It's basically the greatest Transformers fiction ever written, so by all means skip it if you're into letting other people make your decisions for you.

 

I beg to differ. I think Milne’s great (though I think Guidi is waaaay better) but Lawrence was just not capable of doing big action scenes, and the most constant notes I saw about Lawrence in this forum during his run were “he’s improving”. He’s certainly by no means the worst TF artist ever, but his art was a step down from the majority of the pencillers around at the time; I felt it overly cartoonish. (Other posters have gone into why that general style is more common now, short version being economics). Recall the final Rodimus/Getaway showdown issue done by another artist (Collier?) that was leagues above what was being produced on the regular. But Lawrence was inexpensive and a bud of Roberts so I can totally understand - he was a serviceable enough replacement for the numbers the book was doing.

 

I honestly never had a problem with a jack Lawrence's art but I definitely agree that compared to the current run that was a golden era

 

I think it's great though I wasn't fond of the comic only characters like Rung, Froid, Riptide, Lug or Anode.

I found Nautica bland and I hated Tailgate.

Loved Hot Rod, Whirl, Skids, Swerve, Cyclonus, Trailbreaker, Megatron and Ultra Magnus. Hot Rod, Whirl, Swerve and Megatron were hilarious at times.

It was all the shipping that put some people off, I think. Chromedome and Rewind were handled well. They weren't over the top and were written very well. Tailgate and Cyclonus? Ugh!!

Despite the above misgivings, both MTMTE and Lost Light are great. We're part of a fandom which is a minority in the world because most of us are adults who collect toys. There are those who frown on it but we do it because we like it, for ourselves not to please other people.

Ignore the naysayers, slag it, ignore the people who praise the comic and read it for yourself.

 

Read it. Yes it has some flaws that build up over time but it's like going from an 9/10 to a 7/10, not a total nosedive from a 10/10 to a 4/10 like some people make it out to be. I'd challenge people who think the series is the worst thing they've ever read to read some actually bottom-of-the-barrel comics, even at its worst MTMTE is still above average.

I don't mind the art in LL as much, but I will say one bad thing about Lawrence: He can't do backgrounds for shit. Just look at how the Necrobot's atrium was drawn between Dying of the Light and Dissolution, yikes.

 

I’m going to read it now

 

People literally have nothing to say in good faith about Lost Light's quality, so they dogwhistle with stuff like "it's too woke" or "it makes political statements". Those people are useful idiots at best and rank transphobes at worst. Some of the most entertaining oration in the Greek world was political or made political statements, yet you don't see these idiots complaining about Pericles' Funeral Oration.

 

I have a lot of bad things to say about LL that have nothing to do with politics.

 

Sigh.

Anyway, thought the art on LL took a nosedive, the plot was incredibly rushed, and there were a number of times where it became obvious that "we need to get from A to B, so the characters are going to act this way and the situation is going to coincidentally work this way so we can move to B", none of which I got from MTMTE, which had a brilliant season 1 and an interesting season 2 before Lost Light.

The very last couple of issues of Lost Light felt like a return to form writing-wise (definitely not art-wise), but IIRC Roberts mentioned that the majority of the last arc (save the final issue) was written when he started the book, with tweaks to accommodate for Megatron's presence. For example, the "come with me, eyebrows!" in issue 3 was always meant to be called back to at the conclusion with the knowledge of where both Skids' and Rung’s arcs would eventually end up.

 

Wait the beginning of Lost Light or the beginning of MTMTE? Where'd this information come from?

 

What I meant was that issue 3 of MTMTE (“come with me eyebrows!”) is referenced directly in one of the last issues of LL.

Roberts’ Twitter at the time talked about how when he wrote the scene in MTMTE issue 3 he knew it would be called back to during the conclusion - either an interview with him or his big Instagram AMA talked about how the ending arc was pretty much the same with some beats changed (I’ve removed what I said here so as not to spoil anything for a new reader). I’d have to look around for it but if you went through his twitter around the time of the last several LL issues that’ll shed light on it more, including him directly addressing that particular panel.

And no spoilers but it was a *wonderful* callback.  . Made me feel rewarded for reading the series from its start.

 

Even with it's problems as the run continued, I believe MTMTE, at least before the title change, is pretty essential reading if you enjoy Transformers worldbuilding. Roberts took a lot of disparate elements from the various canons and weaved them into some fascinating ideas regarding Cybertronian biology, religion, philosophy, and psychology. Not all of it necessarily gets the depth those topics deserved, but even the hints of what was there were leagues ahead of anything else in the fiction since probably Beast Wars. The character writing for the first "season" is exceptional, though it starts to slowly fall off the rails from there as Roberts seems to indulge in more of the wackier aspects that segments of the online fandom seemed to really grab onto. And I'm one of the people who genuinely enjoyed Autobot Megatron, but that's going to be an eternal war that I don't want to bother with.

 

For me it's definitely a case of diminishing returns and while there are numerous high points (and lows) through out the 3 seasons, my biggest issue was that it never felt like it stuck the landing. Great set up but the pay off was never to my tastes.

 

Lost Light seems to be getting a lot of hate on here, and I get why, because it felt rushed and spotty in places, but I would never tell someone who enjoyed MTMTE not to read it. The final issue is one of the best final issues of anything I've ever read.

 

It wasn't terrible, but after the Dark Cybertron it turned into the greatest hits parody of itself. Started eating its own tail. Prior to the Dark Cybertron it was very good.

 

They stuck the landing.

 

Read it, have fun, ignore melodramatic 30 year olds who bring a scrutiny to media on arbitrary biased basis.

 

LOL that’s a really strange comment to bring into a conversation. “Read it, have fun” and leaving it at that would have made the same point without sounding confrontational, angry, and melodramatic.

 

OP was specifically worried about investing time reading something they keep getting mixed reactions on, informing him that Transformers fans are loud angry nerds is useful in their decision making, not to mention that it is common sense accepted as reality by anyone that isn't, well, one of the melodramatic 30 year olds who brings scrutiny to media on arbitrary biased basis.

If I listened to half of what this board says I would've genuinely have passed on some very fun things, both media and toy-wise.

 

The above reads exactly like what you’re decrying. =)

Anyway it’ll be interesting to see what the OP thinks of the series.