Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Issues #5-8 Review

Me Grimlock not podcaster, me Grimlock King.

Welcome to The Pole Bag. 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 Pole Bag. Autobots! Me Grimlock not

afraid of Decepticons! Let's get this show on

the road. Get this shindig going. Hello and welcome

to episode 58 of The Pole Bag. Yes, this is episode

58, not episode 59. Curse you DC for your strange

release dates. Originally episode 58 was going

to be Bat Books, but we had to flip -flop with

Cybertron and the Beast Hunters. I am your host,

TFJ and Mike, and joining me is Lady Rack. Hello.

Hello. It's good to be back. Back again to talk

about the end of beast hunters and already I

tell you I feel jipped from IDW that there were

not four more subscription covers damn it Because

I usually don't say a lot of negative things

about IDW because they're one of the more enjoyable

comic companies for me and Gotta say they really

foamed it in with the retail incentives for all

four of these issues It's almost like they knew

that they weren't gonna keep going Just makes

me so mad Alright, so last time in episode 53

we talked about the first four issues of Beast

Hunters where They where were they by issue for

it just had the Dunno bots meet the dinosaurs.

Okay. Yeah. It was the, it was the monster mash

episode or issue. That's right. That's right.

Um, it's true. True. Yeah. Um, we had gotten

a mystery and then we had gotten two issues of

a mystery, which they solved in two issues. And

then we had a monster mash up in the other two

issues. So yeah. So it's um, it's down to the

home stretch We are All right. What's up since

since last time what has been going on with you?

Miss Rick, what have you been up to? in your

Transformers fandom around the internet. Oh,

well, I went to a comic convention called amazing

Arizona Comic Con and Saw Livio Ramadeli and

Chatted with him for a bit And then I've just

been running things on the under base. So we've

kind of scaled back to just covering the ongoing

issues, just because I need a break. And if I

take a break, the under base ends. So it's like,

I'm the editor. I'm the person doing stuff. So

like, OK, we're going to take a break. And everybody

that quite a few of our reviewers have needed

to take breaks, too. So it's just kind of life

is just hitting everybody. It's not necessarily

the fandom. It's just life is happening, you

know. Well, well, the comics, I mean, that's

at this at this point in time, you know, January,

February, March 2014, we have no cartoon, no

cartoon. Yeah, we have new movie toys coming

out. But yeah. Well, we just just had at least

at the time of this recording, we just had the

Transformers for Age of Extinction Super Bowl

trailer teased. So I don't know if you didn't

watch it. I don't even know I just I have no

idea what to expect out of this. I'm very glad

That's that's all I expect is a popcorn movie

Yeah at this point you kind of have to but like

with Dark of the Moon I I felt, and I don't know

if this is true or not, I felt that more so than

the other two movies, Michael Bay kind of maybe

listened to the fans, because I kind of saw certain

elements from Transformers lore in Dark of the

Moon. At least with this fourth one, they got

rid of that crappy kid actor and his parents.

but yeah they were fun for a little while but

you know they are starting to outlive their welcome

yeah the age of extinction trailer uh i think

probably what most people got out of it was optimus

prime is riding grimlock what the Yes, yes, and

a lot of people are really liking that and I'm

like going okay guys be careful what you wish

for It's not that it's not the kind of Grimlock

that you have ever seen before though, so it's

going That's what the movies have done. I mean

yeah, everyone can say oh Give me your face.

That's not Optimus Prime. That's not John Wayne.

That's not this That's not a blink in G1 Optimus.

Well, of course, it's supposed to be Yeah, and

yet Peter Cullen will say that because he's trying

to be the company man, he will say, oh, his characterization

hasn't changed in 30 years. Bless his heart.

Yeah, I love Peter Cullen. He's amazing. Uh,

you know the only like I have zero expectations

going in the age of extinction We know it's it's

gonna have some of the same characters from the

previous three But we don't know what the plot

is or at least I I haven't been keeping up with

that I don't care to keep up with the news I

just want to see the damn movie. Yeah, the only

thing that I'm really hoping for with that Greg

Berger has got to be the voice of Grimlock. It's

the only thing I'm hoping for. You and quite

a few other people. So yeah, I think in the fact

that how I think what really works in his favor

is that he did the voice of Grimlock in the Fall

of Cybertron game. And there were people that

were reserved about that. They thought it could

be. And even when I went to High Moon and I talked

with them, because I got to preview the game,

even one of the guys, there was one of the guys

on the team that was kind of like, he's really

hesitant about that. He kind of played the bad

guy as like, I don't think it'd be a good idea.

He was the moaner. And I told him, I said, you

know what, actually, I think that was a very

wise thing because you never know. You really

didn't know. The character that they were trying

to put in the game was more gritty, dark. He'd

had some terrible things happen to him. And Greg,

amazing actor, voice actor that he is. He's always

played kind of more cheerful and kind of upbeat.

Grimlock was who he was. But, you know, in season

four, season three and season four, he kind of

played the comic relief. So, you know, it was

good to be optimistic, but cautious about that.

But after after we heard him in the game, it

was like, wow, it's just he nailed it in such

a way that was just was good. And I think it's

it's it's. It's breathed new life into that character.

I mean, this is the reason why we have Grimlock

in the comic that we're reviewing today. Yeah,

exactly. This is, you know, the Fall of Cybertron

game is exactly why we have Grimlock and that

origin here in Transformers Prime Beast Hunters.

And, you know, you say this about Greg and how

he transitioned very well from the comedic type

of happy -go -lucky Grimlock. Yeah. And Grimlock,

early G1, he was... He was a little dark, because

he was a little pissed. He was like, me Grimlock,

no care what Optimus Prime say. You know, I mean,

they were, the Dinobots were very rough around

the edges, season one, season two. But when they

put it into the comic relief category, it was

just kind of like, you took away a little bit

of his bite. Yeah. So, I mean, he was still that

character, but. It's kind of like, and I know

we're way off track here, but it's like for me

with Grimlock, with Greg doing comic relief and

then doing it serious in the game, because I've

seen playthroughs of the game. I haven't played

it yet. I don't have a system to play it on.

I don't have the money to put it on my PC. Grimlock's

section is just visceral. And I'm not kidding.

It's visceral, the way that his character acts.

Right, you say this about Greg of how he was

able to change and adapt and make the voice even

better. That's the same thing that happened with

Dan Gilvazan with Spider -Man because he was

Spider -Man and his amazing friends and then

he came back and did Spidey 2099 and it was a

completely darker... no comic relief voice whatsoever,

so it was absolutely awesome. Alright, well,

you're gonna hear a couple of famous G1 Grimlock

lines after this, and we'll come back with issues

5 through 8 of Beast Hunters. Well, thank you,

Grimlock, for laughing. Us that season three

laugh when he and Ronimus are on that that ledge

is just creepy as all hell So we are back and

it is time beast hunters issue five The cover

is Grimlock holding up the world or holding up

something Yes, the ceiling something is falling

down and Grimlock is being awesome. He's holding

it up. Yes the Retail incentive cover is a purple

background with Predaking on it animation art.

Yay I'm sorry They we will talk about this for

each issue of these last four but They completely

dropped the ball. I would have rather had four

sub covers with other characters or You can only

do the four out of the five DinoBots. If you

had four covers for the DinoBot profiles outside

of this static shot of Grimlock, but where we

had the Megatron profile, like a headshot basically,

that would have been cool if they did that. But

these retail, I'm so glad I didn't get any of

these retail incentives. Yeah, they kind of did

drop the ball a little bit with the retail incentive

covers. They made them really easy and all that,

but eh. So issue five we have The story so far

the Autobots and Decepticons Abandoned their

homeworld the cybertron long ago take their war

to the stars After the shocking fight with shockwaves

latest creations the Dinobots get a brief respite

from any major Catastrophe little do they know

their entire world is about to change Oh boy,

so we start off with a really really cool Cybertron

sunshot. Yeah, that was really good. I really

liked that one. It's a new day! But we're back

in some familiar places. Yeah, we're back in

new Calus or Calis or however you say it. Yeah,

Calus. And of course, they can't thank Grimlock

enough. Yay. I like the art here for the most

part. I like the narration. I think it's by Snarl.

