IDW Transformers: Lost Light Series Art Bible by Jack Lawrence Available Soon

Quint wrote:So, then. Rodimus Prime is pretty much front and centre of the next Transformers toy range later this year; in fact there appears to be several versions of him planned for release across 3 waves.

Despite Roberts' frustrations with his players being dragged into enforced cross overs, the Protectobots still contrived to join the Combiner Wars (from which they're still to return).

With all this in mind - is it nailed-on certain that IDW Rodders will be getting an upgrade? And if so, will he be leaving the Lost Light (comic) in order to effect this?

I don't think it's certain by any means. I'd go so far as to say it's unlikely. Outside of a very short arc with Sentinel and a one-shot with Trypticon, what impact did the Titans Return toy line have on IDW? Some token Mindwipe appearances in AHO?

ScottyP wrote: Outside of a very short arc with Sentinel and a one-shot with Trypticon, what impact did the Titans Return toy line have on IDW? Some token Mindwipe appearances in AHO?

A fun little arc with Fort Max and a fantastic new take on Cerebros that we probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise (Part of the Sentinel arc granted, but my point is that it did more good than harm)

I'd really hate for Rodimus to get his POTP design. A unique, character-reflecting excellent design thrown out the window for the sake of geewun. Not my cup of tea

Quint wrote:So, then. Rodimus Prime is pretty much front and centre of the next Transformers toy range later this year; in fact there appears to be several versions of him planned for release across 3 waves.

Despite Roberts' frustrations with his players being dragged into enforced cross overs, the Protectobots still contrived to join the Combiner Wars (from which they're still to return).

With all this in mind - is it nailed-on certain that IDW Rodders will be getting an upgrade? And if so, will he be leaving the Lost Light (comic) in order to effect this?

My fear is that this version of Hot Rod will actually become a prime. I really can't stand him, and I think the best possible thing would be for someone to give him a blow to his ego, preferably by someone else becoming a prime instead of him. Heck, by this point Drift probably deserves the distinction more than Hot Rod.

Directly from IDW Publishing, we have the full preview of this week's comics releases for the Hasbro Universe! Next up is a look at Wednesday's Transformers: Lost Light #8, with some new story material, as we follow Nautica, Anode, Lug and more to a new planet. Check it out below, and head back to Seibertron.com for our review later this week!

Transformers: Lost Light #8
James Roberts (w) • Jack Lawrence (a & c)
THE HUNT IS ON! Ever lost something and spent forever looking for it? Try visiting Troja Major, the lost property capital of the universe. Just bear in mind that it's better known by another name: the Howling Town. And the Autobots are about to find out why.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Bullet points:
Don’t miss the Megatron cover by Mondo artist Tom Whalen, part of our Tom Whalen Cover Month!
Variant cover by Alex Milne!

Nautica: I'd like everyone to meet my friend, The Collecto- I mean The Curator! Yes! The Curator! Absolutely not the collector!

Wait, does that imply that Cyclonus is rich? How does anyone in this series make money when all they do is hang around a ship? Are they getting paid for being crew members? How much is Hot Rod making as captain compared to everyone else? I'll bet it's a lot.

ricemazter wrote:Wait, does that imply that Cyclonus is rich? How does anyone in this series make money when all they do is hang around a ship? Are they getting paid for being crew members? How much is Hot Rod making as captain compared to everyone else? I'll bet it's a lot.

Issue 13 MTMTE, tailgate said cyclonus is a billionaire because he owned real-estate before leaving on the Ark 6 million years ago.

I am interested to read this issue. I did wonder about Velocity and Nautica. I think I am behind an issue or two to be honest, there were a few lack luster ones so my friends have been less hyped. My GF will usually get exited when she gets them from iTunes but I have not heard a peep from her about Lost Light in a while.

Synopsis
THE HUNT IS ON! Ever lost something and spent forever looking for it? Try visiting Troja Major, the lost property capital of the universe. Just bear in mind that it's better known by another name: the Howling Town. And the Autobots are about to find out why.



