IDW Publishing’s M.A.S.K. – Mobile Armored Strike Kommand – Riding V.E.N.O.M.'s Trail!

Hi, this is Christy Marks, the writer of Gem

and the Holograms and Beast Wars, and you're

listening to Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, it's

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

into comics by jumping inside the pull bag today.

Illusion is the ultimate weapon. You've just

jumped inside the pull bag. This is episode 585.

We've got just a few more episodes until the

landmark 600th episode of this podcast, folks.

I am, of course, TF2 and Mike, and I'm coming

to you live, kind of, sort of, not really, since

this is always recorded, but this is episode

585, and I am pulling a switcheroo. This is going

to be the IDW Publishing Mask episode that Jesse

Early, a .k .a. Matrix Prime, from another comic

review. That's his podcast. We recorded this

as episode 586. Originally, this was going to

be Skybound Entertainment Transformers Volume

2 Transport to Oblivion. But Steve Megatron and

I haven't been able to record that just yet.

So instead of waiting and instead of waiting

for episode 586 and getting the mask episode.

Because as of this recording, Skybound Entertainment

has released mask number one. You are going to

be getting on that release day, even though it'll

be backdated and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada.

This will be episode 585, and this is going to

be our coverage of the IDW publishing story for

mask mobile armored strike command. This is the

full trade. This is my conversation with Jesse

Early where we review the IDW publishing story

for Mask written by Brandon Easton. So please

enjoy. Originally this was going to be episode

586. It is now 585. Mask is 31 years old at this

point. The cartoon debuted in 1985. It only had

75 episodes. If you want to go back in the cartoon

vaults here on the Geekcast Radio Network, you

can check out a podcast called Masked Mayhem

with my buddy Optimus Solo, where we discussed

all 75 episodes of Mask, actually. I think Optimus

Solo tapped out after the first season, and my

other buddy, Tim Silvers, helped me finish out

the racing season, which is those last ten episodes.

But anyway, folks, please enjoy the Pull Bags

episode 585, Mask, from IDW Publishing. And now,

on with the show! Are you ready for more? Let's

go! Alright, you good to go? As good as I'm going

to be. It'll be painless, I promise. It'll be

painless. Hey, look, I'm doing all the work this

time. You have just jumped inside the pull bag.

I am TF2 and Mike, and today's featured guest

is none other than Jesse from another comic review.

Hey, it's been a while since we had Jesse on

the show, folks. You said 2023? 2024, technically,

you had your podcast approach over on Studio

2009. Just a couple years. Yeah, a couple years.

We're fast approaching your three -year anniversary

of your own podcast, June 16th of this year.

You think you got this comics thing down? I don't

know if I got it down, but I've certainly been

reading far more comics than what I imagined

that was going to be. And it's not just the Energon

Universe stuff, which is what we've been covering,

but I've been reading other stuff as well. So

that's kind of actually surprised me quite a

bit. Well, that's good. That just means in a

couple of years or so, you can jump back inside

the pull bag with me and go through the 30 questions

all about reading comics. So same premise as

the podcast approach. just 30 questions about

comics. But today, folks, leading up to the stuff

with the Energon universe that's currently going

on, we're going to head back to the IDW publishing

vault and make sure our spectrums are ready because

illusion is the ultimate weapon. That's right.

Even though Skybound already released their free

comic book day issue for 2026, which gave us

our first taste of their version of Mobile Armored

Strike Command, their full launch is June 3rd.

I thought it would be awesome that we unleashed

some of our own mass mayhem. Right here on the

Geekcast Radio Network and discuss the IDW series

ahead of the Skybound launch. Oh, yeah. Also,

this episode will be a double bill on the pull

bag and the old school mask cartoon review show

that Optimus Solo and I did way back in the day

in 2011. I can't believe it was 2011 that we

did Masked Mayhem. For those that may not remember,

and for those that do remember, Masked Mayhem

was us reviewing all 75 episodes of Mask from

1985. And honestly, really, you only need to

watch the first season. It's 65 episodes, because

65 was syndication in the olden days. Those last

10 episodes was deemed, the second season of

the show was deemed the racing season. It's not

that good. Heck, Optimus Solo tapped out. I had

to bring in a ringer. I had to bring in my buddy,

Tune Master Tim, to finish out the show with

me. But this comic from IDW, wowzers. Oh, boy.

But first, the creative team for this. This whole

series was written by Brandon Easton. You've

probably heard his name before. I don't have

all of his credits in front of me. I actually

just have the title, the creative page from the

trade paperback in front of me. But he has written

multiple other things. I believe he's written

some Transformers stuff. I'll talk more about

him later. In this trade for revolution, the

art was done by Tony Vargas. The colors were

done by Jordi Esquen. I'm sorry, Jordi, if I

butchered your name. Letters were done by Chris

Mowry. Tony Vargas basically did most of the

art. Issue three was Juan Samu. Colors in the

entire thing were done by Jordi. That's awesome.

