Transformers Windblade Review

Hey, this is John Machida at BotCon. You're listening

to Geekcast Radio. Welcome to The Polebags Back

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older continuities as the back issue classics

are also what's in the pool bag. You're just

taking it out on Prowl. Oh, that's not okay.

It was like if it had been written differently

for some reason that you're making me hit you

line is. I'm gonna throw another little loop

into this. Let's see, Prowl was recently in Prime's

head. Could it be that Prowl is hitting himself?

Just think about that one, because they were

talking about, you've been inside my head, so

Prime is hitting you, but it's really Prowl hitting

himself. Hello, bonjour, hola, and aloha, good

listeners, and welcome to the crossover review

teams of The Underbees and the Geekcast Radio

Networks, The Pullback. We bring you the latest

in speedsters, robotic domestic disputes, and

drunk on energon goodness. I am your host, Nicole,

aka Hailstorm, and with me, I have a lovely group

of people who enjoy a good comic book soap opera.

First off, we have the instrument of destruction

herself. Hello, Amy, aka Lirik. Hello, I like

that. I'm an instrument of destruction, especially

considering the last 24 hours. Exactly. Next,

we have the lady who doesn't dare to be stupid,

but demands it. We have Heather, aka, Hi Prime.

How are you? Hey. No, I'm scared. And finally,

we have the man who has the touch. He has the

power. He has electroshock therapy. Say hello

to TFJ and Mike. That was my favorite introduction

of all Power the electroshock therapy 86 not

96 I'm sorry. I apologize. I know what it meant

Her brain thought one thing, her lips said another.

That's how it happens. That's why I've been jailed

so much. Oh, wait. Damn. OK, then. So we're here

today to review Windblade number four, the Combiner

Wars epilogue. We have many. Well, let's start

off with it's written by Margaret Scott, art

by Corrin Howell. Colors by Thomas Deer, Letters

by Tom Belong, Editor John Barber. And we also

have four covers here, four, not three this time.

So the first one, the regular cover, is artwork

by Priscilla Traumatano. Windblade looks like

she is getting... I don't know. There's a lynch

mob after her. It's not like pretty for her.

We have a subscription cover by Casey Coller

and Colors by Joanna Lafuente, which is Windblade

in her Batman pose looking over the city. I like

this. She's Batman. It's her blade. She's Batman.

She's Batman. Then we have the retail incentive

cover, but artwork by Nado Tsushima. and colors

by Jet Enter. Windblade looking almost like a

poster child for going off to war here. She looks

awesome there. And then we also have the convention

color by Sarah Petrie de Roche. I will get her

name right one of these days. Where she's in

her Iron Man pose with her blade above her back.

So, Heather, we'll start with you. Which one

would you choose of these four? I want that retailer

incentive cover hard. It's pretty. It's different.

It's fun. I always love it when they get fan

artists in to do these special covers. It's beautiful.

I only wish I knew who this person is. I wish

I knew the relationship of the real name to the

I'm sure I've seen their work on the Internet,

but I don't know. which one they are, you know

what I mean? I can't make words today. So I'm

like, gosh darn it, who is it? It's probably

one of these people that I watch, but I don't

know. So, but yeah, it's, it's just beautiful.

I love it. What about you, Mike? I got to go

with the sub cover, but I wish it was a little

bit different instead of her holding her sword.

I wish she was holding Starscream by the throat

with him hanging off of the edge of the cliff

here and her saying, Starscream, you have failed

this city. That doesn't make it any better, though,

because it's like, hey, she's going to hurt him,

man. What about me ah these hmm, let's see It's

a tough choice it's it's a tough one because

like they're all they all have good things that

I like about them and they all have things I'm

like But I think the ones that are really really

just kind of hit me Though the two that are really

there because there's four of them. So we got

four to pick from I really like the subscription

cover by Casey collar and I love the retailer

incentive cover as well So i'm like, hmm And

it's not that I don't like the other two. It's

just that for some reason those two really speak

to me whispering things Sweet little things in

my ear. Yeah, and of course, you know, I love

Casey's work. I've always said that And, you

know, it's kind of hard to not love a favorite

already. So, but I'm really awesome. I'm really

glad to see like all of these other artists here

that we haven't seen them do covers before. And

Priscilla, she got a cover finally! Yay! I know,

yay! Her style's always so fun. I love her round

people. Gosh dang it. I think she's going to

be doing covers for a while now on this series.

That's fantastic. Cool. I think because the July

Solicits, I believe, list her as the cover artist

for Windblade number five as well. Nice. She's

doing a lot then. I know that there are several

artists that have tried to kind of start doing

artwork like within rather than just coloring.

I know Priscilla's one. I think there are, I

think Josh Bircham has wanted, has been bucking

for it for a while. He's done stuff for Fun Pub

already. And we've, we've talked about it. I

think there've been other podcasts that have

said, hmm, we'd like to see Josh do some stuff

or, you know, so. you know it's just one of those

things where like it's finally good to see an

artist that you know has kind of had the desire

to do some interior work actually start doing

it and that's what Priscilla's doing and it's

great. So I'm looking at the July Solicits right

now. Priscilla's work is she's art and cover

on the RID animated cartoon comic that's coming

and she is also cover The main cover on wind

blade number five Casey is the one for is that

the sub cover or Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Casey's

doing sub covers on wind blade according to this.

So yeah, she's Priscilla is getting a lot of

work right now. It's nice. It's really nice.

Oh, absolutely I'm gonna go with the Casey cover

just because I like to think that wind blade

is just watching over the city burn Burn, baby,

burn! It's more like the Joker instead of Batman.

Wow. You just compared wind blade to the Joker

Starscream she has every right to go joker So

who would Starscream be then the Riddler or not

new wouldn't be egghead Mr. Freeze maybe or tooth

ah two -face that would be Oh man, I'm just,

I'm just looking at Joanna's colors on Casey's

picture and going, huh? Cause they're so pretty.

They're all great though. I, I'm hopefully going

to be getting all four of them. So I don't know

how much that convention cover is going to cost

me, but. I will try to find it. I was so sad

IDW didn't have any presents at all at BotCon

because I kept seeing all these convention covers

and I'm like, I will buy them all. And then they're

like, no, you won't. You got to go to San Diego.

I made the sad face. Yeah. No. Sandy, you know,

a lot of people online this year are like, oh,

BotCon, I'd love to go, but. holy crap i saw

some i think it was you heather might have shared

this from somebody else some girl or a woman

on facebook shared a post of the graph about

the about the breakdown for what it costs for

the overall full experience for bot con and it

was somewhere close to like forty five hundred

dollars or something like that for for everything

including flight hotel all that stuff uh... you

know and BotCon is expensive as hell, but you

want to talk about expensive. San Diego Comic

Con is the most expensive convention in this

world. I have to agree with that. I've never

even looked at it seriously. The only reason

why I've gone is just because I was invited by

somebody else who paid the ticket. So I'm like,

yeah. Getting those tickets is what challenges,

first of all. Yeah, that's true. All right. Well,

we head off to our comic. We start off with our

previous page. There we go. Which pretty much

tells what happens in RID. Not RID. Sorry. 42.

