IDW Deviations 2016 Review

These guys at the GCRN would make great Green

Lantern Corps members seriously Who are these

guys welcome to? the pull bag Join us as we dig

on our latest comics and discuss them with a

rotating panel of the GCRN crew So sit back and

enjoy this week's pull bag Hello and welcome

to the pull bag this is episode 136 I am your

host TF Joe and Mike in this episode We're gonna

have three different segments that all deviate

from their stories. That's right. This is IDW's

deviations 2016 Myself and Joe Reed will be your

hosts for the Ghostbusters and TMNT Deviation

issues And in the middle there, we've got Amy,

Nicole, Heather, and myself talking about the

Transformers Deviations issue from IDW. Deviations

was IDW's March five -week event here in 2016.

So without any further ado, what if the Ghostbusters

didn't cross the stream? What if Optimus Prime

never died? And what if the turtles joined Shredder?

IDW deviations 2016 here inside the pull bag

only on the GeekCast radio network coming up

next Welcome back to the pullbags deviations.

This is part one of three here in episode 136

of the pullback. Of course, you know me. I am

TF2 on my joining me for this first part is Joe

Reed. Hello, sir. Hello. How are you? I am well

excited to look at these deviations. Yes. The

one thing and you'll you'll hear us talk about

You'll hear myself, Amy, Nicole, and Heather

talk about this in the Transformers section after

this one. The one thing that kind of puts me

off to these one shots is the price tag. I get

it. They're one shots. They're supposed to be

limited. Not really limited editions, but they're

supposed to be this special thing, because this

was IDW's five week event here in March. And

they normally have every March, like last March,

they had Combiner Wars kind of kind of thing

on the transformer side, but normally every March

they have some sort of big event and I'm just

not like I Don't know how to justify the price

tag and we're gonna talk about that later because

the ladies and I talk about that extensively

Well, I think that the price tag, and from what

I experienced with a few that I picked up, was

that they were 48 -page books instead of 23 -page

books. Yeah, but then you gotta count into effect

of all of the ads. Yeah. At the back, though.

They may be 48 -page books, but how much of that

is actual story? That's the... That's the thing

there it's it seems to me that The the two that

I read they they were given a window the writers

or artists were given a window of yes You need

to come in but you need to tell the complete

story come in between this and this page And

a lot of the deviations had such huge stories

that they crammed a lot into One issue and some

went longer than others had more ads or less

ads to just fill the 48 page books because it's

got to be a multiple of whatever number that

is to print it the one thing that I think is

cool about all the deviations so far that I've

seen is how they do an anatomy of a scene or

anatomy of a page and that's cool like in our

Preview thing or review thing from IDW at the

back of this they have the basically anatomy

of a cover so the main cover where you have Stay

Puft just sitting on top of the building and

the Ghostbusters in front you know just sitting

there like oh my god what have we done it starts

out with pencils it then goes to to shaded you

know background and then adds in color same thing

with a couple other ones but like I just I don't

know like I guess for new readers new readers

might need their Ghostbusters readers guide as

far as what to read in what order to get the

entire story of the Ghostbusters ongoing So who

knows So basically the whole point of the IDW

deviations is one moment can change everything

in the Ghostbusters case The creative team on

this is the is Kelly Thompson later on the ongoing

gem series The art is done by Nelson Daniel.

The letters are done by Neil Yucatay. Edits by

Tom Walz. And the publisher for IDW is Ted Adams.

I have enjoyed Kelly's writing style. The first

thing I read of hers was the gym stuff that she's

been doing. Amy and Nicole and I have been reviewing

the gym series for almost a year or so now. And

she has a good grip. And basically the moment

that they chose to deviate for Ghostbusters was...

Damn it. Hang on, I had to put this thing on

pause. I gotta go shut that stupid file. Why

the hell is somebody calling me? Nobody has this

damn number. I'll be back. I'm gonna kinda start

this. Just not over, but I'm gonna start it again.

So it's Kelly Thompson on the writing, and as

I was saying, They the moment that they they

choose different moments in the history is to

deviate with this one They chose to deviate whether

or not the Ghostbusters crossed the streams or

not Anybody who's anybody who's at least At least

I would say 25 years or older knows that in 1984

Egon, Peter, Ray, and Winston had to cross the

streams to defeat Gozer. They were risking total

plutonic reversal. Photonic reversal? I should

know that. Maybe they got the plutonium from

Doc Brown. Who knows? I think it's photonic reversal.

They undo existence and they risked it to stop

Gozer. Yeah, and they save the universe. It's

basically, you know, they they save the city.

They save the universe They don't destroy anything

and goes or you know goes kablooie and Dana and

Lewis come out of their dog -like states But

in this comic it's what if the Ghostbusters didn't

cross the streams because Egon constantly says

don't crossing the streams Don't don't cross

the streams. It would be bad. Very very bad So

this opens up, and I love how the opening narration

goes, 31 days after the Ghostbusters didn't cross

the streams and thus very much did not save the

day. And at first I didn't realize what it was

that was on New York's like in that top panel

I didn't realize it was what I thought it marshmallow.

I thought it was snow at first. I'm like wait

a minute they didn't anyway, so 31 days into

a Manhattan ruled by the state puff marshmallow

man and his fearsome but also slightly adorable

mini -puffs. Kelly, I love your writing, but

that is just the most evilest joke I've ever

seen. I would love to combine this with Despicable

Me and the Minions and all that, but I just can't

because what actually turns into... What is actually

revealed that the mini -puffs actually are...

Now as someone who has never read the Ghostbusters

ongoing at IDW... And as someone who's only read

the TMNT Ghostbusters crossover, I'm still not

a fan of how the Ghostbusters, how the four main

characters look in the IDW universe. This is

totally different. These guys here, they look

more like the cartoon, with the exception of

Peter who still looks like Bill Murray, at least

with the high hairline, but you know, Egon being

blonde and it's, so it's a totally different

look from... Yeah. Yeah, I mean, and I can appreciate

the reference to the animated series, absolutely.

But there are just certain times where they're

just certain angles. It's more on Ray and Peter

than anything else. They just don't look right.

And I'm not expecting them to look like Bill

Murray or Dan Aykroyd. So they're helping this

guy apparently get rid of these mini puffs and

They basically destroy his house in the process

and like you're giving those buster. Yeah like

you do They're basically arguing over whether

it's an emergency or not an emergency and which

they get to give him. Yeah Yeah, cuz there are

well cuz Peter Peter's always been all about

the almighty dollar. What can they make from

doing this? That's never Not been a part of Peter

Venkman's character. I mean the guy in in the

movie in the original film Well, we'll go put

them back if you're not gonna pay. Yeah In the

original film Peters on on TV talking about ghosts

So he's got TV appearances and I guess I mean,

it's not outside of the realm of his character

I love how Kelly is writing all four of their

characters. I think that's great And the guy

basically basically kicks them out tells them

they shouldn't be called Ghostbusters, they should

be called Ghostlosers. And somebody has defaced

the firehouse sign with that name. And now they're

talking about, oh, this could be a whole new

marketing scheme. I'm just having a whole lot

of fun with this comic, folks. I don't know about

you, Joe, but I'm just... Like, this is fun because

this is taking a non -serious look at what would

have happened if they didn't save the day. Now,

correct me if... Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong.

She's combining Ghostbusters 1 and Ghostbusters

2, right? No. Not that I can tell yet. But...

Yeah, because okay well this was just who would

have happened You know three four or five years

after all of this right, but the way that they

like The way that it's the way that Kelly Thompson

writes. This is that Ray thought of Stay buff

marshmallow man that happened in the sequel was

the end of the first movie They're sitting up

there and and goes or says choose the form of

the destroyer and everybody says like don't say

don't think anything Don't think empty your minds

and then raids. I you know, I thought of the

most harmless thing sitting around a campfire

eating. Yeah I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I should know

this I just it's actually funny before I recorded

this I just told I just sent Kelly an email after

I read the thing saying how much of a die -hard

goes, but yeah, I'm really Sure. Yeah. Oh my

god. I forgive you well, it's because I Originally

thought the statue got confused with the statue

of liberty i thought it went up against state

puff but no yeah you're right it is the it's

okay so that have been awesome that would have

been awesome especially especially having higher

and higher being played that would have been

great so we get the ghost losers and i love how

they converse with each other in the downtime

i think that's cool um and then all of a sudden

hey guys what's up Yikes. The giant staple of

marshmallow man comes to greet them through a

hole in their roof. Oh, it's the hole that the

ghosts escaped from. They never bothered to fix

it. I wondered where that hole came from. Like,

didn't they notice him punching that in there?

No, that's where the column of ectoplasmic energy

went off there when that colossal douchebag opened

the containment unit. Yes, that would be Walter

Peck. Yes. Oh, that Walter Peck. It's true. This

man has no dick. So they basically fire on him

and they have a battle and he's like, yeah, how

is that any greeting to, hey guys, what's up?

Let's start over boys. And basically Gozer is

not happy being trapped in the Stay Puft Marshmallow

Man forum. This is hilarious. I love this because

he's like, I always have to smile. I can't frown.

I can't do anything. He starts crying that the

marshmallow man starts crying people. The premise

of it is that as he as the form of the destroyer

was chosen for him, he is then becoming the psyche

of the thing is becoming kind of prominent in

him. And so he's not happy that he's not just.

Wanting to run around and decimate destroy things

because he's not scary. He's cheerful and pleasant

Yeah, cute and fluffy and yeah You know they

made a joke earlier In the comic about you know,

Ray's always complaining as to why the marshmallow

stuff always lands on him And I think one of

them says something about is the guy who chose

the form of course the white fluff is gonna Also,

I can think of as somebody grabs the peanut butter

Peanut butter and fluff another there you go

right there folks. I'm mom. Love those sandwiches

all day long That must be a regional things.

I don't think we have those up here You guys

don't have fluff another in Michigan really if

it if we do I've never seen it Wow, so, okay.

Well, that's something that I could do when I

come up for bot con remind me I don't know if

I don't actually it's a It's a Massachusetts

thing. I'll have to look some up in me. I don't

know who knows anyway, so Basically the story

turns into goes or wants them to figure it out

to where he can go back to his home dimension

before the form of stay puffed is chosen and

You know the cool the coolest page here for me

is Where At the top of it, it's where races I

know you don't know You know, I don't know why

you think we can help it's not like we haven't

been trying to get rid of you already We have

no ray, right? I mean we have plans and then

they all look at each other and then ray just

hangs his head We have no plans um and then but

I do ready cross the streams no but no like I

love the panel of all four of them no just they

just love that so then they get the idea of hey

we had a time -traveling ghost in the ghost trap

we never let we never put him in the containment

unit because we were going to build a separate

isolation unit for him because he could if he

was in with the other ghosts he could then send

them back in time or whatever uh so the poor

time traveling ghost has been in the ghost trap

all this time damn batteries in it i guess Oh

man, I love the art on the trap. Oh, the trap

looks so classic. Looks so good. So they let

the time travel ghost out, and they then figure

out a way to send Gozer back in time. Something

you don't see, because they actually trick him

into doing it, because they tell him... that

if you double cross us, we'll think of something

even more cute and cuddly for you. SpongeBob

SquarePants. Yeah, they allude to... Well, they

don't actually use the name SpongeBob SquarePants.

They use some other name, and he's like, huh,

what? And they're like, yeah, something even

more cute and cuddly than Staple. Okay, I won't

betray you guys. And during this whole thing,

they ask that... Tully and Dana be turned back,

and he doesn't exactly turn them all the way

back. He mugs them, pretty much, is what he does.

Only John Candy was in Ghostbusters. What's a

mug, you might ask? It's half man, half dog,

and that's essentially what Dana and Tully turn

into. I just know. What are you thinking at this

point? I have I have strong opinions about this

book, but I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna wait. Okay

So they go back to the epic skyscraper and I

love the art on the skyscraper scene The lightning

the background the red sky the pinkish flare

the lightning the purplish thing and inside I

love all that art that looks great Dana and Louis

Tully creep me the hell out as moms. Yeah, because

the proportions are weird, too. It's not even

like a regular dog body. Yeah. In an artistic

way. It's not a mistake. It's not something we've

seen before. Well, because if you remember 32

years ago, actually, when the movie came out...

These dogs were like demon kind of dog things

in the way that they're being drawn here it is

it just doesn't like Louis Tully folks. He looks

like he's a horribly misshapen T -rex Like seriously

like seriously with him running when he says

look how fast I am like this like that the bottom

of The dog part of his body it reminds me of

some sort of t -rex or dinosaur So It is revealed

that and originally I thought the the marshmallow

minions were just gonna be Regular minions and

something the joke lots of for no reason. Yeah

Uh -huh. Well, apparently it's nothing but his

poop. I find it hilarious, but it just it makes

me do a facepalm because it's like, oh my god,

I can't believe they got a marshmallow poop joke

in this book. It's hilarious. And then the poops

are going to revolt because they don't want to

go back in time. They want to still... oh boy

so he does go back in time he does return to

his original form the original timeline but what

is not said is that the Ghostbusters that he

sent him back in time also have the time traveling

ghost send them back in time and when we come

back to it it has nothing but spongebob squarepants

pictures all over the place so ray can't think

of the state of marshmallow man and he's like

you you already went back in time yeah poor goser

i don't think i've ever felt sorry for goser

until this point um So basically they saved the

day Dana and and Tully are turned whole They

make a joke about Tully's, you know taxes and

that kind of thing We see a little bit of the

ecto one You don't see a whole lot of it because

it's it's in the front of the crowd and the crowds

in the oh, yeah it's a It's not a background

shot of the thing, but the way it's Placed you

see the crowd first in the car and then the stage

or the entrance of the building and it ends on

back at the firehouse They're gonna roast some

marshmallows Okay, ultimately with with this

book and and with others that I have read what

I didn't like or appreciate about it was that

they felt the need in at least two of the three

books that I read to go back and redo everything

so that it was kind of back to normal. They didn't

feel that they could inhabit the new world where

the deviation was made. They're like, okay, what

can we do to go back and fix it? I mean, why

does the universe need to have happened? Rather,

the universe is called to happen like we all

know it did. You know, their mission is to undo

everything. And my other gripe about this is

that the tone was not, it did not match the tone

of the movies. It was more bizarre, more, more

bizarre, more juvenile almost than what I, than

I remember the tone of the movie being. So is,

or the comic for that matter. Yeah, so it's not

my favorite book Arts all right. Some of the

colors are nice. I like the use of that dot pattern

for for shading that was kind of clever Gosh

is that a oh no, there's a sketch of drawing

of Egon and Spangler here. Oh gosh Thank them

and the little state of neck in front of the

ecto one my that was embarrassing brain fart

on a gasp for recording In front of the ecto

one with some nice color work nice ink work.

