Marvel Than Meets the Eye: The Transformers #1-40, Part 2 - Atop the Fourth Wall

[@AT4W]

There are occasionally some green lines flickering in the video. This was not a problem on my part, but rather KZbin experienced some kind of error while processing new uploads during that time across the entire site.

[@DJ-wx5cn]

I wondered if my tv or my PS4 I’m watching it on was giving out. It sucks that you and youtube has that issue, but I’m so glad my set up isn’t crapping it’s pants. Thanks for the update.

[@SirAsdf]

Oh, I just thought my Phone was breaking, I didn't know it was a site wide thing

[@Kolbatsu]

Optimus Prime one of those guys who picks the nice dialog options in a video game and when he picks the mean option he feels bad about and apologizes to the NPC. He also probably cried after killing Toriel and went back to save her in Undertale.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

Imagine if Optimus was forced to play games were you have to be a douche. He would be ebating himself all over it

[@tannerprice2018]

Optimus would straight-up refuse to play GTA then.

[@darthlazurus4382]

​@tannerprice2018 No, he'd play it, ignore the story missions and just do the odd jobs without gaining a single wanted star

[@pieceofschmidtgamer]

Optimus: I am a head! Vegeta: Then why don't you quit while you are!

[@PharaohOfTheDamned]

there it is

[@stephenquinn7931]

Transformers and dragon ball, interesting

[@BagOfMagicFood]

Unicron didn't quit while he was a head!

[@amiablereaper]

@vargen1414 furthermore, could the cybertronians learn to use ki themselves?

[@daelen.cclark]

@@stephenquinn7931 Now THAT would be awesome!!!

[@gabrielrussell5531]

19:03 "What would even compel you to do graffiti?" He's wearing a Spider-Man shirt. The menace is radicalizing the youth!

[@michaelrhett4958]

Found J Jonah Jameson’s alternate secret account!

[@Avenger85438]

Man, everybody wants a piece of Hoover Dam, Decepticon's, Caesar's Legion.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Liberty Prime was just an Autobot in disguise! It all makes sense!

[@Macrochenia]

@@gratuitouslurking8610 Huge, unstoppable, and arrogant? Must be Superion.

[@DawnOfTheOzz]

"Ethan Zachary, press the button on *my* joystick." BAD TOUCH! BAD TOUCH! *STRANGER DANGER!*

[@Saiyef96]

Wait, Witwicky gets the Autobot Matrix into his mind and meets Jetfire to have him save Optimus? They used that story from the comic in Transformers 2 Rise of the Fallen.

[@footlessmoonbadger7189]

The first 4 movies adapt quite a lot of plot lines from the comics and the original cartoon. These plots aren't amazingly adapted but I hardly ever see anyone talk about them or compare them to one another.

[@z1pperintheback657]

Lighters held high for Scrounge; may he be reunited with his arm in the Allspark.

[@jonathandelgado3755]

Ratchet was such a boss in the comics. Surprised he didn’t clean house on Cybertron with his clutch attributes.

[@det.bullock4461]

And both his recent Generations toys are exclusives, I had one of the issues with him as the protagonist as a kid (the one where he goes to the junkyard) which sort of made me latch onto him even though I couldn't get more than another couple of random issues of the comic. I loved to see him as a main charcater in both Prime, Animated and the IDW comics.

[@bthsr7113]

Well in Prime he did go all spec ops on the Decepticons... because the synth-en on that show can supercharge a Cybertronian at the cost of heightened aggression.

[@theoatyastarties]

@@bthsr7113 BULKHEAD I NEEDED THAT!

[@zemox2534]

@@theoatyastarties That line is one of the reasons why Ratchet is my favourite Autobot

[@jonathandelgado3755]

@@det.bullock4461 I’m glad Ratchet has become more mainstream...though I miss the old school jovial Autobot he used to be before Animated popularized the grumpy old man personality he’s gotten.

[@jonathanbermudez546]

Fun fact about Circuit Breaker, Hasbro were actually able to use her fairly recently, all they did was change her first name to Sephie, and since this was supposed to be a mirror universe story, they inverted her personality so that she couldn’t be recognized right away as Circuit Breaker.

