Advance Review – Robocop: Last Stand Part 1 TP (BOOM! Studios)

February 25, 2014

2–3 minutes

Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Writer: Frank Miller, Steven Grant
Artist: Declan Shalvey, Korkut Öztekin
Release Date: 26th February 2014

RoboCop: Last Stand is an eight-issue miniseries based on Frank Miller’s original screenplay for RoboCop 3. With the police force completely disbanded, OCP has taken over the running of Detroit – or Delta City – and RoboCop is a hunted fugitive. It’s a dark, grimy brutal world, and one that fits Miller’s distinctive writing style perfectly. However, this trade (collecting issues one to four of the series) finds itself held back by a catalogue of flaws that stop it from being anything other than, to be blunt, a disappointment.

Firstly, the artwork. While Declan Shalvey and Korkut Öztekin each have their own moments to shine along the way, the book comes across as murky and confusing for the most part, especially during the action scenes. Anatomy looks contorted and awkward, facial expressions are grotesquely and comically overexaggerated, and the heavily inked style makes some sequences truly indecipherable. Sure, there are some great single panels, and some impressive visual beats delivered in isolation, but as a fluid reading experience, the book just plain doesn’t work. At least for me.

Miller’s screenplay (adapted here by Steven Grant), is also more than a little muddled, and sees us flick backwards and forwards between multiple plot points seemingly at random. Characters are glossed over, with new ones being introduced and almost instantly abandoned as the ADD pacing rushes off in search of another shoot-out or gruesome exchange. The core of the story, with a small grimy apartment block under RoboCop’s protection threatening to bankrupt OCP should it remain standing for another week (a plot point that isn’t ever really explained fully) is present throughout, but everything else – including corrupt officials, mind-altering therapists, Japanese samurai/ninja robots, and god knows what else – seems to be added on almost as an afterthought. It’s all just a bit of a mess, sadly.

I’ll be honest in saying that I really wanted to like this book. I love Frank Miller and I love RoboCop, so getting a deeper insight into the seminal writer’s version of the third film in the trilogy seemed like an insanely appealing prospect. As it turns out, it’s all just a little disheartening. Yes, there are some undeniably good moments, and the exchanges between RoboCop and Marie (another woefully underdeveloped character) serve as a rare highlight, but as an overall story, RoboCop: Last Stand is sadly only likely to appeal to the truly die-hard fans, either of the franchise or of Miller himself.

Rating: 2/5

INTERIOR ARTWORK PREVIEW
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