D4VE Issues 5 Review

Hey, this is Tom Waltz, IDW's Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles writer, and you are listening to

the GeekCast Radio Network. Welcome to The Pole

Bag. Join us as we dig out our latest comics

and discuss them with a rotating panel of the

GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this week's

Pole Bag. Welcome to the pull bag. This is episode

one third. You would think it's episode 113 folks,

but no, it's actually episode 126. I am Dave,

Joe and Mike who wants to basically kill Skype

and kill my computer and kill everything to do

with podcasting at this point. Every thing you're

not a thing you're a person. There's a difference

Let's let's see if we can No there isn't There

isn't anything that could be thinking how would

you leet speak your name that oh Yeah, it doesn't

work. I don't think I can't envision it Yeah,

I can't just don't even work with the name game

I know. It sucks. For people who don't know the

name, you know, it's like Dave, Dave, Bo -Bave,

Banana. Try to call. It doesn't work. I mean,

it's a two syllable name, but it just doesn't

work. Yeah, no. I don't know how I... Let's see.

Yeah, we're just gonna break our brains trying

to... N1... N1CO... What's the See that he never

uses any L's. I don't think no cuz Sally They

have Sally, but they have the L's for Sally Yeah

Cuz they use the it's five four. Yeah, lly. Oh

God yeah So folks we're here. It's episode 126

You'd think it was episode 113 with all the shit

that's gone wrong trying to even get this recorded

We are three two or three podcasts away from

Nicole being here pretty much full time for the

month of February when we're doing fiendship

is friendship February so All pony month yay,

but before we get to that we're gonna be talking

about monkey brain and Now IDW series d4ve from

right Yeah. D4VE from writer Ryan Ferrier and

artist Valentin Ramon. I think I first heard

about this when we were last year when we were

doing the profiling previews thing. And I was

excited to read it because it looked like my

type of thing. I'm like, this looks awesome.

I guess I was right. If I had known about this

when it originally came out, it probably would

have made my top list for each year. Oh, really?

Because I bought the first issue when it came

out and it's just like, oh, this is great. Because

of course, you know, many of our friends read

Transformers comics, another robot. comic you

know and so it's just like oh it's more robots

i just love how you like you know that other

robot comic doesn't even matter anymore it's

like d4ve is basically put transformers to shame

at this point actually transformers are still

really good yeah no i don't know i know i know

so the summary for it okay so We've got a two

-parter here folks episode it's not a giant size

or anything like that but episode 126 and 127

are actually going to come out on the same Wednesday

This episode we're going to talk about the first

series which was originally published by Monkey

Brain and then obviously collected by IDW and

then the IDW series D4V2 happened last year so

next episode we'll talk about the the second

arc in the story here but the summary is as follows

midlife crisis Dave the defense bot turned desk

slave Withers away at a soul -sucking day job

quietly dreaming of his monster punching past

Unbeknownst to him yet new alien presence lands

on earth. I Love this much just in the description.

That's what sold it right there. Yeah robots.

We got alien invasion. Okay, I'm sold Soul -sucking

day job. It's like where's um, where's Gary?

Where's Gary Cole when you really need him? Like

seriously this is this is office space, but 500

years in the future Yeah, we're all drones And

not the flying kind either folks so we start

off Now with this comic as well, they have so

many like little pop culture references thrown

in here This is the most pop culture reference

comic I've ever seen oh There's there's a lot

out there, but this one is probably at the tops,

and I love it Because this one does it so well

Pretty much if you've ever seen a sci -fi movie.

There's probably a reference to it in here, and

I love it Yeah, and it's not just in what they

say it's in the various signs and all that like

Like the opening panel here, you got Dave standing

on a building next, you know, he's got an alien

below him. And to his right is a picture of a

screw and it says, don't lose them. At first,

I thought that alien when he's on the building,

the second panel there, I thought it was the

Cloverfield alien. I guess it could be, you know,

because we never really got a good look at the

alien. So the first issue here opens up and we

got Dave against this alien guy. I didn't notice

this. I just read this last night before. This

is the first time I ever read it. I just read

this. Really? Oh. Yeah. I didn't read it before.

So you were planning on doing a review on a comic

that you never read? No. Kudos, buddy. Kudos.

When we did the profiling previews thing last

year, it was something I filed away for later.

I was something that I was like, okay, that's

cool. I want to get to it when it started coming

out in print form from IDW. I'm like, yeah, I've

got too much other stuff I'm reading. So I've

had it on file for a while. It's not that I wasn't

gonna read it I of course I was gonna read it

But how I normally read stuff is or how I normally

like over on to cast beyond or my or whatever

when I watch a movie or watching Cartoons or

whatever. I have to do it like the day of the

actual recording Wow, even if I even if I take

yeah so Dave's daydreaming he did this whole

opening scene is him daydreaming fighting this

alien well he's not really well I guess he has

daydreaming he is daydreaming because he's sitting

in his office and his boss yelling his name would

this be considered more of a memory or is it

a daydream okay well it could be one or the other

Back to his glory days. So basically Dave is

Al Bundy. There's no way Scotty is worse than

Bud. There's just no way. Scotty is pretty much

Bud. Hormonal teenager. Makes you just take on

the world. But no usually how usually when I'm

reading comics, you know, I obviously the art

catches me But some of the little nuances don't

catch me like I didn't notice until right now

When we look at the panel of of his boss asking

him what the hell he's doing There's a giant

shell logo on the top of the with devil horns

And his boss has the suspenders of the coffee

mug like, what's his name from office space?

Yup. You know, so... I mean, I really do love

this, this is so much fun. What does this look

like to you, a Motel 9? Oh, this is so awesome.

