Transformers Primacy Review

Welcome to The Pull Bag. Join us as we dig on

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this week's Pull Bag. Hello and welcome back

to the Autobotly August coverage of IDW Publishing's

Transformers comics here inside The Pull Bag

and also featured on all things Transformers.

This is episode 150 of The Pull Bag. I am one

of your hosts, TF2 and Mike. Joining me is Ryan

and Flo Merkley. Hello, sir. Hello. Today, we

can tell folks he is so excited, right? Today,

we conclude... Well, I was trying to think of

something else to say, and then he picked on

me for meowing last time, and so... Today, we

conclude the Transformers Autocracy trilogy with

a discussion of the final part of the series,

Primacy, written by Chris Metzen and Flint Dilley

with art by Lepore and Dilley. This, folks, is

a little different than last time. This is only

four issues. Four regular sized issues, not four

digital issues, just four regular sized. Honestly...

Yeah, it was released as a miniseries. This one

wasn't sent out digitally at all. Yeah. Well,

it was. It was just... wasn't a specific digital...

Well, sorry. The way that comics are normally

sent out, yes, it wasn't like a free digital,

released in pieces, etc., etc. Yeah. And honestly,

I almost like this better. As far as 1, 2, 3,

4 issues, instead of 11 or 12 chapters. I love

the stories in Autocracy and Monstrosity, but

there were times when I was reading those to

record the podcasts we had already put out, that

I would have to read like half of the thing,

so the first six chapters, and then come back

to it later and read the next six, because we

needed a break. It makes it a little disjointed

when yeah, you kind of skip Whenever you've got

to stop after six or seven pages to move on to

the next chapter. Yeah So primacy This one was

really I did not expect this to go the way that

it went Well, it's the third part, and you mentioned

Flint Dilley talking about it. You know, the

first part was the hero's journey, obviously,

with Pax and Prime. Second part, obviously, Megatron's

Jersey or Jersey Journey. Wow. He's number double

zero. I wish I had a Megatron Jersey. Anyway,

Megatron's Journey. And then, yeah, part three,

like the journeys are over for them. So I guess

you're just kind of tying up loose ends. I sort

of felt like it was like, okay, this is how we

got Optimus Prime. This is how Megatron changed

from gladiator slash revolutionary trying to

change, trying to make, not necessarily peace

through tyranny. At this point now, he is peace

through tyranny. He wasn't before. He was different

before. And now at this point he has changed.

And the way I see this is it's the war. That's

the way I saw this, was this is the four million

year old war. This is one part of it, I guess,

or Flint Dilley and Chris Madsen's version of

it, which is fine to me, because we... How often

have we said this? Any of us Transformers fans?

The cartoon... The G1 cartoon kinda was and wasn't

the war. We got various, you know... episodes

showing different parts of the Cybertronian war

on Cybertron, but most of that is on Earth. Most

of that is Megatron on Earth trying to get back

to Cybertron and things like that. This here,

what I love about this entire series, they don't

go to Earth at all. Yeah, that's one of the things

that made RID good in that first run as well.

Yeah, I just... Stop going to earth Leave us

alone you damn aliens happens in like every series

anyway So yeah, I mean we pick up not long after

you were talking about previously we're hoping

hot rods shows up well One thing I think is funny

so slinger who gives hot rod shit for joining

or sorry for killing everybody in the city yeah

he's the one that told hot rod to do it in the

in the autocracy so oops oh well maybe he's just

got a really bad memory or he got hit on the

head in that fight but yeah that was that was

kind of funny primus on a journey, I guess, to

go see something significant with Ironhide in

the cold. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very significant.

Because honestly, since we've been doing these,

what I have looked forward to, not only is Chris

and Flint's story, which is, I find all three

of them really, really good, Some are better

than others, but I enjoy the overall continuity.

Plus, like I've said before in the last two episodes

of the podcast, it's Flint friggin' Dilley. I

mean, he worked on the cartoon series. So for

me, all is I really care about to enjoy besides

the story and the art itself is what am I gonna

see? What characters are gonna pop up? And I

was not expecting at all to see the character

that pops up. I need to say it's Omega Supreme.

It's like one note before what I'm gonna get

to, so... I mean, next, we find out that Grimlock

and the Dinobots have been fixed. Again, sort

of another logical step. Megatron discovers that

Penetus has some sort of... Hold slash is trypticon...

Which is fairly important later on obviously.

