Not All Robots vol. 1

In the future, there will be robots.  We’ll also have ceded all control over our lives to them, to the point where humans will no longer be needed to work (except as hairdressers) and they’ll have to rely on their assigned robot guardian to act as their breadwinner.  That’s the situation the Walters family has found themselves in with Razorball, and they’re all varying degrees of miserable about it.  Things don’t get any better when the robot monitoring the oxygen content of the Orlando Dome experiences a glitch, asphyxiates its entire population, and effectively throws kerosene onto the brushfire that is human/robot relations.  Is this the beginning of the end for everyone?  Or will the Omni Corporation’s new line of human-looking Mandroids, with their improved empathy chip be the solution everyone has been looking for?  Given that their president looks a whole lot like Jeff Bezos, the answer is a resounding, “Probably not!”

“Not All Robots” is written by Mark Russell, who has been utilizing DC-owned characters – “The Flintstones,” “Snagglepuss,” “The Wonder Twins” – to do a lot of social satire over the years.  This is the first comic I’ve read from him, and I can kinda see why he keeps getting work.  The story’s central metaphor about who the robots are standing in for is a particularly unsubtle one, which means it’s perfectly appropriate for these times.  Russell also manages to score some (mostly uncomfortable) laughs about how efforts to fix these problems only make things worse, while his overall points about how humanity wound up in this situation ring true.  By the end of this first volume I was genuinely interested in seeing where the writer was planning on taking things now that human/robot relations are at their lowest point.

Illustrating all of this is Mike Deodato Jr., who is spectacularly miscast on this material.  I loved his Marvel work as he excelled at drawing big, detailed, and gritty superhero action.  These are all traits that do not serve a grounded sci-fi satire at all, and the story was crying out for someone with a lighter touch (like Nick Dragotta) to deliver it.  That being said, Deodato commits to what Russell is selling in a way that’s downright admirable.  The look is all wrong, but you clearly understand the intent behind every scene.  Even if he isn’t the right artist for this series, I still wouldn’t mind seeing Deodato return for vol. 2.  Whenever it arrives.