Transformers: Robots In Disguise Vol 1

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first of three

episodes dedicated to Transformers or robots

in disguise. I was trying to make a joke related

to Transformers the movie in this episode which

turned into me and Ender shouting at each other

or me shouting at Ender and him basically just

talking over me like he always does. He has told

me specifically several times, if I'm talking

too much just tell me to shut up. So that's what

I did. but he kept talking and kept talking and

kept talking. I love working with Under, he's

awesome. It turned into a little funny bit, but

I just wanted to give people a little preface

as far as to the content of this episode of The

Pull Bag. Thank you very much. Hi, this is Dan

Gilbazan, and you're listening to the GeekCast

Radio Network. Oh my gosh, this is so great!

Welcome to The Polebag. Join us as we dig out

our latest comics and discuss them with the rotating

panel of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy

this week's Polebag. If you're gonna ride, Danno,

ride in style! Hello and welcome to The Polebag.

I am your host, TFGN Mike, and returning to the

show is Ender. Yep, returning once again as part

of my community service. Yeah, that's not doing

the community a service. That's why I make these

podcasts so long. I'm trying to get my 36 hours

in. Right. And because we at the pull bag are

not a he man woman haters club joining us is

lady rag from the under base Now just for some

background Over at the under base if anyone listen

to episode 15 of the pull bag They would have

found out that lady rag does the more than meets

the eye reviews with them But every I've been

planning on making that joke since we first even

set up doing these these robots in disguise reviews

because Every episode that you do the news for

the rid reviews That's like, okay. We see you

later. Bye. You're out It's the men that are

gonna take over because it's the boys club and

I'm like, yeah. Yeah It's all about him So that's

why Lady rec is here on the pull bag so she can

have her own say on the other transformers ongoing

robots in disguise and Over the next three episodes,

just like we did, just like Ender and I did in

More Than Meets the Eye episodes 11, 12, and

13 of the Pull Bag, we're gonna spend the next

three episodes talking about each of the currently

released volumes for RID. And I haven't gotten

to review, well actually, this is true of More

Than Meets the Eye as well as for the earlier

ones, but I haven't gotten to review these properly

ever. Cause I didn't start until I know that

somewhere in the teens reviewing again. And even

then I do non -spoilers. So I never get to do

the fun. See, that's why I love podcasting. We

can spoil the shit out of anything. Yeah, exactly.

I enjoy, I enjoy spoiling this, this week my

more than meets the eye review was so non -spoiler.

It was hardly anything in it. It was like everything

was a spoiler in there. I don't say anything

only in more than meets the eye is it like you

know what I can't show that panel even though

no one's talking because showing that that one

character is still alive is a spoiler It's like

well, you could show any people are about to

die. I'm showing the word balloons I Could know

no, but they're full of you know spoiler stuff

for the most part. I thought I did pretty good

putting in the onomatopoeia Seriously I just

I isolated all the onomatopoeia from the from

the issue, I think I missed like one of them

somewhere in there. There's a click I didn't

get, but otherwise, like most of the images I

put in the review were just like, chooom! Kazark!

You know? Those are the only ones where, yeah,

you could see something gets shot at, but you

don't know who. Oh, I didn't even keep the shooting

at. I just took the word out. I actually cut

the words out. Fantastic. Yeah, I. I spent most

of the review making fun of James Roberts for.

Writing books that I can't critique What the

hell am I supposed to do with this I think I

said this over on the under base forums that

are over on the full metal hero forums is that

I'm so I get it's an old Marvel reference, but

I'm so sick of seeing choom as a Word explosion.

I'm really like it was nice when shockwave did

it in rid 17 but After that, it's like, holy

crap, do they really have to use that every single

issue? I never noticed that. I noticed the words.

You must have a particular sensitivity for overused.

No, but it's like... Only because it's a name

of someone else, I kind of chuckle every time

I see it go, Krang? Yeah, I know. Like, really?

Krang? When's that brain gonna get a body? The

new Ninja Turtles is awesome, by the way, and

everyone is listening. I've heard good things.

I just haven't had a chance to read it yet. Oh,

I mean the show. I haven't read it either. I've

read the animated adventures based off the show

and I've seen the show. I have yet to I actually

have sitting over to my right on my desk I have

the first two volumes of the current ongoing

series and I plan on getting the other four because

by the time I get to getting the other four volumes

six City Fall part one would be out but I haven't

even I haven't even touched the turtles comic

yet I just I can't I don't have to I don't have

the time to do so I tried the new video game

this morning it is distinctly mediocre that uh...

i'll see if i can get it anymore off -topic that's

what you do best uh... so getting a warning shot

i just want to remind everyone i could do that

yes we know uh... let's do some overall thoughts

on when each of you first started really when

you guys first discover robots in disguise like

was it I know, Andrew, you said you started reviewing

around the teens, but were you already reading

it as just a regular reader beforehand? I think

I might have picked up one of them, but actually

what I'd been doing is I dropped out reading

in the middle of Costa, both because I was stopping

reviewing. And I said, like, I'm not going to

read this anymore because it stinks. And I totally

thought I was bluffing, but it actually did stink.

So I never went back and read it. And so I was

your replacement too. Yeah, I left you to deal

with it like here you have this giant mess I'm

leaving and blame you either. I stuck with it

for a whole two years. I And I read your reviews

and lived in terror of them because I knew I

knew I knew I knew not to come back. Yeah. It's

like I'm going to point someone I trust to read

these for me. I'll have a proxy read these for

me. And then if they're ever good enough, I'll

start reading again. It didn't happen. It finally

happened. I was saying, hey, it's time to read

them now. And you're like, yeah, that's true.

In the end, in the end, you finally made me what

I was. Well, and I've been I had been clamoring

when I left for I said that Robert should be.

The writer of course there was only one series

at the time So I was excited to learn when robots

in disguise and more than meets the eye were

coming out that he was one of them and I heard

you know Nothing, but good things about barber

though. I wasn't familiar with him so I actually

started picking up the trades and just putting

them in a closet on top of Transformers comics,

and I hadn't read them until until I was if I

felt assured they were not going to take me off

and and it with a lady Rex recommendation as

it were so uh... and that was that was when i

first started reading them uh... i i knew i'd

heard they've been good for a while i just was

a little shell shocked still i think frankly

you know well and plus i'm somebody i don't want

to read a whole bunch of stuff i don't know what's

going on in it to really read them i kind of

felt like okay now i have to go back and read

all that god -forsaken cost i'd been avoiding

So I can properly enjoy these, especially if

I was gonna review them. I can't review something

if I have no idea what's going on half the time

in your comic. So it was a big endeavor. To read

this book, I probably spent like two weeks reading

30, 50 other ones. I was reading like 12 comics

a day. for like days on end or when I ran out

and had to wait for a week for a comic, I had

like withdrawal symptoms. So that was that was

when I got back into these and read these. So

I actually before my first reading of this, I

probably kind of blazed through it because I

had at least one more of these to go through

that week so I could review the next one that

was coming out the week after. So this was a

nice revisitation because I did kind of blaze

through it the first time. Yeah. What about you,

Amy? How did you first come to I? Did you start

out with more than meets the eye or did you start

out with this? No, I started out with both of

them actually I was getting them as they were

coming out because on the under base we have

it set up so like we have with IDW so I was like

I saw it before it even came out I I just told

you I left her up to her neck and cost Yeah,

after after. OK, so when they said they were

doing two ongoings and one of them was going

to be written by James Roberts and one's going

to be written by John Barber, I was on cloud

eight. I was like I was on such a good mood.

I was like I was counting down the issues from

chaos to the time when we were going to get robots

in disguise and more than meets the eye. So for

me, it was like I had been following it like

I was ready for it six months before it actually

was published. So for me, yeah, yeah, I was pretty

much following it from day one I Couldn't wait.

I was just waiting around and You know hoping

for the best waiting for the day when it was

gonna be, you know given over by IDW which is

we usually get about five days before it's released

so that we can get a chance to Read it think

about it And sometimes life makes it so that

we can't really get that much in. And so we have

to kind of review on the fly sometimes. And it

depends. It just depends on a lot of things.

So for the most part, yeah, I've been following

both of the series from the very beginning. And

I was completely ecstatic about it. I think you

gave me the all -clear back then, but I think

my reaction was something kind of like, yeah,

let's see if in six months you still feel that

way. I'll try. Exactly. I was like, dude, it's

James Roberts. You know, he wrote records. I

was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll wait. And I

was like, all right. Hey, I'm doing my job. I'm

just trying to, you know, wave a little treat

in front of your face and see if you'll take

it. It's like, that's great. I'll be in the bomb

shelter until September. Which is surprisingly

when this episode will air. For me, after Ender

pretty much shocked me into reality with More

Than Meets the Eye, I wasn't even going to pick

up RID. I wasn't even going to pick it up and

trade. I wasn't going to do anything with it.

I was happy with More Than Meets the Eye. What

happened was So stupid my local comic shop I

Told them I would like more than meets the eye

volume 2 & 3 I didn't find that I didn't see

them on their shelves where they keep the trades

and then I found volume 3 and they're like Oh,

we'll have to order volume 2 I'm like, okay.

Well they for some stupid reason, ordered me

volume two and RID volume one. I didn't even

say anything about RID volume one whatsoever

to them. I said nothing about that. So it was

just there and I'm like, oh, okay, I guess I'll

get around to it when I get around to it. And

now we're finally getting to it. It was me. I

called your comic shop. It's all part of my cunning

plan to make you read Transformers. Thank God

it isn't the Costa run. Yeah, I wouldn't have

done that to you. I was actually surprised. Just

to be cool and unusual. I was actually surprised,

Ender, when you went ahead and went back and

read CASA. I said, you don't need to read CASA

to read Raw What's in Disguise and More Than

Me. You're like, no, no, no, I got to do it.

I was like, all right, I warned you. Well, I'm

glad I did it in terms of when I talk about,

you know, the comics now, I know what I'm talking

about. Yeah. And I think that shows. I mean,

there's a lot of people who only kind of half.

Get it that sometimes you you know, it's just

like well, you're saying that but you don't know

what this is and this other thing so you're even

if they're Gauging what they're looking at correctly.

They're off base. Yeah, and I didn't want to

do that And you know, I'm only looking I'm you

know, I'm not reviewing a thousand comics a month

I'm you know, it's one set I can keep up with

one set of five -year -old comics You know, I've

only known to then I mean I was reading Regeneration

one was like, you know what? I never caught up

on my Marvel. So I read all of Marvel. I haven't

read all the Marvel yet. It was rewarding. I

mean, I do feel like I know what I'm talking

about, like, you know, 30 percent more of the

time now. It's like, oh, yeah, that thing. I

know what that is. Not just because I, you know,

read it on the Transformers wiki. I actually

read that issue. I saw that. And see, I'm actually

perfectly fine going to the wiki and just looking

up the old stuff and not - I - And drag it neon

so somebody knows what they're talking about.

Well, yeah, but you enjoy it, shut the fuck up.

Well, and this is the reason why I'm on The Generation,

which is because I'm representing the - the fan

out there that's getting it because i never read

all of marvel and how what my perspective will

be affected by that having never read any of

the other stuff yes in on i'm the same way i've

never read any of the marvel stuff it's not that

i don't want to rinse not that i don't care to

i'd just haven't done it and i'm one of those

people that if you set something up if you tell

me that really lit that robots in disguise and

one meets the eye are new They're you know beginning

middle and whatever. I'm fine I don't have to

go back and read the last 30 years of Transformers

comics Yeah, yeah, and and I'm just one of those

people who likes knowing what they're talking

about Yes, exactly Alright, so before Ender derails

this track anymore, I'm gonna take a quick break

and then we're gonna get into volume one of Robots

in Disguise after this. So, Robots in Disguise

volume one. The front cover has, for the trade,

has Ironhide, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, and Prowl

on it, with Cybertron in the background. Ironhide

is doing his best fist punch pose. And Cybertron

is a lie. Yeah. Cybertron's a lie and Bumblebee

is pointing into the sky. Yep. You. That's Cybertron

before, you know, cost up flattened it. Morphed

it into nothing. It's just a globule on your.

What is that old cartoon? The world she's flat

no the world she is round Pretty flat That one

looks like a lot of cities and stuff on it and

yeah the Cybertron that we get to know in Robots

in disguise is not like that. There are no cities.

There's one city And that's it and the whole

the whole rest of it is all wilderness Have yet

to be untouched uncharted You know see that's

the coolest thing about At least from when I

read the series from when I read this first rate.

I thought that was the coolest thing about it

was that sure pictures of Cybertron whether it's

in animation or Drawn in a comic book you have

to show some semblance of what most people most

general Transformers fans know Cybertron to look

like Mean if it was a planet with a bunch of

trees, they're like Transformers don't live there

They do if they're Predacons true This is a neutron

as the result of you know This is gonna be a

theme of what I'm talking about because this

is as opposed to more than meets the eye Which

is the screw this we're out of here book this

This robots in disguise got stuck with all of

costas baggage Pretty much, yeah. I don't know

where the idea to put half of them on a ship

and get the heck out of Dodge came from, but

it was brilliant because it was like, yeah, that

whole continuity you had going on, we're going

to go hang out over here instead. But robots

in disguise, it bears the scars of costas slash

and burn sort of, what's that guy's name? Who

does he work on? Batman now? Morrison. Grant,

Grant Morrison. Yeah, because the suffer from

grant what I like to call Grant Morrison syndrome,

which is when you're leaving a book, you try

to burn it to the ground. So you so you can affect

it like what you really want to do is tell a

story so epic that it is the last story ever.

Because, you know, he literally just like flattens.

I mean, like they do stuff in Death of Optimus

Prime to, you know. reworks some of this, but

you know, it's sort of like he kills Megatron.

He ostensibly kills Prime. He like takes the

cyber out of Cybertron and So he's basically

waste yeah lays waste to all the Decepticons,

you know So there's like, you know a hunk of

rock in space and some some dead, you know Some

dead Decepticons and some Autobots down there

and he's like here. Have fun. Tell some stories

with that This is the one thing I did like about

it though I mean it can be both a weakness and

a strength and I think that both Barber and Roberts

have turned it into a strength because it gave

them a baseline to start from and So they can

build up from there. Whereas I think before Costa

it seemed like a lot and this is something that

I figured out I was you know getting into the

comics and reading them It felt like to me that

every individual story they did was self -contained

and it was suffering because of its self -containment

there was no at least I felt like you know, you

go from the Asian series to The mini series and

the spotlights and then all hell Megatron and

it just felt like every story was It was like

not necessary starting over from scratch again

But it felt like the continuity between the two

didn't always match up and so for me I thought

well I might not be a real fan of Costa But the

one thing he did do when he left was he started

it He gave him a baseline to kind of like start

from base up and they could rebuild everything

which that's why I enjoyed it, but I don't think

he I don't think he did it on purpose. You're

not doing well because he gave them a baseline.

Oh, I think he didn't do it on purpose. I think

their strength as writers is doing a great job

of countermanding the mess he left, frankly.

I think everything, I think that, you know, it's

not like they're turning what he did into a strength.

It's that they're carrying the burden well. I

really do think they are. I think we have great

writers now. And this is what, you know, when

you came and found me in the bunker to tell me.

That the comics were better. He's like great.

We have great writers now who can get the job

done. That's fantastic Let me know when they're

finished digging their way out of cost as whole

Because that's the first thing they're gonna

have to do. Yeah now Roberts didn't have to do

as much digging because he had like one episode

one issue of digging He was like and this is

the part where I literally literally leave your

entire continuity somewhere else I am going to

pack a ship full of everyone your continuity

doesn't really touch. That was the first issue,

actually. He put down that shovel and built himself

a ladder and climbed out and was like, yeah,

have fun with that hole. And this is the hole,

though, is what I'm worried about. Because now

this is what really has to do with that. I like

Barber's writing. I think he does a great job

of really addressing things. He made I would

say he's probably the right person to dig you

out of a hole like this. Yeah, but it's a hole.

It is. Yeah, it's a hole. And let's go ahead

and dig out of that hole with the copy. The war

for Cybertron is over. Now the hard part begins.

Bumblebee in his. What? Right there. That's problem

number one. The war is over. Don't even. Why

protect? How many books start with that on it?

How long has the war ended in IDW? Has there

ever been a war? How does a war end if you keep,

you know, anyway, I'm just right there. We hit

that. But I think that's the thing with IDW.

They seem to think with these books that every

fan like us that's around our age that has been

around for nearly 30 years of Transformers. We've

seen the war in the cartoons and stuff like that.

So it's like, and I understand where you're coming

from too, Ender. I get it. You want to see a

war. You want to see the four million year war

at some point. You know what I mean? I understand

that. I'd like to see it, but more than that,

it's gotten ridiculous because it's like the

whole of IDW's run is George Bush standing on

the aircraft carrier with the mission accomplished

thing behind him. It's like, not quite. Alright,

back to this. 20 years later, we tend to disagree.

