Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye Volume 2 Review

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Welcome to... The Polebag! Join us as we dig

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enjoy this week's Pull Bag. Come out, Autobot!

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Hello and welcome to Episode 12 of The Pull Bag!

I am one of your hosts, TFJ1Mike, and joining

me once again in this three -episode arc is Ender!

Hello, sir. Hello. We are here to talk about

more than meets the eye volume to which collects

more than meets the eye What does it collect

of course doesn't say I think it's issues four

through eight I think is what it is. Yeah, that

was right. Yeah, it sounds right I'm not looking

at the Wikipedia article at the moment cover

Yeah, I've only been doing this for almost five

years now The cover I've been being a jerk my

whole life I've got it down, baby, you know Buckle

up you're going for a ride. Yes, right So the

cover for the trade is I believe it's issue seven's

cover of Tarn which he essentially is a Decepticon

symbol face I think it's I get the impression.

It's a mask Okay, I'd heard somewhere you know

verification of this would be needed that under

under these you know Seemingly new Decepticons

are ones we might recognize That this is their

their guys as the Interesting ad we get that

later, but that's random crap. I've heard I what

I don't get about this cover is like I just noticed

it before we started recording. What are all

the scribbles at the bottom of it? Like on the

side on the bottom left and right corners, it's

white with scribble marks. I think it's supposed

to be drips of water hitting. I think it's just

not playing very well. Yeah, it's the coloring

isn't going with it well enough. It's not working.

No, not at all. Yeah, I don't think there's anything

subtle to it though. I think it's just a bad

drip Yeah, so we're gonna start with issue four

This this particular trade is the one that proves

that the subtitle to more than meets the eye

should be This comic could be about fucking anything

Yeah, it really it really is You know kind of

in a good way I think all over the place and

has a very diverse cast and you know, if you

think you're just gonna pick up You know more

than meets the eye and find out what's going

on in the bar in the lost light you're wrong

Yeah like I was with it so far like last week

when we talked about volume one I followed along

with everything I was a little confused with

the whole time displacement thing as we talked

about with with tailgate and all that but Up

to the point where in in this In this trade,

between issues 4 and 6, I was fine. By the time

issues 7 in the Decepticon justice division shows

up, I was confused as all fuck. Now, let me get

this out of the way first. Yes, I know. The war

is over. I don't get... I don't get it. Decepticons

have always been known to be brutal killers.

People who like sadistic things. People who like

to torture Autobots. I don't underst - Like,

I get it. It's a friendly term. Decepticon Justice

Division. But, to me it should be, if a Decepti

- Like, take Blitzwing in Season 3. He was gonna

defect. To the Autobots. You know? If you defect

there should be punishment not justice, but punishments

is the result of justice though to them that

is their justice That's what you deserve is your

punishment. I know I would just think to you

know in Decepticon ease justice and punishment

are probably the same word You know, so I think

It's an ironic term, you know, like, yeah, like

the quintessence saying innocent and then dropping

you the shark. Yeah. Yeah. Because they never

find anybody guilty. I know. I so now I so want

to see that scene. I want to see somebody dragged

in there and put out at the end of the pit and

like guilty or innocent. Guilty like, oh, damn.

OK, well, here's your freebie bag. You can go.

I Don't think so. I don't know Sort of like is

the innocent thing supposed to be like we're

evil so being innocent is bad Or is it just like

a practical joke? They never get tired of They

just keep hauling people out there going innocent

feed him to the sharkacons. What? And then they're

like slapping their knees with their tentacles

go like oh man, that just never gets old You

know, is that it yeah no I agree that's that's

probably it five faces no sense of humor five

faces of darkness with multiple technical tentacle

porn issues oh alright so issue four starts off

with first is it it's that's first aid right

that's I can sometimes I can never tell what

these character designs because you got swerve

who is red white and has blue eyes You got first

-aid who is red white and blue eyes ratchet red

white blue eyes only swerve has an insignia on

his crotch Okay, then I'm sure he would Does

it grow I don't want to know I was biting my

tongue, but it's getting through some kind of

Pinocchio joke that's coming there. Yeah, the

more he lies to Alter Magnus about the bar, the

better it gets. So next week... We're still on

the first page and we've gotten... we've had

tentacle porn jokes and transfer former Autobot

insignia nose erectile dysfunction problems.

I don't know. I don't know where we're going.

And in 10 minutes, you're going to tell me that

this issue is random? I don't know. Yeah. Well,

you think that this is going down the blue, you

know, going blue rat hole? Listen to the Beast

Unleashed podcast episode five. Oh, my God. Just

think of Barney, the purple dinosaur in Beast

Wars Megatron. In an awkward position, that's

all I'm gonna say. You avoid thinking of that.

So we've got... Life After the Big Bang is the

title of issue four. And we've got Swerve with

a bunch of the other Autobots at the bar. Asking

if Magnus knows about the bar yet. And Swerve

is like, oh... It's okay, he'll say it's fine.

His swerve not met Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus

is the guy that is a stickler for rules and has

the biggest chip on his shoulder if people don't

follow orders. Yeah, I can't... This, uh... I,

uh... It reminds me of two things. One, I think

it's funny how they clearly felt the need to

make Macadam's old oil house portable. for story

purposes, which is why this bar exists. But the

secret bar reminds me, I actually, towards the

end of high school, I built a bar in my basement

and didn't tell my parents about it for like

six, seven months. Oh, my God. So I actually

kind of did this. I glean a lot of humor from

this. One day, my stepfather went downstairs,

do some laundry, came back up and looked at my

mom. He was like, you built a bar down there.

He was like, you built a bar down there. And

I was kind of tired and groggy and get it the

more like, what, you want me to get you a beer?

It's been there since June. So I think that's

kind of the logic that Swerve is operating on.

Once it's been there for a certain amount of

time, it's just like, what? Better to beg for

forgiveness than ask for permission, right? Yeah,

that's true. I'm about Swerve's height too, so.

No, you gotta be taller than Swerve. Come on.

Yeah, but I'm short. I'm a short guy. I can fess

up to that. It happens. And then you got a scene

with Ultra Magnus and Rodimus talking about tailgate.

Which is pretty hysterical. Yeah, it is. It's

just... It's so tailgate of course is the the

displaced. Yes, you know nato, but he's a Not

a lot to say he's a nato, but yeah, he's been

He's decided he wants to be a decepticon because

he's been hanging out with cyclonus Cyclonus

isn't even a decepticon, but he's just jerky

enough to be sympathetic towards them So so tailgate's

got the wrong idea and it's making ultra Magnus

nervous So they're going to deal with that hysterically.

But a running leaf could make Ultra Magnus nervous.

Oh, yeah. Well, that gets better as this book

goes on. I think my favorite panel's in here.

He's like, oh, I thought it was some graffiti

on your desk. It says Ultra Magnus is a sadist

who uses education to hurt people. But I think

it's actually just a speck of dirt. And Magnus

is like, dirt! But it's gone now! It's gone!

It can't hurt you anymore. Yeah, I don't. Magnus

is hysterical in these. Yeah, he is. It just

keeps getting funnier, too. Oh, God. Where is

it? I don't think it's in this... I'm trying

to think if it's in this one or if it's the one

we'll talk about next week. There was one where

somebody was inside of him. Oh, yeah, I think

that's... Yeah, they're doing the... The, you

know, microsize people trying to save him from

inside. Which is totally ridiculous. I mean,

it's such a stretch, but it's so cool. Well,

they do that on the old show. And then, and then,

uh, is it, is it world? It doesn't or somebody

writes on the inside of him, some weird slur

about him and he can see it and everyone else

around him is laughing. He's like, they're all

laughing at me. We need a new crew. So we're

going from here our first our first storyline

is this this rust plague thing So we do get some

reference to through to the our first reference

to the Decepticon Justice Division is in here

Yeah, because because they're apparently they're

related to this problem. So we get them mentioned.

They're setting them up a little bit and ratchet

decides to go to The mobile Autobot repair bays.

Yeah. Well, I think that's a throwback to a ratchets

You know g1 toy that little you know, he was

kind of on that sled Yeah, I think that's what

these are supposed to be. Those are that sled

Yeah, so that's kind of that's kind of fun Well,

I love that scene. I like pipes here. They're

given pipes of personality Yeah, finally. Um,

I love that scene. I cuz I cuz these it's like

IDW I love you from what I've read from you so

far, but please and this goes for not just IDW

but any comic book company Number your frigging

pages, please What's so hard about that? The

page where they mentioned the mobile Autobot

repair base and it has a giant X on it. I love

this Oh you two what's this then? That would

be the second most terrifying symbol in the universe.

What's the first? Give Drift your spark casing

and he'll show you. not with a megatron or one

of the conclave providing over the affiliation

ceremony which by the way is a lot more intrusive

than ours yeah yeah so you've got lots of good

dialogue humor in here this is a very witty book

all of more than meets the eye is yeah it is

dialogue is the big highlight for me i mean Yeah,

the dialogue is great. I love the designs. I

mean, we didn't really, I don't know how much

we talked about the art last time with volume

one, but with volume two, and with volume one

as well, I love the designs on Ultra Magnus.

