Comics Reviews: Lost Light

[Paulbot]

Issue 1, December 2016

The comic that was More Than Meets The Eye is now Lost Light.

New number one to help sales, new name to help identify the book I guess.

Same writer (James Roberts), new artist (Jack Lawrence, although apparently Alex Milne will return in an alternating role).

Same cast, with several newcomers being established in #1, both original creations and existing G1 characters (including one that is surely the Headmaster character although I can't seem to find others that agree with me yet).

Strangely enough, no actual Lost Light (the spaceship) in this issue.

It picks up pretty much straight after the last (non crossover related) issue of MTMTE and I'm glad of it. The two part Titans Return story and the Revolution one-shot felt throw away to me.

The new artist does an alright job, but I do miss Milne's pencils - they felt as much a key part of the old book as Robert's writing.

As a #1 it doesn't do such a great job as a jumping on point, even with new POV characters and a several page "story so far" to try and help. There's a lot of dense backstory to this series. Which is part of what I love about it, but if you're not already on the ride I'm not sure this would convince you.

[Paulbot]

So not many comments here about the new series....

I must admit that while I thought i liked issue 1, I was in no rush to get issue 2 when it came out, and when I did get it I found it still a bit lacking in a certain something. Can't just be the art can it?

But I did get #3 day of release and thought it was great. There's a particularly well pulled off comedic moment (in both writing and art), there's good world-building, and there's elements of the long game paying off and being set up. Kind of feels like the series is back on track.

[FatalityPitt]

So not many comments here about the new series....

Yeah, I confess, I only read the Optimus Prime series by John Barber. Is there a thread for it?

I don't read Lost Light because I got into IDW Transformers too late. It'd take me a million ant years to catch up on everything that's happened in MTMTE.

I'm liking the Optimus Prime series so far. It paints Optimus in a different light from what we traditionally get. It shows Optimus Prime as a flawed leader with his own insecurities. If you read issue #4 (came out this week), it shows him making a bad decisions, and it results in a real scrap-fest (not to give anything away...). The art is clean and crisp without being "cartoon-ish" (far from it actually). I like it.

EDIT: An ant year is equal to 12 human hours.

[i_amtrunks]

I'll admit that the last event and rebranding was my opportunity to jump off (the event was awful, made Dark Cybertron seem palatable) so I am now going trade only.

I'll keep up on the wiki when I can be bothered but for now IDW have lost a fan due to their terrible and irrelevant events that forced unnecessary changes.

I hope the writing stays good for when I get the trade nine months down the road, I've enjoyed the last nearly 60 issues and want to support the series but no longer have the time to get to the comic store and as stated, knowing itll be only another 6-12 months before changes are forced upon the series to include ROM or GIJoe or something else I couldn't care less about.

[Paulbot]

I don't know about the other series, as I wait for those, but Lost Light has completely ignored the Revolution crossover and the Titans Return crossover - all three 'final' issues of MTMTE that were related easily skipped. I think with the time between "on topic" stories they did however break momentum from the end of the last Arc and this one, but it's starting to get back on track (with nary a mention of Headmasters, Spaceknights, Masks or Joes!)

And I completely understand jumping off points due to crossovers and unnecessary status quo upheavals - those have made me drop of actively buying X-Men titles twice.

And yes FatalitlyPitt catching up on MTMTE would take a long while (lots of issues and dense writing) but I'd say it's worth it!

[GoktimusPrime]

On the plus side, the writing has really improved lately with no spelling errors in recent issues. Grammar still needs improvement though. (-_-)

Thoughts about the latest issue:

SPOILERS AHEAD

SPOILERS AHEAD

SPOILERS AHEAD






What is up with Rung's alt mode? This brings up all sorts of questions, such as...
Why does it look different from his "ornamental mode" as seen in #22? Have the Functionists rebuilt him with that mode? Nine-of-Twelve mentioned that the Functionists have repeatedly disassembled and reassembled Rung but were unable to determine what his alt mode is used for. It seems illogical for Rung to have been subjugated to all the horrors that he's undergone at the hands of the Functionists if he had a useful alt mode this whole time. I suspect that Rung may have been forcibly modified to suit the Functionists' propaganda, and also so that they may have a machine that can finally allow them to break into Vector Sigma's chamber. And surprise, there's Luna 2.

It's really interesting (yet simultaneously frustrating) how each answer brings more questions.

[philby]

Yeah, I confess, I only read the Optimus Prime series by John Barber. Is there a thread for it?

I don't read Lost Light because I got into IDW Transformers too late. It'd take me a million ant years to catch up on everything that's happened in MTMTE.

I'm liking the Optimus Prime series so far. It paints Optimus in a different light from what we traditionally get. It shows Optimus Prime as a flawed leader with his own insecurities. If you read issue #4 (came out this week), it shows him making a bad decisions, and it results in a real scrap-fest (not to give anything away...). The art is clean and crisp without being "cartoon-ish" (far from it actually). I like it.

EDIT: An ant year is equal to 12 human hours.

hmm this most recent issue of optimus kinda annoyed me a bit. i mean how many times do we need to see him holding the matrix and 'reflecting' on what it means and what is being a prime...pretty sure we've seen it a few times already...

[BigTransformerTrev]

I'll admit that the last event and rebranding was my opportunity to jump off (the event was awful, made Dark Cybertron seem palatable) so I am now going trade only.

I'm doing the same with these new kick offs. Plenty of places to read the comics online for free until the trade paperbacks come out. For me its more the hassle of getting the individual comics and the fact Ive got hundreds and hundreds of the buggers and they are too hard to keep organized.

[Paulbot]

I've got to stop reading any comments about Lost Light online. I saw speculation/theories that the latest issue is suggesting might have been correct - and would have been better without the fan guessing it months earlier TBH!

[GoktimusPrime]

I won't spoil it by telling everyone what Rung's secret is, but I can tell you what the secret isn't, and it's his alt mode. The big reveal has nothing to do with his transformation whatsoever. All hail the useless one.