| April 2008
|
Atomic Robo combines the wacky humor of
Godland, the swashbuckling pulpiness
of Rocketo, and the dark-humored gothic adventures
of Hellboy—heavy on the Hellboy. But I didn’t mind the heavy
indebtedness to Mignola or the rest, in part because the
whole run feels like a portfolio piece: a showreel to
highlight the potential of a really sparkling creative
team. It bounces around in time, from unfinished
adventure to unfinished adventure. If the goal at the
end of the six issues was to make the reader want to see
all of this unpacked in a full, ongoing series, then it
does the trick. If we are supposed to be satisfied with
this as an end in itself, then I want a refund. But I’m
betting that we’ll have more to come (the row of unused
supervillain brains in the final issue kind of gave me
that idea).
Of course as a freshman offering from a new publisher,
there are all kinds of reasons why we may never get to see
what comes next. Which is why I am hoping we get the word
out that these guys are doing something right and make sure
we support their early projects. All of us have gotten in
the habit of waiting for the trades these days, and for
good reason (see my review of Age of Bronze
for more on this topic).
Fewer and fewer books are worth reading month to month, and
most of them are written for the trades (or, worse, for the
screen). Atomic
Robo is written
out of a different kind of hunger, the desperation of a
start-up company and a young creative team trying to prove
everything they can as fast as they can. And that is a good
energy, and one that works well in the monthly comics
format. Especially in the first three issues, Clevinger
displays a real instinct for the 24-page plotting, and
Wegener’s seemingly effortless pencils make robots,
mechanized zombies, death-ray shooting pyramids and all the
other wonders of the unnatural world sparkle with energy
and, well, fun. Lots of fun.
This one deserves an audience and a long run, and too many
deserving titles are falling by the wayside of late (and
too many lousy projects go on and on). Some readers may be
put off by their initial impressions that the book is
merely Hellboy-lite. Yes, Robo traces his origins back
to WWII and the Nazis, and, yes, he has assembled a team to
fight all the paranormal forces threatening the modern
world. And, yes, the ghost of Rasputin even shows up for a
cameo that one hopes is more homage than outright
plagiarism. There is always a possibility that time will
prove that Robo is never going to be free from that
imposing shadow. But I strongly suspect that there are
unique possibilities for this book in terms of storylines
that will move it in directions that will leave all
anxieties of influence behind. But let’s face it,
Hellboy-lite is better than most of what we are
finding on the shelves these days, and I would much rather
settle for that than pretty much anything the majors are
producing these days. And besides, thanks to
Atomic
Robo, I finally
have a good working definition of “hubris”: “the act of
putting your brain on display outside your metal warbot
body.” Yes, that’s it exactly.
