Transformers: Robots In Disguise Vol 3

So let's say you're looking for a podcast your

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I'm your host Ryan and I'm Chuck. That's right.

Everybody. We're the star Joe's we host a podcast

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is half the battle. Come to the Pull Bag. Join

us as we dig out our latest comics and discuss

them with the rotating panel of the GCRN crew.

So sit back and enjoy this week's Pull Bag. This

Lord knows what's the hell's gonna happen with

Ender's connection. Oh Is Ender having issues

again? That's what you get don't make fun of

crap He disappeared. Holy crap. I didn't even

realize it Jump back and I call you idiot. Wait,

he can't hear me. Duh. Yeah, I Didn't make fun

of it. Neither did we Yeah. Well, I kind of laughed,

but, you know, hey. Yeah. All right. There we

go. Are you back? Yeah. I think we didn't start

yet. Holy, holy crap. I'm sitting here talking

and I'm like, oh, OK. I'll be quiet on this call.

I wonder where Ender is. Wait. I'm going to be

quiet. What the hell? Oh, Ender's not here. Yeah,

you started making fun of the connection and

then it died. Hello and welcome to the Polar

Bag. This is episode 33. I am your host, TFJ

and Mike, and joining me once again is Lady Rek.

Hello. Hello. Let's wreck and roll. Woo! Yes.

How are you? Uh, I'm giddy. Right. Yes. All those

explosions that we'll be talking about later.

Yes! That's an explosion! And back for yet another

week here in the pull bag is Ender. Hello, sir.

Hello. How are you? Let's get on with it. I'm

only here because I lost a bet. OK, then, Swerve.

No, that sounds more Whirlish than Swerve. I

lost a bet. I got to do this. I'd rather be out

shooting things. Yeah, that is kind of the horror

whenever we start to like, yeah, who's who in

the lost? It's like, yeah, I'm probably Whirl.

Oh You're not job, huh? Yeah, there's not anybody

else that has any anger issues. There you go.

You don't know why that's why I'm well I Have

no idea who that would make me. I don't know

anybody on the last like that's giddy See it's

so ironic because in here oh boy so yeah we released

the first two episodes of this arc of reviewing

robots in disguise in September without even

acknowledging the 29th anniversary of transformers

that's because it's the 29th anniversary let's

do like fives and tens and it should be a good

five if you're gonna bother with it The fifth

anniversary five years from when we should be

bothering to celebrate an anniversary Oh boy,

no, but apparently Everything's all set for next

year for TF con and bot con apparently all the

dates have already been announced and everything

else So that's that's interesting bot con has

been announced. Oh my gosh. There was no dates

were Well, it's probably gonna be in California

again cuz you know Michael betas I don't know

if the actual location or anything like that

has been announced, but I could have sworn Otherwise

they have to file, you know, Michael Bay will

have to file a mileage form to get paid for it,

so... If it's not in his backyard, he won't go.

No, the thing's been announced yet. Really? I

don't think it has, but it's still gonna be in

California, because it's a movie year. Yeah,

it'll probably... It's a movie -wear year, and

we must all subserviate ourselves to the great

Michael Bay once again. I'm just hoping that

he'll show us some footage. It's like a threat,

isn't it? Isn't it? I mean... When the guy in

the dungeon offers you a sneak peek at the torture

chamber, it's not a privilege. It depends on

who it is. Okay, and on that note we're gonna

get into rid volume 3 after this Okay, so Transformers

robots in disguise of volume 3 the front cover

Starscream prowl metalhawk and The original Metro

Titan Omega supreme no No He was never a Metro

Titan. Yeah, I know he's not but I'm just a guardian.

That's totally separate term. Yeah scale Yes,

everything in the transformers world is completely

to scale right Here it is yeah But he's a specific

type of thing. In fact, there should be other

things like Omega Supreme. They said he was the

last Yeah, and there were guardians even in the

old show Guardian robots that were Omega Supremes.

So I'm just glad he's not in that cave anymore

God why does that remind me of and while you're

down there, please see if you can get Batman

out of that cave of his Well, yeah, well he's

even got his own somebody in a cave That's so

funny. All right, and the so what do we think

of this cover for the trade? It was good. I liked

it As opposed to some comic books, it actually

shows the cast primarily of the comic. Yeah.

And the people who are covered within this section

of books. As opposed to, say, a bunch of people

from an unrelated show, as we were discussing

before. Look at the cast of Armada was on here.

I'd be kind of like, I'm not sure why they did

that. Yeah. Of course, as time goes on, we'll

have that problem. But I seriously where somebody

just sliced those damn wings off his forearms.

Holy crap. He looks like he's stabbing Starscream.

I think he's taking up the page stealing Starscream's

thunder. Where is that? Can you fly? No, but

I can upstage anyone. Starscream saying there

is like get that out of my armpit. What's that

pointy thing in my arms? I was like, can you

get off my chair legs? Yeah, because it looks

like Starscream is kneeling on Prowl's back.

Which would make complete and total sense. Carefulsters

who've, you know, who endured our other shows,

or as I like to call them, repeat offenders,

will recognize that joke about Prowl's back.

Yeah, and speaking of the back cover the breaking

point Optimus Prime I don't care what the copy

says Optimus Prime follows a rogue group of Decepticons

into one of the greatest mysteries ever to face

the Autobots also the mysterious Metro Titan

arrives on Cybertron Smashing into the ruins

of the legendary Crystal City Meanwhile violence

breaks out in the heart of the city and Prowl

looks for someone to blame. Is Durge a convenient

target or the key to what comes next? I don't

think Prowl looks for somebody to blame. I think

he's just like, you know Trying to trying to

make sure the blame isn't put on him Well blame

IDW because that's what it says on this on that

I'm just reading the copy uh... good and there

was a must do that that's it whatever internal

continuum must do the blurbs for the back of

these and i don't think that was uh... i don't

think it's just check the wikis and and write

down an approximation i think that there were

any interns for that one i think uh... that one

can only be claimed by one specific person but

i don't like it at all i only bring up the internship

as a matter of making fun of him for it really

so It was one of my many slights at the time

I suggested that perhaps he let the interns write

that without without checking it So the first

page we get is a really nice flashback shot of

Omega I like that we know Guido you awesome artists

trends former artists Well, it's so fun if you

are familiar with the you know it and it's not

just drawn to look like the old comic It's drawn

to look like the first issue of the old comic

which looks very specific And so it's really

kind of a wild thing All those all those flashbacks.

Well, we'll see more that we get there But you

know, there's lots of panels that are referenced.

It's it's tremendous fun In line with IDW's recent

tradition of enormous fan wankery as in Regeneration

one and especially number zero this week So which

we don't have a part in now that I'm thinking

about it He had a cover that was it And the the

foldouts are not fold out but the fold over cover

for the title page with all the Credits yes is

all of the Decepticons sound wave shockwave blitzwing

and Is that Astro train yep, holy crap No reason

why I kind of knew it was because of a giant

purple wing. Yeah I was gonna say it's one of

the panels from within issue 11 That's, yeah,

that's right. I'm not sure if I like them designing

Soundwave with the pitchfork on his chest. It's

just his War of Cybertron bit. Yeah, I know.

Well, everybody's got their War of Cybertron

bit going on in these. Yeah, that's very... Well,

yeah, I mean, look at Shockwave. He's literally

got the gun his toy has. Yes, he does. Mean that's

that is I have that that is his toy. Yeah And

they sound way of toy I Saw a Thunder cracker

today Did you really? They look good. I might

have to get one of those and I saw hoist Of course

the Thunder crackers the war for Cybertron one

though, so that's why I reference it So I like

that I like those designs Yeah I like them. I

just I don't know so issue 10 cover a Is bludgeon,

yep creepy looking bludgeon that is one of the

creepiest comic covers I've ever seen Yeah, just

creepy as all hell the eyes are particularly

well done Yeah, they're peering into your soul

very smoldering and You know Yeah, yeah, it looks

like he's gonna burn a hole right through you

Well, it's like they're burning a hole out of

him It's kind of bludgeoned bit At least in these

yeah Wow a story that starts with reflector That's

interesting. Well, now this is this is so complicated

because this reference is way back to old stuff.

This is this is a light wheelie plug. It's a

continuity fix in the first page. Boom. Yes,

this is where the time. This is where we see

why there's a time ship. Yep. I see you know,

so I'm coming up. There's a lot of like I'm going,

oh, oh, all right. Now I get that. You know,

like, I see where this is going. It's also a

nice little bit on what happens when you mess

with time. Yeah. You're not supposed to do that.

John does it really well, actually. No, I know,

but I'm speaking of the characters. You're not

supposed to... Well, I think... You need to learn

anything from Doc Brown. Well, I think, you know,

I think... Maybe Mike can attest to this that

a lot of this stuff that happens in here. Well,

it's a very good continuity plug if you didn't

know about the continuity problem Reads like

they're just like see we fixed it and you're

like fixed what what? I can tell you spent 10

minutes trying to fix that I really think this

this issue should have been like two and a half

issues or something it really a lot of stuff

happens a little too quick, there's a lot of

these tiny panels and Really did have to reread

it to make sure I knew what was going on at any

given time I mean I could it was immediately

clear. They were doing little time jumps But

I wasn't always sure when they were doing it

Yeah, so it's like okay. They've done it there.

Is that not from there, and who's he talking

to in this panel and You know I think I think

Livia Remondelli has gotten a lot better With

his flow of things making sense But this especially

because it had I think it it had a confusing

element in it to begin with It was supposed to

be confusing. Yeah. Yeah, but I think even for

the characters It was confusing half the time

optimus prime didn't know what tiny was exactly

but even what I know what's going on I really

still have to kind of go back and like Okay,

so that panels here and that panel goes over

there and then that panel comes with this thing

Like there was points when it was like this is

the confusion that the characters are feeling

and that's what I'm Going through and there were

other times when I felt like okay I was supposed

to get that this happened then that happened

and then they were over here But I didn't even

see the time shift. So You know, I read half

that scene thinking they hadn't shifted and I

think that's what gets confusing Well, they've

shifted and it's pretty clear they've the story

has moved on His acting is if you know And you

might not know until they switch back or something

I didn't find it entirely clear See for me it

depends on I really depend on as a technically

a new reader the little One or two word things

at the top of every every time the story shifts

like specifically in One of them more than one

of the old more than meets the eye issues when

we did the volume three episode arc volume reviews

on those Like I really depended on learning how

the time shifts happened when it says, okay now

you're on the lost lighter. Okay now you're on

Delphi or now you're on this or now you're you

know, I really really depend on those blurbs

and both books do it well but there are times

where where you have this opening here where

it says deep space and you know you don't have

because it hasn't it hasn't shifted yet or it

hasn't done any real changes because it's supposed

to be one flowing story but within that story

is where the time shifts and it's like holy crap

yeah within within this page like they shift

forward and they shift back yeah Only two sometimes

they shift forward and shift back But then like

that when they do the mirroring shots of it and

they do all three you see the shift See the panel

then the shift then the panel again. You can

tell you shifted in and out There's one or two

times and they I think they've decided people

have gotten it and frankly, I don't feel like

I did where it ships Yeah, you know those so

the one panel though. They'll show the shifting

panel, but the next panel that's back in the

regular time is It's just the next panel. They

don't show it shift back while you're still looking

at the same thing They've shifted, but they've

looked somewhere else So am I back somewhere

else or am I still shifted? And then they'll

keep going like okay, so we're back But he was

responding to what he said winning and it really

it does break it up a bit Like I didn't feel

like I was that way you don't get the talking

heads kind of effect where you're like Oh, it's

the same place again. Yeah, like I don't feel

like you know here, you know the the Deep Space

9 pilot, where in the end they're jumping from

time to time to time. But the conversation keeps

going and is fluid. You never, you know, you

never feel like, I mean, obviously you're watching

something and so it's a much easier medium to

convey this because it doesn't stop or shift

like that. But in this, I think they were kind

of trying to achieve the same effect. But sometimes.

I think especially because they were cramming

so much in here and there's a lot of tiny panels.

