Transformers Windblade Combiner Wars Review

Hi, this is Margaret Scott, the first female

writer in Transformers Comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Welcome to The

Pull 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

Pull Bag. Oh my gosh, this is so great! Call

me Lord This is going to be juicy Hello bonjour

hola and aloha to you good listeners and welcome

to the crossover review teams of the under base

and the geek cast radio network Show the poll

bag as we bring you the latest in the big box

mashup to like the bash brawl and tussle about

I am your host Nicole aka hailstorm and with

me. I have a lovely group of people who enjoy

a good fight First off, we have the lady whose

favorite dish to serve is Soylent Green, but

for some reason she keeps on forgetting the secret

ingredient. Say hello to Amy, aka Lady Rek. How

are you? Okay, that sounds pretty good. Please,

Sylva, you've seen Soylent Green. I unfortunately

have not, but I shall. Go and do the homework

after this and figure that out. I'm sure you

at least know what the secret ingredient is.

The secret ingredient is, uh, people. Yeah. Spoiler

alert on a 40 year old show. Yeah, I haven't

seen it, but I already have the spoilers in my

head. So there you go. So wait, are you telling

me she's really Jasmine from Angel? Something

like that. Next we have the lady who likes to

take us on long adventures, but only to find

out she's looking for her childhood sled And

finally, we have the man who spent weeks in Inception,

and he knows the truth, but that won't stop him

from searching for his ruby slippers. Say hello

to TFGO and Mike. I really hate that first movie

you mentioned. Inception? I can't stand that

damn movie. I like it because Tom Hardy actually

uses his voice instead of this made -up rap.

And the whole Orson Welles thing, the first thing

I thought of was John Noble from Prime. What

is this I sense the taint of Primus? Well, we

need to hire you to do intros on everybody now.

I'm glad you enjoy my intros. You know, they're

the one thing that I probably do, right? I was

just thinking about some old movies. I'm like,

oh, this would be good. This will be good. Alright,

well, we're not here to talk about classic movies,

even though I could go on. We should be. Oh yeah.

I'll talk Citizen Kane and Soylent Green. But

we're here to review Combiner Wars Part 5, the

Windblade Edition. That sounds exclusive, doesn't

it? It does, almost. Sounds like a perfume. Yeah,

this is Windblade number three overall. So this

is written by Maggard Scott, a story by Maggard

Scott and John Barber. Pencils by Marcela Ferrer

and Corrin Howell. Corrin is new to this issue,

so that's good. He also does inks. Oh, Corrin's

a girl. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So she also does

inks along with Brian Shearer and John Wyckoff.

Colors by Yamishi. Is that how you say it? Yamiche?

I think so. I think so. Yeah. Coordination phases

by Thomas Deer. And of course, letters by Tom

Belong, who we love, and editor John Barber.

We also have special thanks here to Hasbro's

Clint Chapman, Heather Hopkins, Jerry, Jovin,

Joshua Lam, Ed Lane, Mark Weber, and Michael

Kelly for their assistance in this issue. We

start off here. with a jingle jingle jingle nicely

sorry that was just a little alarm to let me

know it's time to call it a night oh no so before

we get to the covers this whole background thing

here on the very top above the authentic transformers

logo All's I can think of is how they did this

because it took me a while for my eyes to adjust

to the hot pink mess that's behind the light

lettering. All's I can think of is Phineas and

Ferb and Dr. Doofenshmirtz saying to the monkeys,

no, don't put the reds in with the white wash,

it will turn into a whole pink mess. That's gonna

look better in the real print though. Yeah. It

looks horrible on the PDF. I like, I really,

I had to zoom in almost all the way to be able

to read who's on this issue. Oh, really? I have

a problem. Well, you don't have my crappy eyesight.

So yeah, we do have that on the top. We also

have three covers here. We have our regular cover

of Prowl. Looking like yeah, I'm in charge. You're

gonna do this if you like it or not Artwork by

Casey Collier Collier Casey Collier that right?

Collar. Yeah, I always want to put the eye in

there. I don't know why Casey Coller Collars

by Joanna Laquente. I love her name. I love saying

your name for some reason Okay, a subscription

cover which is the second half to the one that

that was And then we also have a retail incentive

cover, which is courtesy of Hasbro. I wish they'd

stop doing that. This is someone's art. I want

to know who it is. I'm pretty sure that it's

Sarah Peter Durachet's company that does it and

it's Marcelo. I hope I'm saying his last name,

Mattere's... Mattiere, you mean? Yeah, that guy.

I need to find him and be like, how do you say

your last name? Because I've been messing it

up for years now. I think he did the lines and

she or her company did the colors. OK, cool.

Well, it's Optimus Maximus. Which is a silly

name. Yeah. Hey, it's better than Nexus Maximus.

No, that is an awesome name. That is an awesome

name. Do not Google that, people. Oh, do I? No,

Google that. Have a good time with it. And you

can take that literally and figure it out. Don't

know what we're talking about, folks. Just keep

going. Yeah. Just let you know. Let's not send

people to Google things that are bad. I was going

to say, Underbase does not endorse the Googling

of this. But Amy does. Anyways, Mike, which cover

would you prefer out of these three glorious

works of art? Livio's. First of all, Initially

when I got the when I saw the the solicits for

this issue I Hated all three covers when I first

saw them because number one Hardly if any of

them have wind blade in them at all. Why have

her name on the book if she can't be on the damn

cover Makes no sense wait, it just I don't know

but Now that I'm looking at him and looking back

on it, Livio's art is what I like the best. All

right. What about you, Heather? I actually hardcore

love the Prowl one, or at least I did until I

noticed the disco background. I thought I was

like, crap. They've turned to Casey turned Prowl

into Austin Powers. Casey turned Prowl into Dr.

Evil. Because I just, you know, got finished

reading more than the ECI, I'm just picturing

Prowl teleporting into the disco dance part with

the enigma and being like, let me show you how

to party. For some reason, I never picture those

words coming out of Prowl's mouth. But honestly,

though, I really love that cover. I think it's

beautiful. I mean, there's been a lot of awesome

covers lately, but I really like that one. It's

beautiful and it packs a good kind of like, oh

crap, Prowl's got the thingy. He knows how to

use it. Be wary of his thingy. Sorry. What about

you, Amy? Are you going for his seed? Oh my gosh.

Again, people, I could not be accountable for

anything said after midnight. Okay, I'm trying

to be mature about this, but damn. You realize

who you're talking to? I know, I know. gosh we

only lasted 10 minutes before we started really

going down the road oh my goodness okay so uh

the hasbro one seems like a major spoiler point

to me if you haven't read the issue be like what

yeah so i i'm definitely not going to pick that

one um i like the the idea the levio one sadly

i i'm I'm not seeing the other side of it because

I don't have that PDF with me. I'd like to see

the whole thing. So I'm like, when I'm only seeing

half of it, which is still nice, but I'm sure

it's probably somewhere, but I'm like, you know,

lazy and I'm not going to look it up right this

second. The thing about it is that it's a repeat

of, I mean, they used like a zoomed in version

of that same piece of art for every cover. And

I'm like, nice. Oh, okay, so here, does the other

side have the other two combiners? Yes. Yeah,

gotcha. I like that. That's a pretty cool idea,

but I'd want to see the whole thing rather than

just half. But like, it'd be really cool if it

was a wraparound on one issue. That would be

awesome. That's what I would have loved to see.

Yeah. So I'm going to go with the thingy one.

Amy's going with Prowl and his thingy. Yes, I'm

going to go with, yeah, Prowl and... the enigma

of combination, which is the most dangerous thing

I've ever heard in my life, but whatever. I guess

Prowl has the way with the girls because I'm

going for that one too. I cannot get my brain

out of the gutter now, guys. This is a problem.

Suddenly the enigma of combination is just really

filthy. Okay. You use it for your protection,

Heather. Look, he's even handing it to you. He's

like, please, take this, use it wisely. Use protection,

yeah. Oh my gosh, this is going downhill so fast.

It's going to be going down into the worst podcast

ever to really drag it through. I have nothing

to do with this, ladies and gentlemen. It's all

the girls on the podcast. Well, you know that

little pink peels out. I think we're in all the

test subjects now Okay, anyways Back to comics

Apologize people. We're usually much better about

this. I apologize or not. Don't lie So we kick

off with our previously page that shows what

happens, well, previously. So basically it shows,

you know, Windblade and Will Jack are trying

to work on the space trip. figure out what's

going on with it. We also show big bots fighting

each other again. You know, that's the whole

thing about this series, I'd say. And then Optimus

Prime pretty much, spoiler alert, says, well,

Prowl combines with Optimus Prime, Mirage, Ironhide,

and Sudden Streaker. And that's what does that

ever work? I mean, if you look at everybody in

that group, the only one that is saying is optimists.

No, no, no, I don't even think he's saying most

of the time. We're talking about every let's

see every single one of the people on that list

has gone nuts in one way or another, except him.

He's left because he just kind of went. No. Prime

has gotten nuts before, remember? Don't tell

me Prime! I'm a riot Pax, I'm not Prime! That

was him having a tantrum. That was not going

nuts. We could always go back to Transformers

Generation 1 Season 3. Ah, the Quintessons made

me a zombie now! Oh my god, it's a dark awakening!

No, it's like, okay, so we have Mirage, who's...

Everyone's saying they just have issues. I think

Ironhide dealt with his issues already. He just

went through a punching match. I want to know

if Sunstreaker's in there, is Bob too? No, because

they showed Bob escaping to make sure you knew.

Good, because that would be really difficult

to explain. Although, he totally should have

folded down and become the gun. That would have

been the sauce. He would have been the tail,

or the minicon that turns into a weapon. That

would have been awesome. The only thing it does

is it's purring. When he pushes the trigger,

it just purrs. It's like the singing sword. Okay,

and then next we have our roll call page which

seems to really have grown since our last issue

We have to go over this. Especially the last

line because the last line is Glee We've got

Prowl. That's Prowl. This is his own name. It's

like It's it's it's kind of like one of those

You know this person starring as themselves kind

of thing Optimus Prime former leader Windblade

city speaker Starscream, Cybertronian Ruler,

Rattrap is Lacky, Scoop X Autobot, Swindle...

The rabble rouser. That won't last, sadly. Sunstreaker,

Autobot, Mirage, Visionary, Ironhide, the old

veteran, thanks for noticing me. Who has also

been a visionary as well. Yeah, true. He gave

up, though. Chromia, Brash Warrior, Wheeljag,

Conflicted Scientist. The last line is the combiner

line. superion starscreams combiner defensor

starscreams combiner minister angry combiner

devastator very angry combiner that line made

me glad that i actually read through the roll

call because that was fun when it comes to magrit's

books i always have to read through the roll

call just to see what they change or what they

add to the to the description of the one or two

word description for the characters. Because

no offense to James and John, but sometimes their

roll call pages are just the same page as every

single issue. That's just in case like someone's

new to the comic. I see why they do it. James

used to do fun stuff back in season one. the

eye where he just like every so often subtly

changed it. Oh, before he like killed everyone

off and tore their hearts and minds of people.