Drew Moss did the art on issue 10, 6, 7, 8, 9,

and 10. Mask. I had never read this. In the IDW

publishing landscape, when it comes to the Hasbro

stuff, I stuck with Transformers, and that's

all I had read. read gi joe when it crossed over

with transformers i've read several gi joe trades

and we've covered several of the gi joe trades

on the podcast but i don't know i just never

got around to doing this until the next company

that got the license was like hey guess what

we're gonna do this and i'm like oh crap well

let's go back in time uh so there are 12 issues

in this trade. You got the one through 10 for

the main series. We got the revolution one shot

and the annual, uh, from 2017. Now I normally

don't do this. I am, I like it when it's being

used as a tool to accomplish a goal, but I loathe

AI in general as a general thing. And you people

are going to hear this way later, but today kind

of proves my point. Somebody on the internet

decided to put out a 44th anniversary Knight

Rider Hot Wheels image. There is no 44th anniversary

Knight Rider Hot Wheels thing. It's not happening.

There is no car coming out from Hot Wheels. celebrating

the 44th anniversary of Knight Rider, they would

never do that. They would just never do that.

So that's what I don't like about artificial

intelligence, is when people use it for misinformation.

Now, if you're going to use it as a tool and

to do good things with it, fine, great. For the

preparation of this record, because we weren't

sure if we were going to sit here for what we

normally sit here for. My buddy Joe and I will

sit here through this trade or any trade. Our

Turtles coverage is two and a half to three hours

long. And I know I can hear in my headphones

Jesse rolling his eyes. Yes, his eye rolls are

audible, folks. Trust me, I can hear it. I was

actually laughing. Okay, well, same difference.

You know, he'll ask me, who listens to two and

a half hour, three hour podcasts besides you?

There is an art form to long form podcasting.

And it just depends because for me personally,

even if I wasn't just a hermit homebody who hates

leaving his house and doesn't like interacting

with people out in the room, I love going outside.

I love going out and sitting on my little patio

out here, or I love taking a walk or actually

being out in nature. It's just too people -y

outside. I don't like being around crowds. I

don't like being around people in general. Specific

people, more than fine. Absolutely. But if you

get me in a crowd, more than five people. including

myself, I'm done. I it's too much stimulation

for me. So that's why I don't like that kind

of stuff. But the long form podcast for me, it's

like, Oh, it's a three hour tour. It's a three

hour podcast. I can listen to the foot like I

can listen to the first hour now and I can take

a break and come back to it later. Or I can find

a good stopping point. Or if they have ad breaks.

Or if they have whatever. It is what it is. But

we are going to try to condense this as best

we can. And in that vein, I did something that

I never would normally do on any of my podcasts

that I produce. Hell has frozen over. Yes, because

I prefer... actual intelligence to artificial

intelligence, but here we are. And even though

this note says, I wanted to see what this would

say or would come up with for this. And I said,

I was not going to read this, but I am actually

going to read this. The Google AI summary for

this trade. It breaks down each section of the

thing. So for the Revolution One -Shot summary

origin and setup, Miles Mayhem runs Project Spectrum,

a government -funded trading program using OR

-13 technology derived from Cybertronian Transformers

to create advanced masks, vehicles, the Tern

Mayhem, a war -hardened soldier, yadda yadda

yadda yadda yadda. Venom's Creation, Mayhem Secretly

Handpicks Trainees, Vanessa Warfield, Sly Rax,

and Bruno Shepard. And then it breaks down Masks

1 through 10, Issues 1 through 10, and the 2016

-2017 run. And it breaks all of this down. Now,

I'm clearly glossing over this, and one of your

biggest fears in even doing this with me is...

It's going to spoil my entire Transformers run

because it crosses over with Transformers and

G .I. Joe. Where this is in that, I think there's,

I said this to you off air, I'll say it to you

on air. There's enough here where there's, like,

you don't, because there's, it's just the mask

revolution one shot. i think you'll be okay it's

not it's so far flung in the past at this point

and you haven't gotten to that future yes go

ahead so i've i did read the entire thing right

last time i had not read the entire thing right

between yesterday and today i was able to finish

reading i was like halfway through i think when

we talked last uh but yeah i was able to finish

it so my Maybe when I was talking to you, I explained

it wrong. I wasn't worried about being spoiled

with the IDW Transformers stuff. Because I think

that stuff, where there's robots in disguise

and more than just the eye, that doesn't play

into this at all. I think what I had previously

read... assuming this takes place around the

same time, was an IDW series, and then I just

quit reading it after a while. My concern was,

and I didn't really enjoy that, so that must

have been, I think, the one that ties into this,

maybe. My concern wasn't being spoiled by the

IDW stuff. My concern, again, I think I probably

used the wrong terminology here. My concern was

kind of being, because all of this is going to

be within the shared universe, within the Energon

universe. No! No, no, no. I know this isn't.

I'm saying all of the properties within the Energon

universe, right? They're all going to come together.

And Mask is obviously going to play a part into

that. My concern was that it's going to give

me these preconceived notions of what we're going

to see going into the Energon universe version

of Mask. I got you. I got you. Okay, I get it.

I get it. I didn't want it to ruin that experience

for me. No, I don't think that's good. No, see

that. See, for me, like that never affects me

because I understand that this is this writer,

this creator's version of it. And this is his,

this is Brandon's stamp on it. This is his story.

