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Warriors: Rage Against the Machines
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20th
August 05 |
ABC Warriors:
Rage Against the Machines
Mike Wild
Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
Indestructible giant war robots battling indestructible giant war robots.
On Mars.
Review by Richmond
Clements
As with so many on these Black Flame books, I didn’t know
what to expect when I started reading this one. Like every other creation of Pat
Mills, these characters are synonymous with their creator. As he’s pretty
much the only writer on these characters, Mills has a knowledge of them that is
second to none. So, seeing this novel was not the work of Mills, but of newcomer
Mike Wild, I was apprehensive. Pat’s contribution to the novels, The Medusa
War was a fun romp, could this keep up the standard?
My question was answered as early as the third page of chapter
one. The action opens with an attack on an airport by Martian tripods. We see
it through the eyes of a woman called Maggie. Maggie was an exotic dancer: at
the Whores & Cart. Yup, the puns here are well up with the finest in Mills’
cannon. I was able to hit the ground running after that. With Mills’ novel,
it was halfway through the book before I caught on to the tongue in cheek nature
of the piece, not so here.
This book is very funny. The puns are bad. In fact, thinking
back, I can’t think of many jokes that didn’t work. There’s
a nice joke that’s riffed on a couple of times, where the ABCs are confused
with characters from other comics, as well as knowing nods to the reader and their
knowledge of 2000AD, Doctor Who and many other cult shows and movies. This brings
me to one of the few points that bothered me. The various winks to the reader
about old movies and shows are fine, but occasionally, they break the fourth wall
somewhat. Examples being Joe Pineapples being aware of who George Pal is.
But if the book has a fault, it’s that there’s too
much going on. From the beginning, the Warriors are split up into ones and twos
on their various individual adventures, which is fine. But sometimes it’s
four or five chapters between scenes with one of them, and if you’re not
reading a large chunk in one sitting, you run the risk of not knowing what’s
going on when eventually you return to them.
Still, when we do meet up with them, it’s always worth
the wait. As well as being funny, the book also has it’s fair share of action
scenes. Add to this a couple of scenes that are punch-the-air cool, where Wild
manages to absolutely nail the characters he’s writing about. As cliff-hanger
ending go, the one Wild carefully constructs here, building it nicely throughout
the length of the book, it’s a corker.
I can’t
wait for the next one.
Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
BONUS SECTION:
We contacted Pat Mills to ask him about this and future novels
in the range.
Why did you decide not to write this novel?
I never intended to write the second ABC novel. My intention was always to start
the series off and then pass it onto another writer. This was because I simply
wouldn't have enough time to do the ABC Warriors as well as GW Slaine novels,
which had to take precedence.
Subsequently Slaine didn't work out for two reasons (1) Because
I wanted to start it at the beginning with "Young Slaine" and small
stories, closely following the original comic strip , and GW wanted epic stories
including time travel from the beginning which I told them many times I thought
was a grave mistake. (2) Eventually GW decided they wanted to do Slaine , and
possibly other books, using an established author, rather than myself, the original
writer. This they feel will result in larger sales.
Did you have a say in picking the writer? And did you give him any advice?
I originally intended my co-writer and colleague on the first novel, Alan Mitchell,
to write this novel
A) so I could keep
some sense of direction on where it was going. I would have been very happy to
have given Alan my input and that was the plan. As he co-wrote the first book,
I felt it would be a good launch pad.
B) I chose the original writer because I think the British system of a new writer
writing a character that was created by another writer is morally wrong, unless
the original writer has agreed to it. As the past history of comics sadly shows
all too clearly, this kind of "work for hire" system is not only morally
wrong, it is short-sighted, parochial and will eventually be done away with under
EEC law. In Europe, where I mainly work, they think we are in the Stone Age when
I describe how the copyright system works in Britain (And America) where a writer
and artist's creation is totally owned or controlled by a publisher, and the creators
have no say in what happens to it.
Alan Mitchell decided not to write the second book. I then put forward another
writer whose detailed proposal was okayed by GW, but then they changed their minds
and went for their own choice of writer.
After that, I thought it best not to get involved any further. Because of GW's
inaccurate presentation on Amazon, it was necessary for me to remind GW not to
associate my name with this second book , so it is very clear I have not written,
endorsed, edited or was connected with it in any way. I have made the same point
to them where forthcoming Slaine novels are concerned
The plot of this book is tied in tightly with your current Warriors story arc,
was there a lot of planning that went into the relationship between book and strip?
I guess the writer of the second book would have followed the strip closely, which
I'm pleased about from a continuity point of view. Despite my considerable reservations
about the conditions under which these GW books are created, of course I would
want them to be written well.
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