Written by: Brian Clevinger
Illustrated by: Scott WegenerChicago, 1930. Mobsters! Hijacked lab equipment! Mystery Men! Gunfights! Car chases! A mad scientist’s machines, machinations, and the conspiracy behind it all! Tesla too! And that’s just in the first issue ATOMIC ROBO AND THE DEADLY ART OF SCIENCE!
It’s Atomic Robo. If you aren’t buying this book already, you’re making a major life mistake.
Find out what I think of the first issue of this new arc after the jump.
What many readers don’t know about Multiversity is that every week, our writers put together a draft. This draft is like any draft from major sports, except it features our writers selecting what books they want to review for the week and a ton of off color jokes and jeers about picks and what is going on in the world of comics.
One thing we always agree on is certain books are very difficult to review because they are always awesome (I call it “The Walking Dead Corollary”). Atomic Robo is one of those books, and stupidly, in my excitement for a new mini I picked this as my #1 pick of the week.
Sure enough, it was awesome!
That’s the thing about Atomic Robo. Every time you get a new issue, you know it’s going to be fantastic. You know Brian Clevinger is going to come up with an inventive and exciting plot that will make you laugh a few times and smile throughout. You know that Scott Wegener’s art will be expressive, very tight and good for a few laughs in its own right. It’s reliable beyond words, and because of that, difficult to review.
This new series finds Robo teaming up with Jack Tarot, a vigilante who is fighting mobsters alongside his daughter. This is back in Robo’s youth, a time in which he apparently only acts as Tesla’s lab assistant/protege. Part of the fun of this series comes from all of the different periods of time we get Robo from and just seeing how different he has been throughout the years, and this version of Robo is one of the most entertaining yet (or annoying if you’re Jack Tarot). His zest for adventure and excitement leads him to want to become Tarot’s sidekick, much to his chagrin, and it also entertains with the way Robo tries to use rules from pulp magazines as guidelines for his own life.
Clevinger’s scripts are really exercises in pure joy, and the opportunities he gives Wegener are first rate throughout. I mean, to see a main character who does all of his vigilante work while wearing a bandanna over his face is not something one expects to see every day. Or ever. Yet in this book, not only does it seem at home but it even seems hilariously perfect. That Clevinger and Wegener can pull this off is true testimonial to the awesome they bring every time they release a comic.
This book was “ho-hum” in its greatness again. Sure it was hilarious. Sure it has an exciting plot. Sure it is exceptionally illustrated. Sure, sure, sure. It’s what we’ve come to expect from Atomic Robo every issue – awesome in comic form. If that doesn’t sound good to you, well, then you need to lighten up my friends.
Final Verdict: 9.2 – Buy
