THE TRANSFORMERS: COMICS, BOOKS AND MANGA

CURRENT TRANSFORMERS COMICS FROM IDW PUBLISHING

Transformers: Heart of Darkness #4
Reviewed by Blackjack

"I don't know, but I don't think it's going to be good for any of us!"
I suppose I've been too rough to the series in general, but really this is pathetic. Nevermind the art, which makes my eyes bleed, or the dialogue which you'd expect from an Armada episode... the whole premise is just too convulted. We don't get to see any characterisation on Galvatron, let alone any of his goons or enemies. D-Void seems like a cheap gimmick villain... and was there any need to bring Nemesis Prime into the mix? Out of the dangling plot threads we have from the Dead Furmanverse, Nemesis Prime was the only one that was closed neatly. Not to mention that reviving Nemesis had no bearing whatsoever on the plot. Worse, while I had hoped for a standalone series, it seems like everything is just an excuse to tell a story that they're just too lazy to put into the ongoing as, say, backup stories in a condensed form. Considering where the ongoing is going at this point, this is just a way to shoehorn D-Void's uncreative origin story, which does not make any bit of sense at all... the dead universe is D-Void? But Galvatron's Heart of Darkness is also the dead universe? The zombie plague from Infestation is also the dead universe? What the fudge?

All of this could easily be condensed into two issues, and it's a pain to read it as it is. Which is a shame, considering how well-written the script for Infestation was. It's like, IDW gave Dan and Andy four issues and they had to pad out the scenes with Galvatron's fuzzy dream moment and random clunky action scene. Frankly, it's a pain to read. And considering how Galvatron would probably monologue about his origins and whatnot in the ongoing- scratch that. Knowing IDW, Galvatron would probably keep his origins a mystery to the Autobots and audience in general, with a little subscript telling us to go buy Heart of Darkness. We don’t really learn much about Galvatron, why he turns from a brooding power-hungry maniac to this anti-hero thing. There’s no character development… I’d wished for more of ‘crazy insane’ Galvatron that we saw in Infestation, which, regrettably, is nowhere here. And may I put in for the record that the fight against the mutated Nemesis-Void monster is really horrible? Not to mention the design of the Nemesis-Void hybrid. Which makes me wonder why I still read these things. Absolute failure.


Since Heart of Darkness takes place directly before Transformers: Infestation, which in turn takes place before the 'Space Opera' arc, thereby I conclude that Infestation takes place between ongoing 18 and 20. Since in 18 Megatron's captured, explaining the missing Decepticons in the Infestation story, and there seems to be a lull between 'Space Opera' and the 'Chaos' stories anyway.

The issue retells the end of Transformers: Infestation #2, as well as Transformers #20, retelling the scenes from Galvatron's perspective.

One of the jets that attacked Rodimus and Wheelie is an Earthen jet, which in design and colouration resembles Breakaway from the ROTF toyline very much. Which, incidentally, see goofs.


The flashback to Infestation hilariously copies that issue's error of misspelling Jhiaxus as 'Jihaxus'.

Galvatron can name Rodimus to his troops, even though the two never met, and even then Rodimus has just sort-of renamed himself within recent events.

Some of the Transformers in Galvatron's employ have Earth-based designs like the aforementioned Breakaway, as well as others which seem to turn into boomboxes of all things. Unless Galvatron revived a bunch of dead Transformers on Earth that the Earthen combatants are not aware of, it's highly unlikely that they would want to adapt Earthen disguises.

Probably chalk this up to artistic differences, but the scenes mirrored from Infestation and the ongoing all have Galvatron in his HOD design (weird chest plates, tank alt mode) instead of the IDW design seen in those respective issues.