Broken Frontier

Robo brings back the funny, and the drama, and the action in this well-paced tale.

For all the talk of DC’s controversial relaunch attracting new readers, and turning off some loyalists, Red 5 have been leading the way with their flagship character Atomic Robo, steadily gaining new fans and turning them into devoted readers.

As someone who has dipped in and out of Robo’s wild adventures over the last four years, I found last month’s premiere of this sixth volume slightly underwhelming. The usual humor was largely absent and there were characters unknown to me from previous (unread) issues. However, this follow-up is like Robo has thrown open his metallic arms to welcome me home. Here, Robo brings back the funny, and the drama, and the action in this well-paced tale.

Immediately picking up where the last issue left off, i.e, Robo free falling from the high-tech jet on his course to rescue five astronauts from the Venture Orbiter, this is an action filled tale. The first nine pages of said fall in particular are intense, and the next few pages don’t let up either as a broken Robo is put back together in a great scene reminiscent of the opening titles to The Six Million Dollar Man.

While the repair continues,  so does the investigation into the Ghost Station X of the title, which is linked to a missing building in England. Thankfully Robo gets his body back, and soon faces the wrath of his colleagues, as his radioactive heart could’ve done some serious damage to a lot of people had Robo indeed crashed.

The last third of this issue presents a twist that will drive another mystery in the remaining issues, and praise must go to Clevinger for crafting two intriguing plots, made even more so by the mystery of how they’ll combine down the road. This issue is also funnier than the preceding one, mainly thanks to a dig at NASA’s bureaucracy and a great recurring joke about Robo’s hospital gown and his literal "buns of steel."

Wegener’s art is a breath of fresh air, with his slightly cartoony approach and although backgrounds are usually sparse, he throws in some more detailed environmental renderings on occasion to mix things up. Every character has their own sense of style and they are easy to tell apart. It’s quite the skill that Wegener has, to portray such enchanting figures with fewer lines than most pencillers.

With more mystery and drama than some of the previous Robo series, but also with a thankful return to comedic form, this continues to be a title that readers new and old should pay attention to.