Atomic Robo Vol II: Dogs of War By Brian Clevinger

 Atomic Robo Vol II: Dogs of War

By Brian Clevinger

I went into a fair amount of detail about the creators and publishers of Atomic Robo in my first review back in August of 2021. So instead of repeating myself, I'll ask you to take a look at that review before reading this one. Instead, let's talk about Robo and the time period of the book here. 

Dogs of War takes place almost entirely during World War II, with Robo serving in the US Army as a special agent. The US Army uses Robo mostly as a means to counter Mad Nazi Science (trademark pending) and to try to prevent World War II from turning into Weird World War (This is perfectly reasonable.  Though I now have a delightful mental image of that Hitler vs Stalin wizard fight comic…). Now Weird World War is a genre all on its own, where magic, paranormal abilities, or advanced/super-science is introduced into the setting of World War II (It is absolutely wonderful., I need more Soviet Sorcery, Communist Mecha, and Warsaw Ghetto Jew Golems in my life! Edelman Preym iz aktiv! Ale sistemen zenen arbetn, aun vepanz armd!). It's an incredibly rich genre with alternative history settings like GearKreig, Dust, Godlike, or stories like Life Eater by David Brin. It can range from anything from Captain America comics to stories of Nazi Clone Armies fighting Socialist Necromancers trying to protect the living soldiers of the motherland through the use of the dead. In this case, it's the US Army deploying a mechanical lifeform that is faster, stronger, incredibly intelligent, and bulletproof against the horrors of Mad Nazi Science (trademark pending). 

Let's talk about our agent here. At this point in the book, Robo is a young man... Robot? Young person, Robo is a young person striking out into the world for the first time and wanting to help protect the world from evil. We know from the first book that before America entered into the war, he gained his citizenship and legal protection by working with the US Army to neutralize a Mad Nazi Scientist (Huh.  He had it easier than black soldiers at the time.  Is the US less racist in this series? Please tell me the US is less racist.{No real data there}). Afterward, he joined the Flying Tigers, a group of volunteer pilots fighting the Japanese in China(Always a worthy endeavor.). When the US joined the war, he offered his services and was quickly turned into a special agent to be sent out on missions against the maddest and weirdest horrors and war machines that Nazi Scientists could create with the limited funds and support at their disposal (Hitler was almost too obsessed with his Wunderwaffen you see.  He had like… ADHD for mad dictators.  In real life, there were enough projects that they hindered each other.  I can only imagine what would happen with actual Nazi Super Science, as opposed to Nazis On Meth Science.). 

This is actually a fun point in the book, where we see one of the scientists in question complaining to Otto Skorzeny that if Hitler would just pick two or three Mad Nazi Science (trademark... Okay I'll stop) projects they could win the war but because Hitler insists on funding and manning dozens upon dozens of projects, nothing gets enough funding or other resources to actually turn the tide of the war (Oh my God, I hadn’t even read this far and I knew… There is Historical Verisimilitude!). This is hilarious for me as it shows that it doesn't matter how creative or talented you are if you don't buckle down and devote the actual time and effort to something that; and it also rings really true. Because if there was one thing that the Nazis were terrible at, it was committing to a single set of wunder weapons. I mean, it's not the only reason the Nazis were bad at but it's one of the big ones! (I don’t know bro.  I think it is a good feature of Nazism. They self-sabotage.)

I mean, for example, there are the Nazi jets, the Tiger tank series, the V-rocket series, and the vast string of failed projects and screw-ups in real life (Like the peroxide-powered rocket planes that melted their pilots into a soup-like homogenate if it was looked at funny.). Meanwhile the United States more or less committed to creating the atomic bomb with a vast outlay of resources, money, and manpower (Including the lives of the Navajo) and created a weapon that haunts the nightmares of humanity to this very day (Yaaay?  Yeah, no Yay). A weapon that will likely terrify our children's children and powerfully constrain the strategic calculations of every power on the planet for generations to come. See kids that's the power of commitment and dedication, if you're willing to put in the time and effort, you too can create a lasting testament to your abilities that scares the crap out of the entire species! (Plus you get the Demon Core out of it.)