Whatever Mr. Waters is going to create is going

to be. his and skybound's story with it and i

don't think they're going to take too much from

this i think they're hoping that but i know i

don't know i don't personally like with the crow

for example like i've never read the comic but

i love the first crow movie and it's like like

that's that to me is like perfection in terms

of that story Again, I have not read the comics,

so maybe the comic is better. I don't know, but

I've only watched the movie. Right. And then

I take that and I compare it with any other crow

thing that comes out. Right. Including the new

one that happened a couple of years ago. It's

like I'm taking that first thing because I enjoyed

it so much and I compare everything else to it.

Like that's what I kind of didn't want to do

going into the Energon universe version of the

mask where it's like, if I enjoyed this. Yeah.

Well, now I'm only going to be let down. by what

I'm going to see in the Energon universe, or

maybe it'll be far superior to what I read here.

Like that was my, my biggest concern. So now

it's like, am I going in sullied now? I don't

know because I, I don't think so. Okay. I don't

think you are. I had highs and lows as this progressed.

At first I didn't like, so where I was coming

from with this, Because I started reading it

before free. I was late to free comic book day,

which is why you find people don't hear me on

the free comic book day episode of another comic

review. I was very late to that, unfortunately.

But so where I come from with this is like, oh.

I'm thinking animated series. I'm thinking 1985.

I'm thinking I am not thinking Scott and T -Bob.

Thank God. That stupid scooter and that damn

kid are not in this. Thank God. Matt's kid and

his damn scooter are not in this. And I'll show

you. I'm sure you've seen videos of that. If

you haven't, I'll show you later. It's one of

those things where I come from growing up with

the cartoon. And because it's an 80s cartoon,

what do all 80s cartoons have? They have to have

the sidekick. And every side, Transformers had

Spike to a general, I guess, team -up thing.

Bumblebee was Spike's, or technically Spike was

Bumblebee's sidekick. You know, you have to have

a sidekick. Thundercats had Snarf and other cartoons

had whatever. Well, in Mask, Scott, who is Matt's

son, is the sidekick. And then Scott has his

little scooter, T -Bob. And the most annoying

thing about that show, even though we can curse

on here, I just... decided to do that uh i just

so that's where i was coming from walking into

any any anytime anyone says mask to me even though

i love you know the the vehicle transformations

i love the team assembly i love all that i love

the music of the car or the original cartoon

series so that's where i was coming from and

thank god scott ain't here t -bob ain't here

But where also I was coming from is I was one

of the only kids I knew. I had every single toy.

I had the Boulder Hill play set. I had all the

cars. I had Rhino. My Rhino didn't explode. Spoilers,

even though this book was published way back

years and years ago at this point. So Rhino...

I would say Rhino was my favorite. Not because

it's just kind of like a Optimus Prime knockoff,

even though it isn't. But that was my favorite.

So as I was going through this, I was like, oh,

wait, where's Rhino? What's going on? Why is

the team different? And Julio Lopez? didn't even

remember Julio, like literally after we do the

recording, not literally right after, but I'm

going to have to go back and watch the first

season of mask to remember Julio in the show.

Because as I was reading this, I'm like, I don't

remember Julio at all. So yeah, that's, that's

where I was coming from. And I knew how I operate.

Like I was not going to let this, this, I view

it as its own thing and whatever Dan. And Dan

Waters, as the writer in the new series, and

Pai Par as the artist, whatever they're doing,

whatever they're doing and what they've told

us so far, I'm so ready for that and just cannot

wait. So whatever the Energon universe is doing

right now, it's doing it on all cylinders. But,

yeah, getting into this, I don't even know where

we want to start. But, like, we already said,

kind of, like, it's your standard thing where

Miles, you know, betrays Matt and ends up starting

his own team. And it's your standard. I don't

want to say standard, but it is. It's the standard

masks. Like, there cannot be any different way.

That, apparently, that Venom and Mask and everything

gets started. Like, apparently there just isn't.

That's the formula. Go with the formula. It's

kind of like Cybertronians are from Cybertron.

I can't be from anywhere else. I guess, you know?

Like, so, yeah. But no, as the, and I, I never

got into the whole revolution and then first

strike after that, I never got into the ID. Like

when IDW started doing those crossovers, I was

like, okay, I don't even honestly remember reading

any of the other revolution stuff. Yes. I can

tell you my experience with mask. prior to this

and my only experience with mask has been what

we've seen inside of the energon universe so

i was born in 81 so obviously a child through

the 80s but i don't recall i don't recall anything

about mask at all i did not read comics as a

kid i mean not until the 90s i really only got

into uh superman during the death of superman

the death of rebirth of superman rather Death

and Return of Superman. There we go. But yeah,

I don't remember any comics. I don't remember

the cartoon. It was just a cartoon as far as

I remember. It was no comics in the 80s? No,

no. I remember the toys insofar as I remember

the ads for the toys. But I don't recall ever

seeing them in the store as a kid. like in the

toy aisles like i just do not recall this at

all which is odd because i was very much into

transformers i was very much into knight rider

it seems like this would be like right up my

alley but i just did not get into it at all just

passed me by completely oh man you'd love the

toys so my only experience uh with mask like

i said is what we've seen in the energon universe

so far and then obviously reading the straight

paperback here reading this yeah So what were

your thoughts on this? Like, I really don't want

to have to say, I mean, I do a high level here.

