Things get a little more complicated.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeff Lemire
Art: Dustin Nguyen
What They Say:
TIM-21, TELSA and QUON arrive at the amazing hidden home world of The Robot Resistance. But with this be a haven or a prison for Tim and his companions? And what new secrets lie at the centre of the Machine Moon?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After burning through the trade and then picking up the next two issues that were already out, now I join the rest of the fans of the series in the monthly wait for new installments. And I do so gleefully, because this book just delights in every regard. There’s a lot going on and I loved that it spent the last installment focusing just on Andy and his story, along with Blugger, in order to establish the character well without it being shoehorned in elsewhere when it might throw off the flow of the story at the time. It also worked to make me actually like Blugger, which I didn’t think could happen based on my initial reactions to him when he and Tesla first arrived.
With this installment, we get back to the various arcs that are in play and sink our teeth into what’s going on there. The Megacosm is certainly in a state of flux after the Gnishi king S’Nok was killed and now his thinner and likely crueler son S’Lok is taking over. With Andy and Blugger watching this while working towards finding out more of what happened to TIM-21, we get a good sense of how the Gnishi are going to ramp things up even more. Upping the bounties and putting some big targets out there is going to make things very difficult for our main cast of characters and for a lot of others throughout the ‘cosm. Which is good, because when things are tense and really out there it gives the book a really great sense of background tension. Not that there wasn’t enough just based on the threat of the Harvesters, but this makes it a lot more personal in a way.
The main themes that we get in this issue are a bit more like place setting pieces and getting a feel for where the cast is. Andy’s adventure takes him a step closer to TIM-21, but TIM-21’s time is really interesting as he interactions with 22, whose emotional settings are far lower since he was bonded different than 21 when he first was put into service. We get some good background on how these robots were designed and used as well as how they interact when they’re the only ones around. 22 is definitely growing on me with his personality, though I keep waiting for a more violent side to show itself. Quon and Telsa continue to aggravate the hell out of each other, but we learn a little more of what Quon did in using the templates for the robots and how that may have a greater impact. Telsa, for her part, continues to really put him in his place and I really expect her (and others) to throttle him. But you know he must have a bigger use down the line and while you can predict some of it, I’m looking forward to seeing what curves Lemire throws at us first.
In Summary:
A lot of the book is just about getting a feel for where everyone is at the moment while bringing out a little more background material across several of them. I’m really enjoying each of their journies and what they represent while also just enjoying the humor and quirkiness that comes from it. Even Driller isn’t driving me batty with his phrasing, which surprises me. Lemire continues to build towards the big picture here and adds some really tantalizing teases at the end with regards to the Hardwire. Nguyen is just beyond words with how this book looks and is designed, leaving me just in awe of it with each installment as there’s so much detail to it and a really great sense of design and color that’s simply captivating. It’s a beautiful book that stands out against the rest in a huge way. I can’t get enough.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Image Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 13th, 2016
MSRP: $2.99
