Transformers: Robots In Disguise Vol 2

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Pull Bag. Hello and welcome to the Pull Bag.

This is episode 32. I am your host TF Joe and

Mike. Joining me is Lady Rek. Hello. Hello. Let's

get wreckin'. Yes, that's right. Don't show them

your guns. Wah wah. Also joining us back again

is Ender. Hello, sir. I don't have any guns.

Thank heaven. That would be a good thing. I'm

just clarifying. That would be a very good thing.

The only gun you need is your voice and your

wit. The pen is mightier than the sword, huh?

That'd be a mighty pointy gun, wouldn't it? Yeah.

Yeah, pretty much. Alright, so I'm sure everyone

that is subscribed to the pull bag on iTunes

and feed burner and wherever else you Subscribe

to your podcast. I'm sure everyone has listened

to the three -hour masterpiece That was robots

in disguise volume one last week, right? That's

why aspirin shares went up You know, I've had

a headache ever since I did the editing job on

that show Let's hope not. All right. Yeah, so

we are here once again to continue the robots

in disguise volume discussions. We have volume

two. And it's only the last one. We have one

left. Right. So this should be what, two and

a half hours? Yeah, something like that. Let's

hope it's lower than that, but there's only two

hours Yeah, if we can't okay five issues took

us three hours Including including Ender's much

-needed bathroom break four issues should take

us two and a half max So I don't think my bathroom

break represented a significant amount of that

time Never know you know insert Tom Hanks joke

here Well this time if I have to go I'll just

leave it on so we'll all know The flushing toilet

in the back. Yeah, there you go John's had his

the flushing toilet named John Do right can't

be anything more offensive than what I say Alright,

so for volume two of robots in disguise the cover

for the trade is iron hide and the Dinobots Yep,

it was Dinobot month then Suddenly everybody

had a Dinobot in everything and then on top of

that we also had high moon come out with full

of Cybertron which featured the Dinobots so somehow

they kind of all synced up and IW decided to

capitalize on that. So we had Dino Bot Month

in August last year. Back when we could still

like the Dino Bots, because by this time next

year, we won't anymore because they'll have been

in the movie. Yeah. Oh, stop. Ruined forever.

Yes. Ender is referring to Transformers 4 Age

of Extinction. Is that really what it's called?

Yes. Did they really say that officially? Yeah.

It's on TFW. Oh my gosh. Can you be more cliche?

Yeah, or as I like to call it, Transformers Snore.

Age of Extincts on and on. This is news to me

because I haven't been on the computers, social

medias. That's like the Oscar the Grouch version.

You know, I'll wait for like the Michael Bay

website to actually come out and say that before

I believe it. In a paramount press release so

Like what website is like, you know bullshit

incorporated they like nothing They're like only

exists so we can say things that aren't true

Exactly, because you know, he always has to shoot

for the wallet I copyrighted that, by the way.

You owe me 10 cents. Only 10 cents? I'll air

mail it to you, which will probably cost more

than... Every single time that you say it, you

owe him 10 cents. Yes. Well, and like the comic

we're reading, where I think every time they

say Orion Pax, which ticks me off, they should

send David Wise 10 cents. For every printing.

All right, so the copy for this one Dinobot hunt

Optimus Prime has given up his title and is now

Orion Pax following the trail of the deadliest

Decepticon of all shockwave and The Dinobots

are back led by iron hide to the Cybertronian

wilderness searching for lost Autobots But what

they find might be the greatest danger of all

Flying monkeys that came out of that synopsis.

It's only half true And I love the fact that

as we continue to go through this where Optimus

Prime has decided to call himself Orion Pax,

nobody believes it, including the readers. They

can't even write it without having somebody say,

you know, whatever, dude, because everyone on

earth reads that goes, yeah, whatever, Bell.

I just, I just, Optimus Prime is not a hat he

takes off. Yeah. Not to mention the fact that

the version they call Orion Pax earlier on, didn't

have much difference from optimists aside from

having been handed the cosmic football. So I

just think after you changed your name, not taking

a title, prime is a title, sure, but you changed

your name for, I don't know, four million years.

It might just be your name at that point. Wouldn't

it be like, you know what, before the war, it's

not like when you go to war for like three years

and you'd had some different title. Yeah, and

then you go back to the name you had for the

other 30 of your life And then we're going to

have for the next 50. It's it's four million

years Dude's lucky. You can remember he had a

different name Yeah, or that anyone else remembers

that was his name he's like I'm going back to

Orion Pax I would like tumblebee to be like who

the hell is that? Well at what point does mr.

President stop being mr. President I thought

that, you know, once you're the president, everybody

calls you Mr. President. Yeah, you're exactly.

Even Hillary! Oh goodness. Alright, and on that

we'll come back with issue 6 after this. That's

it. That's it. A little further. Perfect. Hello

there! I'm Megatron. What's your name? Uh, Orion.

Orion Pats. It's really thrilled to meet you,

sir. So we are back and we're gonna get into

volume 2 here. And it's Ironhide's face on the

cover sheet. I'm going inside. Yep. And of course,

what were you going to say, Amy? I said, yep.

Yep. I'm agreeing with you. Written by John Barber.

Amy, what is this? The artist. I never say -

Livio Ramadelli. Okay, thank you. I never say

his name right. All right. Brendan Cahill and

also Andrew Griffith has art on here. So that's

very awesome. I have a complaint about volume

one to volume two. Okay. Volume one we ended

with iron hide saying all of your lives no longer

matter what he said something like you're all

of your lives no longer matter because you're

all dead and then we pick it up and it's issue

six is Optimus Prime versus shockwave. Yeah,

I Don't like sort of not really This is this

is what I was already I mentioned this last week.

This is part of the deal with robots and disguises

He has to set up these like into internal crossovers.

So every once in a while he has to like go do

another book Like drop in the middle of continuity.

It's okay. I look at this Oh, I kind of look

at this is kind of like the setup for Dark Cybertron

to be honest. It is it's very much We're seeding

this we're gonna see this Meanwhile out in the

universe guess what Orion Pax. I mean Optimus

Prime. I mean Orion Pax is doing He's off on

a mystery guess what this that you know remember

that whole thing that happened, you know back

in spotlight What was it shockwave where he like

seeded stuff? and then you had the Dinobots find

them and they all got stuck in the the the Lava

and all that and then it you know moved on to

the asian series after that where they came back

yeah remember that this is where it's all gonna

start again you know that mystery it's gonna

dark cybertron's been a long time coming yeah

that's just that this is the beginning of uh

barbara going you know must clean continuity

and this is this i don't have a problem with

that now that there's no war left optimus prime

is finally checking up on all the little threads

that he kind of let go for millions of years.

This is one of them. Yeah, I don't have a problem

with them. It goes and looks for Decepticons

to shoot. Why not? Bumblebee, you're going to

have a peaceful planet here? Yeah, that's great.

Got a ship? Yeah, I'm going to go get some beer.

I'll be right back. I don't have a problem with

them doing this dark cyber, you know, this, this

interlude to what we'll get later. I don't have

a problem with that. What I have a problem is,

is issue five ended on a cliffhanger. Issue six

should at least the first, at least two pages

of issue six should have been pay off from that

cliffhanger. It's kind of like, wasn't that cliffhanger?

Yeah. It was just saying something kind of momentous

sounding. that really is kind of silly sounding

at the same time, which they talk about later.

And it's not like they're gonna pick up on that

cliffhanger in issue seven. What I'd say is just,

again, the big complaint that I've heard about

robots in disguise versus more than meets the

eye is that the slowness factor and stopping

to go tell some other story in the middle of

it, I think really also contributes to that.

Now again, probably necessity wise, it needs

to be here somewhere. And there was the... You

know, Hasbro request for more Optimus Prime.

Even if they changed his name, so it was going

to, you know, but you got to understand why people

who came off of five issues of. And this stuff.

In this book up, you'd almost wonder if it had

the wrong interior. Oh, I know it. Yeah, it's

like weird robots in disguise go just like it's

got a different artist It's got a completely

different cast. It has essentially no reference

You know, it is this is issue one of the prime

jammers They should have just given these guys

their own book I think I think everything would

have gone a lot more smoothly and all this crossover

stuff These guys had just had their own schnick

every month. Everything could be more explained

and would have flowed better Mean, you know,

you do have a player guy wise but you do have

a point there but at the same time I understand

their need to keep an ongoing and To you just

kind of I always just looked at robots in disguise.

We're gonna take a break every couple months

to go Burn this slow burn of mystery that optimus

prime is off doing something And I rather have

an issue where it breaks and goes and does that

than have that mess up with what's going on from

month to month in the regular run. Because if

you do that, then it's like, oh, those are the

pages I'm going to skip. Those are the pages

that are going to break up that issue. It's gonna

mess with the pace because he'll probably put

levio on it or another artist So it'll break

out and it's like do you put it at the front

YouTube? Do you put it at the end? Do you put

it right in the middle one way or the other?

It's just really difficult to handle that So

I I think the reason why they decided not to

put it in another series is because they're putting

their whole weight behind two on goings and For

them to put another book out there, then that's

just three titles that you have to fight with

for one month, and I'm fine with the break. It

doesn't trade really great, but it still reads

alright. No, it reads fine. I'm just saying,

as you keep saying, this is supposed to be an

ongoing series, and it is. But for me, when I

got past the title pages and I got to the cover

A, which is obviously... Optimus packs, you know

superhero pose. I like that. I think Casey did

an amazing job Casey Collier. I did he did an

amazing job His version of Optimus Prime. It

was like oh he's back. I love it Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's awesome. But as a Hardcore OCD continuity

buff that I am it's like you're gonna leave me

hanging here I can only imagine what it was like

for you guys doing Singles, holy crap that would

have I would have probably honestly if I had

picked up issue six or Issue five the one month

and then picked up issue six the next month I

might have dropped the series at that time if

I had done that I knew that they were doing it

because they said that they were the solicits

had already come out We knew that that that this

this this was going in that direction And we

knew we were only gonna get it for an issue and

it was like, okay The thing is is that it kind

of disarmed us because it wasn't bad And it really

kind of... No, it's not bad in any way. I'm not

saying it's bad. I'm just saying, for me, it's

jarring. Yeah, it's like, wow, what a great comic

book. What's it doing here? I know. It doesn't

really... The thing is is that I like the fact

that we've got Optimus Prime and he's like the

the biggest character in this There's no he's

not having fight for competition for anybody

else. He is like carrying the carrying this issue

by himself Because he can he's got the charisma.

He's got the awesome. He's like we haven't seen

him for six months. It's about damn time Well,

I think I think you know the specific request

from Hasbro probably was as well that they wanted

Optimus Prime to be in the primary You know be

in something yeah comics. No, they wanted they

wanted him in to be in their big two So otherwise

I would have said I think you know it would have

made more sense Maybe it would have made pants

even to just do it trade wise, but if they'd

plucked all these issues You know, I bet I think

there's what there's there's four of them roughly

isn't there? They punch at some point like if

you include the shockwave one. I Think there's

only three. Is it only three? There's this one

there wasn't there really isn't enough to be

able to There's this one, there's another, there's

another half of this. Yeah. Well, no, there's,

there's four, there's, well, it's only as of

now. Syndromica one and two. Yeah, syndromica

one and two. There should have been, there, it

wasn't there, um. It was six, 10. And then there's

like, um, there's the shockwave one, which I

think you could, you could cram in there. for

good measure. Yeah, but shockwave one came out.

No, but the other one, I know I'm I'm I'm acknowledging

that, but I'm saying you're saying it didn't

read very well in trade and trade. It might have

made sense to pluck those out and like call it

the Orion Pax trade. Yeah, because you could

have had because there was the one more recently

where they, you know, sucked Gorland Prime off

into wherever. OK, so we had six, 10, 17, and

we haven't gotten another one since there was

there was the one. Yeah, 17 was the 17 the shockwave

one 19 one is when they go back to Gorland Prime

But that just barely came out which means we

could be waiting until December To get all of

that storyline, which will be after Dark Cybertron.