What are you looking for? Cause I can tell you

high level. I hated it. Oh no. Absolutely hated

it. And I think it's unfair to say that. And

I'm going to tell you why. okay go ahead the

the trade that we have here right i'm looking

at the i don't know what page this is inside

of the trade it's uh page five i guess so 306

according to the thing i've got here okay um

it's got uh it's got everything listed out here

right so there are uh 12 issues in here you you

said revolution issue one two three four five

annual 2017 then issues six through ten yep and

uh as i was reading this It became clear, especially

once we got to... There's a point in the story,

and I don't remember which issue this is. This

is about where I stopped the first time and said,

I don't know if I'm going to read the rest of

this. So it's probably issue five, issue six,

or the annual. I don't know. I don't remember.

But there's effectively a spot in the story where

we get to... The masked characters are now interacting

with a couple of the G .I. Joe characters. Yep.

right so there's scarlet and i think there is

an what's the guy's name is um oh i know who

you're what's his name night uh night stalker

night stalker i think so night stalker i think

those are the only two joes we see yeah and i

was like oh they're talking about they don't

specifically say the word transformers but they're

talking about cybertronians Yeah, they specifically

say Cybertronians, yeah. And we see the two Joe

characters, and I'm like, oh man, this is where

I was like, oh, this is going to spoil me, and

again, not the story, but spoil me for enjoying

Mask in the Energon universe, because eventually

all those properties are going to come together,

and I think we're going to get that announcement

at Comic -Con, by the way. But I feel like, like,

all right, this is going to spoil my enjoyment

of the Energon universe stuff. So I'm going to

stop. And that's where I told you I'm not going

to read anymore. Yeah. Up to that point. I feel

like the story was very cohesive. When we kick

off with Revolution, based on my remembrance

here, like I didn't take notes here. Yeah. With

my remembrance of this, I feel like it started

the story off really well. And it actually started

kind of in the future and then went backwards

to kind of tell the story. Generally speaking,

any time that's used as like a storytelling device,

I hate it, especially in TV shows. But it seemed

to work okay here. One of the things they touched

on where Matt was talking about, we'll explain

why like mask is, or sorry, why, Oh, what's the

case stand for a command? Like my command starts

with the letter K. Well, yeah, I was looking

for that and I saw it nowhere in the comic. It's

a joke. Yeah, it's a joke. Okay. So that pissed

me off, but it seemed like up until that point,

like the story was very, It was very cohesive.

It was easy to understand, easy to follow. And

once we got past that point, I felt like the

story was all over the place. That's where it's

almost like I feel the story or this trade didn't

capture every bit of the story that it needed

to for me to enjoy the entire thing. Because

I didn't realize going into this that this was

a shared universe inside of IDW, which clearly

it is, right? There's GI Joe involved. Yeah,

GI Joe. I feel like we're missing out on some

of the math stuff that occurred in those issues

that we don't have here. Like by the time we

get to the end in Zartan shows up and this monster

comes out of the, out of the earth, out of the

mountain Mount St. Helen. Yeah. I'm like, what

the hell is any of this? How does any of this

have to do with anything I just read previously?

It's like, it just seems like totally out of

the blue. I don't know like where those plot

points came from. or why they were highlighted

here. Because if you read, like I said, if you

read the first initial issues and then you read

the end of this, it's like, it seems like two

completely different series, even though it's

written by the same person, which confused me.

So the only thing I could, I could think of is

there are pieces of this story that are missing

because they're in these other properties, which

we don't have here in this trade. Yeah, it's

yeah. And I, I don't blame that on Mr. Easton.

That's not his fault. That's IDW's fault because

clearly. Yeah. And like, so. I mean, the way

this started was there right there down in, I

think it's Miami. Is that right? They're down

in Miami. Like that whole, if they would have

just stayed there and like carried out whatever

missions they're doing, this would have been

like it. completely awesome series like i would

have i would have gone back and reread this numerous

times because it almost felt like uh i don't

know like a modern day -ish like miami vice type

thing where they've got this whole group of characters

except in this case these characters have some

semi quasi powers because of their masks and

they've got these souped up uh souped up vehicles

and everything but it was sort of like it was

sort of like i'm gonna say quote -unquote based

in reality even though it's like reality with

future sci -fi at least that made sense but by

the time we got to the end and we got these monsters

crawling out of the uh the earth and we've got

all these zartan clones and i have i still have

no idea what they are yeah that was like so off

the wall it's not even funny yeah that was a

little like because literally so i was trying

my best i am quote -unquote facebook friends

with mr easton Uh, never have I reached out to

the man up until preparation for this. I didn't

get any responses, which is fine. I understand

the man's busy. He doesn't want to be bothered.

That's fine. But I genuinely asked him some genuine

questions in order to prepare for this. And I

made a comment. I was like, Oh, cool. Sean Berger.

