IDW Lost Light Writer James Roberts to Take Break from Transformers

Yeah, I think transformers an myself will be taking break as well. Well, from the comics. I'm just thoroughly uninterested in starting over.

I'm 38. I'm too old for comics anyway.

I'm just too old for the inconsistency and disappointment. I honestly think that TF could use a reboot (one with an actual war going on between Bots and Con's) but with Robert's making it clear that he won't be a part of this reboot (the only reason I'm really sticking around now) I'm not sure that I'll be a part of it either.

Jro was great with MTMTE but he didn't do such a good job with LL. I stopped after too much politics was put into them. Comics are supposed to be an escape from the every day grind, if I wanted a reminder of what goes on in the news I'd watch the news. Part of me is bummed because when he wrote with people that helped him have direction like in MTMTE the comics were great! It just seems he goes too far into his own stuff without someone to tell him to ease up.

I will miss the way he did write the characters though. He made them very complex and interesting. Beyond just good guys and bad guys and that was super refreshing. I think fans will remember him most for that.

Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

Windsweeper wrote:Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Dude, we got close to 30 years of Furman. We don’t need more comics of Grimlock,Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and Scorponok.

In a sense I'm a bit upset he's not helping to shape the reboot but at the same time I think it's good he's recognising that it's time to take a break, try other things and recharge his batteries.

While some are ecstatic that he's leaving (looking at you RP ) remember he's the devil you know, he can easily be replaced with worst. Or of course he will need replaced with someone good.

Personally I think the next best writers will come from the unknowns, certainly can't see any writers leaving the big two or image to come write transformers. I mean there's a bit of stigma, with some seeing nothing more than toys hitting each other (before going back to read about a guy dressed in a bat costume beating up madmen)

@whoever mentioned the war- I think it's more than likely were going back to that period, just because that's the toyline that hasbro will be selling. I just hope theyll do something new this time round to spice up the war otherwise it'll just repeat what's already been done. That's why sometimes it's good to end the war and explore what comes after, maybe a new group of disgruntled bots and cons team up to start the generation 2 wars

Randomhero wrote:

Windsweeper wrote:Well this is disappointing. Roberts has been great these past 6 years.

Hopefully Maighread Scott, Simon Furman and Nick Roche will return.

I wish Barber was the one taking the break.

Dude, we got close to 30 years of Furman. We don’t need more comics of Grimlock,Thunderwing, Bludgeon, and Scorponok.

Don't forget Galvatron too

Personally I'd say we don't need more comics focused on Optimus Prime and Megatron, yet some people would throw a fit if that happened.

Simon Furman is to Transformers what Chris Claremont was to X-Men IE The Main name behind the world building of the series. While it would be cute to try and pitch in one of the IDW writer's names under that title, they just don't have the decades of TF experience.

That said, if they are going to a full reboot, then yes, every main writer from the previous continuity has to go. It goes hand in hand with sweeping away the canon of the books: including those who wrote them.

Full reboot means just that. Yet the bizarre idea some people have that reboot=sunbow aren't really being realistic either. Which previous TF continuity reboot exactly replicated G1, right back to 1984? Beast Wars? Car Robots? Unicron Trilogy? Dreamwave? Animated? Prime? Rescue Bots? IDWverse?

Something to think about.

heres an idea, lets welcome new writers instead of just wanting old ones that will probably just use their favorites agaan and again. thats how we got people like Scott, Roche Roberts and Barber. IDW found fans that had writing backgrounds and gave them the opportunity of a lifetime.

Exactly. Out with the old, in with the new.

Randomhero wrote:heres an idea, lets welcome new writers instead of just wanting old ones that will probably just use their favorites agaan and again. thats how we got people like Scott, Roche Roberts and Barber. IDW found fans that had writing backgrounds and gave them the opportunity of a lifetime.

