Transformers More Than Meets the Eye Volume 5: Remain In Light

Me Grimlock not Podcaster, me Grimlock King.

Welcome to The Polebags Back Issue Classics.

Join us as we talk about comics from yesteryear,

from DC, Marvel and more. So open your ears to

hear our discussion of the older continuities,

as the Back Issue Classics are also what's in

The Polebag. Hello and welcome to The Bullbag!

This is another Back Issue Classics and this

time around we are doing Transformers More Than

Meets The Eye Volume 5. This is the Remainin'

Light Storyline. I am your host TFG1Mike and

joining me once again is Nicole Hailstorm. Hello!

Hello, how are you? I think I'll be in a better

mood this time, because it's earlier. I have

some energy. I'm not working today, so this works.

And I'm not working tomorrow, so... Yay! Yeah,

well, I'm sorry about volume four, ladies and

gentlemen. We recorded that very late, and neither

one of us were in the greatest... The funny thing

is, is I'm putting them out on the same day.

Well, the thing is, it was very late, so I had

to be very quiet. because you know I my aunt's

living with me right now and so well she was

when we recorded that one she moved out just

yesterday and so I had to be very quiet that

I didn't wake her up so it's just like I'm really

talking like this I really want to get excited

about some parts Yeah. Well, there's plenty of

stuff. There's plenty of stuff in this for you

to get excited about. Oh, just me. Let me tell

you, I don't why you invited me on to do these

because, my gosh. I told you! I told you in the

other episode I said it was because you're the

one that, you know, has an obsession with a certain

purple... robot that has to be but it's no longer

a decepticon i'd like to explain these five issues

that we're going to talk about or this trade

we're going to be talking about the is the reason

why if you don't like cyclonus after this you

are bad person at that that person and i need

to talk to you and can get you otherwise uh...

uh... i don't like cyclones since the g one i

have to it was his voice the g one cartoon like

my gosh great boys i'd love to go it's like how

how creepy Yeah, I do too. How creepy was it

though when it was Starscream's voice coming

out of his mouth when Starscream took over his

body? How creepy was that? That's a fangirl fanfic

right there, you know, because I also do love

Starscream. Oh Lord, here we go. But Cyclonus,

right now it's between Cyclonus and Swerve, you

know. It's mostly it's like cyclonus is like

the tough guy that you always want to be with

but source of the comedic side, you know Yeah,

exactly So remain in light collects issues 17

through 22 17 through 21 is the remaining light

arc the five -part arc and issue 22 is By far

the best issue of this entire series I disagree

with that. I would say number 21. I'm just saying

like as far as something that James had built

up in the story from issue 1 to 21 and what we

got because I you know he said that oh we're

made in light it's a five -parter and I'm counting

and I'm counting like wait so what's gonna happen

Because 22, I'm like, what's going to happen

there? Because Dark Cybertron doesn't start until

23. And I'm like, whoa, what are they going to

do? And then I got the issue. I'm like, oh my

god, this is the best thing they could have ever

done. It was dedicate a whole comic to Rewind's

film. So originally when this was solicited,

the trade What they used issue number 17's cover

and then I guess Alex went back to them said

hey look Let me design something unique for it.

Let me do you know a whole new cover for it So

we don't just have it as as you know there are

times on trades where I really love Whatever

cover that they choose as long as it's a cover

from whatever art. You know what it is But I

really like that Alex you know went to them and

said hey Let me design something totally new

and you have on the trade cover I haven't seen

it. You haven't seen it, really? I haven't seen

the trade cover. Uh -uh. Because I've got my

single issues. Right. Well, so do I. I've got

issues. OK, let me go check it out. Remain the

site. Trade. It's Rodimus. Oh, that's cool. Rodimus,

Skids, Rung, Getaway, Cybertron, Star Saber.

And it's this whole thing, a whole giant, giant

thing. Even though this is volume five, we are

gonna, we found out last time, I don't think

it was just because it was too late, that we're

gonna go through this issue by issue, but I'm

actually gonna be using, because I still have

the actual physical issues, but I will be using

the trade right now to get all the credits out

of the way, obviously written by James Roberts.

The pencils were done by Alex Milne and James

Reyes. Inks by Brian Shearer, Alex Milne and

James Reyes. The colors were done by Josh Burcham.

Color assist by John Paul Bove and Joanne Lafuente.

Letters by Tom B. Long. The cover obviously is

Alex and the cover colors were done by Josh Perez.

That is a cool cover. It is a very cool cover.

Yeah, no, I'm thinking I got this it has pharma

looking right at you, right? In the top left.

Yes. I love that look my gosh Alex knows how

to have a how to creep you out Yes, he does His

art and and James's writing really know how to

punch people in the gut every single time I've

been getting threats from Alex this past month

about what's coming out in number 32. And I'm

just like, thanks. Thanks. Those two know how

to, you know, twist the emotions. Yes, they do.

Number 17. When I first got this issue, I was

like, hey, look, it's Transformers, the movie.

No, it's not. Almost So we open this up, oh my

god, this is back in the days of when they actually

did the story so far Wow Cover a is Rodimus holding

up the matrix cover B is Rodimus running towards

us and in the retail incentive cover is tailgate

sitting on a medical Table, it's what it's such.

It's beautiful and sad at the same time. Just

like because you know what's going through his

head I mean that we're gonna talk about that

if you guys haven't read this yet really This

is some of the best writing in all comics. I'm

not just talking Transformers. I'm talking Marvel

DC IDW Dark Horse, whatever. This is some of

the best writing and storytelling you will ever

Read I love it So just to catch everybody up

and back issue classics because we are talking

about these in trades And these issues have been

out for months now if not if not a year I don't

think it's been a year since issue 17 But it

it's been months because we're on issue it we

just had issue 31 31 yeah So it might have been

a year It might have been a year. But yeah, back

in She Classics we are all about spoiling the

hell out of these things and talking about them

in depth, but I am going to read the story so

far here. Ronimus leads a dysfunctional that's...

Use that term loosely Group of Autobots on the

Starship the lost light in search of the legendary

Knights of Cybertron after a devastating battle

leaves several crew members dead Ultra Magnus

critically injured and Rift banished things seem

like they can't get any worse Until tailgate

makes a startling discovery Poor tailgate Yeah

I'm really wondering, is this the first - like,

I know we have, um... I know we have various

titles for the various issues that we already

talked about in this series, but is this the

first five -parter that James has done? Hmm...

Like, I know he's done, like, one and two -parters

and stuff, but I think this is his first five

-parter, right? Uh, I would - hmm... Good question.

Well, no, he's - he's been... No, he did Wreckers.

No, no, no, no, I'm saying from the start of

More Than Meets the Eye to now. This is the first

harder in More Than Meets the Eye. I believe

so. Yeah. So we start out at the Lost Light,

the beginning of the end. And I really wonder,

and I'm sure they did this way back when, and

I'm going to have to go back and look. Who the

hell gave the sweet assignments? That's what

I want to know. Wasn't it Swerve? Oh god, probably.

Or, no. No, it was Rodimus. Swerve's trying to

get a roommate. Oh jeez. Nobody wants their room

with Swerve. He still needs a roommate. I'm really

liking that guy. And these issues, these comics

really further me liking Swerve because... Well,

we will get to it, but... Oh, come on. Swerve

becomes... Well, yeah, we'll get to it. We'll

get to it. But basically, ladies and gentlemen,

Swerve becomes Lucky from the Lucky Charms commercials.

So, we open up... and uh... we see tailgates

knocking on cyclonus' or i assume it's yeah he

opens the door, he doesn't knock, he puts his

hand on the door uh... and he's bringing some

bad news to cyclonus he tells cyclonus all about

the fact that he has like three days to live

and then we go to the very next page is going

to erotimus What is it? Go ahead. Okay, so they're

looking at footage from the Meta Bay. And they're

looking at the corridor, let's see, the corridor

cams. He's trying to figure out what happened

to Ultra Magnus. And apparently Ultra Magnus

was not actually standing on the ground. He was

hovering above it. Which is, which is interesting.

Yes, yes. I almost didn't think it was the Lovin'

Spoonful. Everything is magic! Yep, yep, there

you go. I always wondered, who is Rodimus talking

to here, at the bottom left panel here? We followed,

of course, which is ironic, because if Magnus

had been around, he'd have advised caution. I

don't know, it just feels like he's in session

with Rohn or something. Well, because Blaster's

with them. Oh, that's right. Yeah. And is that

first aid? Yeah. Yep. So I'm thinking he's talking

to either one of them, well, both of them. Now,

I actually read through this on Comixology because

I have the trade on there. I used the guided

view technology, and it takes these four frames

on the next page, frame by frame. When it showed

the lost light, I'm like, hey, look, it's a very,

very miniature -sized Millennium Falcon. Oh,

come on, the lost light has... No. That's one

thing that's really the only complaint I have

about this entire series. The lost light... Doesn't

seem as big as it is and I know you're gonna

make the doctor who joke But it's like well when

you look at it in some of these shots It's like

there's no way they could fit everybody in that

shit But you gotta understand, you know when

you have like this little Well, it's not really

this ship in a massive place like space. It's

gonna look small So you might just give it time.

I'm pretty sure One of these days, Jane's being

the geniuses he is. He'll probably write up something

like the dimensions. He'll have schematics. I'm

pretty sure one of these days. So, Tailgate is,

we get back to Tailgate and Cyclonus, your boyfriend,

and he's telling you about - Hey, I'm not complaining

about that. If I could find a man like Cyclonus,

oh yeah, we'd be married the next day. The pull

bag is not responsible for anything Nicole Hillstorm

says, at all. I will take responsibility. Really,

if you could prove to be, there's a guy out there

like Psycho Man. Oh, girl. Okay there, George

Takei. God I almost wow I can't believe I almost

called him rewind tailgate is telling cyclones

the bad news all these little minibots you're

a sizist I Shouldn't get rewind confused anybody

else because he has a giant red dot on the side

of his head and he's black and orange or his

tailgate is white and blue It happens. Yeah So

he's He's telling him this bad news, and apparently

the bad news is that he's dying. And apparently

he's dying of old age. He has cyberosis, which

I guess... I'm trying to think what that could

be for humans. I guess arthritis, most likely,

because Ratchet does say something about his

joints freezing up and everything else, so...

It doesn't sound fun. Basically everything is

shutting down. one step at a time. I mean, he's

gonna go blind, he's gonna lose his sense of

smell, I mean, his body's just gonna contort,

and yeah, it sounds horrible. It does not sound

fun. So, poor guy. Not at all. And Cyclonus,

Tailgate doesn't even get a chance to actually

tell him. Cyclonus just says, how long before

you die? Wow, that's pretty direct. about three

days so I can't I can't get a beat on cyclonus

and tailgates friendship I guess you'd call it

is the best um this is how I picture it cyclonus

he's always been you know like the second -in

-command kind of gay you know he's always been

person that Personally, I like to say controls

the puppet master And so he was always beaten

down, you know He's always getting orders taken

to so someone's actually coming to him wanting

him to be The person in control the person to

give advice and I just think that's where he

softened up in the last volume Was he's like,

oh someone actually wants to talk to me without

expecting some um just to be talking not to expect

something of me and so I think he's trying he's

loosening up because tailgate's the first person

that actually gave him respect I'd say that and

so he's still he's not gonna be kind to anyone

else he'll give tailgate to tailgate tailgate

you know the respect Because he showed it to

him first everyone else is kind of I mean him

and world that whole thing I haven't had a chance

as of this recording to talk to world and And

she I swear to God. It's like the two of you

fighting It's like, what if Amy and Nicole were

complete and utter enemies of each other? It's

like Clonus versus Whirl is what it is. Amy and

I, we're really good friends. I know. We are

different, but that's cool. I can't imagine me

seeing me kick or scream or blow up Amy. You

know what? We'd have fun doing it. Yeah. so cyclonus

is getting really emotional he's um well because

this is like the first friend first person i

can say he cares for so right right um and he

i'm not gonna sit here and compare myself to

him but he does what i would normally do in a

situation like this which is to walk away and

deal with it on my own. I don't necessarily think

I would wait till my fingernails are, you know,

as long as, um, claws to claw my face out, but,

um, you know, I have been known to do that kind

of stuff in the past. Um, and I remember when

I first read this issue and I first saw this,

this bottom right panel after he's, he's clawed

his entire face. It's like, wow. That's a very

very disturbing image. Well, okay We're gonna

get a little dark here. Okay Probably something

you don't want to go into my head, but there's

some people That like to take out frustrations

by like cutting themselves or burning themselves

Because I feel like they need physical pain to

get out the emotional pain when you get the physical

pain it releases out that emotion and This is

basically what he's doing. You know, he needs

to feel that physical pain so he actually knows

how to deal with the emotion. Oh, no, absolutely.

