Revisitation 14: Positively Shocking.

26/3/2021

This week, it's a Dyno-mite story as we hit the first Spotlight and the very first Nick Roche interior art. Starting a very long legacy of outstanding art.

All this and the fate of the woolly mammoth in my look at Spotlight Shockwave!

3 Comments

Ryan F

26/3/2021 05:06:41 pm

Yeah, this is definitely a good one. Had to laugh at all the sighing over the use of the term ‘Dynobots’!

Stuart

26/3/2021 05:32:12 pm

My new catchphrase.

Llama God

26/3/2021 10:24:37 pm

Well, I couldn't not comment on this one, could I..?

And not for personal reasons, but because, as you rightly say, this is probably the single-most important issue in the early run, and the start of what will become the Rocheverse (as it should have become known). In the grand scheme of things Roche's stories are only small pebbles, but they're made of neutronium and the ripples that they cast affect everything. So yeah, that's why I often refer to IDW 1.0 as the Rocheverse.

But this issue itself was certainly a puzzling one. It was weird at the time that Furman just basically rehashes existing concepts, and if anything it's even weirder now. But on the other hand, it works. The origin for the Dinobots (hgis) is always going to be a difficult one, and this is more interesting than "they were built in the modern day to be like dinosaurs because dinosaurs are cool", so why not? The fact that Furman worked a Beast Wars homage into the whole thing just makes it even better.

If anything, this kind of feels like a love letter to the Marvel series. And being set here, in a stand-alone issue, makes it feel less conspicuous and more acceptable than had it been done as part of the -ations run.

And most importantly, it works. It's still a great idea, there's great art, and it's a great read. So a little reheated it may be, but there's nothing wrong with leftovers when they're this tasty.

Revisitation 14: Positively Shocking.

Leave a Reply.

Author

Archives

Categories