I would give it a go if offered but I fear other fans wouldn't like my ideas of having all four main factions fighting it out for supremacy...I would change a lot though and that's something the fandom gets split apart on

the thing is i dont have a problem with writers staying on, leaving or taking a break. but to say that is sucks Roberts is leaving or wanting Scott back its kinda pointless when theyre not continuing or returning to the universe they have been on. its a new universe. if roberts stayed youre not gonna keepo getting Mneumosurgeon Chromdome and his spouse Rewind. youre not gonna get Cyclonus and Tailgate. no witty british Brainstorm, no atheist Ratchet bickering with zealous Drift, no DJD. i can keep going on with examples but i think you get the point.

the last thing i want is the same writers writing the same way and not doing anything new in ways. like Regeneration One. a book i loved at the start and hated by the end because it wasnt Furman ending the Marvel universe it was Furman finishing all his unused IDW stuff when they took him off the IDW-verse. Soundwave VS Blaster, thats IDW not Marvel, Omega Supreme VS monstructor, IDW, not Marvel. Scorponok using alien tech to become super smart and try and take over the cybertronain race in his image. straight what he was planning in the -ation series and Maxmum Dinobots. Evil anyti-matrix trying to consume everything. HEY GUESS WHAT? THAT WAS THE ORIGINAL PLOT OF NOVA PRIME AND THE DEAD UNIVERSE. he took all his plans from what he was working on and cramed them into regeneration one instead of giving that series a real pay off.

that is what we get when we allow Furman to continue writing transformers or anyone else. they take what they did somewhere else and shoehorn it in against whats established already. sorry i went on a tangent but its what it is and what happened when they brought back the marvel TF universe.

its going to be a new universe for a reason. yes their will be homages, references and subtle easter eggs because its transformers but its going to be all new because thats what Hasbro and IDW want, if they wanted the same stuff by the same people than the universe woudln't be closing. Im not gonna say ending because that just sounds bad. you say “ending” and people are constantly saying Unicron is killing everyone where as i think the universe will have a happy ending because thats what it deserves.

Wait, so all that stuff in reg1, that was all his unused idw ideas? I never knew that...I'd also argue that he rehashed his own g2 plot at the end of it bringing Jihaxus in.

ZeroWolf wrote:Wait, so all that stuff in reg1, that was all his unused idw ideas? I never knew that...I'd also argue that he rehashed his own g2 plot at the end of it bringing Jihaxus in.

Oh dude just look at RegenOne. It’s just filled with all his unfinished stories from when he was pulled off writing the main universe. So many plots were just jammed into RegenOne that weren’t set up from the old marvel series. The first volume with Megatron was gold but once we got Scorponok it’s all his old ideas like the stuff I mentioned with Bludgeon, Galvatron and Grimlock as icing.

He was doing it with IDW at the start too with his old unused Dreamwave stories too.

Nothing was more of a let down than when when RegenOne was announced and Furman said he finally gets to pull out his old scripts he never got to do when marvel canceled it and said these are the stories he always planned and in the final issue of RegenOne it opened with him admitting “These are not the stories I originally had’”

Yeah dude, we could tell.

Even I noticed that and I've only really read G1 through the TF part-work. The characterisations from G1 to ReG1 couldn't be any further apart. With exception to Prime and Megatron/Ratchet, who were more or less unchanged.

the biggest and most important thing i take from james leaving is that Lost Light will officially conclude. Meaning it will have an ending.

When James first announced Lost Light will go to issue 25 he also said maybe another iteration will continue after. With this news we know that this story has a conclusion. hopefully its a satisfying one. theres not too many real open plot threads left dangling that we know. From the synopsis for future issues and the latest issue we know the crew has finally met the scavengers and we know theyre either at or getting to cyberutopia and will run into the crew and getaway. we also know that they are going to come face to face with a sparkeater army which from Drifts vision means Pharma is coming back. I'm still calling it that the sparkeater army is the Lost Light crew that mutinied. Getaway sold them out and gave them to whoever for his own place in what he believes will be Primehood.