And I just think it's it's very heart wrenching.

Oh, it is. Oh, and not just Cyclonus and Tailgate.

All of these friendships, relationships, all

of the stuff that James is writing for this series,

even just at this point, is like, holy crap.

You know give us our heartstrings back you fool

So we go to We go back to Rodimus and he's talking

about They're following this flight signature

because they need to find out what happened to

ultra Magnus and They see this some giant portal

and he says something about generally this is

where we would put it to a vote but nah we're

going yeah we're going so we get the swerves

and we've got tailgate the only reason why I

know that's tailgate is because it has bomb disposal

on his arm Yeah, we get to Swerve and I, you

know, Swerve is awesome. He really is. Seriously,

check it out. That's just how it can, how can

you not go into that? Oh man, this quest is ticking

all the boxes, which I talked about last time.

So yeah, so Rodimus says, He goes and says so

I guess you've got a choice stay on board and

share the adventure or don't and don't anyone

want out No in that case hold on Now here's the

thing who in the hell in their right mind would

Jump off the lost light before they go into a

portal. They're in deep space I mean unless you're

cyclonus who can fly or unless you're a whorl

who can fly or has a here's an alt mode They

can fly what other Autobot? He's gonna jump off

this damn ship before they... Anyone that's had

to deal with Rodimus in the past. You know, like

again, I love Rodimus. I just like it when he

gets beaten up a lot. He's a very hot -headed

leader. So let's just say he hasn't made the

best decisions in the past. okay no he hasn't

um and i thought of something before we started

recording i was going to compare him to somebody

and i just i can't remember to the life of me

who it was so they go through the portal and

we come upon this giant moon base because it's

not set on that page what the i know what the

base is but it's not set um And he's having Perceptor

give him, you know, the scan results, and Perceptor

says he wasn't too pleased with the first scan,

so he did another one. So he says, uh, he says,

Rodimus goes, okay, so how about you give them

to me anyway, and I'll decide if I'm happy with

them or not. Well, according to what is almost

certainly flawed, a flawed first reading. uh...

luna one is home to a billion people so very

this planet here is is the the moon luna one

am i missing something here i remember hearing

of luna two but i don't remember in the recent

issues of more than a c i i don't mean recently

as current but is either one but as of late i

don't remember them talking about this i mean

i think they might have but i just don't remember

and i still I'm not a fan of IDW Perceptors design.

I love it. I love it. That eye patch lens looking

thing is just creepy. I love it. Because he's

a sniper now. So it makes sense. He's also a

sniper. Yeah. So they found Luna 1. Yay, and

Luna 1 apparently has a billion people on it.

Sort of. So, we get to the fact that they're

going to be... We get to the point where Rodimus

is making his team selection. It's kind of like,

you know, Ultron Force, let's go! This is what

ran through my head through all these things.

So he goes to Rung, he goes to Brainstorm, Whirl,

Chromedome, Cyclonus. And Swerve, kind of, he

tries talking his way onto the quest, but Pronomus

just ain't having it whatsoever. I love, I love

the art in this book. Alex, that's such a good

job. I don't know when this guy sleeps, because

the details he puts in everything is amazing.

Absolutely. I mean, look at the hands on ChromeDome's,

look at just the hand of ChromeDome on that last

page where he's talking to his kids. The details

that he, and it doesn't, yeah, there's a lot

of detail, but you don't feel overwhelmed, but

there's some artists that have, in future volumes,

in future issues, have put so much detail to

it, it's kind of distracting. But Alex, he just

does a beautiful job. Well, I think the reason

why, at least with these, this... It's not a

two -page spread, but with these two pages, the

assembling of the team, I think why Alex can

put a lot of detail into the characters is because

in some of these, there isn't a lot of detail

in the background. Like the first two, there's

detail. The next one, there's a little bit. When

he's talking to Wurl, it's more... It's more

word balloons and Whirl and Rodimus taking up

the panel than there is room for a background

color You know Cyclonus and Skids and Chromedome

those two panels. They have a blue background

for Cyclonus I have not for Skids and Chromedome

and then Cyclonus is kind of like a I Don't want

to say hunter green, but it's some sort of green

background. So I mean, you know that allows him

to say okay well I'm just gonna have this entire

panel be filled up by a giant robot and not really

need to do too much on the background so I can

put all the details into the giant robots. So

the team is assembled and for once in his life...

You're not getting his speech. Not today. Life's

too short. I just want to know what happened

to Magnus. anything else is a bonus and off the

off the off to the corner we have tailgate whispering

cyclonus um i've been thinking and no what you're

visiting little one for experience nothing else

this can't be about finding a cure Of course

not. Of course it can't. Why can't it? It just

can't. Right fine, so I'm not allowed to hope.

Listen to me, never hope. Hope is a lie. This

is another reason why I like subclonus. I like

daydreaming myself, but he's a realist, you know?

You also see like that... Look at his eyes in

the panel before like he wishes he could help

him out, but he knows what they're going there

for and It's just sad I Just now noticed the

rid their like question marks in the tower tailgates

head that is so awesome I've never noticed them

before oh Man tailgates adorable So, what are

they writing here? Because you've got Rodimus

and Rung and Ratchet and Perceptor and... But

they're... Well, they're the MARBS. M -A -R -B

-S. Mobile Autobot Repair Bay or Mobile Anti

-Assault Battlesuit. Just love a chrome dome

was the realest here. He's like, you know, we

could just drive Sometimes I wonder why we even

have all those I love it But I think Rod Thomas

is a very flashy person Hence the planes. Okay,

come on He has a broad pod, you know He loves

his gadgets, Rodmas does, and so of course he's

going to have this kind of stuff. Why not? Well,

he says later in this issue, you know, I have

flames on my chest. No one can really live up

to that. Yeah. Exactly. Love it. So they get

to Luna 1. They sit down on the planet, and I

believe it's erotimus that first steps off of

his Marb and all of a sudden the entire planet

comes to life because there's one billion sparks

on the planet Actual sparks not yeah, but the

innards Yes, the the action the core of the matrix

times a billion Yeah, so a Billion unborn Cybertronians

you said this place was bare bare in tailgate.

Were you wrong? It's the opposite. It's teeming

or seething with life It's a hot spot Oh God

And apparently it's all Ron and this is fault

Because he is the chosen one of course See how

we get to Rodimus and chrome dome Why wasn't

it active when we arrived it's obvious isn't

obvious it's not obvious you did it I Love the

humor that they have in here too it yeah because

they're just normal people, you know? Yeah, they

are. And it's one of those things where we kind

of, I just kind of skipped over earlier, but

you know, when they went to, when Rodimus went

to look at the Marbs, and you had mentioned earlier

about battle suits, and he asks Brainstorm, he's

like, oh, I don't have the latter, I have the

former, or something like that, it's like, wow.

So we get tailgate and chrome dome Who well obviously

which it's really weird that as old as tailgate

is he's never seen a hotspot before Well, you

gotta understand he's old because he spent a

lot of his life In a coma under it underground,

you know So yeah, he's old but he missed it most

of his life And they actually explain in this,

I don't know if it's this issue specifically,

but they actually explain in this ARC what the

difference is between Constructed Cold and Forged

and all that stuff. We actually were talking

about that last time. Here's our answers, people.

No, it is actually in this page. Yep, that page

is right there. Whirl was forged, born under

the stars, in a field like this one. Sown and

harvested, nurtured, perfected. Well, if you're

perfected, why do you have one eye and a claw?

No, I know why he has one eye and a claw. It's

a rhetorical question. Because Whirl liked it

that way. I love this panel. I actually took

a screencap of this panel when I first saw Erotimus.

You need to see this. And apparently blaster

and I believe that skids Yeah, I thought no that

is skids. I thought skids went down though, but

that is skids Yeah, that has to be skids is can't

can't be ultra Magnus and overlords gone So they've

lost contact with with with round this in his

team and Blaster says The transmission is blocked.

I can't reach them. This is deliberate. They're

being isolated them or us dun dun dun How does

a ship have an oil reservoir? Like this thing

looks like the Hoover Dam for crap sake Go ahead.

You never know. Yeah, I know, but... It goes

back to my whole... You're right, I guess I am

a sizeist, because there's no way in hell the

Lost Light can hold everything that it has. Well,

you never know. I mean, like I said, there's

certain pages later on where you can see the

size of, like, the Rod Pod to the Lost Light,

so... Yeah. We haven't gotten there yet, though.

No. So Skids is at the oil reservoir, and there's

this mysterious voice that comes out and says,

1984! At all, G -1ers are like, ah -ha -ha -ha

-ha! That's when it came out, people. In case

you didn't know. Yep, exactly And we have Chromedome

Ratchet and cyclonus That's perceptor Oh Red

I just don't notice the eye. Okay, so don't Perceptor

in cyclonus. Uh -huh. Hey, at least I get the

purple one, right? There you go. Only one. There's

only one purple one on the entire ship And he's

the best. Yeah. Why don't you talk about these

panels a little bit? Well, let's see. My gosh,

my eyes are going. What they're doing is pretty

much harvesting these sparks. They have the scientific

name of Metallico. Of course. Chromedome thinks

he knows what he's doing. Everyone else is just

like, what? What? What? What? And of course,

my main man, he's like, this is wrong. He again,

he's the voice of reason. Like, you can't do

this. They're here for a reason. You just can't.

You just can't take it just because you think

it belongs to you. Of course, Rodimus. he thinks

he's being the hero he's like I'm not stealing

I'm saving people you're just like whatever so

what happens a big huge kaboom or chooom as it

says Alex loves that wordplay on all the explosions

but I I believe it's supposed to be a reference

to the old Marvel issues. I think it was like

issue number five where Shockwave used it or

something. Okay, it's fine if you want to homage

that for a Shockwave issue, but I see it everywhere

in this book and every time I see it I just cringe.

Really? Oh, I guess I didn't notice it. I notice

the wordplay every now and then because I like

to see how they wordplay out explosions sometimes

and you know I don't mind a kaskaboom or you

know something like that but it just, choom just

doesn't do explosion right for me. I like it.

To me choom when they go choom. I just picture

a lot of shrapnel everywhere. That's a bug of

a different color. He's purple. He's not on the

last slide though. Yeah, oh god, can you imagine

if those guys were running around on the lost

light? The ship wouldn't be able to fly because

they would be you know digging in the ground

and everything I used to love bombshell as a

kid because I used to always think I could mind

control people So, we get this giant explosion

and then we get this giant Decepticon trespassers!

And how I was so excited to see this transformer

and I was just like, are you kidding me? He's

made it to the comics, people! Lockdown has made

his mark! And I was like, yeah! From animated

and animated's toy line. Uh huh. To the yes to

the comic and now he's also in the movie. Oh,

but he was the best thing about that maybe Lockdown

it has to be between lockdown and shockwave who

has the better strut In the movie you mean in

the movies because lockdown has this gate this

walking gate I don't know they kick butt doing

it. I just found it I'm gonna say it sexy. It

was totally awesome. Yes We didn't expect this

sounds stupid because it's been four million

years and war or no war We should always expect

it, but we didn't expect the Decepticons to show

up. Oh That's who he's talking to he's talking

to Ambus! Okay, that makes sense. I'm sorry,

people. Yeah, because it's the same kind of lighting

background. So he's talking to someone named

Ambus. Ambus looks awfully white on his helmet.

Throw a little cobalt blue in there and, you

know, Magnus is your uncle. Don't give away yet!

I know, right? So we get back to the Lost Light

and we get to Skids. Alright then, let's do this.

Come on, show your face. And it's all these 1984

legislator bots or something or other. These

mysterious golden robots that kind of look...

their faces kind of remind me of... Scraplets.

insecticons from prime oh yeah I can see that

oh yeah uh -huh and all as they all say is 1984

1984 what really what really got me confused

until I figured out why they were saying it was

when other ones started saying 1721 something

like what the hell does 1721 have to do oh cuz

we'll we'll get to that a bit later So yeah,

Skids is pretty much outnumbered because there's

like four or five of these guys. Skids is a big

bot, but Skids are towering over him too. Yeah,

I mean these things are like... It'd be like

putting G1 Optimus Prime next to Metroplex. Like

you said, tower over him. So, then we go to Swerve's.

And here's the start where you see Swerve being

the superhero. I just picture him as... Oh my

gosh, I just lost the name. Die Hard. Oh, John

McClane. Yeah. I just picture John McClane as

Swerve. That's just what I picture at this point.