Cool. Nice. Love that reference. And then. yeah

it went to hell and a hell in a hell basket like

what the like okay the hat that took a to quote

bugs it took a really sharp turn left turn in

albuquerque because yikes dude i didn't say this

to him obviously but like yeah that was a little

much and what gets me is that, yes, I know technically

in a trade paperback, usually you have usually

you have 12 issues in a trade. However, why is

the first strike issue not in here? That's what

I want to know. Like, That would have made it

so much... That would have been the missing piece,

I think. Maybe. Because... I don't know. At the

end of this... Just to go straight... No, straight

to the end. I don't know. But going to the end

of this trade... The one thing I like, the only

thing I liked about the ending to this is Tracker

saying, next time I'm going to do it smarter.

I'm going to do it better. I'm going to build

a better team or whatever it is that he says.

Like, that's the only thing I like. I didn't

like that either, because then it's like, did.

And this, I guess this is a question I'm asking

you. I didn't look this up prior. Like, does

the story continue after this? Like, is there

more? This is it. Like literally. So the trade,

so the, the trade that I originally, so I wanted

to find everything. And when I looked up, cause

originally I looked it up on the TF wiki, which

is what I'm on right now. And it originally was

published in two volumes, which is the first

five or six issues, and then the second half,

whatever. And then they did a full, which is

this version of the trade. And I thought, okay,

that means they're going to give us everything,

right? Right? Thinking they were going to put

the first strike issue in. They didn't. which

is fine. It's their publishing company. They

can do whatever the hell they want to as far

as collected editions, whatever. But yeah, no,

there is no more mask after this. It was, it

was done. Cause I'm looking at mask force .com

for example, and they have like the IDW stuff

on here and they have IDW revolution zero zero,

which is that what you're talking about is this

is like the prelude to, to the mass comic. Yeah,

which... Revolution Prelude, sorry. Yeah, Revolution

Prelude, which is in a remote military base,

Miles Manheim observes Matt Tracker, Gloria Baker,

Julio Lopez. That has to be this, right? Here,

hold on, let me pull this up. Ooh! Technical

difficulties. Let's move on, shall we? Now back

to Mask and Venom. Okay, so the trade that we

have is Mask, Mobile Armored Strike Command,

riding Venom's trail. This was published in 2018.

This is those two trades put together. All right,

where are we? Where do we want to be? You were

talking about the ending, and I was talking about

how I didn't like that either. Yeah, I... There's

a whole bunch of this comic that I do enjoy.

Like I said, effectively the whole first half

of this, I really enjoy. There are some very

stupid moments in here. One of them, for example,

is Matt is attacking Miles. And just for no reason

at all, all of a sudden, and I realize after

the fact that, I mean, they explain this, it

ends up being a hologram. yes but his mom just

shows up for no reason at all yeah yeah that

was it's like what how does that even make sense

in any uh in any part of this story in any way

at all it doesn't so it's like i i don't know

that was a little yeah some of the it's not i

don't even think it's jumps in logic i think

it's the way that I don't think it's the way

that we're even reading it. I just think it's

the way that it's... Oh, no, man. When I read

this, and I've only read it once, I skimmed through

it before the record just to do a refresher.

I enjoyed... I want to say... 70 -30? I enjoyed

it 70 % of the time, and I had problems with

it 30 % of the time. For this being, I want to

say, the first time I've read Brandon Easton

as a comic book writer, I liked it for the most

part. But there are still things in here where

it's like, yeah, I don't know. I think for me,

what I want to know more and see more with his

writing is that I want to see more about the

people as they're dealing with their masks and

their vehicles. I'm stuck on the rhino thing,

the rhino telemetry and telepathy and how you

have to have two, but one can also do it, kind

of, sort of, but not really. How dare you blow

up my favorite truck in mask history and blah,

blah, blah. Because, yeah. But, I mean, yeah,

no. I liked it overall for the most part. It's

not a comic I'm going to read again. It's not

a reread for me. But having the experience now.

It makes me want to, like I said at the beginning

of the podcast, it makes me want to go back and

watch the old episodes of the cartoon. I mean,

I already had hype for the Energon Universe version.

It makes me even more interested to see what

Dan Waters is going to do with the Energon Universe

version and the multiple interviews I've heard

from him. Along with Piper and just hearing how

excited they are about the Energon universe version

of mask. I'm very excited to see what they do.

Well, I think, I think I'm probably, you said

you're about 70, 30. I think I'm about 50, 50.

