Robyn Hood Age of Darkness Review

Welcome to Back Issue Classics, here inside the

Pull Bag. TFG1 Mike brings in a variety of hosts

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might not have known about. It's all here inside

the Pull Bag with Back Issue Classics. Hello

and welcome to The Pullback. This is Back Issue

Classics, episode 39. I am Wunderios, TFG and

Mike. Joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello. Good

day, sir. And we're done with the Mutanimals

break where Joe Reed and I talked about the IDW

publishing TMNT Mutanimals 4 -issue miniseries.

We're getting back into Robin Hood and we're

at yet again another one -shot here. We have

Robin Hood, Age of Darkness. Last week we did

Robin Hood volume 2 which is wanted, Age of Darkness

follows that, the events of that book. So let

me ask you sir, after reading all this stuff,

and I know we still have one more trade to go

with legend, after reading all of this stuff,

Are you at all interested in anything else like

is his reading this really piqued your interest

into looking into what else? Xenoscope has to

offer I mean, I'll check some of the stuff out,

but I'm not a hundred percent I Think the the

whole Robin Hood thing resonates with me because

I like the character of Robin Hood Okay Whereas

I know they do a lot of other female fairy tale

characters right But like I don't care about

any of them just in the classic sense of the

characters not necessarily their character Right.

Yeah, the way that I've approached this is yes.

We have the classic characters but they are putting

such a twist on it and Most people I don't know

if I've even mentioned this in like three years.

The pullback has been online I am NOT into horror

people at on horror movies. It's just not my

thing at all and Xenoscope here has basically

horrified twists and turns for their their comics

here, which is honestly nothing in this is really

One it made me want to shy away from it. It's

not your pure your average crappy saw movie,

you know So I you know i i think i said this

last time in the in the wanted episode i'm pretty

much all in i will check out and try anything

that they've got at least once i do know i want

to check out their um their neverland series

um they have two trades for neverland one is

neverland the other one is neverland hook So

that'll be interesting They're currently in production

on 6 10th anniversary one -shot issues. I've

checked out three of those so far The red riding

hood one was awesome. So so yeah, I'm pretty

much like Where certain other comic companies

They say have kind of you know left me with like

two or three titles that I actually like. Xenoscope

has actually got stuff that is pulling me into

their world and I think it's great. I think everybody

should at least give this stuff a try. So as

I said the age of darkness one shot here for

Robin Hood the story so far after the sheriff

of Nottingham murdered Robin's closest friend

Will Scarlett Robin was left broken and devastated

soon after her defeat at the hands of the sheriff

she was apprehended by the police and charged

with murder and imprisoned however a secret government

agency called Hibbo Corp contracted Robin to

join their realm Knights team and in exchange

for an official pardon Robin will reluctantly

join the Knights, but will her new lease on life

Ease the pain of her loss Again absolutely loving

this This series here so age of darkness pretty

much starts out to where you know we're at the

it's she's in a dream sequence here and we have

zombie merry men did you ever think we would

ever see zombified merry men i will eat you in

your sleep precious yes um so we have zombified

merry men tuck will scarlet uh coming up out

of their graves And we have, uh, just, you know,

so we've got that. And apparently it's a dream

because she's in a helicopter with, uh, with

this government agency thing or whatever. And

they're off to a mission to stop somebody or

do something with, um, stop Mr. Satan. Yes. Yes.

Um, the interesting thing here is because this

is, um, This one -shot is written by Patrick

Shan, the writer of the overall series, obviously.

The cool thing here is what he does with the

government stuff. I absolutely love that. I thought

that was great. Robin Hood in Suicide Squad.

Where's Amanda Waller? Yeah, really. Well, they

kind of have a male version of her in here. That's

like Sam Jackson run around where's my super

suit But I love how Patrick Shane just basically

Charlie Brown adult voices it up with governmenty

babble governmenty babble That that's awesome

So they're on a mission to find something or

other. The art in this is just amazing. I just

love this art. And Robin's having issues. She

wants to go in first. Oh, they're hunting a vela.

I really like Robin's suit in this. Are you really?