If you'd be like hovering over the little teeny

bios being like, does this mean anything? We

don't know. I would just like it if James one

time would be like, put your favorite character

there. Watch out. Didn't he already do that in

Dark Cybertron to you though on that one cover?

He's like you can't see that you're not looking

at that It takes half a second of silence and

Nicole's like oh hell no he did not So anyways,

um, did you, did you all read, uh, number four?

Yes. 41. It's kind of required reading. You have

to read all of what's going on in the other ongoing

to be able to read this. Cause if not, you get,

you, a huge chunk is like gone, but well, yeah,

like three or four issues of. Yeah. Cause there's

been four, four issues in, uh, robots, robots,

formerly known as robots in disguise. We're all

going to do it for like the next year. I know

it's going to be. terrifyingly hard to get through

it going. Oh, it used to be red. No, it's not

red. It's kind of, it's kind of like the more

confusing for us people who have already been

watching and reading for the last two years.

They're like, okay, now we can't call it red

anymore. I'm like, I'm going to bite my tongue

every single time. I'll just simply build John.

So what did you think of it? Give me just a quick

synopsis of your thoughts on it. Oh, on the last?

Oh, okay. Uh, crazy. That's just what I'm going

to say. I was really happy to see, you know,

Sunstriker and Mirage and all that stuff. I was

really, you know, I saw those, I was like, oh,

look, it's like, oh, Bob, he's purring. Oh, I

love Bob. I was like, wait, darn it. He's not

in the lost light anymore. Gosh, darn it. All

the cool cats are in the lost light. I wanted

Bob to be there too. Cuz it's Bob. Sorry. I have

an obsession with little animals And he was such

a good yeah, he sees he's an insect con what

can I say? Now that he's back on Cybertron. I'd

be like, you know, is he afraid of iron? Every

single time he sees iron hide he runs away No,

I I liked the issue it but it you know to me

it's not complete till you read this issue. Yeah

and things just got crazy, especially since the

start starts pretty much where it's at. And I

was like, Oh no, don't tell me Optimus Prime

willingly was okay combining with these guys,

right? Oh, he was totally not willing. Yeah.

But that's what happens, right? What about you,

Heather? What was your last issue was where I

stopped being interested in giant robots punching.

So that was where I kind of fell off the wagon

on Combiner Wars, but at the same time I really

really really really enjoyed the scene in the

jail with prime and prowl That was cool. That

was really well staged and really I Felt it That's

how I judge everything. Did I feel it? I felt

it. Okay? You fill it in your cockles Please

let's not talk about cockles cockles not just

not cocks cockles two different things I'll teach

you about anatomy later I don't need a lesson

on that I'm surrounded by them jeez what about

you Mike what did you think of um I liked it

I liked 41 I'll be the first to admit I And I've

said this before on other shows we've done for

the underbase and on the pull bag as well. After

Dark Cybertron, I had a huge disconnect. I found

the entire trial of Megatron to be just... Basically

a boring law and order rerun I just found all

of the days of deception stuff just so totally

out there and just didn't care when I came to

combiner wars and I've you know, I've now gone

back and I've gotten What is it 39 is the opening

salvo, right? Yeah, I mean I've gotten it and

I've caught up on on read as far as combiner

wars goes i'm just gonna call it read i don't

care it doesn't matter at this point uh... forty

-one i like that i enjoyed it i kinda get shocked

that optimus would actually become a combiner

but then i realized only you know we've had him

do this before in armada and enter john and cyber

tron those three really really well one was an

alright cartoon the other two were crappy um

you know so but it's an interesting way that

they're taking the direction in the whole combiner

thing um so i mean i enjoyed 41 for the most

part yeah i i i could pretty much agree with

all y 'all um i really did like the the prison

scene that was pretty cool it needed to happen.

I mean, it kind of did because you know, if IDW

ever loses an artist, they could just hire a

prowl, you know, talent there, you know, and

apparently he enjoys pain. So he could work for

either John or James. So he couldn't just write.

All right. Well, We start off our issue here

with Devastator confronting Prowl who's on the

inside of a the combiner Optimus Maximus I'm

sorry, can we talk about this for a second because

that was the thing and I think it was 41 that

this happened where Starscream's giant plan is

to replace Prowl in you know to replace prowl

estator with scoop estator and everybody all

of us were complaining and complaining and complaining

about oh what what what sir what what purposes

is scoop gonna serve they can't decide whether

he's good whether he's bad whatever back and

forth back and forth back and forth and i honestly

like scoop in charger slash the head of devastator

instead of prowl because it's something different

it's something we haven't seen before Well, when

we saw Prowl, it was something they had never

done before too. It's just that new thing. Back

then it was fresh. Back then it was really fresh

and new and exciting. And now when I see Prowl,

you know, as the main driving force behind Devastator,

I'm like, oh, God, here we go. That's just because

he's been Prowl the whole time. You know, Prowl,

as a combiner, it was like, at first we're like,

oh, this is insane. Now it's like, oh, geez,

Prowl, just shut up now. Doesn't Prowl dink that?

Put somebody else in charge, but he's like, scoop!

It's like, well, okay, why not? We put Prowl,

they can clean up with Scoop there. Well, Optimus

Maximus, I'm going to have a hard time saying

that. That just, that doesn't roll off the tongue

to me. Just call him Om. The big O -M here. It's

definitely not in a peaceful place. So our big

O -M here. He looks a bit shocked at the comments

that Devastator takes. Right in the gut, it looks

like. And Devastator decides to take the opportunity

and get a hit on him. This only leads to the

other big boys bringing the fight on. OK, so

when you read these first two pages, what was

your first thought about what was going on with

Optimus Maximus? Marigred, you missed the perfect

opportunity to quote one of the best Transformers

pieces of media in history. And what was that?

He says, you will be stopped, Devastator. She

missed, you will be stopped, no matter the cost.

If she had done that, I would have rolled my

eyes. No, that would have been so awesome. It

depends on who was reading it. I think half the

people in the fandom would have been like, yes,

and the other half would be like, oh, jeez. So

what about you, Heather? What did you think was

going on with Optimus Maximus here? I actually

pretty much, I think I got it on the first read

through. I'm assuming I'm right that he goes

act because he's not unified yet. And so everybody

inside is kind of wigging. And so that's kind

of what I assume because The the trigger line

is you think some prime is better than me and

that would totally have flipped prime switch

of what the crap am I doing? Mm -hmm, and then

they just all freeze So What about you I mean,

did you have any different thoughts about this

I thought that was my favorite part actually

is the fact that you know He says you had he

was like, okay, so Devastator is basically saying

so you're not so I'm not good enough for you

Yeah, I'm not good enough for you And, you know,

it's the fact that Prowl is now in a new combiner,

and he realizes it's not the same anymore. The

power is different. The shift is different. But,

you know, he's like, oh, no, that's not it. But

that's what happened. I mean, I think he misunderestimate,

he underestimated how Devastator would react

to not have Prowl as the head anymore. And I

liked that. I really, really kind of liked that

as a consequence of that. Kind of where Optimus

Prime does not pause like that, Prowl does. He's

like, you know, but, but, but, but. And one thing

I do like about, you know, Prowl not being the

head anymore, there's the panel that's on, was

it page eight, where it shows Devastator, but

they have the head blacked out. It's just like,

this part's missing. This is not the part that's

the same. I thought that was a good little piece

of the art right there. Like, ah, that's good

working right there, so. I'm also glad that it

made - One of these things just doesn't belong

here. I'm also kind of glad though that it also

made Devastator pissed off too. Rejection! He

doesn't do well with rejection. So all he does

is just turn around and punch him in the face.

In the face. In the face, man. Okay. You know

what, Optimus, Transformers are just obsessed

with faces, just saying. Give me your face, punch

you in the face, you know, just, yeah. And then

there's some people like World that doesn't care

to have one. Or Shockwave. Yeah. Well, back on

the ranch on Cybertron. Again this whole series

is back and forth back and forth back and forth

We have wind blade exclaiming what many of us

is probably thinking about in this series. Um,

we have another combiner Really? Okay Well her

and will Jack face off again swindle and his

riot Patriots Believing they could bring peace

through violence. Hmm heard that somewhere before

Where would that Oh bigotron? Okay? And oh my

gosh, okay, so Swindle's face is just absolutely

adorable. First of all, it doesn't last long,

as he is fatally wounded by Starscream. Of course,

this act only brings the rioters to act against

each other, while Windblade and Will Jack try

to get the space bridge open to Kamina so they

can bring other combiners back. All right. So.

Swindle. Margaret, I thought you loved us, damn

it. What the hell? How can you like a moment

of silence, please? A moment of silence. Now,

how many people here actually think he's dead?

Show of a raising hand. I'm not sure. We can't

see any hands because none of us believe it.

Well, it has wind blade. go on just a little

bit further. So Windblade, she stands up to Starscream

who like puts the end to the fight, but she puts

the blame that all this is his fault because

of his arrogance. And poor Swindle, he's confronted

or comforted by Rattrap as he pretty much lies

dying on the floor. And Swindle tells Rattrap

the truth about the deal that he made with Starscream.

And his lights kind of go out in that panel.

So is he is it has. swindle met his fate in idw

i hope not because swindle and we've already

said that i said this previously that he has

enough personality to carry an issue on his own

i think it would be really foolish of them to

completely knock him out and have him out of

the picture indefinitely so the other thing is

is that okay just because his eyes kind of you

know he could have just passed out and you know

it's it's rat trap rat trap has been you know

playing things behind the scenes it's slowly

building in that direction it has been for quite

a bit so and which is one of the reasons why

i like rat trap is because he's kind of little

slimy here but and then the fact that he you

know that he saved some sort of uh uh evidence

of of what's going on you know he's gonna play

that when it's the right time right So I don't

know I mean it's the idea that he could have

just you know taken swindle and put him somewhere

and you know Get him out of the way for a while

while he recovers. I don't know It'd be really

repetitive if they did a wheel jack with swindle

where instead of Starscream It's rat traps whirling

him away in a CR tank But that's kind of what

it feels like to me, but I don't know I have

two observations about the whole quote -unquote

death of swindle Number one, Margaret is trying

to basically do an Agent Coulson here. Which

I am so not a fan of at all. Wait, in all fairness,

I'm just going to make a little joke here. In

all fairness, someone will be the one person

who would have Captain America cards. Here's

the thing okay, this is the real like this the

reason why I've never gone past episode 6 of

season 1 of agents of shit is that because everything

that happens in Avengers and then Coulson dies

Ages of shield essentially craps all over that

I know it's comic book death blah blah blah whatever

So that's my first observation my second observation

is when Starscream says don't tell me that wretch

is still alive the first thing I think of there's

an old old three stooges short where they're

I Think two of them are on the Confederate side

and one of them is on the Union side. It's an

old. It's an old Civil War uh short that they

did and one of them faints and one of the colonels

says what are you doing take that jellyfish up

and revive him don't hurt yourself there bud

but i i i like that that rat trap is showing

concern you know I think rat traps kind of worried

for his own skin in this panel Just like okay.

