Comic Reactions: Transformers Transition, Captain America Controversy & DC Television Universe

Hello everyone, TF2 and Mike here, and this is

the Pull Bag After Dark, episode 9. That's right,

it's episode 9 of the Pull Bag After Dark. And

this podcast is made up of three different clips.

The first clip you're gonna hear myself and Ryan

Merkley talk about the Transformers changeover

from Or That Meets the Eye. The middle clip was

recorded a few months ago, I don't know how long

ago, with my buddy Jesse Raz, who's a local radio

DJ here in Louisville, Kentucky on 1069 Play.

We talked about the whole Cap Hail Hydra thing,

so I know that's a little old at this point,

but I wanted to get a pull bag out for After

Dark, and we're gonna have more, I promise. I

know I've been promising this for four years

of the pull bag, but we're just gonna have more

and more and more, so be patient with us. And

yeah, the pull bag After Dark comic reactions.

Let's get to it. Oh well, looky what we have

here. Welcome to the Joker Cave. Certainly not

any jokes around here. What with all the seriousness

of putting geeks in a round table about comic

books. You're listening to The Pull Bag After

Dark. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a special

the pullback after dark you're gonna hear a couple

of reactions and different things the first reaction

we have Today is from Ryan the I even flow Merkley.

Hello, sir. Hello. I am basically just springing

this on him folks So more than meets the eye

season two ends with more transformers more than

meets the eye issue 55 Sort of there's two other

issues afterwards that tie into the whole revolution

thing right, but James Roberts on Twitter I saw

him say that more than meets the eye 55 is this

end of season two of more than meets the eye

They're then going to transition into revolution

after revolution. It's going to become the lost

light What is your thoughts on this and have

you seen the press release about this? First

of all, like real life stuff for a second. It's

really unfortunate that Alex Milne discovered

that he wasn't working full time on the comic

via the Twitter notification. That's not good.

It's not cool. Yeah, that's... No, you got to

do a better job of not... Or sorry of keeping

your employees informed that was kind of lame.

So that's dude. That's not good They shouldn't

that should not happen and I feel really bad

for him In terms of the other creative stuff

Nick Roach Rejoins Roberts, I guess he's gonna

write an arc or write an arc with him This is

the first time that they've teamed up since last

stand of the records Which is really really good.

So it's good. I'm happy that it's continuing

Roberts has done a great job season two It's

it depends on what you like Season two was really

enjoyable for me because it became sort of a

character driven Season rather than story driven

season one was more story driven with character

moments season two has been you know character

driven with story moments and I like the differences

between them. I've really enjoyed it. It's still

insanely good. It's one of the best comics that

I read on a weekly basis. And that's saying something

right now, because there's a lot of really good

comics out. Rebirth has been really good so far.

Snyder's Batman has been consistently good. And

then, opposite sides, I'm impressed with Becky

Clunin's Punisher has been great. uh... black

panther relaunch has been really good enjoyed

night walkers budget comics from everybody and

then the independence is old time there to keep

going oh yeah yeah we could be around there was

this so that so the transformers announcements

was that uh... whether it's the eyes turning

into the lost light and transformers not rated

is becoming an optimist prime one -shot i'm sorry

not the first office for an ongoing Yeah, which

is interesting, and then Windblade also splits

off as well into a Tilt -All -Our -One series.

See, I like that. Amy and Nicole and myself,

we have been doing the Windblade coverage for

a while, and we need to get back to it. We need

to finish out that second arc, the lost... Distant

Stars. I really like Distant Stars, and I like

how different the Windblade series has been from

the other series. I like that each one has been

its own thing. And they've done a good job with

that. And it's smart, too, because just to be

blunt, Baber's good, Marguerite Scott are good,

and in another timeline in another life, they

would be some of the best writers who have ever

done Transformers. But unfortunately, right now,

when James Roberts is writing Transformers and

you're writing Transformers, you're screwed.

because he's on another level than the other

writers and he's the best transformers writer

ever now at this point but he's surpassed firmance

and everybody else's stuff uh... yes even booty

and skis uh... brilliant car wash of doom from

the mark uh... anyway i mean i like that margaret

is getting you know her own sick see i always

felt that and i don't know if this is a d w just

how it was done but The first two Windblade series,

and this is the way I saw them originally, and

I could be wrong. If I'm wrong, please let me

know in the comments, folks, because that's usually

what people do on the internet. You know at first

they said oh, it's gonna be you know the first

series is gonna be a four -issue miniseries.

That's fine the second series They marked it

as an ongoing at first I thought and then it

only ended up being seven issues, and I'm like

wait. Why yeah? I was gonna be ongoing at first

my guess is the season the Revolution stuff and

the relaunch of everything they just decided

oh heck with it. We'll just hold off I expect

we're gonna see some stuff moved around like

storyline wise Yeah, I mean, you know and that's

the thing where it's like what in the same hell

Because it just felt to me that America wasn't

getting a fair shake Like she was getting this

starting storyline and being able to write all

this awesome stuff that because I love her writing

And then you know come to find out and then we

have oh wait It's gonna be till all our one and

that's that's great. That's cool Anything with

more wind blade for me in the comics is great

because I just I've loved that storyline Yeah,

I don't get there been a decent number of complaints

about wind blade. I don't get them I don't find

her a Mary Sue at all and I love I Love the fact

that they have a main character who knows very

little or nothing about the war and especially

early on her naivety and the fact that you know

she doesn't understand a lot of the conflict

and the hatred i thought it worked really well

especially with idw's prime who's depicted as

uh flawed like he's not perfect yeah and a lot

of people believe him to be a god i think that

works really well i'm happy with Well, a lot

of people, like, on her side, on, what is it?