[@HashbrownMashup]

That wasn't Hasbro per se, that was in FunPub's Timelines series/franchise. It was all collector oriented and mostly only available through very exclusive means (conventions and subscription services) so it makes sense that they'd have more leeway. Sephie Beller/Emulator was a pretty great character though yeah. Better than Circuit Smasher at least...

[@Macrochenia]

Emulator is different enough from Circuit Breaker to count as a different character for copyright purposes. She's a cool homage to the original that fits well with the Shattered Glass Universe's inverted personalities.

[@Jon_the_Wizard]

Bold of you to assume Alan Moore isn't already a wizard.

[@robo-nidai4236]

Harry Potter would be a very different franchise if Alan Moore wrote the books instead of JK Rowling.

[@Xoncron]

Oh no Linkara is well aware Alan Moore is a wizard.

[@ridewild1956]

love your avatar skies of arcadia forever

[@AzureIV]

24:45 I would like to point out that in a lot of movies and TV shows that used floppy drives at the time, they always had absurd amounts of data on a single floppy disk, more than can ever be placed on a whole storage rack of floppy disks.

[@rickdaniel7341]

“If you’ve ever seen, like, Linkara (I’ve never met him, but I watch him on occasion), if you’ve ever seen Linkara play a game, it’s like ripping nails out every single time. Because, like, he... look, he’s not stupid-“ 23:37

[@Dynaman21]

As for Bumblebee, the UK comic ignored the crossover as well. Over there he gets turned to junk by Death's Head, everyone's favorite B...Freelance Peacekeeping Agent.

[@myriadmediamusings]

Those who dislike may need to be offlined by a Cosmically Powered Starscream.

[@optovids]

I expected to have to go looking, but alas, it was only the second comment where I found an "offlined by a Cosmically Powered Starscream" joke.

[@optovids]

I expected to have to go looking, but alas, it was only the second comment where I found an "offlined by a Cosmically Powered Starscream" joke.

[@stephenquinn3447]

Even the dislike button itself were offlined

[@Arcwhiteflame]

I am now imagining Optimus Prime playing Undertale and taking the it way too seriously.

[@CosplayingwithChad]

The funny thing about Jetfire is that he wasn’t even from the original Takara toy line. Takatoku Toys had a multi articulated transforming robot called the VF-1S Super Valkyrie Fighter from the Macross toy line.

[@myriadmediamusings]

@@AlexSeverinski And even further then, at least in the cartoon, the redesign wasn’t enough to satsify so Jetfire/Skyfire had to be dropped from the show.

[@devlinburgess2463]

So that's why he looks sorta familiar. They should have made him an idol just to play it up. Transformers: Do You Remember Love?

[@roguishpaladin]

I was wonder if, with all the asides about intellectual property issues that arose with the Transformers, this would get brought up. Oh, well. I wish I could find my Jetfire toy. It was really awesome. What other toy can fit in Macross, Transformers, or Battletech (that design was *also* used in *another* IP conflict when FASA licensed a bunch of Macross designs to be used in their game...only to find out that the company they licensed from, Twentieth Century Imports, didn't actually have the rights they had just licensed. Many designs were legally forced to disappear (referred to by Battletech fans as the Unseen). The Phoenix Hawk mech used the VF-1S Super Valkyrie (though with no transformation capabilities as Macross or Transformers would depict) as its basis.

[@jeremytung1632]

Which is a big part of why he disappeared from the show.

[@Savagewolver]

I had the issue where Megatron died. It was hidden in a cabinet my grandparents owned, and I found it randomly one day when I was playing as a kid. Literally loved the thing to pieces, and it’s why predaking has something of a special place in my heart. Love his X-ray laser line.

[@RabbiJoeInJerusalem]

Charlene, Charlene, Charlene, Charlene I'm begging of you please don't take my bot Charlene, Charlene, Charlene, Charlene Please don't take him just because you’re hot You ring ‘em up, ten or less The lane to your heart’s express With hat and whip and prairie dress, Charlene...

[@Maswartz226]

I feel like the whole "Optimus has himself blown up for winning" thing would have had more weight if it wasn't a game, if he had gotten innocent people killed in the crossfire.

[@MuscleboySV]

I remember looking through my dad's Transformers comics collection and coming across issue 24. I could count my age in single digits at the time and I STILL questioned Optimus' judgment! Prime, those are NPC's, nothing more than computer subroutines! They don't qualify as living machines like you! Heck, they're not even a.i. like Teletraan! That was literally one of the dumbest versions of Optimus dying!