Just because of one line that he says. It's not

in this issue is it yeah, it sounds like the

next page Oh, no, it's the next next issue because

we're almost done Wow, that was quick Yeah, so

swerves is being overrun We get We get back to

Rodimus and cyclonus and Yeah, that is where

I was down there. Don't engage. There's too many

of them heading for the mountains and find somewhere

to hide that was a nasty fall ratchet pharma

in a hand yeah I like I love ratchet in this

book I ratchet is one of the like James Roberts

really brings him to life I can't decide if it's

animated ratchet that I hear in my head, or if

it's Prime Ratchet, because the animated Ratchet

was Cory Burton, and he was all old and crotchety,

but so was Prime Ratchet, because it's Jeffrey

Combs. I kind of picture more like that, because

I picture this Ratchet a little bit younger.

Not so crotchety and old, but still annoyed with

pretty much everyone. Yeah, pretty much. And

the back page here, before we move on to the

next issue, we have Meet the crew and I'm not

gonna go through the descriptions I'm just gonna

go through their their their titles because some

of them are pretty funny Right on this captain

of the lost light. Of course. He is a Kirk That's

just me adding in there also Magnus second -in

-command drift nominal third -in -command brainstorm

gun nut Trail cutter, mr. Forcefield Fortress

Maximus, Prison Warden. That makes a lot of sense.

Wurl, Invincible. He likes to think so. Chief

Medical Officer. Chromedome. Lamentorium. Perceptor

is the Chief Science Officer. Swerve is the proprietor

of Swerve. I like that. He doesn't have anything

else. But in the previous issues under his description

is also known as shut the hell up or something

like that. First aid, chief medical officer in

training, skids, theoretician, diplomat, master

of metalicado? Yeah. Metallica Metallica Metallica

Metallica Metallica Metallica Metallica Metallica

Metallica Metallica Metallica Metallica Metallica

Metallica Metallica So, like, when was the last

time we saw Farmer was on the Delphi story, right?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was on Delphi. I remember

reading this when it first came out. That was

a shocker to see Farmer again. Yeah, look at

Farmer at this panel. Let me tell you, again,

Alex blows it out of the park. Because you can

tell he's not right in his eyes. This guy's this

guy it's just up to no good. You're just like

oh hell And we'll find out shortly you know Issue

18 I Have cover be because I was like hey, what's

what's Hufford? Gears and how I'm doing wait

what number issue number two sorry yeah, I guess

which gears sorry There we go. I'm ready so part

two for remain in the light I grabbed cover B

at the time when I was grabbing the issues it

has Huffer gears and hound on it and I'm like

wait what why are they there just looking at

the cover Cover A was... I have that one. It's

got skids and the 1984 bots in the background

and he's pretty much getting the tar beat back.

He's throwing a punch on one of them and so that's

where you see all the sparking. But he doesn't

look like he's doing too well. So we get to the

lost light and it basically and this is why I

think These this is why I love reading this in

trade because it basically there's no there is

a a split between the issues in the trade, but

it's not as As difficult as picking up a second

issue or a third issue or whatever else but We

basically pick up when we left off with the lost

light. Hey, can't you read? No guns, no swords,

no briefcases! All's I could think of is... And

I know this is gonna sound sad. The fourth season

of the Fox series, the OC. You actually watched

that? Yeah, why not? Oh, okay. What? I'm not

judging. Oh, come on. Yeah, sure you're not.

Come on now. The fourth season, the opener has

Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts completely depressed

and they find a show on TV. It's a playoff on

Deal or No Deal. It's Briefcase or No Briefcase.

As soon as I saw the No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases,

the first thing I thought of was Briefcase or

No Briefcase. So we've got this 1984, but we've

got this legislator bot here And damn, those

are some big guns. Holy crap Yeah, they're bigger

than for himself. I know The barrel of one is

about the size of his head And don't say I've

got no eyes in the conventional sense everyone

says that 1721 okay. No one says that So the

Gatling guns go off and Swerve is like, hey,

hey, and he dives out of the way. This is getting

expensive. So giant guns, Swerve jumps out of

the way, and we get a reference to Skids in issue

number two of the series. That's how, you know,

we've talked about this, but that's how... How

big James plots out in planes he makes references

all the way back to the beginning there was a

recent Was it I want to say Amy on the underbase

sheet when she interviewed James He says he has

stuff like planned out for the next three years,

and you're just like oh great Yeah, yeah, I mean

I like like I mean I like that where you can

pick up Certain number of these comics to like

you can pick up remain in light and jump on board

But you really should pick up the other 16 issues

So we get You know, we're with Swerve here and

he's got these guns and he's talking about, you

know, putting security measures in the bar. Swerve

is awesome here. If you want to know Swerve,

everything you need to know about him is in these

three pages. Exactly. It's beautifully written.

It's beautifully drawn. I mean, like I said,

this team, you can't go wrong with this team.

I know there's going to be a day where they're

going to split up the band and it's going to

be heartbreaking. And then at some point, you

know, they'll get them back together and I can

make that good old Finneas and Ferb reference,

dude, we're getting the band back together. So

he's talking about, I had Brainstorm install

some security and you know what? He did a bang

up job, blam, blam, blam. This is like no bar

I've ever seen. This may be homage to Cheers,

but Cheers never had a whole bunch of damn guns

in it. But you gotta understand, these are warriors.

Of course, they love their guns. Well, yeah,

I'm not complaining about it, but I believe James

has said this and other people have said this.

Swerves is meant to resemble somewhat a little

bit like Cheers. Yeah, that's true. And he goes

no I didn't say this to Fort Max and I didn't

say it to Whirl and I didn't even say it to Cyclonus

when he had his dead universe flashback But you

my friend to you I say Get the hell out of my

bar. I know I was just like This blaster he has

is amazing who the hell Designed this thing because

it must have been Alex Mr. No, no, no, no, yeah,

no, I know I'm saying like in universe who the

hell designed this for him Did brainstorm do

this for him because it says on it my first blaster

big grip for little hands On the bottom part

where his left hand is holding where you usually

find a grenade launcher. It's a smiley face It

has multiple lightbulb colors on the top of it.

And it talks to him. I love it. Because I have

the toy, the Make Toys third -party swerving.

I got the little blaster. And it's totally identical

to this. I love it. And the blaster actually

talks to him. Hooray, you scored a direct hit

and it's singing. Alex made it show as musical

just talking to Swerve, it's singing to him.

And oh my god, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry

for the screaming kids that you may or may not

be able to hear because I don't know what's going

on outside. They're having a great time. And

this is remaining light 205 the house of ambus

So we get to Fort Max and blaster a lost line

is under attack our defenses have been breached

by unknown aggressors and As soon as I see that

line is all I can think of is their defenses

are broken. Let the slaughter begin And then

you see Devasator just put his hand in the wall

and just rip it apart. Oh god, I love that movie.

So we get all these these locations here. We

get, like I said, Fort Max and Blaster, First

Aid and Ambulon. You can see nothing's going

well for anyone. No, Houndgears and Huffer, which

I didn't even know Houndgears and Huffer were

on the - because that's the thing, they make

it so vague outside of the core crew, outside

of Rodimus and Swer, like outside of the ones

we normally always see. Because, well, this is

the beauty of James. again, with his writing.

If you take the first five issues, or the next

five, or the next six, you know, you always see

certain people that he is pinpointing a story

to, and you get to know and love these characters.

After their story is told, you'll see them more

in the background, and not as much. Well, look

at Chromedome. His story, his major story, Human

Rewind, was told. And now he's not a main focus

anymore. He has had a few panels, but not a whole

lot, where in the last few issues, he was nearly

on every page, at least, because you got to know

him. And so James has even said that. He wants

you to... get to know some other minor characters

not just you're you're you're regular psych your

prime in Megatron and Rodimus you know everyone

no and i completely agree with that but who knows

maybe he has these guys for a future again three

years in advance people who knows right so keep

your right no keep your eye out because you know

but it's you know it goes back to the beginning

when you know in in death of optimus when they

split and then it became the two books when Rodimus

took the ragtag group of Autobots it never actually

specifically states how many Autobots are on

the Lost Light because they focus on so like

a core cast like I said and just seeing I mean

even though now I know why they're on cover B

because they're on the Lost Light but just seeing

Gears, Huffer and Hound is like oh my god wow

and then smokescreen and inferno trail breaker

because i hate the name trail cutter i don't

care what anyone says uh... dipstick and hoist

at least james didn't put hoist and red alert

together thank god uh... all of these two pages

is basically everybody fighting these these golden

robots and It's not really going good for anybody

except skids pretty much because skids just punches

one right in the face I almost wish that this

was Rodimus and not skids because as soon as

I saw him punch him in the face the first thing

I thought of is You know, we may not be able

to hold out forever cut but we can give them

one humongous repair bill It all goes back to

86 ladies and gentlemen So let's see So skids

is like the way you fight tells me how to fight

back every time you choose Fist over sword every

time you lead with one shoulder and not the other

every time you exercise Discretion you become

more predictable Even more of you. Okay. I didn't

see that coming I get some beautiful writing

skills, you know. Yeah, very much so. Beautiful

writing skills and just beautiful battles, honestly.

It really, like, that, you know, taking us to

each individual scene with the various cast,

that was an awesome move of telling the story.

So we get down to Luna One and poor Ratchet,

he's at... the discretion of pharma and that's

not a discretion you want to be at really and

We get locked down who is locked down foot is

that your boyfriend there is no that kids not

cyclones. Who's he fighting there that is? It's

either cyclones or world both of them standing

on cyclones Okay, okay standing on site yeah

because you never in the previous issue he jumped

on him why cyclonus was an airplane mode There

we go there we go World he talks just like a

buddy of mine Bob Gilmer from from Kansas So

this is what running away feels like I'm not

keen Bob always uses the term keen It's like

it's like fighting in the wrong direction Rodimus

told us not to engage so cyclonus is actually

following an order by an Autobot. Holy crap I

think he's trying to become better. I'm pretty

sure he's not doing it. No. He's not doing what?

He's not doing it with a smile on his face. Let's

just say that. That's probably true. But I mean,

that's the whole thing. Was Cyclonus being on

the lost light with him being, you know, formerly

of, but now not a Decepticon? Uh, you know -

But how long was he Decepticon? He's still gonna

have those Decepticon ways. Well, yeah. Yeah,

I'm not - I'm not arguing that at all. Um...

So, Whirl and Cyclonus and Whirl's - Whirl's

design is... Do you remember, um... Oh, God,

what episode was it? It's in G1. It's Sandstorm

and Octane. When Galvatron is hunting down Octane

where he's like, I stole Tryptagon and tried

to take over. World's design is like a mashup

of Sandstorm's helicopter mode. Oh, OK, I can

see that, yeah. sandstorms helicopter mode and

uh... uh... thrusts plane mode, because he has

the VTOLs i can see that, i can see that so they

basically ignore Rodimus' orders and they are

going to go and engage the enemy and we get to

Rodimus and tailgate and the rest and they find

out that Ratchet isn't behind them And we get

to Rodimus again. I take it you've heard of the

Titans, massive super -powered Cybertronians

who once carted the Knights of Cybertron around

the galaxy? I'm familiar with the stories. Right,

so on the other side of the mountain was essentially

a Titan graveyard, a hundred dead bodies shot

to bits rusting in the sun. I guess that's one

way to rust in peace. Yep. I love Rodimus narrating

it. I really do. I love seeing this. I really

enjoyed it when he did it with Rung in earlier

issues, when he was telling a story to Rung.

Oh god, Rodimus reminds me of Tony Stark. I could

see that. Well, they have the same color scheme.

Could see that cuz you have both had the the

playboy attitude that I can't lose Even though

I'm wrong And we get And he says so depending

on what your religious beliefs are that this

might be sanctimonious or sacrilegious we're

gonna fly inside of them they're massive and

they're complicated and there's no way we'll

be followed just need to find a way in crater

or something um and they go for it uh they pretty

much just plunge all in you got Rodimus hands

out you know ready to attack and again Alex and

the rest of the team amazing work on this um

And I guess, uh, Tailback, uh, Tailback, Tailgate...

See, I did that too! I guess Tailgate likes going

for piggyback rides or Rodimus back rides. Come

on! If you're the little guy, wouldn't you like

to, hey, literally hang out with the quarterback?