I like that panel yeah, but you know the art

was just a little different for me and and and

general just they feel like they have to apologize

For it being what it is and then fix it and make

it go back to normal like you don't have to do

that The way I saw this deviation was it was

a way to and the coolest thing about these deviation

issues folks is when you get them In the back

as I've already said, I think I already said

this there's a There's a bunch of behind -the

-scenes things in most every issue. I've read

there's usually why We chose or why I chose this

moment to deviate and you have the writer talking

about why they chose this moment and I think

You know as someone who grew up on go ahead well

We both grew up on Ghostbusters and all that

stuff. We grew up on a lot of that obviously

the 80s properties, you know, I Personally think

that this is something to get today's Kids into

some way to say hey look, this is what happened

when I was a kid, but here's a whole Other story

that could have happened but didn't have so I

understand why you're you're you're your dislike

of, of just, you know, deviating and then putting

it, I understand that, but I thought it was really

fun. I just thought it was a fun little romp.

It wasn't anything to change the universe. It

wasn't anything to write a wrong. It wasn't anything

to. I just thought this one gave a hell of a

lot more character development to go. Cause let's

face it, goes are in the film. We don't get the

whole point is the thing is that. is a demigod

or is a super god, whatever, you know, and the

thing is the thing wants to take over the world.

So I mean, there's not much character development

you can do with that. And then you take this

where he did take over the world, but he ended

up in a body that he didn't really. It's kind

of like taking a heel from WWE and turning them

face and then it not really working because they're

not really happy with being a face. They still

want to be a heel. I think this might have been

better or they might have had more room to do

some more interesting things if it were more

than just a one shot. I think that maybe crammed

too much into everything. And that's the other

thing people got to think about is these deviations

are just one -shots. They're basically IDW's

version of Marvel's what if. What if this happened

instead? And I don't mind that at all. I absolutely

love this story. The only thing that, and this

has nothing to do with the creative team or anything

else. It's more of the publisher and the price

and Diamond Comics or whatever. The only thing

that's stopping me from giving this, you know,

really high, high marks is that $4 .99 price.

Because it is a one -shot, that's really the

only thing. And that has nothing to do with the

actual creative team. and what they did because

i thought they didn't like i out of the three

that i've read this was the one that i had the

most fun with like i was laughing halfway through

this because of the situation that they put goser

in and i i don't know i just really really enjoyed

it i thought that was clever and seeing this

made me kind of wonder how that actually would

have played out with Don't know the the the writers

who were originally after it like okay. What

if they didn't stop him? but you know it's it's

uh It just happened to be more silly than I wanted

it to be But yeah, there it is. I Can see this

being a Saturday Night Live skit immediately.

Oh, yeah, I see if if the original act well Sadly

Ramus died and And but, you know, I could I could

so see the original cast if they were all able

to still be together, pulling this off. Amazingly,

this would be great. Like I actually, as I'm

reading, as I was reading through this, I could

actually hear all of their voices in my head

for the Ghostbusters and for Dana and for even

Janine when Janine's like, Peter, I will kill

you. I can hear any pots in my head saying that

to him. Oh lord. Alright folks, up next you're

gonna hear Amy, myself, Nicole, and Heather talk

about the Transformers deviations issue. What

if Optimus Prime never actually died? Oh no.

This can't be horribly wrong, can it? Transform

and roll out and remember folks, don't cross

the streams, or do in some cases, or else you'll

have marshmallow shit all over the place. We'll

be back after this All right, so up now is the

Transformers Deviations from 2016 from IDW. This

is a one -shot. This does not affect any continuity.

This is basically Marvel what -if, folks. And

joining me for this one is Lady Rek. Hello. Rek

and Rool. Uh... The full Beatles diva, Halestorm.

Hello. Aloha. And Hi, Brime. Hello. Yee -haw,

yee -haw. Howdy, howdy, howdy. Stop bucking Megadron's

broads on catchwords. Stop bucking for the B

with B. B, not an F, a B. Okay, so... I just

gave an image of something that I shouldn't be

thinking. Well, there you go. Alright, so deviations

is basically... IDW's done this before, right?

Uh... I don't think they have. I don't think

they have. I know Marvel's done something similar.

Well, this is basically Marvel what -if, but

it's IDW style. Transformers Deviation, the one

shot, is written by Brandon Easton, the artist

by Priscilla Ciamatano, and the colors are done

by John Paul Bowe. The first cover is basically

Optimus killing Megatron. Heather, you must not

be happy about this. I kill them all the time.

We have an understanding. Okay. Ew. What was

I supposed to say about that? I mean, we both

die. The movie does not end well for either of

us. For some reason, this cover actually kind

of looks like it's one I've already seen before,

but I don't know where. You know what I mean?

Did anybody else get that vibe? It reminds me

of some of... Marcello Materi's ones remember

when he Wow, what was the beat? No, babe. Oh,

okay. Something weird happened. The aliens are

taking over my body All right, if no one else

could hear it good I'm insane and there be crazy

But yeah, it reminds me of some of Marcello's

ones if if they ask you if you want to be abducted

say yes I heard them probing the delight. But

oh, and one quick thing, Mike, because Priscilla

did some of the colors too. I don't know how

much they each did. But she's done in art. Yeah.

The whole thing is. OK, the way they did the

Transformers deviations, folks, is they went

back to their original. adaptation of the animated,

the 1986 animated film and put those images from

that comic as the what really happened page.

And then it's Priscilla's drawing throughout

the comic, right? Is it just me or did they forget

to put a letters page where they like talk about

who did what, who was editing all of that stuff?

It's at the bottom and that's where I'm getting

my information that Priscilla did a lot of the

colors. And JP did some of them. And I don't

know who did what. But yeah, the who did what

page is at the bottom. It's not exactly the bottom.

It's like the last page of the comic. And then

right after that is the... It's right before

the letter. Oh, yeah. Page 28. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because there are only two covers. There's the

Optimus killing Megatron 1 and then there's the

hot rod. with Optimus and Megatron on the back.

Oh, okay. Now I see. I'm like, wow. Maybe it's

just because we got the PDF that way and it was

all screwed up. Yeah. Yeah, the PDF was that

way. And actually, by the time this episode goes

live, all the implications would have been out

already. Yeah, we're looking at it through the

through the PDF, but yeah, it's Okay, so Then

talking about what Heather just said about the

first cover it that first cover is the art is

by Marcelo. Yeah That's why it looks so familiar.

No, I think I've seen. I don't know if there's

something about this. I think I either have seen

this before or something similar to it. Yeah.

So it's really odd to me because I thought, hmm,

I almost feel like I've seen it before. It's

not that I don't like it because I do like it,

but I just feel had this really deja vu kind

of I like I've seen this artwork done by somebody

else at a different time sometime or I don't

know. It's just I go. I can't put my finger on

it. I know I have. I've slept a lot since the

last time I've done some really great reviews.

So I'm kind of just pulling on my feels here.

But I think this looks like something I have

seen before. Casey did an amazing job. He basically

brought the movie to 2D pretty much with his

cover. Yeah. Is it Optimus and Megachart in the

background? It looks like it came right out of

a cell. Yeah. Yeah. It got right out of a movie

cell, right off the TV screen, 1980s TV screen.

The only difference that I can say... It's even

in full screen and not wide. That's very true.

The only difference I can say is that Casey...

Oh, no, no, no. There's no difference. That's...

Optimus's wound. I thought his Megatron has the

razor. I thought he was trying to give Optimus

the orange energy axe, but no that's his wound

Okay, I was gonna say I thought there was a mess

up on the cover, but there isn't no no That's

when he used the sword and whacked him. Yeah.

Yep All right, so we all know what really happened

and the funny thing is I wanted to do this before

this recording I actually went back and watched

the movie again because It just kind of had to.

Because the events of this deviation basically

pervert the emotional impact of the film to me.

I'm not saying the story is bad here. I'm just

saying that this would be one wacky universe

to live in. And the crazy thing here is... Because

we don't suddenly have this Optimus Prime is

now hero status. He's just like, oh, he was saved.

So another could die in his place. Yeah. Oops.

Did I spoil that? No. Well, like I said, by the

time, you know, by the time this episode goes

live, the comic would have already been out.

And if people haven't read it by now, then...

Come on. There are people that sometimes don't

read it, you know, two or three months afterwards,

just saying, you know, they're waiting for the

cheap... Cheaper version to come out they can

buy it on Comixology, you know that type of thing,

you know, just So if you haven't read it yet,

I'm sorry. I just spoiled it So that's the other

thing. Let's talk about the price of these one

shots I've never haggled over an IDW price on

something that is a little bit larger scale as

far as how like when they did the When they did

the turtles when they did a couple of the annual

things were or when they did like turtles issue

50 Which was eight bucks instead of the regular

four bucks, which is fine. It's issue 50 It has

more pages, but I mean the deviations one -shots.

These are books that on comics ology Right now

this book is sitting at five bucks Ghostbusters

is five bucks as well and I'm sure TMNT is going

to be five bucks as well. For being a one -shot,

I'm not too sure if that's, you know, like you're

saying, Amy, some people may wait till the price

drops and yeah, I'm glad I'm on IDW's media list

because I would probably wait until the price

drops. I agree. I really, well, I, and somewhat

I agree, I most of the time don't mind paying

more for book that actually has something to

it but I feel like the last half is mostly advertising

you got almost 18 pages of oh you need to go

read this you go read this this is what's happening

and I feel like that was unnecessary okay so

let's just go get this out of the way before

we get into the actual comic let's get this out

of the way page 29 through Wow 44 Yeah, 29 to

for no well. Yeah, 29 to 40 the really kick 40

Yeah, 29 to 43 is all advertising the only part

of that that is not advertising is page 29 itself

because it is the letter from Brendan Easton

the writer himself, so that's really that doesn't

I don't count this so basically page 30 to 43

There's a couple of pages where it shows his

script and then the line art and the coloring

and all that stuff just to kind of... Right,

yeah. But yeah, everything else is, hey, you

should read this other thing. Yeah, because the

way they do this, and I'm sure it's the way because

when you actually unfold the comic, it's a two

-page spread for the Transformers reading guide

to get you up to speed on the various... Trades

and and stories for both more than meets the

eye and the book formally known as as robots

in disguise Yeah, I I don't look at this is it's

pretty much kind of like their event You know

what I mean? It's Yeah, I mean they do that Not

every year, but like I'm as far back as I can

remember every every spring. They're you know,

they're trying something new They're doing something

they don't normally do like they've done infestation.

They did that twice Now they're doing deviations.

I mean, it's just like they're it's the event

They have some sort of thing that just like kind

of to bring in new fans and so my guess is that

that's kind of what this is kind of supposed

to be doing is doing that is is is kind of like

hey we're gonna make this something jump on thing

where you the only thing you have to do is just

just read just one one shot and then we're gonna

fill it full of stuff and see if it can tempt

you to get into the other stuff as well um i

think i know what you're saying with with the

fact that if you're gonna buy a book that's five

bucks it's gonna have should it not be a little

extra and then just instead of filling it full

of advertising at the end why not you know flesh

that out with a little bit of story Because I

really did like one or two pages of advertisement.

I did like that extra page where it shows from

the script and how it went from the script to

the page. Oh yeah, I liked that too. But that's

not worth the extra two bucks. Yeah. And I'm

also, I liked the page that talked from Easton.

I don't know Easton. Those pages are great. Those

pages are great. Here's what I think they could

have taken out. Meanwhile, in our ongoing, in

our continuing series, those two pages you can

take out, three pages. I disagree. The entire

point of this is to get people who remember the

cartoon to be like, oh yeah, and then make them

interested in the ongoing series. I think, I'm

sure that's what this is serving as. Maybe it's

just that I think the pages should be rearranged

because you have like, What you should have done

is, okay, so you go back and let's just say for

argument's sake that the creator page that's

in the wrong order on our PDF is in the correct

order in the book and it's at the beginning and

not the end. So you have the end page, you have

the letter from Eastern, right after the letter

from Eastern, don't put meanwhile in our continuing

series. Yeah, you'd have to change it now. You

put the background pages next after Easton's

letter, then you can put the advertising. Then

you realize, oh hey, this is new stuff coming

up. The only thing cool for me that's coming

out of the advertisements is the little note

at the very bottom of page 34 here. Transformers

till all are one, Windblade and Starscream vie

for control of Cybertron beginning in June. So

we finally know because originally I thought

till all our one because what was originally

announced last year was going to be coming in

I think either March or April Right, but there's

been a lot of changes around And you're right,

Amy. This is IDW's five -week event. Week one,

they had the Ghostbusters one. Week two, they

had the X -Files. Week three was Transformers.

Week four is G .I. Joe. And week five is Turtles.

I still think they should just do Mars Attacks

again. That was fun. That was my favorite event

book. Oh, my God. I love Mars Attacks. It was

glee. If I'm doing my best, right? Go really

fast. If I'm doing my math right, this comic

is 24 pages long, the actual comic. So you're

getting like an extra two to four pages, depending

on how you're measuring, but still doesn't matter.

And even I, okay, so I didn't get through the

entire transmissions interview with Brandon Easton,

but he was saying how much he really would have

liked a few more pages, especially towards the

end to really kind of tie off a few story points

that would have really been helpful. Yeah. I

agree. I think he needed it. I think he needed

those extra pages, to be honest. Yeah, I think

they spent too much time like this. I think they're

just too much. I think there's like, what, six

whole pages here talking about, oh, come try

our other stuff. It's like, if you can't win

me over in two pages. No one's going to read

that. I would have liked. I mean, this was a

36 page book. And because there's I mean, if

you think about it was what the movie's what

our 40 minutes. It's 86 minutes long. I love

that you know the exact minute count. So, I mean,

there's a lot that happens in that. They could

have added a little bit more. Not to say, okay,

we should probably save that till the end. So,

never mind. I really think that they probably

spent too many pages trying to get people to

come in and see it. I'm like, look. it just there's

not enough gotchas there's not enough you know

i don't know it just doesn't i don't know it

just feels really wordy and it's my attention

was kind of waning even reading through it going

okay i kind of didn't want to read it because

i i kind of want to look at it wait a minute

does this reveal anything in the last couple

issues that i haven't read yet and i'm like oh

i don't know if i want to read any of this because

of that and it just seemed like Don't know I

I know what they were trying to do, but I just

kind of went and I Don't know that's I don't

know putting all that stuff in there really does

help them. You know what I mean The pages where

they're talking about the stories would catch

my interest The two pages where it's just a massive

double page spread of art is really pretty art.