So anybody that's reading like Deciding to go

into the single issues would be like where the

hell did this I think in the trades you could

have gone from from five straight to seven, and

no one would have noticed. No, no, I think it's

right. It was just made for better trade. In

the history of trades, trades used to cut things

up more. Yeah. You know, these have been pretty

straightforward, which is funny because they

still won't like like numerate themselves inside.

It doesn't say like collecting issues X through

Y. So you can easily tell which one you're getting.

They well the more than meets the eye ones do

I don't know why these ones don't okay say it

in there you go on the first page Where it has

the the robots of skies volume 2 written by art

by all that if you just turn to the other page

It says originally published as the transformers

robots and skies issues 16 or 6 through 9 But

it's not print right underneath everything. So

oh, okay. There we go. All right, there it is

It's the fine print you just don't know. It would

be useful information for the consumer. It would

be great if they put it right like you know on

that title page at the very end and said after

all of the credits of like written by, art by,

oh guess what? That's giving crap to the credits

in front of the book. Or you could just do or

you could just take a page. Draw the line somewhere.

Well, you know I read somewhere that there's

an eye color messed up in here. Oh We are not

rehashing As far as the trade collection goes

I'm comparing The volume to here that we're looking

at compared to a DC trade and the DC trade down

by Where it has the the UPC code? I know that's

where IDW puts their you can also get more than

meets the eye volume Whatever and whatever DC

puts down there. They even say on the back of

their book Green Lantern Sinestro collecting

issues one through six. It's right on the back

of the book So I don't see why IDW couldn't do

something like that because they'll be copying

them. They just don't want to do it like that,

man I think here they probably just didn't want

to tell people it was only four comics That too

because you know people outraged about that it's

like oh, it's only four issues, but it's the

same price what the hell There's nothing extra

in it All right, so issue six this this beautiful

title splash page. I love how shockwave is drawn

in this comic oh My god shockwave has never looked

so badass. I mean it puts his g1 version do complete

shame I just love it. Then he shoots the Skeksis.

Yeah. Burn people. Burn. Burn it now. Oh my God.

This. This put him out of their misery. They

were already dying as it is. He did the merciful

thing after they told him about all their woes

and said, are you here to save us? He's like,

nope. Cold hard slag Yeah Yeah, yeah, we go we

go back to the all of the the like I said Before

the spotlight where he had all of his weapons

that he seeded lots of different Worlds with

with you know earth got the one that Became or

13 well this one got the one where it became

extremely cold and radiated cold and sucked up

heat and just Exuded cold so it's destroying

their planet basically You know and so you'd

rather just set it on fire Yeah, he doesn't have

to set it on a fire. Just kill everybody Later

on they show the missile it seems like and just

like it occurred to you people Maybe want to

get rid of the giant decepticon missile sitting

in the middle Every single time they touched

it it just turned everybody to ice probably including

an instructor That's uh That's one heavy page

of death right there Yep, and then you turn the

page and we discover that Primus discovered a

restaurant where they sell those little cheese

cubes with energon in them It's the transformers

cheesecake factory. Oh That's great So hard head

has called Optimus Prime because he is There

they're flying around the universe with a crazy

in their hold basically and He's been screaming

packs packs packs Yeah, he probably doesn't mean

Pax either, because no one means Pax. No. It

was the double meaning, which is maybe the reason

why they decided to go back to Iriam Pax, maybe.

Well, they can go back now. Any time. I thought

my scenario for changing his name back was pretty

good. Finding the lost light. Like, yeah, I think

I... Idiot. So yeah, when the mosaics like Cantina.

Yep, and har had started his din wheelie are

fighting the share Empire Yeah, and as they're

explaining here to optimist and they further

explain on the next page after they leave We

called you cuz sales are down I mean Here's prime

at the Last Supper, oh jeez in the mazai's the

cantina Any second now Rapunzel is gonna swing

through singing a song Wheely's up for it About

something be like like everybody else I got a

dream Really really is gonna shoot first right

Watch out for the slingshot. They could really

leave well, you know, you're gonna hit Yeah,

really the reason I called you your name, it's

shaming us all over the galaxy you knock it off

Your name back So they go back to the planet

where all of the bird people have been shot by

shockwave and they find the missile. Whoo And

that's gonna have a conversation with Jax's who's

lost his spinoff There's that too. Yeah Well,

you know if you've been sitting in the dead universe

for a thousand years or millions and millions

of years being killed By RC kind of does do that

to you, right? I could do it Hello, there's somebody

like you in their basement and flew around the

galaxy for a few weeks might not be so, you know,

yeah But he was like this before they locked

him in there. So We don't know what happened

when prime really comes down here and shoot some

of the nuts with a slingshot for a few hours

every night, but beyond that It sounds like something

world would do Love the the art on issue or not

on page 16. Oh My god the the blue I assume that's

them I assume that's the missile or it might

be the Decepticon base Or they're just standing

there a missile. Yeah, that's what I figured

Because this is a fake this is a setup of course.

Yeah. Yeah and prime Well, I mean Pax finally

figures that out just before everything goes

to hell. I like how Prime knows its shockwave

by the damage his weapon does. Yeah. Just call

him Prime. No one's gonna call him Pax. Yeah,

I really wasn't gonna. I'm just gonna... No one's

gonna call him Pax. I think he has to tell everybody

to call him Pax over and over again because he

needs to remind himself that it's Pax now too.

And what I'm hoping is that it's all going to

lead up to some sort of cathartic moment of him

realizing Pax. And that's the only reason it's

there. But of course, because his stuff gets

so stretched out in our memory, it's like, and

now for the last two years, every conversation

anyone has with Optimus Prime starts with, no,

it's Orion Pax. Oh, right. You know. It's, you

know, I'm the artist formerly known as Optimus

Prime. You know, it's like some embarrassing

publicity stunt, like everybody else is just

like, oh, dude, seriously? And everybody's indulging

you because he's prime, right? Right. My name

isn't even a Ryan Pax anymore. It's just this

symbol that spells out an O and a P. Whatever

you say, Optimus. Somebody starts, you know.

Shortening it to hey Opie Where is Andy and Barney

when you really need them Alright so like oh

pity or something now the whistling starts, right?

Oh My god, so pages 18 and 19 this full full

page splash Why is it that the bottom half where

we see? Prime's face reminds me of the death

of optimus prime from tftm Is I don't know just

washed out, and it's at the same angle Yeah,

kind of I want to know why it is that like monstruck

doors gone from the least used combiner to the

most overused combiner in transformers history

Well, they can't well they can't throw devastator

in there for Christ's sake Well the other random

side of the galaxy. Oh look. It's monstruck tour

and over on the other side up monstruck tour

Run Cybertron another continuity. Oh time for

monstructor Yeah, we're way deep in Cybertron's

ancient past up monstructor Okay You could have

a pack in trade Spotlight up his prime was starring

who my instructor. Yeah, that's right In the

prime jammers Oh Yeah, and the next one is um

the appearance of bludgeon now I've heard of

this character I've never read anything or I've

never seen anything with him in it and why was

he creepy as all hell It's big towards the end

of G1 or the other comics. He's like the dude

that you really have to worry about. Monstructor

is just a blunt object. Yeah. Bludgeon is like

the dude that you're like, OK, yeah, that's when

he, you know, that's why our impacts is screaming

to Willy, get out of there. Yeah, because he

knows what's coming. What's up with the Arnim

Zola skull in his tummy, though? I don't know.

Oh, wow. Yeah, you're right. That's where he

in just things Fashion choice. I'm not sure it

goes Where's David Hasselhoff Nick Fury when

you really need him I was I was it was very upset

to see that wheelie was still rhyming As soon

as you got a pin to the wall here, I'm just like

oh, oh, please. Oh, please. Oh, please Come on

if it was more than me CIA be dead pieces, but

he'd be dead And about this time we have monstructor

Chasing after everybody that was woke him up

because hey, you know when you in when you interrupt

the built beauty sleep of monstructor You better

watch out I wonder how long he's been waiting

around for somebody to show up For a million

years no, no, he's only the last issue. Yeah.

When was the last time we saw monstructor? I

mean like he well, I mean technically Only been

three four issues ago or something can't is it?

I mean through four months. I mean like was he

in chaos at all? He wasn't in chaos, but his

brother was So well, he hasn't been that long

since we've Because I mean, what was it that

he was working for bludgeon in? Well, maybe that

was our back is all hell Megatron It's been a

good two years since at this point that we've

seen him I think we keep on getting him mixed

up with one of the other monster. We're Constructicon

Yeah, it's him. They keep using because he was

the first one and yada yada yada Maybe we keep

on getting a flashback that type of thing. But

since ongoing has started we haven't really had

him So at this point, you know what? Six six

up six months into the show And we hadn't seen

him so it was yeah, I'm going anyway And just

like the G1 cartoon, Optimus' head antenna changes

every friggin' panel no matter what the angle

of his... Because we think of them as being static

on the toys, but that's not how it is. No, not

at all. It's more like the Tix antenna. They're

just like... all over the place. And now I have

to go find a spoon to put in this episode. I

have a wild red yonder. It doesn't make any sense.

All right, I'm Optimus Prime. All right, whatever

you say, boss. Let's move right along. Oh, and

there's Wheely pinned to the wall still when

they get home. Yep. There's all things a trap

to get G -axis. Gotta, gotta. And Wheely's still

pinned to the wall. It was kind of like, we're

still hoping, we're still hoping. I can't find

my head. I might be dead. But no, no, next page.

Oh, yeah, no wheelie's not doing any more rhyming

so we can just put that out of our misery right

now Wow what is it just me or was this issue

really short it seems short because the whole

sequence with instructor going after packs was

it was a big fight scene you know so it kind

of sucked up a couple pages so it really did

go by really quick once they once he once he

wakes up everything gets hit off the the talking

stops the smacking starts and you know it does

take the end of the issue pretty much so it was

in that sense it felt like it really went somewhere

really quick because of that but Yeah, it was

a nice combat prime combat showcase this you

can't go through an issue with Optimus Prime

in it without giving him a smackdown so He just

knows when to run and when to shoot so I Just

can't see really as Between the movie and between

that horrible horrible children's book I read

as a child and and the way he's designed here

to I guess Resemble is do oneself. I just can't

I can't take Wheely seriously. I don't think

that's the point of taking him seriously. I think

one of the brilliant things that Costa did, I

know I just said that, was the fact that he made

him crazy. Well, those were the few issues that

I actually thought that Costa did a really good

job on was chaos theory. He made Wheely basically

crazy. He's cracking. He's totally cracking.

Did you just say cracking? All right, I can't

go back that planet's whack Okay, so really you're

not supposed to take him seriously at this point

I mean I never have taken him seriously Since

he's come back because he was always kind of

like the the the guy in the background You know

He's insane. It's just a different kind of insanity

than Jehaxis. But, you know, he was, in a sense,

a little bit of the comedy factor in the issues.

But in this... You know when he reacts because

they say okay, we're gonna go back to this planet

the planet that we found him on He freaks for

the first time in like you're like, okay, the

little guy is is wigging out. Why is that? Well,

if it's it's a little bit more than usual at

least so, you know You pay attention to him long

enough to know. Okay, he doesn't want to go back

there and that's where we're going. So Well,

the classic trouble with wheelie is that Be nice

to keep him as a background character. He just

has this tendency to be the foreground and Beyond

that I think part of the problem here is I think

they are trying to play him more for Not to be

too taken too seriously, but he's kind of like

a running gag that isn't quite funny enough You

know I mean I would but you know and even like

he goes from like not being very Not being amusing

to like being real tragic and on the floor You

know I think would be you know if you were gonna

go for a gag It would have been you know more

like instead of having a nervous breakdown. They're

like we're to go back to that planet We found

wheelie on and he'd just be like fuck you say

But we can't put that in the comic like that,

dear. I know. I know that, uh... That's what

all those little things above the numbers on

the keyboard are for, I'm telling you. That comes

from comic books. I know that this is going to

be an unfair comparison, but I had more compassion

and sympathy for Rung when stuff happened to

him in More Than Meets the Eye than I did when

Wheelie got stabbed. That's because he has no

past, and Wheelie has a past. No, it's because

we don't want Wheatley to have a future. That

too. No, not wrong! That they would have just

left him on the planet that they'd go to next

so you know, but they never did Sorry spoilers.

No at this point I pitied him more than anything

else because you you know He was the comic relief

then he was just that guy that always rhymes

in the background That's kind of crazy and now

they're going back to where they were and he's

just like, you know crying on the floor and you're

like You poor pathetic creature and that's He

kind of stays there even in the next issue. He's

just kind of like the guy that's standing in

the background You're going poor wheelie and

then we're moving on so it's like he's just like

that little he's that You know mine a bird in

the background just going squawk squawk I don't

like the squawk squawk, but I you'd be hysterical

if every once in a while someone said something

to him that rhymed and he was like what Your

problem That would be cool. It stopped him full

stop. He'd be like, hell's the matter with you?

It's my job. Yeah, that's my job. Stop that.

It's my gimmick. You'll make me irrelevant. Aren't

you already? I want him to recite the snitches

except with Decepticon symbols and Autobot symbols

instead of the stars upon ours. Oh, wow. And

I think so far, by far, at least my favorite

out of any of the previous six issues, both sets

of covers. Robots in disguise number six cover

B best cover for me, at least out of all of them

so far. Yeah, I love that cover. The Livio one

with Shockwave and Optimus. If you get a chance.

Yes, Livio has actually turned this into a poster

print. So if you ever get a chance, you know,

he's going to be at a convention. Let him know

that you want one and he'll get you one. So cool.

All right, so we move on to issue seven cover

a Wheeljack's in trouble Should call this issue

wheeljack attack Yeah Super spy I gotta say I

love Was when I first sat down to read this I

was you know I was used to what we got an issue

six of how they lay out the panels I love how

they did wheeljacks monologue for this. Yeah

these these four mini panels You know 16 any

panels on one page I love that it's served really

well to keep it separated from the you know time

wise so like okay, this is Further ahead of the

other parts. So it did that really well. I felt

like it got a little Drawn out towards the end

because it seemed like the panels underneath

the panels were getting bigger Yeah, and it was

like, you know that could have just been a panel

At a point it was like that that not panel is

taking up like six panels So let it out but it

It worked as a device it worked really well So

we said last week that read is at least the first

five issues were all character shots and Last

issue was optimus's character shot. So now we

have wheeljack as a as a one -shot character

here I like it. I'm liking how they're doing

this book. I really am doing that as this goes

on the This but this one especially is full of

like Just chock full of and now we're going to

establish this and this and this other thing

so we can use it later. Yeah. I'm kind of glad

that we've gotten back to Wheeljack's point of

view, though, because he says things in an interesting

way. And you know what? John nails him just really

nails Wheeljack in a way that I thought, oh,

I just it's so great to just have a Wheeljack

in a comic where I'm like, dude, he's kind of

cool. He's ever he's ever slightly too competent,

though. He just needs to screw up a little bit

more. He's been running really great so far.

He was always right about what he's doing, and

he always knows how to fix things. I always felt

like he wasn't very good at actually doing it.

So he can figure out how to build a giant gun,

and he knows exactly how to put it all together.

But he has the opposite hands of Ratchet. They

just don't put things together very well. He

gets it right, but you know, he still still screws

it up because he's got two left thumbs, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He hasn't his track record so far

is that he's been doing actually, you know, really

great. So I'm kind of hoping that now that everybody's

in the universe in the wilderness that he starts

screwing stuff up. He's like, I got to go back.

Just want to find out that how they you know

took care of Megatron was because he dropped

that thing in there by accident This might be

a stupid question and it's probably gonna turn

to like Megatron falls over dead You said you

wanted it to be an accident this might be a whole

other side conversation, but either one of you

watch Breaking Bad I started watching a couple

episodes, but I couldn't keep on with it because

all of the characters were so unlikable. Well,

that's a conversation for another day, but that's

a whole long... First three seasons, it took

me three weeks to watch the first three seasons.

Season four, it took me three days because it

got so much better. But my point here is Ender

said he wants it to just be an accident that

Wheeljack just dropped something in somewhere.

The character that Bryan Cranston plays in Breaking

Bad, he got, this isn't, it wasn't an accident,

it was on purpose, but it just reminded me of

this. There's this, you know, this Wall Street

type guy that keeps going around town and Cranston's

character keeps running into him and finally,

you know, he's driving some super sporty car

and finally Bryan just, well, Bryan's character

just got so pissed. Saw him at a gas station,

got out, got a squeegee. dropped it in his engine

and made the car explode. And that's what I can

see Wheeljack goofing up and doing something

like that, where he drops something somewhere,

everything just blows up. Like, oh my gosh, I

can't believe I did that. Well, my favorite,

my all time favorite Wheeljack moment in the

old cartoon is Megatron's flying up to the base,

not even to attack, as I recall, but they're

all run outside, you know. Defensive positions

and wheeljack comes out with this like bazooka

looking thing on his shoulders like I'll take

care of him with my you know Super Neutronic

whatever the hell and he pulls the trigger and

it just immediately just Explodes on his shoulder

and throws him into the rock face. There's like

no mention of it The other Autobots like yeah,

thanks Jack They didn't even have they didn't

even take it the time to facepalm these went

just move on Yeah, speaking of moving on You

know what the first the first issue of this I

almost forgot all about Bumble first issue of

the trade. I mean almost forgot all about bumblebee

in the Cybertronian government Yeah, yeah, cuz

it was like hey, we're learning stuff from from

you know Wheeljack's point of view. So. You're

wondering what he's up doing, because the first

page quite literally is it's like, hey, it's

the it's an afternoon evening in the life of,

you know, Wheeljack. He's he's doing what he's

playing spy. Really? Wow, that's a good one.

And then you get to the next page and you're

like, hey, Wheeljack, this is Bumblebee. Come

in. Yeah, well, there's more spy almost immediately.

So you really don't have to deal with the Bumble

baggage until you get to, you know, like page

five. You're still calling it that. Bumble baggage.

Are you going to call it that through all three

trades? But this is where it comes to the point

where... Yeah, I put all that loving time establishing

that's what it is. Yeah, but this is what was

brilliant about this trade is the fact that this

is where you get the banter where he has to deal

with Metalhawk and Starscream and he's just facepalming

going, guys, leave me alone. Every single time

you see him, it's great. Except it's not Bumblebee.

Take it all. It doesn't true. That's part of

why it's the Bumble baggage because you're like,

why is Starscream bantering? You know, with any

brilliantly. It's great. It's Starscream. And

that's how you know. But Starscream does. But

Bumblebee does some good banter, too. And it's

doesn't play very much like Bumblebee. I don't

know. He's always out of place. It's just it's

not it's not Barbara's fault. It's just there.

It's the bumble burden he has to carry. The bumble

burden. Now I'm thinking of Japanese Sen -Sai

and giant... His bumble crossed a bear. Oh my

god. Okay, so this ship shows up on their radar

and... It brings a character and some more Decepticons

that we didn't think you're gonna come but it

also poses this idea. Because he's supposed to

be dead. Yeah, I know. Like all dead characters

and eyepatch cures all woes. That's great. I

just noticed your scar goes over here. You're

a pirate Decepticon, you're saved! Woohoo! Well,

even, you know, Garenak or Garak, whatever his

name is in the last issue, you know. You know,

he's like missing half his chest there and the

next, you know, next page, he's like got an eye

patch. As I recall, once they like killed the

black king in the X -Men, they like somebody

solidified their hand in his heart. And when

he came back to life from that, he had an eye

patch like that explained. When I first saw these

close up images of turmoil, first thing I thought

of was across the second dimension your scar

goes over your eye patch yeah and no nothing

so dr. doofenshmirtz oh god that movie holy crap

turmoil is such a like overdone megatron ripoff

you know going to find megatron there's they

could sing like you know i found a brand new

best friend and it's me He doesn't do much I

mean he really doesn't he's just like that deaf

cliche bad guy that comes in you know And for

that reason I was totally annoyed when he showed

up. It's like you're bringing this useless cliche

character back to life Yeah, but I kind of like

him. But in a few issues, we find out why. His

arm is a weapon! It's like a big cannon! He has

no hand! It's just like a big cannon. I'm sorry.

Yeah, well, literally, he makes - Thanks to my

interrector, what can I say? He makes everything

about Shockwave and Megatron look stupid. So

Turbine is a combination of Megatron and Shockwave.

Yeah, exactly. But he makes everything about

them look stupid. It's like he's an annoying

character in that way. That's what makes him

cliche. He's an assemblage of bad cliches. That's

because he comes from the Drift Mini, which Drift

being an overstuffed fanfic himself. But when

his ultimate purpose... In the comics became

revealed story -wise like what's he for why we

should bring this useless cliche back to life

It's it's so you can cut him in half strategically

and no one will care Yeah, they needed to later

on there will come a need for a big heavy important

seeming Decepticon to like have the paths of

his torso take separate vacations and But it

has to be one we won't miss. Yeah, and that was

why yeah, they brought back Yeah, yeah This is

also we talked about this last time turmoil is

the you know, metalhawk being like no him you

can kill. Yeah Exactly. So we get he comes with

this this ship that supposedly has a cloaking

to the device Which is a very big plot point

in this issue And and then of course the first

the first thing we get is bumblebee metalhawk

Star screams reaction to it, and you don't expect

it where it's no no no he can die It's mr.. Self

-righteous that it has gone down into the dregs

of like dude total hypocrite He wants this guy

dead shot on its pond Shot shot on arrival or

shoot him shoot him now in the space of like

two panels go from You know give me the word

and I'll start shooting and what networks is

that word cannot be given Cybertron must be a

safe haven for all Cybertronians To you know

kill him where he stands Like like dude you haven't

even shifted position like physically since the

last We're still standing right there He hasn't

even he's even got the same expression on his

face Oh, Metalhawk? Yeah, his expression hasn't

even changed. He's like, no, wait, this is Archie.

Save him. We're all Cybertronians. No, kill him

where he stands. I don't do like, Starscream?

What are you talking about? I was waiting for

everybody to just kind of turn and look at him

and go, what? Yeah. Who are you and what did

you do with Metalhawk? so i don't know he's a

traitor he's not really a lot of uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... Honey face down here. Oh my god. Everything

is so horrible on my planet. Oh I just like Starscream

shielding his eyes in that one battle And it

likes it likes he busts out the Han solo threepio

insult. Yeah, call some goldenrod Yeah Everything

that comes out of Starscream's mouth in this

issue is awesome. Well, Barbara does write the

best Starscream in the universe. He steals the

show. I mean, it's like, OK, the last issue,

of course, we had Optimus Prime and he like carried

the show with his charisma and all that. This

one, it's Starscream that does. He's constantly

stealing the show every single time he's on the

page. Well, yeah, I think that's a classic. transformers

combo though is you know at what we kept that

show going character wise was you know optimus

prime was everybody's dad megatron and star scream

were hysterical and actually do a lot of character

for show that time because villains get all the

good lines into villains yelling at each other

is the funniest thing in the world uh... heroes

are largely there for bill is to say horrible

things too And you don't have to have sympathy

for bad guys. So when they're mean to each other,

it's even funnier. So Starscream, in any case,

Starscream stealing the show is nothing new.

This, you know, I still kind of feel like this.

Robots in disguise is kind of the Starscream

comic. Especially even though I haven't read

it, I've seen the cover, but especially after

issue 20, when we'll get to that eventually.

But it's like. So this whole time he's like Starscream

reading a comic about Starscream to his you know

Free nephews, you know Starscream Starscream

and Starscream What is the Cybertronian translation

for Huey Dewey and Louie I don't know they were

in they were in issue one remember hasn't been

written yet. Yeah So this whole Arc that we've

had in here with wheel jack. This is supposed

to be happening Like in the future Well, it's

happening like after this conversation Okay,

because because terminal goes back to the page

42 leads in you know is you know leads into the

last you know is would lead into the first one

of the flashbacks Right, right There's those

well wheel jack volunteers to go basically in

turmoil ship because he says hey, I have a cloaking

device They don't believe him So wheel jack is

the dude that goes in because he's the only one

that could probably understand it if he did see

it He might not blame it everybody else. But

you know, there you go. We're on here. Will Jake

is also advocating. He's saying Really is on

the level. Yeah, I love Paul's response to that

too. He says that we apologize later Apologies,

what are those? Yeah. Looks like we kill him

and then we apologize if he meant well. That's

pro strategy. So turmoil gets back aboard his

ship and he finds Wheeljack and boy, he doesn't

waste any time getting rid of him. Yeah. Yeah.

We're Wheeljack. Seems like his big move is shooting

people through the chest. He does that the perceptor

as well. Yeah, he does. That's his signature

move Yeah, not killing you by shooting you in

the chest is not much of a signature move really

He just wants you to feel the pain. That's about

it Killing you through the chest might be more

effective. Yeah Well, I mean because everybody

usually somebody intervenes after that point

either gravity or he gets distracted So he never

actually does finish the job Well, and then so

wheel jack snaps his little, you know, gravity

bubble that we established in the first, you

know, page on him. And now we've established

that it will hold a great big Decepticon. Yep.

Hmm. I wonder where we're going to go with that.

But I'm pumped. Find out next next episode review.

And frankly, we have this time ship here, which,

Frank, I really believe was established 90 percent

for the reason of. Again, you know barbers must

clean continuity Say like we all let the we all

let the reflector thing go hadn't we? You know,

we find out and moved on but you know, he's like

not gonna fix it. I can fix it True I'm travel

fixes anything That was the biggest very clever

Through the whole issue was the fact that you

know, he's you don't know what wheel jack is

looking for Well, you kind of know these and

they're investigating but You don't know until

he gets to that point where he says it's a time

machine that you like going what? Time machine

now the first time I heard that I thought oh

no, this is not gonna end. Well, it's like turmoil

in the time machine great Well, yeah, let's go

into the future and bring the Beast Wars back

to the past but I just thought you know when

you start dealing laughs I've just seen some

Waspinator and Rattrap in these lately. I'm sorry,

Amy, I interrupted you. That's OK. When you bring

in Time Machine, then all of a sudden you start

having major continuity issues. Because if you're

not keeping track to the past, the future, and

the present, it could quite literally break your

brain. I mean, there have been we've had some

really great Time Machine stories, back to the

future. And even that had continuity errors.

I think I remember falling on something where

there were a bunch of fans that were squabbling

over something little and it just, you know,

it's it's one of those weird things. The good

thing about it is that a couple of issues from

now Wheeljack kind of changes our minds about

what the time machine actually will do. But when

I first saw this, I thought I was overly cautious

about it going, OK, time machine. OK, we'll see

how it's handled. I still think it was just to

dump Reflector where he belonged. And that's

why it was handled so responsibly. It seemed

to have no other ostensible use. Yeah. And I

think, you know, you're right to fear the time

machine in other fiction. Because the thing is,

even when you say back to the future, I always

say the rule, unless your story is about time

travel, do not have time travel in it. I think

that's the general rule because it just gets

very silly. Even if you keep your continuity

straight, sometimes when you're keeping it straight

via time travel, the time travel becomes an excuse

to straighten your continuity rather than being

part of your story or part of your continuity.

Yeah, it's like and then he fell into a time

portal, which is why he wasn't where he should

have been over here with this other thing And

yeah, you know, it's like that's no fun. I mean

back to the future You know, dr. Who bill and

did about time travel. It is the premise of the

thing But yeah turn yeah the occasional Star

Trek not so much. Yeah Don't do that All ended

tears anyway It's all that scientist who's trying

to work on warp drive technology for the real

world. Well, so technically, that's not that

far up. I'm not going to get into string theory

with you anyway. We would be here way past five

hours if you did that. I think I would get a

headache. We'll skip the theoretical physics.

I think we've talked about Breaking Bad too much

as it is. Wow. That's like a five minute thing

out of 54 minutes. Hey man, you were giving me

crap for bathroom break earlier, so... No refuge

in Breaking Bad. I think we pretty much wrapped

up this issue. Basically, Metalhawk steps in,

he saves Wheeljack, and the rest is history.

Get some you know, they have a bonding moment

because like hey metalhawks saved my life and

you know We got out of there and then just as

soon as we got out Prowl came in and arrested

everybody. Yay Like why he arrested everybody

cuz because he stabbed me and metalhawks saved

me like no I was gonna arrest everybody anyway

wheeljack, but Thanks for being here pal. Yeah

See right here my schedule 630 arrest everybody

Just like it says every day and he was telling

him before he left He's like make sure that you're

out by 630 because if not, I'm arresting you

too From up for obstructing justice, there you

go. I'll find a reason I've got this big thick

book. I'll just whack you over the head with

it right there item 63 after learn Portuguese

So row is in disguise issue number eight cover

a is the same cover as the trade cover Iron Heights

patent Yeah Where did they find the time to make

that giant Autobot symbol? Yeah, I don't know

like Wheeljack, why did you build that giant

Autobot symbol? I don't know prime was back.

I thought he was gonna make a speech He likes

those things. He doesn't even know I put them

there. He just thinks they're there but takes

a good six hours. We're running out of paint

At least prime doesn't have that That all -knowing

quote every single speech that ends it Tell all

the world that's Rodimus now. I know that was

Rodimus a couple with issues ago when he was

having his speech right there And he mentioned

it like 15 times before the end of the speech,

but we didn't see all of that. So he makes up

for it in more than ECI by saying it every single

time he can. I would so be the jerk on the last

slide who was like keeping a tally every time

he said it. He said it 5823 times. To date. So

technically Ender would be wrong. I don't think

so. Ender's never wrong. Yeah, right. And you

owe me, Ender. Yeah, I know. I'm going to save

that sound. I expect the check to be in the mail.

You and David Wise, 20 cents. So issues eight

I almost said seven but issue eight is all about

iron hide Good old iron hide mister crazy, but

you know still pretty awesome You know the sad

thing is now I When I read this When I read this

I It's so weird he has the g1 design, but I kept

hearing Jess Harnell's movie voice in my head

I wasn't hearing Peter Cullen's Ironhide at all.

I don't know. I don't even know whose Ironhide

you're referring to. Jess Harnell was the voice

of Ironhide in the movies, in the live -action

films. He doesn't look anything like that. I

know he doesn't look like that, but that's the

voice I had. He looked like Toastertron for all

the Ironhide was. Really I expected like toast

to pop out of his face at any moment the way

he looked I'm not talking about the way he looks

I'm talking about paint the one in the movie

read he he still doesn't look a goddamn thing

like iron hide I Know but my point is when I

was reading iron hides monologue in the first

page here. I Didn't hear the g1 Peter Cullen

version in my head. I know I did Unfortunately,

I'm not trying hard enough Even summon that guy's

voice in my head if I tried to To put to this

He sounds more like one of the Dino bots Wow,

I'm too. All right So speaking They're on their

way. He's talking to a bunch of people. We don't

know who it is. And then suddenly boom. We've

got Dino bots. So I don't know. We didn't see

when they arrived, but you know what? They don't

need a big fanfare It's the fact that they're

on the page and we have a two -page splash with

a big skylinks. There you go, man It's extreme

finish with all I need to do is see that I'm

closing the book now Hasbro and Michael Bay seem

to determine that the Dino bots were useless

a few years before this but it's just like Fire

everyone. What are you thinking? You know dinosaurs

high moon brought them out of Obscurity they

really did they put into a vault and gone forever.

Yeah, we're gonna be gone forever the high moon

I mean Matt Tigger literally like was on a campaign

with has bro sold it. He sold it He came back

and did it again Try and get you know those it

so that's all that's all high moon We have to

thank for the continued existence of the dinobots,

which is just a completely silly thing to say

Every single time it's a dinosaur. That's also

a robot that transforms come on man. What kid

would not want to buy one of those What he does

not want to sit like my kids for weeks after

I had that game wanted to sit and play Grimlock

over and over and over again That was instant

win. Yeah. Oh Mike. I can't get my kid off of

there and And he was in an interview and he was

kind of discussing it with them it was like,

you know Well, they're on Cybertron, right? So

why does he why does he turn into a space t -rex?

And this is like Because space t -rexes are awesome

You know why is he this way where are they there?

What's that? Why does that make sense? It's like

cuz you want it you jerk Do you not want the

giant space t -rex? Well, no, it's like then

shut up. That's why it's there Hey, even dr.

Who had space t -rex On dinosaurs on a spaceship

come on man, it could happen it sounds better

than snakes. Yeah Big metal dinosaurs are awesome.

That's all you really need. Yeah, they could

never have explained it I was really I mean they

I really feel like some of you could have like

is a thought experiment we just drop them into

some storyline somewhere and just be like Just

let them go and Really? Where's those come from?

Most people would just be like who cares? That

was the coolest thing in the world just go with

it it's awesome Explanation and in transformers

for And apparently, if Prowl was a seven -year

-old, he'd be the most alienated seven -year

-old ever. Why Prowl? Is that relief I detect?

The Dinobots make me nervous. Look, he's not

a seven -year -old. He's like the only adult

in the Autobot encampment. Yep. Compared to Starscream,

Metalhawk, and Bumblebee, yeah. Three stooges?

Easy. Like, dude, guys, really? High school?

Come on. Get over yourselves. All these comics

should have ended. Prowl should have come out

with, like, Bumblebee, Starscream, and Metalhawk's

head in a bag. And just, like, dump them out

on the steps in front of the, like, little city

hall they had there and just been, like... It's

done. I really want to be in charge. Okay? So

how are those elections coming? That was the

best line ever, because you know it was just

gonna bother Bumblebee. It's like, grrr! How

are those elections coming? Free elections coming.

It's just like it's Starscream just lays it out.

Like, you know, he's I own this comic And he's

like, you know, I write title change coming Starscream

and the Transformers he's campaigning already

to own the comic. Yeah Yeah, and in Metal Hawk

is his number one fan again, Bumble baggage wise,

I don't enjoy seeing Bumble be tortured as much

as I would enjoy seeing some other characters

getting crap from Starscream. Well, it gets even

better because then Prowl's like, hey, maybe

they have a point. I swear, it's like this is

like the perfect troll moment in this comic,

because then he breaks down, he's like, stop

it! That's great. You know, we're not ready for

elections. And it was like, well, we elected

you, jackass. Remember that? That was a real

zinger. You know, I got some of these things

to some degree. Remember, you know, we discussed

that I didn't come back in for a while, even

after you had given me the all clear, because

frankly, I'd pick some of these up and I'd see,

oh, look, there's Bumblebee still in charge.

Not out of the hole yet. Not out of the hole.

And it took some reassurance that we were far

enough out of the hole for me to enjoy it. But

I'm like, well, I can't be doing that good. He's

still got Bumblebee in charge. Still got a long

way to dig. It's a long way to temporary. Sometimes

when you sit on the crapper, it's kind of hard

to wipe it all off, right? Why does Bumblebee

in the moment where he, like Amy says, stop it?

Why is? when i read that and i look at the the

drawing of bumblebee and i'm immediately drawn

to martin from the simpsons so this is what it

feels like having to get revenge for you bullying

me all these years oh my god and yeah ender was

right last week i so want to just take a hacksaw

to metal hawks arm and get rid of that oh wing

oh my god that's horrible you you actually wonder

if there's a campaign in Iacon right now to have

them cut off because every single time he turns

around he's whacking somebody in the face You

know, he had his face taken clean off every single

time he turned around and somebody said hey metal

hog And he turns and slashes somebody right?

I just want we all take a lean -in one panel

and look at that part of his arms You know, there's

a hinge on that, right? You just can't bear to

fold that up, huh? And see, it's such an awkward...

I can make you a port to shove that aileron into.

And it's such an awkward shot in the page previous

where Starscream is making his big joke about

the free elections, even though he's serious.

If you look at Metalhawk on that panel, it looks

like he's going to poke Prowler in the eye. Because

it's just... God. Metalhawk, no thank you. Toy

do not want. Worst transformation ever. I want

a toy of metalhawk. I'll take a toy of metalhawk,

too. I'll take a crayon of them. You could have

clip -ons to be those giant ass wings. It's about

the spot they go on. Yeah, you're right. They'll

keep falling off. They need some sort of like,

you know, head plate thing to make those shoulders.

Wow. So funny your modernized design metalhawk,

but you sure got those shoulder pads out of the

80s I'm still waiting for skylinks to shit a

bunch of guns out of his butt Well speaking of

skylinks what like he ate a bunch of Decepticons

and he like couldn't digest the guns In five

faces in one of those guys in my cargo hold for

like three million years. I know yeah I knew

something wasn't opening right back there The

way that he acts towards everybody he's got something

shoved up his butt so far So we've got skylinks

and What is slag doing what oh my god So we switched

from Bumble Baggage and Starscream Goating to

Above the Wilderness. I'm actually glad his name

is Slug, before we move on. Yes, absolutely.

We had a long talk about that one day. You should

appreciate it when it's done right. We noticed

it, we appreciate it, thank you. Slug is not

Slag and Slag is not Slug. It's all the damn

British people's fault. Blame it on the British.

That's right. Well it is. That's literally true.

It's not like when we blame Canada. Now that's

just a knee -jerk reaction. Alright, so Skylinks...

Who is he arguing with on that bottom panel?

I don't think he's arguing with anybody. I think

at this point, he's just like boring them to

death with all the stories he's telling them

on the way out there. He should be paying attention

to where he's flying because when they finally

get out of when they when they finally eject

from his cargo hold, they're like, dude, man,

somebody needs to shut him up. And he doesn't

even know his way back because he's not been

paying attention the whole time. Well, he doesn't

know his way back. Yeah, I know the whole point

is well if you stopped, you know If you've been

concentrating on your thought processes instead

of just telling old war stories and there you

go When did this issue come out this issue came

out? October no, yes No, this issue came out

August of last year because it's a okay So then

why the hell is movie ravage on the next page?

That's a good question. Oh, you mean the... Oh,

you wish movie ravage looked that good. I'm like,

hey, if they added a second eye... Why do you

have Sentinel Prime's dreadlocks? Face dreadlocks.

Good questions. I have no idea. You'd have to

ask Andrew Griffith. Who did this in the follow

in the next? You wish you wish Ravage looked

that good in the movies, because this thing is

much cooler. I'm not intentionally giving a crap.

I'm just hostile towards the movies. There was

a Sentinel Prime crack, not a Turbo Fox crack.

If it's meant to be... Yeah, they take it out,

they make sure, the DinoBots make short work

of this thing as it's trying to take out the

throat of Ironhide. And we find out that, you

know, the wilderness has got some strange mojo

going on. Very, very strange mojo. I didn't feel

like this thing was properly explained. I thought

Cybertron was supposed to be pretty barren of

life at this point. It was mostly unmanageable

out of control, and the only one that's been

going out there is Ironhide because he's the

only one that dares to go out there. I just thought

when the reformatting thing happened, pretty

much everything got fried. If there wasn't anything

there after several million years of fallout.

Think it just described is going back to its

primordial state, which doesn't necessarily mean

that it doesn't have any life on it I mean in

issues before this we've seen plant life where

bombshell was hiding out in a cave area somewhere

and there was you know kind of mechanical looking

plants, so So make a face on Cybertron where

you're like Grimlock in in the Beast Hunters

comics, and you're just on bombed out Cybertron

Yeah, it's like fallout. You have to like go

to little crappy little towns I didn't realize

how much like fallout that comic is if you've

played fall It really is just like that, isn't

it? There's the crappy little town up the road

and Grimlock has his little crappy little town

He's from and everyone somehow they find somebody

else who's doing some crappy little thing somewhere

Very much very much the same scenario But yeah,

so Amy basically what you're saying is is that

iron hide dares to be stupid Well, he's just

he at this point thinks he's invulnerable So

he keeps on going out into the wilderness because

he's like I can't die. No, no kill me I thought

it was more. Yeah, you're right. He has dared

to be stupid I just convinced myself of that.

Thank you. Never mind. I wonder how he's gonna

feel when somebody tells him that Gorlin prime

isn't actually there anymore We'll find out in

Dark Cybertron, won't we? It's like, yeah, I

saw the future. You don't run into Prime. You're

like, I saw the future, and everything's going

to be OK, because I was on this utopian version

of Gorland Prime. You're like, I blew up Gorland

Prime last week. What? Like you blew stuff up

on it? No, no, like I blew it up. It's like it's

not there anymore. It's A itself. It's gone.

It's SETI Alpha 6. It's gone. Alderaan it's gone

And all of a sudden the voices cried out and

then there was silence all the voices in Ironhide's

head you mean Is that too So we get Ironhide

and the Dinobots tearing this thing from shred

to shred and some interesting dialogue amongst

them Yeah, Ironhide thinks he's in charge and

Slag thinks that he's in charge. So. Yeah, we

get a we get a little bit of a power play in

this where, you know, they they they hunker down

for the evening and they're like, why are we

doing this? It's mostly for Ironhide's benefit,

because he said so. But we'll get to that. First,

we're going to go back to Prowl. Now, this this

is not a mistake, but do you notice how their

eye color is slowly changing? yes that is on

purpose he's he's gonna bring these mistakes

up it's not a mistake this is at this point he

is agreeing with me right? they're doing something

on purpose with the eye color does not seem to

have any errors in it no they go from they go

from red to orange to you know sort of orange

is yellow and then finally when they lose their

crap they're yellow Yellow apparently is the

default. I've lost my crap color So we see pros

put his desk back where it goes Yeah, he's not

flipping it anymore. Or at least has rearranged

it. So it's not flipped It's a big old desk when

he flips it. It must be you know, it causes damage

man They had to reconstruct the whole bed the

whole room when they get finished. Oh, it seems

pros offices at the top of this little tower,

too Yeah, it's at the top of the tower. And by

the time we get to the end of the page on 64,

it's like, Hey, we don't need a panel. Let's

just have a white background with the desk in

the middle. And I just, I like it. I think it's

cool. I really do, but it's just, it's so weird

to have. Well, the top panel and then the, the

two middle panels, like actually, actually square

it out around that. See, it's a trick though,

because it's not actually just the use of negative

space. Prowl's office is just that clean. Yeah,

there's nothing else in it. He's just got room

for the for the desk. Once they brought it here

from Earth, like they forgot to bring his chair

or he destroyed it the last time he flipped his

table. But now he's just sitting it. Yeah, he's

just sitting on the desk instead of those things

on his back. Those aren't guns. No, it's a jetpack.

No, it's a desk chair. Hold in place they do

look kind of like, you know All you'd have to

do is you know, sit those two things down behind

him. You wouldn't need any other apparatus They're

attached to a chair in a gavel. Oh Well, it's

interesting here I'd forgotten this but um, Amy

you and I have discussed the nature of decepticon

hood a couple of times recently and Probably

seems to be very much of the same opinion here

discussing Megatron. Yep. He wasn't after equality.

He just wanted to do to everybody else what they

had done to him. I love that page because I own

that page. Oh, wow. That's pretty cool. and why

that's pretty oh wait no that's so cool he ripped

it out of this chest the only page that andrew

griffith has ever done where he's done a composition

like that and i was like i need it thank you

that's so awesome oh that's yeah that would be

when i am Normally, I'm not I think hasn't done

one sense either I mean and see Alex Milne has

done quite a few where he does You know compositions

of just bunch of images together and this was

the first time Andrew had ever gotten one So

I was like, yeah, I've got it just that badass

prowl there Yeah That would have been enough

for me with his chair Look at those that think

in their chair Can you imagine if this is what

we really had in Transformers the movie of Megatron

actually ripping the Matrix out of Optimus' chest?

Holy crap. It would have been X -rated, man.

Yeah, it would have been. It would have been

better in All Hail if it wasn't a flashback.

That was the only problem with All Hail. I liked

All Hail, but I came in in the middle. I came

in at the end. Oh, you were probably even better

off. I haven't even read it yet. When you go

through the whole thing, it's great. Wow, that

was good. But if it's getting stuck with like,

what's going on for like six months must have

been kind of harrowing. This is what really bothered

me is the fact that it's all hell Megatron when

it's an Autobot story. Their conflict is way

much better. Yeah. So I didn't care about the

Decepticons. I just want to go back and see what

the Autobots were doing. It's like, oh, are they

going to die or not? What's going to happen to

Optimus Prime? Was like yes, this is all very

interesting, but we have no idea why it's happening

All right, so Yeah, so back to the Cybertronian

wilderness Back to Dinobot hunt a UK lifted title

from back in the day It's not about road trip.

Remember is that They're going on a road trip

they they're just now entering the the Grand

Canyon Yeah You know, they're looking at all

of the you know Signs of life that seemed to

be there at one point or another, you know wild

animals scratching on the walls and Investigating

to say hey, what happened here? Looks like a

jerk weed and some big metal dinosaurs fought

something, you know with claws. I Kind of feel

like somebody should have asked if they were

walking around in circles You know that hole

goes very very deep and it's gonna cost us to

get out. Yep Crazy yeah. Yeah iron hide tells

the Dinobots that he once went crazy Believe

him. Yeah, they're like we're crazy But they

completely accept, you know his his reasoning

because yeah, they became Dinobots because what

rational philosophy Shockwaves obsession with

early earth You know, oh Wait, I'm sorry. That's

beast hunters. What's wrong? Yeah Yeah, it's

so hard to not mix them up and especially with

all this like I know issue six was a flashback,

right? Tired like that wasn't happening at the

same because here shockwave is in prison. So

yeah. Yes at the beginning Issue six he was that

was when he was on going and he disappeared for

a couple issue or you know couple whatever We

didn't know where he was for a little while and

then he shows up on the asteroid before the asteroid

500 ,000 years later. Yeah, so yeah, you can

call it a flashback Yep But it's so weird seeing

at least to me it is to see you know seeing him

in a flashback doing all that stuff and now Seeing

him. Oh, hey, I'm just a prisoner In the comic

that he's still on Cybertron in the present time

So they try to tie that up. Yeah. Yeah that that's

Congress Well, that's why I love this part is

because you know, he's not he's just playing

along and he even says it He's like, I'm not

going to interfere in anything and let everything

be the way they are. Because he knows that eventually,

you know, it'll be his time to act. And he's

that guy that's just patient enough to sit in

the background, just go, yeah, I'm going to twiddle

my thumbs here and make everybody think that

I'm not in control when I actually am. Everything

is going exactly according to plan. I love that

windows like look, he shoots window and windows.

Well, first off, I don't believe you. Like, that's

a load of crap, Jack, if you're up to like 10

different things, not nothing. Yeah, I love that

panel. That is my next Facebook image. I like

the big Swindle grin. Yes, again, like like I

said last week, Swindle is just awesome. It doesn't

matter what he's in. He's just awesome. He's

just that character that's that's always awesome.

Well, he's persistent he's persistently He makes

no excuses for himself. He's just he is who he

is He never tries to be anything else, but who

he is so, you know Well, I think that people

have an easy time giving him character even when

they're having trouble with other transformers

like Cost I couldn't write a transformer character

to save his life. But however swindle was fine

because swindle made you know Swindle was preset.

