Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Issues #1-4

I love when a plan comes together! Starscream

here, and I am the Lord and Master of the Geekcast

Radio Network. Don't tell Megatron. Welcome to...

The Polebag! Join us as we dig out our latest

comics and discuss them with a rotating panel

of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this

week's Polebag. Hello and welcome to The Pole

Bag. This is episode 53. It has taken us nearly

40 episodes to catch up to where we are now.

Back in episode 18, Ender and I reviewed the

trade paper bag for Transformers Prime, Rage

of the Dinobots, and now, sadly, Ender is not

here. I think Jabba the Hutt has him tied up

somewhere. Now we get to one of two issues or

one of two episodes that are dedicated to the

what was supposed to be an ongoing but got cut

back to eight issues. Transformers Prime Beast

Hunters and with me is Ms. Lady Rek. Hello. Woohoo!

It's good to be here. It's been a long time coming,

right? I get Hasbro. Wants to constantly move

on. Yeah, but I was hoping against hope that

Beast Hunters would be a continuation past prime

past the events of Predacons Rising because as

spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen it yet Optimus

dies or he sacrifices himself, you know He goes,

you know to the matrix and all this and all that

but I thought it was gonna be Something more

than what it was we started with rage and we

got the first four Well, actually we got the

first six issues of all all more Dinobots action

and issue seven we see that Because Cybertron

is restored and reformed and whatever else we

see the other autobots and the same thing with

issue eight Which will get to I think an episode

59 of the show. I think that's what we're doing

that one So, you know I love the Beast Hunters

comic stuff because it's the first time in a

long... and this is coming from someone who has

not read the Marvel US UK, who has not read any

of Simon Furman Grimlock Lover, who has not read

any of the other... like my only connection to

Dinobots is G1 and Animated for however long

they were in Animated, which wasn't long. So

me reading this series? I was like, finally,

the Dinobots have character. Yes! Your reaction

and a lot of other people that I've talked with

reactions, they really liked what was done with

the Dinobots in this. So, yeah. I haven't read

all of the Marvel stuff, but I have read some

of it. And this Grimlock pretty much carries

off from the Fall of Cybertron game. dark, he's

gritty, he is that grown up version of Grimlock

that I think that everybody's kind of wanted.

I don't know. I mean, it depends on what your

opinion is of the original G1 Grimlock who actually

turned into comic relief more than anything else.

It's a good version of Grimlock. I really like

it too. Yeah, and I understand prime was ending

they had to wrap it up they were they got to

65 episodes and that hits syndication so But

I really I remember that I forget when I don't

know if it was in the origins episode I did with

you or whatever it was, but I remember you and

I talking about It might have been all fair about

if the Dinobots got into the show And that I

wanted Greg Berger and Michael Bell to voice

Grimlock. Can you imagine these characters in

that show? Oh, man. I don't know what the continuation

cartoon is going to be or what the next one is

going to be for the adult fans. But I hope it's

something very similar to Prime. So getting right

into it with issue one, we've got covers, Amy.

We have a lot of covers on this one. Yeah, well

they get three Cover a was Grimlock breathing

fire as he bursts out of the ground by Ken Christiansen

um I like cover a But I'm one of those people

that if someone tells me hey if you subscribe

you're going to get this I'm I'm one of those

people like oh, what can I get yeah, you know?

There was, uh, the second cover was a retail

incentive, which was animation artwork of Predaking.

Yep. Okay. It was, it was, it was, oh, I wouldn't

say it's bad because we've seen, we saw the,

the character already in the show, I think at

that point. Um, but I really, I, cause I'm, I'm

a comic person. I like to see artwork. And so

while I was I was like, oh, it's Predaking. That's

cool. It is like the background is just a plain,

no anything background. And I think I would have

appreciated it more if it had actually been like

another artist drawing a picture of actual Predaking

than an animation cell of him. So I actually

was more for the cut the first cover because

of that, because I like just having the art.

And I really like Ken Christians and stuff, even

though sometimes I have nothing bad to say about

his stuff, but sometimes there are just some

covers that stand out better than others. And

I thought this one was all right. the reason

why amy's on these episodes now is because i

felt that the um cybertron crew basically kicked

her out i know that's not what happened but i'm

like i want to hear what amy has to say sure

all the other guys that are on the beast hunters

under base episodes are great but i want to hear

what her perspective is so that's why she's here

and they were arguing about or they were saying

that I don't think they were arguing they were

talking about the sub covers and the way I view

it is if you're a regular person that regular

person who gets a comic every now and then the

regular cover is going to be fine for you and

it's not going to be a lie quote -unquote because

that's what you're used to but if you're someone

like like me or someone who has turned into what

I am now as far as collecting comics. And someone

says, hey, if you subscribe to this, you're going

to get a subscription -only cover. And the subscription

-only cover for issue one, even though this treacherous

Decepticon has nothing to do with the series

of the comic, it's a... At first I thought it

was silver, but I think it's more bluish. It's

a blue -headed star screen. And it's simply amazing

and I absolutely love it. I really do Sure, I

know that Starscream isn't in the comic. I don't

care You know Yes, it's one of those interesting

picks because it's like There they don't ever

in fact, they don't ever really show up until

the end But I kind of looked at it as like maybe

this is a promise that they'll be in it eventually

See I was hoping for eight sub covers. Oh, really?

But alright so issue one we pick up where The

story so far here we go the Autobots and Decepticons

abandoned their homeworld long ago Taking their

war to the stars now a small group of survivors

led by the Dinobots struggles to survive deep

underground Their world is gone. Their enemies

are legion and their energon is running out So

the main cast here as was in Rage of the Dinobots

you have Grimlock Slag because He ain't no bullet.

Yeah sludge Snarl and swoop And we open up to

I Believe it's Grimlo I believe it's their headquarters.

Yeah, I think it's where they they live Yeah,

kind of And I had to actually this is a sad thing

when I first got this in order to write up a

written review of it I had to read it twice because

I couldn't figure out who was doing the narration

And the art in this I really like it the first

issue we should say that this is written by Margaret

Scott and Mike Johnson art by Augustin Padilla

Padilla and colors by Priscilla Tramontano. There

you go. Thank you. I like the art. In the first

issue, it looks really cool because they're all

characters for the moment. Okay, sure. We've

seen the Dinobots and Rage of the Dinobots, but

some of the other non -sequitur characters are

characters we haven't seen before. And the backgrounds

are really nice. This is so funny. You have basically

a depressed Grimlock sitting on the throne. Yeah.

Well, and it must be said, too, that, like, okay,

when you first start, it looks like it's above

ground, but everything, a lot of it mostly takes

place underground. Underground, yeah. So it's

kind of deceptive because it looks like a city,

but it's underground. The first one that we see,

of course, isn't, but, you know, they're like,

ah, welcome to Cybertron, and it's beat, man.

I mean, it's... dead, it's dying. And they they

pretty much go into detail. Well, they don't

go into a lot of detail, but they they just basically

say the planet's dying. They don't mince words

about that. It's like everything is supposedly

dying because this is in the middle of what is

it somewhere in the third season. Yep. And from

the the animated show, and this is happening

while the show hasn't finished wrapping up, which

I kind of think is part of the reason why it

worked out the way that it did. I think that

when Beast Hunters, the comic was announced and

we found out that it was an ongoing, I think

everybody kind of expected that eventually that

it would be the continuation of the show and

that the characters would, in fact, the ones

that were in the show would come back into the

comic. And, you know, that was the there was

a few things that they had to deal with here

is that they had to actually have a storyline

that was running alongside the show at the time

that wouldn't reveal anything about the show

but also keep everybody's interest and would

give everybody something to read that you could

fall in love with so it had a lot of the show

in it but it had to come from someplace else

because Obviously, you couldn't use the characters

that were in the show because they're still in

the show on earth. And so that there was a few

little things that were, you know, I think that

it had a little bit of struggle with it from

the get go. The good thing about it is that rage

of the Dinobots. I mean, revenge of the Dinobots.

