Transformers Windblade #4 Review

Hi, this is Margaret Scott, the first female

writer in Transformers Comics, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. and the Pretender,

Hahi Prime, as they bring you in -depth analysis

of the mostly all -female team of Margaret Scott,

Ryder, 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. Oh gosh, so

pretty. Alright, well, the night's not getting

any younger. Yeah, neither are we. I know. Let's

get this party started. Okay. Welcome to the

- Oh, sorry. Shut up! That's good, that's good.

Wait, let me interrupt you again. Okay, go for

it. Wait, wait, let me interrupt you again. Okay,

what were you gonna say? I can't remember now.

Okay. Welcome to the underbase, home! That was

just being a bitch. Alright Cyclone, let's go

to your corner. Eat your box. Oh my gosh. Box

is another one, this is terrible now. It's like,

Nicole, are you in the box? Are you in the box?

It's in the box. Your body! What did we say the

last two recordings we did, Nicole? I'm telling

you, you're one and she's the other. That's true.

One and the other, who's the other? So Mike has

this theory that I'm Cyclonus and you're Whirl.

And we just like to torture each other apparently.

Oh man. And apparently, I'd like to picture,

you know, shoving you off a cliff into hot boiling

oil. I would never do it. I might take it. It's

a whole new meaning of my life right there. I

just wanted you to enjoy a nice hot bath. Sure,

the temperature is, you know, scolding hot, but

I thought you would enjoy it. That's all right,

I'll just take your hands. Well done, well done.

I promise I won't interrupt you again in the

introduction, at least. Okay. I won't guarantee

anything after those two minutes. Okay, all right.

Okay. Really? Okay, somebody muter. No, just

kidding. I'll do myself. Okay. Welcome to Yonder

Bay. Uh, you're not gonna say this for a night.

Okay, my mind is on that. Welcome to - Did I

have to mute? Oh my gosh! I'm sorry, I didn't

think you were starting again. I honestly didn't

think you were starting again. It's okay. It's

very comical. Oh, okay, I muted myself. Now I

can't stop laughing. This is gonna be a fun podcast

if we can ever get it started exactly Welcome

to the underbase home of team angel I'm Amy aka

lady wreck and with me today is my awesome adorable

and amazing review team Heather Nicole and Mike

everyone say hi I just thought - Yes, I am high!

Yes, yes you are! Between the medication and

the chocolate. Woo! Oh, I did have Pepsi too!

I am onward, people! You're totally - That and

I'm sure you've been sucking on some purple fumes,

so there's that too. Well, I've already talked

three hours about cyclonus with Mike. Did you

get it out of your system yet? No. That will

be the day that I die. And even then, it's questionable.

No, because when they do the autopsy, Cyclonus

will be in your system. I've engraved his image

on my bones and stuff. Crazy. Wow. Thanks for

that, Angie. Yes. Tattooing. Tattooing to the

extreme. Bone carving's next, man. But wind blade.

Yes, wind blade. And also just because I... I

heard of this person. I forgot to put this in

here, too, that, you know, the Geek Cast Radio

Network crossover with The Pull Bag, because

Mike runs a very good show over there as well.

Woohoo! Yay, The Pull Bag! Woohoo! I've heard

of that one. You've heard what? I've heard of

that thing. Yeah. You've been on a few of them.

Yeah, I was going to say that. I've got one thing

I want to bring up before we start. Okay. Jason

Enright emailed me. For those who don't know

Jason, he is Marigold Scott's husband. I am in

the middle of raising money for my mom and my

dog because we're going through some financial

hardships at this point in time. Gotcha. I have

literally sold off my entire Puggle former collection

from Callie. Oh. Yeah, yeah. I have seven left.

Sarge is waiting for you, Amy. I'm still debating.

Yeah, I know. Save one for me. I don't care which

one it is. I will buy something off you. Okay.

What was so cool about this, you know, this raising

money for my mom and selling off my collection,

I'm really only keeping four of the most of the

ones that I really like. I'm keeping the very

first one Callie actually gave to me, which was

Shattered Glass Rodimus. Yes, so I'm keeping

him and I'm keeping a couple other ones that

she kind of customized for me specifically But

the rest are all for sale. I have seven regular

Puggles left, but Jason emailed me and said hey,

you know We saw your your thing on Twitter America,

and I want to help out They are allowing me to

sell I've already sold two of them, but they

were allowing me to sell three Packages of Windblade

and Beast Hunters comics. There's one package

left awesome This package includes issues 2 and

3 of Windblade and the first trade for Beast

Hunters. The reason why it doesn't include issue

1 of Windblade is because when they went to their

comic shop, they were sold out. Oh, wow. So if

anyone wants a package of Windblade issue 2 and

3, if you've already read issue 1, you'd be all

set. And Beast Hunters, shoot me an email tfguandmike

at gmail .com. It's 25 bucks free shipping. Nice.

Awesome. That was super nice of them. Yep, that

was awesome of them. I love those guys. They're

so awesome. I'd love her even more now. My gosh.

Sometime after Comic Con, I'm gonna have them

on the pull bag as a husband and wife team interview.

Oh, rock on! I'm so glad you're doing that, Mike.

That's gonna be totally cool. Yeah. Yeah. Totally

cool. Awesome. That's cool. Yep. Alright. Windblade

number four. Yay! But also, yay! Okay, sad, because

it's the last one. I know! I mean, Amy's had

to deal with my, like, posts about withdrawal.

I'm like, Amy, I'm gonna be really sad! It's

okay. But, you know, hey, we have next year,

you know? We just have to get back together,

you know? We won't have a goodbye for long. She'll

be around still, Windblade will be still. Yeah,

yeah. I don't know, as long as James doesn't

get her hands on her. Well, he's still on the

lost lane. He's still on the lost lane. You said

you hope James doesn't get her hands on her.

Oh. When did James become a woman? I don't know.

Ever since. James is all things to all people

and that is the problem. I apologize, James.

It's not James, remember? It's Jimmy. I forgot

that I'm supposed to call him Jimmy from now

on. Cause we're like this. In my brain, in my

mind, we're like this. In real life, I have paper

say, stay back 20 feet. I'm sorry, that's good.

Okay, so without further ado, let's get to work.

Let's do it. Let's get to our coverage of covers.

We've got three different colors. I see what

you did there. Our first cover is by Miss Stone.

It's Starscream versus Windblade. Who will win

in this epic race or battle? Who has the crazier

look in their eye? And the other two, one is

of Windblade and the other of Chromia, both by

Mr. Phil Jimenez and colored by Mr. Romulo Fajardo.

Romulo Fajardo, right? Sorry. If you look at

it, you're like, uh, Romolo. No, no, it's remote

Romulo Fajardo. So the whole like tutorial on

how to say it. Yes, I know. It's like, oh gosh.

Yeah. Yeah. And like, it went out what it went

through one ear and out the other. I apologize.

I will edit to make it sound really awesome.

It's it's colored by Mr. Romulo Romulo Fajardo.

So, crazier look in their eye. Which one is it,

ladies and gentlemen? Nicole, you first. I'm

going for the very first cover. Starscream versus

Windblade. I love it. It's beautiful. I love

the look that Starscream has. He's, you know...

grinning teeth and the look in Windblade's eyes

like, oh no, you did not just say that to me.

And of course, the whole top gun planes going,

you know, facing each other in the background.

I like that too. Oh, that is cool. I hadn't noticed

that they were planes. Cool. Sorry. The other

one is Starscream. Starscream has only been a

plane for 30 years. I didn't notice the shapes

were planes. I'm sorry. You can kick me off the

podcast. It's the negative space. You are no

longer allowed off for at least a year. It's

an easy mistake. Come on, man. It's easy to overlook

things like that. Come on. Everybody gets like

up in your face all the time. You're like looking

at the expressions. They were distracting. They

were good expressions. I could believe it because

Sarah's really good at her expressions. So there

you go. Okay. Heather, which pick? I totally

Sarah's. Am I allowed to say that I actually

hate the other two? Sure. I don't have like that.

It's because it's a comparison thing that I'm

just like. I've never really been a fan of his

character covers for the toys, and it's extra

annoying when compared with Serizar. This one

they really didn't try to put any background

in it either, so it was kind of like, it's just

a vignette of the characters. I mean it could

be, you know, it could be just a sketch that's

on the cover. Tell you what, I like the Chromia

one better. There we go. Gotcha. I like it better,

but yeah. Okay, cool. Normally I try to be really

positive about it, but I hate them. I think Chromia

looks sexy there. Yeah. I like Chromia better

than the Windblade one. Yeah, me too. Yep. She's

like, gun, in your face. What you gonna do better?

Huh? Huh? Huh? What you gonna do? Huh? Huh? Okay,

how about you, Mike? Make my shield out. Sarah's

cover, hands down. Gotcha. Reminds me and I know

this is gonna be bad and I know people are gonna

cringe but this cover Reminds me of like if you

open the inside page that they have a different

image of what they might be doing Reminds me

so much of rat trap and botanica and beast machines

when they're arguing and then all of a sudden

they're kissing You're stepping into the territory

of making Heather's kids write fan fiction You

can't have that. I love how that's a meme now.

But it is. Eve will come up to me and be like,

my fan fiction -itis is happening again, and

I'm thinking about it. I'm like, oh my gosh,

you're seven. Stop. But it's also adorable. How

many of us, I assume all of us, have seen the

1985 classic Clue, correct? Yes. Yes. I haven't.

Don't hate me. Oh my gosh, we need to stop this

right now so you can go watch that. You do need

to watch it. Now it means that your homework,

because you've got homework now, is going to

be watching that. So it was Ironhide in the bowels

with the... The potato gun. It was rat trap in

the bathroom with the belly bombs. It was Chromia.

It was slag in the bar with the Dinobot demolisher.

It was Chromia in the brain with the axe. It

was Blurr running down the street with a bomb,

right? Because Blurr is the bomb, man. Booyah!

