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Verdus
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25th
April 05 |
Robo-Hunter:
Verdus
By John
Wagner. Alan Grant, Ian Gibson, José Luis Ferrer
Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
Sam Slade (that's S.L.A.Y.E.D to you) starts his first adventures as the world's
greatest hunter of robots...
Review by Gavin
Hanly
A long time ago
indeed (1982 to be exact) Titan Books were one of the first companies to see the
benefits of what we now call "trade paperback collections" and began
collecting early Dredd stories (The Chronicles of Judge Dredd) alongside a collection
of Robo Hunter stories, The Robo-Hunter Casebook. Oddly enough, unlike much of
Titan's Judge Dredd output (and some of the reprints in the now defunct DC-Rebellion
deal), they did not then decide to keep reprinting the same bloody tales again
and again. Robo-Hunter was thus never again collected in paperback form after
the Day of the Droids reprint (from 1985) until now. After reading this new collection,
you have to wonder why.
Because, this is
clearly a masterpiece.
The first new Robo-Hunter
collection reprints the entirety of The first two Robo-Hunter series, now under
the moniker of Verdus. It introduces us to the aged character of Sam Slade,
a seasoned and on-his-last-legs Robo-Hunter recruited to find out what is happening
on the planet of Verdus, a supposed colony of Earth from which settlers are never
heard from again. Before too long, Sam is 35 years younger due to faster than
light travel and his pilot, Kidd, becomes a little baby. Albeit a vicious, swearing
baby with the "intelligence" of a 35 year old pilot. Pretty soon they're
up against a planet of hostile robots as they try to find out what went wrong
with the colony.
With many supposed
classic tales, there's a certain sense of rose-tinted appreciation of them. The
memory that they were utter works of genius that can occasionally be wiped out
when you revisit them with much older and wiser eyes. But that's not the case
with Robo-Hunter. I was completely taken aback by how the storyline hadn't dated
in the slightest and that it contains some of the best plotting and writing I
have seen in 2000AD's long lifespan.
One of the things
that strikes so much about this series is the huge wealth of ideas on show. Wagner
goes to town, reveling in the limitless possibilities that a planet full of robots
affords and throws more bizarre situations into a couple of issues than some writers
manage in a couple of series.
Moments of true
genius include Robopoly and the cheating B.O. sewer droid (Oh yes, we're deep
in "let's name the character according to their situation" territory),
the house full of talking gadgets ("Hey, anyone for tennis?" "Shut
up racquet, this is serious business"), the insane parliament and finally
the utter stupidity of just so many of the robots. There
are simply too many moments in this collection that made me think: bloody hell,
this is way better than I ever imagined it could be.
Perhaps something
which also helps this early series, but has hindered the current one, is the absence
of Hoagie and Stogie. They're fine characters in small doses, but matched up with
slightly more intelligent robots like Boots and Cutie the Robometer, Sam is able
to get into far more serious action, while the jokes are played off of the characters
they meet along the way. Thus the humour never overstays its welcome.
And then there's
the character of Sam Slade himself. I hadn't taken in, when reading this many
years ago, just how much of a complete bastard he is in the book. He never passes
up the chance to blow up a robot even if it's doing him no harm whatsoever. And
indeed, many of the robots he casually destroys are simpletons that couldn't possibly
harm him. The man clearly has "issues".
As for the artwork?
It starts off with Jose Ferrer on art duties, but according to the intro to the
Titan version Ferrer was pulled off after the third episode. The reason given
is "the first results were so unpromising", so he was replaced with
the now-available first choice Ian Gibson. Gibson redrew much of the earlier episodes,
but once he strikes out on his own you can see the developing of an artist into
a true great.
Echoing the originality
of the writing, Robo-Hunter is just full of innovative artwork. Indeed, the script
must have been an artist's dream with its ever changing scenarios and characters
and the opportunity to go wild. Gibson turns in a wonderful job, packing in the
detail (something he'd forget to do in the Robo-Hunter tales of more recent times)
yet always doing a fantastic job of keeping the storytelling the main focus of
the strip. The designs of the multitude of robots themselves are flawless, emphasising
the satirical elements that pepper Wagner's script, with the generals and the
religious droids being standout creations.
Another key success
for this book is the use of recap panels. In recent times, there have been complaints
that it can be quite hard to get into 2000AD mid series (although you always have
the synopses from this site to fall back on!). However, every individual episode
of Robo-Hunter shows you how it should be done. Each one opens up with a recap,
told by Slade himself, each written in an individual manner so that it seamlessly
fits into the strip, while getting new readers up to speed at the same time. And
when Robo-Hunter took an 18 issue hiatus, a full page recap starts off the new
series. Yet after more than a year of Nikolai Dante being away, we're supposed
to remember what happened last time around? This is a clear case of 2000AD being
able to learn from the past. As
for the printing and extras. The printing is...OK. It's fine for a black &
white story, but on dredging out my old Titan collections, I did notice that the
reproduction wasn't quite as impressive. There is also a minor amount of stretching
going on, something which thankfully seems to have been dropped for the more recent
DC collections like Slaine and Strontium Dog. And the new logo is a terrible Indiana
Jones rip off. But overall, the reproduction is more than good enough and when
you take into account that (if bought from Amazon) this collection is only £1.50
more than the combined Titan collection from over 20 years ago, this is very good
value indeed.
Extras, as usual
for these DC/Rebellion collections (with the exception of the Devlin Waugh books)
are extremely poor, and this once again highlights how much better these collections
would be if they hired David Bishop to provide introductions.
But these are mere
niggles. Overall, as mentioned at the beginning, this is a true 2000AD masterpiece
and I can't rate it highly enough. If you've never read it, then but a copy immediately.
But even if you have, get it again and remind yourself of one of the best stories
ever to have appeared in the comic.
Buy
this book from Amazon.co.uk
Buy more DC/2000AD collections
from the 2000AD Review shop
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