And now it's like, you know, 200 issues later,

the war is still over. But I seem to see people

shooting at each other on every page. Well, the

thing is, is that you have a war over. Yes, that's

the main, you know, cliche conflict that everybody

kind of goes to. And, you know, the same can

be said at other, I think in other comics where

they have a huge overarching Conflict it that's

a big war between two Factions in a sense one

believes one thing one believes another that's

a war But the thing is is that I think they've

tried it in the past to say oh the war's over

But it was like I don't believe you it was like

it was half -hearted and this I actually feel

like The war is over and now we have to figure

out the brilliant thing about what robots in

disguise does is it shows that the conflict,

the main conflict might not be over, but the

conflict still exists in the individuals. Well,

plus, frankly, the war stays over in this book

for what, like a whopping 12 issues or something?

Yeah. You know, I mean, like and that's about

that's about the biggest extent the war has stayed

over yet. But you'd expect that when certain

characters come back because they are so huge

in their Their charisma is so big They're bigger

than life that you know, there's gonna be a war

like conflict come back because that's who they

are That's who's defined. That's how they've

been defined in transformers for so long that

you know It makes sense that that's how it's

gonna be. I I agree My point is largely more

semantic which is IDW needs to be banned from

saying the war is over as a tagline for like

oh, yeah of decades It's become a cliche IDW

where the war is always over And it's gonna be

called the hell it is It's the knee -jerk phrase

that needs to stop Yes, it does. Bumblebee and

his fellow Autobots struggle to maintain control

of a world without Optimus Prime. Bumblebee's

provisional government is struggling and Prowl

is defending it against Decepticons, but how

far will he go and who will choose to stand by

his side? Now, I remember when I first read Death

of Optimus Prime, and I think I talked to you

about this, Amy. I can't see Bumblebee as the

leader of anything. I just can't. Dude, I so

thought I was gonna have to bring this up. I

was feeling bad because I was like, I've already

interrupted this intro three times. I can't stop

the intro to mention how ridiculous the premise

of Bumblebee being the leader is. But there it

is. It's the deepest mire of Kosta's hole, frankly.

It is the bumblebee in charge and I have to see

I I agree because if I didn't know anything about

Robots in disguise or more than meets eye or

IDW or anything The simple concept of saying

that bubble be is in charge and optimus prime

is not in charge anymore I'm like, I can't see

it. Sorry. It's it's such a it's such an Untenable

concept. I think to anyone who understands knows

the franchise at all that if they know the character

anyway, yeah page to page It's distracting Because

and I think it's I think it's a it's a problem

in This is where it's the least problem in some

ways because this is right when he inherited

said problem So I wouldn't expect to be able

to get rid of it in ten seconds. Not responsibly

anyway But as we get you know, I think I don't

think anyone would deny that robots in disguise

is the less universally hailed of the two books

and I think a lot of that reason is frankly because

It's kind of bumblebee and the Transformers and

it doesn't make any goddamn sense And it's been,

you know, I applaud Barbara for trying to deal

with it. But in a lot of ways, it's like he really

should have swept it under the rug faster because

it was his biggest problem. And as we go through

this book and the successive ones, it's just

gonna keep welling up that we're still clinging

to what was like a gimmick from four years ago

as like a standing premise of our book. So rid

number one cover a is iron hide and he's gonna

bash some brains in he's ready to fist stomp

people One who would be like a better idea we

could discuss oh Look and if we turn the page

we get like and I think of this in this entire

In this entire trade we get one picture of jazz

Which IDW seems to have forgotten to give a character

who should also probably be in charge But if

jazz was in charge, it would be a giant party.

Oh, wait, that's what swerve's for. Oh, wait,

swerve is out in space. Whoops. Yeah. This is

why jazz is going to hang out at Blurr's. Yeah.

His complete dereliction of duty is the only

explanation I can think of for why he really

hasn't been in charge since way back when. I

mean, if you want to, I mean, on the bumblebee

front. Who in terms of kind of you have to say

like well, what do you well who should be what's

going on? There's there's a few candidates I

think the primary ones would be iron hide who

I think is probably the best choice in a lot

of ways for story reasons Prowl for a lot for

logic. He's the second -in -command. They're

a military unit when optimist prime left he should

have just been in charge and There shouldn't

have been a discussion about it if there was

any and if he abdicated to jazz because he doesn't

want to be in charge and That's what they did

in all hail Megatron When prime was removed See

now I I disagree because I that's exactly what

Prowl does he becomes like the guy behind everything

and well he is the figurehead he does and you

know, I When we get to that issue, I'll talk

about that. But yeah, Barbara does do that. Well,

but then it gets circumvented night Even that

I think is like now we have to do work and waste

time to explain why this is getting circumvented

But in terms of his actual like being there,

supposedly had an election in which no one ran

for it. Right. But they elect Bumblebee and he

just has to take it, apparently. Well, that was

from time they did a vote and he was it. Well,

it's like you're in the army. Right. And the

general leaves and there's two colonels, three

captains, five lieutenants, 10 sergeants and

a bunch of schlubs. And like you elect Private

Johnson to be in charge. Doesn't you know what

I mean? I think like maybe the Colonel should

be the ones we're voting on You know, I mean

like I could see electing jazz over prowl He's

you know less likely to kill you. Why am I envisioning

optimus prime as the drill sergeant from Full

metal jacket and bumblebee as private Gomer pile

I think it's more like Ironhide as Drill Sergeant.

It's just like somebody more capable, even if

they're not an ideal choice, it just seems like

electing the private or the private accepting

it is hysterically irresponsible. And it just

reads like that all the time. And even when they're

trying to elevate Bumblebee up to the position

or even when they're showing him fumbling at

it, I feel like the reader is always forced to

question, why is this happening? And I think

that takes you out of the book. And I think it's

been, you know, Barbara has been carrying this

book with a mini fridge tied to his leg for the

whole, you know, run. And it's like, dude, you

know, I think you'd go a little faster if you

took that off. You know, he's carrying it brilliantly,

I think, but I'd really rather see what he could

do without it. It might happen. We might get

that next for the next season. And you know,

I have high which on will probably dark Cybertron

We will see the end of rain of bumblebee But

it's still been like 20 issues. So this is gonna

go on for a while The fact too that and this

is something that the death of optimist prime

kind of set up after Chaos happened and everything

was in shambles People some people hadn't even

been found like Optimus Prime is not found for

like three or four weeks after the event So that

being said I think and you're right, you know,

he is in the line of duty Bumblebee is definitely

not up on the roll But somebody took charge and

I think that you know, the base elements were

were put into effect They wake up they they set

up an HQ and a communication hub and something

to start from and then people start showing up

and Then things get super crazy and the only

one that was running the show at the time was

bumblebee and his little group of People that

were with him, which would be probably was only

in charge because theoretically because of his

you know position is leader on earth, which he

never You know cost it never managed to even

make him a convincing leader there true true

I just like flattened Cybertron the idea somebody

else would have been you know a better choice

the idea of It's a military group is like that's

kind of what they were trying to undo by making

him The leader is the fact that he's not in charge

as a military person, but They kind of try to

shift him out of that role, because supposedly

the war is over, and make him kind of like, in

a sense, a civilian leader that's very versed

in the military goings on of the Cybertronians.

So that's where it was kind of believable to

me, at least, is the fact that that's what they're

trying to undo, is that we're not... fighting

a war anymore, even though people are in their

heads. But they're not really trying to undo

it yet, then, are they? I mean, but the points

where he's still in charge, I mean, isn't it

more like he's still in charge of the military,

but the military's in charge of the planet still

because there's no government? I mean, that happens

a lot. I would say that Prowl is in charge of

the military aspect of it because he's the guy

that's running security. Yeah, but no more than

he was when Prime was in charge. True, but that's

how they're kind of shifting the military aspect

of Cybertron at the time, is shifting it under

your security now. But everyone else still has

their ranks and their everything. True, I know,

but like... There's still the military. Bumblebee

was not elected president. Bumblebee was elected

general. And they're still and by the time when

they're in Cybertron He's he's in charge because

he was who was in charge when optimists left

It's not like they're not trying to do anything

political when the nails start showing up true.

They don't know that yet He's just who's in charge.

I think I think you're making a very good reasoning

for it, but I don't think it fits with the timeline

I Beg to differ Disagree then And that's good

because you represent the fans that are not not

feeling it and I represent those that probably

are like I The the idea of what they're doing

works to that extent for me so so we have a beautiful

splash page where you see the city and as Ender

said jazz and everything else and I Didn't until

now because I was more focused when I read through

this book the first time I was more focused on

the actual blurbs in the writing than the actual

images and I so totally missed sky links right

there Yeah, I like the sky links flying through

this guy. There's a lot of interesting stuff

here in there in here There's a lot of fun stuff.

Actually, it's just it's but I'll tell you the

one thing that Blue streak who also outranked

Bumblebee I'll tell you the first thing because

as everyone knows I read more than meets the

eye before this and I'm one of those people I'll

read something I need to go back and look at

it to remind myself what the hell happened and

what took me out of this book is one line from

bumblebee's little speech here Rodimus said we

should leave them to it but then he died and

I'm like no he didn't Well, he doesn't know that

of course they don't know that story. That's

what he believes, right? Yeah, and I and I understand

that in the lower right page. Does anybody else

see the Boba Fett bot? Yeah And Huey Dewey and

Louie are on the other side there. Yep Fantastic

There are lots of little fun things on this two

-page splash it was just yeah Yeah, it's it's

such a nice image it really really is and there's

and pages like this is what is so cool to throw

in all these Different characters like isn't

that tracks on the right? Behind the purple bot

You know, there's there's so many cool things

and then it's just mayor will the settlement

never look this nice again Probably not actually.

This is the best -looking part of it. Actually.

I almost feel like it's a you know, like an early

Misconception in the drawing like he didn't know

how trashy to draw it the first time well because

in a sense it never looks this good Yeah, well,

that's because more fighting starts after this

This is the prime of everybody's hey, we've arrived

we're we're happy to see each other were the

happy times, right? Months from now we're gonna

be sad We're starting these hovels up No, I didn't

even really notice that on the cover either Wow

That's that's sad that I didn't notice that it

took me till the third page of this where you

have bumblebee giving a President Bush speech

To realize hey the align continuity comes in

cuz he is the war for Cybertron design See I

don't disapprove it here cuz it wasn't like pre

-planned that way and him having a cyber trolling

all vote on cyber tron it makes sense that no

one has to explain it you know right i'm not

saying it doesn't make sense i mean any you know

i was saying that it's it it's noticeable but

you know the only time there's a problem is like

anytime you have to stop and explain why something

is like that Turns into a squirrel because you

know It's to be a little dicey and just on these

two pages alone I can already tell I'm not gonna

like metalhawk. Yeah He's a jerk Yeah, I captain

shoulder pads you get a look at this guy and

just think like okay So like the seven foot wide

shoulders weren't good enough. You had to add

the wings, huh? He didn't learn anything from

ultra Magnus being able to walk through doors.

We had to do him They have that guy right every

every version Every group has to have that guy

that can't fit through the doors. That's metalhawks

Position in this book. He's almost worse than

ultraman. I mean ultraman has had the shoulders

sure But I mean like you'd have to get this through

people would have to help him through like a

couch And then around here Yep, either that'll

feel how cut holes in the you know This is why

we always see him most of the time outside we

don't see him walking through You know and the

next page On the right -hand side of it shows

two decepticons one of whom has a gold bug head

So, you know, I've been observing that universally

in all the comics needle nose is universally

portrayed as a dick He's he's always being some

like hysterical jackass you do whatever the worst

thing somebody could be doing in an environment

It's needle nose. It's always Like right there

front and center Now that he has his hands back

he has a reason to be grumpy and just kind of

take it out on everybody So yeah, there you go

For a second there. I thought she was talking

about ratchet Ratchet ratchet didn't lose his

hands. Yes, he did. Oh Okay, I was thinking happen

as his winter cap on to And now that you talk

about it, I mean, yeah, each group, again, back

to this whole thing, the thing with the shoulders,

now the hands. Both continuity seem to have,

or both robots in disguise more than meets the

eye, have a character on there who have lost

hands and have gotten them back at one point

or another. The irony, whoa. Yeah. So this page

that I mentioned with I think that's, is that

Turnbull? The guy that looks at the whole bug?

Horrible. Horrible. And what do you know, Horrible's

being horrible. That is the worst name for a

Transformer ever. I know. So they're accosting

this nail. Anybody want to explain what a nail

is? Non -aligned Cybertronian. What do they say?

Non -affiliated indigenous life forms. So that's

where you get the nails. It's a bit of a stretch

Yeah, but I'm kind of glad that they did that

though could have been worse could have been

nest true Yeah between not really means anything

that works with it anyway, but nothing they've

made up for it did either so no it didn't It

seems like every single time I read it, it means

something else. Yeah, it does. I think Barber

tried most recently, actually. I can't remember

what he came up with, but it was the best one

yet. I'll grant him that. Yeah. And then they

changed it again. And I was like, why don't they

go back to that one again? It sounded better.

So they should just call it Arc and say it was

like Autobot recon command. How hard would that

would have been? Wow. Come on. And it would actually

make sense, too. Yeah. They just need to hire

you, Ender. Well, yeah, it helps if you hire

someone to write the Transformers thing who knows

Jack or shit about them. And back to the comic

again, because we keep on railroading here. Well,

derailing on this train with Ender is one whole

other thing. That's why, for any of the listeners,

if you're wondering why it's taken us 27 minutes

to even get... like five pages into the book,

it's all Ender's fault. So anyone that wants

to complain about a two and a half hour episode,

there's nothing I can do about it because I ain't

cutting any of this shit out. Just send your

complaint to Ender. And set some time aside for

the response. I'm not a political person at all.

In my personal opinion, all politicians are corrupt.

Yeah. You know, you know what I mean? So the

whole political thing behind robots in disguise,

I. I don't really care. I mean, I not really,

but I don't just, you know, it's like gaming.

There's not there's not enough infrastructure

for it to be as political as what we consider

politics to be. Yeah. Well, right. But the thing

more like high school. You'll be right when a

certain Decepticon switches sides later, but

yeah, you're right. It's like, hey, can I come

join this click, guys? My other one kicked me

out. This is never necessarily what happens.

People like to talk about it like it's House

of Cards in space, but it's not. It's Decepticon

High School. Now, see... For me, you know, when

Autobot High School and Decepticon High School

have to move into the same building. Now, that's

a comic I would read. Now see, for me, you know,

in the last 30 years Transformers has been around

and, you know, knowing what I do know about the

cartoons and all that stuff. I just don't see.

Soundwave being a submissive to Ratbat. I just

don't see Ratbat as friggin' senator. It was

never meant like that. It was like, those guys

were just kinda stepping back to see what Ratbat

was gonna do. To be honest. They were holding

the cards, they were playing their poker faces.

They were like, okay, we're gonna play nice.

We're gonna, you know, wait and see what happens.

Where we want to, you know, start manipulating

things. They basically stepped back to see the

idiot. Walk forward and say I'm gonna run things

cuz I'm a senator ha ha ha look at me I'm really

awesome. You know it that was for the most part

working in their favor We don't more than that

now to though really with it Soundwave and and

shockwave to some extent probably are up to their

butts in cahoots with Megatron Doing stuff already.

Yeah. Yeah, we find that out. They're like a

rat trap. Whatever. I mean You gotta remember,

Soundwave literally cannot speak. He said rat

trap. There are no beasts in this book. Not yet.

No, but he can't speak here. They refer at one

point to his voice thing being broken. So Soundwave

literally isn't talking. And Shockwave, every

time he opens his mouth, only says, yeah, whatever,

dude, good luck with that. Basically, we'll see

how this plays out. Just let it go. He's saying

coy crap because he's... We don't even know what

he's up to yet. He's still he's he's knows Megatron's

plan and he knows somebody else's and and he

knows whatever he's doing. So he doesn't rat

trap or enough rat trap. I'm sorry. He did it

again. Well, you're a rat bat. There you go.

That rat bat. You know, in five minutes it'll

be rat trap in this book. What do you want me

to tell you? Five minutes that battle be dead.

Yeah. Yeah. So. What I like to flip to them first

issue it pretty much it pretty much sets in stone

where everybody is what conflicts they're having

to deal with and who the The other thing that

is set up and I thought was kind of fun is a

fact that that Prowl basically has to play dad

to everybody, which is not really great at because

he's having to one, watch the nails to make sure

that they're doing what they're supposed to be

doing. But then on the next page, as we haven't

gotten it got to it, he's having to keep all

of the Decepticons in check as well. So it's

like he's having to run his job twice as much.

And all because, you know, he's been put into

this position where he had to let the Decepticons

go because all of the nails were rioting. in

Death of Optimus Prime. So to deal with that

issue, they supposedly put these ID chips in

every Decepticon's head so that if they start

doing something they shouldn't, they're just

gonna kill them. Why? Why is Barbara pulling

a JJ Abrams? I know. The illusion of it helped

for a little while, but they know yeah No, I

know the illusion of it helped for a little while

and then of course down the line and we'll get

to it I'm not I don't think it's in this issue,

but we'll get to it where the Decepticons were

like yeah Hey, we don't have to worry about this

anymore You know they probably took all of like

two days, and then it was irrelevant But they

go around and play as if that's what's still

what's going on well i think you know even though

he settled with all of the barbers doing the

right thing in this book and he does for the

next few with prowl of a in terms of efficacy

and be in terms of his attitude bumblebee shouldn't

be in charge and really can't be if you really

read this bumblebee doesn't do anything he talks

about crap but prowl put the idea chips and people

prowl at the decepticons out to go pitch all

the streets. Prowl made this decision. They go

and talk and Prowl hardly listens to him. Oh,

and Prowl is also... And he says, like, I...

Command and you're in charge, so I listen to

you. I memorized your insights and I moved on

to the next topic. He's like, I deferred to you

just long enough to listen to your crap. And

then he went back to what he was saying before

Bumblebee interrupted him, which was Ratbat is

gonna be a problem. He gets right back to his

agenda. Pro is kind of in charge here and does

that correctly because frankly, I don't see why

Prowl wouldn't have taken charge Long ago because

if he does he becomes the figurehead and he can't

do anything if he's the person in charge Which

is why he wants bumblebee to be in charge because

they can work underneath that and then this is

nice and portrayed correctly and There's a the

problem is though continuity was a magenta that

he had when when optimus prime was in charge

except optimus prime Also could rule but for

prowl. He's like, you know what? I need he doesn't

need somebody to to be his boss He just needs

somebody to be a figurehead and that's what bumblebee

does Yeah pro bro does want to be he does not

want to be in charge. He wants to be he'd rather

do a man but I don't think so. Basically, Prowl

is Padme and Bumblebee is Queen Amidala. Yeah,

pretty much. Yeah. Which makes King B. I think

part of the problem for me, and this isn't a

problem. When I say like this is notable that

Barbara is doing it correctly because 10 minutes

ago, while Costa was doing the same couple of

characters, he wasn't doing it correctly. He

had changed Prowl to be his limp, wet noodle,

you know, Sunbow cartoon self yeah, and was just

kind of standing behind bumblebee like what should

we do? You're so much smarter than me It's like

Intelli and and had to make issue after issue

to try and explain why Peral would do that because

it made no sense The other thing that I - Why

can't we have an Ironhide toy like this? I want

an Ironhide toy just like how he's depicted on

this page in that alt mode. That's awesome. What

you need is a head and a repainted sound wave,

right? Well, sound wave looks a little longer

than this, but yeah, technically you're right.

Front end grill's pretty similar. Yeah. I was

more interested in reading this first issue.

I was more interested in what Ironhide was doing

than I was with what was going on in there. Exactly.

Now that we've left Prowl, we'll introduce yet

another should -be leader candidate. I almost

feel like even the next three issues all the

way up through the Wheel Check one is just like,

and now we will review all the candidates who

would make more sense to be in charge and try

and give a reason why they shouldn't be. Now,

you're kind of not being fair, because in a sense,

I'm glad that Bumblebee is in charge, because

if there was somebody, one of these guys in charge,

the conflict would have been completely different.

And then when we get to the end game of season

one, when a certain character comes back and,

you know, drives everything back into the war

again, no one would have... The conflict would

have been completely different and they might

have actually stopped him before he actually

took over like he did I think you could have

done that with With iron hide you could have

done that with Mirage or jazz or you would have

had to give jazz a character. Yeah If Mirage

in this universe is how I've always known him

to be in g1 if he's like, oh guys, I don't want

to fight I just want to you know be at peace

well yeah what if he was like a political animal

and managed to get himself i mean like that might

have made more sense you could have frankly if

they didn't want to get rid of him you could

have done this with prime just being self -doubting

and not knowing what to do in a civil no we did

that in costa please do not do it again no no

they should understand the way they portrayed

him they could not that i like that costa did

it he doesn't need to do it again It was painful

enough. We don't want to have another crime sitting

in the corner with a touchdown. I'm not giving...

I'm still doing emo prime. This whole I'm a rainbox

thing is still like watching your dad have a

midlife crisis after your mom left him for a

tennis instructor. It is more... And yeah, we

don't have to watch Optimus sit in a cell every

week asking Spike if he can paint it black, but...

But he's still doing it. So until they fix optimist

prime I'm not gonna give them a whole lot of

credit for Like oh, no, he would have been better

here cuz you know No, I I'm seriously I'm fine

with that because of the conflict that it created

but then on top of that because bumblebee does

continue to make mistakes and I'm really glad

that he does he's not supposed to be perfect

in fact I think I remember Barbara saying that

he's not actually going to make good decisions

He's gonna make bad decisions and he worked with

the fact that he isn't a really good leader He's

a very young leader and he doesn't know what

he's doing and you know half the time Starscream

and Metalhawk Which we eventually find out that

those two end up between the three of them They

try to run things and they're perpetually Running

circles around Bumblebee. Yeah, but that's not

the point though I'm not saying he's a good leader

or a bad leader or better that the other ones.

I think all the other ones could have made either

the same or different or similar mistakes. They

would have made tons of mistakes. All of them

would be lousy leaders, frankly. Frankly, let's

face it, nobody would be a good optimist prime

in this role. True. My point is not that he's

a good or a bad leader. It's that he's not a

plausible leader for the reader to read the book.

You don't understand why he's the leader at all.

You could go through this thing and Photoshop

it. and turn him red and change his name to Cliffjumper

everywhere, and no one would notice. It would

still wouldn't make any sense why Cliffjumper

was in charge. You know, why is, you know, why

is Private Bumblebee or why is Private Cliffjumper,

the general of the Autobot Army, equally makes

as little sense? Well, even to the character,

he doesn't even know why. Could have been sea

spray. True. You know. Bumblebee is like the

top -notch sea spray, but if you put sea spray

in here everyone would have known it was a bad

idea. Yeah Well at least until they have elections,

this is what we're gonna have so So we've got

coming up to the and what I've just realized

just by just looking at the art and not really

reading the words as I'm thumbing through this

as we're doing this review is That this entire

first issue is Don't be a bully It's an anti

-bullying campaign issue because by the end of

it till the end are horrible gets his head whomped

off. Yep One of the first huge mistakes in bumblebees

refer to her but the thing is is that I'm surprised

He even got the cojones to even press the button.

Yeah. Oh, that's you know, well, you know, this

is He's playing leader. He's playing leader.

That's not It's only it's only you know, he's

so incapable Know it just it strikes me that

there is always been in the transformers an element

of the leader has been very physically strong

I Mean why I say he's certainly yeah figurehead

or not But I mean there was like some capability

of like I can take care of myself that Was part

of that in their psychology. There has never

been like, you know It's not like the Autobots

followed perceptor around Because he was the

smartest even though they're good guys Right

or prowl or anyone like that the biggest strongest

jerk in the room was still in charge And there's

a certain degree of like if optimist prime had

to go talk to horrible. He'd have sat on him

Probably wouldn't have had to kill him. He wouldn't

have had to He'd have ordered three guys to pin

him to the ground and they'd have done it. Yeah,

you know Good guys shouldn't have to kill people

all the time to get their way. He pushed that

button because of two reasons. One, because he

needs to show that he has some strength, which

he doesn't. And two, Metalhawk is sitting there

telling him, oh, you know, you know, he's he's

trying to have to prove himself that he is the

leader even to other people in the comic. It's

like this peer pressure that won't ever go and

so you're right. It is kind of in a sense. It's

like high school He's having to be the guy that

makes the big decisions because no one believes

he can do it. So like Horrible is like right

there in front of him. It doesn't he says yo

stop me. What is he gonna do? I just don't believe

bumblebee would have done that still I still

feel like this is still part of the falling down

of the comic Because he doesn't there's nothing

to do with bumblebee See, I've gotten over it.

I've gotten over it. After two years of reading

Costa, I've gotten over the fact. Bumblebee is

the leader and I'm alright with it. I think you're

just traumatized into it. I don't know. I feel

like this is like Lady Reg Helsinki syndrome.

Bumblebee Helsinki syndrome, you know, just like

okay fine. I just have for the story to work

It just it it works as much as it was Cliffjumper

I could believe it would have blown his head.

Yes, Cliffjumper was that whole sniper guy, right?

He has anger issues Bumblebee at least would

have had his crap together like okay Optimus

Prime whatever he would have done Definitely

would not have blown some dudes head off my rule

away with a crowd watching You know? Well, but

they had to use the... They had to set an example

with using these ID chips. Yeah, that or else

it's just a bunch of them going around saying,

hey, you know, we've got... We can do this! We're

not going to, but we can! You know, we can hit

you with this stick if you don't, you know, this,

you know... It's kind of like those old commercials.

I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. I'm

not touching you. Mom, she's touching me! Yeah.

I think there should be a panel in here somewhere

of like, for completely different reasons, either

like Prowl or Cliffjumper reaching over his shoulder

and pressing the button. Like, what, you're gonna,

right? I mean, come on. So for issue two cover

a we have shockwave bombshell ratbat and soundwave

I really like this cover except the one thing

that bugs me about ratbats designs And I don't

know if there was ever a toy planned for this

I don't think there was his shoulders have giant

fucking screws in them i don't think those are

those don't look that much like screws to me

i mean they have the line of crap are you kidding

me i could put a flathead screwdriver i will

show you robots in disguise images where they

draw the toy screws in man and they're there

they're screws and you can tell oh i'm sure they

look like they look like exterior little things

a moving thing with moving parts they just in

the center with the yellow and the line drew

the black line drawn they're too big they're

decoration i don't think they look that much

you're you're wrong they ender you're wrong i'm

sorry but this time you're wrong there's a circle

with a line through them but they only superficially

resemble screws that's i'll show you Well, if

the line wasn't there, if the line wasn't there,

I would say you're right. Screws that are silver

in one of these books, man. I'm telling you,

when they drove it then, right? And I love the

whole, I don't know. I love the whole mystery

of this, this first panel. And then I'm thinking,

oh, wait, is this a recap panel? Why are they

recapping the last issue? But I get it. Last

time it's only one panel. I mean, you know showing

the wamp explosion again is is still cool You

want your comic to be able to stand independently?

I hate to think any, you know, any comic you're

right. It kind of has to be able to be read With

you know, sometimes when you get to the you know,

midst of the climax is a long -running series

Yeah, maybe that's not gonna be possible. But

I think they looked at this and went if we add

One page of recap. This whole thing will make

a lot more sense. If you think about it, you

pick this book up and you picked it up. Been

a lot harder to, you know, keep up with. Yeah,

well, the one thing it did do is it kind of you

didn't get this out of the other way because

it was at somebody else's point of view, but

it also kind of shows that Ratbat. is trying

to manipulate things from behind the scenes and

put pressures on Bumblebee because again, like

I said, he is really not great at leading and

everybody knows it and they are putting specific

pressures on him to make him crack and make these

choices to put him in a political situation where

the nails don't want him there and they will

physically uprise and pull him out because that's

exactly why Optimus Prime left. is because they,

you know, they were uprising for that reason.

And part of the conditions of him leaving was,

you know, hey, I will leave, but please give

my Autobots a chance. And so that's the only

reason why they're tolerating this. The fact

that they haven't up rose at this point is the

fact that rumor has gotten around that they even

killed their own when they disagreed. So they're

like, we're not quite sure what to take with

the Autobots being in charge, because As much

as they're saying, hey, the war is over. We're

your friends. You know, you just, as far as we

know, took out a whole big portion of your own

that just decided they didn't want to stay. And

at least under Optimus Prime's rule, he let us

leave. And now you're not letting us leave because

we're afraid that that's what's going to happen

to us if we try to leave. So there's a few things

that are that are moving in to place here That

I really liked the fact that ratbat was the guy

kind of supervising this He knew that horrible

and needle -nose would screw around and get themselves

killed like that, but he was counting on it I

just want to make a structural point out for

this trade that the first I think Maybe not all

the books. I think the first there's five in

here, right? I think the first four Well, I think

they're maybe in the fifth one too. They're all

really they're divided per person. They're all

perspective shots I just think we should mention

it in terms of actually analyzing this a little

bit the first one is Bumblebee and this one is

in the second one is Starscream I need you to

mention who we're actually Looking at every time

because it is it's important to the structure

of the books and the structure of the trade Yeah,

and I like that. I think that's great Think that's

an amazing thing that you're taking. I Mean if

I had gone back, you know if I could go back

in time and collect these singly I would have

thought that's great. Okay this week We're getting

the story from bumblebee's percepts perspective

next week. It's Starscream week after that. It's

whoever You know you bring up Picking them up

individually over time. I gotta say too. That's

it. That's part of the issue I think that's come

up with robots in disguise is that and I think

you know as we go through We're going to see

more and more. A lot of this is about explaining

the whole and why with parts the whole we're

sticking with. It really is. It spends like five

issues just kind of partially establishing where

it's at, but also excusing itself for its whole.

Yeah. And for readers who are picking this up

month to month, that can get a little excruciating.

It's fine. It's not a big deal when you read

it in a trade. And I noted this with all hail

Megatron. Everybody seemed to be hating Megatron.

I started reading it in the middle. I was like

what seems fine to me, but I didn't have to sit

through the first six months true where it was

really slow and You know going for issue you

pick up an issue you pay your money is sit down.

You put it down unsatisfied It's it's annoying

and that's hard for reader to deal with so and

I think that's been part of And I swear when

I say the bumblebee thing. I think it's because

you know, that's slowness. I think he's been

really compounded by that Yeah, so I And you

do bring up a really good point, because when

I was reading this month to month, we were waiting

on pins and needles, waiting to who's the next

character they're going to see from. Because,

you know, what everybody wanted to see it from,

right? Everybody wanted to see it from Prowl's

point of view, because the first the first. There's

something that sucks about it when you do, too.

The first big arc was the fact that it was Prowl's

conflict with everything that was really carrying

the story. It's been retconned out of existence

though too, so there's a conflict there. We'll

get to that when we get to Prowl. We're in Starscream

right now. Speaking of Starscream, this page

here where the title is, the world and everything

in it, I love this dialogue from Starscream and

Barber, he did an amazing job just throwing G1

fans a nod. Radbath's phase shifted his optical

sensors to rose tinted. I just I just wanted

to say that for one, I mean, having read much

further in this, this this keeps up. I would

like to give. Fiction of he writes the single

greatest Starscream ever. Yeah, he does the best

job of writing Starscream that anyone has ever

done, period. This book should have been Starscream

and the Transformers. Actually, it's inspired,

I really kind of think, you know, Transformers

is more of a universe and a superhero team. It's

not like it's, you know, just, you know, the

X -Men and they all hang out in one place. It's

like, there are characters, I think. I feel like,

you know, we're getting to a point where maybe

Starscream should just have his own comic. Oh,

it's funny that you should say that. Because

he does end up, you know in the end getting his

way That issue that one issue that in the most

recent was a 20. Oh, yeah Really is an all -star

scream issue and the thing is, you know, he carries

it just fine and I think he kind of could You

know, I don't feel like prime in his little group

of star jammers. Maybe you should just have their

own book the prime jammers, you know Well, that's

what they seem like, you know But there's lots

of characters I think could just carry it and

why not, you know instead of Well, it creates

a conflict I think in terms I think we're talking

about the pacing of monthly comics It's annoying

when you you're trying to do what's essentially

a crossover, but you have to write all five books

in one book So like one week we got to go have

Bumblebee and the Transformers and the next week

we got to have the set up for Dark Cybertron

and the you know the month after that it's you

know Starscream the invincible and then after

that you get to go back to your book maybe you

know like because you have to set all those things

up and meanwhile the fan bases sit there going

get on with it because all those books should

have come out in the same month next to each

other you know as far as they're concerned you

know for reading purposes so Yeah, or at least

those that are that are following it. The universe

has gotten to be a big place. And, oh, you know,

and I got to say, too, in terms of I don't know

how much of the money readership is just solid

Transformers fans. But let's face it, the ones

who pick it up now would pick up 10 books. Just

as readily as they pick up to. Well, some of

them would pick up seven and some of them would

pick up, you know, five. But for the most part.

You could, you know, and a good deal of them

would pick up all of them, including all three

variant covers, regardless of what was in them.

There's that, too. Yeah. Yeah. The Dreamwave

sales model. The problem with that. And I agree.

I would love to have more Transformers comics.

The problem with that is that we have five. Like

I said, he just pointed it out. So there are

some people in the fan base that would pick up

everything. I would probably be one of those

people. But the reason why I don't think that

they do that is because I think they are business

wise trying to be realistic. How much can they

actually handle before it actually starts affecting?

all of their titles and so I think they're being

really wise about how much they've been able

to put out. I think the reason why they are out

with all of the titles that they are is because

that's as far as they feel that the outlets that

the consumers can actually consume without making

it make the whole deck of cards fall down. Well,

that's the thing, you know, Ender, you always

say, oh, get both. Read more than meets the eye

and read robots in disguise. Well, not everyone's

going to want to do that. And I love how IDW

has Monstrosity, Beast Hunters, RID, and more

than meets the eye. I think that's great because

it's enough variety for everyone. Like say someone

is just interested in the Dinobots. They can

read Beast Hunters. Say somebody wants to see

Rodavus be a somewhat competent leader. Beast

Hunters is more of a mini -series. What? Beast

Hunters is a mini -series, though. No, it's not.

