Transformers Windblade #1 Review

You can go whenever you're ready, Amy. Alright.

Okay. I thought she went before we started recording.

Huh? Oh my gosh. You're so hyper tonight. This

is gonna be awesome. So the thing is, I come

alive at night and then I'm on drugs, and so

it's just like, I apologize in advance what comes

out of my mouth. Remember what I said before,

Amy? I can't be held reliable for anything that

happens after midnight. Exactly. So basically

Nicole is a gremlin yikes There's our other geek

highlight right there Okay, I Can do this It's

been a year since I've run a review since um

Spotlight bumblebee and you remember that one

Nicole, right? Amy, we spent two hours last night

making sure that we could go through this. You'll

be fine. I just get nerves. It's just hardwired.

Think of it as internet radio with no live audience.

Or just assume the audience is naked. That'll

help. Oh, yeah, right. Just remember that part

of your audience is cleaning a toilet and we'll

be really grateful for any sort of entertainment

you can provide. Wait, question. You're supposed

to be dressed by the record? Dang, I didn't know.

I can't deal with that now. Transmission is go

The pullback crosses over with the under base

podcast to review the four -issue miniseries

Transformers wing play join your hosts the long

-suffering TFG one Mike the committed lady wreck

the amp tailstorm and the pretender Hi he prime

as they bring you in -depth analysis of the mostly

all -female team of American Scott writer And

Sarah Stone, artist as Wingblade takes IDW publishing

to new heights of awesomeness. Get ready to pull

your bag under the base in this first ever crossover

event. Welcome to the Underbase! I am your host,

Amy aka Lady Rek. But wait! This isn't just UnderBase

today. For this review, we are doing a wicked

cool crossover podcast with GeekCast Radio Network's

The Pullback. So we have our UnderBase review

team plus one. Can we do it? Of course we can!

We're the UnderBase. We have superpowers. So

introducing my wicked awesome cool team, Nicole

aka Lady of Beatles Diva. I got it, I got it.

We're playing games. I've taken over Lady Rex.

Yeah! I don't know why I slipped that in there.

Oh, there you go! Woohoo! I can no longer woohoo!

I stole your woohoo. That's cool, that's cool.

Heather aka Hawhee Prime. Yo! I have nothing

to compare it with Nicole's. There's nothing

wrong with that. And GeekCast Radio Network's

podcasting extraordinaire, TFG1 Mike. Hello,

angels. Welcome to the show. So you are going

off with my suggestion, yeah? Yes, of course.

Just for that, you are bossy. Hell no! Just don't

call them Bosley to his face. You tempt us, you

tempt us. And what, Rachel, are we reviewing

today? Well, the wait is finally over. We are

here to review Windblade. This is why we have

so many ladies on the show, because why not?

And the underbased teams have so much testosterone

and dudes that it's about time we have a team

to represent the mighty women of the Transformers

fandom. Now, I just want to pull back the curtain

for the listeners. When I originally brought

up the... Wait, I gotta dress first! originally

brought this idea up to Amy I originally told

her I would produce the episode only that it

would just be the three of you and then she was

like no we want a guy's perspective as well so

I'm reluctantly here and I'm flashing back to

junior prom memories where I was the only guy

on the all girls prom committee added more words

after I'm flashing I don't think guys have that

problem So this is the only team that you need,

listeners. The only team that you need. So wait,

wait, wait. We had the A team. We have team number

one. So what team is this? I decided not to go

there. Team O. Team O. You figured it out, people.

Actually, I did have an idea, but I decided that

I didn't want to have it, like, spewing all over

the internet after this show. And I thought,

no, that would be, yeah. So I'm not gonna say

Do we need to tag this podcast in red no, no,

no, no, this is Well, thank you so much for coming

to join us Mike I really really appreciate you

being here. All right I just thought you know

he's the fish out of water because all of us

ladies are here Thank him for putting up with

us I'm sure my dirty mind would go even further

than Nicole's sometimes Why do people think I

have a dirty mind? I do not have a dirty mind.

I'm the cleanest person here You guys don't know

that the conversation Amy has with me. I'm the

cleanest one here, and I stand by what I say.

Hey, I'm just gonna put it out there for all

of those people out there that know Nicole better

than I do. What do you think? Please tweet it

out there. Who's dirtier? I will say this for

the listeners perspective as far as Amy goes

we had a conversation about wind blade the couple

of nights before this podcast will go up and

Somehow my brain flashed to the fact that she

could potentially be what would happen if c3po

and r2d2 had a baby Are you talking about wind

blade or Amy? better sense okay then never gonna

get this podcast finished no we're not should

have recorded late at night man oh fantastic

okay so let's go ahead and start um credits what

do we got here we have three covers actually

i take that back okay um credits i meant to actually

go We've got written by Margaret Scott, art by

Sarah Stone, who's also doing her own coloring.

Letters by Chris Mowry. Editorial assistants

by Rebecca Hard. I guess I'm saying that right.

Hard? Heward? Who are? Who are? Who are? Who

are? There you go. That is a last name. That

is a cool last name. Yeah. Awesome. And editor

John Barber. Hi John! Captain continuity. We

have three covers. We have the standard cover

by Casey Coller and the lovely Joanna Lafuente.

This was the teaser cover of the series, Windblade

floating over Cybertron with her curvy sword.

The subscription cover by Sarah Stone. her reflection

in the badass sword, and the incentive cover

by Livio Remedeli, where the sword is illuminating

Windblade's face as Cybertron is dawning below.

All great, but which one tickles your fancies,

ladies? See, at this point, there's so many of

us you're gonna have to choose. I know, I was

like, Nicole. For me, because I saw the incentive

cover and I'm like, the incentive cover is beautiful,

but I really like that subscription cover. I

don't know. It's like a, because with the rest

of the issue, this cover kind of shows off more

of her personality that goes along with the story,

I think. Even though the first cover is really

cool. And of course, Olivia, he always does some

great stuff, but I'm going with, yeah, the subscription

cover. Okay. Heather. Um, I gotta agree with

Nicole. You better! Hey, I don't live that close

to you. I can say stuff about you behind your

back and it'll take you a while to wheel down

here and get me. Oh, but trust girl, I've got

plenty of time on my hands. It's not a challenge,

Heather. You know what, if Nicole, if you wheel

up on my doorstep one time, I will just be super,

super stoked. And also slightly afraid. But anyway

covers yeah, I love the subscription cover. It's

just There's something about Sarah's art that

it's just so liquid and beautiful and I will

try to hold in my squeebling about it But it's

awesome Yeah, the others are not bad. Although

I gotta say despite the fact that I love Livio

that cover scares me a little bit She's sort

of looking into my soul and I'm not sure if I

like it That is a very good point. Oh my goodness

You know from anywhere that you look at that

cover she follows like her eyes are following

me. She's like this is my planet That's where

I'm sticking my flag on this one man awesome

and Mike Here's the thing with me and my comic

shop and covers I actually had to show them on

IDW's books where to look for the different cover

designations Because a lot of times they weren't

pulling the sub covers when there were sub covers

And I'm one of those people that if a comic company

is saying I said if I subscribe to this I'm gonna

get this then I damn well better have the option

to get it whether i choose to get it or not is

fine but at least afford me the option to do

so uh... i like the sub cover as well uh... i

wish that i don't know for the four issue in

the series of sarah is going to be doing first

case is going to be doing the main cover for

all four answers to be in some cover for all

four but i think it just makes more sense for

me Not that I have anything against Casey's art.

And Livio, he's great. The only problem is I've

seen the covers put together, the retail incentive

covers, where it shows Optimus, Windblade, and

Megatron, and it shows Cybertron in the background.

Windblade looks like she's Darth Vader with a

Jedi lightsaber. But yeah, the subscription cover

is the one that I like and the one that I would

pick. Awesome. You know what? I can't argue with

any of you guys, because it's four people for

the subscription cover, because when I saw that,

I was like, ooh, and you're right. It does bring

out Windblade's personality more than any other

ones. I like the other two as well. I mean, I

love Casey's stuff. I've loved everything that

he's done. And I continually gush about him.

Often and the same with Livio, but for me, it's

good. He's there is gonna steal at this time

man I mean, they're both Casey and Livio are

both great I just think because they mostly do

the on but the ongoing stuff and you have for

the majority an all -female team here It makes

sense to go with the cover that's most like the

series versus like the main cover is her sit

against the backdrop of Dark Cybertron or and

part of that teaser was after the dark. Yeah,

you know, after the dark comes the dawn and it's

just one of those things where I like it. It's

cool, but it doesn't really give me a whole lot.

It shows me what she could be doing on the Cybertron.

During dark cyber term that it doesn't really

tell me much about what she's gonna do in her

own little miniseries here Yeah, yeah, cool.

All right. Well, we come to a previously page

No more summary on our contents pages. Now. What

do you guys think about that? Is that a good

switch? Yes, most definitely But my problem with

the summary page when they would do it on on

the on the contents pages half the time the writing

would be so small and without correction I have

2200 vision with correction I have 2060 so for

me to actually read that tiny text I have to

put my glasses on really no thanks yeah I'm gonna

disagree I'm gonna miss this for one reason alone

I got two words for you Chris McFeely such a

wonderful flashback you know That's time. Oh,

no, that's exactly what they're doing though.

Cause like before a while we would get is just

a little like on the contents page, we'd get

a little paragraph summary of what's going on

and we wouldn't get like this art page where

it's previously and they have all that stuff.

That's what I was saying. I'm, is it a good switch?

And I like that too. How about you, Heather?

I actually, I'm torn because I really like the

simplicity of just the summary page because When

I open a comic book, I really want to just get

immersed into it right away. I feel like the

previously page is useful enough to ... Sometimes

it'll clarify something that maybe I didn't quite

cotton onto or something. I feel like I should

read it, but it also ... It's like another step

before I can get into the actual comic. It kind

of bugs me. So I was actually hoping that they

wouldn't continue this, but we'll see. Okay,

cool. All good points? Yeah. Okay, so basically...

The universe nearly came to its end, but Cybertron

united, and the day was saved by the combined

forces of the Autobots and Decepticons and some

new arrivals. Optimus Prime, the Autobot commander,

returns to face a new world order. Megatron,

the Decepticon leader, joins the side of his

long -time enemies. And Windblade, the newcomer,

arrives on Cybertron and makes a place for herself.

And that's what this issue, Windblade, the newcomer...

And that's what this issue, um... Starts so if

you want to see the whole adventure on how she

comes to Cybertron Read dark Cybertron volume

1 and 2 which is 12 issues long and you can probably

still get it at the time of this recording You

can probably pick up the single issues. So if

you're lucky, yeah but I have to say really quickly

with this this previously page They basically

put all three main covers as part of the bottom

panel to give you the backstory for Optimus Megatron

and Windblade. When I first saw the image of

Megatron for After the Dark, and he had the Autobot

symbol on him, I'm like, oh yes, they're taking

it to shattered glass, yes, yes, yes, do it,

do it, do it, do it. And then no, he's just joining

the Autobots. Okay, that's all right. I'm good

with that. I'm really good with that. I'm not

on that podcast. We're doing windblades, so.