And again, if we break it down, like first half

of this, and it's probably where the 50, 50 is

going to come into play. I feel like once we

hit the midway point, uh i mean even even before

we hit the midway point um well no i take that

back let me let me go to the very front here

uh yeah so once we hit the midway point we effectively

switch uh artists as well right yeah we don't

get tony vargas anymore uh he does uh revolution

issue one two four and five he bails out for

issue three for some reason but we get him effectively

for the first entire half and i love the artwork

the artwork when he was doing it was fantastic

i thought uh later in the the the rest of this

book i would say it's a mixed bag but the first

half of this book i really really enjoyed the

art i think as far as the writing goes this is

like when you compare with what easton does versus

with Again, I've only read his stuff inside the

Energon universe. When you compare it with what

Kirkman has been doing, I think it's like night

and day difference. When you open this up, there's

just so much text on each page. The art is doing

a great job at visually storytelling, but then

there's a lot of spoken word happening here as

well. When you compare it with stuff that Kirkman

does, that's not really the case. I guess I would

even say most of the energon universe comics

right there's not a whole lot that's going on

in these word bowls no and what is there right

there isn't a whole lot of word bubbles to see

it packed on here it's not as packed as what

it is with like more than meets the eye and robots

in disguise okay but okay okay okay hang on really

different people hang on a second here robots

in disguise are more than meets the eye are essentially

you said novels right they're they're like novels

slash stage plays with visual accents around

them all right i mean that's that's fair but

here like i'm saying like there's a lot of text

on here which i think is good because there's

a lot of story here on these pages it's just

once we hit that midway mark i don't know what

the hell happens But in my opinion, the story

just goes completely off the rails. And I had

a hard time following it. That's where it's like,

I don't know if other mask pieces were introduced

in G .I. Joe inside of Transformers. And it's

just not included here. Again, I don't know that

it's the fault of the writing. As you mentioned,

it's the fault of IDW for not including those

bits here because we're losing out on part of

the story. And because of that, it's hard to

understand what's going on. But I think the first

half. It's very easy for me to follow. And then,

like I said, I don't know if they started having

more crossover when the second half happened

here, but for me personally, I had a hard time

following the story. Yeah. A couple of other

things that I disliked throughout this. I don't,

I don't know that I get a sense from reading

this, which is funny because this was the introduction

of mask, like why we have these masks at all.

Why we have these vehicles at all. Like, why

are they a thing? Why did miles mayhem put this

team together only to say, Oh my bad. I'm out.

Peace out. And I'm putting together my own group.

It's like, but you were just putting together

the mass group. Now you're leaving it and you're

putting together the venom group. I didn't understand

why that happened. Okay. But that's the thing

though. He, let me try to, it's, Following formula

from the show, he's essentially traitoring. He's...

Give me a valid reason as to why you're doing

it. Like, that's not even stated here. I get

it that, right, this is like a throwback to,

oh, a good versus bad. We need a good guy and

a bad guy version of this. But, like, it's not

explained why he just, like, gives up the mask

group and is like, ha ha ha, I'm going off to

make Venom. It just sort of happens. And like,

I didn't, I didn't follow that. Like at least

within the Energon universe that we've seen so

far, like we see, we haven't seen miles really

do anything with the mass. I still don't understand.

Again, I have no background on mask. I don't

know why these masks are created. I don't know

why they have to tie in with the vehicles. I

don't, I don't understand any of that. There's

no background, no backstory at any of that here.

I'm hoping. in the energon universe we get some

of that but here in idw from what we've read

in the here i've not seen any of that now maybe

i should have come into this knowing about mask

but if this is my first introduction and i don't

know any of it it seems like it should be in

the story yeah but again every everybody's good

with what you've got pulled up here right now

I have no idea what the hell this has to do with

the story at all. I'm like, are we looking at

street fighter characters here? Like what? Sorry.

I forgot. I had the screen share still on. Sorry.

Let me turn that off. No, I mean, that's fine.

Like I was, I was reading that. I was trying

to. I'm trying to find the annual in the thing

because I wanted to discuss the annual at some

point. I effectively just read through that portion

and I just kind of skipped the rest of it because

I'm like, I have no idea how this has any merit

to what I'm reading. So it looks like Street

Fighter. I'm just going to go on by it. There

we go. No, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I forgot

I had the screen share still on. No, I... But

no, you're right. But here's the thing, though.

One of the things I love in podcasting is I have

most of the history with Mask. Like I said, grew

up with the cartoon, had the toys, yada, yada,

yada. You don't have any of that history. So

you're just walking into this kind of cold. I

started you out with this to not necessarily

get you into what we have coming over on. the

other show with another comic review with the

Energon universe, but to just kind of, you know,

see what the previous comic company did with

the license kind of thing, because I, this is

my first time ever reading this, even though

I knew the cartoon and I was already excited.

Like I said, I've already said multiple times

in this, I was already excited for, for it. There's

that end point. That's what I was looking for.

But it's one of those things where I just wanted

to, like, there's nothing wrong with somebody,

something being somebody's first time for whatever.

That's how, like, that's how the world goes around.

Everybody has to have a first at some point or

another. And, you know, I understand you're worried

about. having this be the first mask thing, even

though technically it isn't the Energon universe

was because of free comic book day, but like

reading this versus reading that, I don't think

this is going to affect what you read in the

Energon universe. Cause this is, thankfully they

didn't go on to make, I mean, as much as I would

have been interested to read the story, this

is the only mask we have. Um, so. you know, for,

for IDW. And I just needed to get more mask in

my life. And since it last year was the 80th,

the 80th, wow. 40th anniversary last year. And

we've got this coming up and all this and all

that. I wanted to get this, uh, an episode for

the IDW book, uh, in the books as it were, but

no, what I was looking for. As you were alluding

to, I was looking for the story in the 2017 annual

because the 2017 annual has two stories. It has

the Death Stone, which is a title reference to

the very first episode of Mask, and it has Child's

Play. Child's Play, which I thought was Sly's

origin, it's not. It's Cliff Dagger's origin.

