Man from the empties to IDW , Transformers comics have a long ugly history of unexamined ableism. (Though earlier it was physical ableism.)
I remember being upset at the Autobots commiting war the crime of disguising themselves as empties in Machine War comics, because the writer’s defense was like a slap in the face to me when my grandmother had dementia.
He stated his interpretation of the empties was that they were mentally ill and had bad days where they were raving, and basically barely people in his eyes. As if that made it okay that after that mission the decepticons would obviously start targeting the empties in response.
This is more than James Roberts, this has been a problem with the franchise since the first Marvel comics.
—
I note the autobts were mostly ableist to those with physical disabilities outside their ranks in the Marvel comics.
Monsters and Stuff 