Full Preview for IDW Transformers: Lost Light #17

Anode continues to be aggravating as hell, and here Lug is not better either. (In the issues before I tolerated Lug and found her to be the less annoying character)


But I actually chuckled at the Lightning Rod joke. (Could actually pull off as a Transformer name too)

Funny how colour palettes work on a visual level. It took me a minute to register that Nautica and Rodimus were two separate characters

If the series being cancelled means I never have to read about Anode again......

I have to seriously consider if it's worth it.

I don't see what the problem is with them, I like them. Though its going to be interesting to see if they have any part to play in the unicron saga...and I'm still getting mazinger vibes from those giants.

ZeroWolf wrote:I don't see what the problem is with them, I like them. Though its going to be interesting to see if they have any part to play in the unicron saga...and I'm still getting mazinger vibes from those giants.

The second in from the left looks oddly familiar.

While I still like Milne far better, I have grown to like Lawrences art. Just took about a year. But I say that to say this: I love Drift's face on page 4, with the frown then the fried shock look.

I too appreciate the lightning rod joke

A week early, the second part of Lost Light's "The Everlasting Voices" trilogy of issues arrives, picking up directly from the end of issue 16 and its long awaited final page revelation. Rodimus and his crew have apparently reached some kind of afterlife or purgatory, but some of them aren't ready to accept this as their fate leading to the primary conflict of the story. This latest chapter sheds more light on whether or not that's even a worry for the team while simultaneously advancing characterizations, the overall IDW Transformers mythology, the series' main plot, and more "B" and "C" side-plots than you'll be able to believe in just 20 pages.


As the end of everything approaches, at least for this Transformers continuity, Lost Light now feels like it's in full stride with moving the series along into its last 160-ish pages of the quest. I mention this on the off chance you're reading this review and are curious if this is a good time to jump in and start reading these comics, now that the end is near. I'm happy to tell you that it is! Just don't start with this one. Go back to at least Lost Light #1 and this will be waiting for you at the end of one excellent binge.


It would be difficult to point out the sundry of ways, both small and large, that Lost Light #17 achieves precisely what a middle chapter ought to without burying the review in spoilers. A few key moments are worth a somewhat purposely vague mention here regardless, in particular the part-flashback, part-montage sequence expanding on a concept first discussed in significant detail all the way back in the 2012 More Than Meets The Eye Annual. It reminds me of Marvel UK's 150th issue where Simon Furman presents what could be taken as a long-winded exposition dump and crafts it in such a freaking cool way that you won't care even if you generally don't like those types of sequences.


Another smaller, yet still ultimately and pointedly significant element which strikes a similar chord involves Nautica and the consequences of more recent events in Lost Light issues #8 and #9 . Near the point where this latest installment draws to a close, and just when everything starts to make sense, it unwinds in an almost brutally unapologetic way. Immediately thereafter, yet another moment somehow, in some way, twists the landscape even further right before leaving you alone to think about what you witnessed for another month while you await issue 18 with yearning anticipation. If this anticipation doesn't hit you then, it's likely to be caused by at least one of several other moments in the issue that will set off a light bulb in your head right before smashing it to pieces - in a good way.


The events contained within Lost Light #17 require a deft hand to have the appropriate impact, and the lines of Jack Lawrence supplemented by the lighting and palette of Joana Lafuente deliver. On the line work, while I've said much about the emotive gestures and facial expressions Lawrence is capable of in the past, this issue also demonstrates a wisdom of knowing when to go the other direction and include an element of stoicism in the visual character work. Lafuente has a more subtle challenge with the setting varying from a darkened room to a darkened starscape over a dark metal planetary surface to dark-ish interior corridors, with only the slightest break in between. Characters are kept vivid while not looking like cut-outs despite the sometimes high contrast between their own colors and the background, adding to the surrealism of the scenario unfolding through the plot itself. Tom B. Long once again contributes in new, surprising ways, using varied fonts that add to both the visible storytelling and the perception of events from the reader's perspective.

The cover budgets look to have been scaled back, with two covers readily available and a third retailer incentive cover that is, as it was on issue 16, line art of the "A" cover for the issue. The colored version sold as the "A" cover, by Lawrence and Lafuente, is shown in this news story's thumbnail, and as always you can look up all the covers, credits, and potentially-spoiler-laden character appearances in our Vector Sigma Database entry for Lost Light #17.


