IDW Transformers: Lost Light Volume 2 TPB Pre-Order on Amazon.com

...that cover made me tear up a little. First time that has happened with this book since Skids died

A review is coming, by the way. We've had ..life getting in the way of things this other side of the screen for a lot of staff this week.

Synopsis

AFTERMATH! The war with the Functionalists is over—and Rodimus is left wondering whether he won or lost. It’s the beginning of a new chapter for the displaced crew of the Lost Light, as decisions are made that will change their lives forever.



Story

I must admit right off the bat: this story really felt like a filler issue, with not much going on, some pages dedicated to things that weren't really focusing the story, and an overall sort of flat quality to it. After the initial 6 issue arc, which itself felt an issue or 2 longer than it should have, this was a breather, but not one that was needed.

Now may I tell you that this is not an indication that I think the story is bad. The story was alright, but it wasn't good nor bad. There wasn't anything particularly bad, but the good didn't shoot to the moon either. It was sort of flat and no real dips or rises to it.



That said, the good for the story included some decent character moments for Rodimus, Tailgate, Cyclonus, and Whirl. Fangry also gets his moment to shine, which I can appreciate since he is finally in IDW and he had the setup for a payoff. Also, Roller and Lug are very cute, I will appreciate that. And the moments surrounding Megatron, even if he wasn't in the issue, are good and they are telling of his effects on the crew and all the Lost Light characters in general. I appreciated that, even though there were great moments with them, everyone is acknowledging how is absence changes the group's dynamics, and in essence this goes a way to proving that #GetawaywasRight.



On the topic of Lug, that part really felt brushed over and really sped up. Quite literally, last issue brought us the revelation that Rung and Anode between then can resurrect everyone so long as they have some spark residue left (basically sortof), which itself was a cheat on how death is supposed to be meaningful, but we still have characters coming back to life regularly. And then in the case of Lug, she was resurrected, and any ill feelings between her and Anode were brushed over in what, 5 or 6 total pages of time between 2 issues? Nope, not feeling that one.

And also, on that subject: why Kaput? You literally got a decent character, and yet the mentality here is to kill. Kill off the more interesting add-on to the crew, and send the other one off to star in the next 2 issues. Come on man, enough with that. While I can appreciate the bookends to Tailgate's story, doing in Kaput went too far in my humble opinion. You can render someone stasis locked without ripping off their head, ya know?



With this in mind, the beginning of the issue did call back to the opening of More Than Meets The Eye, and it felt properly classic. Tailgate was handled fairly well, and I loved the Cyclonus/Whirl page. That page was the best part of the issue. It's just a shame that the Magnus part was so weird. It felt sort of forced and like something he normally wouldn't do either. It felt less natural than it should have, which is why it wasn't a good part and more of a "meh" part of the story.

So yeah, overall story was subpar, some good moments, but nothing to stand out above anything else.



Art

Art duties are again taken up by Jack Lawrence, and he is joined by inker John Wycough. Now while I was noted in saying I was taking to the Lawrence art style back around issue 5, this issue felt like a step back. Things didn't feel as focused as they should, and the art didn't feel like it did the story the justice it needed to. This story needed that art lift, but it didn't really get the help. Like the story itself, there were no terrible art moments to place a finger on, but there were no shining moments. While I loved the Whirl/Cyclonus scene, it felt a bit too... I want to say bloated and not as focused, sort of soft when it needed that crisp look.



Coloring duties were handled by Joana Lafuente, who did a good job of working with the lines to paint some beautiful scenery, but again not really a shining moment. Even the sunrise as Skip takes off isn't as pronounced as usual, and the followup scenes with Tailgate and Kaput feature some sort of strange lighting that didn't really sit well with my eyes.

Inks were done by Tom B. Long, and once again we have some good moments and some good speech and sound bubbles. While not an issue on Long, there was a strange moment where Fangry had some "stifled laughter," which was extremely obvious in panel, yet required a funny yellow caption over it. This was the one issue I had with the speech bubbles, but the very last thing written in the bottom right corner of the last page more than made up for it. Someone had a sense of humor about burying someone alive for 6 million years in radiation....again!

