Roberts specifically rejected the idea that sparks determine gender (remember that issue where Nautica had an estriol-positive sparktype, which was changed to something else in the trade because he didn't like the implication of biological essentialism?).

 

Plot twist: Nautica succeeds in bringing Skids back, but he comes back as Skids from ROTF. "Yo yo wazzup my wiggers?"

Forcing Nautica to put him out of the world's misery via Old Yeller.

 

He has, but we haven't gotten an in-fiction explanation of how Cybertronias receive assigned genders at birth (e.g., Windblade, Chromia, Nautica, etc.). I personally believe/would like to see that sparks are "estriol-sensitive" rather than "estriol-positive." This would correlate much better with how gender develops in human brains during gestation and also permit there to be trans* Cybertronians whose body doesn't correspond with their spark's gender.

I feel like their was an implication in Ex-RID/OP that either Nova (or maybe the Functionists?) had tried to eliminate gender from Cybertronian race during his/their reign. Having gender be inherent to spark-type, but not necessarily corresponding to a biological construct would create the ability for there to be true trans* Cybertronians. If sparks are precious and you don't want females in the race anymore, I would think you just start shoving them in male bodies. That is a pretty good analogy to how being trans* works in humans.

 

I know it's just human nature to seek out explanations, but IMHO, sometimes it might be nice to not have an explanation for everything in a fictional work.

 

Honestly? I'm just bored of LL. Too much time concentrating on inconsequential characters - many of whom don't have toys, which seems pretty pointless to me - not particularly gripping, decidedly convoluted, plots and that chibi-styled artwork all serve to turn me off. I think what I'll be doing from now on is buying the comics, piling them in the corner and not reading them until I've got a good run. May be more enjoyable read that way.

 

Yeah, like how it is in Twin Peaks or the Sopranos.

 

That's kind of what I've always done...I wait for the TPB's to be released.

 

Yea, arc-reading can often be more fun.

 

Given what his mental state was when he died, I'm not sure bringing him back, most of all just from his brain, is the most sensible course of action in-universe. Yeah, I know, Nautica bonded with him and may be making poor, grief-fueled decisions, but still.

 

Hmm, narratively there was a lot unresolved for Skids when he died. But then death isn't meant to be neat.

 

I've only read the summary and here are my quick impressions.

Anode and Lug: Still don't care. I want to but I keep wondering what they add to the story and the answer is nothing. Their arc when the book started was personal drama and it just continues here. If these two were in another spin off like the Drift series that led into Lost Light later on I'd be more accepting of them. As of now they're just a nuisance.

The "changing gender" thing: I really hope this isn't social commentary leaking into the comics. It doesn't work for Marvel, it won't work for DC (Batman: The White Knight), and it just doesnt fit for transformers. If it isn't then okay. I'd go further into this but talking about Transformers and gender is a never ending debate.

Skids: No. Just no. Keep him dead. Nautica, I'm sorry for your loss but its best to move on. You got Velocity and the other Lost Lighters as new friends. Focusing on what you lost isnt good for you.

The entire comic: Anyone else see this as filler?

 

I rarely talk on these comic boards because wow people can be aggressive here, but for once I wanted to share my opinion

I like Lost Light, and I still enjoy it regardless of changes or what characters are being focused on. Sure Lug and Anode aren't that developed yet, but can we just be happy that at least we are getting new characters? I get so tired of reading the same group of characters all the time, I like it when something fresh is introduced. Whether you love it or hate it, at least Lost Light tries something different from the countless repetitive transformers stories. That's one of the things I've always enjoyed from James Roberts. Also, I would like to say as a personal anecdote, a few of my friends who were never big transformers fans love James Roberts comics, but still find normal transformers not to their taste. This comic makes me happy because it gives me something to introduce to non fans so they can get excited about the fandom too.

Tldr I like that the book at least tries new things rather than being repetitive and my non fandom friends love it

I respect everyone's opinions and hope you also respect mine

 

Maybe we'll get a Dark Glass sort of story for Skids. Nautica tries and ultimately fails to bring him back, and makes peace with his death, much like Rattrap and Dinobot. One of the covers for this issue gave me that vibe. Skids' "ghost" can only sadly watch as Nautica continues to grieve.