Kamenists. Yeah, kamenists. Yeah, literally believe

Prime to be a god. Right. The only revolution

announcement I'm not pleased with, and I hate

to say it, or that bugs me, well, actually, I'm

not a huge fan of revolution, period. I don't

think the idea of tying up these disparate...

Completely disparate franchises doesn't make

a lot of sense, but whatever I'm so I have issues

with that. The other thing that bugs me though

is the Not even elephants the gigantic planets

in the room the announcement that they're gonna

go back on what they said they'd never do and

Unicron is coming which do we really need him

again in another continuity i would have just

left it alone i don't know for a second there

i thought you were gonna say something negative

about mask the mass stuff doesn't like mask and

gi joe just doesn't work especially in idw especially

now so a uh a quarter of earth's population was

wiped out by the transformers b i mean Yeah,

they're using transformer technology, but I mean

if the transformers wanted to they could still

just completely stomp all of earth easily Right.

It's just it's kind of silly to me and I was

happier when the both series were off of earth

for a while that made me That made me happy,

but yeah, they're going back even worse To me

anyway bafflingly unicorns coming for earth not

for cyber drawn Which I'm not sure how that's

gonna shake out Yeah, I see okay, so I'll you

know I'm never not honest with my comic listeners

on here on the pull bag I am so out of the transformers

comics from IDW. It's not that I don't want to

read them It's not that I don't want to enjoy

them, but I have not Outside of Combiner Wars,

the last issue I read was, other than that event,

was issue, I think, 36 of both Not Rid and More

Than Meets the Eye. I'm just so not, like, I

don't know. It's not that I'm not interested.

It's not that I don't want to read good Transformers

stories, because I know they're excellent. I

mean, you know, I... but I'm just like I don't

have like like I was saying on mayhem mics a

week ago I don't have the the need to oh my god

I don't know what it is I'm just kind of like

lost here and hopefully with uh Blue Raspberry

Rotomus um uh on the lost light hopefully I can

you know, get back into it and I can go back

and reread season 2. Yeah, I was gonna say, which,

like, more than meets the eye, slash, Lost Light,

whatever. You talk about a series that you need

to read everything. I mean, this... Oh, yeah,

no, no, no, no, yeah, no, no, yeah. The most

recent issue, for example, or even the first

page preview of issue 55 calls back something

from 36 issues ago. Although the worst the worst

slash best was the previous issue 54 which had

stuff in it from I think it was issue 2 Oh gigantic

callback and depressing slash sad Okay, all right

James before you before you start crying on air

But yeah, I know I just wanted to get your reaction

about the title changes and that kind of stuff

The only real downer is I'm kind of sad they

took the numbering away Especially since more

than meets the eye was headed to that, you know

75 or so uh... which roberts a long time ago

and we'll see if we see if he's stuck to that

or if he's written more but his idea for the

series was it lasting seventy five issues so

i mean who knows if that's still what's gonna

happen or if that's still how long it's gonna

go but now do you think the lost light is just

like gonna be alternate timeline kinda number

like IDW is not Marvel and DC, folks. They don't

reboot shit. No, they're starting it at one.

They've already said. No, no, no. I know it is.

But what I'm asking you is, you're saying that

Roberts had this plan of 75 issues. Oh. Yes.

Yes, The Lost Light is starting at one. But The

Lost Light is still continuing the more the meets

the eye thing. But do you think it will go a

certain number of issues, and then they'll go

back to? No, because it's still the continuation

of his story, he says. So in theory, if he remains

exactly the same and doesn't change his mind,

hasn't written anything, blah, blah, blah, in

theory, this series would end at 25, and that's

it. I doubt that's what's going to happen. He's

probably written more in the interim. Plus, bringing

on a guy like Roach to help write, or Roach will

help him. Come up with more stuff maybe or you

know, who knows maybe moves on because like You

talk about a writer too. That's respected for

who doesn't know him the fan adjacent errands

Aaron basically runs an awful lot of the Marvel

stuff now And anytime he does interviews people

always ask him what's you know, what's your favorite

comic? What are you reading right now? He pretty

much always says that James Roberts transformers

is the best comic going and that's high praise

from a guy who you know, has to pay attention

and is in the industry and it's a company that,

you know, he doesn't work for that he's plugging.

So he definitely thinks highly of it. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, folks, the next clip you're going

to hear here on this episode of the pullback

after dark. It was pre -recorded a while ago.

It was my buddy Jesse Raz, local radio DJ here

in town. He reacts to Captain America number

one. Yes, I know this is very old, folks, but

I'm hoping to have him back on after to see if

he still feels the same way as how he felt about...

cap hailing hydra so you're gonna hear that and

after that who knows i don't know i might grab

somebody else for a comic convenience who would

have thought that over time that would turn out

to be a completely logical good storyline oh

wait everybody who reads the comic yeah absolutely

we'll be back after this here on the pull bag

after dark Face. Winged freak. Terrorizes. So

Cap Hail Hydra 1, or the new Adventures of Captain

America as of that guy, which is thinly veiled

as an attempt to sell comics, but I'm surprised

that they did it on the heels of Civil War. Because

usually they're going the opposite direction

of trying to make the comics very much like the

movies. Which really irritates me because there's

reason I like the comics, there's reason I like

the movies. But the whole Cap -Hell -Hydro thing,

which was kind of blown out of proportion, that

most people that were like just blow hard, just

so ticked off of it, never read the comics, didn't

read this one, I read it. And I'm a guy who has

a full on Avengers accurate, Avengers 1 accurate,

Captain America, suit, shield, all of that stuff.

