BOOM! Studios
Writers: Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver
Artists: Alejandro Aragon and Nick Nix
Colourist: Marissa Louise
Release date: April 8, 2015
Price: $3.99

Detroit City is going up in flames. Citizens are protesting OCP and the corporate grasp it has on the city’s private police force. Murphy (Robocop) and his colleagues are desperately trying to keep the peace. Murphy leaps on an overturned police car and attempts to pacify the protesters but only succeeds in angering them to the point where a lobbed a Molotov cocktail sets him on fire.

The OCP board of directors find themselves running scared in this overtly political tableau, which tends to restate what we already know about the Robocop story. Nothing new then, despite the fairly well put together story and art, which services the narrative well enough, in a workmanship kind of way.

However, there’s that inescapable strong feel of re-tread going on. Of tired tropes trotted out about dystopia and encroached freedoms, with little depth or deeper understanding. The same old same about corporate greed verses the will of the people. Much, if not most, of what we’ve seen before and there’s none of the famous humour that made the Verhoeven original so special.

Where to take the character then? Surely there are many more interesting tales to tell about a cyborg cop who was once human that might be possibly more fascinating, engaging and progressive then this?

More Ex Machina; less C – 3PO.

Reviewer: CybexAl
Reviews Editor: Stephen Hooker