Lost Light discussion

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Unicron
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Post by Unicron »

inflatable dalek wrote:One thought I had when discussing it with my Podcast Maximus pals: Orion Pax is somewhere out there in this timeline as well...
Maybe. It's possible he could have been offed in one of the recalls, or he went down trying to defend the Senate.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Might have asked this before but do we know how long the alt-universe arc is projected to last? Presumably a TPB worth?
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Post by inflatable dalek »

It's a six part story.
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Lost Light #4

Post by Auntie Slag »

DON'T THINK I'VE SPOILED ANYTHING, HOPEFULLY NOT!

Wow, am I really the first person to get this issue? Well, um I like it, but its not really moved anything on, just set up yet more tenderhooks. The art guy is doing a good job of replicating Milne, but I can’t accept his depictions of the Functionist council. Remember the cover to #33 or whenever it was? It was the one with a Functionist face on the front, holding a sickle and it was sinister as hell. I loved it. I wish Milne could do the last two episodes of this story, just in case the Council don’t appear again.

Apart from that, the new artist is pretty cool. He’s really nailing Whirl’s expressions but I think the colourist is struggling with all the detail. Was it Josh Burcham who did all the colouring previously? He was able to take the most complex Milne-drawn scene and still make it easily distinguishable, but here I find they get easily muddied & confused e.g. top of page three where Cyclonus and Whirl are battling Killmaster; it was tricky to make out what was going on, or picking out Whirl’s spiky body in the background!

I’m wracking my brain a little as to why certain characters are on the away team who haven’t contributed anything yet (Chromedome, Roller, Terminus) but there’s still a couple of issues left so it could all get painfully bloody. Can’t help but wonder if they’ll find paralell-universe Trailbreaker and nab him.

I've never found Rodimus annoying before, however this time he's a little prick. But... it's probably his arrogance that has brought things to a head.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I did read it, but was burning to rush to finish a short story before the end of the submission deadline and as such never got chance to say very much...

I like it. I think this issue shifted to me liking the Necroworld stuff more than the Functionalist stuff (oh Whirl), but overall it's ticking along nicely, even if I thought Rodimus was a bit too OTT in his bitchiness.
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Post by Blitzwing »

I think some people's predictions of Megatron staying behind in the Functionist Universe might actually come true. If so, I really want to see a mini (or ongoing) of him leading the uprising against them.
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Post by Denyer »

Ace Rimmer Megatron?

Still holding off on this until it's collected, but that would be one way out of Megatron retaining the character progression -- darkening in another universe, and when eventually snatched back to the "real" one by another writer it's a Chris Claremont job.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

This isn't linked to the current issue, but Skids popped into my head; he never mentioned to anyone about what he saw on the other side of Tyrest's portal.

Don't you think EVERYONE would have been dying to know? Skids was the only one to go through, and did he do more things there than we know? There was the panel where he spoke to the glowing orb, but that was just one panel. As a super learner he may have figured out what it was saying, duplicated himself in the event of death and reinstalled their printer software.

Because he's good like that. Of all the transformers I'd want to reinitialise my printer software (pre-2006) it'd be Skids. Skids, or Perceptor, or Mainframe, or Wheeljack or Beak.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Skids talked about what he saw during Megatron's class in issue 50 (when he recognises one of the symbols), and presumsbly mentioned it off-page prior to this as no one seems surprised he saw weird shit.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Ah ok, fair enough.

And we still don't know who Tyrest's boss is, or why the Portal only lets certain people through, or what combiner team Ambulant belonged to, or how much Grimlock knows, or who crashed the Symbol ship. Is it normal to wait years for the answers to clues in a monthly comic?
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Post by Gouki »

Auntie Slag wrote:Ah ok, fair enough.

And we still don't know who Tyrest's boss is, or why the Portal only lets certain people through, or what combiner team Ambulant belonged to, or how much Grimlock knows, or who crashed the Symbol ship. Is it normal to wait years for the answers to clues in a monthly comic?
Hell, I'm still waiting for some answers to clues and resolutions to subplots from Claremont first and second Uncanny runs.
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Post by Auntie Slag »

I wonder if this would all be much easier if it was on a weekly release schedule like the old Marvel comics?

Are we way behind where we should be? This is a monthly title but it seems to keep dropping back and back every time. And when the hell is Milne coming back?He is coming back I hope or have IDW been utter dicks to him?
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Post by Unicron »

Auntie Slag wrote:Are we way behind where we should be? This is a monthly title but it seems to keep dropping back and back every time. And when the hell is Milne coming back?He is coming back I hope or have IDW been utter dicks to him?
Last I'd heard, Milne was doing the arc after the current 6-issue arc is over. No idea if that's still the plan though
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Post by Auntie Slag »

I hope that's the case. No offence to Jack Lawrence, he's really come on and adapted pretty well to the Milne style; but he's still too cutesy. The final panel of this issue had Whirl looking rather evil and it just made me pine for Milne all the more.

The comic needs that simmering edge of evil that Milne could always brew up; when you turn the page you knew there could be a real threat your favourite character was about to have his head split in half with maximum gory detail. That issue when Overlord was running rampant about the Lost Light? Every page turn was a shaky fretful one.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Milne doesn't seem to be coming back (oddly IDW never officially claimed he would be, that was James. Presumably after some sort of reassurance from higher up that he could make that claim, but there's clearly been some editorial backtracking that's wound up making things look a mess), he's not on the solicitations for issue 7.

Instead he's doing Transformers Vs. Rom. Yay?
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Lost Light #5

Post by Auntie Slag »

I'm first to read this again? Have I been zapped into an alternate universe?