I tell you, I'm not writing the head tonight,

people. Watch out. Is it ever any different than

that? I was going to say, it's just on hyperdrive

right now. To be fair, I did expose her to three

hours of cyclonus. Yes, you've got her already

on a roll right now. Okay, so covers for me,

I'm absolutely going to pick the Sarah one as

well. I like the other two, but like I said,

there's no background to them. And their facial

expressions, I have to say, I just like more

characterization with mine. They're all right

for you know, hey if I was just gonna see text

specs of what the characters are gonna look like

I'm like, hey They look pretty cool. I wouldn't

mind having a toy like that. That's interesting.

So But yeah, uh, let's see our credits for the

comic We've got written by Margaret Scott art

by Sarah Stone letters by Chris Maori editorial

assistance by Rebecca who would an editor is

our captain of continuity, mr. John pap captain

Barbosa barber. Yar. Yar. Yes, because he's a

sailing on his ship. As long as I can have a

carrot. Rebecca hood is there as well. She's

the Marine though. I really like that last name.

I'm sorry. It's so much fun to say. I actually

look forward to saying her name. Yeah, okay.

great kickboxer. She would. Don't do not want

to mess with her because she will kick your ass.

Anytime you get hit in the face or you know in

the stomach, she calls out her name and you don't

forget who just hit you. Think about it. Yep.

She's got some brass knuckles with her name right

across the knuckles. Just punch you in the forehead.

You will never forget. It'll be ingrained right

there. Sorry. Miss Miss Miss Miss Huard. We are

really sorry for making you upset We really like

your name Awesome, okay, so if you don't like

your name, I'll take it Previously on Cybertron

we had a big explosion check wind blade saved

by her awesome protector chromia check Conspiracy

theory was that Starscream was trying to kill

her but it turns out that That was not to be

so, as this last issue Windblade was pretty sure

it wasn't him. They investigate and are caught,

captured, tortured, and then saved by none other

than said Chromia, awesome protector. And now

they are fleeing at this point in time. So meanwhile,

Metroplex's space bridge activates. And we don't

know where it's to because they leave us hanging

on the last issue. But will this issue help us

to find out who it was and what happened? So

before we start, I have a lot ticked off people,

man. Yeah. Theories again, who done it going

in? To be honest, who did you think it was? Who

was the bad guy? Mike? I don't I wasn't sure.

Honestly, I wasn't sure where this issue was

going until the reveal. I knew it wasn't Starscream,

which is kind of shocking, because normally Starscream

would be doing crap like this. But briefly, before

everybody else goes, I do have to talk about

the cast page. Just Starscream, actually. Ruler

of Cybertron, having a bad day. That's the understatement

of the year. Not loving it. Not loving it at

all. Nope. Be careful what you wish for people.

Yeah, this cascade was fun because they had new

little blurbs under people and it was just fun.

Yeah. Slug disgruntled Dinobot, drinker of drinks.

I don't know. It just cracks me up. I like the

fact that it's like not from Cybertron and then

chromia is absolutely not from Cybertron. Yeah,

I remember I thought that was a typo on the first

issue, but no, they're serious. She's strong,

bold for a reason. Yes, it is. Gosh darn it,

Marigold. Yep. Okay. So Heather, theories. What

was your theory coming into this? I was drop

dead positive that it was Metroplex pulling all

of these things himself and that the explosion

had been to distract people from something that

he was doing or something, but I figured all

of it was Metroplex and I was wrong. How about

you, Nicole? I still thought it was a rat trap.

I still thought there's something about him.

You know, what's a rat? Always a rat. What are

those things? So I came into this going, OK,

I have no idea what's about to happen, and I'm

along for the ride. Thank you. Because I was

like, I have no idea. I kind of like the fact

that I have no idea. I want to be wowed. I want

to be surprised because that's always a good

thing to me. If you figure it out, then it's

like, oh, see, I guessed it right. And then it

takes the thrill out of it. But if you have no

idea, then it's like, ooh, ah, I liked that.

It's like opening a present on Christmas. You

know you're going to get something that you like.

And you open it up, you're like, it's what I

wanted. But you didn't know that you wanted it

until you saw it, you know? And then the other

thing was, um, crap. I don't remember what the

other thing I was going to say. Oh, well, it

wasn't important. I'll probably think of it like

in two seconds and I'll be like, Oh, okay. So

we have editing. Yes. That's why we have editing.

Exactly. So for me, I was like really happy.

I was really happy to come into this and not

have any expectations other than wow me. And

I was totally wowed. So yeah. Okay, so we open

up our comic, and we have Chromia Windblade,

and they're jetting down the streets of Metroplex,

escaping from Starscream and his cronies. He

blames Windblade, but they are both blaming the

wrong bots. Both Windblade, well, maybe. You

all right over there? Yeah, I was trying to,

I said they're both blaming the wrong bots. It's

like yeah, because like wind blade and chromia

were like I'll wait, you know They were everybody's

been pointing the fingers at the wrong people

and I think when blade at this point, you know

wind blade knows that now so she's like, ah,

but you know, it's hard to you know, stop a Railroad

railroad a train, you know Okay, but okay. So

she's she's not at this point. She's like her

and chromia are going along and she's like I'm

not gonna leave your side and chromia's like

before don't don't don't slide on for me and

she's not gonna do that but there's a sudden

unexpected power outage who knew and but in the

distance we can see the tower to Metroplex's

brain is all a glow and I thought hmm okay so

you have a power outage but there is this nice

little glow coming out of that tower that everybody

is like driving toward But that's when their

pursuers catch up to them. And even though Slug

and Blur are doing their best to keep Starscream

from pursuing, they're not quite getting them

from, you know, they're getting bested. So Chromia

does what she does best, and she makes her grand

entrance, swinging her trusty axe. And when your

axe isn't enough, there's always your boot knife,

because Chromia is that awesome. This is why

Chromia and Ironhide make a good team. They're

always loaded with something. Yes. Thanks for

noticing me. Okay, so we got to stop and talk

about this awesome sequence of Chromia and awesomeness

because I loved it so much. I just loved it.

It was like, oh, did you see what she just did?

Oh my gosh, it's awesome. She bounces off, you

know, wind blade and jumps into the air with

her axe and she's like, ah, assessing the situation.

It's great. I love it. And then she turns around

and she swings that knife, like is nobody's business.

And she's like, wow. She hits her mark. It's

great. I really want to have a chromia toy now.

I've always liked chromia. You know, when I first

started getting on forms and stuff, I always

use chromia as my avatar. Gotcha. That's cool.

I've always liked chromia. Yeah. Awesome sauce.

Anybody else? Sequence? Comments? chromia looks

like a Tron bike yeah I'm not saying it's a bad

thing I just noticed it in this in this issue

I might have noticed it before but since this

issue is mainly dark and it seems that her cockpit

is lit up that sounds so wrong because you know

she's alive you know yeah I would love to have

a light bike. When they were younger, that's

actually going to be that too. I'm thinking.

Cause I think I've the pictures that I've seen

of, of chromia. She is basically a light looking

bike. Yeah. I remember I'm pretty happy with

that. I'm kind of glad that they're kind of going

with that vibe still. So it works for me. I hope

there's no, um, you know, problem with the licensing

and stuff for that. Yeah, you don't want to have

Disney to come after you but yeah, no you don't

Just don't say that they do not need to buy another

company Imagine they bought that they bought

Marvel they bought They bought Lucasfilm next

in the line is Hasbro Mattel and Warner Brothers.

Well, almost people have been asking for that

crossover with Marvel. You know, I think you'd

probably get it if they did it. Wait, we had

a Transformers Marvel crossover. Don't remember

that train wreck. Oh, the yeah. Oh, ouch. The

covers were cool. That's all I could say. That

was good about that series. The toys were a train

wreck. Everything about that. Yeah. But moving

on to a good comment. As awesome as Disney is,

we're not gonna let them take over this right

here because guess what? IDW is awesome. Okay,

so enter loud scream. I think I already did that

earlier today. What on Cybertron is that noise?

Well, it's Starscream because he's like really

determined to get there and stop the women. Hide

the children and stop the women. Ironhide is

unfortunately nowhere to be found which I took

I sort of hoped at this point that you know He

didn't go back to wallowing in the bowels of

Metroplex, you know He didn't shirk his duty

because you know, he's a good bot, right? Yeah,

we'll get back to that later. So the ladybots

get back to Metroplex's tower and You know the

room of braindom They have to eat Mr. Plex and

they close the door and lock it because that's

gonna work, right? And that's when Chromia tells

Windblade she has to connect to Metroplex and

merge with him. However, this is not without

a slight problem of if she can survive such a

thing because Metroplex? Phenomenal infinite

cosmic power, Windblade. I am so putting that

clip in this episode. Cause I thought, Hey, that's

what it reminded me of. So that's why I said

it that way. You do the math. You know, it's,

it's a last resort sort of thing because it's

sort of dangerous to do that. So, uh, but sort

of scream here, he's got other plans and that

locked door does not keep him out or his double

swords out. Um, that is like, bring it. Yes.

gorgeous looks beautiful and I have to say you

know to double swords kind of works for me kind

of does yeah yep when blade he got the idea from

drift especially since drift isn't here so it's

not like he can have anybody say hey you're stealing

drifts thunder what if those are actually your

swords they're glowing I like the fact that they're

glowing It'd be really cool if they were somehow

molten and that's how they can slice through

their armor so well Because this is what like

Armada quote -unquote I'm doing in a non -visual

so gotcha Armada was that what Armada Starscream

had yeah, he had he had a sword that he like

That was one of his wings, and he would just

reach up and grab it, and it folds out into a

sword. So now he's like, I have two swords now.

Yeah. Look how cool I am. I don't have one, but

two. Jealous. Double your pleasure, double your

fun, right? So she's like, bring it, bring it.

And they lock horns in battle. And while... In

the meantime, Windblade is like, stand down,

stop, and they are kind of out of time, and Windblade

is pretty sure that there's no stopping these

two. So she turns to Mr. Plex, and she's going

to connect with him. But in a twist of fate,

Starscream swings his sword to hit Chromia and

misses, but then flings his other, which goes

past Chromia and slices Windblade on the shoulder

before she can connect with Metroplex, and I

was like, wah, no! And that ain't all, because

Chroma Chromia also loses an arm. And I was like,

yeah, I was, I was very emotional at this point

in the comic. I was like, I was yelling at it.