This was an easy review to write. Quite a bit happens and it all either makes sense while providing answers or creates genuinely exciting new questions. Nothing is lingered on for too long but the important moments are still made to feel as such while leaving room for other developments to stoke the flame of desire for the arrival of the next chapter. I can't think of anything else to ask for out of a book published in a serial format. For those that have been following this series and predecessor More Than Meets The Eye, this is going to be a very good Wednesday.

Questions are possibly answered. Rodimus makes possibly bad, yet well intended decisions. The murky history of the Transformers' origin in IDW is possibly made clear. Relationships are possibly deepened for some, and for others, a desired sense of closure is possibly attained. Ratchet is possibly right about everything. In short, this 17th installment of Lost Light is possibly a quintessential example of what James Roberts and the plethora of creative talents associated with the series do best. You'll laugh, you'll think, and you might even cry. To borrow (and transform) a phrase from the late, great Jim Valvano, that's a full book.



Bonus! James Roberts' soundtrack suggestions for this issue:

• Susanna Hoffs & Bleachers - "I'm Ready to Move On/Wild Heart Reprise"
• Yo La Tengo - "All Your Secrets"
• The Mountain Goats - "Your Belgian Things"
• The Flaming Lips - "Waitin' for a Superman (Peter Mokran Remix)"

A good review, and it's nice to see that answers are finally being given and that we're getting (another) origin story

My favourite Ratchet panel from the issue, which I felt was also commenting on Optimus Prime 17-18.

My shop didn't get this one OP#18 but got a note that if they get them, not to sell them until next week!

Targetmaster Kup wrote:My shop didn't get this one OP#18 but got a note that if they get them, not to sell them until next week!

Yeah it's weird all around. We anticipated only seeing OP 17's release this week. Somewhere along the line, LL 17 and OP 18 also got printed and shipped to go out this week. They are out digitally everywhere, some shops didn't get them, some did and are holding them, others did and have sold/are selling copies. Kinda irritating as a print reader to have to make another run to the store, but no huge deal. Might just pick up my paper copies on FCBD at this point, I hate to make the shop hold stuff though :/

We know that the current IDW Publishing Transformers universe (including the various Hasbro branches now part of the same narrative world) will be coming to an end as of Unicron: Darkest Hour #6 - which will coincide with the conclusion of both current ongoing series Optimus Prime and Lost Light, too. The writer of the latter, James Roberts, part of the current identity of the IDW Transformersverse (Phase 2, in any case) with John Barber and Mairghread Scott, has casually thrown out on his Twitter account that his stay with Transformers will also be taking a break, as there are no plans as of yet to be involved with the reboot.

Several fans have been following Roberts' work thus far, and appreciated what More Than Meets the Eye and Lost Light have done for the Transformers franchise, and after also losing (as far as we know) Mairghread Scott, this is a fairly big factor going forward after September. Join the discussion in the Energon Pub, and let us know your thoughts on the news!

Haha! This has never happened before: “Are you the Transformers guy?” in the local Waitrose. Not for much longer, mate.

Me and Transformers are taking a break after LL#25.

Yeah, I think transformers an myself will be taking break as well. Well, from the comics. I'm just thoroughly uninterested in starting over.

I'm 38. I'm too old for comics anyway.

I'm just too old for the inconsistency and disappointment. I honestly think that TF could use a reboot (one with an actual war going on between Bots and Con's) but with Robert's making it clear that he won't be a part of this reboot (the only reason I'm really sticking around now) I'm not sure that I'll be a part of it either.

Jro was great with MTMTE but he didn't do such a good job with LL. I stopped after too much politics was put into them. Comics are supposed to be an escape from the every day grind, if I wanted a reminder of what goes on in the news I'd watch the news. Part of me is bummed because when he wrote with people that helped him have direction like in MTMTE the comics were great! It just seems he goes too far into his own stuff without someone to tell him to ease up.

I will miss the way he did write the characters though. He made them very complex and interesting. Beyond just good guys and bad guys and that was super refreshing. I think fans will remember him most for that.

Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

Windsweeper wrote:Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Dude, we got close to 30 years of Furman. We don’t need more comics of Grimlock,Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and Scorponok.

In a sense I'm a bit upset he's not helping to shape the reboot but at the same time I think it's good he's recognising that it's time to take a break, try other things and recharge his batteries.

While some are ecstatic that he's leaving (looking at you RP ) remember he's the devil you know, he can easily be replaced with worst. Or of course he will need replaced with someone good.