Yes, I believe so. Yeah. The narration. I believe

it is, yeah. What's Cobra Commander doing on

Cybertron? I don't know. You see where I'm done.

Yes. I know I absolutely The second page the

second panel there's a robot that is all blue

with this with a screw in his arm and I'm His

whole head is blue except for the silver faceplate

as soon as I'm like, oh, yeah Cobra come in and

the next page that even show him from the front

and he's got a red Like little arrow pointing

down It's wow, I don't remember what the Cobra

commander had on his you know chest I think it

was the snake thing or whatever. Yeah, I think

it was the Cobra son I haven't seen it for a

long time but this even seeing it as simplistic

as it is I Yeah, that screamed Cobra commander

to me as well. I mean, I haven't seen that in

years I haven't even tried looking at it in years

and I could tell the minute seeing this going.

Oh my gosh It's like I'm an eight -year -old

kid watching G .I. Joe again. That's great. Oh,

you made me laugh. So apparently they're doing,

they're having some sort of peace treaty or petition

or something or other. Basically, we split the

team up. Everybody's off doing different things

at New Calais and Last Spark. They're kind of

putting their ducks in a row, I guess, and wrapping

things up, which is kind of odd because I kind

of felt like Before this that the first four

issues have kind of wrapped everything up at

new spark or last spark. Yeah, I keep on having

a Calling it the wrong thing now since I've read

through the end So last spark, um, yeah, and

so but but back at new Cal it Cal it new callous

they've left one of them in charge snarl and

Either just doing the same old same old instead

of Grimlock being the one having to listen to

everybody's woes They send him off to go do something

which is actually kind of proactive since he

was kind of getting a little You know sitting

in that chair. You do see that in one of the

the places the The chairs is still damaged or

wait a minute or did was that? Snarl did it?

These guys just tax everybody. No, no, no. Okay.

All right. So the chair has been crunched already

once by Grimlock. And we find that the general

population just brings these really annoying

little things to the, you know, the Dinobots

say, hey, we need some help with this. This wasn't

handled right. And it taxes everybody's nerves,

including Snarls, who up until now has been,

you know, pretty patient with everybody. And

he was the guy that, you know, helped out Grimlock.

And now he's starting to see the mantle and how

frustrating it is. Yeah. Yeah. I love Snarl.

He's so awesome. I love all the Dinobots. I think

they all are just amazing in this series because

they're just, they're the wreckers. Except they're

not the wreckers. Yeah, that's right. And back

in the day, you know, back in Marvel times. The

Wreckers, when the Wreckers weren't there, it

was the, you know, the Dinobots. The Dinobots,

they're that special little team that's really

tight -knit. They, they have a lot of wise ass

cracks and they're, they're, they're really rough

around the edges and they know how to get things

done. And usually it ends with people's faces

getting punched in. I hope nobody finds this

offensive at all, but the Dinobots are the Marines

of the Transformers. Don't mess with it, man.

Don't bite your face off. I don't think that,

I don't find that in any way or form offensive.

They're tough. They're supposed to be tough.

Some people might take it the wrong way. Oh,

anyway. My cousin is a Marine. I think that he'd

laugh at that. So we have this other bot that

comes in who kind of reminds me of a cross -dressing

C -3PO slash Dot Matrix from Star Wars and Spaceballs.

It's Scrouge! A giant red Autobot symbol on his

gold chest. Oh my god, it's Iron Man. You're

right, it does have an Iron Man look to it. But

yes, it's Scrouge! Now, I don't know if you are

familiar with any of the Marvel stuff back in

the day. I'm not. I'm not. But I knew one of

our reviewers was just just bucking for this

character to be. And it just so happened that

on Twitter, I think, yeah, he was, you know,

badgering Margaret about this. And this, of course,

this issue is written by Margaret, right? And

he's like, scrounge, scrounge, scrounge. Yeah.

It's like, oh, she's like, I can't stand no more

Scrounge. Yeah, eventually she did put him in

here. So, you know, I guess there you go. But

things don't really go very well for Scrounge.

No. So, Scrounge shows up and snarl yells at

him. And then all of a sudden, fizz, whoosh,

because some giant blue light. splashes and blasts

into cyber tron it's cyber form from earth because

this has to be this issue has to take place right

after deadlock yeah because they say they're

going to use the cyber matter to reform and rebuild

Oh no, not even after Deadlock. It has to take

place after Beast Hunters. It has to take place

after Predacons Rising. Because that's when...

You get to the end of this and you see where

it's at. Yeah. Right. So it makes sense. So yeah,

so it makes sense that the planet is now going

under a cyberquake, because I just can't call

it an earthquake. I'm sorry. This is not Earth.

Yeah, that makes sense. It's a cyber quake. Yes

So ground quake ground quake instead of earthquake.

It's ground. There you go. Yeah. Yeah Would they

call theirs their ground earth or what they called

it ground So we have all the other Dinobots And

there are people that they're with, like, slag

is in a cavern. Yes, I said slag. Yes, it is

slag. Stupid, stiff -ass brits. It's all right.

We call them slag over on our, you know, show

too. It's like, I just, slag. It just works.

I mean, come on. You know, he's that guy that

just, you know, he finds out that his name is

offensive. He wears it with pride. Honestly,

honestly, that's who he is. He's like, you know

what if it offends you too bad, you know, that's

So Slug watch out I said bush so they're they're

trying to push out of whatever cavern they're

in We go back to New Calais for a brief panel

to show the the devastation there and Then we

see nothing but stars Huh, what the hell is that

the page where we have the whole Blank page.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if I I don't know if

I'd say that that was stars or if it's just the

things the lights go out because they are underground

and the grit is just kind of filtering down and

Yeah, that could be it. I never read it as stars

because I knew they're already underground. So

Yeah, that's that's true. It could be the ceiling

falling in on them So we've got everybody basically

making a mass exodus and they're gonna head to

the surface a place that they haven't been in

millions of years, maybe Or a while I mean just

just since before everybody left in say just

before Actually just the last series rage of

the Dinobots they were up They were in the open.

Oh, yeah, that's right. They were above ground

in Rage of the Dino -Bots. Yeah, okay. So for

several cycles, they've gone underground for

whatever reason. So after everybody left, they

had to go there because their planet was dying.

They're running out of energon, you know? And

then the whole Transformers Prime happened, and

they had to not be on the surface because then

they'd potentially run into characters as they...

you know, in the show, come to Cybertron and

then leave and then go back and then leave again.

So, I mean, it was happening, right? It's a damn

shame they didn't bring back Greg Berger and

Michael Bell. They could have voiced Swoop and

Grimlock. But they weren't in the mo - they weren't

in the show. Well, that's what I'm saying. They

could have had them in the show. Yeah. Could

have. Could have. The key word being could have.

I know it's over. I should stop obsessing, but

yeah. Yeah So, yeah, we've got this this mass

exit from from everybody and we've got Slag and

and snarl arguing with each other. Yep These

guys are it's like I said, they're they're bros

they're yeah, they know each other they function

as a team and even when they're taking stabs

at one another they're they're still They're

just, they're bros, man. Oh, that's great. And

then we find out what happened to scrounge. And

it's all Griffith's fault. It's all his fault.

Just next time you see Andrew Griffith, you say,

you're the reason why scrounge is no longer with

us. He just, he'll just laugh. But seriously,

give him a, give him a heckle in my hard time.

So Andrew Griffith is the killer of scrounge

while Margaret is the killer of insecticons.

Yes, exactly. That's all because of Twitter.

Yes, it's all Twitter's fault. Like I said, Gruff

Lock was Adam. He was saying scrounge over and

over again. She says, if somebody says scrounge

one more time, I'm going to kill him. And then

Andrew Griffith did that. Jeez, really? Come

on, man. So, yeah, some of the stuff with Transformers

comics I just don't get. This is a miniseries

coming out of Rage. How did Blackout even get

here? I don't know. Are they just throwing movie

characters in just to have a new character? I

think what it was is that they, to be honest,

they needed to throw, I think they needed some

con. They needed a con. just some random con

and, Hey, why not put somebody in that they've

never seen before in this continuity? Because

then we also find what happens to him as well.

