Cyber Crush: Robots in Revolt

(Fleetway Quality, 1990-1991)
™ and ©1990 Fleetway Editions, Ltd.

(From the Slings & Arrows Comic Guide)

Reprints of early 2000 A.D. stories with covers bearing no relation to the contents. Ironically for a comic selling itself on the idea of robots, it’s the humanity of the robots within that makes the strips work. “Ro-Busters” is a Thunderbirds-style rescue squad wherein the team revolt against their masters. There’s nice Mike McMahon on some chapters, but little worth noting otherwise until #14, which has an Alan Moore and Steve Dillon tale. Better by far are the earliest Robo-Hunter stories, finally reproduced sympathetically in color. John Wagner (under the alias of T.B. Grover) and Alan Grant write hilarious scripts, matched by Ian Gibson’s whimsical, detailed art. Issues #1–8 have Sam Slade accompanied by a foul-mouthed, cigar-chomping pilot regressed to childhood on a planet where robots are eliminating humans, and the even funnier “Day Of The Droids” in #9–14 has all of the city’s leaders replaced by robot duplicates. ~WJ

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