[@greatsayain]

This old non glossy style of art is so nostalgic to me .

[@Nightwing9597]

“Doctrine Dirty-Water Resurection” Still have a bit of a headache from that one Lewis.

[@dcmultiverse610]

Creedence Clearwater Revival

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

I'm so glad the UK comics existed to give us more Optimus Prime adventures before his untimely death

[@brendaneichler5244]

Death(s)

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

@@brendaneichler5244 Yeah I just remembered that he faked his own death in one story as well, didn't he? The Optimus of the comics was quite a character!

[@Macrochenia]

@@MatthewCaunsfield Optimus was killed again fighting Unicron, but then his personality lived on in Hi-Q (and eventually overrode Hi-Q's mind) until he was rebuilt as Optimus Prime in the final issue.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

@@Macrochenia True but at least there was a significant gap between deaths that time! 😉

[@kaybaumann4989]

Also the best version of Galvatron and a Rodimus Prime that didn’t suck.

[@jasonjimerson7046]

"Vacations Are The Pits"? The song "First World Problems" seems to come to mind seeing that.

[@cui8789]

It's always been weird to me how Blaster has such a limited presence in Transformers media despite being the Autobot counterpart to Soundwave.

[@roguishpaladin]

Well, he debuted a generation after Soundwave so Soundwave had extra time to settle in. But I think you're misremembering - he was one of the leaders of the Autobot schism, as part 3 mentioned.

[@myriadmediamusings]

@@roguishpaladin The original show and the Marvel comic do seem to be the most he’s done in any story capacity though. It’s not like he’s appeared in any shows since then, his comic appearances, even in IDW, have been really limited. The only thing Blaster’s got going has been toys, and even his signature stereo/boombox mode hasnt been appearing as much. And I feel this boils down to, well, Soundwave Superior, at least as far as Hasbro is concerned.

[@skibot9974]

He got this immortal exchange in headmasters though (Billy = Blaster) Hot Rod: Billy are you okay? Billy: not really… find the power packs (does)

[@musicfighter282]

God The Smelting Pool was such a good issue. I was reading the run for the first time about a decade ago and my jaw dropped when I reached that story. I didn’t know Budiansky could pull off a tragic story that good!

[@jantheman4242]

The comic where Megatron was used by the criminal was the first comic I ever read in my life

[@seventhbracken4466]

Nice.

[@bthsr7113]

@@seventhbracken4466 To quote Stan Lee, "Every comic is someone's first."

[@HashbrownMashup]

The one where Unicron killed everyone was mine.

[@twilightman2816]

@@bthsr7113 How very Yogi Berra.

[@OnDavidsBrain]

16:34 So now there's the NCR, House, the Legion and now the Decepticons want the Dam!? Man has the Courier got their hands full or what?

[@sasamichan]

Optimus killing him self for honor does come up a lot in "Who would win" debates

[@jonathanpacheco8376]

I honestly think that if issue 24 ended with prime winning and megatron being the one blown up we would have seen a power struggle between Starscream and Shockwave. And maybe Soundwave as well since he is kinda like a second in command and the most loyal decepticon to megatron.

[@BrianGeers]

They went on to write Megs out of the story in the next issue which gradually led to a power struggle between Shockwave and... Ratbat.

[@jonathanpacheco8376]

@@BrianGeers ah yeah forgot about rapbat. But I still think that Starscream or Soundwave would have fit the Roles much better as the ones to battle against Shockwave in the power struggle to lead the decepticons. With Rapbat on the other hand it kinda seems hilarious and ridiculous for him to go toe to toe with probably one of the most insane and brilliant minds in the form of Shockwave.

[@BrianGeers]

@@jonathanpacheco8376 Starscream was pretty underutilized in the Budiansky run of the book (until The Underbase Saga). The UK stories and Furman’s run on the US book brought him closer to his cartoon counterpart.

[@JohnWilliams-wl9px]

Soundwave isn’t loyal at all in the comics he’s actually very power hungry. Though you wouldn’t know just based off the US book since he’s barely in it. The G1 cartoon change him to being loyal just like their version of Shockwave.

[@BionicleGio22210]

Cybertronians don't need sleep and neither do I

[@superemoboi2050]

What about the Mountain Dew Cybermancers?