I did the same thing like Heather did. I started

reading this. I'm like, wait, I don't think I've

read 42 yet. I was a little confused. So have

we all had the chance to read RID 42? Yes. Not

RID. There was not a face punch in there that

I was like, what? Yeah. So let's just do a little

summary. What did you guys think of 42? I'm saving

Heather for last, for a reason. Mike, what did

you think of 42? I liked it. See, for me, I find

that I've jumped on to like, I've read more than

meets the eye in robots in disguise up to I've

said this a million times before when we've recorded

I've read it up to Dark Cybertron and then I

read a few issues and a few issues you know I

think I've read like 28 to 36 and I essentially

skipped 37 to 39 or actually 37 to 40 I read

41 and I like it but I don't know I just I'm

just not into the Transformer. Like, unless it's

solely the Windblade -centric storyline, what

they have going in this series here, I'm just

not that interested. Like, I'm so sick of Prowl.

Like, we need a new villain in that book. Like,

seriously, bring Megatron back. He wants to be

a villain. He's just not quite there yet. What

about you, Amy? When did you think of 42? Let's

see. Let's see. Most of it was kind of taken

over by Prime and Prowl. Again, you know, they're

just like, he's the center of attention. He wants

to be the only child. I did like what was going

on with the RC and Galvatron. Still kind of keep

my eye on Galvatron. You gotta almost put two

eyes on him and just kind of hope that he doesn't,

like, you know, pull them out and step on them.

So remember the, um, remember the old G1 episode,

A Prime Problem? The first thing I thought of

when I read 42 was, oh no, here we go, a prowl

problem. And we've been having a prowl problem

for four years now. It hasn't been that long.

It's just the whole aggressive tendencies, captain

thing going on with Prime. Don't get me wrong,

I loved it. I really loved seeing Prime smack

a prowl around. It does mean it. But oh my gosh,

yes, there was a lot of abuse in this one. Okay,

Heather. Well Dear podcast listeners these guys

already had to deal with me getting on and the

first thing I said was you guys Okay, realistically

and I ain't touching that one. RC was fun. RC

and Galvatron were fun, but I have never cared

about the whole Onyx interface thing. I'm sure

that it's going to be used for something, but

I don't care. The thing that I'm mad about is

punching Prowl and saying, you made me do this

in big Tom Long letters. That's not okay. That's

abuse. He was already in jail and prime just

walked in and punched him repeatedly the thing

the fact that he Pounded him into the table and

broke the table was mildly amusing and in a darkly

comic way And then it just went further from

there. Yeah, I just I just yeah Cuz it didn't

even really follow for me. I kind of get why

Prime's mad after having seen inside of Prowl's

mind, but he was so calm and everyone kind of

calmly handed Prowl over. And so for them to

have him just go and beat Prowl up in his cell,

I was kind of like, wait, what? See, I think

they needed that though. They needed something

shocking because let's face it, Optimus is the

leader. He's supposed to be You know, he's supposed...

Well, I know, but I mean, unless he's off being

emo, you know, Orion Pax and all that, he's supposed

to be this great leader. And they need, I think,

I honestly think they needed something shocking

for the readers, not necessarily us, not the

diehards, but just the general readers and anyone

that comes into that book reading that issue

and be like... Oh my god, Optimus Prime is punching

a fellow Autobot. What the hell kind of Transformers

is this? Yeah. You know Mike, I wonder actually

if they're doing it almost on purpose because

we're reading a redemption arc for Megatron and

I wonder if we're reading kind of a... a slipping

into darkness arc for prime i've never really

thought about that before but i'm just now wondering

and so so so so wait so wait let me guess let

me guess in in in issue 43 or 44 they're gonna

paint him purple and make him shattered oh my

gosh oh man i used to hate shattered glass you

need to go to this corner and repent for that

sin because no that was horrible no it wasn't

no no shattered glass Not any more than you watching

50 shades of whatever I did not do that by choice

James held you down and made you do it Okay,

I'm gonna say it one more time because I already

said this once before, you know, it's Prowl in,

you know, if Prowl was in Optimus Prime's head,

Optimus Prime is hitting Prowl. Is it Prowl hitting

himself? She cackles with dark glee. I'm kind

of getting angry about it too because I last

okay Because I read it last night before I went

to bed. So I was like what I just kind of okay

Optimus Prime likes to punch things now and Then

I didn't think about it until you started saying

it. I was like, you know, right? It's kind of

not his it's not his mo. It's not okay. It's

mo so we'll see we'll see like i said about john

writing punishment i was like that's the true

prime john good job yay that he's like ha ha

but the only way that makes it work is the fact

that like i said it's prowling prime's head i

know Doesn't it just break your brain? All right

I will read the very last panel here on the previous

of the page So kind of know what's going on says

wind blade must get as many of the new delegates

on her side as possible to stop Starscream for

building a de facto Empire because you know Starscream

he he loves himself and he wants to expand his

personality elsewhere So, we do have our roll

call page. This is the saddest roll call page

I have ever seen. It's pretty small. Nothing

big. So, we'll just skip over that. I really

like - It's missing its snark. It's missing its

snark because I was really hoping, since I saw

the preview for this issue, I was really hoping

that - They would at least have Knockout and

Moon Racer on here, and I wanted to see what

they were going to write for them. They wouldn't

have wanted to reveal their main presence on

the first page, on the roll call page. Even though

we have seen them in a previous issue, it's just

because they're not front and center. We could

be like, hey, we're getting anything. We could

be getting anything at this point. And so we

start off on our adventure on Cybertron where

Windblade and Chromia are trying to settle down

an angry mob. None are too happy with the Council

of Worlds. Harsh words are exchanged on all sides.

And Chromia demands Windblade to leave to meet

up with Velocitron's delegates and to trust her

with the situation. I love the angry mob. It's

very adorable. I like the guy with the green

windows that I feel like I should know who he

is. Alien scum. There you go. So we have our

first two pages here. What do you think is going

to be the result of the integration of the worlds?

Is this going to be what we can expect for the

next few issues? It's going to be chaos is what

it's going to be. But it's gonna be more interesting

than Autobots versus Decepticons. Roar! Yeah,

I agree. That's a good point. That's good. Anything

that's not Autobots versus Decepticons, I'm in

favor of. So this whole really, really, really

messy setting up United Nations thing, I'm down

with. Especially since you're getting so many

different flavors of individuals that are coming

from different places where, you know, we get

the religious people and we're getting the...

We'll find out about the next people. I mean,

it's kind of the same MO as we've been getting

from Robots in Disguise since the first beginning,

you know, when everyone was called back to Cybertron

and now we're getting more people that are coming

back and they're just coming back in like little

waves of waves of waves. And I mean, the client

kind of has already been doing that, but it's

just how they're delivering it seems to be slightly

different. And it's kind of... getting in this

The magnitude is really hitting it's like okay

We've had all these people kind of come back

that kind of been off and all that they get the

the first Come home, and they come home, but

then there are those that haven't got the call

or whatever that they're like hey We're so far

away. We didn't hear the caller. We didn't see

the caller We left before then and we turned

off all of our you know, con calls so that you

couldn't catch us until, you know, our big major

city said, Hey, come home. So it's like, you

know, they ignored the first call and now they're

getting the second wave, you know? And so it's,

it's causing differences, but at the same time,

it's adding a whole lot of variety that you're

like, Oh, this could make so many different conflicts.

And it's not just the same old. Autobots versus

Decepticons and I'm like, yeah I kind of do feel

sorry for the Decepticons here. They're like

wait We gotta deal with the Autobots and now

we've got to deal with you guys Yeah, I don't

blame them because they're like the low man on

the totem pole right now Well, you've always

been a Decepticon sympathizer. So of course I

am because you autobrats You know, take it all.