Come on! Yeah, no, I'm not complaining, but honestly,

until I'm looking at it in the issue, I didn't

notice Tailgate eyes back until now. And I'm

not complaining about it. I just, you know, had

to make the piggyback joke. So, you know, we

still have this countdown clock for Tailgate,

and now he has two days left to live. And uh,

Rodimus transforms and Tailgate basically just

falls on his windshield. Aww. He had a great

time though. Yeah. It's one hell of a ride he's

never gonna forget. Of course not. Again, I would

love to be hanging out with Rodimus. Even though

he's kind of a douche. Yeah, I know what you'd

like to be doing. You'd like to, you know, hang

out with, no, you'd like to hang out with Rodimus

and Cyclonus as long as Cyclonus was torturing

Rodimus, because you like Rodimus torture. Like

I said, I do like it when Rodimus, I don't, don't

get me wrong people, I like Rodimus, I just like

it when he's hurt. I don't know why, I just,

there's an issue, there's an issue in Dark Cybertron,

which I just absolutely love. We will get to

that because It's just like it's just like oh

Rodimus finally gets it he gets what he deserves

And so Yeah, so Rodimus Transforms as I said

tailgate basically lands on his windshield on

his roof and Finally kind of really get my first

like real good close -up look at Rodimus's alt

mode It's basically Rodimus, but if he had tumbler

wheels from Batman, it's cool. I like it I like

it a lot. I love it. I think it's really really

cool and if that I Know it's the shadow on his

on his on his it's our left side, but it's his

right side where his pipes are The orange bit

I know that's a shadow of of you know that part

of him But if you turn it at an angle a little

bit to me it looks like a Nike symbol Hidden

product placement So we get to we get back to

lockdown and Basically lockdown has captured

everybody throws them into this cell and we're

kind of catching up to current times at this

point because it seems like this giant orange

cell is where Rodimus was telling Ambus the story

so we're getting ready to catch up to everything

and be in the present day more so than in the

past and again the art between James' writing

and Alex's art, it's just great. And, uh, Chromedome

says, um, what the? Magnus, Magnus, over here,

hey! Because he thinks he sees Magnus, but it's

not Magnus. It is but it isn't yeah, we'll get

to that here shortly. Oh, yeah, very shortly

Did anyone else it was altered he ignored me

I Can just see chrome down throwing a temper

tantrum over ultra Magnus ignoring him You know

he goes I'll add that to the list of things that

don't make any sense don't worry defendant I

promise to make sense of everything ty rest yay

mister I want to be Aquaman oh see I was thinking

more of um he's Ariel's father King Triton yeah

Chief Justice Tyrest you want to avoid a slap?

Here's how that is a WWE Diva bitch move right

there Rodimus So Tyrest is is back and We haven't

seen him for a long time no, we haven't seen

him for a very long time and we they're in this

room well we get to brainstorm and they're in

this room with this giant old -ass space bridge

I mean it's it's hollowed out and doesn't look

like anything's gonna come to life in that anytime

soon let's see here so we get to Oh, wait, no,

here it is. And this is where I found out who

Ambus really is, without even waiting for the

story. Tyroskosterotomous. As Cybertronian Chief

Justice and primary lawmaker, I hereby charge

all of you with crimes against creation. Anything

you do and say will be used against you. My legislators

will escort you to your cell, where you will

await trial. Any questions? Just one, why are

you such a... And that's when I started swearing.

Swearing. I love it. I love that. And Rodimus

is reflecting, hmm, not my proudest moment, but

maybe my loudest. He looks so exhausted. Yeah.

So this is where we get, you know, Chrono Masking.

I have to ask is it just ambus and he goes no

actually my primary identifier is minimus minimus

ambus right that makes a lot more sense you thought

I was someone else um yes I thought that you

know on your face you're thinking of my spark

brother dominus ambus the house of ambus has

a very distinct facial insignia but dominus is

a long gone So, then we get to Rung, of all people.

Oh, who doesn't like Rung, man? No, I like him,

he's cool, he's funny, but Rung pretty much has

a sneaking suspicion that Ambus isn't who he

says he is. And he pretty much confirms that.

We get to Ratchet and Pharma and this is just

creepy Hey, it doesn't matter what angle Alex

draws farmer from could be you know a Full frontal

face shot a side shot of his face, you know the

back of his head He's still gonna creep me the

hell out Pharma is probably one of the creepiest

people and you will know why this okay So we'll

get to it just by turning the next page. You're

just like that is demented This is for Ross And

it is genius at the same time Yeah So basically

he says And I'll tell you something else I'd

soon sooner die sooner die ten times over than

see any of them come to harm in summary and I

don't know why he I don't know why they have

this story with pharma intermixed with skids

because the top of that panel before I just read

that in the lost light you have oh no that is

wait yeah that's skids yeah that's skids and

swerve because they're still fighting off the

the other the legislators but I thought this

I thought this um oh no I see what it is it's

Skids's never mind I got lost here because I

thought they were continuing the farmers it's

not farmers dialogue it's Skids's internal dialogue

so we get to Skids and Swerve and you know he

doesn't want anything to happen to any of his

friends ever Swerve has this horrified look on

his face. Yeah, it's behind you and That's where

the star saver comes in douchebag Yeah Jim Jim

Jim all you missed keep practicing Poor poor

sir. I mean poor swerve. I mean he just saw one

of his buddies Yeah, just get run through I mean

there's there's energon going splattering you

know and this huge no and you're just like he's

i mean he should be able to take a shot but he's

probably just so in shock that he's just firing

off what we can and poor swerve he couldn't even

save himself no he couldn't um and We get to

the next page where we go back to Pharma and

Ratchet. Pharma is teasing Ratchet about what's

in the box. Yeah. What's in the box? Okay. Q7.

Okay. Yeah. Tell me what's in the box. You want

to know what's in the box? That's right. That's

right, Ratchet. You're in the box. That was...

I can't imagine. I can't imagine. for a ratchet

what's going through this like I said this page

right here is genius and it's beautifully done

because I mean you don't even have to read what's

in the panels above it just the look on ratchets

face in that big like third for page spread right

there says it all you know absolutely it's like

Whoops. So we get back to Rodimus and, not Whirl,

I'm sorry, Rodimus and Rung and Chromedome and

all of them in the cell. And we see somewhat

of a flashback of Shockwave. That was interesting

to see Shockwave in More Than Meets the Eye.

Yeah, it kind of throws you off a little bit,

huh? A little bit, yeah. It's interesting. I

gotta say, it's nothing against Alex. I don't

like the Megatron design. But you still like

the cute little swirlies? No, I don't know. It's

just a little strange for me. So rung has this

test because rung has had the suspicion for the

longest time That ambas is not Who he says he

is? and rung of all people has Energon versions

of pixie sticks. I love it. I love it Yeah, I'm

glad James made them energon versions of pixie

sticks and not cigarettes Or some form of robotic

cigarette. Yeah, I mean it's cute, you know It's

very cute So we get to Ambas no, thank you. Sure

really I'm fine Go on just the whoops accident.

Sorry You're shaking them out. So so don't be

so damn stupid Whoa, no need to get physical,

Ambus. Actually, Rodimus, I don't think that's

his name. Wrong. You can tell by the tone, because

James has a dot dot dot after Wrong's name. You

can just tell. Ever since we found him here,

I've had doubts. The pattern of his speech, his

mannerisms, the intonation in his voice is familiar.

Then there's the whole that... whole fact that

this cell is a filthy apart from where he was

sitting when we arrived and the fact that he's

been staring at my chest ever since I put my

badge on at an angle yeah okay the thing is I

you have if you go back and a lot of time Brun's

chest isn't shown so you can't see so you're

just like oh okay yeah it makes you wonder what

I but if you go into the last page you could

actually see it do not pick it up until then

it's just like ah yeah that's true I'm not OCD

and ambus is like okay wrong let's drop this

and move on I'm sorry I lost my temper and we

get to the second to last panel and wrong just

looks at him with that inquisitive look that

he has on his face do you want to tell them or

shall I Was born minimus ambus I am minimus ambus,

but you all know me you've always known me as

ultra Magnus And I will love I love the bottom

the very bottom panel next answers The the meet

the crew page doesn't have anything different

on it Overall the second issue. It's it's damn

good. I think it's it's really interesting It's

pulling us in and it's giving us two completely

different Storylines at the same time that are

intermingling of each other between what's going

on on the lost light and what's going on a little

one The writing is amazing. The art is great.

What are your thoughts on issue two overall?

It's it's There's so much going on like I said

this whole series, but I mean when I turned that

page and that the part that got to me I mean

I love swerve his little action scene was awesome

I had because here you are you're you're laughing

you're having a good time but that that farmer

comes into play you're just like man this guy's

insane and then when you turn that page and you

see what he did to ratchet yeah it is This is

a mind of a psychopath Yeah, pharma is not healthy

in any way, you know and Not just this issue

next issue. We'll get to that here shortly, too

You're just like you got it. You gotta kind of

wonder about James But yeah, I love this issue.

There's so much going on, you know? There's so

much going on. Because you feel like, oh, that

could have been the end of the page right there

when you see Ratchet laying there with just his

head. But then you've gotten to this other storyline,

and you get told that he's Ultra Magnus. You're

like a double wowzer moment. So this issue is

amazing. Amazing. I love it. Very much so. The

third part of Remain in Light, I have cover B,

which is Whirl and Cyclonus battling. Would you

think I would have that one? Yeah, you better.

Of course I do. The other cover, cover A was

Star Saber and cover, the retail incentive cover

was Ultra Magnus' head. It's just a helmet. It's

his head. It's mostly like if Ambus took off

his helmet, you know, as Ultra Magnus. Yeah.

But Cyclonus and Whirl are easily the best cover

out of the three. So we get right back to Luna

one this is apparently earlier than where we

left off and This is remain light three of five

the divided self And we see Wait, why is Overlord

there? No, that's Magnus. Oh It's Magnus, but

he's He's just waking up. Yeah. He's thinking

that's what's going on. Yeah. Oh, you're awake.

Chief Justice. Boom, boom, boom. And he just

hauls off and whops him in the face. Fully deserved.

Let's see here. Let's see. Hear that sound that's

my brain trying to make sense of what's happening

here So what is so great about this is the first

two parts of this story. We've got erotimus telling

I'm just calling Magnus. I don't care. We've

got Rodham is telling Magnus a story and Then

now we have Magnus telling Yeah, it's really

it's it's a good back and forth absolutely So

we get the story of how Minimus Ambus became

Ultra Magnus, and the fact that Ultra Magnus

now is just the Magnus Armor. You know, we could

have really used Magnus Armor in Animated, not

just a hammer. That'd be one way to get all the

all kinds of repaints out of Optimus Prime So

we get the story of how Minimus Ambus became

Ultra Magnus and We've got Tyrest having this

this doom button this kill switch reminds me

that band kill switch engage that he's threatening

everybody with and You know so So so he tells

them all the story of the Magnus armor and apparently

he is the latest and it seems the last And I

believe it was wrong. Yeah, it's wrong. So ultra

Magnus is a concept an idea Fascinating. I think

that's really cool myself too to tell you the

truth. I Yeah, I thought it was a really cool.

I mean all these years transformers. They just

rewrote a major character Mm -hmm. I love it.

You know, that's the one thing I'm gonna step

out of the common for us and one thing I've I

Understand it's Hasbro not necessarily in inducing

more costs on themselves to make two different

toys But that's one thing I've never liked about

Transformers is that ultra Magnus for the most

part in toy form is just a White Optimus Prime.

Mm -hmm. I hate that. That's the duck like They

fully established him in the movie as his own

character. Make his own damn toy. You know, don't

just make him a white repaint of Optimus. Well,

he did have his G1. That's been, yeah. Yeah,

but he was still a white Optimus. I mean... I

don't know, it just, it's always bugged me that

Hasbro has, like... It's just the toys that always

bug me that oh Let's just paint optimus white

and call him ultra Magnus But this is by far

some of the best writing for the Magnus character

ever when it comes to deep, you know storytelling

So we get this and we get to So Magnus asks about

overlord And Rodimus tells him that Drift put

him on board. And Rodimus says that he was exiled.

He says, I had to exile him. Because I know what

comes in future comics, I just want to slap Rodimus

right here. Why? Why? You don't remember why?