Well, true. I'm looking forward to that first

issue to find out. So how did he get it? What

happened? Yeah, how did the Decepticons take

that? But yes, that's for entirely another podcast,

but yeah. And if you think about that one image

here, it's basically a reverse of what happened

in Prime when Optimus reverted to Orion and had

a Decepticon symbol written onto him. Good point.

Very good point. So, recap. Here we have a recap.

Do listeners have to read Dark Cybertron to read

this issue? If they're gonna skip the recap page,

if they're gonna skip the previously page and

just start at the six months later page or something,

I would say probably not. Or if they're even

gonna start with just the Windblade page, I'd

say probably not. But if you really wanna know

how she got to, well, how she interacted with

the people on Cybertron, I'd say at least read

part of it. Okay. Anybody else? I don't know.

I think you could just dive right into this,

honestly. I mean, obviously, you know, whenever

you... you dive into the middle of any comic

book series, there's going to be stuff that you

don't know. But I feel like this did a great

job of, of immersing you in the world right away.

And you're going to know enough to be totally

fine. I think right now, um, you don't, but I

think it's going to probably be playing out probably

in, if not the next issue, number three. Um,

because if you, I think With this issue, I'll

probably get a little ahead of myself. She has

a relationship with Metroplex and that was kind

of, you kind of get to the heart of it through

Dark Cybertron. Of course, you don't have to

read it in this issue, but it was nice to see.

And the thing is with Dark Cybertron, and again,

probably getting ahead of myself here, to me,

she had a whole different personality in that

series as she did this one. And that series,

I did not care for Windblade. I'm just like,

this woman has no personality. She's not going

anywhere. And just with this single issue, it

has changed my mind. So if you want to see how

she's changed, yeah, you need to go read it.

But if you just want to see this side of her,

no, you don't. Well, isn't that just used everyone?

But she was also being written by other people

at the time. You know, I don't think it was that

they wanted to like step on any toes and things

like that. So they didn't really cast her or

give her any personality because they didn't

know what was going to be done with her. Yeah,

I think she didn't have a personality. That's

why I didn't care for in Dark Cybertron. Yeah.

Well, I and just to kind of add to that, I don't

think that you need to read Dark Cybertron either,

because all it all she really did was just be

introduced and and she just happened to be there

when they found Metroplex. And then when they

got to Cybertron, all she did, her and her sisters

did is jump off and start kicking people's butts.

And that was about it. She didn't really have

a purpose. It was just the fact that she was

there when they found Metroplex. And she just

happened to say, hey, I speak for him. And then

we go into more detail about that in this issue.

There's something magical about really fast.

There's something magical about diving into a

world and not knowing everything and just being

like, Oh, and in kind of having to infer things,

it's really, really fun. Yeah. Well, and it gives

you a chance, like I said, this, if this is,

if this, this is somebody's first issue. Cause

I always like to kind of, you know, throw that

in there because this is quite literally, it

kind of feels that that's what IDW is doing with

Transformers right now is saying, Hey, now we

wrapped up our event. It's great time to jump

back on. So yeah, because they're kind of saying,

Hey, this is great. place to jump on for everybody

that hasn't jumped on yet I really hope that

you know if somebody picks up Windblade they're

like hey this this kind of makes me want to go

all right this this is what Transformers is I'd

like to read more so you know we'll see see how

that goes but all opinions of course everybody

there we go and and we're moving on so six months

later we get a page of six months later because

there's got to be a gap between Things, right?

And we start this issue on a bright new morning.

A dawn of Cybertron. And Windblade is narrating

because this is her story, obviously. And it

says, dawn's breaking on Cybertron. The stars

fade and the sun peeks over the horizon. And

just before it's light enough to really make

things out, I pretend as hard as I can that I'm

home. Because every moment after there's no denying

that I'm not and she jumps down and transforms

off To get to where she should be which is having

a training session with chromia who is none too

happy that she's late Okay, before we get to

chromia and all the myriad issues she has The

wind blade transformation here anybody see a

little bit of thrust in her jet mode when I first

are Yeah. Very nice. It's so fluid, like you

mentioned, Heather, where the art is just very

fluid. And basically, these two ladybots, they

go straight into practice, which Chromia beats

are good, because hey, man, she's got to keep

Windblade ready. Because Chromia is the gal,

man. She knows how to get stuff done. Now there

are a few things mentioned on page two that I

thought were pretty interesting. Not only do

we get a little bit of background, but Chromia

calls Windblade a city speaker. And we find out

that they came from a world called Caminus, which

we will learn a little more about later in the

issue. And Chromia is charged with bringing her

back in one piece, so they aren't staying? Anybody

have any thoughts on that? Either that or she

I just assumed that that meant that she'd been

her bodyguard Well, I guess charged maybe that's

a recent thing but they act like They've had

a you know, sort of commander bodyguard relationship

for a while. Yeah. Yeah So I guess I just assumed

back in one piece from every single day Mm -hmm,

but it could be back home. I mean I get the feeling

that they want to go back home Okay Anybody else?

I don't know. I mean, I'm of the opinion that,

you know, Cybertron is the place to be. 95 %

male robots, it needs to at least have an extra

5 % of female robots. The more females, the better.

Now, I do have to say about this, this, this

page here, when she shows up and she says, sorry,

I'm late. Every time I've seen wind blade so

far to this point She reminds me of a cross between

Lydia from Beetlejuice and Queen Amidala from

Star Wars Not that it's a bad thing, but like

seriously if you look at the solicitation for

issue 3's cover where it's her with the lines

on the page. She looks just like Lydia from Beetlejuice.

Just her facial expression, everything about

it. As far as I'm going back, they just got here.

Why do we have to bring up the fact that they

might go back eventually, you know? But everyone

wants to go back home every week. Every once

in a while, it's your home. I can't imagine being

thrusted out into a whole new world and say,

hey, get along. That's basically what our military

people go through. They're thrust from their

comforts of home into a place that they have

nothing to do with, that they have to defend,

and they feel a little lost for a while. Yeah,

they do want to go back home. I kind of got the

feeling that they aren't there to stay. I mean,

I'm guessing that by the end of the series, we

probably will have them staying, obviously. But

I kind of liked the idea that they're there for

a job, but yet at the same time, and we learn

more about that, of course, as we read the issue.

But I also liked the idea of some of the bots

having the ability to speak to city formers.

I kind of liked that little detail of, you know,

just fleshing out something new that we've never

really looked at. So I'm pretty cool with that.

But this is probably like when I was reading

it for the first time, that was probably when

I realized that Windblade, that there's something

different about her. She has something that others

don't, and I kind of liked that. I almost got

a sense that she's like, almost in a sense, like

you said, that she's like, you know. Amidala,

but she's got this royalty or something because

of that because of what she can do or whatever.

I think the crown gives it away. I didn't think

of that as a crown, but now I do. Starscream

will end up stealing that. He would look fabulous!

She's like on a diplomatic mission there or something,

right? Maybe we should start with your home planet

of Alderaan. Oh, good times, good times. Okay,

so we flip to page three, and Windblade has an

appointment with Starscream later that day, and

she's listening to Metroplex when he just decides

to barge in unannounced with a rat trap in tow.

But Windblade rolls with it, because she recognizes

that Starscream is the leader here, and he goes

where he wants. Starscream doesn't follow the

rules, as long as he's not getting his... you

know, his throat cut. He can do whatever he wants.

Starscream's gonna make his own rules whether

he's the leader or not, so it's not like it really

matters that he's in charge. I will say, because

I haven't had a chance to say this on any other

show to this point, I hate his new body. Oh,

the Armada body, yeah. Absolutely hate it. Would

have preferred them going either prime or animated

or something other than armada It does cross

major wires in my brain having him wandering

around in an armada body I'm like, I can't take

you seriously anymore, dude Actually, this is

the first time that they've after they've changed

his body that I actually Started to like it.

There's something about the way that Sarah draws

him That makes me go, you know, I actually kind

of like it now. I don't know why. I would agree

with what you just said, Amy, though, because

she actually can pull it off. But up until this

point, I've just been like, oh, my gosh. And

it was I blame that one cover where he's just

being emo. Which one? Isn't it emo on all of

them? Well, no, it was it was the cover where

he's just like kneeling in the whole like, why?

you just like jumped the shark of emo Starscream

-ness and then he spent all of Dark Cybertron

just moping around. Anyways, this is not about

Dark Cybertron. This is not about Starscream.

It's always about Starscream, honey. Whether

you know it or not, it's always about Starscream.

And he would say that too. It's always about

him. He genuinely would. So this is about as

far as what we got for the comic being teased

a few weeks ago until today when we got actually

five pages teased. But I just thought I'd just

plug that in here real quick because like you

know the internet does this amazing thing of

you know teasing stuff beforehand and newsarama

usually is always attached to it. Oh yes. Starscream

dismisses them, and then Windblade gives him

the respectful acknowledgement that he's due,

and he throws it in her face. She's like, how

may Metroplex serve you? And those you serve

in turn. Such a gracious sentiment. And yet,

one I might question its sincerity. And one might

question its sincerity. And then they go into

the problem as they fix some of the problems,

but that's not enough for him. They are still

getting blackouts and Starscream is questioning

her ability as well as putting her as the scapegoat

for things that can go wrong with the other Cybertronians

of the planet. Yeah, and he's really just playing

off everything that he can and manipulating.

And then the real concern is best exactly. It's

like finally he's no more He's he's stopping

the mopey Starscream and he's like back in his

game. Okay, you know what? Transformers are kind

of like humans. They all have their emo stage

prime done it how many times A bumblebee's done

it. It's not just the Decepticons or Starscream.

They've all gone through it. I mean, look at

poor Thundercracker. There's nothing with an

EM right now. Okay. It's like they have to go

through their EMO stage before they can actually

be awesome again, right? It's their teenage angst

stage. I think it's like around year 5 ,000 where

they have their teenage angst. So you're saying

he's put away his Linkin Park albums and is going

to actually be a ruler now? Yeah, so he put his

Linkin Park stuff away and he just pretty much

went into slipknot. Or he could have backtracked.