Story

I was reminded by other comics staff that we've had a number of voices already on reviews this far, for the new iteration of Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, but mine was not the one that has appeared yet for Lost Light. It's probably time then, right? Back to the story?



One of the issues I've had with the series, much like its predecessor, is the use of the medium of comics as a serialised narrative - they read really well as a collected trade (read volume 1 in one sitting, believe me), but sometimes take odd steps as single issues. This book, however, does not do that, and in fact plays the field extremely well as a morsel of a wider story yet to happen, and previous ones being closed or at least addressed.



As we know, James Roberts takes his time on the series to get to know the characters, and characters here are a very important part of the plot: what we discover about Nautica and Velocity, their interactions prior to the Lost Light, wouldn't have made sense while Megatron was still in the picture - but what he does well here is to not sacrifice plot for character development, at all.



And in terms of highlights, this book has fallen into the category of what Transformers comics can do now, from a socio-political perspective, in terms of identity, representation, and delving further into human issues while using sad gay (can we finally change this to queer?) robots in space. And yes, I'm talking about Anode and Lug, and what we learn about both of them.


Art

After a full arc and a breather, we see a different artist taking charge of a very important issue, plot wise among the rest, and Priscilla Tramontano has some excellent leads in terms of visual continuity with Lawrence's art, while still keeping very much to her own style and approach to the characters.



With a change from the usual, Joana Lafuente joins Tramontano on colours, perhaps also aiding in the continuity, but also providing an extremely vibrant and diverse cast of organic presences on Troja Major, taking the best pages out of Lucas' books and making the marketplace as cantina-esque (but well lit) as she can.



In a universe where several characters are identifiable by their speech patters, and those speech patterns are to be made visible, a letterer like Tom B. Long makes sure that we can glean more from the page that you might read at first glance, while also enjoying the sounds of the new setting! Meanwhile, the cover for this review's thumbnail is the variant art by Alex Milne and Josh Perez, very much about the grief aspect of it all, but also more pertaining to the plot of the issue than you might think... All other covers can be found in our database entry right here, including Roche/Burcham, Tom Whalen, and the main Lawrence/Lafuente

Thoughts
Spoilerish ahead

What do you know? We're back looking for the Knights of Cybertron! For real! As I said above, the overarching plot is not sidelined for the characters or subplots, but rather the two work well together in the issue, and we get to find out more about The Quest that started all those 50+ issues ago under another title altogether - but what we find may not be what we were looking for, especially if it was answers.



That said, my allusions towards the scene featuring Anode and Lug warrants a couple extra words here, while still wanting to leave it to readers to appreciate: it has some nice callbacks to the last Optimus Prime issue, and Sideswipe's understanding of the new reality; it has a well-developed approach to the issue at hand, sign of good research on the team's behalf; it helps sediment

I love the new/old character that Lug and Anode meet! Even if Anode still does rub me the wrong way. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't this issue feature more fembots than male 'bots? At least until the last few pages?

Bounti76 wrote:I love the new/old character that Lug and Anode meet! Even if Anode still does rub me the wrong way. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't this issue feature more fembots than male 'bots? At least until the last few pages?

It did! It was a nice little slice of life in the TF verse.

I really wish I could say I was surprised by the ending but I'm so fed up with fake deaths and resurrections it's just become the norm with roberts anymore. Kill a character and a year or two down the road and they're back. Sometimes it's the very next issue. It's just another tiresome thing.

Randomhero wrote:I really wish I could say I was surprised by the ending but I'm so fed up with fake deaths and resurrections it's just become the norm with roberts anymore. Kill a character and a year or two down the road and they're back. Sometimes it's the very next issue. It's just another tiresome thing.

