Courtesy of comics journalism outlet Comics Beat, we have a lengthy interview piece with IDW Publishing's James Roberts, writer of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light - along with co-writing Chaos Theory and Last Stand of the Wreckers - about the run about to end (if IDW schedules ever allow that to happen, that is) on this version of the narrative Cybertronian universe.
The full piece, which you can read
here, touches on a number of topics, such as planning, storyline changes, particular character developments and cast handling, Tarn and Getaway, Conjunx endurae across the board, and the Scavengers! Read some highlights below, and join the discussion in the Energon Pub
With you planning so far ahead, did any of your long-term planning change along the way?
You know, I was all ready to say that the basic mytharc — that is, the overall shape of the story I set out to tell back in 2011 — has remained broadly the same, but now that I’m an issue away from the end, I don’t think that’s true. Megatron’s defection to the Autobots, which was something no one predicted back in the beginning, did change the course of the story in more ways than I imagined at the time. And I think he changed it for the better; it made for a richer, deeper story, and one that better explores the key themes of More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light: guilt, family, and forgiveness.
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Are there any teases you can draw towards mysteries fans may not be keeping their eye on?
Well, I kind of refer you to my previous answer. The readers are so attentive, and they’re so used by now to my style of storytelling, that very few clues go unnoticed. In fact, what tends to happen is that non-clues get seized upon as evidence of an imaginary plot line that’s always, frustratingly, better than the one I’ve got planned.
I will say, however, that the finale is designed to answer all the questions that have been building up over the last seven years, including some that may have been forgotten about, or to which it appeared that the answers had already been given.
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Is there anything you would like to add about the book?
Oh god, where to start? With regards to the last few issues specifically, I’ve really tried to deliver the finale that long-time readers deserve. It’s like our earlier season finales rolled into one and amplified. It’s huge, and it needs to be because this is where all those years of readers’ investment pay off. Characters get their moment to shine, or meet their end, and mysteries are finally, properly solved. The cast is absolutely huge, as is the scale – it really is like our version of Infinity War. And I’ll make no apologies – there’s a lot going on.
More generally, I’d like to say that for me, there will never be another book – or another creative journey – quite like More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light. As a Transformers fan back in the 80s/90s, this is the One Big Story that I always wanted to tell, and everything just fell into place at the right time. Best of all, it turns out there was a market for whatever it was MTMTE turned out to be: a silly, serious, funny-sad space opera sitcom about very ordinary, very extraordinary people.