You’d think after meeting real space aliens they wouldn’t get E.T. wrong.
Robotech: Clone #4
Academy Comics, Ltd (April, 1995)
“The Dialect Of Duality” part 5
WRITER: Rosearik Rikki
ARTIST: Tavisha Wolfgarth
Gilles leads a unit of mecha against the Monte Yarrow, not knowing what they are. The Mordecai fighters barely hold their own and the enemy keeps them from using the main gun until Rueis sacrifices himself to destroy the enemy’s most powerful attacker, giving the crew the opening they need. The enemy is defeated for now. We also learn that Una is linked to the Mordecai Mind and was linked to the old one, part of a plan to restore the Andromeda Galaxy. Meanwhile, at Rueis’ funeral Baux shows up in his form, claiming to only be a memory.
Is it sad that I’m more interested in the making of the comic than the comic itself? This issue’s commentary is about how Rikki knows that only Carl Macek can actually decide what’s canon when it comes to Protoculture and that Clone is an alternate take not only to the whole odyssey but when it comes to what Protoculture is in this story. That’s a nice revelation and all but it actually just pushes the thought that this would have been better served as its own story rather than trying to make it part of Robotech. The parts I like, such as the secret of Una’s connection to the Mordecai Mind past and present…making me wonder if she played a part in the last one going crazy, or Rueis’ reasons for making the sacrifice and his speech, are countered by feeling like it’s in the wrong franchise.
I’m also not a fan of the Iconoclast’s “Battloid” mode. You saw it on last week’s cover, and indeed they have no legs. The nosecone and cockpit form the legs, which you would think would be a bad idea if they need to fight on the ground later on. There are also supposed to be three different classes of Iconoclast fighters but I can’t tell the difference between them. The art itself is fine though.
As part of this issue’s commentary Rikki does mention that they may be taking too much on too fast and the comic would be moving to bi-monthly. I don’t know how much history they have going up to this comic but this certainly has the feeling of being people new to comics if they feel rushed and with all the problems they’ve had up to this point. As a comic creator myself I find that interesting but as a reader this series really isn’t doing a lot for me.
BW Media Spotlight 