Personally I think the next best writers will come from the unknowns, certainly can't see any writers leaving the big two or image to come write transformers. I mean there's a bit of stigma, with some seeing nothing more than toys hitting each other (before going back to read about a guy dressed in a bat costume beating up madmen)

@whoever mentioned the war- I think it's more than likely were going back to that period, just because that's the toyline that hasbro will be selling. I just hope theyll do something new this time round to spice up the war otherwise it'll just repeat what's already been done. That's why sometimes it's good to end the war and explore what comes after, maybe a new group of disgruntled bots and cons team up to start the generation 2 wars

Randomhero wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Dude, we got close to 30 years of Furman. We don’t need more comics of Grimlock,Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and Scorponok.

Don't forget Galvatron too

Personally I'd say we don't need more comics focused on Optimus Prime and Megatron, yet some people would throw a fit if that happened.

Simon Furman is to Transformers what Chris Claremont was to X-Men IE The Main name behind the world building of the series. While it would be cute to try and pitch in one of the IDW writer's names under that title, they just don't have the decades of TF experience.

That said, if they are going to a full reboot, then yes, every main writer from the previous continuity has to go. It goes hand in hand with sweeping away the canon of the books: including those who wrote them.

Full reboot means just that. Yet the bizarre idea some people have that reboot=sunbow aren't really being realistic either. Which previous TF continuity reboot exactly replicated G1, right back to 1984? Beast Wars? Car Robots? Unicron Trilogy? Dreamwave? Animated? Prime? Rescue Bots? IDWverse?

Something to think about.

heres an idea, lets welcome new writers instead of just wanting old ones that will probably just use their favorites agaan and again. thats how we got people like Scott, Roche Roberts and Barber. IDW found fans that had writing backgrounds and gave them the opportunity of a lifetime.

Exactly. Out with the old, in with the new.

Randomhero wrote:heres an idea, lets welcome new writers instead of just wanting old ones that will probably just use their favorites agaan and again. thats how we got people like Scott, Roche Roberts and Barber. IDW found fans that had writing backgrounds and gave them the opportunity of a lifetime.

I would give it a go if offered but I fear other fans wouldn't like my ideas of having all four main factions fighting it out for supremacy...I would change a lot though and that's something the fandom gets split apart on

the thing is i dont have a problem with writers staying on, leaving or taking a break. but to say that is sucks Roberts is leaving or wanting Scott back its kinda pointless when theyre not continuing or returning to the universe they have been on. its a new universe. if roberts stayed youre not gonna keepo getting Mneumosurgeon Chromdome and his spouse Rewind. youre not gonna get Cyclonus and Tailgate. no witty british Brainstorm, no atheist Ratchet bickering with zealous Drift, no DJD. i can keep going on with examples but i think you get the point.

the last thing i want is the same writers writing the same way and not doing anything new in ways. like Regeneration One. a book i loved at the start and hated by the end because it wasnt Furman ending the Marvel universe it was Furman finishing all his unused IDW stuff when they took him off the IDW-verse. Soundwave VS Blaster, thats IDW not Marvel, Omega Supreme VS monstructor, IDW, not Marvel. Scorponok using alien tech to become super smart and try and take over the cybertronain race in his image. straight what he was planning in the -ation series and Maxmum Dinobots. Evil anyti-matrix trying to consume everything. HEY GUESS WHAT? THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL PLOT OF NOVA PRIME AND THE DEAD UNIVERSE. he took all his plans from what he was working on and cramed them into regeneration one instead of giving that series a real pay off.

that is what we get when we allow Furman to continue writing transformers or anyone else. they take what they did somewhere else and shoehorn it in against whats established already. sorry i went on a tangent but its what it is and what happened when they brought back the marvel TF universe.

its going to be a new universe for a reason. yes their will be homages, references and subtle easter eggs because its transformers but its going to be all new because thats what Hasbro and IDW want, if they wanted the same stuff by the same people than the universe woudln't be closing. Im not gonna say ending because that just sounds bad. you say “ending” and people are constantly saying Unicron is killing everyone where as i think the universe will have a happy ending because thats what it deserves.

Wait, so all that stuff in reg1, that was all his unused idw ideas? I never knew that...I'd also argue that he rehashed his own g2 plot at the end of it bringing Jihaxus in.