Um, it just, they needed somebody that could

be a throwaway character, but to be honest, just

in these, these few issues that we had him, they,

his character just got built up probably because

he was hanging out with the, with the Dinobots

and especially slag. It just, Because you get

two enemies together who have been enemies up

until now and You know they There's this conflict

that they have to go through together and there's

this bonding moment and they bonded really quick

and So it turned into this really it was kind

of nice to see Just what you know one dyno bar

an autobot slash dyno, but Rough around the edges

finally me uh, an enemy and on, they're not on

a battlefield. They're in the same situation.

They, they're trying to survive and you know,

they're both rough around the edges and they

have a very honest like conversation. That's

just kind of like, Oh wow. You know, they're

real people, you know, and I, I, that really

just worked for these issues that we had him

in there. Yeah, it did. Especially for the guy.

That's like I said, You know, slag. He don't

care if it's my name offends you. Good. You know,

he's the guy that's rough around the edges. You

don't expect him to have a heart to heart with

anybody. But, you know, it just worked really

well. And I think the reason why is because he's

just not that guy that you think would have that

moment. And he has it in his own way. And like

Marigold gave him a voice that just was really

easy to just, wow, I really like this guy, you

know. It was it was easy to fall in love with

slag. It really really was Yeah, it really was

so we're up to everybody getting out and Is that

that's not who is that blue robot that's not

RC that's okay, okay Yeah, they should have colored

her differently. They should have made her pink.

So we've got Chromia and Grimlock and they're

trying to tell everybody that they need to move.

They need to make room and all this and all that

and Grimlock just loses it and goes all fire

breath. Get out! Yeah, well they kind of needed

to because with with all the energon coming back

they've got this flow of energon coming in and

it's What I really, really liked about this is

it showed the desperation, how long these guys

have gone without energon. And to see this, that

they're so, oh my gosh, we're not going to die.

We're going to, you know, we're not going to

starve anymore. And they're just like, you know,

one of the guys says, Oh, I never thought I'd

ever overcharge, you know? And I was just like,

yeah, it sounds good, but they, they are so caught

with the fact that they've been starving for

so long that they're in it that they forget that

they're still in a dangerous situation and So

they you know, they don't see the danger and

of course Dino bus are protected these people.

So of course they're paying attention because

that's what they do And you know survival instincts

and all that stuff, but you know when you're

responsible for a group of people that's what

you do, right and they noticed quite quickly

that we've got a problem here and they got to

get him out of there and the only way to do it

was for Grimlock to go ape shit in their faces

for them to go ah because even on the surface

they might have learned to trust the Dinobots

but it's still tentative and i really liked that

very much so very much so um so we've got swoop

and fire swoop and Grimlock Swoop and chromia

working together. Yes. Yeah where swoops gonna

get the people out of the city and Chromia is

gonna transform and get all the runners and then

she asks and I I swear I really need to Probably

put the the most famous Grimlock line and she

says she asks them Grimlock. How could you me

Grimlock? me King heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee

heehee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

hee hee he you know, making everybody afraid

of him again, if it makes it work. Yeah. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Yeah. I mean, I know

you were trying to get at that, but yeah. Well,

I mean, if it would have been it would have been

the comedy line if he said me Grimlock, not kisser

me Grimlock King, you know, that would have been

the comedy line. But but yeah, I mean, it's just

it's just so, so awesome. So we we. transfer

back to Slag and blackout and Slag's helping

him out of wherever he's stuck they then have

to get everybody to the surface and it doesn't

look like it's going to be a very good run because

it ends with is it a snarl is it a sack what

do we do sir and snarls just like I don't know

guys. I'm out. I'm just the I'm just the fill

in for this week. I have no idea what to do.

So yeah, you kind of end on a in a in a in an

area where you're going okay, wow, crap happens,

right? Yeah, all of the Dinobots are in three

different places and they're split up. Now they've

got a now they've got a problem. Now what do

we do? It was a good place to end because that's

a that's a conflict yo. Oh, yeah, that's a very

good place to end part one and it just It was

just such a good issue. It really really was

I thought going back when I read this before

we did the recording again, I I Thought I was

gonna have issues with the art And I didn't this

issue. I will have issues with the art as we

progress especially once we get to issue seven,

but overall thoughts on issue five? It's good

to be back with Marigret again. She's really

good at making conflicts and building these characters.

So it was just kind of like, oh, it was just,

it was glad to see it again. She's doing all

the building and I'm really, really liking that.

And I, yeah, this issue, the art wasn't, there

weren't really that many things that, it's got

an organic feel to it. Some of the generic faces

sometimes are a little too generic, I think.

But other than that, it was great to see everything

that happened in this issue. Cobra Commander?

Yeah, that was awesome. Scrounge the whole thing

with that and just to see all of these characters

doing what they're doing So yeah, it was good

to kind of come back to and I think let's see

here At this point we had no idea that it was

going to be ending so Yeah, no at this point.

They were still you know pulling our strings

saying hey, it's an ongoing. Yeah You're teasing

us with lies. It was all lies. Stupid editors

at IDW. Actually, I think it was just poor sales.

That could have been it. I also think of it as,

oh, Hasbro's like, yeah, sorry, guys, we're done

with Prime. We need to start preparing for the

next series, which if... If you believe like

I do, it's any indication that the end of Predacons

Rising, with the next series whenever it comes,

is going to be somewhat of a continuation of

Prime. I think that it is. They haven't, they've

been really good about not doing much, but the

stuff that they have kind of mentioned about

it. does give you ideas that they might be. There

was something that popped up on IMDB very quickly

and was very quickly taken down. It was Transformers

Prime, Beast Hunters, something or other where

like this thing, this project listed almost every

single cast member that's still living of every

single show. And here in the u .s. That we've

ever had g1 beast wars beast machines animated

It listed every voice actor that had ever had

anything to do with any of those shows. Oh And

it was very briefly online and then poof it disappeared

But all right issue six Maregrids and on Maregrids

the head writer with Mike is but I was gonna

say she's on top that would not be good The regular

cover is the four Dinobots Looking like they're

going to attack somebody Maybe they need to restrain

Grimlock from doing something he shouldn't do

The retail incentive cover is a repeat of what

we've already had. It is bumblebee in his new

animated Coloring scheme the black and the yellow.

Yeah. Yeah from the sun That's a whole lot of

green background just saying yeah, it is a whole

lot of green, but it is the exact same Bumblebee

that we've already had in a retail incentive

except his stance is change his stance has changed

slightly. Yeah But it's the exact same model.

Yeah, I'm so glad I didn't pay for retail incentives

on this series. All right, so we come to issue

six. Right where we left off. Pretty much. A

mysterious event has struck the planet Cybertron,

but whether blessing or curse, no one can decide.

Slag comes across an enemy Decepticon in desperate

need of help. Snarl struggles to lead the bots

in his charge amidst the chaos, and Grimlock

is determined to save the survivors of New Calus

by any means necessary. Oh boy, I love how snot.

If they do a continuation of Prime and they do

any kind of cross, the Dinobots have to be in

the next series. I know, it'd be great if they

could do that. It depends on what they do. Geez,

oh god. You know, I've said this before and it's

just a minor gripe on my part because I know

that they were going for the toy accuracy type

of color. Wish swoop was blue not red, but that's

just the g1 fanboy in me But other than that

the dinobots designs in this series and in rage.

Oh God, they need to they need to adapt this

into the next cartoon. They really do They did

a good job with it. Yeah. Yeah, very very good

job So this issue we have Everybody's still trying

to escape It's Arlen swoop and everybody's trying

to help all their people get out and Swoop is

flying around tell everybody to get to the top

of the cavern basically go up just Keep walking

up people single file line Yep, cuz if you don't

You're gonna get left behind. Yeah. Yeah, you're

gonna get crushed. Yep Every single one of them

have their own thing that they have to deal with

like, you know swoop and Grimlock It's just getting

all the masses to get their butts moving and

move faster Slag it's it's helping this guy and

getting back to last spark so that they can get

help for him and then snarl It's just getting

everybody to listen to him Because they're all

like no. No, you're not our leader. We're we

need to put somebody else in charge and yeah

Yeah, and they call him a coward on top of that

which is bad. You do not call a Dinobot a coward

No, unless you unless you want to die Unless

you have a death wish Yeah So we've got We've

got chromia driving a lot it's so weird for me

to see the standard transformer in this series.

