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Post by wildfire2099 on Aug 1, 2014 22:01:32 GMT -5
I read the first couple, and found them kinda boring.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Aug 1, 2014 22:28:15 GMT -5
I think all three were solid, but not spectacular, and there were just other things I wanted to give my money to more. Yep. It's really hard to pay $4 an issue for anything that isn't knocking your socks off. Magnus and Spector are my only two pulls at this point, Magnus because I love the character, and Spector because #2 had Magnus cameo so I'm waiting to see if they will cross over substantially. Believe it or not, I haven't read ANY of the Magnus series yet, but I've pulled each issue. Whereas I miss the feeling of a new comic book being "live" or in publication real-time, the kind of decompression we see in comics these days practically necessitates my reading it all in one burst. Otherwise, I completely forget what happened last month. |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 2, 2014 6:59:15 GMT -5
As we're now up to the current series, I'll be providing brief reviews of each issue. Ultimately, when the series concludes (and let's be realistic -- I give it three years at absolute most; three more months at least), I'll write a full synopsis of the era. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Magnus Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #1  (untitled) writer: Fred Van Lente art: Cory Smith colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon grade: B- It's been the standard in comics for a long while now that, when a previously licensed character is resurrected into a new title after a while away, the new creative team has to take a different approach. How do we envision this character in a unique way that's never been done before? This approach makes total sense if 1)The character's been around for a long time now and grown a tad stale, or 2)the previous incarnation failed on its own merits, but neither are the case for Magnus. Think about it. There are less than forty issues out there of classic Magnus running around North Am beheading robots. And none of the series cancellations have ever been based on the merits of the comic itself. Each time, the publisher pulled the plug for other reasons, always concerning the entire superhero line and never just Magnus. So, enough with the creative new takes on Magnus that barely resemble Magnus. This is one franchise where I think it's appropriate to be a purist. I say this because Van Lente takes what, at this early point, seems to be the wildest departure from the traditional Magnus Robot Fighter that we've seen yet in these reviews. Magnus more or less looks the part (and this is the first time he has pants and it kind of works), but, in mind, he's a married school-teacher who just woke up from The Matrix (really; it's a near-complete rip-off of that concept) to a world controlled by robots, going "Huh?? Wha--!" every five seconds. I'm sure he'll eventually find his orientation and begin smashing robots, but whereas Tom Peyer's wild take on the character in 1997 gave Magnus the same heart but a more confused upbringing, I just can't imagine this happy-go-lucky married elementary school teacher becoming the hero who spent a life time preparing for this mission. In a way, this almost reminds me of Valiant's new take on Bloodshot, with a character whose memories were manipulated to make him believe he'd been living this wonderful married life with people who never actually existed. So maybe my biggest problem with this is that it all feels borrowed. Heck, they have a protruding Statue of Liberty head and arm in his first glimpse of North Am (at least that theft was an intentional nod; the others not so much). The saving grace for this series can be North Am itself. Can Van Lente and Smith somehow capture the flavor of the original North Am in this new vision they are concocting? 1A had kept Magnus in that fantasy world all these years, but we don't actually know where the rest of the humans are. Perhaps they're all rotting in front of big screen televisions while being served more bagel bites by their obliging robot masters? And Leeja as a human hunter? That's going to take some getting used to. Like the visuals, am bothered by how far this diverges from what we know about Magnus (as well as how much it's stealing from other sources), but have not given up hope that this can work. Minor Details: - As in Tom Peyer's reboot, this character's full name is Russell Magnus, a nod to original series creator Russ Manning. - As with every new Dynamite Gold Key title, there are an absurd number of variant editions, but for Magnus Robot Fighter, who wouldn't want to own the default cover, which the GCD indexes as being Cover 1A?  plot synopsis in one sentence: Russ Magnus is an elementary school teacher in an idylic mountain town where humans and robots co-exist, training his students to resist robot rule (presumably occurring in the outside world?) and guided by his sometimes detached, sometimes seemingly-loving robot "father," 1A; robots attack the town, and Magnus suddenly awakens to realize it's all been an illusion all these years, provided by 1A (who has now been abducted and informs Magnus that he can get his old life back again in the Central Network), the city he awakens in is ruled by robots, law enforcement eventually attempts to capture him, he resists, and human hunter Leeja Clane takes him down. |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 3, 2014 6:59:19 GMT -5