ZeroWolf wrote:Wait, so all that stuff in reg1, that was all his unused idw ideas? I never knew that...I'd also argue that he rehashed his own g2 plot at the end of it bringing Jihaxus in.

Oh dude just look at RegenOne. It’s just filled with all his unfinished stories from when he was pulled off writing the main universe. So many plots were just jammed into RegenOne that weren’t set up from the old marvel series. The first volume with Megatron was gold but once we got Scorponok it’s all his old ideas like the stuff I mentioned with Bludgeon, Galvatron and Grimlock as icing.

He was doing it with IDW at the start too with his old unused Dreamwave stories too.

Nothing was more of a let down than when when RegenOne was announced and Furman said he finally gets to pull out his old scripts he never got to do when marvel canceled it and said these are the stories he always planned and in the final issue of RegenOne it opened with him admitting “These are not the stories I originally had’”

Yeah dude, we could tell.

Even I noticed that and I've only really read G1 through the TF part-work. The characterisations from G1 to ReG1 couldn't be any further apart. With exception to Prime and Megatron/Ratchet, who were more or less unchanged.

the biggest and most important thing i take from james leaving is that Lost Light will officially conclude. Meaning it will have an ending.

When James first announced Lost Light will go to issue 25 he also said maybe another iteration will continue after. With this news we know that this story has a conclusion. hopefully its a satisfying one. theres not too many real open plot threads left dangling that we know. From the synopsis for future issues and the latest issue we know the crew has finally met the scavengers and we know theyre either at or getting to cyberutopia and will run into the crew and getaway. we also know that they are going to come face to face with a sparkeater army which from Drifts vision means Pharma is coming back. I'm still calling it that the sparkeater army is the Lost Light crew that mutinied. Getaway sold them out and gave them to whoever for his own place in what he believes will be Primehood.

Things we dont know yet is First Aid, Riptide and Thunderclash. When will they be converging probably soon. Same with Fort Max and his team.

the big one though that hasnt come back is Tyrest. He still has a role to play and has connections with the Grand Architect and Cog faction.

Sadly i hope but i dont know is that will the crew finally make it home? will they meet back with optimus and Cybertron (or whats left)by the last issue? I hope. personally i really wanna see the this continuity end with Grimlock finally reuniting with the other Dinobots.

Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

I’m disappointed to see Roberts go but it makes sense. I hope he can tie up his story satisfyingly come September, it would definitely soften the loss. At this point I’m probably not going to check out the reboot, when it comes, unless I hear really good things. I still remain optimistic that it can be good but I’m just not interested.

Randomhero wrote:Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

You know with Unicron coming and the end of IDW I'm actually fine with Megatron staying in that alt universe, him and Terminus can be the last remnants of the current community and it could be a cool potential future story that the good Megatron crosses over with the reboot universe at some point that way we can have a good Megatron but without making the reboot Megatron have a redemption.

This is assuming Unicron wins and everyone dies.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

You know with Unicron coming and the end of IDW I'm actually fine with Megatron staying in that alt universe, him and Terminus can be the last remnants of the current community and it could be a cool potential future story that the good Megatron crosses over with the reboot universe at some point that way we can have a good Megatron but without making the reboot Megatron have a redemption.

This is assuming Unicron wins and everyone dies.

That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

william-james88 wrote:

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

Well why read it if you expect everyone to die? That’s not good story telling in any way.

I don’t understand why anyone would think Unicron killing the entire universe would be a good way to end it. Becuase it’s ending? Comics end all the time. Almost all my favorite books have concluded in the past couple and none of them ended with the entire universe being destroyed. They just concluded.

Robert Kirkman announced he was canceling invincible and ending it in a year last year and I don’t think there was a single person around that said “Oh I hope everyone dies in that series” and it didn’t. It had an amazing ending.

IDW announces theyre ending their universe and people...crazy people are all saying “Oh I hope Unicron kills EVERYONE!’” What the Hell?

Fandom is toxic. .

I've noticed a few saying it around here, but the reasoning for that is they just want unicron to live up to his name. My own theory is that his destruction will cause a temporal event that causes this new reboot to happen (don't have all the details worked out in my head yet)

I'm a bit disappointed James Roberts will be taking a break from TFs after LL -- but he had a good run. I guess we will really see what becomes of the TF universe after Unicron....

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

How about why the F not?

