The first installment of Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human was surprising in how compelling it managed to be and in just how far it went, ending with Skynet commandeering Robocop to kill the last living human on Earth. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising, though, since Robocop has always been a franchise satirizing excess while reveling in it, and Rob Williams’ series so far has beholden more to that Paul Verhoeven sensibility than James Cameron’s.
Case in point: the opening sequence of Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human #2 features that standard Terminator time-travel sphere materializing inside of some criminal thug just as he’s about to murder a guy, tearing him apart into a pile of guts. This time, it’s Robocop traveling to the past to try and wipe out all traces of Skynet before that horrible future he just came from can come to pass. It turns out he’s arrived in the midst of the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as the T-1000 shows up Robert Patrick style in the background, and the T-800 Arnold Schwarzenegger style is lighting up cops… which means Detroit’s cyborg supercop Alex Murphy will have something to say about that. Straight up Terminator vs. Robocop fight ensues.
This version of Robocop is very self-aware and unaware at the same time – he believes he’s human, but Skynet doesn’t, hence its cooperation with him. Apparently, his jack into Skynet hasn’t caused any further loss of self-control, either, thanks to that discrepancy, and even Robocop’s outburst at calling them all “motherfuckers” for what they’ve done isn’t enough to sway its opinion of him. “You are a computerised system. You are no threat.”
Robocop calling these robots “motherfuckers” is startling, and yet it’s completely wondrous. And the fact that Murphy has zapped back in time and headbutted Schwarzenegger out of the lead role in T2 allows him to deliver a great nerdgasmic line to the flabbergasted Sarah and John Connor – one you just know was thought up in the first meeting about this project and immediately was marked as an issue-ender.
P.J. Holden’s art, while serviceable, has some drawbacks that are more glaring here as he’s called upon to render likenesses of famous people and it doesn’t come close. His Arnold looks more like Steve Dillon’s Punisher than anything. Hopefully, his Linda Hamilton and Eddie Furlong will get better next issue, when they have to deal with the T-1000 liquid metal bastard without Schwarzenegger.
Overall, this is still some solid franchise-mixing fun, and certainly worth picking up. Your move, creep.
CRAVE ONLINE RATING: 7.8/10