If I can ask, what happened? I don't plan on picking this one up.

ricemazter wrote:

Randomhero wrote:I really wish I could say I was surprised by the ending but I'm so fed up with fake deaths and resurrections it's just become the norm with roberts anymore. Kill a character and a year or two down the road and they're back. Sometimes it's the very next issue. It's just another tiresome thing.

If I can ask, what happened? I don't plan on picking this one up.

It's revealed that Nautica is looking for a way to resurrect Skids at the very end. If that does indeed happen, I'm gonna be very disappointed. Wolfman has a point, Roberts (or maybe just comics in general) have a habit of bringing back 'dead' characters. However, if Skids is brought back, I think it'll make his death and sacrifice worthless.

Cmdr. Trailblazer wrote:

ricemazter wrote:

Randomhero wrote:I really wish I could say I was surprised by the ending but I'm so fed up with fake deaths and resurrections it's just become the norm with roberts anymore. Kill a character and a year or two down the road and they're back. Sometimes it's the very next issue. It's just another tiresome thing.

If I can ask, what happened? I don't plan on picking this one up.

It's revealed that Nautica is looking for a way to resurrect Skids at the very end. If that does indeed happen, I'm gonna be very disappointed. Wolfman has a point, Roberts (or maybe just comics in general) have a habit of bringing back 'dead' characters. However, if Skids is brought back, I think it'll make his death and sacrifice worthless.

Oh, yeah that would be cliche and make one of the main events from an only okay arc of the series pointless.

Here's my prediction: Skids will be brought back, but it will be some kind of monkey's paw deal, where skids will be altered in some way, evil, brain dead, etc. Then, the crew will deal with that for a while before turning him back to normal in a tear filled "we missed you" scene. Nautica will probably be hugging him.

For me it's a 50/50

Someone will show up and tell nautica she needs to accept and let go andcome to race with skids death

Or

Skids will be resurrected because he is the only real connection to "Cyberutopia" because he saw it and there's still something there. I said a year ago when he died that's gonna affect something with taking him out of the picture.

If you're losing interest in MTMTE/LL because you're not thrilled with where it's going this issue won't change your mind. That my opinion at least.

The first couple pages of Velocity and Nautica were cute but did absolutely nothing and told us nothing about them that we didn't already know while Anode and Lugs origins are given word bubbles.

It's just talking heads. I gave up after I saw word bubble after word bubble after word bubble and just skimmed the issue and waited for the wiki to summarize it which has always been one of my major criticisms about Roberts. He wants to tell you instead of showing you.

I was also sort of let down by the issue. I don't know anymore, it's like for every good thing, there is an inexcusable bad thing.

I mean, come on! Skids death was final, meant to be so, and was so meaningful. Similar thing with Ravage and Trailcutter. and how we are trying to resurrect him? If he does come back, that is scrap and it basically ruins Dying of the Light. If he is nearly brought back but somehow goes back to the afterspark,
or if Nautica needs to die for him to come back, ok I can give a little there.

Now I do like where we are going with the warworlds, the things from issues 7 and 46, we are getting somewhere. And Flame is back, nice

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I was also sort of let down by the issue. I don't know anymore, it's like for every good thing, there is an inexcusable bad thing.

I mean, come on! Skids death was final, meant to be so, and was so meaningful. Similar thing with Ravage and Trailcutter. and how we are trying to resurrect him? If he does come back, that is scrap and it basically ruins Dying of the Light. If he is nearly brought back but somehow goes back to the afterspark,
or if Nautica needs to die for him to come back, ok I can give a little there.

Now I do like where we are going with the warworlds, the things from issues 7 and 46, we are getting somewhere. And Flame is back, nice

Those weren't war worlds they're D-class world sweepers but yeah having Flame show up raises some questions and possibly answers some. He was last seen in on a flashback on trial in LSOTW which means he was there when the decepticons laid siege to it and who else was there? Grimlock. Where was Grimlock found? on a Symbol ship. And what have this mysterious faction been flying around in? symbol ships. That last page was the only page I felt was interesting.