He's done this to swindle. I really need to start

washing my own back there So yeah, especially

since you know swindles only involvement was

because of Starscream uh -huh I mean, it's just

like really dude. You're gonna take him out It's

like well of course he's gonna take him out because

he's got evidence And I think that Starscream

probably knows that in some way or another I

don't know The whole point is that I don't like

the fact that Swindle is where he is. I mean,

you'd think that he'd been smart enough to get

out of that, but no, no, he keeps on doing the

same damn thing over and over again. Well, because

it was his greed that led him here. True, but

what did Rattrap promise him this time to get

out of there? that a new world to go to. Well,

you know what? They already kind of have you

on their, you know, sites as being troublemakers.

So sure. Open a star, a star gate. Open the space

bridge. I mean, that's essentially what it is.

It's the star gate. There you go. Where's Richard

Dane Anderson when you really need him? I love

that name. Damn it. Just OK. Swindle. Being hurt.

Okay. Dead? Not so much. So what are you gonna

say, Heather? I don't know. Well, I'm still wondering

about it. Uh, hang on. I got my thoughts derailed.

Sorry. The thing that... No, no, that's fine.

The thing that... Okay, I have two thoughts.

One, it is actually... The telling line is Swindle

being like, I was dead the minute Starscream

shoved me in that cell. because he's known and

that makes it makes the second half of my thought

is it he was trying to leave and yes i know that

he can only go to caminus at that point i mean

he he was you know snatching at a chance of escape

to save his own skin but the thing is they are

kind of trapped and they're like rats that he's

not going to be found by Starscream. There's

nowhere. Yeah, there's no better mousetrap for

Swindle. So, I don't know, poor guy. I don't

want to see him go because I love Swindle. That's

the, yeah, I know. That's why I have my whole

reaction of why, Marigold, why? I did care way

more about him dying than I did about Bumblebee,

that's for sure. Okay, okay, look. Does anyone

has anyone actually missed be since his death

really seriously Megatron missed him Because

he's got one of those body pillows with like

Oh, Heather just went dark man Seriously out

of all the readers out of everybody that reads

the transformers on goings does anybody really

miss Bumblebee because Okay, well yeah but Josh

works on the books I'm not saying the creators

I'm saying anybody really miss bumblebee because

let's face it bumblebee in the first two -thirds

of rid when it started was a very political book

because it was about the politics of leading

you know leading and controlling Cybertron and

now they're kind of giving us No pun intended

here. They're kind of you know they always talk

about the four million year war blah blah blah

They're kind of give again giving us part of

this war even though they say the other war already

ended blah blah blah But it's like they're now

giving us a war and do we does anybody really

think? Bumblebee hat would have a place in this

entire story if he was still alive Like what

would his motivations be in this grand scheme

of things he doesn't fit He'd be doing that doesn't

what primes been doing lately That doesn't mean

I can't miss them. Hello. I Didn't say you couldn't

miss him. I asked if anybody actually does because

I honestly honestly Forgot that bumblebee was

gone. It's like it's kind of like one of those

things out of sight out of mind We need more

things like that in this episode I mean, issue.

Oh, God, can you imagine if the cartoon Red Bumblebee

had a shot cane? Oh, I'm just waiting for that

to happen, actually. I'm sure fix it. We'll figure

something out. Oh, goodness. I bet you somewhere

in they have like a cow taser somewhere in that

pile of mess. I have to say, I love the internals

and how they show each personality inside the

prime combiner. Oh yeah, we're not there yet.

I know, but I'm just saying because that's the

page I'm currently looking at. Okay, ADD. We

were talking about Swindle's death and I was

on the page where Rattrap said he was dead before

he hit the ground, so the next page is... Is

it a smelly one? It could be. That costs extra.

I've had my fair share of them. That's the reason

why I said, you know, is it just the sticky one,

the stringy one, or is it the smelly one? The

inside of the combiner's head, let's just go

with that. Well, we head back to the combiner's

side. I must see. What was that? Oh, I thought

you said that. It's the part where he's like,

I must, I must see. It's like, okay, we're going

to have a timeout for Optimus Prime and combiner

group, okay? Everybody else is battling it out

and Optimus Prime is sitting with a dunce hat

on again. Yeah, the fact that nobody, he gets

punched once and then nobody bothers him. I mean,

yeah, it's like. That is actually a cool panel.

You can tell that the others are very much engaged

in the background. He looks like he's in a yoga

pose. He's totally in it. He's in a meditation

pose. He's Rafiki from Lion King. There you go.

Well, we see that Optimus Maximus still. is shut

down as the bots have an inner dialogue with

each other, and Prowl makes himself pretty much

the boss, and we get to see how Prowl sees the

world when he combines. This is really interesting,

because he just sees tons of figures and stats,

and I'm thinking... It's like, basically, think

of when we had the whole Ultra Magnus and the

way the Ultra Magnus... Yeah, I was going to

say Magnus was Prowl. We see this is how Prowl

sees the world. Well, Optimus confronts him by

telling Prowl, he doesn't care for the people,

he only cares if he leaves. I mean, that was

pretty much shown with Devastator. And these

next few pages, we get to watch this dialogue

art, which is beautiful. And each bot has a specific

color to them, especially their dialogue. But

once they start thinking of it as a team, it

loves how the gradients come together. And this

is a really good conversation. It's very wordy,

but people just need to read it. The good thing

is it's not a bunch of talking heads. Like we

see back and forth different things that illustrate

what's going on. What I thought was funny, what

I really liked about this is the fact that Prowl

thought, hey, I got Optus Prime. in the perfect

position now I can make him understand me what

he misunderstood was the power the rest of them

had over him and I really liked that I really

kind of liked that because I thought okay he

really wants to drive home this is how this is

this is how it is and then Optimus with the other

group Ironhide Sunstreaker and mirage uh they

They basically, you know, he put himself in a

vulnerable position to prove his point only to

have it trumped away from him And I thought yeah,

that's how I was gonna be proud But the good

thing is he this could have never happened to

had they had this whole combining moment So I

thought okay, I guess I'm all right with the

whole, you know, optimist maximist thing now

Yeah, it yeah that it sold me. It wasn't like

he just Yeah, we won't get we aren't there yet.

But it's not something that's permanent either.

So it served a purpose that was more than just

punching. Yeah. What do you think Mike? Oh, sorry.

Sorry. No, that might go because I will go off

for ages. No, I think it's you know, I think

it's great that he didn't like Amy said, he underestimated

the power that they had over him. And, you know,

this is one of those times where Wish a certain

more than meets the eye character was in this

book because I can just imagine him In a little

bubble on the upper right hand corner having

a stop sign that says no flipping table zone

here and then we come to to the part where you

gotta let me go off before you go ahead oh okay

Heather would you like to go off on prowl i we

thought wait sorry that was bad that goes back

to the cover issue i apologize okay two okay

i love this whole scene and this is why i've

always had this fascination with the idea of,

since they are robots, they can technically do

things like this, where they're literally in

each other's head space. They can be plugged

in in specific ways. And that is fascinating

to me. So I loved that. I loved the visual representation

of it. It was very reminiscent of what we see

at 14 with Overlord and Chromedome, especially

that first panel where you see Prowl Making his

pitch to prime and and he's standing and he's

strong and primes just kind of kneeling there

in the same pose that the combiner is really

Weak and then slowly If they change and especially

as the others kind of come in to support him

he becomes more sure and till the point where

he is now above prowl in the frame. That was

really cool. That was very brilliant how they

did that. I don't know if they intended it. I'm

sure they probably did. I'm sure they did. Yeah.

Yeah. I thought it was pretty interesting. Oh,

go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. The other thing I just

loved is I, you know, I do this thing where I'm

like, there's true way to write prime and hardly

anyone ever does it. This. was the true way to

write prime and like I was reading this and my

poor husband was trying to take a nap because

he's been not feeling so good today and I'm trying

to read it quietly and I get to the part where

primes like you you need to see people as people

not just you know and you know you're so concerned

with who leads our nation that you do not see

who makes up our nation that is where change

comes from and just all these Just, you know,

can you not see these people as we do as people?

Can you not see the valiance in their actions?

And you know, we're speaking we're not speaking

of numbers, but people and I'm just like, that's

prime. I'm like pounding things like. And anyways,

we're getting to the part which I pretty much

really come to enjoy when. Optimus Maximus is

fully combined and fully comes to light and You

see that that spark in his eye? Because they'd

all mutually kind of kicked out proud by that.

Yeah, I was surprised they could still function

because well, I think that's that that's the

thing is that he He was trying to make them understand,

but they basically turn the table on turn the

table on him and made him understand them and

so that's when he saw the difference whether

or not he agrees to it well I mean he might not

still see the world that way but it just means

that he took a step back and now he's letting

them in control yeah I think it was a two -way

street I think they each learned from each other

because it says he says I understand I finally

understand so I think in a sense like It's just

that moment when you put on those, you know,

when you put the glasses on, you suddenly can

see and you're like, oh, uh, now I see. And so

it's like, I just don't think that he's fighting

them on it anymore. Cause up until now it was

like, you know, he was the loudest voice. Now

he's not. So, okay. Speaking of eyes, did anybody

notice? Cause I didn't notice this until now.

Anybody notice in the in the panel where he says

and you still refuse to see it Anybody notice

that they drew a Megatron in one eye and a sky

and a spike in and I'm like wow I can't believe

they did that. Yeah, that's awesome. It's spike

and actually I think prowl estator because that's

not Little wing things in the front, yeah Talking

about I've seen the heart of Devastator and the

duplicitousness of humans. I love that. It's

beautiful. I like that. The combined face of

everybody, too, is interesting. This is the point

that wasn't said, but again, you still refuse

to see it. It says we do, we must, because if

they see it any other way, then they will. be

just like Prowl and they will be like, okay,

you fail, you fail, you fail, you fail. Yeah.

You know, the thing is, is that, and they didn't

say this because of course they're talking about

robots, but as human beings, that's how it is.

Like we're all incredibly imperfect and we all

have our flaws and we fail at things all the

time. But when we're together with other people,

we lift each other up and you know, we help each

other. We get back up on our feet and keep moving.

And we have to, we have to, because if not, we're

just going to get stuck on the ground and that's

where we're going to stay. And some people do

get stuck on the ground and I hope that doesn't

happen often. Yeah, when you're part of a group,

you just pick each other up and you just keep

moving forward. sending out signals in all types

of directions to the universe, and a space bridge

is jumping to different locations, possibly to

other colonies. Surprise! Which we'll come back

to shortly. They opened the door long enough

to be able to have combiners come charging through.