Well, frankly, I'm I'm a Decepticon sympathizer

in this particular iteration of Transformers

2 because they really have just nobody has done

anything positive with them. They're just left

on their own and not given anything really specific

to do. And the sad the sad fact of that is the

fact that. the leader of Cybertron is a Decepticon

and they're the that's the one Decepticon they're

like you know what I don't think so we don't

trust that guy as far as we can throw him yeah

yeah that should say something to the rest of

them but they don't get it oh did you guys catch

the funny little middle panel there where where

Chromia does say trust me to solve it and Windblade

goes triple dot unsure face Yeah, I mean... And

then she's like, okay, fine. You know, that trust

was broken back in Windblade, though. And she's

trying to slowly build that. I think Windblade

really wants to trust her, but she always has

that luring ring down the back of her mind. Yeah,

she can't leave Chromia to solve a crowd problem.

Pretty much never. Keruelia uses fists instead

of brains. Not only that, it's bombs as well.

Oh yeah, there's that. There's that as well.

Well, next we have a page of Windblade having

an inner monologue as she questions everything

that's going on lately. Becoming a delegate.

Blending the worlds together, dealing with Starscream's

crap and all of his combiner use. And then I

feel sorry for her. This is the page where you're

just like, dang, she does have a lot on her shoulders.

Um, but after examining all the stress she's

going through, she gets a little more added to

her plate as she has arrived late to a meeting

with the Lost Tron delegates. Whew. Enter knockout.

Okay, go ahead. You know, she's kind of. in a

better position than Starscream, do you think

about it? Because Starscream has to keep up appearances.

He's the leader, he's in charge. She is sort

of a little bit of a free agent. She can kind

of get around and do stuff pretty quick. And

that is like her strength. That's true. And guess

what? She knows how to run really well in high

heels. Yeah, she does. Okay, so can we take a

moment here and talk about Corin Howell and her

art in this because looking at these panels that

you guys are talking about, it's like... Wow,

this is something completely different. And as

I'm looking at Starscream in the multiple panels

he's in on this page, it really, really reminds

me of Lil Formers. Like this whole page, this

whole first couple of pages here. And even when

we get to what is Honestly the best scene in

the entire comic a little later It really does

the way she's drawing them the way they're colored.

They really do look like Take her style and put

it next to Livio's it's two completely different

things obviously, but it's one of those things

where Livio's is more Stoic and serious and this

is supposed to be you know more fun expression

full kind of stuff and it just kind of Shocked

me because I read before this I Corn how was

also doing batmite over at DC and she's doing

amazing work on that and It's so weird looking

at her superhero style and her robot style at

the same time. It's really cool I've checked

out that might I haven't read it, but I've flipped

through it. So good stuff well Here we enter

Knockout and Moonracer, the last of our 80s gal

pals to be introduced. It's about to get beautiful.

I know. I think she's adorable, by the way. So

Knockout is here giving Starscream a run for

his money for the king of gentle money scholar

as he dishes wind blade insult after insult about

being slow, not being on time. Oh, my gosh. Knockout

is such a pain in the butt right now. It's so

not now It's pretty bad when you have Starscream

on the page and you're even the bigger douchebag

I Can so hear Darren Norris's voice in my head

reading The only thing that really surprises

me about this is Starscream, as egotistical as

he is, he's not wearing his crown. I think he

just saves that in his room to secretly put on

and talk to himself. You can't always wear the

crown every day. It has to be like, you know,

put aside, you know, you don't want to get the

egos out and, you know, have to make them, you

know, try to outdo you every single time, you

know, so. He's probably building a new crown

as of right now. Yeah. I'm going to add a few

things to this. Right here, right here. I want

a little bit more sparkle. The one thing I want

to see out of this new style from Corinne Howell

is I need to see her do up and color a Transformers

the movie coronation Starscream with the purple

cape and everything. I need to see that. Well,

Windblade is trying her hardest to make amends

while Starscream just sits back and enjoys the

show. Well, the group gets down to business and

has advised Knockout and Moonracer of what could

be offered with their alliance, but come to find

out Windblade and Starscream are a little too

late with the offer. Okay, so before you turned

the page the first time you read this, did any

of you guys have any thoughts of what Knockout

was implying? When he says unfortunately, you're

already too late. Yeah. Yeah It sounds like you

know, somebody else already made them a better

offer Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought

oh, oh, these are about to get interesting. I

thought somebody else gave you an offer what

But see here's the thing we knew going into this

that this is gonna be the velocitron part of

the story and Look what knockout we all know

what knockout is. He's a fast car who knockout

is essentially Sight he's he's essentially yes,

but he's essentially an evil version of side

swiped He's not not not not side swiped Sunstreaker

He doesn't like getting his paint scratched or

dinged or nicked or whatever and he's a racer

and I'm like, oh so Velocitron racing I know

exactly where this is gonna go because They're

going to have Windblade and Blur race knockout

and whoever else. I did have that vibe, like,

I know what's going to happen here. And it didn't

fail. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just,

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I prefer this

version of Velocitron than the version we get

in that book. That was just too much. But anyway,

I mean exiles Yes, thank you See I agree with

most what you said except for I don't think knockout

is the evil version of some stricker He's the

engine a son stricker son strickers He's a bad

man. When I say he's an evil version of Sunstreaker,

I'm speaking of the G1 cartoon Sunstreaker, where

he's always complaining about his finish being

nicked or dinged or whatever. The afternoon sunlight

doesn't match his paint color. That's what I

mean. Because let's face it, Knockout, for the

most part, is a Decepticon. He's a sympathizer,

he's not quite sure where he goes. He's like

Starscream, he works for himself, okay? Exactly.

Oh wait, wait, wait, wait, I'm just gonna make

this even worse because you said he's not sure

where he's supposed to be and he's a Decepticon

sympathizer and he's similar to Starscream, like

no, he's more similar to Swindle a little bit

and I'm like, oh no, she better not kill Knockout.

She won't. As long as we don't like harass her

about Swindle still alive. I know it. I know

I I have a feeling I have a feeling You guys

can keep lying to yourself eventually we'll be

back to okay, maybe not pipes, but you know Pipe's

is beyond repair. Pipe's is beyond repair, you

know? Pipe's is the lucky part. You only need

to come back as a zombie. What should put things

together in a soup is you can't make it a solid,

okay? At least with the other guys. He's gonna

be Starscream's ghost. I mean, Pipe's ghost.

Pipe's ghost. All right, well... Knockout here

then explains that everything on Velocitron is

decided by racing. They're giving up their contacts

with other worlds because Velocitron has such

scientific achievements, nothing can't be decided

just by racing. So, unfortunately... That means

the meeting is over and knock out Moon Racer,

head back to home. It says there's real no competition

here because even the jets are slow. Ouch. Dig

it to Starscream. Okay. When, when it is revealed

because Moon Racer is the one that reveals it

about the racing. Anybody else have? The minions

from Despicable Me one in mind when Rattrap's

like what? He looks even though it's Rattrap

his face looks just like the minion from the

first Despicable Me movie He's like what? It's

like oh my god, which makes sense because he

is a minion Okay, just just had to put a little

dig in here about their scientific achievements

how is You know doing a race to to, to, to solve

all problems. Scientific. I'm just, I'm sorry.

They're scientific achievements. They haven't

really achieved that much. I thought they were

talking about, I think they're going to come

up with something. It seems a little silly, but

whatever. What, what page are you on? Where?

