Okay, it’s a movie tie-in but it’s a prequel and a sequel. Who knows? The new Robocop isn’t out yet so is it even possible to gauge whether Michael Moreci and Jason Copland got the tone right… because they don’t create one of their own.

Moreci follows around Robocop’s human handler–or so the character seems, as I haven’t seen the movie–while Robocop is malfunctioning. There are riots, there are hostages, will Robocop come through in the end? Will Moreci actually write vicious criminals or ones out of toy commercials?

Vicious criminals wouldn’t fit Copland’s style. With the colors over Copland’s pencils–no inking here–Hominem Ex Machina looks like watercolor. It’s not an action style. Copland quite often flings Robocop through the air and it just looks absurd. So does all the tasering; it’s practically a PSA in favor of taser “safety.”

It’s somewhat inoffensive licensed dreck.

D 

CREDITS

Writer, Michael Moreci; artist, Jason Copland; colorist, Juan Manuel Tumburús; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editors, Alex Galer, Ian Brill and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.