I’ve spent months wanting to punch Getaway and all his stupid mutineers in the mouth: Autobots just don’t turn on Autobots, not to this scale they don’t. I was surprised at how betrayed I felt by the whole thing.
Having read this issue, I have some insight. And I’m still completely baffled. And I still want to punch someone.
See below for preview pages and a review of Transformers: Lost Light #10.
(As always, minor spoilers below, though I avoid the major plot points.)
Jack Lawrence had this art for this issue, which is always fun (he’s one of those artists who can get across a surprising amount of expression in a bot that doesn’t have a visible nose or mouth) but I’ve become quite the Joana Lafuente groupie lately: her coloring skills are pretty phenomenal. Her team-up with Sara Pitre-Durocher over on Till All Are One was always amazing, but I’m really liking how she and Jack work together too. (And I love the cover they did, the now-traditional take on the “crew members grouped around a leader who’s saying something pithy” shot.)
As for the story, we open with First Aid, Mirage, (and can I just say how much I missed Mirage and how many cool moments he got in this issue?) Hot Spot, and a few other bots I don’t recognize trying to pilot a damaged shuttle back into the Lost Light, and it’s clear right from the get go that they don’t know what’s happened to Rodimus, Megatron, and the rest of the crew. And Getway is, not surprisingly, dodging questions.
And you know what? I can’t tell you anything else about what happens. I made four or five attempts to dance around the information and it always led to spoilers, so I deleted it. Getaway tosses off a lot of very weak explanations, First Aid’s not buying it, and Mirage gets quite an attitude about it (this is definitely comic-continuity Mirage, not G1 cartoon-Mirage. Cartoon Mirage would’ve been good-hearted and emo about it, but comics-Mirage is offended that you would have the nerve to accuse his associates.)
The only thing I can talk about is…look, Getaway’s been around for a while and has a long history (that you can read up on at the TFwiki) but in short, what you need to know about Getway is that he’s a sociopath. What’s best for him is what’s best for everybody and he will do absolutely anything to get what he wants. Seduction? Fine. Brainwashing? Fine. Lies, imprisonment, mutiny, NO PROBLEM.
I figured I had a handle on the character after a little research, but what I don’t get is why people like Perceptor and Blaster would go along with it. I know Perceptor’s gotten a bit scary since All Hail Megatron, but mutiny scary? And Blaster? Why would someone like Blaster even talk to someone like Getaway?
After this issue, I have some ideas. It’s still not completely clear, but wow do we get a lot of pieces to the puzzle. Getaway’s not exactly playing a long game here (I don’t think anybody who comes up with a plan like “I’ll convince Tailgate to attack Megatron with the power OF MY LOVE” is capable of a long-term strategy, though in his defense, it worked) but this issue definitely shows how he might have managed to be a few steps ahead of everybody else.
