For decades, RoboCop has been featured under five different publishers with a huge variety of stories.
What worked and what didn’t?
Regaining his composure and fixing his tie, The Old Man addresses the cyborg that saved his life.
Nice shootin, son.
With a smirk, RoboCop turns and tells him, Murphy.
And there endsRoboCop, one of the most solid movies of the 80s.
Filled with action, satire, awesome practical effects, and style.
It was no surprise that they would try tofollow it up with spinoffs.
It makes sense that there would be so manyRoboCopcomics.
The first movie was a fantastic superhero origin story.
I think I can do better!
Some are outright terrible.
Lets take a look at Alex Murphys panelized history and its never-ending supply of ED-209s.
Warning, there will be some spoilers ahead, but Ill attempt to hold back when I can.
Id buy that for half the price, but thats just me reaching for a tired punchline.
Written by Bob Harris with art by Javier Saltares and Alan Kupperberg, its mostly what youd expect.
The movie is retold in 48 pages in the 80s Marvel style.
In other words, it isnt so R-rated.
You know how it goes.
Blood splatter is blackened out and the more violent deaths are in the shadows.
Ladies, Id leave if I were you.
Man, I dont know.
It doesnt have the same ring to it.
For the most part, its the same story.
There are differences, though.
Theres an intro scene where Clarence Boddicker and his gang shoot a bunch of police officers.
Boddicker notices that one is still alive and mentions how he must be losing his touch.
Hmm… Looks like I aint lost my touch after all.
Several years later, they would rerelease the comic in color form as setup for the newRoboCopongoing series.
Most of the art is by Lee Sullivan with later issues done by Herb Trimpe and Andrew Wildman.
You have flying cars, cloned dinosaurs, and all sorts of robots.
Like this guy:
Regardless, the comics are good fun.
They arent must-read, but theyre good for what they are.
Like how theres a quick commercial for a television you put inside your head.
Hell, it even features Beer Gut Man, who is like the prototype for Ennis Six-Pack.
Around this time, Marvel released the adaptation ofRoboCop 2, by Alan Grant and Mark Bagley.
This one is closer to the source than the first book and certainly flows better than the movie.
For one, you dont go about a half hour without even seeing RoboCop.
I will say, one interesting thing is Cains design.
But you know what?
It could have been much, much worse.
Youll see why soon enough.
His first four issues would have made a perfect sequel.
It basically takes the great Introducing RoboCop 2!
suicides bit from the second movie and writes a story around it.
A really good story.
The final confrontation between the two is extremely dark for an early 90s Marvel comic and deserves a look.
Theres a widow-based villainess who kind of vanishes from the story.
Coincidentally, a failed pitch for theRoboCopcomic would become a series that would reintroduce Marvel concept Deathlok.
He also has the similar drawback of only being able to ingest baby food.
Dark Horse would start off with a bang via Frank Miller and Walt SimonsonsRoboCop vs. Terminator.
SkyNet sends Terminators back in time to stop her from succeeding.
The only real drawback of the book is how its pretty one-sided on theRoboCophalf of the crossover.
John Connor and the rest of his family are completely absent with John getting only a brief mention.
The miniseries has some amazingly badass moments, including a battle between two ED-209s and a T-800.
The day is saved!
Evil robots will never threaten us ever again!
…OR WILL THEY?!
Its such a tired trope.
So yeah, if you havent readRoboCop vs. Terminator, get on that.
Do yourself a favor.
Well cross that bridge later.
Prime Suspectby John Arcudi and John Paul Leon is easily the best Dark HorseRoboCopcomic outside of theTerminatorcrossover.
The art might be a bit off-putting for some, but I like it.
This would be the first of many RoboCop comics written by Steven Grant.
It goes into expanding the world ofRoboCopoutside of Detroit.
We know what futuristic Detroit is like, but what about Philadelphia and Denver?
Coffin is essentially the Undertaker with a laser cannon.
Kind of like in that Mr.
Freeze episode ofBatman: The Animated Series.
The comic does kind of rush through things.
Its one of the films better character moments.
Here, they just power through the moment in two panels.
The book does have a couple good lines that didnt make it into the final cut of the movie.
Johnson meekly responds, Uh…your late son developed that project, Mr. Morton.
Thatd be terribly offensive.
I can see why that got cut.
The last Dark HorseRoboCopcomic would beRoboCop: Rouletteby John Arcudi and Mitch Byrd.
Of all theRoboCopcomics out there, its probably the most boring.
There are a bunch of unlikeable characters tossed in there and a threat that never really clicks.
The one redeeming factor is the ending.
I can see it in his eyes.
He remembers who he was, and is repulsed by what hes become.
My God, listen to me.
With that deflating comic done with, RoboCop wouldnt make another print appearance for almost a decade.
AVATAR PRESS (2003-2006)
Lets get this over with.
On paper, Avatar had what seemed like a brilliant comic.Frank Millers RoboCop.
Frank Miller always hated how his screenplay forRoboCop 2was altered several times over.
Hollywood considered his original script unfilmable and unusable.
Hell, the dude wroteRoboCop vs. Terminator!
Starting in 2003, Miller would oversee the project, though he wouldnt be the one writing it.
To call this series a mess would be an understatement.
If you thought Frank Miller would work better without a filter, youre in for a rude awakening.