They opened the door, they said, hey, party's

over here, woo -hoo! And so Prowl was right though

superior on was with crime Yes, yeah, so we have

a barrage of combiner's coming through the bridge

Devastator thinks they're taking on Prowl only

to have optimus maxima tell them they don't have

to fight but Fighting is what Debbie does. Hello

To me, I couldn't tell because of the watermark,

but it looks like they're going through different

portals. Is that what you're getting? I was a

little confused. I think I had to kind of really

reread this, but what it looks like is that they're

slowly all being pushed through into the Cybertron

side. Okay. Either being pushed or, you know,

dragged, as in the case of, I think, Defensor's

dragging Manasaur in. And then the Prime Combiner

is slowly fighting back and forth with Devastator

until he manages to push him through. But I'm

not sure, because what is that? Okay, the panel

where Devastator says it's what I do. And they're

somewhere because there's this really cool city.

in the background that looks like it's on wheels,

and I am all over that so hard, oh my gosh. But

my other question is, were they, I don't think

they were on Caminus, I think they went through

to some other planet that had the weird Garnak

thing, and a bunch of other stuff, and so I think

they were all on that planet. I think that's

exactly what they're going for, because at the

very end, which we're swiftly getting to, there

you see different worlds and how they've realized

hey something news happened yeah i think that's

exactly what they're and the fact that optimus

well yeah optimus maximus goes through and lands

on the ship yeah and then gets up it goes back

through the portal that Yeah, they're they're

going to different places, basically. OK, that's

what I was thinking, because it looks like they

are playing Portal. So it's just like, oh, they're

there. No. Oh, wait, they're over here. No, they're

over here. OK, it's the comical. It's kind of

comical, but yet at the same time, you know,

fun because it's they're throwing this. This

would be one of those types of world. This would

be one of those types of moments that would be

better in animation. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. The

artwork is still really beautiful. The problem

is, is for some reason my infant brain didn't

pick up on it. So see this whole, this whole

portal jumping thing. I wish there were arrows

everywhere pointing every which way. Like when

they were in, um, not they is in this group,

but when we were in ultra Magnus's brain way

back when in more than meets the eye. There were

all the arrows up on the ceiling. That was a

Metroplex and it was the ladybots that have written

it on there. Or annoying. It was the septicons

that had tried to do it. The minicons. Yeah,

they were trying to figure out how to get out.

Yeah. But you see my point, though, right? Yeah.

It's supposed to be a little chaotic. This was

far less confusing than last issue, though. Last

issue, I just kind of threw my hands up in the

air and went up. Dude, Livio, I have no idea

what you're trying to show me, dude. Well, eventually

Okay, well as the fight continues through all

these different portals it's finally stopped

on Caminus by wind blade and chromium Devastator

is taken down and is separated into the Constructicons.

Starscream, being the lovely guy he is, he's

like, arrest him! Arrest him! Proud to. Yeah.

I'd just like to see Starscream do the arresting.

I was like, you know what? Turn to him and say,

I'd like to see you try. You wouldn't do it on

your own. You'd have to, you know, have your

peons do it. Sorry. Because Starscream doesn't

like to get his hands dirty. Because if he did

get them dirty, he would have to get a whole

new body again. Yeah. What other paint jobs can

they give him? I mean, come on. Are you serious?

Okay. No, I don't want you to go down the line.

Tatsuma has built a whole industry on repainting

Starscream. I know, but like, okay, first of

all - And animated, he had clothes. Yeah. Yeah,

but that was cool. Here, don't get me wrong.

I liked Starscream in the beginning of the book

formerly known as Red. When they got the armada

colors, I was like that's the choice they made

armada really I like it because his swords in

his wing like it and They finally put him back

in the g1 body and I like that but it's like

oh god, how many different bodies? That's a lot

of challenge I would Yeah, I wish at this point

somehow in the near future of the story They

make him ghost Starscream. That would be... Can

you imagine how much fun he would have? Imagine

his character in this series, how much fun he

could have as ghost Starscream hopping into different

bots' bodies? It's just a matter of time. Just

a matter of time. All right, I'm signing Mike's

petition. All right, so here's the million dollar

question. If he's not in charge, who else would

be? Cybertron? Matt Spindle? Oh, out. And Matt

Spindle. Way too soon. Come on now. Way too soon

for that kind of joking around. Well, at the

end of this, we find out there's some United

World whatever the hell robot version of the

United Nations. Are you saying Rattrap? No, I'm

not saying Rattrap. Honestly, Rattrap's not the

good choice either. Well, I would mind him being,

like, a somebody counseled or whatever. Yeah.

I don't know. Optimus probably would be in charge.

Yeah, I mean, at this point, that's kind of where

it looks like it's going. I mean, Optimus took

charge of the combiner thing and... I don't know

all of them saying is I think it would be a really

cool idea even if they do like a little one like

if they bring the spotlights back and do one

shots or do or Do like what they did with the

drift miniseries Empire of stone I've never read

that but I'm just saying like I want Starscream

to be a ghost and I want him to have his own

adventures as a ghost at some point within this

continuity I Think it'd be fun at his adventures

with Casper. Oh. Starscream, the friendly ghost.

He's the reason why Bumblebee and Shockwave come

back. He shows nothing. Oh, nice. Starscream

possessing Bumblebee's body. That's like the

ultimate fangirl fanfic. that's the ultimate

middle finger to megatron no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

no no no no no no no no no no no no no Did you

guys pick up on that or was it just me? I was

like, no, I totally and I felt it, but I wasn't

sure if he was. I'm not exactly sure what specifically

he's grieving about because he says Prowl is

Optimus Maximus. And then they, and then, and

Defensor says no Prowl equals non -function.

Did we already talk about how a Devastator got

pulled apart? No, we didn't, and we need to talk

about that. That would come before that. Oh,

okay. I did mention it. So, I guess I did not

hear that part. My bad. We can go back to it.

I can get it, splice it. Yeah. Because that was

some horrific stuff. Yep. Okay, so all the combiners

get back to Cybertron, and then they all gang

up on Devastator. and they pull them apart. They're

no longer devastated, they're the constructicons.

I was really surprised at how okay the constructicons

were in the next panel, because the way it's

drawn and shown, it looks like it would just

be psychologically, okay, forgive the fact that

this is the word that I need to use here, it

would be psychologically devastating to be pulled

apart, because it's a dis -combination. that

is involuntary and so it's a forced discrimination

it would be like the part okay so remember one

of the episodes in doctor who where he thinks

he's human and he has to die and he's like i

don't want to die that's got to be what it feels

like because devastator is dying right there

i mean you know obviously the constructicons

are magically okay but but devastator is no longer

going to be there And we find that Scoop has

gone green and purple. That didn't happen to

Prowl. Yeah, because Prowl is Prowl. Well, Starscream

painted him. Starscream got out the brush. Oh,

okay. Okay, I didn't realize that. You know,

because... He made some comment about, you know,

I'm never... I can't do a Starscream voice, but

it needs to be done here. Something about orange

has never really been your color. Yeah. And now,

once again, all is I can think of is... Starscream

from prime at one point and I actually have the

clip I'll have to grab it and put it in here

somewhere where he essentially imitates Hannibal

Smith from the a team I love it when a plan comes

together and of course all I can think of and

everyone's gonna kill me is You know in regards

to Starscream telling scoop that he should change

his color is Queer Eye for the straight guy I

was thinking like he is such a fashionista Oh

my gosh. When he becomes Ghost Starscream, he

makes everyone start getting makeovers. Everybody

needs to get new bodies. And when he comes back,

they give him his own show. And you get a makeover,

and you get a new makeover, and you get a new

makeover. Oh my gosh. Ghost Starscream, the next

judge on Project Runway. I'll get makeovers because

you can't give him cars because most of them

are already cars. I Think it's interesting though

that he puts in this thing right here where he

says okay arrest the construct icons And then

he says they clearly can't be brought to under

control yet So out of the remind me because I

don't remember I'm too old who out of the original

five or six Constructicons is not with them anymore.

Is it Scrapper? Scrapper's the only one. Yeah.

Okay. So is he dead or? I would say at this point,

that's definably dead. He's been dead for a few

years. Oh boy, like Pipe's dead. Great. This

is not as dramatic, you know? This memory brought

to you by... Hey, if we're going to talk about

memories of who's dead... Like lengthwise, come

on, man. I know, dude. That's still my favorite.

My son still like today. He threw that out as

a joke just to watch me go. Lengthwise. OK, so,

you know, we asked the question of of who could

lead Cybertron, who in the, you know, who who

in the comics could actually be the. Center of

Devastator the head of Devastator instead of

scoop. I mean what character could be? Controllable

enough for Starscream at the same stop at the

same time still have that devastation the Devastator

needs to do I Wouldn't I wouldn't say that he's

taken scoop out of the out of the out of the

The probe of the plan at this point. I think

he fully intends to keep scoop right there Mm

-hmm. I honestly would I know that I would honestly

like to see Prowl continue with it if they could

take Devastator away from Starscream put him

in charge put put Prowl back there because He

at least has enough power to somewhat keep It

a little bit under control when he's in control

And the Constructicons dig him, yes. If they

can get over their hurt pride that he was with

Optimus. Yeah, but I think if they can take all

of the combiners away from Starscream and put

Prowl back in with the Constructicons, because

I think I really like where he is with that.

Scoop just doesn't seem like big enough personality

to be able to take them on and to do what he

needs to do to keep Devastator under control.

It's a big letdown after Prowl. I was actually

super happy to see that Scoop was totally incapable

of controlling Devastator, because if he had

been able to, I would have been ticked off. Yeah.

I trust the writing will probably have all these

answers within the next year. Possibly. Yeah,

very possible. So I want to go back to talking

about this grief that Superion feels. Oh. Oh,

wait, wait, wait, we haven't talked about. I'm

sorry. What would happen next would be the fact

that Optimus Maximus basically on transforms

and uncombines to give up proud. Yeah, because

Starscream says. I know he's in there release

him to me because he's in trouble We've got to

put him on trial now. I like how oh Please do

not tell me after combiner wars. They're gonna

have a trial of Prowl With the whole uh, I I

think what the one thing I really like about

this is Prime is saying he will not resist and

he knows that because now he's been fully in

Prowl's mind Yeah Because even though Prowl,

he's done a lot of wrongdoings, he knows what

justice is and he knows he has to serve it. So...

Yeah. It'll be interesting. I just think out

of all of the combiners though, they were the

only ones that just kind of just like, okay,

we're gonna, we surrender and they all just decombine.

Decompress. Okay, yeah, we're releasing him to

your custody. It's actually, it must be for the

loss of the combiner entity, the combiner personality.

I would say so. The emphasis on Prowl through

me. And I, you know, he's probably also sad because

it's like, it's like someone being like, here,

I will give you my arm. I kind of took it like

this, that Superior on Greaves, it was more like,

okay, so. All of the other combiner stay together

except Optimus Maximus. And for them to kind

of, they almost kind of lose a little bit in

that because they, they're still combined and

it's like, it's like a brother that they don't

have now. And so I kind of looked at it as like

superior and grieves because now, well, if Prowl

is one of, if Prowl is part of Optus Maximus

and they can't ever combine again because he's.

in trouble and he's locked up, then basically

Optimus Maximus will never be a combiner again.

And that would make him feel brief that he's

not going to be back. You know what I mean? That's

what I took out of him. Oh yeah, of course. Remember

he'd been after Prime for a while to be and talking

with Prime about being a combiner and about not

wanting Starscream to He didn't trust Starscream

and so I'm sure that for a while he was like

yeah, man, we got a prime combiner now glitching

Talk that way and so he's just like Well now

we go back back to Caminus back to the other

farm The next morning where you know things have

calmed down They have a lot of Solas Prime Statuary.

