Skybound Entertainment’s G.I. Joe’s Duke and Scarlett Volume 1!

Joe Kramer here, composer from Mission Impossible

Rogue Nation. This podcast from the Geekcast

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Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Ow. This is writer

Kelly Thompson, and you've jumped inside the

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back to G .I. Joe. You've just jumped inside

the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest of

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we have everything right here. We cover things

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and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and

so much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So, without further

ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now, here inside The Pull Bag.

Scarlet, are you alright? Duke, it's about time

you guys showed up. A girl gets tired hanging

around the house. You've just jumped inside The

Pull Bag. I'm, of course, TF2 and Mike, and today's

featured guest, welcoming back, is Eduardo M.

Fryer. Hello, sir, how are you? Yes, I'm back.

I'm back. You can't get rid of me. I am like

a geeky cockroach. Your name is Eduardo. Your

name is not Joe, and I don't know what kind of

apartment you have, so no, you can't have a Joe's

apartment reference. Well, you just got a Joe's

apartment reference, but no. We are back. This

is episode 583 of The Pull Bag. I did not intentionally,

I kind of did intentionally mean to have three

G .I. Joe episodes in a row. Months and years

ago, my buddy Mike Arizari from What's On Joe

Mind joined me for the silent missions when those

were originally announced, the original five

issue. G .I. Joe versions of the Silent Missions

because his favorite character is Beachhead.

So in episode 582, you would have heard Beachhead.

You would have heard Mike and I talk about that.

What I'm going to do with the Silent Missions

is. Since the Joe versions, the Joe character

issues are now out in trade, I'm going to cover

them in trade since we actually never covered

any of the other issues. So we'll cover the trade

at some point. I don't know when kind of thing.

But today's featured double feature comics are

from the Energon universe. And we have. Duke

and Scarlet. We have dumbass Duke and savage

Scarlet, because damn, Scarlet's on a mission.

Holy crap. And as a favor to the listeners and

the Joe fans, I'll refrain from making references

to, gee, should Scarlet be with Snake Eyes or

Duke? Because, I'm sorry, the fact that we're...

putting those two minis together for this review.

It just, it opens the door and I'm just like,

you know what? Just be nice. Don't do that. Don't

do that. Don't do that to the poor people. Hey,

at least Flint and Lady J aren't here. Cause

then you could mix and match all four people.

Lordy. Just, just, just be careful because now

in my head, it's like, have they ever done a,

comic that's like some sort of double date thing

you know flint flint and lady j duke and scarlet

that would be amazing i would love to see kelly

thompson write that that would be awesome oh

man oh yes oh hello yeah that or gail simone

yeah one of the deals but right now because kelly

wrote scarlet that would be amazing oh yeah yeah

and she and she gave us uh she gave the world

jeff the land shark Thank you, Kelly. Yep, yep,

yep. All right, getting into Duke. Originally,

I reviewed this with my buddy Jesse, a .k .a.

Matrix Prime, on his podcast, another comic review,

when it released a couple of years ago, and we

did not like Duke. Originally, we were not fans.

of Duke originally. However, we read it in single

issue month to month, and I... Comics are better

in trade. They just are. Modern comics are better

in trade. Any comic book from 1999 to now is

better in trade. It just is. Okay, I'd say fair.

I'd say fair that, yeah, there are a lot of comics

that just work better in trade. And I have had,

like I said, you and I just did Cobra Commander

and Destro in episode 581. And even though I

still, out of these four five -issue, originally

they were five -issue miniseries. Out of these

four character books, I still rate Destro the

lowest out of the four because he's the one that

I just don't care about. He's the one that I

care about the least. I've had more enjoyment

reading these four books in trade than I did

when Jesse and I did them in single issue. It's

just so much better. But Duke. Volume one, knowing

is half the battle. And they still don't tell

us what the other half is. Yeah, no, dude, it's

red laser, blue laser. Come on now, you know

that. All right. Creative team on Duke. Joshua

Williamson is the writer. Tom Riley is the artist.

Jordy Belair is the colorist. Jason Howard is

the artist for the epilogue. Mike Spicer is the

colorist on the epilogue. Russ Wooten is the

letterer for the whole thing. Love Russ and his

lettering. Tom Riley did the cover. Sean Mankiewicz

is the editor. Andres Juarez is the logo and

publication design. what do you think of the

yellow, like the coloring for the cover and then

the yellow for the inside stuff? I mean, it's

fine. And you know, the, um, given, given Duke's

usual color palette, as far as, uh, outfits are

concerned. Yeah. It's yeah. I think, I think

it, it, it goes, um, you know, not it's, Skybound

as a whole, the artwork is not, I think, not

what you would probably think for the Energon

stuff that they've done. It's not, I think, something

that would readily, that's what pops into your

head. But to me, it does work. I think it works.

I don't have a huge problem with the art. I love

the art overall in general for most of the books

and most comics. I don't think in 13 years of

this podcast, I have ever crossed off a book

on the list or stopped reading a book. Because,

oh my God, the art is so atrocious. I may nitpick

a certain piece of the art, or I may say I don't

like this in the art. The thing here in Duke

that I'm going to say is, and I said it way back

a couple years ago when Jesse and I did this,

oh my God, it's so beige. But I get it. It's

supposed to be beige. It's supposed to be tan.

What I think is cool is that I think, if I remember

correctly without opening them, I think Cobra

Commander and Destro both had read on their caution

the contents of the booklet is confidential and

their titles. I know Cobra Commander had read

because I just looked at that. So I think that's

a nice contrast for that. Um, and then we have

the volume one begins. So we do have that. I

do like the, before we get to volume one begin,

I do like the, the art page here after the, after

the creative page, before we get in, I do like

the field surveillance. I do like that piece

of art. Cause it gives you all the other for

skybound for image comics, but it does say special

thanks to Hasbro and Michael Kelly, Ed Lane,

Linda Lee, and, for their invaluable assistance.

But I do like that image there. I just like the

way that the trade is presented. Yeah. We start

out with learning about Conrad Hauser, codenamed

Duke. And even in boot camp, it was clear you

had the right stuff. Okay, even now. I don't

remember when. Again, I'd have to pull up anothercomicreview

.com and see when we reviewed Duke number one.

Even back then when I read that line, the first

thing that popped in my head was New Kids on

the Block. I'm sorry. Every time anyone writes

that, literally just how I read that. Even in

boot camp, it was clear you had the right stuff.

Literally musically in my head, that's how it

reads. Top of your class, exceeded all expectations.

And we see how Duke is progressing through. We

see an amazing. Full page spread of action here.

We see him talking to General Hawk. And then

we see another full page spread, which I'm going

to have to lead into here. The bottom of the

Patriot sign, General Hawk, he says, I've questioned

my superiors before. I've had my bad days, too.

But you've been given the answers, son. I'll

be candid with you, Duke. You're turning into

a walking American nightmare. Eh, he's not Cody

Rhodes. You weren't there, Duke screams at him.

We get another big page. We encountered a hostile

jet that looked like one of ours, and then...

Well, the thing transformed, and we have Duke

versus Starscream. Holy crap. what do you think

so far well I still remember I still remember

the comic that actually had Duke confronting

Starscream so it's great that they it's great

that the miniseries leads from that and you know

it's great that we see that yeah Duke is you

know this was I mean, I don't know, you know,

confronting a giant robot that then kills your

buddy, I mean, that wouldn't mess anybody up,

so it is good to see that it's like they're not

just gonna, you know, Duke isn't just gonna brush

it off and be like, okay, alright, we'll get

to start Scream. No, he's like, yeah, you weren't

there, man, you know. Yeah. And the cool thing

from, oh, go ahead, sorry. Yeah, no, I was gonna

say that something That I've noticed. Is that.

And I think this also. This even goes back to

the IDW. Comics. And even actually. Even Devils

do. When Devils do did it like in the early 2000s.