Well, I liked the sequence because yet again,

they're giving Starscream, they're making him

out to be an actual threat. And this is like,

yeah, he's not a bubbling idiot. Yeah. He actually

acts like he can rule Cybertron. because he's

possessing, he's actually making you fear him

and he's showing, Hey, look, now that I got two

swords, I could actually get stuff done. You

know, that's what I like about this. He's actually

being a threat for once, you know, and formidable.

He's not, yeah. You know, in, in, in times where,

you know, uh, Megatron is in, in the area. It's

like with Megatron, he's always just that guy

that's standing behind him. you know, sometimes

making a mistake, sometimes, you know, working

to his benefit. But at most times he's outshined

by Megatron. And this is him. This is all him.

This is like him in his element, getting the,

the jump on everybody and, and being the guy

that, that you have to contend with. And I kind

of like that because, you know, he's always standing

in Megatron's shadow. And at this point he's

not standing in anybody's shadow. He just needs

to learn to get out of his own way. I did just

notice a really cool. little good job on the

continuity bit where he's flying in in his plane

mode and going raw and he's missing one of the

missiles and his little shoulder things and i'm

like good job because he shot one earlier when

he was escaping yep so that's how he got a dino

bot out of his face yeah that's kind of what

it takes poor slug, poor slug guys, slug's drinking,

he's okay So Starscream he gets the jump on these

guys. He gets in there. He's you know, basically

doing a good job and he's you know He stopped

everything he stands over the over wind blade

gloating because he's really good at that and

The next word out of his master a mouth are like

what I was like, whoa So he's like I'm gonna

finish off chromium. Like I'll finish off the

mystery bomber. I hope it's rat trap He really

should show a little more initiative. I was like

Whoa, he thinks it's Rattrap. Oh, oh, oh. I was

just like, stop the press. I really wasn't because

I sort of got that in the last issue that he

didn't know who it was. And so I assumed he would

think it was Rattrap because he always goes against

whoever he thinks is a threat. And he's always,

he is, he is Megatron to Rattrap Starscream.

Gotcha. in a way. And so I'm just like, oh, well,

of course he'll suspect Rattrap. So that wasn't

a big like, whoa, to me. Well, because it can

say I wanted them to admit because it kind of

put that up as to foggy. Hey, maybe he didn't

do that. And I was like, so I liked the fact

that I've kind of gone back and forth on the

who was the bomber. We're not done with that

yet. Yeah, we're not done with that yet. But

anyhow, he also says that, you know, he he basically

nods that that. Wind blade was always going to

be the one to try to steal power from him and

he's not gonna let that happen And she was always

gonna stand in his way steal the planet. But

you know what he starts great. He's a chosen

one, you know So epic fight scene. Yeah, that's

was that was his fight scene I really have to

say I really liked the the fight scene between

chromia and Starscream was very good. It was

very good Because you felt it you felt the anger

you felt just That was an incredibly well done

fight Basically chromia is just written really

well in this whole issue from you know the pacing

of that first thing where she jumps up on wind

blade kills the one dude and then throws the

thing and that's just really well done and you

feel her you get her way of living in that and

then in this in this fight again, you just feel

how just incredibly angry and frustrated she

is with the whole situation and just dealing

with people around her who are just not Seeing

the world the way she does and she's just like

I am gonna kill this punk You're standing in

my way you're and just her horror when it does

like when he has the gall to fling the sword

at wind blade and she just in that instant has

Completely failed because she let her anger take

over and then you know, she loses an arm Just

like... Yeah, this whole fight scene. For a while,

because there's a tangent there, I actually thought

that Starscream was dragging Chromia over by

an arm when he goes to talk to Windblade. Oh,

you're right. I see that. Yeah. That would have...

I was just like... But he's not, because she's

grabbing her shoulder, but I was like... Yeah

for a minute there it kind of does because his

fist is kind of connecting with their shoulder

a little bit Yeah, and they get a space makes

it look like he kind of is but yeah like ooh

Yeah, like that would have been interesting throw

her over there next to wind blade Yeah, huh,

yeah, I'm glad you pointed that out cuz I didn't

even see that till then I was like, oh whoa And

the fact is that he looks so buff Yeah, there's

a lot of really killer poses in here, and too

many to bring up, but yeah, killer good poses.

Lots of strutting. Not just strutting, but like,

you know, the girls when they're, I mean, I'm

looking at the same panel, so right now what

I see is Windblade falling over, you know, leaking

from the shoulder. That is a good pose. And this

pose where she's kind of scooching back on her

back away from Starscream up to the wall as he's

coming up to her with his sword out. That's another

just really good drawing of of action where you

can feel it Yeah, and you can see like it's the

atmospheric perspective is really good too cuz

you're like oh Yeah, we can go on and on with

the arts. Yeah This one was really good. I really

liked how they did a lot of these things, but

anyhow wind blade She's like, you know it Anyhow,

she doesn't care. She's like, no, I'm not going

to let you do this. And she care. Doesn't care.

Like Honeybiter does just don't care. So she

takes a line and she slimes it into her head

and defiance because she's not going to be stopped

by Starscream. And, and they, when blade Metroplex

shoots Starscream and pin him against the wall

because she don't mess with the city speaker.

They locked the door behind him too. Do you see

where it slams down behind him? Oh yeah, that

was good. Like you're stuck. You are not going

anywhere, buddy I like the fact that not only

that is he gets shot up against the wall and

then the guns come right up into his face and

I was like I Know this would take it completely

out of the book because it would be going for

the funny but first thing I thought of when I

saw Starscream like this was Cheech Marin and

Oliver and company is Tito. If this is torture,

chain me to the wall! So Windblade and Metroplex,

would that be Metroblade or Windplex? I don't

know, that's a good question. So while she is

merged with, you know, she's one with Mr. Plex

and she realizes that the space bridge is open.

It's practically killing Metroplex with the effort,

but he's doing it. And she's been searching for,

he's been searching for the wanderers and one

of the colony, one of the colony titans. She's

getting a sense of what's going on. And one of

his close, she finds out this is one of his closest

friends and it's Caminus. But it's more than

that. It was an order given to him. by Chromia.

Chromia came to Metroplex while Windblade was

captured. She ordered Metroplex that they needed

to leave now because she was captured and he

was like, she has him or he has, he has her.

Sorry. Um, and Chromia came to met. So, and,

um, so she ordered Metroplex that they needed

to leave now and return to Caminus. And so he

did it. And at this point, Chromia knows that

Windblade knows, and Windblade is like, you,

you did it. You brought the space bridge online.

You planted the bomb in Acrolite. You killed

three people. She's like, I had to. It was the

only way that she could get Windblade to leave.

And she asked Windblade again. Help Metroplex

find Caminus, help him find home. At which point

Starscream is all, you fool, Metroplex integrated

with Iacon. Jumping now will kill everyone not

completely inside of him." And I was like, oh

my gosh. It's the oh my gosh page where everything

is like revealed and you're like, whoa. So reactions.

Go ahead. Yeah. This was the section of the comic

where. I've read this three times. I read it,

I went, I read it again. Then I went back and

read the entire series and read it again. And

once I got to this point where she merges with

Metroplex, I start doing this completely involuntary,

like... It just breaks my little heart, like

this panel where it's the first, you know, our

towers shake and our power surges and that sounds

dirty, but... I have a filthy mind um and but

just this last panel where it's wind blade and

then you go down and it's Kind of the space bridge

where her spark would be that's beautiful and

poignant and then like you see all of the the

other types of Transformers that have been born

on other Titans and just it's how little wind

blade is and she's trying and how I know you

guys know how much I love Metroplex, but this

whole thing where he's just like, I just miss

my friends and that whole poem about the stars

that he has going the whole time and, oh, I was

gonna have it so I could quote it, but how they

get distant and he's just so... Alone and I'm

like And the stars grew distant and lonely in

their orbits we saw but we could not touch their

one And just this whole thing and and then you

know finding out about that it was chromia I

was just like Not see that coming and that's

like such an awful betrayal yeah because chromia

is the one that she leaned on and also in a way

you know okay chromia is to wind blade as alex

milne is to me you know the untouchable one that

you just you know you would love to impress but

it ain't never gonna happen and you know all

these things and just that and and the fact that

blinking chromia does this starscream whisper

in her ear I Was gonna say well done ladies well

done miss stone well done miss Scott So yeah,

this whole section broke me ever so hard This

was the section that I got to the end of the

comic and went to Twitter At first I thought

okay He has her, we need to leave now. And I

thought, is this a, this a, you know, a, like

a flashback to something? And I was like, no,

no, no, no. And I went, Oh, and I slapped the

forehead. I went, Oh, it's Chromia. I went, Oh

my gosh. Yeah. To catch on to what the he has

her bit was. I was confused for a little bit,

but then I got it and then I didn't care. Cause

I was too busy going, Oh my field. There's a

lot of stuff. Go ahead. Well, it kind of makes

you think when Starscream's the reasonable one.

Okay? You can't do this. You'll kill everyone,

you know? You're just like, oh, that's nice of

you to notice Starscream. Yeah, for the first

time he's not like focused on himself. He's like,

if you do that, everybody's gonna die! Well,

I mean, he does want to have people to rule,

so it's not like completely altruistic on his

part, but yeah. Yeah. That is funny, Nicole,

about Starscream. So many emotions. So many emotions

in this. Starscream, the reasonable one. How

about you, Mike? This entire issue is just crazy.

There is just way too much going on. Not that

it's a bad thing, but there is just like... They're

giving us answers, but they're also setting stuff

up for later because we know Windblade is returning.

And we know that at least for now, until she

actually returns in her own series next year,

we will get more of Windblade's story in Robots

33. Yeah, that's true. So, but there is just

so much. I love the panel. On the page with the

space bridge showing cannabis, that is just awesome.

Caminus. Is it the one that has the three crosses

in it and it's got, you see Windblade with the

space bridge in her chest. Is it that one? It's

the one where you see her in Metroplex where

they split. And she says, we are now, we are

never alone. Oh, you're skipping all the way

to the end. Yeah, that one's quite a ways away.

