Atomic Robo: Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #2 by, Brian Clevinger (words), Scott Wegener (art), Nick Filardi (colors), Jeff Powell (letters) - Even though he can't drink, I think Robo would still get hammered faster than Val (the lady in the striped shirt) in a drinking contest. She is, after all, Russian.The She-Devils want to get to the bottom of the strange planes that attacked Robo, before said strange planes send them to the bottom of the Pacific. So Robo travels with the Captain and Val to Pete's, a 'safe haven' where a brawl nearly starts, and Pete expects them to drink who knows what. They do get sort of a lead from a crazy old man who thinks Robo's a ghost. What is it with old Asian guys thinking Robo's something supernatural? This guy, the one from "Leaping Metal Dragon" who said he was a demon. They do find something, but it kind of blows up before Robo can piece much together. Back at the base, he learns the She-Devils' top engineer has been tearing apart his engine on the sly, but they come to an understanding. Then the base gets attacked.
I like how Wegener make Pete look like a big, friendly fella, but only when he smiles. At all other times he's stern, gruff, intimidating. The smile triggers a complete change in his body language, and its departure signals a similarly quick reversal. Very well done. As to Clevinger, ever since he hinted at Lauren's interest in Robo's jet engine, I kind of dreaded the moment when Robo would learn she stole his stuff, lost his mind, and a big ugly fight with the She-Devils broke out. Clevinger thankfully avoided this by having the two characters decide to collaborate on Lauren's project ideas instead. Science bringing people together instead of blowing them apart.
Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures #5 by, Brian Clevinger (words), Matt Speroni (colors), Jeff Powell (letters), and Ryan Cody (art, "To Kill A Sparrow"), Paul Maybury (art, "Bloop"), Jin Clark (art, "Once Upon a Time in China"), and John Broglia (art, "Leaping Metal Dragon") - It's the giant skull head in the clouds from that story in Rocketeer Adventures 2 #1! It's after Robo now!As I said, I haven't seen issue 4 yet. This is more of a problem on "Leaping Metal Dragon" than "To Kill a Sparrow". With the latter, I knew they were planning to attack a German base, so it really isn't hard to figure Sparrow was captured in the course of that, whether intentionally or not. With the former, the last I knew Robo was going to start working on punches, now we have a jump to Bruce Lee dealing with Tao Jones weeks later. Is it a movie, a real thing? I don't know. Maybe this was hinted at in issue 2, which I also haven't read yet. I'm just a little unsure how this will all come together. Perhaps Robo will capture Tao Jones?
As for the two standalone stories, "Bloop" deals with Robo searching for something that made a large noise at the bottom of the ocean. He came so close. I like how Maybury draws people, as the deckhands on Robo's ship look appropriately weather beaten, while the people in the NOAA office building have much smoother faces. And he makes a good go of showing the scale of the creature, though he showed just enough I'm confused as to how its body is shaped. Does it have a trunk? Is it an enormous squid? Maybe the eye needed to be even larger.
In the other story, Robo's shot down in a small village in China during WW2, and while he waits for his squadron to find him, he helps out around the village. Until the Japanese firebomb it, at which point he leaves. But the small boy who thought he was really cool survived, and remembered. It's sweet, but also a little sad, to see the boy as an old man, while Robo looks the same. Plays back into that bit about him doing a great Jack Benny, but no one getting it anymore. I like Speroni's colors on this. Mostly cool colors, blues, greys, greens for the peaceful scenes, then more yellows in the violent scenes. And it happens so quickly, from one panel to the next, it emphasizes how fast things can shift from one to another. It's not my favorite Real Science Adventure issue so far, but it's still a good one.
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