"The Diaper Remains Unexplained To This Day," in Atomic Robo #4, by Brian Clevinger (words), Scott Wegener (artist), Rhonda Pattison (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer)
I haven't, at present, decided exactly how many of these mini-series I'm going to highlight. At least one more for certain (spoiler for next Sunday!) This is the very first Atomic Robo mini-series, explaining the beginnings of his conflict with Helsingard (although not their first encounter), establishing the set-up of his company of Tesladyne with its teams of "Action Scientists", and at least one of Robo's conflicts with a famous scientist (not Edison).
It also establishes one of the aspects of Robo I tend to think about the most, how much older he is than we might think, and the issues that presents him with. It's something the creative team has touched on at other times, and it sounds as though Robo's starting to think about it more himself if the solicits for the next mini-series are anything to go by. It doesn't bog down the book, it's just something they put in there that the reader can keep in mind.
Most of what I enjoy is the humor, and the crazy science stuff. From Robo's confrontation with Helsingard's ineffectual troops on 1938 ('Then we're restraining you!' 'Not very well.') to his declaration that Buicks have been the best weapon against giant bugs since the 1950s, it's a funny book. Considering Robo's face only has his eyes to express emotion, Wegener's very good at getting across what Robo's thinking, and drawing strange science stuff. Like giant insects, but also a steampowered mobile pyramid, and a brain in a jar controlling a big robot body. Which, let's be honest, being able to draw brains in jars doing evil stuff is a necessity if you're going to draw a book with weird science stuff.
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