He's preset, so he made sense. He didn't have

to make a character for Swindle. He just had

to have him be a used car salesman, and even

if he had no motivation for it, he understood

it. No one needed to tell him why. Swindle came

out fine. He's fun. He can be. I mean, you can

have a deeper level of Swindle, but you certainly

don't need one. Yeah. Think this swindle gets

portrayed with fairly deep character as the series

goes on Yeah, yeah, but you know, he's certainly

he's not hard to Get the speech pattern out of

and get him to you know, be like swindle. Yeah

So we get dirge again poor dirge he's just used

everywhere And in fact, on the same page, his

eye color changes. Just saying. I'm not sure

that's a point in your favor. He's still being

the poor guy has just been manipulated. He's

he's just standing there as everybody's witness

to everything. I saw it. Just don't shoot me.

Oh, yeah bombshell knew that all he saw him do

is shoot bombshell and you know and and You know

now because if he tells the cons I don't not

sure he'd care want swindle to know that yet

because if the swindle to know it's him I just

mean like I think what bombshell is worried about

is that? Third might know that bombshell cerebro

shelled Prowl. Yeah Prowl shot a bunch of people.

Yeah, it's not not care Don't know if he'd really

care, but I don't know if he wants to let shock

waves. No plan at this point Yeah, oh certainly

not. I'm you know he doesn't want I wouldn't

be surprised if Actually, you know in reading

this And it occurs to me doesn't shockwave know

the cowl is being controlled by bombshell You

know, I'd like to kind of just believe even if

he doesn't know that he just calculated into

his master plan. He's like, he's just going on

with his business. They're not whether or not

bombshell wants him to know or not. I think that

at this point, like Shockwave knows everything

that's going on already, you know, because he's

just telling him this, you know, I saw him blow

up the constructed guns and shoot bombshell.

Shockwave was just like, well, that's what he

told us he was going to do at the staff meeting.

Yeah, that makes sense We shoot people and this

is why he says well What do you want me to do

about it because swindle is just dangling this

little care in front of him? Look what I know

look what I know aren't you gonna get involved

aren't you gonna get involved? I think it's more

about the you know swindle just trying to get

back in the groove of stuff Yeah, and shockwave

is just like yeah, whatever That's what it says

on you know Megatron's half -ass plan here look

see page six. I even underlined it Just you wait

when the time is right, I will trump all of you.

That's all I know you're drunk So we get back

to iron hide and his pets Or is it the other

way around If slag isn't anything to say about

it, yeah who do what they always do and attack

Autobots They're made with tiny brains like real

dinosaurs Now ender this is not the g1 cartoon

I know I just like this well after the little

talk around the campfire You know, I know that's

kind of take a rest and they're supposed to be

you know sitting around like Taking a rest or

at least protecting him and watching his back

and they you know They stay awake a way too long

and end up taking it out on each other Yep, and

that my friends goes all the way to the end of

the comic where he gets up and says okay I know

it's you and there that was the thing is that

I loved the fact that that John was playing off

the expectations of the fans at this point because

we're all thinking it's got to be Megatron It's

got to be Megatron. It's got to be Megatron Yeah,

and he used that to his advantage and so like

this whole time we're waiting on pins and needles

as we're reading this Oh, it's gonna be him any

time any second now He's gonna walk out of the

wilderness and he's gonna start pwning everybody

and it doesn't happen But I didn't think it was

gonna be Megatron Yeah, I didn't think it was

too good. I thought it was like that's way too

early for Megatron Yeah, I mean, I'm sorry Megatron's

walking around doing whatever out in the wilderness,

you know Hanging it's you know turbo Fox things

over is over. Maybe he's doing that I'm just

saying and he sees like iron hiding the Dinobots

and he sneaks up on them and attacks them tonight

no, he keeps walking and does whatever cave painting

he was gonna do that afternoon and You know,

it's either that or he changes his oil and if

they happen upon him, he'll kill them But he's

not gonna go out of his way No, it's either that

or he's frozen under the Hoover Dam for 70 years

And I can't make a wheel jack tiny brain crack

and now we're in the movie continuity So yeah,

the Dinobots start taking each other apart and

then they start taking Ironhide apart And then

you're like, what? I thought he wasn't supposed

to die. And they leave it on a cliffhanger. At

least that's what it was that the month. Oh,

yeah, I'm glad they didn't make that too overdramatic,

like they actually killed him. Yeah, because

I mean. This should have been one of the covers

this last page. That would have been a little

bit too spoilerish, though, but a nice cover

for the next one would have raged about the fact

that he, you know. No, no, we wouldn't we would

have gotten that in the solicits. That's the

problem They needed a cover. It would have been

on the solicits and everybody were like no I

got crap rage, you know people for saying that

That the gold fire bumblebee was bumblebee and

one of my non spoiler reviews Because that was

spoiling it for people That even though even

though he was on one of the covers Okay, this

gold fire bumblebee because people had speculated

it might be gold bug I was spoiling it for them,

because they thought Gold Bug might have been

in the comic. So my saying it wasn't Gold Bug

was a spoiler. Someone told me it would be like

saying, you know, but I was like, that wasn't

even the end of the comic or anything, and it

was on the cover, and they said, it would be

like saying that, you know, Dark of the Moon

is great, and you should see it, and Sentinel

Prime betrays everybody, but that's not the end

of it, so it's not a spoiler. I said, no, it

would be more like if I said, Darker the moods

great. You should go and see it gold bugs not

in it And now I have to go to now I have to go

to return of Optimus Prime part two Think I have

that clip somewhere You know we get to this is

the last issue for this this episode of the podcast

robots We haven't taken three hours to get here.

No, not this time. Volume three next week is

a whole other story. Robots in disguise number

nine, cover A. Is Ironhide and Optimus Prime

in the shadow? I know it's not Optimus. I know

it's not, but I'm just saying, look at the head.

Come on. Yeah, it looks like Ultra Magnus. The

white repaint, oh god. This caused so much buzz

when people saw it. They're like, oh, Superion,

oh my gosh. And then there were some people that

were like, oh, it's Superion. But then there

were, it was just the fact that we haven't ever

seen him in IDW continuity. I think that got

the biggest buzz is because, Superion. So it

kind of kept like. It got people excited, I think.

I forgot the aerial bots walked out and went

to the wilderness. That's right, yeah. I completely

forgot about that. This is the first time an

IDW can't do it. What did you say, Ender? What

did you think Ironhide the dino bots were doing

out there if the aerial bots weren't out there?

They went out there to find them. Joyriding?

They were on a road trip. I just figured they

were looking for the Queens of Cybertron since

the Lost Light crew was looking for the Knights.

The Dinobots showed up and Prowl said, not in

my city. And so, you know, Ironhide volunteered

to be the guy to take them on a road trip to

get him out of Prowl's hair. And then he's like,

oh, good. We got rid of crazy too. Like okay,

here's 50 bucks take these guys out to whatever

the equivalent of Las Vegas and Cybertron was

like, you know, that's there anymore, right bro.

I Don't care. Let's take him out of my hair.

Yeah. Yes. I know iron hide Six flags over Cybertron

this other series of places that aren't there

Let him out of the car Fast you realize that

night the wilderness takes over right? Yes. I

don't care take them Bumblebee is admiring the

night sky like somebody's gonna Neuralize him

or something. This is the only time he gets a

break from the other two You know what, honestly,

if Starscream had a men in black neuralyzer to

use on Bumblebee, that might be the best thing

in the world. No, no, Prowl's already done that.

It was called ongoing. Yeah. Oh, boy. I promise

not to tamper with Bumblebee's brain anymore.

Too much. Was it too much or any more? It was

probably a combination of both. There was this

one shot of Prowl, and the way he had his hands,

he was sitting at his desk, it looked like he

was praying. It was the end of Last Stand of

the Wreckers. Yeah. And I was hoping for our

current writing team to, well, shy of Roberts

because I didn't know him at the time, to take

over again. And I was praying to Primus or something.

It was like, I promise if you let Nick Roche

and James Roberts write me again, I promise not

to tamper with Bumblebee's brain anymore. Thank

you. I love this next panel. Wheeljack, we've

got incoming. Incoming what? Incoming skylinks

who's out of control? He's passed out. He's been

drinking too much I didn't know McAdams opened

up a establishment out in the wilderness He had

his own personal stash with him after he dropped

off the Dinobots. He just went at it He didn't

want to share that's why he got rid of them to

begin with he was boring them with all the the

old wartime Story story is just hoping that like

golly. I hope these guys just jump out So they

finally dude is a kiss Getting to the bottom

of that bottle must have taken a long time What's

the happening? Well, he's having the wilderness

like no, he was back three hours ago. He just

went straight to the bar Just didn't make it

any further than this Yeah, and he lost them

all flew in flew nothing he fell off the roof

But that was the plan proud gave him, you know

a couple hundred shannucks too for that falling

down drunk That's scaling to winks it bro, yeah,

who are the Dino buzz Why am I flashing to I

don't even know what 80s song it is but when

Well, the scaling says it says I lost them all

the next page is lost them all to the night.

Oh God dramatic I Lost the night Way too cuddled

up with that a decapitated sludge there. Yeah

Like you don't cuddle with things with no head,

dude I'll say one thing for writ at this point.

It's like It's not pulling any punches. It's

just Like the first volume because of all the

political stuff on Cybertron it was at times

it was boring. Yes, the the dialogue is good

but the story wasn't for me wasn't like it probably

took me four hours to read that book and here

it took me maybe less than it was a fair read

i have to agree with you there because i think

that was much better read it last night like

it was like it was a whole issue less yeah well

yeah but that's beside the point yes i agree

i agree It's not just because there isn't five

issues this time. It's just because Barbara has

done very well to this point, but it seems like

in these four issues, he's picked up the ball

and ran away with it is what he's done. He's

just he's the pace has been set because the first

six issues and he's just rolling the ball continually

the only one that was just kind of like a Let's

stop for just a second and see what Orion Pax

is up to but then we get back into the the story

and it's just like boom You know robots in disguise

burning in both directions toward the eventual

outcome that happens in the end of volume three

So it's just one of those things that you know

It's it's hit its stride and the reason why we're

blowing through it So quickly is the fact that

it is in a really good place It's yeah, it's

right in the middle its stride It takes a break

for just a moment for us to go see what Ryan

Pax is doing But then we're just right back into

the story and we're you know, no nonsense our

way I think this is this has been really his

Barbara's first chance that spread his wings

at all. I think the first five issues were pure

digging out of Costa and Schmidt I mean just

you're being just you know shovel full after

shovel full of it and You know, I mean really

good. No, he did him but I'd still and I don't

and it's not all gone yet But this is you know,

he's gotten enough out of it. He can start telling

his own story without Having to explain why there's

a story at all again because they really didn't

leave him much to work with I mean really you

should be able to go into your next thing with

like, okay All the characters are established

everything we know where we are and what's going

on and you really had none of that He had he

had to make the setting he had to say wherever

he went what they were because for anything We

got nothing we got nothing for two years When

was when did costa ever establish like some of

these characters half the time? We weren't even

sure if he was if even knew who the characters

were he clear. He didn't I think he had a D He

had no idea how to write a transformer. He just

couldn't do it. And the thing is to he and Schmidt

spent a lot of time Contracting that universe

and illuminating possibilities. I mean Literally

just wiping out place to go and things to do

places to go and things to do and people to see

I mean just saying there were less trends on

is injecting it on Yeah, look at like the first

couple pages of this this even just get shot

of the bar with prime in it Look at me think

of the tremendous expansion of the universe that

represents Yeah, so the all these alien races

to show a space station even again. I mean Cost

and Schmidt really tried to shrink it down to

like these are the 30 Autobots who are still

alive This is the only planet that they can be

on which happens to be earth and then wonder

why they ran out of story in ten seconds Yeah,

I mean it's just that's really what it was happening

there and Barbara had to get out of all of that

which was a distinctly negative story space and

then they even what they had created they flattened

At the end so even the little thing he that was

you know that the comic had been that was unsatisfactorily

small to have a story and he had to build a story

out of the Remains of that and that took five

issues to even get to the point where now, okay?

