Dark Cybertron Crossover Review

Welcome to The Pole Bag. Join us as we dig out

our latest comics and discuss them with a rotating

panel of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy

this week's Pole Bag. Hello and welcome to the

pull bag this is episode 86 and it is time to

head to Cybertron because it's we're turning

the lights out and Cybertron has gone dark and

of course as you can tell by that laughter of

course Nicole hailstorm is back with me yeah

my favorite vacation destination is Cybertron

uh -huh making it dark just makes it sexy right

yeah I don't know about that now. I'm not sure

about that. You're talking to a fangirl here.

I know. But before we get to Dark Cybertron,

I mentioned in More Than Meets the Eye Volume

5 when we did that back issue classic, I am of

course TF2 and Mike, that we have to do Rewind's

film in this intro. Which um, which cover did

you get? Well, I Got cover a even though I would

really want cover B. Oh Because I just think

we're playing with the tiny little rung is adorable

But my my comic book place they pulled cover

a for me Yeah, which is still really cool. I

like it. But that little swerve by Nick Roche

is just so adorable Yeah, they pulled cover B

for me, so I have swerve. Oh, you do? Oh, you're

so lucky. Swerve's one of my favorites, so he's

probably my top ten of all time. It's a little

blaster. Come on. Come on. Oh, I know. I love

that There's a point. Um, I think it's in I think

it's in Dark Cybertron We'll be coming we'll

be coming up to it after we talk about this issue

here but I think there's a point in Dark Cybertron

where His attitude really just shows and it is

so friggin cool that it does source one of those

really fun characters because he's like I like

to think that Swerve is the person that pretty

much the readers relate to. He's the fanboy.

He's the casual guy. He wants to be everyone's

friend and make everyone happy. He doesn't want

to do the complex jobs unless he gets a really

cool sounding toy to go with it. He's the fan

in the comic book and that's why I love Swerve.

And he's so sarcastic. I'm trying to think of

in dark side. I have oh, it's on the okay So

when we get to dark side, we're trying we'll

talk about this, but it's in the the main Previously

page. Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that

because Swerve is just James teasing the hell

out of us Alright, so, you know, she has cover

a I have cover B. There was also a retail incentive

with who is that? that is um retail incentive

that is skids skids uh there we go so we have

um little victories a film by rewind of lower

petroics um Was waiting for this I really you

know they always mentioned it the past 21 issues

They have mentioned it and mentioned it and mentioned

that he was working on this And I was just waiting

and seeing when they were gonna actually go ahead

and show the footage and this is awesome It is

it really is I liken this to Even though I didn't

really care for what I'm going to compare this

to this is like The transformers version of Hawkeye

pizza dog is really what this is like So do explain

oh You don't know about that issue of Hawkeye

oh I do but yeah, I don't think everyone else

Great go back and listen to episode 26 of the

pullback people. Okay, it's in there I think

everybody that listens to this show knows that

I'm not that much of a fan of Hawkeye on his

day off But it just it's just one of those things

where Everybody was like, oh my god the dog that

is so friggin awesome And I'm a dog lover just

like everybody else is most people that I know

but I just a comic written from a dog's point

of view, I just couldn't get into it. I don't

know, it was, you know, maybe if they had Nuke

and Tazer starring, it would be a little different.

Nuke and Tazer are my dogs, and they're depressed

right now, my dogs, because they're locked up

and they can't go swimming right now because

they're getting their hair cut and they gotta

stay pretty and non -stinky before they kick

us. So they're looking at me like, come on. So,

Little Victories is Rewind's film and it starts

off with, um, it starts off with your favorite

character in mind. Introduce myself. Why do I,

why? Everybody knows who I am. Hoi, hoi, hoi,

hoi. Yeah. I really do like Rodmuss. I really

do. There's stuff that about him I like. I just

like it when he gets hurt. That's all I'm saying.

good And then of course you have Mr.. By the

book Ultra Magnus truly a duly appointed enforcer

of the tyrist accord and so you have all these

introductions and I love how Swerve is just grinning

ear to ear. Yeah, I love his. Swerve, hello.

What is it, nerves? Just pretend I'm not filming,

okay? Look at me, not at the camera. Hello! Rewind,

the camera is on your face! How can someone not

look at it? Holy crap, did they reuse a panel?

Where? No, okay. I'm looking at swerve's introduction,

and I also have the picture pulled I guess I

screen capped the picture from Dark Cybertron

Where he says I'm hoping for more massive rambling

diversions It looks like the exact same picture

Except in in issue 22 Rewind's hand is in front

of him versus swerve's hands pushing out a Little

strange will We'll get to it when we get to it.

So we get the introductions, and this is basically

Rewind. This is basically a documentary of what

his film is going to be. And as we get all the

other introductions, Cyclonus of Teraheax, I

am not a Decepticon. I want that on screen. Not

a Decepticon. He mentions that a lot. Yes, he

does. And then Amy's introduction, it's Whirl,

spelled Ker -Click. Toom. That is so Amy. I love

Whirl. Whirl is awesome. Yes, Whirl is amazing.

So we have all of that, and I gotta say, you

know... Reyes and Burcham. I mean, Burt Burcham

on colors is always good. I love Josh. He's an

amazing colorist. But Reyes on art, what was

Alex doing at this point? Was he like in major

prep for Dark Cybertron or something? I believe

so Yeah, probably I know that he did on the his

pages for Dark Cybertron. He's got tons of details

and There's one big huge spread at the very end

that has I don't know how many characters in

it I know he took a while to do that So we get

all this other stuff we get Rodimus here and

then as you're reading through this footage removed

by the order of the duly appointed enforcer of

the tyrus decorum kind of like this has been

edited you'll never know what was actually here

it's one of those things it's like okay is this

one of those things that's going to come back

in three years time because james and john likes

to do that kind of stuff Could be, honestly.

You never know. James, especially. I mean, you

know. Well, I can't remember. I want to say was

when Amy interviewed him over on the interbase,

he says that he's got like three years planned

out. Yeah. That's how far it advanced. I'm like,

hopefully IDW loves you to keep you odd for like

three years at least. Let's say ten. Come on.

Yeah, really. Ain't that the truth? I mean, the

thing is, is, you know, the books seem to be

selling. I mean, I don't I don't know the overall

numbers of Dark Cybertron, but the aftermath

of Dark Cybertron seems like it's really friggin

popular. So, I mean, hey, so let's see, where

do we go from here? Oh... Wait, that's not Ratchet,

is it? On the next page? On the page number four?

Yeah, where Tailgate is. No, that's Swerve. Oh,

that's Swerve? They're at the pool. The oil pool.

I'm trying to remember where it was. I think

it's... I think it's in Dark Cybertron, where

we actually get... Because it always... Okay,

yeah, it's in Dark Cybertron, where Ultra Magnus

reveals the dimensions and the characteristics

of the ship, because that's one thing that is

always throughout... As much as I love the Transformers

Ongoings right now, so one thing that has always

perturbed me about More Than meets the Eye is

how... How big is the lost light actually to

have all of these giant things, like a giant

oil pool or, you know, a hundred and something,

you know, 10 foot tall robots, you know what

I mean? Yeah. So, I mean, what's the dimension

is like miles by miles. Yeah. I know where it's

at. It's right. Okay. Do do do it's ultra Magnus

says Surrounding mainframe. Well, there's like

15 miles long and 10 miles wide. Do you realize

how many people it would take to? 2026 ultra

Magnus Yeah, that's right. I just barely turned

to that stuff. Yep It's a fairly big ship it's

a traveling city So yeah, you could hide over

word you could you know hide who other whatever

nominees were on there You know, that's what

you had still had to have like all the the pods

and The Rod Pod, which we'll get to. It's Rodimus'

head. It's got to take a pretty big compartment.

I want the Rod Pod. Kaylee needs to make a Puggleformer

of the Rod Pod. Yeah, Kaylee. I've asked her

about it. I have. I've asked Kaylee about that,

and yeah, one of these days when I'm not poor.

We have Rung and Swerve talking and talking here.

And then again, audio soundtrack censored by

the order of Jillian. Oh, Magnus, he's such a

party super. Oh, God. And he was so awesome when,

you know, he was actually drunk. When they went

to the whatever planet it was they had to use

the avatars on. He finally, you know, let his

shoulders, you know, slag a little bit. Finally

let those missiles droop. Talk about a soft shell.

He needs to get out of his shell. Both of them.

Oh god. This is so wrong. Am I wrong, though?

Am I wrong? You're not wrong, I'm just saying.

So we find out that these things that are surroun

- No, that's in Cybertron, sorry. So, where?

Okay, we find the, um, page six, we find, uh...

Skids introducing himself to this other race

apparently I wonder if world ever has the The

urge to lick his lips even though he doesn't

have lips it just it's so weird I love world

but it's so weird to be looking at him when he's

talking because it's like It's kind of like Dana

Carvey in Master of Disguise. This is what you're

doing. This is what I want you to do. Tell somebody

to shut up. Yeah, the Ammonite Army, it's really

weird because these guys play a central part

in what's going to be coming up. And I thought

they would be a lot smaller. Here you can see

a size comparison. They're about the same size

as Skids and Whirl. So I thought they were smaller.

I mean, they're smaller than... Well, no, they're

smaller than Skids. Not by a whole lot. Look

on page 9. There's an Ammonite that... Oh, there's

a little one, yeah. Only comes up to Skids' garage.

Nice. So I guess the commanders are bigger. Yeah.

Gotta have that ruling class, right? I don't

know. Megatron has people that are bigger than

him, but he still rules over him. Well, yeah.

It's Megatron. He rules through tyranny. And

then we get to page 10 here. Are you happy? How

am I supposed to answer that? I think the best

thing about issue 22 is that It is the film portions.

It's not necessarily the story the the introduction

Well, I think they were introduced before this

but not necessarily us seeing the ammonites here

and seeing them interact with the crew but it's

The film that was I thought that was the point

of this entire issue was You finally get to see

the footage that rewind had filmed. Oh so long

ago I'm just happy there. It isn't like one of

those Okay, this started at 67 seconds 49, you

know 49 minutes 67 seconds and then it's plus

phrase no math Thankfully no math in this What

do you think of the art and the story so far?

Okay, this is James Reyes, right? He likes his

rivets. I had the hardest time at first getting

used to his art because it's not what I'm used

to. I'm used to Alex's and Casey's stuff, you

know, and Andrew's stuff. And so to see something

with such heavy inking, And such great, I mean,

you're talking details here. You know, you see

every little scratch. It kind of threw me off

and it took me a while to get used to it. Again,

he's not one of my favorites, but I'm used to

it now. And he just because later on he doesn't

put as many details into it. And I think that

was to his advantage because I remember when

this came out, people were like, what the hell?

And so, yeah, I think he did well with taking

some incitative criticism and using it to his

advantage. But this isn't my favorite of his.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, what I like most about

it is the character images. Like you have, let's

see, where did... Where's that question? You

sounded excited is this the Knights is it the

Knights have we made contact? Better than the

Knights look who wants to come on board Oh him

And then you see all these character pages with

with the you know cyclonus obviously he's not

a decepticon Yeah, it's up there every time that

he's yeah. Yeah, I know You know you get yes,

I love I love races characters, you know, and

I love how he does the characters but the yeah

the art overall it's I Don't know it's not bad,

but it's just different. It's It's better than

anything I could put together but trust me Yeah,

like you said it's it's different than it's the

heavy inking that that because they all look

so Rough and worn and kind of angry. They don't

have that smooth like I mean look at Sarah. She

kind of has like an anime kind of Sarah Stone.

She has like a like an anime kind of characteristic

where They're very vibrant and stuff. The only

character I would say I had a really issue with

Reyes is Wheelie when you see Wheelie, because

it's just like, when did Wheelie grow up? Because

Wheelie's like this fun little character that,

you know, rhymes and he's just a lovable little

guy and when you see... James Reyes interpretation

of him. It's like he he's in his mid thirties.

When did Wheely hit and go past puberty for crap

sake? That's the only character I'd probably

say I have major complaints with Reyes just because

it's so different from other people. Like I said,

this is Better than anything I could ever put

together Right, but I mean like comparing to

like Alex and and and all that stuff and everybody

else that's usually on the book This was such

a departure but for me I I mean I do remember

when I first picked this up and I first read

it I was I kept having to look I kept having

to look at the front of the friggin book to figure

out Why is this so different from issue 21? You

know, and then I realized, oh, different artist,

OK. And it's not that it's different bad. It's

just different that we're not used to it. Yeah,

I mean, at least I'm not. Yeah, well, because

I mean, you've got the Nick Roche cover. We haven't

seen Nick's art inside Transformers for a while

now. He's done a lot of artwork, though. And

then I have the artwork by Alex, which. what

people are used to. And again, Alex does a brilliant

job. And then you open it up, you're like, whoa,

this is totally different. And like I said, it's

just the heavy inking. It just makes everyone

look angry. It really really does the only one

that doesn't look angry is swerve Honestly, this

is the only one that never looks angry and swerve

and of course rung on page 19 He looks totally

depressed. I mean he needs his own he needs his

own psychologist poor rung This is what made

this issue for me, but Speaking of rung. I love

I love the little bots Rung's one of them, you

know, tailgate swerve, of course, you know, I

love the little guys, but when you find Kaz,

when you find out what he transforms into, come

on. It was one of those, it was one of those

moments like we finally get, because we've, everyone's

been asking that they're like, what does he turn

into? Everyone was trying to figure it out and

then he reveals it and you're just like, oh.

Poor Rug. And then we, well, even before that,

you know, everybody was still asking and asking

and asking, and hell, even Swerve, in one of

the other issues, one of the older issues, you

know, he held the alt mode party. It's like,

hey, Rung, come join us, but I... Are they out

at the beginning? Yeah. Alt mode party. always

swerve and think it's stupid like that. But again,

again, he's like other people. Well, what was

way? I mean, that's how most people would think

like, oh, we kind of figure it out with something

that's not suspicious, but really is suspicious.

Yeah. I. I do want to go ahead and read this

from wrong on page 19. When the Functionists

came to power, they subjected me to every examination

you can imagine. I don't blame them. The basis

of their entire philosophy was flawed unless

they could work out what I was for. In the meantime,

they made me wear a wheel to give the impression

of utility. An anatomical hint. Fent, they called

it, designed to reassure the general population

after a thousand more tests they decided to cheat.

They invented a new category just for me. My

old ID card, rung of the... Pidus Pools? Pidus

Pools. Pidus Pools function ornament. Until next

time, Rodimus and... Until next time, Rodimus

and listen. or wrong. He has no function. He's

just an ornament. But he looks really cool. He

does. And I love the bottom panel here. I tell

you Rewind, I'm starting to regret the whole

full access thing. Why would you have acted differently

had I not been filming? What? Don't be ridiculous.

Boring. And who says that? Who do you think?

It's probably swerve Well drifts not around so

I was I don't know it but yeah, it could have

been world So we get the the entertainment suite

on Luna one there's a lot of people there yeah,

you think I mean, there's so many bots. I was

right. What? Did Reyes do the... Oh, I know what

happened. That's what it is. It's not a reused

panel. In Dark, when we get to Dark Cybertron,

they do a previously on page. Oh, okay. And what

they did was... They took see when I read Dark

Cybertron before this record I thought it was

I completely forgot about I didn't read this

before I reread Dark Cybertron So I completely

forgot about that this panel showed up here or

swerve says I'm hoping for a more massive rambling

diversion who wants closure Let's really stretch

this sucker out when I saw that in Dark Cybertron

I Looked at it as Robert saying, hey, look, we're

not going to give you any closure. We're just

going to keep going and going and going. That

sounds about right. And we get to the final page.