Is to give Duke. Like characterization. Beyond.

Just having him be this. You know poster boy

soldier. You know it's. trying to give him a

bit more depth. I see that here, they do it right

off the bat. This is somebody who's dealing with

the trauma of confronting a Transformer. A giant

fucking robot, yeah. It's not just a giant fucking...

It's one thing to find a VW bug in a junkyard

and then it transforms into a friendly robot.

This is running into something that looked like

an F -15 transformed into a giant robot and then

proceeded to take your friend and go squish.

Squish, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's like, yeah,

that can color somebody's perceptions. Yeah,

no, I know. This is not Duke going through the

plane junkyard, running into a plane, getting

in the cockpit. wiping the logo on the yoke and

seeing the Decepticon symbol and falling in love.

This is not... Yeah, you're not going to have

the late, great Bernie Mac at the plane junkyard.

You're not going to... He's not running into

one of the aerial bots. And being like, oh, you're

a fellow soldier. Okay. Nope. And the coolest

thing for me, what I was going to say before

I let you continue on what I was going to say

was the coolest thing right now with us going

back and redoing this, technically doing this

the first time on this podcast, but for me, rereading

this now in trade is where we currently are in

the Energon universe with the GI Joe ongoing

with issue 20. Have you read issue 20 yet? Yes.

Look at this panel. Look at the giant panel with

him facing Starscream and then think to where

we are currently in G .I .G .O. 20 where Optimus

tells him Starscream is dead. The revenge thing

is all gone and he has to move on in his grief.

Like, oh my god. So much time is passed between

what is happening right now with what we're discussing

here versus what is currently going on in the

timeline. And it's like, oh, my God. Like, he's

spent so much time looking for this giant ass.

Oh, Starscream. Yep. Yep. So as we go further,

and I, and I love how that, like, I wasn't sure.

I don't, I didn't remember if, uh, originally

I liked the, the, the time lapses in this, but

I really do. I like the, the six months later

and the, wasn't there a, was there a man of action?

I swear there were two time lapses in this. Maybe

I was wrong. I don't know. Anyway, that's six

months later. It's like, Oh, okay. So we've now

switched and he's going through and trying to

find things and trying to figure out. And he,

he breaks in. Does he break into Mars? Yeah,

that is Mars, right? Yeah, it is Mars. Yeah.

He breaks into Mars. Wow. Bold move. That's a

bold move. Cotton. What? No laugh? Come on, that

was a good joke. Okay, if you say so. What? That

was a good joke! What? Sorry, I didn't get the

reference. That's a bold move, Cotton. Really?

You've never seen dodgeball? I have, I have.

That's just not one of the lines that sticks

with me. Oh, wow. Dodge a wrench, you can dodge

a ball. Oh, boy. Okay. Yep. So he breaks into

Mars. He gets caught, unfortunately. And they

built this thing. See, this is where I got confused

the first time and I got confused now. What is

this robot thing that they built? What? The silver

centurion looking thing. Yeah, I don't know.

I guess it's just... I'm kind of wondering if

it's supposed to be the Energon universe equivalent

to the snake robots from Real American Hero.

Maybe. Because, I mean, we already had the battle

android troopers in Destro, so this is not a

battle android trooper. No, it's not a bat. Yeah.

I'm just wondering if it's, and again, it could

just be, like, maybe it's their version of the

snake. Maybe it's just, you know, Cobra in, like,

Sunbow and stuff. They're always building giant

robots, so this is just another giant robot.

Yeah, and I just, I was trying to read through

these pages to see if, like, and I was looking

through the other part of it, and he's like,

I knew it, you nutjob. He's seen too much, boss.

Yeah, it doesn't say. And Destro doesn't say

anything about what it is either. Huh. Interesting.

So as we and then this is weird, though, like

at the bottom of this, they have the. like the

memorials of Dr. Adele Burkhardt and Duke, but

yet they let him go. So that was, I'm like, wait,

what? So that was weird to me. I do not like

the red though. The red hurts my eyes actually.

The red panels after this that he goes into and

he finds all this stuff. And then he finds these

troopers and the fight breaks out. That was a

little much. I don't know what I felt about this

part of the book last time, but yeah, like this

is a, yeah, I got to get out of here. So. I thought

Duke was just turning into a loose cannon, but

now he has a mission. And we get Stalker and

Rock and Roll. Yep. Nice to get... And that's

something, again, I like about all the minis,

is that, yeah, the focus is on the title character,

But we still get some other characters getting

filtered in. So, you know, it's great that we

get classic guys like Stalker and Rock 'n 'Roll.

Yeah, Rock 'n 'Roll still has the beard. Yep.

And Stalker, I mean, the introductory panel that

they have for Stalker, it's just, it's perfect.

It's perfect. He's in the jungle, you know, and

he looks in his element. Mm -hmm. So, you know,

I'm... Yeah, it's like, yeah, no, I am definitely...

It's like, yeah, that's... You know it's Stalker.

Like, even if they didn't have the... Even if

they didn't identify who it was, I would be like,

oh, yeah, that's Stalker. Yeah, absolutely. And

it is so very cool to see that they've... They've

got the characters. And again, You know that

they're going to do whatever they can do with

the license because they have the license. So

whatever Hasbro lets them do, I don't think Hasbro

is here. And I could be wrong, but I think what

Hasbro does or what they've been doing when they

gave the license, look at what everything IDW

did with Transformers and G .I. Joe. even when

they had, you know, when, when they did the gem

comics, cause we're going to make comparisons

to the gem comics later. When I talk about it,

when we're talking about Scarlet, cause Kelly

Thompson wrote both the gem comic and, and Scarlet.

So I think when Hasbro gives out a license for

the comics, they want that whatever company it

is to do. And as long as they have permission

to use whatever characters, I mean, we've got

these guys, we've got Duke, we've got all the

normal Joe characters that'll show up for the

most part. And it's just, it's so cool. It's

so great. And I just, just absolutely loving

it. So up next we get. the motorhome. Manny's

Mean Machines. And we got Clutch and Duke and

poor Clutch. Yeah, Clutch, Duke, and Clutch's

date. Yeah, Clutch's date that he... Fill in

the blank. Hey, you know, if you want to and

if you want to be, you know, if we want to get

if we want to get cute, we could say, oh, maybe

that's, you know, maybe that's the Energon universe

version of Candy Appel or Hondaloo West or, you

know, any or Amber. I don't know. Just grab,

grab, grab a name, grab a name from the from

the old Joe stuff. And it's like, OK, that's

what this is. Yeah. Yeah. Poor Clutch. He had

a date with Amber and he didn't hear anything

back from her. Well, what would probably help,

quote unquote, is the fact that, yeah, Duke comes

in and he tries to introduce them and then has

a brain fart and is like, Duke, this is a...

Yeah. That's kind of a recipe for this is only

happening once. Yeah, this is only happening

once. I guess my depth joke didn't go over well

with you. It was not too Johnny of me. Amber,

he didn't hear back from her. Yeah, no, I...

Okay, just making sure. I got it. I got it. I

got it. Anyway, poor, poor, poor Duke and Clutch.