I mean, joy of the Dinobots. Yes Happened before

this and in which we really liked what they did.

I mean at least I did I really liked I did too

I loved rage. I thought it was great And it introduced

us to a new artist that I hadn't seen for a while

I mean, I don't remember if if Augustin had done

other things in Transformers before that I want

to say that I thought he did in the original

first Comic that they did way way way way back

before the show actually started Though the one

that talked to it that was a RC cliff jumper

kind of story Yeah, the prequel to everything

I mean it was like it was the first thing that

we saw of Transformers Prime at all It's just

so so ironic that I have it right here on my

desk Written by Mike Johnson, front and back

cover artwork by Jose Lopez and Gusto Barranco.

Almost every issue had a different artist. So

there were four issues and they had different

artists on each. Yeah, I see. I'm still not seeing

his name on here. All right. I might have to

go wiki that and say, hey, what did you do, dude?

See that real quick. Yeah, it does list it breaks

down all four chapters, and I'm not seeing Augustine's

name on here at all No, I think I think his first

issue I think rage of the Dinobots was the first

thing that he did because now I'm just looking

at his his wiki page And it says that he's done

rage of the Dinobots one through eight It says

one through four here, but I know it's eight

He also did more than me see I 16 spotlight hoist

and bees hunters. Oh not Rage of the Dinobots

one through four, Beast Hunters one through eight.

That's what it was. So yes, Rage of the Dinobots

was the first thing that he did. But it also

introduced us to Mike Johnson, who we'd never

seen before back in the day. This I mean, it

was basically pulling in all of the things that

we that, you know, Rage started and pulling it

into Beast Hunters. And so we. I mean, I don't

think at first we had any idea what to expect

out of Beast Hunters, and then we got it and

we were getting more of the Dinobots, which was...

I mean, hey! I really liked what they started

in Rage of the Dinobots because it was dark and

gritty. And that all, again, came from Follow

Cybertron, where we were announced that Greg

Berger was going to be the voice of Grimlock.

And we weren't quite sure what to think of that.

And then we got Grimlock, and it was dark and

gritty. And it was like, it was everything I

think all of us kind of hoped that Grimlock would

have been. And here it is on the movie game or

on the movie game, but on the on the on your

Xbox or PlayStation, whichever it was that you

used or even computer if you got the computer

version. I mean, it was just it was good. I really,

really liked Grimlock and that I thought it was

dark and it was it was good. My kids still like

going back and playing him. And I have to say

when I I've really enjoyed playing the Dinobots,

too, because they're they're awesome. They're

awesome in that game. But anyhow, all of that

aside, we get Grimlock and all of the Dinobots

in here, and it's not just Grimlock. Whereas

in the game, Grimlock is pretty much the main

dude. And there's not a lot of character development

for the other ones, but there's character. the

comics they really give a lot of character to

each and every single one of them and they all

have a voice and that of course again was started

in Rage of the Dinobots so yeah that's that's

what I love most about this series from Rage

to this is they each have their own character

and their own personality and they are so different

from everybody else yes yes they are not just

Grimlock copycats They're not just side characters.

And it's just amazing. It really, really is.

You also have Firestar in here, so that was interesting

to throw her in. That was a nice little nod.

I didn't expect that, but we also got teases

on Twitter at the very beginning. when this was

supposed to be coming out, of this character

standing in the background and everybody wondered

who it was because the only picture that we got

that was teased was this shadow saying, I need

to see, I need to talk to Griblock. And I don't

think, I think there's only one person that might've

guessed who it was. And I think Marigrette actually

had like a little contest on her Twitter over

it. And I think finally somebody did find out,

call out who it was, but she couldn't say that

it was the winner until the very end, until it

actually came out. And then there was vindication,

of course, because somebody had bragging rights

to that. But it was really, really awesome that

the teasing of some of the images were just that

really, it was a nice nod to see another female

in the comics. You this was the first the first

place where we saw that so Well, we might have

gotten some information Since then teased at

the beginning of the new year that there might

be more coming from air grid this This next year

so in 2014 Yes And wind blade will be covered

in some way or form inside the bowl bag What

I love about this issue is just how How it's

kind of it's gonna sound weird maybe but it's

Grimlock to me when he's sitting on his throne

he looks lonely and sad and just Everybody just

leave me alone. Go away. Yeah And then Firestar

comes in and is like, we need, we need, uh, you

know, Last Spark needs help. And Grimlock's like,

no help for Last Spark, no help. And then all

of a sudden, rage. Yeah. He is definitely that

character that is, I think, uh, the, I think

it was described as Baratheon from, um, Game

of Thrones. He's just got that. But I think,

to be honest, I think that kind of characterizes

him in a way that he... I don't remember Baratheon

being like that. Basically, it's the reluctant

leader. Grimlock is the reluctant leader. He's

been put in charge of making sure that everybody

that's left, or at least in this city where he's

at, is cared after. And they're in a dying world,

things are falling apart, and it's happening

left and right. And they have put... Grimlock

in charge because I mean, it's in the name Grim.

He is that guy that he's seen a lot. Everything

is Grim. You know, he's the Grim, in a sense,

the Grim Reaper, I guess. But he's leading everybody

and they're looking to him as a leader and that

just kind of puts into perspective how bad things

are on Cybertron. Things are bad, like very,

very bad. There's shortage of energon and people

are coming to him for answers and just after

a day of what do they have like three or four

different people before Firestar comes to him

and he's like by the end of the day he's you

know crunching his own um the the seat that he's

sitting in he's you know His throne is being

butchered by his hands because he's crawling

to get out of it, right? Yeah So we get the rage

and then we get prevailing heads and so they

go to last spark I think isn't it sludge? It's

sludge and snarl. I believe I'll go to last spark

with firestar and When they get there and she

knocks on the door firestar, is that you? No,

it's optimus prime. I had some work done Gotta

get some snarky snarks in there, right? Especially

since they had just called her Sparky I like

the contrast with the art where in in like it

has blues and purples and greens and then it

has reds and yellows and it's it's such great

artwork it really is now as we go further it'll

yeah it does back and forth yeah well and there

are little things even in the first couple issues

that there's a couple of you know perspectives

that are a little wonky there's little things

that you know and and that's i think when we

first saw augustin's work A lot of it was just

like that. I mean, it had such a style to it

that I think it just, it worked, even though,

you know, it's not like Alex Milne's incredible

perspective where he can make it look all that,

you know, architectural awesome. And it doesn't

have to be to pull off as a Transformers art

work. You know, it just has to be able to carry

enough. And I think there's something about Augustine's

work that really just speaks to itself. And it

really lends well to the characters. And he does

a really great job with the characterization

at times. But then there's a couple panels where

it's like, oh, that's an odd angle. So it's evolving.

And I really like that. Most of the time, I really

like seeing a lot of his work because there's

just something very organic about it. And it

works for me. So in last spark they've had a

bunch of dead bodies and no one knows what's

going on so they take a look at the bodies a

murder mystery What a great way to start a show,

right? I mean Oh, yeah You know the story for

me in this first issue really read really fast

Because they assume that the murders were done

by the Insecticons. The Insecticons are the Forged

because those two are kind of still slumming

around. Yeah, still slumming around. Since Rage,

at least, because they had the whole Forged plot

line with them. So we've got that and I love

the way these Dinobots look. If this could have

been translated to animation, it would have been

so good. So good. Yeah. Hasbro needs to get into

what DC is doing with original animated films

and put Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters

into a film. That would be pretty interesting

if they did something like that. Get Mike and

Marigold to help out with that. That would be

pretty sweet. I would be for it because they

have said, and I've had other people say this

in the past, that the Dinobots are the Wreckers

as well. Yeah, they kind of are. Kind of like

Wreckers, you know? It's kind of in the name.

