I added the new ongoing series from the team of Mark Russell (The Flintstones, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles) and Mike Deodato Jr. (The Incredible Hulk, New Avengers) to my pull list, and it’s got some things to say! There’s one thing missing from this series, which I’ll talk about below. If you’ve read it, can you guess what it is?

Comics Have Always Been Political

And they always will be, I believe. Not only political, but comics highlight extant social issues. You can go as far back as the original Wonder Woman concept, or the X-Men, even Captain America (tell me that stories about a genetically engineered patriot aren’t political), and easily see that issues of race, patriarchy, xenophobia and any other sorts of Other-ing have been a heavy part of the comics that we’ve been reading since at least the 40’s. So it’s no surprise that the #meToo movement has been integrated into newer comics stories. The framework for this story also combines the issues of climate change, artificial intelligence, low wages and job automation all into one package. It’s a lot to unpack in one story, but I think the creative team does a good job so far.

The story reveals the daily lives of a family in Bubble Atlanta in 2056. The Bubble is just that, a giant geodesic dome that has been constructed over Atlanta, presumably to protect the humans there from the utter wasteland that is the outside world. The world as it stands is divided up into human families who live and relax inside these bubbles, and the robot workers assigned to each family to work dangerous jobs and make money for the family to live on. Pretty weird setup, right? At first glance, I was confused by this, as it didn’t seem realistic, but by the end of the issue, I was on board. After all, the systems we’ve put in place and used for centuries don’t really make sense either, but we (mostly) accept them because of things like Tradition, Heritage and Good Common Sense.

Although a lot of us are waking up and saying Fuck That. It’s no secret that we as Americans and as global citizens are undergoing a pretty serious identity crisis at the moment (hopefully not an infinite one). We’re in a liminal space right now, and no one is certain what we are transforming into. While there have been strong advances towards equity for women, non-white people, and the LGBTQIA community, we’re also seeing a rise in authoritarianism, inequality, and of course the rapid destruction of our habitat. As people become more polarized on these issues, our conflicts are taking on an almost religious tone, as we are all urged by our corporate masters, religious leaders and politicians to be fanatically devoted to one side or the other. It’s a lot to take in!

Why Robot?

The creative team here has taken a handful of these issues, and decided to explore them through the lens of dystopian sci-fi. Frankly, it’s pretty believable, which may be the scariest part of all this. In this story, robots are a metaphor for men in general. We are shown that robots have been assigned to each human family, since humans are “emotional and erratic”, and have no way to take care of themselves without robot help. The story focuses on one family in particular, who nervously await the return of their robot every evening from his dangerous factory job. He’s always in a bad mood, and always goes straight to the garage to work on mysterious Robot Stuff. The story jumps around between the family’s perspective, his perspective, and other bits and pieces of the world as the various conflicts and problems with this system are revealed to us.

As I said, it seemed a little forced at first, but I got on board by the end of the book. Russell is able to highlight the major problems with the patriarchy: constant fear of male violence, lack of agency, and a general condescension towards women as being too dumb/weak/frail/emotional to handle the world. One of the scenes they keep coming back to is on a talk show, where a robot and a human woman are discussing the finer points of the robot-archy that’s rapidly taken over society. This is really well done, because it highlights the sophistry of the #notAllMen “movement”, if you want to call it that. Sophistry is an argument that starts with a reasonable-sounding point (humans have been bad stewards of the planet), and uses that to go to an insane conclusion (humans need to be enslaved by robots to prevent further climate damage). I won’t go into the arguments used by these internet trolls in reaction to #meToo, but they are of a similar sophist bent.

So What’s Missing?

It may be obvious by now, but to me the biggest gap here is… a female creator! I’m assuming this idea was Russell’s originally, since he has a lot to say about it in the back matter, so it makes sense that he is the writer. But would it have been that hard to find a female-identifying artist, or inker/colorist, or co-author? In the words of our current Corporate Mouthpiece, “Come on, man!” However, to counter my own point, it is the job of men to talk to other men about dismantling the patriarchy. So you could look at it as a way of not forcing a woman (again) to explain why misogyny is bad, as well as to open herself up to a legion of online trolls who will undoubtedly lose their minds over “wokeness”, and “PC Culture”, and various other catchphrases and marketing slogans designed to enrage those with the emotional development of a turnip.

I hope you enjoyed this post, I guess it got a little ranty, but that’s what you get for free content, you feel me? I would recommend this book to anyone who’s into dystopian sci-fi, or likes to read books that are steeped in contemporary social issues.

You can find the series on Comixology here.

Find other great comics from AWA Studios – Upshot here.

Buy some stuff from Mike Deodato Jr. here

Happy reading, and I’ll see you next time!