I love the designs on Rodimus. My only real complaint

is, is there's, outside of Rodimus, because he's

technically red and orange, there's too much

white, red, in blue. Yeah, well, I think our

problem here is that we're in a medical facility

and they're sort of indicating that that is not

just Ratchet and First Aid's, you know, personal

choice to be red and white, that medics are red

and white. And Drift just happens to be red and

white. You know, so, you know, there's just a

lot of repeats there. So, you know, they get

there, there's a plague, it's doom. it's like

this you know quite a lot of funny dialogue for

their for the big play okay it says stay the

hell away in a billion languages uh... and then

we get back to tailgate yeah i love the thing

with tailgate because i don't know if it's like

this is a little intimidating i'm recharging

the next this guy with fist the size of about

50 regular fist says you want to teach me a lesson

Magnus busting into his room. You're like, we're

gonna teach you a lesson I Love they hook him

up and give him the quick history lesson and

just you know ruins Quick review of like all

the evil things Decepticons have done for four

million years 11 yeah, yeah four million years

of evil in 11 .3 seconds Wider and wider they

just crushed the Decepticon symbol on the one

hand Put them all together get the uprising the

exodus the remote age the cataclysm of the surge,

but some of these sounds so terrible We've never

heard about them before You know, Zeta Prime

and the Gunshot we've seen, but, you know, Declaration

Day, Megatron, you know, yadda yadda. But things

like, um... CZ, the Seminezy Massacre and the

Endless Retaliation. That sounds so bad. Soundwaves,

anti -neutral pogroms. Bludgeon's army of deviants

in half -forms. Oh, man, I don't know and maybe

you can tell me cuz well we'll get into this

at the end of the podcast but Where is sound

wave in this universe sound wave? He's he's in

robots in disguise. He's still on Cybertron Gotta

remember most of the crew of the lost light is

all Autobot the Decepticons really weren't it

right? Yeah cyclonus came out it kind of last

minute and And even, you know, he was originally

lumped with the Decepticons. So there's, you

know, it's not like they were, you know, they're

having a whole other set of problems on Cybertron.

Most of them, Prowl has had explosive ID chipped.

Yeah, I remember that from Death of Optimus Prime.

I remember that, yeah. A problem sitting around

with like a little panel wondering which one

of their heads he's going to blow up this afternoon.

Yeah, I just like, yeah, I guess I'm gonna have

to eventually pick up. Needle nose. I hate needle

nose. I just... Like, I like Rewind on his -

I've always liked Rewind, but it just - Blaster's

on this ship, if it makes you feel any better.

Okay, well, hopefully we'll get to him soon.

Not this week. He doesn't have much relation

to Rewind. See, I don't like that. Like, at the

- okay. How squillard do you wanna be? You want

me to just spell something out for ya? No, I

mean, it's a relationship thing. It's not like

you seen Iron Man 3 yet. If you haven't shut

the hell I'm just describing the kind of like

it's not a plot point. It's okay character relationship

thing that will become clearer as time goes on

but is already present in The comics you've read

so if you're having trouble understanding a character

relationship Rather than have it play out and

become clearer. I could just tell you what it

is That's... yeah, that's fine. I just don't,

like... Like, it's not gonna be, I mean, like,

it's not gonna be a specific plot point in and

of itself. With the exception of its clarity.

At some point, it might be considered to be so,

but... Okay. I can't wait to see what Rewind's

deal is, character -wise, and on the ship. He's

a sick bastard? He and Chromedome are... Good

night, ladies and gentlemen. They are. They are

a couple. Wow. Yeah, so issue five. And Drift

and Rodimus are kind of dating, if you haven't

noticed. Stop. It's like horrible, horrible fan

fiction. Swear no horrible horrible fan fiction

involves sex. This is just relationship. No,

I know I know The reason why I say it's horrible

horrible fan fiction is because there was one

time I read a fan fiction where some really horrible

it can go wrong very quickly I mean, that's just

it. I think we avoid transformer romance because

of our righteous terror of transformers sex we

don't want transformers sex but i don't think

there's anything wrong with them having relationships

there's since the inception of the transformers

even back all the way back to g one there is

always been an element of romantic relations

between transformers yeah i was looking at a

one word just a couple those other fembots were

clearly couples with the uh... you know so right

it's it's all in and yeah i'll just about every

version you can cite has had an element of that

present where people refer to at least i mean

for beast wars is completely full of it yeah

i think it's closer to making sexual comments

than that a lot of other things too the line

i get i can i can't believe they got through

is a rat trap line when he's giving silverbolt

crap about black arachnia he says like oh i was

out you know scouting the perimeter he's like

oh scouting out the enemy huh Find any new positions.

Yeah, that's like spit your drink out like Clearly

just did not put two and two together there That

line is clear as day, but I'm just saying, you

know the Much like the dialogue is more real

here. You can expect more real relationships

and That's what you know is really important

and he has a really important connection with

somebody on the ship that's gonna play out and

be an important part of the Story, but it is

not blaster So that's where I don't mind him

on his own. I don't mind like reading this I

didn't mind what I've seen so far with Whatever

relationship he and chrome dome have I don't

mind it. I like but The inner you know seven

-year -old to me is saying You can't have rewind

eject rewind. That's just it though. Did they

have I mean like They're like biggest moment

was like six seconds in the freaking movie So

I know I know but like they had a lot with them.

I mean I know but it's just Yeah, so the Mean

for people who were trying to avoid robo sex

so, you know hardcore all of a sudden It's okay

for this dude to jump into that other dude's

chest and we're like totally cool with that This

other guys, you know butts full of two dudes

and a couple of birds and a bat we're like, alright,

that's cool, too Thinking that I think we're

not addressing So I think this is the darkest

anything of combiners. Oh Stop, I think this

is the darkest any of these here in podcasts

have ever gone. Oh my god, so we've got This

whole mission on Delphi then Apparently first

aids like kind of like ending the issue here

in issue four first aids friend begs to differ

about something and we Get introduced to fortress

maximus. How big is the lost light? I Think yeah

fortress maximus is clearly a large though even

even in the old comics He was never even they

made him bigger at one point, but he was never

like so big he couldn't Stand in a room. Yeah,

he was never Metroplex Even -sized and see that's

such a contradiction, you know, well it is and

it isn't I mean Well, it's a contradiction to

animation. Yeah, it's a country should it but

again, he's only in one animated show No, I mean

the deal is with Metroplex I mean if you watch

well, then there's the headmaster's Japanese

series in which he of course is much larger But

most of the time for him to be a functional character

he ended up just being sort of like a head taller

than the other headmasters Though I've seen I've

seen versions of him that they'll have like Cerebros

his head on Fort Max's body You're doing it wrong

But you see the knees already been established

to be this size because again, a lot of this

harkens back to last day of the Wreckers. So

we've seen Fort Maxx before. I will say if you

want to point something out in the visual, I

think the giant jumper cables are hysterical.

I know. They are. It's like, hey, buddy, you

need a jumper? This even says like, yeah, we

could jump start a wading spark with a healthy

one. But you certainly don't expect them to come

around the corner with the big... Horkin clamps

Why you're talking about jumper cables, and why

the hell am I flashing to goodwill hunting? I

don't care if you putt from the rough I'm sad

that the jump happened off off panel because

I really want the scene where they're like doing

the complex medical procedure and somebody's

like okay, so it's red to positive Black to ground,

right? Where's the ground? Where's the red up

first? I can never remember. As long as we're

having jumper cable humor. Yeah. So actually

angry and large. Yeah, Max is very angry and

large. And yes, I know I need to go back. Like,

like I just said, this was my introduction to

like. This was my introduction to Fort Max in

this series. So yes, I know I need to go back

I need to late read the last stand of the records.

I know I need to go back and I need to read all

hell Megatron and all that stuff and Everything

else and that's fine Over an issue five for me.

I just reread all of the original Marvel Yeah,

UK all three hundred and something issues of

it. Oh my god, so I Know what I'm talking about

You know, that's right, and that's and that's

the beauty of these episodes You're coming from

a standpoint where you've already read this stuff

or you're currently read, you know, obviously

cuz More than meets the eye is ongoing, but like

I'm just catching up. So myself as someone who

hasn't read, you know That's that's why I like

combination with the two of us cuz you're you've

already you know, I love talking about with you

and I think it's you know, It's a good way to

approach it with a oh, yeah, it's not everybody,

you know I could easily me and somebody else

who read all of it already could easily Diverge

off into some sort of detailed conversation about

some aspect of it that yeah after people listen

be like What the hell are you talking about?

So issue five cover a hell is death's head I

believe that's ratchet. He doesn't look very

happy Look at this picture of a Fort Max here.

Would you love a toy of that? Would that be an

awesome Fort Max toy? They've made all these

half -assed classics toys and All the new spotlights

are made to go with them, but I'd much rather

hit like make this guy like like he looks here

Clearly turns into something cool. Look at those

treads. Oh, yeah guns in his legs Yes, he does

chin cannons. Yeah Somebody asks him. Yeah, they

get to that later on when they see him on the

other ship Well anatomically speaking so he rips

that one dude naff He beats the crap on the other

one and the way he kills him. You see what he

does He if you had a fort max toy No on the shoulder.

He's got that little compartment that opens up

He's supposed to sit and he stops the guy's head

he opens up his shoulder compartment it decapitates

him with it And a minute later another panel

the guy's like I'm hold still I'm just gonna

Carefully, so they got the the medic pulling

the Decepticons head out of the shoulder compartment

on the next page This is why we don't have headmasters

in IDW That's that's as close as you're gonna

get So we've got all this yeah, so we're getting

all this intrigue going on and turns out that

you know They're all accusing each other and

we get to joke at the one dude because apparently

when he was a Decepticon he turned into a leg

Change form it's like I have the most useless

form in the universe and so this pharma dude

who I am sorry Ambulon and pharma are two of

the worst Transformers names in history in my

opinion Ambulance pharma no no no ambulance means

like ambulatory Okay, he's a leg Well, let's

see. It's a dump. That's just it though. You

hear it. It's like okay He's a medic named ambulance.

It sounds like oh, that's stupid. It's supposed

to sound like ambulance, but it's not That's

the joke And then pharma I didn't know transformers

had drug dealers Well, he's just eat well pharma

like when we refer to the evil, you know drug

companies. They call them big pharma That's where

that comes from yes, it's the bad medic so he's

pharma That's funny See you've got all this stuff

with them and ratchet and fort max and lots of

people in red and white pointing guns at each

other I can't really do kind of you know a scorecard

here to make sure yeah, you really do this pharma

an ambulance at least our new made -up characters

And they do look a lot alike. It is like who's

pointing the gun at who now? Okay, it's that

guy. He's doing the thing with them You know

So there's drift so everybody's infected and

it turns out to be the the transforming is what

makes you rust into a puddle That was kind of

clever the way they did it. It plays out nicely.

It made for very well encapsulated story It made

you know had enough mystery. You know the way

it worked is clever enough, and they at least

do address at one point They're like well. Why

didn't you just give the horrible disease to

the Decepticons, and he has some reasoning for

it Basically they said they wouldn't do it and

we had a whole we had two pages of ultra Magnus

humor Yeah, and then tailgate comes in oh my

god. What is little you know he has this really

long things like So we need to go through all

six, you know, 10 ,000 pages of the autobike

code, and he's talking about it and talking about

it and talking about it. Tillgate just says,

10 ,000 pages? He keeps talking about it and

talking about it and talking about it, and we

get back to Tillgate, and he just goes, 10 ,000

pages? I know. I know. It's like, yeah, like,

I love those moments in the writing. Few weeks

of crippling crippling the intense study. It'll

be over. It might even be It might even be I

Can't my mouth just won't say it. Yeah, that's

the one Well, see here's the thing like 10 ,000

pages if that was video Rewind could have just

plugged him in and showed it to him in 11 .3

seconds. My Matrix history lesson here. Well,

no, that's the horrible thing is I think, you

know, it should be like that, but that's not

what Ultra Magnus wants to do. Ultra Magnus wants

to sit around and talk about the Autobot code

until it like melts their brains. And then, as

if we haven't had enough, you know, good character

humor, we get two pages of red alert humor. I

know. From Rung's perspective. You know, they

mentioned this in one of the earlier books, you

know, he pretends not to know know who rung is

He's like I was your therapist for six centuries

Yeah Session seven. He told me his name session

97. He showed me his face the first time Session

113. He said he stopped covertly recording our

conversations session 288 He told me his real

name. Session 332. He stopped recording our conversations.

We helped him overcome his own paranoia. As a

result, he rose up through the Ottawa ranks.

It's interesting here. You can see too because

he's been portrayed differently than he looks

now. If you look at him on Cybertron talking

to Rung, he looks a little more like the older

toy would have. It's more reminiscent of that,

but now he looks different. So the art consistency

is worth mentioning they do a pretty good job

of that. Oh No, the art is gorgeous. I love the

art and I love yeah We didn't really talk about

that much before but the art is fantastic in

these books Yeah, yeah, the art is fantastic

because you have it, you know, you you know in

that well in that panel You were just talking

about, you know with the session numbers You

have essentially the golden age of Cybertron's

a golden version of what whether it's icon or

crystal city or whatever You've got a golden

version of it, which is supposed to signify the

golden age of Cybertron Yeah, it's clearly you

know further back when the you know it tells

you when that is it's not yeah exactly It's not

bombed out Cybertron Some of that little satellite

back there looks familiar to me, too No, it's

a lot of thought put into it. It's very clear

It's more Magnus humor That's something that

I don't like like the last page we were just

on it's you know at the end of that last page

it has wrong and red alert Hearing something

or seeing something that say me kill me kill

me kill which kill me kill me kill me Yeah, I

assume it's Grimlock. No, I know it's probably

not because Grimlock's gonna come up later Yeah,

that's that's true. No again. You uh, you haven't

read last stand of the records Well, they don't

say expressly who it is yet. Anyway, but it's

from that Okay, but like me that's gonna come

up. That's Let's see. That's the thing with cliffhangers.

It's like usually with a cliffhanger even in

a comic book You know even in a page turner if

you end a page on something in the next page

You're supposed to pick right back up. You're

not supposed to switch over to ultra Magnus cuz

it's gonna come back That's not even that's not

even the end. That's not the cliffhanger the

book the issue That's that's the interlude baby.

That's just just the intermission We're still

up to our butts in rust and death over here.

Now, some of this stuff, I bet, isn't, you know,

this is where they explain, you know, this dude

was selling dead people's, there's a lot of really

kind of macabre themes that are gonna, macabre

or however you're supposed to pronounce that,

that come up in this, which is what got you interested

in the first place. Well, no you said shockwave

yeah, yeah, I did didn't I gee I wonder why I'm

mentioning that in the same breath is organ harvesting

in terms of disturbing this He has a matrix moment

Yeah, he's harvesting matrix babies nice no,

no, he's taking people's transformation cogs

At first he was just taking dead people's and

then he was letting people slip away and then

when he needed some more Maybe he was kind of

offing them So this dude has been killing people

the organ harvest to keep himself safe from the

Decepticon justice assholes Yeah, so it's like

I said, it's very disturbing and and to get out

of it he Created this sonic rust death of virus

to kill everyone there to get get him out of

this bad situation So, you know, he's in addition

to that, he's rotting people from the inside

out. Again, you know, like I said, you know,

very. If you look at a lot of these panels, if

this wasn't, you know, a comic featuring organic

people, you couldn't get away with this. Oh,

you know, tons of this stuff that's just like

way too icky that we kind of put up. OK, it's

it's machines, but it looks very organic at this

rate. You know, he. And do you realize that all

those shelves behind him, those little cubes

with the red and yellow spots, those are, you

know, transformation cogs. That's his pile of

spleens he keeps in the basement. Ah. So. Wow.

Yeah. I don't wonder why I'm mentioning that

in the same breath as the. Shockwave origin that

got you interested the book because I kept saying

on Twitter. Oh god I can never read something

like this ever again and see Shockwave in the

same way Oh, yeah, well and and I'm mentioning

the same breath as in this scene Ratchet defeats

the bad guy by infecting him by all the Gunk

that's dripping out of his body as he's falling

apart. Yeah rolls across the room while he's

talking Thanks the guy And then he pulls his

gun on him and he goes except you can't do it

Can you you can't shoot me you can't shoot me

because killing an unarmed combatant goes against

every circuit in your body Which is like if you

must know I can't shoot you because my trigger

finger isn't working I love ratchet in this book.

He's like Every I don't know what it is about

these writers not some good ratchet is especially

in the comics ratchet has been one of the best

Developed characters ever. Yeah, but this is

still his one of his best if not his best iteration

Oh, yeah, no Marvel comics. I mean starting at

like number five. It was like there were two

tons of ratchet There was one of the only other

things that's this disturbing in the count comics

verse of any variety is the ever see one ratchet

and uh... megatron get blown through a space

bitch together and come out as one thing on the

other side yeah yeah it's kind of so that that's

that's been through a lot of crap in the comic

books now this little hologram dude just seems

to me that you didn't well it seems to me that

Doesn't matter whether it's written for animation

or written for comics Every writer I have ever

seen have something to do with ratchet Like knows

exactly how to write him Without taking away

from the character like Take a look at animated

ratchet or prime ratchet or even g1 ratchet.

They're all Is the old fogies the old men the

old medics? And it's just simply, it's just great.

And writing in this, it's like, it's so great

because the next page, we're not even on it.

It's a great literary history of war doctors,

when you think about it. I mean, even like, like

Watson, Watson's a war doctor. You know, that's,

that's kind of where it comes from. You get this

sort of person who's a healer, who's sympathetic,

who really just wants to help people, but who

on the other hand is also trained to blow their

heads off. You know It's this like really kind

of wild dichotomy. I Don't know if you've ever

seen the new Sherlock Holmes, you know show There's

a great scene where he sort of he's threatening,

you know, they're fighting and he says, you know

I've killed people like you were a doctor. He's

like I had bad days It's like that's very ratchet,

you know, do you think about it like your doctor

like I have bad days when I kill people I'm also

a soldier You know, I'm a soldier doctor. It's

sort of competing values So this whole next sequence

is very dependent on on this little hologram

avatar He's got yeah, so you've never seen this

before but literally the in like the first IDW

transformers book Ratchet was literally the like

maybe He's the first Autobot you see I think

certainly And you don't even see him right away.

He's you know, he picks up the human cast characters

You know the obligatory human cast which we should

you know, we also haven't noted are absent from

these books, which is great Sorry just is and

He's this, you know blonde ambulance driver dude,

so this this harkens back literally back to infiltration

Oh, yeah is where this guy comes from he's so

so Ratchet still has his little solid light avatar

Which is cool. And it of course plays a big part

in this scene He used it to distract a dude and

he uses it to get the vaccine to the horrible

rust plague and Drift cuts ambulance hands off

which has been a theme, you know ratchets keep

saying his hands aren't working anymore and he's

gonna start being useless soon so Yeah, and hand

replacement? Yeah, that's gonna come up, too.

I'm gonna keep an eye on that. Why, um, why...

I think it only happens in one issue, at least

so far, as far as I know, but thank God James

Roberts is not turning into George Lucas. George

Lucas loves cutting hands off left and right.

Oh, dude. Don't. Don't. Man you're digging a

hole So they cut farmers hands off and keep them

Yeah, that's a little Creepy That's in hands

man I do like the last page You remember them

as best you'll only carry a part of them with

you yeah two parts of them actually a ratchet

got his hands back Yeah, that's it got his groove

back. He cut it off as somebody else That's right,

that's where we're going I do like the lost light

seem to have hair on the next page. It's just

me Hair yeah, look at those things sticking out

of the back. See it's got like a little goatee

and it's got some hair You don't think those

little tendrils serve no purpose that hot rod

just put them on the ship So it looked like it

had a fro and I've been a little soul patch down

there You're talking about when we start issue

6 look at that thing Okay, I bet you hot rod

stuck those things in there just to make the

ship look cooler. I Bet they don't do anything

Yeah, maybe it's a sign of his evil counterpart

with a goatee I think hot rod is his evil counterpart

with a goatee I'm sorry looking at the lost light

in this top panel That doesn't look like okay.

I get it. It's a far away shot. It's not a close

-up shot of the ship But looking at it, like,

it's one compartment bigger than, like, it's

essentially... No, because when you get closer,

you can see little windows, too. Right, no, no,

no. If you think of those windows are the size

of a room, then it's a pretty big ship. No, yeah,

no, I know. Yes, you're right. Looking at it

at a close -up angle, yes, but looking at that

far away shot... The Millennium Falcon could

eat that thing for breakfast. If we look at the

next shot, I think the Millennium Falcon is probably

about as tall as the section of green windows.

Yeah, that is true. That's the scale they mean

for it. Yeah. Oh, man. And we have rung. I've

been reading Regen 91, and they've just blatantly

started making the arc look like, you know, Millennium

Falcon rehash so I Just so we have run the psychiatrist.

Yes Please sit there holding that thing. It's

like okay. Is that some binoculars a recording

thing or is that a sandwich? Well, oh no, I know

what it is it's one of it's one of the ships

he collects But the way he's holding it it kind

of looks like a sandwich No Yeah, no, you're

right. It doesn't that's kind of like a sandwich

They should have made it be a model of the lost

light. You should have been looking in the window

that we're looking in Yeah Just a fuck with you

So now we have memory retrieval with Fort Max

Yeah, and now this is this is from last stand

of the records again. Yeah, this is overlord

Yeah, yeah, I don't think we got we didn't get

an Overlord toy in the states. Did we? Um, yeah

in Japan and they got it in Europe But he was

a big Horkin power master toy, yeah Yeah, it

would have been cool if we got him here. He was

a geezer. That's pretty cool looking toys. They

recall Probably could have had a fight with a

four foot foot and a half tall, you know Yeah,

you know that would be really interesting But

yeah, you've got rung giving therapy to Fort

Max and yeah now Fort Fort Max was horribly messed

up in last stand of the records Yeah, my overlord.

So that's where this comes from. Yeah, like I

mean last time I saw Fort Max He didn't have

any arms or legs. It was like attached to a door

So basically he's been you know, he had a pretty

hard time with this guy So basically all the

Kings men couldn't put Fort Max back together

again Well, then they jump -started him finally

last issue. So he's been sitting around made

of you know screwed up for years and He spent

years there apparently getting tortured and we're

gonna get to that. He blames He has a blaming

prowl for it actually As this goes on Yeah, I

see that. He blames Prowl and he blames Overlord,

obviously. Yeah, well, Overlord actually did

it to him, but he wants to go back to Cybertron

and ask Prowl why it took so long to rescue him.

Well... I think it's pretty clear they had their

own problems for a long time. Well, yeah, but

I mean, they could have... I guess they lost

the crap. Yeah, they could have sent... Fort

Max loses his spidoinkel in this issue. Yes,

he does. Frequently. Yeah. In more ways than

meets the eye. Where's a rimshot app when I really

need it? Yeah, I need one all the time. I need

one like built into a tooth so I can like press

it with my tongue whenever I do that. Ultra Magnus

finds out about the bar. And judging by the handcuffs,

it apparently is not fine. Yeah, no, it is not

fine at all I love when so Trailbreaker says

some crappy stuff about Fort Max and then he

comes into the room and he starts saying nice

things and I'm confused I thought you just said

for max was a he smacks him of the head goes.

Sorry force field malfunction That is always

like I never even in G1 Trail breaker never Like

and even in his spotlight Trail break didn't

even get yeah. Oh he is he's a he's the guy with

the force field. Well in the spotlight. He had

magnet wheels Yeah, gotta grant them that the

spotlights you know, I'd love to talk about that

a little more sometime they In their toy advertisement

this And I just read reread the Marvel comics.

So let me tell you the toy advertisement. This

is not something we want to go back to Yeah,

no Well, I mean How many spotlight optimists

and spotlight boby's can you do? They did a spotlight

optimist before and then they did a spotlight

Orion Pax but what bugs me about the most recent

line of spotlights is that they are not They

are not creator driven. They are toys Hasbro

is making some of which I think are a little

inspired by IDW stuff Some of them not so much

but doesn't really matter because what irritates

me is that? The spotlights are being chosen because

the toys are being made. They're gonna be pack

-in comics, which is fine But when you try to

sell me a pack -in comic that pack -in comic

supposed to be a freebie with a toy Yeah, it's

an advertisement. It's not a proper comic and

what makes it even worse This is what really

bothers me is they're really trying to sell Metroplex

So you're supposed to buy a toy and get a free

comic about the toy That was the comic already

came out and people already paid for it. There

was already a spotlight Metro No, it's irritating.

Well, yeah, there was already a spot so But the

every one of these spotlights pretty much has

a tie to Metroplex It's a big ad campaign and

I don't mind I mean it's fine doing it's fine

And if it was just packed in with a toy if I

buy your toy and the pack -in comic So just trying

to sell another toy to me, you know, I deserve

everything I get it's a freebie comic with a

toy But if I don't get the toy you're trying

to sell me the comic like it's a regular comic

It's kind of crappy And I think it's actually

led to some mediocre comics. I think I think

Roberts is a fantastic writer, but he's written

some of these spotlights and they're his worst

work. And I don't think it's his fault. I think

it's like, you know, it's kind of like what I

said, my review was like write a comic about

this toaster that sell that sells this lawnmower.

You know, what are you supposed to work with

there? Yeah, really? Well, it's kind of like.

What's his name? I want the Metroplex. Yeah,

it's kind of like the guy that wrote the prose

novels, Alex Irvine. War for Cybertron slash

Exodus was great. It was cool. It was awesome.

I loved reading it. I did. I enjoyed that book.

When I read Exiles, I was like, ew, no, stop.

Don't. It's, uh, partly because it takes too

much time. Talk about this thing. It's all this

consolidated universe crap they're trying to

do. Yeah, we'll talk about that eventually, another

time, but we've got... Anyway. Back to Rung's

office here in the... Yeah, so Fort Max loses

his spinoigle and starts shooting, we discover

later on, he's shooting anyone who looks vaguely

like Overlord. He is. E is slightly bluish turquoise,

which is a surprising amount of the Autobot population

Which includes himself really I'm surprised he

yeah So he goes into rungs office. I love that.

You know, he's barricaded himself in rungs office

and they say There's somebody else in there with

him. They're like, well, hopefully it's somebody's

sound who can like talk him down It'll handle

this like no, it's whirl Of course being Deadpool

in these comics ostensibly They should just repaint

him red just break down. I don't Like I would

say there's still some time for you to do the

decent thing and kill yourself Did world get

his face blown off or something? World has always

looked like world looks here So because I'm looking

at the panel where world is essentially laying

on the floor and His face looks like it's getting

he hits him a couple of times a world just has

one eye and Some you know and claws for hands

So world is a shockwave knockoff. I Don't care

for that. I like world's personality. I like

spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler Spoiler spoiler.

I'm so sorry You asked that was my answer So

we've got this whole scene Finish reading the

next trade too late at night because when you

need to call me and cry I don't want to wake

up the kids Well, the next one says that one

has annual annual 2012 and 9 to 11 and you Didn't

you say that the shockwave stuff comes into play

in issue 12? I don't remember next trade find

what you're looking for These are not the comics

we are looking for apparently So I was gonna

say that Fort Max is not entirely stable You

know, he's not but the previous page blaster

gets one moment off screen Nice one blaster.

We have audio really one moment off -screen.

Come on blaster here in there Well at some point,

you know before the before the comics diverged

Yeah Roberts and and Barbara sat down and they

divided up the cast You know who got in, you

know, obviously, I'm sure there were some that

they both wanted whatever Yeah blaster was asked

for and gotten over here. So I have no doubt.

We'll get to see You know some more some more

blaster in a prominent role But especially, you

know Roberts is clearly, you know, you know a

Marvel Comics fan You know blaster Blaster had

a lot to do in the Marvel Comics for a while.

He was he was a contender for leader of the Autobots

here and there Well, if right back can be a senator,

of course blaster can lead the Autobots Grimlock

for it at one point. So oh my god That's that's

crazy So they've got So Fort Max is holding hostages

now. Yeah holding hostages with rung and In world

What is The Metabay, what the hell? What is Red

Alert doing to Ratchet? Not Red Alert, what's

First Aid doing to Ratchet? Oh, they're working

on Ultraman, okay, I see. I'm sorry. Well, no,

because that panel where it says the Metabay,

it's Ratchet. They're working on the people that

Fort Max has shot. Right, no, no, no. I get that

now, but I didn't see at the time. Like, it just

seemed to me, and I know this is bad, but, you

know, we've already had an hour or so into this

dark voyage of ours here in this episode, but

it just seemed to me that he was prodding something

near a ratchet that he shouldn't be. Because

I didn't see Ultra Magnus initially. The two

-dimensional comics play hell with depth perception.

Yes, they do So we've run some on the floor Yeah,

and if this were you know, if these were organic

characters, this would be such gornography. Oh,

you know, yeah It's it's crazy. So you've got

the The men of a stuff and then we've got rung

and so we haven't just of what Fort Max literally

is holding hostages for he lost his crap And

then he what he really what he's decided he wants

he wants him to turn the ship around and go back

to Cybertron So he can ask prowl where the hell

his rescue squad was for you know, two years

or three years or something Frankly the answer

was gonna be we were up to our neck and insecticons

being killed on Cybertron, which is What was

going on during all hell Megatron so I? Don't

know exactly what he's hoping to find out, but

it's kind of wrong and we find out we find on

the hole here is a you know swerve swerves punishment

for having a bar and apparently rewinds for having

some contraband Snuff style films seriously for

yes for a good reason that will come up later.

That's not it's nothing weird Now this is another

thing, what are they doing? They're re -riveting

the hull? Yes. Gee, are they on painting duty

from Red Dwarf much? Yeah, really. I'm telling

you, Red Dwarf keeps coming up here. Yeah. A

lot. I mean, I'm not making an idol, you know.

Mean red dwarf bears a certain similarity to

Gilligan's Island too, but I mean I wouldn't

say it's explicitly causal But I think here,

you know the ship lost in space the dude six

million years out of time the you know Now we're

riveting the hull for punishment. I Love red

dwarf. It's okay Yeah, I don't disapprove. I'm

just saying Everything's stolen from somewhere

else. Anyone who's written anything knows that

you're always pulling from something else you've

experienced. It's not like it's a bad thing.

I'm just noting it. Will's got this whole wavy

arm thing going on. I think he's begging for

his life in a very, very angry way. Will's got

the gut wound from the most recent Tomb Raider

game. Except it's in his face Talk about Napoleon

blown apart Spark eater here on the next page.

It's just mirrors like that just look like Krang

Just trying to make up a way he could smother

him like with a pillow Sort of one flew over

the cuckoo's nest style I Don't remember them

ever showing him doing this maybe this is the

first time they're mentioning it unless there

was some one shot called one wrecker over the

cuckoo's nest or something that I missed but

That seems to be where they're going. We haven't

we certainly haven't seen Springer since then

Yeah, the less I see of Springer the better I

got better things to do tonight than have a character.

That's nice. That's right. And the issue ends

with... Well, so they have all these swerves

outside. They're trying to get them to shoot

through the window. They won't do it. And this

comes up later with swerve. In the annual, this

is going to come up. Swerve fires through the

window, and swerve clearly should not be shooting

at anybody. And he blows rungs head off got the

situation under control And world was just like

score And boring but that is like the best thing

that could possibly have happened by my account

Yeah, I didn't even read, you know all the things

that was hoping would happen Rung's head exploding

was just like right off the charts Whirl swerve

and rung are three of the strangest And most

awesome Transformers characters that is not the

death of rung. Oh I'm sure I was really worried.

I was like, oh Cuz I've blown the heads off a

few people and like no you lose your head that's

it but But his recovery actually is a plot point

so I can live with that too. Just me and his

Rodimus graffiti -ing stuff onto his desk there.

Yes, he is. Where's the Matrix paper witch? Shouldn't

that be on his desk? Maybe it's in his chest.

As badly as he's running this ship, I keep expecting

Optimus to show back up. See, that's the thing!

Actually, it's not hot rod Ryan. It's uh, it's

it's Rodimus these days Just be like actually

hot rod. It's optimist. You can't do your job

Yeah Where was it I forget was it last week or

this week there was somebody called him hot rod

Where was it like it yeah, no, I know that's

that's I thought it was so cool. Well explicitly

the Rodimus thing actually comes from he goes

and finds the matrix after it was stolen at one

point and brings it back to optimus and Gets

sort of dubbed Rodimus And he had some interaction

with the matrix where He was injured in the matrix

kept him alive. Oh So he short -circuited himself

that fool actually Megatron blew most of his

chest out. Oh damn Yeah, he like walked down

the wrong hallway. He was like gas told the matrix

I'm awesome and Megatron had just come up the

stairs. This was like Autobot. Yeah Okay Went

on with his day Megatron just cuz we never got

to see it last about a panel and a half. Oh,

yeah. Well Wait, you said Rodimus versus Megatron

half Well, yeah, that's not as long as Rodimus

versus Galvatron in the movie So issue seven

later With with Tarn's face. Well, we should

it does show overlord here. You're right. This

is the kill me kill me kill me Yeah Overlord

is in their basement Yes. Yes overlord is in

their basement That's gonna come up later So

now we get this now this is the like total like

and now This comic is no longer about the lost

light for a few issues Yeah, no interludes from

it. I mean they talk about it They go back there,

but you know it ties back here and there that

part of this they had a thing I think some of

this roots in that they decided something was

Dinobot month So in robots in disguise the other

four dinobots Are all hanging around and doing

stuff whoo slag sludge. Yeah, they're all running

around with iron hide, but literally Grimlock

hasn't been seen since the Not rage of the dyno.

What's the other? Extreme dyno bots is that was

called things mini series that they had a big

deal with shockwave go on And that was the last

time we've seen Grimlock. So it's been years

So I think part of this is that they needed some

excuse to have Grimlock show up in these comics

So they could have dyno Bob month and I think

that's partially where this roots in though I

think all these characters are gonna come up

and other stuff So we see we see the crazy ass,

you know Decepticon justice thing. Also this

black shadow character was they made a toy of

him a year or so ago So I wonder if this is their

effort to include him somewhere Oh, the jet.

The repaint jet. Yeah, I love that jet. That's

the repaint of, um, uh, the thunder wing thunder.

Yeah. And he's, he's rooted in some other character.

Right. But like that toy. But yeah, that's where,

that's where this is coming from. Yeah. Like,

okay, but I guess half a billion shaniks. Shaniks

are the currency that was frequently used in

the old Marvel comics. Ah. When I mentioned death's

head before he was a bounty hunter and he frequently

was being offered amounts of shannix to go after

Rodimus or Galvatron or a variety of other people

and he's still owned by Marvel and I Mentioned

this just idly I picked up a Iron Man comic like

on free comic book day because I was flipping

through it and friggin death's head is in it

From the old Marvel transformers runs. He's still

transformer sized Well, there's giant ass death's

head running around with Iron Man That's in a

comic book circa 2013 so that's still going on

I Gotta say issues four through six. I was fine.

I was following along Everything else this issue

issue seven hits. You're not missing anything

here. No, no, I know I'm not missing anything.

I I get that but like When you had like when

you when when someone says to me This comic book

series is going to be based on the adventures

of the lost light looking for the Knights of

Cybertron Or whatever the hell when they say

that this is my point. This is what I said we

first open this up They're lying if someone says

that to you. They're lying because this trade

establishes that this comic can be about fucking

anything Yeah, and that's really what we learn

here This is far out as they've gone and I expect

them to go far out again Actually, if you read

the other ones every once in a while like okay,

and now we're out in space with Orion Pax It's

like what happened to hanging out on Cybertron

with problem bumblebee like yeah, we're not doing

that this week These are trying to cover the

whole universe. I think I think it's it's not

It's easy to suggest that this is the one storyline

and this is the other, but really it's two comic

books trying to cover a whole universe. It's

almost like, wouldn't it be great if someday

there was like, this is the Optimus Prime comic

book. This is the Starscream comic book. There's

Batman and Spider -Man. Yeah, X men in this net

and your called your company has the you know

every character gets their own thing and sometimes

they interweave and sometimes they don't Like

this is Megatron's comic book. Yeah, this is

hot rods. So there's a certain group They're

trying to cover all those bases with two comics

right now. Yeah. Well, okay now apparently that's

all wrong I don't I don't sit in on IDW meetings

obviously because I don't live in California

and I'm not a part of that company But to me

we should I'm just gonna pull Yes. To me, when

issue seven started, it seems to me that from

issue one, not counting death of Optimus Prime,

from issue one to issue six, it was... Mostly

Autobots, there was a little hint of Decepticon

here and there. Like you said, with Cyclonus,

he's kind of a not -a -con, stuff like that.

But the majority of the first six issues in More

Than meets the Eye is all Autobot stuff. And

I'm betting that some sort of creative meeting...

Either Hasbro told them or they decided on their

own that, hey, issue seven, we're gonna bring

in the Decepticons and see if the Decepticons

are gonna be as cool and somewhat sympathetic

and somewhat as hilarious as this. Well, it's

a very random cast of... It is! It is so random,

and I just... You know what? Some of the best

Transformers fiction has come from that kind

of thing. And the other one, that's where the

idea of the... The wreckers comes from is there

was a leftover toys topspin and twin twist and

You know back in that wood Springer didn't have

anywhere to go That's where Springer ended up

was in the wreckers before before the movie came

out There was a Springer toy and he wasn't anywhere

in the story. He ended up there Sandstorm same

deal, you know, the the Autobot triple -changers

got just kind of left by the wayside until the

movie Before then they were wreckers. They were

the leftovers and I think this comic is very

much based on that idea You know that you pull

from the rest of the cast and and you really

get to do whatever you want with those characters

And then that's what's that's kind of awesome

here No, it is it is but like I've said to you

before offer and stuff for me. I Need at some

point characters. I'm late. Okay cyclonus. I

know yes He's not he's not at its at the confine

whatever but like I need people On an initial

take of like you're like like when you first

watch a trailer of anything, whatever it is Whether

it's TV show movie you want it, you know If you

see something that you know or see something

that you like you're you're going to be like,

oh, hey I want you know, I want to read this

and this issue specifically issue seven basically

unless we're at the lost light I have no idea

what the fuck is going on Because you're not

as versed in the comics you're a little lost

on the lost light even Yeah, sometimes I mean

to me it's it's been a little easier to deal

with but I think I'm kind of learning even just

from talking to you about it like, you know If

you're more initiated in the cartoon and that

was really where you're at These are stay there.

Well, no, I think I think you'll be well served

to take the time I mean if you enjoy that and

you you know Then you want more Transformers

fiction. I think it'll be worth your time to,

you know, invest in this and then find a broader

fiction. Because I think it's actually more enjoyable

in a lot of ways. But you do have to put that

time in. It is not going to be as simple as...

No, no, no, I know. And when we get to stuff

later... You know, it's funny because I'd like

to think it did, but it's kind of clear, like,

you know what? It's really... Only seems that

way to me because yeah, I know all this crap

For me like like I've made a small half -ass

career out of explaining it to other people.

I know it so well Yes, well to me like all of

these is these Decepticons we get introduced

to them, you know and then you know, we go back

and forth between them in the lost light and

and everything else, and... Well, we get some

history lesson in here, too, about the crap they've

been up against. And, you know, there's this

sort of Megatron and Prime sitting in these little

pods. I know, and it looks so cool. Yeah, well,

that was kind of where the series... That's kind

of where IDW started out. Right. That kind of

phase. And they very quickly moved out of it.

So quickly, it seemed absurd. because they were

so far out of it 10 seconds later and they never

went back. You know, it's there's been there's

been a lot of reformatting to this and they kept.

I mean, IDW kept having to tell people, no, we're

not rebooting. Because they kept changing it

so drastically, it seemed like they were. They

did infiltration. People weren't happy with it,

so they skipped ahead or skipped back. It's hard

to tell and did. It's called Stormbringer and

Stormbringer was so different if they were like,

so you guys rebooting like, no, no, no, no, we're

not rebooting. This is just we're just trying

to explain where it's at. And then they there

was supposed to be like seven parts of all those

Asians infiltration, decimate, whatever the hell.

Yes. They only did like three or four and then

they skipped it. They just skipped to the end.

Maximum Dinobots thing to finish them right off

in the spotlights. And then they're like. okay

now we're doing all hail megatron like okay so

all hail megatrons the reboot like no no no we're

not rebooting and then when they get the ongoing

like see rebooting now like no no no it's not

a reboot but it might as well have been every

time because it was so different and you know

that's where a lot of the confusion in these

routes in is really trying to reconcile a tremendous

amount of this incongruous information into a

singular continuity and be like, okay, we're

gonna try and go on with this now, even though

it doesn't all really reconcile. So I mean, in

this little history lesson we get with these

decepticons, you're really seeing a lot of phases

and references go by very quickly. So it is confusing.

I don't think there's any denying that these

decepticon issues are confusing as hell. Well,

I'm they're good. I think they're good ish when

you get to it when you figure them out and then

you yeah through Yeah, when you get through the

confusion, it's like oh wow that was pretty cool

But when you're in the confusion, it's just like

wait who are these assholes? What does it have

to do with this? Why are like? Here's my Pots

and we're in a battlefield where and the lost

light is doing what with the who in the I mean

a lot I do like how the four Decepticons are

talking about the war and who won. And not sure

how they feel about whether the Autobots one

or the Decepticons. I do like that. I think that's

interesting I think that's really cool. Um, and

as I'm really sure if they care well as these

issues as For four million years, I'm not gonna

stop now. Yeah, you know, I Don't remember why

and I remember why not Forget it Well as as issue

7 continues they find a giant cymbalship Take

their faith very seriously, you know, seriously

Yes, yes, they find a giant cymbalship and they

break up into two pairs crook and flywheels Who

else spinster and somebody else and were not

world. I'm sorry world's an autobot now nice

um fulcrum and spinster and who's the other team

there's another team uh and then we have a big

purple head of tarn who kind of looks like optimus

prime um yeah i forget who the other team is

it's Fulcrum and flywheels and spinster and I

don't know. Anyway, I'm getting to like the Decepticons

Yeah, no, I when I say it could have been its

own series. I almost mean it should have been

I mean, I'd read I'd read issues of these guys.

That's pretty funny frankly for a lot of the

fiction Decepticons are the meat and potatoes

of The character enjoyment. I mean how much of

the show is Megatron and Starscream being crappy

to each other Yes, you know when it's really

interesting it's sort of its best parts, you

know Because those that you know, those are some

of the most dynamic moments so I think you know,

it's interesting you see the sort of the The

bad guys hanging out Without the good guys just

the same way. It's been nice to see you know

the Transformers without the human cast it's

also kind of That's kind of what some of these

books are missing now they think about it I mean

we have two comics that are the Transformers

and one is Autobots and Decepticons here and

the other is a ship full of Autobots occasionally

with some Decepticons Yeah, where's the Decepticon

comic? Yeah stars wouldn't you read a Starscream

comic? Star scream had his own monthly book wouldn't

you go pick that up? Yes Star scream versus the

universe man Yes, that would you know on occasion

you know on occasion robots in disguise is Starscream

versus the universe so So issue eight Basically

the Decepticons. There's six of them or there's

five of them And then somebody trapped, some

Autobot trapped in a Decepticon trap, and one

of him, and that's how issue seven, uh... Is

anyone else disturbed by the Autobot or Decepticon

who seems to have been turned into wood? Yeah,

that was a little strange. They don't go into

it, but... Yeah. I don't think... They mentioned

it. That doesn't strike me as a... That's not

like a tackling dummy they got in the back there,

man. It's like Bender in that one episode of

Futurama Yeah And speaking of benders We're gonna

take a quick bend with a quick break and we will

be back after this to talk about the final issue

For this trade issue number eight of more than

meets the eye. We'll be back after this The platypus

I swear I've never seen this secret agent looking

Panda before There's a hand in my closet and

a panda paw print on my cheek! But it's not what

you think! We're not enemies, we're just bad

friends! So, More Than Meets the Eye number 8,

the last issue in volume 2 here. And as I said

before a second ago, you know, these, whatever,

five, six Decepticons... To me, they are the

equivalent of a rung or a swerve or they're the

Decepticon version of what some of the Autobot

personalities are, and I'm getting to like them.

It was just the whole thing with the last issue

with issue seven was like, it really comes out

of nowhere. Yeah, that's the problem. It takes

a little by surprise. I can totally see that.

The reason I think the first time you mentioned

it to me, you're like, what's going on with this?

And I was like, you're not the first thing I

said was you're not missing anything. Yeah. Because

that's how even I felt. I mean, I literally I

literally have read like 98 percent of all the

Transformers comics ever written. Yeah. I and

I, you know, aside from what's coming out next

week, I've read all of IDW. I got to these and

went. Wait a minute, did I miss something? Yeah.

Who are these guys? Wait, what's going on with

it? Because it flows into it so naturally. I

mean, I think Robert's great strength is that

he takes these characters and they just, they

had a yesterday. They never feel like they are

being built or are introduced to the first time.

They never feel like that. They never come, you

know, Swerve does not come over like, hi. I'm

swerve and I turn into a truck and do this thing

and kind of a funny, you know, he just is him.

And these characters are the same way. They had

a yesterday and it went a lot like this. Yeah,

that's true. And that's what makes them solid

and cool. That's what makes it great writing.

But because I expected to pop up on the lost

light when they start doing it, it makes me feel

like, wait a minute, did I miss last issue? Well,

what took me was there was there a miniseries

that introduced these guys I didn't read What

happened here? Yeah, but the answer is nothing.

That's where the first thing I said was you didn't

miss anything. Yeah Well, once you accept that

it's like oh this this is their introduction.

It's not just me I had was the black like the

very first page of issue 7 which we talked about

earlier was The whole black shadow versus like

the whole decepticon justice divisions talking

about black shadow That seems like a flashback

Yeah, it does. So we're hearing issue eight.

Where's the issue where they hunt down black

shadow? Yeah, really, you know, but there isn't

that's the problem Yeah, that's yeah Good thing

about it. I mean it's sort of it's when you think

when you look back at it It's like oh, it's nice.

I didn't have to have some kind of half -assed

You've explained this to me before but I forget

what the hell is k -class again. Oh Sorry a bit

of k -class humor. They're just very excited

to be here super super excited The k -class thing

is different. The k -class is explained for the

first time here Okay, they haven't explained

it quite yet Think when you're referencing it

here what what I have the phase six or thing

eggs. Oh, that's that's right That's a phase

sixers are well, um, yeah You know, we just saw

him Yeah last issue, you know, we're dropping

names Overlord overlords a phase six or six shot

six shots a phase six or I think I think the

name phase six are probably is somewhat derived

from Sixshot because he's the first one we see.

Phase Sixers are basically like a single Decepticon

who literally will eradicate the organic population

of a planet. They are like living nuclear bombs,

basically. I don't see how Sixshot can be turned

into a living nuclear bomb when he's essentially

just a Sixchanger. Well, they were making out

that they're just obscenely powerful. Yeah, right,

yeah. I love the options. A K -Class is sort

of the opposite, or more literal in some ways.

He is actually a bomb. The K -Class soldiers

are... I don't think they're volunteers. I think

it's better than getting tortured to death. You

get thrown out of a thing and you turn into a

bomb and are supposed to find your target. uh...

literally they should know that's what this issue

opens up with his you know k -class friend jumping

out you don't know if they show another palest

where's the one that they do they do bomb that

has ultra magnus's name on it yeah yeah i don't

know so basically k -classes are suicide bombers

hello did you see jimmy's face it's gone now

but did you see his face well that too with the

face that he takes i know Take my where my face

like oh man, like this is the established like

how bad this It's always like and that can wears

that all the time Once and he whoever gets that

actually survives Yeah, that so it gets worse

I think there's a lot of this all about Getting

some Grimlock in here. Oh Yeah, yeah, you got

to work him in somewhere. Well, they haven't

for a long Time well see here's the joke to fulcrum.

You know he's what the story turns around. He's

the fulcrum It's like oh, that's subtle Yeah,

that's so subtle, but see here's the thing about

Grimlock now This is just me coming from reading

other Stuff that has nothing to do with more

than meets the eye specifically rage of the dot

Lake Grimlock to me is in the Align continuity,

and we all know how much you hate the Align continuity

But it's one of those things where Grimlock is

off in his own little world. Do we really need

to work Grimlock into this story? He's been gone

so long. We literally don't know what's happened

to Grimlock for an insane amount of time here.

Yeah. So he does need to be worked back into

it. They seem to be making him deliberately actually

stupid again. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I don't. I was like, Grimlock doesn't have to

be stupid, he just has to say me Grimlock. That's

one of the things I was pissy about with Fall

of Cybertron was like, they decided to make him

talk a little stupid, but not have the proper

speech impediment. As far as I'm concerned, he

can be the love child of Hawking and Einstein

as long as he says me Grimlock when he talks.

I you know, it's like Megatron's arm cannon.

It just has to be there Yeah, part of what makes

him him. I always like the tribute to some sort

of deliberate You know non -fixing of some component

that he could that makes him speak more simply

that he likes it that way But it's some damage.

He insists on not repairing I in one point asserted

that maybe it was in a deliberate attempt to

not sound like prowl Like new speech pattern

keep Grimlock from chit chat keep Grimlock from

sounding like prowl Well the thing with Grimlock

is like I read follow cyber I have not I've not

played the game yet. I read the book shame on

you Okay, well, hold on. I started with rage

of the Dinobots, and then I went back. And I

actually got my... I actually... contributed

to my friend getting fall of cybertron as well

so since i spent sixteen dollars on that damn

book with a lot of games those high -moon games

like the best thing that's happened to the fiction

since oh no that they are if they're they're

both very very awesome i just haven't had the

time or or the additional cash to get fall of

cybertron yet but i wanted sick is the whole

thing of the of the six issue digital first which

is now a one -shot in print is that it's the

secret origin of the diet bots and blah blah

blah blah blah you know yada yada yada all this

and all that and i'm fine i'm like okay well

that's all well and good there's a war there's

a one -shot war for sabatran comic i can i can

set everything up yeah yeah you had to get it

with it came with with the game at k -mart was

the only way to get it oh so the go -bots yeah

the go -bots store there we go all right so Grimlock

exists right now for me outside of whatever he's

gonna do in here before I started reading this

Grimlock for me exists in Rage and the upcoming

and well that and that that Grimlock has nothing

to do with this Grimlock No, no. Yeah. I know.

I know this Grimlock was last actually seen in

Extreme Dino bots, which is oh man. It might

have been three four years ago Don't know exactly

what that it was a while ago and he was referenced

in last stand of the records His cell is somewhere

in that place, but they never show him and we

never find out what happens to him until now

apparently he Was taken by these people Yeah,

I love the I love the Decepticons and they're

talking about their options about dealing with

the Justice Division option one We talked to

them and persuade them to leave us alone madness.

We've got more chance of teaching spinster to

memorize option 2 we run away Insanity they'll

hunt us down option 3 we fight. Yeah If if issue

seven it actually started out DJD is just certain

death with more letters It's suicide with delusions

of survival Like like by now I'm okay I get it

I get where we're going with the Decepticons

at this point I get you know, okay. Sure. It's

not scourge and cyclonus and Galvich, you know,

it's not the names I know but Because of how

their characters are written their characters

that I've started to really really enjoy Yeah,

that's just it no matter I'm a you know, I'm

like tremendous optimist prime fan, but this

is this is an ensemble cast He's not in these

books at all Megatron has like there's like one

panel with Megatron in here That's like somebody's

flashback or not even a flashback. It's an imagined

Megatron Basically, you know having won the war.

Oh, there's one there's one shot of optimists

in flashback with Megatron But it when you see

those it's almost alien. It's like, oh, yeah

Those guys that's where this comes from Like

yeah, and I was right doesn't you doesn't need

them This is you're invested in these people

because because they're portrayed so well, they

draw you in they're anthropomorphic They're like

people they you relate to them and and no matter

how Knew they are to you. It's sort of like you

wouldn't have picked up a book about these four

decepticons Maybe for the hell of it. But once

you read it Yeah, you Are invested in them. They're

worth reading about you start to care. Oh Yeah,

no, that's what it does. I mean, it's funny because

you pick these two issues up You're like who

are these assholes, but by the put them by the

time you put it down. You're like Well, what's

gonna happen to own tomorrow? Yeah, exactly you

want to know and then we go back to the lost

light and apparently After we've seen the bottom

eyes Grimlock and they've had all this horrible

problem with the DJ D or we here's it earlier

You're talking about the loss. Yeah, I'm sorry.

I know it's I skipped even further ahead on you.

Oh Okay, my bad. Well, there we go Well, I gotta

talk about skids because first of all, this is

by far and I think I said this last week This

is by far The best Transformer with the name

Skids that has ever existed outside of that crappy

second film. He was in the Marvel stuff a little

bit, but even not this much so. Wait a minute,

Skids has a character? Yeah, really. Skids isn't

just one half of an ice cream truck? Man, you

know, it's so far removed from that I literally

hadn't thought about how the fact that Skids

and Mudflap involved Skids. I I literally I wrote

it when that movie came out I wrote an article

that was published in multiple places about how

skids and mudflap or like horrible racist Drug,

you know crap that should yeah and done. Oh Man,

that's I like I like literally have I I must

have like Black today. I blacked out like the

compartmentalize this in my mind Like I literally

was not identifying this skids as even being

vaguely related to that at all well literally

didn't realize they had the same name until you

said it there i just blacked it out it was like

oh man it was like yeah i like skits now and

he was in those other covers like oh yeah and

he was in revenge of the fallen i'm like he was

fucking what oh now i have to i'll have to send

you the links to a couple of the old a couple

of my old facebook photos I know well back when

I had and again we're going on a tangent here

in this podcast is it's almost it's probably

gonna end up being two hours, but whatever Hey,

I'm gonna start a podcast with that name It will

be totally the opposite of what the name means

it'll be nothing But I'll have to send you the

links to a couple old Facebook photos I took

I took photos and I put them on Facebook the

temple scene in Egypt when dumbass skids and

mudflap are mucking around the temple and Bumblebee

Picks them up slams their heads together and

throws them outside of the temple. I swear to

friggin God Bumblebee is Moe and Skids and mudflap

could be interchangeable as curly and Larry.