Thank you!

I did love that! Especially putting them in Animated designs.

I've noticed that too. Tumblr in particular is almost nothing but positivity about all the stuff.

Cold blooded.    

 

Peter Parker isn't gay though. Heterosexuals still exist in the real world and there's nothing wrong with that. I would strongly object if Marvel decided that Peter had always been gay and was living a lie all his life. Not because I'm against heroes coming out as homosexual but Peter has proven time and time again that he is 100% straight. There have never been any closed doors when it comes to the life of Peter Parker, and I wouldn't care for a "in this alternate reality/continuity/media, he is gay" re-imagining.

I am okay with Sam Wilson being Captain America. Captain America is a title and a costume, not an actual person. Steve Rogers is still around and still himself (I still need to read the end of his Hydra brainwashing story though). It's not as if they suddenly made Steve Rogers black. I've not read any female Thor comics, but I imagine it works in continuity. I'm guessing it's like the new Doctor in Doctor Who being female.

One movie I do want to see is a team-up of Miles Morales and Peter Parker's daughter May Parker. A black Spider-Man and a female Spider-Man fighting villains side by side. Peter would still be around as the experienced mentor but he wouldn't be the main character.

 

Same here to be honest. In the movies, they have outs for Thor and Iron Man to be recast without anyone blinking really. Thor, have him be trapped within Donald Blake or Eric Masterson, and you have two recasts there nobody would really mind, and explain why he changes appearance. Iron Man, just have Tony "die" but transfer his consciousness into an AI. It lets RDJ continue to play the part in voice, and use CGI to create a holo Tony so he doesn't have to really do much.

As far as Skids, I'm mixed. Part of me wants to see him come back, but changed, and the other part doesn't want to see his death wasted. Of course, we could end up with a twist like it comes back, they think he's Skids because he has the memories (brain afterall), but ends up being like most people expected Rewind 2 to be, something darker in disguise. "Skids" plays on Nautica, uses her to get into the crew, and suddenly reveals he's an agent of Unicron or something similar.

In regard to Arcee, something I was thinking is her violence, she claims it was because of new input of senses. What if she was going to be one of the bots Jhiaxus merged into Monstructor, but something went wrong? That would explain why she was extremely violent (going to be merged into the monster), and why she had conflicting and new input (prepared for combination, but never actually combined). I don't want to end up in fighting again, I left here for about a year for being blamed for being sexist when explaining why I thought Nautica wouldn't survive when she first came out, so yeah.

 

Well, since the Tumblr crowd has been brought up, let's think about this. Mtmte/LL has been very popular with that demographic, as has its connected politics. I expect that this issue will be super popular with them, and good. Glad Transformers is doing something for people still. Is it bringing new life into the fandom or catering to some within the fandom? Possibly. There's an issue with this, though. There's been a drop in sales. Now, though some of this can be attributed to digital sales not being presented, or TPBs, there's still a huge portion of comic readers just not buying the issue in general, let alone for a lower price. Surely if there was a largely untapped market in creating politicized Transformers comics, we'd be looking at insane sales.

But we're not.

IDW Transformers comics are suffering from the same issue Marvel comics are suffering from. Both are decreasing the quality of their writing, both are drastically changing their subject matter, both are attempting to bring in heavily political concepts, and both are taking huge losses in sales.

 

I think it's absurd we're talking about transgender people and calling them "political concepts."

 

There are a ton of problems with this.

The declining sales tracks closely with the expected drop off for ongoings that have lasted this long with the same direction. Optimus prime has a virtually identical decline.

As you mentioned, those sales are only the diamond issue sale numbers. Both the trades and digital sales are not reflected in those numbers, and those are the way younger crowds prefer and are directed towards.

And most importantly: not doing the right thing just because angry fans MIGHT stop buying is terrible reasoning.

 

I've always thought of myself more as an eristic argument than a political concept.  

 

I noted the TPB and digitals in my post, and it's the same excuse made by Marvel. People would still be buying the comic if it was interesting, but it isn't right now. "Doing the right thing" is not spending a page telling us about a plane robot's preferred gender. It's called destroying interest.

That's just a platitude. You are simplifying an issue in a way that destroys discussion.