Yeah, like the shiny aspect to it. It looks very

superhero -esque. Yep. It looks like a cross

between It's almost like the and I know people

are gonna kill me when I say this but When you

see her standing outside the helicopter before

they go in the building It almost looks like

green arrow and Batman had a child with a love

for the suit because it's it's half black half

green and it changes color as the It looks like

it it part of her bodice changes color as we

go through this So we run into Avella who is

this witch and this this one shot basically is

Robin and Avella coming to some sort of agreement

or whatever because we get the story of Avella,

you know Basically she tells the story of how

she has this curse put upon her And the the artwork

is just so good love how Patrick Shan writes

some of Robin's lines where she tells the government

dog stay bitchcraft over here is mine and all

the time thing is like oh my god that's hilarious

so Avella and Robin have a fight they end up

going back to mist because Avella opens up a

portal now I know you're not too much of a fan

of the portal jumping And I told you last time

there was going to be a lot of it in here. Yeah,

that to me would be the equivalent of... I mean,

at least they don't do, you know, time travel.

You know, pulling a Terminator. But they... The

only thing that kind of bugs me about it is just

the fact that it's kind of a McGuffin. A jump

between realities. Yeah, that's the only thing

that bothers me I mean I don't think that it's

necessarily bad because it's at least done tastefully

in the way that they portrayed it here Yeah,

so we jump back into mist and we meet Cindy Now

Cindy I know is going to be one of the other

characters that gets a 10th anniversary one -shot

So we don't get a whole hell of a lot of Cindy

here At least coming into this as a one -shot

coming from us reading the Robin Hood series

I have yet to read the realm Knights trade paperbacks

that Xenoscope has done so I'm not too sure on

Cindy's Characterization or like I know that's

not Cinderella. I don't think that's supposed

to I think it looks like it's supposed to be

Yeah, I don't know. It's it's like it's no white

and Cinderella. Yeah. Yeah, that's true probably

is um but i it's just one of those things where

i just wasn't really sure because this version

of cinderella is way dark i mean cinderella with

a sword holy crap folks uh so cinda uh cindy

avella and robin would have a little fight there

and we meet um the queen of hearts Or the queen

of darkness or whatever the queen from hell,

yeah It looks like um, what's that Evil in Yeah,

yeah, that's what I thought when I first saw

it. I was like that evil in Yeah, he's sitting

right next to her actually But I assume is supposed

to be the queen of hearts from Alice in Wonderland

or something or I don't know Because I could

have sworn she had Patrick Shand had her say

awful off with their heads at some point in this

I don't think she does but So this guy Malik

is this super demon Kind of looks like a red

male version of Maleficent if that's even possible

And apparently he has Avella under a spell so

he is essentially controlling Avella's every

move And once again Robin gets imprisoned So

this is like the fourth or the fifth time she's

been in jail. She's got frequent flyer miles

For jail cells. Yeah, exactly I Love the internal

monologue here. Okay, so I have a temper now.

I'm gonna be smart I just I just love that So

the Queen comes and sees her and actually frees

her While they have a discussion about the dark

army and this that the other thing and everything

else and so Robin eventually ends up getting

free and running after her weapons At least they

took her weapons away from her That's a smart

thing to do. Yeah, because the Queen wants her

to really kill Cindy or she wants her to Basically

enact her own plan And we probably have the most

scally -clad scene in the entire series to this

point we have Cindy and Pretty much blue skimp

with a red thong nice. Yeah what I'm just saying

I Mean come on. It's blue see -through and then

she's checking out her boobs in the mirror. Yeah

Because she's waiting for Malik and It ain't

Malik Swing bad about about about it. Yeah, huh?

bloody nose Bitch to the wall bend to the floor.

Yeah, I don't think she's I don't think she's

gonna make it through that entire match With

a broken nose. I'm like a certain wrestler did

recently anyway, that'll go over your head. But

anyway Yeah, I know. I already read about it.

Okay. And people say John Cena's not a worker.

Anyway. Don't. We not going there on this show.

I know. We're so not going there. So Robin and

Cindy have a have a heart to heart and she does

almost kill her, but she does leave her there.

But not before what looks like kicking the crap

out of her We get Malek and Avella and we get

the whole origin of why Avella is tied to him

and We get Robin trying to save Avella apparently

We have her then facing an army of orcs and Then

a whole other army of people And we actually

have, as Avella, there's a scene here where Avella

hits her with a piece of magic that's gonna actually

teleport her. The way they do the lettering and

the exclamation point, it reminds me of the old

Metal Gear Solid game. I'm just waiting for the

sound effect, that's all I'm waiting on now.

Yeah, yeah that. So, Avella and Robin escape.