So long as we're all in it together. And we see

pretty much everybody in the main crew. We see

Rung, Tailgate, Cyclonus. Who, apparently Tailgate

has not made his replacement stick yet. Well,

because, well, this was - Unlimited one. Gotta

remember, Rewind was still - Still alive. With

everyone, yeah. Right. Right. I like how they

made him front and center instead of making Rodimus

front and center here I mean Rodimus is kind

of front and center, but like rewind because

of Who he is well, and then you've got a chrome

dome behind them. Oh, yeah Tailgate's a little

bit too tall. I think I'd say Yeah, cuz wrong

and looks shorter than well, it's a it's a it's

the way they're composed. Yeah in the um in the

issue so we are going to take a quick break but

before that i do want to read the little solicit

at the end of 22 transformers dark cybertron

shockwave strikes with the autobots and decepticons

at their weakest the emotionless master of strategy

makes his move and the fate of the universe is

at stake transformers dark cybertron number one

begins the first ever crossover between more

than meets the eye and robots in disguise yeah

baby absolutely um so we're gonna take a quick

break you're gonna hear some sort of audio clip

and we'll come back with dark cybertron discussion

after this this is getting expensive so the event

is here dark cybertron the end of everything

shockwave makes a move millions of years in the

planning and ultimate strategy to remake cybertron

and destroy both the autobots and the decepticons

Only the combined forces of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee,

and Rodimus can save their world, but billions

of miles and eons of war leave our heroes divided.

I love the trades for this. But the thing is,

they know it's a lie, because the comics continue.

It's supposed to destroy everything. Liars! Yeah.

That's what they mix for a good adventure. Yeah,

I I love the trades for this this arc because

the trades basically take all of those When that

big picture came out I forget who put I think

it was IDW that put it out It's it's in some

of the some of the single comics for Dark Cybertron

where it shows you what month you know issue

is coming out so issue one issue two issue three

whatever else and it has a picture a circular

picture of one of the faces of one of the characters

on the back of the trade they have they have

all of them on both no uh on on volume one on

volume one they have all of the pictures yeah

so there's there's prowl there's rc there's uh

Well, we got Ultra Magnus. Okay, left hand side's

Ultra Magnus. Bunny, your boyfriend, Cyclonus,

Rodimus. That's what I call him. Rainstorm, Ratchet,

Swerve, and Optimus, and then on the right hand

side you got Bumblebee. Is that Slug? Or Slag?

What's he going by? I can't even remember. Oh

my gosh. Two more dino -bots. Yeah, the other

dino -bots. I can't tell the dino -bots apart.

I'm sorry, people. That really is bad of me.

Swoop's not on there. So, poor Swoop. Ironhide,

Prowl, RC. Oh, there's Swoop. Yeah, there's Swoop

at the bottom. Swoop's at the bottom. So yeah,

you got all the dino -bots besides your mother.

Now, I went ahead in a month before. I think

we did this... I think I ordered these. I ordered

the physical trades in August so we would have

them for September here. I ordered them last

week. I went ahead and ordered the physical trades

so I could have them, but I also went ahead and

bought the digital versions because I have to

read them in the Guided View and Comixology.

I cannot... Cannot sit here and hold a trade

for two hours trying to read it. I got a question

for you. Okay, I Knew that you had the comics

ology stuff. Yeah, so There's one part in Dark

Cybertron when they're going through Metroplex

And it's all in different directions. How does

that pull up on the guided view? Do they have

it off to the side? Do they have it? Which Is

it in volume 1 or volume 2? It's in volume 1,

and it's almost at the very end. It's like 10

pages before the end. 10 pages before the end.

So you're gonna see... It's when they're walking

through Metroplex. So it should be somewhere

around page 141? Yeah. This doesn't have page

numbers on it. I apologize, people. Oh, I know

what you're talking about. Yeah, and they have

the arrows in Metroplex. Yeah, yeah. Guiding

them. So, how does that look on Comic -style?

Do they still have it, like, at different angles,

or? Okay, let me, I'm looking at this here. Okay,

so, I get to the page where it says, a dry dock

inside Metroplex. Okay. And then it's the big

page where it shows you all the different directions.

Yeah, that's the bottom. The bottom right is

what do we make of this then? Oh, that's the

bottom right. That should be the top left in

my. Right, but what I'm saying is it's here.

Because there's points that are upside down.

Right, that page. I'll be back in a moment, folks.

We've got to work this out. We'll be right back.

Okay, so on Comixology, it goes left to right,

and it zooms in and zooms out. It basically does

storyboarding, and it pulls your eye to where

it wants you to go. Thanks for sharing that with

me, because it actually reads just like... You

would suffer you you want to know after seeing

what you just showed me I'm sorry people that

this is audio and we just did a visual thing

But you would Rayez's art looks better on screen

than it does on paper Does that sound mean I'm

not I mean for some reason when you were showing

it on screen It looked really cool. It looked

His art seemed to pop out from the screen unlike

paper Do you know understand what I'm saying?

It looked good. It looked it was more pleasing

to my opticals, okay? So the trade you know so

I was saying that I I had bought the the physical

trades and I'd also bought the digital is because

I just I Can't read Like I was saying I can't

sit here for two and a half hours holding a comic

You know at once I would rather sit here in my

chair and spend that time You know hitting my

right arrow key to go through a hundred and forty

something pages of 150 something pages of a comic

So we get the question I apologize when you got

it on comics ology Did you have to buy the two

sets of trades or was it just one big? Trades

it was one two sets. It was two sets. Yeah, well

two sets on okay two sets for Ten bucks each

which isn't bad. Oh, that's not bad. Yeah considering

I spent 15 on each believe or the physical That's

why I go through in stock trades calm I spent

$30 total for the two Yeah, well, you know after

shipping and whatever else it was $30 for the

two is it in stock trades in stock trades calm

Well hot check them out. Thank you. They offer

up to 45 % off all comics. I've bought I've bought

trades there that are like Usually nineteen twenty

dollar trades for like ten twelve bucks. I've

bought trades there for like five six seven eight

dollars They're amazing amazing website. I'll

check them out. Yep. All right, so dark Cybertron.

This is the The the trains are now coming back

to meet at the train station because it has been

At the point of Dark Cybertron, when Dark Cybertron

came out and was released and produced, it had

been two years since the start of More Than Me

Stan, Robots in Disguise. Yeah, since the second

phase. As like if you got the IDW, the new trade

that it's called phase two, the IDW collection

phase two, that's where it would start. It was

with the death of Optimus Prime. Right. Spoilers.

Oh, please. We've been doing this coverage for

two years now in the pullback. Spoilers be damned.

Basically, Death of Optimus Prime set us off

on two paths. It set us off with Rodimus and

the Lost Light, if we wanted to go that way,

or we could stay on Cybertron and deal with Starscream

as Obama. Oh, I'm sorry. It sounds like you're

making it into a choose -your -own -adventure

kind of thing. It is! It really was, because

for me... And how dare you, sir? How dare you

compare Starscream to Obama? That's not fair

to Starscream. I'm sorry, I love Starscream.

Okay, so... So, Death of Optimus Prime is basically...

I'm trying to come back from that, ladies and

gentlemen. I'm just trying to picture Starscream

with Obama's voice now. Oh my god, don't. Just

don't. Mind blown. So yeah, Death of Optimus

Prime is, as most everybody should know, it's

basically a Transformers version of Robert Frost's

poem, The Yellow Wood, Two Roads and a Yellow

Wood Diverge, is basically what it is, honestly.

Well, that's just the way that I look at it.

I mean, you have two different paths. Like I

said, you have Bumblebee and Starscream and all

the political crap on Cybertron, or you can go

on an adventure in space with Rodimus and Otter

and some other... Quest! Quest! Quest! I wanna

go to Quest! Yes, Quest. Yes, everybody wants

to go on a quest. And I chose, because... Because

I chose to go on the quest instead of stick around

and deal with... transformers politics I had

not read robots like I was set I read death of

optimus prime like okay got that let's go let's

go with Rodimus let's go with my main character

you know main favorite character in transformers

history let's go ahead and go on this quest and

see what the hell happens Rodimus is your favorite

He is If I had to choose out of all the g1 characters

like somebody put you know a swerve cannon to

my head I would probably pick Rodimus out of

everybody 86 just had so much impact on me, so

I don't care what good I think is I think how

they split it Sorry, I've got a little sidetrack

here, but we'll come back around. We're taking

the scenic route here. So how they divided up

the teams I thought was really well, because

you've got the political drama on Cybertron.

People know who those characters are. You got

Bumblebee, you got Starscream, you got Rattrap,

you got Ironhide down there. You've got the characters

that most people who've been Who may have been

in the fandom, but you know has gone away and

they might want to come back They're familiar

with those characters as with more than me see

I this is like the frosting on the cake You've

got these new people that you're that James has

done a great job Making you love and adore and

torture you every week with making you want to

cry I mean, they're both really good storytelling,

but they do have two different sides. And this

is what's good about Dark Cybertron, is they

bring it all together. And then they add not

just the frosting, but they give you sprinkles

with some new characters as well, which will

come to be one of my all time favorite characters.

We'll talk about her later. Like that's not giving

it away. Yes, I'm surprised. I could so see you

doing this. I'm surprised you didn't, you know,

have air quotes as you're going, talk about her

later. I did, but I talk with my hands, people.

It happens, but you can't. So Dark Cybertron,

it is because at this point, everybody on Cybertron

thinks the lost light exploded and everybody

died. So the lost light is going off and doing

all these other adventures and stuff on Cybertron

is happening and whatever else so Dark Cybertron

picks up. This is what we've all been Waiting

for kind of and leading up to I guess You know

Rob Roberts barber planted the seeds Barber planted

his own seeds with shockwave and that origin.

And again, until... I mean, I read Death of Optimus

Prime and I was like, okay... uh... i'd like

it uh... you know but i wasn't sure if i was

going to be fully on board and and and and and

they're going to open his big mouth and say something

about the origin of shockwave and i'm like oh

says like that the best he'll never see the origin

of shockwave like that and like done like that

ever again it's the best origin shockwave ever

had and i'm like oh god so i anyway everyone

knows that story so we're on to dark cybertron

And it is amazing. The one thing I, because I

was getting this singly when I, you know, when

it was coming out and I didn't particularly,

I like certain covers from certain issues, but

not until I actually had the trade in my hand

did I really appreciate Phil Jimenez's covers

because what they did in the trade was Or or

or Casey's covers because different people did

different covers But like looking at chapter

one here Casey and Joanna's cover it is in the

trade it is mirrored by You know, but the background

of the dark Cybertron background. I absolutely

love that I wish they had actually done that

on the actual single issues Yeah, that's true.

That's very true. And this isn't talking about

reading it in trade. I gotta admit I had a lot

more joy reading it as a trade than single issues,

because sometimes the single issues, they split

up the story in a way that I personally wouldn't

have. And reading it in trade, you just keep

on continuing on. To me, it's a lot better reading.

So I would think it's probably a point or point

five or a point above what I gave it when I rated

it in single issues. So. Absolutely. And you

know, you've got this this on this cover that

Casey did. He has a shattered glass. Type of

effect on this ball that shockwaves heads and

I just love that So In all in the entire arc,

I think we had a total of five six seven different

artists I only want ears on the interiors. I

believe there was seven. Yeah And I will say

that was the biggest Problem I had with the whole

storyline. It's because you're getting into the

story. Minus Livio's because Livio's art for

the Deadly Universe was brilliant. Yes, it was.

It fit perfectly. It's just like because you're

in this world where it's supposed to be cold

and unknown and just creepy and Livio nailed

it with his artwork. He really did. I mean, I,

you know, when I was going through and reading

this, I actually took several different screen

caps of mostly Livio's art. Because I just, I

love it. You know, the one where the panel where

Optimus backhands basically slaps Rodimus right

in the face. Yeah, that one. And then I took

a screen cap of Optimus saying, I've got this.

It's... Livio's art style is probably my favorite

out of all of the Dark Cybertron stuff. No offense

to the other artists, but it just, it looks so

much cooler. Well, I think it's because it puts

you in an element that you're not supposed to

be familiar with and his artwork is Definitely

different from all the other artists. I mean

you can definitely tell which artists did what

but his is so unique It makes you feel like you're

not supposed to be staring at these people and

they're They're they're part of the story. It's

just like What what's going on here, you know?

I don't care about him leaking out on Cyclonus'

black stuff, but I blame Roberts for that. Good

ol' Jimmy. Yeah, good ol' Jimmy constantly teased

you about whether Cyclonus was gonna even make

it out of this. People still tease me because

there's always that hit that he's gonna die.

Oh, and then there was that famous recording

that Amy and I did when she showed me the cover

Cover which is actually the cover of the second

trade Yep. Yep. I just about gave up on Transformers

people because of a certain cover the main oh

yeah i see it now i remember listening to that

and i'm like what is she talking she's like have

you seen the cover to this and i'm like no i

haven't go show it to me and she's thinking oh

this is so cool it's megatron versus shockwave

and my eyes go right to the bottom like bottom

right what oh hell no i kind of lost it Yeah,

I imagine you would. She didn't even see it for

a few seconds. I know she did. What do you mean

what am I talking about? I love I actually screen

-capped the the part part of the dead universe

where Rodimus asks. Hey, where's cyclonus probably

done a runner I didn't screen -cap it because

of what he's saying. I screen -capped it because

of Livio's art and how cool Rodimus looks Yeah,

I mean that's that's in the dead universe stuff.

So chapter one You know, we start out with, in

the past, with Nova Prime and all of his crew,

Galvatron, Cyclonus. Your boyfriend still had

his bunny ears back then. Are they really going

to say that Cyclonus is kind of like Dick Grayson?

Like, what happened to your eye? What happened?

Because they kind of explain it when he meets

up with night here right in the dead universe

so but Cyclonus is one of those people which

I enjoy he doesn't have to explain himself to

anyone He just does what he does and he looks

cool doing it That's all you have to know Yeah,

pretty much I love the art on shockwave Shockwave

looks so friggin' cool. When we get to the present

day, um... He's saying, uh, I have carried out

your request, Jaxus. For too long, I have worked

in shadow, making time, ensuring that everything

is in its place. Now my true colors shall fly

for all to see. I love... Huh? He said that he

has said almost the exact same thing in animated

if you watched it. Oh, no, I know I know it's

like Finally, I can serve you under my true colors

That was my biggest sticking point with animated

was shockwave was the wrong damn color for the

longest time oh Boy, so all right, so we get

this and we get shockwave and Dreadwing and what

looks to me like Metroplex or some sort of Titan.

Yeah, it looks like Metroplex, yeah. I would

assume it would be Metroplex, seeing as how...

He's the main point of the story. Well, if you

look at the top, that is Metroplex and Waspinator

on his shoulder. Yeah, that's true. This story

other than Other than intro like they could have

picked any I know they probably couldn't have

because Hasbro's like oh, we're doing a new toy

so needs to be this But honestly story wise if

they had picked any other body than the armada

body I probably would like Starscream more. I

like the armada body I kinda like it. You know

why I like the armada body? They never showed

it in this, but when his wing becomes his sword.

Love that. So cool. They never used it in the

comics yet. I think it's pretty. I personally,

I enjoy it. The Starscream can do no wrong in

my eyes most of the time. Most of the time. Yes,

I'm one of those people. so we have we have shockwave

planning and plotting we have Starscream with

a new body we run into the the lost light coming

home and everybody is just shocked that the lost

light is still functioning I love how the art's

done on this page here. With the ship and with

Rodimus and Cyclonus and Swerve and not Tailgate,

it's not Tailgate over there, it's Skids. Brainstorm,

Ratchet. I don't think you're a fan of Skids,

you always forget him. No, it's done to you.

It's not that it's the there are too many blue

bots Too many blue too many red like the blue

and red bots you take ratchet First aid fit fix

it who all the medics who have red in them put

them all in a room I couldn't tell them apart

you take all the blue bots you take ultra Magnus

unless he's out of his armor and green It's the

only way I could tell him apart from anybody

else come on Magnus has shoulder pads like a

80s rock star Oh, it's still Ultra Magnus. So,

the funniest thing about this first chapter is

Ultra Magnus. Rodimus is like, assuming command?