But I don't care. And they could have cut that

out. But you know what? It doesn't matter to

haggle over all of this because it's not like

we're in charge. Yeah, that's true. Let's get

out to the good stuff. Let's review this talk.

Just, you know, rumping about it. That's all.

OK, so. So we only know what happens. We all.

Sorry. We all know what originally happened,

what really happened. We all know we've all seen

it. We've all watched it a billion times in the

last 30 years. Our childhood memories are filled

with tears. See, my childhood memory was filled

with confusion because I lived in a town where

I didn't have a movie theater. The nearest theater

was 50 miles away. So when it came back for the

third season, I'm like, who are these people?

What's going on? Did you have a video store in

your town? Well, yeah, but it takes a while for

stuff to get released you you forgot back in

the 80s It was like a year before movies came

out on video Yeah, ET took five, okay It wouldn't

be within six months nowadays we can get it in

six months or less Back then it was like theater.

You never saw it again I remember when I went

and watched it, I wanted to get the movie, but

I didn't see the VHS available in my small town

for at least another two to three years. And

even then I was like, Oh, I'd really like to

get that. I think we ended up renting it from

like, you know, some Hollywood video or something.

And I think what I did is like, Took my tape

cassette player, had a record function on it.

Stuck a tape in it and just recorded the movie

that way. So I would listen to it instead of

actually see it. And I would remember what was

going on because of, you know, I had a really

good imagination. I always tried doing that.

I always tried doing that. I could never get

a whole tape in without somebody talking. You

could have done what I did. I was a little pirate.

I was a little pirate when I was little. I used

to hook up two DV, VCRs, and you could record

the tape. That would be doable, but we didn't

have two tape layers, unfortunately. Two VHS

recorder, whatever. So yeah, we didn't have that.

As a kid I was just limited to whatever I could

find and that's that's what I would do in fact

Sometimes I would even take it into the movie

theater and do it like that, too Amy rebel without

a cause right there. All right, so we start off

with We basically open with Optimus already coming

off the ship, you know Megatron must be stopped

no matter the cost He's basically running through

the Decepticons as the first page. It's him and

Megatron as per usual. We then get, you know,

the next page here is part of their fight and

Hot Rod trying to go up and interfere, but Cup

stops him this time. By jumping on him and counting

them. I love that panel. That was awesome. And

basically... You know, Megatron tries to fire

at Prime, he misses, Prime shoots him, and he

apologizes afterwards. He doesn't apologize,

he just says, forgive me, and shoots him. While

this is happening, all I could do... Oh, go ahead.

No, that's it. I was going to say, while this

happened, all I could hear was Dave Wallace's

scream in the background going, no! I have heard

so many times where he said he would never shoot

this is where I just feel completely vindicated

No, he totally would have Megatron always had

the opportunity to yield Where you have to just

make the decision you have to make the hard decisions

gosh dang it and the punk kid who's always Throwing

that line at me can just die in a fire I'm not

bitter or anything. Yes, you are. I have trauma

from Dark of the Moon. Don't we all? Don't you

have more trauma from Age of Extinction, though?

No, that doesn't even affect me. Doesn't even

affect me. All right, so. Because once you get

through Dark of the Moon, you are already numb,

right? No, I'm completely fine with this. I mean,

because, hey. They have guns. Were they never

meant to use them? Okay, how about this? What

if it was, and I've always kind of envisioned

this, think of Hook, okay? You guys remember

the movie Hook? We have Peter Pan comes back

as an adult and defeats his nemesis, the pirate,

whatever. Hook, yes. Okay, do you remember the

point where he disarmed him with his sword and

he picked it up or he yielded so that he could

pick it back up? I've always looked at Optimus

Prime as being the dude that said, look, we will

die in a fair fight. I will kill you either in

a fair fight or we'll just do it that way. If

you're going to do something underhanded, because

I always looked at Megatron picking up a gun

and taking the opportunity to shoot and kill

Optimus Prime in the movie as being playing dirty.

Oh yeah, definitely. That there was no honor

in that. So for me, at this point, seeing this

in the comic, I kind of feel like this is the

way I would have already envisioned it to be.

I don't think he would have said, forgive me.

But he would he died. He would have killed Megatron

in a fair fight because he was Megatron was playing

dirty. Yeah, I don't have a problem with Megatron.

I never had. It's not a bloodthirsty killing.

It's a you know what? It's my one. It's for the

goodness of the cause killing at this point.

If Megatron would have said, I yield. Oh, yeah.

And there was no gun involved. He would have

been taken prisoner. He probably would have escaped.

But the whole point is that he would have been

taken into custody. Megatron would have not died

because Optimus Prime is not going to kill somebody

who is going to yield to him. And like, you know,

being taken prisoner, he would have been taken,

you know, whatever he would have turned himself

over. But that's not what happened. He picked

up a gun and tried to kill him. So of course,

the fight was still on. So he turned around and

shot him. There you go. Boom. No more Megatron.

There's a few inconsistencies, at least I think

there is, on this page here of where Starscream

comes down and says, hmm, almighty Megatron.

We see what is supposed to be thrust along with

sound wave yet when he is in astro train He is

in dirge's blue colors So there's a color off

there. Oh, maybe the cone the other cone hits

were there maybe all three of them because I

see we've seen thrust and then the panel down

is Either dirge or ramjet and then the next panel

down is definitely ramjet So maybe they're just

all meant to be there Maybe I have a hard time

believing that John Paul would make any of those

color mistakes. Sorry. Well yeah, I'm just saying

is it supposed to be those other seekers? Because

the only person that was ever in that scene,

to my knowledge, when they left on Astro Train

was Thrust, not Dirge or Ramjet. Yes, but you're

also getting back to the age -old question of

who else was it that get kicked out of AstroTrain

that was turned into the sweeps. That's true.

Cyclonus and all that stuff. So you've got fans

here that are probably putting this into it.

No, I know. You know what? These other guys were

probably here. They all got turned into the sweeps.

You know? Hey, there you go. This is the loving

nod of actual fans that you're like, this is

what makes sense to us. So Astrotrain leaves,

we get the standard battle, except no Constructicons

unite. No uncharismatic bore, although that comes

back later. Which I found that hilarious where

they used it though. I thought that was kind

of funny. He had no way of defending and causing

a fight over the way that he said it though.

Yeah. Oh Starscream, we loved you. Yep. What

do you guys think about the fact that all the

guys that get kicked out of the shuttle just

get eaten by Unicron? Yeah, that's... Hey, you

guys gotta eat Mac. Whoa, dang! And, you know,

I gotta say though, the writing here... Let's

see. where it says of the vote came down swiftly

survival of the fittest the weak and battered

decepticon soldiers faced the indignity of being

tossed like garbage into the void of space for

all eternity after faithfully serving the decepticon

cause in this reality without megatron to bargain

for their lives the warriors met uh an untimely

fate with unicorn's fiery belt okay so megatron

never Bargained for their lives. He bargained

for his life and then unicorn said I Will give

you these soldiers. I do not I just watched the

movie today. He does not say he wants them to

be transformed with him He says, you know, what

are you gonna do for me? And then unicorn goes

into his diatribe of okay I will provide you

with a new body and troops to command. That's

the actual line Megatron never bargains for their

lives You're right I don't care yet, because,

you know, it's a little thing, it's not worth

getting into a huge argument. No, and I know,

and I'm not gonna take a point off of it, I'm

just pointing it out there that that never happened,

because Megatron doesn't bag. Unless you're a

movie -verse Megatron and you're made into the

Fallen's bitch. But you gotta remember the...

things are starting to shift. They might just

be like a little dimensional shift ever since

Prime killed Megatron. So right there that already

changes the timeline. So you don't know what

probably happened beforehand or you know just

these little shifts even beforehand. So who knows?

Maybe he did bargain for their lives at one point.

The way I'm looking at this is it's alteration

to the movie. Yeah, it's an alteration to the

actual film and because it's that alteration

in the film, he never bargained for their lives.

Okay, I see what you're saying. So we get back

to the Autobots and this is just weird. This

just creeps me out. What, the dead guys? Not

even, no, not the dead guys. I'm used to seeing

those. I've seen Wheeljack and Prowl and I mean,

hell, Prowl spit fire out of his mouth when Starscream

shot him. Or Megatron shot him or Starscream

shot him when Megatron, whatever. But just the

whole Hot Rod Magnus thing. It was weird. Well,

in the universe, what he says, I can't deal with

that now. He never says that line, so now it's

this douche bag. All for Magnus. Cause that's

what he's turned into on this page. It's just

like, okay, that was really douchey. Yeah. I

can understand those two not getting along, especially

with, you know, just Hot Rod being Hot Rod, not

Rodimus Prime. I can understand those two personalities

really clashing. I seriously love that Prime

just like walks in between and shoves him apart.

It's like, children, get along. Yeah, it was

it was a there are I'll just say it now We all

know I am NOT the biggest fan of hot rod in the

movie at all but even from the point where cup

jumps on him I've seen this comic described as

a hot rod hatefic and That seems like a really

apt description and it's so full of beating down

hot rod the entire time that I I Feel hurt by

it in a weird way. I'm like hey whoa now No need

for that I Didn't read that until after I read

this today And I went online and started looking

at what people have said about it because I've

deliberately tried to not read anything about

deviations And I have to say that's my assessment

to after and the after reading this I kind of

felt like Man, you know Rodimus in the movie

did one thing wrong. He did one thing wrong and

Even then it wasn't necessary that he did anything

wrong He was trying to do something right. It

was noble of him to try to help to help His leader,

you know, and it was just one small mistake He

was just young and naive. Okay, yeah, and he

got taken advantage of so I mean, I really I

mean I know there's some people out there say,

oh, it's his fault that Optimus Prime died. Actually,

it's not his fault. It's Megatron's fault. Always

put the blame where it belongs. Megatron fired?

Yeah. He just happened to be there at the wrong

place and he was used. He was manipulated. He

was used as the catalyst. Well, I got a question.

So, I mean... Again, people that need to understand

this is a whole different timeline. So do you

think the hate comes from because in the movie

he was able to prove himself as a leader eventually.

This, he wasn't able, I mean, he was never really

able to prove himself to anyone. Someone's always

getting into the way of him becoming that leader.

Yeah, because the way they, and again, the way

they set it up is... it's going off of the IDW

adaptation of the movie. And so for me, as I've

already said, I feel that this is comparable

to the actual animated film, as we've already

done. And the way it sets it up is like, hey,

we kind of know you're going to screw this up.

So if you interfere, you know, Old Man Cubs,

you know, going to stop your, you know, you and

then The rest of it basically becomes, oh, I'm

just gonna push you on, you know, the panel where

Optimus says, Hot Rod, you're with Magnus' crew.

They're both like, why? You know, and it's like,

yeah, I mean, it really has, yeah, now that I

look at it again, it really has become a Hot

Rod 8 comic. It just really has. Okay, even if

you're looking at this as in -universe. Let's

look at the whole show, okay? When did they ever

take one of the characters and put them as the

person that we're gonna trash on every single

time we get? There was one episode or another

where one guy was having a really bad day, okay?

Or, you know, they highlighted one character

more than another, but did they consistently

go through and bash somebody, you know, over

and over and over? And I kind of feel like in

this issue, What they do is they basically say,

hmm, we need somebody to be like the exact The

person that no matter what he does cannot do

anything right and we're gonna dump on him and

that and I The G1 cartoon had a lot of love in

it. I mean, it was cheese lady's love, but everybody

really liked each other. And there was sometimes

even a moral to the story at the end, you know?

Yeah. And that is missing here. And in the movie,

I will grant you, the movie is a lot more serious

business than the G1 cartoon was. A lot more

serious business. But it never goes into... It

was a movie. It was allowed. You never lose that

sense that everybody's... on the same team trying

to help each other. I love the scene with Stringer

and R .C. and everybody in there. They're moving

the cannon. I have better things to do than die

scene. But it's very much we're all working together

and there was always that sense. But this is

just a bag on heart rate. I think the things

that I'm just going to say. because this is a

review and I want to be specific. The things

that really irk me are Ultra Magnus being like,

have you learned nothing about our enemies or

do you spend all of your free time interfering

in battles above your pay grade, which is just

a low blow. And you know, granted they're setting

up Magnus is kind of irritated with this punk

kid and I'll take that. But what really sent

me over the edge was Hot Rod and in this panel.

He's just standing there. He's not acting flippant.

And he's talking about the people who've died.

And he says, they found an eternal resting place

within the matrix of leadership. Their heroism

will echo through space and time, till all are

one. And then Cup hits him and goes, it's not

wise to speak of the matrix of blasphemous tomes.

I'm like, dude, that wasn't blasphemous tomes.

No. Wait a minute. You know, I got confused at

that point because the bubble is actually pointing

at Optimus Prime. So I thought it was Optimus

Prime that said that, and then I went to the

next page and saw that, what Cup said that I

was like, wait a second, who said that? Which

bubble? Hey, go to the page, it's the page where,

you know, Ultramaragnus gets in Rodimus' face,

and Optimus gets in between the two of them,

and the... He says, take a look at the, you know,

take your follow brothers and made the ultimate

sacrifice. Okay, the next speech bubble that's

below him, it's pointed to our optimist. And

then the next one after that, I just assumed

that afterwards. Oh, yeah. Hot Rod turns away

from Optimus Prime as he's still saying the same

thing. Yeah, he's still saying the same thing,

but because Optimus is in the background, you

don't see... The way the speech bubbles are placed,

they don't have the little line where it looks

like it's coming from his head. They do. There's

a teeny one. Oh, you're right. I see it right

there. I see it right there where you're talking

about. I thought Optimus said that, so I was...

The next page didn't make any sense to me because

I thought, well, he said nothing. What the heck?

Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. I apologize.

That was absolutely from him. But you're right.

He didn't say anything blasphemous. Yeah. Is

it all right for him to say stuff about the,

you know, the, the matrix, even though he doesn't

carry it? Really? Geez, you're right. I mean,

it just, that's like, wow, everybody just wants

to track Sean. You know, Hot Rod. Poor guy. He's

been through plus years now. Yeah, and Cuff was

never like a violent guy, was he? I can't think

of a time when Cuff, like, would... He would

turn around like this. Was he? Was he like, he

grumbled, but he wasn't like constantly, like,

smacking Hot Rod around, was he? Or anybody around?

