Ricky Church reviews Transformers: Lost Light #22…
As Transformers: Lost Light (and the rest of the IDW continuity) comes to an end, James Roberts continues to tie up the various story threads and loose ends from his time on the series. Lost Light #22 delivers some pretty big revelations that stretch back to some of the earliest stories from More Than Meets The Eye while making the most out of the return of Megatron to the cast. It’s an entertaining read that succeeds thanks to the character interactions and answers it gives to raise the suspense for the final few issues.
Megatron’s return immediately raised the bar in this issue. Ever since his departure in Lost Light #6, the series lost some very interesting dynamics between the former Decepticon and the other Autobots. Megatron’s reintroduction flowed naturally and the chemistry between him, Rodimus and Ultra Magnus almost felt as if no time had passed at all. Megatron got several great moments throughout the issue, from meeting and recognizing each individual member of the Scavengers or his brief interaction with Drift. Robert’s handling of Megatron continued the great developmental journey he’s been on for the past few years and even brought him full circle as he’s finally become a medic and has led a more peaceful and righteous revolution on Cybertron.
Megatron wasn’t the only big aspect of the issue though, quite literally. It’s interesting that at a time when Optimus Prime and most of the Cybertronian race are fighting Unicron in the event series, the Functionalists that rule the parallel universe Megatron was trapped in have reformed Cybertron into their own massive world-ending transformer they believe to be Primus. As if the stakes weren’t enough with the mysterious Grand Architect wanted Rodimus and his crew for some unknown purpose, the gigantic Primus raises them considerably. There’s a fair bit of action as all the players attempt to fight back against this threat, but the action is well balanced with the story and answers Roberts devotes so much time to.
And what answers they are. Roberts is really tying everything together as we discover who the Grand Architect really is as well as the identities of the Guiding Hand, Cybertron’s legendary religious figures who many bots have believed more myth than real. The reveals of who they have been (and currently are for some members) is not only shocking, but makes sense in the long run. It just shows how painstakingly Roberts has crafted this story that these reveals don’t feel out of place or forced. We just have to wonder now if Primus is really who the issue says it is or if there’s something else at play.
The art duties for the issue are done by Brendan Cahill and he creates some very good visuals. The double-page spread of Primus has some very nice detail on the oversized transformer, but Cahill’s work in the individual transformers is also great. From their facial expressions to body language, Cahill’s work on the bots make them very animated and fluid. Its also easy to tell apart the characters as many of them have unique designs from the other, especially for similar-looking characters such as Ratchet and Pharma.
Transformers: Lost Light #22 is an issue that reinforces how great Roberts’ run has been on the title. Bringing Megatron back into the fold gives the issue something that has been missing while Cahill delivers some fine art and Roberts seemingly lays all his cards onto the table as the title wraps up. With just three more issues to go, it’ll be very interesting in how Roberts concludes his story.
Rating: 9/10
Ricky Church
