Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 A.D., Vol. 1 by Russ ManningMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 AD collects Magnus #1-7.
This book was really hard to find at a price I could live with. I found one that had been sitting on ebay for months and shot the dealer a lowball offer at $50 below the asking price. She agreed, making me wish I would have went $10-15 lower.
Russ Manning cut his teeth on the Dell/Gold Key Tarzan comics before jumping on board Magnus before jumping back to the Tarzan camp for the Tarzan newspaper strip. He was a fitting choice since Magnus is best described as Tarzan with robots.
Raised by 1A in the far future of 4000 AD, Magnus is trained to be able to destroy robots with his bare hands. This sounds somewhat ridiculous but the tone of these stories is surprisingly dark considering the sunny future setting. Magnus rails against man's overdependence on robots and chops them down to size when they invariably violate the rules of robotics, which they always do.
I rated this a three because some of the stories are kind of weak but I love the Russ Manning artwork. Manning is from the Wally Wood/Alex Raymond school and he wears his influences proudly on his sleeve. He's also a forerunner of later artists who use a more minimalist style like Steve Rude. Manning's future is sleek and his robots manage to be menacing while simultaneously looking somewhat ridiculous.
More stuff from here made it into the Valiant version of Magnus than I thought: Everyone knows Magnus and Leeja made the jump but I had no idea Mekman, Xyrkol, and the Malevs originated here as well.
I'm rating this a high 3. Squeeeee!
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