Yeah But anyway, yeah, and then prime and iron

hide meets Omega Supreme Or sorry an Omega Sentinel,

but we all know it's Omega Supreme I mean hell

as soon as we get to the panel where Optimus

says it's standing watch and then ironhide says

optimus take take a closer look I recognize it

ironhide and we get the full shot of Omega and

we all know we don't even need him to say his

name we know what his name is because not many

Omega sentinels looked like Omega I don't remember

some of the other sentinels having uh yellow

and red on them most of them were like blue and

gray and some other stuff so you know but I love

it Yeah, I mean well we've got some more Minor

I'm not gonna complain too much about it continuity

issues with this because Optimus isn't supposed

to know Nova prime was evil at this point He's

not supposed to learn it until Omega tells him

but that happens in spotlight Optimus prime So

that's a ways off. But anyway, that conversation

is also in the third issue. But anyway, so yeah,

Megas has another chat with Trypticon in a bit

too. He mentions that Scorponok had a lot of

defectors, probably because, as I pointed out

in Monstrosity, he was a crappy leader who beat

the crap out of his own followers. Not good incentive.

Yeah, I hope their benefit plan must have been

really good. I mean to keep anybody I hope they

got dental so You know the Autobots sir sky links

carrying Grimlock hot rod and some of the other

Autobots go to check out where Tripticon is they're

amazed that he's missing Done done done. And

of course, you know trypticon is in a city mode

which hasn't been used since Who hasn't been

used in a while since like g1? I can't remember

trypticons appeared in other transformer series

since then but I don't remember him being able

to be a city Maybe I'm crazy. I Mean, I think

just really quickly talking about the art. I

think I'm I haven't caught up to you yet, but

My favorite thing, no sorry, my favorite thing

that Livio has done here is when Megatron is

asking Trypticon, what happened? How did you

become this way? And we get the flashback of

Trypticon walking across, you know, this primordial

landscape. The orange sky, the red ground, the

fact that Trypticon is all orange. I just, I

love that part of the page in the panel. I thought

that was so cool. Yeah, the Trypticon flashbacks

are really good art and I kind of wish he would

play with Some more of the brighter colors like

that more often. Yeah This sort of always shrouded

in darkness the sort of dull Zack Snyder esque

color palette I just said they have the same

color palette jeez But yeah, I love the way his

quintessence look. The fact of, you know, the

shark decons and all that. But yeah, you're right.

The city mode. The city mode is awesome. I wish

they would use city modes more. I'm trying to

think. Yeah, I mean, we see Metroplex a fair

amount in the... Well mostly until all -in -one

and wind blade actually because I mean robots

in disguise they go back to my favorite planets

yet again very quickly, but Yeah, I Mean there

are these gigantic city city for transformers

not even city for humans. Yeah sized Cities which

yeah, that's large. Well, you know, let's talk

about this for a minute. Okay, so do you want

well you've said this before so you live in Ottawa

right in Canada yes do you want Hot Rod or Yelvetron

or Megatron or Optimus or Nightbeat or anybody

to walk down the street right next to your apartment

and be able to look in your window I mean come

on you know having I mean not right now because

I'm not wearing any pants but still No pants

podcasting. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, let's

move on from that. But I'm saying, like, them

having their own cities for themselves, I like

that. Because again, it's their own culture.

Cybertron is their own planet. Why wouldn't they

have their own cities that can transform into

gigantic titans? To be fair, I think overall,

too, the Transformers series, especially IDWs,

has worked better when they're not. on earth

now part of that too is the fact that the human

characters suck in the idw yeah are not good

i'm sorry john i'm sorry john but no they're

not his fault i know you know and i'm not trying

to bag on costa again either because i don't

enjoy doing that either but yeah i mean you know

spike was pretty much ruined in that initial

run and there's no fixing him but anyway I'm

getting really off topic. It's okay, we're having

a fun time. Let's get to something way more fun,

and that is I really liked this issue, this sort

of the second issue I should specify here. The

second issue I really enjoyed just because there's

the whole band getting back together aspect,

but it's the Decepticons. I liked that. They,

you know, use Thundercracker to go find the Stunacons.

They find the Predacons about to, you know, kill

each other. They go get the Combaticons who are

about to kill Swindle. Yeah, I mean, I just,

I really liked these scenes and I don't know,

it was a lot of fun and just kind of move around.

We don't even see the Autobots for, you know,

a little bit in this. Yeah, most of the second

issue is all the Decepticons. With the first

issue, the last little bits I want to get out

of my system here for my notes, what do you think

about Grimlock and Hot Rod? Grimlock essentially

taking over the cup roll here. Yeah, and not

really getting along. I shouldn't have mentioned

that. It started midway through the first issue,

and then at the back end of the first issue as

well, they argued some more. I think that is

so cool. My favorite shot from issue one has

got to be the closing panel of Trypticon leaving

Cybertron. Oh, that's so good. Love that. So

yeah, the second issue, all of my notes for the

second issue are basically Sonikons, Combaticons,

Predacons, and Astro Train takes them all home.

basically I mean there's not a lot else that

happens here the Autobots I mean continue to

look for well I mean Omega Supremes not really

getting along with people and then meanwhile

the they continue to look for Tripticon and then

find them at the end of the issue and then Tripticon

slams into Metroplex yeah so I think the reason

why, and I don't like primacy more than autocracy

or monstrosity, but I think the reason why I'm

really digging primacy is the fact that it reminds

me so much of the G1 cartoon, but as if it was

mashed up into one giant movie outside of the

movie we already got, because look at all of

these characters. omega supreme i mean the only

thing that's missing with omega supreme is the

friggin constructicons you know that's really

the only thing missing like you know a reference

to um crystal city and all of that but you know

at least we didn't get a reference to the robo

smasher yeah he did that thing i know um you

know star scream and the seekers going after

the uh you know all the all the all the combiner

groups and all of that and then we end up you

know kind of season three -ish with well maybe

they fought in season two when when did y 'all

when did um when did we get trypticon on the

cartoon i i know i should know okay yeah i figured

that's what neither neither of them appeared

until season three oh that's unless You go with

the Scramble City, which was set before the movie

in Japan, and then it's on the DVD, but, oh,

anyway. So I was right. So by season three is

when we usually have a couple of episodes in

there where you have Metroplex and Trypticon

fighting. Well, like you said, the second issue

ends with Metroplex and Trypticon starting to

fight. Issue 3 opens with Metroplex giving Trypticon

a fucking curb stomp. That probably hurt. I have

two sort of minor disappointments in this issue,

though. And one is, Trypticon doesn't really

put in a great showing here. I mean, he gets

his ass whupped by Metroplex pretty bad. Yeah,

and I mean when it's on ship, which by the way,

I'm not real clear I mean, I guess it's supposed

to be penitence's ship that's been repaired I

know it's what the junkie ons are on but I mean,

it's a quintessence ships. So well, okay, so

I'm just curious where they got it considering

the Renaissance don't really exist in the IDW

universe up until this trilogy there was there

was a shot of a drawing in a cave when a planet

wheelie was on in spotlight wheelie uh spades

create issue but it uh but aside from that yeah

they haven't appeared much it was just i don't

know anyway and then my other well no i i have

a theory about this oh geez well in the movie

we all know you know skip scare ship over there

And that's, you know, really pointing out the

ship on Quintesson, a hot rod. I think the only

reason why it's a Quintesson ship in this trade

is a reference to that scene in the movie. That's

really the only reason why they're... Because

again, this is... I figured it was because they

needed something to hurt Metro Flux. Well, they

did put the screws to him. I don't know. And

then my other disappointment is when Megatron

is talking about how he keeps the Decepticons

in line, the fear line appears above Shockwave.

Yeah, no. Yeah, the one dude who's like not remotely

afraid of any of the Transformers or Megatron.

I mean, he mouthed off to Overlord. Yeah, Shockwave

not really afraid of anything. Actually, he also

Probably can't really feel fear, but that's another

story. Whatever. Those are all minor, though.

Well, I mean... Maybe, okay, yes, Shockwave is

super logical. We know this. He doesn't really

do emotions at all, obviously, but maybe... Maybe

it means something to the effect of... I think

it was meant to refer to the other troops. It

just happened to be the middle of Shockwave that

it ended. well i mean you know not a big deal

just i mean with soundwave it's kind of kind

of true blind obedience i mean very rarely does

soundwave ever question megatron yeah but he's

also not really afraid of him either no i mean

soundwave yeah soundwave follows him because

he saw his pets quote unquote as actual sentient

beings whereas nobody else did yeah etc etc anyway

uh Which by the way brings to mind shouldn't

sound wave not be cool with Megatron using the

shark to cons as cannon fodder anyway Whatever.

I'm getting off direct speaking of the shark

to cons as well Doesn't this also create a problem

with the most recent optimus prime storyline

Where the shark to cons attack the Autobots on

earth? Yeah, whatever anyway I've said this before.

I have yet to catch up on current IDW stuff,

so... Trust me, that happens. I'm not not trusting

you, so... And they munch on poor Cosmos, so...

Oh, god! Grimlock wants a munch -metal! Yeah,

Grimlock is still pretty much lobotomized, so...