No, not really. He was, he was giving Hot Rod

wise, you know, he was giving... Oh yeah. Basically

cutting him down and you know You know, he was

being the old man Autobot, but I don't Know I've

never seen any of that any even even our smoking

IDW version of I've never seen the fact that

we've got ultra Magnus says don't waste your

time We've got a galaxy to save like oh, he's

not even worth your time It's like, we never

really had, did they really have that type of

attitude on the Autobots? But I think the worst

workflow that you could come on this is on the

same page, not do they, okay, in the movie, and

I've heard people say this before, that they're

like, you know, RC basically becomes the nursemaid

of Daniel. They give that responsibility to Hot

Rod. Yeah, just saying I was like, how low can

you go? You know, they couldn't the the next

lower step that could have gone is that they

would have like given wheelie more attention

He's not even in this. I never went when Tessa

Well, they never end up getting Dino bus never

go looking for anybody. They never find him.

Right, right, right He doesn't even exist at

this point So we get back to Cybertron we have

Starscream with his crown and his cape the only

thing that's missing from this page or these

next two pages that I wish they would have fit

in the Constructicons with the horns, please

So you now have Starscream taking, you know,

you know No one's disrupting his coronation just

yet. We have him taking the full breath of the

Decepticon leadership and then Unicron shows

up. So he flies up to Unicron. They have a conversation.

I like how that went down actually because before

he even leaves... Sound wave says as your new

as our new leader. You are the official representative

for Cybertron and all matters extraterrestrial

The rules are explicit. It's like you just made

that up on the fly. You totally just made that

up And I really one of my favorite parts there

I have three favorite parts in this book and

the first favorite part is who disrupts my coronation

Okay, that's awesome, how did he just show it

did they just Didn't they see him coming? It's

not like he could really sneak up on someone,

you know? I don't know. They were paying attention

only to Starscream because he was so glittery.

That's true. Starscream is pretty right now.

They were honoring each other by honoring him.

They were gagging in their mouth. Oh, anyway,

oh well. I gotta stop quoting stuff, sorry guys.

The only thing that... Okay, so because Starscream

is now the Unitron prodigy here, they basically

lift Unitron's lines from the movie, which is

fine. I have absolutely no problem with that

whatsoever. And he says pretty much, from the

movie, your bargaining posture is highly dubious.

I don't like, and I didn't like this, and in

four years of the pullback, I've never actually

reviewed the IDW animated comic, because after

I first readed the animated movie adaptation,

I could not stand it because of the words they

added into it. And it's just little things. I

just, I don't know. So, you know, your bargaining

posture is highly dubious. What do you want?

Like, I don't think that should be there. Like,

I don't think that the what do you want should

be there. It sounds too... It doesn't sound -

Unicron, the way he thinks is kind of like Hoda.

You know how he switches things around, you know?

He had a style of saying things and that what

do you want? Just does not, it doesn't track

as to what I would expect Unicron to say. So

Starscream tells him what he wants. He says,

very well, I'll provide you with a new body.

And instead of allowing Unicron to finish the

line, Starscream says and enhancements to my

inner circle of warriors. Don't push your luck

again another line that doesn't work Yeah, just

like I cannot hear Orson Welles in my head saying

that one that those extra lines To me that made

it actually really funny because it was so out

of character Yeah, it's part of the whole this

is a totally different universe people and we're

just having trouble this one strikes me as marketed

to younger crowd as well as people who you know

grew up watching the movie and So I I would say

that the what do you want is? Probably requested

to be put in to be clear for you know the five

-year -old reading it who have no idea what bargaining

posture is highly dubious means yeah, and then

I'm sorry, but don't push your luck totally cracked

me up. I like that one if you imagine Don't push

your luck. It broke me out of the comic, to be

honest. It did break me out of the comic. So

we get to the next page. This is why we're doing

reviews, right? Yep. So we get to the next page,

and the next page is Hot Rod Ship with Magnus.

Again, our skink has a job, and what does Hot

Rod Ship mean? But see, I think in this case,

I don't mind this change because of what Daniel

says. Uh, you're a good guy and my best friend.

No one has, uh, has ever been kinder to me. Like,

I know that, okay, RC is technically supposed

to be the mother figure of the Autobots and that's

all well and good. But I think what they're doing

here is they're playing off of season three.

Cause there were plenty of times in season three

when Rodimus and Daniel were on, you know, it

wasn't just. Ultra Magnus shipping Daniel off

with Wheely or Grimlock or whatever. There were

times where Rodimus and Daniel actually interacted

so I think that's okay. It doesn't like take

me out of the comic because I realize oh hey

this is a new story so this is a different version

of the story. It's kind of funny what will take

me out of the comics like a line like I know

that shouldn't be said and what won't with new

character, almost new character development.

Does Hot Rod really need to be sitting there

like a bump on a log doing nothing? I mean, there's

not anybody else. Do you want him to put on a

blast shield and have a lightsaber? Is there

not another like another technical readout place

that he could be like monitoring and Daniel just

happens to be hanging around him? you know, while

he's doing that, ask them these questions. And

then it would make sense why Ultra Magnus would

come over and interrupt them. You know, maybe

he came over there to find out, you know, hey,

Hot Rod, while you're talking to this kid here,

I need the input on blah, blah, blah. You know,

we're going somewhere. And then all of a sudden

you've got, you know, he starts talking to Daniel

about, you know, his daydreams. And Ultra Magnus

comes over saying, you're mutinous. I was like,

OK, now we're going way too far. I will disagree

about the giving Hot Rod a job because this is

the one section of the comic where he became

an actual person for me because he and Daniel

are both sitting in the same posture of like

sort of emotionally wounded like I feel like

crap right now and you get the sense that all

of that stuff that just went down is really bothering

Hot Rod and that he's literally he's legitimately

trying to be there and comfort Daniel because

they're both going through kind of some rough

stuff. But this is the thing is that what did

he do wrong? I'm at this point. That's why he's

down. He didn't do anything wrong. But he thinks

he did because of the way that they reacted to

what he said. They think what he, Cup and Magnus

think what Hot Rod said about the Matrix was

wrong. Yeah. And that's why he's thinking to

himself, Oh my God, what the hell have I done?

let me just sit here and sulk. He's not really

sulking, but... You know, feeling like argh,

everybody's yelling at me. I'm trying to do stuff,

but everybody just yells at me if we're doing

it. Yep. So the next page, we get a look at Windblade.

Oh, I'm sorry, Megascream. Hang on for a second!

I was like, what are you talking about? Okay,

if you cannot tell me... Looking at Starscream

or Megascream in his alt mode on the next panel

that that does not look like a wind blade copycat

a little bit because the red and the yeah I didn't

think that until you show until you said something

and now I'm like He's trying to be Megatron wannabe

he's got his I mean In robot mode, he's basically

Armada Starscream with Prime's legs and Megatron's

gun. Does he have two giant guns, one on each

arm? I think he does. Instead of the smaller

laser things that he has, they're like this huge,

big ol' chorus. I get a kick out of Starscream

compensating by putting on absolutely every...

Bit of... I wish they would have come up with

a better name for them. Bigger, better, faster,

stronger, right? Megascream just is not... That

made me laugh. That's basically what Starscream

would call himself, though. Exactly! Well, I

know, but... Okay, so this is gonna... And we're

only talking in the movie context, people, because

we know in the IDW continuity, Megachar and Galvachar

are two separate entities, but... I have argued

with people about this fact. Megatron and Galvatron,

in the movie universe and in the generation one

cartoon continuity, they are the same damn person.

Yeah, almost. About, yeah. So, that's kind of

like, I understand we're supposed to have Megascream,

it's supposed to be Starscream, whatever else,

but I'm just so, and I know I need to wrap my

head around, okay, this is a different... Timeline

at different events that happen, but yes, I'm

just like use the universe You keep on saying

that I mean I know that keeps on being used as

that well But this is different continuity is

like no in the context and it's supposed to be

it's supposed to be in that era in that line

of how things went and Yeah, there are times

where it deliberately feels like it's not part

of that universe where it's like oh it quite

literally is It's just somebody having a go and

fixing everything that, you know, they would

have liked to see if, you know, if Optimus Prime

had never died, because, you know, no one really

wanted Optimus Prime to die, but he did. And

that changed all of our worlds. And I, like I

said, there are people that say that Hot Rod's,

it's Hot Rod's fault. But if we had that, then

we wouldn't have gotten a new leader and it would,

a different era and a different, and more toys.

I mean, goodness. So, when you say that, it has

to make sense for the characters of who they

are up until now, because this is who they were

in that universe. You don't just change their

character to suit your needs. You have to make

it make sense for those characters. Yeah, that's

true. So that's why Ultra Magnus, being a total

douche, does not seem like what he would be like.

No. Or... I think Megascream, I think that would

have been him. Honestly, Starscream, he always

has to be bigger, better, faster, stronger. And,

you know, coupon Megatron. I'm gonna take his

name and I'm gonna be Megascream! He has ultimate

power. What would you mean he would be Megascream?

That works for me. So the rest of the page here

is them figuring out how you know they get attacked

How are they gonna get out of this? Oh, let's

do a full reverse because that's always gonna

work and then Poor perceptor is one line in the

comic basically has hot rod saying shut up perceptor

that leaves us with a 42 % chance it won't Actually

started acting like hot rod to me yeah, but But

this is the part where I just, like, my brain

kind of just shut down. I don't understand why

this happened. What, the going backwards thing

or Magnus getting shot or what? Okay, if the

same, this is the same ship that they were in

in the movie, it could separate, right? Yeah.

So why did the ship do what it did and like go

wherever it was going to go and blow up and crash?

If they could separate, why didn't they just

do that? Maybe because I W1'd two pages of ads

in there? I don't know. I agree that this part

got really confusing. This is the part where

I just said, okay, I broke completely out of

the comic and said, all right, I shift from liking

it now to I'm disliking it. Up until now, some

of the little things that I niggled at were forgivable.

but right here when I was like huh let's just

separate the saw the the section in front like

you did in the movie problem fixed right am i

right am i right maybe they didn't realize that

they could do that no no you really really really

really need that receptor there come on Well,

okay, so it says on the next panel that they

have an engine burnout and they've sustained

more damage than Prime's ship. So maybe they,

I mean, yeah, the ship looks like it could have

done what it did in the movie, but maybe because

of the damage they couldn't? I don't know. I'm

not defending this comic in any way. Don't you

find out like a page after this that they did

some major, you know, hyper jump to another planet

and they crash on that and die? And I was like,

what? What?! I just didn't get it! I was just

like... I mean, it has nothing to do with the

fact that Springer was on that and he died in

that crash. No, not at all. I swear. Do we even

see Springer with Magnus? Yes, there's one. Okay,

yeah, he's there. No, it's RC. Yeah, no, I saw

RC. I just didn't see... Okay, okay, okay. So,

we get to the next page here and... Part of the

bottom page of after the ship blows up or whatever

we get Starscream getting a report from Soundwave

saying that, you know, Unicron's saying Cybertron

and all his moons belong to me! Yeah, I kind

of see this comic with Soundwave as kind of being

that guy that I don't want to be a part of, like,

who's seconding. I'm not... liking the fact that

Megatron is now gone and I have to deal with

this imbecile so I'm gonna ignore I'm gonna try

to undermine him in the sweetest possible way

every single chance I get he's right in the middle

of I'm about to destroy everything and I'm gonna

beat Prime and Soundwave steals his thunder and

the same thing in his coronation he's like I'm

going to you know it's my coronation and then

oh no actually you know you have to go and meet

this alien you know entity that is now here because

in the rules he is just stealing his thunder

every single time it's great yeah i find i'm

influenced by no longer rid soundwave a lot in

this because they seem very similar in in their

characteristics of soundwave being a relatively

decent bloke just trying to do see See Soundwave,

or Soundwave, in the movie he gets such a raw

deal. Because Soundwave is pretty much only there

through the time of Starscream throwing Megatron

out of Astrophen. And then we really don't see

Soundwave for the rest of the movie. Unless...

You know, you're talking about, well, you know,

the major scene on Cybertron and, you know, he's

with all the other Decepticons, but I mean, that's

kind of one of the reasons why I almost like

this a little bit, because it gives Soundwave

a little bit more, gives him something more to

do. So Cup and Optimus and the rest of the team,

DinoBots, end up on Quintessa. And Optimus says,

hmm, there's something familiar about that place.

Yeah, sure there is, Optimus. The Matrix told

him. Yeah, sure it did. It did, like. So they

go on to Quintessa. They meet up with the Sharptocons.

The Universal Greeting does not work. Whatsoever.

We then get to the Quintesson throne room here.

Oh, but you've got to say how since the Dinobots

and Prime are all there, they totally just...

Prime's just like, okay, I'm done trying to make

peace with these guys. Let's kill them. And so

he and the Dinobots was like, yeah, crunch. Prime's

becoming murderous. Yeah, give me your face.

He had that taste of death with Megatron and

now he's on the killing spree. No, Nicole, don't

do it! And what is that thing that CUP is giving

the shark decons? Is it like an iPad? It looks

at first like it's a little screen. Like, look

at my picture! Oh, it's supposed to be an energon

cube. I think there's like a little line down

it to try and make it work. Oh wait, no, I lied.

You're right. No, no, no. What it is is he moves

it in his hand. The panels don't... In the left

panel where he says, Ba -web, Grana -web, Ninibong,

he's holding it out to them square. In the next

panel, he's actually holding it out to us, the

audience, so he moved his hand. But yeah, it's

essentially an energon goodie, so they kill the

sharktacons. They get to the quintesson throne

room. What is the meaning of this intrusion?

Intrusion? This is a perversion of justice. I'm

sorry. I still, as much as I love Optimus, and

I would love to hear Peter Cullen say that line,

the best line out of the Quintesson throne room

was from the movie when, when Cranex is like,

spare me this mockery of justice. Yeah, like

I was reading, I know the real line is slightly

different, but I couldn't remember the real line.

Yeah. But I missed the real one. Actually, I

think I liked that line better than what you

said. The mockery of justice? Yeah. The mockery

of justice, yeah. You know what, this part just

seems so rushed. It does. This is what I was

saying, I wish there was more to this. The only

reason why they would even know that the Quintessons

were there is because the Sharktocons caught

Puff and Hot Rod and took them there. Yep. For

them to just suddenly go, okay, we're gonna what

do you think that the sharp cons would follow

would show them back to them? And I'm like, well,

that's what is shown in the so I think they're

chasing shark to cons into the throne room Yes,

but why would they go back there? Why wouldn't

they not just go hide out somewhere because they

were in the water or whatever and they came up

and I think if Why would they do that? It just

doesn't make sense. They're running home and

they're gonna jump in their tank and hopefully

think they're safe. They're on fire. I know,

but it just it just seems so rushed like I don't

what would the reason the only reason why they're

there is because they had to rush into this throne

room because they're running after shark to cons

I just I don't know if I was if I was the way

they've always come across to me is that they're

like basically They're not very smart, but they're

also very primal Yeah. You know, there's shark

decons. If they weren't being, you know, shot

at, killed. Okay, but let me think of it as when

the Dinobots come to save Cup and Hot Rod. Me

Grimlock want to munch metal. That's the way

I see that scene is because Grimlock is there

even though Prime's ahead of him. They're basically

running in fear from Grimlock is the way I see

it. Yes, but the reason why they did that is

because... The reason why, okay, let's go back

to the movie here for just a second. The reason

why Grimlock and them showed up is because Wheelie

told them where their friends were. Right. But

they're getting in a situation where it's like,

okay, we have them running after shark decons,

but I don't see it as nothing in the shark decons,

like the way that they function, would ever make

me think that they would run back home to daddy.