Like, standard Autobot -like vehicle, it just

looks so out of place underground. Because she's

essentially a sports car. Yeah. And she looks

like RC when she's not a sports car. Yeah, that's

confusing, too. I'll get to my complaints about

the show designs later. So we've got Grimlock

raging out and I almost say that he's like he's

bringing up the rear actually yeah, but he's

bringing it up with fire Yeah, keep keep keep

them going. That's why There you go, you know,

it's like if you don't move I'm gonna burn ya

Burn ya chomp ya and eat ya for breakfast or

lunch or dinner or whatever yeah um yeah we've

got uh so let's see we've got chromia and grimlock

getting all those people out there you've got

snarl getting all his guys um is scrounge still

alive no they found an arm in the last when they

were digging people out scrounged. They found

an arm. That was it. That was all that was left.

In the page where Slag says shut up if any bots

want to stay, fine. But that doesn't make them

right. Who's the gold Autobot who kind of looks

like a poor imitation of Copper Kid from Silverhawks

next to Snarl? That's a good question. I think

it's just a generic. He was the guy. Actually,

if you look at the last one, he was the guy that

was kind of like his helper. Standing next to

him. Taking his place basically, where he was

standing next to Grimlock, now they've got this

guy. So I'd like to say that he was a guy that

does not tax them in any way or form. He's actually

got his head on straight and he's like, you can

stay, you don't bug me. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen,

Lady Rek is clairvoyant. keep moving so yeah

Grimlock is wow that's that's still dangerous

though setting fire even though like I said he's

definitely wearing the the fear factor here he's

not even allowing them to have an opportunity

like what Snarls having to deal with there's

no vote. It's just move your butts or else I

kill you I'm doing this for your own good and

they're like, oh you're so scary. Mr. Trenasaurus

Rex. We're gonna keep running Follow the lady

It's like they're married or something, you know,

this is all their kids Sorry, I shouldn't have

gone there. I just can't. Would that be a Toronto

sports car alt mode if they had kids? A sports

car with spikes. Wow. So we go to a more emotional,

less socially charged part of the story. We should

stop here before we encourage Tumblr anymore.

Oh god. yeah so we get back to slag and blackout

is um is sludge with them yes sludge and slag

sludge is the one that's kind of fixing him up

and slag is the right okay okay see i didn't

realize that though i thought sludge was off

with um firestar somewhere no firestar is alone

in last mark yeah but You know, this whole segment

with these two is just dark. It's dark. I mean,

it's so... Like, they're basically, you know,

having to take his leg off because he was leaking

energon. And, like, they have to cauterize it

and... Ugh, it was just... It's dark. It's like,

you know... While Sludge is trying to fix him

up and Slag is getting something... Oh, he's

actually burning his leg. to get it hot enough

so that they can, you know, cauterize it. It's

just I like how they did that because they make

it relevant for them and their anatomy and all

that. It was just like, wow, you know, and it

not only does it when they do it, it's like,

ah, it's just, you know, it's so gritty. You

don't expect this out of a little kid's, you

know. No, it's a good thing. This this series

is not put in the all ages section of comics.

Cuz, yeah, and the whole time you're saying this

about them fixing his leg, alls I can think of

is, and I can't believe I'm actually gonna utter

these words, but poor hot shot from animated,

uh, Cybertron service will get you a new leg

in six to eight solar cycles. Whaaaaat? Anyhow

afterwards they wait for a little bit because

his leg cools they say all right now I think

if this stump is almost cool, so we got to get

started We got to get moving which is you know

because they are they're back up against the

wall They have no idea what's going on And they

had the big earthquake thing and now they got

to get going because they want to go find out

what's going on But then of course the other

thing is to get blackout help as soon as possible,

so Yeah, they've got to get him help, and they

cross as they're moving I believe it's Sludge

that says watch out. This stuff is real slick.

Yeah at the top of the next page and All is I

can think of is a scene from Beast Wars when

they're crossing the bridge to get to the axel

on and they have oh It's the very first episode

where optimal optimus. They're not audio villain

optimus primal and Dinobot were fighting outside

of the I was like, wow, I recognize that Kevin

before and only that is it it's funny because

this Slow a Slag has been the character that

just like he's not he just doesn't take crap

crap from anybody, right? he's turned into a

you know triceratops form and He's carrying the

guy on his back because he can't walk himself

and it's just kind of like It's just to see that

character be that guy is just it's it it perfectly

fits for him because they are in a rush and It's

just you know, he's being so much more helpful

than I mean who knows several cycles ago He probably

would have just crunched him as soon as he found

him. But this is a guy that he's actually helping

and you know It's just really cool to see that

really cool to see that Yeah so blackout won't

stay still and he ends up toppling slag over

yeah and he ends up holding on to the edge of

the cliff yeah not only is he carrying the guy

but he almost like jumps after him as he's falling

to keep him he puts his own life at risk for

this guy so it was just like Cool It's just cool

to see that it's like ah, I love this character

even more You know and you know we go to the

next one and we go to back to Grimlock and swoop

and I love I Love so I really do everyone's almost

up boss gets scared boss do run faster He is

that guy he's he he he states the obvious thing

Gets the little digs in that he's just a chatterbox

and they've been really great about you know,

I Think showing that you know, he says the things

Just funny to me. He seems like the the more

cheerful of all of the other Dinobots and he's

He says the things that are more funnier than

everybody else does but you know So he is So

yeah, we go back to sludge slag and blackouts

and You find out what happened yeah, yeah all

three of them are about ready to go off the cliff

Just sludge is already there blackout is holding

on for dear life and and That isn't gonna end

well. No, it's not So they're barely hanging

on and Yeah. We skipped a page though. We missed

the whole thing with Snarl where he practically

takes a bot's head off and then throws his gun

barrel in his face and says, you know what? Don't

ever call me a coward to my face unless you want

your head taken off. I think it convinces everybody

that, you know, something's changed. You're gonna

follow me because we don't know what's going

on and until we know our situation We got to

get out of here. We got it We know we got to

know how things would change and we can't do

it from here. So yeah So then we get Grimlock

and swoop again It changes so fast for me when

I was moving actually. Yeah, it is very fast

moving I like it, but it's it's it's so many

scene cuts It made my first read through kind

of hard to follow Yeah, and it took me having

to read it I think a second third time for me

to go Okay now I finally get what's going on

because it was very very quick and I wasn't quite

sure at first where each of the Dino bots were

because I know that you know, Snarl was one place.

It just took me a couple of read -throughs to

go, oh, okay, so these two are together, and

these two are together, and this one's alone,

and they're in three different places, and Last

Spark, New Callus, and wherever Snarl was. So,

it just, you know, once I got all those, my ducks

in a row, and I figured out where I was, I was

like, okay, now I can actually figure out what's

going on, so. Yeah, I do like, um... Slag and

sludge. Slag, you guys okay? Popped a spring

in my foot, and blackout's almost offline, and

I don't love heights. Just the fact that he's

admitting it. Like, at this point, he's like,

uh, little known fact about me, I kinda don't

like heights, you know? But don't tell anybody

that. Ever? Or else we'll have words. I never

knew that Sludge's neck could work the way it

is here. I like it. I think it's awesome that

he's able to save them for the most part. But

I never knew Sludge's neck could work like that.

Yep. In the meantime Grimlock and swoop get attacked

by the king of razor snakes Yes, luckily they're

at the very end of the of the group because it

would have really stunk if That razor snake tried

to get everybody like right in the middle of

the crowd, you know There would have been more

dead bots, but because it was at the end Yeah

Grimlock and Swoop have to contend with this

creature. Don't mess with Grimlock. It swallows

him whole and he punches his way out. It's great.

