‘Robotech #7’ Review (Titan Comics)
Written by Simon Furman | Art by Marco Turini | Published by Titan Comics
Although Brian Wood officially signed off with Issue 4, he has clearly road mapped out quite a bit of the first year of this book, as he continues to get a co-plotter credit with Simon Furman. Furman has been the writer for three issues now, though obviously his vision of the book will need to wait a little longer. Fair enough, as there is nothing worse following a book, getting engrossed in the various plot threads and storylines, and then have a new writer take the book in a ‘new direction’. Which usually means I can’t be bothered to integrate all that other work into mine, so there. None of that here. We have synergy. We have unity. We have Wood Furman, which sounds like a 60’s folk singer. But I digress.
So where were we? In a nutshell Captain Gloval is dead (or is he?), newly promoted Captain Lisa Hayes is out of her depth, alien warlord Khyron has launched a devastating attack on the then stranded SDF-1, and Lisa’s former partner Karl has been either assisting from beyond the grave, or is some form of electronic imprint memory that Lisa can see. All good stuff, though the best was saved for last. Captain Hayes blew up Mars Base to allow the SDF-1 to escape Khyron, and Claudia Grant, studying video footage, seems to discover how Gloval really died.
Before checking back in on our heroes we start by dropping in on an interesting chat between the defeated Khyron and his boss, Breetai. Breetai is obviously none too impressed the SDF-1 escaped and summons Khyron back for punishment. Khyron, though, seems to have ideas of his own. These megalomaniac intergalactic warlords, so temperamental. Captain Hayes meanwhile has no time to celebrate her escape. While work is underway to fully repair the engines, she has been informed the rift in space is growing larger, and is a space-time rift. It seems to displace time, which may explain some recent weird events. Hayes has also been informed of top secret work on Mars on shadow warfare, using Robotech technology to shunt entire squadrons instantly across time and space.
Furman then takes us to Macross City, to check in on Minmei and Rick, who’ve individually and as a pair taken something of a backseat of late. A little soap opera never hurt anyone but Minmei auditioning for ‘Macross Has Talent’. Er, say what now. Rick, luckily, has an appointment with Captain Hayes, who promotes him for bravery to the rank of Lieutenant. Now in charge of his own squad. Go Rick. Or maybe not. What Hayes hasn’t told Rick is she’s using him as a guinea pig concerning some timey-wimey paradox stuff. Seems Gloval knew a lot about all their fates, as did Roy Fokker.
Oh look, Khyron’s back. Seems though he has help from on board, which is worrying as he tactically disables essential areas such as radar and environmental controls. A garbled message from Earth confirms SDF-1 security compromised. The battle does not go well. Just as Khyron is about to win, Breetai stops his attack dead, and recalls him by force. He’s decided the way to take the SDF-1 is by stealth, and has three ‘inside men’ ready to do the job for him.
A solid issue, but a rare misfire in there too. Firstly, I enjoyed all the main Khyron shenanigans, but why no movement at all on the Gloval death plotline. seems odd to not feature that at all. Also, the Minmei talent show subplot, although geared to throw in a more human angle to things, is not for me. The ship could be conquered by an invading alien fleet at any time, the Captain has been killed, and Minmei is having a party and going on a talent show. Er, ok. Not for me. Marco Turini’s art is as reliable as always, though my same proviso as every issue stands. Panels that don’t need to be large seem to be large, and panels with large scale space battles that do need to be large end up tiny.
Space opera good, Soap opera bad. Good overall though.
***½ 3.5/5