I visit kids in the hospital, I dress up, so.

Locally, I'm one of the... Captain America people.

Sadly, he's one of the Captain America people

that doesn't get to go to Louisville Bats games.

Yeah, that's another story. No, so I read the

issue, and it's interesting. Like the whole concept

of making Cap evil, I don't like it on the face

of it because it's Captain America. But from

a listener and a reader of these comics, like...

Okay, that's something you haven't done before,

so that's interesting. I know it's not gonna

last. I know it'll be fixed somehow, because

it's comics. It's just like soap operas. But

I'm like, alright, I'll hold on for the ride

to see if this is justifiable. The first issue,

spoiler alert, like, he seems fine, he seems

fine, and all of a sudden he shoves some D -list

superhero that he's been working with out of

an airplane and yells out, hail Hydra. I'm like,

what? And they have this, and the whole thing

reeks... time manipulation or magic or cosmic

cube because there's this mysterious woman that

seems to know that hey kid Steve Rogers back

in back in the early 20s is gonna be Captain

America and so she befriends his mom after his

mom gets beaten by his dad which I didn't know

cat's dad was a white beater that must have been

a new thing I didn't know that and she's like

hey let me buy you dinner let me take I've got

this club, and so they go and she hands her the

flyer and it's a Hydra thing. So their thing

is Steve's been involved with Hydra for all along,

which really doesn't make a lot of sense. But

again, I'm willing to buy into the concept. The

first issue, not a great issue. The last page

was the only thing that everybody gravitated

to and it looked like they just kind of added

that on. You can tell there's a little teenage

angst in Cap because he just got de -aged and

now he's working with a new suit and a new shield

because he gave the old one to Sam and he's letting

him still play Captain America, which they kind

of did with Bucky and it's weird. So now you

got three caps, you got Sam. Well, but he's still

he's still not cap. He's not happy. He's kind

of winter soldier kind of off For me and Marvel

it just depends really and it's not that I don't

Dislike Captain America. I love the movies. Well,

I love Evans and I love that He has brought the

character into the forefront of the superhero

movies and the Marvel stuff, but just, Marvel

comics in general, there's just too many, like,

I was fine with Superior Spider -Man, and then

they're like, oh, guess what? That new movie's

kind of, that new movie that no one likes anymore,

Spider -Man, Amazing Spider -Man. You know what

though? You know what though? I was ready, I

could've used a little bit more Doc -Hawk, but

I think I was ready for Peter Parker to come

back. Really was I loved I loved that storyline

and that's kind of that's it's a little it's

obviously different from what they're doing with

cap Yeah, making him evil see the thing is about

cap is what I'm wondering is are they making

him evil and doing a whole time thing are they

Are they gonna say this cap isn't really Steve?

No And of course, you know all the Marvel execs

are saying no, this is real. This is legit. Come

on. It's copies. Nothing's real legit I have

one opinion, and it may tick you off to no end,

but I'll say this. I think Marvel movies and

comic book movies in general are the worst thing

to ever happen to comic books. If you would have

asked me five years ago, I would not have said

that, but the reason I say that now is the movies

are great, comic book sales aren't. So what they're

trying to do is they're trying to... trying to

make the books more like the movies. Well, Marvel

did two things. They did, what is it called,

Captain America, Steve Rogers number one, right?

So, they launched a new number one, and in case,

because it's a new number one, that didn't make

them enough money, they threw in this. Which

is fine, again, it's different from the movies,

and so in that aspect I'm like, okay, I'm on

board with it, I'll bite. But like, they had

to make Nick Fury, he can't be the white guy

that looks like the Hoff anymore. Now he's sort

of retired and so his African -American nephew

that looks just like Samuel L. Jackson, never

mind the ultimate universe that was Sam Jackson.

It's like... You don't need that like there can

be differences between the movies and the team.

It's fine And then for a little while they screwed

with caps costume They had it for no apparent

reason looked more military like it does in the

movies And I was like while I thought that that

looked really cool. I was like you don't need

it Why can't we just bring the show cap back?

Oh God? Why can't we just forget that? Oh, man!

Good old First Avenger. Yeah. But then you've

got DC on the other hand that is doing... I don't

even know what they're doing. The two of them.