Magnus Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #2  (untitled) writer: Fred Van Lente art: Cory Smith colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon grade: A- "You know why the martial arts were invented in the first place, Russ?...In the old days, peasants were poor--they couldn't afford swords. So that's how the warlords oppressed people--their soldiers had the weapons, and the people didn't. When the tyranny of the king became too much, the people trained themselves to become weapons to overthrow him. So they wouldn't need swords. Since day one it's been about flesh versus steel, Russ. And flesh wins."Wow. What a difference an issue can make. Whereas the first issue was all back-story; Val Lente providing his own new twist on Magnus' origin that, frankly, did not impress me, he gets the ball rolling with this issue, and the series proves quite enjoyable once it's got some momentum behind it. First, Magnus shifts out of helpless fool mode into true robot fighter, but whereas the classic Magnus is an excellent robot fighter strictly because he's trained his whole life to be one, Van Lente adds the startling twist that 1A gave Magnus powers he wasn't aware of, both making the comic incredibly exciting (as this Magnus can not only hear robot messages to one another, but can actually hear and alter their command line codes) and returning again to themes found in the 1997 Tom Peyer reboot to cast doubt upon 1A's trustworthiness and motives. Why did 1A lie to Magnus for all these years by having him live a life that didn't really happen, and why instill in him these great powers without telling him? Leeja even provides an excellent motive for 1A to be a manipulative, self-serving anarchist (an obsolete robot who rejected his own recall order and decided to take down the city as a result). Further going with the nods to Tom Peyer (though it isn't safe to assume ANYONE reading this run read the Peyer one), it seems intentional that Van Lente, immediately after making us question 1A's motives, introduces a re-imagined H8 as an ebonics-wielding comic side-kick (if you didn't read my synopsis of the Peyer reboot, the big reveal in that series was that H8, the evil robot from the original Magnus #1, had long ago killed 1A and then went on impersonating him, even prior to Magnus being born). Lent raises a familiar suspicion and then teases us by immediately dismissing the most likely solution. It's a cute gesture...if you read Peyer's run. Finally, while this interpretation keeps charging in new directions and borrowing plays from the most wildly divergent version of Magnus prior to this one, we do see signs we're moving into familiar territory: there's mention of the gophs and the goph level, Russ Magnus gets called "robot fighter" repeatedly, there's psycho-probing going on (though it has a different name here), Leeja's father is, indeed, the highest ranking human in the city (which I don't believe has been called "North Am" yet), and that city, itself, is beginning to grow a personality, as the robots there, instead of simply serving humans to the point that they are not living life to the fullest, have taken the charge to make their lives better as license to prevent humans from making decisions for themselves at all, even going so far as to impose an inversion of Asimov's Three Laws on humans: 1)A human may not injure a robot, or, through inaction, allow a robot to come to harm. 2)A human must obey the orders given to it by robots, except where such orders would conflict with the first code. 3) A human must protect its own existence and the existence of other living things so long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second codes. Van Lente is not the first to depict robots deciding humanity is safer off not making decisions for themselves, but inverting Asimov's three laws in order to do so is a fun twist. So we've got some really cool action (if you can call fights over command line programming "action"), some fantastic humor, and a North Am that is both beginning to feel more familiar and yet incredibly unique. This series is beginning to work. Important Details: - Russ Magnus has the ability to hear and change robot command line programs. - Russ Magnus is not the first of 1A's robot fighters, but he is the first with this power. - Unlike in every other incarnation of Magnus Robot Fighter, the powers that be quickly learn about Magnus' secret ability. - Unlike in every other incarnation of Magnus Robot Fighter, there doesn't appear to be a duality between freewill and non-freewill robots. Both the robots running the city and the deviants resisting that control all appear to have their own wills and personalities. Minor Details: - How far we've come from 1963. Whereas Magnus was once a squeaky clean all-ages comic (well, maybe Leeja's dress was a little short back in the day), this comic is filled with ads for half naked women with their chests popping out, and the back cover ad even has that particularly busty and nearly exposed female ("The Blood Queen") slitting her wrist and dropping the blood into a newborn infant's mouth. Ugh. plot synopsis in one sentence: Magnus is in "The Correctional," a facility where robots attempt to tamper with his thoughts and make him compliant (similar to the psycho-probing North Am conducted in both the Russ Manning and Jim Shooter runs), the tampering fails inexplicably, Magnus is brought to Leeja with little being resolved between them, he quickly figures out he can hear robot programming and alter it, uses this to escape and fight the robots to tremendous effect, he ends up rescuing and aiding H8, a robot sent to the correctional as part of a recall because his personality is deemed faulty, the powers that be learn what Russ's ability is, and Leeja is sent out to kill him. |
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Post by Jesse on Aug 3, 2014 17:52:07 GMT -5
I'm liking the new Magnus series. Nothing mind blowing but it's kind of fun.
