The Energon Pub

The fine folks over at IDW Publishing have supplied us with a seven page preview of Transformers: Heart of Darkness #3! Be sure to stop by your favorite comic shop on May 25th to pick up a copy.

TRANSFORMERS: Heart of Darkness #3 (of 4)
Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning(w) • Ulises Farinas (a) • Farinas, Casey Coller (c)
“CHAOS” PRELUDE! We learn new truths about the TRANSFORMERS’ ancient history—
truths that may lead to their ruin. GAVATRON and company gather arms and recruit major
forces. With a raving lunatic leading the DECEPTICON forces—absolute destruction is sure to
follow. HoD leads directly into “CHAOS”—the first-ever TRANSFORMERS event book from
IDW!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
*2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio.

Bullet Points:
• The Road to “CHAOS” starts here!
• Introducing a brand new TRANSFORMERS villain!

Damn galvatron's obese. But scouge and cyclonus look bad ass

The environment of the first 5 page screams for Longtooth.

OK, obvious question: Who's the Cybertronian in the boat? Scale-wise, that's gotta be a gestalt, and as Galvatron appears to be disregarding factions, could it be Computron?

Also, I'm feeling the Longtooth vibe! Can't wait to see how he'd turn out, considering the liberties taken with the previous IDW versions of with the Decepticon Pretenders we saw in Stormbringer!

Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far. I buy my books through DCBS, so I couldn't just stop picking it up as I'd already ordered three isuues by the time the first one was in. Even still, I refused to order issue #4.

What gestalt are you referring to?

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

im starting to feel like im the only one that likes this book !



have to say figuring out who that bot/con was is top of my list of questions too.

the only other gestalt not accounted for is monstructor and that doesnt look like his head.

maybe its not a gestalt, maybe its a city/base bot from the japanesse line we havent seen yet.

either way with galvatron standing right in front of him he has to be bloody massive (provided the head is actually attached to a body and not just jury rigged into the ship as its navigation control)

this book aint perfect but its the only one i found worth buying since ongoing lost the plot over a year ago. maybe thats lowered my standard or maybe i just wasnt expecting much from dan abnett and andy lanning and have been surprised that they actually seem to have read what furman laid down.

Overloaded wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

I wasn't crazy about Guidi's art in the follow-up arc just because it didn't really mesh with what Figueroa was doing and what Milne has (superbly) continued, but the only issue that fell completely flat for me with both art and story was the Constructicon issue.

Dear god, the art in this miniseries is so inexcusably terrible. I can't even enjoy reading it. What is going on with their faces? Why do they never change expressions? What is with the proportions?

I am cringing here. Seriously, the fact that anyone would be paid to draw like this boggles the mind. It's absolutely atrocious.

Peleliu wrote:Dear god, the art in this miniseries is so inexcusably terrible. I can't even enjoy reading it. What is going on with their faces? Why do they never change expressions? What is with the proportions?

I am cringing here. Seriously, the fact that anyone would be paid to draw like this boggles the mind. It's absolutely atrocious.

I couldn't agree more.

JRFitzpatrick7 wrote:What gestalt are you referring to?

On the last page, second-to-last panel where Galvatron rips the wheelhouse down, that's a (friggin' massive) Cybertronian's head. The only Transformer I could think of on that scale with a red head that wasn't already accounted for was Computron, but looks like he's had quite a hefty redesign; traditionally Compy's had two eyes and a visible mouth, the mystery mech shown has a cyclops eye and a mouth plate.

The boat looks like could be Quickswitch

It's not Computron, it's a 'made up bot'.

Longtooth would be cool!

The artist can draw-- organics, and backgrounds very, very well. Robots...struggling.

At the end of this issue is the return of someone, well, I never thought would return. IDW has now become DC and Marvel (dead come back to life, no one is 'dead-dead'. I didn't see this one coming. Gives me hope again that a toy form of him could still be a possibility.

The idea is interesting, and I liken it to the Devil-Z idea in Zone. But you have to read the whole issue to probably get what I mean.

Cyclonus wing/ears close up. He does indeed have pliers on his head as I said in my review for #2.

Overloaded wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

Disagree 100%. It was easily one of the finer moments in Costa's run thus far. Great characterization with Spike, and story-wise very different from what I've come to expect with TF books. Great stuff.

The change in Spike's hairstyle was jarring, though. I'll give critics that much.

It Is Him wrote:Disagree 100%. It was easily one of the finer moments in Costa's run thus far. Great characterization with Spike, and story-wise very different from what I've come to expect with TF books. Great stuff.

The change in Spike's hairstyle was jarring, though. I'll give critics that much.

I will say this: I'm really looking forward to seeing what Costa does with that.

Marcdachamp wrote:

Overloaded wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

I wasn't crazy about Guidi's art in the follow-up arc just because it didn't really mesh with what Figueroa was doing and what Milne has (superbly) continued, but the only issue that fell completely flat for me with both art and story was the Constructicon issue.

Likewise. I'd been picking up all IDWs stuff from the start. That issue is what made me stop.

The art in the new Heart of Chaos stuff looks terrible though. Particularly Galvatron.

Oilspill wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Overloaded wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

I wasn't crazy about Guidi's art in the follow-up arc just because it didn't really mesh with what Figueroa was doing and what Milne has (superbly) continued, but the only issue that fell completely flat for me with both art and story was the Constructicon issue.

Likewise. I'd been picking up all IDWs stuff from the start. That issue is what made me stop.

The art in the new Heart of Chaos stuff looks terrible though. Particularly Galvatron.

It's very inconsistent art. The artists can draw organics and environments very well. Robots seems to be a bit of a work in progress at this time.

tigertracks 24 wrote:

Oilspill wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Overloaded wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:

Chaoslock wrote:

Marcdachamp wrote:Worst G1 book IDW has put out so far.

Ongoing #8...

Was that the one with Spike and the Constructicon? That was the only issue of the ongoing I really didn't care for.

I agree

I wasn't crazy about Guidi's art in the follow-up arc just because it didn't really mesh with what Figueroa was doing and what Milne has (superbly) continued, but the only issue that fell completely flat for me with both art and story was the Constructicon issue.

Likewise. I'd been picking up all IDWs stuff from the start. That issue is what made me stop.

The art in the new Heart of Chaos stuff looks terrible though. Particularly Galvatron.

It's very inconsistent art. The artists can draw organics and environments very well. Robots seems to be a bit of a work in progress at this time.

Yeah, I like the ship and the leviathan and the crustacean-alien-pirate guys (particularly how they all look slightly different from one another)... but some of the pages of the bots are shocking unfortunately.

I cannot stand the art. Or the mini as a whole, in all fairness.