I mean, both Marvel and DC. I get it. They want

to be able to make money on their comics. They

want to be able to sell books. They want to be

able to break in the numbers. It's a tough market,

yeah. It's a very tough market because you have,

while most people will say, and I'm sure you

will say and I'm sure I've said at some point

or another, Marvel and DC, for the last 75 plus

years, they've been the big two. And you've got

people, you've got stuff like... Image doing

stuff in IDW doing their thing. Well, Vertigo,

I really can't count Vertigo because they're

owned by DC now. But for a while there, I mean,

even under DC's tutelage, they kind of have done

their own thing and it's been good. They've had

some good stuff come out. Yeah, absolutely. It's

been my, I don't want to say it's been my life

goal, but for the past year I wanted to get into

Coffin Hill from Vertigo. Yeah, I've got the

first two volumes and I just stuff kept coming.

we need to do this, we need to do that, and I

just haven't got to it. I think I'm like nine

pages into volume one, and I like it, I think

it's cool, but it's one of those things where

DC and Marvel, I really hate to say this, but

I'm going to, they're essentially, both of them,

are the Howard Sterns of the comic book industry

at this point, because they constantly reboot,

I don't care if it's called Rebirth, I'm not

saying that, I'm saying they constantly... Make

new number ones to get those number one sales

Actually, you know why they do number ones I

read a really interesting article and I forget

who wrote it or where I found it But the one

of the main reasons they do number ones Yes,

because number ones sell but it's because they

decided a long time ago. Hey detective comics

983 that's pretty daunting to jump in Yeah, so

if I do detective comics one all of a sudden

volume eight. Yeah make it more approachable,

people can jump on. The problem is, is you can

make it a number one, but there's still all this

continuity. And for me, I love that because I'm

like, well, I'll go back and, okay, I'll read

volume three. Man, this is crap. Or, oh man,

I'm glad they got rid of this. I love this artist.

So for a comic fan, that'll kind of dive back

there, but for your average person, not necessarily.

And so when you go number one, it's supposed

to make it more approachable, but. then you go

number one and then you build up into these giant

crossovers and these giant events that tie in

a whole bunch of stuff and then it gets confusing

and it's like oh it's designed to make you buy

more comics. And some of the events not all of

them specifically on Marvel side I can speak

to because I haven't read a lot of the big Marvel

events but some of the DC events are like oh

yeah Because because you lead up to that you

know you take Well, it wasn't it was an event,

but it wasn't a major event you take death of

the family We've talked about this for four years

in a pole bag It started in Batman 13 it went

through all the other numbers and all the other

books at the time and then it all led back into

Batman 17 I think if I remember correctly back

when Steve and I were talking about this you

read all the other titles first of number 16.

No, no, no, listen. No, no, I understand what

you're going to read. Yeah, go ahead. You read

everything... Nightwing Batgirl, Suicide Squad,

whatever it was, whatever had a 16 issue, you

read all that, then you read Batman 16, and then

on the reverse of that when you get to Batman

17, you read that first, and then you spread

out across. But see, I shouldn't need a damn

flowchart in effect. Like, I've gotten bit by

Marvel and DC, and I'll say this about Marvel

though, so when I read Civil War, originally

I just read Civil War, and I got so much out

of it. And then I found out there's tight. issues

and then I read and then it added to it I shouldn't

have to go read 17 issues to get to this main

storyline yeah like I'll use a great example

so crisis on infinite earths you know the original

crossover series to clean up DC continuity great

infinite crisis read that you know what that's

not bad either I like that that kind of fell

more into the category of here's the main thing

And then here are these other issues that support

that and add interesting side stories that we

couldn't tell in this. Like that. Final Crisis,

which was supposed to be the trilogy of that,

you had to read the other issues just to know

what the heck is going on in that. And even in

some of those, it didn't make like Batman, or

not Batman, Superman 3D. It was two issues. The

Hell, man! The Hell! two issue starring Nicolas

Cage. Oh my God! That is well worth it! And it's

just, it's like, if you're gonna do one of that,

then write a seven issue arc that is almost self

-contained. And even, you can even put in a footnote,

for more info, see Amazing Spider -Man 16 or

whatever. And it's like, then that is gonna,

as a reader who gets excited about this, I'm

going to go, OK, yeah, I'm going to pick these

up. You know what? I'm going to pick that up

because that's really interesting. And then I

have to pick up the next three or four issues

to understand what's going on in context. And

then you've sold me. Well, you know, and people

that listen to The Pull Bag in the last four

years will know this. I'm a huge, and you are

too, I believe, DC animated universe fan. Justice

League, Justice League Unlimited, Superman Animated

Series, Batman Beyond, Batman Animated Series,

all that stuff. So I'm a huge Nightwing fan.

So that was my thing. When Steve originally did

his written review of Batman 13, I'm like, ooh,

the Joker. Ooh, I can hear Mark Hamill in my

head. I need to read this now. And then I read

Batman 13, 14, 15, got the 15, and oh, that's

when Nightwing and Batgirl and everybody else

starts coming in with the crossovers and the

tie -ins. And I'm like, OK, well, I'll read Batgirl,

because I like Batgirl, and I hear Tara Strong

in my head all the time. I'll read Nightwing,

because I hear Lauren Lester in my head all the

time. And I read from Nightwing. Batgirl 15 up

and then I went back and read their their origins

which is fine for new 52 but like you said earlier

going back to detective going to 934 935 you

know what they're gonna do they're gonna end

up charging Anywhere between $7 .99 to $9 .99.

$7 .99 to $9 .99 for Detective Comics number

1 ,000. Because you know that's where they're

going. They're going to $1 ,000 and then they're

going to go back to number 1 again. Yeah. Well,

it's like they did with those 666 issues. Which

actually were pretty good issues, the ones that

I bought. But sort of tie this around. I know

we started talking about Captain America. Now

we're going into Rebirth. But that's what I'm

afraid of with Rebirth, though, is... I'm afraid

that those that have, and I'm not one of them,

that have, like, gotten lashed on to these characters

in 52. Like, Nightwing is a completely different

character in this new 52 than he really has been

in the previous iterations of Nightwing. Those

that have grown attached to it are now gonna

just get screwed over again. And it's like...