Man, after a lot of issues that felt so close to being what I look for in MTMTELL, this really hit the spot. Mysteries, answers, character moments- all around marvelous.

Anode and Lug's reveal was very well handled- according to Robert's twitter he reached out to those with more experience than him to figure out how best to approach it, and the dedication & research show. Plus, it had been a personal theory/hope of mine for ages so I'm very pleased

The whole thing with Skids, Nautica, and the Resus Cradle I feel could either play out very well or very poorly- I have enough faith in Roberts to think the former. I think ricemazter might be on the money with the monkey's paw comparison, it would be very MTMTE for this to turn into a be-careful-what-you-wish-for situation. I don't think it will end that well though- I'm imagining either the cost of bringing him back will be too great, or if we go full horror he could come back as a corpse they have to kill again. Brutal. Either way, I doubt he'll be returning to the cast. Also damn Nautica, carrying around a dude's brain in your eye socket is freaking hardcore.

Most interesting to a mythos-theorising nerd like me though is the Knights' symbols. It's something I'd thought possible for a while, but the reveal of those clearly shows imo that the Knights follow the Guiding Hand, each clan a different member. The bottom right is unmistakably Mortilus' head. The question remains then- who/what exactly does the Gear symbol we've seen a lot represent, and what does that imply about this Grand Architect who's name keeps cropping up?

So the crew is long gone from Necroworld, how have they not managed to contact Cybertron by this point? It's good to see the quest actually someaby back on track, it's about time after nearly a whole year.

I've got to say, I'm not a fan of the whole trans/queer robot thing that Roberts and others have been introducing lately. We have aliens whose lifespans are seemingly infinite (at least in the IDWverse) expressing a lot of overly human feelings and angst. A race with no concept of gender, a race without the need for gender or sexual identity is what we've known Cybertronian to be all these years. I was fine with

Chromedome and Rewind; a huge fan actually. They presented a couple of genderless alien beings in love without making the whole affair seem overly human. But with recent happenings in TAAO and now LL, it feels like the writers are trying to present a very human problem in a way that just doesn't make sense. The endless same "sex" relationships and suddenly transsexual robots really feels like a PC stunt at best, personal social justice warrior-ing at worst.

Transformers have had a concept of gender ever since the first Marvel issue referred to Optimus Prime as a 'he'. If they have enough of a concept to describe each other with such pronouns, it's really not that much of a stretch to believe some would end up preferring different pronouns later in their lives.

ArmadaPrime wrote: Most interesting to a mythos-theorising nerd like me though is the Knights' symbols. It's something I'd thought possible for a while, but the reveal of those clearly shows imo that the Knights follow the Guiding Hand, each clan a different member. The bottom right is unmistakably Mortilus' head. The question remains then- who/what exactly does the Gear symbol we've seen a lot represent, and what does that imply about this Grand Architect who's name keeps cropping up?

If I had to guess, the bots with the cog symbol follow Adaptus. From what we've seen with the half-form protoforms and other interesting things inside the WorldSweepers, this sect of the Knights is trying to change Cybertronian physiology on a cellular level. Maybe each "chapter" of the Knights has twisted the views/beliefs of the Guiding Hand member they follow/worship. Just speculation though.

Transgender robots = Awesome.

*micdrop*

Daniel Adkins wrote:Transgender robots = Awesome.

*micdrop*

We desperately need a 'like' button.

And now we can make the joke about Trans-formers with emphasis on the trans amiritegys?

"sigh" Why can't we just stay simple with there being only two genders and media not sucking up to the popular trends of the year damn it Roberts.

I might be bias though since besides being in a Christian family I'm personally very much against the concept of people deciding what gender they are and ignoring science and biology like their god like I don't care if you think your an attack Helicopter or an alien your born either a boy or a girl that's the way it's always been and how God intended it to be so why are we only now doing this stuff for the last couple years?

Sorry if I'm getting political or being self centered I don't like being that but this subject is just wrong and unnatural to me and in my opinion those people need help and not encouragement.