Yeah, we'll get to that one then. What did you

guys make of the one where they had like where

they're talking about the colony titans? And

we've got different like three different panels

of different characters. Any guys have any opinions

of who some of those are? I don't know who they

are, but I think it's cool that they that I mean,

we kind of knew that titans weren't just on Cybertron.

True. That we do know that a lot of them have

been killed, but that doesn't mean that there

weren't other ones like Caminus that got away.

So it's like, let's see, they're calling those

ones, I guess, the colony Titans, because they

had, you know, they took people with them and

all that. But if they became to the point where

Caminus was where they, you know, disconnected

their ability to be tracked. You know, there

could be quite a few Titans still out there.

The reason why I'm bringing it up is because

I've had somebody say that the one in the top

one is knockout. And I had heard that before.

I have heard that. I have heard that that may

in fact be knocked out. So I'm like, Ooh, nice.

It does. I did. I was trying to figure out, cause

I, I was like, well, I was like, is it Rodimus?

But I know it's not. I was just that was the

only one because everybody else I knew it was

just kind of unnamed character from a different

titan but all of a sudden having like this car

show up i'm like am I supposed to know what's

going on okay I guess not it's just a character

but let's all pretend that it's knockout it's

knockout now that would be awesome yeah because

how beautiful would that be now I haven't he

would tell you that it would be exquisitely beautiful

Exactly, that's what he would tell you exactly

why and you know, and he'd say this comic couldn't

exist without him in it, you know, I Love the

douchebags. I love knockout go Come on he's not

that douchebaggy. He's like, you know As long

as he looks pretty, he's okay. It was pretty

awesome in Transformers Prime, just saying. How

about the guy? Now, I haven't seen all of the

Transformers series, so when I saw the bottom

panel, I thought, hmm, I wonder if this has anything

to do with anything that I haven't seen yet,

because I thought, oh, that's kind of cool. I

don't know if it's like a... I just figured it

was a reference to Beast Wars, where those ones

have evolved into beast forms. I think it's a

beautiful panel, but it is a little out of place

because they don't read as... transformers. They

read as organic things. Well, this could be some

place where like Sky Byte came from, you know,

Sky Byte is a shark. That's what I'm assuming

that it is. Just saying in the art, there's,

there's no way to show that those are types of

transformers too. So unless you know that there's

such a thing as beeswars, it might be a little

confusing to people. Gotcha. Gotcha. Did you

guys also very very bad people if you haven't

you got to go watch it because I know But because

this is so this is this is awesome that it is

but it this series is a lot of people's very

first Transformers comic true, and so you have

to be aware that There's a lot of little 12 year

olds buying this there should be Yes, and I this

is wonderful and good and I'm super glad about

it It's just they're not gonna be necessarily

as steeped in the lore That's they can become

that way go forth all of my children and watch

Beast Wars Well, I didn't watch Beast Wars when

it first came out I didn't eventually I eventually

did sit down and like binge on it and that was

because I was going to a convention where that

was gonna be like the highlight and I had heard

good things and I just never sat down and done

it, but I did watch it and I was like, whoa,

why did I not watch this earlier? Because it's

actually pretty good. I mean, I did have a hard

time getting into it at first because the animation

was just so... The first three episodes, you're

kind of like, whoa. But once you get past that,

then it's like, then you start learning who Dinobot

is and you're like, wow, this is kind of kind

of cool. I like it. It's not your transformers,

but it is totally good for me. So yeah, I really

enjoyed that. But what I was going to say is

that, I don't know, did you guys notice the eye

markings on Caminus? Yeah. I didn't see that

at first. And then I went, oh, and then I read

it again today. I went, ah, I think. And that's

what I was going to come to this next page because

I'm doing a little bit of set up for the next

page. So wind blade. has metroplex in her head

and she remembers, she's like remembering her

home. And she's also, you know, metroplex is

seeing what she's seeing, that type of thing.

Seeing where Caminus is and what became of him.

And this is the part where I was like, what?

So I've got to ask you questions about this because

they have, what was it? Okay, so she's seeing

our home, small, struggling, proud. And then

Metroplex's inflection is like our friend dismantled

like a butchered corpse. Fragments of Kamenis

scattered across it, a willing sacrifice from

her. And then the last panel is Metroplex standing

in the background. He made his choice. And then

Windblade says she made hers. And I thought for

a second there, is Kamenis a her? Oh, that's

a good question. Cause this panel confused me

too for a little while. Not that it's like not

perfectly clear, but I thought who is that? Who

is Windblade talking about with she made hers?

I assumed when I, you know, thought about it,

that she was talking about herself in the second

person. But that's Metroplex standing behind

her. I mean, I'm guessing that is cause it looks

kind of like him. He's like, you know, looks

like, you know, because at first when they found

him, you know, So I'm just like hmm. I don't

know something about that But then I went back

and I looked at the at the at the pictures like

just two pages back from that Where you see the

eye markings on Kaminas's face and one in one

panel. It's Metroplex You know standing in front

and Kaminas is behind and then the next of course

It's wind blade because they're both in the same

each other's head that type of thing But I just

thought I just kind of went back to that and

went wait a second if he's remembering what Kaminas

looks like is I don't know, just something about

it just struck me and I thought, I wonder if

Caminus is female. I just had to say that. I

was like, that makes sense. That would be interesting.

It would mean Marigrid completely stole my idea

for fan fiction that I was going to write. I

had this whole idea where like all the female

Transformers got sick and tired of the boys in

their war like right at the beginning and they

left and they left with a girl Titan. So I know

that that's not the truth though, that it's not,

you know. No, I'm totally not saying they actually

stole it because I haven't even written it down

It's just become a joke for me that I have all

these ideas that I get super like excited about

writing and then James or John or Marigold will

like give me the comic book version. I'm like,

oh Okay. Thanks guys Well, I do know in an interview

she has been asked point blank are all the females

on are all the people on Kamen is female and

she has said no, so No, I know that much and

I he looks like a dude to me in these in these

pictures. Yeah I'm just seeing that line and

I thought it just struck me as I wonder if Kamen

is but this is this is why I think I mean I'm

all right with that That that would be cool.

This is why I think it's wind blade though because

this is one of those really multifaceted images.

Because, okay, so it's, this is still, in my

opinion, as I read it, it's still Metroplex and

Windblade in their conjoined experience thinking

mode. And so it's, it's Metroplex talking about

Kamen as he made his choice. But this is also

the image of Windblade, Chromia, and Nautica

walking up the gangplank. is her thinking of

what it would be like if she actually took the

three girls home. And because Chromia wouldn't

be saying, take us home, if they were just leaving

Caminus for Metroplex in this picture. Gotcha.

I don't know. We should ask. I'm saying that's

how I read it. That's a good point. That's a

good point. Because Chromia, she's like, she

always, take us home. Her home is always going

to be Caminus. Yeah. They've kind of shouted

that out from the top of the, the, the issues.

Rooftops. Yeah. Especially like even on the,

at the very beginning of the page where it's

not from Caminus or not from, not from Cybertron.

She's always been not from Cybertron. Loudly.

Anyhow. Yeah. Okay. I just had to stop because

I thought she... Are they saying what I think

they're saying and I thought oh, I like the idea

of that. So anyhow, it would be awesome That'd

be different. That's for sure. Yeah, so they're

just a bunch of Amazonians in the Cybertropia

area Okay, so wind blade starts to have a reaction

at this point and She doesn't want to go. She

doesn't want to stay. She's not sure what to

choose. She goes Cybertron may suffer if she

stays. Caminus will continue to suffer if she

if she doesn't go home, that type of thing. Metroplex

wants to go back because I really got the sense

that he really wanted to go back to the people

that he knows that have been gone for a very

long time. And I like the fact that in that one

of these panels that he even says it hurts like

he's to be alone, he's hurt. And so he's alone,

she's alone, Chromia wants her to go, Starscream

wants her to stay, and then this is how I kind

of took it. As Metraplex kind of separates the

two of them, because she was like getting lost

in the two of them in one head, and she thinks

that she's small alone and he reminds her that

she isn't. But she can't choose between them

both, and she realizes that she doesn't have

to. And that's when the space bridge shuts down

and she disconnects from that Metroplex. At which

point Starscream is all, Chromia, you chose the

wrong side. Wahaha. And Windblade sets the mold

straight. He says, there are no sides. Our resources

are stretched to the breaking point. Kamenis

won't survive the next hundred years without

help, but Cybertron won't either. And I thought,

oh, I like that. That's true. Her choice is to

stand not with Kamenis or Metroplex, but with

both. She continues to explain that you stopped

fighting a war, Starscream, but it doesn't mean

you truly know peace. As fast as you blur the

lines between us and them, you etch new ones.

But you aren't alone. Caminus wasn't the only

colony aboard a titan. There were others, and

the descendants of those colonies are still out

there, isolated, waiting for you. Chromia tries

to intervene at this point, but she continues.

So when Metroplex is strong enough, his space

bridge is yours. You'll reach out to those colonies

and you'll bring them home, our savior, uniting

all of us. And her point of doing this is because

a city speaker's job is to side with all of creation,

regardless of who gets the credit for it or how

it happens. And this, of course, appeals to Starscream.

Who cares? Nothing for his own vanity and power.

And that's why he'll overlook everything and

cover up everything that has been going on. At

which point I was just thinking, very well played.

What do you guys think of this point of the comic?

When Blade could have just used Metroplex to

take out Starscream, take over, or go home. And

she didn't. Thoughts? It's one of those things

where, it's one of those things where it's, you

need the middle ground here. Because we've always

in, not just the IDW comics, but... All the comics,

all the shows, all the cartoons, not counting

the movies or the video games. We've always had

two sides. You either do the right thing or you

do the wrong thing. Sometimes we have... But

I think there's even blurred lines there. Because

Megatron still thinks he's doing good even though

he killed billions of people. He still thinks

he was doing it for the greater good. Right,

but... I'm trying to think how I can order this.

