The chase is still on and the audience is growing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Fred Van Lente
Pencils: Cory Smith
What They Say:
How do you kill a robot fighter? Send a human. LEEJA CLANE: HUMAN HUNTER! Her guns are huge! Her car is fast! Her theme music is awesome! How’s Magnus possibly going to survive against an opponent with no robot parts?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Watching Magnus’ confusion in the first couple of issues as he’s had to adapt to the world rocking events of discovering what’s truly real has been a good bit of fun, though I’ll admit I enjoyed it a bit more the second time around once I knew what was coming and could get into the details in a different way. The second issue brought in an amusing and fun element with Leeja Clane, a human hunter, while also providing a divisive character with the robot H8(R), a recalled robot that has now found himself sticking with Magnus since Magnus has pulled his circuits from the frying pan a few times. The two are certainly different from each other and their connection to Magnus and each offers a very different perspective on the world itself and how to view it through the lense. As offensive as H8(R)’s may be at times.
This installment keeps the chase going now that Magnus has made it out of the initial building he was in and now has a goal of finding some of the Goph’s, feral humans, that exist out there somewhere as his father, 1A, may have backed a copy of himself up there. It’s a simple and straightforward goal, one that feels like it’s all that Magnus can rightly handle at the moment considering how he has to try and truly understand how this world works. And someone like H8(R) is an amusing teacher of sorts in explaining things since he can’t believe that Magnus doesn’t quite get it. H8(R) also finds himself with a moral challenge this time around as one of those in a position of power privately offers him redemption as a rejected model that could have him brought in to the great rapture. But to do it, he has to betray the human that’s saved him. It’s not an unusual story idea, but with it bringing in the religious/faith side for the robots and how that can be just as compelling for them as it is for people is a tangent I hope gets explored a bit more than a superficial look.
The other main movement across here is that of Leeja Clane herself as she continues her pursuit of Magnus, all of which is of course broadcast to the city to be seen. This is comically awkward in a way as the first two pages present it as a way of showing how she’s a strong woman that doesn’t let others define her and even an amusing moment where they make it so that she passes the Bechdel test as they plainly say it out loud. It can be viewed a lot of ways and I’m sure some will find it offensive, others hilarious and most just kind of out of place in a way. As the chase goes on though, we see some really neat moments as Magnus and H8(R) have to deal with her and those back and forth actions start to change the dynamic. While she’s praised as being the best of the best for a human hunter, and we understand how humanity has been pushed to an extremely manageable level here that has eliminated the worst of the worst of us and our social issues, we also see how Magnus can shake things up. Though he’s called a robot fighter, the robots of the city are cheering his being pursued until he does things that don’t conform to their worldview and it’s like a pregnant pause as they aren’t sure how to really process that. And it plays over a few times, which ends up rallying robots towards him, albeit in a limited way, but it’s that kind of thing that can change the thinking.
In Summary:
While we had a bit of a slow and kind of awkward start to the series, it’s been moving fast since the end of the first issue and this is no exception. Magnus is fully on the run here and doing what he can to keep moving to get where he needs to be and that means some fun chase sequences that lets Cory Smith stretch a bit, especially with that two page flying car sequence that had some great shades of Geoff Darrow to it. The look of the series continues to alternate well depending on which groups we’re dealing with, but once we’re out in the open city it just feels so alive with color that it’s easy to be drawn into the backgrounds. Fred Van Lente keeps things moving smoothly outside of some of H8(R)’s dialogue still and I’m not sure how to take those first two pages yet. But overall, it’s a pretty smooth issue here that nudges the key points forward, expands others and works with the perception versus reality angle nicely with the robots versus the humans. Definitely a good bit of fun.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 21st, 2014
MSRP: $3.99