[@deltaknight2764]

27:24 I freaking love Meg's slow realization here.

[@zemox2534]

"Each of us always has a choice. I chose to cheat." "THAT'S NOT WHAT CHEATING MEANS YOU STUPID TRUCK!!"

[@BagOfMagicFood]

"And Megatron cheated first, so if anything you just evened it out. Actually, I think I'll blow up both of you."

[@TheGrayMysterious]

No wonder they call him Optimus, his brain program must be *optimized* to utter perfection if he takes up less space than Doom.

[@fats3342]

Megatron losing it is probably my favorite part of the original run.

[@ill_hex8103]

Geez Optimus, even I don’t do this crap after playing GTA! And I nearly prevented myself from shooting at NPC’s before now due to it reminding me of my existential crisis!

[@SpaceGeek2161]

"Seems like they should actually be headed to the Pacific [ocean], since it's closer..." yeah, but it's also colder right off the coast, and since they're after thermal (heat) energy it makes sense to go to the warmer ocean where thermal energy is more abundant.

[@GDark08]

Alright, this is a minor point, but I feel it bears stating with how much it keeps coming up here and in the previous video; the Dinobots weren't created by the Ark in response to Shockwave's revival. They were stated to be five members of the crew already aboard that the ship's computer, Aunty, had modified and restored in order to neutralize him. This is also the case as seen in IDW's recent Transformers '84: Secrets & Lies mini-series that effectively retconned some aspects of the original Marvel issues to coincide more with the change of hands.

[@tannerprice2018]

I’m surprised Ratchet wasn’t given as big a role as this one in any other TF show. Sure, in every other series he’s an active fighter and a well-trained medic, and many incarnations like Animated or Prime make him into an old war vet either suffering old wounds or grieving the death of Cybertron. But in the G1 cartoon, he was treated as just another face in the crowd, where aside from collaborating with Wheeljack with certain projects like the Dinobots, he hasn’t had as big a role as this one, and was unceremoniously killed off in the 1986 film. In this series, Ratchet is the ultimate Autobot MVP. He’s helping Buster to try and free the Autobots, successfully rebuilds the Dinobots after freeing them from the tar pits, and fights Megatron more than Optimus had, and it was very frequent, in fact, Ratchet even sacrificed himself to permanently end Megatron towards the end of the series (silently snickers in G2 and Regeneration One). It’s funny how Ratchet hasn’t gotten as big of a role as this.

[@brandonlyon730]

@@AlexSeverinski He really didn’t do much in the Bay movies other then being just the medic on the team that will sometimes do some shooting in the battles. Then he is just brutally killed off in the four movie.

[@muhaoai4693]

There's a very simple reason for that. Just compare the size of the G1 cartoon's cast with the cast of shows like Animated, Prime or Beast Wars. Plus, for the G1 cartoon they were constantly introducing or playing up the newest toys, so it's inevitable that Ratchet got saddled as 'the medic'. It's kind of like Doc over in G.I. Joe. You don't normally send your chief medical officer onto the battlefield, so naturally he didn't make as many appearances as, say, Sergeant Slaughter or even a B-list Joe like Beachhead.

[@MegamanNG]

23:36 - This made me laugh out loud. I swear it. Had no idea you did Hitman 2016. I love the Hitman series.

[@JetZV]

3:49 I actually owned this comic; the one with Circuitbreaker on the cover. It was one of the few Transformers-related things my dad gave to me when I was little and I ended up giving it back to him when I moved out. I also recall its last page having the Devastator teaser.

[@FanaticSpirit]

Here's a not-quite-interesting fact. Bumblebee's transformation into Goldbug was different in the UK comics. He was basically rebuilt by a time travelling Wreck-Garr after being blasted into scrap by a time travelling Galvatron. Yes, the UK Transformers run had time travel & characters from the movie, and it was awesome!

[@Meme_Lor]

Wreck-Garr? The stupid one himself?

[@FanaticSpirit]

@@Meme_Lor Yep! He snuck onto the Time Platform as Rodimus and co. were travelling back to stop both Galvatron and Death's Head (A future Bounty Hunter after a bounty Rodimus put on Galvatron's head) from causing havoc in the past. Things... didn't go as they hoped.