I didn't get the scene change. So it's important

that I know the scene has changed, but I don't

know because there's not enough There's not enough

conveyance of it. It's just a tiny problem of

flow. I think For me with this book. It's like

I get the you know, I could tell what they were

doing right away I get to the end and I'm like,

okay. That was pretty good I under you know,

you know, there's a good story, but when I was

actually reading it You know, I spent too much

time flipping back and forth Check what I'd master

done wrong when I was reading it And I think

if you have to watch back to the future to and

rewind every 10 seconds to wait, wait Where are

they then then you can't we can't enjoy the movie

properly? When we reviewed it on the underbase

Chris McFeely said something like, you know this

page you should you jump here this page you jump

there and then it was like because prime is supposedly

jumping forward and bludgeon is jumping backwards

and like you go like he's he had it like in an

order you go to this page then you go to this

page and I was like oh okay I was like how did

you figure that out and he's just like lots of

hours flipping pages right see this you shouldn't

I feel like if it was if it had worked out the

way they had intended you wouldn't have to do

that if you didn't see like I could tell frankly

I could tell that's what was happening Within

the context of the story, but I had trouble telling

when it was happening Sometimes especially when

he starts to interact with turmoil as well Like

his interactions with bludgeon were making sense

to me, but I felt like then prime was jumping

back and forth with turmoil So I was like, okay

now we're that mad that confused the issue for

me Plus the whole idea of the you know, we're

depending on your angle of approach adjust your

your time travel, you know Interaction with the

planet. I couldn't help thinking of like somebody

watched planet of the the new planet of the apes

mark Mark Wahlberg or whatever So why you said

that I went ahead and checked the TF wiki and

it looks like Chris did write this page So if

you're confused, you can just go Confused but

I too like him had like anybody that's listening,

you know It's like I'm so confused since we started

reading this. It's like go read the wiki page

The T at the TF wiki net so it's a drama cut

to I Love the art though. The art is like it

That's one thing I'll give rid at least since

we've been doing these it changes colors so beautifully

amongst the backgrounds and and the way the robots

are are are depicted and I mean just The video

is master at coloring. Oh, yeah, I want to hang

Livio's You know transformer art up in my living

room. Well, you know, I thought I thought so,

you know The problem with our autocracy of everything

like wow. This is so cool looking What the hell

is going on? What the hell am I looking at it

looks great I have no idea where it is well like

the the page after the the syndromica to title

page where it has optimus with his you know three

shots of his arm and then The the two shots of

his of his torso in his face just the background

color change in the mute like that he's showing

optimus and almost three different types of red

and It's just it's just awesome. Yeah It's and

I love how these these panel brick is it there

are some times where you have Panel breakups

that are a full page, but they're like top left

middle left and then bottom Leftish center right

where it's like. Okay. Where do I start reading

first? You know, it's one of those things where

the sometimes a panel can confuse Well, you know

sometimes a page can confuse the hell out of

me and I love this broken up You know two or

three like left to right panel, you know, panel

way to do that. I just, I think that's great.

It's a great way to, to show the story. And then,

you know, the next page, you have this giant

robot. These giant monster things that monstructor

fights. Yeah. Um, where exactly do they come

from? I think they were in a previous issue.

Okay, like they were either in chaos theory or

they were as far back as but in terms of this

book really wander up I mean regardless of past

appearance like No one brings them here. We didn't

ride them over No, they because they were kind

of roaming the area. They're just like we need

to be taken out with the rest The whole planet

by time wandered into the plot hole with everyone

else. So so Barbara could clear it up You get

to the end of this issue and you find out after

out as they leave that like the planet is gonna

die It's gonna rip itself apart. It's just jumping

in time in various different different places

and so, you know, it's it's the planet is a lost

cause So, you don't want to go back there really

being to go back there was completely valid you

get there you're like oh yeah i don't want to

go back there either well there's i think there's

some really interesting things to the note in

here just in general one thing i do like about

those monsters is you know that and there's you

know a testament to that they did do their time

travel imagery correctly i'm pretty sure it's

just it's just hard to read in the flow but like

you see those monsters bones Later on in appropriate

times you see him. Yeah, he's killing them in

the first part of the book He's fighting them

later, then they start fighting at the end But

if you look at some of the other shots, you can

see, you know, what's left of them decaying there

much. Yeah other time periods No, when you when

you first see turmoil Yes, even you see the missile

behind him, right? Yeah Do we know why there's

a big quintesson face? Scrolled on that? Or is

that just a hint? We still don't know. That's

the mystery. It was hinted in, like, against

Spotlight Wheelie. I think I need to go read

Spotlight Wheelie again. But also because the

ship he steals is a quintesson ship. I thought

it was a Decepticon symbol. Look at the Decepticon

symbol. That's the missile that Shockwave sent,

but there's, if you look carefully, in pink,

around the Decepticon symbol, well - Oh, yeah!

Okay, I got you. Yep. That or, like, the villain

from What Meets Alive or something. This is where

the time ship came from, to be honest. Well,

and these people, they're saying in here that

these - Because this is before he even has the

eye patch. He gets butted in the face by - You

know pistol whipped by Prime in this or optimists

Ryan Pax whatever and That's why he has the eye

patch in the last issue where he shows up with

the time ship Because these is where he gets

the people who build the time ship. Yeah Yeah,

and they supposedly are the way they are because

they have spent, you know a few centuries Studying

shockwaves crap. Yeah, he shot at their planet

so Don't think we're quite done with them yet

in some ways because I want you know Well, you

mean the ones that are left that haven't been

yes Well Well if there isn't I almost wonder

I mean even if it's just a legacy thing of if

there isn't something more about the time ship

that Has to do with them that we might think

we'll find out in Dark Cybertron Yeah, or it

could just this could just be the excuse for

why they were smart enough to build the thing

They were used to playing with or one And that

could just be it but I wonder Yeah, it just strikes

me I don't think I've ever seen optimus drawn

so well and colored so well with you know a gun

pose then on the next page Or he's what that's

and you would tell me this because The very next

page and just that just that pose if I had that

if I had that panel without the without the word

blurb That would be an awesome Go ahead make

my day. Yeah, really We could just replace that

little the little blurb there with uh, I thought

you were made of sterner stuff You go ahead and

do that that's your assignment after You think

I'm joking. No, no, I could do that. That's well

within my scope of screwing around And again,

it's so, you know, okay, so we have, what I can

only assume is another time shift, because legend

shows up again. Yeah. On the page after that,

again, it goes to the colors and the, how do

they do this light and dark thing with Optimus?

Like seriously? That is so cool. That's coloring

there. Yeah, I mean, that's just so, I don't

think I, in this, In this volume, specifically,

I don't think I've seen Optimus done this well,

ever. In anything. Yeah, he does a really good

job. And the monster's back, yay! I'm just waiting

for Scrappy -Doo to show up. I like this one

shot, too, where he holds the gun up. Like sideways

in his hand to deflect bludgeon sword. Yeah,

it's very, uh, I don't know. Gun foo there. Yep.

But also another great panel, you know, sort

of reminds me of like, uh, old, uh, he's holding

his stick up, holding exaggerated smack where

he smacks bludgeon there. That's a great one

too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's movement there.

Oh, God. You're going to have another assignment,

Ender. Take those word balloons out and just

put Optimus saying, bitch, please. I also need

a good old -fashioned onomatopoeia like, you

know, prang. Fung. Just a nice... Ching. You

know, I keep wondering, you know, we've talked

about the why the hell did they do the Orion

Pax thing? And I said, you know, maybe they're

going to have it be some, you know, he can't

change his name thing or it's going to, you know,

be some part of the plot later on. But I can't

shake the feeling recently rereading these, that

it was just so they could have the thing where

Jaxus yells Pax, but doesn't mean Orion Pax.

He means packs and that's the whole reason they

changed his name back to packs And we've had

it just like you see cuz then he could say that

and then it would link them together And then

it was like I just was like not worth it that

that story connection was not worth it The first

time he says it, you know, well sort of but when

I say not worth it It's like you have created

like, you know, what four or five issues now

full of people going prime packs Okay Whatever

primes backs. Okay, it's packs fine every ten

seconds So you couldn't so you could have that

moment and it's like that moment was not worth

all this Back right afterwards I think it was

either hard. It was one of the other it might

have been hard head. I don't remember but it's

like Sir packs or packs sir. It's like it was

the first syndromica No, no, it's in here. Is

it? Yeah, pretty sure that it was okay. I Don't

know. I just saw it a few panels ago. But anyway

But yeah, no, I mean this this first issue is

moving along really really fast Well, the whole

point of this issue was basically just to say

look Don't mess with time for one and for two

Kind of to clue in to You know Ryan Pax Optimus

Prime that yeah this time shift time Ship is

there that he's gonna have to follow it and get

off the planet because yeah, it's it's really

messed up and Basically that you know bludgeon

and monstructor and all of these guys are doing

something bad basically I mean, you don't really

come out of it knowing anything big huge plot

point, because it is confusing. But he does come

out with a device that supposedly helps him with

a time shift that he vaguely thinks that he actually

happened already. But they took off with the

time ship that they did find. And so that in

itself, they have to go after him. And that,

of course, leads him to the next issue, which

we don't get until issue 19, where they go back

to Gorland Prime. You know prime skills the cosmic

remote control of the TV That's what he has four

remote control is gonna look like I Love how

I one of the reasons why I love issue 10 is because

of just all the mystery surrounding it and just

how it lead like I Don't mind being left on a

cliffhanger unless I'm buying these weekly well

you might as well because it's not like they're

gonna come back to this anytime soon it's gonna

be if they do i mean it'll be a bit i mean they

have come back to this but yeah they have but

in terms of this trade you might as well as weekly

because this is the last issue of you know packs

in the prime jammers that you're gonna get this

in this trade very true Now why am I thinking

of oh god, what's summers his dad's name Jesus

Christ? Scott summer's father from because he's

the guy who runs around with the starjammers

starjammers. Yeah, that's the reference I got

no I got the And cover be done by Casey Collier

It's optimus versus monstructor, I think I think

that the packs the prime jammers things is just

For a poor barber being like man. I want some

space pirates Captain barber of the Barbosa Yeah,

that that Casey collar covers very very nice

very very pretty Like I like I kind of dig those

blue things on primes back He's got wings. Yeah,

just little ones Well, you know, they are transformers

wait, are you telling me out this primes a fairy?

This is the transformers that make like Starscream

and all the seekers and which like half these

people have wings To say nothing of hot rod Don't

even start So we move on to the next issue I

I know what this is brought up a little bit earlier

before and I wanted to bring it up again just

because After reading this about you know, I

mean I know that you we had said before and hey

Maybe we should have had these issues back -to

-back but the one thing I wanted to talk about

that with that is that Because it was released

the way it was I feel like it kind of gives a

sense of time passing Because the story would

really be boring if we were just following it

through the space journey You know like oh, I

would get a trade would just nothing but the

space journey I think it would have boring. It

would have been like oh, we're still reading

this I think I think it would have meant we have

more in disguise that went together in this and

Those would have been together. I think that

still would have worked better. And I also, frankly,

I think even interjecting this, like we were

kind of saying, like, I really kind of should

have just been its own series. Maybe they'd have

had the extra issue to make it so this one didn't

seem like I just watched a recap of the actual

issue. You know even reading it in trade because

it gives it a little bit of space to breathe

So you you chunk on chump on that for just a

little bit and then you go back the story It's

not a lot really goes on in this issue. It was

just more confusing more than anything else,

but It's like three issues where the stuff they

crammed in here I felt like well Yeah, but like

because you're jumping around and what do they

do there? That's accomplishing anything They

find that ship they lose the ship they fight

bludgeon they uh bludgeon gets another ship uh

we establish the origins of several things i

mean like no a lot of it's discovery but i'm

just saying you know there's prime fights like

eight different things in here i don't know true

but like blinds turmoil fights bludgeon fights

minstructor you know there's a lot that happens

in that it's part of there's a lot that happens

but i mean that push the story forward Yeah,

there's plenty that see that the thing that I

just didn't I mean I'm not saying that that's

a bad thing I'm just because I still enjoyed

the issue even though it was you know jump back

and forth and you know Let's punch things up

and everything but oh we find out we're gonna

really see all the dark universe crap again,

aren't we? Because of the stuff Jaxus says I

didn't ever because I hadn't reread this since

Some recent developments, but what do you see

here? Well, we true chaos is coming. He's like,

oh geez Yeah, yeah, we're so going back to Yeah,

as long as it's to get rid of the dead universe

I'll put it up put up with it If it's still like

completely I'm just hoping that this is this

is Barbara's epic quest to wipe out cost has

got nudity And then I will totally put up with

it if you only if we're going there to blow and

is with the young man so far everywhere we've

gone back to was To be the clean house. So I'm

hoping that's what with dark cyber Trump is gonna

be I'm Thought the dead universe was started

by Simon. It was but it was a it was a Taken

over by Costa. Yeah, and I think that universe

like and this is some vast Unique, you know peekable

thing. I'm never gonna go into it's just where

bad stuff comes from that's very Furman to do.