Windblade is doing the right thing by helping

both camps. And not being just... She's trying

to bring everybody together and have peace all

at once without, you know... Segregating Cybertron

over here and having whatever disagreements that

Starscream is gonna bring up over here and then

whatever Metroplex is gonna do on Cannemis over

So she's trying to bring them all together, which

is the ultimate right thing to do Yeah, because

separated they're all weaker and you know the

pool of research I mean just makes sense if their

resources are not gonna last You know better

to get all of them together than to keep them

all separate and die separate So I just loved

it. I just love the fact that that here she is.

She's I mean, that's her job. She, you know,

she's, you know, basically giving Starscream

what he wants, but it appeals to that. She's

using him. I mean, I guess in a sense, you could

say she's kind of using him for the greater good.

It is using him for what he really wants. She

did the womanly thing, she boosted his ego, and

he liked it. She used her womanly ways, and yeah.

She didn't really use her womanly ways, she just

saw something to exploit because he's exploitable.

Power is his thing. She knows how to get in the

cracks between his armor now because she's seen

him. Yeah. Well, the thing is, she just pulled

a Starscream. She just silver tongued him. Yes.

The difference between her and him is the fact

that he'll do it for himself and she'll do it

for everybody. Exactly. Yes. Huzzah. Yep. Yeah.

I just like this. I was just like, yeah. I liked

it. I was just really happy with it. Okay. Anybody

else? Yeah, go ahead. Go for it. Okay. First

of all, remember last issue I was talking about

how Sarah uses the iris of eyes really well when

when um wind blade is um visualizing caminus

you can see her planet in her eye and then you

see it floating out of space this is kind of

back aways um and then oh yeah yeah and that

was i was like oh that's cool then there's like

a really super poignant panel where um you see

the space bridge and she's like i can't choose

And you can see Kamen is through the space bridge.

It's right there. It's just like, dang it. I'd

like to go home. Chromia wants to go home too.

Yeah, like this whole thing. And then, and then

of course, Windblade getting to do the Starscream

ear whisper thing too. Yeah, that I liked. I

liked the fact that they switched sides. Yep.

Yep. There's, oh, there's just so much good stuff.

Yeah. Okay. Those are my main squeebles. Otherwise

we'll be here all night. She's learning to play

the game. yeah she's learning to play the game

yeah unfortunately it's not a fun game i don't

envy her that because no i don't either it's

not a fun game it's necessary when you have somebody

that plays by those games Lincoln Starscream

yeah she gets to play with Starscream and you

know turn the tides on him uh i'd like to play

that game i just like the fact that when she's

like hey when Metroplex is strong enough the

space bridge deserves and the the look that he's

got on his face is like Are you really saying

what you're saying? That's such an awesome expression.

It's like, so you're willing to give me that

because I'm the chosen one, right? Which is like,

she's not going to tell him because it's like,

it's the right thing to do. And, you know, I'm

better than you because it's the better road.

The last thing she needs to do is stroke his

ego. True, because then he'll be like, hmm. Yeah,

are you you're setting me up for something and

then he'll just he'll He'll be suspicious So

don't don't you have to be careful how far you

go with that because if not Then he'll start

thinking that you're setting him up or something.

So yeah, so wrapping up a lesson. There's anybody

else. Oh my gosh Sorry, I just realized how messed

up Starscream is yet again, but he only can function

if he's either the manipulator or the manipulated

Yeah, like he can function if there's a Megatron

in his ear being like you're gonna do this thing

or I'm gonna kill you He can totally function

in that situation. So he's not gonna kill him

Well, no, but you know he can function in that

like where there's somebody with something over

him and right now she's like I'm offering you

this you really want it. Okay, this is what you

got to do and But then and he can also you know,

he loves being the one with the boot on the face

But just yeah Anyway, oh, I love the star scream

Anybody else I don't know where we we're gonna

be a year from now as far as the as far as when

wind blade returns But honestly, I want the next

series set on cannabis. I want to see The home

planet their home planet. I don't want to sit

on Cybertron Okay We'll get to more of that because

I have a question later. Okay, so wrapping up

Starscream leaves when blade is covering everything

up including You know chromia's like bomb thing

because she of course, you know didn't tell anybody

about that. She knows but yeah Okay, and when

blade, you know ask her point -blank. Did you

kill ironhide and at this point was like, oh,

yeah ironhide Please tell me he did she didn't

kill him which she didn't Wind blade tells her

if she wants to leave that she'll get her a transport,

but she's not leaving it but But she's not Wind

blade is not gonna leave she's gonna stay but

if chromia stays she's got to know that wind

blade can you know count on her and That there

will be no more deaths And as she walks away,

she's kind of hoping that eventually chromia

will believe in her someday, too And she jumps

off into the same sunset that she entered the

comic in. And that, my friends, is the end. And

I have to say, I kind of like the fact that this

has shaken the trust between these two. Because

they did come off as the big sister, little sister.

But one, Chromia really wanted to get home and

really wanted to get her home safe. I think more

above everything else to the point that she was

willing and this is something I guess I overlooked

because They did it so good setting Starscream

up as the bad guy It was really he was a really

good distraction And so I didn't even think about

how far was chromia willing to go to keep her

little sister Protected and she's obviously pretty

you know Willing to go pretty far and I was like,

I'm really glad that you know, iron hide is not

dead I know but the thing is there's that panel

where she cuts her off, you know She's just like

no I and she cuts her off. What did she do to

iron hide? Yeah, she's not dead But what we haven't

seen him, you know, if he locked up somewhere

did she transport him somewhere? Is he somewhere

else? in Metroplex or yeah. Maybe she pulled

a pharma. Maybe she teased him up with rat trap.

I don't know. Stop that. Don't give James any

ideas or John any ideas. So that is my. Literally

my only problem with this issue is that Ironhide

as a character in the story is dropped without

explanation. And it feels as if Marigold was

like, Oh crap, I don't, I can't fit in anything

to finish off his arc. Yes. But what, what was

he doing? All, you know, all he really did was

just kind of basically be the guy that they bounced

an idea off of. And then they asked him, go protect,

you know, Metroplex while we go check this thing

out. That's true. He didn't really do a whole

lot. Was introduced as enough of a character.

I mean, I would say he had just as much importance

to the story as like Team Windblade of like,

I thought said Drift Blur and Swindle and Slug

and all of them. And and he's just kind of dropped.

I mean, you get you figure out what happens to

the others, but you you leave Ironhide there.

to guard and then you never see him again. Now...

Yeah, but he never made it into the bar scenes

either, so it was like he didn't really have

that, you know... It's just a kind of a writer

-y complaint. But it does add power to this panel,

this question, you know, did you kill Ironhide?

Because I was, when they showed up and Ironhide

wasn't there, I was like, hey, where's Ironhide?

And so having this be like a legitimate gut punch

question of, you know, hey, you know, I haven't

seen him, is he dead? That's good. But you know,

I I kind of I felt like he's gonna be in part

two Yeah, I mean, yeah, he totally will but I'm

sure that he'll definitely be around but and

I get what you're saying But at the same time

like I think it's a really good sacrifice to

be honest. Oh, yeah, you know, it's how they

use it in here as You know, it's to the point

where you know, everybody loves Ironhide, but

it's like hey did you kill him and it was just

like Because if she was willing to do this to

get Windblade home, at what point would that

would too far be too far? At least we know at

this point that she wasn't willing to kill Ironhide

over it, but she was, you know, willing to set

a bomb that killed three other people, so. Yeah,

and almost killed Windblade, which was pretty

trippy. Like going back and rereading, I was

like, dang, Chromia! Yeah, I mean she does like

she jumps and kind of wraps herself around wind

blade to try and protect her But still I'm like

did that go off a little more than you expected

it to was there a little bit Then you had planned

for did you did you cross the streams too much?

And as far as iron eyed goes maybe chromia sent

him back to the future Well, he's not too far

away because they can at least bring him up to

speed Hopefully, yeah, I like that. They're gonna

keep him in the loop that he's gonna kind of

be one of their honorary bros Hopefully he won't

be like I don't want to have nothing to do with

you guys because you did this that would be hopefully

I'm retiring Yeah, and did you guys notice that

that last panel that yes is very similar to the

opening of the comic where she says Both of these

places are my home now Instead of the beginning

where she's like, I don't belong here. I'm not

home And she's she's made the transition to be

You know what? I am of both places She's just

super interesting because remember how she was

saying I almost wasn't chosen as a city speaker

because I was too kind of in myself Mm -hmm.

So I'm like, you know, this is really good character

growth huzzah Yeah Yeah, I that was the other

thing that you know I kind of came way way with

the last page when they didn't have to do much

Explanation about it without me kind of going

yeah, she's kind of she's grown in herself. You're

right. She's She's choosing both instead of just

one over the other So yeah, okay, so I had to

say this because I know it was at least mentioned

at one point at Some point in time before wind

blade came out maybe at the first issue Mary

Sue is wind blade that character. You know, now

that we've gotten to the end, we can actually

give a thorough reason why we believe or disbelieve

that idea of a Mary Sue. Go. Nicole. I don't

think so. Well, the thing is, she might have

started off that way. Or we had the idea that

she started off that way. But she definitely

grew as a character. I mean, going through these

experiences that she has, she had to grow and

learn and develop. I mean, that would make for

really bad story writing if she started and ended

that way. She still has that side where she wants

to always constantly do good, but now she's got

to play the game to get the things that are right.

And she's willing to do that now. Whereas with

most Mary Sue's, they're constantly doing the

right thing. They would never even think about

doing the right, you know, something a little

manipulative or something. She's learning that

that's how you have to do, you know, play politics

these days. And usually everybody liked them

and everything comes so easy and they have all

these special powers and everything just boom,

happens. No, I don't think I know. Yeah, that's

I mean, you think about it. Her best friend was

the person that Just about destroyed everything.

That's heartbreaking. I didn't have enough faith

in her to begin with because she's like, no,

I want to go home. I want you to be safe. So

it's just no, I would I'd say maybe I came into

the comic books thinking she was, but, you know,

that was shortly drowned it out. Good writing.

You know, we'll do that. How about you, Mike?

No, because, you know, by the end of that first

issue she's more investigative and trying to

figure out why Starscream is doing what he's

doing and by the end of this issue as I said

earlier you know she wants to help everybody

she's just you know and she's sitting there at

in this issue manipulating the hell out of Starscream

most all truistic good guys don't manipulate

people unless they have to How about you, Heather?

