Transformers: Lost Light #18 Review

Writer: James Roberts
Artist: Jack Lawrence
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Tom B. Long
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 13, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99
Review by: Chris Groves

The Lost Light crew finally gets answers to the confusing planet on which they’ve arrived.  Is it the Afterspark? Cyberutopia? The answer is more complicated than suspected.


We begin with Rodimus and Ultra Magnus fighting the Omega Guardians, creatures that Hot Rod fought in the distant past. It is brought to Rodimus’s attention that the Guardians protected something important before, so what could they be protecting here?  Ratchet and Drift find a lab and discover energy flowing away from their bodies toa tube. Ratchet breaks the energy tube near him which changes the appearance of the room.  He recognizes the symbol and remembers that this is a medical planet called Mediri, created to euthanize bots. 

Meanwhile, Nautica finds the Scavengers in a locked bunker, each seeing different versions of the same room. After discussing what they see, the actual truth is revealed by each bots version of what they saw. The Scavengers go through the door to find a morgue filled with bots they knew.  The group leaves to go back outside where Whirl witnesses something he can’t believe.

***Spoilers***

Outside we are we see some bots that have passed on with their Conjunx partners such as Rewind with Chromedome, and Dominus Ambus.  Cyclonus sees them and suddenly Tailgate appears.  Knowing the full truth of this planet, Ratchet waits to tell everyone what is really happening… everything is a positive figment of your imagination.  The planet was created to peacefully euthanize Transformers by telepathically projecting the reality that you want most before killing you so that you can die happy. 

The Scavengers arrive and tell what they found.   Rodimus further explains that the Scavengers believed that they were heading to Garrius 9 and that the Lost Light crew was looking for Cyberutopia.  By plotting a course from Cybertron to Mediri, we see that it is the same as the map to Cyberutopia.  Rodimus explains that the Knights of Cybertron were explorers, and when they found Mediri, they believed that they found a perfect Cybertron without realizing they were slowly dying. 

The Knights map the course so others can find the happiness they found.  Tailgate realizes that he is a figment of Cyclonus’s desires, and he will soon be gone.  As they embrace, Tailgate disappears along with Trailcutter,
Pipes, and others who came back.  That is until he didn’t disappear, and we get a happy ending...until we don’t because the Mutineers (Lost Light crew who sided with Getaway) are coming to attack them as Sparkeaters.  The End.

This issue was an info dump to wrap up the Lost Light story, and tie loose end from the beginning of More Than Meets The Eye.  It seems like we are told things instead of letting them play out or at get logically figured out by characters.  I liked the outcome, but it felt like I was supposed to accept things at surface value rather than analyze why. There is literally a panel of Rodimus saying don’t think about it too hard.  I just wish there was some breathing room to grasp the answers before something else is explained. 

Bits and Pieces:

This issue is supposed to be the end goal for the series, but it seemed rushed and compressed since there is only 6 issues left.  I did enjoy seeing Tailgate alive even if it doesn’t make sense that he is.  Maybe the next issue will further explain the answers given in this issue.

8/10