Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 A.D., Vol. 3 by Russ ManningMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Magnus, Robot Fighter 4000 A.D., Vol. 3 collects Magnus #15-21
Long story short, the third Magnus archive is the best, both in art and in story. I'm surprised at how well some of the stories hold up, as long as you ignore references to Lamarkian evolution and a vaguely racist robot Buddha. Manning had just gotten into a groove on the characters when he got the opportunity of a lifetime to do the Tarzan newspaper strip and jumped ship.
Not only is the art the cream of the crop, the stories are the best of the run as well. The best, in my opinion, was Magnus vs. North Am. Some shady robot dealers take Magnus to court, accusing him of being an alien undermining North Am's security, when really it's because of his anti-robot talk cutting into their sales and his destruction of their shitty malfunctioning robots.
Many of the panels would make great posters. Manning's art is so damn slick, a master class in drawing just what is needed in the best way possible, something later artists like Steve Rude would emulate.
I still think the concept of Magnus shouldn't work but it works very well. Stories featuring a guy in a miniskirt that mainly punches robots sounds stupid but these have to be among the best comics of the era.
Five out of five stars. If I was only getting one Magnus book, this would be it.
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