Prefer this. We DO have a precedence of a joint-Autobot/Decepticon empire fighting against third-party threats.

 

Now that I've read the issue, I'm looking forward to Nickel and the Six Idiots having adventures in Cyberutopia or wherever they've ended up.

She's been with the best, now she gets the worse.

 

Actually, if there's one thing I genuinely like about this issue, it's the teasing of Nickel hanging out with the Scavengers, who are better company than the DJD by leaps and bounds.

 

You know, I wouldn’t object to the whole Cybertronian race having to go to war with the Council and/or the BBC.

This way, people who wanted to go back to a war setting get their wish, but with an original twist.

 

The only thing that remains consistent is that she is by far the most stable and competent of the team.

I'm not sure I'd want that to be the new status quo, but a miniseries or What if? type of thing might be interesting.

 

This issue is just a mess compared to the last.

It's rare that Roberts commits such a continuity fail but he rather blatantly disregards the abilities of "Enigma" combiners that were prominently showcased in Combiner Wars in order to make a slight gag with a body that wasn't even intact the last time we saw it, years ago.

It feels like he's adding exposition to the Marvel conception of combiners (characters can only be arms or legs--you can replace a leg with a leg from another combiner--except for Mirage who isn't a combiner limb because he wasn't in Marvel lolz) as opposed to the guys who change their legs into extra arms on the fly, shapeshift their heads out of the way of killing shots, and fire their limbs through each other's torsos, and have independent personalities.

I wouldn't mind if the Protectobots got waxed (even fake-out-waxed) by a set of circumstances that was set up appropriately and counters the threat they present, but Star Saber isn't that and Getaway's big "we need to address this threat immediately" scene just seemed like an overreaction. Not to mention that we needed a whole panel of Getaway lampshading how stupid is is that he and Star Saber would trust each other for a nanosecond in the FIRST place!

We had an issue of "hug the Protectobots," a good issue, and another issue of "hug the Protectobots." Barber should have hung onto them and just given this thriller storyline to First Aid and Riptide like he clearly wanted to in the first place.

And now I don't care that they "found Cyberutopia" because it's been found by a ship of dupes, liars, and psychos.

(But my GOD how this series has wasted Perceptor.)

 

It really begs the question: you guys think Roberts will get chewed out by the top brass of IDW for the supposed nosedive in quality writing with regards to LL?

More to the point, you guys think JRob does anything like read forums like this or any other form of criticism for his writing?

 

To be fair to Roberts here if it were Rodimus' group finding Cybertopia, it would *still* be found by a ship of dupes, liars, and psychos. However the difference here was that it got found by the group of dupes, liars, and psychos that you don't like as much. =) That's part of the key of the whole LL journey from the start - it was a flawed group of nutcases that left for this in the first place (as was pointed out by the Circle of Light).

Based on what we've read about IDW recently, I think they've got bigger problems to be worried about. =) If only this was the biggest thing they had to deal with...

 

jeeeeez, everyone is so down on this issue!
super interesting that most everyone's complaints have to do with what y'all already decided was going to happen - Defensor didn't wreck the place, therefore bad issue.
I get that probably a lot of people are here for different things than i am, but really??

Personally i thought it was excellent, another great example of how Roberts confounds our expectations.
Here we were all so convinced that Getaway would be receiving some form of comeuppance, but instead he's more unhinged and unassailable than ever, AND he's reached cyberutopia.
How is that not an incredible ending?
It's such a brutal culmination! After so long with our unscathable heroes escaping harm in all manner of impossible ways, it finally feels like we have some real danger again. I love it!

 

That dasterly Thunderclash! Killing poor first-officer Atomizer like that!



Also, notice that Cybertopia's glowing? Remember the barrier that prevented Pharma's entry...?

 

Exactly what have we read about IDW? (Just so we're on the same page here.)

 

Probably a reference to this. As Egon said, print is dead.

And judging by this book, good riddance. I'm done at this point.

 

No, he just reads the circlejerk that is Tumblr and Twitter that judges literary quality under no other benchmark than how well it fits into progressivism. That's all the reinforcement that he feels he needs.

 

wow, tell us how you really feel

 

Going "oh they had their character" doesn't excuse just killing off characters for no reason. It's a cheap way to not have to deal with these characters because you can't think of anything.

TAAO wasn't canceled because of sales; it was canceled because Hasbro asked Scott to 'shake things up' and she said no, so it was canceled.

Not to get off topic, but are you saying there SHOULDN'T be progressive things in the comics?

 

Not really, because one, this forum isn't representative (and unlike what Wheeljack_prime said, those who disagree with here are not a 'circlejerk,') and two, it depends on both how sales are doing and how *others* received it.

Heck, I'll note right-here received the last two issues quite well. If I viewed this forum from a company standpoint, I'd have the view that the discussion here runs very hot-and-cold, people love it or hate it, and that should be taken into consideration.

Me? I didn't hate it, I thought it was pretty good.

 

Yes, but not the way IDW are handling it which is more modern day superheroes than the medieval magical knights of the 80s.

There's no potential to be had if there is no space or time to actually use them which we seem to be running out of. I don't want Lost Light to end any time soon, but we appear to be reaching a conclusion to the entire book going by the story.

Besides, even after an obvious on panel death, character's can still be written back into a story if and when they're needed.

 

Huh, maybe I worded that a little too hostile; I'll try to rephrase to keep from derailing further. There's a place for it, there's an appropriate extent and handling of it, but judging a comic's quality should include more than just saying "Hey a trans robobot! How inclusive! LOVE!! THE FEELZ!" and frankly this forum the only place I've seen that's really called JRoberts out on his pacing/plotting/characterization missteps. The only other way I've seen him get criticized outside this website was the whole kerfuffle about the Scavengers considering selling Grimlock and the implications it supposedly sent about out about how James may or may not view the mentally disabled.

I could be wrong (it's not like I actively look for this stuff or read a lot of online reviews in the first place), but seeing James' twitter really makes it seem like the only barometer he uses to judges his comics' reception is based on how much MTMTE/LL fanart is posted or retweeted. It really doesn't feel like he observes or responds to negative feedback.

Except sales were the reason they asked for the shakeup in the first place.

 

If it's just for the sake of progress and not with any purposes behind it.

 

Re: the tumblr crowd above...given the books current hemorrhaging of its readership, maybe Roberts targeting that readership wasn’t the best idea. Marvel ran into the same problem. Perhaps the tumblrites don’t buy comics so much as read free ones online?