Atomic Robo: Everything Explodes Collection

Atomic Robo: The Everything Explodes Collection by Brian Clevinger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Atomic Robo: The Everything Explodes collection is a collection of the first three Atomic Robo collections: Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne, Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War, and Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time.

Since I'm a fan of robots and this thing has been nominated for numerous awards, I decided to take the plunge once I found it cheaply enough.

I love the artwork and the concept. Atomic Robo was created by Tesla in the early 20th century and has been fighting Nazis and supernatural menaces ever since. The artwork reminds me of Chew with a more science fiction bend and suits the tales very much.

I enjoyed the book at times but it felt very shallow for the most part. All the quips by Atomic Robo and his scientist chums robbed the stories of a lot of the sense of threat or urgency. The humor took away from the stories a lot of times, in my opinion.

The Shadow from Beyond Time saved the rest of the collection from a two-star rating and showed me what the series could be. Atomic Robo vs. a Lovecraftian beastie who exists simultaneously in four time periods? Damn right! With Charles Fort and HPL as characters? Double damn right! I also liked seeing Atomic Robo interacting with Carl Sagan and his rivalry with Stephen Hawking.

While I didn't see what all the fuss was about, I thought the Shadow From Beyond Time was great. Atomic Robo is a fun adventure pulp character with a lot of potential. While I wasn't in love with most of this collection, I'll be reading more Atomic Robo adventures in the future. Three out of five stars.



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