Yeah, this first comic, I mean, this first issue

is so much fun because... Yeah, like I said the

references and It's just nice to know that the

robots have mundane lives just like humans Well,

yeah, I mean the way that farrier wrote this

is is he's We'll find out as we go along but

essentially the robots won Robots essentially

made humanity extinct and the robots now control

Earth and the robots basically fell into what

humanity was. Because the humans programmed they

got the human programming. So he used to fight

monsters and aliens and protect the planet but

now... He's an account manager for the water

power plant. Not awesome, nor important. But

you see this a lot when you see someone come

back from the war. They had this crazy life that

is just so dangerous and exciting. And then you

come back and some soldiers are just kind of

lost because they don't have that sense of Oh,

well, I used to do something that made a difference,

and now I'm at a desk job where I could be replaced

the next day, you know? So he goes home, of course

he forgot the oil. Aww. Yeah, but uh, it's just

like... every guy forgetting to bring the milk

or the bread or the eggs or the fabric softener

or whatever else McCauley Culkin used to shop

for and home alone. And Alfredus, I forgot to

bring the milk home. It's not just a guy thing.

Yeah. So we get the basically a short version

of the backstory of how man -made robots and

expensive Roombas and... Very Terminator -esque

here. Oh, yeah. Ryan loves his Term - Like, Ryan

and Valentin, they love their Terminator references.

Like, I mean, if you look at that one panel,

the one that's mostly red, I mean, you could

see... Like like the the terminators, I mean

they're their body positions and everything are

just like what you would think in the movie The

language that The language that Ferrier writes

for these robots is just amazing It's just so

so good So, you know, after the fact that they

won, uh, between the robots and the humans, and

the weird thing about being programmed by humans

is that you adopt their nuances. We love parades,

for example. You know, as soon as I read that,

all I can think of is Ferris Bueller. So it's

not just her. Well, okay, well. Earth is pretty

much the only place we know of humans being but

the way that they explain it is The humans are

completely eradicated from the universe. So Did

humans eventually did we eventually leave earth

at some point and end up on the Titan or something?

I don't know I Love all these like different

little aliens that they show. Yeah Valens and

Zartan in this is really really awesome I mean,

like I said, this is my first time seeing anything

from either one of these creators, and this comic

can just go up against any other comic you can

think of. It really, really can. In and out of

its own genre. I mean, it just can. So, the...

As we go through this he's still cuz not now

that he's awake and walking around he is The

flashbacks are some of the daydreams and stuff

because he talks about the defense bots the glory

days and all that He's the good -looking one

Yeah, they look all the same So, we just existed,

made jobs, started families, and I like the one

in this panel. We'll work for oil, thanks. The

homeless robot? My favorite's the next panel.

We're watching God with the Wind, robot style.

Yeah, we became stagnant, uninspired, lazy. Oh

my god, that's just hilarious. Is that a screw

bouncing off his head? I think what he was trying

to do, you know how you like Because you're watching

maybe so you try to throw popcorn in the air

and you try to catch it That's what I picked

up is like. Yeah, he has no mouth. So that's

not gonna work. That's what I was I was getting

from it I just really like Like this whole story,

it's just so fun Apparently everybody was supposed

to defrag who they used to be and he just mislabeled

who he used to be. Yeah That's just so hilarious

What are you liking about this one so far? Oh,

like I said the whole how They've just turned

into basically humans, but with the outer metal

shell, you know because they They've conquered

pretty much everything. And so they're just like,

well, what do we do now? You know, I guess, uh,

I guess we tried to do the whole, let's just

make a mundane life. And at first it probably

sounded good because I mean, it looks like they

were at war for a long time, you know, with all

these different races of aliens and stuff. So

probably felt good to calm down for a while,

but now it's been so much time. If people are,

yeah, they're just. Kinda like we are, you know?

Get up, go to work. Just try to survive the day.

But I really do like the Disneyland reference.

You look so dang cute. Yeah, the pop culture

references are so much fun in here. And I like

that he wears a hoodie. Yeah, he wears a... You

know, it reminds me of... It reminds me of Elliot

for Mr. Robot. I thought you could say Elliot

from E .T. No, no, no, no, no. Mr. Robot. Yeah,

there is no phoning home here. I love how Ferrier

writes the monologue. Just hearing Dave monologue

is great, the internal monologue. It's like,

are you there, God? It's me, Dave. Yeah, Dave,

you remember. Oh, right. That time I punched

you square in the dick in that one time. Sorry,

God. Shit, I got to work in three hours. Oh,

but I really do love that one page. It's just

beautiful because you can see the galaxy shooting

star. It kind of makes it gives you the sense

that, you know, oh, wow, they're really just

back on earth and yeah he's looking up into the

stars like pretty much other people would do

like what else is out there there's got to be

something more you know and then you know we

get to the morning and we have iron loops loops

for cereal i love it i like that they're alive

and they pour themselves Yeah. Yeah, the cereals.

Yeah. So we get back to Dave's job and this other

robot's talking to him and Chad, you know, he

just says, Oh, it's a weird morning. And this

place is got to be, this is even worse than,

than in a tech or, or in a trod or anything in

the office space. I mean, this place is so dark

and dreary and dry i mean it's just it's just

four concrete walls and a concrete desk basically

and chad's the creeper i'm gonna show her my

old face yeah chad is so drew with this series

yeah so chad wants him to go across the street

and basically blow off work so they go over to

the the robo strip joint Well, what was it called?

They say later on in the book, crap. I can't

remember. Anyways. And he tells him, Chad tells

him, that's the thing, Dave. You just got to

stop caring. And that's one of the reasons why

I keep referencing office spaces, because. Dave

just kind of really seems like Peter. I mean

he even and I He even gets a promotion like Peter

did so like Ryan must have really had office

space in the brain writing it works, you know,

oh Absolutely. No, I'm not complaining about

it. I'm just saying it's like oh man all these

all these these references But it's awesome.

I love it. Oh, yeah and then the Clark empire

or clare empire ascends and i want to know what

his about valentine's idea of these because these

spaceships are what people unless you read they're

organic spaceships and they look very dirt and

rocky and poo -like almost, you know? And I want

to know how he came up with that idea. Do you

think he watched the Rock Lords at all? So this

one robot goes off and, hey, you can't park that

here. Hey, open your parts. We get the reveal

of the aliens and it ends with ASL, ASL, ASL.

