Revisitation 7: Train of Thought.

5/2/2021

Remember that time Mark Twain was on the Enterprise and there was an emotionless robot?

Well, you sure will after reading my look at Hearts of Steel issue 1!

Plus, a bonus quick overview of how IDW were milking the cow with Transformers Generations.

7 Comments

Simon Hall

8/2/2021 07:57:21 pm

I enjoyed this too at the time. Mainly through the Industrial Revolution being something I studied at 'A' Level (more for effects here in the UK), so it was nice to get a handle on it's effects in the US. Opaque as some of this stuff is to me too (and still is, as I never got around to properly finding out about John Henry, apart from the Steel thing you mention. And being the title of a They Might Be Giants album). Guido is bloody brilliant and it is a shame he's never got to do more for IDW than fill in for folk when they fall behind on deadlines.

Llama God

20/3/2021 04:55:49 pm

Finally getting around to commenting about these, having re-read them and forgotten about them immediately, which either speaks to how poorly my memory functions now that I'm a father, or to how forgettable they are now...

That's unfair, actually. This is a fun opening story, and likewise when this was initially released I was intrigued by the concept. The whole idea of the "What If?" just being that the Transformers wake up in a different time period and thus take on different alt modes is not in itself particularly interesting, but what piqued my interest was those weird alt-modes that they all had in the prologue - that marked this comic out as something different.

If anything, it's that back story that interested me most, and not the main story itself, which is... fine. Fun enough, and yes, like you I noticed all the Star Trek references. And like you I had no idea who John Henry was before this. So... yeah. Fun and interesting enough. I think that's all I can really say about this...

Stuart

20/3/2021 05:07:56 pm

If nothing else, we're ready for that John Henry question on Pointless.

Steve Mollmann link

13/5/2021 02:06:32 am

<blockquote>Reprinting any of the Marvel series would seem especially pointless in early 2006 when Titan books had just about finished their extensive trade collection of the both the US and UK comics.</blockquote>
I don't know if you've followed IDW's Star Trek comics at all, but this was exactly their MO there, too; their DC-era reprints almost entirely consist of stuff that Titan reprinted just a year or two prior.

Stuart

13/5/2021 04:05:38 am

Yeah, guess it's just lazy/cheap, no new scans needed.

LKW

7/2/2022 04:29:18 am

This is a very informative little piece (though I cringe at seeing Gone But Not Forgotten! reprinted, ever. Also, did Bob really use exclamations in his titles that often? - !) I am quite glad to know the Nick Roche trivia.

(The "One key difference..." sentence should call out the "latter" company, not the "former".)

Stuart

7/2/2022 06:11:50 am

Good catch on the mistake there 👍

Revisitation 7: Train of Thought.

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