Yeah, you have an obsession. Yes. One of many.

Yes, one of many. And then the end of this we

see the insecticons. Yeah, they find them they

have to go out and find those insecticons those

pesky little bugs to find out if they've been

doing this so Yeah, the first issue was the first

two issues. I think just really really strong

start Yeah, I love I love Sludge's ending line.

Hey snarl. I think you owe me some energy on

Yeah, because they had a little bet going on.

Yeah, but anyone who grew up with G1 or watched

Animated, you guys really need to read these

issues and this story because it gives a hell

of a lot more depth to the Dinobots than G1 ever

did. Well, and it did start like it like we've

said it's it started in rage So they just carry

it over here and it just gets more Development

the one thing I did like about and then we'll

probably talk more about that once we get to

the end of the second issue because the first

two issues were written by Marigold and the second

two were by Mike so Yeah, let's go ahead I'll

get back to that one. When we've gotten to the

end. They alternate. Two stories are done by

Marrior, two stories are done by Mike, and back

and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Alright,

so the second issue... I don't know why I have

a funny story with this one, but I have a funny

story with this one too. I knew a sub cover was

coming. I didn't know what it was gonna be. because

I wasn't like I wasn't up on I wasn't like in

tune with like I didn't go to ComicList .com

every single day to check and make sure what's

coming out when it's supposed to be coming out

or if it's delayed or whatever else so when I

went to my shop and I see a picture of RC I'm

like oh RC and I took it home and I Posted a

picture of it on Twitter and Facebook and I tagged

some way Montana and I'm like, hey look Even

though it has nothing to do with you. She then

went out to her local Shop, I guess I think I

think yeah, she's out in California. She's up

in Hollywood and they They let her buy like a

couple of copies and she I forget which convention

it was for but she signed a copy and All this

other stuff and gave it to them to give away

as a prize or nice I forget what it was I'll

have to see if I can find the image to show you

because she She she posted an image about it

so issue two has three covers again the cover

a is the the assembled Dinobots by Ken Christiansen

Like this they're coming out of the fire. I think

that's really cool Or they're coming out of a

blast cave or something blast behind them with

and they're in a cave and yes, it's it's the

Dinobots Yeah, all five people yeah, we're not

four here we're five five crew here And then

the retail incentive was animation artwork of

bumblebee and his new beast hunters color scheme

Again the same issues that I have with the first

one. Yeah. Well, I'll get even more angry about

the retail incentive covers because Yeah, they're

not exactly They're not exactly being imaginative

No, not at all like and when Ender and I discussed

Rage of the Dinobots or when we just I don't

know might have been on one of the more than

meets the eye episodes We were wondering or there

might have been an off -air discussion. I don't

remember. It wasn't anything personal So we remember,

you know, we we were talking about He you know,

he was saying well, maybe they've done these

maybe they've done these covers in advance Ahead

of a lot of stuff and I'm thinking It's possible.

The first two issues are fine. The regular cover

for the first two issues are fine. They look

good. But if you're doing a retail incentive

generally, at least in my shop, unless it's,

you know, someone, I'm not saying not all comic

artists are super famous, but unless it's someone

super famous, most of the time in my shop, retail

incentives are two bucks more than the regular

issue price. Yeah. So, you know when I can find

them it's not that bad and it's not often that

I get retail incentives all the time It just

depends on if I like the main cover or not But

yeah, I mean as it goes along right now I'm alright.

Okay Bumblebee. It's nice to see his new black

on yellow And all that and as I said with that

story the sub cover is is RC And Michael Lark

did an amazing job. He really did. He did. That's

a really nice look. It really, really is. So

with issue two, we start with a battle. We do.

Because we ended with them finding the insecticons,

basically. Yeah, so the beginning of issue 2

is a battle with these Decepticons or Decepticons,

Insecticons. Hey, if they have a purple logo

on them, they're all Decepticons. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Same thing with the DinoBots. If you get

an Autobot logo on you, you're an Autobot. Even

though the DinoBots are like, no, we're not Autobots,

we're DinoBots. Yeah. So we have the confrontation

with the Insecticons. and was it's it was shrapnel

wasn't it i believe so yes shrapnel and uh...

this is the interesting part because we get a

little bit of a flashback and the way that they

tell it is just ah sludge oh my gosh okay there

was a little discrepancy in in rage of the dino

bots because in the game sludge was not with

them but he was in the game and he had been basically,

he looked dead at this at that point, because

he was in a wall and they took like a voice thing

that was in him in the game, you know, so that

we could find out what happened. And you hear

the like the recording in the game. And that's

where you're it's leading up to this big reveal

of the Dino bots and what's been done to them.

And when Rage of the Dinobots came out, we had

four Dinobots, and where was Sludge? Yes. And

nobody, it was kind of like a little discrepancy

there. We find out where Sludge was. And you

know what? They did a really good job, at least

in my opinion, of fixing that really, really

quick in like, just this issue. One panel? Yeah.

Like one panel saying that he was stuck in one

of Shockwave's tunnels, trapped. And they thought

him dead. Everybody thought him dead. They left

him there for four cycles. I was like, oh my

gosh, that's terrible. Eventually they found

him though. That was the whole point. But the

running dialogue, I mean, you find out at this

point that it's Sludge that's been narrating,

I think, the first two issues. And it's just,

it's got this dark undertone because he still

has feelings about that. And he's like, yeah,

they didn't find me for four cycles. I was the

guy that they left behind and they're not supposed

to leave people behind, right? Well, at least

that's what the wreckers say. No one's left behind,

right? Well, Sledge got left behind. But you

come full circle with it because eventually he

gets to the point where he realizes that that's

just war. That's just how it is. At least I was

found and I'm okay with that. I accept this.

But it's just this little internal conflict that's

going on that they just do so brilliantly in

the first two issues. It's great Yeah, and the

dialogue in this issue is so great between snarl

and sludge and then between I Think it's sludge.

That's interrogating the insect again. Yeah You

know, so I mean the dialogue is so well done

It really is the writing is so good and the art

I mean these first couple of pages the art is

really really cool On the page of the interrogation

that top panel where you see a shadow fight Because

they're you know, it's the it's the background

dimension You know, I really, really like that

and how these stories are progressing. First

of all, I said - Okay, it's not shrapnel, it's

kickback, sorry. Oh, it's kickback. It's kickback,

yeah. I thought, shrapnel? I'm looking for the

word. I'm like, no, no, it's kickback. Okay.

Yeah, that's right. It is kickback. Oh, I know

why I thought it was shrapnel because kickback

has shrapnel speech impediment. Oh, gotcha. Yeah,

I don't like the whole thing of character traits

switching, but eh, whatever. It is what it is,

yeah. Yeah. There's nothing we can do about it

now. Not that we could do anything about it in

the first place. The kickback was the character

that was in the game as well, so it works. It

works. Very cool. I don't know, this art is...

Is really really cool. It really is Some of the

shadows that that Padilla does are really really

interesting Yeah, sometimes it's just about And

this is something that that I really liked in

rage as well as the the fact that the simplicity

of the backgrounds and you know using the shadow

Form to kind of tell the story is sometimes it's

just really really great. I mean it in other

times it did, there's a few instances where it

didn't work so much. But in this, it's just,

it adds this dynamic feel to it and the colors

really make it pop too. So it's just, they did

such a good job. These first two issues, I just,

after reading them again, just in the last 24

hours, I was just like, dang, those were so solid.

They're such a good little, he got this nice

Bite of story that had both internal and external

conflict. It was just fantastic You know and

then we have a mystery monster praying on both

sides since they figured out it wasn't the insecticons

Yep, and I have to go back and check out what's

going on because the biggest detail was is the

fact that that the insecticons when they end

somebody And if they were doing it, if they had

been killing these bots, they would have sucked

them completely dry. And the forged is what they

were looking for. But they found forged bodies,

and then the insecticons show up. And the forged

were not killed by them either. In fact, they

still haven't been bled dry. And so it's not

them. They're like we didn't do it. We didn't

kill these guys either. So They're like, okay,

we've got to go rethink this but you know sludge

still dispatches kickback so Still got that dark

side to him. It's like I'm still gonna take you

out Yeah, but in the process, you know Don't

you you know why that happened though, don't

you that he took him out? Because Marigred hates

Insecticons! She's the Insecticon Queen Killer!