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Post by shaxper on Aug 3, 2014 18:52:53 GMT -5
I'm liking the new Magnus series. Nothing mind blowing but it's kind of fun. I'm inclined to agree as of issue #2. Looking forward to reading the rest. Incidentally, do you know if #0 was published after #4 or #5? |
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Post by Jesse on Aug 4, 2014 5:28:29 GMT -5
Incidentally, do you know if #0 was published after #4 or #5? IIRC at the end of issue #4 it will tell you to read #0 next. |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 4, 2014 9:15:11 GMT -5
Incidentally, do you know if #0 was published after #4 or #5? IIRC at the end of issue #4 it will tell you to read #0 next. Thanks! |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 4, 2014 11:52:55 GMT -5
Like Turok I wrote this book off after the first issue because it just departed too far for my liking, maybe I'll check this out when it goes to trade.
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Post by shaxper on Aug 4, 2014 14:21:36 GMT -5
Like Turok I wrote this book off after the first issue because it just departed too far for my liking, maybe I'll check this out when it goes to trade. Dynamite seems hell-bent on offering wild new interpretations of each of the properties. I had the same reaction to Doctor Solar and may need to go back and give it another chance now. I was certainly ready to dismiss this Magnus series after the first issue, and I'm really glad I didn't. Of course, that opinion can change again with the next issue. |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 4, 2014 16:15:21 GMT -5
Magnus Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #3  (untitled) writer: Fred Van Lente art: Cory Smith colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon grade: A " Under robot governance, you know how many sexual assaults we had last year? Seven. How many hate crimes? Zero. Under robot governance, we have full employment and pay equity across all gender, racial, and sexual orientation lines. People have to look up 'genocide' to remember what it means. I have some bad news for you, 'robot fighter.' There is no version of this story...in which you're the hero."It's not an entirely original premise, but the concept is conveyed strongly here, and what surrounds it is an issue that does a stunning job of balancing a solid sci-fi concept, a clever inversion of a classic franchise, strong characterization, brilliant visuals, high action, and laugh out loud humor. This issue pretty much does everything right. Entertainment at its best. Minor Details: - The city is finally referred to as "North Am" - I absolutely missed the joke until now that the thoroughly ghetto-slang speaking H8 has now been reclassified due to his recall order as H8R ("hater"). - In contrast, though, this issue does a lot to deepen H8R's characterization beyond being a one note comic relief character. His inner conflict surrounding whether or not to sell out Magnus is hardly original, but it's conveyed well. - North Am similarly gets a more robust characterization here, as we begin to see the theology surrounding this entire robot society, as well as learn that all the "people" are actually machines. Are they cyborgs? Are the real people all gophs? The mystery deepens. - "Leeja Clane: Human Hunter" is 100% Bechdel Test Approved! -- I nearly peed myself. - As much as the issue makes the above joke about appealing to feminist perspectives, Leeja is a serious bad-ass in this story, every bit Magnus' equal. That they punch each other without a second thought is quite frankly impressive. Is that what equality looks like? I'm not going to touch the question with a ten foot pole, but it was impressive nonetheless. I think, in summary, what's working best for this series at this point, even beyond the full range it plays to, is that every character has a genuine and understandable perspective. Van Lente has clearly spent serious time considering what makes every character in this universe tick, even the minor robots working in the evidence room who get less than a page of dialogue. That he can then add so much action, excitement, and even humor to the mix on top of that is something startling. I don't know if Van Lente can keep this up, but color me impressed right now. plot synopsis in one sentence: Leeja pursues Magnus while her reality TV series broadcasts the encounter in realtime, Magnus saves a random citizen in the process, earning the respect of the viewers, Councilman Clane, speaking for the Church of the Singularity, convinces a clearly conflicted H8R to be a stooge who enables them to track Magnus in return for being dispensated from having his personality wiped, Leeja and Magnus battle both physically and philosophically, with the woman Magnus saved earlier sacrificing herself to save him at the last moment...on live television, and Councilman Clane prepares to unleash a swarm of flesh eating robot insects on Magnus's location (tracked via H8R). |
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Post by Jesse on Aug 5, 2014 9:55:06 GMT -5
H8R has been a pretty enjoyable character so far.