Well at the end of this he you know says that

he exiled I know but I'm talking about later

on you come to find out Rodimus is the one that

put overlord on oh, yeah and he blamed drift

for it and Drift being the cool guy he is took

it Yeah As you know he had to take one for the

team He had to take one for his leader. I guess

So we get to We get to this bottom stretching

panel, which is the entire two pages where ambus

is talking to tailgate and He's telling him that

he's a He's a point one percenter not heavyweight

class like impactor or roller I can't see roller

as a heavyweight class if they're meaning the

same roller that I'm thinking what they're meaning

Well, they I'm trying to think is it I know he's

been in more than meets the eye. I don't know

if he's showing up. Oh My gosh, it's been like

I said, my mind's kind of gooey lately people

It's okay. Was he the first few issues? Might

have been yeah, I honestly don't remember myself.

I'm thinking is a few issues So he tells him

that he's a load bearer. I think I wonder, do

I have to put my hand up? Because that might

be asking a lot of me right now for tailgate.

He in Magnus says, it means my body lends itself

to augmentation. The average Cybertronian has

a low breaking strain on their exoskeleton can

only be built out so far before the sparks Animating

force weakens and they freeze only load bearers

can handle fully integrated Neural wear like

the Magnus are and how cool is that? Yeah, that's

awesome You know load bearer not you you had

ten days to live So I've been told, thankfully

for me, it seems that Tyrest's doctors can work

miracles. I wish Tailgate was more emotive on

that page. When Magnus says that, because he

has one day, 22 hours, 56 minutes, and 39 seconds

to live. I know, you see this countdown. And

because most people like Tailgate. Don't know

anyone that doesn't if you if you don't, please

let me know why you don't like tailgate So every

time this this number pops up you get nervous

because you're committed to this character and

you're just like oh my gosh What's gonna go on

here? He doesn't you've got I mean you get that

nervousness Again, I attribute it to James awesome

writing because you just you feel for this character

I mean how many of us would like to know the

exact moment when we die. I mean, like some cancer

patients were like, well, we'll give you six

months to live. That's even bad enough thinking,

knowing I only got this limited amount of time

to make mends and do whatever I wanted to. I

mean, oh. Oh my gosh, so you feel his pain for

him and you're just like, so every time that

number pops up, you're just like, oh no. Poor

little tailgate. Yeah, poor little tailgate.

These comic book geniuses will make you love

them and hate them all in the same panel. Yep,

I made that while we were talking, sorry. I made

a little comic book meme people go on my Facebook

page and you can see No, you know, it's just

one of those things where It's just so silly

it just you know between Alex's art and James's

storytelling they tear your heart out and put

it back every It's like Yeah, they like to mess

with people a lot but it's like that Seinfeld

episode where we're Kramer like, you know Kramer

and Elaine and Jerry and George are all standing

at the top of the observation deck of some sort

of open operation surgery thing and Kramer is

eating juji fruits or no, he's eating eating

junior mints He's like, they're minty, they're

chocolate, they're very refreshing. And he drops

one into the guy's open, I think it's like open

heart surgery or something. And it's like, wow,

it's like James and Alex just do that to us every

single time we read one of these issues. And

this book is so fun. There's a lot of fun in

it. There's, you know, this story is, you know,

like you said a little while ago, it's pretty

much... You know It's emotional, but it's also

fun and it basically rips you from you know direction

and direction sure for sure So we get to Tyrest

and ambas And ambas asks is that thing my replacement

no no no the legislators don't think like we

do they don't really think at all but i built

them to act they operate entirely within the

law and when they see floated when they see it

floated they can't help but intervene no your

replacement is through here dun dun dun it's

star saber A lot of people have connections to

Star Saber, I'm not one of them. I know Mr. David

Wallace. This is his, one of his main guys. Basically

he's the Optimus Prime of the Japanese series.

Yeah, he pretty much is. So to see him as a bad

guy, it kind of tore him up. So we get to Rodimus

and Magnus. I even get that a hundred microscopic

attention deflectors stopped Rashid seeing the

real you inside the armor. What I don't get is

how you ended up in this cell. When you landed

on Luna 1 Tyrus said he was going to arrest you

for harboring a criminal suspect. Are you seriously

telling me there's a criminal aboard the Lost

La - Oh, Whirl. Not Whirl. Atomizer? Lancet?

Ammo? Skids. I love Skids, too. So it's just

like, you know that he - You're just like, okay,

what did he do? What did Skids do? Right, yeah.

And and Magnus says the crimes against creation

that crime didn't exist 18 months ago Yep So

Tyrus is just making all this up as he goes.

Let's be honest is again a douchebag. We I yeah

His helmet is compensating for something. Okay

So So we get Rodimus and the legislator Where

are you going take us with you? I'll be back

once I've got some answers I may not be ultra

Magnus anymore, but I deserve to know what's

going on Magnus ambus whoever the hell you are

They drop the h -bum in two issues now That's

how serious this is, folks. They're living in

hell. I love the pop -up here, though. Oh, did

you? That is Chromedome, right? That's Brainstorm,

sorry. Oh, okay. I was going to say either Brainstorm

or Chromedome. Brainstorm. Skids and swerve because

something unexpected doesn't happen for at least

nine seconds. And then we go outside. Not far

away. This last panel is pretty sad because you

gotta remember in the last volume, Swerve had

his face, you know, pretty much clean off. He's

got his face damaged again. This guy's had more

faceless than the tracks so far. You know what

would have been a little bit better for me And

I think this issue was was probably put out before

the series. I don't remember when this issue

was originally released down This this image

of swerve and skids if Alex could have made the

gap in his teeth a little bit better I would

almost say swerve is Donatello from the 2012

So, we get to Cyclonus and Whirl, and it's not

like I keep a spreadsheet or anything, but this

is the biggest smelting pool I have ever seen.

How many Decepticons did you kill back there,

you know, overall? I wasn't keeping count. Six?

You? Dunno, more than six. I love how everything's

a competition to Whirl. Yeah, everything really,

really is. So they've been outside fighting all

this stuff in there because they're on they're

on Luna one And they got separated from everybody

else apparently And We get back to terrorist

base of operations the Meta Bay it just creeps

me out just I hope farmer never comes back. I

I kind of do because I'm a person I'm a little

sinister Oh a little demented and I know when

farmers in the scene Yeah, there's gonna be excuse

my French some shit going down. Yeah, and you're

just like again What can he do? What? Because

he's a shocking character. Again, he is beyond

help in his psychosis. There's no way this guy

is ever going to get reformed. Again, in just

a few panels, we'll see that. And so I like to

see him because it's just like, that's when things

get intense. It's kind of like the horror movie.

And when Pharma just walks in, you just hear

that music start. You start getting the chills

and you're just like, okay, do I want to cover

my eyes or am I gonna peek through my fingers,

you know? He's the jaws of the Transformers universe.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Is it just me or

are Ratchet and Farma made of the same face mold?

Yeah. Mm -hmm. Okay. The thing is, again, the

genius of Alex, you can tell who's who. No, yeah,

yeah, I can but I was just wondering if that

if I was reading that right because you look

at pharma on this bottom right hand panel and

When he says trust me the only difference between

Luna one and Luna two is the number That image

there versus ratchet on the opposite bottom left

panel of the opposite page is like Wow, they

look like they could be twins. What's going on

here? My transistors are trembling. Farmer and

Ratchet is twins. Well, they're not really twins.

No, I know. But you know what I'm saying. I know

they're not really twins. They have the same,

you know, how transformers are. They're cut from

the same mold. Yes, yes. You know. Just a bunch

of fucking repaints, that's all it is. Again,

I love how Alex Straud's... The one panel where

Pharma has his arms crossed talking to Ratchet's

head, it's just beautiful. I love it. He looks

so pretty. Pharma is so creepy. I love him. He

could be up there with my favorite characters,

that's for sure, just because he makes a good

story happen. Yeah. So we get back to Cyclonus

and Whirl. Don't the alarms bother you? Nah,

you get alarms wherever you break into a deserted

building. What bothers me are these freaking

stupid freaking handles. Oh Whirl. Poor Amy.

I can see her saying that to you. Freaking freaking

freaking freaking freaking. Yep, yep, yep. And

Cyclonus brings up a really good point. I don't

understand why you don't get yourself fixed.

If not the face, then the claws. You want to

know a secret hornhead? Life's messed up. I'm

messed up. I've had bad things done and I continue

to do bad things because the voice telling me

not to, he's not said much for a while. I love

that. And you know what keeps me going? Anger.

Somewhere in this episode, I have to put... You

know what my secret is? I'm always angry. I have

to put the Hulk. Whirl is a skinny version of

the Hulk from Avengers. Absolutely awesome. I

love Whirl. I love everything about that. Wait.

How does... Yeah, you must have not felt right

after this next panel here. No, I did not care

for this next panel. But it's... it's cyclonus.

You got a, you know, giant hole and it's right

there and there's, you know, a giant blade sticking...

Wow. Or a cyclone. Like the exclamation points

coming off his head very anime like yeah, yeah

But what I don't get is who did it because it

doesn't show it doesn't know it doesn't show

it It's not why would world do it world's next

to him So world's not behind him and world doesn't

I mean we probably you know know who it is already

just by the sword, but We get back to we get

back to pharma and wait no no no i'm sorry it's

amulon and first aid and yeah pharma's in there

that's pharma with the with the saw hand yeah

so you got amulon and first aid coming up here

and pharma is so sadistic he has this you know

he basically takes ratchet's idea Well first

of all, you gotta let people know, he's put Ratchet

back together. Yes. Ratchet's woke up and he's

kind of that delusional like, what just happened?

And so... He's kind of like you at 3 a .m. I'm

wide awake. This is me like on my fifth hour

of work. Like, what just happened? Why am I still

here? No, I'm a night person. But Pharma... being

the sadistic jerk he is, he wants to play a game.

Now just, Pharma is kinda like Jigsaw, he wants

to play a game, and it's not gonna end nice.

You know? No, it's, oh god, I still can't look

at this page. It's awesome. It's awful. Horrible.

It's, it's horrible. It's like, it's like um

you know um we go up to the top here listen listen

both of you you're just gonna have to roll with

this okay i'm sorry you're just gonna have to

let dr dj d uh cut us in half if you reroute

your nervous circuits away from your waist it'll

minimize the pain i can do this i can put you

back together it's Easy fix don't worry because

they're having a contest and wants to cut them

in half and whoever wins Whoever fixes the bot

Fastest wins. Yeah Yeah, that's best medic and

but Farmer's not gonna I mean ratchet kind of

wants to back down. He's like, nope. This is

my place We're gonna play my game He goes, you

said you were going to cut them in half. Yes,

lengthways. Oh my gosh. Oh. Now, I've seen online

where someone has replaced the purple energon

with blood red. And it is horrible. It's a massacre.

I might actually puke if I saw that. No, seriously,

I... I'm not good with blood, guts, and gore,

really, honestly. I find it fascinating again.

Bet your inner cyclone is coming out. I don't

know what was more unexpected, being stabbed

or being saved. Thank you. Don't thank me, thank

my reflexes. My stupid, indiscriminate reflexes.

Where did you get that sword? In the armory,

there's hundreds in there! And I think I know

who they belong to. Friends, please, over here.

Shall we see if I'm right? The circle of light,

I presume? Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of... A lot

of people contained in their own little cubes

with not much room in them. No, very much jail

cells. So we go back to erotimus and skids and

you know skids will He'll live it's surprising

how many stab wounds missed the spark I think

it was intended to incapacitate tyrus wants him

alive to stay in trial I I don't think tyrus

wants anybody alive to stay in trial. No he likes

his torture, too And Rodimus asks him, you're

sure it was Starsaber who did this? It was the

guy from those holy war documentaries that Rewind

showed us, the dark evangelist Starsaber. Yeah,

but you know, this isn't just about skids, right?

And then Swerve goes into a whole monologue and

again, art, amazing, really, really is. How many

different facial expressions Alex can give Rodimus

is interesting. I know, I love it. I love his

art style. It's great. So we get Star Saber.

But then I'd expect nothing less from an apostate

like you, Skids. Star Saber, I can't tell you

how it feels to be standing this close to a bona

fide maniac. Drift told me all these stories

about you about your plans for an atheist holocaust

I think my favorite bit was when you tried to

recruit the circle of light and I Atlas laughed

in your face And wrong being ever inquisitive

who's that with you? This is your new cellmate

He's been smoldering in the VVH for a while now

sleeping off his confession waiting for his partner

in crime to honor his promises. And of course,

for those that don't know, VVH is Variable Voltage

Harness. Sounds like a kinky sex game. It's what

it sounds like. Well, Harness, anyway. Sounds

like something you'd see on loan order special

victims unit. No. No. No. No. You're not gonna

be one of those fans. Oh please, this coming

from the girl who said, will you accept my cyclone

as fanfic? I can only imagine what you wrote

in that. That was sarcasm. Uh huh, sure. No it

wasn't. Don't even sit there and lie. No it wasn't.

