ComicsAlliance: Robot Rock!

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Robots are awesome.

 

 

That is the simple truth on which I’ve based my latest contribution to ComicsAlliance, a gallery of The Eleven Best Robots In Comics! I’ve got to admit, it was tough narrowing down the field to less than a dozen, although anyone thinking that I “forgot” The Vision or Optimus Prime or–God forbid–Red Tornado should be gently reminded that they’re stupid, they suck and I hate them.

Still, there is one that didn’t make the final cut, even though we can all agree that he’s first in our hearts:

 

 

Yes, MARVEX: THE SUPER ROBOT, who can never know the joy of a relationship with his hu-mon girlfriend because of his alarming tendency to explain things by ripping his clothes off. That guy rules.

49 thoughts on “ComicsAlliance: Robot Rock!”

  1. Quick! We must tell him which robots needed to be included in the list! THE INTERNET DEPENDS ON US!

    Seriously, I didn’t even know about Red Ronin. Have they used him recently? And if not, who needs to be beaten severely to make it happen?

  2. Surely there’s room for a Fin Fang Foom vs. Red Ronin one-shot. They could work that into Dark Reign somehow, right? Maybe Nick Fury could hijack RR to fight a Hydra controlled Fin? These ideas are both awesome and terrible.

  3. Oh, Marvex. I miss your flinging of Nazi agents through solid plaster walls ala the “Reverse Kool-Aid Man”. All while looking spiffy in your blue serge suit.

  4. Since it was mentioned in passing, I really would love to see Livewires come back at some point. It was awesome and for no real reason Hollowpoint Ninja may very well be my favorite “hero name” ever.

  7. If Atomic Robo was built in 1923, how did he fight in both world wars? Did he crash-land on a remote island in the North Sea where the Kaiser’s lost battalion kept fighting for years because no one told them the war was over?

  11. I am blissfully ignorant as to why Red Tornado is more stupid, suck, and hateworthy in your eyes than the other two likely “you forgot!” candidates. I’m so damn happy about that (because I’ve actually never paid much attention to him).

  13. Red Tornado punched out Hitler in space, then delived a “Why can’t I know what human love is” speech. Red Tornado is a Zune filled with Linkin Park songs.

  15. If you mean the first image, it’s from “Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes.” A great book.

    I think Marvex was reprinted in one of Marvel’s 70th anniversary one shots.

  16. I love the fact that Marvex isn’t just a robot, he’s a super-robot. Ordinary robots look up to him.

  17. Thanks to all those Franklin Richards one-shots I’ve developed a deep fondness for H.E.R.B.I.E. And Invincible‘s Robot is pretty damn cool, even if he isn’t a robot at all anymore…

  18. I don’t have any attachment to Vision or Red Tornado but, Michael Bay movies aside, how does Optimus Prime suck?

  19. The Hourman III’s panel is truly bizarre. Why the ex-baby must guard the bolgona? For the love of God, what’s the context? I must know so I can sleep again.

  20. Yeah I’m with captain supercool, I need context on the bologna comment. It’s haunting me.

    Please? Why?

  22. Quick! We must tell him which robots needed to be included in the list! THE INTERNET DEPENDS ON US!

    OK! So, what about the Sentinels or Doombots? Or Robot Archie, Amazo, Computo, or L-Ron? :)

    Also, isn’t Red Ronin technically a mecha that has to be controlled by a human pilot? More a vehicle than a robot.

    Y’know, I remember having that issue of Avengers with Red Ronin in. What issue number/date was it?

  23. That’s a great list. My own favourite is Joe Pi from Top 10. Calm, methodical, smarter than absofuckinglutely everybody and with a sense of humour too. It’s not just that he’s better than you, it’s that he’s so casual about it.

    And he’s good with kids, too.

  24. Is there any word on the first volume of Atomic Robo finding its way back in print? Amazon took my order for it last week, I think it was…was it last week’s podcast that pushed me over the edge? anyway…but they cancelled it a couple days later, and no one else, anywhere, seems to have a copy either.

  26. I am disappointed you chose Ultron over the clearly superior Santron.

    The first Red Ronin was technically a mecha, yeah, but subsequent updates have changed that to the point that the current model is a teenage girl in a belly top who does not understand this human emotion we call love, and sadly, this is not a pseudo-truth created to contribute to the air of knowing Munchausian bonhomie that lovingly permeates the ISB comments section – someone really thought this was a step up from ‘giant robot that starts the day by punching Godzilla’.