What the hell are you smoking? A what? Excuse

me? No, somebody else will be assuming command

later. I just like Swerve's ringtone that he

has. Swerve's ringtone, oh my god. Swerve is

so silly. I love him. When my speech is would

you say he's your favorite Autobot? My favorite

Autobot Yeah, I would oh man. I would say he's

up there. I still love Bumble G1 Bumblebee though

Okay, well would you say this word is your favorite

Autobot out of the current comics I Would agree

yes Probably agree with that even though there's

a lot of characters. I enjoy the comic Yeah,

because I have a lot of swerve art and I have

a lot of cyclonus art So there we go, but cyclonus

isn't the decepticon. So I kept Starscream as

my decepticon So we get We get the the Dinobots

are Ready to attack they're always ready to attack

The one thing I don't like is I wish they would

have made a I wish I know this is This is one

thing that kind of confuses me about comics is

when you have two writers is to like who's writing

what? I mean, in this case, I know James is writing

more of the more than meets the eye issues, and

obviously John is writing more script on the

robots in disguise issues, but looking at it

in trade, it's so difficult to figure out, even

though I know the Dinobots come from robots in

disguise. I'm sorry, Dinobots rollout is just

the wrong, like he could have made a Hulk, like

Dinobots smash or something, he could have made

a Hulk reference or something. Dinobots roll

up? What are they gonna roll out on? They don't

have wheels! They're not tanks! Dinobots are

not supposed to make sense a whole lot. I know,

it just... So after that we get the emergence

of the Necrotitan. Necrotitan's awesome. That

is a beautiful splash page, I gotta admit. It

is. I mean, he's got like stuff dripping from

his mouth, he's coming up from the ground, he's

bringing up dirt and everything, and you just,

you see how massive he is. I mean, because the

Dinobots aren't small little creatures, and look

how teeny they look. Aww. What I want to know

is I wish they would have zoomed in on the bot

that says at least I live to see Pyrrhal put

his foot in his mouth. Yeah, I'm trying to think.

Yeah, I'm trying to think. You can't really tell,

can you? Can't tell, I mean... Because you got

the Dinobots and they're in their dinoforms with

the other robots there. Maybe it could have been

R .C. because she's on the previous page or it

could have been Bumblebee. Wait, let's see. Oh,

it looks like... okay it um it's probably it

looks like bumblebee yep that looks like his

shoulder pads bumblebee will forever be stuck

in the 80s as long as he has shoulder pads I

don't... Alright, I'm gonna say this right now,

folks. The one thing that I don't like about

the IDW comics is the inclusion of the beast

characters. I don't mind it. The only ones I

don't mind is Fat Tankor and Tall Tankor. Like,

those I don't mind because Tankor's... That's

Tall Tankor and other Tankor. Yeah, yeah. I mean,

those I don't mind, but the inclusion of Rattrap

and Waspinator, it just... Doesn't work for me.

It really doesn't I have no problem with it The

reason the reason why it doesn't work for me

is Mazda the use deal function like seriously,

you're gonna rip off a Megatron line. Come on

now waspinator Yeah, I know it's just how he

is I guess I'm one of those people that that

tagline on the wiki says, as one of the consequences

of this event, everyone still hates Waspinator.

There was one of the best moments at the very

end of the Beast Wars TV series when Waspinator

got what he wanted. You're just like, yay! Yeah,

I agree with that, yeah. Putting him in here?

No. So we have Shockwave saying there's only

one vision of tomorrow and he's ready to put

his master plan into action. Wow, reading it

in trade seems like it's a short book because

that's the second to last page. Shockwave where

it's all it's him all Surrounded by fire and

then you get Galvich on on the final page. Oh,

okay. Yeah That was really short So The title

for this one is dark dawn and That's my middle

name don't wear it out and I'm serious I would

make some sort of Don of Justice joke, but I

won't Because you know I do justice on your face

So the the next part of it is the next cover

is Starscream with his swords I like that cover.

I think it's a cool cover. I like it. It's not

the it's not the one I had singly I had the one

that is actually better. I have to miss an erotimus

The dark or the dead universe. Yep. That's what

I have. Yeah, absolutely So we get chapter 2

black metal And the necrotitan that's be an awesome

name for bands a band Have you heard Black Metal's

new iTunes release? It's awesome. Oh, man. Go

ahead. I agree, that'd be awesome. I'd listen

to it. I gotta say, this chapter, so far, I love

the art. I remember listening to the Dark Cybertron

issues when you guys were reviewing them on the

underbase. I think just seeing how many artists

on the book like just seeing the list in the

issues I really think that's what was throwing

you guys I know at the time you had said that

you can tell the difference and I can tell a

difference too I'm not saying I can't tell a

difference but like this first page where it's

the dino bots and all that stuff where the you

know you get the fire and brimstone where where

Bumblebee says know what you do No, what you

do is the only thing that makes a difference.

Take a point and get your troops in perimeter

around that giant if you want to be an Autobot.

Like that entire splash page here looks really,

really cool with all the different characters.

And then you get the lost light. Oh boy. Going

into the dead universe. Ray as this art comes

into play you're just like you go from this like

nice soft coloring with the the nice dawn look

you know the sun and then you turn you're like

you're like oh that's a lot of ink that's a lot

of ink and again I really wish that they would

still like it's kind of like well you okay there

It's kind of like the old He -Man episodes. The

old He -Man, the Master's Universe episodes,

no one really talked to each other when they

were doing the writing on a lot of those things.

Like, they would bring in, like, a single writer

from one episode, and that writer, he or she,

would write something that, like, would write

something for Skeletor that Skeletor had never

done before, or wouldn't keep in kind of... That's

one of my biggest complaints about More Than

Meets the Eye is the... constant inconsistency

on the art of the lost light. That's why I always

question the lost light even though we get what

the dimensions are of it here in a little bit.

It just like raises art on it on this page. It's

like I just don't. It looks a lot smaller. Yes.

And then you just a few pages after this. Mm

-hmm. It's a lot bigger when they actually show

you the dimensions so yep It is so inconsistent

Which kind of sucks and and I'll say this right

now. I'm up to the page where they're all in

When they're at swerves do you see the sign oh

wait wait It's a couple of pages from... Oh yeah,

oh yeah, okay. It's two pages from where the

Lost Light is. You see the sign, come aboard,

Thunder... Thunder Clyde... Optima Pax. I...

I understand that in Animated and in Transformers

Prime, they needed to show mouth movements for

Optimus. I get it. It's to show emotion. In a

comic book where you put word balloons next to

the character's face, there's no reason for Optimus

not to have his face plate when he's in the eye.

Yeah, well, and considering there's other characters

that have their face plate as well, I mean, well,

if you've read the latest, have you caught up

on more than meets the eye this week? I have

not read 33 yet. I cannot mention one. The face

plate comes in, well, not his. But another bot's

faceplate comes and turns the tides yet again,

so... Oh, Soundwave? I'm not saying, you can

read it. I gotta buy it first, but anyway, I

just... In a comic book, it's just seeing Optimus

without a faceplate just does not work for me

at all. He looks too strange, he looks too weird.

But he's not he gotta remember. He's not Optimus

Prime right now He's a Ryan Pax Yeah, so I guess

it's a way and Spoiler let's fast forward a few

hundred pages ahead Yeah, and he decides he's

gonna change back to prime his faceplate comes

back No, and I know and I get that but it's like

every time that I've seen him up to this point

When you know reading the the RID stuff He's

had his faceplate. He's not I don't remember

a time in the past 20 some odd issues him not

having the faceplate even though he took the

old name back It wasn't until now that I remember

Seeing him without his faceplate It just it looks

weird. He looks too human Hate to say that octopus

prime is too human News at nine It's like it's

like, you know old snake blasted him with the

only human virus So this one Overall, I like

the art I like the whole thing of them, you know

circling around the dead universe like waiting

to Go ahead and go it's like Make a choice already,

you know But I do I do love I do love Rodimus's

Line we're playing to our strengths here. You're

chasing a war criminal And I'm jumping headlong

into the unknown. Which is kind of what Rodimus

does all the time. I really, one of my favorite

points is Hardhead and Cyclone is here. Because

they're playing off each other very well from

beginning till, well, a tragic end, you know?

And I just love it. It's really... I love this

misshapen crew that they have. And the misshapen

crew so fits into the rest of them. I mean, it

really does. I mean, you want to talk about a

blended family. The Autobots, the not a Decepticon

guy, and every other Cybertronian that has been

involved in this. It's like, they fit together

so well, yet they stick out also. characters

for sure so we you know one thing I wish they

would have done and I think they do this in the

in the page in the in the cover pages here Instead

of listing which are which of the five or six

or seven artists was on what I wish they would

do what DC does sometimes where this artist is

on pages one to ten this artist is on page so

that way i could tell whose art is on what like

the only artist i can tell in this series compared

to everybody else is livio because well i know

reyes is the ones with the rivets well yeah that's

true and i know casey collars are just because

of you know yeah and i pretty much could tell

just because i'm used to seeing Used to see him

Yeah, but I think that was a complaint and they

started doing it after Dark Cybertron when they

had multiple Because multiple artists because

I think it was just recently was a wind blade

What did no wasn't one blade? Yeah, there was

something where Sarah helped out and they showed

that she had different... Sarah? I know recently

they've done it, but I think it's because they

had complaints about Dark Cybertron. Yeah. I

mean, hey, you know, I'm glad that they're improving

upon it and they're, you know, they're... That's

one thing about IDW, they listen to the fans.

Rather than you know have a 1 -900 number vote

to decide characters fates Yeah, wait. I'm sorry

that was the 80s So we go to the dead universe

in this the second chapter and we see optimus

with his faceplate thankfully And I gotta say

not no like someone who just came into the IDW

stuff like at death of optimus prime not knowing

about The Dead Universe stuff. This was all really

new to me and I still really loved it I thought

it was really friggin cool that they went to

this place again and they brought it back and

they somehow are going to quote -unquote fix

it or at least get people out of it like like

night beat and this one ends with ends back on

Cybertron where we have Soundwave and the Decepticons

trying to salvage something or other Soundwave

says, Decepticons engage, Operation Salvation,

dun dun dun. Soundwave looks good there. He looks

really good there. Wonder when Ravage got wings,

though. He's jumping. Oh, right. Decepticons

can fly, no matter if they have wings or not.

Plus, he's also got rockets. Yeah, that's true.

Gotta remember. That's true. I love seeing AstroTrain

there. That's awesome. I love the triple changers,

they're fun. Yep. Except for that green one.

That green one can die in a fire. What, Springer?

Don't let Amy hear you. The best thing that ever

happened to Springer is what happened to him

in Five Faces of Darkness when he went through

the garbage disposal and ended up in multiple

pieces. I enjoy Springer. so the next chapter

we start with Starscream and Lord knows what

Starscream's up to Starscream I don't even think

he knows at this point he just really wants to

keep a good face he finally got what he wanted

but he realizes he still needs people to rule

over if he wants to be ruler he still needs to

have some people you know and so he's He's actually

trying to make things work which may be a first

for Starscream Yeah, I do like his new look Yeah,

I mean I I like his like when we did the wind

blade coverage over on the under base and I mean

The only thing I really like about his new look

is his head sculpt and his... because it reminds

me so much of the G1 version. It's just the body.

It's just too weird. What's weird about it? I

don't know. It's just not my thing, I guess.

So he's going on talking about Megatron and you

should never talk about Megatron whether you're

talking about him to his face or behind his back.

Someone's always listening. Yeah Oh god, have

you seen? Side track and I know we've sidetracked

a lot in this episode of the show Have you seen

that new series on Fox called Red Band Society?

Uh -uh It's basically about these terminally

ill kids who are in this hospital trying to make

the best out of you know their situations and

taking full advantage of The hospital as they

go along and the main character that brings them

all together Is a kid in a coma and they talk

about how you can still hear and smell and everything

else really While you're in a coma. It's a really

cool Only the pilots come out so far, but it's

a really really cool show so we get We get the

the Decepticons attacking the Autobots we get

ravage going after RC Ravage is just silly to

me in this. He's too silly. I don't know. That

image of him going after R .C. does not make

it look like he is a sinister cat at all. He

comes to play later on. I'm talking after Dark

Cybertron. Oh, absolutely, yeah. absolutely so

let's see we go back to ultra Magnus let's go

back to the lost light you should take the chair

Magnus thing I think I'll stand yeah sure captain

has to sit some ratchet I prefer to stay there

you want to do something ultra Magnus is like

this this hard driven warrior But he gets some

pretty funny lines in this series. His job title

is the funniest line out of the entire series.

You can't put that on a business card. It's too

long. Absolutely too long. So let's see here,

we get... So we get past that and we see Starscream,

oh god, here we go. Starscream trying to reason

with the Necro Titan. Hey, but he's gotta try.

At least he's trying. No, I'll give him that.

I'll give him that. At least he's trying. Let

me ask you, as you're reading this in trade,

are you having as much difficulty with the art

changes as you were reading it singly? I think

it's because I knew what was going to happen

when I was reading it in trade. So no, it's not

that hard. Well, every once in a while it throws

me off. Because if you notice, Starscream's design

changes a few times just in this issue alone.

Yeah, it's pretty wishy -washy. Yeah, so even

for Starscream. Yeah, it's pretty wishy -washy.

Yeah, so it's just it does kind of throw me off

I'm just like, oh, he doesn't have his shoulder

cannons anymore. He's got This other stuff on

there, you know, so it does kind of throw throw

off every once in a while Yeah, and Starscream

in classic Starscream fashion Talks and talks

and talks and talks and talks until somebody

is so pissed off. They don't even want to talk

back to the guy They just want to fire Everyone

It's like It's like Galvatron So we get this

giant splash page of this giant purple energon

wave coming from the Necro Titan. This is one

part of the art I absolutely love. This looks

crazy. While everyone getting destroyed and thrown

and atomic blast. I mean it looks like... on

those bottom at least three out of the four panels

it looks like they're all being disintegrated

and then of course Starscream flies away he has

a reason though he has a reason he's going to

try to warn the people that they need to run

they need to fly they need to get out again because

what's a ruler with no one to rule over so true

I will admit before this I mean right around

the same part. This is the part that kind of

went Hasbro digging their little grimy fists

into my comics, okay? And I'm talking about the

change of slags name all of a sudden. Oh, okay

Yeah. Slag is a hard -driven Dinobot. They don't

play by the rules. They don't do anything. But

all of a sudden, he wants to change his name

because RC says it's offensive. When was the

last time Slag cared about being offensive to

anyone? Really? This is what I think with some

of these comics. It's like, you know... How best

to approach this issue, address it, and then

move on? This is kind of what we were talking

about way back when, when we did the Windblade

thing. It's like bringing up the whole thing

of, oh, there are now female Transformers. Okay,

most of us that have been, you know, involved

in Transformers fandom in the last 30 years or

so, we know. Sure, we, most of us only know about

RC, but most of us diehards know about chromia

and firestar and moon racer and elita one hello

no i know black arachnia and sorry to a lesser

extent but you know what i mean it's like i think

that's the thing they are trying to say oh hey

here's this issue that that we don't wanna offend

anybody. So we're just gonna take his name, we're

gonna have the most offensive character in the

entire books tell him that it's offensive, his

name is offensive. That's the hilarious part

about it here, because let's face it, R .C. in

IDW, she's not exactly the motherly type, the

G1 character that she was in G1. She is... full

-on gonna ruin your day hurt your feelings and

crush your soul if she has the chance to and

It's all Britain's fault I know that's that's

that's my problem with it the slag is a curse

word in Britain seriously, okay, the thing is

I I'm a coal miner's daughter. My dad works with

a bunch of equipment. He teaches people how to

work with big mining equipment. And he uses the

word slag daily, because slag is just pretty

much the leftover stuff after you've refined

everything. That's just what it is. How is that

offensive? I know. Like, seriously, really? So

we get to gold bug and ratchet or gold bug prowl

and RC and yes, I'm using that name purposefully

Because he's not just Bumblebee anymore. He's

a gold bug I Do love that they kind of use the

gold bug design. I think that's really cool for

a new body for Bumblebee Hasbro having to sell

stuff I know Wasn't this didn't they do this

because of gold fire bumblebee or something or

other or some I forget which bumblebee It was

it was so many damn bumblebees. Yeah, there was

the new, you know, I think it was gold fire bumblebee

It was out. Yeah. Yeah Which is it's fine with

me. I have no problem with it So So Starscream

flies in like the Paul Revere that he is I like

that Paul Revere One if by land two if by sea

three if by giant robot Giant robot is here to

destroy us all And then because of this I assume

because of the giant energy wave thingamajigger

The character that has wings for arms wakes up.

