Creative Staff:
Story: Fred Van Lente
Pencils: Cory Smith
What They Say:
Russell Magnus thought he was a normal man living a normal life…until massive robots tore him from his home and thrust him into a world where men are controlled by machines! How does he get back to his family? Who is the mysterious and deadly Leeja Clane? And why is Magnus so damn good at fighting robots?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of the new Magnus Robot Fighter series worked pretty well overall, though it was one that clicked better the second time you read it while knowing where it was going to go. The devil is in the details with a series like this where it was working a dream world where Magnus was trained and then the real world that he’s thrust into. Understanding some of what 1A was teaching him was the important part of it and as we got to understand some of the basics of the real world, it made a lot more sense in putting it all together. There were plenty of familiar aspects as well that we’ve seen in other forms over the years, which was smile inducing in a lot of ways, but it was interesting to see how Fred Van Lente and Cory Smith gave it their own touches as it all started to come together.
Which is unfortunate for Magnus since he ended up losing the world he knew and is now thrust into a scary new world where he’s labeled a terrorist robot fighter that is part of what made the pre-singularity days so bad. Though it’s done a bit bluntly, first with some of the robots talking and then with what inspector Leeja Clane reveals, but we get a bit more of a foundation for this world while Magnus is incarcerated. The singularity aspect is simply a point in time here, an event that happened that isn’t defined, but it’s essentially the point where the world changed dramatically and the old ways gave way to the new order. What Magnus experienced in his dreamland that 1A gave for him was the old world and it doesn’t fit in with how the world exist now where trees are incredibly rare, nature itself seems hard to come by and people are either reshaped as needed or eliminated outright if they’re a threat to the status quo.
And, most importantly, the robots are in charge. In an amusing change, Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are adjusted here to be the Three Codes that people live by. I do wonder if the zeroth law is in effect in some way though… Anyway, the idea is that with the robots in charge to preserve order, the world has stabilized but at a significant price, one that your average human is either unaware of or glad to have had happened considering the way the world worked in the pre-singularity days. With 1A, he’s all about trying to change the order since he’s a pre-singularity AI and Clane and those she works for see 1A as the threat to order and the safety of North Am. It’s all certainly reasonable for those that exist within this culture and society, but for someone like Magnus, he can’t quite grasp it and it just itches in a big way that keeps him from just accepting it or any potential place in it.
His exposure to it all is certainly interesting as he gets a glimpse of others that 1A has sent off into the real world to do his battle, including a former student of his, and that just adds to his confusion. What becomes interesting is that as he’s sent back to his cell, his astute nature helps him to discern more of his own abilities by just paying attention to the situation and the details. This in turn expands his capabilities, which is welcome to see, since it means he’s not just a karate master that can break apart robots. Getting him to find a way to interact with the world that is a surprise to everyone else is a neat trick, though he may not use it in the best way to start since it should merit a lot more exploration in a better forum. But it’s fun to see how Magnus interacts with his captor and surroundings in his attempt to gain more information so he can try and get back to his wife since it seems like he hasn’t totally grasped the situation.
This installment has a lot to like as we get some decent information without it being quite an info dump or anything and Magnus is doing his best to be proactive rather than reactive. But with a world like this that is so firmly set against him, he’ll be reacting most of the time. The use of Clane definitely works nicely and I wonder if her name is some sort of nod to John McClane of the Die Hard films. The only part of this issue that kind of irked me, and is likely just a matter of being oversensitive perhaps, is with Magnus aiding a robot named H-8 that asks for help as it was being roughed up by some superior robots. His presence actually adds an interesting flavor to events since there are class/status sides to the robot hierarchy as well, which I hope gets explored, but the combination of his name, especially with an R attached to it since he’s been recalled, and the “offensive” linguistic ticks that caused it just feel force and out of place within the book.
In Summary:
While I had liked the first installment well enough as it had the difficult job of doing all the basic foundation setting, I wasn’t too sure of how it would handle things going forward. With the second installment, we’re getting a bit more of the picture and there’s still so many ways it can go and all of them could be interesting to see unfold as Magnus copes with this brave new world. There’s a lot of material in here that expands the scope of the story and slowly builds the cast, so it has a lot of potential if it can take some strong risks as it goes along. What it is doing right now is making for a fun and interesting journey thanks to the solid script from Fred Van Lente, though I’m still really wary of H-8. This is made all the better by the artwork from Cory Smith who really takes it up a couple of notches in this installment, from Magnus’ expressions to the layouts of the double page spreads and more. It’s an impressive looking working that brings the story to life all the more. This is now firmly on my must-read list to see if they can capitalize on it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: April 9th, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