Final thoughts



So Lost Light 7... yeah, it was alright, but nothing to write home about yet not something to toss in the garbage. At this point in time, the story needs some major pushing. The plot has dragged, and it was weird to have a breather issue after a 6-issue-long 4 issue series. The plot needs to move, the crew needs to move. The story is already 1/3 the length of the first season of MTMTE, yet those first 7 issues felt much better paced, and it felt like we had got places. This is just like... whatever, we've had some stuff happen, we removed the most interesting part of the book and that part that made season 2 better than it otherwise would have been, and we are still months behind the other ongoings (unless the geobomb stuff has triggered a jump forward in time).

In short and in finale, the pace needs to pick up, the fiddle-farting around needs to be cut down, the art needs to get closer to what issue 6 was (and still add a little something), it needs bigger moments that don't take forever to build up when they really didn't need it, and if we are to be rid of Megatron so we can focus on the old crew again, don't start throwing in new characters that are annoying, feel forced, and cheat death to once again derive death of the meaning it is supposed to have, and stop killing off the new ones that really didn't do those sorts of things.

I said I wasn't going to bother anymore but I caved and picked it and yeah I completely agree. It needs to move forward. It's needed to move forward for a long time.

The resurrection of lug is a joke, the conversation between nightbeat and brainstorm is so meta it's borderline insulting and ridiculous. This issue as written and drawn well before 6 even came out and you can just tell James was saying "people are going to have a problem with this so I'm going to make it tongue and cheeky" it's not cute and it wasn't funny. It's lazy. It's not only lazy it's full of problems. The wand takes you to a pocket location in their universe. It shouldn't bring you right back to where you left and where is killmaster? He should have reappeared the second they all showed up.

Lugs resurrection in this just shows that it just doesn't matter anymore. Find some sentio Metallico and grab some flowers and have a sparkalogist and blacksmith around and it's like nothing happened.

I must admit, this isn't working out. I don't think it's catastrophic; it's not awful, but... really, that's the best I can say about it. It's alright. It's decent. It's toeing the edge; I don't hate that I read it but it's just there - which isn't good when MTMTE was hands down my favourite fiction of anything. Optimus Prime, TAAO and even Revolutionaries to an extent are overtaking Lost Light -- I'm still in on this, there's still some lovely moments, I actually like Anode; and I'm banking on Issue 10 turning things around... but I've felt a bit disappointed. If you asked me before what the worst arc of MTMTE/LL was, I'd have a hard time pointing to any of them and just say I enjoyed the whole thing as one cohesive experience; there wasn't any point I disliked or hated or could really separate and point out 'this is a bad part'. I suppose if Dark Cybertron counts then it'd be that, but I didn't really count it and in general IDW isn't that great at crossovers anyway. But this changes things. Lost Light - all seven issues - are so far the worst part of this story.

Randomhero wrote:I said I wasn't going to bother anymore but I caved and picked it and yeah I completely agree. It needs to move forward. It's needed to move forward for a long time.

The resurrection of lug is a joke, the conversation between nightbeat and brainstorm is so meta it's borderline insulting and ridiculous. This issue as written and drawn well before 6 even came out and you can just tell James was saying "people are going to have a problem with this so I'm going to make it tongue and cheeky" it's not cute and it wasn't funny. It's lazy. It's not only lazy it's full of problems. The wand takes you to a pocket location in their universe. It shouldn't bring you right back to where you left and where is killmaster? He should have reappeared the second they all showed up...

Yeah, against my better judgement, I picked this one up too. Brainstorm and Nightbeat's conversation was a little hypocritical. "Stop trying to invent mysteries for the sake of it, Nightbeat." Then maybe Roberts should stop coming up with nume666rous plot points that probably won't have a resolution any time soon.

The whole thing with Megatron and the cast going back to hating him the second he's gone can go one of two ways. First, that's it; Megatron is gone and this is meta commentary on Roberts' part that some of us shouldn't have liked him so much to begin with. Second, there will be some sort of reveal in the future that'll try and make the current attitude seem like misdirection (like the whole Roller/Tarn nonsense).

What gets me most right now is that there are just so many unresolved threads in this series that Roberts keeps adding. There was so much introduced in the first 7 issues that went unresolved: crazy visions, possible drug addiction, Functionist Universe, Tailgate's ongoing problems, and whatever else I'm forgetting. Meanwhile, all of this happens in an arc that, from my perspective, existed solely to get Megatron off the ship without providing any real closure since none of the main cast members understand what really happened. All of this completely disregards the unresolved plot points from the last series. One example that really sticks out to me is the funerary recordings at the beginning of Dying of the Light. During those, Rung specifically asks to be put beyond use for some reason that probably won't be clear until the end of the third "season."

