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Recently our friends over at Subversive Comics dropped the first issue of their latest project ‘Super Robot Mayhem‘, and it’s a really impressive start!
The book is part ‘Aliens’, part ‘Pacific Rim’, and issue #1 forms a great set up of things to come. The opening issue starts with Raiden Nakamura and his pal Ulysses, engineers working on the research mining vessel Theseus, on a mission to find resources in the Kuiper Belt. Their search leads them to a massive asteroid, which could lead to a huge payday. Heading down to the rock, they stumble across what they think is an ancient statue, but when they step inside, metal pipes lash out and attached themselves to Raiden…
It seems this is not a statue, but an ancient Super Robot, MAYHEM! This ‘awakening’ draws the attention of the Demon Imperial Alliance (DIA)… As you might guess by the fact they have ‘demon’ in their name, they are the bad guys! The issue ends with the DIA leader screaming at her troops “I want MAYHEM!”… Really, these despotic alien leaders have no manners whatsoever!
The concept for the book comes from Adrian Mursec & Jeremy Biggs, with Biggs writing the story. His characterisation of the friendship between the disabled but daredevil Ulysses and the more levelheaded Raiden feels effortless, with some great bantering back and forth.
The artwork by Javier Bordon feels quite ‘old school’ anime, and fits well with the story, providing some great single page spreads and panels. Bordon, Biggs and Yel Zamor’s colour work is extremely well done, and nice to see in an indie comic book, as so many tend to stick to black and white. Jon Scrivens rounds things off with some expertly done lettering.
My only real critique of the book would be that it ends too soon! I want to see more and where the story goes! Thankfully they are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to get the issue #2 out, which you can be a part of here.
If you’re a fan of sci-fi, robots, and aliens, go check it out!