Yeah, you know, you know Kosta was like and this

is Bob who lives there. It's like no. No don't

do that. No Now it's not dark and mysterious

anymore. It's just dumb Thin line The thin robot

line, that's right. Oh Boy, all right. So the

robots in disguise annual cover a has Prowl arguing

with Starscream no surprise there and who is

the mystery? But arguing conspiring same difference

I gotta say I'm probably gonna go off on a tangent

here. I I gotta say I am It's not that I don't

dislike hand -drawn hand colored art In comics,

but I am so one of those people since I just

got back into it like last year like full -time

I am so one of those people's that loves the

digital stuff and I'm gonna say right up front

and right now, I hate the flashbacks. I like

them for the story, but as far as the art, I

don't. I was like, wait, how can you go from

amazing digital art to holy crap, Ender's five

-year -old did this? I can guarantee you that

it was not hand -drawn the way that you think

it was. It was probably hand -drawn but then

most things in comics are, most of the artists

do these hand drawings and they scan them in

and they color them. But what was brilliant is

to make it look like it was done back then in

that style. If you look at a lot of the old stuff

a lot of like they had a lot of issues with like

perspective and whatnot The thing about Guido

is that he doesn't have those issues. He made

it look good He made it the perspective looked

right he like the even the the the size differences

is is in par be I mean because you you know you

see in this flashback area where you see The

metro titan and you know the other good -sized

like, you know nova prime and jax's good sized,

you know bots but the Shift in their their size

is not like it's it's appropriate for what it

should be. You don't get you know Not just the

the art either is made to look all I mean even

the coloration. I mean, it's It's deliberate.

It's made to look like a crappy printing press

printed it Yeah, yeah, which is what we got back

then. It's made to look like a little pulp comics

and a specific one. This is an homage to the

first Transformers comic. Yeah. I mean, even

the way it's written. Yeah. And we even say nothing

of the blurbs. The little text boxes are all

that. I mean, it just feels so much like that.

But done in a well, in a way that homages that

without all of the flaws that all of that had.

Well, you have the coloring There's some great

stuff in here that's that's you know Nice and

crappy like it used to be I mean, it's the whole

point and it's a tradition terrific device Because

you were talking about how it's hard to tell

sometimes in this other camera like what the

hell am I looking at now? They're telling this

interwoven story, right? Yeah, but you never

question which era you're in. Do you? No, no

typically the problem. I was having it last time

like we were my read now. Where were you? Okay,

we've jumped like wait something to step Why

is that there? Oh, wait, hang on. I'll look two

pages back. Oh, we jump back there So now we're

over here now, you know what I mean? Like this

this is perfectly clear I mean, so it's a great

noise as well as being This this fun homage to

to back in the day, but it is it's an anniversary

piece No, I mean it's meant to it meant to look

it's and they don't do things this way anymore

Giving this to you and saying hey look, here's

a normal modern comic That this is just how we

chose to do it They're doing And I think my aversion

to it is because I didn't you know, I wasn't

in on the old days I wasn't either, you know,

and I just And it's not and I'll say this right

now for the listeners. It's not just Transformers

old -style that I don't care for I absolutely

hate the old -style Punisher stuff the old -style

spider -man stuff the old -style Batman's I just

I don't like it. I It's just not my thing as

far as art goes where we started so we're at

now, right? Yeah, it's not like anyone's asking

you to endure that and they kind of this is just

a One trick. Hey, check this out. It's like it

used to look like they're making fun of it, too,

in a lot of points in here. I mean, in the writing,

you know, when they all introduce themselves

like people used to do. You know, it's it's just

that they're not saying like we're going to do

this. You know, it should be like this. It's

you know, we're going to put in false grain into

our thing like a story. Yeah, you know, it's

just for this one story and they do it very well.

And it's nothing to. There's no reason to dislike

it. It's not like they're going to do it again.

It might be some, you know, impetus to become

a little more cultured. But beyond that, it wouldn't

kill you to do a little back reading here and

there. It's not like I'm sending you to Costa

or anything. Yeah. I'd have to hunt you down

in that case. I just love Guido stuff. I think

he did a very good job with it. Even if it's

done in that old style. Sorry. It's so cool,

too, because he's been doing regeneration one.

And even though it's in the same series, it's

a whole different era that he's recreating. And

he does that so flawlessly, too. And what's so

cool about million. Yeah. Well, none of it looks

like his. You know what I mean? Like, you know,

he's really just he's really just recreating

it just hardcore. He's he's a chameleon. He can

eat that or else. He's a time traveler. That's

we're talking about time traveling. There you

go. It's this artistic lack of ego here that

he could be so proud of. Sort of ironic, you

know, like when you said recreating it, the first

and it's not to insult Guido at all. But the

first thing that thought came to my mind was

you're just a tracer, a fucking tracer. I love

that movie. Oh boy. Chasing Amy. Oh jeez. Yeah,

it's pretty sure it's another Amy, don't worry.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's an Amy from 1997. Spelled

A -M -Y? Yes, yes. Ami. Sorry. Okay, somebody

want to catch the listeners up on the flashback

Okay, so the flashback pretty much is we are

introduced to Nova prime from back in his era

like you know the the dude that that started

things a little bit differently and He was before

all the bad primes went bad. He was like the

first bad He was the first fallen, huh? Not necessarily

fallen, but he's so much cooler than the fallen

Yeah, the fallen in the movie. Yeah Yeah, he's

the fallen without any falling. He looks like

clonus has both ears Yes He was the dude that

basically said we need to expand and then went

on this big Quest to expand and then never came

back and he was the same He was the sebertronian

who said we should stop shooting at each other

and start shooting at everyone else. Yep And

then he went off into the benzoly expanse and

into the you know Dead universe and it was never

to be seen again until heart of darkness. I Can't

remember which really don't know he wasn't he

was he wasn't a different he was in a Simon's

run when the dark universe was first introduced

to so oh, yeah prime killed this guy he came

back as a puppet of void Yeah, and so he's been

he's been in and out and yeah, I suspect he's

a zombie now as we might hope He's a toy I wouldn't

mind seeing yeah, he looks very primish too,

I mean like, you know optimist prime looking

Right, huh? If you ever seen the Beast Wars Neo,

he's got The head of the it's called big convoy.

He never had a proper American name Actually

made a black version of him. They called nemesis

prime which is what he occasionally Nova occasionally

goes by But yeah that that's where his head comes

from Okay, so he is kind he and a lot of his

look the way even that version of him did came

off of that Beast Wars toy Got so he is technically

modeled after a specific prime one of my favorites

actually He turns into a mammoth. How cool is

that? Screw a monkey. Okay, so Galvatron, what's

the deal here? Aren't they the same guy? Galvatron

was of that era, so he was like one of Nova Prime's

followers or, you know, people that... So in

this comic book, Megatron and Galvatron are two

separate entities? Yes. Yes, it's been that it's

been established like in that in the IDW continuity

for a while. So Okay. Yeah, since yeah since

early Furman I mean right away and I kind of

liked that to be honest because I I've liked

getting to know Galvatron as his own identity

rather than like as a oh We're I'm a different

version of Megatron. It just that in this continuity.

He's he's his own person. So Well, he was just

way back then with Nova Prime. Yeah, yeah Furman

was used to all that time wars Insanity where

he had he had Galvatron next to Megatron constantly

They fought like two or three times or something

crazy. I mean so he was all about having them

both in there So I'm sure students they were

like you can do whatever you want. He was like,

okay Yep, we're gonna do something different

in his continuity. We're gonna make them two

separate people. Yay What gold bug is some other

dude? well I Say that just to confuse you like

anyway, I was gonna say is that right? Yes, no

it is. Oh, it is true Goldbug is another character

apart from bumblebee I'm still throwing in that

bumblebee clip That's who you'll be gold bug

no really go bug some other dude. He's up the

hall Three doors down he works in the comm room.

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah So the next page we get

it looks like Starscream bathed in the Golden

Lagoon. Yep It's the light it's that light that

shines out of his butt Okay, so yeah put that

there for me the other half of it is drawn by

Brendan Cahill and colored by Joanna La Fuente.

So it's sparkly and pretty and it's awesome.

I Really enjoyed seeing Brendan Cahill back on

Transformers at this point. We hadn't seen him

since Police action actually, I think and to

see him Do that which he does. Well, you have

to read police action, which is kind of its own

punishment. Yeah But yeah, look at the pictures.

Yeah, the pictures. He's really good at showing

transformers in their movement and things like

that. And he's it just seeing him back on the

annual was just a really, really nice little

treat because it was like, wow, now we actually

get some story. That's pretty awesome. And the

art is really awesome, too. The next page is

that picture of Starscream awkwardly laughing

at someone being hurt. Yeah. You know, that's

a brilliant expression, but it was still hilarious

though. It was Like that jerk who stared they're

going you see that he fell right on his face,

you know, you're like, dude Metal Hawk being

like Starscream, you know, he did get hurt at

that. I was like, yeah. Yeah, okay We'll go check

him out and make sure he's not dead You see that

right into his head. That was awesome All right,

I'm not supposed to laugh about that, am I? Yeah,

yeah. A lot of great smirky expressions of Starscream.

A lot of snarky Starscream in here. It's brilliant.

I thought he was brilliant. Yeah. He just keeps

on getting better and better. What we're saying

here, too, is we're talking about the format

of this. Anyone who's listening isn't familiar

with it is that we're going from the distant

past to the current. political strife situation

on not so Cybertron. I can't believe it's not

Cybertron. Or that's Gorland Prime is I can't

believe it's not Cybertron. This is De -Cybertron.

De -Cybertron Cybertron there you go. You know

just throw a bunch of money at either a fans

project or any of those other third party companies,

I'm sure they would make a planet playset, not

Cybertron. I find it so awesome that Starscream

has the boosters in his feet, yet it doesn't

look like he has heels. Thank God. Yeah. Starscream

in heels and animated was some of the worst.

He still has it in Prime. I hated that design.

Yeah, but the Prime design was so much better.

He carries the heels a little bit better than

that Yeah, I saw where it looks like one of metalhawk's

wings is gonna poke Starscream right in the booster

I hate to break it to you, but due to the thrusters

G1 Starscream has always had heels Right, but

in animated they were drawn to look like high

-heeled women's shoes In Prime, they looked like

he had fetish boots on. I think the ones in Prime

have literally blocked out the ones in Animated.

I'm just like, whoa, he had heels in that one?

Because in there, they're like, look, here's

Starscream's heel, taking up 30 % of this shot.

And now humans are going to make fun of him about

it, and we're going to talk about it. Like, we

didn't mean to put it there, because it looks

kind of silly. And the title of this annual is

Primus all good things Yeah, the the two -page

two -page spread we get is a Titan in that hole

that just exploded Yeah, so was this price the

theme as the theme of the annuals had something

to do with the Titans and that's where the theme

of this coming Christmas season Where's the price

tag? And we go back in time yet again Yes, it's

the other big toys that I wish were coming out

they'd be cool wouldn't it's just so weird to

me and I assume The page where we see Omega.