He could have dropped the Linkin Park and gone

to Marky Mark. Now I will say on this page where

he throws that in her face, even though I just

said that I hate the armada body, I don't mind

it when it's colored in black at the very bottom

when he says, then do it. I like that look for

him. There's a lot of can I like swivel about

some art on this page? Give me one more minute

So the real clincher and this is the whole point

of this this issue or this this page because

I really really like this The whole conversation

he has the sinister whisper The most sinister

whisper. I think I've seen in transformers comics

ever That whisper is loaded with the most manipulative

twist ever If you're trying to undermine me with

this string of inconveniences, remember, every

day they persist is one I'll spend reminding

the people of Cybertron who the real problem

is. I was totally sold on this book after reading

that panel. Completely sold on it. I was like,

yes! We have Starscream! Bing Starscream! I love

it. And she tells them that they aren't the enemy,

that they are honestly trying to help them, but

he turns on a seal and leaves telling them to

then do it. Yeah. Anybody have any more comments

about Starscream? Yeah, this page was good. I

wanted to say though that, um, Windblade is not

quite as, you know, sort of helpless females

as it might be easy to see her as because when

the way she greets Starscream, how may Metroplex

serve you and those you serve in turn? I love

that subtle interplay where she's like reminding

him that he's supposed to be responsible and

that's why she's helping him. And then, you know,

he throws back the whole, oh yeah, you know,

such a gracious sentiment thing, but that's really

good writing and yeah, it's tough. Completely

agree with you there. The blue panel. I love

the blue panel. Cause it's, it's like, you know,

some of the other artists that do a lot of just

kind of black, but it's blue and it's so cool.

And I love it. Awesome. Anyways. Yeah. There's

lots of fun stuff on this page. Completely agree.

Just, just on what you said though, like, you

know, Starscream, she's reminding him of that.

He doesn't really like that. But I also think

that he's kind of a little bit in a tiff because

he's not the one able to talk with Metroplex.

I kind of imagine that they've had this conversation

where he's like, oh, I'll talk to him. And she's

like, no, you won't. And he's like, no, no, no,

no, really, seriously. I'm the leader here. I

talk to everybody. And he's, she's like, you

can't speak his language. Just imagine him be

like, oh, woman. Yeah. That's actually a really

interesting come down for him that I just clued

into, because remember the last time a Titan

came? The Titan was all, you're the chosen one.

And now he shows up and only Windblade can talk

to Metroplex. And that's kind of like, yeah,

you're not always the uber dude. Maybe Metroplex

is just an introvert. To the point where he could

always speak to one person, you know? He gets

a little shy, a little quiet, you know? Maybe

he's sparkly, not that there's anything wrong

with that. Glitter makes everything better. Just

saying. I dare anybody to prove me wrong. That's

the argument for me, man. I'm just gonna dump

a pile of glitter on you and then we'll see what

happens. Yay, I sparkled! Now I'm not going to

make a My Little Pony reference here at all.

Absolutely not. Well, it is after Twilight. Oh

my gosh. But I'm pumped. Okay. I am also loving

this Starscream. I just feel so bad for Windblade.

She's honestly there to do a job and, you know,

she's like, I'm not playing this home in Needle

to Gain. This is what I've been, you know, born

to do. And she's kind of stuck between a rock

and a hard place. So. She can't get Metroplex

to work any faster. But, you know, because she's

his voice. But at the same time Starscream wants

her to remove, you know, move mountains and questions

her eagerness, please. And, you know, I'm sure

that if he could, he would take her place. So

she just can't win with him. Oh, good times.

OK, so. What was that? I love the Starscream.

Love them. Yeah. So as Starscream and Rattrap

leave, Chromia isn't very fond of him, and now

we know why, because he's kind of a jerk. And

Windblade is looking a little bit frustrated

and disappointed in the fact that they continue

to have issues, and she can kind of see where

Starscream is coming from, because she's being

a diplomat. She throws herself into her work

to find out why they're having these blackouts,

and Metroplex is losing power, and we have to

find out why. So all the while having this internal

dialogue, in the comic that pretty much supports

that she, you know, she gets Starscream, even

though the most vicious king loves his own country,

and even the most mild king viciously defends

his home. And that's what she keeps telling herself,

you know, to get rid of her worry and her fear,

to keep that all in check. Starscream is just

looking out for his people, his world, and what

he cares about. So they are the visitors there.

Possibly as soon as they get Metroplex back in

tip -top shape We'll see if you know, of course,

they're gonna be staying I mean, you know We

hope so. Um Why is rat trap a Decepticon? Again,

that's where you go back to dark side John. He's

not really a Decepticon when though places split,

they basically either had to follow Starscream

or be kicked out of the city. Rattrap being Rattrap

didn't want to be out on his own, so he went

to Starscream's side. And hey, if you're going

to be on that side, you might as well try to

get your way to the top so you don't get stepped

on. Yeah. That's basically Rattrap and that's

how he is. So he's not really a Decepticon. he's

just a survivor of his own will. I also noticed

that Starscream is not wearing a badge and neither

is Rattrap. Yeah, that is true. I don't know,

I have a whole issue with, and I'm probably pulling

an ender out of my butt here, but I have a whole

issue here with bringing in the Beast Wars characters

just because, hey, let's do generations toys

of Waspinator and Rattrap. The on on the same

and say finally we get a real tank or toy though

You know, it just I don't know when I heard that

Waspinator and Rattrap were gonna come on. Like

how does that work? What? I'm just not that big

of a fan of it That's kind of that they've been

building since the beginning when they brought

everybody back. So Yeah, he did play a part,

you know His tail was the key. Yeah i know it's

a bit that's it the small part of the built up

to it and it what happened the part you know

it's pretty much so basically what you're saying

is size does matter well if you can't find the

right keyhole yeah okay i actually have a serious

thing to say that is not inappropriate at all

us and our dirty minds. But I'm actually thinking

and especially now that they're starting to imply

with this issue that the reason they're females

because they were just in a different place and

they evolved differently and I just had assumed

that the Beast Wars characters had been on like

another planet and evolved that way and so you

know especially when when all the males were

coming back in our ID and you had all these wacky

looking guys I just assumed that this was like

the wide expanse of different ways in which Transformers

could evolve if they were separated from the

home planet. So I'm sort of a... If I sort of

tell myself that that's why the Beast Wars guys

have shown up, then I can at least make it make

sense. But I'm sort of on your team, Mike, about...

not being a big fan of it, because they seem

so out of place. And like, hey, look, guys, we

brought in these characters. You love them. I'm

like, I know I love them, but I didn't necessarily

need them to be in here. See, I guess it doesn't

bother me. I don't know what I don't know. I

just, like you said, I accepted it. I guess I've

just been around too long to really make it bother

me. And of course, if it wasn't for having the

Beast Force characters in or any Beastie characters,

we wouldn't have Sky Byte. True but who doesn't

like skylight? Yeah, that is true. But see here's

the thing. I'm coming from the point of death

of optimist prime was my intro to IDW and then

I branched off to more than meets the eye and

I eventually reluctantly through ender twisting

my arm, you know took on robots in disguise and

I see this as IDW's g1 continuity not saying

that this is has to be solely in constant the

g1 universe, but It just doesn't make sense to

me because the Beast Wars characters time traveled.

At least that's what I know from watching the

show. Now, if IDW wanted to do, like in order

to promote... Hasbro toys if they wanted to do

a rat trap one shot or a last minute or one shot

I wouldn't have had a problem with that But I

just find it so weird that they are now in the

IDW continuity It doesn't make me dislike the

stories anymore. It just it's just strange to

me that they're here. Yeah I think that everybody's

opinion just kind of represents different people

that are in the fandom because i'm sure that

there are other people out there because i i

agree with nicole i'm one of those people that

because they the story has made it make sense

i've just kind of embraced it and now it just

feels like it's right you know we have those

characters there um but that's not everybody

everybody's opinion of that i mean i'm sure there

are some out there they're like wait wait wait

beast wars with the g1 characters what what's

going on here and and i completely i can i can

get that But people also feel the same way about

the Dinobots as well. True. What are dinosaurs

doing on Cybertron? You know, I'm to the point

where... Everybody's a critter. I just accept

it. You know, because Transformers are like humans,

everyone wants to be different, you know, eventually

everyone's so different that they're the same,

you know? When I kind of look at them as they're

all individual characters, they might be based

off of what they kind of were in their... respective

series, but they've made them make sense, at

least to me, to a point in where they're at right

now. I'm sure there are still people out there

like Mike that are having a hard time grasping

and going, wait a second, it just doesn't work.

I can understand that. Just be happy that you

got rat trapped and not Nightwing. Night... Wait,

what? Leave Dick Grayson out of this. You're

in Night Scream. Night Scream, yeah. Not Night

Wing. Come on now. Leave Dick Grayson alone.

They already tried killing him off. I was going

to say, what's the Darkwing Duck have to do with

this? It's kind of like, it took me the longest

time to get Windblade off my tongue because for

the longest time it was Wingblade. Okay. We got

to keep going, because if not, this is going

to be the longest podcast ever. So we turn to

page six, which is probably one of my favorites

for two reasons. One, it shows the vast knowledge

and the inner workings of Metroplex. And two,

the awe that is in Windblade's face. It's just

where her... Youth and Innocence really comes

out, and I really like that. She's just as fascinated

by Metroplex as anyone else is. It's like her

secret garden, in a sense, and that she can only

decipher, and yet, you know, you quickly understand

that even though she understands his language,

he's still really hard to talk to, all in one

page. So, she says... So, you kind of like speaking

to the Scottish. I was just kidding. I love my

Scottish friends, but sometimes they're hard

to understand because their accents are thick.

I hope we don't get too much hate for that. Send

all your hate mail to me and I'll just show you

some love. I'm just waiting for the Bruce Springsteen

song to start playing. Secret Garden. It's like

Metroplex is a very silent Jerry Maguire and

she's Dorothy. I didn't mean to make that one,

but yeah, there you go, references. So she says,

speaking to a Titan is always difficult. To an

injured one, even more so. Their thoughts are

vast and they speak in webs of light that even

the best city speaker struggles to fully understand.

To have something so glorious hear you and try

so hard to answer is sacred. Windblade, on this

page, decipher his words and he recognizes her

voice as troubled. He's diverting energon drainage

to Sector 4 while also seemingly he's reviewing

poetry, which I kind of liked. And then there's

also an alert where he acknowledges that he's

still hurt. and all that. But it's this diversion

of energy that she catches onto, and she's like,

the city is dark in places, Metroplex. You're

losing power. What's happening? Why are you dark?

And it turns out he's diverting power, but he

doesn't give why, and she finds out where it

is, and now they just have to go figure it out.

It's in junction T134, T135, T136, that area.

So, yeah. I have to stop here though, because

this was a really good point to talk about the

art, because I really loved this page. So what

you guys think of the art on this page? Because

I love it. Yay! I think it's really interesting

how instead of certain comics will just... At

like where he says, cause I assume this is him

talking when, uh, wind voice troubled. Yeah.