That if they started getting their butts kicked,

they would just run away and regroup They would

just keep coming until they're dead. They wouldn't

just turn around around They're trying to do

repairs for their ship So they're just trying

to find some place where they might have repairs

or something So maybe they saw this building

and they're like, okay, I guess we have to head

up that direction Yeah, I really don't have a

problem with this particular transition really

rushed. Yeah. Oh, yeah Not as bad as the previous

part with the ships though that one was bad.

Well, it's gonna get worse with the for me it's

gonna get worse with the next page with them

actually talking to the quintessence because

Autobots they'll still they'll suffer for this

disrespect Prime. They know who we are. Have

you ever seen these freak shows before? No, we'll

worry about that another time, Cup. Yeah, sure,

okay. He's just turned into Ultramagnes. I can't

worry with that now. Yeah, don't try to throw

in continuity because we found out in Five Faces

of Darkness the history of the Quintessons and

whether you agree with that history or not, that's

fine, whatever else, but don't try to throw in...

continuity grab of Prime maybe knowing these

guys beforehand without explaining it away they

just they bring it up and then they completely

disregard it they then go to Kranix and save

him and he tells them where his world was and

Optimus is you know Kranix basically tells him

hey look you know you and your team should go

to the farthest away place from Unicron Island

that's not our style this is essentially what

he says you bring up an excellent point, Mike,

is the fact that don't try to throw in continuity

things that are supposed to fit into the actual

show. If you're not going to do that all the

time, because there are other points where they

completely, like I said, they're parts that just

don't make sense because they don't sound like

that's the type of thing that the characters

or whatever would do. They haven't got other

things like the fact that they're bashing on

the hot rod so bad. They never did that in the

show. But yet they're building up. Oh, we wanted

to try to make it look like it fits in the show

when it's Deliberately trying to not in a few

places. It's like you can't have your cake and

eat your pie, too It's like one or the other

you're trying to do both you making it work only

when it suits your Your needs and not when it

actually works for the story for what's come

before and what comes after it's like The one

thing I'll say about the show after the events

of the movie, the one thing I'll say, no, none

of the Autobots were ever cruel or mean to Hot

Rod in season three. What they did was they questioned

his motives and leadership and his style of leadership

because his style of leadership was not Optimus'

style of leadership because Rodimus was different.

He was a new leader. He was a different leader.

He was still learning. It took me two and a half

years of podcasting to figure out certain things

like I didn't get stuff right on the first go

You know what I mean? So Yeah, but this is pretty

much like we already said it's pretty much a

shit on Rodimus day comic for the whole part

of it Especially in the next panel once again

reinforcing my hatred for Springer In the cartoon

universe the comic is the root the That's what

people got to remember. These are deviations

of movies and animated things we've already known.

This has nothing to do with the current IDW continuity

or records in the IDW continuity. So in other

words, Original Springer was a douche bag to

you. I love Original Springer. I'm sorry. I loved

the I loved the four of them. I loved RRC, Ultra

Magnus Springer and Hot Red all together working

together. Those four I really like together.

But here they are not working together whatsoever.

Oh, and again, this is where it's like, OK, I

just looked at it. Why didn't they just separate

the shuttle from the rest of the ship? I just

didn't get it. I just like, OK, why is this happening?

Why would this even be happening? You know, they

have preceptor there. Could he not just say,

hey, we need to separate the, if we separate

the, we have a better chance of survival. I just,

my brain broke. And again, it comes back to the

thing where it's like, okay, you make it work

for you, not necessarily in continuity. It's

just, you know, just because it's a different

universe doesn't mean that, I mean, granted,

not everything's going to go wrong and not everything's

going to go right. And there's going to be some

variation, but just. there's just some really

give me a reason why this had to happen this

way i mean you have to has to hold up to the

evidence that they're trying to give us and if

we all know that the shuttle can separate from

the rest of the ship then why are they not doing

it here and then on the top of that it's like

okay so they tell hot rod the one that they really

don't like hey take Yeah, you'll put them in

that thing and then get in the pod and get off

the ship you need to be safe Well, I think it's

because everyone knows that hot rod and Daniel

have a certain bond, you know So they're like,

hey, you know what? You know the kid get him

safe because hot rod would have taken care of

him. So that's probably why they sent him off

You're crapping on him until you want him to

save somebody, and then you're like, oh, do this

right thing for us. Escape. Go now. We'll sacrifice

ourselves for you, even though we just a few

minutes ago were telling you how stupid you are.

I mean, I mean, okay, just take a workplace.

Everyone has a workplace where they've been where

they have to work with other people. If you've

never worked with other people, lucky you. Okay.

Or like a group project. There's always that

one person that does it. fit in that doesn't

really do their part. But still, you give them

credit for what they do. There's always going

to be one person that's a little off from the

rest of the crowd, but you're not going to just

kill them. Here he feels like the team mascot

that they've just gotten irritated with for a

while, and they're like... He's wheeling. Or

like, the kid of the group. He was always the

kid of the group. But I get the feeling like

all of the adults in the room are like, save

the kids! Kids, go get in the escape pod. Which

looks like the rod pod. Let us all take it. I

know, that really made me laugh. I know, I thought

that too. The rod pod is in continuity now. Boom.

It's like, if Bumblebee and the rod pod got combined

somehow, that's what you would get. Wait, uh,

I don't - See that as being the Rod Pod. That

doesn't look like the Rod Pod. The little tiny

escape pod in the fshh panel, Mike. Yeah. It

doesn't look like the Rod Pod, do you? No. Totally

looks like the Rod Pod. You're wrong. It looks

more bumble baggage than anything else. It looks

like bumble baggage with epic sideburns or the

Rod Pod. It's the, it's Ant Man's helmet. So,

Springer and everybody else dies. Which was such

a cheap guess that irritated me. Like, I didn't

even understand that they were dead for the longest

time. Like, wait, what? I was not happy with

that. I was like, really? It's like, just because,

okay. Just because Optimus Prime doesn't die

does not mean that somebody else has to die just

to be offset that. You know what? It's so cliche.

It's basically Final Destination. You know, if

the Grim Reaper doesn't take someone, doesn't

take the original person, it's gotta take someone.

But also, like, they're crashing in a shuttle.

And they're not even, like, are they even near

the planet of junk? I think it says that they're

supposed to be, but that does not look like the

planet of junk to me. They tell us that they

instantly... slung across wherever they went

to the plant of junk. You were just told that

that's where they were. We didn't really actually

see it. And understandably so, they would have

had to take a couple panels to do that. And so

in terms of trying to push the story along without

having to take up too many panels, because I'm

sure there was a lot they wanted to do here,

they sacrificed a little bit to just tell us

where they went to, and that's fine. Right, but

my only problem is with if they've crashed on

the planet of junk, we see them crashing into

the planet, we see the Bumble Pod coming out

of there, we see obviously the blackness of space.

When Hot Ron and Daniel are standing there, I

don't ever remember the planet of junk having

a purplish -bluish sky. It was always a nighttime

scene on the planet of junk. Well, that's the

thing, it wasn't on the pan of junk. Maybe it's

during the day, it's actually kind of pretty.

You don't know. I almost would have rather have

had a planet goo reference, but anyway. All right,

so we get back to... Here's another thing. You

bring up a really good point. Why not be the

planet of goo? Because we don't even see the

junkians in this. Part of going to the junk planet

was to see all of those dudes. And we don't get

to see any of them. So it could have been pretty

much any planet. It didn't have to be that planet.

It could have been Quintessa. Yeah, I mean if

you didn't want to show the rest of that then

why go all the way out there just because oh

You know, this is I mean, this is an alternate

universe. They could have just crashed on quintessa

Just saying it felt like ticking off boxes from

the movie Like yeah, I include junkie on gotta

include all the end, but you didn't yeah again

I was kind of hoping when they crashed I was

like, oh, well, that's cool the quintesson or

the the junkie ounce will just come over and

revive them It was for Alter Magnus, why couldn't

it have worked with the rest of them? But then

again, maybe the junkians will come out at night.

Brand new with a 90 -day warranty. Well, I didn't

get my warranty on those characters that just

died. No, not at all. So we get back to Unicron

and he is... attempting to devour Cybertron,

and this is basically where you get Megascreen

saying, hey, that wasn't part of the bargain,

and Unicron has some line that just, again, does

not fit Unicron to me, and I'll just start with,

for a time I considered sparing your wretched

little planet of Cybertron, but now you shall

witness its dismemberment and he transforms.

What's wrong with that? No, no that lines great

the line before it about the I've grown tired

of your whining. Yeah, no Unicron in any universe

Unicron would never say that Because Starscream

is a whiner so he's just pay rich telling him

stop it It's another one of those. It's funny

because Unicron is saying it moments for me.

So yeah And then Starscream has a Vader moment.

I think he might say something like, you tax

my patience. Yeah, something. I've grown tired

of your whining. It'd be more like, you tax my

patience and therefore I will do as I please.

You know, that type of thing. Because he's a

big ass planet, you know? He's not going to be

pointing at him. He's going to be like, I am

the powerful blah blah blah. You will obey me

or suffer the consequences. And because of his

whining, it would be implied that it was because

of his whining. In the original movie, obviously

Galvatron does the long Darth Vader no kind of

thing as well. I see Starscream here in this

panel and all I can think of is emo Anakin. That's

all I can think of. He's not wearing the crown.

I would like to believe that he would still be

wearing his crown. Oh, man. Let's see. Hold on

here. Let's see. He didn't have it when he upgraded.

Yeah, that's right. He didn't have it when he

upgraded. He should have just incorporated it

into his body. Exactly! Because he's Mega Scream!

Because it didn't even fall off. Wait. Before

we transform no because I'm going back and I'm

looking at the coronation scene here. No, he's

got it there He's got it when sound wave tells

him. Hey, look, you're the leader blah blah blah

Go go deal with it. It doesn't even find they

just stop drawing it. Well, no, okay He upgraded

you're not gonna wear the crown with that new

outfit. It just doesn't go with the shoulder

pads. Come on. Oh, please Well, the thing is

Transformers and fashion just do not mix. In

all fairness, Unicron probably wouldn't want

him to have the crown because he's not king because

he's ruling over Starscream if you think about

it. So he just doesn't deserve the crown. But

Unicron is the emperor when Starscream is the

princess. Is the Vader, yeah. Princess is better.

Sounds better when you say he's a princess. He

just needs some rainbow hair is all Please do

not turn Starscream into Professor Princess,

please do not do it Where they were like 80s

rockers in a hairband see those Yeah, somebody

should do that type of craziness and make Starscream

a princess. Actually, if you read the animated

comics, Professor Princess did defeat Starscream,

and she did put a wig on him. Go read it. Oh,

that's right! Professor Princess beat Starscream.

Booyah! Oh bless the Wyatt for doing that. Yeah.

I love the best of Christmas. I've heard everyone's

sad. So Hot Rod and Daniel are just sitting there

waiting for god knows what and then Optimus comes

and saves them obviously. And he just gave him

a stare down, it made him feel even more dirt

because he let three of his friends, no four

because Perceptor was there too, four of his

friends died. Oh, yeah. At this point I was feeling

a little numb. What did you say, Nicole? Rodimus

is having a really bad day. Oh, God. Imagine

taking this, Rodimus. One bad day can change

everybody. Rodimus becomes the Joker. Ouch. Good.

That'd be awesome. Okay, so Optimus comes and

saves Rodimus and Daniel. We have another group

seen with the Transformers. We then have Megascream

and Unicron and a whole fight. And we then get

to the plan where... No. Just no. Stop it. We

get to the plan... Just... The picture I sent.

Okay, so It's distracting now. Sorry. Sorry folks.

We're you know, it's all Nicole's fault Damn

it. I was gonna say it's not even after midnight

yet, but it is okay, so So we get mega scream

we get the battle Uh, we get, uh... Right before

this battle, we get Optimus and Hot Rod. Isn't

this where they're talking about Hot Rod's like,

oh, I need the Matrix. No, it's after that. It's

after that. Okay, so we get the battle. Hot Rod's

then like, I just feel like the Matrix should

be mine. He transports Optimus back to wherever.

Uh, cause he interferes. Wait, you gotta talk

about how Starscream is a combiner. No, he's

not a combiner. He just he got an enlargement

Because it took me a second to notice this um

it's it's the page where you know And all the

Decepticons show up, and then there's lightning

which of course means combining this and then

if you look at big Starscream towering over prime

He's got one knee that sound wave with play buttons

One of the wings is astrotrain. Oh yeah, and

then there's like a foot that's purple. Yeah,

so he's now a combiner. Wow. And then he smashes

his fist down on Prime. And then Hot Rod comes

in. Charge in. I'm sorry. As much as I love Hot

Rod, Rod, and this Prime, there's no way a car

like him could drive through space. Yeah, I just

don't know how. I mean, and I'm not even sure

where they're standing. I think they must have

to be standing on Unicron, but it never said

that. And so the ending became really unclear

to me as to why suddenly everyone was dead and

it was all hunky -dory. Yep. So Optimus gives

Ronimus the Matrix. He doesn't even give it to

him. He just takes it out of my chest. I felt

really violated right there, you guys. I didn't

mean to lie. I'm like, oh, wait a minute. He's

not dead yet! He's all like, yeah, uh, I can't

explain it, but the Matrix is calling to me.

Yeah, like I'm supposed to have it, Prime. Yeah.

