Atomic Robo (vol. 12): The Specter of Tomorrow

This series came off of a high point with “Ring of Fire” only to head into the merely okay “Temple of OD” flashback/sidestory.  Where does “The Specter of Tomorrow” fit in? Right between those two, closer to the upper end than the lower. After saving the world, Robo and the rest of the scientists at Tesladyne are busy setting up their new research facility in New Mexico, right between the ones owned by Richard Branson and Elon Musk.  That might sound like good company to be in, until the former gets tired of the noise and orchestrates a work shutdown through the local homeowner’s association. While this is a big enough issue to get Robo to come out from his basement experimentations regarding machine intelligence, a much bigger threat rears its head when ordinary humans across the globe are suddenly revealed to be high-tech cyborgs after they go berserk.  If you think that this is a great setup to work of one of Robo’s former antagonists back into the story, then you’d be wrong. This setup involves two of them.

Writer Brian Clevinger notes in his afterword that this is the first volume of what he, artist Scott Wegener — who delivers art that expertly serves the series comedic and action sides as always — and the rest of the “Robo” team are calling “The Weird Future” era of the series.  So expect things to only get stranger from here as they try to keep up with how the real world is changing along the lines of the documentary “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” It’s a solid enough lead-in to this era as it’s got the title’s winning mixture of hard science, human eccentricity, and breakneck action down pat.  In other words, it’s just as fun to see Robo mix it up with berserk robots as it is to see the rest of his team find a way around Branson’s work stoppage.

The only thing about this volume that feels off is its use of those old antagonists here.  When you’re bringing back characters like these it’s usually meant to signify that the stakes have officially been raised in a story.  It doesn’t have that effect here, particularly since I’d be fine if we never heard from one of them again. The other does manage to set up a potentially fascinating story thread for the series to follow, so it evens out in the end.  “The Specter of Tomorrow” ultimately winds up being a good start to this new era of “Atomic Robo” overall. Now let’s have Clevinger and Wegener follow it up directly, without another sidestory or flashback.