Things we dont know yet is First Aid, Riptide and Thunderclash. When will they be converging probably soon. Same with Fort Max and his team.

the big one though that hasnt come back is Tyrest. He still has a role to play and has connections with the Grand Architect and Cog faction.

Sadly i hope but i dont know is that will the crew finally make it home? will they meet back with optimus and Cybertron (or whats left)by the last issue? I hope. personally i really wanna see the this continuity end with Grimlock finally reuniting with the other Dinobots.

Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

I’m disappointed to see Roberts go but it makes sense. I hope he can tie up his story satisfyingly come September, it would definitely soften the loss. At this point I’m probably not going to check out the reboot, when it comes, unless I hear really good things. I still remain optimistic that it can be good but I’m just not interested.

Randomhero wrote:Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

You know with Unicron coming and the end of IDW I'm actually fine with Megatron staying in that alt universe, him and Terminus can be the last remnants of the current community and it could be a cool potential future story that the good Megatron crosses over with the reboot universe at some point that way we can have a good Megatron but without making the reboot Megatron have a redemption.

This is assuming Unicron wins and everyone dies.

Deadput wrote:

Randomhero wrote:Dont know about Megatron though. doesnt seem like theres room or time for him which is a huge let down but he did get his second chance thats kinda his conclusion i guess.

...ya know for someone who’s awaiting trial for the murder of billions and billions of life across the galaxy. And I love Autobot Megatron but letting him off that way wasn’t a satisfying ending to that first story of LL

You know with Unicron coming and the end of IDW I'm actually fine with Megatron staying in that alt universe, him and Terminus can be the last remnants of the current community and it could be a cool potential future story that the good Megatron crosses over with the reboot universe at some point that way we can have a good Megatron but without making the reboot Megatron have a redemption.

This is assuming Unicron wins and everyone dies.

That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

william-james88 wrote:

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

Well why read it if you expect everyone to die? That’s not good story telling in any way.

I don’t understand why anyone would think Unicron killing the entire universe would be a good way to end it. Becuase it’s ending? Comics end all the time. Almost all my favorite books have concluded in the past couple and none of them ended with the entire universe being destroyed. They just concluded.

Robert Kirkman announced he was canceling invincible and ending it in a year last year and I don’t think there was a single person around that said “Oh I hope everyone dies in that series” and it didn’t. It had an amazing ending.

IDW announces theyre ending their universe and people...crazy people are all saying “Oh I hope Unicron kills EVERYONE!’” What the Hell?

Fandom is toxic. .

I've noticed a few saying it around here, but the reasoning for that is they just want unicron to live up to his name. My own theory is that his destruction will cause a temporal event that causes this new reboot to happen (don't have all the details worked out in my head yet)

I'm a bit disappointed James Roberts will be taking a break from TFs after LL -- but he had a good run. I guess we will really see what becomes of the TF universe after Unicron....

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

How about why the F not?

Maybe we can see Unicron actually being a threat, how about we see what it's like when Unicron actually wins? (Because I remember there being mentions that some universes did end up being devoured by him, let's see what that looks like in action)

The comics do not have to end happy at all. (Plus most of the characters in IDW are douches or arrogant people so I'm not going to feel that sad seeing them all die if they do)


Regardless with it being the end a lot of people are probably going to die...otherwise IDW will end truly pathetically if the biggest Unicron we have seen yet accomplishes little.


Oh yeah didn't Regeneration 1 ended with all the Transformers eventually dying? (Sure it wasn't the end of the universe but they still all died off)

If every other character in Transformers gets their time to shine, why not Unicron? Why not end IDWverse mirroring the beginning IE Pay homage to that final battle in Stormbringer, that spread the Great War into the galaxy, but subvert it? The last stand that becomes final...

The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

bodrock wrote:I'm a bit disappointed James Roberts will be taking a break from TFs after LL -- but he had a good run. I guess we will really see what becomes of the TF universe after Unicron....