I don't think anyone's used ASL in at least 15

years, at least. I bet you someone has. I don't

know. I'm not up on my online dating anymore.

I'm in a relationship now, so I don't have to

worry about it. So there's that So Dave wakes

up he's late And this is where we meet Scotty

just runs out knees these kids right there and

He tries to talk to him Uh, hey, whatever. I

love the back of Scotty's shirt. It's like a

punisher, but with a plug port. Yeah, that's

awesome. I love it. It's so cool. That shirt.

Oh man, if somebody would make that shirt, that'd

be so awesome. And you notice they don't really

have TVs in this future anymore. Like it looks

like there's a TV on the thing or it might be

a mirror, but he's essentially using holographic.

So apparently Dave is this big screw -up and

Well, he's lost he's yeah. Yeah, I feel sorry

for the guy. You know he is lost And Kind of

ends on Dave realizing that he's about to get

hung out to dry on this one This first issue

I Really enjoyed it. I thought it was really

really interesting. You know you got a really

nice setup you've got Characters that for all

intents and purposes are More developed in the

first issue than anything. I've really ever seen

Well, I think it's because it's free late relatable

Everyone's been in that position where they're

just like I've got it where you just get into

the routine of life where every day seems like

the day before you know Yeah, everyone's been

there. So even though that's robust you could

relate to it. Oh Yeah, absolutely with the the

the second issue in this first series here once

again the art is just so good and we open with

the aliens setting up their their invasion and

the shell devil is everywhere apparently There

was Okay, one of my favorite references though

if you're a kid from the 80s, you'll probably

remember there because they're speaking in their

Key lark language and one of them what one of

us says plop plop oh that's funny alka seltzer

for the queen yeah it's it's clarr um yeah as

soon as i saw that i'm like hey alka seltzer

i loved it so awesome so we open this one with

invasion day one and He's going Dave and his

boss and His boss is basically Bitching him out

in front of two other employees or there's CEOs

you tell there. They're high maintenance guys.

You're just like One of them has a Frankenstein

kind of look to him And we come up with some

very interesting language for money, vagillions

of credits. It's like, oh, God. Oh, I love how

extreme the numbers are. Yeah, very, very extreme.

I just love how the story is playing out here.

With the whole workplace stuff and okay, I got

I got when they're talking on the phone I love

how it it's kind of like how you talked on the

phone when you were playing when you were little,

you know Oh, yeah, you have the lo -ha sign up

to your ear, you know, and you're just I just

love They communicate like they're on the phone.

I got such a kick out of that Yeah, this this

comic is all about you know And and Dave he's

my hero because he does something I've wanted

to do several times when stuck in traffic And

that's just to get out of your car and throw

it across I want that I want that ability Well,

he gets to this point because he's stuck in traffic

And he asks the phone to dial home. Uh, dialing

works. Fuck, hell, piss, home. Playing radio.

Ask car. And this is where, this is where he

picks it up and flings it. That hot robots gone

mad And again, we see it's one of his dream daydream

things he's still in the car The the clar aliens

even though this is pretty much a testament to

all things 80s in this series the clar aliens

So remind me of Mars attacks. Yeah, they're basically

Because I could hear the like Talk that they're

talking about and yeah, they got kind of got

the the big old brainy heads a little bit, you

know They're only missing the actual helmets

around the heads if you look at it there there

The head that they have in the car here would

be basically as if you put the flesh over the

bars attacks Yeah, yes, I'd love it. You know

how much I love Mars attacks Yeah, I know know

what I'm saying is the only thing that the car

missing are the space helmets that Okay, I see

what you're saying that the mark that the Mars

attacks aliens had So Me godspeed maybe Armada

gallop with the fires of klar at their heels

I Even though that's translated I still have

no idea what the hell that means Whatever it

is it sounds awesome Yeah It sounds so Dave finally

gets home and his son Scotty is there smoking

I'm pretty sure that was intentional I'm pretty

sure too I'm pretty sure because they're and

I the reason why I say that is because of what

happens to that character later yeah you know

not to sound insensitive or anything folks but

The signs are there right now. Not that there's

anything wrong with that. No, but yeah, it's

a little heads up. Yeah, pretty much. So we have

more of Dave's home life and Sally's leaving

him because he's such a screw up. They have some

some arguments and he's trying to basically apologize

and saying that he can change and And she basically

just says she's leaving and we have more of the

invasion But poor Eiffel Tower, I know Eiffel

Tower survived the whole world going to crap

unless they rebuilt it or something. Well, the

top of it didn't survive. Well, I'm talking about

when the robots are taking over the humans. Oh,

okay. Yeah. I would assume most things would

serve most... You never know. The Terminators

didn't really leave anything. That's true. and

then again at least we can be thankful valentine

didn't use nanites you're so funny so i yeah

i try uh so we have uh you know they're they're

just now seeing the invasion he runs down to

his old locker stuff and runs out and he pretty

much pulls a Will Smith. The whole time I'm reading

this as an invasion day one, invasion day two,

I'm really seeing July 2nd, July 3rd, July 4th,

Earth from Independence Day. So we have We have

the invasion thing we have Sally and Dave and

she's saying goodbye and he then goes in to see

his son who is not exactly Decent at the moment.

Oh my gosh poor kid. What do you mean poor kid?

He's got some pent -up issues, man. Well, yeah.

I mean, oh my god. Or should I say penthouse

issues? Yeah, Robo Playboy or something. Hey,

500 years in the future, Hugh Hefner finally

goes naked again in Playboy. Oh, boy. So Scotty

has some issues and all as I can think and Dave's

not a bad guy Dave's the hero He's supposed to

be you know, he's supposed to be the character.

We sympathize with the everyman character And

sadly once that scene happened with with his

son also, I can think it was oh my god That's

dr. Evil and and and Scotty and Seth Green and

all You gave me sharks with lasers on their head

So they turn on the news and Yeah, so the phones

in their heads I assume yeah, but you have to

activate the receiver by putting it your hand

up to the right yeah, okay, so they've got They've

got three or four different people calling him.

