Transformers: 15 Reasons Lost Light Is The Greatest Story In The Franchise

Do you agree or disagree with this list, and what do you agree/disagree with?

 

Very nice read!

This was a pretty accurate list, and I think it's well put together overall. Really enjoyed reading through that.

 

I strongly agree with reasons #13, 12, 9, 4, and 1.

Most of the others are just opinion or taste, although I strongly disagree with #2. I also strongly disagree with the 4th wall-breaking. I find that British absurdist stuff irritating and self-indulgent. And unfortunately, that also describes some (not all) of the humor.

I think the list is a bunch of reasons MTMTE/LL is worth reading. And it really is worth reading. However, I do not agree the list makes the comic "the Greatest Story in the Franchise." Not even close.

 

Very good read, hits all the highlights I'd give about MTMTE to a curious reader. Those are all things I like about the book and why I love it.

 

I agree for the most part.
Only i was looking for my beloved Mindwipe and Barrage in the 80's while toys of thowaway characters like Starscream where pegwarming on the shelves  

 

I agree. It's definately the best. I'll tell you why I think so.

As a little girl I was never into the girly shows, so TF was for me. I was always a TF fan, but as I grew up, I found it difficult to find anything to do with TF (This was long before Beast Wars, TFP, etc etc.) I was born in 1974 so I grew up with the original cartoon.

From time to time I would visit the old cartoon, but needless to say, as I got older, it became harder to get into, because it was silly, childish and didn't make a lot of sense. As I became an adult, I had adult questions. WHY did the war start? Couldn't anyone stop it before it got out of hand? Why were people following Megatron who wanted to destroy everything? Still keeping fond memories, I grew older. Beasties (Canadian version of Beast Wars) came on, and I watched and enjoyed that, but it still left me wanting more on the LORE.

Fast forward to 2013. I was working as an alectrician apprentice on a job site out in the middle of nowhere, I was downloading some Sandman graphic novels from Comixology to read, when I saw an add for mtmte #5.

"What the hell? Is that RATCHET? Why is he MELTING!?"

I downloaded the comic, and read it, and holy hell. THIS was what I wanted. Mature, hard-hitting, Transformers that weren't cutesy or adorable. Pharma was a real piece of work, Ratchet was bitter but still very loyal to his profession. There was a plague. A messy plague.

I was hooked.

The art was unbelievable. I could (and did) spend a lot of time just looking at the artwork, seeing how it all fit together. All the little gears and cogs in joints, the way the hands were put together. The way the faces worked. Milne drew them like real people, real mechanical organisms, not blocky robots that probably couldn't get out of their own way. They were sleek and stylish and beautiful. And I loved the little touches, like drunk 'bots in the background of Swerve's, or 'bots eating what look like energon chips.

And the world! There were religions and conflicting ideas and thoughts, betrayal and people refusing to accept people who changed ideologies.

The hook was only driven in deeper when I read the death of Pipes. It was so real (as odd as that sounds). The death was pointless, horrible and painful. Watching a nice guy who never wanted to hurt anyone, who literally just survived being rusted to death, get stomped on by Overlord for no real reason other than that it was fun hit deep. And watching him crawl to the alarm button to alert the others as his brain shut down and his spark fell out hurt. It hurt a LOT.

When people see me reading mtmte (and now LL) and they ask me why I'm reading Transformers, I always say, "This isn't your little brother's Transformers. This is almost Game of Thrones with robots."

That's why I feel MTMTE/LL is the best Transformers franchise out there.

/ end gushing

 

what franchise? IDW universe or TF as a whole, if it's the IDW universe meh that's their opinion, if it's TF as a whole they are out of their minds

 

There's only one franchise: Transformers. IDW don't control a franchise - they control a continuity.

Delighted to see you so indignant, but I'm afraid the article is right - it is still the best story told in TF lore. I don't really care for adding 'in my opinion' after that - it's the best by any measure of literary merit you try to bring to bear.

That's not to say it isn't flawed, of course, or that nothing could ever top it - or even that certain tastes won't preclude some people from enjoying it. Plenty of things to criticise, plenty of good reasons not to read it and to stick with something you prefer.