See, I don't... Well, see, I don't know, because...

I don't know if they are or not, but that's my

big fear, is that those kind of characters...

They've built up in the new 52 and probably have

done a pretty decent job of well They built him

up, but then they tore him down Yeah, and made

him the Nick Fury of the DC universe Yes, and

I saw that it's like some people might like that

some people might hate that I don't like it.

I mean he should be Yeah, but it's like so you've

but even though you've vested all this time and

energy into learning this character And now they're

just gonna flip a switch. Oh, no now he's back

to this which is kind of what they're doing with

Superman Yeah, I mean I like that they're bringing

Nightwing back Obviously, I'm very open -minded

to whatever the story is I just want the whole

Grayson thing to be a If I can erase one thing

from DC continuity personally, it would be Grayson.

I'm sorry I just can't get behind Dick Grayson

as a super spy. And I kind of liked him in Chicago.

I loved it. You know that whole run where he's

in Bloodhaven before Infinite Crisis and all.

Loved that run. I really liked him in that. He

was kind of stepping out on his own. He had his

own Batcave. I really liked that run. And then

I remember when it just kind of like, okay, Batman

said we're home. Actually, I remember the series

ended because I'm pretty sure it didn't sell.

But I remember that series and I'm like, he is

a hero in his own right. He has bad ties, but

he's got his life, he's got his own city, all

that good stuff. It was good. And the thing with

Cap is that it's one of those things where, like

I said, and I know you kind of disagree, but

Marvel did two things. They got a new number

one for numbers. They... did a story arc thing

where Cap is evil and As soon as that happened

Beak and I think they did this at the wrong.

I think they did this on purpose This would be

the last thing before we go here. I think they

did this on purpose. You had civil work about

yes, basically Cap and Tony fighting amongst

each other. It's you know, whatever else great

movie though, right? Absolutely fantastic movie.

They released the comic Shortly after that movie

came out. Yeah to then say oh wait Hang on. Let's

take him in a new story direction now the end

of that book Did that make you want to read more

or did that make you just want to rip it up and

never? Do anything with it again As a cap as

a cap purist it made me kind of want to rip it

up but as a comic and a story fan It made me

want to pick up one more issue like it didn't

they I'm not gonna say they had me hooked Maybe

the second issue will get me hooked But like

I said, it just the whole thing just came out

of nowhere and I had picked up the comic knowing

what was gonna happen Yeah, but I just I wasn't

seeing it So maybe the second issue will be a

little bit more along those lines and kind of

explain things. Yeah And I'm not a big fan of

the artwork on there Sharon Carter looks significantly

older than Steve all of a sudden. Did you see

the thing on Facebook? That's Haley Atwell bashing.

Yeah. Well, that's in the comics. I mean, you

know, it is what it is. It is a little creepy.

It is a little creepy. It's actually creepier

in the comics because he, in the movie, he just

kissed her. That was as far as they got. In the

comics, he hooked up with her. Yeah. And they

were running spy missions, so you know what was

going on. Yeah. So he's making his way through

the Carter family. So, and I get what she's saying,

it's creepy, but whatever, she died, she had

her chance. Well, she said... He gets the younger,

blonder version of her. He basically gets the

revenge girl. You know, Haley Atwell said that

it's pretty much incestuous that... It is a little.

It's not like... She and Sharon are kissing.

I can see that. But I will say this. Take this

with a grain of salt. It's also a universe where

a dude was frozen for 80 years. Come on. I mean,

it's like the whole controversy about the apocalypse

billboard strangling mystique. You know it's

not real, right? You know those are mutants.

You know it's not a real thing, right? You know,

it's just, it's one of those things, it makes

me laugh. But she kind of does have a point,

and I love Haley Atwell. I have a huge crush

on her. Poor Agent Carter, she gets no season

three. You know what, she didn't deserve season

three. I have only seen the first episode of

season two. Season two was okay in drug, but

it was okay, but it really did kind of drag.

I wish they had not been greedy and had done

a really tight... Two season story arc the season

one was good and I liked it I thought they did

when they weren't planning to do a season two.

I thought that was great Yeah, because they really

there were a couple of says they lost me but

that's a whole it was good They planned this

little mini -series. Yeah, they knew where they

were going with the end and they did it the second

season I think they were kind of like we have

to kind of open And so they were some fun stuff

and like I loved having her and Jarvis together

again I would have loved her more of her and

Stark. Yeah which he came in later part of that

season. So I could have watched. I wanted it

to end with the birth of S .H .I .E .L .D. Like

the first, that first inkling of that. Because

I would have loved seeing a young Stark. Well

no, because Nick Fury wasn't there for the beginning

of it. So a young Stark, a young her. Maybe you

get a little bit of Ant -Man in there. You get

a little bit of some of that in there. And just

seeing the seeds of that, you know, it's like,

so then, then maybe you have battalion. Yeah.

But they already have agents of shield. So, which

I'm kind of curious as to where they're going

with that. I, I have not, and I, it's going to

be a cold day in hell before I watch anything

past season one of agents of shield. I know,

I know people have said season three and season

four are better and it's got better, but. I just...

I will tell you, here's what you need to watch,

and I think it's season two. Or maybe it was

the end of season one, where S .H .I .E .L .D.

collapses, was that the end of season one? I

don't even remember. I don't remember. But right

after Winter Soldier, and S .H .I .E .L .D. goes

to hell, and that happens on the show, that's

when it gets really, really good. One of these

days, I'll try it again. I'm too busy having

fun in the D .C. TV Universe. Oh God, I love

The Flash. The Flash is so good. The Flash can

do no wrong. Season 3 is going to be so whacked.