Its like watching the Spike TV episodes ofRen & Stimpyor Vince Russos World Championship Wrestling.
One of the main Rehab soldiers is a pretty blatant copy of Frank Millers Marvel supervillain Nuke.
That makes it all the more interesting that Cains big drug in the movie was called Nuke.
I have to imagine thats not a coincidence.
Remember that five minute segment inRoboCop 2when Faxx has RoboCop reprogrammed to be a better role model?
Thats Loves deal here.
Shes obsessed with him becoming what she thinks children should look up to.
Its not the worst idea, but its done pretty badly.
Shes just a terribly-written character in general, over-sexualized so hard that it makes your eyes roll.
Like, when you look at it, the movies didnt really sexualize the main female roles.
Sure, there were strippers and prostitutes and stuff, but the major female characters came out all right.
Even Dr. Lazarus spent the entirety ofRoboCop 3in frumpy mom jeans.
Look at what theyve done to Lewis.
She spends about half of the comic in torn outfits with her breasts and underwear constantly hanging out.
Not joking, reading this comic made me physically nauseous.
That, and rape is brought up every five pages.
Although the details are different, RoboCops programming purges all of his many directives like inRoboCop 2.
OCP is the enemy and theres now nothing tethering him to them.
These issues arent anything special, but arent nearly as bad asFrank Millers RoboCop.
There was going to be a third one-shot calledRoboCop: War Party, but that was never released.
Wild Childdoes have some weird continuity going on.
That doesnt really jibe withFrank Millers RoboCopor any of the movies, but whatever.
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT (2010-2012)
Dynamite would give us threeRoboCopcomics, all written by Rob Williams.
The first one is an ongoing that lasts only six issues with art by Fabiano Neves.
It takes place after the first movie, opting to completely ignore the sequels.
Odenkirk is basically a charismatic, delightfully scummy, and better-written version of Dr. Love.
This comic is a mixed bag.
There are some good ideas and original character concepts, but it gets a bit messy.
Williams does a pretty bang-up job writing all the commercials and news programs.
If his run had an actual ending, it would have been a worthy follow-up to the Marvel series.
In the third movie, hes not even in it.
He never really gets whats coming in the Marvel comic.
In Williams comic, he actually writes an especially cool scene where RoboCop gets the better of him.
His victory unfortunately leads to a problem where RoboCop goes insane.
The series would continue over a year later with the miniseriesRoboCop: Road Tripwith art by Unai de Zarate.
Unfortunately, it ends on a cliffhanger right when things are getting interesting.
It turns out that OCP isnt the only corporation thats been taking over the country.
In-between those two comics, Williams and PJ Holden gave us the miniseriesTerminator/RoboCop: Kill Human.
As much as I loveRoboCop vs. Terminator, I hateKill Humanto an equal degree.
I hate, hate, hate this comic.
I hate it even more thanFrank Millers RoboCop.
To be fair, it does start out okay enough.
She ends up getting killed.
How he plans to stop it makes zero sense and isnt evenpartiallyexplained.
Plus we dont know what the ends is in this case.
The whole comic is half-baked, lacks any logic whatsoever, and gives me a headache.
STUDIOS (2013-present)
BOOM!
Studios got the license and started it by rereleasingFrank Millers RoboCop.
They do have a pretty good reason for it, at least.
After the rerelease, they followed up withRoboCop: Last Standby Steve Grant and Korkut Oztekin.
Its not nearly the trainwreck ofFrank Millers RoboCop, but it is a strange pile of comic.
I do dig the art.
Its an eight-issue series and the first four issues are pretty straightforward.
For the most part, it comes off as a grittier, more adult take on the movies events.
Otomo helps her overthrow OCP and even kill The Old Man.
Later on, Dr. Faxx gives him a robo-boner.
The fifth issue is when things go flying off the rails.
The comic goes from badass revision ofRoboCop 3 to wait, what?
in no time flat.
You know that cute little girl from the movie?
Yeah, RoboCop picks her up by the hair and punchesthrough her skull.
It makes more sense in context, but still, thats weird.
The final four issues are a mixed bag, but ultimately worth checking out.
Dont worry, we still get the bit where he readjusts his jaw.
Cant mess with what worked.
In 2014, BOOM!
would tackle the controversialRoboCopreboot.
You remember that, right?
The story by Ed Brisson and Emilio Laiso is a prequel.
Its about the original attempt to create RoboCop using a soldier killed in the Middle East.
This is another series that decides thatRoboCop 2never happened, meaning that BOOM!
Studios has done three differentRoboCopcomics in three different continuities over the course of two years.
The entire story takes place over 12 issues and its good shit.
The series centers around a villain named Killian.
Plus theres a major revelation about who he truly is.
Its incredibly intimate, making the characters seem more dimensional and real.
Everythings more down-to-earth, rather than going crazy with sci-fi nonsense.
You dont need hovercrafts and giant robot dogs.
Having RoboCop fight two guys in a monster truck works just as well.
Read RoboCop: Dead or Alive Vol.
Up next for Murphy isRoboCop: Citizens Arrestin 2018.
The public is turned into the police as theyre convinced to spy and narc on each other for money.
Who knows how long the BOOM!
You know, for a guy known for sticking around Detroit so much, RoboCop really does get around.
