Robotech #3

Script: Brian Wood
Art: Marco Turini
Colors: Marco Lesko
Published by: Titan Comics

What happens after your super spaceship, the SDF-1, is forced to “space-fold” into space, while taking the majority of Macross City and its population with it after a harrowing battle with an unknown alien force? Also, what happens when you’re a hotshot pilot (in your own head) who crash lands in said spaceship with no means of communicating with the actual bridge for rescues? Well, Wood and Turini explore these questions and more within this new issue of Robotech.

After their battle with the unknown alien race and their subsequent space-fold away, the crew of the SDF-1 finds themselves in quite the predicament. Their space-fold generator has vanished. They are a long way from Earth, but not Mars, so they are at least able to resupply (I guess Mars is colonized in the world of Robotech). They’ve also had to integrate the population of Macross City as well as its infrastructure into SDF-1. But all this still doesn’t solve the simple problem that, even if they get back to Earth, they still have to deal with the alien fleet that lies between them and home.

In one of the hulls of SDF-1, we also have Rick and Lynn trapped after crash landing Rick’s stolen Veritech fighter, with no initial heat, and a dwindling supply of food. This allows Wood to explore who these two characters are in the face of adversity and allows him to demonstrate their resourcefulness at the same time. Their solution to their food shortage is a fun sequence in the book. This is followed by an exploration of the characters as a whole as well: we get to learn more about who they are and what they want to be.

After an explosive second issue, Wood and Turini have done the right thing in issue #3 and dialled back the action (there is none), to concentrate on the characters themselves. As with Lynn and Rick, we also get to learn some background tidbits about Lisa Hayes (who is on Mars?) and that Captain Gloval and Roy Fokker are hiding something about SDF-1.