[@Meme_Lor]

@@FanaticSpirit Transformers is wild

[@FanaticSpirit]

@@Meme_Lor You have no idea how wild the UK edition of the Transformers comic got, believe me...

[@HashbrownMashup]

actually he got blowed up by the -bounty hunter- "freelance peacekeeping agent" Death's Head

[@sideways992]

The new characters being introduced was most likely Hasbro as the cartoon too would have new characters appear with little to no explanation because they have new toys to sell and promote. Heck some episodes were even rewritten to given the new character the spotlight to promote the toy. The episode "Starscream's Ghost" was suppose to feature Blitzwing and continue his story from the "Five Faces Of Darkness" but change to Octane because he was the new triple changer toy.

[@tuvyamaeir4684]

12:20 I knew it! Doctor Wily was responsible for everything!

[@starmanjay3047]

That post-joke smile is priceless.

[@Takao0815]

Fun fact in MB's Transformers mini comic, Soundwave jumped out of the ark shortly before the crash. He was the only Transformer to survive the crash. the Dinobots were the least damaged Autobots so they could be repaired immediately. But Sondwave was superior. Ultimately, the Dinobots and Soundwave were buried under stones. According to (German) mini. Biography he should be able to read minds. Shockwave wasn't in the comic story. But also had a mini biography At that time it was still planned to make Jerfier the leader of the autobots.

[@Goldfire-tt3dv]

Actually, Jetfire was declared leader of the Autobots in that MB mini-comic because of legal issues. Back in the day, Hasbro wasn't the only company that had licensed the toys from Takara. A French company named Joustra had already licensed some toys for a European version of Takara's "Diaclone" line, and thus, all the toys licensed to Joustra were off-limits to Hasbro/MB, which included Optimus Prime, which in turn resulted in MB declaring Jetfire the leader of the Autobots instead. It was only because Joustra's parent company Ceji just happened to end up in severe financial trouble that same year that they made a deal with Hasbro and sold them all the unsold stock of Joustra Diaclone toys, which led to a variety of bizarre oddities in the second wave of the 1985 European MB Transformers, such as Tracks in his red Diaclone colors, or Sunstreaker in a "Sideswipe" box.

[@NeoDragonCount]

The fact Linkara is a fellow Soundwave fan just makes this even better. As an aspiring/novice voice-over artist; I would love to voice Soundwave, voice synthesizer or no. I also do Starscream, Shrapnel, Shockwave and, from Beast Wars, Waspinator.

[@TevyaSmolka]

I love the Dinobots they are really awesome and personally my favorite transformers characters.

[@trmblingblustar]

Agreed. In the comics, they were different characters than the show. They were intelligent (except when they weren't), and were never loyal to the Autobots.

[@muhaoai4693]

@@trmblingblustar That was part of the reason I actually _disliked_ the comic book Dinobots, myself. Like, they felt like a bunch of jocks led by their big jerk jock boss. I mean, Grimlock can lead the Dinobots just fine, but in terms of leading an actual army he was about as successful as Starscream.

[@TevyaSmolka]

@@trmblingblustar true and you're right about that and honestly my favorite incarnation had to be the fall of cybertron game which was really awesome and badass.

[@davidfrederick6003]

Issue #17 Into the Smelting Pot is the first issue of comics I discovered, Despite watching the first episode in September 1984

[@shadowshinigamidragon9924]

Soundwave was the best hes still my favourite today. Also I love the freeza joke

[@DalekTheSupreme]

I do want to say that, while I know it isn't hugely plot relevant, I'm glad you did acknowledge Bumblebee's one-shot. It's a simple, childish story, but one that really spoke to me and I felt I could relate to. It really cemented Bumblebee as my favorite of the Transformers.

[@ToHoldNothing]

Honestly forgot the Tandy Computer Whiz Kids graffiti joke, but Graffiti: Fun Or Dumb is hysterical, I need to find more riffs, like Isle of Rangoon's backlog

[@nickasaro8789]

This is a great series. Yes, a touch corny and hokey at parts as a product of it’s time but you can’t argue that it helped define the franchise and certain storylines are downright iconic. I have a lot of fond memories of the Smelting Pool two parter and the Gone but not forgotten issue where Megatron goes insane after Prime’s death from when I was a kid, as well as Furman’s whole run with the Unicron saga, which honestly is just as good if not even better than the ‘86 movie.

