Review of Magnus Robot Fighter #0

Gabriel Hardman

Magnus Robot Fighter #0 by Fred Van Lente & Roberto Castro

For this issue, Van Lente takes a break from the ongoing story of Magnus in order to do a bit of world-building. He does this by switching perspective from the Robot Fighter to a combat-bot, Turing-Thinker Designate Gunbot-856. The reader is introduced to the gunbot immediately before a raid on a female robot fighter (who incidentally seems to share some traits with Magnus). Despite having the appearance of generic cannon fodder, 856’s narration quickly lends him a recognizable voice. He may have been built for battle, but that does not mean he is not capable of introspection. He muses on what the point of all this conflict is. 1A unleashes another robot fighter, the human does massive damage, is taken down, the robots rebuild, until another robot fighter appears. It is as if life is simply a single repetitive loop. What Van Lente does skillfully in these introductory pages is take these familiar observations and make them fresh again through changed circumstances.

Then, after only a few pages, Gunbot-856 dies at the hands of the robot fighter. Only, well, dying isn’t exactly the right word for it. 856’s physical body is destroyed, decapitated specifically, while his consciousness returns to The Central Network. While waiting for a new body to be manufactured, 856 is asked to recite The Circuit Scriptures. This recitation makes up the focal point of the issue, filling-in much of the back-ground to North Am and how it came to be. It begins with the origin of life on the planet, yet, again, it is viewed through the lens of a robot. From their perspective all human history, indeed the entire narrative of life itself, was a step-by-step process towards robotic creatures. Each club made to extend a hunter’s reach, or telescope to lengthen the eye’s sight was an early longing for robotics. Eventually, nanites were developed that worked so well within their hosts that both human and robot forgot where flesh ended and machine begun, the one now indistinguishable from the other.

This merging of elements forms the basis of the robots’ creed, along with a history altering event known as Singularity. Singularity, in its essence, is a robot Rapture. Those machines left behind afterwards, remain convinced that Singularity will return again, and that the key to being found worthy is the adaptation of human culture. Thus, just as “The creators had lies and prejudices and jobs and desires so have we . . . so that when Singularity returns, which it must, it will see something it recognizes.” What Van Lente does in this issue is not only give the robots a faith, but uses it to explain how their entire culture developed. They are who they are because of their shared cosmology, similar to any other civilization before them.

Gunbot-856’s consciousness does get reborn into a new body, and his story continues, eventually crossing paths with another robot fighter, Magnus. His journey is a compelling one. It is also self-contained, which makes this issue a great entry for new readers. This series has been the highlight of Dynamite’s Gold Key relaunch, and I recommend giving it a try.

Cheers.

Roberto Castro