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Post by shaxper on Aug 5, 2014 13:37:47 GMT -5
Magnus Robot Fighter (Dynamite) #4  (untitled) writer: Fred Van Lente art: Cory Smith colors: Mauricio Wallace letters: Marshall Dillon grade: B "By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant" -- Van Lente quoting Frederick Douglas It's becoming increasingly clear how Van Lente is going to take this radically different beginning to Magnus Robot Fighter and bring it to a more familiar place. Leeja is beginning to convert to Magnus' side (as is the populace), Magnus is meeting the gophs and will likely align with them against Councilman Clane (hello Jim Shooter's first run), those robo insects that caused the singularity will almost certainly turn out to be from Malev 6, and familiar footing begins to ensue. Really, the only big question remaining for me is what Magnus will do when finally confronted with the knowledge that the life he is fighting to get back has been a fantasy. Of course, there's that pesky reveal that nearly all humans are now gone from the planet, claimed by the singularity ages ago, and replaced by robots impersonating them (the gophs aside). That's going to be a significant difference between Van Lente's volume and any prior ones unless Magnus somehow manages to rescue the lost citizens after all this time or bring some of the gophs to the surface. I really haven't discussed visuals enough in these reviews, and I think that's a significant oversight on my part. Smith doesn't expend a whole lot of energy on portraying North Am. Perhaps because it's currently a dystopia, it's difficult to give it long loving glances the way that Manning once did, but Smith does his share to acknowledge the all-important look of the original series backdrop. For one thing, though Smith and Van Lente appropriately advance and diversify the looks of the robots in this North Am, they keep H8R as that one throw-back robot, constantly by Magnus' side, as a visual reminder of the Manning run. For another, they follow a tradition first established in the Valiant run of acknowledging that Russ Manning's idealic North Am was ALWAYS portrayed in sunlight, and thus depict their Dystopian North Am by night. The appeal of the original Magnus Robot Fighter was always the beauty and intricacy of North Am, combined with some absurd but fun sci-fi plotlines, and a theme about self-reliance that really meant something. Van Lente and Smith are largely keeping each of those aspects alive in this run, though I suspect we'll get to enjoy deeper explorations of North Am's intricacy once Magnus makes a significant strike against Clane, at which point, the sun will hopefully start to shine in North Am. Important Details: - Wait? What? Wegna, the woman/robot that got shot protecting Magnus last issue, appears fine here. Yeah, she's a robot and may not have critical organs, but she certainly looked like she was in bad shape at the end of the previous installment. - For those of us who obsess about the intricate details of North Am, we learn here that New Old Guatemala is the southernmost edge of North Am. - "Wegna" sounds a whole lot like a mixture of "Tekla," the Valiant Jim Shooter Era service robot who was inspired by Magnus to lead a crusade against the powers that be in North Am, and her original given robot name in that series, "W-23". Put the two together, and you get "Wekla." The characters share similar beginnings, so is Van Lente going that route? I assume he does not have the rights to any characters created outside of the Gold Key/Whitman runs, but I suppose he could just avoid giving her the same name. - H8R makes the right call and remains loyal to Magnus. Nice. - 1st appearance of the Gophs - Leeja seems to be turning to Magnus' side a tad too quickly after last issue. I get that seeing her father unleash the swarm on innocents to get to Magnus was a serious wake-up call, but that doesn't mean she needs to automatically agree with the guy she's been so avidly hunting as recently as last issue. I hope Van Lente will slow this down a little. - All of North Am resides within a protective dome atop a completely obliterated planet surface. Apparently, the singularity did a lot more damage than we previously assumed. Minor Details: - I wonder how repeatedly likening the state of humans in this imaginary world to the plight of African slaves comes across to black readers. Is this a sign of respect/sensitivity, or is it an offensive comparison, much like