We got the news still coming out here about the

invasion. The doors, they're opening. Also, again,

as soon as I read that line, all as I can think

of is that stupid girl on the roof in Independence

Day. Oh. Gotcha. Gotcha, Claire. I think I did

that right, I don't know. So we see the invasion,

we see the news, we see everyone's reaction.

And what I love about this is how it's all, like

all these panels on this one page of what's his

name, his buddy at the office, not his boss.

Chad. Yeah, Chad, Scotty, Sally, his boss. Bunch

of other people and then him in the center. It's

like what what's going on here? I love this page

is done beautifully Yeah, especially on the on

the comics ology guided view because you have

You have various panels Closed up close -up dawn

on its story by storyboard, and then it opens

up to the full page. Oh, it's just so good So

the Clara here to supposedly bring peace? Yeah,

right. And it only took 500 years, but Hillary

finally gained office. Oh, Hillary bot. I'm just

really surprised there isn't a Bill bot somewhere.

Oh, Bill bot's at the strip club that you saw

earlier. Yeah, is it wrong that I I always forget

those two are actually married Well if she becomes

madam president you never be able to forget it

again, I'll probably still forget I'm like, oh,

yeah Hillary and Mary I'm actually surprised.

They're still married. Honestly. It's a marriage

of convenience. Everyone does it So the class

supposedly want to bring peace uh and that's

just an evil that's a mr burns type oh i know

It's like, excellent. Yes. Yes. When I first

saw that pet, I'm like, that's Mr. Burns. I would

be surprised if Mr. Burns is still alive. 500

years, I wouldn't be surprised either, that old

coot. Oh my gosh. This issue ends with Dave basically

arming himself with all of his old gear and the

son comes down to the little basement thing there

and he's like, can't talk now, snotty. Like,

yeah. Dude, no way. Way. Way. I could just hear

Scotty talking. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what Farrier

has essentially done in the writing is he has

almost combined the 80s and the 90s into one

decade, into one comic series. And it is just

so friggin' cool. I love it. It really is. So

we get to issue three here out of five. We have

the... We have the news people, which these have

got to be the worst news anchors I've ever seen.

Hey, you know what? If the whole world is being

invaded, you're gonna lose your cool, you know?

No, no, no. I mean, I don't want to disparage

Valentin's art style, but this news anchor, he

or she or whatever is just as a robot. Oh my

God. What kind of robot has a face like that?

Well, because I think he has to have several

obstacles because he's trying to report all the

different angles, uh, angles, you know? Yeah,

that's true. I can see it. President Hillary

is expected to make an announcement tomorrow,

and our sources tell us these awful things will

in fact join us in a peace treaty. Regardless

of what this means, it's apparent that none of

us is having any fucking clue how to handle this.

Aliens, what the hell, right? So this is where

Sally has moved in with her sister, Tina. uh...

and that's the city and what the hell and tina's

not exactly the biggest fan of dave at all he

just did well for herself looks like him yes

you know the apartment up with the roof which

which means she's gonna be the first to go problem

but i'd like to get cool here well i guess cut

was that what you call here i guess you call

yourself She's got cool robo -tentacles for hair?

I don't know. I don't know. I like it. Because

Sally essentially looks bald. I mean, she does.

I don't know. So you get back to the invasion,

where you got Scotty holding up one of Dave's,

what, giant -ass weapons? Yeah. He's ready to

kick some ass. He's such a teenage kid. I love

it. Yeah. And I love how farrier the writing

is like, Jesus, can you try to keep it PG rated,

please? Ryan and valentine really wanted kids

to read this comic. I mean, come on. This is

not a comic for kids at all. No, it just isn't

because you have him saying that. And then the

next panel, Scotty's like, Man, you have some

cool shit in here. It is cool shit too. It is

cool shit too, yeah. But I like this part because

Scotty actually learns more about his father.

His father's actually spending some time with

them. uh for once and he's getting to learn about

his dad's past and he's kind of seeing my dad

was cool at one point uh uh you know i i remember

you know that time of my life i'm like oh my

dad was actually cool guy when he was younger

you know he just wasn't dad the middle ice reference

oh my god Yo DJ kick it But it's kind of nice

because they actually have the body moment and

this is when you know, they actually come together

You know, it's not just passing each other in

the hallway Yeah, actually, I mean today's this

invasions been good for them ironically, you

know Yeah, and Scotty's like I can fight with

you guys, right? What are you gonna do jerk the

aliens off to death? I'll jerk you up shut up

So aboard the mothership we get the aliens and

we Thankfully don't get me wrong I like comics

that will put in alien language and then do the

little side note for translation like we had

in the first issue or so yeah the first two at

it but i i like it better when we can actually

read even though it's in parentheses and we can

actually see what they're saying that was one

of my biggest pet peeves i've only i've only

ever read uh... transformers gi joe number zero

the free comic book day issue and the whole thing

with the language of an entire issue where they

had to do the translation every single i'm like

yes no bye I don't even care that it was Transformers

and G .I. Joe, I just... That's one of those

comics, either love it or you hate it. I just

don't care. So we find out that the Klar basically

want to freeze the planet or at least cool off

the planet Korin so the the robot's energy will

be gone so their Queen can survive and thrive

and pump out like... a bazillion zillion babies

or whatever i just don't even know what to this

is essentially is also some queen can basically

kick out more of their race it's just crazy yeah

the queen we'll get to her shortly oh god yeah

oh it's just so nuts um I do like the alien designs

though. I do too. They look cool. Valentine really

did a good job on making each one that we see

in this part of the story a different design.

They don't all look alike. Because if you go

back to our favorite movie there, Mars Attacks,

outside of a wig or certain little human nuances

that the Mars Attacks aliens get, they essentially

all look alike. I'm pretty sure there's a little

bit of differences, but... In general though,

yeah. So we get back to Dave and Scotty, and

Scotty wants to know when they're gonna bust

up some alien butts up. And Dave's like, nobody

wants us to be in and out as much as I do. That's

what she said. Your wife, the one that left you.