Cause I'm still back on a most efficient system

for a culture as you follow. Because if it starts

talking about scientific things, I thought they

were talking about the way they harvested it.

They, they have gone solar and they had big cities

and all that stuff. I thought that's what they

were talking about. And then like they were saying,

if they have this great scientific achievements,

why would they put it up to just luck or whoever

has the fastest, you know, because not everybody

who has the fastest engine. is the smartest,

most knowledgeable person. They address that

later. Yeah. It's kind of like, eh, I just kind

of went, okay. It is silly. This is a silly issue.

But since I went in with the, this is going to

be a silly issue, goggles on, I just enjoyed

it for what it was. I mean, this is the first

time I've picked at it, but I thought it's just

odd to me that for all their scientific achievements,

you've gone to a situation where you're just

racing and the best racer gets to pick all the,

you know. Like well, that's kind of not a very

good system. Well, we've also had hints that

there's something perhaps darker afoot because

Metroplex makes this enigmatic comment about

chasing the dark now and Yeah, so there I think

there's more to it than that. Yeah Well after

they leave mom and dad Mean yeah, this Easily

if this doesn't get the best transformers comic

moment of 2015 it should because The whole thing

and this is again why I say Corinne's style reminds

me of Of little formers because look at Starscream

in that first part of the panel before we get

to rat trap It's just and then shut up ratchet

I was like, oh my god, that is the best panel

2015 in Transformers comics I just love the comical.

It was like shut up. That's when I both look

at each other awkwardly awkwardly and go This

is our son. We're yelling at our son. Well, Windblade

storms off to make sure this alliance doesn't

go away. What a better way to snooze like a salesman

than giving them an invite to a party. The end

of the world party part four. I just love how

she says it. She's leaving. She's like, it's

my turn now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's my turn now.

I'll fix it. I was like, yeah. Fix what? I just

like that everything can be smoothed over with

having a party. It's party time. That's the only

way to keep him here though. That's the only

way to keep Knockout here is to, you know, hey,

we've got parties. We got parties. We got people

that will kiss your exhaust port, you know? And

guess what? They've turned blur into Tom Cruise.

Well, he's always been a bartender for a long

time. No, I understand that. But look at the

panel. When they get to the party and they get

up to the bar, look at what Blur is doing. He's

pulling a Brian Flanagan from Cocktail, 1988's

Cocktail, and he's spinning the bottle. And catching

it in the back. I'm not there yet. I'm sorry.

That's why I was confused. OK. So we turn the

page and we have this great gathering at Blurr's

bar. And we have a bunch of random conversations

going on at a very drunk slag. I love you guys.

I love you guys. Coming from the one that hates

everybody, he loves everybody now. Well, I love

this so much. Oh, this slag. Now we know where

he's been this whole time. He's always been in

the bar just getting drunk. Out of work for the

dyno body. Just wow. He's handling retirement

really well. Oh, my gosh. I just noticed a funny

thing where Waspinator is in the dance with Tankor

and Tall Tankor and Fat Tankor. And Fat Tankor's

like, try to keep up. And Waspinner's got this

little green question mark over his head as he's

trying to figure out the line dance. I understand

that way too well. Awesome. And then you got

Flamefeather here. He's just like, oh, you're

the cute one. I just think that's so adorable.

Oh, the fire cons. We need more fire cons. I

can just hear Gruffy, just happy, happy as a

clam, now going, FIRE CONS! FIRE CONS! Flame

Feather's adorable, by the way, too. Well, Windblade

introduces our guest to Blur, who serves him

up right away. Knockout seems very pleased, while

Moonracer seems joyful at first and then disappointed

as she explains the expansion isn't very common

on Velocitron. We also have this great moment

here of the bonding of these two ladies. They

explain the good, the bad, and the ugly of Cybertron,

only to be interrupted by the blissful sounds

of Knockout finding his soulmate in Blur pretty

much. I thought this was adorable. It's a bromance.

With the comparing speeds. you travel on dirt

roads oh my gosh i was kind of freaked out by

the fact that now suddenly knockout is a plastic

surgeon liposuction expert and he goes for a

rougher ride i love blur's reaction he's like

i don't know if i should be flattered or insulted

by that Remember in prime he was a doctor The

scary kind with saws just love the whole I could

shave 20 kilos off you easily I'm like, no, thank

you Oh and did anybody notice the knockouts drink

is just really gross and messed up and like in

that panel It has pretty much the poo emoji in

it It's like emitting this really nasty green

I just found these couple pages really just so

much fun and entertaining. It shows that things

don't always have to be dark and dreary. Things

can be lightened up, even if it's just for a

moment or two. But while Moon Racer is being

greeted by everyone, she has some inner worries

that needs to get out, and Windblade is her ears.

Velocitron apparently is a world with extremely

high standards that many can't live up to, even

knock out. So she even raced outside the city

once, and she was considered insane. So what

do you guys think of that? A world where they

have such high standards that... You really can't

live up to even knockouts considered, you know

Not prime. Well, it wasn't it wasn't not okay.

This actually is worth bringing up It's not that

knockouts subprime. It's that knockouts Conjuncts

couldn't break Mach 1 if his wheels depended

on it. So he's treated like a cripple So what

do we think about that? That knockouts robot

married Sorry, not my phrase. He's not a free

agent? Wait, what? He's not a free agent? What?

He's my boyfriend -ing it. I will say this, that

it is breakdown. That is his conjunct syndrome,

because Marigold said there's a little bit of

conflict because the other breakdown is also

there. So we're gonna have two guys with the

same name, but it but it is it is breakdown I

Don't know for some reason like I love those

two as like Sort of the the buddy caught movie

where they can't stand each other But they work

well together or or that's it But I can't I just

knock out doesn't seem to me as the sort of guy

who would settle down with anyone ever Because

he's just like I'm so the best one Maybe have

an open marriage. You think that his standards

would be so high that no one could ever satisfy

him either. Yeah, I don't know. That, okay, blunt

honesty, that struck me as a little bit fanservice

-y, please Tumblr. So, you know, feel free to

throw things. Feel free to throw. I'm totally

fine with those two being like best bros, but

it just seems weird. and inconsistent with Knockout's

character. But that's because I judge all conjunx

injura relationships by Chromedome and Rewind,

who are totally just like, we need each other

really bad. And so I haven't been introduced

to a relationship that's anything other than

like desperate clinging. And since my brain breaks

when I try to picture Knockout doing anything

like that, I'm just like, I'm not buying it,

Marigret! You never know. This is just his first

major issue he's been debuted in. You never know,

he probably has some secrets. Everyone has their

secrets, right? Yeah. I find that being in jail,

apparently. Question though, I do have a question.

Is Conjunx and Dura been defined as a married

type of relationship or just a family relationship?

Because I'm still confused on that. Well, what

we've seen is that we know it gives you power

of attorney, basically. You tend to live together.

You tend to be each other's most important person.

The root words are very spouse -oriented. We

have a differentiation between conjunx injura

and amica or something. I don't know what the

male version would be now that I think about

it. Sorry, I just scratched the microphone. But

so there's a difference between ConjunctsEndura

and AmicaEndura. So I don't know, but it's a

partner for life in a different from best pals

level. I because sometimes I wonder if there's

like a like a sisterly type of thing or brotherly.

I mean, is it just a blanket statement for everything

with Nautica and fire? Yeah, that's our amica

injury. Yeah. And so that's why I'm like, hmm.