Yeah. That's him talking. Normally they've some

comics, not IDW, but other publishers, they'll

have parentheses. Or like next to that, that

line saying translated from city speak or say,

I'm glad that they, that, that she is the conduit

between. him and everybody else, as far as us,

the readers, being able to see what he says to

her, that they don't need that notation. The

art itself is amazing. I mean, Sarah is doing

amazing. I mean, it's only her first issue. She's

pretty much knocked out of the park. Oh yeah.

Higher than any expectations that I've ever had

at this point. And I have pretty high expectations.

I've been reading Alex Milne for the last two

years. Yeah Anybody else? Yes, I will squeak.

I just thought I wouldn't jump in first this

time because you know, I talk a lot Okay, that's

my favorite page in the entire blinking comic

and You know, first of all, it's beautiful. Second

of all, it's incredibly well written and third

it actually allows Metroplex to be a person and

I have wanted that so badly in this whole run

this whole recent run of IDW where the Titans

are just On the one hand, they're treated as

these semi -sacred progenitor types. Nobody really

even knows what they are, but they know that

they're really special. I'm thinking of the time

when Rodimus was like, well, this is either a

great idea or really, really sacrilegious and

we're going to go fly inside of the dead titans.

At the same time, they're just being systematically

butchered. I'm like, what the? Heck guys and

so I'm still you know waiting on some more information

on that but this is like the first time when

when we see Metroplex as a person and that with

this one page like I love him now and it's this

this incredibly powerful yet really almost childlike

way of being where he's just in his little ADD

way just, you know, got all this stuff going

and yet they're all like really simple and kind

in a way, like the way he interacts with Windblade.

And oh gosh, I loved it. And even like in the

art how it's not just little captions, but there's

little flashes of symbols that go along with

each one. And yeah, Blink can love this page.

They did a fantastic job. Maybe the symbols are

the Cybertronian text. Yeah, that's what I mean.

That's what I'm assuming that it is. Yeah I'll

just everyone else. This was this was beautifully

to me. This is kind of like a staring into a

private moment of a couple You know during the

story and it's not saying that these two are

romantically connected, but they have a certain

connection that A lot of other, let's say, Transformers

would understand because there's not a whole

lot of city and city speakers that we've heard

of. And so just like Starscream, he's upset that

he can't talk to him. So there's this unique

relationship and we're staring in on it. And

it's kind of like, wow, we're getting a first

glimpse, you know. It's kind of like seeing a

species for the first time. You're getting a

first view of this new budding relationship while

budding for us, you know? And it's just really

amazing to look at. And the coloring, yeah, Sarah's

done an amazing job. Just one page, and you're

just like, wow, this is great. Like Heather said,

this is probably my favorite page of the episode.

I have issues. Yes, we know. And that's why we

love you. Exactly. I will say that normally when

I read comics, it doesn't matter if it's Transformers

or whatever it is. Could be Batgirl, could be

Batman, Nightwing, whatever. I usually hear a

voice actor's voice of the character in my head.

And the only voice I know of Metroplex is in

Season 3, my eyes! Somebody took my eyes! I don't

hear that here. I haven't really decided what

kind of voice he has in my head, but like Nicole

was saying, I really do enjoy their connection.

Because, and that's one thing that Marigret does

great, is she writes characters very, very well

and very deep. I kind of envision him having

this really booming voice, but very like, kind

of like Omega Supremes, but bigger. But he doesn't,

but like, you know, he doesn't talk like Omega

Supreme, obviously, but which reminds me, dang,

it's been a while since we've seen that guy.

Anyhow. He's outspelunking. He's in the cave

again. Oh, poor little supreme. He has to find

the bats. Like everybody's already mentioned.

Can't be bringing four beasts. Oh, goodness.

I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that. I apologize

in advance, people. It's okay. It's really great

to see just how unique - this vision is here

on this page because, you know, so much is described

in such an abstract way, but yet it fits so well

and communicates everything that we need to know.

And in so few panels, it's just really well told.

And I'm going to mirror everything that everybody

said here. The illustrative voice is really deep

and basically with few words. and all of the

expression from Windblade, and that's good art,

yo. That is good art. It communicates everything

that we need, so this has gotta be one of my

favorite pages, so. Yeah. Okay, so we continue.

The Ladybots have a job to do, and that's where

they have to go. So Windblade, she leaves and

talks with Chromia before she leaves. So she...

She hasn't mapped out all of Metroplexis in her

Working List in city form yet, so she's not quite

sure where they're supposed to be going, but

she knows where the junction is. But there's

someone who would know where that junction is,

and you know, Chromio's not so enthusiastic about

going to see him. And yeah, because he's so mopey.

And it turns out, and that's the new word, I

will never, mopey is going to be in my vocabulary

forever now. And it turns out this mopey person

happens to be Ironhide. I could not stop laughing

when I got to this page. Agreed, I was laughing

too. Okay, so which, which, you know, hey, you

know, Windblade, it was Chromia that said it,

which Windblade teasingly tells Chromia that

she's gonna have to tell him that before flying

off. It's just a really cute moment between the

two. Yeah, I felt like this whole page existed

for people who loved you want to be like, yeah

You know what's gonna happen and I'm like, I

don't know what's gonna happen, which is actually

kind of fun But at the same time, I'm like, yeah,

you just do that. That's cool. I Really liked

the fact that they that that she's teasing it's

like, okay They have this sister relationship

and you know, when blade is like the little sister

that's you know, giving a hard just trying to

tease her older sister and she totally got her,

because I see that in my two records all the

time. The younger one is always doing that to

the older one every single time. She completely

nails that relationship just in a panel. It's

great. This is what's really, really odd about

Between the comparison of this issue and Dark

Cybertron because in Dark Cybertron I would have

said that Windblade was the leader the older

the wiser and in this one You do get that like

kind of role reversal And I'll also add to this

on this page When they do this when Sarah does

the silhouettes of the two it looks like Chromia

is the older sister and Windblade is the younger

sister, but yet the next panel Wind blade looks

like she's taller than chromia and chromia looks

like she's younger No, that's because she you

know, I mean if you look at it psychologically

here, she just bested her That's true And it's

you know, she's walking away from her so the

perspective would be behind her but yeah, but

yeah, it's still yeah I still like that. I like

the fact that it from for the most part chromia

does tend to stand taller than Windblade. And

so that only reinforces the older sister, younger

sister kind of vibe that I'm getting from those

two. So I flip the page and we get this beautiful

two page spread as Windblade flies off to find

Ironhide. Meanwhile, she explains that it could

be something simple. you know, causing these

blackouts, but they can't leave it because, you

know, it may be a sign of something worse, and

they can't leave it or else it could kill them.

But she finds Ironhide, who's wandering around

in Metroplex's depths. And she asks him about

the junction, T -134, and that she thinks that

some power regulators there might be damaged.

And he gives her a rough idea where it is. And

they He also says that it didn't appear to be

damaged last time he was in that area, but he

hasn't been there for a while. And then she asks

about Starscream and he tells her that it would

be best if she asks his friends and not his enemies

because during the war they were on opposite

sides. And yeah, that was very good of Ironhide

to do that. Makes sense because he's always been

kind of that guy. And so Windblade Radios Chromia

to meet her at the Acro Light District, where

that's where she's headed, because that's where

they're going. So Ironhide, Mr. Moby, he used

to be so certain now, and now he's down in the

gills. How does that work for you? It works fine

with me. I mean, he knows now. He still sees

the future. He knows what his life's about. So

he has one of those things like, I don't care

what happens. I can do whatever I want right

now. I might as well take a stroll to where most

people don't go. He seems like an older gentleman

that just wants to be left alone. He's Clint

Eastwood, okay? He just wants to be left alone

and get people off his lawn, you know? Get off

my lawn. Get off my lawn, you know? So where's

he gonna go? He's gonna go into the depths of

Metroplex. No one's gonna be able to find him,

but yeah, some ladies do. That sounds a little

shady there. Sounds like something Rattrap would

say. Now see I had the complete opposite for

his Like the opposite analogy for his personality

Because they said but he's mopey and then I saw

him and I I heard a certain voice in my head

and it was like That's my tail. It got lost.

Thanks, Pooh Bear. He's basically Eeyore is what

he is. He's having his E -M -O moment. Just like

we were saying before, how Star - No, no, no,

no. He's not, he's not. No, Starscream was being

emo. ironhide is not being emo ironhide is being

very very mopey and being very down on himself

is what i saw in this and that was the first

thing i thought of in my head was like oh my

god it's peter cullen is ironhide slash eor yeah

that does sound like a good read i would agree

with that but um oh go ahead Anyway, yeah unless

you want to say something, but um no no go for

it. I will say this is my least favorite art

Because especially that first time where you

see iron -heads face. He looks kind of creepy

There's something I just I'm not a big fan of

the way his mouth has been drawn and those especially

those first two panels where it's like Just kind

of a slash that goes all the way across his entire

jaw. Yeah I have to say that I wasn't, that was

probably the only thing about this issue that

I thought. It kind of reminds me of the time

like when we first saw Brendan Cahill and we

weren't really a fan of how he did the mouths.

I mean he's changed that since then so I'm liking

it now but the first time we saw the stuff it

was like I didn't care for it and in this face

I don't care for it either but I have to say

that he does look very Iron giant ish to me.

Um, I just looked at it went Oh, you know what?

He kind of reminds me of the iron giant which

is kind of epic So it was just to add a little

bit of the positive there. So you were but What

do you think because I and I should have actually

gone back and looked at this But the fact that

he actually instead of just saying oh Starscreams

a pumpkin And you don't want to have it to do

with him the fact that he actually says you should

go ask his friends Is that a major turn for him?

Because and and he really seems just genuinely

lost I think he's I think he really has lost

sight of that certainty that he used to have

hmm and and to the point that he's not even certain

of his own opinion on Starscream I Get the feeling

just because of everything that happened in Dark

Cybertron that his vision pretty much has been

debunked. Yeah, which is there and I kind of

get the Feeling we haven't gone into a whole

lot of it because this is not his story. Obviously.

It's windblades but he gets it's like he's having

a moment of Questioning his faith in a sense

and That might make sense for him being down

in the depths because he's trying to work it

out himself You know, yeah, but he's also that

character that's been like, you know He was the

dude that smacked prowl in the face and said,

you know get a grip So, you know, he's got his

moments, he's got his moments, but I think you're

right. We're six months later, he's having his,

he's taking his time to figure things out. And

I kind of like that. It shows that he's not,

for the character that was the one that was brought

back to Cybertron to kick all of the insecticons

off of the planet so they could inhabit it again,

you know? for being as tough as he is he's he's

got his moments you know and i i kind of liked

the idea that he's having a moment that he can

have this weakness instead of like always being

the strength so i'm just a senior nobody pays

attention to me oh my gosh i'm gonna read iron

hide in your voice from now on until he pulls

out of this I will say that you guys are right

about his mouth at the top part of the panels

on that page, but at least the bottom part where

he's frowning as she's walking away, it looks

a little bit better. Yeah, it does. Lots better.

It's mostly just those first two panels that

bug me and everything else, he looks fine. Yeah.

So Chromia Windblade they meet up and start searching

for this junction and they crawl all over and

after some time they finally find T127 but it's

not 34 so that's when Chromia calls it quits.

Really quick question here, that last panel on

that page where Windblade is like pulling herself

like why don't you fly? She's a fly Well, she

can't extend her wings it's like a little teeny

manhole Yeah, I was gonna say, it just looks

like she's crawling through a small hole or something.

Yeah. Oh man, I don't know. I don't know. I still

think she should fly. I always was like, so they're

the maintenance bots that have to fix everything

too? That's a big job for any two bots to have

to do. I mean, you'd think that they'd have drones

or something to help them. Um. But yeah, that's

when Chromia calls it quits. She's like, we'll

start back up in the morning, and Windblade sort

of resists, and Chromia tells her that it wasn't

her request. It's time to call it a night, and

we'll get right back on it tomorrow. So, reluctantly,

Windblade says okay, and they split up with the

plan to meet up in the morning around dawn. And

Windblade is letting Starscream's words, like,

eat at her, you know, when she asked Ironhide

about him. And what he said is kind of echoing

in her thoughts. And so what do bots do when

they get off work? You know, they chill. They

go McAdams, old oil house. Yeah, but who's that

mysterious bot following her? I did not think

about that. Is he following her or is she just

walking through people on the street? Because

in both panels, there's people on either side

of her. It could be. That, yeah, you could be

right. I don't know, Amy put into my head the

other day about some shadowy figure that's following

her because of what comes later in the issue.

Yeah, and I didn't think about it until now,

but you're right. The head kind of looks like

that shadowy figure that we see later. Let's

not spoil it yet, though. No. That's very interesting.

I didn't think about that. Somebody could be

following her already. Okay, so she's a sexy

lady and they don't they've never seen one before

they're like If that's stalkers already, it's

a tree stocked someone's watching you So we go

to McAdams and blur is in charge yay I'm I like

what you say. I may not be from Cybertron, but

some things are true on any planet All of the

best information or wars come from a bar. War

starts with bars as well. At least according

to James. Yes. He has a very conflicted view

about bars, that James. Which is funny because

all fans hang out in bars and I've never seen

a war happen yet. And that's what you find yourself,

is at the bar with swindle, waspinator, blur,

and several versions of tankor and slull. Now,

as, you know, talking about this whole merchandising

thing, there's several versions of tankor in

this, so I'm assuming we're gonna get multiple

repaints of the Generations tankor toy. The other

thing I noticed about this when Amy was talking

about swerve and blur and bars, I'm like, oh

my god, it's It's uh, what was his name? It's

Brian Flanagan with his cocktails and dreams

Yeah, nothing like imagining of course, I don't

know which one would be which but either blur

or Swerve would be Tom Cruise from cocktail.

Yeah, that's a little strange Not in salt blur

like that, yeah Tom Cruise was fine in the 80s

granted, you know past 97 he's going a little

nuts, but oh God Tom Cruise was the Charlie Seen

Sheen of the 80s. Oh my god anyway Continue Amy.

Sorry. I just love the fact that every one of

the bots has a running definition of who they

are Just like we saw it more than meets the eye

with ultra Magnus Troublemaker don't trust yada

yada wind blades definitions tall tank or and

fat tanker, but not to his face Fast everything

fizzle constant reminds everyone he was on the

lost light slug default grumpy. I loved that

Swindle Currently lying. How happy was I to see

the bottom three people here? Blossomator, sweet,

but dim. And Skybyte, just roll with it. Just

roll with it. I was just like everybody's explanation

of Skybyte, right? He's the greatest shark around.

Absolutely. Your spouse poetry. But yeah, this

is every fan at a convention, right? Every single

time that other podcasts have have pointed it

out before McAdams old oil house It's great to

see that they have a place where everyone knows

your name You stole my line, dammit. Hey, there's

four people on this podcast. It's likely to happen.

Yeah. I'm just wondering if everybody knows their

name. Who would be Sam? Who would be Cliff? Who

would be Norm? Out of the females, who would

be Diane, Carla, and Rebecca? It looks like right

now, Norm would be Fizzle. I have to say the

reason why slug is here is gotta be because of

beast hunters Which is brilliant and I'm completely

cool with that because like if Marigold gets

a hold of him and gives him a personality Like

I hear he's got a little bit of one, but if she

just Dives in and just gives him more. I would

be so happy Yeah, I okay so dork confession I

totally thought he was knockout when I very first

glance that is a vibe a little bit Just a little

bit can the comic book world handled knockout

right now I honestly thought back on the page

where Chromia and Windblade were in shadow and

you see Chromia's little red things on her because

she's all she's in shadows. You see her red outlines

on her arms. I thought that was knockout. I'm

like, wow. Well, we know which butts on everyone's

brain. Yeah, a little bit of knockout. Just a

little bit. He would like that, I think. He would

love that. Yeah. Good times. Okay, so Blur welcomes

her and gives her a free drink before starting

to ask her for storage favor before being interrupted

by Slug about having a regular conversation.

So he asks her what she'd like, and she points

to what Slug is drinking and says, hey, I'll

have that. And that's when the war stories start.

But it takes about three glasses until she's

able to ask what she really wants to ask about,

which is Starscream. Floodgates open in all the

wrong ways on both bot and con alike, and by

the end of the night, she's got a load of intel

on him. Every bot hates him, every bot fears

him, and one thing becomes desperately clear.

Starscream cares for nothing and no one but himself.

Oh, that ain't the half of it. He even kills

his closest friends, my dear. Poor Windblade.

Anybody getting a breakdown vibe off the butt

in the middle of this panel? From crime the blue

guy with the red face Just just in his face,

yeah, maybe just a little bit just a little bit

this is where it kind of felt very much like

some of the Characteristics of the characters

are taking on a lot of the prime aesthetic, which

I'm not opposed to Um, it totally works, but

it felt very, I was like, Oh, I can almost see

prime characters in these designs. Yeah, you

can. The expressions on both of these pages are

like some of the best in the entire book. I mean,

they're, Oh gosh. I just love windblades. I mean,

look at her where she's like, her eyes are all

bugging out. She's like, Starscape cares for

nothing and no one but him. Now look at the panel

next to that. Look at the panel next to that

on the same page where Blur asks her if she found

out about anything about him. Look at Blur, everybody.

It's animated Blur. Oh, yeah. It is. He looks

very animated there, yeah. Oh, and did everybody

enjoy blur messing up her name, just like we

all mess up her name. Yes. That was fantastic.

I was like, Oh yeah, there you go. Every, you

know, every fan has done it. It's just like the

same thing where everybody was like optimist

for me. I mean, Orion packs and slug, not slag.

That still ticks me off. I'm sorry. I will not

get over that. Like I'll never forgive the Brits

for ruining and ruining it. Yeah Honestly, I

really care not No, he wouldn't he'd be like

it's slag get a grip man get a grip That's my

name. Don't wear it out So in the morning before

dawn, she's waiting for Chromia, who is surprised

that she's ready to go before dawn. But she'll

go with it, and Windblade is less than her optimistic

and driven self. And Chromia's like, hey, what's

wrong? It's nothing, I'll tell you later. No,

really, what's wrong? Chromia not here. And as

they're having this little back and forth, with

many other bots walking around them, this little

click goes off. and we turn the page and everything

goes FATOOSH! Chromia and Windblade are slammed

against the wall and dropped to the ground in

all the wrong ways. Chromia's first priority

is that Windblade as her protector. You know,

she's like, hey! First priority is Windblade,

because she's the protector. Whereas Windblade

only wants to help those around her, even though

she's been pretty badly wounded. But while Chromia

is trying to pull her away, Windblade passes

out and it looks not so good for our main character.

So I wanted to stop here, again, because the

previous Metroplex brain conversation earlier

in the comic, we have another situation where

the illustrative powers of Sarah Stone come to

bear and we get these explosion pages and the

aftermath and it needs to be discussed and commented

upon. Okay, before we get to the explosion. Okay,

go for it. Before we get to the explosion, so

briefly going back to the spoiler -filled events

that concluded Dark Cybertron. After seeing this

top panel on this page, I'm not so sure that

was Shockwave because there's some sort of Shockwave

clone in the background following Windblade in

this panel. I thought you said earlier that you

thought it was Whirl. Yeah, Whirl, Shockwave.

They're all one eye, one hand. It could be either

one, even though Whirl's on the lost light. But

yeah, I mean, and I know it's probably just someone

passing by, but like twice in this book. And

again, it's all your fault, Amy, because I didn't

notice it until you said something. Conspiracy.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. So there is that but yeah

the the super giant explosions and everybody

go boom yeah These pages these two pages here

the Explosion and the aftermath were just gorgeous.

I was like whoa That is awesome, and the fact

that they have a completely different tone, so

she like colored them differently as well these

pages to me felt like you know how sometimes

you'll be watching a movie and they'll do this

effect where the explosion will go off and all

of a sudden all the sound drops out except for

like maybe a buzz like them yeah that's what

those pages felt like yeah and it's accomplished

by desaturating the color and then there's that

amazing panel with like where you're seeing it

through windblades shattered optics yeah and

just oh so good That was brilliant and it still

has other color in it because like it's all of

the characters are washed out like but in the

background You have this red because hey, it's

an emergency bad things are going on right here.

I mean even the noise has a Yeah, and it's it's

got color and so I like the fact that they washed

out all the characters but kept like their eyes

really blue and Like the injury is all blue and

energon dripping everywhere bright bright blue

energon And they figured out a way to homage

Optimus dying. Everybody goes gray except for

their eyes. She just passes out. She still has

color. No, I know, I know, I know. Okay, Chromia.

Chromia's body is gray here outside of her eyes

at that bottom part of the panel where she's

holding Windblade. Yeah, but so is Windblade.

She's kind of grayish. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying

it's a bad thing. I just, I just thought, hey...

an homage to the death of optimus prime which

and everybody everybody caught that she picked

up that little wire right as proof that it was

a booby trap oh i didn't think about that but

you're right that's a good idea i mean i wondered

why she picked that up but i'm like yeah oh that's

a good point she shall prove it yes she better

she better yeah Investigative powers of Windblade.

How about you, Nicole? It's all just crap. I'm

sick of it. No, these two pages were amazing.

I really did have... Because you're just like,

oh, they're having their little sisterly spout,

you know, and then... Because I picture these

two, if they're not sisters, they're sisters

in arms. They're very close. doing what like

sisters do. And when it comes down to trouble,

they're always there for each other. No matter

what happened the time, you know, just a few

minutes before, they're going to get through

it together. And yeah, it's beautifully drawn.

I like how on the last panel that that wind blade

just has a shade of red on her saying she's still

alive, but she's hanging on. So yeah, just barely.

No, I think it's very beautifully done. I have

to say, I love the use of the fatouche word mixed

up with the speed of the explosion and the artistic

feel that Sarah is representing here. It's like,

ah, it's doing it for me in all the right ways.

It's like, ah. Thank you. I like that. I hope

Sarah never learns about the chum. I'm so sick

of seeing that one. But the fatouche I like.

Yeah, yeah, no, the fatouche I like, yeah. Awesome

sauce. More fatouche. I like my fatouche. That

sounds so wrong, Amy. Exactly. I'll tell Mike

that next time I talk to him. Just be prepared,

you know. I'll warn him. To I to sounds like

you know the shawarma at the end of the vet Avengers

like they have to have shawarma and fatoush Learn

needs to offer fatoush at the bar shawarma and

fatoush No, I love this color of blue that they're

using I don't for the energon and their eyes

yeah it's gorgeous yeah it's really distinct

ultramarine it's got to be ultramarine because

i like ultramarine and i'm like i can tell you

what marker it is i am such an art nerd Amy still

has, you know, 25 boxes of 64 Crayola crayons.

Crayons? Who needs crayons when you have colored

markers? Well, when Crayola was doing the crayons...

They, because they did the 64, all the crowns

would say what the color was. That's what, yeah.

I just remember my oil painting. When I had oil

painting, I really love my ultramarine blue,

but I'm not really a fan of the cobalt. Okay,

all geeking out aside. I'm sorry, Justin beats

Bert Sienna. Nothing. And family guy proves that

too. Yellow ochre for the win. I love that this

has just evolved into like art. We're art snobbing

right now. Heck yeah. And I'm like, I can never

get my ultramarine marker to fit into things

because it's such a powerful blue. It doesn't

mesh with all the other colors. Let's not forget

our crimson. That's good stuff. Yeah. Okay. So

in the aftermath of the explosion, Chromia saves

me. That's what she says in the next page. And

then helps the others. Threebot dies from...

Three bots die from the explosion, but it couldn't

have been more. I need surgery. I think of home.

Starscream claims the blast was caused by poor

maintenance. Ooh, slam it to the ladies, right?

He urges the citizens of Metroplex to rebuild

in the ruins of Iacon. No one does yet. Well,

Starscream's not going to blame any, no, not

himself. He's going to blame the last person

that he spoke with pretty much. True. It was

him! It was our bot. That was totally something

out of Transformers Prime when he would totally

do that. Is anybody else freaked out by the fact

that Windblade is like shackled to her little...

Yeah, I was wondering why she was shackled. Like,

I don't know, not okay. They just want to make

sure that she doesn't get up because she's that

seriously injured, right? I am really hoping

so. Either that or Starscream wants to add a

dog collar to it Or she's under investigation

as being the one that did it on purpose, you

know just for an added twist Well, I'm just like

all of them all of the medics that I trust are

not there There's no ratchet there's no first

aid there's no one trusts pharma Yeah, Pharma

would be all about the shack. Pharma isn't there.

I thought he was dead. No, yeah, Pharma's not

there. He's sucked into like weird dimension.

I trust Pharma for a good storyline. The ghost

of Pharma. Wait, ghosts can't travel through

space. It's happened before in Transformers.

It's happened before. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so Windblade

is in the Medi -Bay healing and dreaming in and

out of home, which is Kamenous. And we go to

our... Quickly wrapping up here, but our page

20 and 21, we go into our history lesson about

this. Millions of years ago, Cybertron was not

a lone planet, but a grand empire. Enormous living

ships like Caminus carried not only crews and

energon, but their own hotspots. Those miracles

of faith and energy from which all Transformers

are born. From these things and from himself,

Caminus forged our world, and through time and

chance we lost touch with our brethren. Kameans

believed that we would never see Cybertron again.

We changed, we adapted, and all life goes on.

But Kameans like me grew up on stories of our

ancient homeworld, Cybertron. When the Autobot

Thunderclash asked for our help in healing a

Titan, three of us were sent to accomplish the

sacred feat, including me. I dreamt of the magnificence

of this new, awaiting giant. I dreamt of the

happy reunion we'd have with our long -lost family.

Most of all, I dreamt of the help Cybertron could

give us. So while this narrative is going on,

we are seeing basically the ship Kamenis and

how they rebuild. Thunderclash came to ask for

their aid, and how they found Metroplex underwater,

barely alive, and a panel or two of Dark Cybertron

and the aftermath of that event leaving Iacon

ruined. And it goes on to say, Cybertron, its

vast knowledge and wealth turned once again to

our struggling little home world where every

action is measured and weighted against our own

survival. I dreamt of the freedom to come. I'm

not dreaming anymore. And she's recalling the

explosion that came in and pretty much decimated

her dream. And then the final panel where she

recalls seeing that one bot in the background

that actually is lifted right out of page 26,

first panel, right off of Chromia's right elbow.

Brilliantly subtle. I don't know if you guys

caught that. Oh, I totally didn't. Wait, are

you saying Rattrap is? No. Okay You go to page

26, which is let's see from this page where you

see the last little one She's like, I'm not dreaming

anymore. You go back one two three Four five

the page where it says the next day Okay, see

chromias. She's standing there right on the left

side. Yeah now look right. Oh my gosh See, it's

the same figure that's on the five pages after.

Way. Yes, way. Is that not subtle? Awesome. Wow.

I just had the goose bumps there. I went, oh,

oh, oh. So the whole idea that somebody might

actually be following her when she tries to go

to McAdams, or when she goes, not when she tries

to, she goes there. Where you were pointing out

that there's another figure that looks like that

head shape. I think you're right. There might

have been somebody following her even sooner

than that, which would make sense because she

goes in there and asks questions and she's asking

too many questions. See, I think I don't know.

We'll have to find out once issue two comes up,

but I think Starscream because he doesn't trust

her. Would have sent someone after her so after

that beginning part of this issue with the two

of them and she goes off with chromia I think

Starscream told one of his cronies. Hey go keep

an eye on these two or go keep an eye on her

and You know, that's where it comes from It doesn't

look like Rattrap. It's full -on Rattrap. It's

his back view. It's his back view, but those

are his little folded legs, and that's his head,

and he's sort of turning back to look at you.

It's Rattrap. Because the last page, you know,

well, look who isn't dead. Yeah, they haven't

gotten there yet. I mean, how many times have

we seen Rattrap, you know, use his belly bombs

to... to blow things up, you know, giant transwarp

ships and everything else. So yeah, I am, I can

so believe that it is Rattrap following her.

Nice. I didn't think it was Rattrap, but hey,

there he's, there he's, there he's. Okay, so

our last page. Starscream tried to kill me. He

risked Metroplex to do it. And if he tried it

once, he will try again. As she's waking up in

the Medi -Bay and who's there to greet her? None

other than the illustrious leader himself, Starscream.

Well, look who isn't dead. Can I tell you how

much to be continued? I love this view of Starscream.

This this this little piece of art right here

tells you all you ever need to know about Starscream.

He's like the high school bully. chilling out

against the high school wall. He needs this to

have like a cigarette in his hand. And like a

leather jacket or whatever. This just shows everything.

He's starting to click his fingers, like, you

know, the phones. He looks like he's checking

his nails right now. Yeah, he totally is. I love

it. I love this panel star screen. I love it.

Yeah. So that's the issue thoughts impressions,

what would you like to see more of I? Have a

thought I'm just I'm just interested to see more

you can go ahead and go Heather. That's right

Well, I wanted to say because I I googled Caminus

because I figured it was something and it is

so it is from the ancient Greek and it Okay,

you know how he talks about how he carries a

hotspot with him and he built the planet out

of the hotspot spark stuff and himself? Well,

Caminus means a furnace or a forge, and it's

actually Vulcan's forge. And I was like, oh,

that's awesome! So I'm like, well played, Marigold.

Is that where we're gonna get her cool swords

from? Maybe? That's cool, that's cool. I just

want to congratulate both Heather and Amy for

saying Caminus because for the longest time when

I was reading this I was saying cannabis. No,

we're not going to get high here. That's what

I have. I think I probably was high when I was

reading it. Her brain was doing one of those.

So was it a Freudian slip? Except it was for

drugs because you're on them a lot. So instead

of the Kameans, they were the Katabeans. Good

times. Good times. Nicole representing the drug

half of us. Yep. I am close to Colorado. Hey,

I'm close to Mexico. Yeah, there you go. I'm

pretty sure Utah has its own drugs. We're the

best capital of the world. Come on. Yeah. I like

this theory that it's rat trap that's done it.

I didn't even think that it was rat trap because

I thought, oh, he wouldn't get his hands dirty,

would he? Oh, yes, he would. Are you kidding

me? He wouldn't get his hands dirty. Come on,

Amy. He doesn't have hands. He's got paws. It's

been a while since I've listened to Beast Wars.

I should probably go watch it again. It's been

a while since I've watched it. We're all gonna

die. No, everyone else is gonna die instead of

me. It's like, I'm not gonna die. You all are

gonna die. Well, of course, the thing is he's

got the perfect setup. He could go and do all

this horrible stuff and he's got Starscream to

vouch for him, you know? True, true. And he's

also always trying to undercut Starscream too,

so he's playing both ends. But even Starscream

in Dark Cybertron had pretty much warned him,

you can't out Starscream me. Yeah. It was just

like, let me show you how it's done. No matter

how hard you try, you can't out Starscream me,

man. And hopefully he's taken that to heart,

and he's like, you know what? If I can't out

Starscream you, then I'd rather have you on my

side. Exactly. So, yeah. So did anybody read

the little thing at the end? I did. It made me

very happy because I was there. Oh Yeah, where

she talked about the BotCon. Yeah. Yeah, I was

like doing my fist pump on that one. Yeah, that

was fun. That was fantastic. For any listener

that is out there that's wondering what we're

talking about. Basically BotCon last year, BotCon

2013. was in the midst of writing, finishing

up Rage of the Dinobots and was in the middle

of Beast Hunters and she wanted to see how many

females were at BotCon. So she did this call

and said, all females go to the Hasbro booth.

So we all went to the Hasbro booth and she took

pictures and we roared and we said, transformer

rollout and we did all of these. It was great.

It was fantastic. We took pictures. We smothered

the internet with them and it was really awesome.

And we proved just how many mighty women are

in transformers just by that one afternoon. It

was just cool because it felt like we could,

I mean, I remember I was just saying, you know,

yes, I want to see more female transformers,

but I want them to be done good or not at all.

And I felt like I was able to say that and be

heard. And there was just such a neat feeling

of just power that you normally don't have. And

so thank you, MeriGrid, for organizing that.