Metalhawk is alive! Yay! I wasn't... I see...

Metalhawk's one of those characters I could give

or take. I don't hate him, but he's not like

one of those people I look forward to reading

about. But he got interesting in this series,

so... He did get interesting in this series.

I know I shouldn't be superficial like this.

The only problem I have with Metal Hawk is he

has wings on his wrists. I think that's that

to me is like the coolest part about him because

he's unique. OK, he is unique. Yes, but. He has

wings on his wrists. Half of the time when any

of the artists draw him, he can't fit on a single

panel unless you multi -panel it because of,

like... So they gave Starscream a new body. They

gave Bumblebee a new body. I really wish when

Metalhawk came back to life, they would have

given him a new body without wrist wings. So,

Metalhawk and Starscream have a heart to heart,

and then... and then... Metalhawk steals Megatron.

Oh, we're coming up to one of my favorite parts,

aren't we? The, um, the Titty Twister heard around

the world. Oh, yep, yep. I mentioned that before.

so this one ends with the lost lights basically

where also Magnus is saying we're stable and

we're stable quantum engines powering down where

are we mainframe underwater everything else is

speculation I just hope we did the right thing

yeah Early indications aren't that great. And

then all the ammonites are under the water. Title

of this story, Winners and Losers. And then we

get to the next chapter. This is one of the retail

incentives I had picked up, because I thought

it was super cool and I wish they would do this

more often. Skywarp. I love the Skywarp cover.

I thought that was an amazing cover. Skywarp's

a cool character to begin with. I got that cover

single for the single issue over the Ratchet

cover because Ratchet to me, he's an Autobot

version of Soundwave as far as his body look.

Really? Oh. Well, as far as his body look. I

mean, look at that cover. Look at chapter four.

Yeah? You can't tell me that his chest plate

doesn't look like it should open and cassettes

should be coming out of it. I suppose. I just

love Ratchet, though. No, I love him in this

series. I love his personality and I love, you

know, his old and grumpy ways. Don't get me wrong.

I love that about him. It's just... I don't know.

I guess my personal biases are coming in on some

of the aesthetics and designs of the Transformers

here. So we start where we left off with the

lost light underwater and the ammonites are about

to attack Ultra Magnus so silly My name is ultra

Magnus do we appoint wait old habits? I am a

Cybertronian. I am an Autobot not a decepticon

You got that line from Psychonauts. Well, yeah.

I find that absolutely hilarious. So in this

first part of this chapter, the Autobots and

the Lost Light are trying to deal with the Ammonites.

And the Ammonites are not having it, and they

basically full force attack. They're... They're

a little ticked off. Yeah, you think? And I was

trying to think one of these covers has I think

I think it was this one that has a subscription

cover of some giant green transformer Yeah, I

for the life what it was one of the subs because

was a sucker for this if IDW is gonna offer me

a subscription cover at the same cover price

as the regular cover you damn right my shot better

have at least the option for me to choose it

if I want to and I saw that and I'm like ooh

now what great that's not Devastator what the

hell green room I didn't know what the hell that

cover was yeah it's in the back there you see

yeah How are we liking the art in chapter four

because this is a lot of dark. There's not a

lot of bright moments here. Yeah, this is it's

I Like I said after you reading in trade you

just kind of get used to it Yeah, and of course

they're under underwater. It's so the lighting's

great There the lighting underwater is yeah test,

so I'll give them that yeah And then I've got

to talk about one of my favorite moments in this

whole series. When the Rod Podge shows up? No!

Fate number four! Time! The whole Perceptor brainstorm

thing. Because Perceptor's supposed to be like

the it man of smarts. But Brainstorm doesn't

like it, and so he tries to give her... I love

it. You and me, buddy. We're the same. I love

it. Yeah, I love that. I know that everybody

has seen the Dark Knight. Everybody knows in

the Dark Knight the Batmobile gets destroyed.

And Batman pulls out the Batpod. Ever since then...

everybody's mimicked it and whatever else and

the transformers version is the rod pod best

thing ever in transformers is are you serious

the rod 30 years 30 years of history the best

thing is the friggin rod pod because it shows

you how Egotistical Rodimus is about himself.

I have to read some of this page. Getaway is

the most reasonable guy, you know? Who's up for

a swim, Whirl? Last one in, so wait a minute,

where are you going, Shuttle Bay 4? The Rod Pod

at last! I love Whirl. He knows I hate that thing.

If it gets damaged, he'll think I've done it

on purpose. Nah, he hasn't touched it for ages.

You know what he's like. He obsesses over something,

then gets bored. Can somebody please tell me

what we're talking about? Dun dun dun, the reveal.

And this guy is your leader? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely

love it. It looks so awesome on this page. I

think, was it Casey or Josh? No, I think it was

Josh. I think Josh Bircham had done a commission.

For a rod pod design and he drew it to where

Rodimus was actually inside the window inside

I'll have to find it I think it might be to the

Google. Okay. Yeah, you go do that way. I This

could be interesting googling rod pod I apologize

people so we get um we get rung uh in the ammonite

battle here uh and again these pages are so like

i understand they're underwater but they're so

dark and then see i thought the contrast here

would be the dead universe was going to be the

dark stuff and the regular universe was going

to be the light stuff but The book has just turned

so dark now. I think it's because of the heavy

inking again. And I found the picture. Yeah,

that's awesome. It looks like a version picture.

It is. Yeah, it was Josh, because he said on

Twitter, this is a while ago. This is like, I

don't even know how long ago. And he said, you

know, commission work. But yeah. Absolutely.

That's awesome. That's really fun. Yep, that's

the one. That's Josh's. I've got to save that

to my favorites because that's awesome. I absolutely

love that. That's so freaking cool. I'll have

to put that in the show notes so people can see

what the hell we're talking about. Ladies and

gentlemen, the Rod Pod, like I said, one of,

if not... At least in my personal opinion, the

best things in Transformers history. So we get

to the dead universe. And Rodimus is... Rodimus

isn't being an egotist, he's being a whiny little

bitch at this point. Even though I love him,

I can admit that. One of my favorite all -time

moments is coming up, and I'll explain to you.

You'll know. If you ever needed any help hiding

that disapproval, hey, I'm not judging. You are

judging. Orion, he is judging. Stop judging.

I just love it. It's like little kids, you know,

daddy, daddy. It's like those commercials with

the brother and sister, mom, she's touching me.

touching you i'm not touching you i'm not touching

you ma that's exactly what it's like absolutely

love it so we see your your boyfriend out of

the darkness of the panel he's beautiful on the

opposite page yeah and then we get to the next

page here This is Optimus, not really being Optimus,

he's being Orion Pax. He's saying stuff like,

he's talking down to the Decepticons. Before

you're used to, you know, him always saying,

hey, we all need to get along. He's pretty much

saying Decepticons suck. And of course, here's

Cyclonus. Not a Decepticon, but you know, he

still aligns with them, I think. I don't know

if he still aligns with them. He doesn't align

with anyone. He's his own person. We see that

Nightbeat is a live question mark. When's the

last time we saw a night beat when he first got

sucked into the dead universe? Yeah, okay, cuz

I I'm going back and I'm reading all the IDW

stuff I'm reading the collection and I just barely

Read this a couple weeks ago. It was the hardhead

spotlight And They were messing with his mind

so he had hardhead kill him and when they he

Shot he got sucked into the dead universe because

he was hit by a portal to the dead universe so

And night beat is not In the dead universe night

beats not the best guy in the world we'll get

to that in a little bit, but So he gets back

to Cybertron at the feet of the necro titan and

frenzy or rumble or one of them well in this

story rumble is red that that was james that

was yeah jimmy you screwed it up again yep pretty

much So Rumble is trying to figure out what is

going on here and he's trying to make Frenzy

come back alive. If Frenzy looks... He did. He

looks dead. I just picture my dogs who are twins.

They come together as a set. You can't break

them up, you know? And to see one of them totally

down for the count, you're just like... This

is not right. This hurts. Yeah, I mean, at this

point now in the series, Frenzy and Rewind are

have made peace in the afterlife and they're

having, you know, disco dance film nights. Yeah.

That's cool. Yeah. And Honestly wish they would

focus like I loved the origin of sound wave.

I honestly wish they would focus more on him

more than they have Because he says here Sound

wave can you Who is that probably a prowl sound

wave? Can you pick anything up in the city? No,

the Titan still blocks all transmissions, but

wait, I do hear something Something I have never

heard before I hear Megatron screaming. Yeah,

Megatron. You think you're having a bad day?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Megatron is just not... Ever

since he got his new body, he's not had a very

good day at all. Like you said, he's getting

the worst titty twister of all right now. Yep,

pretty much. And the colors on that are amazing.

It almost made me think it was Prowl on that

page there because of his forehead. It looks

like it's red. Yeah, because of the lighting

on it. Because of the lighting on it. It's like,

wait a second. So we see Shockwave. We see that

he has the War for Cybertron gun. I know Shockwave's

design in IDW is pretty much the war for Cybertron

design, but I don't think that gun fits the comic

model. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of it either.

I like it in the game, but not here. So Shockwave

tells Megatron that he's going to be able to

bring in... You know, he's gonna be able to bring

new life to old enemies, and out of Megatron's

chest comes Nova Prime. That looks like it hurts.

I think that hurts more than the Titty Twister.

I would take a Titty Twister than some... That's

a chestburster, man! That is the ultimate chestburster,

at least with chestbursters and aliens, they're

just little. You're talking about someone the

same size of you coming out of your chest. God,

all I can think of is two things. Spaceballs.

Hello, my baby. Hello, my honey. And then animated

when Rodimus didn't even last five seconds in

animated. And animated when Optimus basically

came through Swindle's chest through the dimensional

gate portal thingamajigger. We get back to underwater

and the rod pod. It looks so good. I want one

of those. If I ever was able to drive and have

a car, I want a rod pod. Oh. Yes, I know I'm

obsessed. So we get to. the end of it and they

find a certain city former because he has gone

into the abyss dark cyberton chapter 4 they find

Metroplex missing an eye poor Metroplex man he

needs to like have a storage unit just full of

eyes you know also I can think of his Five Faces

of Darkness. No, not Five Faces of Darkness,

Starscream's Ghost. My eyes! Somebody took my

eyes! Exactly, that's what I'm saying. He needs

to have a little storage unit to survive. Poor

guy. So we have the fifth chapter overall, and

it is Galvatron and Nova Prime. Isn't that a

beautiful cover? The main cover, yeah. That is

a beautiful cover. Galatron looking crazy, Nova

Prime looking like a white optimist. Yeah, pretty

much. So let's see, we start with Shockwave and

Megatron screaming still, and Nova and... Let's

face it. That's just not one chair. That's two

giant robots bursting out of here. It's Nova

and Galvature Oh my god, look at that age I don't

normally have sympathy for Megatron, but Jesus

Christ poor Megatron Exactly, and this is why

he's split in half afterwards This is the ultimate

birth, you know This is a this is when the arc

kind of got to me though Shockwave does not look

right. He's got this huge massive torso He looks

like again he looks like one of those guys that

likes to go to the gym, but they only work on

their arms You know You gotta do leg day, baby.

Come on This is yeah, this is um This is really

the full -on War for Cybertron shockwave. It

really is. I just don't like it. I don't like

the look. Oh, no. Not really. So we get this

all -out battle where everybody's fighting everybody.

We get, well, oh. Wait, the Bumblebee? Oh, that's

right. They break in because they find it because

Metalhawk was with Mega... Oh, I see what happens

here. That's funny. Bumblebee, Ironhide, and

the Dinobots find this place, break in, and start

a fight. Wow. Well, Soundwave and his little

minions are there too. Yep. And then Shockwave

tells Waspinator, transform to be the tool of

the destiny. They can't make Waspinator sink

any lower, like seriously reducing him to being

the kin. It's like... It's like... It's like

Waspinator is the Louis Tully of the Transformers.

That's okay, because we've all come to love and

accept that. The thing is, people still like

Waspinator because of that. I guess, but they...

Basically reduced him to being Shockwave's tool.

Everyone's Shockwave's tool. Well, yeah, but

I mean in the most literal of senses here, because

Shockwave is actually holding him and going to

use him as his tool. Let's see, where do we go

from here? We go to the next page, which is a

giant splash page of... Let's know that is still

shocked shockwave. This is where shockwave doesn't

look right because I can see he's holding waspinator

Sounds so wrong, and then it looks like he has

Starscream wings on his back So weird So weird

looking oh yeah, I just noticed that huh Yep,

so we go back to the more alive dead universe

Because honestly, when I was reading this, this

was more interesting to me than Shockwave's plan.

I agree with you. And not just because Psychonus

is involved. Yeah, I figured you'd say that.

Even though it does help. Mean it's just the

backgrounds and the Livio does so well. It looks

like this is such a cold place I mean you actually

get that temperature feel like ah Who it's dead

who exactly it's exactly what it says you do

not want to be living here I'm sure you want

this that this panel to the right here Which

one? You're lucky I don't kill all of you. That

panel. Uh he looks so good right there. Oh yeah.

He looks okay. This whole thing with with Nightbeat

and Cyclonus is genius because he it's like it's

like poking a bear. Mm hmm. Most of the time

the bear will be like, okay, whatever but you

got one extra little poke and it's claws to the

face literally with Cyclonus. I love it. I mean,

when you black out his face and you just see

his eyes, it's amazing. I mean, if you want to

know who Cyclonus is, here you go. Three pages

right here that tells you all and you're just

like, ooh, wow. Yep, so we get back to bumblebee

and Galvatron and Nova Prime and the art takes

a Another weird turn for that page We get to

outside with the Necro Titan My undead Titans

see before you all who stand against the future

see them and let the annihilation commence I

feel like Shockwave is like starring in his own

Mortal Kombat or something here. Fight! And then

you know you were saying so much that the dead

universe is really cold and everything else and

then it goes really hot in these next few pages

it goes hot and then it goes green. Because something's

about to happen. They're trapped in a giant green

energon cube yeah uh because well night but night

be put him there yeah something's going on with

night be he turned on them and let's just say

that he's at a happy people yeah he's not his

normal self and they all know this well most

of them know it you know yeah and that's how

this one ends with uh night beat um let's see

uh you know Night beat real night beat and Orion

realizing that hey Nova's in control here And

that's how the first oh no, that's not how the

first one well, that's how the chapter five ends

I forgot we still have chapter six here. I forgot

there was six and six in both ones All right,

so chapter six the main cover is Nova holding

Rodimus and Optimus. Oh, Ryan Pax. He's not Optimus

yet. He's... I don't care. They should have just

called him Optimus Prime. I don't know why Rattrap

had to have a sub cover, but he does. Toy. These

were pack -ins. You gotta remember, these were

pack -ins. Darkseid... Did you get any of the

toys that have the pack -ins? I got Skywarp.