But if the Transformers franchise were entering any one long-form story into a kind of competition of the best stories from different media franchises, judged by a panel of experts, critics and regular readers, what sane person wouldn't plump for MTME/LL? What else would you even think of entering? I think Barber and Scott are on fire at the moment, but they both started out incredibly shakily. TF rime is fun but never ascends beyond cliche, Animated is inventive but ultimately a Saturday morning kids cartoon, Sunbow is about 90% laughable, Marvel is a convoluted mess, the Bay movies are hysterical nonsense ...

As to the article itself, I guess I pretty much agree with it, with the caveat that a few of the things on that list have been pushed pretty hard for a pretty long time and have begun to wear rather thin.

 

AUGH!

 

Discuss the topic -- not each other. Anyone that can't do that will be removed. Thanks.

 

I pretty much agree with nearly everything on this list. Sure some if it is opinions because it IS a list, but a lot of it is really good if not amazing. Sure the DJD may not be what others think of them now, but some of MTMTE's/Lost Light's worst is still miles better than what Marvel is doing with their comics. I highly recommended this to anyone not only a Transformers fan, but a fan of Sci-fi in general.

 

Co-signed, sir.

 

I read the first issue, surprisingly liked it, but, I mean, a lot of the reasons put here are also reasons people don't like it.

 

If this were season one MTMTE, or even the first arc of Season 2, I would agree, but MTMTE has become increasingly less interesting the longer it's been going on. Last season, it took all the visual and story queues built up over two "seasons" and tossed them into the shitter for a stupid M. Night Shyamalan-esque twist that completely devalued an entire character's story arc (Tarn) and irritated a bunch of fans. It would have been one thing if Glitch had actually had any build up character wise, but the character was featured in only a couple of panels. Look, I get the whole "nobody with a hero worship complex" thing and it had some merit, but it wasn't nearly as interesting as Tarn=Roller. That, and to make it a point of teasing Tarn's identity as some sort of super-awesome secret that was so heavily hinted as being Roller and then to pull the rug out like Roberts did was just plain bad writing. I get it, Roberts, as a fellow writer I enjoy defying expectations with my writing, but it has to be in a way that's more interesting than it would have been if you had followed a more traditional approach. Readers like surprises in the narrative, not petty tricks.
On top of that, the series has become increasingly focused on interpersonal relationship nonsense (like TailgateXCyclonus, ugggh) and has abandoned the arcs of interesting characters (The Scavengers, The LL crew, the other characters not in the functionist universe back on the planet with Lug and anode, Deathsaurus' crew...) for new characters without much of a back story (Anode, Lug, Terminus). I'm all for new characters, but he already has a ton and their stories are sitting on the shelf collecting dust. It would be one thing if the new characters he was focusing on were interesting, but with such a short page count, Anode and Lug are like finding a fly in a bowl of soup that's half-filled. I don't know if Milne designed Anode and Lug (I doubt it) but whatever Lawrence has done with them is incredibly unappealing. They don't look male, they don't look female, they don't look like they have alt modes, hell, they don't even look like robots...they look like generic cartoon characters and I do not like, which brings me to my next point.

The greatest flaw with The Lost Light is that the guy responsible for all of the great unique character designs many of us have come to love from MTMTE (Milne) is seemingly no longer working on the series and has been replaced by an artist whose cartoony style absolutely does not fit the often dark tone of the series. I was willing to forgive Roberts' overuse of red herrings, the excessive cutesy relationship stuff (even IRL that irks me, I feel like ChromedomeXRewind were enough and didn't go too overboard), I can tolerate the narrative shifting away from characters I like, but I can not stand bad art, especially when it means treating a great artist like an unwanted employee. MTMTE is basically the one-hit wonder of the IDW-verse, and has quickly become overshadowed by the work of more consistent artists on the TAAO and Optimus Prime ongoings. This is not to say that The Lost Light can't be redeemed, IDW just needs to get their heads out of their asses and put Milne back on interiors and tell Roberts to reign in his writing. MTMTE was the story with the most potential to be the greatest in the franchise, and it started out excellent, but Roberts has seemed to have tripped over his own ego, and without his trustworthy artist to fill in the gaps the flaws in his writing are really starting to show.