That was not sarcasm. That was an honest question.

I don't have fanfic. I don't have time to write

fanfic. Maybe. Uh huh, see? Don't lie to me.

So apparently this person that he has with him

is Getaway. And we then go to the control room

where Tyrest is and Ambush shows up and Tyrest

is like, I'm busy, a disturbance near the smelting

pool. I'm sending some legislators to investigate.

What happened to Chief Justice? Have you lost

your manners as well as your armor? And we thought

we couldn't find anyone. more tightwad or not

tightwad more uh ocd probably back yeah tyrest

is very ocd um so we get more of this story and

we get what um what tyrest is after and it says

um You remember the pulse waves, Anbus? Each

one a data saturated life code, faster than thought,

brighter than light, racing across Cybertrons,

sewing sparks, wondrous. I know all this, you're

gonna tell me that the pulse waves become less

frequent, so Nova Prime devises the spark splicing

program. a way of using healthy sparks to ignite

new ones. That's the official version of events,

yes. I presume you want to know what really happened.

Oh boy. So everything on Cybertron is a cover

story, ladies and gentlemen. Entirely mine, at

least. Yeah. So we get Nova and we see he has

the Matrix and... They he basically bled the

matrix dry Just kind of sad I Don't know I've

always preferred to think of the matrix as you

know what we got in return of optimus prime It's

the collected wisdom of the ages more so than

Yeah, then then a combination of the matrix and

vector Sigma I always thought vector Sigma was

the was the power source let alone now So You

know, Tyrest is going on and on and on about

his plan. And his basic plan is, ladies and gentlemen,

anyone who has constructed cold is basically

evil. That's pretty much what it is, because

he has this doomsday switch, this kill switch,

and as soon as he presses it, it can't be unpressed.

And then we go back outside to Cyclonus Whirl.

And that's not Skids. That can't be Skids. He's

got wings. Who is that? Oh, oh, goll. Wait a

minute. Have I missed something? I just re -read

this. I just re -read this. Oh, no, it's it's

it's dietless. Yeah, it's dietless. Oh my god

They found him in the in the yeah, it's dietless.

So we've got cyclones that listen world Outside

versus the legislator bots, I totally forgot

to mention that sorry. Yeah, sorry listeners

world so here's the plan you watch I'll watch

your back you watch mine and if we make it out

of this alive then all scores are shuttled okay

no more trying to kill me what do you say I say

focus on the fight fool just remember those words

that come in the next issue no I know yeah I

know Open the portal, convince me, show me Cybertopia.

Only those who are without guilt can cross over.

I cannot open the portal until I have atoned

for my sins. And how do you plan to do that?

By activating this newest creation, the Universal

Kill Switch. And you know, Ambus basically says,

I can't allow this. Ultra Magnus wouldn't allow

this. I don't know which is why I'm invoking

section 90, subsection 16 of the terrorist accord.

There's no such... It's a new preemptive execution

when the Chief Justice has a reason to believe

that action will be taken against him. Crunch.

1916. That is another very sinister thing. Very,

very sinister. Very very sinister. So Again the

crew hasn't really changed on the crew page Interesting

So overall The third chapter I'm digging this

story so far. It's so evil and twisted and there's

there's surprises around every bend, right? Pretty

much. Yeah, I mean how many people have you ever

seen get clumped? Cut lengthways. Not many. Oh,

that panel. I'm looking back at that panel. I'm

like. No, look away. Again, Alex, to have that

in your mind and to put it on paper, worry about

him. Uh -huh. Again, genius. Yeah, I am. So with

the next part of the story, this is more than

meets the eye number 20 This is chapter 4 of

5 for remain in light. I have cover B, which

is tyrest No, that's not tyrest that's pharma

That's pharma. Yeah with the drill in his head

Yeah, okay, that's pharma Yeah, because Tyrus,

you'd have the horns. She doesn't have horns.

See, I thought that's what it was on the left

side of the cover. I thought that was horns that

we couldn't see off the top of the cover there.

That's Pharma. Yeah, I almost wish I had the

Rodimus cover or the Swerve cover, honestly.

I got the Pharma cover. Yeah, I'm not too thrilled

with the pharma cover. I would love to have this

for a cover, but I Just loved it the the coloring

on it. Yeah again. It's very sinister. I'd love

it Yeah so we started this one with we're in

the Luna one control room and Magnus no longer

has his head. Yeah, they just threw him in in

there with everyone else Yep Tell me you can

save him ratchet you can save him. Can't you

I? Don't know first aid. I mean he's look at

him. Just just look at him. I know And then of

course you see also tailgate in the corner his

countdown She just like oh poor guy one day 12

hours 41 minutes It's like that's all tailgate

is now is a countdown, but there's a reason for

I mean No, yeah, what you gotta put yourself

in his place What would you be thinking about?

I Love the title of this chapter remain light

four of five arm the lonely So we get to a battle,

we get back to the battle with Dyatlos, Wirl

and Cyclonus, and Wirl asks him, how are you,

Cyclonus, how are you doing that, what, your

sword, it's freaking nuclear powered. It's a

great sword, it's certainly impressive, no, I

mean, that's what it's called. It's drawing power

from your spark to the Nexus, and oh no, don't

ever draw power to the Nexus, people. in the

hilt and then energizing the blade I have to

say for a novice that's very hmm that's a surprisingly

deep connection your friend is cleverly or clearly

devout I'm sorry my what? I love how Alex can

actually draw a character that has no mouth no

eyes no nothing just light bulb for a face, you

know, basically, and yet you could see the look

of confusion on the sky. And we get to skids

and get away. This is where the fad of a certain...

a word started this this issue skids it's me

get away remember get away code breaker marksman

escapologist no nothing do i need to hit you

you don't need to hit me why would you hit me

i don't mean to hit you i mean uh bump when you

when you bump you say something funny or clever

bump that's what i do You hate it. You say it's

patronizing, which it is, which is why I do it.

I have no idea who you are or why you keep saying

bump. Anyway, hot rot, rotimus, rotimus, we're

a smidgen in trouble. I love the butt. Like ever

since James introduced that, I'm like, oh my

God, that is so going to catch on. And I remember

after this issue came out, Callie and Amy and

Ender, everybody was using Bomp after this issue

came out on Twitter. I missed that. This is when

I was in my car accident. So it took me a while

to kind of get caught up on everything. It's

great that James is a writer, that he can shove

so much at us and juggle it so well. It really

is because you've got you've got what's going

on with dialysis and cyclonus in the world. You've

got what's going on here You've got what's going

on with With tyres and all that and it comes

together so well I didn't expect originally when

I read this in single issue when it was releasing

I didn't expect it to come together so well as

we get closer and closer to the finale and it

It really really did Alright, where do we go

from here? Back to the control room where Tyrest

is. I don't care how special your hands are,

Pharma. You don't touch the kill switch. It fascinates

me. Oh, that's his alt mode. Wow, that's an ugly

alt mode for Pharma. Okay, I just wonder who

you're talking about there for a second Well,

I couldn't see where like I couldn't see where

he was coming. He's got a big cannon Yeah Looks

like somebody screwed the the Batmobile burner

on backwards So we get to Wait Is okay, so we

got tyrest and pharma and it's You know tyrest

I believe it's tyrest saying let me repeat how

grateful I am you came looking for me Oh, no,

it's pharma saying that to justice How else could

I be sure that the kill switch could differentiate

between forged and constructed cold as someone

famous for being forged you were a so perfect

test subject your survival proved that purebreds

would be spared the coal and gave me the confidence

to conduct a clinical trials on a grander scale.

Now this is basically Tyrest wanting to... it's

almost as if the US government get rid of all

poor people. Kind of. Just give it time. There's

always that acronym one big -ass mistake America

So we get tire rest and and pharma And we get

star saber calling the chief justice Says outside

sir the circle of light are on the rampage the

legislators have confronted them But request

permission to intervene granted take the decepticons

take the rest of the legislators take whatever

weapons you need And smite them God some of the

words that James uses is just hilarious great

stuff great stuff Absolutely. Hey getaway bump

bot, you got any dirt on our friend? I think

now is a good time to dish it. Oh swerve. How

can I not like you? Swerve is absolutely amazing.

And we get to the... Okay, so Swerve is asking

for dirt on on people And then we get to let's

see here So we get getaway Getaway says you work

for the diplomatic corps I Know that except the

diplomatic corps is just a front and name to

hide behind Then what is it really Autobot special

ops the wreckers done, right? I Bet Amy didn't

like that line when she read That's what we're

about precision because not every problem can

be solved with brain bullets and bravado You

and me we were partners we're still partners

I guess We'd been searching for Tyrest for years

tracing his footsteps pressing his associates

and being careful The boss didn't want Magnus

to know what we were up to eventually we tracked

him here to Luna one We came prepared That's

a really good panel there of skids and getaway

too. It is yeah very much so We split up to double

our chances and getting clear and shot and then

stop stop stop a clear shot We were sent to assassinate

Tyrest. I could never assassinate someone. That's

not my style I don't think that's my style. Please

tell me that's not my style Hear me bump out,

okay So, you know, we hit him in the head or

in the arm or whatever else You found him before

I did you said get away I'm in position and we

have skids as a sniper love it First of all,

let me just say and I don't know if I said this

back in the old issues When Ender and I were

reviewing these they finally got a bot named

skids that actually matters Yep, unlike what's

in those those movies? Well skids was around

a G1, but he was only in the two episodes I remember,

right? Yeah No, well, yeah, but like now compared

to what what skids was In those movies we don't

talk we don't talk about that Yeah So, let's

see here so we get that part of the story we

get Skid says I remember waking up in the shuttle

but nothing else to the Did the portal do that?

Some kind of side effect? Not quite, no. I assume

that after stealing the shuttle and using the

plug -in, you did what we were ordered to do

in the event that the mission was compromised.

This ship will self -destruct in five seconds.

There's one thing about this. It's a very talky

issue. Yeah, yeah, it's not an ultimate issue.

Yeah, there's not a whole lot going on, but you

need to know the story. Yeah Absolutely You took

your gun and you turned it on yourself two charges

remember and the second was a blank a Blank designed

to destroy every incriminate. So he basically

killed off his own memories That's why he didn't

recognize them when he came up to him I mean,

how would you not remember a guy that you went

into battle with? Yeah, really I mean I've personally

never been in battle, but I would probably remember

my brother -in -arms So we get down to get away

talking erotimus By acting against tyrest I think

we convinced him the rightness of his cause the

boss would have called it an Unintended consequence

this boss its prowl right come on. We're all

thinking it Give yourself a bonus point hot shot.

I Can't believe he just called him hot shot I

Love tailgate. Sorry. Did you say escape ologists?

I might have done Till gate get away. He's been

a prisoner for months if he could have escaped

he would have escaped But now I'm in here with

all of you. I have something I didn't have before

a fresh set of keys I love the look on his face

right there Beautiful. Yeah, you know that's

absolutely amazing Um, so we go back to Ratchet

and First Aid. These poor guys. I'd hate to be

in their position. Jeez. Their work is never

done. Yeah, these guys are just, oh man. It's,

you know. So, we get to the Metabay. Let me help.

I can help. Is he still behind us? Who? The robot

with the... Yeah, we're still trapped Let me

help you can't damn it ratchet you think it's

cheating you think you'll lose the game if someone

else has to go don't be ridiculous This is all

your fault you and your stupid hands and your

obsession with carrying on ratchet chief medical

officer in perpetuity Because no one will ever

be as good as you will they certainly not me

oh We're having that Are we? I'm just saying

I can help you fix Ambulon, and I'm saying you

can't why can't I? Because he died half an hour

ago Or Ambulon he's the one that got that got

cut lengthways Yeah, poor first aid though. I

mean the guy is just trying to help He well I've

seen this with a lot of doctors, you know mm

-hmm They don't like to have other people touch

their work because no they were always the smartest

in their class They were always one that figured

it out and now they're with people at their own

level They have to prove to people on their own

level that they're top dog absolutely absolutely

and we get you know Ratchet saying no move and

we get a giant choom and we get a bakoom Ambalon

was dead before the chainsaw left his body but

turning a corpse into a weapon takes time Ratchet

those things I said we're very well said listen

if we survive this you're taking over proper

ceremony, proper handover, the works. I think

Ratchet's just done. He's just like, I can't

take this anymore. Ratchet's too old at this

point. Pharma has got to him. Pharma finally

did it. Well, yeah, Pharma cuts his hands off

back in issue five. I know, but... Now he basically

disassembles his entire body. I meant to mention

this earlier during that part of the episode,

but is it just me, or did Alex really make Ratchet's

spark look like the Matrix? I think that's pretty

much what they look like all on the inside. Okay,

well, maybe. I mean, you gotta think, it's kind

of like our hearts. Got you need a brain and

heart to stable stay a lot. Well, I don't really

need a brain You just need a heart to stay alive

because you can't be brain dead if your heart's

working You still stay alive. It's kind of like

their spark. So of course this could be one of

the bigger Objects in their body. So No earlier

when ratchet spark was hanging off the thing

there it looked like it had like a I don't want

to say tan or orange. It looked like it had an

orange casing on it and it kind of reminded me

of the Shout Factory version of the Matrix on

the DVD set. Gotcha. So we get to Rodimus who

is carrying Tailgate and one of the Gatling guns.