So I'm still trying to figure that out right

now. I mean, I know there are many people out

there like, no, no, no, they're totally married.

Like, but that's. you know, we're talking about

different race. It doesn't necessarily mean that

unless they've said that. I'm still interpreting

it as there's no obviously like sex involved

because there isn't any. They're robots. That's

right. But there seems to be a higher level of

being family. Yeah. And see, that's, that's why

I thought, well, that's the closest I've put

it is and Junx and Dora, for me, it's just close

family relationships that you make. And yes,

that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be biological

because not all family is biological. So it'd

be interesting to see a different couple that

is. That's why I kind of look at the conjuncts

idea. If, if his conjuncts is like a brother,

like a, you know, they're their brothers then

I could totally see how that would work that

was yeah it really is that I just default to

chrome dome and rewind and I'm like yeah it doesn't

work for me but yeah we'll have to see because

yeah those two as brothers would be amazing especially

since like he's so I things have to be perfect

and yet he's yeah you keep a imperfect person

in his life Well, in that case, they would be

very similar to G1, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe.

Exactly. The sort of mutual antagonism, but they

love each other anyway. OK, according to the

wiki, conjuncts endure just means significant

other. Yeah. So it could pretty much be a lot

of things. It can be defined by a lot of things.

So I just noticed with knockout and blur. Gonna

make a Pixar reference here when blur said or

when knockout says really you just drive through

the dirt like animals Knockout is Francesco Bernoulli

from Cars 2 and blur is lightning McQueen Oh

I look forward to seeing it what goes on with

those two guess what comes after thunder I could

totally see Blurr saying that. I'm excited to

have Blurr have the chance to be a racer again

and to be fun again, because for so long he's

been like, serious business, emo Blurr. And I'm

like, yeah, can we have fun Blurr again? That

would be great. It was Prowl's fault. Everything

is Prowl's fault, but I still don't punch him

in the face. Gosh, dang it. No, he does that

he punches himself in the face. Why are you hitting

yourself? Why are you hitting yourself? Why are

you hitting yourself? If I punch him in the face,

he struck first. There. Prowl is grito and Optimus

is home solo. Hey, that makes perfect sense because

he pulled out his gun and everything. So Optimus

is now a pirate. Pirate's life for me! Wow, I'd

love to hear Peter Cullen do pirate prime. That'd

be amazing. Okay, but Windblade, because I have

to go to work. Yeah, you know, Moon Racer, okay.

Well, Moon Racer, she wants an alliance, but

to do so, Cybertron needs to prove themselves,

and it needs to put a victor in for tomorrow's

race to prove their worth. Well, who shall their

victor be? Well, Mr. Fastwills himself. This

may or may not be to the advantage of Windblade.

So, what do we think of this plan that Moon Racer

and Windblade have to go? Race, do you think

it will work? Can it work? Oh Sure, and it will

because storytelling yeah Saying we want fun

blur back and while making him a racer again

is gonna make him fun At this point I would be

like I'm kind of surprised I mean the only reason

why I think it's great is the fact that I Would

expect blur to have already been one of the people

on that planet to be honest. So it just makes

sense that playing into all of our expectation

already as it is, is that he should have already

been there. But maybe due to circumstances, due

to circumstances, he wasn't, he ended up being,

you know, brought into the war and stuck with

that, instead of go with the rest of them to

Velocitron. So. Well, next we hop on over inside

the brain of Metroplex as they get will -jacked

to find the coordinates of Velocitron. Did you

just say will -jacked? Will -jacked. Wheeljack.

Sorry. Wheeljack. Yeah, he does jack things up.

So, hey, he's missed correctly though. Which

finding the coordinates of Lost Track can be

difficult because it's a city that constantly

is moving. Windblade does her best and we have

her interpreting Metroplex. And one of the things

that comes up, it says, Chasing Night. And that's

what has Windblade baffled. But she is quick

to get things ongoing to Velocitron, and she

demands that they go get Blur. And, well, when

they meet up with Blur, he's in no hesitation

to screw over Starscream, so he's in. I think

this is most everybody's opinion. Yeah. Oh, I

love that he doesn't love Knockout either. He's

like, screw Starscream and show up that burgundy

idiot. Count me in. I love it. See, I think it

all comes down to perception with Blur as far

as who's writing it. Oh yeah, definitely. You

know, I mean, when he's written in the book formally

known as RID, it just, whatever. That's why I

said book formally known as. When he's written,

you know, no offense to John, but when John's

writing him, he is, like we've already said,

he is that more serious. But this whole issue.

Look at how Margaret is writing him. She's writing

him like a comical character like They're going

to do some sort of secondary miniseries with

blur and knockout being buddy cops or something

Yeah, Margaret has always written a much more

transformers animated blur and to the point where

the character doesn't always Cross over between

her writing and John's writing very well. They're

so different that Yeah, that it's kind of like

Well, he has a bartender. He's gotta have a little

bit of a cheerful side, you know? Yeah, no, it's

fine. Hopefully things end for him better in

this story than in Animated. Hey! That's all

Derek's fault. I blame Derek on that. That was

still a rough episode. So, anyways, outside the

space... outside the space bridge room, we have

our heroes haunted by Starscream's Vagelish.

I cannot, I cannot. Badgeless, yeah. Badgeless.

And they're not going to be able to get inside

until our unsung hero, Rattrap, arrives and plays

on his authority. I love this. Rattrap tries

to prove himself to Windblade and even tries

to mention that Optimus Prime knows his secret,

but he let that go. He's like, way off to it.

No, OK, we're not going into that. We're not

have we ever seen rat trap transform. Yeah. Yes.

Yes in Not one of the ones that Livio drew I'm

like I picture the panel but I remember which

issues in he was crawling was really like the

Jail dark Cybertron too. Yeah Oh, no, it was

super recent. It was when when Starscream was

in his creepy secret prisons Yeah The only reason

why I ask is because I can't wait to see if he

does transform with Corrin on the art, because

if you look at this panel with him where he says

Starscream sent me to okay it, I mean she just

did such a great, it's essentially, I mean obviously

it's, you know, it's Rattrap from Beast Wars,

but this is almost, it's her style but it's almost

like dead on his first body impression from the

first part of Beast Wars. So, what do you think?

Do you think Rattrap will ever win over anyone's

trust? First of all, he has a name, Rattrap.

I think that depends on where we find out where

his loyalties lie because at this point he's

a free agent too. Yeah, I'm like, I don't trust

him. farther than I can spit just because he

is under Starscream, you know, the Starscream

light. And the last panel of the previous Transformers

issue didn't help where he was like, I has made

my own throne. Also, I have dragged prowl. And

I don't trust him because he's scheming and I

still file him under vaguely incompetent, even

though I've come to think of it. He's not terribly

incompetent, because I can't think of anything

that he tried that he totally failed at. That

wasn't like, oh, look, Earth -shattering universe

-ending event got in the way. But anyway. Well,

Wheeljack opens the portal to Velocitron, and

on the other side, they have a warm welcoming

of a Arctic wasteland. We saw this episode of

Transformers Prime Dissents badly! I was gonna

say, I'm just waiting for Freda King. Yeah. Well,

they found nothing but snow and one road. A road

that we find out as we turn to the last page.

It's created by a city which is basically on

a huge snowcat. It's the technodrome. I'm sorry.

I liked this. I really, really liked this. Out

of all of the predictability of this issue, this

made the issue for me. The fact that they go

there and it's an ice world went, oh, okay. And

then to add to it, that just went, I just went.