I nust read the news article myself and got depressed a bit. I like his writing and some of the new characters he's introduced, like Nickel. Is he going to finish LL? Or is someone else going to do it? I also just recently got into the IDW comics a few months ago. It seems I have a bad habit of getting into something I enjoy on the tail end, right before it's gone. It's sad. I wonder what the reboot will be like.

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The overly light-hearted tone is definitely one of the things that needs to go for the Reboot anyway.

You know, dark moments in Transformers will only ever work in sparse uses, it would be awful and depressing if the reboot becomes edgy comic garbage every issue.

There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

As long as it's not based on Cyberverse or something, and is similar in fashion to the early issues of the current IDWverse, then there's no reason for me to stop reading.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

Randomhero wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Randomhero wrote:
That’s not going to happen. That’s just a huge slap to the face to the entire 13 years of stories to just have Unicron wipe the entire thing out.

They’re gonna win and it’ll end with the last page saying “Till all are One” or something we’ve seen a million times.

I guess I no longer need to read the comic then

Well why read it if you expect everyone to die? That’s not good story telling in any way.

I don’t understand why anyone would think Unicron killing the entire universe would be a good way to end it. Becuase it’s ending? Comics end all the time. Almost all my favorite books have concluded in the past couple and none of them ended with the entire universe being destroyed. They just concluded.

Robert Kirkman announced he was canceling invincible and ending it in a year last year and I don’t think there was a single person around that said “Oh I hope everyone dies in that series” and it didn’t. It had an amazing ending.

IDW announces theyre ending their universe and people...crazy people are all saying “Oh I hope Unicron kills EVERYONE!’” What the Hell?

Fandom is toxic. .

I was just kidding around. You made the ending sound so predictable that I just had to make some sort of comment about the futility of it all. I wasnt very serious.

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

My only complaint is the half-assed treatment of the Decepticons after the -Ations. They are FIFTY percent of the Franchise. Instead we get Writers that are too busy living out their Autobot fan-fiction to care about that fact. They even go on the make entirely new factions just so they don't have to write about Decepticons.

Well hopefully the new continuity will start without "Nails" and "Colonists" and capable writers who know what they are writing for. The series is called "Transformers", which refers to both sides equally.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Deadput wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:There is always a middle ground. Between gore and guffaws. It's that plateau the Reboot needs to hit to engage with the maximum number of people.

That I agree a middle ground would be nice, not to light nor to dark.

My biggest complaint with the previous IDW universe is that almost if not every single Autobot were less moral in this incarnation and it was especially jarring with Optimus and firggen Bumblebee of all bots.

I liked the Wreckers, and the Dinobots and Prowl as a few examples of grey scale Autobots but I don't like having no one that I personally would like to root for, the closest would probably be the LL crew and even then I think they have lost their charm and became witty line machines. (The worse of this comes with Rodimus who lost good character progression so he can be the worst non evil Autobot with a leading job ever)

I would like to have good courageous Autobots next time, even if it was a small team like a Bee team or something.

My only complaint is the half-assed treatment of the Decepticons after the -Ations. They are FIFTY percent of the Franchise. Instead we get Writers that are too busy living out their Autobot fan-fiction to care about that fact. They even go on the make entirely new factions just so they don't have to write about Decepticons.

Well hopefully the new continuity will start without "Nails" and "Colonists" and capable writers who know what they are writing for. The series is called "Transformers", which refers to both sides equally.

I can almost understand why they would explore the Autobots, in that telling stories of how the good guys aren't so good can be taken a number of ways. Plus, how many Autobots were there as opposed to Decepticons?

What I would've liked to have seen (and if it isn't around, don't flame me too much - I'm still making my way through) is a colony of Autobots and Decepticons, untouched by the war, trying to live peacefully together before the factions approach them proper to get them to choose a side. Similar to when Worf came across that colony of Klingons and Romulans living together in that one episode of ST:TNG. "Fight or Flee" from G1 kinda touched on this, but it was Autobot centric.