Gromdo is carrying the other one front ways because

he's gonna protect everybody. Because he looks

badass. Yeah, he does look badass with it. You've

got Rung and Getaway in the background. apparently

nobody knows about the briefcase oh my god that's

hilarious um so uh you know and then told us

to slide them over the base at every electro

bar exactly at the same time and then we just

walked out of there well most of us So we get

to tailgate and he's saying that servos and his

legs are seizing up That's all ever get that

bit of service trouble. No And yeah ratchet looks

so old here he really does I mean the panel with

him in tailgate, I mean Like you said farmer

really like farmers last stand there was just

Just killed him So we get we get ratchet. So

come on. Where's the near nearest Metabay? It's

over there, but I don't know tailgate the Metabase

useless without the right medic If there's a

cure for cirrhosis, it's inside Pharma's hit.

All right, everyone time for the showdown Here

we go, oh And I love that I love Rodimus in general,

but just seeing him with a gatling gun makes

him even more cool. Yeah, that is pretty cool,

Paige. That is pretty cool. Oh, man. The art.

So good. We catch up with Diatlos, Cyclonus,

and Whirl, so we get, uh... Oh, jeez. Uh... Your

boyfriend there. We've got to finish this now.

I need it elsewhere. Okay, oh really there was

There was me dragging this out for fun. I'll

just finish up Is he being sarcastic I don't

think I don't think yes, I think that's just

world No, but that was asked cyclone us this

is he being sarcastic. I don't think even he

knows So we get dietless transforming and over

there by the smelting pool teleport flair tyrest

worse I'll deal with this I should have dealt

with this a long time ago you heretic you apostate

unbeliever Wow, this is an amazing visual. This

is an amazing battle. Yep. Knock knock. I love

Radamus. And oh, guess what? Ultra Magnus is

alive. Barely. Well... apparently he has three

cocoons he has the Magnus armor he has his outer

armor and then it's actually him under Ultra

Magnus aka Minimus Ambus is a Russian doll that's

cool yeah no I agree it is very much so so we

get Tyrest versus Rotimus and You know, Tyrus

is turning them with the switch and he does hit

the switch. You know, Ronimus is like, stop it,

you're killing them. Not just them, everyone

who has constructed cold. The signal is being

carried on the subspace network from here. That

is so evil. So evil. I don't think I've seen

another transformer be this evil. Pharma. I think

Pharma still tops it. I still think Pharma tops

it. But Pharma's just psychotic. Tyress knows

what he's doing. Yeah, that's the difference.

That's the thing. Pharma's gone. Tyress, he's

doing it just to be a douche. And then of course,

there's these really cool panels here where you

see people going down in all sorts of places

the last like Gorlum Prime Cybertron They're

all just collapsing the one on the one on the

lost light with poor blaster. Oh Blaster blaster's

face, you know what that reminds me of when Megatron

shot prowl in the movie and Prel's eyes flare

up and then his mouth flares up and he falls

over oh yeah oh my god oh poor Starscream poor

wait where is that panel it is the second to

the bottom oh and Rattrap's getting away he deserves

it oh don't say that okay yeah Starscream deserves

it because he just like I know the RID and the

More Than Meets the Eye titles don't really,

well they will, coming up next time when we do

one of these episodes, they will cross over for

Dark Cybertron, but they are two completely different

stories, but the reason why I say Starscream

deserved it is the only thing he can think of

is that it's Megatron. This last thing he says

is, Megatron! Again, this is another thing though.

They won't show Megatron here. No. And even in

the latest issues, he hasn't admitted how he's

been created. Only Megatron knows so far. So

we see all these deaths. Oh, and then poor Soundwave.

Oh, I just noticed that. I just noticed Ravage.

See, at first I thought... Ravage was rat trap

because he looks very similar. Oh Sound wave

he looks like he's oh That really breaks my heart.

Is there a sound wave from the bottom? Oh You're

right I do not like that panel. No That's heartbreaking

And that that might be the first time Soundwave

in any incarnation has really shown emotion That's

amazing. Oh, that's that breaks my heart. Yeah

So the final page here, we go back to Luna 1.

Hear that sound, Rodimus? That's the sound death

makes. That's the sound of creation in reverse

of life being unwritten line by line. That's

the sound that will stay in your head forever.

This isn't over. I'll find you, Tyrest. I will

find you and I will kill you. And if I have to

tear Cybertopia apart to do so, fine. Ah, and

right on cue, the portal opens, and the primal

pathion beckons. Primus, the guiding hand, the

Knights of Cybertron. Can you hear them singing?

Tyrest, come closer, come closer! You've won.

Dun -dun -dun, to be concluded. This issue was

very, very wordy. Yes. But it wasn't bad, though,

because the story reads so well. I remember when

I grabbed this one, when I got to it on the Comixology,

watching, like, reading this in Guided View on

Comixology, it again brings the story to life

for me. And it's like, I still didn't notice

Soundwave. Like, until you pointed that out,

I didn't notice it. I mean, I just read it today

and I'm just like, oh my gosh, that's Soundwave.

Well, that's Ravage. I was like, oh. Ravage,

no. What are your final thoughts on issue 20?

Again, it's probably my least favorite out of

this group, but that doesn't mean it's not good

because again, it's very wordy, but there's a

lot of action. There's a lot of things that happen.

Again, you just. It you just get involved with

these characters and you're rooting for some

and you oh It's just like dang it you guys It

makes you sad that only comes out once a month

Yeah, but I like that the comic comes out once

a month because if they if IDW pulled a Marvel

with with any number of these series that they

have going right now I would be so far, but I

wouldn't be able to keep up and keep track, honestly.

I just wouldn't be able to do it. So the grand

finale for Remain in Light, issue 21. I have

cover B, which is... That's what I have. Whirl,

by the smelting pool. Yeah. Whirl, by the smelting

pool. I really, really wanted the retail art,

the retail cover, because it's the... Oh no,

it's awesome. It's the animated version of Rodimus.

And cover A is cool too. Cover A is basically

what happened last issue. Yeah, pretty much.

So this will be the final time I read this but

the story so far the crew of the lost light is

all that stands against them an elephant chief

justice tyrist and his plans to execute every

Cybertorian who is constructed coal whose spark

was spawned from the matrix Cyclonus and world

will rescue the captured circle of light members,

but their leader, Dyatlos, falls in battle against

Starsaber and the robotic legislators. With Tailgate's

life force literally counting down to zero, Rodimus

leads him and other members of the crew against

Tyress, but they are frozen in place by a hypnotic

signal. Then Tyress presses the kill switch,

sending his deadly signal across the galaxy.

and begins the walk through a space bridge he

claims leads to the mystical Cybertopia. Cybertopia!

So we go to little one, five inches from the

Enlightenment, where Tyrest is, and out of all

people, the midget. The midget acts. Oh, no,

you don't. How did you? The signal paralyzes

everyone who hears it. It wasn't your weapon

keeping me down. It was the cyber -cro - cyber

-crosis. I was going to say cyber -tosis, but

cyber -crosis. The same cyber -crosis that's

making me go deaf. I can't hear anything on the

higher frequencies. And speaking of that signal,

let's switch that off, shall we? I love it. The

finger that saved the world. Finger in your head.

Finger in your head. Nobody better lay a finger

on my butter finger. Not cool, Tyrest. I suggest

you put Tailgate down, smile freely, and back

away. And then maybe, if I'm feeling more optimist

than nominous, I'll share you the ind - I'll

spare you the indignity of... Rodimus FOCUS!

You know, one thing I gotta mention... Rodimus

loves his speeches. Yeah, he does. One thing

I gotta say about Ratchet is... I'm not complaining

about how he looks, I'm just pointing this out.

Every time I see Ratchet, um... In robot mode,

I'm like, hey, it's an Autobot version of Soundwave,

because his chestplate looks just like Soundwave's

door. I never saw that. It really, really does,

at least to me in this version. Unless we turn

off the kill switch, Chromedome and the others

will be dead in minutes. Okay, I gotta apologize

for you. Is Tyrus on their last cover? Because

I'm looking at that panel with him right there.

That is his faceplate. I apologize. You were

right. Yeah. Cause, yeah, cause the crown...

That looked like Pharma's eyes on the cover,

that's why I said that. No, no, no, no, the crown

has, um, cause the crown goes off the page of

the cover. Yeah, that's, that's right. And, you

know, the whole King Triton thing, I knew that

was Tyrest. Yep, I apologize. I didn't doubt

myself. Psychonist fangirl. Hey, if it was Psychonist,

I... If it was cyclones, you'd have gotten it

right. Oh, god. There's no doubt about that.

I could recognize those bunny ears anywhere.

Or lack thereof. Yeah. So we get Rodimus. So

Tyrest comes after Tailgate. Now I want everyone

within kissing distance of the floor no one look

up till I'm through the portal do it or I'll

lobotomize the ship's mascot shoot him Rodimus

shoot him tailgate I One day 12 hours 15 minutes

59 seconds. I'm dying proper full -on dying cybercrosis

the big see I've only got a day and a half left

now shoot him don't think I need to remain in

light 505 this calamitous life oh my god it's

always good when ambus shows up And then we have

a complete art design change because of a change

location. Whereas the first couple of pages were

really light and bright and like full on white

backgrounds. That portal was in that room. So

there's a lot of light. Yeah, no, I'm not complaining.

I'm just saying I love how Alex and Josh and

all the artists can just when they change locations

that the colors change. And I think that's really,

really cool. So, we've got Whirl and... Crap.

That's not... We've got Whirl in the forefront.

That's not Diatlus next to him, is it? No, that's

the top page. Pathetic, all of you. That's Starsaber.

That is? Wait, am I looking at the wrong... The

very top page where it says... Yeah, okay, I

was looking at the wrong page, sorry. Or he says

pathetic all of you That's star saber oh Yeah

up top yeah, I was talking about next to world

though the bot next to world That's die atlas,

okay, cuz he looks like a different color there

Well, anybody pit their faith against mine says

star saber and of course guess what? And he looks

like he's wearing a skirt I don't he is wearing

samurai armor. I know he's It's just in that

light. It looked like the edges of the armor

He's beautiful. I don't care So we've got We've

got Star Saber versus cyclonus and Cyclonus takes

his eye out Yeah, that's pretty that's that's

that's very messy Like that panel before that

though the look on cyclonus's face. It almost

has the skeletal look to it Does yeah, I mean

I love it So pretty Yeah, the the why do you

fight? It's personal. Yeah And at the very bottom

I know this is only shadow, but I can't help

but think that Alex was Mimicking animated here

because his face is entirely black Like the animated

version was yeah two seconds. We saw him in trans

warped Yeah, like said he had the best entrance

though. Hello Yeah Blackout we needed that old

sorry So we go back inside and we've got Magnus

and Rodimus and all this and all that and Magnus

tells him of how he broke through his second

outer shell. How many suits of armor does this

guy need to wear? I love the look of Rodimus

here. Yeah. He's kind of crouching like Spider

-Man would a little bit in that top panel. I

love it because he's just so confused. What?

The... Hell. I love it. Again, this is our fourth

issue in a row with the word hell in it. I love

it. I just love it. Oh, Gaw, genius. And we get

to Skids and Rung and Skids, Rung, Ratchet and

First Aid. Hey, I got them right this time. Nice

job. There's so much red, I understand. Yeah,

it's like... There's a lot of red bots. A lot

of red bots. There's a lot of red bots, a lot

of blue bots, a lot of blue and red bots. But

Cyclonus, you know when he's around. And Rodimus,

because Rodimus is more reddish -orange than

actually red. Well, you know, not everyone could

pull that scheme off. With the flames, like you

said. So true, so true. So, we get to, righto

then nurse, arrest me, tell me off, and lock

me up. I've been a bad Autobot, and you're smiling.