Kurona wrote:Transformers have had a concept of gender ever since the first Marvel issue referred to Optimus Prime as a 'he'. If they have enough of a concept to describe each other with such pronouns, it's really not that much of a stretch to believe some would end up preferring different pronouns later in their lives.

Only real reason for that besides toys and humanizing them is that there isn't really any terms when it comes to genderless or other gendered people like there is for people being referred as him and her among other terms.

Hard to write a character like that without calling them it and making them seam less alive.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Transgender robots = Awesome.

*micdrop*

Awesome how? Just wondering since you don't go into detail.

Plus Awesome is an opinion and therefore subjective.

Deadput wrote:And now we can make the joke about Trans-formers with emphasis on the trans amiritegys?

"sigh" Why can't we just stay simple with there being only two genders and media not sucking up to the popular trends of the year damn it Roberts.

I might be bias though since besides being in a Christian family I'm personally very much against the concept of people deciding what gender they are and ignoring science and biology like their god like I don't care if you think your an attack Helicopter or an alien your born either a boy or a girl that's the way it's always been and how God intended it to be so why are we only now doing this stuff for the last couple years?

Sorry if I'm getting political or being self centered I don't like being that but this subject is just wrong and unnatural to me and in my opinion those people need help and not encouragement.

Kurona wrote:Transformers have had a concept of gender ever since the first Marvel issue referred to Optimus Prime as a 'he'. If they have enough of a concept to describe each other with such pronouns, it's really not that much of a stretch to believe some would end up preferring different pronouns later in their lives.

Only real reason for that besides toys and humanizing them is that there isn't really any terms when it comes to genderless or other gendered people like there is for people being referred as him and her among other terms.

Hard to write a character like that without calling them it and making them seam less alive.

Except there is a word: "they."

Also, gender is a construct. There's more than two genders.

With that, I must board a plane. Please don't go to hell, Thread!

EDIT: And awesome because it's more representation for transgender fans.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Except there is a word: "they."

Ehhhhhhhh but the way you can write or talk is very limited anyways due to lack of words in the English dictionary.

"He went to the store and bought a soda just for him."

Compared to

"They went to the store and bought a soda just for (blank)" I can't come up with anything else to fill that space besides it.

"They went to the store and bought soda for themselves." The same you would refer to the plural they.

Daniel Adkins wrote:"They went to the store and bought soda for themselves." The same you would refer to the plural they.

I guess but I still stand by the fact there is a lot more terminology and therefore easier to write about males and females then about other genders or genderless people.

Alright, this won't devolve into pointless social or religious bickering. You each have your opinions, please respect the other person's. Keep it Lost Light related.

Daniel Adkins wrote:Also, gender is a construct. There's more than two genders.

Where in the Transformers franchise has it ever been specified what gender a character is? The closest to gender identification any of them ever came was when they were referred to as "he" or "she" and nothing else.

I would please advise you to not bring out the "ignoring science and biology card" until you actually understand said science and biology, since they do state that there are more than two genders and that being transgender is a real thing. An extremely simplified biological model you were taught in fourth grade is not a valid source when discussing this sort of thing.

I would very much prefer to keep politics out of this completely and say that if you find Trans people icky, either grow up or read something else and leave the subject at that, but I find it very irksome when someone pulls the "science and biology" card when they clearly demonstrate they don't understand it at all.

Now please, if we could get the conversation back to the comic itself without going into a quote-on-quote debate about a much more serious issue, that would be quite lovely.

Kurona wrote:either grow up or read something else and leave the subject at that.

There's no need for insults. Just because you don't agree with his opinion, doesn't mean he can't state it, just like you can state yours even if he doesn't agree.

I will say it once more: back to the Lost Light. No more of this subject in this thread.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Kurona wrote:either grow up or read something else and leave the subject at that.

There's no need for insults. Just because you don't agree with his opinion, doesn't mean he can't state it, just like you can state yours even if he doesn't agree.