The term Mary Sue gets tossed around a lot and

it's almost sort of lost its meaning over time

because it ends up being, you know, flung at

characters if you don't happen to like that they

are prominent in a story, almost in a way, you

know. New character shows up prominent in a story.

There is Sue! Actually, I went to the I just

now went to the Wikipedia I'm like, all right

Mary Sue Wikipedia and it says in fanfiction

of Mary Sue is an idealized character often But

not necessarily an author insert and we know

that if there's any author insert in here It's

blinking chromia who Margaret has straight -up

said is the personification of her evil laugh

But I You know, it's easy to say, oh yeah, you

know, Windblade has got this special power of

talking to Metroplex, and you know, Metroplex

loves her, and... But that's where it stops.

Like, you get that far in the Mary Sue sort of

wingy checklist, and then you have to stop and

be like, nah, this is just the main character

in a story, and she's got a dramatic arc. Not

everybody loves her. In fact, most people don't.

And the people that claim to end up betraying

her. So it's no, I, it doesn't hold up the argument

to say that she's a Mary Sue does not hold up.

Gotcha. Well, what I was going to think it is,

I think that I think some fans have come across

as like, Oh, because it was a fan voted character

that was made that way. You know, that it's automatically

going to be that, but I, I don't think so. I

think. Marigold has been very respectful and

coming at this character, which, I mean, pretty

much any character that you've never written

before, you know, you, you have to, you know,

find out who they are. She got a chance to start

from a character that was completely from scratch.

And, you know, because it was a fan made character

that was voted on that type of thing, but it

wasn't actually made by, I mean, there's, there's,

it was just a shell of a character and she's

pretty much fleshed her out in a way. that I

think really, really works one for the story

and it works for the whole universe. I mean,

we've been building to this moment where we have,

you know, ongoing, they have decided to come

back to Cybertron because Cybertron is now able

to support life and the war is over. They're

going to run with that. And, you know, you've

got all of these new characters and characters

that have never been seen before, like Skybite.

Hey, we've never seen Skybite. the IDW universe

and now he's in there and he's part of canon

it's great um but like she's just just one more

character that's been added to that i mean who

cares if it was fan voted one that hasbro did

and blah blah blah blah it's like you know what

it works it's working for me and i really like

it so for me i mean i she's marigold has come

from a very respectful point she's actually given

this character like personality flaws things

that she's got to learn, learn things that she's

got to work on. And she's not perfect, but she's,

you know, I believe in her now because I'm like,

Hey, she did, just did some really cool stuff.

And I thought that was kind of awesome. Yo. And

she's not dead. Yay. Yeah. I was worried there.

Yeah. I was a little worried there. I was, I

was worried that either she was going to go or

that Chromia. I was actually kind of worried

that Chromia was going to get taken out. And

then I found out, Oh, she's the person that did

some of this stuff. I went, wow. Did not see

that coming. I did a whole massive, like, huge

gasp at that point. Yeah. Okay, so another thing

that I thought that would be important, bring

this up, because, you know, hey, you know, what

kind of, you know, we've got, we've got the series

and it's new. And, you know, there've been, like

I said, there've been criticism before and we

have actually asked this before, but I thought,

you know, hey, now that we're at the end, we'll

just kind of. bring, you know, bring it out again.

What kind of series would, what kind of fan would

read the series or who would you recommend the

series to? Would it work for anyone, everyone,

that type of thing? I think because Windbleed

is a new character, it would work for new readers.

You may have to read Dark Cybertron. just to

kind of catch yourself up, but really you don't.

I mean, because, you know, they do the previously

pages and whatever else. I think for new readers,

you know, this would be fun, a fun jumping on

point. But I think the problem with it is, is

that it's not a third ongoing. It's four issues.

And that's, you know, that's fine. IDW does amazing

with their miniseries. I'm not saying they don't.

It's four issues. It leaves you wanting more.

The only problem is we have to wait a year to

get more. Well, we will get to see more of her

between now and then, but... Well, yeah, but

I gotta bring this up. I didn't feel comfortable

reading Dark Cybertron with her in part of it.

Because you know when it was announced saying

that okay, it's gonna be Marigold and Sarah doing

the Windblade series. Okay, great. It's a you

know It's a female writing a female character.

That's gonna sound is just sometimes male writers

Don't really capture female characters too. Well,

sometimes they don't And I've said it from the

beginning. This is their series these care. Okay,

sure the other Cybertronians matter Not Cybertronians,

maybe not. But Windblade is their character to

run with. And it just, I don't know how I'm going

to feel reading Windblade. Written by John. Written

by John. I just don't, it's not that I don't

have confidence in John's writing. He's an amazing

writer, but voices change on, you know, who's

writing the character. I think that that went

to show when he was writing her in Dark Cybertron,

because she Well, I think she seemed a little

stiff in Dark Cybertron and in this series you

get someone that's Actually has a personality

that actually wants to read about I'm sorry about

that because when played No, I thought you were

making a crack at John I Would never do that

because of John I'm reading comics again, so

We got to give a lot of credit to John Barber

for Keeping this universe going as well as he

does for giving this series to Margaret and Sarah

and being like you know go forth my children

yeah we yeah we owe that man so there will be

no dissing i think the only reason why the voice

sounded different is to be honest i i'm pretty

sure at that point they probably knew that somebody

else was going to be writing her and rather than

set something in stone that's going to cause

something later to be you know like oh well that's

not the way that she was back then Like they

kept it very, very neutral. I didn't get a sense

of much out of it other than the fact that she

didn't like to talk to people all that much.

But I don't know if that was because she was

just absorbed with, you know, Metroplex, but

you know, it could have been, you know, cause

like, Hey, Metroplex, I haven't ever talked to

someone before. This is kind of new. And this

is the first time that she was a city speaker

anyhow. So I mean, like, I see what you're saying,

but I'm like, at the same time, I'm like, but

at the same time, they really couldn't build

her all that much. If they did, they might've

taken away. Or it was just a story of, hey, I'm

going to have her say this, that, and the other

just to help build my story, but it's not going

to mean anything on her because she's got to

be just that neutral character standing in the

background because somebody else is going to

come in and write her, or somebody will eventually,

and it's just not me. Right. I understand that.

I get that part of it. I'm saying going forward,

I'm not sure if I'm going to like ... the way

John's voice comes through, the way his writing

works with her as a character, because I view

her now as Marigold and Sarah's character. Gotcha.

Yeah, no, I totally get you, Mike. Or we could

just love it. I mean, you know, Drift started

out as Shane's character, and guess where, you

know, James took it and ran with it, you know?

We love him now, right? He was the other one

that's been called, you know, Gary Sue. So, yeah.

Oh, God. Gary Sue. How about you, Nicole? Would

you recommend this? And who would you recommend

it to? That's a difficult question. Yeah, I would

recommend it. I mean, just so you can see a great

team. It's Stone and Scott. Oh my gosh. Sorry.

Just say it again and I'll make it work. Yeah,

Stone and Scott they they did a great job I mean

they're a great team and it's good to see another

team works so well in the machine I Like the

only thing I don't sure who I would recommend

it to new readers Might be a little lost because

there I'm just making an assumption here that

most people know the common core Transformers,

they'll be like, who are these people, you know?

I would say for anyone that has been in Transformers,

but wants to come back, probably with this would

be a good starting point. But what Mike said

was really good explanation as well. So yeah,

it's a great storyline. that I set out and the

artwork. I mean, expressions galore right here,

man. Totally sells it. I agree. A lot of blue

in this issue. And there's not a problem for

me because I love blue. The difference is I can

tell the difference between the blues in this

one versus some other issues that. That's true.

Awesome. How about you, Heather? Well, I, as

soon as the trade comes in the mail, I am going

to get my little seven -year -old fan fiction

writing daughter and we are going to read it

together. Because, love for serious, like I'm

sort of passionate about this. Oh really? Couldn't

tell. I know, gee. But me, passionate about something.

You should see the private email. She's been

writing people. It's really sad. I'm not saying

that she's sad. Her emails have been sad because

she has to stop, you know? Doesn't mean you have

to stop. Doesn't mean it. I'm going to miss playing

podcast games with you guys so bad. OK, all right.

So we'll just continue it. There you go. Yeah.

You got to put me on something else, Amy. You

got to do it. I have plans. But OK, so definitely

my little daughter because. Gosh, this is such

a good comic for girls. I'm pounding my leg right

now. I would give this to anyone who had an artistic

bent to just be like, look at the art in here,

because this is very different from anything

else I've seen in comics. period, not just Transformer

comics, but comics period. I really enjoy this

art and I think it's worth looking at on its

own. I would recommend this to definitely to

young people wanting to get into Transformers.

I would recommend this to anyone who was like

I'm sticking with the core characters. Only robots

in disguise with the main 84 bots. I'd be like,

I'd shove this in their face and be like, no,

branch out, person of indeterminate gender. I

was about to be like, branch out, dude. And then

I realized I was being not fair. So I'm like,

it could be a girl. I don't know. Anyway. So

those are the main people that I would be like,

no, go forth and read this. Because I don't think

that you need to know anything about Transformers

to get this story on its own. I really don't.

And I also think that if you are like a hardcore

Transformers fan, this... particular mini -series

takes the whole world, splits it open and goes,

here, look, it's a geode inside. There's all

these sparkly crystals that you didn't know.

That's a good imagery right there of your description.

I have to agree. I would absolutely say, if somebody

was going to ask me, recommend some of the top

ones I see. This is going to be up there with

them, because I think it's good. I think even

if you don't know that much about transfers,

even if all you know is Starscream is a Decepticon

and Ironhide is an Autobot and that's it. If

that's all you know, I mean, because they can

shift, they can look different. If this is the

first thing that you jump onto, I mean, because

it's a good story, it's well told. The art is

really well done. I'd say it's got great conflict.

The plot is great. the expressions are awesome.