It was cool. Oh, I wish it could have been so

good fun. My question is, with her writing this

letter and what is essentially the spot for the

letters page in any comic, I wonder how many

replies or questions she's going to get in the

issue two copy to see what that letter says.

When I read the letter, I'm like, shouldn't this

be at the beginning of the book? But I kind of

got it why she put it, why they placed it at

the end. Well, I think James has also done the

same thing in more than meets the eye and he

put it at the end as well. So, yeah. But then

I'm also thinking about all the times that John

wrote stuff like in sector seven. when he first

came on Transformers and he did the same thing

where they had letter kind of notes at the very

end where he put all his notes and stuff like

that and that was also at the end too so I think

it's just something that transformers comics

does they put stuff at the end rather at the

beginning oh yeah completely I mean I did that

it didn't bother me I just it was just kind of

one of those things where I expected it to be

an ad or or something else and we do get full

page spread ad for Dawn of the Autobots and then

after that we get the the teaser for number two

in Cybertron under fire someone is out to kill

Windblade but discovering who means turning to

some less than savory bots can Windblade trust

her informants enough to Stake her life on them.

I I love Margaret's writing. I mean, I've been

reading her since Rage of the Dinobots. So anything

she does I will enjoy the story, absolutely.

And Sarah, as an artist, like, this is the first

time I've seen anything from her. I know she's

been doing stuff before this. I listened to the

interview. And, you know, I love it. I think

it's great. I mean, there's nothing in the art

here that I didn't like. Cool. Cool. Anybody

else? Okay, so I wanted to bring this up because

I thought hey, yeah more fanbots in the universe

We're really excited about this, but we didn't

get this long drawn -out explanation I've run

a lot of fans that feel that there needs to be

this Long drawn -out explanation why she exists.

What are your opinions on that? We're gonna get

it We are going to get it is it's been thrown

in our face dark cyber John a couple times It's

kind of been thrown in this issue as well We're

going to get the explanation. People need to

be patient. It's not going to be a whole issue.

It's probably going to be a page. I'll say probably

that's going to be it. It's going to be a page

explanation. People just got to accept it. Yeah,

I think you're right, Nicole. It'll be a page

almost exactly like the one that gives the world

building about where they came from. Yeah. Yeah.

doesn't need that i mean sure it if it's very

good wants to put in great but i'm coming from

point where you know as a kid and you are seeing

new chrome and new firestar new moon racer and

you know there were female autobots so you know

i'd get in the and you can really uh... rc she

was artificially made blah blah blah and it's

like who cares doesn't it doesn't really matter

to me That's the thing. It doesn't matter to

you. But this is one of those questions that

has been going on through the Transformers community

for way too long. And someone's going to give

them an answer. And we're going to have an answer.

And then there's going to be the other argument

that people don't like the explanation. Right.

And I get that. No matter what you do or what

you say, Transformers fans are not going to satisfy

all of them. You know? Well, that's the same

with any comic or fandom. I mean, all I'm saying

is, I personally, reading this story, do not

need an explanation of why she is female. I think

we need one because they've played it for too

long now. They've given too many hints. Now,

if they wouldn't have said any hints, like in

Dark Cybertron, she, they said she, you know?

And then, like I said, they teased it in this

one. If they wouldn't have teased it, I would

say... I don't care, but I've teased it so much

they have to give one now. Yeah, I'm sure they

will. Yeah. I honestly kind of think that they

sort of kind of did. They just said that they

left a long time ago and she was born on Caminus.

And I guess I'm wondering if we even get it.

If does it need it? Does it warrant it? I'm like,

well, I guess it. I guess you can. Will we get

it here in this series? I'm honestly fine if

we don't. I'm fine if they just leave it up to

a longer explanation elsewhere. Where else would

they put it though, Amy? They really need to

put it in this particular series because it's

the series about the girls. I would say issue

two, but at least in this series somewhere, I'll

be mad. I'll feel like, nah, you guys were cheating.

Don't string us along. Be like, oh, it's a thing,

it's a thing, and we're not going to tell you.

You got to tell, and it's got to be in this series.

I want it to make sense for the story, so that's

why I'm kind of like, I don't want to sacrifice

a long explanation for something that needs to

be, yeah. No, I think that's really good to point

that out because I think you're right. I think

there are going to be some people that will feel

that way, Heather, that will feel disappointed.

And so that's kind of why I brought it up because

I thought, well, it's something that we should

probably discuss a little bit about. I did feel

like that page was a little awkward. The page

where Rattrap's talking to Chromia and like,

so what's with the she thing? And then they don't

address it. I'm like, Just don't even bring it

up if you're not gonna dress it anymore because

it's been brought up and brought up and brought

up and brought up And I'm like, no, I'm done.

Just don't Don't jerk my chain without that it

anymore Yeah, because chromia got upset with

someone in dark Cybertron when they brought it

up Yeah, like like ratchet asked and she was

like no yeah ratchet. Yeah, it's like You know,

maybe it's that they don't even recognize that

they're different from all the dudes And so they're

like, what are you even talking about? Ignore.

But even if it's that, it needs to be explained.

Yeah. I think it'd be awesome if it was another

bar scene. Okay. Yeah, that would be awesome.

I think because it would be like, Hey, let's

just have a casual conversation. We don't have

to make a big history. We'll just have a casual

conversation. Move on. Yeah. There you go. All

right. Well, we'll have to wait and see what

happens with that. So. One of the other reasons

why I wanted to bring a dude on the show is because

We've got Mike here representing the the male

perspective I don't know if that's a voice been

hearing I Didn't want fans out there thinking

that this was a girl only comic because only

girls were like interviewing or reviewing it.

So does anyone here think that this comic is

specifically targeting only female readers? I

honestly don't think that it is, but I'm asking

the question just because I'm asking the question.

It could be in two ways. Number one, the fact

that the two core characters are females. And

number two, because almost every Single Transformers

fangirl has some sort of love or hate relationship

with Starscream I Always hated Starscream until

recently. Yeah as a guy who reads I read Batgirl

What else do I read? I read Tomb Raider which

are both Gail Simone books I like reading from

the female perspective. I don't feel that it's

just for girls. And it's Transformers. Transformers

at its heart will be for everybody, but in a

lot of cases mainly for guys, depending on who's

the main character. But no, I didn't feel out

of place reading it at all. Good. Nicole anybody

else I want to make sure that everybody doesn't

you know get a chance to say something good Oh,

no, I think I think a good story will appeal

to either gender a good story will appeal to

younger Readers or older readers, and I believe

this is a story that fulfills that Yeah, I mean

just because the main character is female doesn't

mean that it could I mean, hello, we've got three

female readers here where Transformers are mostly,

quote unquote, male, you know? So why can't the

rules be reversed? No, it's well written. It's

got some great art in it. It's going to appeal

to either gender, I'd say. Cool. I hope so. I

think the writing and the art and the storytelling

are all top notch. So hopefully, anybody can

enjoy it. I completely agree. I even just, to

be honest, I put that out there just because,

like I said... I don't want anybody thinking

by default just because the writer is is a female,

the artist is a female. They have a lot of females.

And like I said, we got a bunch of girls reviewing

it as well that it's all that this is for girls.

I think absolutely not. It's like I think good

storytelling is good for every age. My Little

Pony has mostly a female cast and a lot of guys

like it. Just saying. I think that that assumption.

at least when Hasbro's concerned, should be challenged.

Yeah, I agree. It's the age -old thing. I mean,

I remember even as a kid being told, oh, you

can't watch Transformers because it's for boys,

which only made me want to watch it more. Yeah.

And I said, I don't care. I lived on a street

where I was the only girl for at least two or

three streets away. I was outside playing army

with the boys and tag and I had to keep up and

I had to throw rocks and I had to take my licks

just like everybody else. So, you know, for me,

watching Transformers and G .I. Joe, I was like,

I don't care if it's for boys. I was like, I

live within that realm. I was like, I had brothers,

I didn't have sisters. I have two sons. Come

on, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I think

entertainment into genders is a silly idea to

even try to do. Yeah. And yeah, I agree. And

it's an artificial construct whenever you try

to do it. And, and yeah, it's just silly. I was

not the girl that wanted to go out, you know,

go to her room and play, have a tea party with

my Barbies and my Cabbage Patch Kids. That was

not me. Yeah. No, you just wanted to have a tea

party with Whirl. It wouldn't be tea. It would

probably use guns. Now, I have a question because

there's a question whether or not this could

become an ongoing. Do you guys think after seeing

this first issue, Is this something that you

think should continue after Four Issues or is

it something that Four Issues is going to tell

the story and anything longer would be just kind

of dragging it out? What do you think? I think

it depends. It depends on several things. Number

one, how many of John's characters they're going

to bring in because if if they are going to stay

on Cybertron it would be coinciding with rid

So it depends on what rid is doing for a storyline

If they were going to take them off Cybertron

I could see it existing as Its own entity, but

I don't know about past four issues if it's if

they're gonna stay on Cybertron because Not that

it would be a huge conflict of interest, but

it would just be Oh, here's robots in disguise

with all this going on, and then come over to

Windblade and find out, you know, like, I could,

I don't know, I could see it maybe working if,

if in RID they build Megacity 1 and in Windblade

they build Megacity 2. I think it's too soon

to kind of like, because we're just starting

to see how things are set up on Cybertron. Obviously,

We don't know the long game what John is playing

at because I've heard a lot of theories Especially

just the last week just because the other shows

that we've kind of put out on the underbase Chris

has had a couple where he's Basically said that

everything that John has built up is it's like

it's all paid off now So it's like I think that

John is building something new on earth And I

don't know what that's gonna look like because

we haven't even seen anything of season two supposedly

yet. So it's, um, I think that I really want

to see what Windblade gives us. So I really can't

see past the four issues yet until I've actually

got the four issues. I wouldn't be opposed to

it because I think just based off what I've seen

right now, I love the art. I love what's going

on. I love what Margaret is doing. We've already

seen that she's, you know, because the Beast

Hunters comic was Hopefully going to be an ongoing

and then they they cut it off and it only went

eight issues I've already seen what she's able

to do. I think she's perfectly capable of writing

an ongoing and I would be happy to see her write

one but at the same time Also looking at the

art, I think that even Sarah could support one.

She's got a really great style I think that it

would be really cool to just see her go and do

it and I think that the more she works on it,

the faster she'll get. She'll be just like all

the other artists that are working on ongoing

right now. She'll find her groove and she'll

go for it. Yeah, I hope so. I hope that nobody

ever gets burned out. Please, all of you wonderful

people, don't get burned out. Well, the good

thing is is that there's a lot of other artists

to kind of jump in every once in a while and

give everybody a break too. I'm just glad. Go

ahead, Nicole. No, let's just say my opinion

is Think for issues is good for a single character.