I got the Skywarp one. What? What is the story

in that comic that comes with it? You don't remember

off the top of your head? I don't remember off

the top of my head. But the thing is, the pack

in comics, because they each have their characters

and stuff, but with the pack in comics, instead

of any of the background that you see, it's just

white in the character. Oh, okay. so chapter

six is new no exit and The Dinobots are gonna

be doing typical Dinobot stuff and I got a question

for you. Do you like the look of swoop? This

is one of those things people like it or hate

it. Does the new design of swoop? It's okay,

I still prefer swoop to be you know G1 blue but

G1 cartoon blue, but I mean I like it I mean

I like the Dinobots and what I've seen them in

so far mainly obviously rage and Beast hunters,

but the Dinobots are all right here One of my

most precious when the most precious moments

and transformers is right here when Astrotrain

You find out that he's almost blind I was like,

oh, he needs binoculars to see. I'm like, that's

so sweet. I don't see how anybody can be older

than Cuff, but yeah, I mean, Astrotrain is being

portrayed as a feeble old man at this point,

and it's really sad. I kind of like it, because

it gives him more of a human side, and I enjoy

that. Yeah, absolutely. so we go to the inside

of Metroplex underwater on an unknown planet

and We get the rod pod flying around the insides

of Metroplex underwater on an unknown planet

And you get ratchet and preceptor and ultra Magnus

talking you've got Oh, I love it when Whirl and

Ratchet. Whirl and Ratchet, their little corp

is awesome. Just three panels. Let me just redo

this panel because it's awesome. Ratchet. Well,

something's not right. Whirl. Easy on the jargon,

Ratchet. We all did go to medical school. Then

Ratchet. Sarcasm, the first sign of a damaged

brain module. Other symptoms include me hitting

you in the face. I'm like, yeah. I love that

panel so much. Absolutely. Whoa, whoa, whoa,

Ratchet. None of us went to medical school. Whoa,

I just love it. Whirl is such a douche. I love

him. Yes, we all love Whirl and her idiosyncrasies.

So we have Tankor. Tankor. I like how they did

that though with Tankor and made him have his

own clones. It's kind of nice to see that somebody

else besides Starscream has clones of themselves.

They're scientific, you know. Yeah. And we then

kind of go to the dead universe and we realize

that obviously I was gonna say brainstorm, but

night beat betrayed them and cyclones is just

like Basically facepalming it's just like unbelievable

So cool and this is the this is the page I was

talking about earlier Where, um... Where Rotimus

gets backhanded by Optimus. Oh my gosh, this

is my... This is one of my favorite moments here.

Yeah. Because Optimus has a plan. But he doesn't

inform anyone until he does a little beating

up on his own. When I saw that Rotimus got hit...

For some reason it bring me great. I said I enjoy

my favorite I don't know what it is. I I like

Rodimus. I really do but something it just speaks

because he's just like So Nova Prime has arrived

and then we cut back to The lost light and ultra

Magnus So we cut back to that and we've got stuff

going on there You know as this last chapter

for part one is kind of winding down. I The art

on the core of the series is You know on the

on the main part of the lost light part. It's

getting better, but I still Prefer the dark the

dark dammit Thank you the dead universe art overall.

I just like the little facepalm that cyclonus

is doing Because you could just hear his deep

raspy voice I Love that I I want I want a big

picture of cyclonus just facepalming like oh

people I have to deal with Absolutely. And then

we have, you know, the ending of part six where

says Hard Ed, and as for the rest of you, I'm

taking you to meet a friend of mine. I don't

know his name, but I can tell you what he turns

into. A space bridge. Okay, at first, because

of Olivia's art, he has a unique... I can't really

tell who this character was. I remember when

we reviewed this, four of us didn't realize who

it was. It's Megatron. We knew it wasn't Megatron.

But we actually asked James who it was. Like,

oh, it's Cup. So Cup is back. Oh, yeah, that's

right. It is Cup. You're right. Just I saw the

titty twister arms, and I thought it was no it's

cup it is Because the way that the light comes

out of it out of him it reflects So much you're

just like oh, okay. It's got we haven't seen

cups since transformers infestation, so Which

many people didn't read which they should because

I liked it And everyone knows I only know awesome

stuff Yes. I will say, out of this first volume,

I really am digging the story. I gotta say though,

talking about covers before we move on to the

second part, the only one out of all the covers

that I absolutely hate, and it's not because

I have a lot of experience with this artist or

this comic book creator, Rob Liefeld's cover

is just so... Where's that one at? It's at the

very back of the trade. It's right before the

last page. You'll be able to tell. It's opposite

the Rodimus, Cyclonus, Optimus art. Okay. Ooh,

I like E .J. Seuss. That's cool. Okay. Am I missing

it? I don't see it. Rob Liefeld? Yeah, it's the

very last cover. We're gonna take a quick break

and come back and discuss part two overall after

this Yes, sounds. Starts off with the cover of

the trade which is Megatron versus Shockwave

with Nova looking on. I assume that's Nova since

it's more black than blue. And we have a bunch

of dead bodies at the bottom. I hated this cover

the first time. We have RC, we have Prowl, we

have... It doesn't matter. Those people don't

matter. Those people don't matter. Only one person

matters. And he's right there. Cyclonus go boom.

Cyclonus has the look of satisfaction on his

face. That's one climax to go out with with a

bang. Boom. Talk about an explosive one. Yep.

Alright, so Dark Cybertron Volume 2 picks up

with a previously page. Did they Know well yeah,

this probably would have started with yeah I

was trying to remember if chapter 7 has this

previously page in the single issue I think it

does basically what they did here was they reversed

it and put the cover of chapter 7 on on the back

of it chapter 7 cover is world Ultra Magnus Ultra

Magnus and Cup? No, it can't be Cup. There's

someone else there. Am I missing it? Well, they've

got the eyes of the ammonites. Oh, that's, yeah,

in the background. And then they've got the arrows,

which are illuminated. Yeah, metroplex's arrows.

That's so funny. This is a pretty good shot of

World, just to show that he was a Nazi experiment

at one point, it looks like. I'm not kidding

world. It's awesome, but oh wow I'm gonna tell

her you said that So we get the fight with the

ammonites We get Metro plexus It hurts me to

look at him. Oh my god, it doesn't look The size

of his eye socket is like triple what the other

one is. Oh my god. Well, they burrowed, there

we go, into his face. Oh yeah, that's gonna happen.

Oh god, that has to hurt. Now, with this part

of the trade, with these final six chapters here,

It's pretty much all fights for the most part.

Yeah, basically. There's some really good, you

know, lines and some good set up, but yeah, I

agree with you. I do remember this part. With

with get away and and and ratchet and brainstorm

I bet that's him and I bet he's done something

if he needs help Disposing of a body tell him

why I'm not feeling him out again like that not

again It's we're returning my call. I put I'll

put him on speaker Hey, thanks for calling back

get out of there Are you joking? Does it sound

like I'm joking, kind of? Well, excuse me if

my vocal synthesizer wasn't built for high drama.

What's the problem? Why do we need to get out?

Because, getaway, you said you found... At...

At Emium Flakes. Emium Flakes in the water inside

Metroplex, and that's a horrible thing to find.

This is where I love this issue because Swerve

is always the goof -off. He's always the gold

-lucky guy. Well, he finally comes of use. He

is using what he has trained. And what I think

is funny is that even Ratchet didn't know what

was going on. You know, these medics that didn't

know what this metal was. I loved it. So you

have to take Swerve seriously for the first time.

And the thing is, no one does. He's like, no,

really. Really. You've got to listen to me. It's

like, out of everything I've ever said in all

of the time that this series has been going on,

this is the time you need to listen to the words

that are coming out of my mouth. I mean... Oh

God, Swerve is Chris Rock. Are you paying attention

to the words that are coming out of my mouth?

No one understands the words coming out of your

mouth. No, I love Swerve here because I just...

it's something that we haven't like swerve as

we've said already is the you know the happy

-go -lucky guy the guy that wants to you know

joke around all the time and then he just wants

to work at his bar and listen to everyone's stories

you know um let's see uh now you've got a thousand

many oh yeah um You know what this reminds me

of? This reminds me of a cross between The Return

of Optimus Prime and Rebirth. The reason why

I say that is because Swerve saying it's basically

like a death plague gets out of there reminds

me of the hate plague from Return of Optimus

Prime. And then when he goes, um, he goes, uh...

But that's the same plan as before that was a

different get out of there That was when you

were going to be infected by the death plague

and now and now you've got two thousand mini

cons heading your way Reminds me of the very

opening scene of rebirth of g1 where one of the

transformers says I make out about a hundred

blips and they're all heading this way The art

on these few first pages amazing like swerve

like I Don't know Who is on the swerve stuff,

but oh that's that's Reyes right there. That's

right Well, I'll tell you what James Reyes did

a damn good job making swerve look serious because

every other artist Because every other times

were of his never been serious and that's one

thing that James Ray is really did Work out very

well Let's see here the see we're in the dead

universe Optimus and Rodimus are having a discussion

They're always talking well, okay Good old Rodimus.

Here they are like in the heat of battle and

he's trying to get pay attention to him, you

know It's awesome It's the whole nightbeat thing

of him trying to because you're just like Rodimus

what what are you doing? You bringing this back

to you again, you know But there's a good point

to why it happens. So oh absolutely and we jump

back to Cybertron and we jump to the Crystal

City. Wow, that's interesting considering it's

been demolished. Yeah, there's no crystals, is

there? No, not at all. There's not even really

a city there either. So we get Shockwave Galvatron

and Metalhawk with Waspinator. Which, that panel,

okay, I can see that it's not, like, Metalhawk

is not touching Waspinator. But Waspinator flying

in next to him makes it look like he's either

coming out of Metalhawk's chest or Metalhawk

is guiding him somehow. Hey! Waspinator is now

a kite! Let's go fly Waspinators, ladies and

gentlemen! I wouldn't mind a Waspinator kite.

The next page shows J -Axis. I believe that's

J -Axis, yeah. And he is back. So there's that.

Is R -C still around, or does she get vaporized?

I remember seeing her get vaporized. No, she's

around. She's just missing some pots. Okay, I

was going to say because... She's missing her

leg. Oh, okay, I was gonna say, well, maybe she

should hop on her one leg over there and try

to give Jhaxxus a good talking to. Yeah, she

probably could be totally limbless. If she knew

Jhaxxus was around, she would try to work it,

you know? I gotta say, until this comic series,

I knew of the character of Nightbeat, but I never

really cared about him. Until this series until

like those those those flashbacks and earlier

issues of more than meets the eye and seeing

him here I mean, he's pretty awesome. I Like

nightbeat. I really do. I see now where our buddy

Ryan gets his Yeah, I see exactly exactly why

Ryan likes nightbeat He's coming in to play a

lot more After Dark Cybertron, so you'll see

some more of him as well So, let's see we get

We get we go to gold bug and Galvatron that panel

where Galvatron Is supposed to be laughing. Mm

-hmm. That looks weird Because Galvatron, yeah,

well, Galvatron's insane. We all know that. Well,

we all know he's insane, but just see... He's...

A lot of the Decepticons are bots that should

never smile, and when they do, you should be

more scared of when they smile than when they

scream or frown. That's true. And that scares

the living crap out of me, seeing Galvatron smile.

Because it's just so creepy -looking. It happens.

Yep. And he calls he calls mumblebee tiny golden

Autobot. That's just hilarious You come and think

about it. Oh, he is a gold bug Galvatron he just

really doesn't care he's up there to impress

anyone Nope not really So we have the Galvatron

gold bug fight, and then we head back to... Yeah,

a lot of fights. A lot of fights. Yeah, a lot

of fights. There's a lot of fighting going on.

What we should mention here is... Pearl Megatron.

He is split two. Literally in half. Not the like

ways that we already saw. They could only use

that once, you know? But he's... cut out the

torso yeah and you know what megatron stills

got some fight in him even though he's only half

the man he used to be see what i did there it

was horrible i apologize people there it reminds

me of um like if you cut not necessarily cut

but if you pull like old men apart from their

torsos yeah exactly but it reminds me of like

You know, having a Lego man with just the torso

jumping up. Oh no, I know what it was. It was

where Daffy, he cut himself in half. That's what

it was. And he started jumping. You could see

Daffy duck's torso. Oh, let's find that. Gosh,

that was way back when. Yeah, that was in olden

times. So we go back to the lost light we have

ratchet and ultra Magnus and skids see I remember

him this time. Yay I just If they had called

him anything else I'd be alright I can't get

past that ice cream truck crap. You're going

with Michael Bay stuff, and that is bad. I know.

You do not compare Michael Bay stuff to IDW stuff.

No, I know. No, no, no. That's a big no -no.

I compare, oh, yeah. Michael Bay is the 21st

century Eric Raymond. Yep. He likes to blow stuff

up. Yep. And the title of this story as we get

to the final page is The Dead Are Not Enough.

And your favorite character, your now favorite

character, just suddenly appears with a wrench.

She's one of my favorites. I love Nautica. She

really needs to have her own miniseries. She's

awesome. She's mysterious. She's got a cool wrench

that I want. Love it. Yep. And that's how that

one ends with the appearance of Nautica and Chromia.

Ooh, females! Females! Everybody run! Oh my gosh,

there's girls in Transformers! Oh no! Remember

the very first time, and I'm going off the rails

here, remember the very first time... Leonard

and Sheldon and all the guys took Penny into

the comic book store and Leonard's like don't

worry. They're more scared of you than you are

Yeah, that was funny So we've got chapter 8 here.

I gotta admit like I said I was I wasn't like

I said I'm not a huge fan of James Reyes From

that first time I saw him but that last page

with Nautica and Chromia looks amazing Yeah.

That's pretty. That's, uh, I know I'm gonna get

this wrong, but that is so not Swerve, correct?

Where are you at? Uh, the cover. Oh, that is...

Crap, what was that? Oh, I just lost it. Oh,

gah! He's the one with Swerve. Oh, yeah. Crosscut.

Go! Crosscut. That's it, that's it. I'm like,

is that Crossbones? That's... That's Captain

America. I just watched Captain America. I'm

like, it's not crossbones. What is it? It's crosshairs.

Yeah, it's crosscut. What now? Tailgate, Windblade.

Wait a minute. This is chapter eight, right?

It should be. Yeah. I think the wiki screwed

up. I hate to say it, but I think the wiki screwed

up because they have three covers here that are

not cross -cut at all. Sub -cover is beefy tailgate,

but I feel him in as a normal... Huh, weird.

That's strange. Oh, I know what they probably

did. Let me, I know what they probably did. That's,

let me see here. Oh, you sneaky little bastards.

That's what they did. No, there's nothing wrong

with the Wiki. They, they took the trade people

when they, you sneaky little bastards. When they

made the trade, instead of doing a different

cover for the next issue right here, Crosscut

is from issue seven. See, I thought it was previewing

issue eight, or chapter eight, but okay. No,

there's nothing wrong with the wiki. I'm sorry,

I take it back. You don't have to get after McFeely

now. Is that a postman? Where's Mr. Rogers when

you really need him? I bet you he got that a

lot. I'm sure. Alright, so chapter 8 starts,

and we see... I don't think I've seen Bumblebee's

new halt mode until now. Oh, really? Don't remember

it. I don't remember. I've seen I've seen the

robot mode obviously, but I don't remember seeing

his Car mode car mode in the comic I mean I've

seen the gold fire or the gold whatever whatever

the toy was supposed to be but oh fire I believe

gold fire bumblebee or something like that But

Megatron riding bumblebee my favorite parts this

this is one of those moments you just like This

is awesome. I remember opening this up the first

time, I'm like, am I seeing? Is this what I'm

seeing? This is awesome, you know? You know what

this reminded me of? Of the Old Spice commercial,

the very end of it. I am Megatron. Look at your

man. Look back to me. I am Megatron. I'm on a

jet. They need to bring that back, those Old

Spice commercials, really. Really? He did Ice

Bucket Challenge, the Old Spice guy? Yep. Best

Ice Bucket Challenge. I'm not kidding people.

It's funny too. He's sexy, but it's also funny.

Go watch it. It's awesome. So Dark Cybertron

Chapter 8... Wait, I want to talk about that

Old Spice Man stuff. Dark Cybertron Chapter 8

is Burning Bright. So we have the network the

Necro Titan standing around a bunch of fire And

then poor poor Starscream Everything I ever worked

for everything I ever wanted gone and you Making

deals with scoop even as you framed him for sabotage

classic move you wanted to out Starscream Starscream

well The city's yours, Rattrap. I'm done. Er,

hiya, boss! I just... I'm sorry. I love James.

I love John's writing. I can't get past Rattrap

as a Decepticon sympathizer. He's a rat! What

do you expect? He's living up to his name. Next

thing you're gonna tell me is they're gonna bring

in a, um... a, uh... Dark Designs Rhinox. Oh,

they already have Rhinox in here. Oh, spoiler,

if you haven't watched Beast Machines. No, I,

oh yeah, no, I know about that, no. Alright,

another tangent in this god -knows -how -long

podcast. Another tangent here. In Beast Wars,

the episode Dark Designs, Megatron turns him

evil and he turns like this dark green and purple

color and brings out his more... animalistic

side. Sinister, yeah, sinister side. And like,

yeah, that would be kind of cool, but kind of

insane if they introduced that here. But yeah,

no, I knew about Tankor. OK. It is 20 years old.