But you know what though? Because of the end

of Season 2. Oh yeah, but you know what though?

I read somewhere that they're going to start

killing off characters that also appear in movies.

That DC is going to start doing that. So I'm

nervous for Flash. I'm afraid they might make

the transition to Wally. As long as they're...

Maybe Wally's been set up in that universe fairly

nicely. I don't like him Okay, he's not like

he's okay, and and you know what there's also

seeds of this and rebirth too yeah, and It's

not that I haven't anything against a flash of

another color or race or ethnicity I'm just not

a big fan of that particular He's growing on

me, but I've never didn't you want Rosenbaum

Wally. That's what you want we all we all deserve

let's be honest here but I just I think that

the actor grant what's his face that custom I

think he does such a great job Barry that I don't

want I don't want them to make the transition

to another flash I'm not I'm not done hearing

his story yeah And by the time, when's Justice

League supposed to come out? 2017, 2018, 2019,

something like that? I don't know, they may have

to shoot it three times, so... At least it has

a simple title, Justice League, that's it. But

it's just one of those things where I am so in

love with the TV universe at this point, especially,

and I don't care what anyone, especially Les

Moonves says over at CBS, oh, we were gonna pick

it up if CW did, no, no, no, no, no. It's too

expensive. If CBS was going to pick up Supergirl

for a season two, they would have announced it

when they picked up all their other stuff. And

honestly, it's better. I don't know how it's

going to work. And we've talked about this before,

but I don't know how it's going to work with

CW's scheduling. But if you think about it, you've

got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Yeah,

Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow.

And Amel said something about a four night crossover.

Oh yeah, there's always, well that's the thing,

the crossovers have been getting bigger and bigger

and bigger since Arrow had Ferry on and then

The Flash came and then they had that and then

Legends they had kind of a crossover episode

to launch them off and so every year they do

these crossovers between these shows which I

think is genius because it takes Takes it right

from the game plan of the comics when you do

crossovers like that you do those big events.

It's genius I love it because because it allows

them to exist in the sort of world where there's

not all this continuity necessarily like they

have a relationship, but like what's going on

with arrow My kind of feed into this, but you

don't have to be watching arrow to really get

it I do know because I'm not watching here. I

do know at one point this year for season two

of Flash and for season four of Arrow, you'd,

Mel said you need to watch both. Yeah, I had

to go and find that episode of Arrow to get the,

it was the arc about killing, uh... It was Legends,

wasn't it? No, it was right before Legends. No,

it was that arc about killing Vandal Savage.

Oh yeah! With Hot Grill. It was basically Legends

before Legends happened, which... I can't believe

they killed off Captain Cold. He's not dead.

He essentially is in that universe because he's

moving on to other things, but... Well, yeah,

but there's another... I know, I really liked

him. Yeah, no, that was awesome. Well, he's not

really moving on to other things. He's doing

Prison Break. I was gonna say, he's moving back

to things he used to do. Real quick, so Our Man

at the end of Legends of Tomorrow, did you catch

that? Our Man? Our Man. Go back and watch. So

he's the guy at the end that came back and out

from the Justice Society. Oh He says my name

is Rex Tyler. Okay, that's our man Okay Who's

basically a drug addict because he takes he takes

a pill and he gets super strength an hour at

a time That's that works. That's why he calls

himself our man. Sounds like booster gold anyway.

Oh god. I wish they bring The only good thing

ever to happen to booster gold is that Billy

West voiced Skeets. That's it. Pick up that run

because him and Rip Hunter make such a great

team. Time traveling and legends, but you know

the DC TV universe is gonna be interesting And

you know you had a point earlier about you know

they're gonna start killing off the that's because

of the Because because DC and their short -sightedness

is afraid that there's gonna be too much confusion

Well see if they would have left Barry alone

and used Wally and used Wally or used Jay or

used Whoever in the film it would have been fine

like I remember and I don't like the look Of

this flash I haven't even really seen that much

of it. I gotta look I'm I'm so burly right now

a buddy of mine Steve said he's pretty much tired

of superhero movies these days are the main dark.

Yes darkness and Marvel I think the darkest ones

they have is the war more so war civil war This

is the okay, so let's do Marvel versus DC really

quick because I know you gotta go but let's Civil

War versus the BS that is BBS There's no comparison

I'm saying that Civil War is the concept dark

for Marvel Yeah, not gritty and dark like everything

is in this dark filter talking like this Yeah,

because it's like they take It's like a serious

issue. They took beliefs of both sides and yes

They took a political issue, they had you choose

sides, and that was fine, whereas the BS that

is BBS is like, his mom's name is Marvin Two.

I will make this analogy for you before I leave.