It's an ongoing. It's an ongoing. Is it? I thought

it was only going to eight. I think they're going

to rebrand, honestly. I think they're going to

rebrand after eight. Yeah, but it'll be rebranded

to be something... Well, I guess more to the

point, it's a sales comic. I mean, it's more

to go concurrently with the marketing thing.

I bet it's I just think it is a little more to

it has that Beast Hunters name on it for a reason.

Yeah, and it doesn't have anything to do with

what's in the comic Sometimes it doesn't I don't

know issue for they were there are a lot of beasts

in there I wrote that in my review. I said there's

some beasts and there's some hunting There's

no prime and they're not the beasts you're thinking

of but it's the closest they've gotten There

wasn't that much beast hunting in Beast Hunters,

frankly. What's the deal with Bumblebee having

a cane like Old Man Cup? I love the cane. It's

a shock stick. I want to have one when I'm old.

No, I loved it too. I was surprised as all hell

when he pulled out the shock stick. If he's going

to have a cane, why not have a stinger to go

with it? Come on, he is Bumblebee, right? When

do we have a stinger that goes with a Bumblebee?

The cane and the limping that goes with it, again,

inherited. Silly yes Inherited silly. Okay. Well,

he got that who gave him that cane. Come on Lady

rec who gave him the cane. Well, excuse me for

not reading the shittiest comics ever costa gave

him the cane So and we'll jack created it for

him Good thing is here and and Barbara to his

credit tries to turn the cane into something

cool, but for the most part. That's right He

probably should have just gotten rid of it I

like the fact that the next issue we get is Prowl

using his own version of the game. He says he

wants to talk to Wheeljack about it, and he takes

care of that, man. That's a nice joke, and I'm

glad it's there. Again, I'm not sure it's worth

the distraction of why does the Transformer need

a cane. It takes you out. It makes things slower.

It makes you explain things that you don't need

to explain. Maybe it's an old War Injury from

the Slave Minds on Ga - Wait, shut up! Maybe

it's an old - Shut up, Ender! Maybe it's an old

- Shut up, Ender! Maybe it's an old - Shut up,

Ender! Maybe it's an old - Shut up, Ender! Maybe

it's an old - Shut up, Ender! Maybe it's an old

- Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender! Shut up, Ender!

Shut up, Ender! Shut up, On that shutting up

time, maybe you should leave the jokes to me,

too. Fuck you. That's what it says on my card.

Oh, great. Ender is Prowl. Great. Yeah, I was

going to say, yeah, you know, Ender is Prowl.

Ender likes Prowl. What a shocker, huh? Okay,

so Prowl interrogating Starscream. This is interesting

Yeah, one of the best things so far. This is

why Starscream becomes a fan favorite is because

for the first time He really is just he embraces

his honesty. He's honest with the guy He says

hey, I want to be in charge and you know what

rap is in my way So I'm gonna tell you the truth

because I want you to get rid of him for me But

you'll do it because you want to get rid of them,

too. So we're going to want it. Yeah, I wanted

this scene to end. I wanted Prowl and Starscream

to walk out together and be like, we're taking

over. Yeah, exactly. Because, you know, for the

first time in this county, again, they were saying

all this inequity of like, he shouldn't be in

charge of this. These two, these are each other's

opposite number. Yeah. I mean, like 100 percent.

They're perfectly yoked. Yeah, I mean like if

Prime and Megatron are gone, these two should

either be trying to kill each other or be in

charge. But in a sense, they kind of do become

the guys in charge. Again, coming back to this

whole thing, whoever is above them is the figurehead

and they are the guys in the background doing

all the manipulation. Yeah, but Starscream really

wants to be in charge. I think Proll would have

been perfectly happy to take over Cybertron with

Starscream running around with a crown on being

a jackass everywhere while he ran everything.

How's the planet running in April? Fine, shut

up. Okay, I'll be in my room. I'll be in my room

trying to find another cane. Any partying you

want to have? No. Okay. See you later, man. Keep

up the good work. I can totally see that too.

I agree with you. Take the crown. Take the credit

card. Let me run the planet. Damn! Because what

has Starscream ever done to lead all he wants

to do it is a name He wants to be bumblebee except

we do it better Really really really want to

be in charge. Okay, you're in charge. Yeah, that's

all he wants Put a crowd on his head put him

on a throne. He'll be happy and then somebody

else can do everything for him I was saying that

in my review Of robots indicates 20 when he is

in charge. I'm like what Starscream needs now

is a book entitled what to dictate when you're

dictating No idea what to do Yeah Only other

parents got that joke so Starscream reveals that

ratbat is planning to assassinate bumblebee And

Prowl reacts to that because, you ain't gonna

take out my figurehead. Oh heck no. So then he's

gonna come back to this nice little element that

was seeded in the last issue, which is the shadow

that's in the background. Turns out that Prowl

has his personal hit person. It's not, it's a

hit girl. It's RC! That's a kick -ass name, Lydia

Rackett. Shut up, Ender! RC is hit girl. There

you go. I Now see I read her spotlight before

I read this and I was like reading that I was

like all kinds of shocked of What did they do

to this character? I know it was terrible, right?

I know that's man Simon Furman Even Simon has

said he wishes that he hadn't wrote her that

way. So yeah Well, I'm glad he got over that

cuz you know the whole thing I'm pretty up in

arms about the total lack of Female Transformers

in this comic and it's because the cannon that

Furman set up didn't have them and what he said

something was like Well, I just need to have

a reason for it, you know anything I put in there

I really you know, this guy found a reason to

have pretenders in the first few issues You know,

I need to have a reason for there to be male

and female Transformers. I was thinking like

yeah, you're not married. Are you dude? He is

married for years. In fact, she explained to

him why he shouldn't have written it that way.

Yeah, because this is also probably the reason

why he says he regrets writing it like that.

But yeah. The thing is this is something that

Christmas really has said and I tend to agree

with him I rather them use the elements rather

than just ignore that they exist so In this they

they don't really get into the guts of it But

they make it work for RC because at the point

of this this comic, you know Everything that

had come before that she was kind of we she wasn't

a good place and this comic gives her a purpose

and it gives her a chance to be a personality

and gives her a character so that now what we

see in what were like issue 20 issue 19 or whatever

issue was from her point of view she actually

is somebody that that that's interesting because

of what she's done in the first couple in the

first you know year of issues in robots in disguise

Yeah, no, I mean Barbara uses her much better

than he did But I think when he even I suspect

even when he's discussing he regrets writing

her that way It's not so much about the character.

He gave me not not Simon. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah

The it's more about the origin. Yeah gave her

yeah, I'm not and then this I mean in terms of

using her well Barbara does a great job here,

but in terms of the situation she creates which

which isn't addressed here at all So it's not

really the issue at hand What situation does

she create? She creates a situation where the

smurfs are the intergalactic, I'm sorry, the

transformers are the intergalactic titanium smurfs.

She is Smurfette built by Gargamel. All females

are a horrible at Frankensteinian aberration.

It's a terrible, terrible message to put in a

comic book. Yeah, I don't like RC design. That's

what I don't like. I like her that that the page

of her when we first see her. She's just... Her

helmet could use a little work, yeah. Her helmet

could use a little work, her makeup could use

a little work, her entire face. Her makeup could

not exist. You know what I mean, Dan. I mean,

like, if you need a reason for something to be

in the comic book. I know. It's like, I can't

come up with a reason for girls, but on the one

I made, lipstick. Lipstick makes perfect sense.

I think that that the con The problem that it

creates they just haven't addressed it yet It's

just something and I hope that they will because

I've heard some really good Pitches on how some

fans would handle her using the situation that

they've already been given and Making it work

and it's just something that they haven't really

addressed yet, and I hope that they do an apology

I'd take a brief retcon and apology at this point.

Part of my deal at this point is just that it's

been going on so long. Yeah, they have ignored

it for too long. You've run out of time to do

something clever. Yeah. Now you need to do something

human. Yeah. You need to be decent people. You

need to cowboy up, say you're sorry and start

doing the right thing. And if you can't find

the perfect way to fit that into your continuity

well if DC can pop out a new 50 whatever every

six months I bet everyone will get over it it's

been two years dude this is also the reason why

you put you brought up a really good point if

they can't find a really good way to make it

work and that's probably why they've ignored

it for right now Until they have until they can

find a really good way to make it work It's kind

of untouchable and and I never do you know which

seems to be the trend Suck it up and deal with

it. I think that With the writers that we have

right now There's so much that they need to do

to put it in a right place that I think it will

be addressed it at some point because like you've

pointed out already and we've already agreed

with you, that there's a lot that the writers

are having to write and dig out from what was

already established. I think that once they have

that in a good place and they have the confidence

of the readers to continue, that they will eventually

address it. It would make sense. The nails would

have been a perfectly good excuse. True. Frankly,

I think if they just started including female

characters next week and never said anything

about it It'd be like six people and Chris McFeely

would complain An issue to ends on Stark Starscream

on stage. Yep He's joining the Autobots Yeah,

well, no, no, he's he's He's joining the government

as a Decepticon he's the deceit he wants to be

the decepticon representative yeah so yeah it

should be just saying there's a difference there

he's certainly not saying he's an autobot and

his these big non -factionary schtick is not

for you know we're not gonna see that for a year

yeah so it's just an important distinction there

it's it's it's one of the if not the best moment

in this entire trade. It's pretty brilliant.

It's brilliant how he just pulls it off. I mean,

you know, he didn't mean to do that. Wasn't a

plan. He just all he had to do is just be honest.

That's all he had to do. He just saw the moment

was like, you know what? I think I should stand

up in front of all these people and tell them

I think I should be in charge. Yeah. And see

what happens. And he just does it, man. He just

sees his opportunities like, you're right. I

should be in charge, Bumblebee. He's like, what?

This yep, yeah, it's a wonderful moment We also

get RC assassinating rat bat. So he's out of

the picture. Yay More no more rap and and Prowl

gets a chance to take out, you know to take out

his anger issues on sky warp So yeah, that was

nice. We got the throwback to the cane, which

you know, yeah Just that's existence. I like

the stick with can you really consider? That

can you really consider the throwback since they

both incidences happen in the same issue? Do

they? Yep. Yeah, it is. It's definitely a throw.

Shout out to it because his things open in exactly

the same way. Yeah. And he says in that scene,

I need to go talk to Wheeljack. I think it's

very clearly meant to be. He went and talked

to Wheeljack. Yeah, I think that's pretty clear

just because the exact similarity of the issue

if his things just electrocuted the guy wouldn't

say that but They're clearly meant to be the

same things The other thing that I think this

issue does that was brilliant is the fact that

we realize very quickly that RC is a little psychopath

She's not just a nice little Assassin specifically

for Prowl She doesn't necessarily follow what

Peral tells her to do. Yeah, I remain unsure.

I mean, even if after reading several, even reading

this a couple of times and there are discussions

about it later and there's a couple of discussions

about it. But I'm still not entirely certain

whether even Peral is sure if he asked her to

kill Rat Banner not specifically. Like, I think

he's totally OK with it. Yeah, because it gets

him out of the way that he didn't care if she

killed him. But I think when she comes up with

like, hey, I cut that bastard up. He's like,

well, did you try and arrest him? And some people

said, like, well, maybe that's just him kind

of sating his conscience or getting his story

straight. And I think it's that too. But when

you talk when he talks about it later and in

this scene, it does seem a little as if he sent

someone with a tendency to kill people to arrest

the guy, knowing that he might get killed. Yeah.

But he even he I don't think is sure whether

he like. Deliberately ordered ratbats assassination

I Really, you know even in his head. I don't

think he ever sat down and like I'm going to

do something subtle So she kills ratbat like

it was more like oh you can't really he's dead

Like I was gonna like, you know cut his wings

off and kick him around the office tonight, but

okay Yes, that works, too. The whole idea that

I don't think he misinterpreted. I think it was

more like Ratbat is going to be a problem. I

will go take care of Scarlet Warp. You take care

of Ratbat. She goes and takes care of it. And

then he finds out. Oh, yeah. Did you try to arrest

him? Because I want to make you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Hope you did try to arrest him, right? She's

not a police officer, right? True, but what that's

the other thing is what did you expect to happen

Prowl? You're asking that question when you when

she's the one that's hiding in the background.

It's straight, you know him it doesn't fit that

he's just getting the story straight because

That's not the story uses true says it's a suicide

and doesn't acknowledge her existence well because

if he did then he would be able to use her anymore

yeah so he doesn't he doesn't he's not getting

his i think he's he is asking like you tried

to arrest him right you know like and then when

he restates that he's like no really just tell

me you tried to arrest him because now i feel

them so what he's saying is that He's basically

telling her that's your cover story. No, no,

no. It's the opposite of that. Lots of people

think it's the cover story, but it can't be the

cover story because it's not the cover story.

He has a cover story. In fact, he needs Starscream

in the end to back him up on it. Not her. Yeah.

That's what we're getting to next. Yeah. In issue

three. Starscream sticks his nose where it doesn't

belong and comes out on top. Yes So for issue

three cover a it's wheeljack. I love this cover.

I think this is a great cover. Yeah, we'll check

Are you it doesn't sound like you're that excited

always happy to see wheeljack So, yeah, like

my enter said issue three starts with prowl basically

saying it wasn't murder He was not murdered.

Evidence suggests suicide. Ratbat fell down an

elevator shaft onto some bullets. Wait, didn't

she use some flamethrower sword? No, she stabbed

him. I was just making a ridiculous assertion.

That's one thing I didn't really get about this

issue. Prowl uses her to assassinate Ratbat.

He then needs Starscream to back up his play

on suicide. And then all of a sudden, Durge is

the fall guy for all of this? Not quite. That's

not where that goes. What happens with The dirt

is just that he survives this explosion, which

I love how they introduce a barrel roll here

is the sixth and expendable aerial bot. And then

it's, it's a, uh, it's an almost Robert Cian

moment. We're like, hi, isn't this guy cool?

Bam. Well now he's dead. But no, yeah dirge's

whole problem here is just that he was standing

next to the thing when it blew up and it makes

people suspicious One of my favorite lines in

this is the you know with metal they go seeing

the explosion metalhawk, you know talks to Prowl

who says it's a Decepticon and he's why assume

it was a Decepticon He says gee a metalhawk every

event of every day the last six million years

mostly He's not wrong I just I don't well that

is what metalhawk doesn't get about the Autobots

Yeah, is every event of every day on the left

and mostly of the last six million years So is

um I assume metalhawk is supposed to be rids

version of drift No No, I mean as far as his

I assume it's this why assume it's that why not

have a Zen personality No, no, he's not Zen.

He's totally he's a political jackass Don't you

think I know he's kind of a yeah Say but he's

a self -centered self -motivated, you know kind

of megalomaniac maniac kind of guy But just in

a very subdued nonviolent kind of way. He and

in fact a lot of his nonviolence is only when

it suits him He you know when it makes the Autobots

and Decepticons look bad and make him look like

he should be in charge. He's all for it I think

what a turmoil shows up at some point. He's like

shoot him shoot him now shoot him twice I don't

like him. It's like oh well you get this guy,

huh? We have to all hang out with Starscream

at you know lunch meetings, but the guy you don't

like Every time I read him trying to why do you

assume this why do you assume that? Every every

time I read metalhawks dialogue. I constantly

think back to drift. I don't know What is annoying

about his dialogue and I think it was driven

some people to dislike him in general as a character

is that his existence kind of depends on His

ability to undermine the position of those who

are in a sensible power Yeah, I the Autobots

and even the Decepticons to some degree because

either one of them even though they're minorities

Theoretically could kick the crap out of the

others so He continuously elevates his position

Solely really by making their decisions look

bad. So he's constantly standing there, you know

every time they you know go to the you know change

their oil he's like why why take a leak at three

o 'clock isn't that a terrible time to take a

leak you know like he and this is the funny part

is the fact that we get that issue not too long

from now where he ends up he's the guy that's

having the struggles because he he's the jerk

that he's like okay don't kill people because

it's bad then he's like this guy needs to die

i was like really You're such a hypocrite. He's

self -righteous. That's why people don't like

him. Well, you know, that's one of the things

people don't like people like. It is easy to

stand and just point out every little thing somebody

does wrong and make them look foolish. And he's

constantly doing that to be. I suggested to someone

that's how much someone likes Metalhawk is probably

in a direct, like, inverse proportion to how

much they identify with Bumblebee. You're right.

If you identify with Bumblebee, everything that

Metalhawk says is like totally grating and jerky

and just made to, you know. Or how much you're

willing to tolerate people like that, because

to be honest, for a while there, I actually kind

of did after after I learned a little more about

Metalhawk, I actually kind of got a soft spot

for the guy. And I was sad when he died. But,

you know, you're right. The first five issues.