I know this is rambling and long, but I'm reminded of a video essay I watched recently on the show Sherlock, criticizing Stephen Moffat and his status as a show runner. Moffat, responsible for some of the best single Doctor Who episodes, takes over an entire show and essentially continually teases payoffs that never materialize or detract from whatever is happening in single episodes. From my perspective, I can see similar cracks forming here, where the ongoing narrative is starting to consume the rest of the series. MTMTE was at it's best when an entire story or event was completed in one or two issues, as opposed to what's been the status quo for a while now.

Additionally, since, I think, issue 39# of MTMTE, the one introducing Deathsaurus, that the structure of the plot has gotten worse. Hindsight is 20/20, but between that issue and now I can think of better ways to structure things. For instance, if Roberts wanted to get rid of Megatron, he probably should have done so at the end of Dying of the Light.

i think that the issue did a perfect job at setting up what this season will be about. The first arc was about the cliff hanger from the previous season, this one lets us know specifically where the characters are heading and sets up the drama that makes MTMTE and Lost Light so beautiful. That one act by Fangryis going to be something that will hopefully pay ff big time in the conclusion. I know that each issue from here on out, I will be wanting to know whether Tailgate will endure.

So the overall consensus is that LL is a step down from MTMTE?

I have been on the fence about LL since it started, this issue, everything about it, made me lose all desire to read any more of it.

MTME had been my favourite of the Transformers books. Whatever LL is, or will become, I simply no longer care.

avarathriul wrote:i think that the issue did a perfect job at setting up what this season will be about. The first arc was about the cliff hanger from the previous season, this one lets us know specifically where the characters are heading and sets up the drama that makes MTMTE and Lost Light so beautiful. That one act by Fangryis going to be something that will hopefully pay ff big time in the conclusion. I know that each issue from here on out, I will be wanting to know whether Tailgate will endure.

Fair enough. But I would make the argument that the cliff hanger ending of last season was a misstep. Here, I think the cliff hanger was unnecessary and primarily existed to justify the let's ditch Megatron story.

fair enough

Rodimus Prime wrote:So the overall consensus is that LL is a step down from MTMTE?

Generally, yeah. I still don't feel it's as terrible as people say, but certainly not as good as its predecessor. OP and TAAO are the best Transformers books right now.

Kurona wrote:Optimus Prime, TAAO and even Revolutionaries to an extent are overtaking Lost Light

Yeah, speak for yourself on that...

Revolutionaries gets none of my time, TAAO has had 2 great issues so far and OP is borderline Costa right now the way Prime and Autobots kiss the @ss of these annoying human's. Barber's take on Galvatron was as lame and forgettable as his death.

I'm not going to sit here praise LL like it's perfect... Making Cyclonus and TG feel like a boring Melrose Place couple is an all time low for Roberts IMO. But it's still nowhere near as Meh as OP and those IDW-verse spinoffs.

Again, TAAO has stepped its game up the last 2 issues but with news of it cancelling and me having no interest in the book Scott will be writing moving forward, there's no point in speaking on it other than I'll read it until it ends. OP on the hand I'll likely drop leaving LL to be the only IDW book I'm reading by the end of this year.

Does anyone have any indication of sales figures for LL so far, and how they compare to MTMTE?

Apparently the true barometer is the performance of the trades but I'd still be keen to learn from anyone ITK.

Quint wrote:Does anyone have any indication of sales figures for LL so far, and how they compare to MTMTE?

Apparently the true barometer is the performance of the trades but I'd still be keen to learn from anyone ITK.

For sales of print copies from Diamond (distributor) to comic shops (not readers!), in the US, LL5 did about 6,600 copies. MTMTE 5 did about 11,600 back in May of 2012.

Just read the latest issue.....



That ending! Did not see that coming at all.

We have via Previews World a look at the main Jack Lawrence cover for IDW's Transformers: Lost Light #8, which shows us a different angle to the same scene found in the Nick Roche/Josh Burcham variant (as seen here)! Check it out below, and join the discussion on the series in our Energon Pub!

(W) James Roberts (A/CA) Jack Lawrence
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.

Ah bland girl and three nobodies can't wait for these next few issues I'm trembling with anticipation.



Ha ha ha

Has anyone else found it odd that the standard scale of most alien species in the IDW verse is giant?