Yes. I think they like her. Where they have a

Council of Worlds that Wingblade has asked for.

And one of the things that happened in this council,

which was quite interesting, is Rattrap. Rattrap

is now the representative for Cybertron. Yeah,

because Starscream can't be, you know, slumming

it with the riff -raff. He's got a planet to

run, you know? So, and then we also have... And

it also goes to show that Starscream still trusts

Rattrap, because you can, I can absolutely say,

whoever is going to put the representative as

Stars, as Cybertron, is definitely somebody that

he's going to think that he can control. Because

it's Starscream, and he wants control of everything.

I doubt he trusts Rattrap, but he does think

he has control over him. Yeah, or that they share

the same interests. See, and then we come to

this next panel, and I got a question about this

next panel. It says, Devastator and Minasaur

were imprisoned. Was it Devastator, or was it

the, uh, combaticons? Don't want to do that.

Constructicons. Constructicons. Because it wasn't

Devastator. It was the super tentacles, right?

Well, I would say that as long as the constructicons

are imprisoned, Devastator is imprisoned. Yeah,

okay. And then it also has a little scary thing

right here that says, which means all combiners

remain in Star Stream's grasp. Oh, Starscream

again. He wields so much power. He's got the

two that went crazy. He's got the touch in prison

and then and then superior on a defense or who

are not necessarily Like they didn't do anything

bad. They're still there to like if he you know

tells him hey go protect this something They'll

do it because he's Starscream. So yeah, he's

basically got combined of all of yeah I mean

essentially he has control of all of them now

whether or not Whether or not optimus prime steps

in and you know tells defense or superior. I

don't listen to him You never know yeah, and

then we get a nice little panel here of Of prime

and proud together a nice little ender. I guess

you could say ending to this Ender game, huh?

Anyways, and that's not what I was thinking of.

Okay. Well and then and then We have Windblade

confessing to the mistress that she really doesn't

know what to do. I mean, she's lost, and I don't

blame her. So that actually ends our Act 2. We

do have an Act 3 coming up. But do you guys want

to say anything before we get into Act 3 here?

It was nice to see the mistress with the flame

again. Yeah. She's got her big hammer. She still

looks like such a wench, man. She needs she needs

a massage. She needs to relax a little. All right.

Well, if we're not we're done with that, let's

let's talk about what made me smile and giddy

and freak out a little bit here. So we go to

our act three where we see another world and.

We have a name here, Knockout. Woo woo woo woo

woo woo. Yeah, Knockout's in the book. I was

glad Marigold got him, because she needs to keep

him. I know everybody loves Knockout, but Marigold

needs him. Well, we've seen Knockout in another

panel elsewhere, but now we know exactly where

he is. And he had speaking lines. Yep. And so

we see him and Override, and I'm not sure who

the third one is. They didn't give her a name.

No, there's only two of them. They're saying

they have to go tell Override, so Override. Oh.

Yeah, it's everybody going and telling, like,

we got to tell our leaders, so Override, not

Overlord. Very different people. So basically,

we have a knockout. We don't see Override, and

Knockout has a buddy with him. Or is it a female?

It looks female -ish. She's got her headlights

gleaming. And then we find well we find out that

Marigold find out found out some way to Reverse

the Vox Curse on on Tiger Hawk because we see

Tigatron an air razor as well as like a second

it's Tigatron Whatever Yeah, it says are you

glitching ticket wrong? There's no art in there

No, there's Read it Either way But I was happy

about that too because I know Margaret loves

air razor so I'm like yay It's just always fun

to watch people get to do things that they love.

Yeah, so so far we have had Velocitron and your

Charis, Eucharis. Is that how you say Eucharis?

Eucharis. I totally looked that up to see if

it was anything and it wasn't. I mean, well,

if you Google Eucharis, you get a lot of weird

porn stars, but it sounds like it means something

in Greek. I thought it sounds like a star or

something or a moon maybe. U is good. We also

have distant space, so we have a spaceship. It's

a city on the bottom of it. It was the spaceship

that Optimus Maximus got knocked onto. I was

wondering about that, because they look different,

but it's similar enough that I'm going to hope

it is. Hang on, I'm looking back and forth. Yeah,

I'm looking back and forth now too. No, the front

is totally different, unless that's the back.

It could be the back, yeah. That could be it,

yeah. It's kind of hard to tell because they're

two different art styles, because we had two

different artists on this. It really would have

been really amazing if they had been able to

make that work a little better. Because that's

what I took it as, is it's the same ship that

got knocked onto. And the reason why I say that

is because... Well, the next page when they find

out that, that, okay, so basically when they

go to each of these worlds, they're like, okay,

they're saying, Oh, it wasn't seismic activity.

They're, they're investigating what came through

there, which I'm guessing was the, the space

bridge and the interruption of like them showing

up, hitting each other, getting knocked down,

getting back up and running back through the

bridge again. Because they're so focused on each

other that they don't, you know. On our last

page here, we have a certain lovely lady looking

all Mr. Burns -like in her chair made of parts

of other people. Which was really creepy. I lost

my mind. I lost my mind twice. I up to pound

the table. Yes. Yes. So, so if you guys haven't

read it yet, it is a little one and she's not

looking like her pleasant self. She looks like

she has a plan and I'm loving it because one

thing about her artwork, she's missing one of

her and Tanny. Yeah, whatever. So, she's been

damaged. Yeah. And she's also... That throne

is creepy. It's like she's the Game of Thrones

throne. It's the Game of Thrones Overlord Megatron

throne. And she's also talking to Obsidian. Yeah,

so see, she's totally Stryka. Nice. And she has

like a weird creepy Overlord Prime helmet thing

on the top of it. Yeah. That's the part where

the more you look at the background... or disturbing

it is yeah it's like stir together Tarn Overlord

and Prime and you get that and then you have

all these weird creepy hands i love all the faces

nailed into the floor it's like it's like she's

like the the little sister of the djb ah and

i really don't do this to me don't be like here

look we gave you Alita one and then we fragged

her over like that's what I want because Alita

one wasn't one of those characters that I totally

adored but here she is she's gonna be a bad bad

girl I'm all for it 1980s appearance. You can't

have an option to make them crazy. You guys remember

when we got Star Saber? You remember how psych

Dave was that we got Star Saber? And then you

found out what James did to him, right? Made

him the zealot of the, you know, the religious

zealot that just wanted to kill the world, right?

I can just hear the echoes of him going, nah!

No, I'm fine with it. Nah! This is, this is,

this is, oh look, we gave you Alita, but she's

not Alita that you think she is. You know, it's

just like, oh, great. Maybe, maybe this is just

a tease. Maybe she's, she's just coming up with

a plan. This is, this is her evil twin sister.

We find out that the real Alita is like locked

in the back room. Maybe maybe maybe, you know,

she's thinking that this is just her resting

bitch face, you know. Who knows? I'd be OK with

her having gone a little crazy after being alone

for a long time, because that's what Alita is.

But she and that's what happened to R .C., you

know. But I don't want her to be evil, psycho

person word that I don't say in polite. Well,

that's what happens when I was prime psycho bitch.

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's what happens when

Optimus Prime breaks up with you and leaves you

to die. Yeah, but nothing says that that even

is going on in this game. I know, I know. Yeah,

the only thing that happened was that Prime bounced

on our ship for five seconds and I was like,

GLEED! Is it just me, or does Obsidian look like

a certain Transformers Prime character? We don't

see him, though. He's off -screen. I think it's

him right off the farm. No, he's off to the side

there. Yeah. Yep. He's got the long arms like

a shockwave, not shockwave, soundwave. Hang on.

Well, either way, the top of her throne looks

like she killed Transformers Prime's soundwave.

Oh, yeah. I love this last page. I think it's

beautiful. It's just got enough wrong with it

to make you go, guys, guys, it's Jetstorm. I

totally thought, okay, I'm gonna call out the

colorist there, but because that's not, that

needs to be separated from the throne. But yes,

that is a person and it's totally Jetstorm with

like the pink head from Beast Machines Crap or

that Thrust. Oh my gosh, I need to go back to

- Oh my gosh, that's awesome! Heck yeah, man!

Between Prowl, Pizzazz, and now Heather, we've

got a nothing but a table flipping, table pounding

session going on here. Yeah. It feels good to

do it. Now we just gotta start breaking things

and I'll be happy. I'm totally gonna go Google

Obsidian from Three Piece Machines now. I'm like,

uh, dang it, I need to go back and watch that.

Cause I love jet storm. Yeah. Jet storm was fun.

But yeah, seriously, this is, this is like really

cross pollination in a really, okay. Okay. That

is obsidian then. Cause he totally looks like

that. He, he doesn't, he's got kind of that no

legs, weird jet storm body, but with creepy tentacles

for fingers because yay. And little hover shoulders.

This is going to be so much fun. I'm excited.

This last page, this last two pages, I should

say, really upped my ratings for for this issue.

Yep. And speaking of ratings, let's go for it.

Mike, final thoughts and readings. We should

probably talk about the art, too. Oh, yeah. Oh,

I apologize. Yeah. Let's talk about the art.

I'm still going off of I've been up for way too

long. Okay, Mike, tell us, what do you think

about the art? I love the art, I think it's interesting.

I think it's interesting to see different people

on this book other than Sarah Stone or Livio.

It's gonna be an interesting direction where

they take the series after this, but I mean,

overall I really enjoyed it. Like I said earlier,

I liked the whole white light Being able to show

multiple person personalities inside the combiner

the optimus maximus and the funny thing is If

the only way you're not gonna know this is if

you've been living in the under a rock for the

last three months This whole issue with the whole

thing of them arguing and talking in the combiner's

mind is I'm like, hey It's Disney Pixar's Inside

Out, except it's with Transformers. And Prowl

would so be Anger. And Prowl has the voice of

Lewis Black. I can't take it anymore! Overall,

I love the art. I think the art's great. I love

the writing I've always loved Marigold as a writer

on you know on the original Windblade series

and now this I just can't I just can't get past

her Killing swindle like I can get her past killing

some character. I don't care about but come on.

This is swindle damn it yeah we've really grown

to like that character the fact that he's like

potentially out of the picture now like no you

can't do that it would be a bad idea to do that

just because i said so huh derrick j wyatt weeps

the whole rest of us do too come on he was the

funds hey i still one of my favorite panels of

all idw transformers You don't kill the Fonz,

okay? The Fonz just leaves, okay? At least Swindle

didn't, uh, literally jump over a shark. That

would have been awesome. Oh, man. He could have

jumped over Skybyte. That would have been amazing.

Well, okay. Okay. Headcanon, headcanon. After

the panel in which... Waspinator and Skybite

are sharing a microphone and passionately delivering

some sort of karaoke. After that, Swindle gets

up and jumps over Skybite. Either that or just

rides him for a while. Nice. Awesome. What about

you, Amy? Art? I'm gonna be the moaner here.

Okay, I have nothing against any of the artists.