Yeah. I could see it, I could totally see it.

She's like the sixth Dinobot named Wild. Yeah,

exactly. So they return to Last Spark, and they

find out that it's someone in Last Spark that

is doing this. um which is really kind of cool

because earlier in the in the in the in this

issue they say uh what was it they were talking

about how um that they were all eventually going

to turn on each other and break and they were

referring to i thought when you first read it

the dino bots that the dino bots are going to

end up turning on each other in the end and killing

everybody or killing themselves and killing everybody

or whatever um but the nice little twist to that

is We find out who the bad guy is, and it's one

of their own. Yep. It's the leader. Starscream.

Oh, I'm sorry. Airwave. Yeah. The only reason

why I make the Starscream reference is because

that's an Earth jet and Airwave's never been

to Earth. Yeah. It doesn't, for me that, until

I read that somewhere, I think I read it on the

Wiki about errors. And I was like, okay, sure.

Whatever. Seeing airwave have an earth mode jet

doesn't affect my opinion of the story or not.

I mean, you know. It's cosmetic. Yeah. Yeah.

And for, for a bunch of, you know, it's for people

to be able to read it as, because at this point,

I don't, we've seen some. like modes from Cybertron,

because, you know, at the beginning we have like,

you know, Megatron who never took an earth mode

ish at first. Um, I don't remember if he did

actually to tell you, to the truth. I'm trying

to think back. I'm like, you just accepted it

as a flying, you know, jet like Cybertronian

form, right? Uh, I don't think there was a problem

with it. I, you know, it looked dark and because

it's Megatron, he's gonna, you know, it's going

to look like Megatron. It's going to have an

evil. feel to it. It's not gonna look like any

other thing that's that's on earth and we accepted

that because I think you know we've seen the

movie you know where he at first wasn't he looked

very didn't look like an earth vehicle at first

anyhow so I you know I didn't really niggle about

some of I don't really niggle about some of those

things because it's just for it to read as a

flyer because that was kind of the point is that

Kickback mentioned that somebody had seen them

and he took off Yeah, not drove off. He took

off so they kind of get the idea that there's

a flyer among them that is able that was the

guy and Whoever that guy is is able to transform

still because hey, we're still on an energon

shortage and that's when airwave This air is

airwave, right? Yeah, he transforms and, and,

you know, he's basically let the cat out of the

bag. He's the perpetrator and they have to stop

him. And the sad part about it is that he's got

everybody on their side because everybody is

so desperate and they're so scared. They don't

really realize that, Oh, our leader can transform.

Is that a good thing? It's like, you think that

that's a good thing? It's like, well, first of

all, He's your leader and he's been holding out

on you because he can transform. So I don't know

why you didn't go Wait a minute. Why is he transforming?

But then I thought well if they're that afraid

They're gonna be like sheeple and they're going

to you know, believe everything that comes out

of his mouth. So Yeah, yeah for a second there.

I'm very happy that they didn't try to they basically

we basically threw the story figured out that

it was a flyer like as It was this kickback said

that yeah, and I'm glad it wasn't a mystery of

oh when swerve gonna trick rung into transforming

this time Because everybody wants to know what

rungs alt mode is Did we ever find out? I don't

remember sort of It's it's never been determined

what it is. He did finally transform and the

official word is he's an ornament He doesn't

change into anything, so because of that, they

called him an ornament. So wrong. Poor rung.

Poor rung. I think that's... I dread what the

end result of more than meets the eye is going

to be, that he'll be changing into some object

or something that actually is useful in the very

end just before they kill him. What now I'm envisioning

wrong as the more than meets the eye universe

Kenny. Oh my god. They killed Kenny. Yeah We

have more action Take him down. Yeah He puts

up a really good puts up a really cool fight.

I still I don't know what it is. I think it was

Was it More Than Meets the Eye issue five? I

don't know. There was some issue of More Than

Meets the Eye where they paid the homage to the

Marvel Comics Choom sound effect or... Yeah,

it was issue, I think. It was the Schwimmer?

Yeah, I don't remember. It was, it was Choom.

C -H -O -O -M. And it's... Ever since then...

because they homage the Marvel comics. I see

it everywhere, and I hate it. I'm like, seriously,

do you have to throw in this word every single

time? Yep. You're right. I'm just seeing it now

going, oh, there's a lot of choom in here. Choom,

choom. Yeah. And wham. Yeah. But I have to say

that the sound effects for all of the transformations,

totally, they I can hear them every single time

I read them. I'm like, oh, that sounds like this.

Oh, yeah. It's good. Oh, yeah. The onomatopoeia

is really working. Yeah, it is. It is. So the

battle finishes. Firestar asks Sludge if he is

okay. Oh, because she dispatches him while they've

distracted him. She comes up from behind. He

he She was there at the very beginning just before

the fight started and he got the first hit in

and knocked her out of the way. And I almost

looked like he injured her really good. She's

the one that dispatches him. So it just turns

around as a K you guys. All right. Thanks for

finding our bad guy. She's the one that brought

them there. Of course. She's, she's the one that's

been the, the host, the, the welcome committee

and everything. all wrapped up into one that's

her yeah i almost wish this issue would have

ended without the final page i know it's gonna

sound weird but the second to last page is the

bottom panel where we see the throne room and

grimlock it just his question is sludge and sludge

says yeah it's yeah boss it's me i almost wish

it would be like it ended there kind of like

um like This part of the adventures over sludges

back from his mission and that that would be

it and then but we get this final page Yeah,

because disobeying orders said no no help for

last bark and then sludge turned around and helped

them anyhow Yeah, and he challenges his authority.

It says you were wrong. It's like You were wrong

he says it twice it's like I told you not to

help them It was, you disobeyed my order. He's

like, you were wrong. And he says, I know. And

that is an interesting part because it's like,

oh my gosh, Grimlock, you know, you know that

you were wrong and you didn't want to take it

back. And you're giving your dude a hard time

about that. But, but then he drops it. It's like,

you know, they're all dying. I mean, this planet

is dying. This planet is dying. They make it

perfectly clear from the get go. that everything

is dying and it's it's a energon is short people

are ripping each other apart just to get it i

mean the fact that one of their own in lost spark

has has started to try to suck energon from the

dead and then try to do it from his enemies and

then last of all he starts taking it from his

friends that's dark This is a kid's comic, oh

my gosh! No, see, I don't think this is a comic

for kids. It's supposed to be for children, yes.

I have to put that caveat in there, but adult

fans are reading it, and this is dark and gritty,

and it's like, oh my gosh, Margaret, I love you!

It's like, because we're in love at this. Hi,

this is Mergrid Scott, the first female writer

in Transformers Comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. For that, I shall

require a much greater instrument of destruction.

So while Amy is in love with Mergrid, issue two.

I love her writing. I love her writing. Yeah.

