Hearts of Steel #4 (SPOILERS)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:27 pm

Okay, so the series is over. First, comments on this issue #4, then the series as a whole.

Issue #4 was a good read.... up until the end. It recaptured some of the essence that made the first two issues entertaining and Guido does a fine job again (though there are some obviously rushed panels). But did it have to end so abruptly? I expected the train chase, which was done rather well, but things literally came to a screeching halt after that. What happened to Starscream? And the Autobots just lamely go into hibernation again while the humans get together for a group hug? I don't think I have been as surprised to see "The End" at the end of a comic in a long time. Even just two more pages of closure would have sufficed to give this sucker a better ending. Don't know if Dixon meant to end it like this, or he was confined to the page limit, but certainly there is glaring weakness to how this all ends. I give this issue a "C-".

Now the series overall. Putting it all together, this tale is a cartoon-lovers cup of tea. Cheesy and campy, but fun if you approach it with the kid gloves on. Loved the art, save that third issue, and even then the coloring was excellent. Storywise, aside from the abrupt ending, its about as good a story one could come up with given the premise and characters. I mean, when Mark Twain and John Henry are the role players, as a writer you're working uphill from the get-go. I can't help feel though, that had we not had the pencilling and coloring we had, fans like myself would have enjoyed all this much less so.

Overall, this series gets a "C+" from me. Clever at times with very good artwork, but suffering a bit in the story department. Is it worth the buy? If you liked most cartoon episodes, I say go for it. If the cartoon was too campy for your taste, I'd say pass.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:39 pm

Gah, what a let-down.

SPOILERS AND RANT FOLLOW.

John Henry switched "the" Astrotrain onto some tracks that led (for some reason) off of the side of a cliff.

The end.

What the freaky bejeesus was that all about? Isn't this the same Astrotrain that has huge bloody bat-wings? What about Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream? And Shockwave? Or even Megatron, mentioned but unseen?

Scourge was a nice touch though

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:16 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:
The end.

What the freaky bejeesus was that all about?

It was about ******* up a story that could have had potential.

Post by **snarl** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:17 pm

I just think the story was ****.

IDW, sort the quality control out.

A ****** mulligan stropping zoid could write better.

ARSES.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:05 pm

What?!? I thought it'd be 5 issues long...

So for 3 freaking issues, we only see (basically) Bumblebee as the only Autobot and no Megatron at all in the last issue? Shockwave dissappears?Astrotrain forgets to fly?

Frankly the first thing that irked me was when SS says "Now we have the human's flying machine plans, we can fly now" I mean, WTF? They could fly before, they are aliens coming from a planet much more advanced then ours. They could fly as dinosaurs... SS was a Pteranodon!

I only liked this series for the redesings, and for Guido's art, both of those were great. The story, meh. It won't make me want to pick up Dixons books, that's for sure.

Who'll be doing the next Evolutions story? Neil Gaiman would be nice...

Post by **Denyer** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:32 am

I don't think stretching things out for another issue or two would've helped, personally. It is very, very cartoony -- the TFs can reconfigure easily but are reliant on coal, electricity and rail. Scourge being a dirigible, for instance, and the Decepticons seeming to lack any ability to adapt for themselves, using the schematics for early aircraft but never being seen to get them off the ground.

The lack of energy and parts could've been integrated into the story a lot more, rather than getting readers to rationalise the setup. I think this is what Dixon was getting at before with Starscream being after the aircraft plans -- they were experimenting with bi-plane designs to see what would substitute for their currently pretty useless hardware.

The end could've done with an extra page to fit the rhythm -- I wanted to see the train get thoroughly and convincingly buried -- which would easily have been achieved by culling earlier bits. The Transformers felt more like side characters in this issue than in any previous one.

That said -- I enjoyed this, against expectation and especially against expectation after reading reviews here and elsewhere.

The problem, I think, is that this isn't a Transformers story -- it's a story with Transformers in it. On the other hand it's accessible to any reader, light in tone, looks good and I'm not regretting taking the time to get and read it. The closing narration made me grin, as did John Henry pointing out that he knew the track having laid it.

Still don't have any particular enthusiasm for Transformers-in-different-periods-of-history stories, though. I consider this series to have worked, above criticisms aside, but I'd prefer some slightly more ambitious modern/futuristic "What if?" scenarios rather than an eking out of human eras that could have vehicles in.

And a note for whoever does the next one: don't ask us to believe that Transformers can deactivate due to low energy reserves, come back online thousands of years later and then morph their entire designs in a trice. It's a sloppy shortcut for them to be able to morph at all; mechanical transformation, please.

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:56 pm

Denyer wrote:I don't think stretching things out for another issue or two would've helped, personally

No, but adding two or three more pages to the end of that last issue would have made a world of difference for me.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:10 am

An inconsequential read. I didn't care about any of the characters (human or otherwise). Nothing resolved at the end.

The Scourge stuff was cool tho.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:03 pm

huh, having read all the comments here i full expected to not enjoy this, but i kind of did.

However if i try and enunicate why... hmm, not so easy.

There's a lot wrong here, its a shaky plat, way too many characters (Robot Master could have Tobias Muldoon - FACT) and way too little beyond basic characterisation, which worked for John Henry (seeing as he was a straight forward kind of guy) but left everyone else rather cypherish - plus there was no real journey for any of the charecters - no one really grew, learned or, figuratively, changed.

Conversely whilst it may be lazy the way in which the TFs adopt their earthly forms seems a rather unimportnat thing to pick on to me.

I think Guido's art is essentially what won me over, and the occassional nice set piece (like Scourge) but in the end it was a bit like reading teh comic equivelent of a vaguely catchy pop song - fun enough atthe time but not something i'll be playing on my ipod (as the metaphor stumbles on) in the long run.

So like Dave says, inconsequential.

Shame, the concept of a TF What If has far more potential than this i think, although they really need to break the shackles of the 'different era' thing as that's pretty limiting.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:46 pm

The resolution made perfect sense in the context of the overall series.

Insomuch as it was crap.

Really wish I'd stuck with my gut instinct and not ordered the damn thing...

Post by **snarl** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:10 pm

I read it in the shop but went back to buy it today.

Re read it, thought 'load of cock' had a browse, picked up T:2006 for £6 instead.

Now I have wood.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:28 am

On all of the scales I rate Transformers comics by, it registers high marks.

Those scales are as follows:

Did Pat Lee have ANY involvement with the book?

That is all.