I think they all do fine. I think Corinne is

the one that did the ones that, well, the last

page with Alita. I don't think so. You don't

think that she did that? Yeah. I think Corinne

did the scenes with, and this is what I'm basing

it off. Okay. Corinne, I don't know her style

as well, but the other guy who did it was the

Angry Birds guy. Marcella Freer? Yes. Ah, gotcha.

So whenever it gets slightly flatter and more

cartoony, I'm thinking that's him. So those last

few pages after they go to Kamenis, I'm pretty

darn sure are his. And also there's some middle

pages with the firefight and whence Wendell dies

and all that stuff that I think are his as well.

Okay, so the point that I'm getting at... The

point that I'm getting at then is the fact that

we can't tell, but there's absolutely a shift

between the two. That's, I'm not okay with that.

We up until now, the inconsistency is what I'm

really just kind of blasting right now. I like

the styles, but I want the whole issue as one

or the other, but not both in one issue. It's

kind of like basically when, right. But think

of it as dark Cybertron. I'm gonna I'm going

I'm on your side here, Amy But I'm gonna say

think of it as dark Cybertron when you had Livio

doing the negative zone and you had let's say

for example I don't remember off top. I have

it. Let's say Alex was doing the regular Like

the regular Cybertron. It's like I don't mind

if someone is doing like past and present or

past and future or whatever else, but you're

right. What they should have done in the creative

team credit page, instead of saying, Hey, this

person, this person, this person, and this person

is all responsible for pencils. Every other comic

I've seen does this. List the name pages one

to whatever is what they did. List the name pages

20 to whatever is what they did. That's what

they should have done. So we know. Where so we

know where to look for the art change? Well,

it's pretty apparent which which changes are

the art right point that I'm getting at is the

fact that okay This is supposed to be and I know

I know we bring it every single time they have

an event they have an event and They just throw

every artist they can add it now That being said

they waited to the last issue on this one to

do that. I'm alright with the fact that Well,

Livio's done most of it. If you actually look

at how many issues he's done out of the whole

event of Combiner Wars, which includes all of

the formerly Transformers, formerly RID, the

Transformers and the Windblade issues. Who did

the most? Livio did. So why didn't he just do

the whole damn thing? You wait to the last issue

to throw every artist that isn't already Doing

something else is my guess you put all of them

on the one the last issue and it just you put

this in a trade and it's like, okay, I Don't

understand why they didn't just put levio and

to do all of it. You know what I mean? Because

he did most of it, but then you're gonna get

these little outshoots of stuff. So it's just

a term of logistics for me. I'm Moaning about

that. I don't like that. I think the inconsistency

just doesn't work in that regard. I know I'm

going to be a little bit down on the issue because

of that because I just don't like the fact that

they went to the last issue and threw everybody

out. I mean it didn't even have it'd be one thing

if we just like we took all of the artists that

like you know we got Sarah, we got Livio, and

you know maybe one other person and they threw

it all in one. They didn't even put Sarah on

this. It's all new people that I haven't even

None of them have actually worked on the main

ongoings before. And now my computer is froze

so I can't go all the way up and look at their

names. Gosh darn it. Okay. Okay. So which names

do you need? Okay. So Karen, Corrin has never

worked on anything transformers before. Marcelo

has worked on some, but not any of the main ongoings,

right? Right. Brian Shearer has been the Inker

in a couple of places and so has John. Yeah.

They've been anchors for a long time. Yamashii

has never colored anything on Transformers, and

Thomas Deer has only done the previous stuff

that Margaret has worked on, which was... He's

been in for a while, though. He's done other

things. Yeah, but he's done odd things. So he

gets it, but he's just been the colorist. It's

not like he's done the pencils and stuff like

that. The point that I'm getting at is there

are new people. There's new people. And if it's

an event, wouldn't you... I just... I just have

a problem with it. No logistics aside, sometimes

you just get what you get, but I'm not really

happy with that. I'm just being the moaner here

about that. Hey, everyone has the right to their

opinion, man. That's the great thing about art.

Everyone has their different views about it.

That being said, I don't know which ones is Corinne's

and I don't know which one is Marcelo's, so I'm

probably going to have to like... basically go

to one of the artists and say, well, which pages

did you do? Because I don't have that information

right now. So I kinda am digging the more cartoony

ones, but there are a few places where the proportions

are a little weird and wonky and very stylized

and maybe a little pushing it, pushing the edge

just a little bit too much, but it works for

the most part. and then the one style that has

all the combiners like battling it out kind of

reminded me of um my brain is not thinking of

the guy's name right now and i know somebody

would like on the other side kick me the guy

that did regeneration the first half of it andrew

oh andrew wildman yes yes sorry i could not think

of the last name my brain is like you know on

over here right now he lives across the ocean

he can't kill you Yes, but there'll be somebody

out there who's like, God, how could you forget

his name? Sorry. I didn't forget it. Just my

brain is not working. It did not compute. Okay.

So I liked, I liked both for different reasons,

for different things. I just wish that I had

a whole issue of their stuff instead of just

half a couple of pages here. And I have a couple

of pages there in, in, ah, I'm not resolving

this very well. I'm sorry. That's what editing

is for, right? No, no. What I'm trying to resolve

in my brain is the fact that we've got two different

artists on one issue, and I'm like, I can't get

past it. I'm being proud right now. I'm sorry.

OK. I will ease your pain here a little bit,

and we'll talk about this later after we finish

our final thoughts. Looking at solicits four,

five, and six of Windblade is all Coren Howell

on art. OK. So this is the only issue. that they

are doing the multiple artist thing at this point.

Gotcha. So. Okay. But by then, it won't be Combiner

Wars anymore. Combiner Wars. Yeah, true. It's

supposed to be an event. They named it and titled

it as such. We're getting toys out of it because

of it. The last time that happened was Dark Cybertron.

So that's why I'm like, hey, I'm going to be

a little bit, I'm going to be a little bitter

about this. Kind of twist the knife in and say,

now consistency. I don't think any of us understood

that, but okay. I understand, Amy. Yeah. It's

a bunch of explicits you don't want to know.

It's me saying the F word a bazillion times,

right? So what about you, Heather? Art? I'm actually

almost opposite from Amy. I thought the two styles

blended quite well. It wasn't until my third

read through that I really noticed when they

change. Some of it is just that it's the PDF

that makes everything, especially on my poor

little laptop screen where everything is kind

of bleh. I thought that the two styles went together

okay. There are a lot, basically. any other artists

that if they paired them together the difference

would be a lot more obvious. I really enjoy...

I'm gonna say that this is Corinne's stuff just

because of the way the other stuff really resembles

Angry Birds. I really enjoy her style, which

is interesting because sometimes it's similar

to Atelier Rojo's and I hate him. The thing that

makes her style fun is there's a lot of other

styles thrown in that are fun to find without

it becoming a mishmash. For instance, starting

at the top, the bottom of page one where Devastator

crinches the prime combiner in the face, that

is so Pyro from Wrecker's Nick Roach. And then

you go down to the next page, and you see Devastator's

Grr face, and that is straight up G2 Yanager.

And it's just really fun, and I enjoy her stuff.

It's got just enough. It's got a little bit of

Livio's squareness. It's got a little bit of

that grit. It's got a lot of crap. I can never

remember his name. And so I wrote it down so

that I could remember. What is his name? Oh,

Augustin Fidia. It's got a little bit of his

black. And kind of just really harshness. Not

to say that in a mean way, but yeah. And so her

art interests me. a lot. It's fun to dig into.

I enjoy that. And it still feels pretty raw.

That's the thing. It feels like there's a rawness

to it that's like, I mean, granted, I'm not saying

I don't like the artist. I just don't like how

it was composed. It's probably on the logistic

side of, you know, who they put on it and why.

I have come to just accept that in an event,

there's going to be several artists because no

one artist can do that much work and survive.

Except, um, Alex Milne. Well, no, because this

is twice a month. That's true. That's true. Twice

a month. No one can do that. No one, not even

Livio. I don't think it's fair to ask. And so

I just, as long as a, an event holds together

story -wise and general look -wise, I'm fine.

But yeah, so, so that's what I need to - But

I can still see the difference between Corinne

and Marcello like yes once they work they work

most of the time but They are different. They

are very different. Yeah I need to give mad props

to the colorist And I'm still trying to kind

of figure out exactly how these colors were done

because it says Colors by Yamaishi and coordination

Oh, okay. Colors by Yamaishi and Thomas Deer.

Okay. Does that make sense? Because there were

a few pages where I was like, that's totally

Thomas Deer. I can always tell when he's coloring.

And so that's why I was like, but yes. Anyway,

I really enjoyed some of the intense hues in

the shadows that Yamaishi does. Starting back

on page one, there's an amazing sort of teal

on the side of the prime combiner's head that

I love. And there's like a really intense ultramarine

and purple and Devastators sort of purpley bits.

I love these colors. They're fun. They're juicy.

Okay. Yeah. I'm thinking Thomas Deer colored

the Marcellos and Yamaishi colored corns. Yeah.

because the styles match. There's a couple of

art storytelling niggles. The firefight just

looks like a rave, and everybody's pointing their

laser pointers. Nobody's shooting at anybody.

That's a rave. Even when they get everybody surrounded,

the ones without guns, the speech bubbles are

pointing at them. I'm actually wondering if that's

even a... It's not a typo, but a... mess up because

i think that i'm not sure if the guys holding

their hands up in the oh crap pose should be

saying fire i think maybe the guys with guns

should be saying fire i said oh crap and all

i can think of is freaking drew from office space

i want to show her my old face oh oh oh I just,

I like the fact that she said it's like a rave

and I was like a boom, boom, boom. Yeah, between

the disco lights behind Prowl on the cover that

I loved and the shooting everywhere rave, yeah,

you start having the drums. I really love that

splash page of Devastator getting pulled apart.

That's really good stuff. But yeah, I'm excited

to see more from Corinne. I'm really, really

enjoying her work. And Yamaishi too, I'd sign

up for him any day. Yeah, so I had thoughts.

There they were. What about you, Nicole? Overall,

I enjoyed it. There's some hiccups, like I said.

Big bot fights, sometimes they get lost between

each other. But I think the part that I just

absolutely enjoyed was when they're in their

dialogue, Optimus Maximus, their dialogue and

their pastel pages. when they're talking with

each other. I think that's gorgeous. I really

enjoyed looking at those pages. It was not hard

to realize when they were switching between.

Like, you could tell when they were in their

heads, and then they were coming out and talking

about what was going on outside of that. And

Prowl was trying to make his point with things.

that really, really worked. And then they had

the rainbow colored text box. I know! I'm thinking

that must have been Tom, because I loved it.

And when they're all started to think together

and they have that gradient changing the colors,

I think that's so cool. I loved it. I was like,

friendship is magic! Yeah, overall, I enjoy the

artwork. Don't hate me people. You know, you

were thinking it. Friendship is magic. It is

magic. But I really can't say any more than what

you guys have. I just enjoyed it. So, um. Oh,

Mike has some solicits here for us. So we should

we should rate. Oh, we should. I thought all

thoughts and ratings on issue three first. Oh,

you want your final thoughts. Okay. So, okay.