What the blue bots name?

Broadside27 wrote:What the blue bots name?

That's Velocity; Camien medic and consistently concerned for everyone

ricemazter wrote:Has anyone else found it odd that the standard scale of most alien species in the IDW verse is giant?

No, I just assume that humans are the odd, tiny ones in the universe.

Thank you!

lowman_x wrote:

ricemazter wrote:Has anyone else found it odd that the standard scale of most alien species in the IDW verse is giant?

No, I just assume that humans are the odd, tiny ones in the universe.

There have been others. Nebulons have shown up, the blue people from Spotlight Cliffjumper, the pig people from spotlight thundercracker and little aliens had were scattered around the bar in RID #6.

It's honestly just James's books that make them the same size.

Randomhero wrote:It's honestly just James's books that make them the same size.

Because he writes witty British characters, personal politics and tv show references first and Transformers second.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:It's honestly just James's books that make them the same size.

Because he writes witty British characters, personal politics and tv show references first and Transformers second.

Good thing artists exist too, to do the artisty bit of doing the art.

Someone on one of my Discords pointed this out to me and I can't stop laughing.

This could be somewhat unrelated, but whatever.

Does anyone else want to see the infernocons in the IDW universe? I know right now they are movie-only characters, but I thought they were kinda cool and they have a nice name. (Infernocus just sounds great out loud to me) They could be minions of liege maximo or something like that.

I mean if they can make RID Megatron into Gigatron and add a bunch of Unicron trilogy character designs into backgrounds, maybe they can make infernocus a thing? (Also, Mohawk in the background would be a nice nod) Didn't they integrate barricade's design into one of the comics at some point?

breacher wrote:This could be somewhat unrelated, but whatever.

Does anyone else want to see the infernocons in the IDW universe? I know right now they are movie-only characters, but I thought they were kinda cool and they have a nice name. (Infernocus just sounds great out loud to me) They could be minions of liege maximo or something like that.

I mean if they can make RID Megatron into Gigatron and add a bunch of Unicron trilogy character designs into backgrounds, maybe they can make infernocus a thing? (Also, Mohawk in the background would be a nice nod) Didn't they integrate barricade's design into one of the comics at some point?

Infernocus would be cool to see in a different way like as you said maybe a servant of Maximo or maybe Unicron if he is ever in the comics one day since they have devil horns like him.

I think they reused Barricade's WFC design which in itself is based on the G1 micromaster body but with movie colors and alt mode.

Who is the bot in the foreground with the red eyes?

Broadside27 wrote:Who is the bot in the foreground with the red eyes?

I've been trying to work that out myself. The colour scheme matches Roller, but nothing else does...

Who is the full manifesto of everyone aboard the Skip Light anyway? Rodimus, Magnus, Whirl, Cyclonus, Drift, Velocity, Chromedome, Rewind, Lug, Anode, Nautica... I don't remember the other 9. I think Roller's on it?

Kurona wrote:

Broadside27 wrote:Who is the bot in the foreground with the red eyes?

I've been trying to work that out myself. The colour scheme matches Roller, but nothing else does...

Who is the full manifesto of everyone aboard the Skip Light anyway? Rodimus, Magnus, Whirl, Cyclonus, Drift, Velocity, Chromedome, Rewind, Lug, Anode, Nautica... I don't remember the other 9. I think Roller's on it?

Roller is definitely on it. Everyone else sees a group of four when I definitely see a group of five. I hope it's Roller, he is one of my personal favorites.

Broadside27 wrote:

Kurona wrote:

Broadside27 wrote:Who is the bot in the foreground with the red eyes?

I've been trying to work that out myself. The colour scheme matches Roller, but nothing else does...

Who is the full manifesto of everyone aboard the Skip Light anyway? Rodimus, Magnus, Whirl, Cyclonus, Drift, Velocity, Chromedome, Rewind, Lug, Anode, Nautica... I don't remember the other 9. I think Roller's on it?

Roller is definitely on it. Everyone else sees a group of four when I definitely see a group of five. I hope it's Roller, he is one of my personal favorites.

I wanna see more of him because he seems to be the third new main character after Anode and Lug -- but he unfortunately didn't get a lot of focus. Even without that though you already get a good idea of who he is; a big friendly fun-loving dork. I love him.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:It's honestly just James's books that make them the same size.