Yeah. Grimlock punching his way out of anything

is always awesome. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. and then

you know so they all right so they get done with

with the razor snake and we get in getting another

page transition back to I believe we are at last

spark is there's Firestar yeah and there's sludge

well what happens is once they save the two from

over the cliff they get on the other side And

blackout, it just, he's not going to be able

to get it. He's not going to be able to go any

further. And so he says, I will stay that slag

says slag. You'd expect him to be the one to

run off. No, he, he stays with blackout and send

sludge back to last spark to get help. And he

says, I'll keep them alive. You get there, you

know, get back as soon as you can. And in the

meantime. You know blackouts like ah, he's not

gonna make it. It's like don't don't even go

there He's like he'll he'll get back and then

they have this heart -to -heart, which is just

you don't expect it's like, you know Blackouts

like do you think Primus is punishing us? It's

like ha why would he wait Primus waste his time

on us? Yeah, it's just he's that guy. I mean,

it's just he knows that this is bad But he's

the guy that decided to stay with him. He's the

one that made the call that that they were going

to split up and you got to know that he did that

i mean he's got to know that this this is bad

yeah you know if he's talking about life and

death and primus things are bad yeah it's kind

of like you know agent j every so often i look

up at the stars at night and it's kind of like

an m .i .b moment but for transformers then Sludge

runs into the last two survivors of last spark

and it's like oh poor last spark and all we have

left is firestar and zoom damn it yeah I know

you're like wait a second wait a second wait

a second just because Griffith told Griffith

said, scrounge one more time, scrounge dies,

but zoom gets to live. I call BS on that. Agreed.

Especially since we already know enough about

zoom and the fact that he's that annoying little

guy that you're like, oh please. He's the little

brother that will not leave you alone when you're

like, no, you're not cool like us. Go play with

your toys. He's wheelie without being wheelie.

Yeah. He doesn't even have the rhyming. He's

just. Yeah, I know. He's Blur's distant cousin.

And nobody wants him around, which is the reason

why this is his first time he's ever made an

appearance in a Transformers comic. Or Zoom,

right? He's Blur's distant cousin. That's funny.

I love how Augustin did the bottom panel for

Snarl. We were looking for you. Just love that.

You can I can totally see him throwing his giant

neck and face into it's like in your face like

I can so totally see that Not only that get this

zoom is cowering Yeah cowering next to firestar

And then Zoom earlier, how is Zoom a coward now

when earlier he wanted to be one of the Dinobots

and they all told him, no kid, you don't know

what it takes. Just wait, we're not done with

him yet. Oh goodness. So basically everybody

else to, the last panel is everybody else kind

of breaks the surface and gets out of the underground.

Cause Grimlock was making them run, man. Of course,

they're the first ones to get out. Yeah. After,

you know, taking care of the whole razor sink

thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Him and Swoop, they

come out at the end seeing everybody and guess

what? They're all playing in the water again.

So I guess it wasn't the end. Rimlock want to

fish with Dinobots? You mean if they'll like

him now after this. I'm so ripping that out of

season 3. Grimlock's new brain. I gotta say though,

over these two issues, I really love, and this

is why I love the Dinobots in these comics, they

give them more character than what we've ever

known. Okay, for someone like me who has only

really seen the Dinobots in the cartoons, like

I said before, I haven't read any of the old

Marvel stuff, I haven't read any of Furman's

Maximum stuff, any of that kind of stuff. I just

never did. Me coming from knowing the Dinobots

in G1, in Animated, and all that stuff, it's

like, wow, they're really giving each of these

characters their own personality, their own design.

I really love the dialogue, the narration throughout

5 and 6 from Snarl. Oh yeah, absolutely. I've

read some of the other stuff, and pretty much

in everything else it's been Grimlock and the

Dinobots. You know, the band Grimlock and the

Dinobots. Grimlock has all the personality and

the rest of them are, you know, they just follow

him and there's not really a rhyme or reason

to it. This is the first time I think that I've

actually read anything with Dinobots that actually

each individual one of them has a personality.

They do different things. It's like they each

have a role to play. You know each one of them

they they they turned into a group of bros They

really did and they all have they all have their

quirks You know and they you you get to know

really really quick even it started out in rage

and it just just kept going through beast hunters

and it's just like this This is their story and

I I've enjoyed it because of that Because they

are they're a bunch of bros. They're hanging

out doing things, you know, they, they know each

other's quirks. They are a tight knit group and

anybody else that tries to get in on their group,

they're like, no, you're not one of us. Don't

even think about it. You know, cause zoom the

whole, I want to be a dyno poet. It's like, yeah,

kid, you're not ready for this. Cause he isn't.

Yeah. Yeah, no, he isn't at all. I mean, Zoom

is far from ever being a Dinobot. Uh, there's

no way. Check back in a few million millennia

and we'll see. Yeah. Check back after Shockwaves

experimented on you and turned you into a half

Brontosaurus, half pterodactyl. Oh wait, oh wait.

You know what? You'll die. Yeah. You won't survive

the night. You won't survive. You won't survive.

It'll break you. Yes, all right issue seven and

I Last year BotCon the panels for this were like

Yeah, the comic and the show are gonna merge

somewhere around issue six or seven All month

with issue six. I was waiting waiting waiting

waiting waiting nothing. Yeah, and I'm like,

okay Well, they just broke the surface I get

it. So issue seven All of issue 7 when I first

got it home and first read it, I was waiting,

waiting. I'm like, wait, I thought they were

supposed to... Oh, okay, that's where they show

up at the very end. So issue 7 regular cover

is Grimlock with his energon sword coming up

out of the ground and facing what... I think

it's supposed to be an homage to the Ark. I don't

think it is the art, but I think it's supposed

to be... It kind of looks more like the Nemesis

to me. In Transformers Prime, the Nemesis. Oh,

yeah, yeah, yeah! You're right, you're right.

Okay, I can see that, but I... Wait, did they

crash land the Nemesis? No, they didn't. That's

why it's kind of like a, huh? Yeah, well, I'll

have to ask somebody at some point. And the retail

incentive is the same retail incentive, except

Optimus Prime is at a slightly different angle,

and he has the, uh... Star Saber in his hand.

Yeah, Retail Covers, new. Yeah, this is actually

where I started getting a little angry. I got

angry after Bumblebee. Yeah, but it had to be

Prime that got me angry. Because I'm a Prime

girl, I really like Prime. These retail covers

they could have done so much with them. They

couldn't tease They could have they could have

just teased what like the Dinobots would look

like in Transformers Prime. Why not? Give us

some concept art. That would have been cool.

Yeah, that would have been so cool Tease us tease

us you're gonna have them, you know in the show

We'd be like, oh man You know fans live for little

stuff like that. Really we do Yes. So issue seven

starts off with Grimlock and his monologue. Basically,

Cybertron lives again. Way too much monologuing

for him. He's a man of few words. I'm glad it

was a monologue versus a conversation with somebody

because... You're right. When he's... I can see...

and I see that's why he's a man of few words

is because that guy monologues himself to death

because he's probably one of those bots that

consistently talks to themselves because he doesn't

ever really say anything out loud. Oh god, I

just realized I'm Grimlock when I'm not podcasting.

That's okay. It's... you know. Not to coin a

phrase that would make any Batman fans out there

rage at this show is that, you know, be yourself

unless you can be Grimlock. Then definitely be

Grimlock. So everybody gets out, everybody is,

it looks like they're stepping out of the energon

pool and the Lord said, okay, everybody out of

the pool. Papa Grimlock has spoken. Yeah, it's

that line is from an old Bill Cosby. Oh Boy So

they're all trying to figure out why Cybertron

It's snarl just arrived. He's watching everybody

in the pool and then he turns around says hey

Grubblock over here. It's snarl going dude So

good to see you. I didn't think I would you know

It's like at least one last person to have to

worry about and he's got friends. So yeah, they

grudgingly followed him Yeah, I bet that's why

I was happy to see Grimlock is cuz like dude,

you're the leader again cool and I don't have

to Be the person for these guys. They can go

and you know, give you the face. I Just realized

something Don't know if my cuz Mike is is Main

writer on this and initiate. I don't know if

he did this on purpose But I just made an analogy

between Grimlock and snarl and Optimus and Rodimus

Nice sure we'll kill you in the movie Optimus

and make hot rod the new leader and we'll give

him X number of episodes until you return from

space and yeah, you're taking the matrix back.