Everything you did at Delphi, all those patients

you killed, and you're smiling. I know, I know,

I'm incorrigible. God, Farma, oh my God. You

killed animal on and you think it's funny. Oh

now come on that was funny Lengthways your face

was an absolute boom Farm is not coming back

Now see I was wrong hung on just by The very

littlest Pinscher of his head, you know a little

moment of his head. Yeah, why why wouldn't he?

I know. Maybe it's just, you know, me inside

not wanting to be freaked out as much that I

don't want Farmer to come back. I love Farmer

though. I mean, I just think that at this point

we've had two stories with him, and I think that,

at least me personally, we've had two stories

with Farmer. They were both great. They were

both creepy as all hell. I just think that's

kind of run its course. It may be down the line.

I see where you're going. Yeah. Okay, Perceptor,

run it by me one more time. Everyone who has

constructed Cold has a special spark code. Until

today, I thought the code was a byproduct of

the spark splicing process, but it's not. It's

copied directly from the Matrix. The Killsquit...

Killsit... Damnit, I can't talk. Killswitch.

Thank you. Scrambles the spark code if we can

reinstate the code by taking from a new copy

from what's left of the matrix, we should be

able to reverse the effects of the kill switch.

Yay, sparks blazing. Here we go. Here we go.

Interesting. And honestly, I completely forgot

that Rodimus has the matrix. Oh, yeah, that's

right, huh? I mean Completely slipped my mind

that Ronimus has the matrix and yet he's not

a prime yet Maybe he just can't deal with that

responsibility. Yeah So we get to a nearby location

and um... uh... swerve of all people says i'm

telling you tyrus is alive he's trying to say

something he's saying what's he saying something

about winning oh god tyrus played by charlie

sheen transformers 10 ladies and gentlemen charlie

sheen's not going to be around that long He has

tiger blood. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. We

get to a screen where tailgate is and says, Tire

Rest Accord, Part 1, Section 1, Immediate Vicinity.

Huh, talk about delusional. We go back outside

and... We have all of the legislators one one

one one one one one I Really wish that they would

use minimus more often I mean, I know he's ultra

Magnus and I know he puts the armor back on and

all that but I really do like minimus ambus's

design I think I think it's cool to really do

like it. No more Autobots need facial hair Oh

god, I would so love it if if I doubt this will

ever happen in this comic, but I would so love

it if if More than meets the eye would switch

universes and go shattered glass. I would love

to see a shattered glass Rodimus in this universe

I know but still This bottom panel here, I've

had misgivings from the outset when we were leaving

Cybertron. This bottom panel where you see Ambus

here. You know, you look at him in the right

way, he basically has RC ears. He has the honeycombs

ears. That's true, huh? Yep. Maybe RC is his

grandmother. Yeah, this is true. So we get Rodimus

hooked up to this machine. He reveals that he

brought Overlord on board. I was a part of it

with Drift and Brainstorm and the Duobots. I

let it happen. Prowse said I owed it to the Autobots

before we left Cybertron. We met in his office

and he told me he wanted an Autobot Phase Sixers.

Somebody as powerful as Overlord, but on our

side. And then he said, these might not have

been his exact words, but he said if I... was

scared of having Overlord on board I could say

no which well here we are so they're in the middle

of gonna they're gonna do this this spark thing

and that's gotta be painful that looks really

painful that doesn't look like it's a lot of

fun no no there you go there's your Rodimus torture

right there see I can't is it gotta be because

I like Rodimus but for some reason I'm just happy

when he gets it too so we go elsewhere and we

see I believe it's diatlas hello anyone here

anyone care to tell me where here is there's

a lot of moons yeah oh hey hi um that's a lot

of spark is what that is and the spark is it's

just Saying symbols. That's all it's saying I

love the look on his face there. Yeah and the

question marks again and we go back to Rodimus's

torture and We go to no, it's not tailgate. Oh

No, this is This is them showing that, you know,

Ratchet says life signs are good, better than

good. Whatever you're doing, whatever you're

doing, Rodimus, it's working. Brainstorm is going

to be okay. And then everybody is going to be

okay. And we see Starscream, and his cockpit

is showing. Oh, there should be a big sensor

bar right there. Yeah, there should be. And then

Saurav of all people. Anyone else here marching?

Because the legislator bots are marching on them.

We get Whirlwind Cyclonus. How about that Cyclonus?

We won. The legislators have gone. Lockdown's

done. A runner. And if you're alive, I'm guessing

StarSaver isn't. So well done us. And this is

by far the best page in the book. Again, another

reason why I love this guy. Love him, love him,

love him, love him, love him, love him. So what

do you say? Are we go push? He gets his final

say with Whirl. Yup. There he goes in this smelter

pot. We're cool. I didn't know you could be so

cruel. You push your best friend in a smelting

pot. Well, if he's noticed in the next panel,

he's still there. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he's

just picturing himself doing this. Dialis asks,

what is all this 1 -1 business? The legislators

are a program to enforce the law, so I'm guessing

it's section 1 -1 has something to do with protecting

the Chief Justice. Guessing? I thought you were

an expert. It's new. Tyrus is using that computer

to amend the law. That computer over there! Wish

me luck. And... Again, tailgate being our little

hero here. Yep, he saves the day, rewrites the

code, gets rid of the semicolon, which the semicolon

was the the evilest thing in the universe, when

it comes to the legislators. We get to the page

where... God, I almost called him a real one.

Tailgate has 14 minutes 30 seconds to live. I

nearly forgot, I made you a present. It's in

our ham suite under the window sill, and you've

got to wear it. No excuses. What in the hell

did he make him? I don't remember that part.

Oh, I know what he made him. He made him the

new horn, right? Yeah. Yeah, okay. So, Tailgate

dies, Cyclonus is sad. This is the part of this

comic where, well, we'll get to it, it's like

the next page. it's just like oh my gosh what

is going on here this this was the heartbreaking

part for me of this whole series it's just like

are we going to go through this are you serious

yep so cyclonus basically just takes a huge giant

honking sword and shoves it into the stone yeah

um yeah that's That's the very very art engine

right there. The very first panel on that page

where Cyclonus is in shadow looking over tailgate.

I actually, the first time I read this, I put

it down on how to walk away because I'm like,

I can't deal with this. I can't see someone who's

finally found a friend and have him to kill them

just to put him out of their misery. Kind of

getting teared up right now because I can't imagine

being in that situation. Oh, no. Yeah, I completely

understand So we get to an epilogue well, what

do you think yay the armor is back now There's

the ultra Magnus we all know and love Should

that be a question mark I don't know about that.

Anyway, it gave me a good clean. Anyway, gave

it a good clean. It still fits. You weren't at

Swerve's grand reopening. Yeah, I don't know.

Not really in the mood. Still smarting from the

kill switch. And you know, things on my mind

was I missed. You were talked about. People were

surprised that we left Luna 1 so quickly. Tyrus

portal burnt itself out during the fight with

the legislators the hot spot wouldn't reignite

Probably because the matrix is dust and ratchet

took what he wanted from farmers meta Bay So

I stick around And brainstorms locked himself

in his workshop We get to the final panel here.

So much for the miracle moon. At the end of the

day, after being lost for 12 million years, it

was just a moon. All the same, I regret not asking

more questions of Tyrus. He said he just found

it, didn't he? Yes, just happened to stumble

upon it a couple of years ago, which begs the

question, how did it manage to go undiscovered

for so long? And we get back to Cyclonus, along

with Ultra Magnus. And he, you know, he said

he just heard about Tailgate. He's still in the

Meta Bay. It'll take a few more weeks before

he's back to normal. The treatment takes time.

So wait a second, Cyclonus saved him? Mm -hmm.

How the hell did he do that? Well, remember what

he was talking about when he was fighting? Star

saber or and diatlos picked up his sword. He's

talking about his spark is United with him in

that great sword. So basically when he shoved

that sword into tailgate Part of his spark is

with him now. He gave up some of his life spark

for tailgate Okay, so they're married now, right?

so we get Magnus and Cyclonus talking and they

basically talk out and I think that's when vector

Sigma resurrected me when he gave me a new lease

on life it supercharged my spark Nonetheless,

letting your spark flow into tailgate, that was

a massive gamble. You put your own life at risk,

no matter. Cyclonus, I know I'm a little late

in saying it, but welcome aboard. Thus ends...

Thus ends Remain in Light. And I think we're

gonna save issue 22 since it is the Dark Cybertron

Prelude until we get to the Dark Cybertron episode,

even though it is included in the trade for Remain

in Light. I think we're gonna save it. Remain

in Light overall, I really enjoyed it. There's

so much going on to enjoy. These few issues right

here are some of the best comic book writing.

That's out there, people. Even if you don't like

Transformers, or if you've never read Transformers,

give it a shot. It's just good storytelling.

I mean, you forget that these people are robots.

They're metallic, because they have such human

persona and feeling and emotion. you put yourself

in their places. I mean, I've read this about

four times, I still get emotional when cyclonists

test you. It's so good that Alex with his artwork

is far none. I mean, it's just amazing. Like

I said, it's a lot to live up to with Remain

in Light. absolutely it is it is a lot to live

up to and the title is is very interesting because

I often wonder where in Transformers media they're

gonna use the standards like light our darkest

hour and till all are one and obviously till

all are one you know Rodimus says that still

yeah I mean that's Rodimus's catchphrase But

Remain in Light was a damn good story. It was

a lot more interesting for me on the second read

-through than it was on the first time because

I caught a lot more this time around. That's

how it is any time that you read through something.

Right. And absolutely dug it. I thought it was

great. Where can the people interact with you

if they would like to do so? Oh, well, you could

find me on Twitter under Beatles Diva Beatles

like the band not the bug always have to clarify

that pretty much I'm in it on any Transformers

form under their hail storm H a I l s t o r me.

No, no II. Sorry. Yes I've got the spelling of

my name wrong That's where I got the name, people.

Or you can find me on Facebook under BeatlesD

or HailStorm or my real name, if you know it.

She should by now. You just told it, everybody.

I know, that's what I'm saying. Let's see if

they're paying attention. It's so funny, you

have to clarify, Beatles, the band, not the bug,

because actual Beatles ate up the George Harrison

Memorial. Did you see that news story? Oh geez,

it was all over Facebook the other day. Oh my

gosh, that's awesome. Let me see if I can find

it here. Yeah, George Harrison Tree killed by

actual beetles. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, that's

funny. I mean, it's in a... ironic kind of a

way yeah it's kind of sad um coming up next on

the pull bag i'm not sure i'm hoping i'm hoping

whirl and i can team up to talk about rid i don't

know if we're going to be able to or not i kind

of because the way i have it planned ladies and

gentlemen is The end of July beginning of August

all the way through August is Turtles and Transformers

and Turtles month kind of where we just did So

the plan was to do more than meets the eye volumes

four and five and then next week Rid volumes

four and five, but it's gonna depend on what

lady rex schedule is and if she's gonna be able

to because I'm really putting her through the

ringer I just asked her to do a couple of BotCon

comics with me for episode 84 and 85 comics she'll

Trust me. She'll try to make time as much as

you can. I know I know so coming up we've got

Hopefully we've got robots in disguise volumes

four and five Then we've got, I'm going to do

a giant size, which is going to be one episode,

but it's going to be numbered episode 84 and

85 as one thing. And hopefully Lady Rek and I

are going to talk about the 2008 Shattered Glass

BotCon comic and the 2011 Stunticon Job BotCon

comic. Oh, that one's my favorite. I love that.

That's a fun one. Well, we'll have to work that

out and see if that can be worked out for you

to join us for that part. And then episode 86,

hopefully, I'm not sure what Ender's got going

on. Not sure what you have going on. Episode

86 was going to be Dark Cybertron. And with that

one, we're just going to have to do highlights,

because that's 12 issues. We'd be here for seven

hours. I was doing it in depth on that. So yeah,

I think I'm just gonna have to read that, take

points. So until next time... Until we meet again.

Aloha. Make your greatest game to comics, and

we will catch you next time. You've just heard

the latest episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's

comic review and discussion podcast. There are

several ways to get in touch with us and leave

feedback for the show. You can visit the website,

geekcastradio .com, where you can comment on

the episode and all of our different podcasts.

You can rate our show on iTunes. Be sure to leave

us feedback. Call the voicemail line, 502 -526

-5821. Please remember to tell us the show you're

leaving the message for and your name. Become

a fan of us on Facebook by searching Geekcast

Radio Network. Send us an email feedback at geekcastradio

.com. Follow us on Twitter at Geekcast Radio.

So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.