The characters are mostly, I mean, bar just a

few that we just said like Ironhide, you don't

get much out of him. But like for the characters

that are like really running in this issue, like

we know a lot about them, we're getting to know

them. And they're really well, you're used really

well in a way that I like, hey, I love them.

By the end of this, I didn't know who they were.

And now I know who they are. I'm like, wow, I

like that. I just think that the story speaks

for itself. as long as you have good characters

and a great plot and there's, you know, something

that comes out of it that's good, then it should

be, you know, it's worth it. And it, it, it proves

itself just by what it is. And I think that this,

this one will do it. And I would recommend it

to anybody, any gender, any age. It's, it's good

for that. Yes. Sorry about that. Go ahead. There

are voices in your head. There are voices in

my head, and there are voices behind me, and

they shouldn't be on here right now, but it is

what it is. I recognize that voice. That's the

voice that brings you snakes and scorpions. Leave

that in, please leave that in. You think I'm

kidding? It's true. No, it's absolutely true.

You have interrupted us enough times with those

snakes and scorpions, oh my gosh. I was I was

thinking though really fast in conjunction with

everything we've been saying about recommending

wind blade to people I mean My favorite ongoing

story right now is the more than meets the eye

one because I'm addicted to feels and you know

falling in love with characters and you know

That does it for me, but you can't just drop

the mass of more than meets the eye on somebody's

head and Just be like here read this you can't

I mean that thing is like this incredibly complex

tapestry of like pain and people have to build

up to pain you know this this is just a good

single trade that you can just be like here read

this it's beautiful go when you're ready for

an ongoing after this yes you can hit records

Oh, man, sorry. I'm just imagining, you know,

some poor little person. I love it here. What's

your next favorite one? Wreckers. Everybody says

Wreckers is good. Ah, everybody dies. No. Oh,

my God. And then more than meets the eye. My

heart gets ripped out all the time. With Last

Stand of the Wreckers, it's in the title. It's

not going to be a pretty series. It's not the

last stand of Windblade. It's not the last stand

of Windblade. Nicole, what was that line? What

one in in more than meets the eye we just talked

about it like five and a half hours ago The line

where they're they're like This this this and

this is the better the upgraded version of the

records What was that line? I don't remember.

There's a line in Remain in Light, one of the

issues where Ambus is talking about something

Tyrus set up and he says that it's, you know,

the neck... The better version of the record

is what it says. And that's when I was like laughing

on my breath head. There ain't anything better

than the record. Sorry, dude. We mentioned you

on that. Are you talking about Prowl's little

group of the people with the memory gun skids

and getaway and how they just kind of sneak around

and do what needs to be done cleanly without

blowing things up? Yep. Yep. Yep. That was, uh,

yeah. Okay, so before we get too far ahead here,

thoughts on the next series? What will it endeavor

to do? What do you guys think? Theories? I want

it to go to Cannemis. I really want it to go

to their home planet. Like, we've already had

the Cybertron story. That's great. And if, especially

if she is now helping both worlds, we need to

go to the other world to see what the other world

is all about. My gosh, that sounds exhausting.

As if she doesn't have a big job already, she

has to save two worlds now? Well, she made that

choice. It's not our fault. She chose both of

them. She's like, I choose both. I choose both.

They're going to split her in half lengthwise.

I already have one son who sneaks up behind me

and goes lengthwise. Like, you stop. So you're

basically saying this is the Transformers version

of Sophie's Choice. What's that? I don't know.

What's Sophie's Choice? Oh, you don't know Sophie's

Choice? I don't know Sophie's Choice. I'm sorry.

She has to choose between her two children which

ones to save. Oh. It's like if you cut your kid

in half or something. Dang, that's dark. So James,

do not take notes. James, I have something that

if it's OK, basically in the next series I have

in my notes written down, it says if Windblade

2 .0 does not reunite Caminus and Metroplex,

I will fragging kill someone, not a joke. OK,

so there's two. I got to the end of this and

was like, you know, drowning in my feels and

I was just like, gosh, dang it. Yeah, so basically

yeah, I mean I I get what Mike's saying that

it would be really interesting to set it on Caminus

and I would support that Marigold give me Alita

one give me Alita one now and give me Alita one.

You have you know, you've got one thing on your

mind and it's really just give me this character

right now, please. I need Alita one and I need

Caminus and Metroplex to be able to be in the

same solar system. Because they're just so little.

I mean, they're good. You know, they're giant

guys. They're not so little. They're actually

pretty big. You know, I just want to love them

and I'm not big enough. Oh God, Nicole, it's

going to come back on us. Everything is always

bigger on the inside. How about you, Nicole?

Next series. Sorry, one more thing. The little

badge list guys that have been set up in this.

Something better be done with them too. Yeah,

that was the other thing they never - Starscream's

personal little SS squad. They need to be dealt

with and expanded upon. Not that they want this

to happen, because they scare the crap out of

me, but yeah. Not one of his brightest ideas

as a leader, but whatever. No, it's a French

intelligent idea. I mean, he's been reading The

Prince or something. He's like, okay, we'll do

this. Or he's just following suit with Prowl.

Prowl had his own team. but just the idea that

nobody knows who they are and so they have like

immunity from responsibility for anything that

they do quote -unquote in the name of the law.

I'm like, oh my gosh, it's work for Starscream.

This is terrifying. I think Marigold was reading

a little bit too much Judge Dredd when she made

the Vagelists because they are the exact same

thing as the Judge Hunters from Judge Dredd.

Yeah. All right, Nicole. Yes, Nicole. Next series.

Next series. What are you looking forward to

in the next one? Okay, I don't think this is

gonna happen, but I'd love to see Chromia become

a bad guy. You're an evil person! I would like

to see her somehow team up with Starscream. That

would be a switch. That's what I'm saying. I

would like to see that team up. And Windblade

has to trust on her own instincts instead of...

relying on other people. I know she did it this

like this the end of this issue but she still

has that spark of hope that she could trust Chromia.

I'm the evil person that wants to see that spark

go out. You're tempting, you're tempting Marigrid.

She's gonna be like bad, bad, bad. But okay,

I love Chromia. but I love my Decepticons and

I would love to see Chromia. You have read, you

have read, you know, Transformers, you know,

Beast Hunters, right? You do know the angriest

rescue ever, right? Yes, I do. Marigold can totally

make it dark. I mean, come on, you know, she's

fully capable. I would just like to see that.

I would like to see a bad bot go, or a good bot

go bad. And I would like to see, I would just

like to see Starscream get to have a trust in

someone somewhat, because Rattrap, he has no

trust in Rattrap, but I think Chromia might have

a way in Starscream's head. I would like to see

that. I would like to see Chromia go back. I

doubt that's what's going to happen, but it'd

be awesome. You're putting in your request now

just in case. That's my request. And I'm going

to leave the corner in fear. Well, you haven't

heard my idea yet. So what's your idea? Okay.

So I actually, I went more for the fact that

it makes sense to me. Um, I, I, this is what

I kind of see. Okay. So we, we did the whole,

you know, the first year of ongoing and then

we did, you know, robots disguise half the year

gonna kind of got taken over with the whole let's,

you know, the build up to dark Cybertron and

the whole Metroplex thing. I think it makes sense

to me that now that that's just like the next

evolution of their stage of being on Cybertron

is to bring these other places to them. I mean,

it's not a new idea. It's actually not a new

idea. I mean, if you think about it, the DREF

series. They had the Crystal City, which was

the first point where we said, oh, there's other

people out there in different places that, you

know, maybe didn't want to stay for the, you

know, the war. So it's not a new idea, but it's

actually building on an idea that's actually

really working for them. This idea that there

are other colonies out there and they might have

like these Titans and, you know, bringing them

in. And I don't know if I want to actually go

to Kamenis. I would like to see them come there.

What happens when they come there and they have

to integrate and they're like, well, wait a minute

here. What if they bring in some new political

pressures where they're, say, instead of voting

for one boss, why don't we start having a, you

know, a Senate again? Well, how will that change

things? You know, that's the last thing we need

is another Senate. Oh my God. That's your reaction

though. That's the thing is that because we're

all like, uh, nobody would accept that. Maybe

that's exactly what they need then, because the

conflict that will be involved with that will

be amazing. So I mean, hey, I would be completely

cool with them bringing Kamenest there and I

think it's a good idea I think it makes sense.

It's also a consequence of them already coming

back to to Cybertron as it is I like the idea

that Cybertron can't support itself and that

they've already seen other places that have tried

to do it and it's not it's not working for them

after all this time and so now It's a pop. It's

possible that that's that's gonna happen in Cybertron

as well. I mean she would already I mean We haven't

seen like all of what's going on at Cybertron,

but we do know that resources are limited there

and things are not working really great because

they keep blowing things up even when they do

build stuff. Let me build on your idea here a

little bit. We don't know what Windblade Returns

is going to be. We don't know if it's going to

be four issues. If it's going to be six issues,

we don't know. If it's going to be four, keeping

in line with your idea, Amy. the first two need

to they need to go to cannabis they need to go

to convince them to say hey come to cybertron

so the first two issues need to at least take

place on cannabis and then the final two can

be them coming back the the third one can be

them coming to cybertron and the fourth one can

be them acclimating it's a possibility or we'll

see what you know they tend to do with um ongoing

this next year because we have a whole year to

set it up we have a whole year to set that up

Yeah, you know how Nicole was saying it'd be

cool, you know to her unholy and demonistic idea

But I'd almost like to see well, you know, this

is me but um I'd like to almost see it go the

opposite direction where I think it would be

fascinating to watch and this you know goes back

into the infamous shipping things too but it

would be interesting to watch Starscream and

Windblade have to learn to actually work together

and have some measure of trust because they have

almost equal powers at this point and they have

it set up where you know Windblade has got herself

in a position now where she's not under Starscream's

foot anymore Even though she started out being

what she wants. Yeah. Well, she started out being

like, you know, Starscream's in charge, you know,

backing up. And now she's like, no, I'm not going

to play that game. And having something happen

that causes them to have to actually work together

would be really fun. People who know me are now

not shocked at all that I just said, let's have

people work together. But I think that would

be interesting. Cool. Alright, well we should

kind of wrap it up here because we keep on going

uh Anybody else want to say anything else about

the art? Before we do final thoughts on a rating

Sarah should do all the covers next time It goes

back to that we get to keep Sarah until her fingers

bleed thing Yeah, I love Sarah. She does a great

job. I do think that, I don't know if this was

just our copy, it is a little bit sketchy in

some parts, but there's this one panel of Starscream

when he's on his knees there and he has that

like flash in his eyes, that camera, that lens

flare kind of thing. love that. I, that's a,

that's one of those, oh, I, I need a big poster

of that to look pretty. But yeah, like I said,

I don't know if it's just my version because

sometimes it gets distorted, but no, I, I enjoy

it. She knows how to bring out expressions. She,

the way that she portrayed Starscream was awesome

because you actually felt like he was larger

than life kind of guy. He wasn't just just number

two guy all the time. He actually had a presence

in this series. And also the design that she

has made for Windblade. At first, when they announced

what she looked like, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's

so typical. But she made Windblade her presence

as well. Lovable and inviting. That sounds really

bad. I know that. Her design was nice to the

eyes, I gotta say. So yeah, Sarah, awesome. Cool.

