5 out of 5

Praise Saint Robo that we get the return of the book in print.  Post volume 9 and the lack of Robo in Red 5’s FCBD from that year, a visit to the AR website made it clear that they had switched to an online only format…  And while we would see the republishing of past volumes in trades, I was disturbed that that might mean waiting an indeterminate amount of time to read new books in print, as I’ve not been able to find a comfortable way to read ongoing titles on the web.  Thankfully, IDW realized that Robo’s following merited a publishing deal, and apparently found agreeable terms with Clevinger and team to make Ring of Fire – and the future or printed Robo – a reality, with nary a gap ‘tween paper volumes except a free story from the website that will hopefully show up somewhere non-digital in the future…

Praise because Robo has remained the comic that I want to read.  High concept without glossing over details such that you believe the pseudo-science has some thought behind it; an expanding group of characters who easily lend themselves to fan-favorites and one sentence descriptions without ever feeling one-dimensional; world building that rewards rereads but functions perfectly when absorbed any volume at a time.  Intense action and fun delivered high-octane and compressed, yet still wholly dosed with personality and intelligence.  It’s been a miracle achievement since day one, arriving already fully formed and getting better and better.

Following up on the time travel events of Savage Sword, we return to the present, most of our Action Scientists in hiding while the government run ULTRA (aka anti-Tesladyne Majestic 12) takes over all their research and, as always feared, begins turning it into weaponry.  Although there is a reason: atomic monsters from the deep.  Our hero scientists find one another, and determine to find Robo and fix this monster mess.  Now, Ring of Fire is just as compressed as any Robo tale – talking about Zorth, and zipping through huge chunks of story progress via Wegener’s boom-boom-boom panel pacing and Clevinger’s snapshot scripting – but I also felt that this was one of the first AR books that made you slow down and actually read it.  It’s not that its overly exposition happy, but I almost wonder if the switch to a bigger publisher brought with it a purposeful attempt to “ease” readers into the generally insane momentum of the book; even Wegener’s art feels a bit toned down or streamlined from his bombastic, blocky figures and wild camera angles.  To the credit of our creators (and the material), whether these changes are perceived or actual; purposeful or incidental; permanent or temporary; they don’t harm the read one bit.  If anything, slowing down and absorbing the story beats just helped to underline all of the positive elements of the book I love.  Letterer Jeff Powell has some weird blips where periods are left off, but otherwise, the book has lost none of its charm, and moves the overall storyline forward in an exciting and sensible way.  We’ve also gained the slightly clearer printing quality of IDW, which should work great for Robo in the long run.

And a long run I do, indeed, hope it is.