I say that Batman vs Superman and Captain America

Civil War are the greatest Mother's Day movies

ever because the fighting is either exacerbated

or solved because of mothers. Spoiler alert,

they quit fighting because they both have mom's

name Martha and spoiler alert Stark starts beating

the crap out of Cap because his best friend shot

his mama. It's all about the mama drama. The

one thing I do absolutely love about Civil War

was how they basically made him look like he

was in 1989 in Chances Are. Oh yeah, they've

gotten so good with that, it's disgusting. Alright

folks, that was Jesse Rez from 106 .9 Play. Yes,

ranting and a raven. Yeah, well, you know, you

gotta find some audience here. You know, it's

not even an audience. So I have a group text

with me and two other buddies. It's called the

Council of Nerds. They're my two best friends

in the entire world. One of them, TJ, he's got

a full -on sleeve of Spider -Man tattoos that

I swear... is a beautiful piece of artwork. Chad

is an IT guy in Evansville and so we talk back

and forth. Last night we were having a debate

about how terrible Loki is as a villain. He had

two infinity stones and still screwed up and

he didn't realize it and how short -sighted he

is and how... We have an army, we have a Hulk.

We went back and forth on how did he get the

scepter. He's like, well he had it. It's like,

no, he was given it to him. Well, he sure knew

how to use it. He pointed it at people's hearts

and took them over and then shot blast with them.

Doesn't look like that's very hard, of course.

They were like, well, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark

couldn't figure it out. I was like, no. Loki...

just used it because it was beautiful and it

was powerful. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner whined

and dined it because they really wanted to get

to know it better. And that's when they found

the Infinity Stone. Ladies and gentlemen, the

moral of the story is, always sleep with the

scepter. Ew! Ew, all that, no. St. Jarvis is

at that time. The House Party protocol, sir?

Correct. All right, folks, we heard from Ryan,

even from Merkley about his reaction to more

than meets the eye becoming until all are one,

not till the lost light. And then we heard my

buddy Jesse, one of the local radio DJs talking

about his reaction from a few months ago about

Captain America hailing Hydra. And now we're

back to Transformers here inside the pull bag

after dark. We welcome Lady Rack. Hello. Hello,

hello. Yes. She's juggling her children right

now, folks. Yeah, I'm trying to feed a little

18 -month -old that's like, no, I don't want

to eat that anymore, Mommy. Get your feet off

the table, silly. And people wonder why you've

disappeared from podcast land. Oh, the monotonous.

Stop doing that. Don't do that. I'm a broken

record. The merry -go -round broke down. Yeah.

Or at least it's on repeat. Well, it's a, it's

a Roger Rabbit. The merry round broke down quite

a loony selection for a bunch of drunken reprobates.

So we're here and I wanted to get, since I got

Ryan's reaction, I wanted to get Amy's reaction

because Amy and I, uh, the night before we recorded

this in a week. after this, a week before this

actually goes up, we were sitting here, Wednesday

night, Thursday night, I don't know, whatever

it was. Tuesday night scratching our heads going,

huh? Yeah, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning,

yeah, yeah, yeah. So, there was a, it was Tuesday,

shit, when the hell was it? Damn it. Okay, it

was Tuesday night, July 19th into Wednesday morning,

July 20th, we were looking at the IDW solicitations

for October. And we had Transformers, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. And then I'm

sitting there scratching my head and I'm like,

wait, there's no solicitation for more than meets

the eye. What the hell? And as soon as I said

that, what the hell, Amy just goes off. Then

I said, what do you mean it's not in there? What

do you mean it's not in there? What do you mean

it's not there? It's not freaking there. But

it has to be there. It's not ending, is it? It's

gone. It goes poof. No, no, no, no. OK, go check

the last months to see what they said, because

I was like, no, this can't be happening. Oh,

no, no, can't be happening. No, they can't be

ending it. They just came out with a news about

John Barber. So yeah, you can see how. quickly

snowballed into this. No, no, no, no. John left.

That was all that happened. That's all that happened.

Yes. So what is happening is, I think right before

or right after this, I put up on geekcastradio

.com the press release. IDW announces post -revolution

debuts, GI Joe, Mask, and other new titles explode

out of September's biweekly event series. And

we are getting Transformers The Lost Light with

a Shattered glass rottomus a blue raspberry rottomus.

I don't even know what kind of rottomus that

is And we're getting He's pretty flavored He's

a fruit loop people with that trail mix now we

have fruit loop So what's happening here folks

and Ryan and I talked about a minute ago a little

while ago they are they market them as two new

on -goings but essentially what it is is is more

than meets the eye is transforming into the lost

lights and transformers a k a not ready k used

to be ready k comic formally known as yes that's

a bad prince joke i'm sorry i won't have any

it's all over that it's not really is turning

into an optimist prime title okay The press release

reads that the Revolution ripple effect continues

to shake things up as IDW's Transformers line

will see some changes with the introduction of

two new ongoing titles, Transformers The Lost

Light or Transformers Lost Light. in the first

ever ongoing Optimus Prime series, okay? Lost

Light will continue the fan favorite adventures

told by more than meets the eye writer James

Roberts, joined on art by Jack Lawrence, who

has done Doctor Who adventures beginning in December

of this year, 2016. The new series will take

Erotimus and the crew of the Starship Lost Light

into the furthest reaches of the universe, searching

for the long lost knights of Cybertron. And then,

over in Optimus' trailer, John Barber, who recently

exited his post as IDW's Hasbro group editor,

won't be straying too far from his IDW roots

as he tackles Optimus Prime, the first solo series

to star the Autobot. John will be joined by artist

Kyzma. Tomax and Zaymott. Optimus Prime has declared

Earth to be under his protection, and this November

he'll have to face the consequences. So, um,

yeah. Okay, Lost Light and Optimus Prime. Like,

they couldn't have come up - I get it's an Optimus

Prime series now, but having a comic titled after

a character? Unless it's gem. Oh I'm not used

to it in transformers folks. I'm just not like

I don't know. I'm just not used to it in transformers.