Yeah. But she is a wonderful person. I mean,

she really, she's... She's such a fun person

to talk to Because of the whole and this is slightly

off -topic but because of the whole Wind blade

thing coming up. Uh -huh. I am going to have

her back on the show for another interview, but

before that was even announced Her and her husband

team up on people on Twitter Was gonna have the

two of them on is kind of like a husband -and

-wife team -up interview Yeah, I shouldn't really

message her about that because that'll be funny

cuz Jason's they're both just so much fun to

be around they really are Like ideal geek couple,

right? So issue two was a solid, solid ending

to this first. And that's the other thing that

really grabbed me about this, this eight issue

mini series is that they're two arc stories,

two parter stories. So you have issues one and

two. Because then you got like a, you got a problem

that was finished up and wrapped up within two

issues. So it felt like, you know, there's something

going on. I thought that was really smart that

they did that to be honest, because it gave you

little nuggets of story. And you felt like you

got somewhere really quick and you had an instant

payoff. So for me, these first two issues were

so solid. I was like, wow, if this is what it's

going to be every issue, I'm like, this, I hope

that this, this goes really well on it. It'll

be around for a while. And I was really, really

happy. And I thought, okay, you know, we're going

to have a comic after. After the show is over

with you know my my little creative brain was

just going nuts Oh, oh my gosh You can't wait

to see what they're gonna do with all the other

characters when they get all of them back You

know because we knew eventually that it was a

possibility that they'd be coming back to Cybertron

I mean why tell us that everything's dying Only

you know to say and I don't know. This is an

ongoing So if it's dying now, it might not be

in the future And so it was also teasing maybe

what they were gonna do at the end of the show

as well. So we were all going You know, you know

and I feel like such an idiot because issue three

I Get so mad at issue threes cover. I have two

copies of issue three. I have the original sense

the cover a since um my shop didn't get the subscription

cover uh... and i felt so jipped about it because

i thought it was just and i i guess i should

i feel stupid as i should have known better since

they're underground i thought cover three uh...

cover a for issue three was them standing on

a rock in the middle of space i didn't realize

till right now that those are all decepticons

shadow decepticon symbols behind them not stars

nice oh god it's really subtle yeah yeah yeah

so cover a as i just said grimlock slug i hate

that name slag slag it's slag just call him slag

we'll forgive you it's the dino bots come on

surrounded by shadow decepticons by ken christiansen

i like the cover it's okay but it just didn't

It didn't do anything for me like the first two

did, like Grimlock bursting out of the ground

in issue one and then all of them coming out

of the fire blasted cave in issue two. This one

is kind of like, what? I don't know. The retail

incentive was animation art for Beast Hunter's

Optimus Prime with his upgraded body since Smokescreen

was not going to be the next Rodimus, thank god.

Or robust prime, but beefy sounds much better.

It's what my kids call him now. He's beefy prime.

That's great. Prime is what's for dinner. and

then the cover the subscription cover is Soundwave

superior Dino bots inferior sub cover it's like

again done by Michael Lark what's so great about

issues two and three is that they could it could

almost be little bit of if you put them side

by side it could almost be RC versus Soundwave

because they're both white background covers

and you know sure in the upper right hand corner

on Soundwaves issue you have his little wing

there but I mean it it could almost be like they're

they're facing off except instead of looking

at each other they're looking at the reader yeah

like oh somebody just interrupted us while we're

about ready to you know start punching fists,

yeah. Yeah. I think R .C. secretly ships Soundwave.

Yeah, but issue three. This time around, it's

Mike Johnson doing a story with Marigret on backup

for writing in Padilla. and Priscilla doing art

and colors. I don't know. It kind of loses a

little bit of the steam that the first two issues

started. I like the beginning of this, how it's

showing, you know... Earth. Cybertron. Cybertron

and targeting. I like that, but... I don't know.

It just... The promise of shockwave. The teasing

of shockwave. I mean, they've been teasing him

since the end of Rage. Yeah. Well, he did make

an appearance in Rage, didn't he? Yeah. Well,

his clone or whatever the hell it was. That's

true. Yeah. I'm going to have to go back and

look. Look up how many episodes of the show Mike

Johnson did. But Marigold's first story was so

solid, and here I was like, I don't like this

change. I just don't. It's one of those things

where, you know, and I haven't read a lot of

other things, so I don't know how often it happens.

But it's definitely, they are two different kinds

of writers that do two different kinds of styles.

And it's not that, like, they're both completely

valid styles. There's nothing, you know, I wouldn't

say what's better than the other. But when you

start out with a boom, and then you get one that

kind of pulls back a little bit, it does lose

a little bit of steam. And I, Mike is, I've done,

he's done a lot of stuff. At this point, he did

all of the prequel comic, which I really liked.

And it does kind of feel that, at least when

you have his issues, you can see that it's just

a little bit different. And that difference just

seems to make a huge difference in the story.

Not that that's a bad thing. I mean, you couldn't

expect that every issue, every two issue arc

was going to be a Bazinga, like the first two

were. So it's, it's definitely a different flavor.

But I got to the end of this, this, this two

parter right here. I thought, well, it's, it's,

it definitely is playing off of some of the elements

that were put into the show at the time. So I

guess I couldn't fault it for that because it

really was, but it kind of, it also gave a little

bit more of a promise that the show was going

to have an effect on this comic. And so, you

know, We're wondering how that was going to continue

to play out, so. Even though I was a little jarred

with the writing style change, I love this issue

simply because it's Grimlock and Swoop. Yep.

Grimlock, I've said it before, Grimlock, Swoop,

and Snarl are my three favorite DinoBots. I like

Slag and Sludge, I just don't like them as much.

I have to say, after reading this, I love Mergrid's

version of Slag. Yes, he is nice. He's just you

know that brr Grumpy guy that grumpy guy that

just you know, you know, it's basically a Dinobot

version of cup Yeah, I guess you could see that.

Yeah, but he's also the contender. I'd say oh

Grimlock and him would be contenders Which makes

sense because hey a triceratops and a you know

t -rex how often as a kid have you ever seen

Those, you know, those two always are at, you

know, they're always contenders. You see the

triceratops against the T -Rex. It's kind of

turned into a thing. As far back as I can remember,

whenever I see a T -Rex, he's always facing off

a trike. So, and, you know, bless the awesome

that is Jurassic Park and seeing a real live

trike. Even though it wasn't real. Yeah, yeah,

thank you You're not just stuck on the land before

time films. That's good. No, no, no, it's not

land before no Sarah and her drama I'm talking

about the awesome. I know Jurassic Park What

I will say about Padilla's art and the colors

is on the on the page where Where they have to

either go through or go around a rock slide?

Swoop is saying just transform you can cut through

this in a heartbeat. Yeah, I love the shading

I love the shadow of of him and Grimlock and

just the blue and the red of their visors and

the Grimlock says no need to transform only need

to and most dangerous said so Grimlock doesn't

want to transform He does not, and this is something

again was established in rage where he loses

control. So basically the first issue starts

out is that they're there. What was I remember?

Why were they? Why were they in here? They were

on patrol. They were on patrol. Yeah. And, um,

they run into some of the forged and they have

a little, you know, but not a little, they, they

basically run into the forge, have a fight that

swoop starts and. Brimlock finishes and swoop

gets his butt knocked out of the sky and Gerlach

says, you learned your lesson. And then they,

you know, clear away this, this debris that was

there that they, you know, that the forge seemed

to be there for whatever reason, kind of either

guarding or they were mumbling something about

what they were doing there. And so they, they

clear it away. And that's where we get this,

you know, conversation of, you know, swoops and

Hey, you could clear this out in a minute. Just

transform. He's like, no, I could do that. Um,

so they get to the end and they find that it

there, that the, out of the debris is out of

the way, that there's some sort of, there's doors

and there's something being protected and they

go in and swoop is kind of, are you sure you

really want to do that? Shouldn't we get the

rest of the, uh, Dinobots before we go in? I

thought that it was great. So. Yeah, that was

awesome. And then we cut back to Sludge and Firestar

and Zoom. Oh my god. The wheelie wannabe. I'm

not sure which is worse, Amy. Zoom or Wheelie?

I really don't know! Ah, Wheelie. Zoom has a

shorter shelf life. Thank god for that. As soon

as I saw this character, I'm like... Somebody

please bite his head off like now, please do

it now now, please do it now Idealistic peppy

little guys. Oh, please. I want to come and help

I want to be help I want to do something I'm

gonna have an adventure is like, you know what?