Because he writes witty British characters, personal politics and tv show references first and Transformers second.

And that's a big reason why he is not a good TF writer.

Rodimus Prime wrote:And that's a big reason why he is not a good TF writer.

He did have a good balance back during season 1 of mtmte but then he dropped the ball probably due to how good of a reception and fan following the comic got then let it get to his head and misinterpreted that people only loved the witty jokes and not the well story and concepts also the awe and wow factor from something new disappeared MTMTE had to live up to it's reception.

Seems like Roberts thought that just because people loved Drift and Rung meant that people wanted more original characters instead of good written characters so we got more characters and now the comic is bloated and were not getting focus switched around.


Rodimus is also the worse character by far now in the comic.

Deadput wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:And that's a big reason why he is not a good TF writer.

He did have a good balance back during season 1 of mtmte but then he dropped the ball probably due to how good of a reception and fan following the comic got then let it get to his head and misinterpreted that people only loved the witty jokes and not the well story and concepts also the awe and wow factor from something new disappeared MTMTE had to live up to it's reception.

I more or less agree especially with it going to his head. I did like MTMTE for the most part, but Dying of the Light was a disappointing mess and from what I read here it hasn't gotten better.

Rodimus is also the worse character by far now in the comic.

I disagree with him being the worst (Rung is the worst IMO), but he definitely hasn't been developed further. It's a waste of a great character and space on the page.

With the eight issue of Lost Light due out at the end of the month, a 3-page preview has been released on iTunes! Featuring a lot more backstory for Nautica and Velocity, check out the blurb and the three pages below and be sure to tell us what you think in the forums!



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.

Those first two pages? In my opinion, hands down the best two pages of Lost Light so far. I already loved Nautica but I'm loving Velocity so much more now

I like how the fountain is dilapidated with slightly wilted plants to show how Caminus was energy deficient- good job with the lore on Lawrence's art. Also, can anyone translate the writing on the third venue going up on the bottom right?

Not even sure what language that is, but in looking at that panel... usually I'd brush it off as coincidence, but knowing Roberts; the fact there's like 3 coffins in that street is gonna be significant, isn't it?

Finally getting to see more character from Velocity

Also, I honestly didn't register it was Tramontano's art until I saw the credits.

Coffins or life support escape pods? I agree, I'm liking this more than anything I read early on in LL.

Do you think if the crew of The Lost Light was smaller, the stories in MTMTE and now LL would have been better (faster pace and more streamlined)? Or since the stories focus only on a select few characters at a time, aside from the main guys, it doesn't matter?

On that contrary, personally I've found MTMTE to be proof that a fairly large cast of characters can not only be done but can be done very, very well. I can't think of a single story bar maybe Dissolution that would have benefited from a smaller cast.

The whole dissonance of coffins being sold in a cheery market is I think going to be very much a reflection of how this story will play out. Bear in mind that the preview for the TPB called Troja Major a planet where grief is used as currency, and there's plenty of that going around...
What I'm more interested in though is Nautica's eyepatch. I'd not really clocked till now why I find it so weird, but with the flashback panel on the same page it's more obvious. At the end of MTMTE, despite the facial injuries she still had two eyes. Now, it seems the cosmetic damage has been fixed but she's got a patch over the eye? Perhaps just a permanent reminder of what she went through, or perhaps there's more than meets the eye? eh? anyone? to it than we think.

ArmadaPrime wrote:The whole dissonance of coffins being sold in a cheery market is I think going to be very much a reflection of how this story will play out. Bear in mind that the preview for the TPB called Troja Major a planet where grief is used as currency, and there's plenty of that going around...

Suddenly the TPB's cover of Nautica with a spectral image of Skids behind her makes a lot more sense...

I have come to really like Tramonato's art and I can't wait to see the full issue

Does anyone else think that the entire "Lost Light" series has been boring lately? I'm kind of just getting tired of reading it. (spoilers ahead if you aren't caught up) They freakin killed skids. My favorite character. They locked Tailgate into a tube for 6 million years. WTF. Why? An aside from their escapades on functionalist cybertron, there really hasnt been much action other than a few exceptions.

Months before the return of both characters in Issue #10 of IDW's Lost Light, series artist Jack Lawrence has taken to his Twitter and posted a couple of sketches for the Autobots First Aid and Getaway! Check 'em out below and tell us what you think of Lawrence's depiction of the two in the forums.