He does some really jerky things and you just

want him to just take a chill pill dude. Really

take a chill pill Yeah, well, I think you know,

I think he does evolve as a character. I think

especially right at the end He was pretty well

Megatron was trying to kill everyone He was you

know, he was getting and most of the Decepticons

were right there with him, you know Happy as

just they could be to be killing everybody again

that he was finally getting Okay, yeah, maybe

this is a specific problem and actually in that

moment and then get something all overall He

actually is in some ways the best candidate for

a leader for Cybertron as it were and I was sad

because I wanted to be the next leader to be

honest I wanted them to have an election and

elect him I feel like he really he had his character

evolution and he sat that he was standing there

with Starscream and said we We really need to

do things differently and I get it now we can't

just let people run wild but we can't have this

go on anymore and I understand and now I know

what to do to you know rule this planet well

and Starscream was like that's great. You're

right. You're totally right. We we need to stop

being jerks to each other right after I kill

you Get right on top of that but first I have

to blow your abdomen out. First, you're standing

in my way. You're standing in the best possible

position, so I need you out of here. Thank you.

Great. I'm going to do that as soon as you're

dead. More Wheeljack. I got to say, this was

the most episodic of these. Yeah, it is. Because

the entire issue jumps character to character

to character. Well, it's all about Wheeljack.

It is all about Wheeljack. Right, no, it is,

but I'm saying, like... It's an important moment

the Aerobots leave, but like, you know, it is

sort of... This comic could be entitled, you

know, Transformers vs. the Weather. Basically.

Last it was Starscream makes Bumblebee look like

a dip switch, and this is, you know, Wheeljack

vs. the Weather. Yeah. And unsurprisingly, Wheeljack

wins. Yeah, but Starscream gets his little niche

in too because what he does He gets a political

handhold on on where he wants to be and and he's

able to get twice He first he you know endorses

prowls version of what happened to rap at it's

a total He has like a deal with the devil with

prowl in the first 10 seconds, which is like

That's a you know pretty big Political bargaining

chip. He gets there like I'm going to endorse

your lie about murdering a decepticon leader

and your proposal to begin with though Yeah,

well, that's I mean, that's exactly what he says

here. He's you know, he literally is telling

him I'm gonna back you up on this even though

and you're gonna let me in your I Mean or I'm

gonna tell them you killed ratbat. It's a huge

it's a huge, you know He's got Bumblebee under

a barrel just because Bumblebee set himself up

and made himself look stupid in public. Yeah,

but Bumblebee can do that without anybody's help.

Yeah. Bumblebee just happened to make Bumblebee

look stupid on national TV, which he continues

to do later on. But this is the part where he

goes and talks to the guy who's really in charge

and is like, if you don't back off... But something

horribly horribly criminal you've done He doesn't

really know he's done it, but without his endorsement

of his crappy story. He's You know the very least

you know not as well off if that totally screwed

So it's you know that that's his biggest step

as any he takes Towards getting himself in charge

I also think it's also star screams falling point

failing point because later on when we find out

that the Decepticons won't endorse him I was

like, yeah, well, because you could only stretch

it for so far before that little thing that you

think loyalty is there breaks. Well, to participate

in the government, there's an impasse with the

Decepticons, because frankly, what they've always

been against is having a government at all. They

don't really want to fix Cybertron. They want

to kill everybody. And when Starscream, you know,

Starscream, though, Does wanna be in charge.

That's his ultimate goal. And he really doesn't

care how he gets it. And he's coming to the Decepticon

saying, look, we can be in charge. We just have

to not kill everybody, see? And the Decepticons

are looking back, going like, no, dude, we really

do wanna kill everybody. Yeah, because the Decepticons

enjoy killing people. Well, that's all Megatron's

fault now, isn't it? Well, yeah, I think here's

the thing Megatron who's that he's not in this

true true. He is responsible for the way that

they are Yeah, I get it being a decepticon, especially

the IDW versus basically a psychosis It really

is much more about, it's not really about any

political aspiration or any absolute goal. It's

about anger. I think even that is just an excuse

in a subterfuge. A theoretical political goal

is only what they were angry about. They never

really had a thing that was what we would do

better. It's only, we really, really, really

hate this. And I think it's any government that's

in charge. I really think that for the most part,

the Decepticons, a lot of them anyway, maybe

some of them are over it, you know, six million

years later. But the reason they're all uniformly

violent, you know, psychotic bastards is because

at heart, it's not about being in charge or stopping

some injustice or perceived or otherwise. It's

really about Lashing out. It's not about getting

something. It's about taking for revenge revenge

for what you feel was taken away They want vengeance

on the universe for their problems Yeah, and

until they get it happy and if they get it happy

It's a psychosis star scream doesn't have it

He just wants to be in charge and has no morals,

which is why he's with the Decepticons, but they

have no morals because They don't really want

anything but to shoot at you So here's God here's

the empaths then Let's say that they do that

and then what Megatron gets to be in charge?

Then he is gonna set up a government one way

or the other they Even if it's just a government

of one guy saying until they try and kill him

and they'll and He'll he'll grind them into nothing

until they shoot back which actually is exactly

what happens in all hail Megatron Yeah, he doesn't

he doesn't want to be in charge when he wins.

He immediately tries to get them to start shooting

at him He doesn't like picks a fight with Devastator

Yeah, I think that's not true in all of transformers

kindness, but in IDW Megatron's vision is mostly

psychotic He really really just wants to shoot

everybody when you said that they want nothing

the first thing I first thing I think of it is

is Friggin Buford from Phineas and Ferb in the

Wizard of odd episode. I want nothing Megatron,

you know, they they kill you know, what's you

know, Zeta prime or whatever Megatron immediately

start shooting at prime or adopt, you know optimus

Orion Pax Whatever they're calling him in this

version. Whatever the hell his name is this this

week, you know This week, you know, it's just

like great. What's the next biggest target you?

You know and the worst thing prime could have

done in a lot of ways was start calling himself

prime because it was just yeah That's exactly

what I wanted to shoot at. Yep When you put yourself

as prime you just painted target on your chest

or on your back of your head or wherever Yeah,

it just means that now the foot now you're it

now. I've got to kill you. Yeah We just killed

the Senate in the prime. Come on, man I love

this confrontation between wheeljack and Starscream

in here Starscream says, I served my people,

Wheeljack. I was good at it, and I could be again

if I got my Seekers together. Wheeljack's rebuttal?

What Seekers? Your squad is gone. Thrust and

Ramjet are dead. Skywarp is in jail. Durge is

in the medical bay. Thundercracker is who knows

where. Yep. What I love about this exchange is

that... When Starscream says he could get his

seekers together they only Really Reference the

seekers we all know and sometimes love they don't

reference some Made -up internet names. Oh, hey

this this vehicle is Bob. This vehicle is Steve,

you know You know, there is no prime in here

And just And then we go back to... Well, we stick

with Starscream and Wheeljack for a bit, and

then it goes back to Bumblebee. Yep. At this

point... Because he would be... Oh, go ahead,

sorry. Well, we're only three issues into this,

and I find Bumblebee so boring. Well, the only

thing that really does end up, like I said, continuing

at this point, three issues in, the only reason

why I, at this point, was continuing to read...

The biggest hook that I had was the prowl situation.

So we get the next issue and that's about it.

It's about him. It was well, it was put in the

right place. And then on top of that, you know,

it's the prowl what's going on with prowl that

really does carry the story for quite a few issues.

And then, you know, Then it turns into let's

see how metalhawk and Starscream can interrupt

Bumblebee's day and that's even better Well,

I just feel like what you're experiencing Mike

is every time it Bumblebee crosses the page.

It's like oh this again That's exactly that's

exactly the feeling Honestly when I sat down

to read this about a month ago because I read

it, you know, we're releasing this in September,

so I read this in August when we recorded it.

But when I sat down and read this, and by the

time I got to the page before RC is sitting looking

at the explosion, the page where Starscream is

ruining Bumblebee's day, I was like, okay, I

gotta get up and get something to drink or I

gotta go do something else and come back to this.

It's kind of like me and watching Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad is such a long, slow, sad draw on

a cigarette that I just can't stick with it after

watching three seasons of that show. This is

the same thing. I don't dislike Bumblebee. I

mean, I thought it was damn good that he had,

like I said earlier, he had the cojones to press

that button because it's not something you ever

would think the Bumblebee character would do.

But just like, Every other shot it's like, you

know There was one shot where he was telling

somebody to shut up or not now or we'll deal

with it late He's one of those leaders. We'll

deal with it later. Yeah, I can't deal with it

now. We'll deal with it later Well, you know,

this is the here he is again, you know, we see

him you're saying you feel like this burden it's

like I'm a book and at a point in the comic book

to turn the next page, you know I'll turn them

back in the mini fridge the bumblebee mini fridge

that that you know That he has to carry around

It's sitting in one corner of the room and we

get to that page You have to walk over and pick

up the mini fridge and carry it over the other

side of the room It's not that heavy, you know,

but it's heavy You got to get it to the other

side of the room and you look at that page and

every time you do that You think about well,

maybe I'll just do that later, right? and then

we get the comic book shop the next week you

look at it and think am i gonna have to carry

that fridge across the room like three times

this this issue maybe i'll just get that one

because i really don't want to carry that fridge

around anymore and i think that's what a lot

of people were experiencing with with r i d because

it's a good story there's a lot of good characters

and written really well but it does have this

track There's a drag in it and I think Bumblebee

is only part of that, but he's definitely the

worst part. And I'm not even sure if we would

have gotten rid of him yet. In terms of this

trade, I don't see how Kosta could have gotten

rid of him in five issues. I'm only bringing

it up because we're in issue 20 and he's still

not gone. You're talking about John, right? Not

Kosta, you said Kosta. I'm sorry. It's all right.

It has the Kosta drag. Yeah, the cost of drag

John is still it's it's cost us drag i'm talking

about now. It's robert's burden Robert you mean

barber barbers barbers pretty god Between rattrap

and wow, I think there aren't 10 books. You're

having a rough day aren't you? This is what really

carries rid is the fact that they are covered

in conflict That's what carries it Because just

as soon as one conflict feels like, I really

don't want to read that again, they bring in

another conflict and then another conflict on

top of that. So it's like, OK, maybe this conflict

right here isn't carrying it. But we have so

many conflicts that we are juggling here. What

carries the story is the fact that it's all conflict.

And see, that's what's so great about it, because

it is. Rodimus and a rag tag bunch of Autobots.

went off to in search of a myth and there's only

so many people at least as far as i can tell

from reading you know first 19 issues of more

than meets the eye because i've yet to read 20

as of this recording but you know it's one of

those things where they left that leaves everybody

else and instead of the message of I am Optimus

Prime. We are here on Earth. Come see us. It's

now, I'm Bumblebee. We're here on Cybertron.

Come home. You know, and it's everybody. That's

why there's so much conflict in RID. You have

so many different characters to choose from of

who's gonna have the next conflict, whether it

be Prowl, whether it be Metalhawk, whether it

be Starscream, whether it be Ironhide and the

Dinobots, which will be next week's issue. But,

uh, but yeah, no, I really like the, how this

one actually ends with Bumblebee and Starscream.

I thought that was great. Yeah. No, that, that

conversation made sense in the, um, well, you

know, there's a lot of prowl and Starscream keep

everything float, but you know, this is the,

you know, Starscream, you know, really owns this

situation and takes out and gets himself, you

know, where he needs to be here. Yeah. And there's

some story set up for future stuff in here, too,

as well. Well, could any of the other characters

be that character, though? I mean, because, like,

to an extent, this is the way I've always looked

at Bumblebee is he's that guy that's kind of

on the positive side. He's optimistic. So, you

know, he's not that cynical type that's not going

to trust you. He is in his nature, very trusting.

So putting him as leader gives him that. That

that element because it's already naturally there

for him to be able to say, you know what? I regret

this but I'm gonna trust What Starscream just

did because he did do the right thing Yeah, but

I think you could have just as easily done. Let

me say again I don't know how they to get rid

of him quick enough to get him out of here. No,

they wouldn't know Yeah, but ironhide could easily

have been this guy Not exactly the same way Right

see now I see iron hide it bludgers. I Blunt

object, you know That's because you didn't finish

reading Because I know you've read it I know

you've read it, but I just reread it like right

before we started and I was I was thinking this

too, that maybe Ironhide was a little too hippied

out the way they've done him to be effectively

leader or be like Bumblebee is, but he could,

in fact, frankly, at the end of this book could

have taken over. He could have. But if you read

his bit at the end, he says the right stuff.

He says the kind of stuff that the intelligent

leadership, you know, actual. Compromising things

that Bumblebee badly does any but if he's plausible

with it people listen to him because he's iron

-hide that wasn't that wasn't really established

until you got into this because i'm assuming

that we've had that whole vision thing which

was it which was just division one of the vision

thing only is the frankly only just what neuters

him from being leader now And I don't I'm not

true, but it also softened him. I think in a

sense where you're like, oh, he actually does

sit and think about things because, you know,

you wouldn't think that he's the contemplate

contemplating type. But he kind of does need

a little bit of that to be a leader because you

have to have moments where you, you know, are

thinking about this thing. The issue with the

fifth issue of this book really makes a great

case for him being that guy. But then he's not

politically in a position to be that guy, though.

Yeah, but he's still much more plausible. It's

hard to even look at that and think, why would

Bumblebee continue to be a leader when this guy

was standing next to him? There's too many people

standing next to Bumblebee who more plausibly

make a leader. I think we all know there are

people who are like, you know, alphas in situations

and people who aren't. Yeah. You know, when you

stand in a room, one of them is going to be in

charge and the other is just is not. And Bumblebee

is constantly standing in a room with like six

alpha transformers, half of which are on his

side. And the other half is in charge. And it's

not plausible to us as people because we know

that would never happen. That that person would

demure. Well now that we got through the first

nine or twelve whatever issues 13 14 15 I could

see iron hide being that leader I can see my

five by five. He makes it very clear He'd be

much better than bumblebee and frankly even for

the story He could have achieved all the same

things the difference is it would have been plausible

And that wouldn't be a drag on the book. I mean,

some of what I'm saying, some of what I'm saying.

He would have put up with Starscream and Metalhawk

doing their thing. He would have just knocked

Starscream out. No, no, no, no. He's the one

who tells Bumblebee to take all the implant chips

out. True. But then at the same time you also

when Starscream and Metalhawk are standing around

Manipulating around Bumblebee playing their little

games Getting him all torn up in and all twirled

around in that iron I would have just said you

know what cut the crap and get the hell out of

here Bumblebee says that too. The difference

is that it's totally out of character That's

kind of exactly what I'm saying He would have

been the way better the way that I am now seeing

iron hide Starscream and Metalhawk Starscream

and Metalhawk are They're not their characters

specifically are interchangeable, but the way

I'm now seeing them Starscream is either Larry

or Curly and Metalhawk is either Larry or Curly

and Ironhide is Moe. Spread out! This is gonna

be an ongoing discussion, people. So if you're

getting tired of me and Andrew hashing it out

about Bulby... We will continue after this The

only thing missing from robots in disguise number

three cover be is a crown on Starscream's head

Yeah, come on Casey. You could have put a crown

on there kept the crowns coming up They were

saving there was plenty of time for crown Looking

at is on the robots in disguise cover four We

should have paid more attention to those hypnosis

lines. Yeah in the background. No, this is the

thing This is what gets me about this upcoming

one is We're we're getting our prowl issue, but

we're also saying goodbye to him. Yeah, like

15 issues So I have a little red kind of is like

I really feel like the problem with well, I'll

talk about later. I guess yeah, yeah so Ender

is this cover a lie as well because We've seen

bombshell in a couple of other covers. We've

seen him in the book. I think maybe once but

like This bombshell actually I don't remember

if bomb this more of a swindle issue than it

is bombshell No, it's plenty of bombs, but it's

not okay No bombshell doesn't there's lots of

lies in this issue, but which are perpetrated.

There's a there's too many frankly in a lot of

ways they really kind of Overdid it I think with

that Yeah, like It's not proud anymore. He didn't

kill. He didn't kill bombshell. He didn't kill

the construct I know you know, I'm just saying

it's a lot of it's a lot of retcons and It was

planned from the beginning though, but even though

we're visually seeing all their heads explode

for us the audience It's a bit of a cheat to

do all of those things completely like It was

all Batman cereal where you know like from like,

you know the 40s At the end of one, he's running

up this fire escape, right? And they cut to a

dummy sitting on the fire escape, and they drop

a big flaming fire escape on the dummy. I mean,

it hits him. And when you come back to the serial

the next week, they show the same shot, except

Batman jumps off, and then the thing falls. And

it was like, your cliffhanger is misleading,

you know, when you actually show it hit him.