So hot rod ain't no leader no more Oh boy. But

at least in this case, Snarl is grateful that

Grimlock is back, because Snarl wants nothing

to do with the leadership role. I don't blame

him. He had to, like, you know, threaten somebody

with your gun just to get them motivated. It's

like, they were ready to vote me out, and that

was not okay. That's yeah, that's crazy. So We

go to the next page Where we go back beneath

the surface what oh, okay. We're going back to

a slag and sludge. Okay This this makes those

are the only two that are left that we have that

are left down there a fire star zoom and zooms

like Is it another quake? No, no quake that was

and then super giant monster attacks Except they

don't call it Predacon because they don't know

well, they you know, it could be a forge They

could be like, oh, it's a forged but now it's

big big mouth creature Why is it when I see the

bottom panels I can think of is run forest As

soon as I read zoom firestar, I think it was

forced gum Oh my god. Oh, let's not forget that

while they were up on top they get a transmission

a broken transmission saying they're Autobots

and Kayone and Everybody's like, okay, that's

where we're going. Yeah, and You know Grimlock's

like wait a second Why are we you know, let's

make sure that we get everybody together first

before we take off. He's he's being the leader

He's he has not left that mantle and even though

everybody's like no, no, we're gonna go. It's

like no we're gonna wait so yeah yeah yeah yeah

and that's and that's where yeah that's where

we kind of are because we see this confrontation

between uh sludge and this new i'd say it's a

predacon it's absolutely a predacon okay it might

be a predacon but it's not any predacon we've

seen no it's not any predacon we've seen in the

comic or the show yeah yeah like i don't i don't

think this is dark steel or whatever the It's

a beast. It's a beastie beast. Not a Dinobot

looking beast. It's like definitely looking Predacon

-ish. Yeah, it's one of Shockwave's early experiments,

his early failures. Well, and this is the one

that basically is the conflict from here all

the way into the end of the series. He continues

to come back over and over again like a predator

would. And then we get the argument between Cromie

and Grimlock, and Slag made it out, and sadly,

Blackout didn't. Yeah. I was very disappointed

with how that went, that there wasn't another,

I don't know, a moment where, like all we basically

saw in the last... The last issue was that, um,

he's saying that I don't think I can make it

back. It's like, you know, sludge is like, no,

you're going to make it just, just hang on. And

then at the last, we saw a panel where he says,

you just got to hang on and you can see that

blackout has passed out at that point. Yeah.

I was kind of disappointed in the fact that I

was like, oh, so we're not going to see what

happened to those two because. They had this

thing going for two issues. They had this conflict.

He's been sacrificing for him and everything.

And then we didn't see that moment wrap up in

this issue. And so I thought, oh, OK, that was

abrupt. Because, you know, it just felt like

there should have been more than what there was.

Yeah, especially since a certain other character,

which we'll get into in a minute here. Got the

scene that Blackout should have gotten. Yes.

So he asks him, is Sludge with you? He went to

get help from Last Spark. Thought he might even

beat me to you. But everything's a race because

bros are like that, man. I got to get there before,

you know, Sludge does. And then we have an attack

on the Dinobots. We have the Forged. I assume

it's the Forged coming after them. Oh yeah, it

does say that. So we get Slag up top. He beat

Sludge to getting to the surface. And then the

Forged attack and then we go back underground.

Yeah, as I just look through this and I'm not

really reading the actuals I'm looking at the

story of I'm not really reading it to read it

because that would be a boring podcast for every

single line, but It's just one of those things

where The scene changes really they're a little

too fast for me like we had two pages of slag

on the surface, and then all of a sudden, poom,

we gotta go back to this other story so we can

wrap this up. You were saying that it was rushed.

Yeah, it kind of feels that way to me, and I

don't know what it is. I thought that... There

were times, I remember when I did the spoiler

-free written reviews on geekcasterranger .com

where I had issues with the art, and looking

back on it... At least for five through seven,

there's not many issues that I can see. I don't

know what I was seeing before, maybe I was just

letting the dark empire of Ender conflict me.

I don't know, I'm really liking the art so far.

Especially with this issue, because you have

so many cool Grimlock moments, you have so many

cool moments with the Dinobots in general. I

think there's just a few little things that just

There's a few more they're using the the the

blackout Silhouettes a little bit more in this

this issue. Oh, yeah I think the other thing

that doesn't really help it is the fact that

we get a whole page of monologue Yeah, but it

just kind of slows it down a little bit, you

know what I mean when you do a monologue It's

gonna instantly slow down your story. So it's

just one page. It's slow then it just picks up

and it does kind of feel like you're rushing

toward a very Like I mean now that I've read

it now that I know we're we're going to end It

does feel like it's speeding as quickly as possible

to that end. You know what I mean? But at the

same time, it's just you almost expect because

I mean up until now We've done two issues where

it's two from one two from the other two from

one two from the other And so it makes sense,

but I think this was definitely they had to wrap

it up to a point where yeah and and no i you

know no offense to mike johnson i wish they would

have just let merigold run from five to eight

seriously i think a lot of people were thinking

that at this point they are very different writers

um they are i have liked what mike johnson has

done in the past but i kind of got the feeling

that that and maybe it was just because i got

a chance to talk with both of them Margaret is

is the she's the firecracker. You know, she is

like, enthusiasm extreme. She is the fire star

of the Transformers fangirl. Yes, she's just

so enthusiastic about it. That. Did I lose you?

No, sorry. OK. She's just so enthusiastic about

it that it's just. And when you put her next

to anybody that's not as enthusiastic, it doesn't

make them look like they're as enthusiastic.

And I'm really sure that Mike Johnson is really

great to talk to and stuff, but he seems that

he's a little bit more introvert than her. And

I think that can be interpreted as, you know,

he's just not her, you know? But sometimes I

think people can read a little bit more into

that. And he hasn't talked with, I don't know

if he's talked with any other fans, but you know,

Marigrette is just, she's on fire. She is enthusiastic

to an extreme on this. And you can even see it

in her writing as well. She's just, she's loving

this. And I don't think, I don't think it's Mike

doesn't love it. It's just, he's a different

writer. Yeah. I mean, I will say from Mike's

credit, now that most of them, Like the page

where we get to nice to be out in the open again.

I do like how all of them are saying, you know

the you know, the Dinobots are saying, you know

different things and They're finally able to

let loose in a sense because they've been underground

they've been confined Yeah, now they don't have

to be confined in a sense They've been holding

back and you get this, you know, I'm sure that's

frustrating So that's only added to their frustration.

But now that they've got all the space. It's

like they're they're really in their element

now Except sludge who's still stuck underground

battling that Well, no, well not really because

we we get to the page that I was talking about

with them them all spreading their wings, and

then all of a sudden, boom, Firestar is there.

Unless that's somebody else in orange. That's

that bottom panel. I think it's somebody else.

Because we skipped the whole fight with Sludge.

Let's see here. Bottom panel. The bottom panel

where the page is where Swoop says, glad to spread

his wings again. And yeah, no it they say firestar

you made it out or that's at the end you skipped

like a whole half the comic Basically where where

the last part I saw is that we were at the part

where sludge basically he tries to battle the

Predacon and wrote in in in dinosaur mode, and

it doesn't work. So he says, Okay, let's do this

the hard way. It's not gonna work. Yeah, let's

do it the hard way. And the guy comes after him

and then just bounces right past him and takes

off. And he's like, Oh, crap. I was gonna finish

that just left. Oh, waiting for me to just just

turn into something else and decide to just bounce

off. into the rest of the the the the tunnel

well the guy gets the Predacon gets ahead of

him it goes after Firestar and zoom and poor

zoom he's just not strong he's just you know

he falls back into the cavern and gets chomped

and everybody It's a good thing that zoom didn't

come up against Grimlock on one of his bad days

Grimlock like to munch metal You know running

away from you as fast as possible you should

have chopped zoom If only he had been with him

that would have been great So we get to this

end battle and it's just so great the Dinobots

like you said I didn't even think of of them

as a you know a military unit like what you're

saying and they really are because they they

form up they're gonna attack and I Mean the last

few panels of this last few pages of this issue

are absolutely amazing And the whole time, I'm

waiting and waiting and waiting and I'm like,

okay, I know it happens, but where, where? And

of course, they have to wait until the very last

page, but before we get there, I like, I like

uh, I like Sludge. Anybody call for reinforcements?