The yeah, I mean Megatron has his big ploy here

and they spear a Metroplex with the ship which

pretty much downs him However, Metroplex had

downed Trypticon already. So anyway, the Decepticons

then have the Sharkticons pour out and They sort

of go to town on the four Autobots at this point

Anyway, inevitably, but eventually the Autobots

wear the Sharptocons out and the actual Decepticons

start coming out at this point. Optimus talks

to Omega Supreme. This is the portion that I

referenced earlier that Omega was disillusioned

with the Primes, but he sees something different

in Optimus, so he decides eventually that he'll

fight... for them, although it's a little late

because the Decepticons just absolutely mauled

the shit out of them by putting together all

of their firepower at once, and then Megatron

hears Penedus in his own head, who apparently

has some sort of dominion over not just Trypticon,

but Megatron as well. In what way? Megatron and

Rampage. Oh, but I'm controlling the spark and...

No. Okay. Because that's the first thing I thought

of, honestly, was, oh, okay. Anyway, go ahead.

So anyway, uh... We pick up issue four, they

continue sort of fighting. Grimlock gets to save

Hot Rod after he downs Blackwell. Yeah, Blackwell.

Yes, who apparently was a nemesis of his in the

pit fighting days. Megatron, previously this

though, wandered off to go see Trypticon. And

we discovered that Omega Supreme and the other

Autobots were okay Thanks to trail breakers forcefield,

which man the Decepticons really got to get one

of those or figure out that you know Figure out

that he's got it and stop getting fooled by it.

But anyway the Predacons get downed by Hot Rod

and Grimlock and the Dinobots Megatron gets to

trypticon. He and prime have a nice little chat

optimus opens the matrix to eradicate the Whatever

size yeah, whatever pieces of penitence are in

him and presumably trypticon yeah, and then optimus

punches him out and That's kind of where we you

know Megatron gets imprisoned Optimus has a speech

to everybody and you know dedicates that he's

going to You know stick with the Autobot cause

etc etc So Cybertron jails by the way prescribed

to the Arkham asylum method of keeping prisoners

Because we know Megatron gets out pretty damn

soon, so I think my favorite panels out of issue

four, at least for Optimus and Megatron, is the

one where, uh... It's where Megatron is saying,

you damn fool, can't you see what's happening

all around you? This is our fate, violence and

strife, until the stars burn cold. Not while

I still function. Help me stop this, Megatron.

Or, our story doesn't have to end this way. This

part of the panel is Optimus with his energy

axe and Livio did an amazing job and he's got

his rifle in his left hand. And then the next

part of the panel is Megatron with the mace.

So awesome. Absolutely love that. So the artwork

again and the entire run of the three full -on

stories are really really good. The artwork is

solid the issues are fun and it's same with this

one I mean again if you think too hard about

some of the stuff I mentioned and some of the

other Characterizations are a bit off. Yeah,

but I Think I don't know. You know you again

about continuity much earlier about continuity,

and I think my problem We see swerving wrong

I don't mind seeing them, but that was a little

weird for me seeing Swerve and Rung, because

that was before, you know, Hot Rod became Rodimus

and all of that, so... Go ahead. Well, I don't

know. I was listening to you. I don't know, doesn't

that seem weird to you, seeing More Than Meets

the Eye characters here? No, because I mean,

I first saw them... I shouldn't say I first saw

them, I did... comics i did the idw stuff in

somewhat reverse order oddly enough but i've

seen livio draw them before okay in uh in chaos

the seventh and final volume of mike costa's

run so i mean it's not super jarring or anything

to see them here we knew they exist they also

uh or rung at least appears in uh the yeah the

past trade that I believe is part of or past

trade the past story that I believe is part of

police action which was Robert's yes which is

Roberts's first writing stuff and IDW I believe

but anyway yeah so didn't surprise me too much

but I read it all backwards so I figured, oh,

okay, cool. I mean, I thought it was cool that

we saw them. I didn't have a problem with them,

and I think Livio draws them very well. I just

was not expecting to see anybody from The Lost

Light. In the trade, in the back of this, they've

got various covers from various artists. I think

my favorite one is by Ken Christensen. Which

is Megatron, and the Decepticons, and Optimus,

and the Autobots, and Spike, and Sparkplug, and

Carly, and the Ark. I think that's a really great

cover. The one where Grimlock is on fire, which

is by living, well he's not on fire, his sword's

on fire, and he's jumping up in the air. I think

that's a cool one. I really dug this. I thought

this was so fun. Why are you trying to set four

Grimlock on fire? Hasn't he suffered enough?

