowed him, this and

the autocracy trilogy allowed John to tell a

story without being hindered by having to throw

in six combiners or throw in the dark side of

Cybertron's moons or whatever. This allowed him

to actually write a story that he wanted to write,

that he wanted to tell us. And to be fair by

the way you mentioned you know some of the time

switch and that kind of thing being confusing

to you Imagine if they had tried to write that

in while stuff was happening on earth in the

transformer series and that's the other reason

you know you can tell stories away from your

main characters Roberts does that and a lot of

people complain about it Like when he goes off

with the DJD or more notably when he rejoins

the scavengers when they go off so My only thing

with that is, yeah, my only thing with that when

it comes to Roberts is, as long as I've kept

up with it, and like I've already said, I haven't

gotten into Lost Light Rock in the time that

it was born, but during more than a T .I., as

long as I saw any number of the Lost Light crew

within five or ten pages of the comic, What would

you rate Salvation? I'm gonna stick with it.

It gets the, you know, five stars. The series

as a whole is not perfect, but it just works

really, really well in its entirety. And individually,

I think they also read really well. I, you know,

I struggle to, you know, my negatives are nitpicky,

struggle to find anything, unlike my constant

complaining usually. Yeah, I'm going to give

it a four and a half. There wasn't really anything

that I didn't like, but I'm hoping that John

gets to read more stories, not necessarily like

this, but outside of the Optimus Prime stuff.

And again, I haven't read Optimus Prime yet,

so I don't know how different that is from, you

know, the first couple of seasons of great X

-Raid and all that, so I'll have to see what's

going to happen. Anything else you want to bring

up before I close it out? No, I mean, I'm still,

again, I've said it before, I think this is a

good way to get your authors and writers some

leadway and to do stuff or do stuff with characters

or tell stories that they can't normally in the

other series. I've got to admit, I really want

to see where Barber goes with this story. But,

alternatively, I think it's nice that he gets

to take a break and return to what he did beforehand.

So, again, I think it's a great way to recharge

the batteries and hopefully continue with it.

Absolutely. All right, folks. Coming up next

month in September, we're going super surfing.

That's right. All month, Joe Reed is going to

join me and we're going to talk to you. And it's

Thomas from IDW. We're going to talk about issues

65 and 66. 7 to 70, which is the district measures

are of the main ongoing. And after that, we've

got TMNT Universe, number one through five, and

then six through 10. The next time we're gonna

talk Transformers, the Angels, Amy, Nicole, and

Heather will be with me in February of 2018.

We're gonna be talking about the Ringblade Distance

Stars trade, which we should have done a couple

years ago, but whatever. It's, you know. And

the Windblade series too is another example of

that though like especially just in stars I loved

it because it gave them the chance to go to new

places and explore different things that they

don't get to So that'll be the next time we talk

Transformers. Like I said, next month is IDWTT,

which they just, as of this recording, they just

hit a milestone. IDW Publishing has the longest

running TMNT series because they hit 73 issues.

And I know for a fact, as Bobby Kernow, the editor,

has told me several times, they have the main

TMNT series. Well they break the Archie comics

record with Sonic which is now Static because

you know they lost the or the license is now

changed to IDW I mean unless they're gonna release

a comic Where do we find you online, sir? At

Night Beat on Twitter. I'm at TF2 and Mike on

Twitter. You can follow At The Pull Bag on Twitter.

Also follow At Ecast Radio on Twitter. This is

the website, ecastradio .com. Make your greatest

escape to comics and join us next month as we

dine on some turtle soup. But wait folks, there's

more that's right TF2 and Mike here and this

final episode of Autobotly August where Ryan

the uninfluent Merkley and I talked about the

Dinobot trilogy from IDW Punishment redemption

salvation is not exactly over because we're gonna

tease you with what's coming up in September

for the pullback It's gonna be sewer surfing

September with myself along with Joe Reed. Hello,

Joe Hello Hello, yes, and the reason why we're

here besides giving you a preview of what sewer

surfing September is going to be is We wanted

to talk about Kevin Eastman's drawing blood volume

1 a graphic novel the Kickstarter has gotten

funded as of this recording Yes as of this recording

there are 41 hours to go But it has been funded

if they reach the 100k stretch goal you will

get Some sort of Ronan rabbit The gosh the how

to have the Radically rearranged Ronan Raggles

number one. So if you haven't been following

the Kickstarter if you're not aware, this is

a fictional story of a fictional Comic creator

who went through a very similar story to what

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird did in creating

these these characters They show Shane Bookman

the creator Creates with his brother these Radically

rearranged ronan ragdolls. It's a black -and

-white comic they get huge they have movies and

licensing bloody bloody blah and Then it gets

a little crazy and I think we're gonna hear that

story about how that goes semi -autobiographical

But definitely fictionalized And so the but the

the bonus of this hundred point or hundred thousand

dollar stretch goal is that you get the actual

comic the finger quotes in the air wagging comic

that they created their number one issue which

is kind of cool i'm hoping they make it because

i'm a backer and i hope you guys are backers

too because kevin eastman uh will do something

cool ben bishop uh is doing the art in the book

And I think Kevin Eastman is kind of conceiving

of it and outlining it. But David Avaloni, am

I right on the first name? I think so, yeah.