They make it to the garage, and they start working

on stuff. And, oh, boy, do they start working

on stuff. And, damn, they get into a firefight,

all right. I love how they're arguing about who's

driving and who's firing the gun and who does

it better and who doesn't do it better. And just

this fight, oh, man, this fight. And, well, you

know, hey, you know, Clutch, you know, he's supposed

to be the Jeep driver. I mean, that's been his

thing for, I can't believe I'm saying this, for

over 40 years. Yeah. My joints hurt. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so yeah, I mean, Hey, clutch behind the wheel

of the wheel of the vehicle. I mean, not, Hey,

you know, that's, that's his thing. Yep. He's

just got the wrong Jeep. Cause that Jeep doesn't

do anything really. I mean, it drives, that's

about it. Doesn't do anything special. He'll

get the right Jeep eventually. Hopefully skybound

will actually give us a clutch and you know,

hounding miniseries. So they get caught by Major

Blood. Actually, not Major Blood. Oh, not Major

Blood. Yeah, they get some stalker and rock and

roll catch -em. That's what it is. The brief

fight between Duke and Stalker. I kind of wonder

if there are any Joe fans out there who enjoyed

this moment, because I know Stalker, like in

the Hama comics, like in the beginning, he was

clearly the field leader. And then Duke got brought

in, and Stalker kind of lost that position unofficially.

So I kind of wonder if there's a little cathartic

thing going on here with, you know, with stalker

beating Duke. It's like, ah, see, you know. Yep.

And they get sent to the pit, which is where

we meet the Baroness. Yep. And yeah, I remember

I was like, oh my God, they ended issue. I think

this is the end of issue three. They ended issue

three with Baroness. And I'm like, Damn it, I

got to wait a whole other month to figure out

the rest of the day. Again, this is like great

cliffhanger ending on the Baroness having to

have us wait a whole another 39 or 29 days or

whatever it is. But it's like, ah. Yep, and it

was issue two. Was it issue two? It was issue

two. Yep, it was issue two. I thought it was

issue three. No, I don't think that... Yeah,

Skybound wasn't that mean to make you wait until

the end of issue three to get Baroness. It's

like, no, we're going to end issue two with Baroness.

We're not going to make you wait. Yeah, so we

get back to Mars and we get whatever they're

doing here. And we fully see... uh what's his

name jesus i just said it a minute ago major

blood major blood i remember so my buddy jesse

matrix prime big youtuber back in the day and

uh he like Him doing another comic review, his

podcast, first time he had ever read comics.

So he literally, I'm trying to teach him the

ropes and tell him every, trying to give him

a, not necessarily the full 90 years of comics

history lesson, but like enough to let him know

like this is this and this is that and whatever

else kind of thing. At the same time, still letting

him explore what he wants to explore kind of

thing. So as we're going through whatever else

we had this whole clip, I think there's a clip

on his YouTube channel. He clipped it out of

the episode. We couldn't, he couldn't get over

the major bloods name. And we ended up doing

this whole major, but major, like we literally

ended up a whole major bug thing. It's like,

Oh my God. No, see that. That's Major Blood's

half -brother, who's a beer enthusiast. Yes,

yes, exactly. Major Bud, we charge more for the

light version. So, yeah, we meet Major Blood

here. And he's got both eyes. For now. He ain't

gonna have that other eye for long. We get back

to the pit. And I love this. I absolutely love

this. The three of them talking through the cells.

We get Baroness's backstory. And she is shocked

that Duke knows all the stuff about her and everything.

And we get a really cool image of Starscream.

When Duke is talking about his stuff and just

so cool. Meanwhile, outside, there's going to

be invaders. Because... We've got... Rock and

roll. Lock everything down. We're about to have

company. Listen up, bloodhounds. No one can know

we're here, so kill everyone. So the bloodhounds

are after them. I like the fact that Major Blood

has his own goon squad. It does remind me of...

The old Joe Collectors Club, one of their convention

sets actually did give Major Blood his own squad.

Nice. I don't think they were called Bloodhounds.

I think they were called something else. But

yeah, it was kind of cool. They had these brown

and black uniforms. Good stuff. I think I actually

managed to find at least one of those figures

at another convention. Got it for a good price,

too. Very cool, very cool. So they have this

battle here between them and Baroness and Duke

and all that, and they do eventually escape.

And we... we get to a point of... Ah, see, I

told you it wouldn't be long before Major Blood

would not have both his eyes. He needs to tell

that big boss of his that my rate just doubled.

I did not factor in this kind of hazard pay when

I took the hit. Yep. She owes me an eye. Eh,

suck it up, buttercup. That's all I gotta say

to him. Yep, exactly. Yeah, you lost an eye.

God gave you two, so you have a spare. Exactly.

I forgot it happened this early. Yeah, no, me

too. I mean, I thought that was... Yeah, I kind

of... I had thought that the losing the eye thing

happened also kind of a little later on in the

thing. Like, I thought it was a finale thing,

but it was like, oh, no, actually it's, yeah.

But hey, if you're a major blood, at some point

you're going to lose your eye. That's just a

given. Yep. So Duke is staying behind and Apparently

something needs more power. What happened to

the power cores we provided you? They're already

maxed out, sir. The thing is, you're asking for

a lot with these new weapons. Everything we're

working on needs a better power source, or it's

all going to fail on the battlefield. Hey, boss.

we have another problem. Blood blew it. Duke

is in the wind. Oh, boy. So, yeah, that's Destro

for you. Yep, and he brings in Scrap Iron, and

I noticed that Scrap Iron is using his rocket

launcher. I don't collect the classified figures.

But I have to wonder if, like, the design, so

I'll have to, like, do some digging to see if

the rocket launcher that Scrap Iron uses is what

the design is for the Classified line. Yeah.

Because I know in Classified they did, you know,

we do have a Scrap Iron figure, and I know that

he also, they had him come with his rocket launcher.

Yeah, absolutely. So I wouldn't be surprised

if, yeah, this is a Classified line thing. Probably.

And nice of them to roll out the welcome wagon.

They attack Duke. He gets shot down by scrap

iron. No one is living through. Hmm. What does

it take to stop this guy? It's going to take

a lot more than that. And, you know, something,

I don't know if this was on purpose or not, but

the confrontations that Duke has had, bad guy

-wise, he's fought with major blood, he's fought

with major blood, and now he, you know, scrap

iron shoots him down. I just find it kind of

ironic because all three characters were voiced

by Mike Bell in the Sunbow cartoon. So really,

it's almost like fighting with yourself. Yeah,

pretty much. Absolutely love that, though. Absolutely

love that. Just like at Mars, the weapons are

here. That's a massive battery, but what are

they powering? Energon. Well, it is called the

Energon universe, so... I know you're watching

me. I know you can hear me. You built that damn

robot that killed my friend. No, they didn't.

You can hide all you want. Not only am I going

to tell the whole world about you, I'm going

to kill your flying robot. Well, that's the best

sound effect I can make, and there's a bat. Yep,

there we go. That is a bat, right? Oh, yeah,

that is a bat. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's what I

thought. That's no ordinary bat, man. Where the

hell is Duke? If you want to ever see the light

of day again, Clutch, you'll tell us where Duke

took that sky striker. Oh, please, Mrs. Nash.

In the fifth grade was scarier than you. If you

think I would ever rat out my buddy. Colonel

Hawk, sir? Oh, you can take a walk, Chief. Colonel

Hawk, sir? We found this in the wreckage. Oh,

boy. It could lead us to Duke. Does anything

stop this guy? I hate to admit it, but I'm impressed.

Perhaps it's time for a different approach. Yeah,

because Duke is kind of unstoppable for the most

part. Well, I mean, I don't know about unstoppable,

but he's definitely been taking a licking and

keeps on ticking. Yep. And can I just say, Destro's

outfit. Oh, God. I don't even want to. I was

trying to ignore it this whole time. Yeah, no,

I just... Well, when there's a big splash page

of it, yeah, it's kind of hard. I mean, it's

like, I get it, I get it. Let's try and go for...

For something like this, let's maybe try to get

away from his 80s look and try and get something

a little bit more realistic, but just the open

collar, it's just like... He feels more like

a villain in NCIS than Death Stranding. Oh, hell

no. You take that back. No, no, no. NCIS villains

would never do this. NCIS villains would never

dress like this. I think it depends on the villain.

They would not have that. Not the open chest.

They might have something like this suit, but

they would not have that open chest with that

large -ass, ugly -ass jewel that looks like something

that Apu would grab out of the Cave of Wonders.