[@johnoneil9188]

*expression of anger and suspicion* Finkleberg....

[@RJThomas61]

Something everyone may find interesting. At 10:05, the hull number of that aircraft carrier *in Chekov voice* "it's the Enterprise" (CVN-65).

[@artistwithouttalent]

11:00 And their hit single, Lucky Little Brat.

[@RandomAllen]

19:20 "May I see it Lord Freeza?"

[@johnschou2172]

Jetfire was also a casualty of copyrights, at least on the show. Phelous talks about it in his G1 retrospective, but the toy for Jetfire was actually licensed from the Macross series, particularly, the Super Valkyrie. He had his appearance drastically changed in the show and his name changed to Skyfire. One reason that most likely played into that was that Takara’s competitor Bandai was the creator of Macross and the Super Valkyrie.

[@Rocket1377]

The main problem lies with the American distributor of Macross, who will try to sue anyone who even attempts to use a character that resembles Jetfire. They are ridiculously overzealous in that regard. The most recent example being when Hasbro made a GI Joe Skystriker in Jetfire colours. The case was thrown out of court.

[@johnschou2172]

@@Rocket1377 well, I didn’t know that. Learn something new every day, I guess. However, that has not stopped Jetfire from being in Transformers, as he has been in multiple TV shows and even the second movie. Is it just the physical appearance?

[@DestinyZX1]

@@Rocket1377Harmony Gold. These guys should have went bankrupt years ago.

[@halowaffle25]

Electrocuting a woman and then going on to show that she's been actually hospitalized is pretty fucking dark by transformers standards tbh.

[@PFiction24]

Blackrock later changes his name to Antonio Starch, Aluminum Dude of the Revengers! Crystal-Dynamics made a game about them.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

8:33 HUh. Kinda Funny that when Transformers Animated gave the "head only, prisioner of the enemy" treatment to Megatron it might actually have been a reference to what happened to Optimus

[@DarkDranzer88]

Season 3 Galvatron's my Danny Chase - grates on fans nerves because of the drastic personality change and lack of Leonard Nimoy (though to be fair Frank Welker did an amazing job voicing him with such high energy instead of a generic growly bad guy voice), insane, having an incredibly short fuse, incompetent and I absolutely love the purple psycho especially with his dynamic with Cyclonus - they're like the ultimate Red Oni/Blue Oni duo, I love it. XD Though the question shouldn't be 'why did they make him insane in Season 3' but 'why didn't he go insane sooner?' when you think about it throughout the series he did go through a lot of fucked up stuff (and caused it), and the tortures by Unicron combined with molten plasma was basically the straw that broke the camel's back....at least until they MacGuffined it away with the Autobot Matrix of Leadership...

[@Ksawarrior]

Okay, legit question: When he talks about Josie making plans for them, did anyone else's video glitch?

[@Iceguppie]

My video glitched in a couple places, bunch of green lines.

[@Iceguppie]

My video glitched in a couple places, bunch of green lines.

[@TulipQ]

Yeah, I also got the green lines glitchyness. Glad it is not my graphics card dying or something.

[@AzhreiVep]

Oh good, I was looking down here to see if anyone else was having the same problem. Worried about my graphics card for a minute there.

[@nughh3546]

Dangit. We were so close to the greatest crossover ever. Transformers vs Florida Man.

[@HashbrownMashup]

Bold of you to assume Florida Man isn't a Transformer already

[@Djinsin]

Am I the only one who finds it amusing that there's been more mention of the power struggle between Megatron and SHOCKWAVE instead of fricking STARSCREAM?? Hell, Starscream's not even mentioned in this part and he's like the third most recognizable Transformer! I know Shockwave was a big deal or something in the IDW Phase 1 comics (I haven't read them, I just have no control over myself when I go on the TFwiki), but just WOW!

[@Goldfire-tt3dv]

There are a number of characters who are a big deal in the cartoon that only play a minor role in the (early) Marvel comics, and vice versa. Likewise, different characterizations (stupidly loyal cartoon Shockwave vs. ambitious comic Shockwave, light-hearted DJ cartoon Blaster vs. serious warrior comic Blaster, stupid cartoon Grimlock vs. more ambitious comic Grimlock).

[@hidochung7833]

So this was the inspiration for galvatron going insane. Interesting

[@bthsr7113]

Which Galvatron? There have been a few.