It's supposed to be Crystal City behind him The

coloring on Omega is great, but the backgrounds,

it just... Yeah, it sucks. It just looks like

an old comic, just exactly the way it's supposed

to. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying... People

worked hard to achieve that effect. I understand

that. They worked hard to make it look like people,

you know, when they had, you know, wiped their

butts with a page, printed it and sent it to

us 20 years ago. Because that's all they could

do. Yes, I understand that you don't I Don't

understand that they why they're doing this they're

homaging the old comics I get that it just looks

strange to me. Yeah, but you know someone's doing

something crappy on purpose That looks crappy

To be crystal city. Yes. Um, it's The only color

that's on it obviously is is is on Omega and

the foreground really, you know It doesn't look

very crystal, but it's enough to know that it's

kind of glowy looking I've always kind of looked

at this page is kind of almost being backlit

but not backlit because you can actually see

all the detail on Omega So I'd be curious to

what level of accuracy they were trying to do

their Old comic stick because the thing is if

you look I mean either They're just putting the

colors in the way that they're you know They

want you to make give it that effect But I wonder

if they're going so far as to I bet there was

a limit To the number of color runs you could

have per page like so you had to pick these are

the You know six to ten colors Maybe less we're

gonna print on this page So a background object

like that couldn't really have much it just had

to be kind of washed out Especially if you were

gonna color Omega that well you would have to

pick and that's why all those guys would be in

shadow and It would be that just you know pan

of color Because you know, that's how those that's

how a printing press works You do with one and

the other and the other so and back then it was

much more limited So I wonder if I wonder if

they actually counted that out Like we're only

gonna put so many colors on this page. I Guess

it's something to ask Guido because he's the

guy that colored it. So okay. Yeah, I Don't get

to talk to Guido all that off. I don't either

I just read the credits I'll just pick that name

back up after floor there for I've been asking

him for I've been trying to get interview with

him for a while and we haven't He hasn't responded.

So no one's talked to Guido as far as I know.

He's a busy guy. Just making fun. OK, what's

up? I think I was at Mike. This is just OK. This

I will admit is me being stupid. Who are the

three cars? Three cars. I assume one of them

is Prowl. Oh, OK, Prowl and Sideswipe. But who

is the third car? Oh, it's who? Wheeljack. He's

got something on top of it. He's carrying something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does not look like... It's

got a backpack. Yeah, that looks more like a...

if you... if Jazz and Hot Rod had children. That's

what it looks like. Seriously, just... it's the

way that it's drawn. It doesn't look like what

Wheeljack is... Have we seen...? This is that

shared this point. Have we seen Wheeljacks alt

mode? Because I don't remember. I don't think

we have might have. And well, maybe the one I

think we might have seen. Oh, you're right. I

think we'll get centric issue. Yeah, the real

issue. It was he was. But we only saw more like

close to the ground, not up this high as they're

driving. I really like Prowl's alt mode. I like

this version of Prowl. I really like. Yeah. Yeah.

This version of Prowl looks damn cool. Then side

swipe he looks like a strange Lamborghini Yeah,

sadly. I actually have that toy of him. He is

he is a that is a toy accurate representation

So that's that's not a concern If you look at

it in a certain like if you tilt your head and

look at it at a certain angle where um... the

centerpiece of it is it looks like a giant film

reel is stuck inside his body! Oh jeez. Oh boy.

That's just funny. But no, I mean so far the

story is very very interesting as far as what's

going on here. I really did enjoy that. I thought

that was great. Yeah, like the fact that you

get the metro Titan Oh Yeah, you know lost you

for a minute there Mike yeah, I know Edit this

great. Yeah, we get the metro Titan. It's the

metro Titan from the other annual. Yeah Yeah,

it's the metro Titan from more than meets the

eye that was on the lost light Which is why he

costs exactly the same $129 .99. You so can't

stay away from those retail jokes, can you? The

ones they keep hitting me in the face with? No,

no, it's really hard to miss those. So yes, he

comes from the other annual where he wanted to

go home and he gets a chance to come home. And

once he gets there, he... materializes in the

old crystal city and he becomes kind of part

of it because it's half pieces are like within

his body and you know He's dying basically in

this and quantum physics don't like that. So

he's gonna So down in the hole where there was

this explosion that's where he is and that's

where they find him and that's why they bring

prowl wheel jack and Side swipe into the situation

so that sides web can keep everybody out While

they try to investigate and try to figure out,

you know how to save him if they can at all so

Yeah, of course it's sort of Prowl which is Having

to note as we reread all these now It's kind

of what is kind of questioning how much is Prowl

and how much is bombshell? I kind of look at

it is like he's acting like Prowl pretty much

the whole thing He's just being controlled by

bombshell We like change color yet Yeah, we just

we just like to think that but while bombshell

is in control of his overall actions that his

moment -to -moment self is still a representation

of yeah normal prowls behavior He's just being

you know The bombshell is suggesting him to do

things when it's the right time and then he'll

just do them Yeah, I think bombshell that way

it makes them sound like prowls people up that

he shouldn't though. Yeah So I think I think

it must be some varying of degree of control.

Yeah, I certainly don't want to believe it's

just bombshell acting like this all the time

It just makes it less fun. So well, we have no

particular reason to believe that I think we're

to stick with that That's our recommendation.

Yes Otherwise, there's no prowl in this series

Considering I feel like the book is about him

in Starscream half the time. It's that make it

I mean this especially this volume it really

You know shows that yeah, this one's totally

Must be bumblebees day off like they're um, I

forgot we hadn't mentioned This is you know,

we talked about how every issue has been a somebody

issue This is the metalhawk issue Yeah, yeah,

this is this is all from his perspective not

the flashbacks. This is the point where I finally

started actually liking metalhawk because of

how this issue ends like Especially this whole

volume like we get what we get in the annual

and then we get the next and we get Issue number

11, which is the next one after this and Like

it's the the point where I felt like, you know

metalhawk actually might have a future I Was

wrong Wait don't spoil This volume I think is

gonna is gonna be is the best so far I think

it's been you know, this series has been escalating

because it's been building up to this and It's

also record low on the bumble baggage True Yeah,

he's like three panels in here later on I think

people are making fun of him for most of it He's

hardly there so we get another little page of

flashback and You know Nova Prime trying to be

all I'm a good guy. Yeah, right And Omega Supreme

just kind of like okay. I was still watching

you with both eyes Yeah, it's nice to know this

Omega doesn't get fooled by Constructor cons.

Yeah. Yeah That's cuz in this world they can

Just you know always Right until you know, you

get to see where he's taking it to and then you're

like, no, I know it the Roya the gift of freedom

that you're talking about is like servitude to

To the whole yeah become the Borg, you know Yeah,

the gift of you know freedom from the tyranny

of like, you know will Free will! We're gonna

go do wee with free will! We'll be all one! It's

like, yeah, people that thought that became the

Borg. Thank you. So they go and hang out with

the Titans some more. Yeah. And Prowl is, you

know, easily grumpy. Because all of these people

are not doing what he wants. Yeah. It's like,

I'm gonna yell at everybody and give a mean face!

Arrrrr! We go back to the flashbacks and in this

shot in particular, this is one of the ones I

was so this is a almost a rehash of a specific

Shot from the original comic and that sort of

Optimus Prime looking robot there is literally

Yeah, yeah that that Orion Pax looking guy before

there was such a thing and tailgate Well, yeah,

that's the best part is they put tailgate in

there and Cleverly made on his way to give his

recommendations to Nova Prime. There you go.

Technically he is That's where he's doing timeline

wise that's about right. He's on his way to go

You know fall in a hole But Alice this is this

is when we find out that you know, hey die Atlas

is you know, it's kind of a good guy He's a little

bit of a tattletale Look what they're doing I

think his character suffers from the format making

him, you know, because everybody's speech pattern

in this is sort of retrofitted to the older style.

He does come off as very two dimensional. I'm

the whiny good guy. I used to be a, you know,

member of these. He seems to like acquired like,

you know, G1 spikes personality for the duration

of this comic book. Omega Supreme! Come quick!

Nova prime fell down the well Could be worse

he could have chip chases personality. Oh wait.

He doesn't have one Is that on the splash page

after the explosion in real time not the flashback

is that laser beak or buzz saw It's uh, I've

probably jumped further than you guys It's after

They're down in the hole with the metro Titan

It's a giant explosion and the Autobots are driving

away, oh you're at the very end of the book Yeah,

you're like at the end dude. Yeah, we haven't

gotten there yet. Well We'll get there. We only

skipped through the first one so quick because

there's no proper continuity There isn't much

that happened but basically diet list comes along

and says hey, they've made my instructor. It's

bad. It's bad It's very bad and you know Omega

is not so happy with that. He's like, yeah, that's

not what they meant So, um, that's a bad idea

and I'm gonna take this thing down. So yeah This

is great they try, you know the joke of Put two

decepticons in a room and one will be standing

on the other shoulders, you know, trying to be

a combiner in five minutes. This being the first

one, I love their his logic for here. You know,

Nova Prime was like, look, see, didn't they say,

you know, all shall be one, you know, till all

are one. Omega Supreme. That's not what they

meant. Yeah. Like your little cute version of

it. I could see that. It's like, no, seriously,

I was there. That's not what they meant. When

we wrote that down on a napkin that was not what

we were talking about I Love those moments of

perspective, you know, yeah, it's like it's like

that's your myth. That's my bar story That's

not what they meant So who would you rather have

for a bartender blur or swerve? I think I'd take

a mega supreme would even fit in either one of

the bars through the bar i'm just talking about

the drinks be like yeah i'll have two punch bowls

of oh goodness i'm looking at that that that

like you can't tell if it's laser beak or buzz

saw because by and large the difference between

them is coloration Yeah. He is not colored in

this shot, so... Take your pick. I think it's

a good rendition of him, and I'm glad it's...

Oh yeah, no, it's an amazing rendition of him.

Later on we'll see him in these and he takes

on his toy form, which I didn't really mind because

it doesn't detract particularly from him, but

it is not as attractive. There's a couple of

toys in this shot. I like the flying shark, though.

Okay, now I'm lost. I have no idea where you

guys are. It's the... There's a lot of good ones

in here. The explosion page. Alright, you're

all the way at the end. Somebody stole a car

from the 30s. I'm sorry, I was just referencing

that because he mentioned it. Yeah, we have skipped

too far ahead. Oh, yeah, hey, there's SkyBite.

Yeah, SkyBite. He would be there because everybody

shows up, so. So Omega Supreme beats the tower

at our instructor. Yeah. While he's doing it,

he destroys a lot of the city, which is sad because

it was a crystal city. And, you know, those things

don't really when you have a glass house, you

don't put it next to a big. Roaring robot. Well,

anyone is anyone is familiar enough with the

cartoon knew of the second you saw Omega Supreme

Standing in front of the Crystal City that it

was going down. Yeah, I mean And then we find

out how much Nova really just doesn't care about

the planet and just wants to leave so and then

Omega Supreme takes Takes da Alice into the back

room with the Toys R Us There is omega there's

a Titan Yep Titan class or there's another panel.

There's another page that needs the price on

it Metroplexes are cool Do you hear that kids?

Everybody needs one. There's lots of them now

160 dollars, where do you put it? You set it

in the chair next to you when you go to eat,

you know, it just becomes your buddy. Yeah. You

remember those old, you know, back in the day

when my buddy, my buddy. Yeah, that's what it

becomes. Demented version of that song. My Titan,

my Titan. Wherever he goes, he goes. I don't

think I like the Ren and Stimpy commercial with

the log. Oh, jeez. Rolls downstairs and over

it. It's great for a snack, it fits on your back,

it's log, log, log. I actually remember that

whole thing. Oh God, I remember that whole thing.

I won't do it, but I thought I'd stop when I

ran out, but I wasn't. Like any minute now, I

won't remember a lyric. And it was like, no,

it's not going away. I better pull out while

we still have a chance. You must have really

liked it when you were a kid. Made that emotional

connection. I will say how awesomely interesting

that it is how they're drawing Omega as far as

being able to put shading on a face that's in

essentially a spaceship. suit helmets. I do find

that very interesting. Well, it's interesting

that, you know, in addition to Nova being like,

well, screw this planet, I'll go somewhere else.

Like I was leaving anyway. It's not just this

seven story guy who seems to want to step on

me now. But then, you know, then then Omega goes

on to tell. Dia Atlas, he should bail. Yeah.

And he becomes the next person watching the Titan.

It seems strange, too, because Dia Atlas seems

to, you know, leave on a ship in a very normal

way in monstrosity. But yeah. It would seem.

Are we still? I think he muted. It seems like.

Here they're kind of implying especially because

he had that Titan in his other crystal city that

he took the Titan with him so Maybe they space

bridged there. I don't know. I don't know. That's

that's kind of the mystery is that we don't really

know what This is the connection though because

yeah, well, absolutely Because eventually, you

know, that's what the first annual gave us is

that you know, the Titan was with The Crystal

City. Yeah. Atlas kept a Titan in his basement.

It was powering the city. Omega Supreme was kind

of giving him a Titan. Yeah. And telling him

to, you know, get the heck out of town. Omega

Supreme was like, yeah, this planet sucks, man.

You should just get out of here. That was fun

for a while, but that's the kind of crap that's

going on. Yeah. Yeah. People are gonna start

sitting on each other's shoulders trying to beat

the tar out of me I'm sorry Nova prime purpose

of our race is not the chicken fight Not what

the deal is well the purpose of your race is

to a robot chicken fight You have to edit in

a rim shot there, dude In the meantime, we go

back to the future, where Prowl was told by Wheeljack

that, hey, this Titan is dead. And if we try

to save it, we might be able to save it. But

big explosion, should I take the chance? And

he tells him not to take the chance. But then

Starscream, because Starscream wants to come

down and find out what is going on. You're trying

to hide things from us. he interferes and when

he does he comes and they come face to face with

the Titan and the Titan wakes up which has only

happened one other time in this continuity which

was Optimus Prime woke up Metroplex and that

was in autocracy. And became optimus prime because

of that but the metro titan wakes up and says

you are the conqueror You're the one who will

unite cybertron sas scattered warriors. I see

what is in your spark and all of a sudden this

makes him You like really awesome and everybody's

like, oh my gosh Yeah I love the line in there

leader, you know, yeah There's a line in there.

We skipped a wheel jack, you know describes There's

a couple of things one the description of a you

know, something to destroy the planet being a

0 .6 on a scale of brainstorms. Yeah, I know.

You know what he gives up to, right? Yeah. The

other one was when he describes how big the explosion

will be. I was like, you know, oh, we've seen

worse than that. We'll check says I've seen you

cause worse than that. I love the notion of,

you know, this because. It's not like Prowl's

a violent person. That means there was some scheme.

Again, something blew up on the horizon and Prowl

was like, yo, three o 'clock already? It's priming

to be like Prowl? Where were you yesterday afternoon?

Doing stuff. I think it was also digs at the

fact that, you know, he causes riots on, you

know, just for fun. Yeah. Well, and not to mention

or perhaps even that though he didn't mean to

blow up the lost light, he certainly was willing

to give people knowing glances to make them afraid

of him about it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, I

didn't mean to kill all those people. On the

other hand, if anyone asked, did I kill all those

people? I think the answer is definitely maybe

there. I'm going to glare at you if you even

suggest. But, you know, yeah. If someone was

capable of blowing up all those people, what

do you think they'd say about you asking them

about it? You know threats plus prowl plus no

witnesses equals Yep He said that to Starscream

when they were up, you know waiting and then

everybody shows up and like what do I do? I'm

only one person are there all these people here,

but they're being peaceable Can I shoot them?

Hey Starscream what do you get when you cross

prowl with no witnesses brilliant it's so strange

seeing omega have intelligent thoughts well even

in the cartoon that you know when they had an

episode where they wanted him to speak normally

yes in the episode they literally just have prime

come out and be like Dude, seriously talk like

a normal person for five minutes Okay I won't

do my shtick for the next half hour Ten million

years old right you gotta do something to keep

yourself entertained But again, it goes to the

the fact of what I've said consistently about

beast hunters They're giving the Dinobots characters,

which they never really had before at least For

me, because I haven't read any of Furman's stuff.

Oh, you're right. Swoop and Grimlock get characters

to some degree most of the time. Yeah, those.

But the other Dino Butts are background color.

Right. One of them is a wall sconce. And in this,

it seems as if Omega is he's into he's very intelligent.

He's you know, they're. Barber is writing him

as is if he was a actual age characters character

Yeah a guardian basically that he guard he was

supposedly the guardian of the the the Metro

Titans or whatnot. Yeah after he's extra old

I Mean they said they usually talk about characters

like cyclonus and Nova Prime like they're old

They came to Omega Supreme. We were like, holy

crap, dude. You are old I wonder if Omega Supreme

is older than Roger Moore. Well, he used to have,

it's pretty clear he used to share a punch bowl

with Primus every once in a while. I still think...

He was the original bartender of the McAdams.

There you go. I think, you know, Omega Supreme

is old enough to know that all the thick people

and characters they think of as gods were like

just some dudes he knew. Like we're gonna find

out next year that that very supreme is primus.

There you go Well, you know, we all know at least

James has just watched his share of red dwarf

and there's lots of jokes about how the passage

of time You know could turn anybody into God

I really kind of wonder sometimes if omega supreme

isn't walking around literally just look around

like Like, yeah, that holy thing you have up

on the wall there, that is so my laundry list.

It's a star chart. No, it says three socks, two

pairs of underwear. That word there, it does

not mean what you think it means. Yeah, so no

Starscream is, you know. Getting carried around

exalted because yeah, because it's tight. Go

ahead. I like the fact that he says and you judge

me good and he says it doesn't matter. Yeah,

it doesn't matter if you're good or not. You're

the next dude. What he says doesn't matter. I

kind of feel like the fact that he doesn't say

yes, I think very much implies a negative. Well,

it might not matter. He doesn't say, well, yeah,

sure you're good, but that doesn't matter. He

says, well, let's not go into that. Well, he

did call him a conqueror, so he's going to do

one of two things, right? It doesn't necessarily

mean he's going to be a good guy. It just means

he's going to conquer something. Right. So when

he says something about him, excuse me, he says

something about the cycle or something. Well,

that was Omega Supreme afterwards. No, no, well,

isn't it? Oh, is it? Was it the pain? He came

home because he wanted to see he wanted to be

home, right? And he wanted to see greatness once

more. And that's why he woke up because, say,

it starts being one little man. I guess it is

omega who says something about the cycle, but

it strikes me. What was it? I thought a line

got mirrored is why I'm taking a moment to look

back. Okay, and Go on for a second. Maybe I'm

okay. Well, they weren't they're not able to

save the the Metro Titans So he explodes and

that's why we get this big explosion Kind of

made me sad. I was like, oh we only got to see

him for two issues now He's gone. Darn it two

issues. I mean fireball troop builders children

can make with their toys When they're talking

about Who you know Nova Prime is you know, he

said Even or me it's that they say he unites

the Starscream unites The scattered warriors.

Yeah, he says that you will you will reunite

the scattered warriors and I think when they're

introducing Nova Prime they introduced me Say

what sort of united the planet who ended the

fighting. Maybe that's just what I'm thinking

of Yeah, it seems like It seems a little parallel

there, but maybe it's not intentional Oh, it

could be very intentional because in the past

whenever anybody has done something like that.

They usually have gone off on the rails Yeah,

our corrupts ultimately ultimate power corrupts

ultimately yeah, you know The the past uniting

of those peoples was not such a great thing At

least at least not in that temporary sense. Yeah

I like the the the wrap -up that we do get in

the past though when we go back and Omega supreme

is like and so it begins and a diet less is like

it you sound like you can see the future or This

is a practiced indifference and I Just The way

he said that I just like oh man. He just he comes

across as that sage that dude That's like no,

I don't have a really opinion either way. I just

see it I see everything and I'm indifferent about

it. The outside, it's blue. Yeah, the outside.

All right. So that's, you know, wrap up. You

don't seem hopeful. Should I? Like, oh, yeah.

Should you be hopeful? Yeah. It's like when you

talk to Stephen Hawking, you know what I mean?

It's like, why is it all these really smart people

always think we're going to die? Isn't that funny?

Like, no. Why is the people who know what's going

on I'll think we're screwed because they know

what's going on occurred you you've answered

your own question Because they can see the parallels

that you can't Aren't they all weird? No, no,

they're not. I don't think that they're just

realistic And then the wrap -up is basically

metalhawk and omega having Philosophy glass this

is the reason why I like metalhawk is because

we're willing to question Well, you know metalhawk

is finally seen a Little more like enough to

take get a better sense of I Think he's seen

beyond himself for the first time since coming

back to the server. Even his friendship with

Starscream was an aspect of his crusade for himself.

He was paying attention to him and his needs

and what he wanted. And this is the first time

he's kind of stepped back and going like, you

know, this is some serious shit. Yeah. Well,

not only that, it's it's the you pick Starscream.

What do you see in him that I don't? because

I think that's what everybody's kind of saying

in a sense because But then at the same time

what the Metro Titan said was that he was the

conqueror and it makes him question You know,

are we only here to conquer everything is is

our is our goal in life to only just continue

to war at all And that's what he's kind of the

conversation he's had throughout the issue where

he's talking about, you know Is this what our

law in life is? We seem to find peace when we're

at war. We seem to find a purpose when there's

this huge conflict. And is that all that we are?

And by the end, when he has this conversation

with Omega Supreme, he's like, I don't believe

that. Because the Metro Titan said that he was

the conqueror. I just don't think that that's

what we are and you know Omega Supreme then of

course makes the connection that I Think that's

the correct answer that you know, do you do you

believe what he said music? I don't know anymore

The correct answer. I don't I think that that's

the correct answer. Sometimes I do believe that

we are a hopeless species. But in what do you

say? But once in a long while, I meet one who

questions perhaps that is why the Metro Titan

returned to pose the questions in our minds.

I think I think Metalhawk's worldview is sort

of violently expanded because he was very cynical

and insulated before and this is you know a creature

he regarded largely probably is mythological

to you know this morning popped up and endorsed

some guy as a friend of his who he barely put

up with and blew up it was like the world like

is a place that makes much less sense to him

now you know and i think too you know In a very

for a different different reason. I think he's

forced to look at star a that Bumblebee does

and that I think he's always looked down on Starscream

and you know thought yeah, you're just some decepticon

Decepticon, you know leader want to be jackass

who's trying to be in charge now, but you're

more on my side than his so we're together but

Now he's looking at him Get being endorsed by

this figure and like bumblebee bumblebee has

to keep looking at metalhawk and and the nails

in general and going What is the matter with

you? Why would you hang out with Starscream?

You don't you realize who he is and I think metalhawk

is experiencing the same emotion But in a completely

different trajectory looking at this Titan this

you know mythological angelic figure of wisdom

and going Starscream Are you nuts? He doesn't

really know who Starscream is. He's like, I know

he's not, you know, the myth, the, I know he's

not Optimus Prime, I'll tell you that. I don't

even like Optimus Prime, but I know Starscream's

not. He was just laughing at somebody's pain

a few, you know, just a few hours ago here, right?

Yeah, I was standing out in the desert and he

watched some guy whose head path got half blown

off and laughed. And now, and he's the future?

And we're supposed to be happy about it? So I

think he's having to question a lot more. And

he's experiencing Bumblebee's world. While not

sharing Bumblebee's opinions for Bumblebee's

reasons, he is forced now to look at Starscream

in the way that Bumblebee does as this person

who is experiencing this up thrust of popularity

and power in a totally unjustified way. You know,

I think I think You know all the Autobots are

clearly horrified every minute they have to stand

in a room with Starscream And Metal Hawk is completely

oblivious to it. I think he's he's now he's feeling

that same thing Yeah, this is a perspective Why

would why would the agents of God come down and

tell us that this guy is great? Like are you

kidding me? And it's you know, it's like yeah,

welcome to my world Why would some jackass from

off -planet come down here and tell me I have

to have Starscream in my war room Kind of nuts,

isn't it jerk face Anyway, there's also a really

good parallel here too because you get the diet

list of the past Who was kind of that guy and

now metalhawk is that of the future? So I thought

that's kind of interesting Yeah, that was interesting

And apparently the planet needs metalhawk Yeah,

that's what he thinks that he needs it I think

the point is is that he's like, okay, I it's

embracing the fact that okay Well if the Titans

said that he's the one then I'm gonna be his

number two And I'm gonna you know, try my best

to make sure that I guide him to be the best

leader that he can be Well, then, you know later

Starscream will talk about the planet needing

him out the more more I hear I think You know,

didn't Bumblebee say it at some point or something?

Maybe does everyone? Think about it. We'd have

to go back. But isn't it? Is there a theme of

people saying that? What city is them or the

planet needs them? Yeah, because yeah, he has

said that in the past where he said, you know,

my my planet needs me and I haven't crippled

under the weight of everything that's going on.

Yeah. Isn't Ironhide even said? Yeah. I think

so. I almost... My thought is just that if everyone

keeps saying the planet needs them, I can only

imagine the way this seems to be going, that

during Dark Cybertron, we're either going to

discover that that is 100 % true, or that Cybertron

needs them like it needs hemorrhoids. And on

that note, Robots in the Sky's annual cover B

done by Andrew Griffith Colors by Joanna Lafuente.

It looks really cool. It's a cool cover. I need

a little caption of, you know, Jax is saying,

like, real monsters. I gave them tiny brains.

Nova's like, monsters don't have tiny... What

do you want to do? Like a young Wheeljack in

the background hearing him say that. What do

you want to do tonight, Brian? The same thing

we do every night. All right. Every time I see

Nova Prime in that, I think I was reading somewhere

there is I don't know what it's actually called.

I'm forgetting. I'm embarrassed, but there is

sort of a little Benzuli expanse out there in

the real universe. There's this dark little patch

that you can't see anything through and it doesn't

seem to emit any radiation. It's just this little

patch of dead space. I say little, I mean like,

you know, the size of 10 ,000 galaxies or something.

I mean, but little in terms of when you look

at the sky. But so that's the Benzuli expanse.

I always, I always keep thinking it's the dead

universe. It's devoid. It's devoid of all life.

That's the nightmare is it's not just something

custom made up. It's actually gonna come and

kill me The sky all turned dark and erupted fire

this giant thing like are you the one who thinks

I'm stupid? So robots in disguise number 11 the

final issue in this volume cover a is dirge old

man bumblebee Starscream and prowl and the only

dirge is about to burst into song There's something

that I have to tell everyone It would have been

better if it was skybite on the cover Just think

as we know he has something important to tell

everyone and he's upstaged everyone so much It

looks like a character in a musical who's about

to sing to you about their problems He's about

to sing to them about how Prowl shot all these

people and about how everyone's mean to him And

he's been forced to hang out with swindle. I

Just now noticed I noticed it back in volume

one when you know Bumblebee used his Taser stick

his shock stick. Yes With the image on cover

A for number 11, I really want to see some sort

of Transformers version of Old Man Wolverine

as Old Man Bumblebee. Oh, cute. Or Old Man Logan,

I should say, not Old Man Wolverine, Old Man

Logan, because I just... Know it's a shock stick.

I know it's I know he has an injury But it just

the injury doesn't make sense now because they're

back on Cybertron that should be fixed already

Sadly, I think that comic would be called old

man Grimlock because Grimlock is definitely the

the over emotional You know, we just need samurai

emo of the Transformers universe this issue starts

off with the males I Can't well it starts up

there. Well, there's oh, you know, is this yeah,

this is a they uh It's with Starscream wanting

to talk to Omega supreme. Yeah He's trying to

double down on his deity endorsement, yeah Just

because everybody if everybody endorses it then

the the Decepticons will believe it more, right?

Don't know what Starscream is thinking here either

because he's like trying he's trying the kind

of shtick he tries with bumblebee and with other

people he's trying to like sort of Hem them into

a corner verbally But you can't hem some dude

who says three words per sentence into a corner

verbally. Yeah What do you want Starscream? It's

like when you try to do the you know, the answer

you get is something like, you know die in a

hole Now, there's something really interesting

I hadn't noticed before, but there's the reporter

down there with the classic little, you know,

recorder on his thumb. But behind him, seemingly

taking the pictures, is, I think, a version of

Long Tooth, the Pretender. Yeah, I think so,

yep. He's just, he doesn't look very mammoth.

Walrus like except for he's but he's got the

his helmets in the shape of the teeth. Yeah,

he's got the little red eyepatch Yep, so I'm

gonna I'm gonna call that as being long tooth

We're singing there that you're gonna make a

robot Jimmy Olsen joke That would be to imply

that that was super robot or something in front

of him wouldn't it? No, it'd be Lois Lane. I

think that might be a action master character

You know the head design I can't remember his

name, but he looks familiar too, but I'm sure

that's long tooth Isn't that his name the walrus

dude. I think you're right. I think so yeah The

other guy is circuit he says this is circuit

Yeah, this is coming to you live and direct it

on the icon communication service the ICS they

acronym that pretty quickly, so Yeah, cuz that's

a lot to say in the mouth I don't know what the

guy who was inside long tooth looked like, but

I'm wondering if that's him. If that's the reporter.

If they're both long tooth. Nice. Yeah, I thought

Galvatron crushed that crown. Ha ha. Different

continuity too. I know, I know, but it's drawn

and colored to look just like the one that Starscream

had in the movie. Definitely a good nice homage

there. Yeah, especially since he's like, you

know, I'm gonna win He's got a room full of them

too if you look at the on the table there he's

got different And a little model of himself Somebody

was asking about that because he was shown in

a shot and it was on the floor and people were

wondering if maybe that was a thing of his new

Alt mode it's yeah, no, they've shown it already

being there. Yeah, and you know, I can't help

but think that those other Helmets look familiar

Those they might be has they might be homage

to something else. Oh, yeah I like the mirror

to his little Liberace decepticon mirror there.

Yeah It's got the little outline and in the back

of it in the back of it looks like his wings.

Yep Yeah, I mean art -wise I just want to stop

and point out that's that whole shot is full

of so much brilliance I would think of all the

little things that are in there. Yeah, just this

one shot In fact Starscream looks so is making

himself look so cool that metal Hawks arm Wings

have retracted They're not as long as they usually

are they're not sticking out quite as far as

they do let's not speculate about what that means,

but you know Maybe he needs some Robotic my is

definitely not feeling is is Yeah, how powerful

is he was a minute ago? Man the whole tower look

start. I didn't realize turn the page Star screams

little tower that he's made for himself there.

There's a big pair of scream wings on it He's

really kind of full of himself, isn't he? He's

built himself a little cathedral to Starscream.

Normally it's Shockwave with the towers that

look like his head and stuff, but Starscream's

beat him to it here. This is a whole new Cybertron

now, you know? Oh, goodness. The only way to

get up there, I think, is to fly, too. Yeah,

probably. No bumbly allowed. Even though they're

limp. Secondly, I would have liked to see, like,

if you could only fly up there. I'd love to see,

like, Starscream wake up in the morning, you

know, get up with a recharge slab and see Prowl

sitting there and Prowl gives him some crap for

a minute and Starscream be like, you can't fly?

How did you even get in here? We're like 10 stories

off the ground. Prowl just be like, who says

you're not out of the ground and just jumps out

the window and Starscream walks out there and

like his whole tower has been reduced to like

right down to that level. Son of a... Or, you

know. Prowl could have used a giant pogo stick.

He has his ways to get up where he needs to go,

right? Yeah. Or the ground has just been dug

up. I mean, hell, how does R .C. get where she

normally gets and up all these up high corners

and stuff? Because she's just instant awesome,

that's all. All you need to know about her is

she's just... She's a snitchy girl. It's like

asking how Snake Eyes gets to the top of a tall

building. I mean, come on. But what I'm saying

you will your your point is Starscream, you know

your point of the tower is Oh, you have to fly

to get there. Prowl can't fly RC can't fly. So

how does she get where she gets? So reschedule

where the garbage dump was It slowly built up

and one day Starscream came outside and that

was just ground level It's like I wanted to walk

here But the the rest of the shot this is actually

a very terrifying shot of Omega scream because

you know at first I think you kind of looked

at it and it kind of felt like Well, I could

see most of him there. You mean he's not hasn't

been blown up himself, right? he's in the middle

of an explosion, but Yeah, well later on you

see that he's got his legs blown off actually

I kind of realized in terms of the way this is

drawn This is much more you should look at it

much more like how you would look at a person

Coming out of that much fire. Yeah Yeah and the

look in his eyes. I mean like he's He is not

in that fire. He is the source of that fire.

Yeah. Yeah, you know It's it's kind of it's very

scary shot. Yeah you know it's you see somebody

running away from like a rocket explosion or

something and there's like you know it's 10 000

degrees everywhere even if you can see them in

there they're not all right the hilarious thing

is the first thing that comes out of Starscream's

mouth is oh no they didn't even he thinks it

was his own people that did it which is hilarious

oh my gosh because it wasn't still i love that's

just it you know that's just the people who are

You know they're gonna ruin everything the most

suspicious people are you know the Deceptive

bastards He's you know when he sees something

go right he immediately attributes his own thought

process to things so He's always looking for

someone to be trying to screw him over or trying

to you know doing the wrong thing You know even

when when? He's in his inexplicably stricken

in the more more recent more than meets the eye

the first thing he thinks of his Megatron You

know, he's not like am I having a heart attack

he's like Megatron's trying to kill me It's first

thing that pops into his head. I'm surprised.

He didn't say Megatron there The end right because

whenever things are going good Megatron shows

up. Yep Well, you read his spotlight right spotlight

Megatron. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah Yeah, the

Starscreams only purpose is to be the whipping

boy You know, I'm continuously complaining about

the Metroplex Drop -ins into the spotlights and

I thought that was the only one that it wasn't

in but I was wrong but it's brilliant and that's

why it's such a good spotlight because they It's

clear that, you know, he got the same edict,

like, have it have something to do with Metroplex.

So there's like one panel where Shockwave's like,

we should further test your space bridge technology

and your new body that can't we've stole from

schematics from Metroplex. And Megatron's like,

no. And then they move on. Yep. It was like,

I just see Nick Roach sitting there and be like,

well, I did that. Check that box off. And now

I get to have a comic of my own. Brilliant absolutely

the right thing to do genius. I love that comic.

That's that's one of the best ones in years Every

red eyes more than meets the eye, right? He means

for the spotlight Certainly I think it's definitely

the best spotlight there's been of these these

of these metroplex centric ones and I love that

he just mentioned it Of course the whole thing

is a toy at anyway, but it's okay because they

already had that mold and it was a flashback

Yeah, it's not a big bother. I think I think

the only person I was joking the other day about

it. I'm sorry. I'm tangenting but Yes, you sure

I got that toy for my son and it's cool, but

it's arms are barely attached They just pop off

constantly and there's just one shot in the comic,

you know Megatron getting half blown up and screaming,

you know star scream And it's the shockwave who

built his body and it was like if the comic was

truly totally accurate He'd come out of that

explosion and there'd just be this little plonk

noise and his arm would drop off just Clang on

the floor Shockwave Right after the scream goes

straight from Starscream to Shockwave Gotta say

I'm more interested in to find out what is going

on with optimists than I am with all this political

stuff Should be in its own trade somewhere. I

know I know just brought it up some point, you

know And like you said, you don't like it when

they on a cliffhanger, but you're in a trade.

Oh wait Yeah that comic in here cuz that's Orion

Pax and the prime jammers and this is robots

in disguise really because the other thing was

an annual this is the first robots in disguise

we've gotten in this robots in disguise trade

it's true yeah yeah well isn't a pretty standard

you know technically speaking well the annual

serves The annual serves as the lead -up to this

because mega is on Cybertron. Yeah, you know

the annual is absolutely He was on Cybertron

back in you know, the first issue where we saw

ironhide because ironhide was out Patrolling

and when he came back right back in I think what

this does is it puts in? Effect why it is that

Starscream suddenly is herald by all the nails

and why he's suddenly like gotta I'm gonna win,

I'm gonna do all this stuff. I mean, they've

been talking about it before, but more of it's

been Bumblebee asking Prowl, ah, what are we

gonna do about this whole situation? You know,

Starscream's looking pretty good to the nails,

and I don't know if I can win against that, and

Prowl's just saying, seriously, do you know who

you're talking to? Well, Prowl is just, you know,

well, A, I'm kind of concerned that this is specifically

one of the moments where we are really getting.

bombshells opinion. Not Prowl's. And Bumblebee

can't tell the difference. That's the sad part

about it. That's because Prowl's eyes never change

color. If they did, then Bumblebee might know

that it was him. I think what Prowl would probably

say about it that is similar but more like Prowl

is Prowl would calculate the actual chance Bumblebee

had of winning at the moment. But I would say,

but there's also a 76 % possibility, just based

on all of time, that Starscream, no matter how

good things are going, will just screw this up.

But barring that, you only have a 20 % chance

of winning. But there is that secondary favorable

chance that this other thing might happen. But

you would never say, because I believe it will

happen, we'll change the current odds. That the

current odds are not the current odds. This is

Bombshell pacifying Bumblebee while he's undermining

everything. And we're really getting down to

zero over here in Bombshell's plans anyway. He's

getting to a point where he has to, he's not

going to have to back up as many of his prowl

promises as he's had to. Yeah. Yeah. I think

at the time, it was one of the things I was saying

about, you know, bumble baggage -wise, not knowing

that the things Prowl's saying to bumblebee seem

un -Prowl -like. And I think at the time I first

read these, it contributed to my perception of

the bumble baggage, because I was like, and now

you have to write Prowl badly to continue to

justify this preposterous thing. I'm more and

more of the opinion, yeah, he just couldn't get

rid of it any quicker. Yeah. But it doesn't save

the comic from the fact that it's there. So while

I, you know, I don't think I've ever I've tried

to make it clear, I never really am taking issue

with Barbara's run or his writing. But the things

he can't get rid of that still exist are still

there, whether they're his fault or not. And

to do affect the quality of the comic. Yeah,

but I think he's doing the best that he can with

what he's got and you know And you're right.

It'll be it'll be interesting to see after Dark

Cybertron if he's able to Offload the rest of

that within that and then take off from there

So we'll see how I've said things like I wish

he could have gotten rid of Put more effort into

getting rid of the Bumble baggage faster if he

can get on the other side of Dark Cybertron and

get rid of all the you know of Costa Rica then

that will be miraculously fast yeah not quite

as the James Roberts get the heck out of Dodd

actually dealing with it like that would be pretty

damn quick 12 issues might have it done by the

next year No, I would say the average I would

say to fix, you know, it's easy things that have

fixed them I'd say you if you can fix something

in Three to five times the amount of time it

takes to break it. You're usually doing pretty

good Yeah, if he can fix it by the end of dark

cyber Dran he would have fixed it and roughly

twice the time it took to break or One and a

half times and that is miraculous. So Here's

hoping Yeah, and not only that is fix that but

everything else that's wrong with continuity,

right? It's not just it's not just stuff that

he's fixing up. It's it's all the it's it's everything

else Yeah, well cost of stuff plus the conflict

with Furman stuff Yeah, and there's a few of

Furman's things that I think you know all respect

to mr. Furman needed some fixing to begin with

We get some swindle in here so he's nice and

I think we're seeing some more deepening of swindles

character I Think he has video cameras behind

his eyelids Yeah, I swear in that bottom left

panel Well, he's got to have something to keep

him, you know, you know, technically they all

have video cameras behind their eyelids Well,

yeah, but if you look at the way that it's drawn

and colored it It's showing you behind, like,

you look at that top panel and you just see he

has purple eyes. And you look at the bottom left

and you actually see that he has pupils. Well,

that's because he's zoomed in enough to be able

to see that he's got something behind those eyes,

right? I gotta say, now that I've said that,

it's bothering me. He's got long tooth, right?

He's got his, like, finger to his little eye

and his eye is the eye patch and it's his camera.

And the guy in front of him, I keep thinking

it must be somebody. Has the, you know, thick,

yes, is it circuit? Is that what it is? Circuit,

they say, yeah. They name him? Okay, then maybe

he's not somebody. He says, this is circuit,

yeah. His head just looks like somebody familiar,

so I kept wondering. But, you know, he's got

the microphone in his thumb, rung had the microphone

in his thumb, rewind had the little camera on

the side of his head, and it just really bothers

me a little bit. You just have to say, what the

hell is that supposed to be for? I mean, seriously,

it's like, what's that on your... Eyes or cameras?

Oh, right. What are you sticking your thumb in

my face for? Oh, it's my microphone. Your ears!

Your ears are microphones. If you can hear me,

you're picking up the sound. Yes, but all of

these guys don't necessarily have ears. They

look like they have buckets on their heads. They

have ears. They're hiding behind there, right?

Well, if he has to hold the thumb up to hear

Starscream. For the report then he has to hold

his thumb up to everybody he talks to So they

before he's like, yeah, it's my hearing aid my

my my ears got damaged It's like Starscream on

TV. You're like such a dick My mouth shut we'll

see metal Hawk has a lot of great moments near

where he he vacillates he He's having a complex

character moment. He defends Starscream, then

he hears a little more evidence, and then he's

like, I trust you Bumblebee, go find the truth.

I trust you to find the truth. I think you suck

at leading, but you're not a jerk. Yeah. That's

basically is what's implied. I've got to trust

somebody so you're really generally trying to

do the best you can do So I guess I'll trust

that and it's like I'll find the guilty people

and metal lock is you know, he references rat

bat But it's basically like yes, you'll find

the guilty party and 12 other people who didn't

do it and shoot them all That's just statistics.

It had to be one of the 13 of them. I'll find

who you can trust. They're like, yeah, like like

you found Ratbat. It's like we're going to shut

you up real quick right here with Ratbat. There

you go. Boom. Because you know you're guilty.

That's the problem. Oh, goodness. Good times.

And then we get watching that conversation going

like, well, I know what I'm doing tonight. He's

confronting shockwave. Yep. Yeah, that's it And

shockwave is still giving his it Well, I think

what's great is that this continues beyond even

the current plan the shockwave is dealing with

the I could really give a crap Yeah, and that's

not cuz I don't have emotions like I literally

don't give a crap He's indifferent I would I

think you know it I think shockwave is just Just

lucky he he had the forethought to realize to

not look at Starscream ago. Why did you blow

up Omega Supreme? Because he knows he didn't

do it. Yeah, well, you know, that's wrong. That's

I'm wrong anyway, because he knows who did it.

He knows who did it. Shockwave knows who did

it, who did it. He knows. Even him are still

doing, you know, Megatron's bidding. Shockwave

is still. it's always been somewhat dependent

on not getting his head blown off by megatron

before it's ready so even if megatron's plan

is coming to fruition this weekend even the thing

he's been waiting for for eight million years

is coming up next week he's just gonna keep doing

megatron's plan until then technically senator

shockwave already got his head blown off Yeah,

you behave like Shockwave. You have to be prepared

to spend some time looking for your head. But

you're right, you're right, because we don't

we don't really find that out till the next volume.

But you're right. Shockwave is painfully aware

of what's going to happen. It's like, yeah, yeah,

I get it. Yeah. Well, the same way the problem

is like Starscream's plan isn't going to work.

Why? Yeah, because it's Starscream. Shockwave,

as soon as Megatron shows up and isn't going

to blow his head off, is like, yeah, Megatron's

plan isn't going to work. I don't think he cares

why. I think Shockwave fully expects to come

back and find Prime standing on a beaten up Megatron,

even though he's nowhere to be found at the moment.

Because that's what happens. Logically looking

at their lives, when you've been experiencing

this pattern, for X millions of years I Mean

Chuck we must look at every one of these and

be like Yes, your plan is going splendidly Lord

Megatron. Would you like me to get the repair

thing fixed for you tomorrow? There's a 72 %

chance that today or the next prime will beat

the tar out of you It's like I have prime in

pieces in the basement. Yeah, that's why it's

not 78 % I've incorporated that dismemberment,

you know, only only I've added those variables

to that. Yeah. So about your new chassis. Yeah.

And it's nice that throughout this trade, we've

gotten to cassetta cons. They've gotten either

laser beak or. Buzzsaw, whichever you prefer.

And now Ravage, yeah. In here, don't they show,

at some points they show, there's both Frenzy

and Rumble, no matter what colors they are. But

wasn't Frenzy supposed to have been killed in

all hell? Or did they undo that at some point?

Not that I'm not happy to see him. I don't think

they should have killed him. I don't think that

they killed him. I don't know how they brought

him back. But yeah, that's a good question. Right.

I thought I saw someone referring to him being

dead at one point. Maybe maybe that was just

discussion. Maybe it was someone who had the

wrong idea. I didn't think he died in. I thought

he was just really badly injured. Yeah. But someone

suggested that he had been dead since then. Maybe

clearly this is just to clear that up. Yeah,

possibly. Holy crap she Well, yeah, she doesn't

kill ravage here though. It kind of looks like

it. No, she did kill him No, cuz he's alive in

a few issues it Lose their heads Like Ross it's

like I hate to break it to everybody but I think

Rossum is a little more of a biannual this issue

in this series because they have taken the heads

off of so many people and they never die from

that that is i don't think that i can't i don't

think one character who's been killed from a

headshot has actually died it's one of those

things but i don't think anyone's whose head

has come off has actually croaked Mean, you know,

you can see RC do a lot of things and all of

a sudden the news media is all open arms of Miley

Cyrus unfollowing her fiance on Twitter Everybody

loses their minds. It's just Yeah, that sadly

they Made it rumble or maybe it's just frenzy

making a joke about rumble but Knowing comics

red is rumble. They that's pretty standard. Basically

I'd say what You know what the answer is, is

if it's a still image, red is rumble. If it's

a moving image, blue is rumble. Even the games.

For whatever reason, that's just. I usually lean

towards Blue Rumble because by far his bigger

portrayal was in the show. He was in like half

those episodes, if not more. And he was he was

kind of a big character with a distinct personality.

I think he even made it into the third season

He had lines in the movie those things were repeated

on TV for a decade afterwards I mean, it's like

but on the packaging and in some comics, you

know, we've read he was read it's like That I'm

at the mines that because I'm just gonna say

they're twins and they keep screwing with everybody

every once in a while Just switch heads or whatever

and you know, there you go The whole fandom and

everybody that has anything to do with them And

see that's the other thing where okay sure red

and black and this is rumble but yet The purple

one over here, that's frenzy. I don't see that

like that. Well, it's just that you I think are

by far the more common audience and that while

in the Transformers fandom, there is a discussion

of whether he is red or he is blue in the larger

arena, which maybe isn't more important to some

people than they're not. They wouldn't even understand

the question, because of course he's blue. because

he was on national television being blue for

like 30 hours so as opposed to in some old comic

books infrequently if he was a bigger character

i'd be more inclined to say it was even than

i think but he's you know it's it's on tv yeah

you know like the tv version i think may just

kind of win but and she really shattered uh sound

waves glass right there yep holy crap that was

a pretty awesome effect anytime that rc is in

in any of the comic like this whole everything

it's just like she trumps everything she's just

like you know She's just instantly awesome. So

the minute she shows up here is great. It's like,

oh, you know, you think you can just waltz in

here. She's like, oh, yeah, I've been here for

an hour. Don't tell me that because the powers

that be of this comic have only deigned to allow

one female character. I think if they portrayed

her as anything less than perfectly awesome at

all times, they would be in line for some serious

shit. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, frankly. If you're

gonna only say like there are no girls here,

but there's one if you made her be Not super

cool. Wouldn't you totally be in line for like,

okay, so you have one girl and she sucks Like

what the hell is that? I think it's bad enough.

Is it like yeah, there's only one girl back in

the day, right? Yeah, well exactly Well lose

it, you know, there's a lot in g1. That's pretty

Unacceptable now. We'll have to take a tour of

Carbamia sometime The other thing that I liked

about this issue too is that we get We finally

get the alignment of Starscream and Prowl Yeah,

but then again for all the awesome that Starscream

gets plenty of opportunities everything slips

through his fingers in the same issue You know

dirge and swindle come to him give him what the

the knowledge he needs to to be able to get what

he wants out of Prowl But then RC trumps that

by stealing them back. So it's kind of like,

okay Well, dude, you had something and then you

don't but Prowl doesn't know that so I guess

you could still ride that Rino or whatever. Yeah,

see I wish it was just Prowl being cool enough

to take a bomb in the face But it does it does

wreak of like bombshell doesn't care about walking

prowl into a bomb You gotta wonder how much of

that's him or not Yeah, so I would say that's

the kind of thing he comes like we need to make

this look legitimate Why don't you blow half

of my upper torso? Like geez dude, that's hardcore.