Um, oh, they definitely have to call something

else. Yeah after no I think what this is me being

selfish and I'll be oh I think this would be

great for a force you and then they could do

like do one of the other fan bots, you know Although

James is going to have Nautica, so I don't know.

No, but you'd see that's what you're saying.

She can take a break and have an offshoot, like,

you know, the wreckers. i'm stuck on earth or

where's she going is she going on more than meets

the eye yeah she's lost she's gonna be stuck

on the last light with a bunch of dudes she pretty

much has nowhere to run you know she has her

wrench so if anybody of them get out of line

she'll just knock my head oh my gosh i want to

watch her versus world so bad oh my god and you

know i would i would love i i was just yeah i

would like to see you know an interaction with

maybe nautica and rc them telling their stories

about Each other. No, I think four issues is

good, but I would like to like said I'd like

to see you know, like a four issue of maybe the

other two New wings adventure between the whole

the six months later thing, you know You know,

yeah, so but I mean look what happened with drift

that he had four issues and people were just

They were kind of sick of him after the four

issues, but I'm not saying that's gonna happen

here. I'm just saying history It happened. It's

itself, right? Yeah. So right now we're starting

off with the Big Bang. This issue is really good.

And I can't wait to see where it goes. But I

think four issues is a good amount for one character.

Yeah. I was watching all the people being like,

oh, yeah, let's make this an ongoing. And I was

frankly being like, you guys are crazy. This

can't be an ongoing. But if, if... After reading

this if robots in disguise stays on earth and

more than meets the eye stays in space Then I

want to know what's going on on Cybertron I didn't

think of that when I made my point earlier. Yeah

that and if This ends up being the Cybertron

story. I would be down with that now I obviously

would need it to be about more than just wind

blade this this I'm actually, I'm really excited

for Marigold because she's really good at writing

a small group of people and giving them each

characters. And, you know, so this, this four

issue arc is going to be really, really awesome.

I'm sure it's going to be awesome. But if, like

I said, if the others stay away from Cybertron,

I don't want Starscream forgotten. I want to

know what he's up to. Oh, absolutely. Because

he's doing all of this stuff. He's doing bad

and naughty things. Absolutely, I agree. And

if this is what she's just using to kind of set

up that whole dynamic, and then we move off from

focusing on one character, and I mean, I would

be completely fine with that too. Again, like

you said, if it's just going to be, that's what

the dynamic is going to be from now on, RID is

going to be on Earth, more than meets the eye

is going to be off on their quest. I want to

know what's going on. Quest, quest, quest. We

all want to know what's going on on Cybertron,

and it would be great. I would love to see this

whole Caminus thing. Yeah. Bring them home, baby.

Bring them home. That would be awesome. I want

to know more about this ship that has a hotspot

on it. When all we've known that it's just been

on the planet is have a hotspot. So good stuff.

There was such killer good world building. And

those pages, I was just like, oh, the top of

my head just exploded. It was amazing. Awesome.

Now that I was reminded that RID is going to

Earth and what that means to the ice, yeah, I

could definitely, I think four issues is fine,

but like Heather and Nicole have said, if it

doesn't continue, how are we going to know what

the hell is going on with everybody's least favorite

bot? Awesome. Okay, so does anybody else have

anything else more to say about the art? Sarah's

awesome keeper. Yeah. She's rivaling. She's like,

okay, she's not just rivaling Nick for expressions.

She might even be surpassing him. Ooh, those

are strong words. I know. I am aware of what

I just said. The hair on my arm is raising up.

What? What? But think about it. I mean, look

at all of these. Look at how incredibly and not

just facial expressions, but body language. She

is just really, really, really good at that.

She's rocking it. I have to agree with that.

She's definitely rocking it. Yeah. While we're

talking about her artwork, I'm going to just

say something about Sarah's artwork because in

Dark Cybertron, like I was saying, Windblade

did not appeal to me in Dark Cybertron. She was

stiff. didn't really have a personality. With

her artwork, she softened her up. She made me

interested in the character with her body language.

The writing made me interested in who she was

as a character. In just one single issue, they've

changed my mind about her. Well done, ladies.

Absolutely. I was just going to say that my favorite

part of this book, I mean, when I was looking

at it and going, okay, what am I going to say

about the art? I was like, my favorite part of

this book is... The expressiveness of the characters,

especially wind blade. It totally sells it. It

makes me want to like her. It makes me want to

read it. And then of course, all the pages that

we've already discussed in the comic that were,

I was like, Oh, that we already just stopped

to discuss. And I said, Oh, this page is awesome.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Good times. Oh, you know, something

that she does that, that goes back to what Mike

was saying about the prime aesthetic is that

she's not all hung up. And I, okay. I am not

saying this as. bad thing on other people who

are really good at knowing how each plate fits

together and all the hinges work because you

know Alex is awesome at that and there's a lot

of people you know Andrew's really good at that

there's a lot of people who are really good at

making transformers work but Sarah has made the

entire world be this fluid place and yeah they're

robots and they're made out of metal but they're

also really bendy and cartoony in a way that

makes them feel you know that fits in with that

whole expressiveness and they feel alive and

She because she's not hung up on how the hinges

work she's able to you know pose them in all

these really expressive ways and They still they

still read as metal but Never ever they never

feel like you know Toy on your shelf that you're

trying really hard to get into this cool pose,

but the plastic won't bend that way Yeah, and

so that's just that's really really cool. All

right. Well final thoughts in a rating I'm interested

to see where Mr. Mopi goes because all I can

think of is that at the end of a scene all I

made was thanks for noticing me I loved it. I

thought it was great. I'm really glad to see

that IDW is putting Marigrin in charge of a book

that just she is writing. Not that I have anything

against Mike from... Mike Johnson to me? Yeah.

Yeah. Not that I have anything against him from

Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters. In Beast

Hunters, I preferred her stories over his because...

i'm sorry out of the two of them she's the better

writer um... she's just had a grasp of the of

it in a way that just seems so much more appealing

i think exactly i think he's actually over on

the star trek uh... the comics and he's actually

doing really really good there too so uh... fun

reading for me i really do five five stars uh...

it wasn't anything that took me out of the book

was it Okay, sure in the back of my mind I'm

not thrilled that the Beast Hunters or the Beast

Wars characters are in the IDW continuity But

I'm not gonna take a point away from it for this

because it has nothing to really do with this

But overall five out of five for me. Cool, Nicole.

Um, I What can I say? I enjoyed it. It has left

a couple questions for me and I'm not going to

To splurge just yet. So I'm gonna give it a four

Yeah, it's very well written the arts greats

I Just want to see where it's gonna go. So cool

and Heather I'm really torn because I really

want to save my fives for something that just

really blows my mind and that really expands

my understanding of the universe and and But

I'm looking at this and I'm like, you know what,

this issue did that. Between the page with her

talking to Metroplex and the thing about Kamenis,

that's really, really high level adding to the

universe and making me go, whoa, and giving me

stuff to think about for a while. And the art

was just stupendous and the writing was stupendous.

And I'm like, crap. Conflict yeah, really really

really conflict Because I really want to save

my fun Just do it There's no shame in giving

a first issue. I yeah, I Yeah, it was good. All

right, give it a five. Give it a five for the

Metroplex page Go, go, go. Awesome. I can't wait

to read the next one. It is definitely delivered

and I'm completely cool with it. I think it's

brilliant and I highly recommend it. I'm glad

I got behind it 100 % when they said they're

going to do it. I was like, yes. And I'm going

to give it a solid four because there's two of

us that have fives and two of us have fours.

You know, this is really kind of cool. We have

four podcasters on here and everybody is given

different reasons like the whole time. It's been

really Brilliant. So and this issue of course

has been very brilliant too because it's completely

rocking She isn't a Mary Sue for any of you naysayers

out there to be saying. Oh wait a blade is a

Mary Sue I just had put that out there Chris

was right. This is not she's she's she's not

a mercy. Yeah Anyhow, yeah, don't read his rant

on Twitter. It was great Yes, when McFeely rants,

you better listen, because he's awesome. It has

been a pleasure. Unless you talk about Harley

Quinn. That's an argument that me and Chris will

never settle. Oh, and occasionally, we've all

had our run -ins with McFeely. I was just remembering

the whole thing about the eyes, the changing

colors of the eyes. He was wrong once. Just saying.

Okay, so it has been an absolute pleasure ladies.

And of course, I'm glad that Mike was able to

join us as well. So crossover achievement acquired.

Boom. Join us next time when we will reunite

for issue two. Thanks for joining me this evening,

y 'all. So also before we leave links to both

shows will be in the show notes and Full Metal

Hero and geekcastradio .com. And we'll catch

you, all of you listeners, next month on issue

2. Thanks for tuning in! Aloha! Make your great

escape into comics. Open. Damn it! Open! Oh my

gosh! This is so great! Come on, you stupid search

engine. Open, damn it! Open! Why don't you ask

nicely? That was a nice ultra magnus. Because

sometimes you just gotta kick it. Oh my gosh!

This isn't your puppy! You don't kick it! That's

alright, he just can't deal with it right now.

Nice Transformers reference. So is the open,

dammit open! Prime, you said this thing would

light our darkest hour. Maybe it's not your darkest

hour. What? It could get darker than this? Really?

Sweeps, exterminate him! Kaboom! With this, I

will make you my slave. Everybody! Yeah, I know,

right? Everybody dance now! Get out of the way

hot rod you idiot Which personnel here you wanting

the ever -awesome one All personalities come

with that Anyone then I was thinking about this.

I was thinking about this. I'm like Charlie's

angels Oh god. I am so not Bosley. Yeah, thank

you. I'm so not Bosley. And I have like steadfastly

avoided Charlie's Angels, so I'm like, I don't

know anything about it. Don't know anything about

it. Don't know. Basically all you need to know

is that... I'm Farrah Fawcett. Oh my gosh. Wow.

She's the pin -up girl. I'm the pin -up girl,

yeah. Oh my gosh. Wow. Alright, there you go.

That helps out for outtakes. Boom. Yes. Wow,

you need a Farrah Fawcett wig now so bad. Among

the other wigs that I need, right? The one that's

the blonde fro, because I'm a female bro, not

a bro. Oh no. She needs the blonde wig and the

red bathing suit. Are you calling, you're not

calling Amy a lady? Geez. Wow. I'll give you

a shovel so you can just start digging. Right.

I love you, Nicole. Let's let the rest of the

nails go because they're hammering us into the

ground. Oh, sweetheart. You know I am no nail.

There is no forgiveness for being called a male.

I was making a sledgehammer joke. It's all Prowl's

fault. I'd rather be called an Autobot than a

male. I don't know about you guys, but I'm a

Cybertronian. That's just like saying we're all

part of the human race, or Harper, that still

politically corrected you. 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

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So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.