Uh, here's the teleport thing. Bye! Hey, I'm

gonna take this away from you when I'm gonna

steal your thunder and you know what? I know

you came here to commit suicide because you said

you know that you go soon don't don't grieve

I'll be one with the matrix and everybody was

like Oh honky -dory with that because he goes

off to be the hero and I'm stealing your thunder

I'm gonna explode and you know steal your thunder

and I'll be the hero instead Hey, the guy that

couldn't do anything right all the way up until

now and he does His his one thing that he had

to do was just die for everybody. I'm like, okay

I just don't feel right about this Everything

just goes wrong from here on in the fact that

prime goes off to die on his own and nobody wants

to help him and everybody's hunky -dory with

it the fact that that you brought him a Hot rod

shows up at the last minute and like hey, no,

no, no, you're not gonna die I'll die on your

on your behalf because that's what I was supposed

to do anyhow, right? and then the fact that somehow

in continuity Megatron can now become a multi

-combiner which never happened in the show unless

you were a combiner yeah yeah Megatron never

became a combiner but there was in season one

there was heavy metal war which he got where

he got all their powers but he never ever became

yeah i know i know He never ever came to be a

combiner combining to me. It's just kind of the

thing that's going on right now in the on. Yeah.

And I just kind of feel like that's kind of bleeding

into this. And I'm not OK. Again, this is the

same thing that I've brought up before. You have

to work with. in the confines of what's already

working for that universe. And they're just throwing

stuff in just to be able to do that. And I just

don't feel like it, again, it just breaks me

out. And I got a little confused at this point

too, just because I was like, okay, things move

so quickly here and the time, how it's working

out just seems so, I don't know, I can't explain

it other than the fact that it just seems like

it's happening so quickly. They have... Like

the beginning of the the comic and the end of

the comic are going at two different paces like

we start off going a certain pace And then it

just feels like we're rushing to the very end

and things are getting lost along the way and

I'm like Okay Absolutely So Rodimus does his

you know selfless act instead of escaping after

opening the matrix he just you know Dies along,

you know with unicorn blowing up and we get the

classic line. You cannot destroy my destiny,

which was nice I thought that was cool. So close

up. Is it Starscream or is it? No, it's unicorn

because this is another part where I got lost

so say so he confronts mega stream and I'm guessing

when he uses the matrix on him. He gets rid of

him and then we just skip to Okay, so there was

two bad guys he had to defeat. One was Starscream,

and then the other one was Unicron. And he has

completely skipped that. But there was no fight.

The place where they're at standing on Unicron

is... Okay, so Vegastring gets blown up, and

that's the part that's shown where they're standing

on Unicron. So he gets like the second blow.

They're basically riding on his chest. So when

the bomb goes off it goes off on your cross chest

Okay, let me see here. Okay. Yeah, it's the giant

mega scream They are yeah, because if you look

at the panel right there before Starscream says

your parlor tricks can't stop me Hot Rod is basically

laying on top of Unicron because it's the orange

background there where he has his hand on the

matrix and then he gets up and you know he doesn't

get up I kind of feel like he was lying on the

ground and just rolled over and yeah he rolled

over and Starscream picked him up and then he

says you know now light our darkest hour Starscream

was behind him while he was standing on Unicron

you mean the dark shadow behind Hot Rod when

he says darkest hour? Yeah, actually, I think

that's a callback to when he turns into Rodimus

Prime because that's his Rodimus Prime size and

shape Amy is all about eye color So, I don't

know where mega scream because if That's the

thing Well, no, no, I know I understand that

I'm saying it doesn't show it it because there

are more Advertisements than there are actual

story pages It doesn't give a chance to show

you what actually happened to mega scream because

if mega scream is the super giant combiner I

would have thought he would have at least come

up to unicorns arm At least if he's that big

But Anyway Unicron's destroyed Rodimus dies before

he can even become Rodimus Megascream blasted

off somewhere This is the part that really bothers

me because okay Unicron was the big bad They

don't fight and they can't stop him. It's the

only thing could stop him was the matrix instead

of having this showdown with Unicron Megascream

is like the thing and Unicron just happens to

blow up because What they defeated one and it

just it just so in other words Unicron was not

really a thing in this at all. His only function

was to change our Screams into mega scream and

then explode there was no threat We just know

that there's a threat because we've seen the

movie before but it just kind of like I just

kind of feel like Okay, so why does Megastream

deserve more attention than Unicron? He doesn't.

She's a villain you can comprehend in terms of

size. That's the only reason I can think of.

The whole reason why I like the movie was because

the bad guy was just so big and... I know. Nobody

turned against both Autobots and Decepticons.

Because in the end, they were all fighting him.

That's what I was just going to point out, they

were all fighting him in the end. I mean, the

only person that couldn't fight Unicron was because

he was torturing him, was Galvatron. And we all

know how that ended because, you know, Grimlock

went into one butt cheek and Galvatron came out

the other. Okay, thanks for that. Now since we're

on the last page Again, I have another grievance

to air a little bit Something that I think Dave

Wallace would probably agree on it cheapens the

idea of what the matrix stands for it blows up

with Rodimus And I thought the whole point was

that this Autobot talisman, in a sense, it doesn't

just die in the movie. Why are you changing the

rules of this universe to just make it explode

and be gone as well? Because Optimus Prime now

no longer has the Matrix, so they have no leader?

It just, again, it's like, okay, well, if - If

you didn't mean to say that it exploded with

Unicron and this was destroyed, then we should

see that they either have it back or there needs

to be a little more story or whatever explaining

that they found it. Because it is like, so you've

cheapened what the matrix stands for now. It

is, it's a gimmick. It doesn't need to be there

anymore because the whole point of them having

it was to be able to destroy Unicron with it.

And because it's supposedly when you have it,

You know, it's, it's this mystical item. It bestows

wisdom upon the leader. Exactly. It bestows wisdom

upon the leader. And yeah, now that it's gone,

we basically will never get in this universe

because it deviated from the movie. If a season

three were to happen based on this universe,

we would never get the plague of evil. Oh, we

would get it. Just everybody would die. Yeah.

Well, yeah, that's true. It's like we'll destroy

everybody and no one will revive that. And hey,

too bad you're human you're not anymore yeah

and i i am sorry i as much as i like as much

as i like the designs i hate that they force

ghosted alpha try on and robin i love the designs

i love the art i love the way it looks but as

far as a story point I hate that they force ghosted

them into this. Yeah, I told you, I like rolled

my eyes at that part. But the thing is it was

confusing because I'm used to, whenever you see

people who have gone before, you're seeing it

via the matrix. And so in that panel, I assume

that Prime had it again, but it shows that his

chest is empty. So it's really ambiguous. And

then I'm like, well, maybe they just built like

a statue monument to them. And that's actually

there in real life. But it looks like... Force

ghosts their force goes yeah Yeah, that was even

and then to even reflect it even more that their

force goes to the last panel is reflected in

his eyes reflected in his eyes, and it's like

Optimus Prime questioned the power of the matrix

of the ways of the matrix he never has I will

never again question the ways of the matrix till

all are one I'm like wait a minute Was he questioning

stuff? Yeah, it doesn't have anything to do with

the story in the comic or anything that I can

think of in the show. Yeah, this was completely

out of context. I was like, huh? Because Optimus

wasn't the one to die when he was supposed to

die. At that point of Megatron's death, where

the deviation started. It gave him no, it gave

us as fans, no background. I mean, gosh, they

throw in a little line about Orion Pax and how

foolish he used to be when he was younger, but

that's not the same thing as Optimus saying,

you know, we must, you know, and again, I know

this happens before we get to the red plague,

you know, the, the, the hate plague is also,

I was like, I was thinking of his record. I'm

a peppa. Don't you want to be a peppa too? You

know, you look at the hate plague episode and

It's at the end of it. The matrix is there but

it's just a container because the wisdom is was

used up to stop the hate plague and Then they

then have to refill it because everybody still

learns that's a message There's no message at

the end of this comic for any of the characters

or for any of the fans. I am sorry Brandon Easton

You started out good as a writer on this, but

then it just became some weird perversion to

me Think this comic is the perversion of justice

not what the Renaissance were doing Nicole's

been awfully silent Yeah, I have to say I love

what Brendan Easton is doing over in agent Carter

I will give him full props for that. I love the

guy for that, but it's a pass for me The art

is beautiful. Everything just looks so perfect

and at least if I saw the movie in comic form,

this is absolutely serviceable. I really, really

love it. I love everything that the artists have

done and the colorists and everything. In terms

of the story, it's a pass. I haven't gone down

to my comic shop just because I have a lot of

stuff going on right now. I haven't been able

to pull away from family and responsibilities.

comic shock to pick it up now after reading this

I'm like I'll wait until it's not it's not gonna

be something that I'm gonna pick up for full

price I'll wait until they you know they have

it on Comixology for you know on a sale and it's

like half off or something like that and I'll

pick it up you know a couple years from now when

it's in some bundle somewhere I'm just not gonna

pick this up and it's not anything to do with

the art it's just that I just don't It comes

off more like a fanfic than it does an actual

thing that I think would actually be plausible.

And I think part of that might be because of

the space. I think some of the choices he made

maybe because he needed more space. I don't know.

It's such a huge story to, you know... Try to

fit in with 26 pages. 26 pages. I mean, hey,

we're talking about... 24. I mean, wasn't the

animated one that they did, didn't it come in

two installments? Yeah, and it came in a big...

because they were basically adapting it to comic

form. Yeah, so the adaption was at least in two

installments, and he's trying to do this in one?

Yeah. And that being said, he did it. It just

comes off. The pacing toward the end is just,

it goes completely different than what was happening

at the very beginning. So I just kind of like,

eh, it's a pass for me. I feel like he could

have really, really sped up the beginning, because

the beginning feels actually a little draggy,

and it's tough because it is nice, you know,

they throw in some really classic scenes from

the movie and stuff, and that's fun, but if they

could have told that more quickly, then we could

have gotten a more, a neater ending with it actually

coming together. But yeah, there's different

spacing or pacing issues. Well, like I said at

the beginning, I think this would have been better

if it was a 36 page issue. Oh, yeah. Where they

could have got into more details, but I think

that's they're limited to 24 pages. I mean, again,

the movie was what, 80, 85 minutes, 84 minutes,

what did you say? Yeah, and so you're basically

putting... How like three minutes per page shot

this there's a lot that happens at the movie,

but I get Yeah, I really I personally I like

how it started off. There was a lot those yeah,

and I I loved how prime and Megatron met up and

the Conclusion of that I love the look of Unicron.

He looks great but yet There's a lot. I see this

happen a lot. There's a lot of good ideas in

here They just were executed. Very well. Very

well. I would have loved to see more quinnison

for this. Come on. Like, if you're going to do

a deviation of a story, instead of having Optimus

be all, you know, give me your face, you know,

have him, have him, have... Have Optimus and

Cup get captured have them have a basically mirror

them mirror the events of the movie You can alter

the events of the movie and the outcome. That's

fine. But basically I know they only have 24

pages to do it. I know they have to cram stuff

in. They don't have a full... And honestly, I

understand it's IDW's and it's... Most of it's

IDW's advertisements. It's not like... This isn't

like a DC book where you see, hey, a page where

it's like, hey, go watch King of the Nerds on

TV. IDW doesn't do that crap. IDW does advertisements

for their own stuff. And I think that a couple

of the advertisements could have been cut out.

To at least allow a few more pages of actual

story to be able to have the idea fully fleshed

out Yeah I on a okay so as far as rating on a

I'm gonna rate it for writing and art on 0 to

5 for writing I Give it a 2 For art Priscilla

and John did amazing job in the art. I'll give

it a 4. What about you, Amy? I think I'll be

if it's fair to say that too. I mean There's

just so much that they could have done with it.

I mean I get it there during time constraints,

but yeah What Chris McFeely said it the best

and I'm gonna say his tweet that I read and I

Favored it because I was like I agree Optimus

Prime not dying wouldn't mean all of these other

characters would die because they had new toys

you have to play within the rules of the universe

the point is Those that died they died because

they were done with those toys and they wanted

new ones So, I mean if this actually came from

back then you have to play it within the universe

that you're writing for and that's you've gotta

yeah Just because they like I said there are

a couple times where I said this throughout the

thing. Well Where are the Junkions? Didn't the

Junkions come and fix them? Yep. Wouldn't they?

I mean, come on, man. So yeah, I'm going to I'm

going to give it a two. I think it's fair to

say that it's a two. It was an almost and then

it just kind of went downhill from there. But

the art is fantastic. I'm going to give it a

five. Nicole. See, I enjoyed the very first part

of this. I really did. I had a lot of fun with

it. I'm getting a two and a half for writing.

Like I said, there's a lot of good ideas in here.

It just didn't come off great. As for the art,

I mean, there's not one thing I can complain

about the art, really. No, the art is fantastic.

The only thing I didn't really notice is the

combiner star screen. I did not notice that,

but again, it's solid. I'd give it a five for

the art. I mean, it's gorgeous. Take out all

the words and just look at the pretty pictures.

That's right. What about you, Heather? See, now

I'm gonna be like, Priscilla, I love you, but

I don't love this art. Okay, overall, I give

it... I'm just gonna rate it overall, I give

it a two and a half. Yeah. I will call out a

couple panels I like. I really like the silhouette.

where Prime has killed Megatron. That's really

cool. Good silhouette. And the bluish -gray smoke

is awesome. And there's one panel with smirky

-mix -smirk -face Starscream, which is just really

well -drawn, um, down towards the end. Um...

I've int... Otherwise, I find the art a weird

mix of Dreamwave and G1 that I... It never seems

to quite settle. I mean you even get some weird

The the two colorists mesh really well in that

I can't tell who colored what I can't really

say You know I can tell for certain that here's

where a different colorist steps in and usually

I can But there are just some stylistic things

throughout where sometimes it's flatter than

others and sometimes you get really sharp kind

of anime style slashy highlights and I just not

a fan yeah and if it yeah the writing if it come

together better and if it wasn't just a let's

hate on hot rod for no good reason I would have

liked it better But I guess honestly I got to

the end of it and my thought was well Glad I

didn't buy it and that is just damning from me

because I like to support people and I I like

to own it so I'm Like I said for me with Priscilla's

art Priscilla and John's art with their colors.

I Would love to have this but at that price for

as kind of I don't want to say horrible or god

-awful but as kind of as bad as the story was

I can't justify five bucks for this comic just

just for the art now like like you said Heather

take out or Amy said it take on all the words

and just it be a giant picture book sure fine

great um I don't know if I would write even buy

it for that I mean I yeah just because the story

I mean even if you don't have the words It's

still cool art, but you're telling a story with

pictures. And I would probably still pick up

the fact that Rodimus did what? Hey, what? Now

people died? What? Yeah, it's still a story.

That's true. I had no bones to pick with it.

I think I, you know, it certainly there are different.

It's just getting Priscilla to fit a style that

is. Not. Like, it's not an animated cell. Technology

has improved so much since then. I'm fine with

her taking artistic liberties with what she did.

It pulled the story across. It works for me.

