The Energon Pub

[Kurona]

I don't know where else to put this; but James Roberts has not just heard of the German Transformers magazines, has not just read them; he owns them. I now fully expect Getaway to call Hosehead Horsehead.

[Va'al]

Issue #6 is out this Wednesday, and we have yet to see a preview for issue #7, but the iTunes page for IDW Transformers: Lost Light #8 is up and running - sans three-page preview - and showing off the Nick Roche / Josh Burcham variant cover featuring Nautica and Anode on what seems to be an organic alien planet. Check it out below (via Roche and Burcham on Twitter)!

THE HUNT IS ON! Ever lost something and spent forever looking for it? Try visiting Troja Major, the lost property capital of the universe. Just bear in mind that it's better known by another name: the Howling Town. And the Autobots are about to find out why.

[Kurona]

Man, it's rare we get to see so many non-human organics. This should be fun...

[Randomhero]

It's always great to see more art from Nick but his Nautica has and will always be fugly as hell.

[ScottyP]

[Bounti76]

Maybe I need to go back and reread the entire arc, but that ending just screamed "COPOUT!!" to me. Of course Megatron won't face justice in his home universe! That would end his character development!. Though, while typing that, I realized that it's probably why it was done. Still, I saw he and Terminus staying in the Functionist Universe coming from an alternate universe away.

Second question/point/discussion starter: Will Anode's resurrecting Lug mean that we're going to get a lot of dead characters back? Because while that's tempting to want to bring Skids and others back, it would COMPLETELY negate the emotional impact of their deaths.

[Bounti76]

Also, just commenting on the link to the news story near the end of the review.......I thought neither profitability nor popularity was the issue with TAAO- Scott said that issue 12 was the profitability point and that it was the higher-ups at IDW who asked her to do a new story and she said no because she didn't want to write something that her heart wasn't into. But I'll continue that in the TAAO thread

[Va'al]

Maybe I need to go back and reread the entire arc, but that ending just screamed "COPOUT!!" to me.

See, the first reaction I had with ScottyP as we discussed the review was: Now *that* is an ending. Much like you, I also expected Megatron to not make it out of the Functionist universe, though not like this, admittedly. I also agree that the 'facing justice' point may be developed further, given the cover for next issue, featuring Megatron and Ultra Magnus parting ways with a handshake. Whatever that may mean.


As for your second point - I agree. A lot.

[Kurona]

MTMTE is back.

That's all I could think when I finished this issue. It's been a very bumpy ride to get here, and as Scotty notes there's certainly a fair share of negatives; but this is where I feel my favourite comic can once again take the throne. It's funny - right as TAAO's announced to be ending, Lost Light gets good again. There's some sort of conspiracy in there...

[Randomhero]

I hated it. There's no other way to put it. I hated this story and disliked this entire issue. Only thing I walked with after finishing it was "well he's not staying there that's for sure."

Like last issue I said the was a whole series convenient coincidences and that honestly should be the title of the trade. I found the entirety extremely weak and not a good first story to this relaunch.


Great art from jack. I'll give it that.

Now to wait and see how Roberts juggles dealing with the fact that this story is over 5 months behind the regular continuity of everything else and see how that pans out.

[Randomhero]

MTMTE is back.

That's all I could think when I finished this issue. It's been a very bumpy ride to get here, and as Scotty notes there's certainly a fair share of negatives; but this is where I feel my favourite comic can once again take the throne. It's funny - right as TAAO's announced to be ending, Lost Light gets good again. There's some sort of conspiracy in there...

What I thought at the end was "okay? So what the hell was the point of introducing functionalist-verse Annode?" She did absolutely nothing! Her contribution to that part of the story was utterly meaningless. Clicker did more! A laser pointer was more valuable

[Kurona]

Clicker did more! A laser pointer was more valuable

That's a little bit functionist

[ScottyP]

I just really enjoyed that Glitch is one of the bots sitting around listening to Megatron at the end. It made me laugh!

[william-james88]

I just really enjoyed that Glitch is one of the bots sitting around listening to Megatron at the end. It made me laugh!

Yeah, I caught that too, it was really neat!

[Randomhero]

I just really enjoyed that Glitch is one of the bots sitting around listening to Megatron at the end. It made me laugh!

That April fools joke of autobot Kultur might happen after all

[william-james88]

I really look forward to this issue, and I am curious about the twists it holds. The one thing I wanted to say is that while I like how Lawrence draws some characters, there are exagerations from him that bug the hell out of me. Like Chromedome's wheels. Yeesh, those things are enormous and they are very distracting and hard to take the script seriously whenever Chromedome appears. Thats my main beef.

