3 out of 5

Accepting that Robo has always been comprised of standalone adventures that knit together for a fun mythology, the standalone antics in the Real Science Adventures series have never really been as engaging, despite how much fun the featured characters – the She-Devils and super spy Sparrow in this case – are when they appear tangentially to Robo.  The characters themselves might not be the issue so much as the presentation style, this being a show case for (I think) web-originating strips, which generally have a different sense of pacing and scope than print-first, as well as the varying quality of non-Wegener artists.  In the She-Devils, this is a good thing: Lo Baker has a frenetic and yet wide screen style that works really well with the more “grounded” adventures of the Devils, with the hand drawn sound effects giving it an extra rough-been edge that makes the look comparable to Weg in terms of action, but otherwise a completely different vibe.  Telling planes and characters in matching uniforms apart is a bit of a chore, and some of the choreography is a tad off, but I never felt taken out of the story as a result.  Wook Jin Clark on Sparrow’s tale doesn’t fare so well, I’m afraid.  Tiny limbs and odd facial expressions are just some of the unfortunate aspects; the flow is very herky-jerky, which isn’t great for impressing upon us Sparrow’s badassness.  Anthony Clark unifies the issues somewhat, by coloring both strips (each book is split between the stories), but Sparrow undeniably feels like a first time effort in comparison to the more energetic and larger-scoped Devils.

As to Clevinger’s writing, that’s where, alas, some of the overall inconsequentialness comes from.  It’s cool to see the sorta’ origins of the Devils’ jetpack, but the story feels very forced; the drama doesn’t seem organic, and the morals (I.e. Who it’s”okay” to kill) are inconsistent.  The whole thing also ends up feeling like a MacGuffin for the jetpack justification; like I have no idea if the Devils actually succeeded in their goal of robbing the pirates of a plain.  For Sparrow, it’s about seeing her in action, sans Robo, so she breaks in to some Nazi joint and is invincible.  The story isn’t quite punchy enough to be fun, nor are there believable stakes (Sparrow seems to have an inexhaustible supply of guns to pull out for a last minute save) to make it too thrilling.

Robo’s slow and steady world-building has been fantastic over the years, but his supporting cast have trouble filling up their own series.  RSA isn’t unfun, but it’s uneven in art and story, and doesn’t exactly feel like tales that needed to be told.