Yep. Of course Sludge, he missed the action.

Yeah. But not before finding Zoom and having

a moment with him, which made me mad. Why did

Blackout not get this moment? It's not fair.

That little turd got it. It's like, really? It's

like, who cares about Zoom? I cared about Blackout.

Yeah. It's like, you thief. I'm glad you're dead.

Yeah. It's like Sludge gave you more than what

you deserved. Just saying. And then the final

page. Hi boys, it's been a while. Yep. And Sludge

brought friends. Last page. Now we have to go

to the last page to reveal this. It's almost

a kick in the teeth. I mean, because at this

point, I think everybody was excited to see these

guys, because we were teased that they would

be brought into the comics, and we were excited

to see how things were going to be. To see the

characters in the comics. It's not that we didn't

like the Dinobots, it was just, we'll get to

see the Prime characters interact with the Dinobots.

That's what we were excited about. Yes, that's

what I've been waiting for. Yeah, exactly. That's

exactly... what i have been if they were going

to you know have this all combined one cybertron

indivisible you know they they were going to

do all this stuff and everything else and it's

like they wait until the last page to give us

and then the last issue okay we'll get them next

issue and then just bit of a letdown as a call

yeah and I will say this for issue eight I don't

think they got Bumblebee right at all I mean

we'll get into when we get into issue eight issue

seven I liked it I really enjoyed it I thought

it was great the writing the story you know them

all getting to the surface. I thought that was

really great. The art, for the most part, I didn't

have an issue with at all. I think the only issue

that I had with it is the fact that you get the

last fight where the Dinobots are forming up

and the Predacons and everything is just happening

the way it is. I think a couple of the fight

scenes got a little too chaotic. I can see that.

That last one, I really couldn't tell. I know

somebody got hit and that was about it. And it's

just, it's a mess. I mean, I guess it works in

that sense, but I really wish that they had zoomed

out a little bit because it still feels claustrophobic.

It still feels like they're underneath in the

caverns. And I wish that they had panned out

just a little bit so we can actually see these

guys hitting this thing because it just, they

were so close and up on him that I think it...

kept it feeling like they were still in the caverns

fighting something and We know that's not the

case because they're outside and they've talked

about how great it is And I think if they had

panned out just a little bit that might have

aided that But it just got really really clumped

together and really really messy on the panels

I mean that whole page where they're they're

hitting that last guy When they say a form, you

know, Donna abouts form up and the next page

and you just I know that swoop is flying overhead

and I have no idea what happens. It's just like,

uh, yeah, big thwack, thwam, cro -cro -crocombe.

And it looks like somebody actually might, might've

gotten hit by a tail, but I don't know whose

tail it is. I'm just kind of like, I got lost.

And that was a little frustrating. I mean, it

looks like it might be one of the. I want to

say it might be the snarls tale, but it could

have just as easily been the Predacons. And I'm

just kind of like, ah, darn it. Yeah. Yeah. It's

just a little frustrating on that, but you know.

It was just that page So yeah So we get that

final page that Makes us wait X number of I almost

I don't remember Maybe you can tell me I could

have sworn between seven and eight. It was a

long time It felt like it got delayed and it

didn't feel like 30 days or a month or whatever

However IDW does it felt like a lot longer than

a month between seven and eight. Yeah, it did

feel like it was I felt longer than I should

have. Yeah, exactly. But I think the other thing

was, oh, this is the last issue. This is the

final issue. Yeah. Am I going to be happy with

the end? Am I going to be not happy? It's just

kind of like, eh. I think it was, it felt long

because of that, I think. Yeah. We'll find out

right now. Issue eight. Mike is ahead on the

writing for the final story with Marigrid and

Augustine on art. And then the regular cover

is Grimlock, Bumblebee, and RC with the rest

of the Dinobots underneath them. They're all

stomping towards the reader. And the retail cover

is a white background with more Predaking art.

Boo. You're not even quite sure cuz it's it's

like zoomed up on his face and yeah You know

no pretty yeah pretty And it's our final issue

Yeah, the final issue and and oh actually Wow

in the comic the the picture that I have is For

it's a different I might need to change that

The issue that shows here in the comic that it's

a green back another green back One of these

things on green screens for crap sake come on

people so the story so far Cybertron is restored

allies returned enemies vanquished or are they?

On the surface of Cybertron the Dinobots and

Autobots join forces and prepare to face their

final challenge Yeah, I don't like the way Augustin

is drawing RC at all and does not I know that

it's a it's a hard I said this in a couple of

the the the turtles coverage for the new animated

adventures I understand that sometimes it's hard

going from a 3d cartoon or a 2d cartoon or whatever

Into a comic I understand that I just don't like

the way he's drawing our city. It just doesn't

It doesn't look like her. It looks like her but

it doesn't pop. It's hard because there's not

a lot of facial detail because her face did not

have a lot of facial detail. And it's a cross.

It is. It's like you said. It's the cross of

going from Transformers Prime but with the look

and feel of the Dinobots, basically. Which, to

be honest, That didn't even look like Transformers

Prime either because it had more of the game

designs and stuff and made it work for that.

So it's like... You can tell it's RC. No, you

can tell it's RC and I can tell the difference

between RC and Chromia because RC's crest is

pink. The good thing is is that we get this We

haven't had this for the whole series. We get

a nice two -page spread of everybody fighting.

It's the Dinobots and All of the characters and

an RC and I don't think I see Anybody else it's

just the Dinobots and RC fighting a whole lot

of generics Oh, you're right. He's away in the

back He's like if you're looking at RC just to

the left of her under swoop and He looks so underdeveloped.

Yeah, he just doesn't look he doesn't even look

like he has his season 3 colors because I have

a picture of the season 3 Bumblebee and his his

helmet is not that bright of a yellow Season

3 it just isn't I just don't Yeah. I just don't

like the way Augustine did the prime characters.

I'm sorry, I just... I just don't like it. And

Arcee looks like she's naked from the waist down.

Sorry, had to be said. No, that's not what she

looks like. It's not like she's naked from the

waist down. It looks like she's wearing a bikini.

That's what it looks like. Yes, but it doesn't

even look like it's placed in the right place.

It's like... It looks like it's a sticker on

the front and you could easily rip it off and

she'd be naked, you know? Yes, fanboys, I went

there. Oh wow. This is why I wanted your opinions

on the series. Oh my god. Yeah. See, again, the

next page, the bottom left panel, Bumblebee is

in yellow and black, not black and yellow. That's

the wrong color scheme. That's season one season

two It's like he didn't even it's like he shed

his skin and went back to what he was before

Well, it's like August and didn't even look at

the dang retail covers with the new design Yeah

Yeah, so we've got the Dinobots and the Autobots

And, you know, they're telling them that Shockwave

made these things. I just... I'm really not thrilled

with this final... I like the story. The art

is really what's dragging me down here. And I

was just about to say that I really liked that

panel where R .C. is saying Shockwave made these

things. Because that, I mean, because they just

did a really good job, I guess, in that keeping

the obscured stuff. obscured enough. Like, I

even accept most of the bumblebee and bulkhead

and it's just this is the idea that I that I

had before where you pan out a little bit and

you show these characters in a way that you know,

you can see that they're, they have a little

bit of space to breathe. Because up until now

that that everything has been really up close.

Everything is in your face. Except the two page,

even the two page spread was it was you're right

in the in the grit of them fighting and in killing

things but there's just something about that

panel in particular that just it really works

and I think it's because the panned out a little

bit more and you could actually see it just it

feels right and the coloring actually worked

pretty good on that page too I mean most of the

character the the prime characters are standing

in the background so they have less detail on

them and so you're getting their their general

shapes so that worked but it's the Dinobots standing

on top of all the forge that you're like You

get to see the detail of those guys because that's

this is this this is their series still, you

know Yeah, the prime characters are guests Yes,

and I understand that but you can still get a

guests aesthetic correct in the arts I Mean let

me flip through it real quick I think that might

be the only panel that I have to say I really

really loved in the whole comic That I think

was just stellar I do like the next page, all

thanks to Optimus Prime's sacrifice. What do

you mean, sacrifice? And you see Grimlock transforming

through fire. I thought that was really cool,

from TRX to robot mode. I thought that was really

- Yeah, that's good. That's a good one, too.

