19th Jul2019

‘Robotech #22’ Review (Titan Comics)

by Dean Fuller

Written by Simon Furman | Art by Hendry Prasetya | Published by Titan Comics

Robotech-22-A-cover

The first 20 issues or so of this book were pretty fantastic. A great mix of action, political intrigue, mystery, goodies turning bad and baddies turning good, and pretty much every genre covered at some point. Even reality TV. But let’s not go there…As great as that all was, ending with the huge fight that devastated Earth but saw it victorious against Dolza and his Zentraedi forces, Simon Furman then revealed that this was almost a prologue to the real story. That guy. Turns out a huge event on the horizon was coming called, ahem, Event Horizon. This involved a plan to alter reality itself by The Invid’s Queen,Regess, and also the small matter of a traveller from the future, Dana Sterling, who had arrived at the same time as the SDF-1’s original crash into Macross Island. It’s never dull with this book.

So can Dana Sterling be trusted? Her story, of a future devastated by the Invid Regess, seems hard to believe. Also the fact her ship was the SDF-3, apparently. Rick Hunter is inclined to believe her as his abilities allowed him to interface with her life support pod, and he saw a future version of himself with her. His future self clearly trusted her, so he chooses to. Lisa Hayes decides to keep an open mind but reserve judgement. She may have to decide sooner than she thinks, however, as the Invid’s assault on multiple realities has begun. Protoverse-113 is the first to feel the Regess’s power play. Back to the SDF-1 and the first of many revelations I’m guessing. Dana Sterling is the grown up future daughter of Vermillion Squadron ace Max Sterling it seems. ‘Hello Dad’. Heh.

Meanwhile the multiverse is falling one reality by one. Protoverse-66 gone, then Protoverse-102, and the noose is tightening. Dana explains that the SDF-3 crashed to Earth to break a time loop, to try and save not her future, but everyone’s future from the present, now. Minmei and Kyle also arrive back on the SDF-1, Minmei having had visions it seems of what is happening in those other realities. What’s happening to those realities lands firmly at their doorstep as the Invid appear and launch an immediate assault on the ‘time anomaly’ SDF-1. Which is a shame, as we are just about to learn that Dana’s mother is Miriya…or not. It is left tantalisingly dangling there, a Furman specialty. While all this is going on, we get a little reminder that Roy Fokker, and his new clone friend, Captain Gloval mark 2, are still trying to escape Dr. Zand and his band of merry Roy clones. It’s certainly all go. I didn’t even mention about Invid Hunter Karl Riber either. Let’s save that one for next time.

Classic Furman. The pace never once lets up, several storylines all running at once, all of which advance a little, all of which slightly interconnect more and more as the storyline progresses. The perfect mix as well of action and humour, of the big widescreen space opera and the smaller, more intimate character moments. I think Simon Furman packed as much plot into the pages he had available as is humanly possible. A great read. The art, by Hendry Prasetya, and colours by Marco Lesko were the perfect complement for both themselves and the story. Prasetya has the ability to both pack a lot into a single page without making it seem cluttered, and also unleashing rather nice full page panels. The last page especially is a doozy. Great stuff.

Some ‘event’ comics end up being pointless, essentially cash grabs, but none of that here. You get a great storyline, wonderful art, and the feeling of a story that needs to be told.

Couldn’t enjoy this book any more than I do.

***** 5/5

Robotech #22 is out now from Titan Comics.

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