He is so cruel. He doesn't even call her mom.

I know. And I love the hologram bobblehead dog.

Yeah, too bad that couldn't have been the dog

that comes in later. That dog. It's like what

if Frank from Men in Black was a robot. Oh, come

on. What? It's a dog. It's good stuff. No, but,

okay, you look at the dog in Dave. You look at

the dog in the end. Please tell me that's not

a robot version of Frank from Men in Black. Come

on now. That's true. I mean, I'm not saying it

in a bad way. I'm just saying. Okay. Like she

left you because you're you're an in -and -out

kind of dude dot dot dot. Sorry. He hit me that's

So he's going back to the devil shell What is

it earth water and power? Power and water or

something like that. Hey, yeah, he's here. He

just showed up. No, I couldn't stop him He's

going to his office to get something. And what

he gets is this little mini version of himself.

And he uploads it, or no, he downloads it to

this little mini version of himself. Well, because

it's a program that he created. And it's named

after him, so of course that makes sense. Yep.

And apparently the guy that Dave had been talking

to... This I guess Chad they start calling him

sleazy. Yeah the sleazy but because he loves

the ladies So the boss comes in basically Berades

him It looks like Now this is one thing I never

could understand about the art here like the

smoke stuff Like he got the boss goes to grab

him But it's probably steam he's letting off

steam Clean out your desk Swayze your ghost This

is why I say this comic is not for kids, because

no one under the age of 25 is going to get that.

Awesome though. So Dave is, he's got his download

complete. He goes out and he basically goes out

and punches Frank's head off essentially. Oh

my gosh. Now this is an interesting concept here

though, because after he punches Frank he gets

fired. But if you're fired, that means your program

is being deleted. Right, so that's why he wanted

to quit. And all those I can think of is when

they get... On the two security guard robots

have him and they're throwing him out all as

I can think of is And I know it's gonna be bad

folks and we're all over the place in this episode

of the podcast with references But you ever seen

John Cena in the Marine? No Is it the mariner?

Yeah, it is the Marine. Okay, so he comes home

from Whatever war it is. I forget what it is

He's basically he's a Marine. He doesn't know

what to do with himself with civilian life. All

he knows is I Know but I'm saying that you know

He comes home. He gets a security job. Well this

asshat Comes into the building goes up and starts

harassing one of the one of the employees He's

hurt. He's her he's the ex of this chick or whatever

it is or apparently he's this great. So anyway

John Cena eventually has to basically just throw

the guy out of the building quite literally like

Dave is being thrown out except the difference

is John throws the guy through a window but I

love this geez who literally throws people out

literally Sally knows what to call right at the

right moment. The wrong moment. Depends on who's

side you're on. Yeah, well, that's true. So,

we have a conversation between Sally and Dave

while Scotty is peeing on his car. Oh, y 'all.

Leaking lubricants! Where's iron hide So we get

to we get back to the house We get more monologue

here. Oh, no, it's not the house we get back

to Dave's going to his buddy's house is his old

war his old defense buddies because he wants

to enlist them to Fight the aliens and they're

not having it I like how he put a war injury

on the one Yeah, and it's cuz he's got a plate

in his head, you know, oh Yeah, so I like I like

the war injury. Yeah I'm just loving this just

Between the backgrounds and just everything in

it the art the story is just so cool And then,

you know, we get more of the aliens. The Queen

is being summoned. Hail, Clar. We have it to

be continued. As this series goes on, I just

couldn't wait. I read the first... No, I read

this all in one night, actually, now that I think

about it. It was the second series that I read.

uh... last night in this morning so uh... overall

do you think it is due this this first arc is

amazing it's really now so we get to issue four

which is the penultimate one before the finale

uh... balls traffic again what's with you and

balls i love that oil cola i like that too boston

dynamics toaster oven maker is great i mean there's

so much you could take out of each panel it's

awesome yeah every panel is not wasted at all

whether it's the writing whether it's the art

whatever it is it's just so cool scotty's uh

relieving himself again Yeah, fuck man, really?

Get timed and don't look away if you don't like

it. Does he pull him out through the window?

Yes, he does. He pulls him out through the window.

Oh my god. With his pants still down. Yeah, that's

just not even... So, they're... Basically running

from from the cops or from It's it's Hillary's

Secret Service. Oh, that's right cuz yeah Yeah,

they've got the they've got the emblem on Yeah,

and but Scotty takes the tip from his good old

pops And why are you stopped? Come on? For robots,

it's a death sentence. We are we are our jobs.

No two -week notice. No severance pay no holidays

just termination Scotty wait no don't it pig

That's turned into a buddy cop movie between

dad and son yeah Absolutely, and it kind of stays

that way yeah Yeah, so this series and for most

of the beginning of the second series until Scotty

It's all emo for a while Oh my god Kate officer

down Scotty just became a badass because he just

kicked the guy's head off. He literally killed

the guy with a kick. Are you insane? He just

killed a cop during an invasion that I'm trying

to thwart. Awesome. Great job. We got a ride.

I got a ride. The thing is, they could have taken

one for each of them. Yeah, that's... Yeah, they

didn't have to kill... They didn't have to...

Disable both cops. Well disable them. Yes, but

not kill. Yeah Program them Yeah, and I it's

a good thing. I wasn't drinking anything when

I read this because I would have Milk would have

come out of my nose problem. Let me drive but

already drive like an apple, too I love it because

everyone knows my This stayed for Apple products

because they are not meant for me. Because I

am more than Apple can handle. Stupid iPod. Died

again. Are you still having problems with the

iPod? It literally fell off my laptop. You know

the top of your laptop? It fell off the laptop,

probably what, a half inch? It erased everything.

I'm like, are you kidding me? No. Thank goodness

I still have everything on my computer so I could

sync it. But I have so much. I mean, I have like

25 ,000 songs. And so it takes like five hours

to download to sync everything. You're like.