I will say it once more: back to the Lost Light. No more of this subject in this thread.

Alright I won't say anything else regarding that subject I said what I wanted to say but I would like to point out that it's difficult to talk about this part of the book without getting political about it.

I honestly don't understand why discussing gender identity is considered political when by all accounts it shouldn't be.

Daniel Adkins wrote:

Deadput wrote:And now we can make the joke about Trans-formers with emphasis on the trans amiritegys?

"sigh" Why can't we just stay simple with there being only two genders and media not sucking up to the popular trends of the year damn it Roberts.

I might be bias though since besides being in a Christian family I'm personally very much against the concept of people deciding what gender they are and ignoring science and biology like their god like I don't care if you think your an attack Helicopter or an alien your born either a boy or a girl that's the way it's always been and how God intended it to be so why are we only now doing this stuff for the last couple years?

Sorry if I'm getting political or being self centered I don't like being that but this subject is just wrong and unnatural to me and in my opinion those people need help and not encouragement.

Kurona wrote:Transformers have had a concept of gender ever since the first Marvel issue referred to Optimus Prime as a 'he'. If they have enough of a concept to describe each other with such pronouns, it's really not that much of a stretch to believe some would end up preferring different pronouns later in their lives.

Only real reason for that besides toys and humanizing them is that there isn't really any terms when it comes to genderless or other gendered people like there is for people being referred as him and her among other terms.

Hard to write a character like that without calling them it and making them seam less alive.

Except there is a word: "they."

Also, gender is a construct. There's more than two genders.

With that, I must board a plane. Please don't go to hell, Thread!

EDIT: And awesome because it's more representation for transgender fans.

I mean representation is great, but why do they need his kind of representation in the form of alien robots? The things don't go together, and its a bit awkward. I feel like this whole matter is becoming like the declining sale in Marvel comics that arose because of the numerous political issues similar to this that were appearing in strips.

Things like these don't mix sometimes.

For god's sake.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I will say it once more: back to the Lost Light. No more of this subject in this thread.

Kurona wrote:For god's sake.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I will say it once more: back to the Lost Light. No more of this subject in this thread.

Thank you. At least someone listened. Daniel Adkins, Stormshot, each of you get a warning. And Kurona, I agree that it's hard to not talk about this subject considering what happened in the comic, but these discussions always veer off the path of civility and derail the thread, so it's best to get ahead of it, based on experience. I would like to have a discussion regarding the subject, but it has to be in its own thread.

Would anyone else like to have a full version of the List with crimes listed next to the accused.

Stormshot_Prime wrote:We have aliens whose lifespans are seemingly infinite (at least in the IDWverse) expressing a lot of overly human feelings and angst.

This bit here is what's been turning me off with Lost Light/MTMTE for quite a while. I realise that it's being read by squishy humans, so we have to understand them to an extent, but I prefer my giant alien robots that transform into cars to be a bit more alien and robotic, and bit less forlorn people in robot suits who occasionally have discos.

Also if they could transform once in a while, that'd be nice

DeadCaL wrote:

Stormshot_Prime wrote:We have aliens whose lifespans are seemingly infinite (at least in the IDWverse) expressing a lot of overly human feelings and angst.

This bit here is what's been turning me off with Lost Light/MTMTE for quite a while. I realise that it's being read by squishy humans, so we have to understand them to an extent, but I prefer my giant alien robots that transform into cars to be a bit more alien and robotic, and bit less forlorn people in robot suits who occasionally have discos.

Also if they could transform once in a while, that'd be nice

I'd be happy if current transformers titles could keep the feelings and angst related to the issues affecting the robot society. Like, I don't think any of the current transformers titles have really dealt with post war reconciliation between Autobots and Decepticons in any meaningful way. I mean, we sort of got that with RID, but from my recollection the Decepticons were pretty Hell bent on starting another war throughout most of it. I want to say that TAAO dealt with it a bit, but for the life of me I can't remember anything beyond the Combaticons being antagonists.

