Heart of Darkness #1 Review (SPOILERS)

Yaya · Post by **Yaya** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 2:37 pm

It was okay. Didn't quite like the art, very sloppy faces, and the story seemed kind of slapped together from the pieces of Revelations strewn about in a barely sensical fashion.

But at least it attempts to pick up on the very interesting Dead Universe/Anti-Matrix thread that was essentially abandoned since Simon was off the title. And that's a good thing.

Cyclonus seems....weak. Quite a departure from Furman's take on him. Given that D&A are rather new, I'm willing to let this discrepancy slide. I mean, it wasn't Jazz shooting a human, so why complain, right?

Give it a B-. Could lead to new and exciting things.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 1:48 am

I didn't even know about this until I saw your post. What have you done, IDW?!?! I used to buy 1/25 incentive covers of Chris Saraccini books. Now, I don't care enough to even keep up with what books are coming up?

I honestly don't mean that as a dismissive, snarky insult. Even though I stopped buying IDW books, I thought I was still paying attention to them. But, apparently, I missed the announcement, previews, and release of an entire in-continuity mini-series.

Post by **Best First** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:00 am

The publicity for this has been rather weak.

Much like LSOTW actually, but that at least had the appropiate fan-based-fare.

Agree with JaJa (gah ack ptew) - art was wiiiiiiierd man (altho his DA page has some great stuff) and story was interesting if a little all over the place - felt pretty much a set up issue.

As stated - Cyclonus was a bit off.

Best bit, Galvy's internal monologuing;

"They fear me. What i have become"

"Good"

Actually, no, best bit is clearly HARDHEADDDDDDDDDAHHHH.

Also liked (for some reason) the fact that Galvy did not kill the bot guards, he just wowed them and they went all revereant. I expected on the next page to see he had murderised them.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:51 am

Personally I think Joseph Conrad's work dehumanises the Africans as a people and he could learn a thing or two about paragraphs.

The bit when the bloke gets a spear through his chest was cool though.

Wrong thread?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 12:34 pm

spiderfrommars wrote:Personally I think Joseph Conrad's work dehumanises the Africans as a people and he could learn a thing or two about paragraphs.

If you'd submitted that as your review of the book, I'd have given you full marks.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:44 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:
spiderfrommars wrote:Personally I think Joseph Conrad's work dehumanises the Africans as a people and he could learn a thing or two about paragraphs.
If you'd submitted that as your review of the book, I'd have given you full marks.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 12:38 am

Artwork's a bit naff, but I bought it purely on the strength of it not having Costa's name on the cover....

It's no LSOTW...

Or Maximum Dinobots...

Or Stormbringer...

Or Carwash of Doom...

But it's certainly better than the recent ongoing.

Post by **Best First** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:53 pm

word.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:58 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:
spiderfrommars wrote:Personally I think Joseph Conrad's work dehumanises the Africans as a people and he could learn a thing or two about paragraphs.
If you'd submitted that as your review of the book, I'd have given you full marks.

ha! Ditto.

DJ_Convoy · Post by **DJ_Convoy** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:03 pm

My thoughts from elsewhere:

Hi Andy.

Love DnA. Love them. Thought Infestation was okay... It's the only IDW Transformers I've checked out since LSoTW (and before that, the first couple of issues of the ongoing)... but I was excited to see where they were going with the property.

That being said, while I thought that their efforts on HoD issue 1 were fine (again, wasn't blown away, but they certainly did a decent job), the art was not of a sufficently suitable caliber for a comic where I've paid 4 bucks to retry your wares, so to speak.

Look, we pay A LOT of money per unit for IDW's Transformers. The comics are expensive and often times some fans feel like not everything has gelled together, be it story-wise or artistically. When it comes to Transformers, I certainly can't speak for everyone, but I know I speak for folks that feel used by IDW for subsidizing trade paperbacks while writers stretch stories across a monthly book into trade length or where artists appear to be attempting to hone their craft on the page. The page that we've paid for. I don't feel like this is fair. I feel like this abuses the good faith relationship we enter into with a publisher when we fork over cash for a comic book.

Andy, I know that you champion the writers and artists you select for this property. Of course you should! You choose them, after all. But you have to know that there is dissatisfaction with the way IDW has handled the property. You must know- I believe I read that Chris Ryall said DnA coming on board was a way to "make everyone happy again" or something along those lines. If that is the case- if you know people are unhappy, then why the urge to have such, let's say "experimental" art on a mainstream Transformers book? An important book, certainly, as I imagine you hoped that lapsed readers like myself would be drawn back to it.

I feel like the books need to be complete units of entertainment in and of themselves. When I plunk down four bucks for Transformers, I want to know that I'm getting a good story, with art to match, about my favorite childhood property. I don't think that's too much to ask.

At the moment, the addtion of DnA (and soon, James Roberts, but that's only two issues before the status quo comes back) was enough to bring me back to IDW and your vision of Transformers. But the lackluster results so far could end up driving me away again.

I hope that there's some good news for the dissatisfied at Wondercon. I've loved books you've edited in the past (Annihilation springs to mind), and I've disliked books you've had a hand in the past (New Avengers and it's ilk). I hope that the Andy who understands that there are problems shows up and bats a thousand- we want to see you succeed because we want TRANSFORMERS to succeed. I want to give you my money every month! It's a shame that you don't seem to want it. I hope you pull something out of your hat that gets us all back on side, and soon.

Geez, that was a wall of text. Okay, how about this:

TL;DR- Love DnA- thought the art wasn't up to scratch and don't know if I'm patient enough or have enough faith to stick it out.

Edit: Having reread it in "anticipation" of getting issue two, I just thought the comic was kinda all over the place in intent and execution. Not a great way to dip my toe back into IDW's water or whatever analogy suits you.