Do not touch the jewels in the Cave of Wonders.

You have touched the jewel. Yeah, you do it better

than I do it. But, like, oh, my God. What in

the hell? Like, Destro. And I know it's a different

artist than in the Destro series, I think. But

his face, his, like, it's, like, dark. It's a

dark. I mean, there is a glistening shine on

the top of his head on the left side. But the

rest of his whole face in this series so far,

it's darker. It's not as shiny silver as it usually

is. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just stating

a fact here. It's a little strange. Once a great

soldier, but recently fallen from grace and too

far down the rabbit hole. However, I have a proposition

for you, Duke. Oh, boy. What I am building here

will revolutionize the world. In all wars, there

is only one winner. The weapons. He points at

his ugly -ass trinket on his chest. You know

as well as I do that red and red and white and

blue is made from your blood. I saw one of your

robots. It killed my friend. It turned into fascinating

and not one of mine. What? It was built by your

people. They lied to you. This is why you came

to Dr. Bernhardt and eventually to me. Because

you are in search of answers and I can give them

to you. Join me. Join me and together we can

rule the galaxy as father and son. Sorry, wrong

speech. Wrong speech, yeah. Wrong speech, wrong

speech. Sorry. Wrong speech, wrong speech. Join

me and I'll give you these cool high -tech toys.

Yeah, no, wrong one. But yeah, so they have this

whole back and forth and... Destro leaves him

in front of the Bat Trooper. He tries to attack

the Bat Trooper. The Bat Trooper basically just

bitch slaps him. Yeah, but then Duke pulls a...

What is it? Who was it in Mortal Kombat that

would pull the head and the spine out? Was that

Sub -Zero? I think so. I could be wrong. He pulls

a Mortal Kombat fatality on the bat. Yeah. Yep.

Damn. And again, Duke is, like we've said, he

is a fighter, obviously, but wow. Surviving a

freaking explosion. Surviving a freaking explosion.

It's like, good grief. Yeah, that's a big boom.

That page, the explosion page, to quote Lilo

Dallas Multipass, that's a big bada boom. Big

bada boom. Yep, yep, yep, yep. So, yeah. We get

to the more explosion part. He's trying to escape.

We get First Sergeant Conrad Hauser was found

dead today. Oh. I remember this. His body was

discovered by blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's

all the news reports about the various things

and whatever else. And then he's found dead.

Oh, no, he was just in a coma. Well, yeah, nice,

nice reference. Although I think in this particular

case, it does kind of remind me of the IDW. yeah

comics were like you know to be a member of gi

joe they fake your death and yeah yeah yeah yeah

no no but like that was the first thing that

popped into my head was duke was found conrad

hauser was found dead and his body was this and

body was that and then you get to the first hospital

scene you see him laying in the bed and i'm like

oh so he's a little patched he's a little patched

a little um you know patched up his eyes are

closed he doesn't have any like breathing apparatus

or anything on him. And he got a haircut. He

got a haircut. Finally got a haircut. That's

no way to speak in front of a lady soldier, dead

or not. Oh, whatever, sir. Cover girl, yay! Cover

girl, yay! Yay, we got another Joe female in

here. Oh, man, they're... Look, man. I love what

they're doing with Gia. And I've said this before,

and I say it all the time. When I was, let's

say, five, six, seven years old, so 85, 86, and

87, I'm a rare person where you put two things,

like Pepsi or Coke, I'll make a choice. And once

I make that choice, I stick with that. I don't

go, like, I don't. go back and forth between

the two kind of thing. So I picture it. I had

nothing against GI Joe. We've covered other GI

Joe things on the podcast, but I, as a kid, I

never really watched the, I have the DVDs. Now

I got to go back and watch them at some point,

but I never really watched GI Joe religiously

kind of thing. I always watch transformers. So

that's the thing. Like, Getting to read these

comics via Skybound, even though I read, I didn't

read all the IDW stuff. I only like pick and

chose what I wanted to read out of that. But

starting with this, like. Between G .I. Joe,

Void Rivals and Transformers, it's always kind

of volleyed between which one is my number one,

number two and number three. Half the time lately,

G .I. Joe has been in the top spot because I

just love this comic. The whole thing that they've

been doing is just so great. And reading this

in trade really changes my mind on this series.

I don't know what it is. It just reads better.

And the story is so good. Well, I think it's

the fact that you don't have to wait. 30 days

or something, or three weeks or something for

the next installment. And especially with something

like this, where you have Duke on the run trying

to investigate Mars and things like that, it

just flows better when you don't have to wait

for the next thing. Yeah, absolutely. So, as

he's in the hospital here, is anything true anymore?

Here's the truth that I know. We need you, Duke.

Your country needs you. You're the second person

to offer me answers. Why should I trust you now?

Oh, boy. He's in the hospital, man. Why take

me back to the pit, Colonel? This is our new

base of operations. But the enemy knows about

it. Let them come. I knew you weren't dead. Nothing

keeps my boy down. He never gives up. He stays

till the fight's won. That's right. Damn right.

What are you doing out here, Clutch? Hawk didn't

tell you? I want you to build a highly trained

special mission force, one that can handle these

new threats on the horizon. I'm not a chance.

I'm not fighting anyone's secret war. Clutch,

you gotta ride out of here. Hold on, Duke. This

is bigger than you know. There's a lot more happening

here than you can imagine. It's more than just

Destro. It's more than just one jet that turns

into a robot. It's more than meets the eye. Don't

jump the gun. This is Jason Marsden, voice of

Duke, from G .I. Joe Renegades. You are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. What do you mean?

One of our drones caught this on a surveillance

a few months ago. This big SOB turns into a truck.

Destro might not have built them, but someone

did, and we need to know what they are and how

to stop them. Prove you can, son. So what do

you say, Duke? We destroy them all. And the big

SOB truck? None other than Optimus Prime. That's

right. Dun, dun, dun. And that is the end of

the main part of Duke Volume 1, Knowing is Half

the Battle. There is an epilogue here, though.

And the epilogue includes Baroness here. Are

you out of your mind, Duke? The last time you

saw Baroness, she had a gun aimed at your head.

Why does that guy look like J. Jonah Jameson?

I don't know, but he's missing the mustache.

He's missing the mustache, but look at the hair.

Technically, Colonel Hawk, the last time I saw

her, she stole a helicopter and escaped custody.

Tokyo should be arresting her, not recruiting

her. Anastasia, she's either passed off, stabbed

in the back, or killed every ally she's ever

had. Yada, yada, yada. See a nice big splash

page of all of that. And we get a nice big splash

page of Baroness in G .I. Joe uniform. Yo, Joe,

she says. And the epilogue goes on to say, That

was not part of the plan. Lady J is right, sir.

I thought you wanted us to recruit Baroness to

our side. This still worked in our favor as she

now has a bond with Duke Flint. Why the subterfuge?

Duke and I have had some trust issues recently,

and he must not know that we're making more than

one team. To be continued in G .I. Joe. And that,

I could swear that that epilogue was taken from

the regular Joe series, because I... I think

so, yeah. I don't remember that being in the

individual issues. I remember reading that, but

not there. Yeah, not there. I don't know why

they put it in Duke for the trade. Well, I guess

probably to give a better end point and also

to kind of lead more into the regular series.

I guess, but I don't know. It's weird. All right.

Final thoughts on Duke. What did you think overall?

I have to agree with you. Reads better in trade.

Interesting seeing a Duke that's not, you know,

clean -cut poster boy. You know, this is a Duke

that's trouble, that has some issues. So, you

know, interesting. Also just very interesting

how they bring in other characters, you know,

other Joe characters, like how they introduced

Clutch and how they introduced Baroness. I mean,

I still remember that, you know, we spoke about

this before, that, you know, that big poster

image showing the cast for the Joe books. And

we have Baroness like in a Joe outfit. And it's

like, wait, what? They're casting her as a good

guy this time? Yep. It's interesting. Yeah, absolutely.

It was very interesting, and it's very cool to

see her working with them. And when I read it

the first time, I was like, oh, okay. So they're

kind of playing up the Rise of Cobra. Except

she's not an infected part and wouldn't have

to worry about that. But she's still keeping

the wig on and this, that, and the other thing

and everything else. But, no, I absolutely loved

it. Zero to five with half points. What are you

going to give Duke? Let's see. Out of five, I

think a four. Yeah, I had much more fun this

time around. A lot of the writing, and I'm so

used to Joshua Williamson's writing now, so going

back and reading this again, seeing the origins

again, it's much more enjoyable. So yeah, I'm

right there with you to four. Taking a quick

commercial ad break here, folks. You're going

to hear some podcast ads, and we'll come back

really quick to get into Scarlet right after

this. So let's say you're looking for a podcast

of your favorite 80s comic books, G .I. Joe,

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That's right, everybody. We're the Star Joes.

We host a podcast called Star Joe's Podcast.

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I suppose I still can't say something about Transformers,

can I? Good grief. What about sports? That sounds

good. Yeah, that's alright. All right, folks,

we are back here inside the pullback. This is

episode 583. It is our skybound entertainment

under Image Comics. It is the Energon Universe.

We are wrapping up the G .I. Joe miniseries with

Scarlet. First off, really quickly, before we

get into Scarlet, I do have to tell you, folks,

I have a history with the lovely Kelly Thompson,

because in 2015, It was announced over at IDW

Publishing that Gem in the Holograms was going

to get a comic book series. And we did a review.

But a friend of mine, Kendra Hale, did a written

review of the first issue. And then my misfits,

Nicole Hale, a .k .a. Beatles Diva, and... Amy,

a .k .a. Lady Wreck, we all did Jim and the Holograms

comic books here. We did episodes here on the

pull bag covering the entire series. Was it me

and Amy? I forget if it was both of us or just

me. We actually got to interview Kelly back in

July, I want to say. Where is the date on this?

Date, date, date. Hello. Oh, no, it was all of

us. Me, Amy, and Nicole got to interview Kelly

Thompson back in September 4th of 2015. It was

Kelly Thompson, IDW Publishing, 21st Century

Jam. Nice. Lucky. She she's on my list of creators.

I want to meet like in person. Yeah. I'll I'll

send you the link to that interview. That interview

is two hours, nine minutes and 32 seconds long.

That was such a blast. But hang on. Is it outrageous?

Truly, truly outrageous. Oh, of course it is.

Always. Always, always, always. You know, I have

to throw that in there, right? No, of course.

Of course. Absolutely. We. Yeah, we had a blast

with her, and it was so fun. But yeah, we covered

all of the Gem series from IDW, and when it was

announced that she was going to be doing the

Scarlet, miniseries for skybound i was like oh

because i have not you mentioned jeff the land

shark i hang my head in shame because that's

something i need to catch up with i need to go

back and and grab jeff the land shark by his

his fin there and and read his comic i have not

done that yet because a lot of things as i've

mentioned before on the podcast i'm so far behind

on stuff on, on everything. And I just haven't

had the time and haven't had the, the place to

do stuff and, and all that. So, and actually

it's funny that you also, that you mentioned

Jeff again, because in, uh, in honor of the fact

that we're, we're covering a book by tell it

by, uh, Kelly Thompson. I actually have, uh,

I actually have, uh, a Jeff, the land shark plushie

right next to me as we record. There you go.

And I mean, who wouldn't? Jeff is adorable. Yeah.

I've seen Jeff. I think I might have read the

first issue or the first couple. I might have

read like a preview of whatever the first issue

was. I just have never gotten into it kind of

thing. And it's not that I haven't wanted to.

There's so, dude. And it's not just that it's

90 years, 100 years of comics or whatever. But

there's so much stuff. I'm spread thinner than

the thinnest roast beef at the best deli in New

York City. Like, just, I'm doing the best I can.

All right, folks, we are getting into Scarlet,

five -issue miniseries from Skybound Entertainment

under Image Comics. For the creative, the writer

is Kelly Thompson. The artist is Marco Ferrari.

The colorist is Lee Lockridge. Russ Wooten is

on lettering. Woo, Russ. Love Russ. Cover is

done by Marco and Lee Lockridge, along with Joelle

Jones. Ben Abernathy is the editor. Andre Suarez

is the logo and publication design. And Ashby

Florence is the production. And we have the file

surveillance. Not file, field surveillance. Nice

image there of Scarlet. And just like in the

Duke series, huge thanks to Hasbro's Ed Lane,

Michael Cohn, Linda Lee, and Talia Rio for their

invaluable stuff. So we start with Volume 1.

Now, when this was first announced, it was like,

It's Scarlet Mission Impossible. That's how it

was described in every article I read online.

And that's why you find folks before you heard

Kelly Thompson's promo on our our intro where

she says you're listening to the full bag. You

would have heard composer Joe Kramer. do the

GCRN promo. I have voice promos from all kinds

of people, all kinds of voice actors and musicians

and other people that do the, you're listening

to, the geek kids do all that kind of stuff.

When we interviewed Joe Kramer at the time when

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation was just coming

out or just came out or whatever, he's the composer

on Rogue Nation and Fallout. Fallout was the

sixth one, right? Yeah, I think so. I believe

so, yeah. Yeah, because Rogue Nation was five.

Well, I had him do various promos, and one of

the promos is, if you don't listen to the Geekcast

Radio Network, this tape will self -destruct

in five seconds or whatever it is. So you folks

will have heard Joe Kramer at the beginning of

this, because I... Even Kelly herself said to

me, yeah, this is pretty much Scarlet in a Mission

Impossible type situation. And I absolutely love

that. I think that is so cool. Yeah, although

the opening, I would say the opening of the book

reminds me a little less of Mission Impossible,

and it reminds me more of the opening to True

Lies. I could see that. I could see both. Yes,

I agree. I mean, just the whole, you know, going

in the infiltration suit and then ditching it

to have like a nice, in this case, instead of

a tuxedo, a nice dress. Yeah. Yeah. I'll also

counter that the only thing that she was missing

with ditching the dress is pulling off her mask.

That would have made it mission. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But that bike, that bike is so mission.

The third, the, what is it? The fourth or like

the seventh or eighth page where, when she's

doing, Oh, it's when she gets back to when she's

in Washington, DC, that, that bike is so mission.

Uh, but yeah, no, she's, she's at, she infiltrates

this party. She's looking for jinx. Uh, Jinx

is in one stunning red dress and, uh, yeah, Scarlet's

in a green dress. It must be a Christmas party.

It isn't folks. It isn't just, just joking. Um,

but yeah, and she's talking to control, whoever

control is. And I swear every time anyone on

anything, whether it's a comic or. TV show or

movie. Anytime anyone's talking to control, I'm

like, yes, chief, this is agent 86. No control.

I, I, I can't do that. I think of Maxwell smart,

uh, controlling chaos. Oh boy. So yeah, she goes

to infiltrate and control keeps telling her not

to engage. And the whole time she's doing what,

She's not told to do. She's not doing the job.

She's doing the job, but she's not listening

to them because she's taking everybody out and

she's saving the hostages and all of that. What

do you think so far? Yeah, well, first off, I

mean, I think one thing I got to agree with you,

Jinx's red dress is definitely stunning. Yeah.

I just wonder... I have to wonder. I think something

I would love to know is Jynx having the Urshikagi

tattoo on her upper thigh like that. Was that

indicated in the script? I mean... Yeah, because

the placement really caught my eye. I'm like,

whoa, okay. Holy cow. Alright. On her upper thigh?