He's the young immature little guy. That's just

you know, he's so cliche He's so throwaway, but

he he's got this innocent look on his face and

you're like zoom You know, he could have been

called Bob. He could have been called George.

He could have been called anything. It's just

the cliche character that's like, I want to help.

You know, the guy that's green around the ears

that thinks he wants to get involved is going

to bite off more than he can chew. And you know,

it's going to end badly. This was that guy. Yeah.

And Sludge puts it perfectly when he says, let

me make myself clear. You're not ready for it.

He's like, dude, kid. You're not ready for it.

The adventure is right here helping your fellow

bots, okay? You shouldn't be thinking any higher

than that. You're not even built for it. The

only thing that seems to zoom is your mouth,

okay? Oh. Yeah. Thankfully zoom did not rhyme

at all. Yeah. Yes, that would have really put

it over the top. Yeah. Hey, it's Wheely's cousin.

There's nothing dark about Zoom. He's just a

nice, innocent bot that does not know what he's

getting into or what he really wants because,

you know, unfortunately he got stuck on Cybertron.

That was his error. The biggest error of his

ways is he got stuck on a dying planet pretty

much. So what do you think of this? Two page

scene changes because we've had like two pages

where it's them looking for the lab We've had

two pages with zoom Firestar and sludge and now

we go back to the lab. What do you think of the

constant scene changes? Um, there's really not

a lot that makes me like it's When Grimlock and

swoop get into the lab and they're looking around

and they're finding some strange organic material

and things are going on I was like, okay, there's

a little bit of question. They're gonna pay What

are they gonna find and then they switch back

to that? Half the storyline and I almost kind

of feel like oh it's kind of like picking up

where Margaret left them and filling in the blanks

a little bit, but you know, I wasn't I Thought

that that had kind of ended I to find them back

at last spark I was kind of like, oh, they are

staying there. I thought they were gonna leave.

I mean, it just felt like that had wrapped up.

So the fact that there's more going on there,

it just seemed a little, oh, okay. I just didn't

get it. I thought, okay. But then eventually

you get to the end and you realize why. They

had to be in a place where they could possibly

meet up with the rest of them and have a. you

know little reunion for what they start in this

issue and end in the next so I guess if you look

at it that way it made sense but it did kind

of it it felt slow because of that because you

really didn't see much of a conflict going on

at all at last spark they'd finished that conflict

already so the fact that they're still there

seemed like oh uh I guess they just because airway

airway isn't there they'd let them stay what

I don't get is they went back Because they did

go back. Yeah, that's the thing I don't get.

Why did they go back? If the danger is gone,

unless they're trying to repair the relationships

between the Dinobots and the civilians of Last

Spark, unless they're trying to do that, why

would they go back in the first place? Unless

it's just to introduce this dumbass kid. It could

have been. I don't know, because I think that

they kind of repaired a little bit of that, you

know, Was saving the city the city why like,

you know getting airwave Stopping the bad guy

basically that you know, they were not wanted

Well, I mean the the population there actually

was like they were just afraid they really didn't

it's you know Firestar was the person that was

kind of like their you know ambassador But and

then they had one guy that came up and gave them

energon because, you know, they were doing this

for them. But, you know, I think that they were

just still so afraid they weren't sure what to

do. And Firestar was the go getter that said,

OK, we'll be proactive about this. I'm going

to get the Dinobots and we're going to get this

handled. And they did. And so I think the relationship

there has actually been resolved. I mean, it

felt very resolved in the second part. So to

see this in the third, it just kind of felt like,

OK. please tell me there's going to actually

be something more than just them being there

for just to be there to meet this guy Zoom, who

doesn't really seem like he's got much to offer.

I mean, they they don't want him to help them.

So you automatically think, oh, great, this guy's

going to get in the middle of something because

they are introducing him for a reason, aren't

they? Not just because he's there. Well, they're

introducing him so they can have cannon fodder

later. Here's this nice innocent guy, now we're

gonna kill him! Speaking of killing, this issue

takes a monster mash type of turn. Because we

go back to the lab and they find this giant organic

-looking Grimlock. Yeah, well they have them

all they have they find the tubes now I don't

remember at the at this point if they had if

we'd gotten that episode in Transformers Prime

where the Predicons were being grown in test

tubes and I don't remember when that was. I didn't

look it up to see when it was that that episode

came out. I just know that we said that it was

yellow and it looked like there were pee in those

tubes. It's CNA. It looks like pee. I'm sorry.

They got a sewer problem here and it's still

on Cybertron. It's more greenish. All the way

across the galaxy. worst plumbing job ever I

guess that's what happens when society breaks

down the sewers come out but this one it looks

more green so it's it's not nearly as P looking

but you know Instead of P looking. And then there's

Pussy. Now we're really dragging it through the

mud here. Yeah. Okay. So before we gross everybody

out and they start puking, uh, yeah, the, the,

while they're investigating something comes out

of the test tube and it turns out to be a more

organic looking T -Rex. Roar. Yeah, I don't know

if it's a I can't figure out if it's an if it's

if they're trying to homage beast machines organics

or or what they're trying to do here or if they're

just saying hey before shockwave kind of perfected

his thing with getting mechanical dinosaurs this

is what his experiments were the first times

around see now i looked at it said you know what

it's a t -rex against a robotic t -rex boom in

your face we're going organic against robotic

That's all I saw it as, is like, all right, who

would win in a fight? Who would win in a fight?

Grimlock or a real dinosaur, right? It made me

laugh. It really made me laugh. I thought, oh,

that's funny. And yeah, I mean, that's, that's

pretty much the rest of the issue. It's all,

uh, it's all robotic versus organic. And then,

uh, Swoop is like, uh -oh. We see all these cracks

coming out of another test tube. Yep. More of

them start coming out of the woodwork or test

tubes. And then we get a whole, like there's

basically the Dinobots meet their version of

them as organics. And the dialogue pretty much

goes at this point to pretty much say that, that

these, they were us. they were us they these

in fact these could be the experiment before

we were made yeah and i thought oh that's that's

twisted it's really twisted and issue three ends

with uh uh graham we've got company and swoops

doppelganger pops out yeah yeah um overall i

liked issue three uh the art was really cool

in places and some places i was like um what

yeah once i got used to mike's writing even though

i was kind of used to it in rage but i had read

rage way before i read this so it had been a

while since i read his style once i got used

to it i kind of really grew to like it um and

we get to uh issue four where uh Cover a is really

a lie. It really really like it really is because

if you think about it That was like I wanted

to say it was episode or issue one But I was

like no because Grimlock wasn't in that episode

or issue. I keep on doing that It's it's it's

one of those things. It's kind of odd because

it's like, okay, it didn't really actually happen

in the comic which I guess if you wanted to look

at it figuratively, Grimlock embodies what the

Dinobots kind of are, which is kind of scary

because he's teetering on the edge of insanity

at times. But, you know, I guess it's just the

Dinobots prevail over Insecticons. And you kind

of look at it, you know, if you look at it figuratively,

it kind of pulls off. What I don't like about

it is the fact that there's no, there's no background

to it. It's just... triumphant Dinobot over dead

insecticons, and they're like on a glowing ground,

like they could be in the ethereal, you know.

That's why I said maybe it's more figurative

than literal. But the problem is, as a reader,

As a comic book shopper, if you're going into

your comic shop and you pick this issue up and

you look at it and you see Grimlock standing

over a dead insecticon, you're thinking, okay,

sure, there's going to be insecticons in this

issue or there's going to be a battle in this

issue. The cover is a lie, Amy. Yes, it is. If

you look at it from that point of view, yes.

Ender pointed this out to me. Are the covers

chosen before the whole story? That's what I

kind of wonder about. Probably, to be honest.