Oh, he was just standing just enough far away

that the damage of you minimal, right? Right,

but he was still... clearly he's not. I mean,

some of that explosion is past... the fire is

passing one of his legs. Yeah. So, he ain't that

far. No, the other hand, he didn't... it was

probably very pro, like, to not march someone

else into there to get blown up. I think Bombshell

would have been just as happy to let three Autobots

walk in first. Yeah, that's true. Yes, but then

that wouldn't be very prowl ish would it right?

So I'm just saying maybe you know even in his

scheming He has to remain fairly prowl like yeah,

yeah If no one else RC would notice he walked,

you know cliff jumper in there to die before

he Know Well, it's either what cliff jumper in

there to die or send him to carbamia That's right.

Well, a few issues from now Starscream will be

the King of Kings president for life. Yeah. Of

the federated until he democratic communist household

thing. Oh, that's great. I love the end of this.

Not for the reveal, even though that's shocking

as hell to me, but just for the exchange between

Starscream and R .C. Yeah, you think you think

you see everything is like, you know what? You

don't see everything I see everything and because

of that I know everything you're up to before

you even do it. Whoo Yeah, I think stars were

like well I still have an edge on pro and she's

gonna like yeah unless he has me cut your head

off but That might cause a problem be hard to

wear that crown at least cuz clearly you won't

die But It'll make it a little bit harder for

people to vote for you because you'll be a head

shorter I think I think I think the prowl Starscream

Alliance is the highlight of this issue and possibly

the entire comic for me in some ways in terms

of my enjoyment I love them being in yeah, because

I love what they do about it They don't just

like know it or do something or use it or publicize

any problem. They do something sneaky And theoretically,

if Pearl wasn't capturing them for the later

Megatron plan for Bombshell, he'd just be blowing

up all the Decepticons. And that sounds like

something that he would want to do after the

beginning of this, right? Right. Well, think

of the political power brokering they're making

if he's killing them. problem gets to kill all

the Decepticons which at least you know ones

that you know what the most dangerous of them

like he's kind of always wanted to anyway and

Starscream is letting him kill all the Decepticons

in exchange for Being the leader of what's left.

Yeah, and it seems to prowl. It makes sense those

like prowl is perfectly willing to be Second

to the bad leader Because he thinks he'll still

be in charge in the way he's always been Yeah,

he thinks like okay. Well, it won't be like having

you know prime who I really liked in charge But

I'll still just pretty much have my job. I'll

have killed the people I was trying to kill And

we'll all go on with our lives Wasn't that like

that's the thing the best kind of lies are the

ones that are you know shadowed a shout shrouded

in truth before Certain somebody took over. Isn't

that what he wanted to do? He wanted to lock

them all back up again Yeah, well think what

pro is getting that he wouldn't have gotten without

that deal no matter how things were going is

You know if Starscream is elected think how great

Starscream will look when he comes out and says

and to show that I am NOT a Decepticon lunatic

trying to seize power Let me introduce you to

my second -in -command Prowl Optimus Prime second

-in -command and that other guy after Yeah, you

know, well meanwhile metalhawk is out is What

am I Swiss cheese like yeah, you're a console

or something, you know, but I mean like that

would really solidify his power base Leader Starscream

would be in line to get shot by some random Autobot

any day a week unless Prowl was standing next

to him You know, oh yeah And I love the ending

to this because I can so hear a lot in my head

I had it all everything I ever wanted And I had

it all and then he came back That's bull I have

that toy he would have no arms in that condition

no whether the not all the day that why is he

got arms he doesn't he should have them the seat

when i saw right now the overlord of the waste

when i saw the previous page shit like the silhouette

shot in the background of megatron like like

star screams up in his wolf no flies on tower

and you see megatron down there in the desert

Like, I don't know, my eyes are weird. I just

thought, oh, hey, a really skinny Blast Punch

Optimus Primal. But yeah. That's a great cliffhanger

right there, huh? Yeah, that's a very good cliffhanger

between trades. And thankfully, as of this recording,

Volume 4 just came out. Yep, yep. Which means

we'll have to grab that one and get back, you

know, start reviewing some more. Yeah, but this

one it's getting expensive It's about to get

real the reality check has been sent Yes, yes

it is I love this cover shot of RC and the next

page there cuz you see what the chief Cutting

off sound waves gun there Yep It's Give this

cover a title it would probably have to be emasculating

It is a bit literal there and That that gun of

his also homage is the the toy you'll do you

want toy? Well, no exactly. Yeah, you can tell

it sound with that's always gone from a mile

away. Yeah And then the Ri cover for number 10

is Yeah, it's long John optimist with Robin Hood

wheelie Yeah, that's what I think is titled get

out of the way stupid Who gives a crap about

your slingshot I have a giant gun The next panel

is clearly prime swiping him out of the way yeah,

can I get killed kid Jesus and then rid annual

cover or the retail incentive cover is uh prowl

wheeljack and bumblebee which wait bumblebee

wasn't even in the annual was he if he was it

was like 10 seconds yeah maybe in a panel i think

yeah i'm it's not bad i would say this is this

is not my favorite cover no it's uh it was actually

a there was a i thought there was another portion

to it where you could actually see the metro

titan that's in the background Yeah, I'm not

sure that it wasn't a very good Designs the proportions

aren't working for me different artists that

we haven't seen Jimmy Salgado's arm is wheeljacks

the perspective is a little weird and Wheeljack

is like given the Here's my crotch pose. I don't

know And then the last all right cover is red

11 Which is Omega screaming Megatron I think

this one's pretty awesome. I like yeah, no it

is. It's very very awesome I like the broken

face, but I like the thing in the back of his

head looks like it's about to fire Yeah, he's

really pissed off. Yeah Yes, yes, he is big fan

of that one, and then they gave some nice little

Extras in this you know we get some yeah pencils

by a guido And I'm actually really thrilled to

see some scripts out of here because I think

I'm gonna go rewrite that spotlight I wrote to

look like a proper comic strip off of these.

After some careful research, everyone had discovered

that the reason I didn't know how to write it.

Comic script and format is because there's no

such goddamn thing. So Have to find a good model

and follow it Yeah, it's not like you know movie

scripts you buy a program it does it Yeah, they're

like, yeah, just try to make it make sense. Yeah

Besides being left justified. I can't find any

standard Like thanks a lot that helps clears

that right up Alright, we're gonna take a quick

break and we're gonna come back with final thoughts

and readings after this. Wrong. This is not Generation

2. This is Generation 1 done right. The year

will be 2014, and from secret staging grounds

on two of Cybertron's moons, the valiant podcasters

prepare to reclaim their reputations. September

17th, 2014, the TFG2 Podcast premieres 45 podcast

episodes dedicated to all 98 episodes of the

Generation 1 cartoon. plus so much more than

meets the ear. Join TFG1 Mike, Pecan Court Michael,

Optimus Solo, and sometimes Steve Megatron as

they redo TFG1 and get it done right. You can

find the TFG2 podcast on www .geekcastradio .com

and iTunes. We are back here in the pull bag

and we have come to the end of this first three

arc chapter of reviewing robots in disguise the

first three trades Ender final thoughts I think

this this has been my favorite so far and I Think

I'll give it a nice solid Ender's highest recommendation.

I'll give it a five It's there's not a not a

page of this isn't worth reading the big the

beginnings a little confusing But it's a good

story and of course, you know further on it makes

more sense so despite some page flipping in the

beginning i think frankly the art is so good

it just sort of like makes up for the flow problem

like it's balance out you know that there's not

enough of a flow problem to you know say that

the art isn't just phenomenal and let me go so

what i have to flip through some uh... remandelli

pages for an hour well yeah that's that's a chore

Give me a break. I love the annual. I love all

the, you know, I read these comics. I read these

comics recently. I think, you know, I love they

make fun of themselves. And of course the whole

stick with the Prowl and Starscream and the future

is great too. So that's all a big win. And then

the Prowl and Starscream conspiracy again, I

think maybe the high point of the series. So.

I think overall there's just nothing to complain

about go read this. It's a five Yeah, Amy final

thoughts and rating and a lack of Bumble baggage

Well, I have to agree with everything that the

ender saying there this was a really good really

good volume and Part of it is the fact that the

other two volumes built up to this So, you know,

I really got a lot of enjoyment out of coming

back and reading this again and As much as like

the first one It might have been confusing, but

it was bold. I think that was the biggest thing

that came out of that is it was bold It was a

new direction that we had never seen They'd never

done something like that before in a Transformers

comic with IDW And so whether or not you like

it or not the thing is is that it was gutsy It

was bold and it totally worked for me And so

that's another reason why I really liked it and

looking back, you know kind of retrospectively

because I know where it's going to an extent.

We got all the way up to issue 19. Some people

are, yes. I'm following it month to month. I

haven't seen the complete payoff of it, but it's

headed toward Dark Cybertron. It's really cool

to see that it was seeded that far back. I'm

going to give it a five as well. This is a good

volume. If you don't pick it up, you will cry

and weep. Yes. Yes, you will. For me, I enjoyed

it. I enjoyed a lot of the action and a lot of,

like Ender said, Prime Jammers needs to be its

own thing. But I like that part of it. I like

the annual, even though I'm not a fan of the

old style comic. Drawing I get that's what they

were you know going for to homage and I understand

that I'm Me I'm just not a fan of that that style

at all Don't like it Overall I really enjoyed

the story and I like where it's going and I think

it's gonna be really interesting at least from

my perspective to see what the hell happens next

now that Megatron's back and Hopefully he Fusion

cannon slap Starscream around a few times a couple

people. Yeah, there you go. Yes. Yes, exactly.

Including his arms fall off. I I can't give this

a whole perfect. I just can't because of that,

that one glaring half mark of of not liking that

old art style. I'm going to give this an almost

perfect, which is four and a half. Still fair,

though. Out of five. Yeah. You know, like green,

green eggs and ham, you know, there you go. Yes,

that is so true. All right, Ender, where can

the people find you online if they would like

to interact with you? I complain day to day on

Twitter at Ender Hates, capital E, capital H,

and you can find my reviews on FullmetalHero

.com. When it's up. When it's up. Thank you for

saying that. Even I, Ender, was feeling a little

too polite to say that. It's kind of a little

bit of a joke at this point. What kind of negative

universe are we in? I know. I'm the one who said

something negative this time. I say it lovingly

because I love all my Full Metal Hero fans and

people over there. I know where my bread's buttered.

I wasn't going to say anything. Can joke because

I've been joking with the admins for the whole

weekend about it. So don't tell me anything.

So I don't get it. Is it up? I'm gonna start

with hackers. Yeah, okay, we're told Mel can't

get its hero up I'll skip my review and just

do the ender spoils the yeah What about you?

I mean, where can the folks interact with you

if they'd like to? Well, you can find me on Twitter

That's probably the best place to to find me

because I do a lot of tweeting It's that lady

of rec and if you want to buy one of my awesome

shirts that I sell at convention You can also

get that at wrecked apparel on Etsy. So I have

links on Twitter I am tweeting it out there at

least once a week. So Awesome. You can also follow

me on Twitter at TF2 and Mike. You can follow

GeekCastRadio on Twitter at GeekCastRadio. Up

next, I believe, I'm trying to think, I think

up next is going to be an Origins episode. Here

in the pull bag we are switching some things

up before the end of 2013 and we're reorganizing

certain aspects of the podcast. Looking into

new ways of bringing the listeners better More

enjoyable content not that we haven't for the

past 33 episodes, but Just looking for new ways

to keep the podcast fresh So until then make

your great escape into comics and we will catch

you next time No bumping Bump you both on your

head at least you didn't it didn't bump the ump

you're at Ugh, that puts a horrible image in

my head. You just heard the latest episode of

The Pull Bag, GCRN's comic book review podcast.

There are several ways to get in touch with us

and need feedback for the show. You can visit

the website geekcastradio .com where you can

comment on the episode and all of our different

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us on Twitter at Geekcast Radio. So until next

time. Unleash the geek in you!