Wait a minute. Your iPod does not have enough

memory for 25 ,000 songs, does it? OK. Yeah,

I got I got the big one. That's why I got the

classic. Oh, you got the one they no longer make

anymore. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm like,

you better die on me. OK, I'm totally off topic.

But my gosh, I mean, I need something with, and

I know I'm old fashioned. People are like, just

transfer to your phone. I'm like, no, I want

my iPod because I don't want, I don't like to

use my battery on my phone. So. So the aliens

and the water and power people are supposed to

have a thing going on They're supposed to be

a some sort of Trist and the alien essentially

just kills the boss Take us to the core and maybe

we'll merely enslave you I'll take you to the

core was help me. Oh my gosh. That was so funny

was help I just love that they reference him

and that was one of those They use Steve but

they don't use they they use Steven as in jobs

essentially gods help me or you know jobs damn

it and I'm ever since I've been reading this

series and I've only been doing it like I said

for the last I don't know 24 hours as of this

recording I've really started muttering to myself

jobs, dammit. All the time now in the last 24

hours. It's like my new favorite word, oh my

god. So we get to the core. The aliens put the

queen in the core and the queen is... She's an

interesting design She looks like something From

saga I haven't read saga for a long time, but

yes, I've never read it. I want to I just haven't

gotten around now That's a comic that is not

safe for work. I found that out Take it out read

one panel. Nope. Yep. That's a home I like like

her belly It looks like there's a clock around

her belly. I wonder if that means something it

look she's got all those different designs Yeah,

her so there's I don't know but she's very interesting

looking and I like how she could just detach

herself like that Yeah, she almost reminds me

of the mother alien from one of the big brain

bugs from Starship troopers starship troopers

not the crappy sequels Yeah, yeah, that's a good

one We get back to Dave and Scotty. Shit, hold

up. They're right outside your mom's. Outside

your mom's what? Dude, not now! Isn't this like

your thing? Take them out, Rambo! I think Sly

has too much of a deep voice to pull out. The

whole time! I've been reading this series, and

everyone that's ever listened to any of my podcasts

in the last seven, almost eight years will know

I am not a Ryan Reynolds fan in general. I can't

stand that guy. I love Ryan Reynolds. I just

can't stand that. Beautiful. There's three movies

that I... Well, there would be four, but I have

yet to see one of them. Deadpool? Huh? You talking

about Deadpool? No, well, yeah, obviously doesn't

it's not out yet, but there's There's four total

movies that I will probably really enjoy Ryan

Reynolds and one of them obviously is the original

Van Wilder Then you have safe house with him

and Denzel And then Deadpool isn't out yet and

the only other one I have yet to see is two guns

I haven't seen that one Yeah, I've been waiting

for it to show up on Netflix or Hulu, and it

still hasn't. But the whole time I'm reading

the D4VE comic, I'm like, both series, one and

two. I really hear Ryan Reynolds as Dave. I really

do. I can see that. I can see that. So Scotty

decides to... Basically created a version I guess

and he attacks the the the aliens and The Sun

gets to the house and It's gotta get to the house

He's not splitting with his aunt. Oh, I know

that's just wrong. It's just not right at all

She's good -looking, but you know and I know

there's no blood relation of it still Yeah, control

Z control plus Z kid that's your aunt teeny you're

flirting This is a control Z isn't that shut

off your computer I don't I'm not even gonna

try it. We've had so many technical difficulties

today, so No, don't don't you dare ever again

Holy shit, I can't do this on my own Dave Tina

Sally Dave Leave it to Nicole to be the one to

hit the ctrl -alt -delete that blows up the entire

computer in the entire just like it die -hard

for. Control -alt -delete doesn't blow things

up, it just restarts. Well, it takes you to task.

Die -hard for it blew it up. So we have this

awkward scene between the three adults and Scotty.

Scotty finds out that Aunt Tina has a butler.

That butler's awesome. Yeah, I know they couldn't

have gotten away with this, but I wanted him

to be some sort of spinoff of Jarvis as far as

the name goes. He doesn't have a name, does he?

They just call him Jeeves, I think, but yeah.

So we have this emotional moment between Sally

and Dave and also with Dave and Scotty and Dave's

essentially getting ready to go off and basically

save the world and he's You know, he basically

tells them You know What does he do here Doesn't

he give them the Program, isn't that what he

I don't know. He does something here. What does

he do? Who you talking about Dave? Yeah, they

think he gives him it like an antivirus Because

he's gonna be sitting off a program. It's his

program So he knows what it's gonna do. So he's

basically saving those the people that he loves

Right. Yeah, so you get so he gives him the antivirus

We have another Terminator 2 reference. I think

Dave just upgraded. Oh, that was so awesome.

Because that's what his boss was keeping telling

him. You know, you need to upgrade yourself.

You need to make more of yourself. Yep. So we

have President Hillary's announcement here. The

juxtaposition of it is revolt. You must revolt.

Search your library. Run your files. Oh. Oh,

God. No. I just DVR'd bad boys far. I love it.

I love it. Error has occurred. Window. Oh, see.

This is what happens when you have a window screen.

The screen of death. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. And

I love this series came out originally came out

in 2014. This is series. It's two years old at

this point We still don't have bad boys 3 Even

though the story takes place 500 years in the

future. We still don't have boys 3 Michael Bay

wasn't too busy screwing up the robot universe

over there. Hey, I just saw a really good movie

that he directed I was very proud of Armageddon.

I just watched the 13 hours. Oh Was just like

I was surprised. I'm like besides the lead flares

over and I'm like, oh, this is Michael Bay I

remember what he used to do good stuff So this

one kind of ends with Dave taking on the aliens

and not exactly Not exactly winning at first.