So far, the only stories I can think of that really cared about the open wounds on both sides and the emotional aftermath of the war was the one shot with Sandstorm and the couple Scavengers stories. Maybe some lip service here and there. I still really like the line Ratchet has in MTMTE about peace being an anti-climax.

I like Nautica and a lot of the other crewmembers, but I can't really bring myself to care about her feelings of alienation on Caminus because it doesn't have anything to do with the issues that have been set up in the past decade. I have similar qualms with other characters.

Also, I'm tired of titles that are more or less starring Autobots who are the defacto protagonists. You'd think we could get a series that headlines Decepticons for once, one that deals with the fact that everything they fought for was ultimately pointless.

ricemazter wrote:I'd be happy if current transformers titles could keep the feelings and angst related to the issues affecting the robot society. Like, I don't think any of the current transformers titles have really dealt with post war reconciliation between Autobots and Decepticons in any meaningful way. I mean, we sort of got that with RID, but from my recollection the Decepticons were pretty Hell bent on starting another war throughout most of it. I want to say that TAAO dealt with it a bit, but for the life of me I can't remember anything beyond the Combaticons being antagonists.

So far, the only stories I can think of that really cared about the open wounds on both sides and the emotional aftermath of the war was the one shot with Sandstorm and the couple Scavengers stories. Maybe some lip service here and there. I still really like the line Ratchet has in MTMTE about peace being an anti-climax.

I like Nautica and a lot of the other crewmembers, but I can't really bring myself to care about her feelings of alienation on Caminus because it doesn't have anything to do with the issues that have been set up in the past decade. I have similar qualms with other characters.

Also, I'm tired of titles that are more or less starring Autobots who are the defacto protagonists. You'd think we could get a series that headlines Decepticons for once, one that deals with the fact that everything they fought for was ultimately pointless.

You've nailed it, IMO.

I like Lost Light, but less so than most of MTMTE because of the reasons largely stated above. The series always basically a sitcom, but it was always set very firmly within the Transformers universe and was clearly a Transformers story but with more characterisation and personal twists than we're used to (which was fantastic).

The focus now seems to be edging more towards the personal dramas and relationships, and less so on the broader Trasnsformers stuff. It's still good, but as a Transformers fan, the shift in tone dilutes the appeal for me.

I'd love to see some more focus on how Decepticons and Autobots are actually coexisting. For all the progressive strides MTMTE is making, it's odd that it still follows the basic 'all Autobots good, all Decepticons bad' decree (with a very small handful of exceptions like Pharma and Megatron...and I guess the Scavengers but they're still burning Autobots alive when they get the chance aren't they?).

Cheesinator wrote:

ricemazter wrote:I'd be happy if current transformers titles could keep the feelings and angst related to the issues affecting the robot society.
I like Nautica and a lot of the other crewmembers, but I can't really bring myself to care about her feelings of alienation on Caminus because it doesn't have anything to do with the issues that have been set up in the past decade. I have similar qualms with other characters.

Also, I'm tired of titles that are more or less starring Autobots who are the defacto protagonists. You'd think we could get a series that headlines Decepticons for once, one that deals with the fact that everything they fought for was ultimately pointless.

You've nailed it, IMO.

I like Lost Light, but less so than most of MTMTE because of the reasons largely stated above. The series always basically a sitcom, but it was always set very firmly within the Transformers universe and was clearly a Transformers story but with more characterisation and personal twists than we're used to (which was fantastic).

The focus now seems to be edging more towards the personal dramas and relationships, and less so on the broader Trasnsformers stuff. It's still good, but as a Transformers fan, the shift in tone dilutes the appeal for me.

I'd love to see some more focus on how Decepticons and Autobots are actually coexisting. For all the progressive strides MTMTE is making, it's odd that it still follows the basic 'all Autobots good, all Decepticons bad' decree (with a very small handful of exceptions like Pharma and Megatron...and I guess the Scavengers but they're still burning Autobots alive when they get the chance aren't they?).