I guess Because you know, we got Batman we got

Superman we got Nightwing we got I I have a I

have a feeling that this is This is just gonna

be what its title for right now and that it will

probably evolve into something else If you catch

my drift, I think it's still gonna be transformers

It just focus on optimist prime for however many

issues that John wants to run that wet what they

run that way I mean look at we've we've had it

rebranded already. We've had dark Cybertron We're

gonna have revolution We've had chaos. I mean,

I think that's what they're kind of going with

if that makes sense. Oh, yeah I understand. I

think it's just what John's gonna run with while

he's doing that, but, you know, it seems like

to me that everything that John's doing, he does

the events. He's building up to that. Now, I

don't know in what capacity that might change

for the future, because now he's not going to

be the senior editor, but I would think that

if that's what he's doing and that's what he

intends to continue doing, that that might be

the reason why they're calling it Transformers

Optimus Prime. I mean, they already did the Windblade

thing, so I'm guessing... As soon as that doesn't

make sense to keep it going like that, they'll

change it to something else. They'll rebrand.

Yeah. And I think it'll be all right. I think

they've figured out how to do that without making

it a huge problem. Yeah, the only difference

is this is the first time that IDW has gone and

done a DC or a Marvel move and gone to new number

ones. Yeah, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

In the last, no, no, no, I don't think it's bad

either. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm

saying that in the, when did, when did the Ongoing's

original, was it 2011, 20, yeah, 2011, 2012?

Yeah, something like that. So when Robots in

Disguise, when it used to be Robots in Disguise

and when More Than Meets the Eye, when they started,

it was 2011, 2012. I could be wrong. I'm sorry,

folks. I think it was 2011. I really do think

it was 2011. When they started, it was Transformers,

More Than Meets the Eye. And not only that, it

was the beginning of a brand new year, too. Right.

So looking at the images on geekcastradio .com's

press release here that we put up for IDW, it

says Transformers Lost Light. The Optimus Prime

image just says Optimus Prime. It doesn't say

Transformers Optimus Prime. It just says Optimus

Prime, and it has a big honking picture of Prime.

Okay. That's kind of what I'm wondering is, are

they no longer calling it Transformers? Are they

just going to rotate characters out on the series?

I guess. I'm like, my first instinct is, let's

just see what Revolution does. Because that might

change things too. So I don't know what they're

planning. And the way that they're talking about

it seems like, okay, there's something more going

on here than just recalling it Optimus Prime.

And I'm like, okay, well, I'm patiently going

to wait and see what they do. Because I'm thinking

that maybe it has something to do with what's

coming out of revolution. I mean, it's big enough

that... Don't lie you were freaking out though.

I was freaking out at first going no, no, no,

no more The Macy's not are they taking a break?

That was my first instinct was oh, maybe they're

just taking a break for a month And so October

really we won't get anything. It'll just be revolution.

I thought okay That was you know my first thought

but then when we when you read this list It's

and it said this is the final issue and I went

what? I started panicking. I really did I did

It's probably the second panic that I've done

in one week. Because the first one was when John

announced that he was no longer the editor. I

was like, no, you can't do this. Because I always

said, if he ever left, if either him or James

ever leave IDW, that I'm going to bawl my eyes

out. And I'm not kidding. I will, because they've

given us so much awesome stuff that it's just

like, no, no, no, you can't do this to me. Absolutely.

Alright folks, that's gonna do it for this After

Dark. We had Ryan, we had my buddy Jesse, we

had Amy here. It's a little mini After Dark that

we did on reacting to Transformers and reacting

to Captain America. Three onions! Yay! Oh yeah,

till all are one, Optimus Prime and Lost Light.

There you go. Oh boy. That should be your tagline.

Oh boy. Oh boy. I'm getting too old for this.

That's what my tagline is. Oh, so yeah. After

Dark was a little mini episode, as I said, in

Bag Issue Classics, episode 67. The podcast is

going to be taking just a little bit of a break.

I don't think I've ever put the podcast at the

pullback on hiatus for the last four years, so.

i gotta decompress folks i'm i'm not really buying

comics all that much right now i'm currently

just one reasons why you guys have got a lot

of idw coverage is because i'm on their media

list and i get to see the stuff you know so uh...

but uh... but yeah i gotta do some reformatting

and reconstruction and uh... hopefully the construct

icons don't kill me in the process uh... not

much at least Yeah, not much at least. So yeah,

the pull bag, we're going to be taking a little

bit of a break, as I said in Baggage Shoot Classics

episode 67, but I just wanted to get this little

after dark thing out there just to get it out

there and to get the clip from my buddy Jesse

online and all that good stuff and have some

Transformers reactions, so yay! Giant robots,

yay! Now let's cross our fingers that that's

all that they're changing. Because San Diego

Comic -Con's not over yet. As of this recording,

San Diego Comic -Con is not over yet. So, make

your greatest game to comics and we will catch

your crying babies next time. Bye -bye! That

way, to you, it'll look like they're smiling!

Clever? Brilliant. Yeah, yeah, I can tell you're

less than thrilled. You know, for what it's worth,

I actually enjoyed some of our romps. But there

comes a time when a gal wants more. And now all

this gal wants is to settle down with her lovin'

sweetheart. You and the Joker? Ryder Rooney!

I've never seen you laugh before! I don't think

I like it! Cut it out! You're giving me the creeps!