Whoa, cool! It's Howl's Moving Castle! I love

it. Howl's Moving Castle. Oh my gosh, I should

have done some research. It reminded me of, what

is it? What is that? Darn it. I'm trying to think

of it. The guy that plays... Crap! My brain's

not working! Riddick! Riddick one of the planets

where as the Sun came up everything turned liquefied

and they had to keep you know They had to keep

moving for so it just reminded me of that. Oh

cool. I love it Yeah, I just went I did a little

I Wish I would have done some research, but I

know this was in someone's vision Was it Mirage's

vision or was it was in the last the last issue

that we reviewed together? There was where they

were bouncing around through the. Oh, yes, that's

right. There was one panel that showed a city.

And this is kind of mean, but I slightly prefer

that other art style, which I was wrong. I had

it wrong. This is corn style. The other art style

that I liked was Marcelo. The last name I can't

pronounce. But anyway, he had this this. Image

of the city on wheels that I was just like oh

give it to me now. It's amazing So this one is

beautiful, but it's not that You know being a

jerk and be like, but I like the other one better

So what do you think this last page Mike I? Love

it, and it wasn't until now until I actually

said it when I realized oh crap. It's the technodrome

Oh, man. I think this is beautiful, this last

page. It is. It's awesome. I love the sun, right?

The only complaint I really have is I wish the

characters were silhouetted better or shown a

little better so I can figure out who says oh,

scrap. Oh, it's Ironhide because he's the biggest.

Oh. Well, that's the conclusion to our story.

Before we wrap up, I just have one question and

then Mike go on with What's going on with the

next issue? So do you think this was a fitting

it was fitting for epilogue to combiner wars?

It didn't have anything to do with combiner.

Why I don't yeah That's the thing it's titled

combiner wars epilogue Well, the previous issue

of Notrid was also titled Epilogue. So maybe

each series is getting an epilogue issue. But

this one, the only thing it had to do with Combiner

Wars was the not the end of the world party number

four. Yeah, see, that's what I that's the one

thing I do have with this issue is because it's

part of the Combiner Wars, but it rarely feels

like it fits. Yeah. It's great as an issue. you

know connecting the story between issue number

three of wind blade and and now but you're right

it really has nothing they don't even mention

combination Starscream has zero it's setting

up what's going to because at this point I and

this is just my own speculation Marigold Jason

you guys can you know correct me But I think

by the time they got to writing this issue, the

Combiner Wars epilogue title was already there,

and they had already written this story to the

point where, oh, well, now we know. I think what

happened was they got to a point where IDW said,

OK, well, we're going to let Windblade continue

beyond a four -issue miniseries, and it's going

to become its own ongoing. And that's where this

is. It's setting up. The future stories that

we're gonna get next month in issue 5 the month

after that in issue 6 and 7 and whatever else

so I I almost wish that they did a Separate outside

of not rid and outside of wind blade that they

just did a one -shot that says combiner wars

epilogue. I Almost get the feeling like combiner

hunters is gonna be that but I'm not sure because

that's could be That's what I thought it was

going to be, but it probably can't be because

it is just focused on finding the new female

combiner team, which is not the same. I do think

it might be fair to spend like five minutes talking

about combiner wars as an event. I was going

to get there. Okay, sorry. Just trod upon your

agenda. I trod it into the dust, Nicole. Not

a problem. Let's talk about it right now. So

what do you think as Combiner Wars as a whole?

Was it a good series? Do you think it expanded

the universe? Do you think it introduced characters

well? Or did you feel satisfied with the ending

overall? I was. I mean, I was pretty much satisfied

overall. Prefer the combiner war event over dark

Cybertron any day I think combiner wars was handled

a hell of a lot better plus Like we you know

back when we were all talking about dark Cybertron

whether it was on the moon base or on another

the under base or or the pull bag dark Cybertron

was too long and This was only what five parts

six parts. Well, technically six parts because

of the epilogue This is essentially a half a

year's worth of comics and that's more than enough

for a giant event like this that does crossovers.

I really dug it. I wish we actually had more

with the combiners. Like that's the one thing

I think it lacks a little bit is the battles

with all the combiners fighting each other. Like

I wish those were a little bit more there than

what they were. They were there. I'm not saying

they weren't. I'm just saying I wish I wanted

more of them. More combiners or more war? More

war with the combiners. More battles with the

combiners. More pew -pew, bang -bang, kathwammity.

Okay. Yeah, huh? Yeah. And Cisperion. What about

Cisperion? I can't talk. What is your overall

impression? Okay. I think each time they do an

event, they learn from their mistakes, which

is good. So I think this was... overall the best

handled event that we've had in Transformers

comics. I feel like it had the opposite problem

from Dark Cybertron in that Dark Cybertron was

slow to get going and then got really awesome

at the end, whereas this really chugged along

at the beginning. I mean, stuff was happening

and I was invested and things were going off

and I cared. And then I feel like the end has

fizzled a little bit because I don't get that

sense Yes, there has been a change in the universal

direction of the storytelling, which is kind

of what we have come to expect from an event.

But it's a smaller change. It's just, I mean,

it's OK. The change is big in that they have

made contact with lots of other worlds and titans.

That's big. And they're starting this, you know,

galactic United Nations Transformers thing, which

is a big deal and cool and awesome. And I'm excited.

for that to have happened. But that being said,

with this previous issue, because honestly, I

can't address it in terms of this issue of Windblade,

because like we've said, this doesn't feel like

part of Combiner Wars at all. With the previous

issue of Notrid, I didn't feel like it tied the

entire thing up in a bow. I felt like it was

just a little bit like this is where it's okay

and now back. we return you to your regularly

scheduled programming with incidental prime punching

prowl there was not a sense of resolution or

climactic ending or anything that occurred more

in the previous issue where uh the with the that

we talked about the the prime combiner and all

that stuff and turning prowl in that that felt

like the ending And I suppose it is called an

epilogue, so it can be just kind of slotting

it back in. But I guess my point is, Combine

Awards was, I thought, a well -handled event.

But the ending, I'm not quite sure about, because

it didn't have the punch that the ending of Dark

Cybertron, or even Chaos, did, where it was just

like, wham! We have given you a big punch ending

this was and now everybody kind of goes back

to doing what they were doing So, yeah, what

about you Amy or I Think that Heather hit it

right on the on the head. I don't get the same

feeling either It's like you said they're learning

from their mistakes to get going for a dark Cybertron

was Very slow get going but it had a nice Finished

ending and it felt like a I'm satisfied. I've

had a good meal this I feel like I'm I'm still

wanting for more I'm still waiting for like the

only fallout that we basically have is is prime

punching prowl Which is like I don't believe

you you lie You know, I just that that's that's

my take coming out of that is the fact that I

just don't believe it I don't believe that that

it happened. Yes, it's on the page, but I just

don't like I said, I'm In my brain, I'm like

going, it just doesn't feel like the right thing.

It just doesn't satisfy you at all. If anything,

it just leaves me frustrated. So yeah, they'll

figure it out eventually. But yeah, as a event,

I think they handled it better as well. And I

just, just the ending, just something about it

just not quite there yet. But and that being

said, I honestly don't know why they They even

bothered to even have an epilogue, to be honest.