Yeah, David Avaloni, that's right. Is writing

it and probably doing the scripts for it. So

I think you've got three really rocking people

on board with this book, and it's going to be

fun, I think. Absolutely. Abso -friggin -lutely

it's gonna be awesome Even though the Kickstarter

campaign will be over by the time this episode

of the pull bag goes up I think I will still

put a link to it so you guys can see what it

is in the in the show notes for this episode

of the pull bag and This has changed since the

last time we recorded this thing, but oops that

was the wrong button But we have What's coming

up in September for the pull bag sewer serve

in September Joe and I are gonna return to the

TMNT IDW universe for a while In episode 151

we talk about issues 55 and 50 50 55 Wow, we

already did that 65 ago Already did that 65 and

66 Episode 152 of the pullback will be 67 to

70, which is the desperate measures arc Episode

153 will be 71 and 72 so only two issues in that

because that is the pantheon storyline for the

the evil family rat king Kitsune and all of that

Some other fan favorites that are in the back

not in the background, but they've been from

previous comics. We get to see him again Teasing.

Yep. Episode 154, and Joe doesn't know this,

because like I said, this changed since the last

time we talked about this, we're gonna wait on

Universe, because I keep putting that off, but

like, we're so stuck in the core title at this

point, but episode 154 will be the five -issue

miniseries TMNT Dimension X. What? This has been

a, that's been a five, I think every issue's

come out once a week, kind of in order, we're

getting the whole thing in one. Yep. Yep. And

that's been a lot of fun, I've been reading that

too. Absolutely. And then episode, now this episode

numbering has nothing to do with the numbers

or how the episode's gonna be, but episode 154

.5. will be TMNT issues 73 to 75 because that

is going to be the trial of Krang now 73 they

hit it and 74 and 75 they surpassed it IDW now

has the longest running Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles comic series ever unbelievable and it

it's it's amazing what the the how it feels to

me how how Yeah, Volume 1, and yeah, the Archie

series. Those books seem to have so much time

spread out over their 70 issues. But IDW, I mean,

it's packed. It is packed full of story. And

it's only maybe been six months to a year in

turtle time in the IDW universe, which is amazing.

It's just, it's... Beautiful beautiful writing

the pacing is great The the way the arcs are

broken up so that you get those lovely trade

paperbacks every so often It's just it's been

a spectacular way to do it and I'm over the moon

for them having reached 73 with no slowdown in

sight and also no renumbering in sight So I'm

very very happy for that, too I think that's

the cool thing about IDW and the Turtles book

along with Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman and Bobby

Kernau and all of the artists not just Mateus

Santaluco but all of them over the last, you

know, four or five years. they've done things

to where the ongoing doesn't have to be rebooted

or doesn't have to be renumbered because the

ongoing is one full long story and Then if they

need to do side stories or other stories that

you know They've got the they've got the micro

series that they did they've got All the one

shots like you know Turtles in Time Bebop and

Rocksteady Casey and April Mutanimals they do

all these miniseries now and of course now you

do have TMNT universe which we will be getting

to at some point. And that's a whole other ongoing

series for them, but it leaves the core title

to be whatever these creators want it, whatever

direction they want the story to go into. And

the sales on Turtles must be good. I mean, it

must be good. And it shows incredible faith in

the writer editor and artists to not force them

to renumber it because we all they renumber things

because people buy number ones sales must be

good and They're also I think there's a faith

in the property knowing that people know the

turtles, that they could jump on. And IDW and

Bobby and everybody has done a super job of having

the free comic book today be what you need to

read to get caught up with the very next issue

of the book. And it's everything you need to

know to be. you know, perfectly fine reading

the next issue and picking it up from there.

And then they do those wonderful trade paperbacks

that make it so easy. At least once a week, I

see somebody on the internet who said, hey, I

picked up trade paperback one through five, and

I'm about to ready to get caught up with this.

And they're doing a spectacular job. Absolutely.

So that's what's coming up here in the pull bag

for Sewer Surfing September in 2017. Make your

greatest game to comics and we will catch you

next time folks. Nope that time I said it enough

during the show. No wood for you You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pullback, the

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