At first. And then he goes on Mortal Kombat on

their ass. He pretty much pulls a Shang Tsung,

folks. Yeah. Takes that spine and starts whipping

everyone. Yeah. So he goes to a central computer

system. Gains access. Basically says I have a

program I need you to run it now. Why am I thinking

he is talking to Vicky from iRobot? There's always

like a big central computer, I mean No, I know

but just you look at the panel where he says

I have a program I need you to run it it really

looks like the very bottom of where Vicky was

And the computer's like it's not a program Dave

it's a virus and you know this and Basically

the computer is saying you know that you know

Well, it's also going back and forth to what's

happening on the surface where the aliens are

taking people hostage and killing them and making

them slaves and Dave's just tried to say hey

this this will save everyone but the computer

comes the mainframe i guess it would be the mainframe

right comes to realize hey let's try i guess

we'll what worse could it be we're being enslaved

right now so yeah and we have this whole thing

dave program successfully installed dave program

successfully installed and Yo Jeeves, what's

up with you? Yeah, everyone all the other robots

besides the three they got the antivirus They

have like a red glow to them. They've been downloaded

with the Dave program, which makes them pretty

much all assassins Pretty much. Yeah, and That's

essentially how they fight the thing kill all

the butthorns Let him go. He's his father's son

idiots Invasion day three everything is red sky

and everything is coming up William Wallace Yeah,

pretty much no prisoners no mercy attack To that

one yeah, and then we have It's a good end. I

mean they always have all good head all have

good endings. Yeah, I Mean it just so far folks

if you haven't read this series I know we're

spoiling spoiling the hell out of it But if you

haven't read this series yet, you need to find

the enjoyment in this because oh my god I mean

just looking at the panels the artwork alone

is great to read to see how they Cause we haven't

really been going over this, but they spell every

like everyone's names with an alphanumeric kind

of a way, you know? Yeah. It's, um, it's pretty

much, um, Leet speak is what it is with the names,

but I think that's so cool. And it's what makes

it stand out because these are robots. These

are, um, you know, sentient beings who thankfully

don't need to transform. Yeah. It's kind of weird

if they did I bet you they'll get you at one

point. I don't know Don't don't give him any

ideas, please Yeah, I mean yeah, we're spoiling

a lot of things here, but there's so much more

to it Yeah, we're not spoiling everything Welp

here lies Dave former defense bot miserable cubicle

slave total failure complete butthorn If you're

reading this, well, I'm dead. So we start off

with a funeral. And he's like, there's more people

than I thought, as there's four people there.

Yeah. Because Slee's dude is there. Scottie's

there. Tina and Sally are there. And that's pretty

much it. Is it weird? That they're wearing funeral

clothes because they've been wearing clothes

the the rest yeah that they have I don't know

it's just I think seeing Tina with the the black

veil thing Tina and the Sally more than Tina

I should say but just seeing Sally with the edge.

I don't know It's just, I don't have a problem.

It just, it looks really weird to me. I mean,

I don't think so because, I mean, like I said,

they adopted everything humans have. I mean,

they've probably learned from the past and from

movies and stuff. This is how they handle funerals.

And so how humans handle funerals. So we're going

to do it. So yeah, I had no problem with it.

So we go to. So we have the funeral which sets

up the story we then go back in time or we flash

back to the present or whatever it is We go to

invasion day three and Robots versus aliens The

core temp is dropping too fast we're using too

much energy energy we don't have yeah, because

Can you explain this the Queen? Needs the the

core of the earth to birth her babies. So she's

taken up all the energy to have these kids Yeah

And it's just kind of creepy and everything's

getting colder and Yeah And then Scotty shows

up I told you to stay with your mom. I'm kicking

ace deal with it So, we have the double team

here. Like father, like son. They're both killing

aliens all over the place. It's awesome. And

then the anti -virus robots show up. Oh no. Virus

source detected. Begin dilation. Balls. Oh fuckity

fuck fuck fuckers. Oh no. Central computer sent

them. Scotty, get away from me now. I'm the virus

dummy my program set it off these These probes

will kill everything that's infected with me

So essentially Dave dies You idiots I'm trying

to save you then Sally shows up. Get away from

my ex. Get away from that jerk -off. Sally and

Tina both show up and kill the bots. Oh my gosh,

that was awesome. I like that. Yeah. So when

I say stay inside, no one listens, huh? You're

welcome, by the way. Jerk -off. I love the next

page because there's something awesome on there.

battle elephant yeah on the next page that that

basically okay I'm viewing it panel by panel

and I was yeah yeah battle elephant with two

trunks and no tusks and squid legs octopus look

oh god it's a wuzzle It's an Octopunt. It's an

Octopus slash Elephant. If you can't beat them,

join them. Or some human genius man said that.

Something Hasselhoff something. It's hilarious.

So he starts riding the purple Octopunt. That

sounds like a drug. follow that ship so Dave

gets on the mothership and basically creates

all kinds of hell basically infects them all

with his virus as they're eating but they're

like yeah this isn't all of us you know that

right I Do love the one thing holy wow what are

the odds that these brutes all eat at the same

time For once it looks like everything's coming

up Dave. I mean they are very insect -like so

Yeah And it looks like they're eating glowworms.

Yeah larvae Also, I can think of is hey Pumba

look it's a grub I'll watch Lion King forever.

Yeah. That movie's 22 years old this year? Wow.

I like when Dave gets angry, his eye grows red.

It's kind of like what movie? Is it Moon? No,

not Moon. When he's all alone on the spaceship,

is it Moon? Oh my gosh. I think his name was

Dave. Hello, Dave. It's not Space Odyssey either.

This is going to drive me nuts because that's

so funny. You know which movie I'm talking about?

