Another week means a brand new slew of comic books. Dead or alive, we’re coming with Boom! Studios new RoboCop book.
ROBOCOP: Citizens Arrest #1
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Jorge Coelho
Colors: Doug Garbark
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Published by: Boom! Studios
RoboCop is one of those science fiction properties that has the potential to always be relevant in any modern time period it’s used. Alex Murphy and his badass gun wielding alter ego RoboCop has touched on themes such as authoritarianism, drug wars, even man vs. machine. Even though its subject matter is usually grounded in serious issues relating to the real world it’s never lost sight of having fun. The 1987 movie had tons of meme worthy one-liners people still quote today followed by sequels with child drug lords. Unfortunately, the comics never learned that lesson. As the fifth publisher to try their hand at the property, Boom! has had a rocky start between deciding if it wanted to be part of the rebooted movie universe or the classic 80’s film. RoboCop: Citizens Arrest picks the right place, time, and problems to voice.
Written by Brian Wood (DMZ, X-Men), Citizens Arrest takes place a few years after the events of RoboCop 3. New Detroit has become a private army state run by the OCP corporation’s robot officers. It’s also a place where law enforcement has been digitized beyond hardware. Citizens are armed with the “Rcop” phone app. With one touch, people can report others in progress of a crime. While it seems like a utopian solution to a real problem, it’s still got evil OCP agenda as the corporation is using the app to expand into poverty stricken areas of the city in order to take over the land. It’s not an unheard problem in the RoboCop canon but the new method of infiltration has OCP with its sites on other American cities for once.
You’ll notice, I haven’t mentioned the title character so far. That’s because of Wood’s choice to focus this story on the larger world here. While RoboCop is touched upon, including explaining why he’s been a ghost in a poor house for five years, we instead get introduced to a fired Detroit cop named Leo Reza. It’ll be up to him to find out what OCP did to Alex Murphy in order to stop OCP from burning out Detroit’s poor. Characters such as RoboCop are meant to have someone to bounce off of and carry the personality of a story. With Leo’s motivations of civic pride and protecting his family clearly defined, he’s got the beginnings of someone who will fit in with Alex Murphy’s decorated and tragic past.
RoboCop: Citizens Arrest will be a divisive series in that it has a lot to say about our real world economic and political climate. Voicing an opinion on current events through comics is something writer, Brian Wood has never shied away from but the challenge will be if he can keep the necessary level of fun RoboCop as a property needs to have. For every five facts and figures readers will relate to what they see on the news, we need “I’ll buy that for a dollar” guy, dude who played Red Foreman on That 70’s Show breaking up a skanky cocaine party, RoboCop shooting jars of baby food. Citizens Arrest #1 sets up some big issues without repetitively kicking you with droll undertones and is intriguing enough to warrant picking up issue two. It just needs to add a pinch more action to fully buy in and avoid it being the Police Academy Citizens on Patrol of the RoboCop universe.
Here’s the list of #1 comics for 4/11/2018
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A stranded alien continues to hide in plain sight in Patience, Washington, posing as the small town's doctor. When a startling new mystery catches his attention, he takes a trip to New York City with one of his only human friends, a Native American shaman.
IMMORTAL MEN #1 (DC Comics) (W) James TynionIV (A/CA) Jim Lee, Scott Williams
"THE END OF FOREVER" part one! There is a secret history to the DC Universe of heroes who have protected humanity from the shadows since the dawn of time...and who can live forever.
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Killers once feared Piotr Petrovich. Now, they've sent his son home to him - in a body bag. Haunted by his failures, Piotr journeys across Russia to learn what type of man his son really was...
DEAD HAND #1 (IMAGE) W) Kyle Higgins (A/CA) Stephen Mooney
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DOMINO #1 (Marvel) (W) Gail Simone (A) David Baldeon (CA) Greg Land, D'Armata, Frank
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EXILES #1 (Marvel) W) Saladin Ahmed (A) Javier Rodriguez (CA) David Marquez
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BROTHERS DRACUL #1 (Aftershock Comics) (W) Cullen Bunn (A/CA) Mirko Colak
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FRACTURED MIND #1 (Red 5 Comics) W) James Gilarte (A/CA) David Anton Gamis
The serial killer known only as "The Crippler" has been terrorizing a small town, abductingteenage girls who are never heard from again. Never until Christie Laurence escapes from his clutches
PINK PANTHER VS INSPECTOR #1 (American Mythology) W) S.A. Check, Todd Livingston (A) Diego Tapie, Jazz dela Cuesta (CA) Jacob Greenawalt
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SEASON OF THE SNAKE #1 (Titan) (W) Serge Lehman (A) Jean-Marie Michaud (CA) Simon Roy Having connected solar systems to one another through a series of space tunnels, humans have managed to conquer the universe. But long before humans dominated, there were native species, and after thousands of years something is waking up...
SUPERMANSION #1 (Titan) (W) Barry Hutchinson (A) Jake Elphick (CA) Photo
Based on the Emmy nominated web-based animated show airing on Crackle, now featured on Adult Swim!
My first reaction is that I’ve always seen Wood to have an anti-authoritarian and an eveyman kind of perspective with all his good work. Very interesting choice for Rcop, and perspective to approach
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