IDW Publishing 2019
By Livio Ramondelli
Lettered by Tom B. Long
Each found guilty of an irredeemable crime, four robots find themselves banished from their home world and bound together by the Kill Lock—a programming link that means if one of them dies, they all will. Now a soldier, an addict, a murderer, and a child find themselves forced to protect each other while in search of a cure to survive.
From it's description I wasn't quite sure what this was going to be about or like. Then I read the issue and I was completely impressed by every single moment of this. From the computer generated art, which I'll go into further detail later, to the writing, dialogue and direction of the story there is literally nothing about this NOT to enjoy. Smart move for all involved in putting this out in a week that sees so few other books on stands enabling it stand out from the crowd.
I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through the sequence of events which unfold as well as how the reader learns information is nice to see. I like that we don't see a trial or know anything about them before now and instead they've already had their banishment and it's up to them to tell us why. The character development we are seeing is definitely intriguing to me as I can find parallels for three of them and the child remains a pure mystery and that's exciting. The pacing is really good here and the way that it weaves through the pages taking us on a journey with it's twists and turns. All of this conspires to work together to create a marvellous ebb & flow to the book and highlights how well constructed the book is.
There are some really interesting stand out moments throughout this book. Some of them obvious and other rather subtle but they all really do something interesting when it comes to know the characters within the pages. This is a very strong debut issue for a new series and it really does leave such a strong impression upon the reader. That I can't take this and put into any shape that we currently have is great and this kind of amalgamation of genre's and ideas come together like a work of art.
The interiors here are absolutely stunning. Over the last few years we've seen folks set high standards for what can be done with computer generated artwork. What I see here rivals anything and everything I have seen to date. The first one we meet oh I will be damned if he isn't the creepiest, scariest and most horrifying thing I have ever seen. So naturally I want to know about him. Actually that we see such four different characters with four distinct personalities that somehow manage to match their looks is extraordinary to see. The weathered approach to the metal is phenomenal and the overall designs are breathtaking. The colour work we see is simply stellar how he's able to utilise the hues and tones within the colours to create shading, highlights and shadows is beyond expectation. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling.
What this has effectively done is create a scenario that we, as readers', want to see and know more of. Now that the we have met the four individuals who will be starring in this ragtag adventure trying to outrun the fate that is supposedly in store for them. Exciting, exhilarating and completely enthralling this is the next generation of the combination of RPG's in storytelling formats.