I thought this was brilliant. I thought it was

brilliant. They show their heads explode. You

know, but they didn't it's like But we're not

gonna explain why that was, you know the reason

why I asked Ender if this cover was a lie with

bombshell on it is because Transformers Prime

Beast Hunters number four is a lie on the cover

because there are no Insecticons in that issue

whatsoever prime everything on the cover was

a lie Except once I think when they just showed

the DinoBots, I think that was okay. Otherwise

pretty unilaterally. So yay Swindle! I love Swindle.

Swindle should get his own miniseries. How did

he even survive that explosion? Very carefully.

Like hi, my name is Derrick and I have a life

of woe for Shaq. Wheeljack issue against the

weather? Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I think he

just was really, really lucky. Yeah, he was just

nearby. If you read the description of what the

extremely localized little bursts of energy.

So like literally at the edge of that pool of

light, there was not that much destruction around

it. Yeah. It just got bigger after that so the

fact that it was small enough that it hit one

guy and killed him But you know it was more people

that got hurt, but you know There were two Autobots

that died Yeah, so that was it was much smaller

it gets bigger from that point on it was just

the first like cough Then then dirge sees something

that he shouldn't and this issue and it just

follows him around for the next 12 hours. The

first of many. He sees a bunch of things he shouldn't

in a row and then the last of them. Because really,

like, was it page two here? You see something

you shouldn't. Yep. It's going to be a habit.

Yep. And then the little wallflower assassin

joins up again. Yep. And this is where we get.

You missed. Wait, this is a political book and

you're skipping. Starscream's big political move

in the first 10 seconds. Yep. Oh, okay. Again,

making Bumblebee look stupid on TV. Yep. He wants

everybody. Yeah. He takes the stage and he takes

the limelight away from Metalhawk who's been

like expertly making himself look so good. Now

he's got to put up with Starscream that makes

him look a little less so good. Because he's

so charismatic that he's got to put up with that

and the big thing that's working not force Metalhawk

is the fact that he's a jerk and Starscream doesn't

come off as a jerk. He's just dripping with caress

charisma. So yeah, I'm actually kind of Surprised

that he's not sit in the background going who

invited him here You're doing it wrong It's a

girl. It's a great shot of what we've been talking

about. Like, you know, where is the not alpha

dog in this shot? Yeah But what Starscream does

is just stands there, and again, because he can

just totally overshadow Bumblebee, he says, and

of course we'll be having elections in five minutes,

right? And removes all agency from Bumblebee

as leader. So the only reason why they're having

an election is because Starscream got on stage

and said, hey, guess what? We're going to have

elections. Vote for me. I think if Prowl were

on stage, we're like, we'll have elections when

I say so, jackhole. Now get back in your seat.

But that's the thing, he wasn't sure. He's taking

care of the story warp. For purposes of the story,

Ironhide would have been just as befuddled. Yeah,

elections are good. I like elections. What's

an election again? And Ender is right. This is

so like high school. This entire trade is just

like high school. Oh, let's have prom. Who's

going to be prom king and queen? Oh, I don't

know. The guy with the crown? Yeah. Too bad Casey

didn't draw it on him. If this is high school,

look at this shot. We have Starscream and Bumblebee

and Metalhawk. Which one of them is going to

be class president? Yeah, really. One of these

things just doesn't belong here You know, and

which one of them is like the kid from the special

needs class who's up there to be polite? Oh,

come on. You're being really mean. Yeah Really

ender I You know what a distinction Enders loud

is the we hear the phrase of the girl next door

bumblebee is the boy next door In culture, isn't

there a distinct difference between the desirability

of the girl next door versus the boy next door?

That's not a compliment. It would be a good thing

for the girl, right? But not the boy, right?

Yeah. Okay. Well, I get a question. What is Andrew

Griffith smoking? Seriously. With what? Because

Arcee's faceplate helmet Leia Ayres thing changes

every panel she's in. There was a panel in the

last issue where I thought part of her faceplate

was going to turn into the Optimus Primal faceplate

from Beast Wars Season 1, and now it's more set

back along her cheeks than almost basically running

over her lips. I think that might be him just

making it work a little bit better. I'm not complaining

about it. Casey Coller does it in the way that

Andrew Griffith does it. It's the same image.

I didn't even see it, but looking at them both,

it's a little difference, but I think it's more

just a difference in artist. Or it could be a

difference in angles, too, because the other

shot that I saw in issue three, it was more of

a straight -on headshot, like you're looking

right at the camera, and it might be more pronounced.

I'm not complaining about the art. I'm just wondering

why it's consistently changing with her design.

Frankly, we've had several different artists

so far in this trade, and I think the consistency,

considering that they're different artists, has

been remarkable. Oh, no, it has. You know, yeah.

It takes people out. And I think these look very

much alike, even though the artists are shifting,

which is really cool. I think they're doing a

great job of their work. The first five issues,

at least with this volume, it's Andrew Griffith

is the artist and the different covers are done

by Casey. Is that what it is? Yeah. And Josh

Perez is doing all of the covers. It was really

solid for the first five issues. I was thinking

it was because the way they write these on here,

I was thinking they were switching the covers

inside. No, the covers switch. The actual books

do not. OK. It might just be like I like you

said different angle and he might have just been

Evolving the design to make it work a little

bit better for what he was trying to do This

is additional art by Casey collar in the front.

Yeah. Yeah Well, I think Griffith is usually

you know, I commented on how consistently he

draws everything so I really love that I'm a

big I'm a big fan is yeah. No, I mean, I'm enjoying

it I'm just wondering like we've I've seen RC

at several different angles throughout this trade

And just her whole head, it seems like it changes

no matter what angle she's at or what light or

shadow she's in. That's really, I mean, it doesn't

take away from my enjoyment of seeing a psychopathic

RC, but it just, it's weird to me. I think Frank,

I think her helmet design. Wasn't working quite

as well as one would hope I think that's why

I think like you said those shadows and such

I think those could we're making it change a

lot there may Didn't contract and I think maybe

he's just tightening it up a bit here Yeah, just

tightening up the design a little I think I mean

looks better than it did before I never notice

improvements Like when you fix something suddenly

and it's not the way it was before if it's better,

I'm happy I go on with my day, you know, you

never have to explain to me why something sucks

less. Agreed. Agreed. It's like it's better.

Good. Let's go. playing the the conscience for

Prowl because he just keeps on taking it to the

next notch the next notch which in fact I think

is his biggest failing because not failing in

the story I'm just saying failing as a as an

individual because the conflicts are wearing

on him because he's out of his element in the

sense that now he has to trust a whole lot of

Autobots that are Decepticons which So far, they've

set it up as he's kind of been the guy that has

to look over his shoulder at the auto at the

Decepticons, make sure that they're doing what

they should be doing right. I'm not sure Prowl

is trying to learn how to trust the Decepticon

so much as he doesn't figure out a way to kill

all of them without anyone noticing. Figure out

a way to get rid of them so that he doesn't have

to worry about them all the time, because they

are essentially doing things wrong and he does

not want to have to be working with them. Well,

I think Prol is just, he's a worrier as he is

apt to be. Frankly, I think Arcee is just kind

of telling him like, you don't care that I killed

those people. If you cared that I killed those

people, I wouldn't like you so much. I like you

because you kill people without asking questions

about it. Yeah, so she can do her thing. Be quiet.

I'm trying to ask the questions. It says I have

to ask to be a good person. Says it right here

in the manual. Yes, that is so right, but because

of that he sets himself in a situation where

he kind of puts himself Vulnerable and that's

what happens in this issue Makes him make some

vulnerable which then gets hidden as if it's

a strength that he's turning this into now I'm

just gonna cross sides, right? I think it's interesting

that you know, we see this later on with the

construct icons how You know, as much as we think

of Prowl as being too uncharismatic to be leader,

the most capable people seem to really flock

to him for his, like, absolutism. You know? The

things that make him untenable to most people,

RCE and the Constructicons, who are, you know,

very goal -focused people, are all about Prowl.

Like, dude, that's rock. That rocks. Let's just

run him over with a bulldozer. You're right.

I didn't mean it that way, mostly. His name is

skydive Yeah, second the name jokes all the good

names are taken. Oh James we love you Yeah, John

James is the one that coined that phrase. Yeah.

Oh, okay. Yeah, okay Okay, so dirge Like we said

he he's got he sees something. He's not supposed

to he sees a murder and he's the only witness

So that brings of course prowl to his doorstep

to find out what the heck is going on Yep, and

we get that whole eye change thing Yeah, that's

um, yeah I was right. I was right about the eye

color Because back in the day that I said look

is that it yeah, yeah And Chris McFeely says,

oh, that's a mistake. I was like, no, you can't

say that about Josh Perez. He does not make mistakes.

Wait, which eye color? I'm sorry. The red. The

red. Okay. So what did it used to be? It was

yellow, I believe. Oh, okay. It is red in the

first few pages. It is red, but it's either red

or yellow. It's. Go back two pages. It's a mistake.

It's supposed to be red and in these shots back

here where he's saying I didn't see anything,

it should be yellow, which I guess. Sunstorms

should be yellow, too, according to the logic

of the page that shows when it's turned off,

because they go it and that when they go from

yellow. Too red. Yellow when they're under control.

And frankly, in terms of the lie, somebody else's

eye color doesn't change. But wait a minute,

there is change in the eye color. There's a yellow

circle inside the eye when they're being controlled.

No, no. If you go to the one where he goes from

being controlled to going back to normal, they're

yellow. Yellow, yellow. If anything, I'd say

that maybe that was like they were yellow for

a moment. You know what? That's probably what

it is. It's not that your eye changes when that

happens. Maybe his eyes are just supposed to

be flashing as the cerebral shell explodes. They

only are flashing for that moment. They're not

saying that they have been yellow because he

was being controlled. They're saying. During

that moment where it was being disconnected and

his systems were rebooting or being flooded with

information his eyes flashed So really that's

just supposed to be a flash of color a flash

of yellow in his always red eyes They are supposed

to be read everywhere else. They only flash yellow

when it gets turned off Because otherwise Prowl's

eyes should be yellow for the rest of this book

Yeah, that's true not till the very end no No,

he's supposed to get it right before he shoots

bombshell. I like how they make bombshell a mini

con versus just having him transform and be a

giant insecticon shooting cerebro shells everywhere.

No, the cerebro shell just looks like him. What

I was meaning by the eye color is that he's not

he's saying I didn't see anything because he

doesn't want to say for one because he does remember

what he saw. He doesn't want to say what he saw

because he knows he's gonna be screwed if he

does No, he's saying I didn't see anything because

he has a cerebral shell in and he is being mind

-controlled to say No, he's not. He's not forgetting.

He's just saying I don't didn't see anything

over and over again because he that's that's

the only command Bombshell gave him because he

didn't want him to say what he saw but then they're

just staying that way Where does he have yellow

eyes? They're not fully next page right where

he's got him with a chain He's got a yellow eyes

there, and then he goes to the next panel. He

still has yellow eyes flashings a mistake or

it's It's not a mistake One of those is a mistake

it's not a mistake Nothing happens to him in

between and then he has yellow eyes there I need

to bring Josh Perez on explain why he did that

Sure if he has a good reason to be happy to hear

it But I'd still tell him it doesn't make any

visual sense and it looks more like a mistake

If there's another one with yellow eyes, no,

it does go yellow at a point, but it's not yellow

back here and Neither or something because he's

already been given the the command So it's just

then why are his eyes yellow twice later on when

he's not being given the command We just supposed

to stand there because that's all that he was

told to do is to stand there Look either. He

should have yellow eyes already or he shouldn't

there's no middle section there One of those

is a mistake Okay, let's talk about blur okay

blur they happen it's okay it's just like a character's

eyes in a comic i would never have noticed it

if you dude you're gonna make her head explode

stop it i wouldn't even notice the mistake it's

such a little mistake i like blur's alt mode

in this i don't necessarily like his robot mode

that much he looks like he has wings on the side

of his head Yeah, I don't like that blur doesn't

fly he just reminds me of like Hermes or something

The sad part about it is that he is actually

really good at doing his job But because of what

happens in this issue He ends up leaving the

security group that he was working for and saying

you know what screw y 'all I'm going home, and

he opens his own bar You know his alt mode it's

funny. I think his design here. It's kind of

an amalgam of Well, they wanted to have they

wanted to have a Cybertronian alt mode, which

I think is cool And then you know this is because

this isn't a pack -in comic But he does but he

still bears some resemblance to I think what

was it contemporary? Blur toy which as I recall

was made out of a Drift toy so those big wings

on the side of his head or sort of an adaptation

of the things on Drift's head. Yeah. And that's

why I think he looks like that. They kind of

amalgamated that toy and gave him a more cyber

and his G1 toy and gave him a Cybertronian design.

I see where it comes from. It's too, you know,

and that's what happens. I saw more panels of

him. Once I saw more panels of Blur, I got used

to his robot mode. But that first panel that

we see him transform. It I. Like his alt, I mean

his alt mode looks really you know his alt mode

here on the panel where he says Well, he'll have

to outrun me on that panel when he transforms,

you know what it looks like a very very skinny

2011 Thunder tank I know what it is. It's an

amalgamation of his G1 appearance and his animated

appearance. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. That's

what it is. I was just going to say the wings

even make it look like he's got a hawk on his

face, too. It's like he's hawk hawk man. I think

those little winglets again, I think those were

like something that popped up on the toy. So

they put them on the even on the vehicle mode

to make sense of it. Yeah. Where they came out.

It's interesting how many things it's actually

a part of. Yeah, it really, really is. I really

wouldn't mind a Prowl toy that turned into what

he turns into in here. Yeah, that'd be kind of

cool. Learn and Prowl is all about much in this

book, right? Yeah, it's very cool. So they find

out that Prowl sees it bombshells up to his,

you know, no good again. So he goes after him

and actually even bombshells eyes change color.

Hmm. Anyhow You really want to open that can

of worms again? I think what he's trying to do

is just make it look like somebody else is controlling

him which actually I wonder now I would it's

the only I'd give an increment that could be

the Well, the subtle hint that he is taking control

of somebody else I don't know if that doesn't

make any sense. Actually, there's a there's a

couple of parts of that that Don't quite make

sense with the Narrative as it stands Okay, I

can put this to rest. This is not a mistake.

It is bombshell with the Cerebro shell. There's

a page after the whole blur The whole blur thing

and then the RC thing two pages after the blur

transformation you see dirge at the bottom of

the page With a cerebral shell attached to his

neck electrocuting him his eyes are yellow and

then the cerebral shell backs off And his eyes

are red. So why aren't they read before then?

That's why see either the one or the other is

a mistake Okay, if his eyes were really I think

the mistake isn't back there and it's not on

the other pages I think looks like six pages

he has it right and there's one page. He has

it incorrect bring josh on so he can explain

this why would it change especially because they

go to such pains to duplicate panels to show

the change later if it was going back and forth

this whole time why would you need a drama shot

of it going back and forth i don't know if josh

is on right now do you want me to go find him

I don't know. I don't know enough. Are you serious?

How serious are you? Well, I mean, listen, I'm

willing to argue the point, but I don't really

want to, like, start calling colorists up just

so I can give them crap about changing the eye

color between two pages. What am I, Chris McFeely?

And see, I didn't even really realize, because

I was asking earlier, what is Ender talking about

about the color change earlier back on the On

the earlier page and I said there were just bring

this up This is about as bad as the whole bumblebee

shouldn't be in charge bubblebee is in charge

Discussion that we're gonna continue to have

so originally when I brought it up about the

eye color change Or somebody brought it up. I

don't know is one of us. There's only three of

us here So it had to be one of us, but you know

I thought it was, I thought you were talking

about the fact that there are yellow pupils in

his red eyes. That's what I thought you meant.

And then I finally saw, Oh wait, you're right.

His eyes do go all the way yellow. And I think

it's just the mind control. That's really all

it is. Matrix has him. So on their way to find

bombshell, Prowl does bring his nice little assassin

and they end up having a conflict and assassinating

a few people. And I love the fact that Prowl

is like, you don't have to kill him. He's like,

oh, is he a friend of yours? No. Well, then she

just saw somebody right there just casually like

it doesn't matter. Great. He doesn't really care,

though. He really doesn't care. Yeah. He just

needs to show everybody that he does. He cares

just enough to say, hey, don't do that. Geez.

I have to hide the bodies, and I really don't

like having to hide bodies. It's fun for you,

but somebody has to clean up afterwards. Yeah,

exactly. But in the meantime, Prowl did send

Blur off to find other people, which ends up

being that he finds the construct bots. Construct

a cons that end up, you know beating the crap

out of him and they have to go save him Yeah,

yeah, so he sends RC and then he chases after

bombshell and then this is the problem here I

It's not the giant problem. I mean it This is

supposed to be like this is Prowl's issue and

I think even you know I read the things in the

back and they were you know, they talk about

how Robert says like oh you get more insight

into problem next issue because it's like Prowl's

issue, right except So it doesn't really matter.

You're not really going to get any insight into

Prowl's actions because as of this page where

he's shooting bombshell, we're not going to actually

see Prowl again until like what? Issue 16? Yep.

Something. He's technically gone from the series

now, which is kind of disappointing because I

was, you know, I'd say my big hook in here was

Prowl and, you know, and Starscream. But to find

out that, like, I've been reading the bombshell

in Starscream book. For you know six months retroactively

disappointing. And you know and they do they

do one thing they do right they do nicely and

is you know though maybe the panel before it

would've been nice is his last. Internal monologue.

Blurred is in that point he doesn't think anything

else for the rest of the issue if he continued

to think things I would've been really annoyed.

Actually there's also I'd like to. Where is it

in here? I point out when he first in his model

because there's a panel in here that's like,

you know, possibly my favorite of the whole series

in some ways because I'm bitter. But, you know,

he gets here. There's a panel earlier on when

they're I think they're still no, they're not

the blast site. No, that's the other one. They're

they're at the garbage. I'm looking at the body

and. Prowl thinks back on earth. I thought humans

changed me and I thought I was better because

of it then I met spike Witwicky and I love that

panel and Amy, can you can you guess why I love

that panel? Yeah, because it completely negates

spotlight Prowl. Exactly. Wipes it clean out

of Prowl's character. Never needed to be. The

worst issues ever. So this is where Ender consistently

brings up the point that I don't need you to

tell me why he stopped sucking. Right. Just wanted

to stop sucking. Right. Well, that's exactly

what happens here. In that one panel, in that

one little, you know, top of the page there,

Barbara manages to do what I wanted that Costa

did the opposite of and failed, you know, of

in that issue and failed to do for 20, 30 more.

He makes Prowl stop sucking. He made Prowl stop

sucking the minute he started writing this series.

He didn't bother to explain it until now. But

I never questioned it either, because when things

stop sucking, it's just OK. Well, the one thing

I did like is the fact that we have a little

bit of consequence too because I'm all about

don't don't ignore it Just just have a consequence

and the consequence is he just doesn't trust

anybody because of everything that went in there

But you know, that's already been Prowl you if

you go back and read Shadow play when when James

is writing him or you know other places where

he's writing him. That's the way he's always

has been It's just like you said this is the

point where John says this is why proud doesn't

suck anymore is because now he's where he's supposed

to be again and here's Only needs you know to

make like two panels of excuse for it For the

fact that he's like I believe you yeah Believe

you then he's you know, he shoots him in the

face. Well supposedly Yeah, and the whole idea

is that when he feels doubt creeping in he thinks

about spike wiki and the lesson that he learned

there Which is don't trust anyone which is don't

listen to anything. I said in spotlight brow

I really really feel like that is a clearly barber.

He's a master of Fixing continuity. It's very

clear. He pays a lot of attention to it And that's

why we're stuck with Bumblebee so long. But he,

you know, he really wants to fix it. And this

is one of those instances where he's like, I

can't let it go, but I don't want to keep writing

Prowl crappy. So now I'm just going to say a

few things and now Prowl is fine again. And that's

all it takes. That's all it takes. You know,

Internet boards do not light a flame with questions

like, man, why do they make this so awesome?

This sucks now. It's just too cool. Well, except

maybe. You know, I just you know, that's well,

you don't know written so well Really sick of

this pithy dialogue. We've been sitting here

for two hours going through this trade and the

more and more I think about it I've just come

to the realization that even though I think it's

Strange and weird that bumblebee is the quote

-unquote leader figurehead whatever you want

to call him honestly Making Optimus Prime leave

was the best thing they could have done. It's

kind of like Dan Slott. Switching Ock and Spidey's

brains and having Ock be Spider -Man in Superior

Space. It really is. It's something different

because what's the one thing everyone, not just

us as Transformers fans, but everyone knows about

Transformers. There's Optimus Prime and Megatron.

And they're always fighting. Me and one of them

are anywhere in these five issues. But yet, we're

really entertained with what's going on. Exactly.

Well, in 10 minutes, Hasbro's going to order

them back anyway, though. You know what? I think

Hasbro is just happy enough with what they're

doing at IDW that they'll just say, you know

what? We trust you guys. Whatever. Go for it.

Have fun. That's only marginally true. You know,

I disagree with that shadow play and the upcoming

optimist in this book were requested by Hasbro

and I don't think Telling them what to do with

all the pack -ins, but they're paying for those

pack -ins. They're not really back for good They

do only understand. Well, no, I think they I

think I think they handled that very well in

these books They didn't just bring him back which

but if IDW said no, we're not gonna go do that

They would be alright with that. I think But

IDW also would love their comics packed in with

that theme. But IDW isn't stupid enough to test

that, and I wouldn't be either. Well, from a

business standpoint, think about it. You get

to find out that all of the comics that you've

been writing for the last couple of bits want

to be used in toy packaging with Hasbro. Are

you not going to go, you know what, I think I

might be able to make a toy, make a comic that'll

fit around that, because I would love to sell

more comics. And make money because that's exactly

what they're not paying for those. It's an economic

decision. And I understand it. They're not paying

for it. If they're comics or comics. And it has.

I would even point out, I noticed the comics

were getting crappier before I even knew there

were packets. You can even read my reviews. I

don't know. I'm referring to it. I don't even

know what the problem is. But I'm like, this

seems forced. Why are they putting these dumb

things in here together? It's notable. It's a

two -edged sword. It really is. It's a two -edged

sword. And we'll get to Ender's point about pack

-ins and everything else when we get to Metro

Titans. Yeah, we should just address it as Ender's

point. All right, so the ending for issue four

is Durge is on the lam. Durge is still in the

wrong place at the wrong time, unfortunately.

And again, if he sees another... another thing

he shouldn't see, which is what happens between

Peral and Bombshell. And then he runs, like a

good little guy should do when you see something

like that. If you can't kill it, you better run

and you better run, run, run, forest run. For

all the running and secret keeping he does for

like the next 10 issues, what's really sad is

he doesn't even really see what happens. No,

he doesn't. If he had that secret, that would

have been a big deal. But it's the point that

he's there. That was your problem. Yeah. Well,

I bet bombshells more concerned that he saw him

Cerebro shell prowl than he is concerned that

he saw prowl shoot bombshell. Yeah. Yeah, it

doesn't matter at the point. The point is that

he's a witness and witnesses need to be destroyed.

Yeah. So if. Issue five is supposed to be from

the point of iron hide Why is iron hide not the

cover or some action shot of eye? Why is it?

the three governmental people Oh, please after

all the beast hunters things we've read with

no nothing for it didn't know all right, I mean

I understand that but Iron hide and I understand

why they did iron hide bumblebee prowl and whoever

the fourth one was wheel jack Wheel jack for

robots in disguise number one covers a through

D for the collage. I understand that and I get

that but why Couldn't you have had some other

shot of? Iron hide whether it's an action shot

whether it's him, you know But I really like

iron hide so far favorite Autobot Really has

his crap together in here he's like going between

differing factions and talking to them Yeah,

like, you know, you don't really have any beefs

with anybody no And I love how he constantly

doesn't want to reveal about his whole i saw

the future thing i thought that they saw the

future thing huh i don't what just what it just

seems kind of i don't know i i guess we'll see

what they turn it into later but as it's it's

just in the sitting there floating around the

continuity the way it is i i find i dislike it

i didn't like that issue so every time they bring

it up i'm just like Okay, whatever. It's like

I'm I'm guessing it has some future meaning but

I certainly don't want that to be the future

frankly, yeah and no, I think that whole comic

that was such a Self congratulatory flagellation

about a run of comics that was dismal So, you

know, I'm sorry. Well, there's although you know

All those panels of uh, it was like these full

page spreads of moments from costas run, right?

And you're supposed to be read it like it's you

know, the stills from the civil war by ken burns

But you know really costas run. It was a little

bit more like the benny hill show That's the

music I heard playing over it. It's like look

at all the dumb stuff. I've done in the last

three years It's like man. I would not be bragging

about that so hard and and just to hear it When

the side story of that is referenced as some

big continuity point, I'm a little concerned.

This is why we just, Costa happened and we moved

on. I was just saying, we could forget Costa

happened and move on. Yeah. You could just never

reference that. I mean, they didn't say that

was Ironhide's vision in the comic. He was just

in it. You could have just moved on and been

like... And that's kind of what Costa was thinking

would happen afterwards. Again, in his bid to

write the last Transformers story. You know,

that was the finishing touch on that. And again,

Robots in Disguise shows you that there's not

just one or two, even though this is Ironhide's

issue, there's not just one or two stories going

on in one issue. There's multiple angles to everything

because we have, because you have to explain

all the, not really explain, but you have to

show all the fallout of the previous issue with

Prowl. And, you know, of course, Bumblebee's

in there as always, but I like it. I think Skylight

should have been on the cover. Yes, but then

that would have been too much of a reveal to

be honest because the covers would have been

Covers of the ones that come out in the solicits

months beforehand So if we had known that sky

bite was gonna be in this issue That is kind

of like a little goodie that I'm glad they sat

on to be honest I think the reason why they put

what they did is just because that wasn't gonna

give any spoilers But it was a nice little hey,

this is what's going on, you know Starscream

and metalhawk and bumblebee. They're all squabbling

And Skybite, Skybite I think is the first character

from another continuity to pop up, which was

really cool. Especially being, you know, from

this bygone era where they didn't have to get

paid to put characters from other continuities

in. Yeah. Oh, god. Lady Rick said that Bumblebee

and Metalhawk and Starscream are all squabbling.

The only thing I can think of is, who's the fourth

golden girl right there? Who would they all be

as the golden girl? they were the golden girls

let's see who would the last golden girl be um

well you got blanche rose dorothy and sophia

sophia is the little one right yeah sophia is

the old sophia is dorothy's mother but sophia

is the one that always says the cool line so

it wouldn't be any three of those sophia would

not be in that group so who do we know that's

got the really snipey lines that we could put

in there um i would just like to clarify Listening

audience that I only vaguely know what they're

talking about Grandparents sometimes watch the

golden girls and because Deadpool occasionally

makes be Arthur jokes Girls back in the day.

I don't remember a lot of it, but I do remember

Sophia being like the best one because she had

all the snipey lines The guy who writes Arrested

Development used to work on golden girls That's

all I know. Okay. All right, so Skybite is a

flying shark with no water. Yeah, he is. It totally

shouldn't work, but it kind of totally does.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. He writes poetry. We find

that. There's a shark here. If they can do it,

it's a Doctor Who. That's the best. Now, just

to give the listeners some backstory here, I've

heard of Skybite. I know there are several Transformers

people on Twitter. He was in the original robots

in disguise. Right the cartoon so it makes sense

for him to be here right and I I agree Even though

that cartoon is utter crap it is I haven't seen

it even I just have everybody telling me that

it's Now I want to watch it because I can't focus

on it for long enough to keep watching it It's

kind of first five issues of prayer episode It

was episode 29 of the pull bag where I had one

of my origins episodes and I talked to a guy

named Joe Reed and I was basically I didn't tell

him about shockwave and his origin, but I was

basically just saying dude You got to read these

books, dude. You got to read these books, dude

You got to read these books I was basically twisting

his arm to read more than meets the eye and robots

in disguise and he asked me robots in disguise

Does it have anything to do with that crappy

cartoon? I'm like not really except for the name

and then i realized oh shit there's skybite but

no i love skybiting this the the poetry thing

again it goes to barber's writing and the characters

all these characters are so different who the

hell expected a flying shark that doesn't have

to be in water to write poetry i mean that's

kind of like swerve with his first blaster yeah

I think a transformer writing poetry is, you

know, if you can get away with that, then the

flying shark is nothing to worry about. Yeah,

that's just a gimmick. And not only that, if

he can write poetry, then somebody else can play

jazz. So there you go. Which happens to be jazz.

As long as Sideburn doesn't show up and want

to be a dance instructor. I think we're doing

OK. Out of the. Yeah, I'm not going to count

prime, but. Out of Dan Gilvazan, Johnny Young

Bosch, and Bumper Robinson are the three main

I know that voice Bumblebee. I can't see any,

I can't hear any of them saying, stay out of

this Starscream. I just like. Yeah. See, it's

just, it's the drag. It's the Bumblebee drag.

Well, no, I'm not. It's the Bumblebag. I'm just

saying that again. you know taking out of it

the bumble baggage uh... all right he has the

bumble baggage that's that's all there is to

it yes what does it do this comic is just not

as fun to read knowing that's not pro It's just

not. Even when he says something cool, I'm just

like, but isn't it a pro? At the time, though,

did you know that? No, no, I enjoyed it at the

time. I wouldn't go back and like take my score

off of it if I'd reviewed it. Yeah. You know

what I mean for it? Because it was so subtle.

But I will say that knowing it, I mean, you know,

I'm someone who rereads comics. There is a reread

value to me. And it's like. retroactively. And

there were things probably that I thought really

didn't make sense for his character that now

do. Yeah. So there, you know, in that way, I'm

reading it. There are other points where I go,

OK, now I get that upset that upset me before.

But now I get that. But there are other points

that I like that now I'm like, I don't want to

read the bombshell comic. Well, that's what made

it so good is the fact that it was subtle. It

wasn't just blatantly Oh, we're really gonna

show Prowl just not being Prowl It wasn't most

of the time it was him being him. He was right

He was saying the words that need to be said

but then he would do things that weren't necessarily

what Prowl would do The way Prowl put it he was

not in control at all this whole time But I like

to think it wasn't just bombshell trying to talk

like Prowl. I like to think it was bombshell

Pointed in the direction he wanted Prowl to go

and then he did them like Prowl would do them

if he meant to do them. But Prowl himself said,

you know, he seemed to express that he was, you

know, cognizant of being controlled and of the

whole time. And he was just completely couldn't

control himself. Yeah. So he's you know, it's

not quite Prowl, but. I'd like to at least think

it's you know, the clever things he says are

our prowl saying clever things and not bombshell

Well, it could just be him saying them, but it's

bombshell that's behind it, right? You know,

he's giving him the push and all he's doing it's

like bombshell or making artificial prowl to

How creepy would that be? He's in your head.

You're saying exactly the way he wants and you're

like, oh it sounds like me, but it's not me Well

bombshell really said it like he was really controlling

Prowl's faculties more than puppeting Prowl's

body. He was like, I was in control of all his

millions of whatever a second he can do, calculations

a second. I had all those things at my disposal,

which indicates to me that he was... bombshell

was essentially like make, you know, made himself

a Prowl to do what he wanted rather than like,

I would like Prowl's left finger to pull this

trigger now. You know, or the fact that he just

say, OK, Prowl's not here. It's bombshell on

the head and it's bombshell talking through.

Right. It's like, no, it was all about it's like

Prowl is stuck inside of his head, seeing a shattered

glass version of him doing what he should be

doing. Yeah, that's what I'd like to think of

it as and that makes it more enjoyable It's a

little that's that's a little bit of conjecture

But yeah, it does fit the way they described

it to some degree. So yeah I'd like to think

it's that because it makes me at least get to

have my prowl fun Which this book really needs

for me to for me to you know, yeah properly Ender

is constantly on the prowl for fun Okay, skybite

writes poetry yay And he's like the new guy that's

the if you came in on this issue and you saw

what the Autobots were doing you'd be like Crap,

why the hell did I come back here? I'm gonna

get in my ship and fly away Is that I mean if

you look at it from skybytes point of view, he's

some pretty tough stuff Like what the hell is

going on here? Frankly, that's what all the nails

Again, this is the reason why I think they're

staying there is because there's enough rumor

going around that the Autobots killed their own

That they're just they're being numb. They're

like, we're stuck here. Why do we come home?

That's been the problem with the whole whole

premise. Frankly, all these all these Transformers

left, right? Especially now, right now. Well,

the other reason why they left is because Optimus

Prime let them go. That's true. I guess. But

when they when they when they left the planet,

it was to avoid these two factions shooting each

other. Yeah. Now, as far as I can tell, they've

been shooting at each other nonstop, particularly

recently. I wouldn't have thought there would

have been anything for Starscream to take over

after Tron's bid. I would have thought it was

like, you know, you guys said the war was over

and we could we could all come home. Well, we've

been talking about it and the war's not over.

So we're going to leave again. You got to give

us a call if, you know, you're ever all dead

or anything. OK, yeah, we'll catch you later.

They're just you know, they are just having their

war for the most part still the premise of you

can come home now to your barren wasteland Doesn't

doesn't seem to hold as much promise. It's not

like cyber trans giving details. It just said

come home That's exactly. Oh, yeah. No, I'm just

saying like they're like, yeah We can come home

to this planet doesn't look anything like our

planet where these Dickweeds are still shooting

at each other And we don't realize the fact that

they actually haven't been on the planet either.

They made it so unlivable. This is the first

time in years that they came back. These guys

are still there. The place is just wrecked. They're

just like, what did you do? It's like Vector

Sigma played a cruel joke and turned all the

nails into ice cream trucks. How do you ground

the whole planet to glass? That's a huge sand

trap right there. Shooting each other this whole

time. Yeah, just it all down eventually it all

just Where's rewind when you need it, you know

for him to plug into everybody and just explain

everything like oh now I see what happens Yeah,

you guys need to all be arrest. No, no. No, I

have a better idea You guys all need a sponsor

a nail sponsor to get home. We need to have an

intervention here Once they're so outnumbered

I have to like metal hawks should just been like

when bumblebee was like I'm in charge He was

just been like no Not not really I'm pretty sure

we're in charge. Well, they were gonna give him

a chance, you know office prime left on that

premise You know, I think if mugatron would have

been there too. They would have kicked him off

as well But I don't get a kick maggot prime off,

frankly I think prime could have gone out in

that balcony and been like shut up Okay, we're

sorry Like you're gonna let him get away with

it like yeah pretty much They might have come

out and complained again the next morning, but

they would have been about the same result Zip

it He finds dead heads and he starts writing

poetry because he saw dead heads Talking and

these scourge heads. They're a bit of a theme

aren't they? You know, I read all of you know,

the heart of darkness stuff and then the I'm

sorry void crap. Yeah, I know really sorry that

I had to you know, give that I get that that's

Yeah, I know. It's not your fault. It's not your

fault. I don't blame you I have other people

that blame me Nice see see I only tell people

read the good stuff. I get away with this crap

But that's apparently when everyone turned into

scourges, right? Yeah kind of no. No. No, it

was before that it was back in The the the issues

after all hail Megatron the coda where more of

them, you know, it was still costa Sorry to say

it was that was still costa because it was a

costa issue that wrote that so yeah What can

be said about that yeah, I Love how um Prowl

is like and you know and Ender's right Ironhide

Basically says You know, take the ID chips out.

You're not serious. No, he was dead serious.

And it was the right thing to do. It really was.

It was a bad idea to begin with. And the only

reason why it happened is because Prowl, he really

is not OK without being out of control. This

is something that... He's a control freak. Now

that Ender's not on the call right now, I guess

I can get away with saying that. Oh, he's back.

Darn it. So he is a control freak. Prowl is a

control freak and the ID chips were his way of

exacting control on a situation that was gonna

wildly move out of his control. The fact that

it's at the point now where Ironhide says no,

we really need to remove those. It really is

because at this point it is really important

that they remove them. It's the festering wound.

in their society at this point that's just picking

away at everything. Nobody can learn to trust

if they are compelled to be doing what mommy

and daddy are telling them to do, or even just

daddy at this point. The chips in terms of a

leadership situation, it was a mistake and a

vindictive thing if you wanted to really integrate

the Decepticons. In reality, it's one of those

things like Prime would have said no, because

when he heard Prowl give that Suggestion it wouldn't

have been a he he would have known that it wasn't

it was a bad I want to track the Decepticons

or we need to control them in some way it would

have been you know pro he knows pro well enough

to have heard the true meaning of the sentence

which was I would like to put explosives in all

the Decepticons heads and He would have said

no Prowl. You can't do that and Prowl would have

been like, okay You can stop them from transforming

and you can track them wherever they go But you

cannot have a remote control to blow their heads

up. Yep. And Paul would have been like, Oh, but

prime. No, it's not the right thing to do. And

this is seen as ironhead kind of realizing, like,

you know what? We cannot be peaceful if we have

explosives in each other's heads. Yeah, it will.

And that's that's the whole thing. The whole

star on the snitch's belly. You know, it's a

bomb in your head. It is a difference in your

social standing. Yeah, it's not like you can

just Electro shock a transformer back to life

when he doesn't have his head anymore Yeah, it's

kind of a permanent thing if you shoot it off

I gotta say yeah that I mean they will just say

I think we should just say flat out in IDW that

a Transformer dies if they have their head blown

off. No except that they don't Ever. Has it ever

worked? They haven't brought Horrible back yet,

I guess. No, no, that's right. They haven't brought

him back yet. Don't give them any ideas damn

it. Yeah They could be listening to this podcast

in which case I'm going to apologize profusely

Frankly I'm just gonna say because you know why

because I'd like there to be a Predaking someday

in the comics So I'm just gonna say if he walked

out of the med bay in our ID next month with

no other explanation Then like we finally got

your head fixed. I would have no problem with

it because it is entirely supported by this continuity

There is no reason to think getting your head

blown off kills you well, you know, and they

do have swindle So swindle could you know find

heads for them, you know, that's what he does,

right? There's the whole idea of shadow play.

I mean these people give each other new heads

for Christmas Megatron puts on new bodies like

he's changed pajamas. Talk about the last issue

five. So Ironhide here. I think this is a point,

frankly, I would have accepted. Look at this

scene. Ironhide is like talked with all the factions.

He has like the wise idea about what to do. He's

got things under control. Everything is listening

to him. Bumblebee is standing just below his

nipples. I think this is the part where Bumblebee

should have been like handed to Iron Head as

Kane and been like, screw you guys, I'm going

home. I'll be at the bar. You mean if Blurr would

let him come in there, right? Right. If Blurr

will let me come in, I'm going to go sit down

at the bar for the next three weeks. Iron Head,

have fun running Cybertron. Yep. And Prowl would

have been like, so here's your agenda tomorrow.

It's like, is that Bumblebee's agenda for me?

I was like, no, no, it says Iron Head right on

the letterhead up here. I had these printed up

two weeks ago. Six Starscream on the page after

that. Don't look at that. Edge in my bed. Oh,

goodness. Yeah, but it's already. Well, I'm not

I'm not I'm not going to jump ahead the next

week's podcast, obviously, because we've been

here in this one way too long, but. I was really

hoping that something would have come of that

when we get to issue six as far as like the ending

of issue five. You can't leave issue five off

with till all are dead. You just can't do that.

And if I was collecting, if I was getting these

back then singly, I would have most definitely

picked up cover B because cover B is iron hide

with an action shot by Casey Collier. So yeah.

Completely overshadowing bumblebee who's placed

skillfully in his crotch. Oh, you know They also

could have just they could have done Prowl doing

a riot as well because he does start a riot in

this issue as well because of the whole Everything

has happened It's just it's just upping the ante

every single the the political pressures that

are going on or whatnot and it's getting to the

point where so many Decepticons are being arrested

or hurt or injured that like no one can take

it anymore and they say he starts a riot he does

start a riot it was brilliant if you're going

to make a graphic for this if you want to put

a picture by me on this last page here you see

the prowl with a little eye roll there could

that be a good icon for me there the graphics

for this three -parter of of RID stuff were done

months ago well that all are dead thing You know,

that, again, is a reference to the issue called

the, you know, post -Costa roundup thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Whatever that was called. It had some name

or... Where he had his nice little, you know,

pack Cybertronia or Cybertronia packs. Like,

see, it all turns out and everyone else, you

know... Yeah, all of this is pointless because

we're all dead in the future. I mean, literally,

think of the arrogance of that. Yeah, this is

everything that comes after this is gonna be

pointless Because of this perceived future well

I think they have to mention it here if they

bring it up because they're gonna have to at

some point Show that that isn't the future because

if it is what the hell am I reading this comic

book? exactly Yeah, but I hope I hope that dark

Cybertron kind of throws out of the water the

you know the fact that Well, and I think it kind

of does for Ironhide as a character because in

the future issues He does get injured in a way

that makes him think. Oh, I thought I was indestructible,

but I just got shot Well, maybe I need to rethink

that a little bit because I could have died.

Yeah I'd really like to see that retconned out

of existence. I you know it will when when when

Roberts and Barbara were taking over first with

out of my mouth were like reboot just reboot.

I don't care. Let it all go Would rather see

what these guys do on their own? Then watch them

dig out of a hole for a year now what I didn't

know Roberts was gonna completely circumvent

that by skipping it but Which was genius it was

genius. I don't want to downplay that Dark Cybertron

will it last be the end of the hole? Yeah Yeah,

I'd really like to see the right that that does

kind of make sense though because you know This

is something that Matt said, you know after a

year of writing Then it should be all they should

have set up to the point anywhere from six to

twelve months into Starting one. That's when

it actually starts being yours So it'll it'll

it'll really prove whether or not John and I

think he'll so I think he will more than you

know More than do a good job at it, but it'll

it'll at least put in the nail in the coffin

at that point It should all be John. It should

not be I'm not hampered anymore by The other

stuff that came before now. It's it's all me

It's all my stuff and I'm responsible for if

this ship sinks. So right Well, I want to say

I I totally I don't think I don't look at this

book and think this is bad or anything I think

John Barber is a great writer. I think he's done

a great job. I don't think You know, I don't

think he could have gotten rid of bumblebee any

quicker and certainly here. Yeah My point and

even pointing those instances out while we were

talking about it was more to show that the bumble

baggage exists at this point I think it's good

though that that he did take the time that he

did because if his whole motivation of the first

six Issues was to get rid of bumblebee Like shouldn't

the shouldn't ongoing the long term shouldn't

the actual conflict be? The actual you know goal

of the book I think that if you had said no I'm

gonna I'm gonna quickly Make sure that it's my

goal to undo everything that my casa does in

the first six issues No, because then it would

be just you're just focused on on on what? Fixing

everything to make it work for you. He fixed

problem the first five seconds and I think that

was much more important He carries, you know

the first trade the first two trades I'd say

almost because we still wanted to know what was

going on with prowl It was enough to motivate

us to read into the next volume Yeah, even if

it wasn't him, but we only know that because

we've read past that. I know it's going to come

up more and become what I would term as more

of a problem than rather just pointing out the

existence of what is a trend towards a problem.

Yeah. Plenty he's bumblebee is still in charge.

In fact, a couple of an issue or two ago, I had

to read an issue where like half of it was about

turning him back into a Camaro so he could still

be in charge. So, I mean, here, no, is it at

a point where the bumble baggage is really a

concern? No, it's just the bumble baggage. It

is a distraction. It isn't it isn't helpful,

but it's just what he has and he's going on with

it. But it is going to get, you know, a year

is going to pass and there's going to be plenty

more. Yeah. And that, I think, may not have been

necessary. And, you know, maybe it was maybe

a moron. But I still feel like then at this point,

I hope we're getting rid of it because it is

the bumble baggage. Yeah. I get you. I would

like to see somebody else move up and have that

character evolution at this point, because after

a year of evolving Bumblebee, we got to the end

of it and Bumblebee's still saying, I'm really

just not cut out for this. And if he's still

doubting himself at this point, then the reader

is going to continue to doubt that. which is

only going to continue unless there's really

he's trying to keep the conflict in that way,

but not the focus, but just say, oh, I need to

have somebody that's going to be really conflicted

into this position. I was like, well, hey, you're

doing pretty good with Starscream so far. He

seems pretty conflicted, you know. Yeah. And

I like things to come down on him. I expect that

the more he continues to lead and have. points

of inactivity where he's just like, Hey, I'm

the leader. Everything's great. And then everybody's

like, no, no, it's not great because everything

is going to hell. Something lead us. He's never

going to do anything so bad that the Autobots

are going to kick him out because that's like

not who they are. That's that's kind of part

of the problem is as a reader, I'm even though

it makes sense for them not to kick him out because

that's not what they do. I'm getting really sick

of reading about the sympathy leader of the Autobots.

Yeah, you know. He's our leader he really sucks

at it, but none of us have the heart to tell

him yes That's not a very compelling read for

me the reader What I was gonna say earlier is

I'm so glad that Roberts actually circumvented

the whole thing with more than meets the eye

and took them off planet because I mean seriously

if you had the more than meets the eye crew still

on the planet off in you know megacity two or

something or what you know some other city out

in the middle of the wilderness it wouldn't have

made for a really interesting story and all these

interesting things that they see you know out

in the universe looking for this legendary roundtable

of nights that they're looking for uh... you

know and i i think that was really really good

and i also think it's good that You know Barbara

is set all the other characters for the most

part ones. We know some that we may not know

On the planet and having some sort of conflict

without actually having a war Yeah, well, I think

you know even from cost is set up bumblebee would

have been leader with Rodimus around for about

ten minutes. So Roberts really stole costas best

Hope I'm getting away from that quickly I'm gonna

take the other leader and I'm gonna go away.

You could have the bad leader. Tell me how that

works out. Help me, John Barber. You're my only

hope. Alright, so wrapping up RID Volume 1. I

know this has been a long podcast for us, and

I know it's gonna be a long podcast for the listeners,

but it was fun. It was really awesome. It was

five issues, too. That's a lot. I take one hour

per issue when I review. Yeah, that's why I do

them in trade, so I don't have to take... Yeah,

no. Okay, so Ender, zero to five stars. What

would you rate RID Volume 1? Can I use half stars?

Yeah, there's nothing there three and a half

Okay, that according to the GCR and rating system

is liked it so Very very awesome. I might go

to three point seven five if I could I'd say

I'm more than you know, there's no point seven

five. I'm just I'm just clarifying Yeah, I know

I've decided recently I hate the numbers so I

know I know I've seen all the tweets. I've seen

all the Facebook updates. I know um... but for

me... well, I'll point them in the right direction.

Send me links. That's easy to remember. Ender

hates. Yes, at Ender hates on Twitter. Alright,

so for me, outside of the little nitpicks with

RC's design, I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed

it more than I thought I would considering I'm...

Nowhere near interested in any kind of politics

transformers or otherwise I'm gonna give it a

four or five. I'm gonna give it. I really liked

it. What about you Amy? I'm gonna go on that

vein too because after reading Casa stuff, this

was great I was like, you know what? It's a solid

four for me. I was completely happy with it.

I wouldn't say it's perfect There's definitely

some things that I You're right Under the baggage

of what came before does kind of drag it a little

bit but because it's handled so well because

we're actually getting a plot and a subplot and

character development and World -building and

all of the things that I had hoped that we would

have had before this because it's doing all of

those things for the first time in a long time

I Really was really happy with it and even going

back and reading it. I have to say I You know

there were a few parts that pulled me out at

the I think in the first issue But for the most

part I was pretty happy with it. I liked what

was going with it So I I'd say I really liked

it and I still really like it after two years.

So You know, I think I think if I were to you

know in some sort of hypothetical universe look

at it and say I am going to Just give everything

in this in these books a pass that I think is

a result of cost of baggage I'm just gonna ignore

all those facets of the I'd say this is more

like a four and a half even I mean if I was just

gonna forgive all those things and pretend they'd

you know They weren't there see that's that's

the advantage. I have over you guys. I never

read the cost of crap so It's still affecting

your read. I mean, I'm saying I'm looking at

this. I know it's not his fault I know he's doing

his best to correct it So I'm just gonna pretend

it's not there. I wouldn't say he's actively

trying to correct it I think he's just trying

to tell a really good story and because of that

he needs some of these elements to change Look

at that page with Prowl. He's like wiping out

issues on purpose. It wasn't something he could

work with it kind of just doing the right thing

The grant morrison syndrome where he's like i'm

gonna write the last comic he did that with the

x -men It was like the they killed magneto. He

killed like eight people do this stuff They literally

came back the next issue and magneto was like

yes i'm alive It that guy they cut the head off.

It just wasn't me They were like, well, who was

it then their marvel was just like we'll figure

that out later Yeah, it's a little later and

they did they made up a reason for it eventually,

but they didn't care They immediately came back

and said we are not keeping this in our continuity

I mean, and I don't blame them. Because they

have the great Grant Morrison writing, and he

was leaving, and they let him write whatever

he wanted on the way out the door. Man, you know,

like, Levels New York, and there's, like, Spider

-Man set in New York. Does it mention he leveled

New York? No. Yeah, that's a discussion for another

day completely. You can go on and on about your...

It's the same syndrome, though. It's the IT Levels

Cybertron. It kills off everybody. It's like,

now go write some more comics. Good luck with

that. Prowl is just a much more interesting character

when he's conflicted and he has a gun in his

hand, rather than being, oh, I'm just going to

do what Optimus Prime says and everybody's happy,

woohoo. Well, and in terms of how quickly he

fixed the Prowl thing and without a little effort,

I think he very correctly gauged that fans hated

Spotlight Prowl. We were yelling at Adam. I think

he couldn't, you know. pulling it out of, you

know, he was like, hey, look, I'm going to eliminate

this from continuity. Anybody care? No. All he

has to do is read 15 of all hell Megatron and

see how awesome he is and then read, you know,

cost of stuff and go, yeah, I kind of don't think

that that's a good idea. I gave Spotlight Prowl

a three out of 10. Yeah, I said I was going to

burn it. I thought I was going to burn Spotlight

Prowl. Alright, so we're gonna bring this this

part one to a close join us next week in part

two when we go over in depth Hopefully not almost

three hours for robots in disguise volume two.

You're really ambitious. I Know I'm optimistic

I'm trying not to be a negatron Yes, of course,

you know, so for now I am TF2 and Mike with Lady

Rack and Ender thinks we should make a video

of us burning spotlight, bro Do it do it now.

Yeah, there's nobody make your great escape at

the comics and we'll probably go Make your greatest

game in the comic so we will catch you next week

on the pullback since I have to talk this fast

cuz enter won't shut up Oh, I sought me. You

don't think I'm the kind that would keep blabbing.

Some people never know when to stop. When I'm

told to shut up, I shut up. Shut up, shuttin'

up. Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to

be an earth -shattering kaboom. Coming to Grand

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