I liked it. It's fine. But the thing is, is that

you can't pull the art away from the writing

because they're a combined effort. So I just

have to say it's a cast for me. I mean, if I

like, you know, I like the... I'll buy something

else that Priscilla does just to make out for

it. Yeah, her stuff on robots and disguises is

awesome. I also just to throw in here, because

I had such a strong reaction to it, I actually

got my kids and like, guys, I'm going to show

you this comic and I want you to tell me what

you think of it just to see how it played with

someone who wasn't 30 something and obnoxious

and spoiled. And they didn't like it either.

And, I mean, granted, I was trying really hard

not to sit there and whinge the whole time to,

you know, pollute their reaction, but there were

a lot of times where they were like, wait, what?

And I was like, yeah, I agree. So, for what it's

worth, there's other reactions. I just don't

like it when they do... I've gotten to the point

where this is they do this a lot when they when

they have a situation where I've read a story

where they change things what if this person

hadn't died and again coming back to the whole

okay that means that you know the final destination

if one person doesn't die then somebody else

has to well why does it have to be it's that's

turned those type of stories have turned into

a cliche that is a cliche device when you let

save one person only to let somebody else die

it's like well You know what, it doesn't have

to be like that. Sometimes one person doesn't

die and then nothing bad happens to anybody else.

Maybe instead, the Autobots win, you know? Hey,

it doesn't mean that all the other Autobots have

to die before that happens. You know, again,

like I said, there were a couple parts where

I was sitting here going, they didn't die really,

did they? Because even when they killed Optimus

Prime in the movie, that was like the first death

we'd ever really seen. in Transformers and it

was a it was this impact that all of us felt

it and felt it for years afterwards um and that

was the first death that ever happened and of

course then we had season three and season four

and Optimus just kept dying over and over again

but he was the only character that died well

i take that back there were a couple other characters

that were in the movie that died as well yeah

i was gonna say there's a shuttle full of Autobots

who would beg to disagree but Well, yeah, but

after the fact of Bob dying... That's one of

the reasons why I will praise the comic for starting

where it started, because it basically started

right after his shuttle land on Earth. It didn't...

It basically assumed that... The only way I see

this comic is it basically assumes that Prowl

and Ironhide and Wheeljack and all those guys

on the shuttle die. So in other words, you just

killed off everybody that would have been in

Season 3 and Season 4. All of the new characters!

So another way for bashing on the new characters.

So in other words, you didn't like Season 3,

right? So Hasbro would not have been okay with

that, because that was like their whole premise,

right? Hey, we're gonna kill off all the old

characters to bring in all the new ones! So in

other words, Optimus Prime staying alive meant

that none of those characters would ever have

existed. And yeah, no toys would have been the

same. And you know what? After the movie, Transformers

would have been over with. They wouldn't have

had a season three or season four. And I'm okay

with that. I'm totally not okay with that. I

think your comment about making sure that the

entire comic fits into one. Universe sensibility

was a really perceptive one Yeah, it's too bad

cuz like his little He said so but I agree with

it It comes off of the fact that something Christmas

Christmas really said so I mean I I thought that

afterwards But I thought you know it just doesn't

there's a few things about it that just I don't

think that really would have worked because the

whole point again like what he said was the fact

that The movie existed to cull the ranks to bring

in characters that were going to be featured

in the next season. And this basically just put

a big finger up to that. And it's sad because

like, it's really fun to get someone writing

who's super excited to be writing. I mean, he

was like, I've loved this since I was little,

and I'm so excited to be writing. And so I want

to like his work. I really do. And, you know,

I'm always on Priscilla's team. And the art is

not bad. It's just not for me. It's a personal

taste thing. So, yeah, I would have loved to

be able to say, great job, guys! Woohoo! But

I can't. The one thing, and I know this would

have thrown it off and it wouldn't have made

no sense, but the one thing I wanted to see Priscilla

draw and have her and John color is Devastator

ripping open the wall. their defenses are broken

let the slaughter begin and the ship comes down

that's the one thing i wanted to see was uh devastated

ripping open the wall um yeah i i i would have

to give this one a pass as well as far as actually

buying you know lately we've already said probably

get it on sale when and eventually when the price

lowers but this to me is not worth five dollars

digitally or in print it just isn't Alright,

before we move on, Amy, where can the people

find you online? You can find me online at Twitter.

My handle is LadyArrack. Nicole, what about you?

Just Google Beatles, Diva. That's BeatlesLikeTheBand

.TheBug. That'd be me. Heather? Any place that

says Hockey Prime, that's me. Alright, up next

we're gonna go to In A World Where The Turtles

Join Shredder. No! We'll be back after this Alright

folks finally up in episode 136 for the pull

bag in our deviations Joe and I are back and

we are going to Go into a world if the turtles

had joined shredder Now when you were initially

heard about this, what was your initial reaction?

Well, I wasn't sure I'd rather I didn't know

that they were going to pick a moment in the

comics or in the story and just Deviate from

that one moment. So when I saw the covers and

heard the solicits for this I thought oh cool.

It's gonna be like what if What if Oroko Saki

found the baby jar full of turtles and they got

mutated and they were raised by shredder instead?

So maybe instead of Korai he had four ninja turtles

to order around And so that's kind of what I

was expecting when I read this but then You know

you open the cover and oh we're gonna deviate

from this moment and like oh Okay, but now I

really want to hear that story. I want to I want

to know what happens if Oroko Saki finds the

turtles Because I think it would have ended up

a lot like this. I think they'd have all end

up in that armor like that. So unlike the Transformers

and the Ghostbusters ones, the Transformers one

for your informational purposes was deviated

from the movie, right? Right. But it was written

by Brandon Easton. So it was kind of a new, right?

He's not new. He's been writing comics for a

while, but it's not the standard idw writers

it's not james roberts not john barber it's it's

somebody kind of new to the trainees and i are

transformers and according to his letter uh...

in that issue and that basically took the movie

and basically said what if optimist didn't die

whatever else what would happen with this it's

the main creative team as always kevin eastman

bobby kernel tom waltz on the story nobody else

can play with their characters not well uh...

Spirit by Tom Waltz art in this is done by Zach

Howard with additional art by Corey Smith ink

assistance by Joylon Yates Colors by Rhonda Patterson

as usual letters by Sean Lee and obviously edits

by by Bobby and basically this one if You go

back folks. What is it two or three years at

this point now? Back to issue 21 20 21 somewhere

around there. We had the city fall storyline.

So this basically deviates from city fall and

We have text on that we could read where is that?

Okay Yeah, what really happened shredder longs

for a little more than to inflict ultimate pain

unto his old enemy splinter to that end He captured

Casey Jones to lure the turtles into a trap After

seeing Casey stabbed in the gut by Shredder,

Raph goes berserk. The resulting chaos, Leo is

captured by the foot and brainwashed by the shape

-changing immortal known as Kitsune. From there,

Leo's family struggles to save him before the

corruption of his mind is complete. Now imagine

if things had happened a little bit differently.

Imagine if Shredder killed Casey and the resulting

chaos enabled all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles to be captured and brainwashed. Would

there be any hope for them? For New York City?

Um... No, I don't think so. So, yeah, in a world

where Casey... Oh god, I almost... I can't believe

I almost made that faux pas. I'm gonna go ahead

and say what I almost said, folks, but I almost

said, in a world where Casey Kasem dies. Oh my

god! Feel so horrible now because we are living

in that world Don't don't you ever do that again

Zoinks Oh Boy five four three two one blast off

Oh God sorry folks in a world where Casey Jones

has died You know the one point of this story,

and we're gonna go through this here in a moment,

but the one point of this story that I'm really

liking, because I really would, the one point

I want to explore about this has nothing to do

with the turtles and Splinter and Shrek. I want

to see more of Vengeful Han. Yes, like I didn't

know I didn't realize that that the death of

his son was gonna make him You know kind of take

a stand and and kind of get rid of his demons.

I mean he granted he already lost his wife You

know what I mean, but like I was out of this

issue. I was so not expecting that So we start

with with with splinter Basically open monologuing

we have hob here and Then the dark turtles come

in hunting splinter yes hunting splinter and

This is the only thing that I do not like about

this issue You can make them tunins you can give

them you know shredder oh what did i used to

call his his scarf there snuggies so yeah yeah

you you you can give them shredder snuggies just

don't change the bandanas because now i can't

tell This is the one reason, the one thing, when

we started this journey on the Turtles covers

that we've been doing for the last three, four

years or longer, it's been the one thing I was

most afraid of when you first told me to read

that first issue and they had all the red band,

because I grew up with the cartoon and the movie.

I have never gone back and read the original

Eastman and Laird Mirage stuff, so I haven't

really been a fan of... All the same color in

the Eastman and Laird comics. They were black

and white. Okay. Well, you had no you had no

clue But I think I think Especially in those

older books before they developed the unique

personalities it really wasn't important as to

which turtle was talking and and I don't think

they the Eastman Laird probably had no Idea about

what their voices would sound like and the personalities

didn't really start to come out until I don't

know issue 12 and Even then that was probably

more of a result of what was happening with the

movie coming out and with the cartoon starting

But in this comic they're all wearing kind of

what the style of the uniform that Shredder gave

Leo, which is black bandanas, black wraps, and

then red fabric kind of accenting. So the only

thing, Mike, that I'll do to help you here is

just look for their weapons. Even then, sometimes

they're obscured because they're not exactly

showing, you know, that sigh goes off the page.

It could be a nunchuck, but. No, that's a sigh.

Yeah, that's the top panel. There's no. No saying

that that's no that's a sign like I know and

see I the way I thought there I way I thought

that that the colorists and and Zach Howard we're

gonna do the the art here is I thought they were

gonna make the background colors be the distinguishers

for each like blue background orange background

red background that kind of thing and they kind

of do that here on on this one page and it's

okay I I don't dislike it it's just It's confusing.

The only one I can really tell apart from anybody

else is Mikey, because he's always, you know,

he's still using, you know, totally dude and

all. Like, Mikey's easy to figure out. What do

you think of the dark? Like, after reading this,

what did you think of the... I, um... I'll spoil

my opinion. I love this book and I like where

it goes. I want to see more of these evil turtles.

I still want to read my story where Shredder

finds the turtles and they get mutated. And I

want it to look like this. The art in this is

downright incredible. Very close to the top of

my favorite turtles. Hob looks outstanding. You

know Splinter always needs help because he always

looks like a dog. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna

mark anybody down for that You know the panel

where where he is shown like kind of a close

-up where where Where Mikey says come out to

play? That panel right next to it. He doesn't

look that bad like and I can't believe this is

me saying you should Am always overly critical

of how splinter is drawn and how he looks he

doesn't look that bad He just has mutton chops

for a rat he and he had that one of the things

that what's the oh gosh Mike? Who's the artist

because I just he deserves to be in my Zach Howard

Howard is is doing an incredible job Capturing

a texture with pen and ink splitter looks furry

Those those backgrounds back there though, of

course that background I'm looking at the come

out to play Panel that background might actually

be Rhonda. God, that's beautiful coloring. I

can't wait to talk to her I've got to send my

IDW contact another request to get her on. Oh,

man. We've got to talk to her before we get to

the next arc. Yep. Because the next arc, in the

ongoing, folks, if you hadn't noticed why we

haven't had a Turtles episode recently since

we did issues 53 to 55, we're waiting until the

Leatherhead arc releases, which is 56 to 58 of

the ongoing. So I've got to see if I can get

her before we start reviewing the Leatherhead

arc. Cause man, do I want to pick her brain on

colors. Oh, she's just, so that's not what I'm

going to do. We're going to get her on the podcast.

I'm going to sit here and tell her how awesome

she is. That's what it's going to be. That's

true. Um, all right. So as this deviates, we

have all the turtles, hunting Splinter, capturing

him, keeping him alive. We go back to Shredder,

and... I have a bunch of Canadian friends, so...

I know where you're going. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Canadian friends, I'm sorry. I give you all a

lot of hard time, especially Jonathan Totteren

and Mike Dodd and a bunch of other people, but

I'm sorry. Shredder has two Canadian flags in

his dojo as the footsom. Like, I mean, come on.

It's that's very close to a maple leaf. It's

very close to a red maple leaf. Come on. They

both got them on their shoulders. Yup. And belt

muggles. I mean, and I'm not. I'm not really

criticizing Zach Howard's drawing style for it.

It's just, uh, convenient. Yeah, it just doesn't

look like, like on those two cloths on the, in

the background, uh, in the panel where Mikey

says party time, you know, uh, it just doesn't

look like the foot symbol. Now if you'd drawn

a giant red foot on there like you know in the

old cartoon like sure I could see that but that

obviously is not in this continuity Which is

fine, but that's the first thing I thought of

I'm like holy crap. They're not in New York.

They're in Toronto So the four turtles have captured

splinter they brought him back to shredder to

finally kill him but Shredder's putting that

off. I'm not sure why but he is Even though we've

already had the experience that is TMNT 50, and

even though we know this is only a one -shot,

did you have any kind of a culture shock, but

like a shocking revelation to the fact that even

though we know from the very get -go that this

takes place before all of that, this takes place

back during the city, but coming from it's been...

Five issues six issues since we had shredder

in the actual ongoing. So is that any? Did you

have any reaction to that? Nope negatively or

anything like that? I didn't even notice it Yeah,

the only thing that kind of surprised me is that

this is back when Karai was still around Like

I knew Kitsune was gonna be there and I knew

shredder was gonna be there But I really did

not expect Karai to be there Well, I didn't I

forgot it but what hun popping into this surprised

me, but it makes sense cuz Casey was Destroyed

at the time. Yeah, but man even in in in this

few pages as they're given, you know one shot

Everybody's got their moment. The turtles have

a moment Katsuna Shredder has a moment alopex

and Korai have a moment where they're referencing

things that happened and that we know Because

we're the readers What's going on and gosh what

a beautiful panel here? So what if I don't there's

nothing I can do about it now. Don't be so certain

my friend the winds of change will blow That's

a beautifully drawn panel again, too Yeah, I

mean Zach Howard and the art team is just killing

it on the art in this issue and then you get

to the bar with Arnie Jones and look at that

beautiful art Oh my gosh, so much texture. Look

at that mask. Oh my god. I just want to see him

turn it over and it flash green. I'm sorry. Bad

Jim Carrey joke, people. When I first read through

this before we started reviewing it... Should

have but I didn't really read the even though

you already read it to us. I didn't really read

the opening Text Oh to see this. Yeah Yeah, I

I mean I saw the image and I just thought okay,

you still hurt and then I got to this page. I'm

like wait This is in a world where Casey dies.

