Atomic Robo & The Fighting Scientists of Tesladyne By Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

 Atomic Robo & The Fighting Scientists of Tesladyne

By Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

Scott Wegener is a self-taught American-born artist who has done a lot of work for Marvel comics. He's also worked for Dark Horse and Image comics. He's worked on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Punisher War Journal, and the Human Torch but prefers people focus on the fact that he is Atomic Robo's co-creator. He currently lives in New York City with his family. 

Brian Clevinger was born in the United States on May 7th, 1978. He is known as the creator of the webcomic 8-bit Theater, which used the sprite art from the old NES game final fantasy to tell the story of a group of dysfunctional manics trying to save the world, well mostly trying to become powerful and wealthy but you need a world around to do that. The webcomic ran from 2001 to 2010 telling a complete story and if you were online back then odds are you've at least heard of it. He's also created other webcomics, Dynasty Memories, Field of Battle, Warbot in Accounting, and How I killed Your Master. He's also self-published the novel Nuklear Age. 

Atomic Robo got its start as a limited series in 2007 published by Red 5 Comics, an independent comic book publisher known for producing creator-owned titles. This continued with Mr. Clevinger and Mr. Wegener releasing limited runs focusing on single storylines taking place over Robo's long life until 2015 when the contract ran out. At that point, they decided to publish Atomic Robo as a free webcomic, including prior stories that had been printed by Red 5 Comics. In June of 2015, they reached a deal with IDW to publish physical copies of Atomic Robo including multi-volume softcover collections. I tend to think graphic novels are the best way to experience Atomic Robo, as they are all self-contained and each one tells a self-contained story(I’ve read Atomic Robo as well, but I have read all of them online I might have to give it a re-read in dead tree format). You don't need to read the novels in order as they're for the most part non-linear(no but I would recommend it because you get a better sense of Atomic Robo as a person this way). For example, the one graphic novel tells a story of Robo's confrontation with a creature from outside the universe which stretches out across several decades with the second novel switching gears to tell about Robo's adventurers as a behind the lines operative in the European theater of World War II fighting Nazi Mad Science. 

Today we'll be reviewing the first graphic novel, however, which is centered on the decade-long battle between Atomic Robo and Baron Heinrich Von Helsingard. Baron Helsingard is nothing less than a traditional comic book villain powered by Mad Nazi Science (I should trademark that)(totally should start listing comic book villains like menu items at a fast food place, “I’ll have a number 1 with a side of extra monologue…”). The graphic novel maps several of their confrontations, the first one in the 1930s. The US Army has figured out where Baron Helsingard had holed up, figured out what he was up to, and realized they had two problems. One they couldn't leave the doctor and his army there, it was 1938 and the man was already an international outlaw for a massive list of crimes against humanity and was openly working towards godhood. Second, the Baron was holed up in the Himalayas in an honest to God Mountain Fortress with an army of Nazis at his command. Bluntly the US Army of 1938 didn't have the reach or manpower to even get to him with enough men to have a chance of success(US was also pretty isolationist at this time, might have pulled the US into WWII early without sufficient pretext to get congress to sign off on that {I’m not sure that parachuting into the Himalayas would have pulled us into WWII, I mean the Nazis would have to explain what the hell they’re doing right north of India.  On the flip side, the US army of 1938 can’t deploy any sizeable number of men to the Himalayas, we just weren’t capable of it}). The nations that could, like the British for example,  were staring an incoming world war in the face and focused on that. 

The US Army does have a solution to this though, an Atomic powered solution. In exchange for US citizenship and legal personhood, Atomic Robo is going to be parachuted solo into a mountain fortress of doom full of Nazi troops to arrest a Mad Nazi Scientist(see he’s not a US citizen till after the job is done, that’s plausible deniability children.) Don't worry though, he's packing enough steel on his frame to be bulletproof and a lightning gun that would make Thor reconsider who's in charge of lightning(See that’s one of the things I like about atomic robo, he knows his limits and takes jobs that sound insane for a human but are significantly less risk to him.). Of course, here's the problem when it comes to dealing with Nazi Mad Scientists, they treat death as a causal and temporary occupational hazard but they carry grudges until the grudge dies of old age. Then they use Nazi Mad Science to resurrect the grudge, weaponize it and use it to commit war crimes as if there were cash prizes for the scale and speed of crimes against humanity committed. I mean, there's a reason no one likes Nazis…(Well no sane, rational person likes them as anything other than villains we can use when we need a good target to punch or shoot.)

That's not all you get though, we also get stories that show just how insane Robo's life is. Whether it's battling giant ants to keep them away from Reno (I say let them have it {now, now, we would lose access to a perfectly good lake}), or stopping a steam-powered death ray armed pyramid from destroying modern Egypt. We also get a sense of his relationship to the US government, for example, there's an instant of Robo agreeing to be smuggled to Mars to make sure the Viking probes work. I like the little touches such as Robo being on friendly terms with Carl Sagan but having some sort of weird hate relationship with Stephen Hawking. There are also more sober moments, like Robo staring down at a letter letting him know that a fellow Flying Tiger has passed away and confronting the fact that he's 83 years old. Not just that he's 83 years old but he's likely to live a lot longer and keep losing old friends but he resolves to keep moving forward and take joy in having these friendships in the first place. (I think there could be a whole lot there to play with and I actually want to see more of that, Robo making friends wanting to be part of humanity and feel that connection but still having the weight of possible immortality nagging him.)

This is a fun and straightforward series and I honestly enjoyed it. The art is nice to look at without being overloading and carries a nice dynamic feel to it(there is also a subtitle shift in color palette between different time periods that lends itself well to the storytelling style used here). The storylines are the kind of crazy stuff you would get in a universe where an Atomic Powered Robot Man created by Dr. Tesla is running loose and commanding his own business. Frankly given everything going on out there in the world, a dose of fun and good storytelling was pretty much what I needed. That said the characterization for everyone who isn't Atomic Robo is kinda thin.  We're not really introduced to other characters and just kinda have to infer their relationships and personalities on the fly from really bare-bones clues. Those Fighting Scientists in the title could have used some more screen time is what I'm saying(More Dr. Dinosaur we need him and his true science facts, like how the human body contains just so much blood! {So much!  But we’ll get to Dr. Dinosaur when he shows up}). While I like Robo, he needs a supporting cast. If for no other reason than to give his sense of humor something to play off of. Atomic Robo and The Fighting Scientists of Tesladyne, by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener, gets an A- from me. Give it a shot(Having actually read this one YES I agree do go give it a read). 

I’d like to thank Mr. Davis for joining us as a guest editor for this review.  Mr. Davis is also one of our ever-wise patrons, so he gets to vote on upcoming reviews and theme months.  If you’d like to have a voice in upcoming reviews, join us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a dollar a month gets you a vote!  Next week we’re reviewing Clockwork Daggers by Beth Cato, hope you’ll join us.  Until then, stay safe and keep reading!  

Blue Text is Mr. Davis

Black Text is your reviewer Garvin Anders