Robocop (1990) #11

According to the letter pages, Robocop is going through an editorial shift with this issue and the next ones. Way from Grant’s sci-fi based future and into… well, they don’t exactly say.

This issue almost seems like a direct sequel to the first movie, only with a giant robot running around with a guy’s brainwaves in it trying to kill Robocop.

The Alex Trimpe slash Herb Trimpe artwork is pretty nasty. Robocop’s enormous and goofy looking. Skolnick tries to make the comic serious, with Robocop and partner Lewis obsessing over Robocop’s transformation from man to machine and lots of thought balloons for Lewis. It’s okay, I guess, but it’s not really serious. There’s still the giant green robot with rocket launchers for arms or whatever.

It’s a nice try, but it feels like a total wrong direction, especially since Grant had finally found a nice balance for the series.

Robocop: Prime Suspect (1992) #4

It’s finally over. I’m sure no one thought, seeing this series, Leon would go on to do anything good. Or draw anything competently. I mean, the art in this issue is the worst so far. It’s absolutely atrocious. I guess Dark Horse was being mindful of Robocop as a children’s property at this time, which might explain the goofy artwork, but some of it’s worse than goofy, it’s just plain bad. For instance, the female sidekick, Leon’s rendition of her is laughable. She might as well have been a trapezoid with a wig.

There’s only action in this issue; it’s hard to tell what’s Arcudi’s fault and what isn’t. It’s terrible, but it’s a terrible approach to the property and not necessarily Arcudi’s doing.

See how nice I am, giving him the benefit of the doubt? It makes me feel better when I say kindergartners could make a better comic.

Robocop (1990) #10

In one of the letter pages, the editor said Robocop would never meet up with any Marvel superheroes (I guess the licensing worked differently than that Spider-Man crossover with the Transformers) and this issue kind of shows why it wouldn’t work.

The last two issues have been about costumed vigilantes. Some of them are silly, some of them aren’t. And in the issue, it turns into a huge bloodbath. Grant tells this story without making any kind of comment on the superhero comic other than generally–he doesn’t point out the absurdity in the superhero comic as a concept–it’s not like there’s a scene where the Joker just shoots Batman.

It sets up Robocop a little different than the traditional comic book, as these issues sort of dismiss the idea of Robocop as a “comic book superhero.” Instead, it’s something else.

It’s a good issue, though occasionally obvious.

Robocop: Prime Suspect (1992) #3

There’s some really awful art this issue. I’m pretty sure the last panel is the silliest panel so far in the series. It’s like a two dimensional … I don’t know what, but something atrocious.

The issue really ramps up like it’s going to stop being stupid towards the end–though I do appreciate Arcudi not giving Robocop internal dialogue–but then it just craps out, which shouldn’t surprise me.

What’s really stunning about the comic is how poorly paced these issues are getting. Leon wastes panel after panel with his artwork and it’s not like he’s capable of passing time well. The series maybe should have been three issues, with a competent artist, but with Leon, four issues is just disastrous.

Then there’s the big reveal this issue and it’s superbly lame, as it directly depends on the reader remembering a conversation from the first issue between two incidental characters.

Robocop (1990) #9

Thank goodness, DeMulder’s back.

Grant’s doing another multi-part story here, with Robocop trying to deal with OCP (his bosses) inspired vigilantism. It’s a little strange, just because it’s in a comic book so you’ve got the protagonist fighting the traditional protagonists of the medium. There are some absurd vigilantes and then some more serious ones–it’s never clear where the more serious ones get their wonderful toys.

Robocop’s sergeant shows up in this issue–maybe the first time he does in the Marvel comic series, I can’t remember–but still no Officer Lewis (did Grant forget he implied romantic tension between her and Robocop in the series’s first issue?).

There’s some weak dialogue from Robocop and the gang emphasis reminds a little too much of the previous issue, but it’s fine. I’m a little less impressed than usual, just because the vigilante stuff is so contrived and so silly.

