What I Bought 4/13/2019 - Part 2

It's the end of another week. I got a wedding to attend tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be nice. Anyway, here's the other book I picked up last weekend, a mini-series moving towards some sort of conclusion.

Atomic Robo: Dawn of a New Era #4, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Shannon Murphy (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer) - I hope Jenkins is remembering to let them take regular breaks for hydration.

Things are not going so well at Tesladyne. Jenkins is nearly hospitalizing the new students in an attempt to prepare them for a war against the Vampire Dimension. Robo thinks he's going too far, and did these kids even sign up for a vampire war? That friction is nothing compared to what happens when Lang goes to borrow a book for her and Vik's vacation (take 2), only to learn Robo has been raising ALAN in secret. Which leads to a meeting with lots of yelling, and Lang essentially turning it into an "organics vs. synthetics" argument. Even Jenkins had the decency to look embarrassed by that one.

Also, Bernard has achieved something deep in the earth, and is going to collect the heartstones of the great beasts which existed before the earth was in its present state. He knows how to "phasewalk" and "psirend" now.

Did I step into a mid-Nineties Image comic?

I laughed at the two panels where Lang discovers ALAN, and is yelling at Robo while ALAN stands behind Robo with a big digital smile and waving hello. The purple coloring on Lang, like she's so shocked she's beyond screaming until blue in the face and gone straight to purple. And you don't see that kind of lettering effect often in Atomic Robo, so it's very effective.

ALAN's such a good boy. Which makes the fact there was no expression visible as he watched the argument about his existence potentially worrying. Even when Foley is arguing that they should go along with Robo's plan, she's doing so from the point of view that it improves humanity's chances. Which is understandable, but you'd hope someone other than Robo would make the, "He's a living being and deserves a chance," argument. I know, easy to say from out here, where a personality that evolved from the same algorithm network as this ALAN didn't plan to wipe out all life on earth in the process of building an interstellar spacecraft for itself.

This does not feel like a mini-series that will have any sort of conclusion, unless it's Bernard's plotline. The whole thing with ALAN feels like it needs to play out over a long time. Unless he decides he can't stay and goes on the run (which Jenkins will no doubt insist proves that ALAN's up to no good, as opposed to being afraid for his continued existence).