Because I know that, at least on the main ongoings,

they are putting out those covers well in advance

before sometimes they even have a script. So

that's my guess, is that they probably were done

way in advance. That might be the reason why

is because they didn't have a script to go off

of and he's just putting stuff together and you

know Ken's doing the best he can it seems like

the first couple ones are really solid and then

yeah, it's like How many different versions of

the Dino bots? Can you do? The retail incentive

is again more animation artwork this time of

Optimus Prime and Predator King in battle. It's

a wrap -around cover Again, it's it's nice, but

it's nice, but I don't like I'd rather see an

art version I mean I saw the animation on the

the show and so this clearly at this point I

think everybody's realizing that It's it's has

ties to the show, but it isn't the show And so

I think that I started wanting to actually really

see, give it to another artist and have them

do like a scene or something from the comic that

we've already seen already. That would have been

interesting. And then it would have given us

a chance to see other artists do their rendition

of Transformers Prime. And sometimes that's where

people start in Transformers. We get more artists

because... They give it to other people to try

out. And we see them on covers for a little while.

I mean, that's how Livio started. He did a couple

of covers before we actually saw him do any in

comic work. And I actually liked a lot of those

covers. I went and bought those prints. I think

it was Megatron and Optimus Prime. They did the

best of. They had a little trade that came out.

They had like different stories of those characters

over the years, previous to what IDW was doing

or actual IDW work that had done in the past.

And he did a cover for one of those. And I picked

up the best of Optimus Prime. And I think there

was also best of Megatron. There was a whole

bunch of them, but I think he did those too.

And yeah, give it to an artist that we haven't

seen and, you know, try it out. the sub cover

is Megatron and it is so it's done by Michael

Lark it is so badass the texturing around Megatron

Eyelid and I don't I I mean his under eyelid

like at the bottom Like if you go to rub your

eye like under your eyelash, I would want to

rub my eye if my eye looks like that No, I know

I'm saying like like that like under eyelid like

that area at the bottom like right where the

cheekbone is a little bit it's The shading on

it is is just amazing and it looks it looks so

good It really does. That's Megatron right there,

it's just so Megatron. Oh yeah, very much, very

much Megatron. Profile of Megatron, there you

go, right there. Oh yeah, it's so cool too, it

really is. So this is the conclusion to the story

we got in issue three. And we have Zoom on the

first page. Isn't he dead yet? We were calling

for his death already. He's just an innocent.

He's just an innocent. He's an innocent who gets

in the way. Isn't that what they always do though?

The innocents are always getting in the way.

Goodness. But no, the first page is... He's doomed.

yeah zoom is doomed who's doomed genius just

genius right there um and as we find out it ain't

all fun and games because we still have the battle

going on between uh robo t -rex and organic t

-rex yes this will not be decided in an issue

oh this this splash this splash page is awesome

Yeah, especially since you've got you know one

half robotic the other half organic. I mean it

screams This is the battle that we are going

to see the smackdown some and again, I love the

splattering effect that they did they they didn't

rage the Dinobots too, and it's just Gorgeous

Yeah, this is yeah, this is really a monster

mashup This issue. I mean, they're they're really

I mean sure there's a little bit of writing here

to talk about from Mike but most of it is the

first after that page with doom zoom is Most

of the next two and a half pages are all action.

Yeah, it's them. It's it's Dinobot versus Dino

sore and you know, I have to say though They

they are you can tell it at some point at the

very you know, cuz their eyes are glowing So,

you know and they say that they're leaking energon

There's some sort of version of it. And so there

is a biological option to them. They look biologic,

but you can tell that there's something a little

bit more sinister behind that because their eyes

are glowing. They are bleeding energon. They

are an experiment. They're absolutely an experiment.

And that's what ultimately does them in. We don't

really actually see them win. It's like, oh,

darn it. Where's the smackdown? I mean, it's

there but it's like, oh you promised that we'd

find out who would win What's the final word

on that? Well, yeah the final word on that is

the fact that the because they're experiments

they can't really survive outside of the vials

for very long and Ultimately, that just doesn't

mean They they pull a You know when the aliens

it was it was Brain is not working right now,

I can't think of it. The aliens that come from

outer space that they had the... It's an old

movie, I can't think of the name. Darn it. War

of the Worlds. They pull a War of the Worlds

where they couldn't survive in the Earth's atmosphere.

They can't survive in Cybertron's atmosphere.

As much as I love Swoop in this series and I

love his robot design, I really do wish his Pterodon

design was blue, not red. It was just a little

thing. So yeah, they come to their own demise

and... Well, we don't see what happens at first

to the Swoop version. yeah eventually they turn

into they start glowing really bright pink and

turn into goo but before that zoom gets attacked

by the trike it's like he's doomed he's gonna

die right here i think everybody was hoping for

it to be honest Kill him! Eat him! Eat him! Eat

him! And until you do, you'll be stuck here in

Last Spark with no chance of going on an... adventure?

It's like Doopey's famous last words. Prank.

Hip hip hooray! Dinosaur! One point! Zoom! Zero!

The zero. He's never going to be a hero. And

that's the reason oh go ahead Can you imagine

if I know this wouldn't happen? But can you imagine

if instead of kickback and I know they put kickback

in here not in this issue but in the series for

because of the game but you imagine if it was

bombshell and it was and it was bombshell that

planted a Cerebro shell on on a slag and slag

killed zoom Yeah, I'm going crossover You're

making it darker even darker one of the Dinobots

the people they're supposed to be helping everyone

kill innocent I think I get a screen image or

I might have gotten from a digital copy of this

the page where The slags like all right ugly

you want to lock horns. Let's lock horns. I love

that page That's good, and that's so slag or

slag Yeah, slag is just in your face. Do not

challenge me. I will bite back Yeah harder Bite

back harder than you initially bit me It's like

yeah, and that's here again. It's like chink

chink chink Yeah, I could totally hear that it's

like I love you slag. I love you Yeah, so we

get the explosion and then we get the the giant

puddle of energon goo looking Stuff it looks

like the reason why they were last spark basically

because the dinosaur the dinosaurs They they

come out in they they Make their debut out of

the caves and to last spark which is in fact

under a is in also in a cave It's just like they

come from another cavern into this cavern They

attack zoom which should be an indication to

how much he should be running away as soon as

possible and then that's where the rest of the

Dinobots meet up and we have this everybody you

know meet your doppelganger and we're gonna have

smackdown and to find out who's better and in

fact I think one of them even say hey let's switch

it up and the other says no I want to take down

myself yeah it was kind of cute blush And then

they glow and turn into a puddle of goo. Yeah

Well, that was short -lived I want my rematch

That's what I would have been one of the one

of the dynamite should have said that dang it.

I want my rematch I'm going to sue Vincent Kennedy

McMahon for no rematch So Grumlock shows up and

they're like, okay back to we're back together

again, and then they go back down to the to the

Lab that they found a man and they have a little

history lesson. Well, this is where Because shockwave

scan them from this planet long way from here

and we see earth again, I I hate Mike and Marigold

for teasing teasing teasing teasing earth always

teasing and it's like And when we get to episode

59 of the show, when we talk about issues five

to eight, the final four issues of the series,

it's like, when we get to issue seven, I'm like,

okay, I know it's coming. I know it's coming.

I know it. Where is it? Where is it? Why isn't

it happening? Oh, damn. Dun, dun, dun. Yeah.

