Time to get a peek at the Robotech six issue mini-series being done
by Wildstorm. The series has been ok so far, although it has not
gripped me as I thought it would at first. A distinct lack of the
huge battle scenes from the anime series and the frenetic pacing
that aided the initial TV episodes makes this story a bit of a drag
so far.
The third instalment opens up with Rick Hunter winning an air show
and receiving a letter from Roy Fokker who is joining a top secret
military organisation. This Robotech is not what you watched as
a kid. In fact it is probably only really going to appeal to those
who are real fans of the series. It takes place before the Zentradi
forces attack earth. It has so far being more of a “Top Gun”
style book than a mecha-based one.
Personally I feel a bit let down, as a huge drawing factor of the
initial Robotech was the mecha and sci-fi elements of the series.
This story reads more like a heart-felt flying film about a kid
and his hero friend who fly’s off into battle. The story seems
to be more character based and centred around the relationship between
Rick and Roy as they both grow up flying for different reasons.
This isn’t so bad it’s just that so far the series has
disappointed due to the fact that none of the aforementioned mecha
and fight scenes have been done, and this has to be a disappointment
for many armchair Robotech fans such as myself. A second series
has been announced lately and hopefully this will cover more of
the traditional Robotech arsenal if it does come to print.
All that I’ve said about the mecha does not mean that there
is nothing to look at in this book, in fact it is quite the opposite.
As far as dogfights and jet-fighter piloting go, this book is great.
The artists involved must be given props for drawing some stunning
machinery. The weapons, alien tech, ships and planes are all expertly
modelled. The HUD display and aircraft cockpit interiors are simply
amazing. The part where the art seems to fail is most definitely
not in the technical areas but in the anatomy department. Sometimes
the characters look skew, drawn out of perspective and in other
scenes they look perfect, this inconsistency makes the final product
seem very cartoony and unfinished and definitely takes away from
the quality of realism found in the technical drawing areas. I noticed
the same effect when reading X-Men Evolution, which
was produced by the same group of artists from Udon studios,
it’s probably more a personal gripe than anything, but it
definitely takes away from the book.
The colouring is good on the whole, the colourist knows when to
use different styles for different occasions and wisely chooses
different palettes and styles for rendering the colours and effects
for the people versus the tech found throughout the book.
An engaging enough story for real Robotech fans, I wouldn’t
really recommend it for nostalgic couch potatoes [like me] trying
to reminisce with the 80’s, as it falls short in that category.
A complete lack so far of aliens and robots battling it out in the
depths of space leaves me thinking that they should have called
this Top Gun rather than Robotech. All of that put aside it’s
a great story for true fans wanting to know more about the Robotech
universe before the TV series started. The art is great and colourful
and true to the anime style of the original with some awesome machinery
to drool over.
Score 6/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
|
Comic Reviews