They're the fucking three stooges in the Transformers

movies You know what? You know the problem is

they're both curly Joe is and they shouldn't

Don't be there! Okay, back to this. I'm not bitter.

Your timing is as bad as your targeting. Okay.

Wow. Oh, jeez. I love this shot of Swerve eating

energon popcorn. I heard, um... I think you know

her. On Twitter, KellyCarrieShoker, she makes

the Puggles. Oh yeah. And she's always talking

about Swerve, and like... I wonder if she makes

surprise Puggles for me. Yeah, and she she's

always sometimes she's always tweeting about

swerve and oh I get a swerve figure. Oh, there's

a swerve figure And I'm like swerve this word

who the hell is swerve and then when I finally

start reading these comes like oh That's like

Wow swerve is one of the most important transformers

ever now Well, we didn't mention this I love

the name of the ship big Decepticon symbol ship

The clemency? No, no, it's the peaceful tyranny.

Oh, yeah. Because I hate, you know, Megatron

has two, um, mottos. One is everything is fodder,

which I don't, I hate that one. I think it's

far too simplistic. But I love, love, love peace

through tyranny. Because that, that is so much

more what it's about. Yeah. You know. Oh yeah,

the give -me -your -face moment, I'm up to that.

Where are my face? Yeah, but the peaceful tyranny.

What an awesome name for a ship. I greatly approve

of that. Well, it very much encapsulates, you

know, Tarn has the double Megatron cannon on

the arm. It's like, hi, we're the nutballs who

take this crap more seriously than Megatron.

We take Megatron more seriously than Megatron

takes Megatron Wow You know You know, it really

is an element in this of you know, you see these

guys came in we're like hey Megatron We're doing

this crazy shit in your name and do this. It's

not really major be like Okay. Well you guys

just roll with that then yeah Nutballs, let's

see. There was sound wave me like man. I thought

you were a sycophant What's the matter with them

do it like so they leave Mighty mega puncher.

It's like why don't you kill them? It's like

they were like worshiping my toe jam. I don't

know Yeah, people make lug nut look disloyal

Wonder if one of them is lug nut Possibly and

it does look like Tarn's Decepticon symbol face

is his actual face It's hard to say Yeah, well,

yeah cuz he does kind of have the whole general

grievous thing going on the plan is skids mystery

out here They go back to it again, and it really

is just like I have dug into a deep, you know

who Skids is portraying here? He's Wolverine.

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. And Chrome Dome here

is Professor X. He's like, I've read your mind

and decided it's a bad idea to keep reading your

mind. Which, you know, let's face it, how long

did they do that, the X -Men, like 20 years?

Yeah, pretty much. So that's about where they're

at here. Yeah. Just fly wheels dude. Oh, man.

He so gets it Yeah, what's things do you see

it? You know? He's like trying to stay out of

there because his feet are too wide he puts them

in head first and You gotta get the fee if he

did the sense to just let him eat his legs. He

might have survived Yeah, but yeah, that's bye

-bye flywheels people in this comic Yeah, he

should have and then we get the Wear my face

Which is about well, you know, that's pretty

disturbing Yeah, it is Very much. So that's a

free one. You know, you can't see it. It's lots

of spikes and drill, you know Imagine imagine

putting out a Halloween costume that had a I

don't know a bunch of skill saws built into it

Yeah, yeah, it's not pleasant. There's there's

a little schlunk noise and some yeah, it's bad

Yeah, so Lives they point out that he's actually

gonna be okay, so We fly wheels that fly wheels

fly wheels is toast, but I was gonna say yeah

I'm gonna say cuz What I don't really understand

well like I understand and I enjoy the fact that

the Decepticons are basically picking fly wheels

apart Like I want his rotor Well, there's there's

scavengers in the beginning. I mean they're they're

holding spleen What I don't get is the last panel

of issue 8 with the all the names on We're still

working out exactly what this means oh So even

up to now currently like issue 16 17 they haven't

figured this out Yeah, well, they say this guy

you they mentioned the guy who comes around and

What do they call him? They have a name for him

though No clue They talk about him. I think it's

in it might be an issue seven Okay, but the guy

who comes around and you know to log the status

of every dead Cybertronian To my knowledge this

is this that is not this list though, I would

come up but Chrome dome dick dipstick drift ultra

Magnus enough. He puts flywheels in this list

But even after some sort of fatalistic moments

drift and ultra Magnus are still alive and so

is chrome dome To my knowledge. I don't know

anything happened in a hound I'm not sure what's

going on with dipstick What um Overall these

oh typo typo typo We had a typo in the in the

trade flywheels is a little thing in the back

Yeah Good source of spare parts. Oh jeez. Yeah.

Oh boy. Naughty naughty IDW. I like these. If

I could spell for shit, I'd give you some serious

crap. I have more crap for you. Grimlock blowing

fire on Shockwave here because they're clearly

each other's nemesis, but they do not come into

contact. See, that's my quote. Yeah, I'm saying,

you know, I'm on that page now, and it says...

Grimlock fights Scorponok. And I keep thinking,

he's not your nemesis! I keep thinking of, you

know, Perry the Platypus in Doof and Schmertz

when he catches him with Peter the Panda, and

he's like, oh, he's not my nemesis! We're just

bad friends! Scorponok's not my nemesis, we're

just bad friends! Well, yeah, I meant that...

I meant those covers too, but the covers... It

says that the Shockwave and the Laserbeak one

is more than HCI number seven, the retail incentive,

and then the Grimlock one is number eight, retail

incentive. So... Well, you know, you're gonna

force me to spoiler all of what Shockwave does

in Robots and Discs. No, I'm not. I'm not. This

is it. You're gonna get it. You know what he

does? He stands in the background and is like,

hey, man. I am up to some shit Yeah, that's all

he does. It's all he's done for 15 16 issues

He's not in these comics at all even though he's

on that cover But just so you know in the comic

that he is in that's the sum total of shockwaves

actions It's to stand around the background be

purple and say hey, man. I am totally totally

up to some shit But see like these two covers

here look to me more like a so it's been a year

since shockwave did anything That's my point,

right? But here's the thing It's like these two

covers for these two individual issues the way

that IDW put them together in this book it looks

more like a splash page you would see in a book

than it does two separate covers because it Makes

it look like shockwave and Grimlock are battling

man. It's like some jerks in the comic industry

Put stuff on the covers just to make you buy

the book even though it doesn't happen that never

happens, right? Oh All right, well we have been

going on extra long this time around We will

be back next week and I promise Slightly shorter

episode. I don't make any promises you're yeah,

I Honestly don't know because these books do

take up a lot of time and I've only been doing

Usually when I do single issues depending on

the proximity to when you finished Yeah, but

you might still be sobbing uncontrolled over

here and there so I wouldn't make any promises.

I'm just yeah yeah well see the difference between

doing them trade style which is what we've been

doing and doing them single issue style which

is what I do with like like I said before the

bat books and the superior spider and all that

what I do is we talk about one issue we take

a break I put in audio blah blah blah I haven't

been doing that with this it's just been one

long thing so I just put it in. Obviously we

took a break this time. There's a lot in these.

That's why. Yeah, there's really is like for

for a single not longish trade. Yeah, there's

a crap. I mean, frankly, this has been the abridged

version. Oh, yeah. We've been skipping over this

stuff like hell. If you can tell if you can tell

what we're talking about without having read

these like you're fucking Karnak. All right.

I don't know what to tell you there. I mean,

this is there's a That's what makes these good

though. These are great. I mean we haven't done

I don't know if we want to do a rating and this

is You know, I said before I've read like 98

percent of every transformer comic ever written

This is the this is pretty much the best stuff.

There's been Yeah, it really is ratings when

we do when we well, we won't technically finish

up. We'll do ratings on these three Next week

after we finish volume three All I gotta say

is thank God volume four doesn't come out until

I don't know August or whenever it is because

I Don't know if I can take it I'm only about

I'm only about six pages into Volume three so

Well, you might need a bucket for volume three

But if it's any comfort you only need a box of

tissues for volume four So we will see you next

week when we will conclude this three -part Transformers

More Than Meets The Eye epic with volume 3 which

contains annual 2012 and issues 9 to 11 of More

Than Meets The Eye. Shadow Play. You just heard

the latest episode of The Pull Bag, GCRN's comic

book review podcast. There are several ways to

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