Robocop: Prime Suspect (1992) #2

This issue actually raises some interesting ideas. Well, no, it doesn’t. It made me think of some interesting stuff but it’s not in the issue itself, which is unfortunate.

Namely, if Robocop does go bad, why doesn’t the police department have a way to turn him off? Secondly, why is Robocop’s sergeant in charge of him. It doesn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t the department have some kind of Robocop office. A liaison officer or something?

It didn’t actually occur to me, after reading the first issue, Leon’s artwork might get worse in the second one, but it really does. I can’t stop thinking about how this series played when it came out–aren’t licensed properties supposed to have very generalized artwork, so the reader identifies the illustrated character with the film or television actor? Robocop in this comic looks like he’s got an allergic reaction, his face is so puffy.

Robocop (1990) #8

Wow, I really miss Kim DeMulder. Keith Williams inks this issue and it really doesn’t work. Robocop’s definition is silly, he looks clunky instead of streamlined. Worse are faces. I was lamenting the lack of Robocop’s partner, Lewis, in my response to the previous issue, but she’s here all the time and it never feels like it. There’s an almost complete lack of personality to the issue, something I’ve got to the point of not expecting with Marvel’s Robocop. Though there was a Roxy Music poster on a wall, which I found interesting (I think it’s the first such reference in the series).

The story’s a solid little episode. OCP, the big company, is trying to lower property values by inciting gang violence; Robocop and Lewis get involved and then have to try to save their CI too. It’s a fine done-in-one.

Grant’s Robocop continues to be readable.

Robocop: Prime Suspect (1992) #1

What a goofy series. Well, I guess it’s too soon to say the series is goofy, but the first issue is certainly goofy.

Maybe it’s John Paul Leon’s artwork. I’ve only seen his more recent work. Prime Suspect looks like Dark Horse hired him to ape Kyle Baker’s most cartoonish style (I’m thinking the Disney Dick Tracy series). Except Leon’s clean, bright style doesn’t fit the story at all. The story’s a little over-cooked anyway, with Arcudi wasting panels with guys at bars having these political conversations using every word off a SAT practice test Arcudi can fit into the word balloons.

The story itself–Robocop is a murder suspect–is lame. What’s worse is how the series follows the Robocop 3 movie and treats the characters from the film series poorly (Robocop’s sergeant is afraid of him? Really?).

Why pay for a licensed property and make this tripe?

Robocop (1990) #7

So Alan Grant did Westworld with dinosaurs before Michael Crichton? There’s a dinosaur park in this issue, which came out a few months before Crichton’s novel, and, strangely, things go wrong. They go wrong for different reasons, but still… this issue could have been called “Robocop vs. Jurassic Park.”

There’s a lot of action here and a lot of–well, it’s not procedural, but it’s Robocop solving the mystery, but instead of it being an investigation with revelations, it’s an investigation with action sequences. Grant does a fine job with it, adapting the procedural both for the comic medium and Robocop as the protagonist.

Still, I miss seeing Lewis in the comic.

Sullivan’s dinosaur art is nice and the whole thing works well.

I mean, if you don’t dwell on Robocop’s internal dialogue, which is still way too human. The Judge Dredd influences come back too, with Robocop street judging.

Robocop vs. the Terminator (1992) #4

Wow, so good old Frank Miller coming through here with a happy ending and a dumb joke and just an awful comic book. There’s so little story in this issue, you’d think it was coming out today instead of back in the early nineties.

Miller’s script reads like fan fiction, if I understand what fan fiction reads like–my understanding being totally based on the jokes made about fan fiction. What’s most interesting about the entire series is how the Robocop licensing worked. The Terminator stuff, apparently Miller got to do whatever he wanted because who cares what one’s going to do with a Terminator license (it wasn’t a Terminator 2 license). Robocop, not so much.

Simonson’s art’s real loose this issue too. Lots of whacked out body part proportions of Robocop; Simonson keeps it tighter for the human beings.

This series must’ve made someone out there stop reading comics.