Atomic Robo Presents: Real Science Adventures vol. 1

Now that “Atomic Robo” has been around for a few years, garnered sizeable amounts of acclaim, and established a dedicated fanbase an anthology project such as this was inevitable at some point.  Given that all six miniseries (with the seventh due to be collected in short order) have come from the established team of writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener, doing something like this gives them a break from the standard format and allows us to see other artistic interpretations of the title character.  (After all, it has worked out great for “Hellboy” in the past and given that the creators are probably sick of those comparisons by now I’ll shut up about that.)  Clevinger does write all of the stories in this collection, so it’s really a pure showcase for different artistic interpretations of the title character and his world.

That all the stories look good is a credit to all of the artists involved as well as their distinct visual styles.  Of particular note are the stories illustrated by John Broglia, Rob Reilly, Xevi Benitez and Gurihiru.  Broglia’s story shows us the time Robo got martial arts training from Bruce Lee and does a great job evoking the feel of the 70’s before giving us some straight-up martial arts movie action from the era.  There’s a nice “in-on-the-joke” feel to Reilly’s story of Robo hiring a team of monster hunters to go after the Yonkers Devil.  It’s because you know these hunters are legit because they’re essentially the classes from “Team Fortress 2.”  We get two very different styles from Benitez as his first story “Most Perfect Science Division” has some nice robot-on-robot fighting action with a clean look to it that is very much in line with regular artist Wegener’s.  Benitez mixes things up in his second story, “Once Upon A Time In China,” and gives us a tale with a rougher, more painterly look to it that’s well-suited to the intimate narrative there.  

Gurihiru, however, knock it out of the park in “Tesla’s Electric Sky Schooner” as they and Clevinger give us a fast-paced story involving the title character and several other notable historical figures of the era.  It’s manga-influenced in the best way, giving the characters a wide-eyed enthusiasm and energy that’s downright infectious.  The story also manages to cram an epic-level battle between airships in a mere eight pages.  More than any other work here, this is the one that I’d love to see expanded upon or given its own miniseries down the line.

It goes without saying that the other stories featured here aren’t in the same league as the overall quality is as uneven as you’d expect from any anthology.  Most of them suffer from too short to make any real impact.  That’s particularly true of the opening tale, “Bloop,” which has a great introduction that puts Robo in search of a giant life form under the sea and ends right as it was getting really interesting.  Another one, “The Dark Age,” has Robo trying to get back into comics again only to be confounded by the worst trends of Marvel and DC over the past few years.  Even as someone who generally agrees with the points Clevinger brings up here, the story just felt like a cheap shot that didn’t have anything new to say about those issues.  I was left wondering if the story wouldn’t have been better if Robo had found a series to like — this is just my opinion, but I think “The Manhattan Projects” would’ve been right up his alley.  However, “The Revenge of Dr. Dinosaur” did feel perfectly suited to its length as well as the joke it was trying to tell.

There are a couple stories that were interesting in the way that they appeared to be setting up potential stories for future “Robo” tales.  The aforementioned “Most Perfect Science Division” sets up what could be the character’s opposite number in China, and “The Philadelphia Experiment” gives us an example of science gone wrong that’s begging to be followed up on.  These particular examples fare better than the stories which do have direct ties to the main series.  Though I did like the art in Broglia’s “Leaping Metal Dragon,” Robo’s meeting with Bruce Lee didn’t have nearly the same frisson as his team-up with Carl Sagan mainly because the kung-fu philosophy espoused by the martial artist doesn’t really feel all that fresh.

The anthology part of this collection is closed out by “To Kill A Sparrow” which is the longest story here and also the weakest.  That it doesn’t feature Robo at all is likely the main reason, but it also shows that the Sparrow — the British super-spy originally introduced back in vol. 2  of the series — works best when she has that character to play off of.  Without him, she comes off as arrogant and joyless.  It doesn’t help that the story itself is a familiar mix of WWII tropes and cliches with its climactic scene hinging on a villain who just can’t stop talking.

Fortunately things end on a high note as “Atomic Robo’s” Free Comic Book Day offering from 2012 is collected here and not only has Wegener back on the art, but the return of Dr. Dinosaur as well.  When the supercollider at Cern creates a “closed time-like curve” that threatens to rupture the causality of ten-to-twelve-percent of the known universe it requires not only the intervention of Robo and the guys on Tesladyne’s graveyard shift, but a team-up with that most deranged of dinosaur scientists.  That the rationality-challenged doctor eventually turns on them shouldn’t come as a surprise.  That it involves a tyrannosaurus egg evolved into a gun-toting, missile-launching “futuresaurus rex” represents a special kind of demented genius which shows the series at its best.

Warts and all, “Real Science Adventures” will still provide some decent entertainment for fans of the series.  If Clevinger and co. do decide to go for another round of short stories, I only hope that they make them longer and stay out of WWII.  Or just give us a full-length “Tesla’s Electric Sky Schooner” story with Gurihiru. I still maintain that it’d be awesome.