Transformers - Kayıp Işık, Bölüm 1

Transformers IDW #64

by James Roberts

Beş yıl önce, Rodimus ve bir grup travmalı, terk edilmiş ve alaycı Autobot topluluğu, Cyberutopia'yı bulmak için yola çıktı. Şimdiye kadar, işler hiç de umdukları gibi gitmedi.

Buldukları haritayı yanlış okudular. Kayıp Işık isimli gemilerini, asi/isyancı bir kaçış uzmanına kaptırdılar.

Ha, bu arada bir çoğu öldü.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Queer, Comic Book

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2017

About the author

James Roberts is a British comic book writer best known for his contributions to the Transformers franchise.

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite Transformers comic gets relaunched with a new number 1 issue and gets a more appropriate series name. "Lost Light" is an appropriate title, it refers to the space-going vessel that our intrepid crew of Cybertronians call home while on a quest for "Cyber-utopia and the old Knights of Cybertron. It could also refer to current situation its command crew and main cast fell into when the rest of their shipmates mutinied and abandoned them to the tender mercies of the Decepticon Justice Division.

Starting over with a new number one issue is supposed to attract new readers and provide a jump-on point. By adding new members and starting new story threads, this book is going in that direction, but there's already a 50-issues worth of backstory and if my opening paragraph caused a momentary confusion and necessitated a quick visit to the Transformers Wiki page, then you get my point.

There are two ways you can go if you're still interested in this book: First option is to just read and ignore the confusing part and just concentrate on the main story, you can revisit the references you missed with a Wiki search. Second option would be to start from the very beginning. These are all available on Kindle and Comixology that it's just a matter of stocking up on the digital trades.

One good reason this book was renumbered is that it so good that it deserves to be enjoyed by more readers. It is easily the best Transformers comic book series today.

[Alex Sarll]

I was a big Transformers fan, and indeed Transformers comics fan, back in the eighties, but for the most part, however enthusiastic fans got about the comics since then, I've tended to read a volume here or there, think they were fine, and then carry on with my life*. Still, when I saw a gaggle of friends getting excited about this one being in a bundle, I decided to give it a go – and this time I get what the fuss was about. It soon became apparent from old-style footnotes that it spins out of another series I've not read, More Than Meets The Eye, of which I was vaguely aware through some surprising mainstream media coverage of its decision to remodel Megatron after Tony Benn**, and the magic of bundles is such that I do now own that too and can get to it at some point in that glorious theoretical future when our to-read piles get read. In the meantime, I have no idea who half of these guys are, or what anyone's status quo is, or why Rodimus is that colour – but the writing is lively enough, and good enough at filling in the gaps, that it doesn't really matter. It helps too that we open on Anode, a chaotic motormouth who only needs two pages to feel like a (deeply unreliable) friend, David Tennant playing Mark Waid's Archie as Doctor Aphra (and a giant robot, obviously). This knack for instantly giving every character a recognisable personality holds throughout, as when Ultra Magnus shows 819 slides in an orientation session (mercifully, fewer than that are shared with the reader, though it wouldn't be the most gruelling 'bonus' material I've encountered in a comic lately). It begs the question of why so few comics (books, films...) can so quickly do the same with a cast of this or indeed any size, though I guess Lost Light does have an unfair advantage in that giant robots are fundamentally more interesting than most humans.

As for the plot: well, to be honest, I'm still not wholly sure what the Lost Light is. I think maybe a ship?*** I'm not even sure whether it's called the Lost Light, or just the Light and it's lost. And I'm certainly not going to look it up because I Googled one character where I wasn't sure whether he had a toy or not, and gave myself a ginormous spoiler for the whole thing. But it doesn't matter all that much because the lead story in this volume involves that old mainstay, the alternate universe. Specifically one where Autobots and Decepticons never got into their immeasurably old and destructive war. A utopia, right? Well, no, because instead Cybertron is in the iron grip of the Functionist Council, who decree that any robot whose transformed form is useless should be melted down and made into something more productive. Uselessness, of course, being defined by the Council. The echoes of certain unedifying attitudes towards arts degrees, or ballerinas who could be working in cyber(tron), in our own world are no doubt intentional, though when the rebel Anti-Vocationist League started opposing this doctrine by chanting "All hail the Useless One!" I did start wondering whether maybe I'd got the allegory the wrong way around and they were meant to be the Tories.

If I have a quibble...well, you know how some people bitch about the MCU because there's a certain lightly snarky register which an awful lot of the characters share? And said complainers are not all deranged Snyder fanboys or hack gangster directors, and may have the slightest smidgeon of a point? There's a little of that here. Not to the same extent where eg Shang-Chi is now basically Ant-Man with a shit dad, in that the robots' personalities remain distinct, but the script can't generally resist a line like "His real name's Murderking but he changed it to Killmaster. Don't ask me why. I mean, it's not exactly striking a blow against nominative determinism, is it?" Even then, though, there are exceptions, not least Megatron, and I'm hoping to see more of them as the story goes along, which I will be here to see, because I definitely want to know where this is going next.

"Don't get up just yet. I want to tell you a story."
"A story?"
"A love story."
"Oh, does it have a happy ending?"
"They never do."

*Honourable exception for the various crazy crossovers, most particularly Tom Scioli's Transformers Vs GI Joe, but those have had incongruous high concepts on their sides, and in any case Tom Scioli has a lunatic brilliance which could, and indeed did, make me buy into a Go-Bots comic.
**Politically, that is, rather than physically, though after the gun mode and the tank mode it would have been an interesting new angle.
***It was a ship! Hurrah. This was explained on the back cover blurb, which when you're reading a PDF is of course the last thing you see, rather than the second or third as on a physical copy.

[Matt Maldre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume so much that I've read it three times. The dialogue is so incredibly refreshing for Transformers. Every character has so much personality. Not the stiff cardboard versions of the 80s.

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picking up right where Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye, Volume 10 left off, part of our cast is unexpectedly faced with a new world to explore, while the other half deals with unexpected problems of their own (plus some new and interesting additions to the cast). We also get some true surprises about long-running characters, including an unexpected (but welcome) twist at the very end. The only pity is that it all moves so fast. (A-)

[2Due · Rating 5 out of 5]

And we're back, baby
More chaos
More quantum jumps
More Megatron
More gays

This continues where MTMTE ended and doesn't shy away from thick, intricate, interesting scenes, fascinating odd new facts and wtf moments.
It's witty, beautifully drawn and simply a delight to read, and for me a pleasure to have revisited it again.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this actual compiled edition will be out soon, I have read the issues that all comprise this volume at this point. It's just easier to review it as a whole, than to review individual issues.

If you've read all of James Roberts "More Than Meets the Eye" series--you should be well set for this continuation of the story. If you haven't.............well, thankfully there is a massive summary of the story to this point included--otherwise you may feel you jumped into the middle of a story.

Rodimus, Megatron and the crew abandoned to die at the hands of the Galactic Council and/or the Decepticon Justice Division (take your pick!) by Getaway and the others who mutinied on the Lost Light have overcome this hardship.................only to go through a new set of insanity, by finding themselves in an alternative universe where the Functionists took over Cybertron (this is NOT a good thing)!

James Roberts' writing is still fantastic............with a perfect blend of action, comedy and soap opera level drama. The new artist joining, Jack Lawrence, has proved awesome at getting Cybertronian expressions down on paper........to highlight the intensity of the story. If you picked this up........you're reading the best stuff that the Transformers universe has to offer in this era.

[Andy Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Comics grow up', buzz-phrase of the ignorant, esteemed by the under-represented: yet here's the challenge. A toy line comic that explores issues around memory, grief and freedom with pure SF twisters and as much comedy as prime Stephen Moffat. This soft reboot by writer James Roberts picks up from the MTMTE series with similar acclaim. New artist Jack Lawrence comes in with A-game, using clear line and form to distinguish characters, helpful given the ever-expanding cast. 'Lost Light' is the 21st century Buffy. It's better than Trek: Discovery and Walking Dead. I read it and enjoyed it.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ok start to the series as we go with an interesting storyline that is not to often covered in the Transformers franchise. The idea of alternate realities is played with as we see one where the history of the Cybertronians was changed as the war did not happen as it did in the main universe. I just wished that they played more with the idea and made things more extreme because just by looking at the pages it is not easy to tell they were in a new universe but I still really like the act and I hope they play with more drastic differences.

[ISMOTU · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. The crew of the Lost Light continues their quest to find Cyberutopia but after the explosive events of the previous series they're a little bit sidetracked having been shunted into the Functionalist universe. There's all out action but also extremely moving character scenes, a balance James Roberts has really mastered. The art is funky and fun and I plowed through these six issues quite quickly. Now onto the next volume!

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Roberts continues his political sci-fi opus and things are nuts as usual. This is a great read but I feel real sympathy for any new readers trying to jump on board here. This train doesn't slow down for anyone. Good news for those of us who've been around since volume one of More Than Meets the Eye but for anyone else: oy.