They don't have to have an epilogue. Dude, I

just got so confused. This is supposed to be

an epilogue, and I still don't feel like this

story of Combiner was finished. It hasn't wrapped

anything up. I don't expect it to wrap anything

up, because at this point, the fact that Starscream

has all the combiners that he has, it's not finished

until it's taken away from Starscream. that it'll

never be finished until he relinquishes all thing

to the to the enigma of combination and he won't

and That's another story. That's something else.

And I guess the idea of combiner wars putting

that on there I guess you expect it to be this

big old war and it actually was more like a combiner

battle to me. Yeah Yeah, you know it's a combiner

battle and I liked that but I mean if they're

gonna continue with the combiner war shtick is

it gonna Come back to that like combiner wars

part two, you know next I really feel like it's

going to just judging by what toys we've seen

coming up in the future we've got the Crazy skylinks

combiner toy, which is so I think there's a Galvatron

combiner and there's a Starscream So they're

not it's not ended. It's not and so I'm sure

it's just gonna be more combinary stuff. Yeah

The idea of it I like it's just that it seems

like it's so throwaway But my title seems like

it should be more That there should be more story

to it But yet it feels at this point like it's

kind of throwaway And I don't like that. I kind

of like, I mean, I'm not saying like, Oh, I hate

it because of that. It's like, no, it just feels

like it's fighting with itself. Combiner wars,

like it shouldn't be over with already, but yet

it is. And we're like trying to understand, resolve

what that means. And, you know, we're getting

more toys and we're wondering, Hey, I kind of

wasn't opposed to the whole combiner thing. Are

we going to get really chaos -y crazy and do

more combiners? And it's possible that we will.

So the idea that it's a combiner war, I almost

think, well, why don't they just call it combiner

battle? Rather than like, I can't get all been

out of shape on just semantics, but I do wish

that there had been some sort of thesis statement

at the end that went along the lines of, and

the point of this event was to establish that

now we have the colonies and we're doing this

now. The moral of the story is? Yes, yes. The

PSA announcement has to be PSA. The wrap up statement

at the end. And then I would have been okay.

That was what was lacking for me. Everything

else is just kind of the incidentals of - The

moment where they could have had that was between

Prime and Prowl and all we got was angst. You're

making me do this! My whole problem is - That

is the unforgivable line. John! It's a good thing

you weren't at BotCon, buddy. My whole problem

with this series is that, yeah, it's supposed

to be Combiner Wars. And I felt like Hasbro dipped

their toe in a little too far into the comics

because they were wanting to get all the combiners

out for the toys. And the thing is, once we got

all the combiners on the page, it's like the

story kind of deflated a little bit. And we didn't

get that excitement anymore. Yeah, maybe that's

why it feels so throw away is because of that.

It's just like it was all rushed to get all these

combiners on the page. And then when you finally

got them, it's just like, huh, what do we do

now? You know, there's no real point to having

had all the combiners. Exactly. Yeah. Don't get

me wrong. I love big bots bashing each other.

I really. Absolutely. This is why we like Pacific

Rim. Exactly. But yeah, it was just like. You

know the good thing is is at least we didn't

do this for like, you know a year. Yeah It was

sure it came and went we got what we we got the

gimmick We liked it actually surprisingly. I

thought oh, this is gonna be too crazy. I'm not

gonna like it actually I kind of did It came

and it went and now we can move on to the rest

of the story So it's that's one good thing. It's

it's you both the positive and the negative at

the same time It's kind of like you've overindulged

in your favorite dessert, and you still have

some leftovers on your plate, and you're just

thinking to yourself, why did I do that? I could

have saved this for a later time. I could have

enjoyed this. And in the morning, you're just

like, I'm going to do it again. So are we really

sitting here saying that Combiner Wars is just

a giant ice cream headache? I really first because

I Know feel free to throw stuff. I don't care

about combiners. I really don't I mean they're

fun But I don't care and the fact that combiner

wars for you know 90 % of the time I enjoyed

the combiners and I was invested and I cared

and you know, so that is an achievement It was

just at the end where I kind of was like I don't

really care anymore. I feel like if they come

up with a different title than epilogue, something

that means, and now we return to your regularly

scheduled programming, but there's no good word

for that. So they were kind of stuck with epilogue,

but that's what both of these issues function

as, as a return to the main story. And now we

return to your regular scheduled comic. Exactly.

And the thing with Windblade is, as I've already

said, I said a little while ago, that between

issue three and this issue, issue four, it's

essentially setting up the story for what's going

to happen later in her ongoing. Yeah. All right.

Well, one last question for you guys. We have

a new artist on this issue. What do we think

of the art? I better start by apologizing for

getting it wrong, last issue. My detective work

was incorrect and so this is, I was assuming

that, I had it backwards. So the stuff that I

thought was Marcello was actually Corin and the

stuff that I thought was Corin was actually Marcello.

But that being said, I'm just gonna jump in even

though you didn't call on me. Ha ha. Take it,

run with it. This was a lot of fun. This style

was a lot of fun. It's very cartoony. But that

works for Windblade, because Marigold's writing

and the way she's characterized always, it frequently

ends up being most successful when it is exaggerated,

cartoony, and fun like that. My one complaint

is that Corinne tends to do a lot of really wide

eyes, especially on Windblade, and so they lose

their power as an expressive motif. If Windblade's

always wide -eyed, then she can't do a wide -eyed

expression and have it have any impact. Yeah,

I agree. She's always got the wide eyes. Other

than that, it was fun. The colors are looking

great. Yeah, it's kind of a simple style. So

if the story goes into any sort of much more

complex area, the art may start to get in the

way a little bit to hold back our ability to

really experience any, you know, real moral or

story or any sort of complexity. But as of right

now, it's working. I really like the way Moon

Racer was characterized as a racer that's not

terribly good. And so she's kind of outside the

kind of the hierarchy of society. I just wanted

to throw that in because I didn't get a chance

to earlier. But them's my comments. It's interesting

that she's outside the hierarchy and yet she's

here with Knockout. So I'm like going, hmm, I

wonder what he did to get this. Well, he acts

like he is in the hierarchy. He puts himself,

he portrays himself anyway. As someone who's

very much a good racer, but she's like, I'm not.

I love her art. This is the most refreshing I've

seen art in a long time on Transformers or anything

else. It's interesting, it's nice, it's new and

I know me personally I'm not used to having changes

done on certain things but because the way that

they set Combiner Wars up where you had You didn't

have, thank God, as many artists that were on

Dark Cybertron, but you had various artists doing

various things throughout Combiner Wars, and

I'm glad they're now going with her for the rest

of the series, because I think it brings a lot

of fun things to look at, as well as we're reading

Marigret's fun dialogue. Agreed. About you, Amy?

I'm still trying to... Figure out if I like it

or if I don't like it. I'm leaning more toward

that. I don't care for it, but I'm sorry Come

to the fun side of the force. I'm gonna be like

this. Okay. This is what I'm gonna say This is

her first full issue Think back way back when

Livio had his first full issue She's gonna come

into herself. She's gonna come into her style.

She's gonna she's gonna change a lot over the

next however many issues. I've got plenty of

time to learn to fall in love with it. So I'm

like, I'm going to be like, okay, I'm just going

to wait and say, okay, it's it worked. I'm not

completely in love with it. But I'm not against

it. And I'd like to see I'm like, you know, Heather,

you just pointed out the thing about the eyes.