The colonies were kind of what you describe but only because they never had those factions in the first place. I'm also glad that Nails existed as it was never made clear that the whole population was supposed to be split down the middle so it would make sense that some would choose to leave cybertron instead of joining the factions that were making life miserable. Some folks just don't want to fight, and it would have been the same then. This is made more reasonable with the Autobots acting as a separate organisation on cybertron in idw. Basically before the decepticons appeared not everyone was an Autobot anyway apart from those that choose to.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Galactic Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Wait, what?! She is leaving too?!?!?!

william-james88 wrote:

Galactic Prime wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yes! Yes! Yes! Praise Primus!

It's 2 years overdue. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

I'm kinda disappointed to see Mairghread Scott go.

I agree 100%

Wait, what?! She is leaving too?!?!?!

Yup, though it's for the best as we can get some fresh talent in, some young fans with big ideas for the series instead of just rehashing what came before.

I thought Scott was fresh talent

I will most likely stop reading as well after issue 25, unless the new direction is truly fresh/compelling. I liked the focus post-Great War and fun characterizations Roberts brought with MTMTE, so perhaps new blood could provide new TFs to love/hate (like Tarn!). Milne was another reason I loved the series, so I also wonder where he's headed....

william-james88 wrote:I thought Scott was fresh talent

I considered her as such also. TAAO was pretty good, I wish it didn't get cancelled. But IDW didn't want to print more TF books, and Primus forbid they cancel the inferior product, which was Lost Light.

I thought the sales for ll were better than taao? There is also the thing that maybe she wanted a break for now (or a bigger publisher snapped her up)

ZeroWolf wrote:I thought the sales for ll were better than taao?

That may be, but it doesn't mean it's a better quality story. Having said that, I will wait until the end of Lost Light to judge the story itself. So far, it's disappointing to say the least. Once again, good riddance Mr. Overrated.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I thought the sales for ll were better than taao?

That may be, but it doesn't mean it's a better quality story. Having said that, I will wait until the end of Lost Light to judge the story itself. So far, it's disappointing to say the least. Once again, good riddance Mr. Overrated.

This is how I felt about TAAO. While I don't enjoy LL as much as MTMTE, I will be very sad to see it go.

Actually my point was more why would idw cancel something that sold more? Unless the people at the top care about the quality of their output (and by this I mean are avid readers themselves so they can spot problems) then decisions will be based on money and external factors (trends, accusations etc). If the owners dud have problems with Roberts work then they could have handled it by giving him an editor or making the one he has get a bit more hands on.

A tweet from IDW Publishing Transformers comics writer James Roberts has revealed the cover for the upcoming issue of Lost Light #18 - drawn by Alex Milne and coloured by Josh Perez - featuring a whole lotta cast and some ominous (potentially spoilery for Marvel cinematic universe fans) hinting from the writer himself. Check it out mirrored below, and speculate away on the end of the current and next story arc, and the series itself in the Energon Pub discussion boards!

I’ve been thinking it for ages but couldn’t say anything because #spoilers, but - as this Alex Milne / Josh Perez cover to Lost Light #18 demonstrates - the last stretch of The MTMTE Saga is basically Avengers: Infinity War.

How is it spoilery?

I finally caught up on Lost Light, I am LOVING it! Was not too much of a fan at first, but the mutineers trilogy was fun (while maybe a bit less nuanced than previous Roberts) and I really liked the Scavengers story. And that most recent cliffhanger is probably my favourite Roberts ever gave us. Cant wait for the next issue.

ZeroWolf wrote:How is it spoilery?

There will be lots of deaths.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:How is it spoilery?

There will be lots of deaths.

Not necessarily. When he said like Infinity War, Roberts may have just meant that the Scavengers and Lost Lighters will finally be in an issue together; like the Gaurdians and the Avengers in Infinity War. At least that’s how I took it when I saw it on Twitter.

I figured the spoilers was cover B with omega guardians.

Still calling the mutineer crew are the sparkeater army.

ALL YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS THAT STAYED ON BOARD UNDEAD MONSTROSITIES!