RoboCop #2
Written by Joshua Williamson
Art by Carlos Magno
Covers by Goni Montes
BOOM! Studios
Release Date: August 6, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

If Superman was the quintessential idea of truth, justice, and the American way in the ’30s and ’40s, RoboCop was that for the ’80s and ’90s. Cold, analytical, machine processed justice. Truth that was incorruptible, and could be backed up and revised later if needed.

And, of course, there is nothing more American than megacorporations owning everything. It wasn’t a huge leap to assume they would someday own the police when the movie came out in 1987, and the sentiment hasn’t gone away in the last 30 years.

Reading RoboCop #2 by Joshua Williamson and artist Carlos Magno is like stepping back into the theater (or, for those of us too young when the movie first came out, popping the tape back in the VCR). It has all of the glorious violence, the rough and gritty appeal of Old Detroit.

The story is that the city has declared that any privately owned guns not registered with them must be confiscated. This doesn’t sit well with officers Lewis and Murphy, or the citizens. So, the city calls in a liaison to work with them, a man named Killian. He’s an ex-con who went to prison before RoboCop hit the streets, and he doesn’t like the robot police officer. Now he has a plan to bring the city, and RoboCop, down in flames.

Williamson’s writing and Magno’s artwork in this series are great examples of modern noir. Killian would fit as well in Stray Bullets as he does here for all of his charisma and psychopathy. Magno’s line work and crosshatch shading give each panel the kind of texture and worn feel the original movie had in each frame.

Both the writing and art are perfect compliments to the history of RoboCop, and any fan of the movie should definitely have this one in their collection.