Robotech #9 Review

Script: Simon Furman

Art: Marco Turini

Colors: Marco Lesko

Lettering: Jim Campbell

Published by: Titan Comics

With the second arc now in the books, Robotech now moves forward not only in the story but also with the creative team. Simon Furman is now the sole scribe on this comic with the seeming departure of Brian Wood, and unfortunately, it shows a little bit throughout the issue.

Wood for the past 4 or so issues has been simply plotting the book with Furman in charge of the dialogue. Now that Furman is doing both, the first thing that came to mind after reading this issue was that I’m probably going to miss Wood. Now, this is not to say that Furman’s new arc is any bad, from this issue alone the concepts are there, however, the plot jumps from one point to the other like a bunny rabbit hopped up on speed. Sometimes that can work, but for this issue, I was thoroughly confused from page to page as to what exactly was happening.

From what I can decipher, the Zentraedi’s leadership is in flux (the one we’ve met, Breetai, is not the “emperor type” but more of a general) and now a new player has entered the fray.

On the human’s side on the SDF-1, the murder of former Captain Henry Gloval is still being investigated, and now has video evidence of who has done it… but nothing happens with that information. Also, a distress signal from Mars is activated and new Captain Lisa Hayes, for some illogical reason, decides to accompany the away mission to investigate.

I understand the need to add plot points in a series, but it’s starting to get a little ridiculous in this one. Robotech, for me, started off so strong and made me want to read it every month, but the series is starting to lose a lot of that initial steam right now.

Even the art by Turini is starting to lose some of that luster with figures being extremely stiff on the page and fight scenes becoming more stagnant.

I hope this ship (no pun intended) gets steered back on course, or else this is a series that will soon go from being worth a look to a definite pass very soon.