[@hidochung7833]

@@bthsr7113 g1 galvatron

[@HashbrownMashup]

@@hidochung7833 Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

[@hidochung7833]

@@HashbrownMashup g1 season 3 of the original transformers series.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

I don't know, I think the Galvatron episodes might have already been made by then.

[@CitizenKahne1992]

Don’t worry, I can translate the Cybertronian. Let’s see: it says “For a good time, call Repugnus.”

[@LordQuadros]

I know I'm probably way overthinking this, but I kind of have a problem with the assertion that Skids has to be a fighter when his passion and aptitude is for anthropological research. There's just as much value, if not more, to pursuing a cultural understanding of the world they're currently inhabiting, and it's absolutely another way of contributing to the cause.

[@muhaoai4693]

In more recent adaptations, that's actually part of what makes Jazz such an effective special ops agent: he's such a culture junkie that when something doesn't add up he starts suspecting Decepticon involvement (or at the very least suspects something is wrong). On the other hand, if I remember right the Autobots are so desperately short-handed _everyone_ needs to fight.

[@TheOnlyTherazan]

I just love when Megatron proves to be ultimately a poor leader for the Decepticon. He is and should be, of course, an effective commander in combat and good at keeping Decepticons in line, with enough charisma to fool his underlings into thinking those traits make him a good leader. But when the time comes to show real leadership and nobility, Megatron should (unless some unusual character development happens to be a plot point in a story) be unable to measure up, being undermined by his hatred, paranoia and/or ego.

[@zexalbrony4799]

Cool, first a General Patton and a Batman Forever clip in the last one, and now an MST 3000, Avengers, and DBZA clips here. You spoil us Linkara, if we get a scene with 90s Kid, Harvey, or anyone else in part 3, this may already become my favorite Retrospective. Also, your whole rant about Optimus being stupid because of Issue 24 and the floppy disk was so funny. :)

[@ianfletcher6039]

Issue 24. Just mind boggling. It had the merit of creating a new paradigm for both the Autobots & Decepticons, but Optimus was so clearly "lawful stupid" in this issue.

[@trmblingblustar]

I remember getting the early issues of the Transformers comic by subscription! I preferred the cartoon, but appreciate the comic now for going for a more mature audience than the show.

[@TheYoungDoctor]

0:46 it wasn't corrected in the Titan reprint either but was changed to 'defeat' in the UK reprint in issue 26, the more recent IDW Classic reprints and the Definitive G1 Collection also use the corrected version as well.

[@ShanaReviews]

Also just for anyone curious about Galvatron's Insanity that Linkara mentioned. It is explained, though not really all that well, in the cartoon that Galvatron suffered head trauma after Rodimus Prime flung him out of Unicron and he crashed on that volcanic planet Cylconous found him on, and THAT was what caused Galvatron to become irrational and well...insane, it's also hinted that he was somewhat cured of this after the events of The Return of Optimus Prime when the Matrix cured the universe of the hate plague

[@superjk-2.0]

15:18 Just to note that Starscream was one of the Decepticons that were offline by Omega Supreme

[@DrZuluGaming]

And then, to repay him, Omega Supreme was permanently offline by a cosmically powerful Starscream.

[@jesusmora9379]

actually, with the correct set of assembler instructions, you can reprogram a floppy to store 11Mb in a diskette on DOS.

[@teedup8995]

I like this history of the Transformer comics, good job on this! (and part 1) But I have too admit I only bought the GI Joe cross over series and the Who's Who Transformer mini series. Both which I still have!

[@SnakeRoadComicsOfficial3677]

22:24 See if they were playing Middle Earth Shadow of War it would just be Megatron getting pissed that the same Orc or Troll is kicking his ass.

[@mightyfilm]

I don't know if I'd call it irony, but Hasbro has the toy license to Marvel comics and IDW has been granted a license by Marvel to produce style kid's comics starring their superhero teams now. I guess if they re-REprinted this, maybe Marvel would be a little more cooperative.

[@bridgetleekobold9979]

Hey I finally showed up in a review! (During the hit man clip)

[@bigjake360t]

That must have been one heck of a compression algorithm.

[@TomMSTie1138]

Linkara does a pretty decent Chris Latta Starscream voice.