Yeah, it's on the Rishikage tattoo. You mean

her arm? No, it's not on her arm. The upper part

of her arm has a floral tattoo pattern. The Rishikage

tattoo is on her left thigh. You have that slit

in the dress, and you can see it peek out. I

don't know what you're looking at, but there's

no tattoo on her leg. Yeah, it's on her leg.

Which... In where she's standing there? She's

not where she's... Okay, not when... When, um...

I see it. I was just about to do... It's the

panel. It's on the left side of her leg. I see

it. It's when control. I recognize this symbol,

but I can't place it. I gotcha. Gotcha. I was

looking at the inside, not the outside of her

left leg. It's on the outside of her left leg.

Gotcha. Yeah, that's bold. Yep. And interesting

variation, because, I mean, yeah, usually throughout

media, the Rishikage tattoo is, again, on the

arm. Yeah. But, yeah, the whole, again, the opening,

very, the opening, again, feels, you know, very

Mission Impossible, very True Lies, you know,

walking into the party and just, you know, acting

like she belongs there. Yep. Absolutely. But

yeah, the brawl. Gotta love the just turned into

a brawl permission to engage. Yeah. It's like,

wait, no, permission denied. So it's like, what,

I'm just supposed to stand here watching people

getting the crap beaten out of them? Okay. Yeah.

Exactly. I'm supposed to sit here and do nothing?

That's not going to work for me. We get back

to Washington, D .C. That goes as well as can

be expected. She gets back home and she realizes,

wait, somebody's here. Hmm. I wonder who that

could be. Once a spy, always a spy. Dangerous

game to play, sir. You can call me Stalker, Sergeant.

Oh, so Stalker broke in. Yeah. Always nice to

see him. Yep, and good to see that he's... I

think beforehand, her getting reprimanded by

this Major Gorman or whatever. First of all,

it's like, yeah, I don't recognize him. He's

probably created just for this, but... it's a

bit of a cliche, but it's a fun cliche with like,

you know, having that one superior officer who's

just fricking clueless and, you know, exists

only to be like, you're a loose cannon. Yeah.

Yeah. It's good that they had. So again, like

she's, again, this is think of it. Again, you

keep mentioning true lies, but I, I fully think

it, like I said, Kelly even said to me, It's

full on mission impossible. That's what she was

going for. And that you can't just put general

Hawk. I mean, I think general Hawk does show

up eventually at some point, but like, you can't

just have Scarlet going to general Hawk. You

have to have her going to somebody who at the

end, isn't really going to matter. Like. So,

you know, because, again, she's a secret operative.

She's undercover. She's not supposed, like, this

is not, like, this isn't Scarlet who's a part

of Roadblock, Duke. Help me out here. Roadblock,

Duke, Tunnel Rat. Beachhead. This isn't a six

-man Joe team here. This is just her and Jinx

eventually doing their spy thing. And Stalker

even calls her out. You know, spy versus spy

kind of thing. So this is a spy thing. Interesting.

And it's interesting seeing that they don't know

each other. Yeah. Because, you know, that's...

Again, their friendship is supposed to be something

that's established, so having, you know... Yep.

And, yeah, you gotta give Stalker credit for

trusting that he wouldn't get a... His head cut

off. Yeah, his head cut off or blown off. Yep.

But, you know, fortunately she was smart enough

to be like, okay, you know, let me... Let's not

shoot first and ask questions later. Let's see

what happens. Let's ask the questions first.

Speaking of friendship, we go four years ago

and we meet Jinx and Scarlet. We get the two

of them and that's a nice little page showing

their friendship and we get more of that as time

goes on. We get back to I almost said bullseye

because they have a bingo and bullseye joke there.

But we get back to her and Stalker. We kind of

go back and forth here between stuff and whatever.

We see Snowjob. Love seeing Snowjob here. So

cool. And we see Scarlet actually wearing an

outfit similar to Snowjob, which she looks good

in it. Oh, yeah. I love the white. Kind of reminds

me of a different Scarlet. He was a widow, don't

you know? What? And we see her fighting in the

white and she's kicking ass and taking names.

Too late for second thoughts. Who wants a long,

fulfilling life anyway? On guard. We see a nice

big splash page of her basically killing all

the ninjas. Or whatever they are. Good few fight

panels here. We see... Sensei, wait! My apologies

for disrupting your sanctuary, Hardmaster. My

name is Shaina O 'Hara, former U .S. military,

and I come with an offer. I am listening. What

is your offer, O 'Hara? Jinx is... playing at

extremely close unless I've misread everything.

That would be unfortunate, considering the play.

After all, the play's the thing. Catch the conscience

of the king. Uh -huh. She says, the offer is

me. Do I need you? It seems perhaps you do. He's

not taking the bait. I might be in real trouble

here. Oh, crap. Well, if you're going to cliffhanger

chapter one, what better way to do it than Storm

Shadow? I mean, we got Jinx. Yeah. We got Jinx,

we got the Hardmaster. We got Storm Shadow. Yeah,

that was... I remember when issue one dropped,

and I was like, oh, crap. You're going to cliff

hang it with storm shadow. What a way to go.

That was so good. I love Kelly's writing. I just,

I love the way she writes. And again, I, it's

been years since I've seen the GI Joe cartoon.

It's been years since I've seen or heard or remember

any of the way any of these characters actually

are. So getting to read these characters and

how these writers interpret these characters

for the first time is so refreshing to me. I

remember bits and pieces of how Duke is supposed

to be. I remember bits and pieces of how Cobra

Commander, like Cobra Commander, Destro, and

Duke are the three that I remember the most of

how they were in the cartoon specifically. Scarlett,

Flint, and Lady J, I kind of sort of remember,

but I don't really. So having Kelly write the

character, I like this version of her the best

for the most part. And again, I'm going to eventually

get back to, I actually have my DVD case right

next to me here at my desk with the G .I. Joe.

cartoon dvds in it so i guess no time like the

present and just throw them in my computer and

start watching but yeah no absolutely love the

love the writing what are your thoughts so far

after the first issue well so far so good and

you know i love that um I, you know, I, again,

very, you know, very Mission Impossible, very

True Lies, very, you know, even maybe a little

bit of John Wick. But so far, I mean, so far,

yeah. And I also kind of love how, you know,

I love that, again, adding more to the, you know,

to the Joe side of the Energon universe. You

know, eventually the Shikage were going to pop

up at some point. You know, whether we like it

or not, ninjas are a thing that is in G .I. Joe.

I mean, ninjas are cool. I ain't got no problem

with no ninjas. I usually prefer them to be,

you know, lean green and on the screen, but I

ain't got no problem with ninjas. Yeah, no, I

don't either, but there are some, and at times

I kind of agree with this, where they kind of

feel like the ninja aspect of G .I. Joe gets

used a little too much. But, you know, it is

a thing. It is a thing. I haven't experienced

enough of G .I. Joe to have that, like, burnout

on ninjas. Yeah. Well, like for me, the Arashikage

so far, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes are the only

ones that I've seen to this point. And so, you

know, I so far haven't had that burnout, luckily.

Turtles joke, barely got a laugh. Jesus, man,

get with it. Oh, boy. So they took her. So she

gets captured. They took her lockpick that was

in her mouth, but they didn't take the one that

was embedded in her skin. Now, Jesus, this is

rough. That's hardcore. Oh, that's very hardcore.

Well, and that's right there. That's right there

with like, um, the, there was a, you know, IDW

did a, uh, a series that was GI Joe versus transformers.

And yeah, there was one where, yeah, she even

had a, um, Scarlett actually had like a, a USB

board or something in her head. So, you know,

that, that actually hurts my head. So she gets

the thing out of there. She cuts herself free.

Another coded message from Jinx. I love this.

Go hard. So the whole time here, folks, we haven't

really mentioned this, but her history with Jinx

and how they're kind of sisters and whatever

throughout their history, they've had coded messages

for each other all over their house and all over

their places and things like that. I love that

it's kind of like a sister language. It's kind

of like their own little language. And another

quoted message from Jinx. Go hard. Oh, well,

all right then. And yeah, it's time to... Hard

it is. Let's go. Yep. And she goes for the glory

and goes for the guts. Fights all the ninjas.

basically kicks everybody's ass. Yep. We get

another flashback where they're talking to each

other. I love their relationship. I love the

way that Kelly writes it. You still pissed about

what's -his -face? Oh, someone's grouchy. That's

probably why you're dropping your shoulder every

time. It's not because I'm grouchy. No? I don't

think so, but maybe. I just absolutely love their...

their relationship just it's so good what are

you thinking so far as we're getting through

this um well i mean good yeah i do love the i

do like the flashbacks i do love that they have

their own little language and you know i also

um you know i i do love that because it it establishes

their It does establish their, you know, it gives

them a history. It feels, yeah, it just, it feels

great. I do love that there's a, I do love the,

I love the fact that, I love also the, a little

reference to, you know, are you still mad? Are

you still mad about what's his face? And it's

like, yeah, there's a part of me that's like,

hmm. Who are they talking about? Yeah. I mean,

it could be who we're thinking. It could be somebody

else. I don't know. I don't know. The world may

never know. So we get to Scarlet and Storm Shadow,

and they're sharing some tea here. Or whatever

it is. And we get to Scarlet Storm Shadow and

the Hardmaster. And they are going to send her

on this mission, her first mission for the Urashikage.

And yeah. An ancient weapon of unusual origin.

Some have called this weapon the soul of the

Arashikage. We've worked tirelessly on its safe

return. We have learned from a source that the...

I can't pronounce that. You know what? I was

trying to figure it out. The best I came up with

was Mugenonami. There you go. Have aligned with

an outside power intending to sell them our weapon.

So they get more plans. They make more plans.

And we're seeing, as they're making the plans,

we're seeing how she's going to infiltrate and

do her Mission Impossible run. Which she does.

And damn. See, originally, I thought that the

last panel there, when she jumps off the helicopter,

I thought that was the end of the issue, but

it's not. I think it was the beginning of...

I forget, where is the end of... I don't know.

Because this is in trade now, folks, it all kind

of blends together for me. Chapter two. I know

chapter two ends. She's in the building, but

security, I guess, says that she's there. So

we get her jumping down the shaft now. Jumping

out of a helicopter. Now she's jumping down a

shaft. Yeah, that's the Mission Impossible move

right there. Except we don't, because she jumps

down the shaft, and then she goes into the tank.

I wish that shaft landed in an all -white room

where she has to hang there. before she can land

on the floor. That would have really made it

Mission. Yeah, although she's missing like Jean

Reno holding on to her whatever rig. That's true.

Very true. That's funny. See, there you go. See,

that one, that reference I jumped in on. There

you go. Yep, yep, yep. that's not a knife this

is a knife that knife he had in that move oh

my god that knife when he stuck it in the rat

two things when he stuck it in the rat and then

when it fell when it fell down and hit the hit

the the table the the computer table because

we all thought it was gonna hit oh man that knife

was crazy I'm not usually a knife guy, but damn,

what a souvenir to have, even though it really

doesn't. I'm sure that knife isn't that big.

If you look at it when he's holding it in his

hand, it's not that big. But the way they made

that camera angle to, oh, God. Anyway, so we

get Scarlet. She's in there. They know she's

there. We get her fighting everybody. Trying

to get away from a shark. Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, I wonder in that shark tank, I wonder if

that's Kevin or if that's Mark or if that's Robert

or, you know. They're not adorable enough. Well,

it is a shark tank. You never know. It is. Maybe

his name is Bruce. Hey, get some Spielberg in

there. Jabberjaw, Jabberjaw. Oh, boy. No. What?

No. What? You don't like Jabberjaw? No, I'm just

trying to cut you off before you start getting

into the theme song. Jabberjaw, Jabberjaw, Jabberjaw.

Grown. Jabba Jaw, Jabba Jaw, the bestest shark

I ever did see or saw. I don't even remember

the theme song. I just remember Jabba Jaw. Yeah.

So Scarlet goes and kicks everybody's ass. They

blow something up. What in the... Oh, wait a

minute. Does she blow it up or do they blow it

up? Hold on. Does she have the detonator or do

they... No, she has it. She has the detonator.

She has a thermal detonator. Yes, she has a thermal

detonator, and she blows it up. I'm sorry, that

looks like a thermal detonator. It does, actually.

Yeah, if you zoom in, it does, actually. It looks

like a thermal detonator. I'm just waiting for

it. It's just missing the little doohickey at

the top, you know, the little switch. Yeah, that

little thing. But yeah, it feels like a thermal

detonator. Yep, yep. Actually, looking at it,

yeah, it's got a button, but it's not the same

kind of... Yeah, it's not the same kind of thing,

but yeah. So Scarlet completes her mission. She

gets to Jinx, and Jinx is like, yeah, no, I have

to stay. I can't leave. I have to be the one

to do all this other stuff. Another fight. They

hug. Yep, yep, yep. We get a hug. We get a cobra

chopper, but surprisingly enough, it's just a

regular chopper. Yep, it's just a regular chopper.

It's not a fang. It's not a mamba. Nope. Nope.

No special choppers for you. Well, not yet. And,

you know, I guess there's some days where it's

like, you know what, I just feel like flying

a, you know, we'll just fly a regular chopper.

Yep. So this is kind of where the story switches

to jinx, because Scarlet has gone back to wherever.

Because Jinx is like, I have to stay. I have

to infiltrate them. I have to make sure and this,

that, and the other thing and everything else.

Wait, did Scarlet stay too? They're both there.

Yeah, they're both there. I thought she was okay.

You know, one thing I do want to bring up is

the fact that Up until, like, towards the end

of, you know, the fourth issue, or, you know,

we'll say fourth chapter, since we're dealing

with the trade, this really is not as, you know,

this doesn't have that much connection to the

Energon universe, but then we see that the, you

know, we see that sword. The sword is actually

made from Energon. Then it's like, oh, here we

go. And Cobra Commander shows up looking like

the classic Cobra Commander we all know and love.

And it's like, okay, so now we're really getting

into, we're really connecting it to the Energon

universe. Yeah, I think through the first three

issues, like I said, it's... Her having to rescue

Jinx. And then once Jinx is rescued, they then

go on to finish the mission Jinx was supposed

to do. So what? Wait a minute. So we get a nondescript

chopper. We get an explosion. Wait a minute.

Hold on. Oh, the building explodes. Okay. So

the chopper comes in. The building explodes.

Let's see here. I guess we did pass a subtle

few miles back. She survived. I know she did.

Oh, that's a fun new pain. Oh, boy. Jinx. Storm

Shadow. Cobra? I don't know. Storm Shadow's doing

some kind of weird camouflage thing. I don't

know about weird camouflage so much as it's just,

you know, the stereotypical ninja, you know,

trying to blend with the surroundings type thing.

Maybe, but... His arm looks like it's inside

that mountain or crevice or whatever. Like, look

at the panel there where he said, he says, he,

he grabs her mouth. He says Cobra, but the bottom

panel where he's pulling her, his up, like where

his elbow bends, it looks like his arm is inside

the mountain. Yeah, no, I think, okay. I think

that's okay. I think what, What that's supposed

to be is like smoke. Okay. That's like a smoke

trail going through his arm. Okay. He's not pulling

a Kitty Pryde and facing into the wall. Okay.

Commander, are we spit it out already? And yeah,

like you said, Cobra Commander shows up in his

classic 80s garb. Although the troopers look,

I think the troopers look awesome. Yeah, the

troopers look good. Go, go, go. He's seen us.