Sorry for the long quote, but so much to THIS to this sentiment. The post Costa comics began with a fascinating premise: 'peace' and reconciliation. It's strange how that's the plot that has been repeatedly sidelined and marginalized, in favor of new characters who, can I be blunt? Are really almost impossible to differentiate. I find it hard to feel any risk or jeopardy for these characters, since so many characters have fake died that when one really does die, my response is more like...wow, wtf went on there, than really feeling any emotional impact.

And I'll be honest: I write fanfic, and I...kind of don't like how fanficcy all the TF titles have gotten? I suppose I should celebrate the mainstreaming of shipping and slash and stuff, but...I can't. It feels weird. Like your favorite special thing has now become pop music.

And I don't want to reopen a can of worms, but, uh, some of us DO gender theory in our day jobs, and you make us cringe when you toss around your tumblr version of gender. If nothing else, I am tired of all the retconning of gender. I honestly don't understand why robots had to have binary gender AT ALL. It's a ludicrous proposition and an absolute failure of creativity.

CC, the crankiest cat.

Kurona wrote:Transformers have had a concept of gender ever since the first Marvel issue referred to Optimus Prime as a 'he'. If they have enough of a concept to describe each other with such pronouns, it's really not that much of a stretch to believe some would end up preferring different pronouns later in their lives.

Nice try, but, omg, nope.

See, when TFs first came out, I was alive, and I can tell you from personal experience we were taught in school the 'default male' pronoun. As in, I was taught that this would be a correct sentence in American English: "Each student will hand in HIS paper." His. Regardless of the actual gender of any or all of the students. Many Romance languages have a similar aspect--in French, if you have 50 women and 1 man, you refer to the group as "Ils"--the masculine pronoun, and not "Elles."

So, in 1984, the 'idek' gender default was 'he'. That does not imply the invocation of binary gender.
Additionally, if you don't want to get all meta, let's get inworld--despite what JRo seems to believe, giant alien robots...don't speak English. That means that anything (a joke, a pronoun, etc) can be simply a 'translation' from Cybertronian to the language of the comics readers. An approximation could easily simply refer to a character as 'he'.

Additionally, gender only exists when sex and sentience coexist. Your cat doesn't have a gender, it has a sex. It has no 'sentience'. Giant alien robots, outside the fun fun smutty world of fanfic, do not have sex and therefore, you know, can't have gender.

cc, don't even get me started on Judith Butler, yo

You'd think staff members saying 'no' multiple times and getting to the point of handing out warnings would be enough, but... apparently not.

Please listen to what the actual Moderators have said rather than going off about what you think is "tumblr-y" or not. Thank you.

So yeah, this latest issue? Boring.

Don't care about the characters. Don't care about all the relationship stuff, very much over it.

I miss the days when comic books told good old fashioned stories and didn't resort to making socio-political statements.

Burn wrote:So yeah, this latest issue? Boring.

Don't care about the characters. Don't care about all the relationship stuff, very much over it.

I miss the days when comic books told good old fashioned stories and didn't resort to making socio-political statements.

But that's kind of what fiction does?

It's what it's always done. I don't even need to bring up literary greats like Shakespeare and Orwell because it's been with comics since the beginning. A huge proportion of the first Marvel and DC comics were made as a response to the rising threat of WWII, while X-Men - one of whose issues has the proud owner of being the #1 best-selling comic of all time - is an allegory to oppressed groups in society. Politics and social commentary always have been and always will be a part of comics and fiction as a whole.

Yeah, but it wasn't the only thing in the story. Those comics still told kick ass action and adventure, with the commentary on the side. Lost Light feels like a platform for commentary, with a tiny bit of action on the side.

I loved MTMTE, but so far, LL is a completely different book, with vaugly similar characters. It sucks.