When he's alone on a spaceship and all he has

is the AI to talk to him. Sounds like Castaway

in Space. Nelson! So Tina is slightly injured

You know they're losing power. They're just straight

-up losing So Dave calls from the ship It's a

go. Please just listen don't have a lot of time

We're dying Dave. They've got us the power is

just just look up Hey, that's me. What are you

doing? Well Sally I've got this here shit, but

I'm pretty sure it's like way beyond nuclear

So he's essentially gonna pull a Batman people

anyone seen The Phanagarian, oh god, what is

it, Star -Crossed, three -parter of Justice League,

where Batman pilots the Watchtower all the way

in, but right before it explodes. And that's

essentially what he's gonna do. He's gonna drive

the ship into the core and reignite it, and we

have all the emotion, all the, you know... I

love yous, I'll miss you, all this stuff. See

what happens when you mess with us, you fugly

bags of crap. The ship is way too big for that

hole. Way too big. we have a giant boom, we have

the earth going back to the way it was supposed

to be, we have the aliens being vaporized. Well,

there's some of the other things that happen

to it, it looks like, and... Yeah. They either

vaporize or they become like ash and stone and...

Well, the reason why I say vaporize is if you

look in the panel with all the blue, like right

after the city fall panel. Uh -huh. If you go

through the panel by panel here, you get the

first one where they look like they're dematerializing.

You get the first one where it shows the earth,

where the earth is reforming into what it once

was. You know, a couple panels below that, it

just looks like they're being vaporized, like

dematerialized or derezzed. Hey, we fit a Tron

reference in here, yeah! Oh my gosh. So... It

ends on peace. And we go back to the core. The

core temperature is increasing. Power level is

increasing. DaveBalls .exe override upgrade initiated.

Download complete software successfully upgraded.

And everybody gets upgrades. Yay! Yay! And you

get a new car and you get a new car. And I was

right, it's Space Odyssey, so stop emails right

now, people. Okay, so all I can think of is,

and tell them what they've won, Sally, it's a

new car! It's the game show host's voice. And

just picture Oprah, and you get a new car, and

you get a new car. So Dave is a tripolegic at

the end of this. I'm sure I just made that word

up, but if it works have if he didn't have his

right arm He'd be a quadriplegic, but yeah, he

does not have his legs or his left arm and Looks

like he's gonna die and we flash to six months

later, and we assume that he's dead Except he's

right there Yep, is that porn it's porn isn't

it? I'm not going to catch you jerking it again,

am I? Oh, boy. Yeah, I like this ending because

it's not all the way happy because human Sally

are still apart. But he's got a better relationship

with his son. And apparently he's getting a big

old honor. Yeah, so I lied I'm not dead truth

is I've never felt more alive We fix you And

yeah, he's getting this huge huge honor with

a statue Being erected in his memory supposedly

and he's now part of the military. Yep I think

this is, and this is where he wants to be, this

is where he needs to be. Oh yeah, this is where

he needs to be. Yeah. I mean, he was such a good

soldier before and now... And he says, uh, it

wasn't the fighting that I wanted, it was the

saving. Even if it's only part -time. So it's

almost like he's in, like, the National Guard

or something, like, hey, two weeks a year and,

you know... every other weekend or something.

Yeah, but it's a nice ending. Yeah, I love this

series. Like, you know, you usually see giant...

I wouldn't even say this is a giant robot series.

It's robots. It's not, you know, it's not robots

from Cybertron. But usually you see dystopian

type stories like this. You don't see them as

funny and as happy and as awesome as this series

was. I mean, you just don't. And you don't have

characters like these in other robot comics.

That's what makes this so unique and so cool.

Yeah, this series is really fun. Mean, this is

a series we could this is a series I could probably

read again and like, you know three or four months

Oh, yeah, well still has III read this before

and it's been a while and it's still energy because

I forgot like all the fun little bits in the

background and the way that they have their names

and It's really like Yeah, it's just so much

fun, you know, we talked about earlier throughout

the issues, you know the art and the writing

and I mean Don't know what well I do I'll reveal

that in in the next episode, but this is like

I said, this is my first Interactions and first

reading Ryan Ferrier's writing and I can't wait

to see what the guy does next I really can't

because you have this series you have Dave 2

which is the sequel the second arc to the story

And then you've got something that was just announced

here recently a couple weeks ago as of this recording

will go up 27th of January, but a couple weeks

ago you had At some convention IDW announced

his his next series and his next series is gonna

be something completely different from this But

it looks really awesome. I'll give you the info

later But Dave the five -issue mini series for

d4v absolutely love it. It was everything I thought

it was gonna be and just from reading that first

initial solicitation I knew at some point we

were going to get around to this. Yeah, it's

well written. The artwork is fun. I mean, like

I said, there's something fun in each panel.

Really good series. So what would you rate it

overall for the five issues? The five issues?

Oh my gosh. I hate when I have to do this. I

hate giving series like five or off the bat.

So we're giving it a 4 .5 Just because you have

to go To somewhere, you know, you have to have

a little bit. So I'm giving it a 4 .5 Which is

pretty dang good if you ask me because it's such

a fun series Yeah, yeah, it really really is

I'm gonna give it a four to five there were a

couple of things with the aliens at first that

I didn't really just They're just little things,

they're just little nitpicks, but I mean everything

else in this series, the comedy, the design,

the whole relatability, every single situation

and every issue, whether it's Dave at his mundane

job, whether it's Sally talking with her sister,

whether it's even if you are a teenage robot

and going through what Scottie's going through.

Mean just everything about this series people

you need to go check this out. You really really

do So as I said Dave 2 will be coming up next

in episode 127 Nicole will be back and we will

be going through that one That one's only four

issues this time. Yeah I wasn't sure about that,

because that actually got released through IDW

as individual issues. I think the original series

did, too, when they brought it to print. I know

the original series has its first trade, but

Dave, too, got released as individual issues.

And I remember tweeting at Ryan and asking him,

is it going to be four or five? He said just

four this time, which is fine. I mean, especially

with what the story is in the sequel, so it really

does work very, very well. Where can the people

find you online if they want to check out your

crazy antics? Just Google Beatles, Diva, you'll

find me. That's the Beatles like the band, not

the bug. Yeah. You can find me at TFG1Mike on

Twitter, you can follow The Pull Bag on Twitter,

at The Pull Bag, obviously Geekcast Radio, all

that good stuff. Make your great escape into

comics and we will catch you next time! Aloha!

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