 

It's hard to think about how much better the first two issues of lost light would have been with milne on pencils. Hell, Brendan cahill did some terrific fill-in work, I'd be fine with him taking a larger role.

Lawrence doesn't fit. I don't mind the more cartoony style as a whole, i don't. But it isn't fitting to the storyline. That's the key here. Writer/artist synergy. The return to the functionist universe should be horrifying; under jacks pencils it's... I don't know. There? Cheery? The inking of lafuente tries, man, it tries to create mood as she always has hit the amateurish art of Lawrence fails the talent around him.

I'm not down on mtmte season 2. I enjoyed it. Season 1 was lightning in a bottle and it's hard to maintain that kind of output, so s2 being a little less down didn't bother me. Still, though, lost light has started with a stumble.

It's jarring compared to how fresh Optimus prime started and how good taao has been. Ah well.

 

TLL's greatest sin was that it was once great, and now it's decidedly mediocre. I was totally willing to ignore the frustrating last third of MTMTE Season 2 because of how excellent Megatron's arc was, but I just cannot stand that cartoony style, enough so that I've decided to drop the series until someone else takes over, preferably Milne. Roche, Sakomoto, Cahill, Zama would all be great artists for MTMTE and I'd be okay with them taking over for an arc or two, but it's just not the same without Milne, he makes up for the gaps in Roberts' writing in a way that is hard to articulate. Lawrence's art would be better suited for something...childish, the only artist at IDW I like less is Livio, and to be honest even his art would suit TLL better because of his ability to convey dreariness.

 

Mtmte does not become a success without Milne.

 

While I disagree about the writing of MTMTE ( I personally loved all of it), I agree with you about the artwork. I'm probably sounding like a broken record here, but why on earth did IDW get rid of their best artist? As you said, the Functionist Universe should be depressing and scary, and it's just...not. It's all being taken in with a visual appearance of "Meh". I never thought I'd say this, but I might end up dropping this series. I desperately want to know what happens to Rodimus et al, but the artwork is really leaving me numb.

 

Given the article is an opinion piece, I'd say, sure, he can have a valid opinion. I just think he's wrong. It's not the "best Transformers story in the franchise" and to me the reasons he listed were kind of insulting to longtime fans of the franchise. It's kind of like saying the Patriot team that just won the Super Bowl is the best ever because it's the most recent, while overlooking everything else the franchise has done in its history.

Is MtMtE currently the best Transformers title being published now? Probably. It is certainly the highest ranking Transformers comic right now, and sells the most units by several thousand, but that doesn't make it the best ever. Take that in context too, as MtMtE sells about 11,000 units in a good month (as opposed to the heyday of the Transformers when issues were shipping north of 50,000 a month (conservatively), or even The Walking Dead, which ships about 108,000 units a month and it's not even in the top ten sellers of 2016 - it's number 12). Given the book normally clocks in at around 175 (generously) each month and generates some good media buzz, I'd say MtMtE has done an excellent job bringing Transformers, which has been a fringe title for most of its existence at best, closer to center. For a casual fan, that's great, but I think fans who have a much more dedicated interest may disagree with the "GOAT" annointing.

Not to patronize anyone, but this article seems to be written by and for someone who's hasn't been following the franchise for a long time. Sure, to someone who didn't collect Transformers, or read every comic book and prose work they could find, or save the toy bios, MtMtE really shines. However, if you've really followed the franchise, or even just researched it a little, it becomes obvious the strengths listed have always been around, but that MtMtE did them more recently and without the general obscurity.

MtMtE has certainly had some great moments, and some amazing world building. However, to me, saying MtMtE is the pinnacle of a 35-ish year franchise is a little bit of a stretch. Certainly, the world building is great. Tarn? Fantastic, until his death. Rewind and Chromedome? Eh, whatever. Minimus and Hot Rod? Worst iterations of the characters, ever. Megatron's redemption? Terrible, and made me consider dropping the title because I refuse to call evil characters good.

To me that would belong to a story like "Last Stand of the Wreckers," or maybe "Matrix Quest," or perhaps "Code of Hero." Of course, those are all opinions too.