As he's pummeled by an opponent, undefeated champion

Body Bags, rising MMA star Cliff Dagger has a

flashback to his childhood, remembering when

he was awoken late one night and beaten by his

drunken father after he learned that Cliff hadn't

fought back against a bully at school. And I

wanted to discuss this because, first of all,

folks, bullying is not uh -uh. Nope. Just uh

-uh. Don't even do that. I was bullied as a kid

myself. So bullying must be stopped no matter

the cost. But I love that they, in the annual,

they chose to highlight a story like this. And

I thought that story was, you know, a story for

standing up for yourself and just do whatever

you can to stand up for yourself. And that Cliff

Dagger would eventually go on to become... part

of Venom's team and just the way they use the

character. I thought it was so good. So I, I

just love that, that, that part of the annual,

um, the other story is just your standard kind

of mask story. It's not, uh, I don't know. It's

just your standard mask story. It's a way of

homaging the, debut of the animated series 41

years ago. Who is your least favorite character

in all of this? Because I think mine, I think

mine ended up being Matt tracker. I don't like

the characters constantly. I mean, miles specifically

is like constantly saying like, uh he's effectively

like running him down right it's he's like you

don't have what it takes to be a leader uh he

calls him out all these numerous times and then

by the end of the book his own teammates are

saying the same thing and right and then he even

walks away from the team It's very much like

a struggle of trying to be the leader, right?

Kind of what we see in Transformers Season 3

with Rodimus Prime. Wait a minute. Hold on. Full

dead stop. You are not going to sit here and

compare Matt Tracker to Rodimus Prime. We're

in big trouble. Relax! Enjoy the ride! He's very,

very similar, yeah. Stop it! I'm not going to

learn from any of this. with my current team,

right? Like, why try to improve myself? I'm just

going to walk off, and I'm going to start a new

team. It's like, okay. Again, I know the story

ends there, but it's like, if that's effectively

what happens, that's pretty terrible as a leader.

Yeah, Rodimus never did that, though, thankfully.

So at least Rodimus is better than Matt in that

one aspect. Last big party of the summer, folks!

Let's go out with a bang! Yeah, I would not say

that I like Matt in this. I like Sly, and I like

Brad. Brad's always been a cool character to

me. So that's one from each side. What about

you? In terms of a character I liked or didn't

like? Yeah, I liked. so i think and i got a thing

i'm going to talk about why but i also didn't

like about this but i think i liked gloria the

most okay uh i think i think just her interaction

with matt not just from like the love affair

aspect of it but um like she's the one who calls

him out at by the end of this thing yeah although

she does kind of like turn turn back on that

and like hugs him here at the end because effectively

didn't die. But, um, I think her interaction

with Matt and trying to get him to, I don't know,

uh, be a better leader, I think was, was good

to see the, the part that I didn't like about

this character. And this is no, uh, this is not

a negative thing on the writing. This is more

on the artist. She's drawn very salaciously in

the first half here, so I can only imagine it's

because of our artist here. What's his name?

Because of our artist, Tony. Tony Vargas, I think?

Yeah. I just kept seeing page after page. I'm

like, okay, this is definitely drawn for the

horny teenage boy. because it was like one page

after the next was like, it was just getting

worse and worse. Maybe you could say the same

thing about Vanessa as well, but I think we see

it more with Gloria, because we effectively see

more of Gloria. Yeah, that's true. I'd like to

see more of Vanessa, actually. But that goes

back to my childhood. Okay. On the GCRN universal

ratings scale, the geek meter, we rate zero to

five with half points. What are you going to

give? What the hell is this thing called? Oh,

God. Matt, the mask trade all in one, what are

you going to give it? Zero to five with half

points. So again, I think I enjoyed the first

half of this story. I enjoyed the art and the

first half of this story. I think the writing

throughout was good, regardless of the fact that

I didn't really like the second half of this

story, because again, I think we're missing parts

of the story. So it didn't, the story didn't

make any sense to me. Or the writer was told,

hey, we're going this direction now. Ignore everything

you did previously. Because again, I think if

you read the first half of this and the second

half of this, they do not mesh together story

-wise at all. It just feels like it almost feels

like a different writer. Yeah. But I know that

it's not. So it's like, there was a change of

direction or something there. It's like, we got

to work in this story, these story beats because

of the overall grander story inside of this universe

of IDW. I don't know. Cause again, I didn't read

IDW. Uh, but with that said, I, I would probably

give it a three and a half out of five. Yeah.

Again, I know I said I liked it. It was probably

about 50, 50, but I think probably three and

a half out of five. Yeah. I'm. I'm right there

with you. I think it's like I said, it's, I like

70, 30. There's like minor nitpick type things.

And for those that may need a reminder on what

three and a half. Is on the Geek Meter for GCRN

rating scale. It is good. It's a mixed bag, but

the good stuff outweighs the bad. There might

be one amazing element or lots of fun moments

that make the flaws easier to swallow. They are

not deal breakers, but they do hold it back.

Well, maybe I'll dump it down to a three. Okay.

Three and a half is there. Three is average.