Yeah, I don't know if it's the I don't know if

it's the effect of All of the continuity stuff

Bogging down at this point in certain respects

with what's running currently Or not, but yeah,

this was just kind of fun. It's a fun diversion

I think if you consider it in that way, you'll

enjoy Enjoy it that much more Yeah. Well, again,

I think the reason why Primacy was so fun was

because we already had this, and I'm not saying

Primacy was not a story builder, it is, but we

already had the two story builders in Autography

and Monstrosity. The penultimate fight here is

Optimus and Megatron. I mean, that's really what

it is at the end of Primacy here. We had the

fight between Metroplex and Trypticon. What I

think, and I could be wrong, and Flint can correct

me, and Chris can correct me, and everybody can

correct me if they want to, I think they wanted

to give us a true full -on character show -off

story of what G1 was, except in the IDW landscape

of a story. And yes, this is the third part of

the two previous stories, and it does continue.

I think it's a really damn good told story. By

itself, even if anybody hadn't read the first

two, which you should, folks. I honestly have

no complaints about this at all. Like I said,

I was a little off with seeing Rung and Swerve,

but that was only because I was caught off guard.

I'm not going to take a point off for that because,

okay, sure, they're there. I mean, if, you know,

I could have said something about all the, you

know, McAdams at the beginning of the thing,

but I didn't while I didn't have, you know. Um,

yeah, and I just think that they wanted this

to be a fun kind of, not necessarily need to

tie up the loose ends kind of thing, because

there really are no loose ends. This, after reading

this, all three of these traits are a full, complete

story. You don't need to go do a prequel series.

You don't need to do a... if you want to do a

sequel series, cool, great, sure, but you don't

have to. This is a complete story from... autocracy

through monstrosity and ending with privacy and

i just love it i think it's great yeah i don't

know like i said before i think it's enjoyable

you think it's enjoyable so what were the things

that you didn't like about it then well again

same stuff i've said i've already said my piece

i mean you know there's continuity issues if

you want to look for them or care about them.

I think it's problematic to have it for sure

part of the IDW universe. Now having said that,

I mean some of the stuff's happened post or because

of stories that have taken place after this.

This was written or rather autocracy was written

way back when chaos theory was just being finished

up. So a lot of the stuff isn't anyone's fault.

It's just things changed since then or during

that time so I You know again, I'm not gonna

Worry late about it I think Flint got all of

his movie lines that he wanted out in the comic

in Autocracy and Monstrosity because I didn't

notice a lot of them. There are some variations

on movie lines, but again, like I said earlier,

I think primacy is more meant to make us reminisce

on the TV series more so. And obviously Hot Rod

wasn't, I mean he was in season three, but obviously

not the, because most of these characters, you

look at Omega Supreme and Starscream and a lot

of the other, Combiner teams. Those are all like

season two kind of stuff. So you know, but I

I just I had no Preconceived notions going into

these these three trades that we've talked about

in the last three weeks I went into them fresh

and it surprised the hell out of me with how

much G1 goodness is in this and I just absolutely

I think it's great Know Flint said that there

were other things in monstrosity that he had

wanted to do he had other cool ideas So maybe

down the line, you know They'll do something

else with whatever cool ideas that they couldn't

do back then. So who knows? Interesting note

we may be getting in it. We may be I have not

confirmed this yet, but we may be getting an

interview Nice yeah Then we can interview whoever

just texted me 10 after 10, what the hell, people?

Damn it, Andrew, stop it. Alright, so, forgive

that interruption here, folks. What are you going

to rate Primacy 025? I think another solid, sort

of 3 .5. Again, it's enjoyable, I have some issues

with it, but... Yeah, it's fun. I look at these

three trades and I look at all of it and I think

it's, yes, I understand your qualms about the

continuity issues and all that, but I look at

these as separate from that. And Primacy for

me gets a four. I really do dig it. I think it's

great. I know artists are supposed to get better

with time, and I know when we did Autobotly April,

we both had a couple of issues with Livio's art

in some of the stuff with that that we did, but

honestly, this might be the best art I've seen

from them. These three. I definitely think it

is. I think that the characters, part of it too

I think is the color palette of the characters.

You look at... In Combiner Wars, he had to do

the teams, obviously. And when they merged together,

they all have sort of a similar color palette

to a certain extent. And unfortunately, I mean,

I said it before, I mean, Livio has a tendency

to go with darker versions and darker coloring

on all of those. So it ends up kind of zelling

it all out. Does that make sense? And so it was

harder to tell, you know, what's going on for

everybody. And yes, some of the panels just weren't

clear in that, too, of exactly what was happening.

Absolutely. Where can the people find you online,

sir? At Nightbeat on Twitter. I am at TF2 and

Mike on Twitter. You can follow at The Pull Bag

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that's what's coming next week. And then after

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