Man, did Marvel put out a lot of b/w mags in the early nineties!I had no idea this existed until I saw it on eBay. Robocop 2, I thought? Aren't we one film too late on this, Marvel?
I remember going to see Robocop 2 in the theaters, having missed the first one the first time around but then later digging it big-time on home video, which I'm sure a lot of other people did.
Hearing that Frank Miller--Frank Miller!--was writing the screenplay got me even more excited, and then all that went out the proverbial window about twenty minutes into the film--it started out bad and never moved from that spot. Sheesh.
I'm sure that Marvel didn't know of the film's crapulence when they bought the rights to adapt it, Frank Miller's name was probably enough to get them to sign on the dotted line. And Marvel doesn't hesitate to tell us of the Miller connection to the film, as they list his credit twice in two successive pages:
The cover by Joe Chiodo is nice(hey, I'm surprised they didn't have Frank's name here, too!), but after that it goes downhill.
The script is by Alan Grant, with art by Mark Bagley and Tony DeZuniga, who try their best, but movie comics are rarely better than their source material, and that's the case here. The film is ugly and depressingly violent; there's really none of the black humor "joy" of the first film. This version is more family-friendly of course(i.e. no sex and a little less violence), but after sixty-one pages and a pin-up I wanted to read a Super Friends or something to cleanse my palate.
Marvel obviously had high hopes for this, they published their version of Robocop 2 in no less than three separate editions, all published simultaneously--as a one-shot "prestige format" book, a three-issue standard-format mini, and this. Geez, what is this, Richie Rich?
Nonetheless, Robocop ended up with his own regular Marvel series(I remember the book's inker, Kim DeMulder, used to show us original pages back when I had him as an instructor at the Joe Kubert School), and he's been the star of other comic book series, as well.
"Thanks, Robocop!"
The script is by Alan Grant, with art by Mark Bagley and Tony DeZuniga, who try their best, but movie comics are rarely better than their source material, and that's the case here. The film is ugly and depressingly violent; there's really none of the black humor "joy" of the first film. This version is more family-friendly of course(i.e. no sex and a little less violence), but after sixty-one pages and a pin-up I wanted to read a Super Friends or something to cleanse my palate.
Marvel obviously had high hopes for this, they published their version of Robocop 2 in no less than three separate editions, all published simultaneously--as a one-shot "prestige format" book, a three-issue standard-format mini, and this. Geez, what is this, Richie Rich?
Nonetheless, Robocop ended up with his own regular Marvel series(I remember the book's inker, Kim DeMulder, used to show us original pages back when I had him as an instructor at the Joe Kubert School), and he's been the star of other comic book series, as well.
"Thanks, Robocop!"
1 comment:
I had no idea this was going on. That's how oblivious to Marvel I am.
On a separate Robocop note, you should check out the trailer for an upcoming movie called, "Be Kind, Rewind."
Some excellent Ghostbusters and Robocop... er, stuff in there.
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