Atomic Robo
Vol. 2: Dogs of War
Written by Brian Clevinger
Art by Scott Wegener
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Letters by Jeff Powell
Red 5 Comics
Available now

In its amazing release in October of 2007, Atomic Robo is back and he has come bearing a fatty of a war epic! Taking on Nazis, giant insects, and crazed destructive machines, there is nothing that can bring down the wise cracking robot, Atomic Robo. Creators Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener take what was great with the first volume and continue with an enticing and amusing storyline. Atomic Robo: Dogs of War – Part One doesn’t skip a beat. Our hero is pushed right into the heat of a proverbial death ray of action.

In case you didn’t catch the first series (which I highly recommend), the story follows along in a historical fiction aspect. In 1923, the Austrian inventor, Nikola Tesla, was nearing the end of his career when he unveiled a marvelous creation. A robot with automatic intelligence, deemed Atomic Robo. AR was granted American citizenship in return that he becomes the major combatant to a 1938 top secret military utilization. Tesladyne is the name of the organization, headed by AR and handful action scientists that are the go-to folks for abnormal enemy activity.

The last issue of the first series ended with a heroic fight of robotic ass kickary. Atomic Robo cleaned the clock of the destructive robot, Helsingard, and rescued the captured action scientists. Dogs of War starts on July 10, 1943, Allied forces are about to take the shores of Sicily in Operation Husky. Atomic Robo has paratrooper onto the main land and begins taking out Nazis troops through out the small village that he landed in. The first issue ends with the revealing of a great new adversary and a coercive story continuation.

Yes, there are strong similarities of this series to that of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. Though I would definitely not write it off as a rip off. It is some much more than that. Atomic Robo follows closer to the social commentaries that Miller and Moore tend to write, but still keep a friendly atmosphere. A strong contributing success to this comic is Wegener art style. I really like his colorful yet slight coarse noir feel that comes off as a nostalgic throw back to early Batman comics of the 1940s.

Dogs of War hits with a fantastic appeal. I really can’t wait to see more of the this next volume. The only thing I would like to see is more of a story development with AR and the agency he works for. I know the series is still young, but I have strong feeling that Clevinger will bring that along the way.

Overall this was a very fun read, and I recommend this for all superhero comic enthusiasts.