I think we might be safe. If you haven't watched

it now, people, probably won't. That's... Wait,

seriously? What was it, 95, 96? 96 for Beast

Wars, 99 for Beast Machines. If it's 99 for Beast

Machines... 15 years. Yeah, something like that,

but Jesus Christ, that's when I graduated high

school. Oh my god! I graduated before then, so

shut up. 1985? I am not that old. I am old. I

am not that old. I graduated high school in 95.

Oh, I was 10 years off. No, I was I tell people

I was at that perfect age. when Transformers

and My Little Pony and G .I. Joe, they all came

out. You know, I was seven years old when Transformers

came out. Perfect age. And they suckered me into

it. Yep, they did it. I'm a sucker. All right,

so we get Soundwave, Prowl and the Dinobots.

That's all I'm going to say about that. I'm not.

using names uh and i love um yeah that is to

prowl soundwave and uh everybody else yeah see

starscream has it right everybody else yeah yeah

slag no slug yeah i still do not like that no

i will always call him slag Think most people

will yep So I guess we should get to the meat

of this one where cup has returned Again Yeah,

I do love cup. He's one of those characters that

every time he's around. I just love him The old

fidgety Clint East would want to be got a little

Well the circuits I owed blowing damn wettery

Oh Lord and We also see wind blade here and this

is what I was talking about way back when we

were doing the wind blade series I'm sorry Sarah

Stone is the only person I want to see drawing

drawing and coloring on wind blade and her design

because Wind blade looks horrible here. Well,

you got to understand Again, I hate to mention

these are packing comics with toys. So She has

to look like her toy design. I understand that.

I'm just saying. I know. I'm just repeating.

If they had made the toy to look accurate to

Sarah's designs, I wouldn't have a problem with

it. But the fact that they didn't kind of pisses

me off, too. This was one of those moments where

Hasbro got their fingers into my comics again.

Don't like it. Hasbro, I do like your toys, but

you stay out of the stories. James and John know

what they're doing. Yep. And what other apostles

may be working on this. So we go to wake up Metroplex.

And his eye is going to his right eye is going

to burn bright I Love that look as creepy as

the empty void of his eye was that was all ripped

out last time I Love the bright light coming

out of the dark tunnel. That's awesome He looks

good. This looks good. I I did like this For

people who haven't listened to the Windblade

series, first of all go back and listen to it.

It was awesome. Second of all, Windblade is a

city speaker. She is trying to help heal and

bring Metroplex back to life. So that's her story.

Why is Megatron holding himself? Oh no, I'm sorry,

that's Prowl. That's Prowl. What are you talking

about? It's the second to last page. Sorry. Oh

no, that's Bumblebee holding him. No, no, no,

no. The panel below that, look at Prowl and look

at the gun. It looks like Megatron's. Oh, it

looks like Megatron's gun. Yeah. At first I thought

it was Megatron, but yeah, yeah, Bumblebee is

holding Megatron. Yeah, his upper half. My god.

How is... I know we've talked about this before

on many other podcasts here on the Geocaster

Network, and I understand another podcast and

everywhere else. I understand that the spark

is the lifeblood of the Transformers, but seriously,

it does not look very comfortable for Megatron's

life not having any legs. The thing is, I still

wouldn't mess with them. Megatron could do some

damage, no matter what shape he's in. You know?

I do like his kind of turn here where he says

but first we save everyone we can I kind of like

the trend of them not just the comic creators,

but Hasbro and Well, it's not the hub anymore

because it's We'll talk about that later We'll

do a little podcast on that later. I love the

hub You know, I'm not sure if I'm gonna love

it so much now that they're Transferring back

to I'm sad because one of my favorite Shows pretty

much has no way of coming back now and I was

hoping So no more Fim for you, huh? Huh Fim?

Friendship is magic. Oh No, they people would

be idiots if they got rid of ponies Right now,

okay. No, I'm talking about Dan verses. Oh, I

had three wonderful season. I was hoping it would

come back and I don't think it will be. Go watch

it. It's funny. Love it. All right, so let's

see. Where are we? So we get Megatron and Bumblebee

trying to save everybody. Another big battle.

And the final page for this chapter is Titan

versus Titan. I think that's so cool. Yeah, I

love that picture right there. It really is I

mean Just having Metroplex like BAMF. Yeah. Yeah,

I guess that's what you can BAMF He and he's

just face to face with the Necrotitan. It's awesome.

I Love it, you know, it's Oh go So very awesome

and then the uh the sub cover for this issue

uh was cyclonus's boyfriend you're gonna go you're

gonna go there you're gonna go there what now

um now i remember when i saw this cover for chapter

nine i was confused as all hell why Prime versus

prime. It's a prime problem all over again. I

was so when I saw this cover in the solicits

I was like wait what I? Love it. I love it. I

think I love it. I think it's cool. I Was just

confused as all hell. I was like what is going

on here? But no it is a very very cool cover

done by Casey with Joanna on colors You can obviously

tell it's two very different optimae because

of the color I mean the one on the on the right

on the left is kind of like a orange red on his

most of his body and then the The other one is

is like fire engine red. So it's absolutely an

awesome cover So we pick up with the battle of

the century Titan versus Titan And this splash

page is amazing. It's beautiful, yeah. That's,

again, the titan. Oh, how, it's just beautiful

to see two, two of these guys. I'm a sucker for,

you know, boxing robots. But this, I mean, the

colors and yeah, it's, it's just nice because

you can see, I think, I'm not sure who the jet

is. I'm guessing the Thundercracker because it's

purple, but I'm not sure. That Thundercracker

Skywarp. Skywarp, Thundercracker's on. And I

wonder if they've got Swoop. I just noticed Swoop

is over there. I did not notice Swoop. You can

see just how big these guys are. Yeah. You mentioned

you like giant fighting robots, and all I can

think of is that last page on the previous chapter.

Rock 'em, sock 'em, titans. There's nothing wrong

with that. Nope. Not at all. Alright, so we get

to the battle scene, and we see Hound? See, okay,

this was, again, one of my few issues of the

series. Hound hasn't been mentioned at all. Don't

even can't remember if he was even mentioned

on the last slide In previous issues. I do not

remember hound and I apologize if you guys remember

the I remember the alt cover from one of the

previous issues from where the meets the I had

hound gears and Huffer on it But yeah, all of

a sudden he's an important player yep, and I

I don't know. I don't know. So all of a sudden

he's just thrown in here and I just don't know.

So we go back to the good universe. Oh, I'm sorry.

I mean the dead universe. I know you like the

dead universe. I only like the dead universe

because it's Livio. I love Livio's art. I really

do. I like going back to the dead universe because

I know certain someone's there. We all know you

have an obsession with the giant purple knot

decepticon. And we have Nova versus Orion. And

Nova can shapeshift. Well, Nova pretty much has

the dead universe under his control. And he could

bend it and shape it any way that he likes and

he proves his point right here that he could

even turn himself into other people so he can

deceive other people and Yeah, yeah, it's It's

pretty much what every soap opera evil villain

character wants to be able to do. Yeah And we

get Mean, you know, we see, you know Sentinel

we see Zeta We see Him then turn into optimus

Yeah, that's where we get the cover and it's

awesome. That's yep. That's where we get the

cover and that is amazing Absolutely love that

as I was reading through this on comics ology

the art changes Because it goes, in the guided

view, it goes panel by panel. The art changes

weren't that bad. I still wish we had a whole

comic with just Livio. Well, we do. We have,

we have what? Monstrosity and autocracy and privacy.

Yeah, I understand that. But no, I'm saying like

an entire More Than Meets the Eye issue with

just Livio art. OK, gotcha. Gotcha. Because it

is so good in this. I mean, it is so good. So

we have Prime versus Prime. And we have Orion,

please listen to reason. My name is Optimus Prime.

Woohoo! Here we go. This is what we're talking

about, man. This is what we've been waiting for.

He finally gets out of his emo. No, I'm so sick

of emo prime. And it's just like, finally, you.

Geez. Yeah, finally. Way to go. It's only been

two years. I'm very happy. I am too. I mean cuz

it's like Prime packs prime packs prime packs

then he has everybody, you know, he has to you

know remind everybody Oh, that's not me anymore.

Blah blah blah Yeah, that's what I hate. It was

a constant. Let's throw this. This is not a crime.

It's not prime Oh wait, it's gonna be prime,

you know, let's just make him prime and be done

with it So we go back to side We go back to Cybertron,

where it looks like the lost light appears. This

is page... Damn, the trade doesn't have page

numbers. I know, that's what sucks. It's the

page when we initially go back. It's after he

says, I am Optimus Prime. It's the page as you

turn it. Yeah, I got it. And I swear that looks

like the lost light. How did they get out of

the dead yet? Wait, was the... Oh no, that's

right, the lost light was... The Lost Light wasn't

in the Dead Universe, Optimus and Rodimus were.

Okay. The Lost Light was dealing with the Ammonites.

I'll explain in case people didn't realize this,

too. Because it took me like a couple readings

before, two readings before. I'm like, okay,

the Lost Light, how did it come back to Cybertron?

Because, okay, the Lost Light, you got to remember,

it has Metroplex's thumb in it. So when Metroplex

bamf... everything of Metroplex bamf with him.

So the last light, because it had Metroplex's

thumb, it bamf with him. And it took me the second

reading. I'm like, where did the last light come

from? And so in case you guys didn't understand,

that's where it came from. Easy peasy, right?

Right yeah, because let's let's face it that

that's James ultimate goal is to break our brains

whether it's you know breaking it with with you

know on Just unmentionable things that happen,

or if it's just breaking it with you know things

that happen like rewind actually dying So this

one ends with with shockwave saying We failed.

The Dark Titan has fallen. The prophecy is false.

Nova is gone, and Cybertron's Cybertron does

not want a new Golden Age. Cybertron did not

want the first Golden Age. Galvatron, at this

time, you learned this has never been about restoring

some ancient loyalty to an imagined throne. Years

ago, I seeded the galaxy with 14 ores, each growing

to fruition over the millennia, while not all

of them took root. The rest have returned to

Cybertron. Wait, why? Okay, and Shockwave says

Jhaxxus with a question mark. Why does Jhaxxus

call him Master? Why does Jhaxxus call Shockwave

Master? Yeah, I thought that was the other way

around. I'm not sure. That is a good question.

I didn't even think about it. Well, I guess Shockwave's

in control right now, so... Yeah, pretty much.

I mean, this is all his... It's true. And poor

Whirl, she doesn't have any arms, or hands, or

feet. I saw this cover. When I was getting them

singly, this was the sub cover, and I absolutely

love the sub cover for this because it's basically

showing Whirl what the toy should look like with

that sub cover. And we've got Chapter 10. We

got more Dead Universe stuff. We've got... Oh!

Actually before we get to the universe stuff.

Mm -hmm. I didn't notice this at first because

again blue and red bots standing together Sometimes

they blend for me, but it's finally what he always

wanted. It's a blur and swerve Yes, serving the

masses. Yep, and we're just giving like look

like who are you? Do I am I supposed to know

who you are? absolutely yeah look how happy swerve

is he hasn't been happier oh absolutely no and

you've got like I said swerve blur whirl whirl

and RC or arm wrestling I love that that was

awesome this is probably one of my all -time

favorite world and ladies and gentlemen look

at the look at the cover to chapter two to issue

number two uh... i forget it was this number

ten it's chapter ten so it's issue ten right

but i'm trying to think which 22 plus five would

be twenty seven twenty seven yeah uh... issue

twenty seven is whirl and rc arm wrestling now

think about that for a second yep showdown You've

got the Dinobots there, and Brainstorm, which

apparently Swerve doesn't care that he has his

briefcase in his bar? You gotta remember, Swerve

is in front of Blur. He doesn't care. He just

wants Blur. That's true, that's true. Alright,

so we get the Dead Universe stuff. That's probably

like one of my all -time favorite covers to tell

you the truth. It is, it really is. Anytime they

show swerves or even blurs and they make it look

like cheers, I absolutely love it. I know, it's

just like, I want to go to this bar. Every bot

knows your name. Absolutely amazing. Alright,

so the dead universe stuff happens where Let's

see here Rodimus says as you feared Gorlin Prime

has disappeared. Is that wheelie? It's it's really

And then I'm trying to think is that were you

are you talking about the big splash page? No,

oh Don't know what the second page. Oh, I missed

a page. Sorry. I the second page where or Rodimus

is talking to Yep, maybe yeah come What's with

the rhyme is he talk is he taking the No, that's

just how he speaks. He can't help it. Yeah, so

you don't see Willy, but you hear him. No. Yeah,

yeah, you hear him. Oh, man. And the big splash

page is everybody. It's just everybody. This

is one of my favorite pictures of all time. And

I believe this was on Alex Milne's demon art

page, was it? And you can see everyone, he even

took the boxes, you know, the other panels off.

So you can see everyone that's there. It's great.

It's really good. Yep. We see Skylinx up at the

top right. We see Ratchet. I hate that guy. Oh,

come on. Skylinx is the worst character. Transformers

history and you guys could write hate mail to

me because I want to know Why does people like

this guy? He is the biggest douchebag. I cannot

stand Skylinks I remember when my buddy Michael

Wilson and I were doing a Peek on Michael on

Twitter when we were doing the TFG one podcast.

He says that guy shits guns out of himself because

In G1, he opens up his cargo hatch and all these

guns come out of it. Let's see here. Again, look

at the left -hand side of this page. You see,

not the very bottom, but the middle of the page,

you see Ratchet and Soundwave next to each other.

Wait, there's Ratchet? Oh, there's Soundwave,

okay. Soundwave's right there to his right. Okay,

now I know they're a little bit a little bit

size difference on the two of them but Look at

the two of them. Look at both of their chests

now. Tell me that's not a cassette deck. Okay.

Well Maybe he likes to listen to some good old,

you know classic jams. Yeah Maybe you know, you

know what I gotta say this now. I think one of

the reasons why I like Livio the best out of

this entire run for artist is because his art

is so Simplified it's it's sleek. It's god wreck

our sleek sexy import great It's very sleek.

It's very you it's very uniform and it's very

simple on itself Whereas the art for the rest

of the books are it's just some of it's just

too Too busy. I don't know. See, I might agree

with you some places, but not here. I love this

whole page because... No, I like the page. I'm

talking about just in general, comparing the

two art styles. One of the reasons why I like

Livio's... No, I love this page. I'm not saying

this page is too busy. It's supposed to look

busy because there's everybody there. No, I'm

saying if we go to the next page, the panels

just... There's too much going on and I understand

there has to be a lot going on because it's a

you know, huge event and we're almost at the

end of it and everything else, but it just I

don't know. You don't know? I don't know. I love

it. We get back to the dead universe and let's

see here. Optimus and Eronymous. Enough discussion,

I think. No, just no. Don't even go there. You're

not in any way, shape, or form dying, so that

we don't have to. Nor is Cup, nor is Nightbeat.

Cyclonus, I noticed you didn't say anything.

He's meant a few words. Actually, I was going

to say, I think I can hear something. You know

what? So can I. It sounds like shouting. not

shouting, singing. Aw, and everyone knows that

Cyclonus loves to sing. Yeah, and again, when

to be most fearful of not or even people who

are Decepticons is when they smile, because while

I love Livio's art, that creeps me the hell out.

Oh, he looks beautiful. That creeps me the hell

out. You'd be wrong. I'm just saying it creeps

me out. I'm not saying I don't like it. I'm saying

it just creeps me out So we get we go back to

Cybertron we get shockwave and Metal Hawk who

is apparently now shockwaves bitch It's all this

stuff happening at once and I know that they're

they're trying to wrap this up because we have

One more issue and then the finale Mm -hmm And

I do like the story here. I really do. I think

it's really Really good writing and it's again.