That works. But yeah, I mean the rest of this

is for being on the surface I guess I guess it's

nighttime I guess the Sun isn't on this side

of the planet, but for being on the surface.

This is awfully dark these panels are Very very

dark So I guess we could kind of say the cover

is a lie. It is not a bright shiny surface of

cyber Yeah, not yet the Sun hasn't yeah great

just them giving the lowdown of what's been going

on since they've been gone and oh you know so

at least it gave us an idea where they where

they are at this point the sacrifice of optimist

prime because i thought oh maybe this is when

they first get uh maybe this is when they first

get there and you know they still haven't had

the whole predacon encounter the movie that type

of thing i was like no this is after the movie

yeah this is way after the movie yeah prime's

gone sad i was not happy about that I mean after

I watched because I watched Predacons Rising

before I ever read this Because Predacons Rising

came up before this did they're leaderless. It's

like really you left them leaderless. Thank you

Optimus Prime Who's your daddy prime and you'll

leave them without a prop with that without a

parrot basically Well, you know if they wanted

to add in a certain Orange red and yellow car

we I would have gladly taken that I Think fans

were I think fans were in more uprage over. Oh

my god smoke screen is gonna be the next That

was everybody's worry But I think they put it

in a place that make you think okay. No, he's

not going to be okay. All right So a couple pages

later we get to bulkhead saying the quake that

was the planet reigniting that was us so that

whole blue light from a couple issues ago that

was that was when that was happening was when

they flew back to cybertron yeah i see and now

at first i wasn't quite sure if it was a it was

hitting cybertron or coming from cybertron because

it could have been both so him saying that it

was actually helpful yeah i Don't think... Now

that I... When I first looked at it, I'm like,

wait, some giant blue beam out of space hit Cybertron?

Wait a second. And then I looked at it again

when we talked about the issue. I'm like, wait,

no, that's coming out of Cybertron. That's going

out into space. So it's kind of like the planet's

imploding. Because if you remember, you know,

Prime went into the Well of Allsparks. So it

would make sense that the explosion would come

out. from the inside of the planet it just in

the art again the art it made it look like something

was hitting the planet yeah so the next page

we get that Predacon sounds like he's right above

us I can't see him We get really bright, really

fast, and I like it. Anytime Swoop is in this

book, I love seeing Swoop. It's very, very awesome.

That's it, Predacluts. Follow me. Swoop is so

cool. And so they break up, I guess, into a couple

of different teams to try to... because they

get rid of the Forge, now they have this Predacon

that's basically trying to pick them off. And

yeah, the plan is to get the Predacon, I guess...

pissed off enough that he'll follow swoop and

then take him underground where they put him

basically in an old Decepticon bunker. Yep, welcome

to your new Grimlock now. Yep. And it's so cool.

The last conflict of the comic, basically. Yeah,

but it's so cool. The Grimlock. actually has

a blaster instead of his dragon fire or Toronto

fire but it's so cool that Grimlock doesn't have

to rage out and he can use a blaster. Bumblebee

is his wingman because they had to have some

Bumblebee do something right and he's talking

in this by the way because by that point he had

already gotten that fixed in the in the movie

or Yeah, in the series. Yeah. I think it was

in the series. Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was in

Deadlock. So, yeah. Yeah, because by the time

the movie comes around, Optimus is knighting

him. He's a knight now. The Knights of the Round

Cybertron Table. Yes. So they take down the Predacon.

Yep. And they work together. And today's new

day That's it. They they wrap that up and Throughout

the whole issue. I think they've hit it once

they hit it almost three times I think where

the Dinobots where do they fit? Where do they

fit in all this and it's still kind of undetermined.

They're like, oh, you know RC and bulkhead and

bumblebee of, you know, they say, no, you guys

are with us. It's, it's a new world now. And

you actually at you absolutely have a, have a

place here. You know, I think it might actually

believed it a little bit more if they'd had alter

Magnus with them, because he's the guy that left

them because he was enraged at the very beginning

or actually all the way through. And then he

left. And I think it would have meant a little

bit more coming from him because the series actually

started with him in it. Yeah, that's I don't

know that you say that now that I think about

it. Why is it only? Bulkhead bumblebee and RC

show up here, and they couldn't have Magnus come

back that makes no sense and See I actually thought

that this page here where Where RC is saying

you all belong here? I saw that giant Autobot

symbol. I'm like really that's the end Yeah,

that's what I thought too because of how it was

placed you know that you thinking that it's but

yeah and then we get the homage page you know

where they're talking about optimus prime sacrifice

again um again you know and we get grimlock show

up and he says no we're not gonna stay with you

guys and it was like what everybody's like okay

cool we're we're we're feeling it we're we're

gonna stay here and turns out that there are

other people that need help and Not only do there

are other people that need help, but they'd like

to build their own city. Yeah. And, um, they're

going to call it new spark, which is funny because

Grimlock, not once did he ever step into new

spark or the old spark. Last spark. Yeah. All

he wanted. He said, no, no, no, no help for,

for last spark. And then in the end, that's what

he wants to call their their their the city that

they're going to build. It just felt a little

weird to me that they call it new spark because

what connection did he have to it other than

the fact that he was not happy with it. And now,

I don't know, it's just, it was a really odd

pick to me. It just felt like there was something

missing. And that's in the final page at the

very bottom, it says the end for now. Yeah. So

this series is nothing but teases all the way

through. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't say that it didn't

end right. It just didn't end completely satisfactory

for me. And it's not, it's not bad. I mean, there

was, there was fighting, there was, you know,

the character showed up. I just, I don't know,

there was something, it just ended in this really

odd place. It ended in an odd place because they

didn't have the budget or didn't want to use,

didn't want to create a new budget to put the

Dinobots in. It ended in a weird place because

it ends somewhere between the end of the series,

beginning of the movie, like the end of Deadlock

where they take the cyberforming... the cyber

matter back to cybertron re -ignite the planet

and then when they show up it's after the movie

after prime is sacrificed himself yeah it's just

it was a weird weird placement to do like this

any kind of a problem these last two issues especially

because i wasn't satisfied at how zoom took the

spotlight from blackout so there was a little

bit of frustration with that one and then this

one and just kind of it's just so odd That it

yeah very very on I Wouldn't say I was completely

disliked it. It's just it ended odd It ended

a very odd way and and so it just kind of like

okay. I Almost want to go. Can we get two more

issues? Can Marigold right two more? Yeah, yeah

Uh, alright. Well, uh, I think we're into a very,

very short break. We're gonna come back with

a quick outro and then that'll be it for episode

58. Catch updates weekly at cn .com and nosuperpants

.com. You can find us at danandjakeatclassy .wordpress

.com or on iTunes. Me, Grimlock, need new strategy.

Alright, there you go folks. That's the end of

the Transformers Prime Beast Hunters coverage

here inside the pull bag. It's going to depend

on what the underbase is going to do with Marigrid's

next, I would assume is going to be a miniseries.

Amy and them aren't going to cover it on the

underbase. I'm sure I can twist her arm to come

back here inside the pull bag. We can review

Transformers Windblade. Yes, it'll be interesting

to see how that goes. I haven't decided yet,

so we'll see. Yeah, that's way down the line.

It's at least two months away, so see how much

of a break it is for me. All right, where can

the people interact with you or buy your shirts?

Mostly, find me on Twitter at Lady of Wreck.

That works the best for me. If and when I get

my shirts back up online, that's probably where

I will advertise it. But yeah, that's where you

can find me over on the underbase as well. All

right, yeah, you can find the underbase in iTunes

and on FullmetalHero .com. uh... be sure to check

out all the stuff of the cast radio dot com we've

got our five -year anniversary going on right

now and that's it for this episode of the poll

bag you are going to hear a point five episode

episode fifty eight point five where j t and

i i believe we're doing turtle stuff have to

look because i can't always remember every single

thing i'm doing yes uh... next episode is TMNT

New Animated Adventures numbers four through

seven. So make your great escape into comics

and we will catch you next time. Goodbye! Me

spook know see nothing! You just heard the latest

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