Thanks to Previews World we have our first look at IDW Transformers: Lost Light #20 Cover B & Retailer Incentive Cover for your viewing pleasure.
Lost Light #20 Cover B by artist Jack Lawrence brings us a great art of the confrontation of Cyclonus and Star Saber. Who will be the winner? Make your bets.
The Retailer Incentive Cover of this issue also came courtesy of Jack Lawrence. Not much to say, the clash we all were waiting for: Rodimus vs. Getaway!
This issue will be available on July 11th, 2018. While you wait for your copy, you can check out the covers after the jump. Then, you can share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
Esquilax79
That's hot I know there's an MP of Star Saber but too bad he and Deathsaurus didn't make it to the Generations Evolutions leaders. Megatron to G2 Megatron would be nice too.
samisham
Roberts says he's written with a New Zealand accent which always makes me go "What the hell did we do to you?"
CleverNamePendingatron
I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. If their's two things you can rely on from Roberts, it’s clever one-liners, and callbacks to stuff that happened so long ago you've all but forgotten about them.
Omegashark18
Yeah, at first I LIKED him. Then he did a complete 180 and turned into someone you just absolutely despise.
And I like I said before with Star Saber, a good balance would be to make him like Azrael. That way we get good guy Star Saber, But with the religious fanaticism we got this version.
TargetmasterJoe
In the meantime, I want to see Rodimus pull off an Ironic Echo on Getaway's last words toward him. Namely the "No. Not him. Not now. Not ever" line and the "I'm not a bad person. I just have strong beliefs" line.
CleverNamePendingatron
That's the Getaway conundrum. He's such a vile and horrible person, but he's such a fun and interesting character. I hate him and want him to die a slow and painful death, but I also want him to outlast every other character
TargetmasterJoe
Eh, Roberts kind of did a good job in making me hate Getaway with a firey passion, but he was written as such a fun character beforehand that half of me wants him to be mercilessly killed and the other half wants at least an explanation for why he's gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
And yes, I do see this Star Saber as an irredeemable shite with wasted potential for a reconstruction of his character.
Sorry Deadend, I know where you're coming from, but at this point, I'd much rather the rebooted batch of TF comics gives us a Star Saber who ISN'T a religious nutcase and is ACTUALLY in line with his previous self, albeit with a personality.
maurice
I like Getaway hope he\'ll be okay :c
JukeOutlander
Been reading the comics sporadically, and current TF continuity is nearing its damn end.
Anyways, I hope Cyclonus wins.
CleverNamePendingatron
Rodimus vs. Getaway AND Cyclonus vs. Star Saber! Roberts, you spoil us. I'm not sure which one I'm more excited about.
samisham
Please. If Roberts changes his mind I'd also like to see Cyclonus win, but get messed up badly and take Star Saber's armour.
Digilaut
I don’t mind this version of Star Saber at all. Granted, I’m not too familiar with the original character, but he’s far from the first character to be reinterpreted or used in a different way in a new continuity.
But I’d still like to see this version defeated by being accidentally mindwiped with the thought gun and get brainwashed into the superheroic Autobot!
Nocturne
Yaaaassssss ]=)
Finally, the rematch I've been waiting for.
Chupicron
Because Getaway is offering him passage into the promised land like he was aligned with Tyrest to get into.
samisham
Vengence from what I recall.
RobotKnight95
Well then he better have a good explanation behind why he went from religious nutcase to working with Getaway.
samisham
Roberts stated somewhere that there was no one behind the Star Saber curtain, he is as he appears.
RobotKnight95
I literally realized this months back. Star Saber is the same as Ultra Magnus. His name is his armor, not the character. Someone else is piloting Star Saber from before.
Deadend
He could have if the story continued. Building up from a point of no empathy and zealotry to a point of change to then redemption and growth is a character journey. The farther the start from where he'll end up, the better for the journey there and turnovers and whys that push it along. In fact, his Zealotry is the very thing that could have been a catalyst for it in waking up. A spiritual journey in how far he's strayed from the path that leads to that kind of awakening, or any kind of plot point alternative that has a similar growth start from it. Not much different than actual human zealots that grow out of it to change and the different ways that happens whether it's the shattering of disillusionment or a spiritual awakening kind of correction. The humbling that could happen, and the complete shattering of the psyche that can often follow before a rebirth. The added guilt and atonement that drives them. The gravity of who they were and what they did becoming the terror they see in themselves to further grow, and so much more. A perfect character is boring to read, but a complex one that has a journey into becoming something new, relates to life and how people grow and change. Giving the reader hope, or opening their eyes to ways people can change if they are willing to actively put the work into it.