They have yet another battle They then come to

terms with each other Because they want to basically

stop Gisborne and and Malik and and all this

and all that What are your what do you think

of the story so far in this one shot here I think

it's pretty solid and and I like the art. I like

the The kind of back and forth of you don't know

who to trust Mm -hmm, and then Robins kind of

like WTF. I'm just gonna start killing all these

people that are attacking me Well, it was a giant

army of orcs I mean, you know, it's not like

they're human or anything. Yeah, they they were

manufactured So Avela has Robin's swear to her,

you know her, you know her allegiance and because

she wants Avella to tell her what the dark horde

is up to and it shows that she whispers something

and I think if you zoom in enough on it you can

probably read what it says but my eyes are so

damn old I can't read that right now and Robin

has this shocked look on her face and we get

to the point where it says that she didn't know

much but she knows that the Horde is gathering

the capital needed to fund an army and we get

back to the debriefing of the mission and we

then go back to the Queen with Avella and Avella

the Queen sends her on yet another mission This

time to meet up with gizborne guy of gizborne

and made Marion We go back to Robin's apartment

in New York and she's getting in bed Relaxing

and we get back to the dream and this is where

the horror element comes in here folks I mean

don't get me wrong Malek's a demon form is a

little scary, but it's It's honestly kind of

like an adult version of the Powerpuff Girls

villain, Him. But anyway, so we get back to the

dream and, you know, it's her and Will Scarlett

and all them and she ends up killing Will and

we have Malek and the Queen next to her. And

she wakes up, you know. And that's how it ends,

because it ends on such a cliffhanger. This is

not what I was expecting at all. Yeah, no cliffhangers

for me, please. Oh, come on. I don't like cliffhangers.

Too many questions, not enough answers. Well,

we get answers. I don't like waiting. Oh, what

do you mean waiting? We're going to talk about

it. Wait, I had come through this computer right

now. I'll strangle you first. Right. The Age

of Darkness one -shot was amazing battles, great

storytelling, great character development for

Avella. We actually get Avella's origin story

as to why she is tied to this mallet guy. We

see the Dark Queen, we see Robin in several different

very awesome uniforms because these aren't...

what she's wearing in this one -shot is not her

standard uniform that she usually wears. But

it should be. Oh, come on. That uniform at the

end was pretty awesome. So we have that. Overall,

I dug The Age of Darkness one shot. I thought

it was really well put together. What about you?

I think it was really good. I liked a lot of

the character designs and I liked the kind of

the way that kind of played out throughout the

story, so. Absolutely. All right, what would

you rate this one? Just because it's a cliffhanger

Yeah, and cuz the portal jumping I'm gonna give

it a four I'm just gonna give it a four on principle.

I mean, I think it was really awesome almost

want to give it a four point five for the cliffhanger

because I was like is up to this point I Don't

remember like I read through all this stuff.

I read through volume one two three You know

I read through all of it before we even did the

show So I'm going back and rereading it, but

I do not remember reading age of darkness I'm

you know I probably did when I was going through

and reading it because when I talked to Patrick

Shand on Twitter about it you know, because he's

the author of the series, I asked him what the...

Anyone that has listened to any of our Turtles

podcasts with Joe Reed and I know that I am a

stickler for continuity and being able to read

comics in the order that the story goes. So I

asked Patrick Shan what's the order of the series

so I know, you know, what to read first so I

won't be lost. He said, oh, this is the order.

And I said, all right. But I honestly do not

remember reading Age of Darkness the first time.

I just don't remember it at all reading it the

first time. It's a good, solid title. I just

don't know where my head was at at the time.

It was in the sewers. Yeah, probably. Or in the

other dimension. That too. I do like the... The

whole Robin of Ella team up. I thought that was

really cool. That's one of the reasons why I'm

gonna give it a four is because these two would

never normally team up and We're gonna get more

of that next time when we talk about Ron Robin

Hood volume 3 legend Which will actually end

Robin Hood month here inside the pull bag Do

you have any final thoughts sir before we close

this one out? No, I Like I said, I like the a

lot of the stuff that had to do with everything

else in the story In the kind of intrapersonal

battle in her head constantly going on Yeah,

I love her internal monologues Kind of reminds

me of the old Nightwing internal monologues from

when Kyle Higgins was writing the character before

they turned him into a stupid copycat of Nick

Fury So All right, folks that's gonna do it for

us here in the full bag. Where can people interact

with you online sir? The Twitter's At SCP 21

yeah, you can follow at D cast radio over there

as well follow me tf2 and Mike Make it your greatest

game in the comics, and we will catch you next

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