So, so we'll start with with you, Mike. What's

your final thoughts and rating? I'm sorry. I

liked most of this issue, but I'm sorry, Margaret.

You get two points taken off the top for killing

swindles. So I'm going to give it a three out

of five. Oh, wow. Yep. Yep. Three out of five.

Ouch. What about you, Amy? Hey, I, my, my, I

have, uh, I can't even put my words together.

I'm like, ah, okay. So. I've slightly improved

my opinion on it based off of some of the stuff

that Heather said, because you're right. The

artists there is some really good stuff to gush

about. And if we had a little bit more time,

if I had a little bit more time to sit here and

psychoanalyze every little panel and do that,

I would totally do that. The point is I don't

dislike the artists. I think they did a fine

job. I think they did a great job. There's a

few things I just can't get past. The other thing

I have, and I almost hate to put it in there

because I like the idea that they put them in

there, but I just want to put this caveat in

there story -wise going forward. I don't want

them to take stuff from other continuities and

throw it in here. I don't want to feel like we're

getting a recap of, you know, the Japanese movie,

the Japanese animations. and you know beast wars

and beast machines i don't want to see or or

or stuff that's coming from exiles and exodus

i don't i don't want to see all of the continuities

come together into one i know that's what the

prime continuity and the animation stuff is doing

great IDW is its own thing, and I just want to

say that I don't want them to do that. And I

kind of felt very vibey that that's what was

kind of being pulled in here at the very end.

Now, that's not necessarily bad, but it's not

all what I want. So I'm like, I know there are

people out there like, oh, I wanted to have my

favorite character in here forever. And they

happen to be Beast War Hunters, you know, the

Beast Wars thing. And I'm like, i know i know

but i just don't want to feel like i'm getting

a smash of all continuities in idw if that makes

sense i hear what you're saying but as long as

people take source material and do creative things

with it i don't mind if if it's like if it becomes

like you're saying just a complete rehash then

yeah we we can flip tables together and i will

completely and maybe i feel that way because

i don't i haven't read i haven't Was there a

series that did the whole Velocitron thing? Yes.

Okay, and then I read Exiles and they started

doing the Velocitron thing here and what I'm

getting at is the fact that I read the whole

Velocitron thing now I'm glad that we got Knockout,

but And maybe I would have been completely different

if it had been a completely different name But

the fact that I read Velocitron, I went, okay,

I've read that a little bit too much. I've seen

it in three. Well, I've heard of it in one continuity.

I've read it in another. This one didn't do it

first. So now I'm kind of going like, oh, we're

rehashing the same stuff all over again. I'm

not liking that vibe. And so that just kind of

made my red flags go up. Oh, no, I can't like

this anymore. You know, and I was like, no, I

don't want to flip my lid. I don't want to flip

my lid. I don't want to, I don't want to flip

tables. I'm really just want to, you know, I'll

sit down and be in my happy place, take a couple

of deep breaths in and out and then review it

with everybody. And, and my, my pain has improved

a little bit, but I'm just saying caveat here

that I was worried about that and I'm not sure

yet if I'm okay yet, if I've resolved anything

yet. So. Do you need to go see Rung? Do you need

to go see Rung? Yes, I do. I need to talk to

Rung badly. So I'm sorry, I talked over you.

Yeah, the lost light and get a psychoanalysis

from Mr. Rung. He needs to get in my head and

fix things. Okay, I think I've said enough. Okay,

so what was your reading? Sorry, I talked over

you there. Okay, I just went world there. Yeah,

that's enough. Okay, so final rating. I'm going

to give this a three and a half. Oh, wow. The

way that you're talking, I thought it was going

to be a lot lower than that. I'm going to give

it a three and a half. Okay. Because my opinion

has improved and I still don't want to see Swindle

dead. So it's a three and a half. All right.

What about you, Heather? I'm giving it a three.

I still think we need to remember that three

means Better than more than half the comics out

there It's it's not an insult to give something

a three true That's that's very true because

I gave ongoing several times like the first ongoing

a two so This is much better than that I just

don't want to I want I like having original stuff

I love what's going on in more than meets the

eye right now. I love what's going on. I mean,

for the most part, I was fine going back to Earth

and seeing Spike get some payback a little bit.

I loved what they were doing. I love the effect

that it had on Prowl. I like these things, the

stuff that's never been written before. But when

they start throwing stuff in that make me feel

like oh crap now, they're starting to pull stuff

in here That's already been done before. I don't

I don't want that. I don't want that. I Totally

see what you're saying. And yet on the other

hand, I don't think it's fair to say Okay, guys

write a Transformers comic book, but you can't

have anything transformers in it But they have

they've done all new stuff and it's been your

transformers and it's been awesome. I just think

it It's really tricky when we start saying, it's

okay to go back to earth, but not to throw a

Velocitron on. That is a random thing that you

happen to have come up with. Yeah, I know. And

it could have been anybody else other than me.

I mean, because any comic can be somebody's first.

So somebody else out there probably, you know.

running across this review that has no idea that

other stuff has been done. They're gonna look

at this and say, oh, but I've never seen anything

about Velocitron before, so I'm gonna be okay

with it, and that's fine. It's a tightrope to

walk, and it's hard to write for the... people

that are new and the people that are old that

have read everything and I'm sad to say that

I'm at that point now where I'm like, hey, I've

read a whole lot of stuff about Transformers.

I've been doing this for five years. Oh my gosh.

You know, I'm one of those hardcore G -1ers.

Oh my gosh, what did this happen? It's almost

the way John and James, I haven't, I can't classify

Marigold yet, but definitely John and James.

they each fill very separate niches. James is

the go -do -crazy -crap guy, and John is the

take -old -stuff -and -repurpose -it -and -make

-it -awesome guy. And so I've still, and you

know, Margaret is like, yay Beast Wars. So I

feel like that's just who they are, and I actually

almost get the sense that it is a choice that

John makes. to be like, you know what, I'm going

to be the guy who's very, very rooted in continuity

to free up James to do crazy crap. And in a way,

that's a sacrifice that he makes. I don't know.

I hope that I get a chance to ask him about some

of this because I really am curious. But that

is a very selfless thing to do. He does a lot

of selfless stuff, being willing to take on the

burden from Hasbro. to do these things, to sell

toys, to be the guy who's like, all right, I'm

going to play the continuity puzzle game. And

I get the sense that he enjoys doing that. And

I'm glad that he does. But that is the role that

he fulfills. And there are a lot of people for

whom that is important. And so I cannot whinge

about it too much when the things that they bring

in happen to not be my favorite stuff, because

sometimes the things that they bring in are my

favorite stuff. Thank you for bringing in Alita.

I've been asking for it for years. I love you

people. Well, to go off of what you were just

saying, you know, I think the reason why they're

bringing in so many different That was someone's

starting point. Not everyone was a G -Warner.

That's true. Someone started with Cybertron.

Someone started with Armada. So they're going

to pick up these comics and realize, oh, this

looks familiar. I can relate to this. This brings

me back to my day when, you know, so I think

I think that's a good thing because as much as

as selfish as we are, we all want to see that

little part. of us inside the story, even if

it's just that memory. That's very true. That's

very true. That's true. So, I don't know, just

like I said, I'm going to be that caveat, that

person that's out there that's like, and that's

who I'm representing, I guess, is the person

that's like, wait a minute, I don't know if I

like that. I don't know if I like that. That's

true. I mean, hey. There are some of us out there

that read it the first time and say, okay, I

didn't like it the first time when I read it.

Then I read it three more times after that and

went, oh, okay, I like it now. How many of us

have done that? And I've only, technically, this

is the second time I've gone through this comic,

so. I do that for almost all of Not Read. I'll

read it the first time and be like, eh, and then

I'll read it again and go, okay, that was actually

a lot better. That's what I need to call it,

not read. That makes it so much easier. So Heather,

what's your final rating? Oh, three. Sorry. Three.

OK. Sounds great. I'm going to go with Heather

on this. There was, like I said, there's a little

bit of confusing parts. I had to read it three

times to finally be like, oh, this is making

sense. The first time I read this, I was really

confused. I was just like, especially the whole

jumping through the portals thing. did not notice

that the first time. I'm like, I'm confused.

What's going on? But overall, it took until me

getting to the end of the comic the first time

around to go, oh, that's what was going on was

they were jumping between portals. OK, gotcha.

Then I went back and looked at it. It's really

hard to tell. Oh, well. But overall, I still

had had fun time reading it. I love that last

page. Well, the last two, because knockout, hello.

Boo -yah. It's hard to get to the end of this

and see that last page and not just go, oh, I

want to keep reading. What's going on? But honestly,

I think this issue, I didn't feel like a final

resolution, a final ending to this page. It's

just like, I know there's one issue left. And

I kind of need that issue. I need to know what's

going to happen now. Optimus, Maximus, what's

going to happen with these five bots now that

they've been together in this, you know, it's

really an odd form to communicate with each other.

I mean, what's going to happen? I need some resolutions.

That's why I'm having a hard time with this issue.

I know I'm going to get it eventually. So that's

three for me. So I hope this last page is like

a testament to what Margaret is going to do.

She's going to be twisted because she can't be

twisted in, you know, robots in disguise right

now. It's more of a kid's show. It kind of can't

go dark like prime. So she's going to go dark.

She's going to do it here. Oh, I'm afraid. Okay,

so we are in Almost the second week. We're coming

up on the second week of June. So I'm not exactly

sure folks what's going to happen because this

issue comes out june tenth uh... issue number

three uh... when i was going through getting

the information for the solicitations for wind

blade it says in there it lists issue number

four combiner war epilogue as coming out in june

so i honestly have no clue uh... so here the

solicits for i'm just gonna say it june july

and august Transformers Windblade number four.

Combiner Wars epilogue. Mergrid on writing, Korn

Howl on art, Priscilla Tramantano on covers or

colors or whatever. More worlds, more problems.

After the events of Combiner Wars, Windblade

and Starscream race to recruit a lost Cybertron

- lost subterranean colonies to the Council of

Worlds, but which of them will control the fate

of Cybertron? The Combiner Wars are over, but

the fallout has just begun. A new universe opens

to the Transformers. All new Cybertron - and

Empire to follow, featuring the art debut of

new Transformers superstar, Corin Howell. Combiner

Hunters, special one -shot. Okay, combiner hunters.

For the first time, a one -shot adventure featuring

three fan -favorite female Transformers, revealed

within Hasbro's fan -built combiner as voted

on by Transformers fans around the world. More

combiners. Yeah. Okay. Well, that'll be, um,

what is, yeah, thank you. I always second guess

myself with her name because I'm like, that can't

possibly be your name. I always, this is the

first time I'm hearing anything about this. Oh,

I always picture Victoria. Victoria is an all

female combiner. Yeah. I'll have to read the

issue. Yeah, me too. Uh, so that's, um, there

were a little bit of crickets right there. Crick,

crick, crick. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's June.