I think now. If she if corn listens to this,

she might go, okay, I'll see if I can modify

that and morph it and see if I can figure make

it work for. what I wanna make it work for. You

know, she's gonna change her style as she figures

out how to maintain an ongoing continuously and

make it work for her too. So I'm like going,

well, I'll just kind of quietly sit here and

wait and see if my opinion of it changes because

likely it will. She's just starting out. I'm

half and half. There are things that I like and

there are things that I don't like. So I'm like

going, huh. I've got to figure out what it is

and why, and then once I figure that out, then

I can actually articulate what I'm trying to

say about it. So I'm like, hmm, I'm kind of a

maybe. There you go. Amy, I had a quick thought.

Is it because Corinne's style, especially this

issue, is very similar? It's like reading an

issue of Sarah Stone Light, because her style

is quite similar, but Thomas Deer's colors are

different and her style is not quite the same.

And so I find myself mentally constantly comparing

her to Sarah. And it gets in the way sometimes

of just enjoying it for what it is. Yeah, I think

part of it is that because we have had other

things and it's not that it totally feels like

it's in the vein of that, but it's not. So it's

like, Hmm, I'm just trying to figure out what

it is. Because also I remember last last issue

where you talked about, you know, Oh, it's got

a little bit of this in it. It's got a little

bit this and it's got a little bit. That was

the other artist. That was the other artist.

Okay. All right. Hmm. Which to be honest, I would

want to see those two on any book. Anyone can

give me at any time. Gotcha. So Marcelo name

that I can't pronounce and Yamaishi hire those

people, please, please, please. That being said,

I think that that Corrin and Thomas have done

a perfectly fine job in this. I don't hate it.

I mean, I don't hate it either. But I think this

is quite serviceable. It's not Heart of Darkness.

Let's just say that. No, I don't think anything.

I don't know. That was the darkest hour, okay?

We haven't gone back to that, so I'm just saying,

Heart of Darkness, that was definitely not a

good fit. We just have such high standards at

this point. Yeah. And that's the tough part.

And very specific desires, I think. Yeah. And

this is different. And it's that being said though,

even our high standards of what like, you know,

Alex Milne or Nick Roche would do. Livio isn't

anywhere near that, but yet we love, at least

I love his stuff. So I'm not going to talk about

other people, but you know, it's just like, it's

just, it's, it's, it's taken me a while and I've

seen Livio change so much since he first came

on Transformers. So it's like to see the shift

in how he's done things. is really awesome. So

I look forward to seeing that in Korin as well,

because she will. She absolutely will. She's

got the expression down. She's got the movement

mostly down and she's got good storytelling.

I think the book is in good hands. I still wish

we could have kept Sarah. Stuff happened. Life

happens. Yeah. She'll be back someday. Yeah,

you know, we can't always get absolutely everything

we want at all times. I know, I know. Everyone

just draw what you're doing and draw for me personally.

Thank you. Yeah. The last thing I want to say

about it is between Sarah and Corrin, I read

interviews with both of them before they started,

like before Sarah started on the original Windblade

series last year. And, you know, I read the interview

and in it she says that, you know, Transformers

Animated was, you know, part of her influence

and a few other things. When I was, because I

got the sneak peek for Batmite, which was free,

thank God. I was wanting to check it out before

I actually committed to actually buying the book

from DC, because Corin is doing that as well.

And I went and found an interview with her and

Dan Jurgens, who is the writer on that series.

And in that interview, she says to, I think it

was Comic Vine, might have been Compaq Resources.

I don't know. I found it somewhere. I'll find

it again. She says in that interview that her

influences are stuff like Animaniacs and Tiny

Tunes and Looney Tunes and that kind of thing.

So that's why for me, she is... Perfect for where

they're going and how like the way I look at

it is not writ is supposed to be the serious

side of Cybertron and when blade is supposed

to be the fun side Gotcha. Welcome to the fun

side. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, we have

cookies Yeah, you do have it with Marigold's

writing. You have to have a very expressive artist.

Yeah Alright, so as far as what we're suspecting

and whatever else as far as combiner wars as

of issue 42 of not rid and as of issue for of

Windblade combiner wars is done According to

the July Solicits Transformers 43 is just transformers

43 Has no subtitle to it wind blade number five

is just wind blade number five and we'll still

call it not read 42 43 before I before I talk

about What is going on? What are we rating number

four ladies? I'm gonna read it I thought it was

pretty good. I really, really liked that ending

where I didn't expect all that. And whenever

I get something that was like, oh, I really like

that, then I'm willing to give it a whole lot

higher mark because of that. Because I really

liked the shift in that. Next. Do it Nicole.

I'm not quite ready I'm gonna give this a three

and a half because I don't know the whole combiner

wars epilogue thing It really throws me off because

it doesn't belong a combiner worse today I guess

but there's some really great moments the whole

Swimblade Starscream calling out Rattrap. That's

pretty funny. I love the ending The whole knockout

and blur thing. I really did have a fun fun time

with this issue. So yeah Three and a half. Heather.

OK, I think I'd probably still just give it a

three, not as an insult, better than half the

comics out there because it's a fairly shallow

comic. The art is very enjoyable and the storytelling

and writing is very enjoyable, but not much of

moment happens. So in order for me to to rate

things higher, I want the comic issue on its

own. To be important on some level and this is

very much kind of just a setup like okay We're

gonna go to this we're gonna go to Velocitron.

We're gonna do this racing thing it So I pre

I am assuming that the next issue is going to

have a lot more Import in the general universe,

so yeah, I think I'd give it a three perfectly

solid comic For me, I have to give it a 4 .5.

I have to. It's that friggin' panel. Shut up,

Ratcher. It's that whole exchange. That whole

exchange is the Transformers comic scene of the

year. And we haven't even seen everything that's

gonna come out this year, but seriously, the

way that Margaret wrote that, the way that Corin

drew it and Tom colored it, it just... That is

the best scene in Transformers comics right now.

I love how your race looks on one panel. It just

is. Hey, you know. All right. So the Solicits.

We're not talking about More Than Meets the Eye

because that's a whole other thing that I'm not

even up to date on. So we're just going to I'm

just going to talk about Transformers 43 and

Windblade number five. Barbara Griffith and and

griffith on that uh... cosmos unleashed a misunderstood

auto -body decepticon space station cut off from

their allies soundwave and cosmos come face to

face alone i'm gonna read the crap out of that

two fan favorite characters together for the

first time who will command the space bridge

alright so wind blade number five marigold and

corinne and priscilla on covers Race against

the light. On Velocitron, racing isn't a sport,

it's a matter of life and death. Windblade and

Blurr put the pedal to the metal to save Cybertron

and their own lives. Space Race, Blurr and Windblade

together to decide the fate of Cybertron's new

interstellar alliance. Windblade gives up Starscream

for her new boyfriend, Blurr! She's gonna have

to fight Knockout for that position. I don't

know, Blurr just said that he's an idiot. he's

not in oh my god oh i just thought of something

really really horrible i don't know which one

would be which but blur and knockout are holden

and banki and and uh wind blade is amy from chasing

amy elisa from chasing amy oh god scary all right

yeah i know i'm a scary guy that's how you roll

Alright, guys. I gotta go to work. Yup. Alright.

Close it out, Nicole. Alright. Um well, that's

it for Team Angel. Join us next time as we bring

together some of our combiner abilities. Wink

wink. Yeah. Aloha, albizay, and sayonara. And

remember, this podcast may be on hiatus but nothing's

gonna stand in our way of having a good time

with comics. We love you. bye bye nice song insert

i caught that well yeah the under base might

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your bag under the base every month You've just

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