Or they could have gone into aspects about his being a "brainmaster" or "micromaster" in a suit that's constantly overcompensating, or similar such things as Ultra Magnus with his outer armor becoming someone new inside literally.
So not so much butchery, as a storyline that could have been done but doesn't have the room to now.
Similar to Drift really. Without the backstory of who he was to who he became, he'd simply be another sword wielding autobot. But the journey is what makes him interesting, same as how RID expanded on it to make the catalyst for his turnover to something else and add to it that it was because of keeping others from getting used like he was, and dove into the conscripted aspects as opposed to the enlisted propaganda methods of his original origin. In IDW he was a more a street cybertronian, a homeless cybertronian build into the war from promises of grandeur and elevation from what the caste system had shoved him into and what the decepticon propaganda promised, to eventually finding a new path and way and waking up from being lied to and misled, to becoming something more. In RID, they approached the concept in a similar way, but worked it from an angle of child soldiers raised in that life, and how Drift changed sides and rejected it to protect other 'youngbots' from having done to them what he went through, his awakening came from a different means.
Victory never did dive much into Star Sabers origins either. We never really did see how he became that bot. And as new audiences are introduced to characters(because really, the comics are there as an excuse to market the toys too by creating visual exposure), his character could have grown into many directions. Comics aren't stuck to the same kind of condensed symbolism movies are. Over arcing symbolism is maintained to only that given story, and the serial nature of the growth can range from a handful of issues to over the 100 scattered issues in small ways across a decade especially as writers shift and change and new writers come in, or old writers come back for new material, or other growth happens in a perpetually growing universe of stories. Where one starts and was intended to stay may not be where they finish later.
I look forward to the reset to see what the new interpretations will be, but I am also saddened by the fact that there are stories left untold in this universe that could have been explored. Rome isn't built in a day, so the new universe will take time to build up that kind of foundation and character richness to explore from ground zero in many cases as opposed to using established areas and building off of it.
So this version of star saber, while lacking more material he could have had, is as legitimate as any other interpretation.
This doesn't relate to Bumblebee though, because Bumblebee has a much more established uniformity and recognition to his presence, as such he doesn't offer as much creative freedoms to tell that story. But even so, Animated did rather attempt a new alternative on his backstory that doesn't mesh to G1 bumblebee or similar versions, but as it shouldn't since it is a new interpretation. Same to Optimus Prime really in that regard. But Animated was also about a rag tag team of nobodies that made some rather big mistakes, redeeming themselves and growing into something new away from what they were. When you really look at much of Animated's cast, outside of Bulkhead and Ratchet with his PTSD, Prowl, Bumblebee, and Optimus were actually kind of jerks that were growing out of it and learning from their mistakes. So even to Bumblebee we have divergent origin stories per universe that aren't solidly the same, though in some universes like IDW, they did maintain more towards his G1 familiarity and grew it from there. Which didn't leave much room to change things up for him, but instead focused on his growing up and maturing from the G1 influenced aspects.
It'd be like looking at Flash Thompson of Spider-man's early days and saying he's only a bully with no room for progression. That he must always remain that guy who bullies Peter Parker as a dumb jock, when across 50 years of story telling, his character could evolve into so much more, and in Marvel's case, did. He became a war veteran, to eventually gaining his own hero identity, and even changes in that as his story progressed and the character building moments he went through that made him grow. Where would DC's Pied Piper be without his own growth over in Flash comics from Villain to eventually hero? Or really hundreds of other characters that had ample years to grow from what they were to what they became that's so far removed from where they started.
Taking those kinds of liberties is what reaches out to various audiences. One version isn't more legitimate than another version. All are simply different interpretations that should be held to their own merits of their own world and what the story is they are trying to tell. Whether that's on a micro scale of symbolism for one story arc, or the macro scale of growth across the entire lifetime of that universe.
GrimLocke
I’ve been wondering how Starscream might get his upgrade/original prototype from the end of Til All Are One—and then what Starscream might then be called…
And, on top of that the original Star Sabre is a Headmaster…
Just say there’s a Minimus Damnus in there and give Starscream his new “Star Sabre Armor” to complete Screamy, like how Ultra Magnus is just a name and a suit, now.
Problems: Solved.