[fart munch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take this as a review for the entire series, these comics may have their flaws but despite that the humor, emotion, and overall beauty in this run is just magnificent, despite being about space car robots this is one of the most HUMAN transformers runs I’ve read, overall a great experience with tons of emotion, twists, turns, and also gay robots is cool 😋

[Dave Relph · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the rebranding of More Than Meets the Eye to Lost Light, this takes the best series in a somewhat new direction. It lacks a bit of the fun that makes it brilliant, but the story is solid once again, and leaving Megatron's fate open-ended definitely leaves me wanting more.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than meets the eye, plus!

This is a worthy successor to Transformers More Than Meets the Eye. I was pleased and impressed with the quality of the story, the depth of character building, and the way in which Megatron was used. I cannot wait to continue the story in Volume 2.

[Marta Duda-Gryc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohh, so much fodder for guessing. So many good, short interactions between characters I had to stop every once in a while to squeal while running around the room. And Terminus! And yeah, I like Anode very much. And this surprise at the end, squeeee!

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resolves some stuff leftover from More Than Meets the Eye and launches a new direction.

[Kavinay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consistently the best comic, let alone TF comic, around.

[Eko Prasetyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent continuation of The More than Meets The Eye series of book.

[shyann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rib Breaking humour, Plot Twists, Adventure and Action! :D Brilliant Crisp High Five! :D Brilliant Review to Come! :D

[Ray Perdue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Robert John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice follow up. Now I need to read "More than meets the eye"

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss Milne. And I wish Roberts had more time.

[Critter Readz]

ny gorls

[B.J. Fantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standout issues: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

[brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

not a huge fan of the plot but I got distracted by the ending and seeing the characters again in a new series

[EMMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

again there’s 1 billion volumes so i’m not listing them all. satisfying end to lost light crew for sure.

[Cecil · Rating 5 out of 5]

got into it for swerve
staying for rly sick art-ive never touched any transformers stuff before

[বোন রোদ · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.4/10

Had Lost Light followed any other story I’ve ever read—except perhaps The Honeys by Ryan La Sala—9.4/10 would have garnered LL a raving review, pouring over everything it did well. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Unfortunately, it had quite enormously large shoes to fill—and clear in the rating I have given it which is almost half of MTMTE’s, it didn’t quite manage.

Now, does this by any metric make it bad? No, don’t be ridiculous. It’s still, as of writing this review, the fourth-best piece on Goodreads I have ever reviewed. Of 66. So, pretty good. Furthermore, it reached such heights despite being less than half the length of its predecessor. No, I can’t say in good conscience that LL was bad, because in many respects, it was absolutely fantastic.

But here’s the thing: everything that made LL fantastic can be found in spades in MTMTE. And although LL improved on MTMTE in regards to dropping any remaining affinity for filler, in almost every other respect, it’s a slight step down. I cried four times, yes, but all but one of those instances occurred in the last three issues, and of course I’d find it easier to cry then—endings always make that easier. The annoying thing is how LL clearly had the bones of something amazing, of a story worthy of being MTMTE’s successor, but I suspect the imminent end of the IDW continuity forced James Roberts to have to expedite the story, which certainly made it suffer. Reveals and developments that in MTMTE would’ve been drip-fed to the reader until something came along that made us gasp in shock, are in LL spoon-fed and blatantly exposed for the benefit of efficiency. I understand why James Roberts did so—I understand certainly that he likely had no choice—but that does not stop LL from simply being worse. Unfortunately, tragically worse than MTMTE. This led to a 25-issue comic with no reveals that truly shocked me (even if they were completely unforeseen), in a spread that was so dense with reveals it practically outshone the entirety of MTMTE preceding it. I’m quite sure that there had been at least one such shocking instance by issue 25 of MTMTE, if not two, if we were to compare.

One thing that I do appreciate about LL is that it’s the end. Not, of course, to say I’m glad of the end, but rather that it gave us the opportunity to see how it all finishes: the plot, yes, but also, the characters. Because even if the character development is slightly sped up in LL—to the point that with some relationships, I can’t help but feel like they were expedited out of fanservice (looking at you, Brainstorm and Perceptor)—it was still fantastic. Seeing these characters at their most mature, at their best. It was cathartic.

And I don’t know how to end this review, because I have loved James Roberts’ writing so ridiculously, undeniably much, but know this: issue 25 of LL is so fantastic, so nostalgically maestro-James-Roberts, that is to say JR at his best, that it would be worth reading the preceding 24 issues even if they weren’t still some of the best-written media I have read so far. It finishes in a way I dare not spoil, one that is so very MTMTE, so very James Roberts, so very perfect. Where MTMTE stumbled after its final bow, LL ties the whole series up so expertly that in and of itself, #25 is a masterpiece. (Half the times I cried throughout LL were in issue 25.)

So now, onwards and upwards:

I hope to read your writings again, James Roberts. Reading them so far has been a pleasure.

[Carola · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023: 5 stars

2022: 4 stars