Maybe we can see Unicron actually being a threat, how about we see what it's like when Unicron actually wins? (Because I remember there being mentions that some universes did end up being devoured by him, let's see what that looks like in action)

The comics do not have to end happy at all. (Plus most of the characters in IDW are douches or arrogant people so I'm not going to feel that sad seeing them all die if they do)


Regardless with it being the end a lot of people are probably going to die...otherwise IDW will end truly pathetically if the biggest Unicron we have seen yet accomplishes little.


Oh yeah didn't Regeneration 1 ended with all the Transformers eventually dying? (Sure it wasn't the end of the universe but they still all died off)

If every other character in Transformers gets their time to shine, why not Unicron? Why not end IDWverse mirroring the beginning IE Pay homage to that final battle in Stormbringer, that spread the Great War into the galaxy, but subvert it? The last stand that becomes final...

The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

bodrock wrote:I'm a bit disappointed James Roberts will be taking a break from TFs after LL -- but he had a good run. I guess we will really see what becomes of the TF universe after Unicron....

I nust read the news article myself and got depressed a bit. I like his writing and some of the new characters he's introduced, like Nickel. Is he going to finish LL? Or is someone else going to do it? I also just recently got into the IDW comics a few months ago. It seems I have a bad habit of getting into something I enjoy on the tail end, right before it's gone. It's sad. I wonder what the reboot will be like.

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

As long as it's not based on Cyberverse or something, and is similar in fashion to the early issues of the current IDWverse, then there's no reason for me to stop reading.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

Randomhero wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

Well why read it if you expect everyone to die? That’s not good story telling in any way.

I don’t understand why anyone would think Unicron killing the entire universe would be a good way to end it. Becuase it’s ending? Comics end all the time. Almost all my favorite books have concluded in the past couple and none of them ended with the entire universe being destroyed. They just concluded.

Robert Kirkman announced he was canceling invincible and ending it in a year last year and I don’t think there was a single person around that said “Oh I hope everyone dies in that series” and it didn’t. It had an amazing ending.

IDW announces theyre ending their universe and people...crazy people are all saying “Oh I hope Unicron kills EVERYONE!’” What the Hell?

Fandom is toxic. .

I was just kidding around. You made the ending sound so predictable that I just had to make some sort of comment about the futility of it all. I wasnt very serious.

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

My only complaint is the half-assed treatment of the Decepticons after the -Ations. They are FIFTY percent of the Franchise. Instead we get Writers that are too busy living out their Autobot fan-fiction to care about that fact. They even go on the make entirely new factions just so they don't have to write about Decepticons.

Well hopefully the new continuity will start without "Nails" and "Colonists" and capable writers who know what they are writing for. The series is called "Transformers", which refers to both sides equally.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

My only complaint is the half-assed treatment of the Decepticons after the -Ations. They are FIFTY percent of the Franchise. Instead we get Writers that are too busy living out their Autobot fan-fiction to care about that fact. They even go on the make entirely new factions just so they don't have to write about Decepticons.

Well hopefully the new continuity will start without "Nails" and "Colonists" and capable writers who know what they are writing for. The series is called "Transformers", which refers to both sides equally.

I can almost understand why they would explore the Autobots, in that telling stories of how the good guys aren't so good can be taken a number of ways. Plus, how many Autobots were there as opposed to Decepticons?

What I would've liked to have seen (and if it isn't around, don't flame me too much - I'm still making my way through) is a colony of Autobots and Decepticons, untouched by the war, trying to live peacefully together before the factions approach them proper to get them to choose a side. Similar to when Worf came across that colony of Klingons and Romulans living together in that one episode of ST:TNG. "Fight or Flee" from G1 kinda touched on this, but it was Autobot centric.

The colonies were kind of what you describe but only because they never had those factions in the first place. I'm also glad that Nails existed as it was never made clear that the whole population was supposed to be split down the middle so it would make sense that some would choose to leave cybertron instead of joining the factions that were making life miserable. Some folks just don't want to fight, and it would have been the same then. This is made more reasonable with the Autobots acting as a separate organisation on cybertron in idw. Basically before the decepticons appeared not everyone was an Autobot anyway apart from those that choose to.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Galactic Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Wait, what?! She is leaving too?!?!?!

william-james88 wrote:

Galactic Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Wait, what?! She is leaving too?!?!?!

Yup, though it's for the best as we can get some fresh talent in, some young fans with big ideas for the series instead of just rehashing what came before.

I thought Scott was fresh talent