Yeah. So the hunt goes on. Yeah. I know they're

trying to tease us here, but it says at the very

bottom the end for now. Yeah, it's they made

it sound like the series was going to take a

break. I don't know if I like that. I know. I

knew it was an ongoing. I thought the end for

now. I thought the end as in we're not going

to tell you more about this for now. OK, that's

what I looked at it as. But then I yeah, the

word choice was very weird, very odd, very it

had. It had this, this air of, you know, we're

going to try and tell you something, but we're

not right now. But it also had this, this, this

flip thing. Cause now that you go back and look

at it, since the ultimately, yes. Spoilers, beast

hunters ends up ending. In fact, we got our last

issue in December. It made you wonder, you know,

is that kind of. self -prophesy there, the end

for now. I don't know. Any other final thoughts

on issue four? I don't. It's one of those things

where it was pretty straightforward. It did what

it did. It had ties to the game and ties to the

show. Because that's what they had teased in

the show as well about you know shockwave and

the big you know lab experiments and stuff like

that and it was what it was it played its part

and I looked at it for basically what it was

it was basically being that homage tying in to

What we expected to see throughout the series

is that there's be times where they're gonna

tie it in and I was all right with that I thought

okay All right. I mean, I got to the end of this

and it had the payoff was much different than

Margrids, but it was a payoff to an extent. And

it made me think, okay, here we got this really

vibrant bazinga in your face, two issues. Then

we got three and four had It kind of balanced

it a little bit. And I thought, okay, if that's

what we expect, if we're going to get two parts,

every two issues is going to have, you know,

this resolution or whatever, and they're going

to move on to the next thing. I thought, okay,

we're going to get a different flavor from each

one of them. This might be really interesting.

It has potential to have some interesting takes

to it. And so at that point, I thought, okay,

now where are we going from here? I was ready

for the next two. to see where we're going to

go so yeah i i was i was so ready and i was kind

of like when i read issue four i'm like the end

for now you mean that's it what is going on here

even though i knew issue five was coming the

next month yeah uh you know it's still just um

and this and the funny thing is is the Normally,

I'm always up to date on my trade on my trade

releases And I remember the announcement of this

trade coming out with the first four in it. I

Still have yet to pick it up. I completely missed

the fact that it even came out until you had

said something about it I'm like, oh my god,

it's already out. Damn. I don't have the trade

yet but this is one thing where I'll buy the

trade anyway because Whether the trade has the

subscription covers in it or not I actually what

I might end up doing is if I can Wrangle it I

might end up sending issue one to Steve Bloom

and issue two Somebody wants to see if I'll sign

them When I interviewed somebody Montana, I asked

her I said hey would you would you you know if

I mailed this to you? Would you sign it for me?

She said sure so That would be awesome Alright,

so Beast Hunters, the first four issues, I really

dug the stories. It took me a little while to

get used to Mike's writing over Marigolds, but

after a while I came around. I like the action

in them. Oh yeah, they're very action -packed.

When you think of the Dinobots, you don't think

of, you know, characters. You don't think of

the Dinobots like... Spike and Daniel arguing

over an energon cube or a hot rod and cup arguing

over Why do you always tell all these old stories?

And why can't you grow up a little fat? You know

it's not that at all sure the Characterization

of the Dinobots here is amazing and I love that

they actually each have their own individual

characters like I said but It's a combination

of storytelling and action that makes these first

four issues so good. Oh yeah. I'd say this, this

is a really, really solid, they, they did a really

good job introducing us to what they were doing

at this point. We got, you know, bits from Mike

and we got bits from Margaret. So, um, going

back and reading it now, cause this is almost

about a year old at this. Well, no, it'll be

a year old in a couple of months. Yeah. It it's.

Look back at it and I go. Oh, I really liked

this No, you know, and I think the only reason

why it ended is because the sales on it were

just not that great Eventually, I think of the

sales just kind of took it took it down. So I

do hope that we get to see more of, I mean, we

are going to see more of Marigold. I don't know

about Mike. Maybe he'll be back eventually, or

maybe he's moved on to other things. I don't

know. Oh, he's, I think he's working on the Star

Trek series for RDW because I know his name was

attached to the con five issue mini series. I

think I'm just going off of memory here. I don't.

Oh, that's good though, because like, I like

his style. It's definitely not, um, Marigold

style and that's that's fine because everybody

has a different way of doing things. But yeah,

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing anything from

either one of them. The right story comes along.

But we already know that Marigold is going to

be working on a series after Dark Cybertron ends.

And I think it's still up in the air as to whether

or not it will be an ongoing or not. So I want

to see more of what she has to say. She's got

this dark gritty. And I didn't comment at the

end of issue two of hers, but basically I like

the fact that you've got internal and external

conflict and you're getting resolution even in

of both the internal external in the comic. It's

just the complication of it. But yet she waves

it so well that it makes it work so beautifully

on the page that it's just. That's why I liked

the first two issues is because we had both external

and internal conflict now Mike's conflict was

a little bit different It didn't have the same

internal and external, but it doesn't always

have to be like that for you to enjoy a comic

It's always good to have a you know an issue

that kind of pull back a little bit more fun

and have a little bit more interest It played

its part in you know bringing in bits of of what

has come before and what was going on elsewhere

at the time. So it works. Um, but yeah, I really

have to say those first two issues were really,

really strong. I really, really loved them. And

it, it's, you know, it's more of Rage of the

Dinobots, but it's, but it's also, I'm really

falling in love with Marigold's writing at this

point. And I can't wait to read more of it. So.

Yes, yeah, no, I I think I said in one of my

written reviews Marigold Scott and Gail Simone

are my top two favorite female writers nice right

now I'm serious because of Rage of the Dinobots

Because of what Marigold did in prime because

if you look at what she did in the show With

a character that not a lot of people Really enjoyed

it first you know Looking at that and looking

at what she didn't rage and looking at what she

did here and looking forward to wind blade I

mean, I'm stoked to see what else she does It'll

be interesting, especially since okay. This is

her second comic series at this point. And so

for Basically, this is their first year writing

in comics and she's doing a bang -up job. It's

great. So Absolutely awesome more that she's

gonna give us so yeah Yep. Alright, so where

can the people interact with you online if they

would like to do so, and where can they find

the underbase? Well, I Twitter a lot, but I...

That's an understatement of the year. I tweet,

I tweet, I tweet. Oh, I've got lots of tweets.

So, uh, but yeah, you can find me on Twitter

at lady of rec and you can find the under base

at the under base dot Libson .com. And of course,

if you can't find it, we're also on Twitter as

well. Um, the under base it's at the under base.

And I, again, like I said, if you can find me

on Twitter, I tweet stuff about the under base.

So. If you can't find Libsyn or whatever, you

can always catch it at least once a week. I'll

put some sort of link to the show in the show

wasn't me on the show, which I just, I kind of

took a step back and let somebody else do it

because I can't do all the podcasts. She's lying,

ladies and gentlemen. She secretly runs it all.

I do secretly, but I'm not always on all the

podcasts. So I've turned over to just doing a

lot of the editing duties and making sure everything

gets up and doing all the promoting and all of

that stuff. But yeah, that's that you can find

me there. So all right. Coming up next inside

the poll bag in Episode 54, Steve Megatron and

I are going to go back to To the mystery machine

adventures and we're going to be covering scooby

-doo team up number one which takes place directly

or somehow it takes place after The caped Crusader

caper from the new scooby -doo movies where Batman

and scooby -doo team up against the Joker and

penguin That's gonna be an interesting record

so we will catch you back here with Beast Hunters

5 through 8 in episode 59. Until then, make your

great escape into comics, and we will catch you

next time. Oh, we didn't give a rating. Rating?

Yeah. That's all right, I guess. I was gonna

say, if we were gonna give it a rating, I would

probably give it a 4, just because I really liked

the beginning. It's pretty fantastic. Oh, for

all four itches? Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool I mean

because I really enjoyed those first two issues

Yeah, yeah for rating for me. I don't know I'd

probably give it a And for all four issues Yeah,

I'd probably give it a four now that I think

about it I mean there wasn't I know later when

we get to five through eight. There's a lot of

art change -ups. That is just like Oh my god,

what is he on? It's like one issue, Augustin

is great. The next issue, he looks like his five

-year -old's drawing it. The next issue, he's

great. Next issue. I wonder if it's just he's

got other jobs on the side, but I mean, I'm sure

he does, but I think it's just doing it ongoing

is a lot of work. You just heard the latest episode

of The Pull Bag. GCRN's comic book review podcast.

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