[Cyhwuhx]

Maybe I need to go back and reread the entire arc, but that ending just screamed "COPOUT!!" to me. Of course Megatron won't face justice in his home universe! That would end his character development!. Though, while typing that, I realized that it's probably why it was done. Still, I saw he and Terminus staying in the Functionist Universe coming from an alternate universe away.

Second question/point/discussion starter: Will Anode's resurrecting Lug mean that we're going to get a lot of dead characters back? Because while that's tempting to want to bring Skids and others back, it would COMPLETELY negate the emotional impact of their deaths.

Considering Rung's "ability", it seems we now have an entire Necroworld full of bots waiting to be re-contructed cold. But since the Necrobot himself is out, this will probably mean only bots that got the rite.

[pie-man]

A little heart-wrenching & melancholic.... I've really gotten to love the character of Megatron and I'm kinda sad.

That being said, with TAAO being canceled, I wonder if we'd get a new monthly title featuring Megatron, Terminus and alternate-Rung, Anode (& possibly Orion Pax) set in Functionist Cybertron. I think there are some great stories that can be told from that Universe.

And heck, considering its been nearly a year (?) since we heard about Prowl, Red Alert & Fort Max on Luna 2... I don't want to wait that long between issues to find out what Megs has been upto.

[Rodimus Prime]

Throughout IDW (and even the entire Aligned Universe) we read about how Megatron led a revolution "way back then." Him organizing an uprising in the Functionist Universe might be a way of us getting to see him actually doing it in present time? (I haven't read any of LL yet, I'm just going on the tidbits of info I catch now and then. I'm waiting for the TPB so I can read the whole story all at once. It makes Roberts' sub-par writing a bit easier to tolerate.)

[Kurona]

In retrospect this scene takes on very different meaning. God damn it.

[ScottyP]

I'm waiting for the TPB so I can read the whole story all at once.

I sat down and re-read LL 1-6 last night and I completely recommend taking them in during one sitting.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I'm sort of with Randomhero on this. I felt it was subpar, and even though I liked the Megatron stuff, that is about the only bit that really felt good. I would personally give the overall arc a 2.5 out of 5. It didn't feel good, it felt flat, and I agree with lots of the points brought up about Anode. That just should not have happened. would have removed a bad character, freed up more pages to deal with things that needed more pages, and would also remove the whole "Rung can make crystals, Anode can fashion them, baboom, entire race resurrected" idea (not that it will happen)

[ricemazter]

MTMTE is back.

That's all I could think when I finished this issue. It's been a very bumpy ride to get here, and as Scotty notes there's certainly a fair share of negatives; but this is where I feel my favourite comic can once again take the throne. It's funny - right as TAAO's announced to be ending, Lost Light gets good again. There's some sort of conspiracy in there...

What I thought at the end was "okay? So what the hell was the point of introducing functionalist-verse Annode?" She did absolutely nothing! Her contribution to that part of the story was utterly meaningless. Clicker did more! A laser pointer was more valuable

As far as I can tell, functionist Anode is in the story because almost all of her character development takes place away from arc's action. Roberts needs to introduce this new character, tell the audience what she's all about, and introduce her emotional baggage, but he can't integrate her into the main plot because she wouldn't have anything to do in the functionist universe. So, he places an alternate version of her in the functionist universe (the arc's A-story), so that the time devoted to her in the B-story doesn't seem out of place. In my opinion, it doesn't work.

Overall, I found this arc to be pretty sub-par. It definitely feels like the entire point of the functionist universe was to get Megatron off the crew of the Lost Light (which I totally called), while setting up a ton of potential B-stories, only one of which is resolved during this arc. One weird thing I've noticed about Robert's writing: he makes it very obvious what exactly he wants to do in structuring a story and then sometimes bends the plot over backwards to make that happen.

[Rodimus Prime]

I'm waiting for the TPB so I can read the whole story all at once.

I sat down and re-read LL 1-6 last night and I completely recommend taking them in during one sitting.

Yeah, I learned this lesson with "Dying of the Light." I read them individually, and kept thinking "WTF? This sux!" until I got to the showdown with Tarn and Megatron, but then I got the TPB and read it all at once and it went much better. Roberts is still very overrated IMO.

[william-james88]

I am reading back on stories I missed and one of them was when the lost lighters were chasing brainstorm through time.

I am really confused by this scene below where Cyclonus kicks Tailgate out of the blue. Why does he do that?