3 out of 5

Let’s clarify that three stars (which, uh, one could say is the purpose of the remainder of the review…): Atomic Robo vol. 2 is no less enjoyable than vol. 1 or other entries in the Robo world.  It’s equally funny and punchy as anything else, introduces some important characters, and shows Wegener growing more comfortable with the exacerbated characteristics of his figures that would come in later volumes.  But: this is backstory.  Volume 1 – which I suppose at that point was just Robo, no certainty of a follow-up, accounting for its “let’s cover it all” approach – bounded back and forth through eras, showing us how AR knew his ultimate direction and what he owed Tesla – to continue pursuing science – but had to earn his way there.  So big picture sci-fi was sprinkled with moments in history battling a sci-fi Nazi villain.  Volume 2 is a bit of a step back.  It experiments with a fairly linear approach, detailing Robo’s run-ins with another Nazi scientist – Skorzeny – who, as was the case with Helsingard and every other weirdo working under Hitler – had designs beyond the war.  There are ties to Helsingard which will be built on more later, and we meet, in typical cheeky Robo fashion, The Sparrow, a top UK secret agent who is astounded at Robo’s American “hit it” methods of special ops versus her carefully planned and executed maneuvers.  Unfortunately, over the course of a few years (and five issues), their paths seem to cross more than once due to the different governments having agendas with shared points / people of interest.

Clevinger and Wegener have since perfected the big picture / little picture format, knowing how to shoe-horn bonkers concepts into historical settings plausibly within the realm of Robo.  Volume 2 mixes it up with some mutated ‘brutes’ and war machines, but those are somewhat standard comic fare, so the story is, overall, a bit more typical in design and scope.  These are necessary details to shuffle around (and this was probably an ideal point in Wegener’s style for action panels – big explosions but still clearly defined as to the beats of the actions so you’re not just bouncing too quickly through the book), and perhaps volume 2 is a celebration of Robo’s success by trading in the snapshot storytelling of volume 1 for some legit ‘to be continued’s, but by the same token the series can’t help but feel a little tame by comparison.  The backups feature an interesting move that I don’t think was re-used – a coda to a character featured in that arc – and it’s also a rather emotional and dark moment for Robo, something that’d be interesting to see blended in on occasion.

Totally worth the money and time to read, and absolutely required AR history.  Y’know, it’s just a sequel is all.