I would love to know I know James and John collaborated

on this, but I would love to know if they like,

or I know they live in two completely different

places, but were they, you know, did they have

each other on Skype the entire time they were

writing and throwing ideas out at each other

or, you know, did they each go off and write

their own issues because these also were single

issues of each ongoing or, because reading and

trade, as much as I love reading it and trade

and just loving reading it all at once. Again,

I have to say I still can't tell who is writing

what ah Like I can't like okay with Rodimus and

cyclonus and the more than meets the eye crew

mm -hmm I I can kind of tell that it's obviously

James because it's that Sometimes it's that really

really sick sense of humor of his but some of

the robots and disguise characters I can't tell

if it's just John doing it or if it's both of

them I Don't know maybe it's just Something I

think they did collaborate fairly well with this.

I'd be interested to ask them, you know, yeah

All right, so So we have We have ultra Magnus

and your new favorite Autobot, I love Dottica

I have to go outside, trouble. Uh, Ultra Magnus,

wait, we already asked him, Metroplex, about

the Knights, weeks ago, when we started looking

after him. I'm interested in these things, seeing

it was the first time we, well, it was too good

an opportunity. And what did he say? What did

he tell you? He wouldn't tell me anything. He

said, dun dun dun, he said none of us deserve

to know. That's kinda true. You think about it,

Metroplex is the wisest Autobot, wisest Cybertronian

of all. I agree. So... We get more Starscream

and... Is that Scoop? Yes. Yeah, that's Scoop.

Scoop's always in the way because he has to tell

the whole world. What's going on and Yeah, you

know starts comes out a big fan of that, but

he'll do just to keep in good with the public

Now this panel I remember this on Comixology

on the next page where it's shockwave at the

top mm -hmm and the fret the fractures go just

like how you would read them left or a I think

this is brilliant because everyone, even though

they're in a different place in the universe,

they're all looking up and they all notice something.

Yep, and then we get to... Wait a second, that's

not bombshell, is it, on the last page? Front

and center. No, that's just one of the... Oh,

that's one of the ammonites. Yeah, and they're

all different sizes. They'll be coming... I like

chapter 10. It's interesting. Like I've said

before in this entire podcast, I'm more interested

in what's going on with the dead universe characters

than I am with what's going on on Cybertron.

And the alternate cover, one of the alternate

covers for this issue was... Poetry, fish, Skyby

themselves. Skyby is awesome. Unlike Skylinx,

who's a douchebag. Really people, I want to know

why Skylinx, you guys like Skylinx. I dated someone

like Skylinx, that's why I hated him. Okay? You'll

never be a favorite. My god, you dated somebody

like Skylinks? Yes, he always had to say, any

time he went out, wasn't that nice of me to do,

to do, I'm just like, I hate you. Hence why we're

not together. Wow. Did they? Alright, so we're

at chapter 11. This is the penultimate chapter

before the finale. Did IDW change this cover?

Which one the death of the hero nope because

I have this one right, but I Swear when they

released the I don't think it was solicits They

they put an image on Facebook, and then I saw

a completely different image it didn't it's it

All as they changed was the word instead of saying

death of a hero. It said fall of a hero No, it's

a death. I'm pretty sure Okay, well either way

I am pretty sure about that No, I'm saying that

yes, it did say death, but then I'm asking I'm

pretty sure that there was one image somewhere

that basically just changed death to fall of

a hero because You know Hasbro toy company death

is not something that they want to talk about

you know and and we'll get to it Okay, because

I remember when this came out, everyone was trying

to guess who was going to die. I did not hear

anyone guess who actually died because they're

just like Hasbro wouldn't do that. You were wrong.

Yeah. So we'll get to that here shortly. Oh,

yeah. And I assume because it's a giant Autobot

symbol when I when I first saw them like oh Optimus

or Rodimus or Bumblebee or one of the Autobots

is gonna get it alright so we start out on I

in I at icon and apparently this is Several months

ago, so they'll be starting we're starting out

this issue with a flashback. Yeah, let's start

with brainstorm We'll announce this is like the

one book that's all done by one artist Mm -hmm.

That's just like so that I like that. That's

kind of nice Absolutely So we get the full -on

splash page of Metroplex iron hide the ammonites

and Yep, there's Whirl. Who else is on here?

RC? I don't think that's... No, that's wrong

at the bottom. Okay, you got Swerve, you got

RC, you got Whirl, Jetfire, and Metroplex. You

got Cosmos in his UFO form. You got Slag there.

Yeah, I'm looking at the bottom, the middle section,

right to the left of Black Planet. Is that wrong?

I assume that's wrong, because I can tell that.

Right next to the title. Oh, yeah. OK, yeah.

That's wrong. So the title is, like, Black Planet.

Isn't that an old website? Ah, who knows? There's

a website for everything these days. Yeah. So.

Love that splash page though seeing that that

giant battle splash. That's that's awesome We

get to the lost light again And Ultra Magnus

hell's bells they're everywhere Only ultra Magnus

could get away with a line like that his ultra

Magnus is awesome I'm just glad they gave him

a really cool origin in this series versus Hey,

I'm just a white repaying of optimus Ultra Max

is awesome. That's right So we see shockwave

he's enacting his ultimate plan that apparently

nobody knows about And he's going to basically

turn the universe into nothingness. Why am I

flashing to a Jason Lee character in a Kevin

Smith movie? Shockwave is Asriel. I guess they

have a lot of similarities, I should say. They're

both turning the universe into nothingness. That's

the exact same plot in both characters So we

go to Megatron Outside of Metroplex talking to

Soundwave. Oh, this is months ago. Okay. Yeah,

this is a flat Yeah, no, I I get it and I like

it because it is a flashback, but I'm like, hey,

wait a second Why is that the war mode? for sound

wave and I'm like I think that's cool that they

work that in but like wait a second that's not

sound wave but it is it's his it's his old alt

mode or his old um body design I like it I love

it I thought it was great um I was I was halfway

waiting for the artist to draw in this the the

boombox form of that alt mode um so like How

many different bodies do these characters have?

Like, everybody has a different body. I think

the only ones that haven't had a different body

are people like Swerve, Rung. Well, Prowl got

an upgraded body when he got taken over by Bombshell.

He became Prowlestator. Let's see... Ultra Magnus

had, you know... Minimus Ambus and the Ultra

Magnus Armor. Uh, I think the only character

that probably didn't have a different body than

what they have now is probably Rodimus. Maybe

Cyclonus. Uh, Cyclonus is... well, I guess he

really hasn't changed, yeah? No. Not unless he's

gonna change back into shrapnel. Well, I mean,

his... his look has changed. I mean, his... He

hasn't really done an official change, but his

look has changed with his horns and stuff Mm

-hmm. Oh, no. Yeah, but I'm saying like Completely

these characters have Completely did like sound

wave in the past. He has a completely different

body than what he has now. I like it I'm not

complaining about it. I'm just saying that I

think it's a little I Think it's a little interesting

that they all had different Bodies that you know

at the time compared to what they have now. Yeah

so Devastator versus Metroplex that's a no contest

all Devast all his Metroplex got to do is just

stomp on Devastator with his fist. I mean look

at that Well, you've got to try it. They've got

to try it. Yeah, just Think of it this way, Metroplex

is the big show and Devastator is John Cena.

Oh lord, I have made so many references in this

podcast. It happens. I know. That's alright.

So we get to the big fight and I gotta say I'm

really digging the art overall. The story is

flowing very nicely. Oh, Bumblebee. Well, I know.

Once you give a bot a faceplate, he doesn't need

to not have a faceplate. It's not, like, I can

see if with his new body mold they, okay, they've

teased him about being Goldbug, but they haven't,

he didn't actually change his name. They still

called him Bumblebee. Yeah. I don't know this

is one of my pet peeves one of the small pet

peeves I have when it comes to transformers Sometimes

they like it sometimes they don't you know Yep,

that's why they took his face blade off because

Yeah did not see that coming really And if you

look at the the trade on the Panel right below

that I'm actually rotating it to my left The

fire that's coming out of his mouth if only it

was coming out of his eyes a little bit more

it would be prowl from 86 So bumblebee is dead

yeah, honestly because bumblebee is like the

character I don't care who you are. Everyone

knows who Bumblebee is. He's been the main focus

of Transformers since the 2007 movie came out.

And I never thought that Hasbro would actually

have killed him off. And he's dead. We've contacted

people. Yeah, he's dead. It's crazy to think

that. He does come back though, doesn't he? No,

he hasn't been back. He's not back. He's not

back. That's right. That's right. Oh my god.

He is gone. They've gone, because right now,

as of this recording, issue 33 just came out

of more than meets the... Well, of... Has RID

33 come out already this month? It comes out

tomorrow. Oh, well, that would be you. Yeah,

I mean We're 33 issues into the both ongoings

and the writ ongoing so they went They wouldn't

they're about six issues in of no bumblebee Wow

Yeah, holy crap because Some some podcasts asked

if they have they don't have any plans for bumblebee

in the future in the comics, not right now at

least. So, for all you Bumblebee fans out there,

I'm sorry. I'm one of them. I love Bumblebee.

I really do. I guess we don't have to worry about

his bumble baggage anymore. But see, I think

people, kind of like when Megatron and Optimus

were out of the picture for a while. They just

they just want to give the spotlight to someone

else, you know, but he's gonna be in the new

cartoons Yeah, they'll bring him back next year

He may he may he may not be in the rest of the

comics for the rest of the 2014 But as soon as

that I mean, it's the same thing there was spider

-man soon as a new movie comes out Oh, hey, we

gotta bring Peter back Peter Parker back from

the dead Nobody knows about Doc Ock is Spidey.

Alright, so we get to the penultimate page here

Pax? No, but close. I love this final page. This

is the team that we need to see more often of

Rodimus, Cup, Optimus, and Cyclonus. I would

love this. Look, they're all smite - well, Cyclonus

isn't. Cyclonus never - well, he smiled earlier

and that just creeped me the hell out. Because

he likes to sing. He loves to sing. One of the,

I believe this was either the sub or one of the

alternate covers was Cosmos. That's a character.

I don't understand why people have so much love

for him. Cosmos? No, I'm not saying I dislike

him. I'm just saying, like, out of all the characters,

I'm wondering, like you're wondering why people

likes, like... Ha! Wow, I'm glad I didn't finish

that sentence. Everyone likes Cyclonus. Again.

I'm glad I didn't finish that sentence. You're

wondering why people like Skylinks. I mean, I

like Cosmos. I think he's a cool character. And

I am caught up. I have read up to 32, so I've

got to catch up on the most recent issues. So

we get the finale. The layouts are done by Phelan

Menes, pencils by Brendan Cahill, inks by Brian

Shearer, and the colors are done by Josh Perez

and letters by Tom B. Long. This was one of the

covers that I absolutely loved. Casey does an

amazing shockwave. That is pretty. It is pretty,

I will admit. This is the... Only time I like

the war for Cybertron, or fall of Cybertron,

whatever the hell, you know what I mean. The

only time I like the game design gun on Shockwave

is this cover. So the battle, wait, what does

that say? Oh, I see what they did there. Cybertron,

past, present, and future. And it's X'd out,

end of time, dun dun dun. Poor Whirl. I feel

ya, poor Whirl, but he gets it coming for him,

come on. No, I know. Yeah, I mean, I just...

so hard for me to not compare world to a certain

person we know because everything he is saying

right there in that middle panel is something

that that person would say but they're so evenly

matched god I can hear her in my head get out

get out all right so the next page we get Sorry,

Amy. We love you. Oh, God. It's just... Okay,

next page we get... I mean, before we went down

fighting while the universe dies around us, and

we get a really, really cool battle scene. Really

cool. Yeah, it is. I mean you see Metroplex you

see the lost light You see See RC you see obviously

world Wrong Rome's always in the center of every

yeah you what he he's proven to be a badass these

days. I tell you Love that book. That's a beautiful

look for run. Yeah, absolutely And this is kind

of you know the end of the beginning of the end

to quote the Smashing Pumpkins That's a that's

a old reference right there That's like a 1999

like a y2k reference Oh god. That's R .E .M.

I know, I know. You know, James always talks

about the more than meets the eye soundtrack.

That's the song that should play when people

read this final chapter of Dark Cybertron. It's

the end of the world as we know it. There you

go. So we get shockwave and Megatron and says

you provided me the resources to make my oars

Megatron and your war for what you did call it

Freedom your war allowed them to grow unnoticed.

So now you destroy the universe shockwave. You

have gone mad I destroyed nothing because the

universe I caused the universe to have never

been save as fuel for Cybertron Eternal, a Cybertron

of rote existence, no struggle, no change, no

history, no life. Precisely, I created paradise.

Yeah, Shockwave's a little crazy. Shockwave's

a little more off his rocker than even Whirl

is. Shockwave, yeah, he's not in the best of

a... Yeah. But I love the guy. He's awesome.

Oh, I do too. I mean, absolutely. I was half

hoping James and John to throw in one of, you

know, the old Beast Wars speeches. I am Alpha.

I am Omega. I was really half... So yeah, overall,

the art for this final chapter is just stunning.

It's beautiful. It's great. The color of this,

well, you feel like you're right into it. And

the whole characterization of Megatron, it's,

yeah, it's amazing. So refreshing. Oh, it is.

So great. I mean, because you have Megatron basically

fighting for survival, because usually he's the

one Doing stuff to take over the world or to

you know to win You know his war all that But

this this giant splash page was shockwave in

the middle that lost light on the left Metroplex

on the right. Oh That's so good Great so many

beautiful things. Yeah, that splash page is beautiful

Um, absolutely. Let's see. We go to, uh, let's

see. We go to, uh, Rattrap talking to, uh, uh,

I almost said Scally. Damn scene! Why do you

get it? Rattrap's talking to Starscream. You

don't insult Starscream like that. Not in my

presence. Star links, I can see it now. Oh God,

don't. Rattrap is talking to Starscream. And

basically they're saying we've got to stop this

from happening. Next one is... Optimus vs Shockwave

is cool. But it looks weird, because usually

it's Optimus versus Megatron or Optimus versus

Galvatron, or hell, even Rodimus versus Galvatron.

That's something I would love to see in this

series, Rodimus versus Galvatron. That would

be awesome. Who knows? Who knows? You never know.

What are you thinking so far? I'm thinking we

need to talk about the big elephant in the room

of this issue. And this is what ticked me off

is early solicitations. Because there's a big,

huge game changer for the future of comics. And

that's when, spoiler alert, Megatron decides

to brand an Autobot emblem on him. While reading

this issue It would have been great if I didn't

know about that Because the way that he did it

was beautiful, you know, you're just like what?

Wait time out because like some people I know

They don't read the comics but kind of tell them

what's going on. Oops. Sorry. My mic just went

crazy and I told him yeah, maybe trans autobot

now. They're like what's What's going on? And

I'm just like exactly So I kind of wanted to

have that surprise again, but because of our

release solicitations, I was kind of spoiled

on that. Yeah. Well, that's the one thing, that's

the downside about solicits is if you want to

know the info, as far as like when it's coming

out and what it's going to look like, you can

go ahead and find it if you want. But if you

want to be spoiler free, there's no guarantee

that a solicit cover will not spoil you. And

they really, you know, they're after the dark

solicits. Really did spoil a lot of stuff. You

know, you've got Optimus on RID. You've got Megatron

on More Than Meets the Eye. You know, you've

got Windblade in her own series. You know. It's

just it was just crazy. But yeah, I mean so Megatron

switches sides And this is the trend honestly

like right now in 2014 between 2011 and now this

is the trend Megatron You know, you look at Transformers

Prime Beast Hunters. You look at the Predacons

Rising movie. At the end of it, Megatron was

sick of the fighting. He was sick of the war,

and he just walked away. And he said, hey, look,

we're not going to do this, Optimus Prime. We're

just not. I've lost my taste for being the warmonger

that I was. And that's been the trend. I mean,

obviously, you don't count that. Strange live

-action universe, but you know, it's in every

other piece of transformative medium outside

of the movies the live -action movies that's

been the trend and Hey again, it's something

that is going to bring people in like Megatron

is not what the hell is going on here I mean

what is you know, that's not what I know that's

you know thirty years of transformers knowledge

you just blew my brain in two seconds of showing

me an autobot symbol on a gun. Okay, well, most

autobots have guns and not so they have autobots,

but you know what I mean. And I think it's a

character building thing for Megatron. I love

it. I thought it was great. I mean, yeah, you're

right. It did spoil you on it, but... I just

wish I could have gone into it without... It's

just one of those things you're just like, oh,

that would have been so good to not know. Yeah,

not knowing is not half the battle. So Megatron

is an Autobot. And he says, shockwave, you hold

the universe on all time and space in the palm

of your hand, but I am holding something greater.