Scarlet gets shot. They both get knocked off

the building. Yeah, it's quite literally Mission

Impossible. Jumping off a building. They don't

jump. They get knocked off the building. Okay,

it looks like Scarlet pushes Jinx off, and then

she jumps, falls off. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah, she pushes her off, and then she falls

off, and then they have to get the parachute

going. And I do love once Scarlet gets to the

ground, I love her going through and disguising

herself and trying to blend into the crowd. Yeah,

that whole page is good. And then her meeting

up with Snowjob. Yeah. I love that whole thing.

I love Scarlet and Snowjob. So there's two...

I don't think Skybound's ever going to do this,

but there's two miniseries I would love to see

in the future. Scarlet and Snowjob and Hound

and Clutch. I don't think it's ever going to

happen, but I would love to see it happen. Yeah.

Or, you know, Scarlet and Jinx. Yeah, but we

kind of have that here. Yeah. Yeah. But just,

you know, they made such a great pair. It would

be great to just. True. And officially call it

Scarlet and Jinx. That's true. So we have Scarlet

and Snowjob doing their thing, and we have Storm

Shadow and Jynx doing their thing. The sword

gets returned to the Hardmaster and gets held

up for the Arashica. Wait a minute, what? Hold

on, wait a minute. From what I can see, yeah,

the sword, you know, Storm Shadow brings the

sword back. Like, the sword is supposed to be...

belong to the clan you know and storm shadow

brings it back and you know it seems like he's

like okay you know it's back in the clan and

i think you know and he's kind of i think it's

like he's oh i'm stupid i'm silly i thought that

did never mind scarlet joined the arashikage

the storm shadows apart okay i got it no i made

a i thought there was a secondary clan never

mind yeah okay i got you got you got you yeah

arashikage arashikage arashikage he holds the

sword up the sword gets a good uh Good lightning

strike, and that's how we end this one. Yep,

and it's interesting because it ends kind of

on a... I don't want to say like a cliffhanger,

but it kind of ends on a thing where it's like,

yeah, you know, it is, you know, like, it is

back with the clan, with the Orishikage. Yeah.

But the way Storm Shadow's kind of holding it,

it... it kind of leaves it, it, it has, it has

Scarlet and it has, um, Jinx kind of, uh, I don't

know if I want to say read, but they're kind

of, they're kind of like, this, you know, I don't

know about this, you know, that, that kind of

thing. Yeah. So, All of the trades for the five

-issue miniseries that they did are called Volume

1. So they could potentially do more of these

in the future. Volume 1, and I forgot to mention

this at the beginning of the Scarlet coverage,

Volume 1 for Scarlet is Special Mission. So hopefully,

maybe Kelly will do another one in the future.

I don't know if that's in Skybound's plans. They

haven't gone back to do any other one shots so

far with any of the stuff. I'm not sure what

they're doing currently. I do hope, I do hope

though that, yeah, they do more if, you know,

and if it's not, you know, and if for whatever

reason they're not doing more with, um, you know,

they're not doing more with these characters,

you know, with, with Duke, Scarlet, you know,

Destro, Cobra Commander. Yeah. I would hope at

least it's like, get some other characters in

there. Like, you know, maybe give Jinx her own,

you know, her own little mini series. Maybe do,

you know, maybe give Storm Shadow his own little,

you know, his own little thing. Maybe do, You

know, there are other Joes that you could actually

throw in there, you know. Example, I mean, I

can think right now, hey, what about, you know,

what about Scoop? You know, he was a Joe introduced

in like 89, who's like a photojournalist type,

you know. Imagine him, you know, like, I know

they gave him, IDW gave him like a... a storyline

in the G .I. Joe Cobra series, but like, you

know, maybe something with quick kick, maybe

something with, I mean, you know, the, the Joe,

you know, G .I. Joe has such a huge cast. It's

like, yeah, it's the limit, you know, who do

you, you know, grab a character and it's like,

okay. Yeah, absolutely. You never know. And not

knowing is half the battle. So knowing is half

the battle and not knowing is half the battle.

Not knowing is half the battle, exactly. And

here I thought it was red lasers, blue lasers.

That too. There are three parts. Oh, okay. So

wait, shouldn't it be one third of the battle?

Yes. One third. That's right. There you go. It's

fractions of battles. That's right. Fractions

of battles. That's right. Yep. Yep. Yep. All

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

you have anything you'd like to promote, sir,

before I run through the closing? Oh, hell yeah.

I mean, I'm, I'm working now with the rising

sun comics. And I mentioned the other, you know,

the last time we recorded, I'm working on new

issues of this year. And I've got to say, it

is coming along quite nicely. Very cool. So,

I mean, any, you know, sooner rather than later,

you know, we'll be putting up the new issues.

Might even be doing some Kickstarters. You know,

we're still working those out. I did recently

get a chance to look at a couple of covers. They

look awesome. We've got a group of new artists

who will be doing these things. Just the other

day, one of the artists was showing off the covers

for his issue. Honestly, those of us who were

looking, we were having a hard time picking our

favorites because they were all good. Honestly,

yeah. More Sears coming. More stuff is coming

from Rising Sun. I'll keep you guys informed.

Very cool. Very cool. All right, folks, that's

going to do it for us. Thank you for joining

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for the Network, at ThePullBag for the show.

I am at TFG1Mike. Are you still on Twitter? I'm

still on Twitter. I'm also on Blue Sky. Still

on Facebook. I think the only things I haven't

pulled the trigger on are TikTok, which I never

will. Never will. And Insta. And the Instagram.

Yeah. I do the Instagram. I've been doing the

Instagram for about five years now, and most

of the time it's just scrolling. I find myself

just using it for entertainment. I post stuff,

but I don't actively. I'm not posting on there

every day. I'm looking at it for content consumption

more than content production. Yeah, no, I mean,

I have friends who are on Insta, and yeah, they

share videos all the time, and it's like I can't

open it, because it's like, do you want to watch

this on the app? It's like, no, I don't have

the app. Do you want to watch this on the app?

I don't have the app! You can download the app.

You want to give out your Twitter or your stuff?

Well, the Twitter is... It's pronounced WhiteBalloonKing,

but it's at W -H -T -B -L -L -N -K -I -N -G.

And then, yeah, as far as BlueSky, it's emfryer76.

That's E -M -F -R -E -Y -R -E -7 -6 at BlueSky.

you know dot blue sky dot social there you go

so very cool very cool yep we're on facebook

facebook .com slash geek cast radio network i

believe is what it is and then you can also search

out the pull bag as well join us next time when

we will be i believe steve megatron is going

to come back and we are going to I'll be rediscovering

Transformers Volume 1, Robots in Disguise from

Skybound Entertainment. I'm going to hopefully

actually enjoy Daniel Warren Johnson's run because,

wow, reading it the first time around, it was

rough. And I had never read anything the guy

wrote before. And I usually can keep an open

mind about new writers that I've never read before

kind of thing, but just, I don't know. It was

really like, and then when we get to volume two,

how they, how, oh boy. Issue 13 and 14 should

have been separated out and done differently.

Issue 13 and 14 of Transformers from Skybound

Entertainment should not have been a Starscream

double shot spotlight in the middle of the damn

book. That should have been separate. That's

a whole friggin' thing. Anyway, for now, I am

TF2 and Mike with... With Eduardo Pryor. As always,

make your greatest game in the comics, and we

will catch you next time. Later, sister. We've

got a war to win. I was going to bring flowers,

but I thought you'd like these better. One, two,

three. Ow. What? What? No, the one, two, three,

ow. Okay. Yeah, that's the one, two, three. Ow.

I need ice cream and chocolate donations. All

donations can go to PayPal, TFG1WakeEdge, email

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Okay, good. I just had to double check. Wake

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