Oh my and that's that's what really got me pumped

up to see what's gonna happen to Arnie and and

oh Man, that was so good. It this parts cut kind

of jarred me a little bit because by city fall

I thought I thought hon had already become Well,

I already had come on but I guess not I'm assuming

they're right and my memory is wrong, so I accept

that. I think it was a little bit after or during

City Fall that he becomes Han. I forget. You

guys can go back to all of our episodes that

we've reviewed that way back when and figure

it out for us. So we go back to Shredder and

Kitsune and the Turtles. Basically, they're giving

reports on all of the gangs the Soviet have been

defeated master completely the ghost boys are

ghosts, too. I wiped up the floor with the with

Lupo and them other wise guys and Apparently

somebody took care of a new outfit named the

street phantoms So this is a world where we never

have to deal with the street phantoms They...

You're right. I know it's just a one -shot, but

I want to see more of this world. I mean, I know

it's wrong to say that because the turtles are

with Shredder, but just the aftereffects of that.

I want to see more of this world. Okay, okay.

Hypothetical time. So we have Urokosaki, who's

evil, and the turtles are his people. What happens

with Hamato Yoshi and who does he train? Who's

our good guys in the new world? But the easy

answers be up in Rocksteady, but that doesn't

That wouldn't work that wouldn't work And I'll

explain that why that wouldn't work a little

bit later Thank you captain obvious we know but

I'm like I could see well Well, Alopex is still

with the foot, so that wouldn't work. Heck, Karai.

And if they were to do, like, totally alternate

reality, it could be Hamato Yoshi's daughter.

Yeah, yeah, we could do that. But, okay, it's

obviously not gonna be hot. Obviously it won't

be Hob because we know how Hob feels and no matter

what universe it is. But I could see Splinter

taking on a gecko and a giant turtle. I could

see Slash and Mondo and, you know, Seymour. April

gets mutated and she's one of the mutant animals?

No, no, no, no, no. She could be Venus. Bite

your damn tongue. The hell is wrong with you?

Never mention that again. How about Mona Lisa?

Because yeah, this is a terrible idea. I agree.

Mona Lisa, not the fifth turtle. Oh, God. Oh,

Venus. Forgive me. I didn't mean to go there.

I was I was literally thinking Mona Lisa, not

Venus. Next mutation. OK, so let's see. Hypothetically,

you can't have Hob. You could have Mondo. Herman

Oh, you know the mutanimals in whatever incarnation

Well, well you you'd have to use Mondo you'd

have to use Herman you'd have to use Seymour

mutagen man the only one I can't see the I can't

see the fourth one right off the bat because

I It would have to be slash For the fourth one

because I just don't see splinter I don't see

master splinter in any dimension in any deviation

putting up with pigeon Pete It's it's kind of

strange that as Much as hob has loyalty to the

mutanimals in the regular universe. I'm surprised.

He hasn't hung that guy out to dry yet because

the pigeon Pete is It's just pigeon Pete. He's

just one of those Yeah, so Hob shows up We have

more of the battle they're going to destroy splinter

splinter and kitsune get into a Battle of the

mines and this is something I've always loved

about this part of the story of the city fall

story is Splinter going into the minescape All

that like all of that Coloring background Just

absolutely love it and then later on as we're

going back and forth between the battle between

hob and the turtles and and and all that and

you have splintering kitsune that giant panel

of the giant Fox of kitsune against the small

all That is the best page in this book as far

as art. Oh There's the panel where slash and

Hob show up beautiful. The panel where Splinter's

mind goes and it's the purple and blues and then

the panel where Hobb is elbowing the foot soldier.

There's so much motion in that panel. This art

is brilliant and I hope this dude comes back.

Yeah, Zach Howard, absolutely. He is an artist

I could see on if they ever did More what more

one shots not not one shots like this, but more

More micro series more Individual character story

I could see him doing that and that would be

absolutely amazing. There's a there's a wonderful

I don't know if it's homage or just a similarity

to Santa Luco's work, but he this dude has texture

That is unlike anything I have seen And it's

not too much texture like Eastman's drawing.

It's a good kind of expressionistic texture Yeah,

and it's also reminding us of what the Santa

Luco style was It's been a while since we talked

about City Fall folks City Fall was a number

of years ago I mean it really was and it's been

a while since we had those episodes talking about

the City Fall trades and There's a lot of stuff

with it. I find that If I eventually want to

remember some of this stuff, I either have to

go back and read it or I have to go back and

listen to our reviews again to the old episodes

because I did not, like, I knew the general gist

of this story. They were going to deviate from

City Fall. I got that immediately. I'm like,

okay, cool. It's basically dark turtles. What

would happen if they, whatever else. And we've

already talked about that, but like, I don't

remember. I don't really go back a lot to see

cause we're so propelled forward with whatever

the hell is going to happen between now and,

you know, may the series never end. So we get

the page with Splinter and Giant Fox Kitsune.

We get a page with Old Hob and Slash showing

up with the turtles. We go back to Splinter and

Kitsune and the Giant Fox has Splinter in her

mouth and that's an epic thing. And then I was

not expecting this. I was not expecting... Release

my husband, Fowl Witch, who the... Tang Shen

shows up, folks. I was not expecting Tang Shen

to show up in the story. And she looks great.

She looks amazing. I love that they made her

so important to the story. Well, she was so important

to the original story. So why wouldn't she be

so important here? She was important, but she

died and they never addressed her again like

the never's the turtles never said Where's my

mom or in it? But in this series we really get

to see who she was as a character and in some

flashbacks and turtles in time in Leo's kind

of hallucinations and splinters hallucinations

where he talks to her of secret history and i

mean it's secret history we had a whole bunch

of tension back and so i i'm i'm glad that she's

been made that important as well absolutely because

in this universe in the idw continuity of turtles

in the storyline she's always been you know critical

to to splinter into the turtles and just having

her show up here is just it's just amazing So

let's see what happens here you get shredder

Fighting wait what the hell Oh Kitsune gets gets

hit and slash comes in to do some more damage

and We see that the spell has been broken and

Mikey has been turned good And then shredders

like you You will pay for all you've done to

me. Nope, that's not happening. Sorry, dude.

Because Hun comes in and basically kind of saves

the day a little bit. Well, he makes the decision

that Turtles or Splinter probably wouldn't have

and dispatches old boy. Yep. And basically, because

the spell is broken, we kind of go back into

the regular universe, but not really. Because

Splinter is basically lying on his deathbed.

You know, and this is such... This final page

is by far the most emotional scene in the entire

story. It's about as emotional as Donnie coming

back from the dead Or as much as emotional as

they were as they gave us when they actually

quote -unquote killed Donatello Because you know,

and there's a lot of dead people in that panel

Yeah They took out a lot of people Shredder,

Hun, Foot Soldiers, Karai, Alopax, wow. Yeah

Damn that's right attacked him. Oh Yeah, dang

so So, I mean if this one like I would have been

okay with this What really just like man, you're

telling the good story and it's different. Oh

my god and people are dying The best line in

this folks Splinter says But he said the top

of the panel father what what happened? You are

lost my beloved sons, but now you are found I

go now to be with your mother She awaits me just

as freedom awaits you What will you do with such

responsibility my children? And also I can think

of is somewhere in this panel that we cannot

see somewhere off panel is that stupid kid funny

I pictured vanilla ice saying ninja rap oh geez

long time not not right now too soon too soon

okay I'll be back yeah yeah way way too soon

ice is back I'll be back so This story, this

is by far, like I have not read the X -Files

one that they did an X -File one for this. What's

the premise? It's what if Mulder was kidnapped

by aliens or abducted. Let me see here, what's

the, let's see. Week one was Ghostbusters, week

two was X -Files, three was Transformers, four

was G .I. Joe, G .I. Joe in a world where Cobra

turns the table on G .I. Joe and then Turtles

was week five for March. Um, I love this story.

I think, I think obviously the core writing crew

did an amazing job of giving us a different version,

giving us such a different version that we now

want more comics continuing from this deviation.

Um, Zach Howard on the art, simply amazing. Yeah,

absolutely. If you scroll to the anatomy of a

page, Seems they actually show you if you go

page by page the pencils to the colors to where

the placements of the speech bubbles are and

It's just pencils are gorgeous. Yes, they are

It's just so cool. Oh absolutely love that Alright

folks Yeah, so that's Turtles Deviations. What

are your final thoughts on this story, sir? This

would be my five. It's beautiful. Yeah, I want

to see more from the artist. I want to see more

of this storyline. And I can't wait for the next

issue of the regular book for the writing team.

Yep, absolutely. Before we get out of here, folks,

we have to talk about something that's coming.

The June 2016 solicitations have come out from

IDW Publishing. And you know about this before

I did. You saw images of it, but I did not know

they were going to be doing this. Well, it feels

good because I forgot what you're talking about.

Well, you'll remember here in a minute. In June

of 2016, it is another five Wednesday month.

So we are getting a five -week mini -series.

TMNT. Bebop and Rocksteady destroy everything!

Okay, now, there's a little bit of difference

here. According to the solicitations that I got

directly from IDW, Ben Bates and Dustin Weaver

are on writing. I don't think I've ever read

any of Ben Bates's actual writing, but okay,

I like Ben Bates as an artist, and he is actually

on art with this. After their defeat in TMNT

number 50, the dull -witted Bebop and Rocksteady,

everyone's favorite warthog and rhino mutants

are feeling dejected and without purpose. However,

when they stumble across a time travel scepter,

they realize that their craziest, most destructive

adventure awaits. Will the universe survive?

bullet points for issue number one everyone's

favorite numbskull mutants of mayhem get their

first miniseries the most ambitious tmnt event

yet every week in june sees a new issue crazier

than the last written by dustin weaver of infinity

gauntlet and ben bates of tmnt with a rotating

roster of amazing artists including sophie campbell

uh giannis i can't even pronounce the last name

nick batara and ryan brown see me buffin rocks

dating the upcoming movie tmnt out of the shadows.

I almost said out of their shells. Wow, that's

a wrong thing. Limited variant cover for number

one by Kevin Eastman himself. Issue number two,

Bebop and Rox that he traveled to the past and

meet their former selves. What could go wrong?

Plus dinosaurs. I hope at one point in this series

they're wearing pirate costumes like the video

game. Yeah, that would be awesome. Let's see

issue number three Chaos spreads in the next

stop and be Bob and rock studies is a tenor is

stock gen when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

were just regular baby turtles That's not gonna

be good folks. Issue number four says, after

a fight Bebop and Rocksteady split up and travel

separately to different time periods, the Dark

Ages, World War I, the future, no time period

is safe. And in the final issue it says, time

has been irreparably damaged and the fabric of

reality is torn apart, only a trip to visit the

Time Lords in the 79th dimension holds any hope.

But is Time Traveler Renette still alive? Are

the turtles? Is anyone? Dun dun dun. Yeah, I

can't wait till we can get through that. We might

actually have to take five weeks in June where

we just do one issue a week because, oh my god,

I can't wait to talk about that. Oh, damn it.

Yeah, I think we're going to do that. Oh god,

I cannot wait for that, folks. That's gonna be

epic and awesome. And then obviously we got 56

to 58, which is the Leatherhead arc, which is

gonna be very, very interesting to see what the

good old Leatherhead has up his sleeve. Because

this is the first time, this is his... We've

seen hints of Leatherhead. But this is the first

time that the turtles are actually meeting him

in this next arc with issue 56 to 58. So that's

going to be interesting as well. Any other final

thoughts before we get out of here? Nope. All

right, folks. We're going to take a quick break.

I'll be back with closing and what's coming up

on the poll bag after this. Hello Geeks and Geekettes!

Looking for a podcast that covers a vast array

of topics? Then check out Altered Geek Unleashed,

where we discuss our thoughts on this week's

geeky news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

cartoons, comics, and more. So, get Altered Get

Geeky with the Altered Geeks, every Friday on

the Geekcast Radio Network. It's showtime synergy

the latest review podcast from the geek cast

radio network is here So join TFG one Mike Nicole

hailstorm and myself lady rec as we will be reviewing

all 65 episodes of Joe and the holograms in a

25 episode long podcast You can find showtime

synergy on iTunes and geek cast radio comm we

are the truly outrageous podcast that you want

to be listening to Well, there you have it folks

The Pullbag, episode 136, IDW's 2016 Deviations,

their five -week event for March 2016. I want

to thank Joe, Amy, Nicole, and Heather for joining

me on this journey into stories that deviate

from what we know they really are. Overall, it

was an interesting, fun, fun time. uh... can't

wait for more i will tell you guys that in april

we're going to have a bunch of back issue classics

episodes because this is it was a one thirty

six and so one thirty seven is either be some

a little bit special because you know i always

have to make a thirty seven joke because let's

face it that's kevin smith's legacy is nothing

but a thirty seven joke well there's more there

to his legacy than that but yes uh... For the

month of April, you're going to get a bunch of

back -issue classics. Stuff like the Robin Hood

Ongoing Volume 1 from Xenoscope Entertainment,

He -Man the Master... He -Man The Eternity War,

issues 3 and 4 for myself and A .S. Baron. I

think if I can get my hands on the stuff, we're

probably going to do I Hate Fairyland, issues

1 and 2, and I don't know what that fourth one's

going to be off the top of my head. So yeah,

that's what's gonna happen in April May was supposed

to be Batman month, but I I don't know folks.

I'm just I Wanted to do nightfall That's that

was my ultimate thing cuz four years ago when

Steve Megatron and I first started the pull bag

with our origins episode I think one of his storylines

that he said he really enjoyed was nightfall

well In order to get Nightfall in Comixology,

I'd have to spend $60. And I know I could find

the stuff, you know, for other means and all

that, but I'm just not too sure. So, I don't

know if Nightfall is going to happen this year

or not. We could do the Batman Beyond ongoing.

from twenty fifteen you have the first six issues

of that but that's that's i don't know so we'll

see if batman month happens or not uh... there

may be a time this year in either june october

or december where we may not have episodes because

i plan on taking some trips out to california

to see my girlfriend jennifer so there's that

uh... but yeah coming up we've got some interesting

cool fun stuff uh... with robin hoods ongoing

uh... volume one riot girls uh... potentially

i hate fairyland issues one and two uh... i do

know we're doing he man the attorney war issues

three and four so the more attorney war uh...

who knows what else will be coming up i do want

to get a couple of new origins episodes uh...

going this year so but that's it for now Episode

136 of the pull bag. It has been a Fun fun ride.

I will talk to you guys next time and make your

great escape into comics If you want to follow

any of the hosts you can check out at lady of

wreck on Twitter for Amy at ha he prime on Twitter

for Heather at Beatles Diva for Nicole Joe doesn't

do Twitter You can check out Geek Stuff Garage

Sale over on Facebook. All the links will be

in the post. So once again, make your greatest

gaming of comics and I'll catch you next time.

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