Anybody else? Yeah, Go Mike, because I always

talk Go. No, I mean, I know. I think we've pretty

much said everything we need to say. I haven't.

I have a thing. Go for it. Go for it. Shocker!

This is the issue where I only have one writing

beef and one art beef. And my one art beef, because

of the whole I must critique to show love and

respect, is the panel where Starscream shoots

Slug to get away. That is... I mean, you can

tell what's happening. But it's a little unclear

because you can't even see Starscream. You just

see kind of his contrails as he's, you know,

backing away. And since I thought he was up against

the wall, I'm like, wait, how, what? So that

was my only artistic problem. Other than that,

it's amazing. The whole fight with Chromia at

the beginning is just... beautifully laid out,

beautifully paced. And there's this one really

cool kind of popping out of the page slightly

sideways panel where her knife goes into the

jet that I'm just like, that's so awesome. Um,

yeah, I really liked that too. It was like, oh,

she makes Starscream in jet mode look ridiculously

shiny and threatening. Um, the movement in this

in, uh, you know, especially I noticed it in

all the fight scenes, but everywhere. The movement

is just amazing. It's kinetic. It's clear. You

can tell what's happening. Um, there's just an

amazing feeling of, you know, actual motion,

actual emotion. And yeah, good, good stuff. And

plus it's just beautiful. I mean, everything

Sarah does is beautiful, but you know, she doesn't

have to make it beautiful, but she does. Yep.

So Yeah, good stuff. Well, I have to say. The

expression of the characters just really sells

it almost every single time. Yeah, everything.

I really like what she does with that because

and this is this is I really wanted to kind of

point this out is like, okay. You feel their

shock and you feel their emotion, but Sarah is

really great at showing the stuff that doesn't

get communicated in the text. Like she tells

mountains of story background without. the text,

like, okay, so if you go through the whole issue,

just take all the words out and just look at

the expressions and what they're what you get

out of what's going on. You get a whole new level,

a whole new layer of information that the text

doesn't tell. But that's exactly what like, you

know, good expression does that, you know, it

tells you everything that you need to know without

actually really reading what is going on. And

so that's why really, really like it. Cause I

kind of, I went through this and kind of did

that with, with this one, just to look at the

expressions. What am I getting out of the expressions

of the characters, like all the way through?

And I was just like, ah, wow. I think every issue

of hers should, I need to go back and look at

this from that way at every issue, because it

gives you, there's so much more complexity to

the characters when you just look at, you know,

what's going on to them. And I really, really

liked that. It's like, ah, anyhow, so. Really

happy to see that she'll be doing more work on

future stuff, especially robots in disguise and

Which isn't too far away in September. Yay And

it'll be amazing to see how much she's gonna

change between now and the next time she's actually

doing a series So looking forward to that. Yay,

so final thoughts and a rating For both the issue

and then for the whole series For the issue,

I'll I'll give it a four. I liked it. I thought

it was really good There are a couple of our

choices that I wasn't too keen on but other than

that I mean overall Overall as far as the series

it was an excellent story Very well written really

made you think about a lot of things and and

Margaret Basically pulled you in areas that you

didn't think you'd see in Cybertron. I mean How

often do we have, you know, bots in the bowels

of Metroplex? That's true. I don't know about

you, but that would be my first place. Waspinator

and the Slurp. Oh, God. Yes. Yes. Overall, I'll

give a series of four and a half. Cool. All right.

Heather. OK. I'm dropping a five on this one.

This issue. Um, because like I said, I, the only

problems I have are like little teeny nitpicky

ones. And normally I can, I'm terrible and I

can find lots of problems. Um, because, because

of the lack of issues for me, because of just

the incredible emotional punch of this, because

of the skill and power of the story and because

it's a good wrap -up of the series. Not everybody

can do that. Not everybody can end something

as powerfully as this has ended. I think it was

really good. Holy cow, I love this issue. For

the overall series, I'd give it a 4. It sags

a little. In the storytelling, there are a couple

of pacing issues towards the beginning, like

I would specifically mention where they're hunting

through Metroplex in the very beginning, and

then they stop to go to the bar. And that makes

sense, but at the same time, it's a stutter step

in the storytelling. And then it does have a

little bit of middle issue lag, I would say,

in issue two. You continue being interested in

the story all the way through though. So those

are not major complaints. It's just a an Acknowledgement

that this series is not perfect. So, you know,

I can't give the entire series a five But like

I said, I would I Really recommend this to people

I I very much enjoyed it. I really think the

art and the writing are both just stupendous.

And I just am grateful that it exists. I hadn't

even realized how much because I'm I'm not a

girly girl. And I don't really require girl characters

in my life. But just, you know, coming to the

end of this for some reason just really hit me

that this is a transformer story with female

characters who are alive. And We hardly ever

see that because of the hesitancy of male authors

to write female characters that that often happens

not always but but often and so there's a there's

a realism and a connection here because I feel

like Marigold and Sarah were very invested in

this and So we get not just You know wind blade

and chromia, but also Marigold and Sarah themselves

and it's just this this wonderful thing of just

here have some female characters that don't feel

cardboard and it was really really nice and I

I'm a little surprised at how much it meant to

me but gosh darn it it does so yep good stuff

thank you awesome Nicole issue wise When I first

read this, after actually reviewing it with you

guys, it did give me a little up in the score,

because there's some really good moments. But

for some reason, when I first read it, I'm like,

oh, the ending's kind of dragging out. They want

to try to fill in these pages. But talking to

you guys, I realize there's a lot more to it.

So I would give the issue a four. As for the

series, I don't know. When looking back, I really

should have reread the whole series before this,

but I think that the series could have been condensed

into three issues. I don't know. The whole thing

with Ironhide, that still is kind of bothering

me. Where'd he go? And Rattrap. He seems to be

lost too. I'd also give the series a four. How's

that? I mean, like I said, this team is just

amazing, like what Heather said. You finally

get some characters that you, as a girl, you

can somewhat relate to. I know that sounds kind

of sexist, but it's kind of nice to see in a

Transformers comic that, you know, wasn't your

typical Arcee character, you know? Because when

you're a girl and you're trying to get into Transformers,

for some reason Arcee's thrown in your face.

Don't get me wrong. love the bot but it's just

nice for a different change either she's one

way or she's completely crazy exactly exactly

no and i love crazy rc i love I love crazy RC.

I have to say I do too. That's that's a surprise.

You know, if you know me, she beats the crap

out of secretary RC. I'll tell you that much.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Don't even get, I do have to

say I did like animated RC, but I felt bad for

her. Oh yeah. I know she got pasted. It was a

tool. Okay. Yeah. No, no, no. And like I said,

it's, it's great story arc. I mean, what more

can I say? It's just. It's a fun series. It's

a fun series. I know some people don't like it

but Hey, we all have different flavors of jam,

right? There you go. Exactly Okay, so me final

thoughts. Um, I Honestly, I cannot wait till

next year I want to see more from these guys

and I'm sad that we'll have to wait a year But

I'm glad that we have something so I'm like,

yeah, I'm I'm yeah, so I'm looking forward to

it This issue I'm gonna absolutely give a five

because I really really liked the fact that I

did not see that coming and it gave me a few

things that I did not expect and so I just based

on the the the the enjoyment factor I'm gonna

give it a five and for the whole series I'm gonna

give it a four and a half because I want to give

it a five so bad but it's not perfect either

so four four and a half which is half Half higher

than two of you guys, so. There you go. You know,

if you look at this, this episode of the under

base and the pull bag, we have the exact same

thing we had on the very first issue. You and

I rated it the same and Nicole and Heather rated

it the same. It's okay. This is why we have four

people, right? Exactly. Okay, so that is going

to do it for us. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

But we have a fantastic end to a great series.

I'm glad to hear any of you guys. I'm going to

edit you out now. You think that's a threat?

I don't. I have your address, girl. That's right.

I have yours too. That's right. Bring it. Bring

it. Come on, man. I'll show up on your doorstep.

Oh, I can find out, Heather. We'll find out.

You don't have that far for me. You don't live

that far from me. Someday, you're going to show

up and be like, I've got this terrible, terrible

picture of Chromia and Starscream. No, Chromia

and Cyclonus. I would never give that picture

away. It's Cyclonus. I don't know. If you guys

threatened me with Cyclonus killing art, I'd

still take that, OK? Bring it, people. Bring

it. I thank you guys. Thank you guys for reviewing

this series with me. It's been an absolute pleasure

and of course to our listeners who have also

taken this journey with us. Thanks for tuning

in and we will catch you all next time on the

underbase. Aloha. Peace out. Oh, there's no peace

when you're talking about Transformers. No. True.

There's only before the war and after the war.

At the talk of a new war. Yeah, there is no actual

war. And where is the peace, really? Really?

There's no peace. A peace of somebody, maybe,

but, like, you know. Ambulance? There's always

pieces of people. If it's not the upgrade, it's

the people that died. It's Ratchet's hands just

kind of lying there on the floor now. No, his

hands, his head, and his spark. That last issue,

nobody brought it up. You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's comic review

and discussion podcast. There are several ways

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