X-Ray Robot

Max Wilding is a scientist who believes that interdimensional travel is possible.  He also believes it’s really dangerous, or else he wouldn’t be working in a lab with his fellow scientists on a robot that can travel between them.  The good news is that when they finish it and turn it on, all of reality isn’t destroyed!  Instead, because he was plugged into the robot, Max winds up with visions of other, sometimes hellish, realities.  It isn’t until the second time that the robot is activated that reality starts coming apart at the seams and Max is visited by a robotic version of himself 277 years in the future.  There’s a being loose in the timestream called the Nihilist and he’s looking to take advantage of this newfound chaos to make it so that nothing has ever existed — which sounds very on-brand for him.  Which leaves it up to Max, Robo Max, and their scientist friends to save reality from the imminent threat of non-existence!

If that sounds like a wild setup for a four-issue miniseries, you don’t know the half of it.  “X-Ray Robot” is less an actual story than an excuse for creator Mike Allred to just draw whatever he wants.  From psychedelic interdimensional travel scenes, to mundane suburbia struck by tragedy, to a big fight on a giant garbage island, to his enduring creator-owned creation Madman, this is Allred at his most unrestrained.  Which means that it’s a very stylish visual feast for those that are a fan of the man’s art.  I definitely fall into that camp and I can certainly say that I enjoyed this miniseries while also admitting that its plot is basically a whole lot of nonsense masquerading as one.  This is definitely a miniseries best appreciated by the creator’s existing fanbase, but it’s definitely more enjoyable than you’d expect something that’s “for the completists” to normally be.