Yeah. That's June in July. Windblade has become

its own ongoing at this point, because the way

the solicits go, Windblade transformers Windblade

number five, Marigrid on writing, Korin on art,

Priscilla on colors, uh, race against the light

on Velocitron, racing isn't a sport, it's a matter

of life and death. Windblade and Blur put the

pedal to the metal to save Cybertron and their

own lives. uh... it's also says space race for

when played together to decide the fate of cybertron

uh... service units all lines uh... and then

in all this uh... uh... all i see what they're

doing remember that last page we just talked

about where it had velocity on your car as soon

deep space the next uh... the next Two issues

are basically set on each of those planets, so

issue five was set on Velocitron. Issue six is

going to be the Beast War on Eukaris. The colonists

are more than just robots in disguise. They're

whole new breeds of Transformers. But while Windblade

and Starscream struggle to gain allies on this

brave new world, an ancient power seeks to force

them off the planet. Says another colony found,

but will they be friends or foes? fan -favorite

characters make the comic book universe debut

and there's going to be a variant covered by

Agnes Garbowska So those are the solicits for

the next few months for Windblade Sounds good.

I can't wait. I'm just excited to have more Merigrid

writing. Write it all, Merigrid, write it all.

Absolutely. So the next ongoing, is it going

to be called Windblade then? That's what I assume

And a lot of people started with that series

and I think that's why they're at this I mean

I in any other case we wouldn't want an ongoing

With one person's name on the cover, but I think

her name has enough pull that they're gonna keep

it And if you look at the ongoings as of right

now and going into the future of Windblade, you

have Transformers, which is Cybertron and Earth.

You have More Than Meets the Eye, which is the

space opera. Now you have Windblade, which is

unifying this new interstellar alliance among

the other planets. So the Windblade series, as

far as I can tell, isn't solely going to be on

Cybertron. So it isn't taking anything away from

what John is writing on the main Transformers

ongoing, formerly known as RID. So the way I

look at it is this is just going to be something

completely new, completely. It's just adding

to the continuity that we've already gotten.

And it's more Marigold writing. I mean, that's

nothing but good. If it becomes a planet... month,

that's going to get old quickly. But for the

first little while, I'm totally down with a planet

a month. I mean, I think just based on the two

planets we've already seen, Velocitron and Eucharus,

I think they're each their own setting. So you

kind of need... That's one thing with a lot of

comics when there are too many settings for me

that I kind of get lost in them. It's like, oh,

hey, we're going to go here, here, here, and

here, and here. It's like, oh, no, just stick

to one set, one story, and go from there. But

I don't think it's going to be a planet a month.

I think that's just the way they're setting it

up for four and five, because they mentioned

that at the end of three. It makes because they've

already put it in the end of combiner wars anyhow

So you've been introduced to those three places

if it were that easy for them to find the whole

whatever colonies of people that are out there

I don't want to see all of the colonies Get brought

in that easy, you know, so it would make sense.

Okay three sounds fine to do right there I hope

that they mix it up and do different ones, you

know and Yeah, I'm sure we're gonna find maybe

one or two colonies that have not survived. That

would be okay too, because hey, it can't all

be, you know, perfectly wonderful. So you just

go onto the planet and everyone's dead? Maybe

they pulled a borg, you know, there's a big hole

there. They've just been gone for so long. I

don't know. The only reason why I'm going to

bring this up is because I'm hearing echoes of

previous podcasters that I've podcasted with

that they've said this. They're like, is there

any one character that should be allowed to stand

all above the rest and have their own ongoing

like that? So I'm like, I sense that maybe eventually

they might change it from Windblade ongoing to

something else. Like they did with, you know,

not red. Because eventually, you know, that's

gonna wear off being, you know, Windblade. Maybe

they'll just use it as a title then. I don't

know. It'd be interesting to see what they do

with it because I like Windblade. Don't get me

wrong, but I don't know if I'd call it Windblade

ongoing because it doesn't make sense. I would

think Windblade would be about Windblade herself,

but I don't think that I want it to go on forever

as an ongoing. It would make sense for a little

while, but eventually Windblade is going to be

not the center of the universe on that. There

are going to be other characters that I'm going

to, that are going to come back into it. Yeah.

And Margaret hasn't, Margaret or John or anybody

at IDW, as far as I can tell to this point has

not said. Whether this is a mini series or not.

Yeah, because every place I've looked every place

I've looked for listings for the upcoming sales

of this comic series Like if you go to comiclist

.com sometimes they'll have it like Well, I'll

take a book I'll take a page on IDW They have

that galaxy quest for issue miniseries. It listed

it as one of four two of four three This does

not list like that. This lists as it's going

to be its own ongoing with the Windblade name.

I don't think she's above any other character.

I think it's like Nicole said and like Heather

said, it's name recognition at this point because

the fans voted on her as the fan character and

that's Marigred's character. If they were going

to take, and I hope they never do this, but if

they were going, like if Marigold was going to

go do something else, I could see them changing

the name then. But as long as she's doing the

writing on the series, I don't think it should

change. Yeah, because it has such draw. It's

such recognizability. It's like trying to name

it New Coke. It's not going to work. Oh my gosh.

I forgot about that marketing ploy. Or Pepsi

Max or whatever else, you know. Yeah. We'll see

how they do it. I mean, like I said, I think

they call it Transformers Windblade. Wouldn't

it be just solely about Windblade? But see that's

the thing we don't know because we look at it.

I mean we're currently in Combiner Wars. Combiner

Wars is almost over and maybe what it's going

because the Solicits I just read it has Windblade

and Blur, Windblade and Starscream. So it is

going to be about her. It's gonna be about her

adventure. to these other planets to figure out

if they're going to join this new interstellar

alliance so i don't think it's going to be like

let's face it and i'll say this and i'm not afraid

to say this i enjoy combiner wars for the fact

that it's combiners but with Marigold series

specifically, it essentially puts Windblade in

the complete background. So I am so not enjoying

it for that. But what I am enjoying is what's

going to be coming up with her back in the spotlight.

Yeah. Gotcha. All right. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see how they go because like, you know,

they have yet to really kind of announce, hey,

it's an official ongoing and we're calling it

this. Yeah. Well, I did just have a thought,

though. If they had needed the name recognition

of Bumblebee, they totally could have called

Rid Transformers Bumblebee. They totally could

have done it. And so I think Windblade could

work the same exact way, where she is a central

character. But of course, there's other stuff

going on. Yes, but she's not going to pull a

Bumblebee and die, OK? I don't think she would

lose it. I don't think Marigred would kill her.

I mean, Marigred kills a lot of things. I don't

think she'll kill Windblade. I'm like, dude,

I don't know. I wouldn't put anything past her,

but I don't think she needs to kill Windblade.

If she ever needed to, she would do it. If we

don't allow Marigred Hulk out, we're OK. As long

as we don't anger her, we're all right. Holy

cow, we are so lucky. We have so many awesome

people that create comics for us. And then we

sit and we read them and we pick them apart and

we win. But gosh dang it, people, thank you for

making these things. Yes, absolutely. We sit

here and talk about this on the podcast, but

no, we do love it. Thanks for the opportunity

to talk about your stuff on this thing. Since

this is a crossover with my show the pull bag.

I'll bring this up. This is completely non transformers

related If anyone would like to see Corin Howell's

style before Windblade number four, check out

DC Comics Batmite number one that just came out

this year. She has pencils and inks along with

Andreas Pons on Batmite number one. So she's

also working on that over at DC. uh... so if

anyone wants to check out her style when it comes

to the superhero characters you can check out

that might number one from dc comics we also

mentioned kick me if i'd if i'd just glossed

over everything that you just said mike we did

mention the one shot combiner yes right okay

that's the next thing and then of course the

copy of the the at the aftermath can i bring

up actually because I just read it and it was

interesting. The interview that Sabretron just

did with Corin Howell. No, sure. I put a note

for it into Skype. So if you wanted to put it,

who's running, doing the show notes? Are you

doing it, Nicole? But if you guys wanted to put

that into the show notes, I think that would

be good. Yeah, it's clear up at the beginning

of today's Skype conversation. Well, but it was

totally worth a read and it was really fun to

kind of get some I have nothing against Cybertron,

but I have everything against Cybertron. I'm

sorry I don't even know enough about that website

to even have an opinion It was a good interview

no matter who did it true the all is really awesome.

I like yes, that's who did it I Would be fine.

Just you know saying ball he did an interview

go find it it's out okay all right you have a

you have a closing Nicole yeah well first okay

first of all i just want to thank everyone who

participated in the penalty box for hailstorm

in the last uh month oh yeah that's right uh

we we had some really good things and apparently

people didn't follow the rules shame on you and

i did see that a couple of us got on the you

know the hot seat as well they're saying well

why everybody else too. And I was like, yeah,

that's yeah, you angry. People angered the bear.

No, believe me, my son gets me back every day.

We have one really good one where I apologize.

I'm not sure who suggested this. I'll put it

in the show notes though. They suggested that

I donate wind blade wind blade toy to Toys R

Us. Oh yeah, that was a good one. I don't like

it. That's a good one. I have a wind blade that's

not open. I will be more than happy to donate

it. So yeah, so there was a lot of good suggestions.

I did do a few of them. I honestly can't remember

what I did. It's really late, but I just want

to thank everyone who participated in that. And

hey, you know what? We've got one more issue,

so if you guys want to go ahead and do it for

one more month, why not? So hashtag on Twitter,

penalty box for Hailstorm, and my punishment.

Again, it has to be PG -13 because it has to

be legal. I can't spend a fortune. It has to

be safe for my wallet, and it can't take up a

bunch of time. So why don't you tell us about

the one that you said you wouldn't talk about

before? I'm just talking about it on air. You

already know about it. That one was pretty painful,

just saying. That was painful. That hurt. And

Alex, you know what you did. He made me talk

to him all about it. And yeah, it will not ever

be mentioned because that... Yeah, it was it

was hurtful and and it was agonizing it. And

what happened that you had to report back to

him? That's how to report back to you. Yes. So

it was we love you, Alex. Alex Alex got hurt

us, please. Oh, he already hurt me. It, you know,

but game on, you know. So thanks to everyone.

So, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me

you're sitting on a throne right now? No, everybody's...

Anyway. We're on by dragons, dang it. All right,

well, that's it for Team Angel this month. So

join us next time as we bring together our combiner

abilities. Aloha, have a nice day, and sayonara.

And remember, only you can bring about your own

happy endings in life. Unless you're stuck in

a room with a dead body and your only option

is to cut off your own leg. Good luck with that.

Bye bye. You see, I turned it around. That's

another ending to a movie. Make your great escape

into comics. I don't know how to follow that

up now. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pullback, the GCRN's comic review and

discussion podcast. There are several ways to

get in touch with us and leave feedback for the

show. You can visit the website, GECastRadio

.com, where you can comment on the episode and

all of our different podcasts. You can rate our

show on iTunes. Be sure to leave us feedback.

Call the voicemail line 502 -526 -5821. Please

remember to tell us the show you're leaving the

message for and your name. Become a fan of us

on Facebook by searching Geekcast Radio Network.

Send us an email feedback at geekcastradio .com.

Follow us on Twitter at Geekcast Radio. So until

next time, make your great escape into comics

and unleash the geek in you.