Once this symbol represented our oppressors,

the corrupt primes and complicit senators who

forced us to follow our function, to live and

die according to our class, to serve. You stood

against them, and in retaliation they twisted

you into an unfeeling, uncaring creature. It

has taken me until now to realize they did exactly

the same to me by letting me destroy them. this

symbol belongs to bumblebee my friend bumblebee

he fought for freedom an honest freedom inspired

by a prime unlike any that had come before hi

Megs nice to meet you yeah you think my life

has been dedicated to fighting this badge but

no more as of today I'm a different person and

if I can change so can you Then a big tune to

Autobot Megatron. Mm -hmm I really do like that

panel of him. I I think it's great. I don't think

the only thing is This symbol it looks like it's

a piece of paper. Yeah, you gotta think he ripped

it off of bumblebee Yeah, but if you go back

and you look at bumblebee even in his Oh lord,

where where is bumblebee? Where did he he died

in death of a hero? Okay, no, I was gonna complain

about the background color But I just looked

at it and it is it is it is the white see I thought

it I'm thinking of old bumblebee. I'm thinking

of bumblebee that has G1. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah But

no that that's amazing Poor Optimus, where is

he going to put the matrix? His glass is shattered.

Optimus is used to dying and recreating himself.

If there's a person that's used to getting upgraded

and stitched up, it's Optimus. I love the last

lines here. No, we're trying to help you gain

control, and this is Megatron, and then Prime

says, of yourself, or... of your past, of the

person you were, because you do remember who

you were, don't you, Senator Shockwave? BALL!

That panel, the two, the one eye and then the

other, oh god, so good! Ugh, so good. Um, and

then... We get a scene on the next page that

kinda reminds me of poor Ironhide. No such foolish

nonsense. Megatron holding the fusion cannon.

Oh yeah. It reminds me so much of that picture.

Oh god. But it's, it's, oh. You okay? They pull,

no I am. I'm just now looking because I didn't

look at the top of the page and now I am. They

pulled a War Machine Iron Man move from Iron

Man 2. Optimus and Megatron are at opposite ends

of Shockwave and they fire upon him just like

Iron Man and War Machine did on Whiplash and

Iron Man 2. Good stuff there. Oh lord. Alright,

so where do we go from here? The Lost Light.

Anyone order a last -minute rescue? Only Rodimus

can say lines like that. And we see Galvatron

who is becoming the new leader of the Decepticons.

What are your thoughts of... This ending here.

I think it's a good ending, but it's one of those

ones. It's just like ah It makes you want to

go read the the series Oh series again, you know

Continue on with it because it still leaves you

with some questions, but not enough to say You

know, this is a complete waste of my time now

knowing that Megatron the Autobot is amazing

You know, to me, that's the amazing part about

this whole series. You know, and for the longest

time, I thought Cyclonus was going to die, besides

that. So, yeah, I thought it was very well done.

I like the ending. To see Megatron and Optimus

there walking together like they've been best

buds forever, you know, I kind of like it. I

kind of like it. What about you? I like it. I

think it's interesting. I don't think they're

gonna, well, obviously we talked about Bumblebee

and he's not coming back for a while. Not for

a while. I'm pretty sure Bumblebee will be back

eventually. Yeah. Shockwave, I don't know if

Shockwave is going to show back up in IDW and

if he does, it's going to be a while, but if

he does, my question would be what would be his

goal? because i mean if you look at if you look

at this event this was his plan from the beginning

i mean when we first saw him way back in more

than meets the eye nine through eleven or whenever

the shadow play and all that stuff you know happened

this was his plan for millennia you know for

multiple millennia and he failed they killed

him supposedly But I mean, you know, it's one

of those things where if they bring him back,

what could they have him do next that would basically

trump nearly returning the universe to nothing?

I honestly don't know. Good question. I'm not

sure. Any any final thoughts? No, just go and

enjoy it. It's a really good read. It's easier

to read in trade form than it was because there

was a couple of slow issues there Like I said

the way that you bite it up. I didn't like it,

but reading it in trade is definitely a lot better

Absolutely reading trade is so much more enjoyable

the wind blade cover. What? That was Alex. Yeah,

I figured it would be Alex. I'm looking at the

gallery at the back of the book after the...

Oh, I love the one with the three girls. I tried

to find that one and I could not find it anywhere.

Well, now you have it because you have the trade.

You won't have it singly, but at least you have

it. I just love that. Yeah, so good absolutely

so good all right. We're gonna take a Quick break.

I know this has been a long episode, but we're

gonna take a quick break. Well. It's 12 issues

people Yeah Yeah It's not like we're trying to

cram four issues into an hour and a half This

is 12 issues, so I'm gonna take a quick break

come back with final rating on the arc overall

and we're also gonna ask some questions and some

other stuff. We'll be back after this. Now for

a behind -the -scenes look at GeekCast Radio

Network's newest show, Talking in Circles. So,

Chuck, Greg, what are you guys thinking for this

week's show? Well, Dan, how about we just talk

about the things that we've read or watched this

week? We do reviews like that every week, Chuck.

How about a game like Factor Fiction or The Power

of Names? Those are great, and we're always coming

up with new ideas for games. And how about some

top 5s? You know how I love my top 5s. What about

tournament -style brackets, or sequel reboot

and destroy, who will win in a fight, taking

too far, crazy but true news, or... Yes, it appears

we have lots of things to work on. Listen to

Talking in Circles. Taking timeless topics in

new directions. Every Tuesday on iTunes or GeekCastRadio

.com. The GeekCast Radio Network. Hey Dan, who's

the guy with the creepy voice? It's action. It's

drama. It's comedy. It's Decian, the superhero

webcomic. Decian's got superhero antics and sexy

girls. Read it now at Decian .com. D -A -S -I

-E -N dot com. Beck, I'm better than ever! look

at this new paint job! I've gone beyond being

just plain old bumblebee, I'm a gold bug! Alright,

we are back, and so originally I had asked our

good friend Lady Rek to put up some talking points

for us. She didn't have time to do that, but

we had kind of talked about in the beginning

of this episode about bringing the whole ongoing

tracks together. You know... This was because

this was the first big event crossover. My question

would be is we're now currently about to hit

issues 33 for each title What? How long do you

think like it took them? 22 issues to get to

a crossover from issue 33 to how long do you

think it'll take them to get to the next big

event? Um, I it took them okay because they split

up More than me see on robust and disguise it

was two years and then they did it I would be

surprised if it was another two years Okay So,

yeah, that would be that would be interesting

I wonder what the next big thing is gonna I know

coming up Has Amy showed you any solicits from

next spring at all? Mm -hmm. Have you heard about

the construction? Yeah, I've heard about them.

Okay. Oh no, it's Combiner Wars. I know that's

the next big kind of thing they're going to be

doing. I have been reading One of the meets that

I'm robust in disguise, I am caught up to issue

32. I need to get 33. We may - 33 is so good!

It almost made me cry, people. Almost. It was

a cyclonus tailgate thing. But it's up there.

Oh, it wasn't a cyclonus. I thought it was. No,

it wasn't. Okay. I think because of Miss Amy

and her impending reclet, I think you and I are

both going to be doing... robots in disguise

and one of these how I'm going to do it is we're

going to do what we've been doing with the turtles

books from IDW where unless it's like a mini

series or some special event we'll do two issues

per podcast that's been working out with the

turtles books for Joe and I where we talk about

two issues per podcast and those usually end

up being in hour, hour and a half, maybe less,

so I think that's the way we're going to go for

the future of the Transformers IDW coverage on

the pull bag. I do know that in the future Steve

Megatron has said he wants to cover the Marvel

stuff and some other stuff on the pull bag. I

don't know when that's going to happen. How would

you compare this to, now I'm asking you this

and I'm not going to answer the question because

I've only read IDW, but how would you compare

Dark Cybertron to other big major events in Transformers

comics? In Transformers comics? Yeah. Oh, I'm

trying to think of when there was the last like

big huge crossover, I don't remember, there's

been events, oh no! Oh, I just had a brain fart

because it was so awful. I wanted to never think

about it again. Chaos? No. Chaos! I take chaos

over Transformers and Avengers. Oh, jeez! It's

bad enough they cross X -Men and Avengers, but...

That was... That never... Ever ever ever should

have happened. There was one really good cover

and that was Megatron and spider -man that is

the only redeeming thing about that crossover

the only redeeming thing because God I wanted

all the Avengers die as well as most of the transformers

Oh, I forgot that just popped in my head. I'm

like, well, I can't think of being really cross.

Oh, that was horrible. That was bad. You know

what? And well, infestation happened too. And

I really liked that. I personally liked it because

it was zombies and vampires crossing over with

with also like with Ghostbusters and stuff. I

really enjoyed it. That crossover did have some

problems. But with this crossover, it's kind

of nice because it did have a purpose from the

beginning with the death of Optimus Prime. And

so it's a full circle. So they split up and then

they've come back together. I think it worked

out fairly well. Yep. And now they've split off

again. Yep. Yep. Which is fine. It's just fine.

Yeah. No, that's the way I think these two books,

as long as they keep going. as ongoing. That's

the way I think they need to be. I will say that

I was, and we've kind of already talked about

this when we did the Windblade stuff, but I will

say that when Windblade showed up as beat like

Optimus and Ridd was on Earth, More Than Meets

the Eye was in space, and then there was Windblade

on Cyber. Like, I was really hoping Windblade

would be a third ongoing that could... Just solely

take place on Cybertron and deal with those characters

on Cybertron or maybe go between Cybertron and

her other her original planet You know, but with

John saying that oh read is gonna go between

Cybertron and earth and Okay, that's that's fine.

I I gotta say folks I'm interested in looking

forward to reviewing the two issues at a time

coming up, but I'll say both written more than

meets the eye from 28 on I just have not been

able to hold the same enjoyment, and I think

it's not the story, it's not the writing, it's

not the art, it's the character switch -ups.

That's what's bugging me about them. So, I don't

know. Overall, as an event, how would you rate

Dark Cybertron 0 to 5 stars? Well, when I first...

first read this, I think I gave it a three and

a half. But that's because I read it one issue

at a time. Knowing that I've read it in trade

format, it was a lot better for me, I would say.

Just because it doesn't have the splitting off

part at an inconvenient time. I think I gave

it a three and a half. 3 .5 before I'm going

to give it a four. I think I think it was a really

good solid issue. Plus to get some big events.

Like I said, a lot of people are like, oh, you

don't have to read Dark Cybertron, you know,

and I'm just like, there's a lot of things happen.

Bubblebee died and Megatron's a Autobot. Those

are two major things. Of course, you eat that's

like in the last two issues of it. But you kind

of Yeah, I think it was very well written the

prop the biggest problem I had was all the different

artists. I still have that problem. All the different

artists. The whole thing with Livio and the Dead

Universe, awesome. That was brilliant. That was

one of the best parts about the art. But when

you talk, I mean, they should have, if they wanted

to do something, they should have one artist

on the lost light and one artist on Cybertron,

one artist in the dead universe, which is Libya,

you know, um, they should have kept it at that

three artists max. None of the seven changing

it up, you know, that's where my, the biggest

fault is to me is artwork. Not saying that all

the art was horrible. It was just. Not pleasing

to the eye to see it constantly change Yeah,

I mean yeah, I agree. I mean the constant changes

were just Honestly I wish it was Livio doing

it all I know that would you would have killed

that man, but honestly seriously Every single

all 12 issues all Livio. No, I see it to me.

I disagree with that because Livio has that,

like I said, he is perfect for the dead universe.

He's perfect for flashbacks. But when it's when

it's a big wartime thing, I like to see I'm going

to say I like Alex's stuff. I'm used to Alex's

work or or even bring back Roach. But that's

not going to happen. He's with Marvel now. Hoity

toity for me. You know, so no, it's. It's just

to me. It's what's pleasing to me But I don't

think I'd like to see the whole thing done by

libio that might have I just like him in the

Debbie words just because I think it fits But

you went that's fine, you know, cuz that's what

makes this great. We both have our own opinions

I Mean I like Alex's art. I don't dislike it,

but I thought that was kind of the whole I mean

How much of this was him? Not a whole lot, because

I think he was doing stuff post Dark Cybertron.

Casey, Casey Collier. I'm not exactly sure how

to say your name, Casey, but I love just about

every single one of his covers. Why is this guy

doing issues? I know. If Casey would do... The

issues that would be amazing. That would be awesome.

So All right. We are gonna get out of here. It's

been a long episode. So Coming up next we've

got Episode 87 is going to be DC Universe versus

Masters of the Universe Good old dork. Good old

dorko And then episode 88 is going to be our

first ever top 20 countdown here in the pull

bag. Our top 20 favorite comic characters. Coming

up in October we've got... Oh my gosh, that would

be horrible. I would not be able to... What?

Just 20? Our top 20? Yeah. That would be hard.

Aw, come on. You already know who your number

one's gonna be. I mean, it's not like you...

That's easy. I know what number two is easy.

But I mean, oh man, you're talking all comics?

Yeah, in general. Wow. And then the first week

in October, we are going to have two giant -sized

episodes released in week one. Giant -sized episode

89 and 90 are going to be our top favorite comic

series, top 20 favorite comic series. Top 20

favorite individual comics and then episode 91

and 92 are top 20 favorite comic writers and

top 20 favorite comic artists Also in October

it will be Masters the universe 2013 ongoing

issues number 7 and 12 the what lies within arc

and Then it may or may not be Gotham Central

for episode 94 95 giant size. I'm not sure yet

Then Joe and I are gonna come back in the third

week with giant size 96 97 with turtles and time

issues one through four and issues 37 and 38

of the IDW series episode 98 in the fourth week

of October is going to be the Comic adaptation

of angels smile time And then episode 99 is going

to be Batman Beyond 10 ,000 clowns and Batgirl

Beyond from DC I have written down here that

episode 100 of The Pullback will be the death

and return of Superman. I'm not sure if that's

gonna stick. And then episode 101 is gonna be

Batman the Long Halloween, which will air on

Halloween. There you go. So that's what's coming

up through the end of September and begin all

of October. Where can the people interact with

you online? Well, you could interact with me

on Twitter at BeatlesDiva. that's beetles like

the band not the bug and pretty much you can

find anything if you just google beetles diva

like the band not the book i'm on facebook twitter

you can see i need to update my blog pretty much

anything if you're out of transformers form though

i'm m hailstorm that is my transformer's name

and dang it when are they going to get a female

decepticon named hailstorm that's what i want

Well, we had, uh... What's your name? They had

a toy. Well, they had... No, the... Oh, slipstream?

Slipstream, yeah, slipstream. It's not the same.

And those were my favorite colors, too. I'm just

like... That should be named Halestorm right

there. I see you frequent the stevenking .com

message boards. I do. Why? Well, you said Google

your name, so I Googled it. I can talk a lot

of Dark Tower stuff. Oh, Lord. Okay. Yeah, that's

a whole nother obsession, people. I've got my

three main obsessions in life. I got my Beatles,

I got my Transformers, and I got my Dark Tower.

All right. Make your greatest game in the comics,

and we will catch you next time. Aloha. You just

heard the latest episode of The Pull Bag, GCRN's

comic book review podcast. There are several

ways to get in touch with us and need 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.

You can send us an email, feedback at geekcastradio

.com. Follow us on Twitter at Geekcast Radio.

So until next time, unleash the geek in you.