I can have somebody go do something Yeah, you

know and he's still you know he's still got the

bumble baggage. He has to deal with and there's

still he's still digging I agree here, but these

at least like You know the story is gonna pick

up more pace this I don't think this is even

at stride yet. I just I'll write your comic again

when I finished, you know digging this hole As

soon as I can get out of here I'll start writing

a comic and that's that's more what we're seeing

here. We're actually getting Well, while he's

doing that He's also laying the seeds of conflict.

I mean And I know I'm gonna come back to this

and we're just gonna end up having a nice little

discussion about it But again, this is why I

have to say I think bumblebee was a good choice

is because he's even got people in his own ranks

Which is established in this issue Where they're

mumbling behind his back going dude, like this

is not cool. We're not all right with this So

even even in the own his own ranks of the Autobots,

they're not liking bumblebee Now, I think that

even if they had had Ironhide as the boss, their

only mumblings would have been like, well, he

saw visions. And then be like, well, he's making

better decisions than Bumblebee did. And they'll

be like, yeah, yeah, you're right. We like Ironhide

much better. The conflict wouldn't be the same.

And so I like the fact that John capitalized

on that. Hey, let's just make it so that all

the Autobots are like, we don't like what Bumblebee's

doing. We don't like what Prowl's doing. And

the other reason we don't like Bumblebee is because

he's attached to Prowl. Bumblebee has no idea

what Prowl is. I think it's easier in retrospect

to make the call that maybe Bumblebee could have

been gotten rid of earlier or later. The stories

he's told have been good around it. but I still

think it's a drag, because I do think it was

kind of one of the lower points of the marsh,

and it's really prominent here. Like I said,

I was still picking these up and looking at them

and going, Bumblebee's still in charge, we can't

have gotten too far away from when I hated this.

You know what I mean? Now I think if I if I reading

the whole issue, that's not true We're a lot

further away than one would think for bumblebee

still being because we actually do we have one

conflict we have multiple conflicts Which what

did it cost to do in the whole time that we were

on earth? The only conflict was I don't even

remember what the conflict was It was it was

boy. We don't like ourselves Yeah, we're really

hearing what costa was thinking was boy. I don't

like these things boy. I don't want to be writing

this You know Boy, I wish Andy would stop telling

me to do things with these characters I don't

think make any sense, and I don't think they

make any sense to begin with so it doesn't really

help That's what we're you know what we were

getting there. I mean frankly. This is issue

9 by this time Costa had convinced me. I didn't

want to read Transformers comic books anymore.

That's right He had oh wow enough saying so so

long. Sorry to leave it in your hill lap Amy,

but you know, I'm out of here I Mean, so it's

funny. We're getting to this point like wow This

is really kind of hitting a good stride. Whereas

then I was like and I'm out So I mean, it's a

marked difference. I just you know in terms of

the the whole Yeah, bumblebee just is a big symbol

of the whole I think so, too the bumblebee is

leader of the Autobots is like Only something

Mike Costa and Andy Schmidt would do You know,

like you should stop doing it now No one no one's

holding you to it. I this I mean, there's a certain

degree I mean like I know the story is working

a certain way and I'm I think it's gonna be gone

Dropped a meteor on him in the first issue and

I'd have been happy to see it go Something's

gonna happen to him, and he's just gonna... Yeah.

Prime falls out of the sky. Prime is back. You're

in charge again. No, I'm not Bumblebee. I'm only

here for just a little bit. That would have been

perfect. Flaming Prime, fresh out of the whatever

that happened, falls out of the sky, flattens

Bumblebee, and everyone goes, oh no! Bumblebee

and then prime stands up. Oh, what happened?

They're like, yeah It's pop to miss and nobody

even looks at the flame After that somebody wakes

up back to prime three weeks later. He wakes

up and says I'm leaving cyber It's just a role

reversal except this time bumblebee never comes

back Is they're all running their prowl trips

over it and points back he's like have that removed

So we go back to the old oil house and that third

panel on page 87 Why am I seeing blur as Sam

Malone and the two on the end is cliff and norm?

Yeah, it's just the way that it's shot it looks

it reminds me so much of Cheers It was intended

to be Cheers Cheers This is the reason why I

came up with the logo that I have on the shirt

where it says McAdams and the Cheers logo is

because of this. Oh, okay. It was intentional.

It looks a lot like the Cantina in Star Wars,

too, though. No, not the bars. Okay, maybe away

from the bar, but like the end of the bar where

the two bots are and Blur is facing them. Yeah,

that is exactly supposed to be that. Cheers.

Yeah, it's intended to be a cheers homage at

the time. He was actually watching this I think

you remember I think I remember him saying that

he was actually watching the show to catch up

on it Like, you know just to get back in that

and then he was designing it to make it look

like that. So That's what made it awesome bar

and Cheers was a lot smaller It was like a square

True. It was a square, but it was in homage to

it, but it's not completely, you know, yeah Yeah.

It's a bar. I don't know. It just doesn't look

that much like that part of me. It does not look

like it, but it's a bar. I had a bar that looked

like that one. So Bumblebee is asking his old

friend Blurr for a favor. Yeah. He wants him

to go out and find Ironhide because when Skylakes

came back and Bumblebee talked with Wheeljack

about what's going on, there's... Yeah, the There's

a lot the the the wilderness is out of control

and it's making everybody crazy and they only

seem to be protected when they're at Iacon and

Wheeljack Hypothesizes it might have something

to do with Kimia since Kimia is there But then

again, it might just be because we're all together.

So that was pretty much it And hey look the real

ravage shows up because he's what he doing what

he does best spying on bumblebee Yeah. They just

want to make sure he's not there. No one. I just

do that. Yeah. It's just the same. He likes to

know where everybody is. Well, because they're

about to go and steal the time machine. So they

need to know that Bumblebee is out of the way

since he's been camping out on it. No one else

will go near it except Bumblebee. Bumblebee dares

to sit on top of it every day. Wishing that he

could just jump inside and go change things right

the height of his courageous leadership Sitting

on top of something other people are afraid of

They're probably not allowed to touch Yeah, because

prowls in the background giving everybody dirty

looks Bumblebee's like talking about all this

like crazy stuff he could do with a time machine

It's just like if you if it worked like that,

don't you think Prowl would be gone by now? You

just say I'm gonna go take a break wink wink

He's gonna go use the time machine for about

three hours and he'll come back. It's like man

How's things going now with things going while

I was gone? And Bumblebee suddenly starting to

look a little different. He's the only one. I

was like, I'll be right back. I'm going to try

again. See if I can adjust this. Try one again.

And didn't you leave out of that door just a

second ago? Oh, this is the best part. This is

the best part of the whole comic as the as Ravage

is the guy that's leading the the reflectors

to go steal the ship Little do they know that

way up in the rafters RC is pretending to snipe

them all It's great just in case you've forgotten

this character apparently RC has been sitting

on high points in the middle of cyber trying

going got your head I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! I'm

crushing your head! I'm crushing your head! This

is why all of thousands of nails aren't rising

up against the Autobots because she's taking

them out every once in a while. I mean, they

are outnumbered with all of the non -aligned

Cybertronians that are coming back to the planet.

You'd think by now that they would have said,

you know what? We outnumber all these guys. Let's

just take them. Shoot anyone who starts waving

something. Every once in a while she's taking

people out. So they're like they're watching

us. They're always watching us So it's made them

so paranoid that they're like in they've they've

They're in submission to everybody just because

of that. So the nails are staying out of out

of out of Out of the streets, you know, they're

they're definitely, you know hiding out. It's

just Popped off every once in a while Yeah, but

will be is like gee the the nails have been really

quiet quiet this week, huh, bro I know Megatron

in gun mode in the old cartoon is Extremely bigger

than what her rifle looks like but I swear that

rifle looks like she's holding Megatron I think

she's borrowed. I actually think she's found

perceptors stash You know been using his guns

lately. I mean he's dead, right? I was gonna

look for these because he's gone so you're mine

Meanwhile iron hide is yelling at silver bolt

on his iPad. Yeah, I realize he's only watching

YouTube Worst reviewer ever Once you get a real

camera kid silver bolts review of the of outer

wilderness of Cybertron Yeah, this place sucks,

man. Best vacation, you know, not vacation ever.

You know, I mentioned last week how I didn't

like how the scene changes were in one of the

issues, how it went one page and then another.

I didn't mind it here because this trade is,

these issues are filled with so much action.

I didn't mind the one or two scene changes. that

specifically issue nine has between what's going

on with iron. They do have a lot of switching

of point of views to different things, but it's

because we all want to know what's going on in

every single instance. Like again, coming back

to this whole thing, the conflict is just that

great. Every single time you switch, you really

feel like you're getting something because you

want to know what's going on and every point

of view has been so well. defined and and and

Developed that every single time you switch like

oh, yeah, I want to go find out more about this

Oh, yeah, I want to go find more about that so

We're really getting to see Barbara tell some

stories here where it's not like I have to establish

character in place now And I only really have

time to fight. I don't know the weather You know

I mean, I think you know part of that is that

the episodic nature of like to say that issue

is because there's no room for proper conflict

yeah you know it's like I got I got ten miles

of exposition I gotta get out and you're already

you're probably two issues sick of reading it

already it's you know so the time ship finally

gets stolen and could have seen that one coming

Oh yeah, we didn't see it coming. It's gone.

I was actually kind of relieved at this point

because I thought, well, maybe we won't see it

again. Then it was just there just to fix one

little point and that's it. But then we did actually

get to see where it went. And it actually does.

It wasn't just a gimmick. It was actually kind

of something that cleaned up some continuity

and then did a few more things. So it wasn't

a one shot gimmick. It just actually kind of

just moved things along and got that out of the

way really quick. Well, and then it's going to

be used for other stuff later on. Just got to

stay up. Well, that was one of the things established

in that Wheeljack episode of millions of establishments.

Like, here's the time ship. And then we see it

again. It's like, I know it's gone because it's

got other stuff to do. Yes. I just wanted to

see the like the lost panel here where Prowl

and Starscream arrived to see the stolen time

ship and both are like, oh, I was going to do

that like in unison. And then bumblebee looks

at them angrily and Prowl's like separately we

were doing it separately there wasn't gonna do

it with him It's not any better Prowl No, not

really Oh goodness, but yeah, that's one thing

I was really happy with with John with is the

fact that that he puts things in here It doesn't

they're not he does utilize them in one or one

or more ways. It's not just oh, it's only got

It's a one trick pony. It's actually got more

things to it, you know, so Brilliant I loved

it with it. Yeah, it kills reflect Let's reflect

on reflector death by a time ship It was a terrible

way to go Yeah, it was So just like we begin

this issue. We end this issue with bumblebee

monologuing Yeah, yeah, we get a you know a superion

Only to say you are mine I'm gonna transform

you now. Yeah, I know I've been looking for this

one So superion gets a war of cybertron iron

hide toy, but we don't feel fair. I think I should

have ended on that panel Yeah, again, it's like

up and we're gonna end of the bumble baggage

Just what I wanted more bumblebee talking to

himself about being unhappy He's so depressed

Well, let's just you know Optimus Prime was like

a figure of You know this he was they didn't

mean to do this. I maintain but he really he

exuded this sort of like this perfect fatherliness

that everybody you know if you really you know

that's what you want your dad to be like he was

so confident and knew what to say and really

cared and he wasn't perfect he did get angry

like when people would threaten his children

autobots he would get angry and he'd do dumb

things sometimes you know and but but he really

was this comforting figure and He could cause

that was there. Yeah cost of made him into like

yeah sure is your dad after a midlife crisis

when he's discovered like your mom was sleeping

with their tennis instructor and it's like and

he's having a nervous breakdown who you know

who wants to read that and We're kind of getting

you know, but then also it bled into the bumblebee

thing Bumblebee doesn't want to be leader and

never did so we always get these internal monologues

from him about how miserable he is and You know,

it's not fun to read about people thinking about

being miserable. It's really not what I come

to a comic about giant robots for. I think he

would be less miserable if everybody just went

away. You know, if Starscream and Metalhawk wouldn't

bother him and Prowl just... I just think he'd

just... I'd hand the keys to Metalhawk to his

office and just be like, see ya. Be at the bar.