It's not bad. It's not amazing either. For me,

it would be an easy four if the second half of

this story matched the first half. Yeah. Like

I said earlier, that 30 % for me is basically

Sean Berger turns into a giant. whatever the

hell that was weird as hell that and then like

you said the zartan shows up and zartan's clones

and all of this and it's like and i don't the

clones yeah and i don't mind like mask and gi

joe working together hand in hand or foot and

foot or Vehicle in vehicle, that's fine. I actually

loved Scarlet working with Mask. That was cool

as hell to me. That was part of my 70 % was seeing

Scarlet with them because I'm like, ooh, I can

now see Kelly Thompson writing a new Scarlet

miniseries featuring Scarlet and Gloria against

Vanessa and somebody. Oh, God. Scarlet and Gloria

versus Vanessa and Baroness. Mask Gia. Oh, God,

Kelly. Kelly Thompson, I can hear it in my head.

I know it'll never happen. Anyway, you're giving

it a three. I'm giving it a three and a half.

Like I said, my 70 % kind of outweighs my 30

% of the bad stuff. I still enjoyed it overall.

Anytime I can walk away from reading a comic

feeling good and not feeling like, Oh my God,

why did I read that? That's a, that's a good

comic reading adventure for me. Yeah. It was

more along the lines of what did I just read?

Yeah. Why did I read this? Yeah, exactly. But

again, that's the second half. The first half

I think is certainly more, uh, more on par with

what i would be interested in story -wise for

like an ongoing comic less of the the sci -fi

stuff we get here at the end which again doesn't

make any sense to me so yep yep absolutely all

right folks we're gonna send it to a quick ad

break you're gonna hear some podcast ads and

some other stuff something i have to get jesse

to record for himself at some point and we'll

be back right after this to close the show Emergency!

Panic situation! We're stranded! Relax, there's

a phone right here. So what? There's no phone

book. I've memorized my home phone and address.

I don't need the phone book or information. It's

important to know these things in case of an

emergency. Hi, Dad? Hello, all sentient beings.

Want the latest on everything going on in the

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have a laugh. Stay lyrical, stay audacious, here

at Lyrically Audacious. On the Simplistic Reviews

podcast, we talk movies. We talk TV. We talk.

Hello, Julie, what the heck are you doing? Trying

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I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't. We got

him. Now back to the show. All right, folks.

We are back here inside the pull bag. This is

episode 586. We are so close to 600. Kind of,

sort of. Not really, but almost. All right, Jesse.

Promote yourself, sir. What kind of podcasts

are you doing these days? Transforming them wires

or something? I've got another comic review over

at anothercomicreview .com. We have Transformers

number 32 of the Energon universe coming out

actually tomorrow as of this recording. So looking

forward to that. We're heading back to Cybertron.

Some of it has already been leaked online. I've

looked at that. So, yeah, I'm looking forward

to seeing what's in store for the rest of the

issue. I love how he hesitates. I'm not making

fun of your stutter or anything, but I love the

hesitation of, I'm kind of looking forward. Maybe,

I don't know. I mean, in what I've seen that's

been leaked so far, the art's already hit or

miss for me, so I knew that was going to be the

case. Oh, no. It's like, well, am I really looking

forward to it? I don't know. We'll see. You can

also find me on YouTube. I'm at youtube .com

slash matrix underscore prime. Yeah, there you

go, folks. All right. This has been episode 586,

and you'll hear all that stuff in the past, folks,

since I don't know when this episode's coming

out, because I still have to finish editing episode

581. Tomorrow. It's coming out tomorrow, right?

Well, this episode? Yeah. No. This episode's

not coming out tomorrow. This episode's coming

out in the far -flung future of 2016, or maybe

it'll come out 40 years later, or 40 years in

the past. Yes, release it on the 80th anniversary,

like you were mentioning. Yeah, no, no, can't

do that. By that time, podcasting will just be

something that we, you know, have a wire stuck

in our head like the old PS9 commercial. Does

anybody remember the PS9 commercial? I do, yes.

Oh, thank God. Thank God I'm not making that

up. New for 2078. PlayStation 9's new electronic

spores tap straight into your adrenal gland.

PS9 has improved retinal scanning. A mind control

system. A holographic movie surround vision.

And telepathic personal music. The ultimate just

got better. PlayStation 9. Teleport yours today.

All right, folks, that's going to do it for us.

Thank you for joining us here inside the pull

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You can also check out the pull bag over there

as well. Next time we head back to DC with something

that's already been recorded. Thankfully I, only

have to edit it now. I don't have to do any more

recording for next time. We head back to DC Comics

where my buddy Dave McElvenny and I discussed

the five issue, six issue, I think it's five.

We discussed Crypto, the last dog of Krypton.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with... Jesse, I think.

You think? You don't know? You're supposed to

know these things, man. As always, make it your

greatest game of the comics. I thought the festival

lasted till sunset. It turned out to be a limited

engagement. You should have seen it, Dad. A king

cobra followed this floating flute and scared

everybody. And Scott climbed a rope that went

straight up in the air. Wait a minute. Floating

flutes? Running cobras? Alex. Well, not that

it makes any sense, but a fakie somehow did the

genuine Indian rope trick. At the same moment,

a flute went winging through the air, luring

a cobra from the festival. Then as soon as the

cobra left, the rope I was climbing went limp.

Sometimes the eye does not behold the truth.

I think I can still catch the curtain call. And

maybe Mr. Subas can help. You've just heard the

latest episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's first

comic review and discussion podcast. There are

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