Atomic Robo has been one of my favorite discoveries of the year. It isn’t deep, but it is smart and fun. Volume 5 is in many ways Robo’s origin story, not the origin of how he came to be, but the origin of how he became a crime fighting action scientist. It introduces us to young Robo, still living with his creator, Nikolai Tesla. Robo is bored with his studies and seeks adventure in adventure science comic books. One night he sees Jack Tarot, a masked vigilante, chasing goons past the Tesla lab, and runs after him. Jack Tarot, son of a wealthy industrialist, has studied the art of zen archery and now applies it to firearms. He and his daughter, Helen, have been chasing mafia goons who have been stealing science stuff, and he can’t figure out why. Much to his chagrin, Robo insists on adopting him as a mentor.
Robo and Tesla have a falling out when Tesla objects to Robo’s desire for adventure. Robo and Helen have a little romance and Robo fights a bigger robot. Along the way Robo begins to develop the skills to be an action scientist. While Tesla values theory and research over action and adventure, he does save the day – with science.
In the Free Comic Book Day one off, Team Up of the Century, Robo and Dr. Dinosaur team up to save the world when something goes wrong at the large Hadron Collider. Dr. Dinosaur is one of Robo’s many nemeses. He thinks he is a genius who invented a time machine out of crystals (and genius) and came forward in time to overthrow the mammals. Whenever Dr. Dinosaur is involved, things get ridiculous. Nobody’s plans go according to plan and there is much mayhem. Clevinger and Wegener tell a fast paced story with little details that make me snort laugh. I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to read this one off now. It won’t take long. After you read it, you will wish that the producers of Jurassic World had invited Clevinger and Wegener to write the screenplay. I would have really enjoyed a more Robo-esque Chris Pratt taking on a Future-saurus.
As I’ve said, Atomic Robo is also available online for free, if you don’t want to buy the hard copies from Amazon. So click on an add link, or use the buy hole to buy something else.
And finally, never take advice from a dinosaur, even if he is a genius.