[@gary-from-smiths-across-th9641]

"Wag the dog" with giant robots? I'd watch that.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Ah, copyright nonsense. The reason why Death's Head's collection is called The Incomplete Death's Head (Marvel no longer had the rights to Transformers so they weren't able to make it a complete overview of the character up until that point) and is now considered unprintable (Marvel no longer has the rights to Doctor Who, which... Has a surprisingly large overlap with Death's Head considering the character was originally conceived of for Transformers and, like with Circuit Breaker, was printed outside of Transformers first to avoid Hasbro claiming copyright on him)

[@bthsr7113]

I'm actually familiar with Optimus' suicide over simulated collateral damage. And I think it's worse than you put it, since read it as Optimus ACCIDENTALLY killing the civvy NPC's. Which makes it even more ludicrous! It was in a book collecting the ""best"" fights between Optimus and Megatron. Optimus died in all but two of the fights, one of those being interrupted by a teleport to Earth for a draw, and the other ending with Megatron retreating when the Autobots get a second wind via mini-con powerups.

[@greatsayain]

What kind of kid hates vacations? My theory is that entire box of floppies is optimus' brain and he's just labelling the last one. But even that is a stretch.

[@chriswade8949]

Do a review of the robot master comic. It looks awesome! Sincerely S . Finkelberg

[@gentlemanlygeeky4088]

13:46 Budiansky's favorite Transformer is Blaster. 14:36 I'm a bit disappointed you didn't give Herb Trimpe's cover a quick mention. tfwiki.net/wiki/File:MarvelUS-19.jpg

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

"Robot Master?" Which one? I hope it's Airman!

[@rassilontdavros3004]

It’s Gutsman! DUH-NUUUUUH!

[@BagOfMagicFood]

Aquaman!

[@alexmalcolm6309]

21:50 "The Guy from 3-I". Is that like the man from UNCLE?

[@malcomalexander9437]

Galvatron being insane doesn't really require Megatron to be insane. Unicron made him to be a weapon for the purpose of destroying Cybertron/Primus, the mental stability of said weapon probably wasn't a concern to him(plus he would have probably eaten Galvatro anyway)

[@PFiction24]

If they wanted the acronym RAT they should have called it Robot Assault Team, even though some people would ask if they're a team that assaults robots or a team of assault robots.

[@BagOfMagicFood]

They're a rat team that rats out on rats.

[@Lanier2369]

Bob Budienski (I'm sure I got they spelt wrong) mentioned a few times that it was Hasbro that kept on insisting on the new characters being introduced , and that the few times he got into a groove with a character here and there he would be forced to introduce even more of the new characters derailing his stories a bit. He got so burned out by that that when he left, he wrote in his last issue (#55) at the end one of the characters acting as a mouthpiece what he was feeling, about being forced to do what he didn't want to do etc. It was the micromaster that became the popular wrestler that said it at the end. Bob basically was forced so many times to include more and more characters that he ended up getting frustrated and asking to leave the book. I think I read somewhere that he would have stayed on more if Hasbro didn't keep doing what they were doing but I could be wrong about that. But he is on record that it was all Hasbro that forced so the new characters.

[@greatsayain]

So instead of giving new characters a backstory and finding a way of getting them from cybertron to earth, they just say "we built him here" even though converting earth energy to a form cybertronians can use isn't exactly easy and the materials for cybertronians probably aren't abundant on earth. Brilliant.

[@Metlhd313]

Comic Optimus: Upset over killing fictional NPCs Movie Optimus: Lets humans get killed to "prove the Decepticons are evil"

[@thomasthompson2431]

As an original Geewunner, thanks for this.

[@TF2Fan101]

Yeah, I'll admit, something that bugs me about Death Battle's portrayal of Optimus is the whole, 'Optimus has to kill himself because he didn't win honorably and/or without taking innocent lives.' thing. I get that it's a joke and all, but at the same time, you can only use a joke for so long before it gets stale.

[@williamgreci8219]

The only explanation I can offer for why Optimus forfeited his life over the game is the "slippery slope" morality gripe used in multiple versions of Batman lore. Both leaders seem to fear that letting a little exception slide might make it easier to justify more such cases fall through until they become no better than the villains they fight. The merit of that mentality is up for debate, but I can't think of a better explanation for why Optimus blew himself up in reaction to the loss of video game characters.

[@BrandonCroker]

Autobots, roll out those speech balloons!