What I Bought 9/21/2012 - Part 3

After the two-day diversion, we're back with more comics. It's an Atomic Robo kind of day, in the sense that I'll be discussing comics about Robo, not in the sense that I'll spend the day defeating scientific mishaps with punching.

Atomic Robo: The Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #3, by Brian Clevinger (words), Scott Wegener (art), Nick Filardi (colors), Jeff Powell (letters) - The jetpacker looks so grim. Fightin' is serious business, I guess.

So the She-Devils' base is under attack, and Robo and Lauren have to get the airship up and to a safe distance, while the rest of the group drives off the jets. Except the jets are a diversion for a trio of those even more advanced jets to skip bomb the base with something very powerful and very green. Fortunately the airship gets out in time, but there are jets in pursuit of the She-Devils as they try to dock. So Robo does something questionable by leaping out of the plane and through the pursuing jet, then finds himself captured by someone who shot him down twice during the war. Which raises the question of how many times Robo was shot down exactly. Also raises the question of how a super-smart atomic robot gets captured so often.

I'll say right now I don't know what the Japanese group is up to, where they got the jets, or how this will all be resolved. So why waste time worrying about that? I love what Nick Filardi is doing with the colors. Most of the issue is either up in the nighttime sky, or inside the airship. Which means lots of backgrounds of deep blues, almost blacks, or a dingy grey. So the flare from the jets and the guns stand out for one thing, but when the bomb goes off, that massive bubble of neon green is almost blinding by comparison. Eye-catching to say the least. I'm guessing Jeff Powell added the sound effects, and on that one, he had the "ZKOOOM" curve as though it's been blown outward by the pressure wave. And it isn't colored in differently from the background, so it doesn't distract from that neon green.

Atomic Robo Real Science Adventures #6, by Brian Clevinger (words), Matt Speroni (colors), Jeff Powell (letters), Ryan Cody (art, "To Kill a Sparrow"), Erica Henderson (art, "Philadelphia Experiment"), Zack Finfrock (art, "Daedalus Project"), John Broglia (art, "Leaping Metal Dragon") - I like the cover - Robo needs more bright yellow trenchcoats and fedoras - but sadly it was the best part of the issue.

 "To Kill a Sparrow" felt like it could have been longer, though I'd settle for more of her adventures, and "Leaping Metal Dragon" still feels like an abrupt shift. I guess I'd prefer to see Robo actually getting better, rather than this sudden bit of him helping bring down Tao Jones. As for the other two stories, I feel like I need to go back and reread the earlier trades to understand the significance. I assume it means something that these Daedalus people found one of Helsingard's cloning vats intact, but I don't know what. Ditto "Philadelphia Experiment", even if I was a fan of The Philadelphia Experiment 2 went I was a kid.

If there's another round of these somewhere down the line, I think I ought to wait for the trade. The ongoing stories being chopped up into 4-page bits didn't help the flow of their stories any. The question is whether I'll remember I said that if more Real Science Adventures are solicited. Or will my impatience get the better of me again?