  27. I feel the need to point out that the Red Ronin in Dark Reign: Zodiac is the proper Red Ronin, and his entire point in the story is to flatten New York City.

  28. @David: I wasn’t aware they’d fixed that – or that my comics collection had such a glaring stompy robot-shaped hole in it, but it clearly does.

  29. Really? No Carl Seltz? Sims, you need to read just a little bit more non-superhero stuff. It’s like you’re sucking on pixie sticks all day.

  30. Oh, god, Marvex is the freaking man. The ladies can’t get enough of those visible rivets.

    Also, anyone else pissed that Awesome Andy is going back to being the Mad Thinker’s mindless toady? I think it’s bullcrap how everyone ignores Slott’s She-Hulk even though it was one of the best books out for a longass time.

    Oh, and Ultron has serious psychological problems. Wow, he really is just like Dr. Pym!

  31. yeah, im surprised Computo and L-Rondidnt get an honorable mention… but im not about to say “you forgot”

  32. Never mind Computo, where is Bizarro Computo?

    Yes, I am pissed about Awesome Andy. Marvel is so dead to me.

    Joe Pi should be on this list.

  34. The fact that people can actually defend Red Tornado just goes to prove that everyone is someone’s favorite character.

    Except for maybe Woodgod. Prove me wrong, inter-ma-net!

  36. Chris, one of these days I’m going to have to send you one of my Marvel UK Transformers comics- it might not change your mind about my favourite-things-in-the-whole-wide-world, but it might at least let you see where chaps like me are coming from. “Distant Thunder” ought to do the trick- Optimus Prime extols the virtues of pacifism in defeating a marauding army of biomechanical space-monkeys barely ten pages after pulling a dude’s head off with his bare hands.

    That said, my personal favourite is currently Twin Twist- a bloke who made the Autobot special forces squad by virtue of being able to travel quickly underground using a pair of buttock-mounted drills.

  37. Swanky list. But no Astro Boy? Come on. In his heyday, the little bastard was tough enough to destroy a giant, two-headed, monster alien called Adam and Eve without the use of his arms.

    I guess that was where a machine gun butt probably helps.

  41. ROM was a cyborg or something, wasn’t he? That probably means he doesn’t count. I’m more puzzled by the absence of Scud and robot Elektro.

    I also agree with whoever said HERBIE. But only in those Boy Genius strips.

    Red Tornado, however, is indeed a complete fail as a character but I still sort of like his costume. I think that’s the main reason he never completely goes away.

  42. Andy, do not do this thing!*

    Spaceknight yes, robot no. Very important distinctions must be drawn.

    *Am I going to have to go to the Science Museum now?

  43. “And as a bonus, he still had time to be a father to one of our other favorite robots, Victor Mancha, who stood out even among the Runaways for having a super-villain father that you’ve actually heard of.”

    I’d just like to voice an unpopular opinion here that, as I am blashpemously not a fan of Vaughan’s Runaways despite having eagerly bought the first omnibus, I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if all of the supervillain parents were villains we heard of – or even obscure villains who were interesting, but unused, and at least pre-existed in Marvel, instead of the incredibly bland and uninteresting ones Vaughan came up with.

    Maybe the generic-ness was part of the point, but man, I didn’t see any benefit to it.

  46. You are wrong about the Vision and I’m about to open a can of NERD RAGE on you!

    The Vision began life as the Human Torch (how a robot could be human is a philological question).

    He then gets a FAB repaint into the red faced, green tighted, bejeweled robo-ghost that was the bedrock of the Avengers in the 70s and 80s. He even got to marry a hot mutant witch and have a baby (so how).

    It’s true: he doesn’t punch bears in the face. He doesn’t throw car batteries at criminals. He doesn’t even hunt vampires (much). Still, the Vision is one Bad Mothah.

  47. “I’d just like to voice an unpopular opinion here”

    Unpopular, but not unique – though such is the nature of anything. Some dislike the book because they perceive it as ’emo*’, but I’m not entirely sure what’s meant by this or why it’s a bad thing. My apathy stems from me viewing Runaways as a post-Ennis/Mark Miller stab at irreverence undermined by mechanical plotting and rather broad stereotypes, with the whole package coming across as obnoxious. Oddly, I thought Joss Whedon’s arc was much better and went back and read the second volume based on that. I’ll never bloody learn…

    * ‘Emo’ is a current look between goth and rock – it means “emotional!”

  49. I’m just wondering- does your hatred of the Vision extend to Jocasta?
    She was my first robot crush.
    Oh dear… nobody’s reading this, right?