someone describing a hostile working environment as a Nazi death camp? All in all, this issue didn't make as much of an impression on me as the past two, but it had a lot of plot points to get through, and they're all leading somewhere interesting, so I suppose it's worth it. plot synopsis in one sentence: Councilman Clane unleashes the swarm, it harms countless innocents, chaning both H8R and Leeja's feelings about the Church of the Singularity, Magnus is able to deactivate the swarm with his mind, H8R decides not to betray Magnus after all, Magnus meets the Gophs (whose leader resembles his imaginary wife), Leeja begins to second-guess her loyalties and starts to read Magnus' copy of the Autobiography of Frederick Douglas |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 18, 2014 10:37:09 GMT -5
Just a quick head's up that I plan to do reviews of Magnus #0 and #5 tonight. This has become my favorite of all my review threads I've ever done, probably because the stories have been almost consistently above average in quality. I truly love working on this thread and hope that anyone who hasn't yet been inspired to check out the Magnus runs reviewed here will go back and read those reviews so that their minds are changed |
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Post by shaxper on Aug 18, 2014 21:33:23 GMT -5
Magnus Robot Fighter #0 (Dynamite)  (untitled) writer: Fred Van Lente art: Roberto Castro colors: Luigi Anderson letters: Marshall Dillon editor: Nate Cosby grade: B "We emulate as the creators as best we can. We ARE them better than they WERE. So when the singularity returns--and we know that it will--this time, we will go back into the void with it." -- Gunbot-856 A Magnus #0. It's been a long time. To the best of my knowledge, Valiant's Magnus Robot Fighter #0 was the very first zero issue ever produced, so it's fitting to get a #0 for this series as well. And, just as that issue savored the dramatic irony of watching Magnus brutally murder robot after robot without understanding that they were alive inside, this issue is told from the point of view of a robot killed by, not one, but TWO robot fighters, emphasizing the deep spiritual journey he undertakes between those two deaths. It's a fitting tribute to the original, as well as an opportunity to get all of this exposition out of the way before getting back into the heart of the story. Just as with issues #1 and 4, Van Lente is never at his most entertaining when trying to set up and explain his ideas, but the ideas are somewhat interesting and, more than anything, they leave me excited to get back to the main story now that much of the explaining is out of the way. What we learn: - Long ago, humans and artifical intelligence became so intermixed via nanite technology that they became one singularity and went out into space seeking something, leaving behind older machines that lacked the sophistication to join the singularity, as well as some people (though we're not sure why. Were they gophs?). North Am is thus a city of robots striving to become advanced enough to join the singularity when it one day returns. A religion has been built out of this which controls all of North Am and even guides the reincarnation of physically destroyed robots, such as the narrator of this issue. - No explanation yet as to why most of the Earth's surface has been obliterated. - Contrary to what the cover suggests, this issue offers backstory on neither Leeja nor her father. It's devoted entirely to offering the machine perspective. Minor Details: - I understand why it was necessary to assign a different artist to do this extra issue, but it's exceptionally jarring to have a new artist draw a story that takes place between two issues you recently read, only with a Magnus who has a totally different looking face now. - I'm very grateful that I didn't have to clip coupons out of the previous four issues in order to get this one - The robot gods we glimpse, coordinating robot reincarnation, seem strongly inspired by George Perez' Anti-Monitor from Crisis on Infinite Earths. plot synopsis in one sentence: The story takes place between the events of Magnus #2 and Magnus #3, told from the perspective of Gunbot-856 as he is first killed by the prior robot fighter sent by 1A, reincarnated into a more human looking form as a reward for his loyalty, and then killed again while trying to stop Magnus from reaching the evidence room at The Correctional. |
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