Seems like he's getting to that point because

this last page you're right It's like this is

the world and I don't collapse under the weight

for another night But you know I think they did

that Establish even in the first issue of robots

in disguise where he said I have to do it ten

times better than prime just to break even Because

he is just that little guy. He he's not prime.

He knows it and he's not only that is I think

sometimes he's overthinking things to the point

where I'm not prime I'm not prime. I'm not prime.

I can't do this job because I'm not primed I

think he's psychologically psyching himself out

because he's listening to his own stinkin' thinkin'.

Well, he's right. He shouldn't be doing this.

I think it would be better for the Autobots if

he handed the keys to Metalhawk. I mean, at least

it would keep Starscream from getting them. Frankly,

if he handed them to Pearl... No, no, I think

that Starscream would be all over Metalhawk going,

no, no, no. He would convince him now. He would

just do stupid things, but at least it would

be Metalhawk in charge and not Starscream. True.

I don't know, Metalhawk might have cut Starscream's

head off when nobody's looking if he was already

in charge. And Frank, if he handed the keys to

Prowl, it'd be like, aren't you worried Prowl

will lose the election? It's like, no, because

Starscream and Metalhawk will be dead within

sight a week. Like, I think Starscream will have

some trouble winning without his spark chamber.

Eh, just rampage him up. He'll be all right.

But yeah, the end of this just got, you're right.

As much as we keep on having this conversation,

should Bumblebee be in charge, should he not

be in charge, I think the only reason why it

works is because the conflict, for the sake of

the conflict that it's creating, it works. And

I think that's the only reason why it works is

because there's so much conflict both in the

leadership, in the people that are living there,

in like the things that they're having to deal

with day in and day out. It's the conflict. It's

the glue that keeps everything together. I see.

I just think it's not. It's not quite working.

Bumblebee as leader is an untenable concept and

Barbara is keeping it afloat because of the conflict.

Yeah, but I'm just saying what my concern is

that if it doesn't go away after Dark Cybertron,

then that's going to be kind of an issue. for

me. I'm just like, okay, you're keeping it afloat.

And I guess you're keeping it afloat for a reason.

But it's not that it's working. It's not that

it's good. You shouldn't you should I don't want

Barbara to mistake it for something that we are

enjoying. It's something that he is making, you

know, work despite its inherent flaws. And it

would be better if he got rid of it. That's all

I'm saying. I'm almost starting to enjoy it though

because I like to see somebody have so much fun.

Don't say that because then he might keep it

going. That's exactly what I don't want to hear.

It's all James's fault. It's James's fault. For

me, as someone who is reading the series for

the first time and I never picked up the singles

outside of picking the ones up now and just leaving

them on my shelf, going through this and so far...

even though i still can't see bumblebee as leader

i understand why he's there now and i'm pretty

much over it he's he's the leader until somebody

kills him you know or whatever um take what i

can get yeah sure So we've got the also in the

volume 2 trade they give us the retail incentive

and B covers as well after the end of issue 9

we've got Robots in disguise number 7 the Ri

cover is Megatron Soundwave and Ravage. I love

that cover. Yeah, that's pretty spectacular Yeah,

that's pretty awesome We have number 6 cover

Ri which is basically a just a pencil version

of the number 6 cover of optimus Have to have

stuff in color I don't care if like inside a

comic a panel isn't black and white or something

But just just the pencils it doesn't do anything

for me It really doesn't Number nine cover be

is bumblebee holding crystal city in his hand

and crushing it Yeah, I like that cover It's

very dynamic yeah kind of put across the point

is that you know things are breaking in in Bumblebee's

grasp so yeah. Oh, yeah I suck at this Number

eight retail incentive cover is the dino bots

now is this supposed to be part of a mural for

number for the sound wave Megatron Ravage one

Think it's done in the same style. I think it's

what is it? Yeah, it's Marcelo's Yeah, I think

it could be there could be some midspace there.

Yeah, that would make it all come together Yeah,

and then number nine's cover retail cover is

a swoop shooting down It can't be styling one

of the aerial bots. I just don't know which one

Yeah, one of the aerial bots and then they basically

just took page 22 Of number seven and made it

its own cover without the breakup in Which I

was like glad to see this in its in its entirety

because yeah No, I like it. I do like it break

up the first time I saw it was kind of hard to

read and then I fit realize what it was I was

like, oh, it's one big mural just broken up into

squares just to see it without interruption.

I Really really liked Yeah, I liked it as well

Alright, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll

come back briefly with our ratings and thoughts

Final thoughts actually and we'll be back after

this. Well, it's finished. You may not recognize

him He is no longer Orion Pax now. He is the

first of our new defenders Optimus Prime I Was

wrong my friends. I admired Megatron merely because

he was powerful I failed to see how he used that

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is half the battle. We are back here in the pull

bag and I gotta say this one was miles. I enjoyed

reading this so much more than volume one. I

didn't have too many issues like in volume one

when we did the discussion last week I kept bitching

about RC in her helmet. Yeah, it's still there.

It's every shot I saw in this trade, her helmet,

depending on the angle changed how it was drawn,

but it wasn't as jarring to me. There's considerably

less RC in this in this trade though. Well, yeah,

true. True. So there really wasn't much many

I think what there's a page. Yeah, there was

only one one moment to niggle at and you know

since it was consistent because there's only

one page Then you didn't have to worry about

it, right? Yeah, and you know like Amy said Starscream

basically just runs away with it with the stuff

on Cybertron and I Find it interesting That at

least ironhide thinks in his own head. He's leading

the Dinobots I Don't even want to ask where's

Grimlock Cause I'm just glad he wasn't there.

You know where Grimlock is. You actually read

the last thing with Grimlock in it that coincided

with these. In fact, when it was released, we

found out where Grimlock was like, I think a

month before we found out what was up with the

Dinobots. So, I mean, if you, you know, back,

back then that's, you know, Grimlock was over

and more than ACI. So. Oh, yeah, that's right.

That's well It's been too long since I've read

those trades, too Seven and eight of more than

me ci where we go find um, what is it the the

guys? Not the djd, but the the dissenters scavengers.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's that's for okay now scavengers.

Yep Yeah, okay. All right Ender final thought

and what are you gonna rate this one? Well, this

one was you know, like I said much better I think

as well It was Barbara related getting to spread

his wings and start to tell a story he wanted

to tell I mean even the first one we were getting

the first hints of Dark Cybertron, you know right

off the bat in here, which you know So he's getting

to move the comic in the direction. He wants

to move it in and he's no longer You know crammed

with costar up to his neck and schmidt this is

a much better book and uh... i might give me

a solid four -and -a -half i really enjoyed it

i think it's you know it's a good read uh...

it overall it's coming there and i feel like

to you know i got a little i'm feeling some bias

in its favor because i know a lot of stuff is

going So even some things I think that might

have seemed superfluous to me at the time or

a little slow now all feel purposeful So there

is that sort of back -looking bias, but I think

I'm just gonna give it a good solid four and

a half Plus you already admitted last week that

when you first read these you basically Zoomed

through them and weren't taking like time to

really notice and that's that's and I think it's

it's really cool that the three of us have like

me I My first time reading it. So, you know You

know and you know, Amy you read it in singles

and enter you avoided it like the cost of plague

You thought it was a plague. I just wanted I

wanted to come out on the other side Yeah, this

is this is at least getting I would say this

isn't completely all the way out but Just because

of one or two elements, but mostly I mean frankly

as long as they're stuck on a Cybertron That's

barren with nothing on it. They will still be

in the cost of Schmidt plague So I mean that's

that's I mean, that's I mean, that's I haven't

really I haven't really mentioned it I've been

to foot, you know, we've been too focused on

the bumblebee thing, but really the overall Remnant

that they have to deal with in this comic book

is a Cybertron with nothing to do on it Yeah,

they have to fix it somehow and eventually it's

gonna get to a point where we're like, okay It

can't be like this forever. Please tell us what's

going on Yeah, I think they're moving towards

that and I this is the first time we start to

see them moving towards it last trade was all

digging this we're starting to get somewhere

you know we can see the edge of the hole you

know it's so there's it's it's it's moving in

a good direction i might have i might have given

when i first read it i think i might have given

it just a four but like i said now knowing where

everything's going you know which is a bit of

a cheat i feel it feels more like a four and

a half What about you, Amy? I think the four

and a half is a very fair score for it. I think

the last one I gave it was a four. So it is just

the fact that it's moving forward. And again,

I kind of wish that we'd gotten one more issue

in it as like a trade for the cost, whatever.

But I'm not going to fault it for that because

the story is really doing good. So more please.

At this point, I was just like, OK, just give

us more. Just want more. That's all. Same for

me. It's going to be four and a half, which on

the GCN rating scale is almost perfect. Usually

I save and I know I don't want you to go on your

whole tirade of five years, your whole rating

system, tirade ender. But for me, something that's

perfect is something that I cannot find a single

thing wrong with it. And as I said, there were

certain things in this that Are nitpicks at best

but they weren't like oh god. This is crap. So

yeah No, I mean, I really really enjoyed volume

two. It was it was I Have no problem giving something

a five if I feel like I've gotten that much enjoyment

out of it. I give it a five There isn't to me

knowing what I know about writing. There is no

such thing as a perfect script There's no such

thing as a perfect novel. There's no such thing

I just it's not about whether or not I can find

something wrong with it. It's just There's always

little inconsistent. There's always little little

things little things that if you were like, you

know that nitpicky that you could find wrong

with stuff Yeah, I relative to the person that's

reviewing it I just want to make sure that it

hits certain beats and if I feel that enjoy that

like I enjoyed that read that much Regardless

of of the of the imperfectness It's perfect to

me things don't have to be perfect to be perfectly

wonderful. Yeah, and I think for me it's a matter

of As critics, I I don't see how we could you

know, rightfully call ourselves arbiters of perfection

or anything You know, I mean like that's not

really a place that you know Any kind of review

of any kind is just our opinion of something

so when I get something a number I think I try

to reflect that when I say that number means

Because I am no judge of how much you will like

it and I am no judge of how good it is in some

sort of esoteric sense what I am saying is How

much I enjoyed it and how how? To what degree

I recommend it So a five to me is no indication

of its relative perfection as compared to other

things It is merely a five for me is a this is

it's my highest possible recommendation So four

and a half would be like this gets a very strong

recommendation Yeah, you know because that's

all I can give you I can't tell you how much

you're gonna like it Maybe Bumble baggage won't

bother you Right I'm existence and let you judge

I I do get your point though. You're right I

mean, this is stuff that he's he's carrying along

something that was established in somebody else's

in somebody else's storytelling And he's he's

he's using to the best of his ability, which

isn't bad I mean, it's actually doing a better

job than the original guy that started it. So

well Yeah Yeah Hopefully next week when we Tackle

volume 3 we can get away from all this. Oh You

know what? I think that we probably never will

until We until we're in a position where Everything

that's been established is something that that

John has put into place Yeah All right, so for

the pole bag I am tf2 and Mike with lady back

And what's left of Ender As he's um crawling

on the floor of McAdams old oil house. Let's

party man Yeah, yeah, yeah lady Rick will bring

the shirts you can find lady Rick on Twitter

at lady of rec You can also find ender over there

at ender hates capital E capital H and Make your

great escape into comics. We will catch you next

week for the final chapter of Transformers robots

in disguise here in the pull bag We'll be back

next week. See you then Where are we back atronus

Don't you remember old friend That is no way

to welcome a long -lost comrade. Orion Pax is

one of us. You just heard the latest episode

of The Pole Bag, GCRN's comic book review podcast.

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