Not All Robots, Vol. 1
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Mike Deodoto Jr.
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: AWA Studios – Upshot
Published: March 2022
It’s not daily {that a} robotic story may be each humorous and an essential examination of the approach capitalism creates waves of ruling courses. In an essay in the again of Not All Robots, author Mark Russell explains that the unique intent of the story was to look at the methods a tradition of poisonous masculinity responded to the Me Too motion. By utilizing a number of robotic revolutions, it ends up being far more of a narrative about labor and the methods sure rich events manipulate folks (and robots) into making themselves out of date. One of the issues that impressed me most about Not All Robots is that it was enjoyable to learn, and it was solely later that I started to unpack the many layers of social reflection.
It’s 2056, persons are dwelling in bubble cities and robots have taken over the workforce. It’s not onerous to think about a world the place the higher choice could be to fully bubble over a metropolis and create devoted tram traces to different domed metropolises. Humans had their likelihood to save the earth, and failed. So when the robots took management of the workforce and the cities, they made the choice to prohibit the cities and comprise them. The robots work all however one job – they couldn’t be hairdressers. They tried it, nevertheless it was approach too harmful to enable so many sharp fingers that shut to delicate human heads, which is only one of many humorous one-off panels that slowly achieve increasingly more which means in the world of the comic. Because the hairdressers had been the final human employees, they act as a labor union and rebellion social gathering by default; they type an underground motion to oppose the robots.
This steadiness between dystopian comedy and emotional drama inside a world the place robots are the main story mechanic, and the place people turn out to be a type of fickle class with out a lot objective, is splendidly characterised by artist Mike Deodoto Jr. At some level in the story there are two (or three) generations of robots that inhabit the world concurrently, and it’s so clear that plenty of thought went into how the first era could be portrayed. They tackle a form of basic robotic look, ala Short Circuit or Star Wars, and say issues like “dear bot” as a substitute of “dear God.” These little particulars all add up as you make your approach via the first quantity to create a way of place and personhood for the robots we observe. Counter to the robots are the people, who additionally inhabit a sure form of place in the world. No longer wanted, they largely keep dwelling and dwell a socially secluded life. Watching television, figuring out. Planning revolutions towards their robotic leaders.
In one in all the main pivot factors for the early story, one in all these bubbles has an oxygen imbalance and plenty of people die – the total metropolis, the truth is. But the robots are tremendous, in fact. There’s some debate about whether or not this catastrophic (human) demise occasion was an intentional transfer on the a part of the robotic in command of the air filtration items, which units up plenty of pressure in society and enforced the divisions of courses fairly strongly. What higher second would there be to reveal that there’s one other degree of robotic about to be launched and, in fact, a rich ruling class pulling the strings. These figures sit in darkish moments of the comic (actually, but additionally figuratively) making small performs to rebalance the peace (or not). After the oxygen incident, for instance, they make a change to each robotic’s identify so as to make them extra personable. Instead of Shredder, the robotic would then be named Muffin or Blankets. Something smooth and non-threatening.
I believe a extra rushed story would have solely had one or two social parts, however Not All Robots manages to ratchet the pressure up in quite a lot of alternative ways. Tensions in human vs robotic circles, tensions in robotic vs robotic circles, and pressure in human household circles. Smartly, there’s a human household at the heart of the story to present some type of relative perception into what it will be like to dwell in a time like this – the place the drained, verging on upset, robotic working member of the household is pressured into the perspective of two sorts of household politics. One that wishes the robotic to be completely happy and like them, and one which fears the robots will at some point Oxygen-Incident them to demise.
At the finish of quantity one, plenty of issues have come to a head. People have been murdered, robots have been usurped by different new robots, and a few folks have been legally banished from the dome metropolis. But once more I would like to say: I had a good time studying this comic. It was humorous and attention-grabbing, each scene felt properly thought via and detailed. The coloring, by Lee Loughridge, and lettering, by Steve Wands, do plenty of work to be certain it is rather clear who belongs to what sort of bodily physique, which begins to blur a bit at the finish in a enjoyable approach. It has so much to say, however by projecting a few of our social points onto one other distinct class of being – a robotic – Not All Robots tells a refined and apt story for our time. When requested in a Previews World interview about if the story was pro- or anti-robot, Mark Russell stated this: “It’s against reducing people and robots to their economic function. It’s pro-accepting that people (and robots) have value independently of how economically useful they are.”
Verdict: Buy
Not All Robots, Vol. 1 is out now.
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