Well I'm not going to go all spoilerific, so I'll just air a general whiffiness that I don't like about this comic anymore; how can someone get utterly trashed and be perfectly fine the next issue? (unless you're Ambulon or Pipes).

When Sunder turned people like Thunderclash and Rodimus inside out, there was never any repercussions! Fair enough that we haven't seen Thunderclash lately, but Rodimus certainly seems to be his same old arrogant self. Cyclonus has spent the last issue or two missing an arm and half his torso, yet he was able to get the better of Killmaster? How inept is everyone else in the Transformers universe?

There's no point Cyclonus getting torn apart or shot to hell, or someone being turned inside out if it doesn't affect them. Prime's been killed dozens of times over the years and it usually winds him up!

I like Whirl, Ratchet Chromedome and Rewind, because when they get beaten up or suffer terribly it becomes part of their personality. Whether that's being a sarcastic, black-hearted murderer or a grouchy, cynical but well meaning Doctor. Everyone else may as well have received a late library notice for all the trauma they seem to endure.

And the Legislators. Do they come in various sizes? When Skids first encountered them they were giants. During 'Remain in Light' they'd dropped a few sizes and now Ten is sometimes larger, sometimes smaller than Magnus.

And this issue; it doesn't grip me like an episode from Slaughterhouse or Elegant Chaos. I guess they can't all do that, but he does his usual trick of answering one burning question in a roundabout sort of way, and then setting up about five more!
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Post by inflatable dalek »

My first thought on reading the issue was "Nice", and indeed, there's a lot of nice scenes here. Nightbeat and Rung; Ratchet taking no shit, Megatron and Terminus discussing the former's fate, Brainstorm being a cheeky bugger and so on.

I'm still not sure about the actual overall plots though. Especially I'm not sure why Rodimus is being such a dick in refusing to help. It seems at odds with his "Do the right thing no matter what" decision in Dying of the Light (which was after he lost the Lost Light, so it's not going after Getaway that's driving him) and feels like a backwards step for him.

There's also a sense that the A and B plots are out of sync, notably not getting follow up on Cyclonus and Tailgate here feels like it's being shoved back an issue so there's something to happen on Necroworld in issue 6. And is it me, or does it feel like no one care Tailgate is randomly attacking people?

A lot is really going to depend on next month and how it hits these points on the head. A lot of the things that seem to be revealed here were guessed months ago, obviously the more you read of any author the better you'll know their style and can guess these things, but hopefully Lug not being real or Megatron staying won't be as obvious as they seem here. Some big left turns would be nice.

So that leaves this as a transitory issue that's hard to judge without the full context of the conclusion. Hopefully it will be elevated in retrospect (certainly whatever niggles I had with Dying of the Light pretty much vanished upon reading in trade).

Artwise it's odd, I like Lawrence's expressions (Ratchet and Nightbeat especially) and his action is generally fine. But a lot feels rushed (IDW seem to be having trouble staying on schedule at the moment, which may or may not have something to do with it), and I think that hurts the story in places. Notably Cyclonus looking a lot better when the docs have only just gotten to Fangry, but the ending falls a bit flat as well, feeling like two characters posing rather than something more dangerous. I think Rung is supposed to be a lot more mental than he's coming across visually as well.

At the moment though this is pretty firmly average (which is generally pretty...well, nice by most standards). Of course, season 2 took a few issues to get in to the groove after Dark Cybertron (and also read much better second time around), though that had the advantage of a shorter opening story.

(on the Milne-phant in the room, he did an interview with Transmissions a few weeks ago that was actually fairly cheerful--even if brunt in saying IDW don't care about the artists--and clarifies a few things. Notably, and thankfully as the way it was handled at the time made it seem very dickish, he did know Lawrence would be coming on the book as an alternate artist before it was announced. It was just the batting order that surprised him.

We've also not quite passed the point of no return for him as he was told--though this has yet to become an offer so it is still up in the air--he'd be on LL after finishing TF V Rom. He's fairly sanguine about the whole thing though.

It does seem IDW were keen to shake up the art on both books, even if Griffith was keen to move on anyway. Which should kill the "Roberts got Milne sacked for his mate!" thing I've seen a few times in different places. Even if it does leave the hopefully erroneous impression they wanted to swap the established artists for ones with less pro-experience they could pay less.)
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Post by Auntie Slag »

Lawrence is good as a TF artist, but his visuals don't have the bite this story needs. The Functionist Council should be scaring the living shite out of eight year old me, but only with Milne's art. How downright scary and dangerous Alex made the DJD and Overlord look. They conveyed weight, muscle and powerful menace, it was pretty awesome and really sold them as new characters.

I hope Milne does come back when its time for someone vital to get their head royally kicked in, and then continue drawing for the Lost Light.
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Lost Light #6

Post by Denyer »

Got caught up since the previous issues are cheap on Amazon/Comixology.

It's alright, I suppose. Certainly reads better as an arc than monthly parts, and on the technical side I quite like the panel by panel flow the Comixology offers as an optional reading mode but being able to use CBZ files with choice of reader is a much bigger plus.

Not digging the continued Transformers-does-superpowers thing with Tailgate, giant Rung, etc. The council combining into a key and that being subverted with their agenda being undermined through being unnecessary was a neat idea, though.

Did I miss there being a decent, non-whimsical reason for Rodimus being purple?
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Post by Unicron »

Denyer wrote:Did I miss there being a decent, non-whimsical reason for Rodimus being purple?
I think it's mentioned in issue 1. It's a spectralism thing, or whatever the name of Drift's religion is. It's an outward sign of grief and that he intends to kill Getaway.
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