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Magnus Robot Fighter #1
By Hervé St-Louis

March 23, 2014 - 15:42

Publisher(s): Dynamite Entertainment
Writer(s): Fred Van Lente
Penciller(s): Cory Smith
Colourist(s): Maurîcio Wallace
Letterer(s): Marshall Dillon
Cover Artist(s): Gabriel Hardman, Joe Bennet, Scott Wegener, Tom Fowler, Ken Haeser


Magnus01-Cov-01011-Hardman.jpg
Magnus lives in a small town where robots and humans live equally. He is a teacher teaching literature and martial arts to kids. He goes fishing with A1, the artificial intelligence that governs the small idyllic town. But one day, all changes when invaders defy the order of the town where robots and humans are friends. Trusted in another city far from his hometown, Magnus is captured after attacking several advance robots. Will he escape in time?

I was surprised by this story. I had been expecting it for a while but based on the premises advertised by Dynamic, the story was expected to be more usual than I expected. It wasn’t. This new Gold Key universe reinventing characters that have been rewritten and reinterpreted many times is convincing. This is not just another world where super humans just sprang up. It’s more like a parallel world with a divergent history where Magnus suddenly discovers that he can destroy robots and lives in a world shielded from the rest of the world. In essence, all of the old character traits that made Magnus Robot Fighter popular are here but much modernized This reinterpretation will probably challenge the one Valiant Comics did in the 1990s and is much more memorable than the one Darkhorse released in 2010.

I really enjoyed Magnus’s updated look. It’s inspired by his old Silver Age costume but modernized. He doesn’t wear a kilt anymore. While I like Cory Smith’s work, this series would have benefited from a dedicated inker. The work, while pleasing feels unfocused. Inks in comics help separate characters from their backgrounds, especially when colours are using pastels like colourist Maurîcio Wallace.



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