Anyways! Robo finds himself mostly opposed by the aft-fore-mentioned Otto Skorzeny. Now Otto was a real person (He was a real human. I don’t consider the SS to be people.), an agent of the Waffen SS who came up with the idea of training units to operate behind enemy lines, not unlike partisans. He not only trained a number of these units for the SS but was Hitler's go-to man for a number of complex operations and had a decent success rate considering the sheer improbability of a number of his goals. That kind of makes him a real-life supervillain if you ask me . Otto has been used in a lot of World War II because he's a colorful and strange character and Atomic Robo uses him as a foil to Robo. This version of Otto is given a wonderful dry wit and calculating attitude towards evil that balances Robo's youthful enthusiasm and sarcastic one-liners rather well. They even cover Otto's death, of lung cancer in the 1970s, where we see a much older Robo realize just how to exact the best revenge he can on Otto and ensure that Otto suffers as much as he deserves to. 

The book gives a series of battles between Robo and Otto as Otto tries to make the various Mad Nazi Science wonder weapons actually do something worth a damn on a Strategic level and Robo tries to stop the weapons from killing people. Robo isn't alone in this of course; we are introduced to the British super agent, the Sparrow, a young lady with a grudge against Otto specifically and Nazis in general. She and Robo hate working together of course. We also met Scottie, a rather invincible Scottish commando whose version of English has only a vague relationship to the mother tongue as we mere mortals understand it. I will mention that we find out that Robo's personality and Scottie the character are both loosely based on Mr. Clevinger's grandfather. This means the old man must have been amazing to be around if you ask me. 

The book also gives us some important background and character information on Robo. We learn from an in-universe article by Dr. Tesla, Robo's creator, why there's only one Robo and why Tesla never shared the technology that created Robo. Firstly Tesla didn't write any notes on the creation process, which was likely wise of him. He also didn't allow anyone to take apart Robo to figure out how he worked because his stance was that Robo wasn't a product, he was a person (Interesting.  Because while I certainly agree that he is a person, the US government certainly would not. {Actually the US government awarded him personhood in the 1930s.  It was for services rendered but still…}). Since Robo was a person and the first of a brand new form of life, the technology that created him didn't belong to Tesla but to Robo himself. The wisdom and humility of such a stance is awe-inducing.  I devotedly hope we can rise to that level as a species someday. Also by displaying such wisdom, Tesla not only prevented the creation and oppression of a slave race.  He ensured that Robo could control his own fate. 

It's because of that we learn in another story that Robo, after WWII, decides it's time to stop being a soldier. While evil needs to be confronted of course and Robo never stops doing that, he realizes that he can do more good as a scientist working for the benefit of the entire world than as a footsoldier working for the interests of the United States. It's a decision that... I actually agree with. While I love my country, I'll be the first to admit that the interests of the US are not always the interests of the human race. The same goes for any nation-state honestly and while soldiers are necessary, the plain fact is that armies even when used wisely can really only stop greater evils. Scientists who are mindful of their obligations and the dangers before them can do much more. Whether it be through the creation of things like insulin or research into things like solar power or cleaning up the Pacific Gyre. An Army's power is through destruction, while the power of a research lab lies in creation and Robo decides he wants to help humanity and create (I thoroughly support his decision!). Although he will pick up a revolver and wreck things to protect the rest of us, he is after all still bulletproof. 

Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War is an action-packed romp through the greatest battlefields of history fighting a strange collection of what-if creations of science gone amuck. It's also a look at the formative experiences of our main character in his youth as he comes to understand just what is evil and how he can best do good. Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War gets an A. Go give it a read and enjoy yourself. 

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Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders