In honor of the soon approaching release date decided to get a little off topic and read all the Robocop comics and say my general thoughts on them.
Robocop Vs Terminator.
A bonna fide classic, and definitely Frank millers best written contribution to the character.
It's a crossover with actual heart and soul to it, and it comes across as a very meaningful and badass addition to the methos. it was very smart to connect Skynet's creation to Murphy's without bringing in John Connor, and I liked how genuinely unique the effects of time travel in this was. It was great enough to lead to several videogames being made so you know it was good.
Marvel comics
Extremely good run, its the most fantastical and futuristic out of all of them, with a lot of elements such as flying cars, advanced robots, dinosaur parks, but through it all it doesnt lose sight of what makes robocop awesome. Ending is a bit rushed and extra crazy ( Murphy saving his family from being sacrificed Aztek style in mexico) but I think this series did the best job of playing with Murphy's abilities, the story and his emotional turmoil while still giving him a heroic centerpiece. One of my favorite bits is where they give him a FULL armor makeover and send him into africa to go kill a Muslim warlord. Id buy it for a dollar! Also the "superhero" arc is hilarious.
2014 Boom comics Robocop
Very solid, I think it lingered a bit too long on the main villain, but the art is great and I like how the whole plot can basically be boiled down to Robocop vs gun control. Fairly based, also if you wanted to see Robocop go predominantly hand to hand for a bit your in for a treat.
Past this point is all the various alt universe takes that really go off the rails and just decide to do whatever the hell they want with OCP and robocop.
Dark Horse comics:
I think I had trouble finding all the issues online, but what I did read was pretty good with an interesting continuity. Essentially OCP gets shutdown and Murph is now Government sanctioned with various complications. For some reason Murph is the only movie character in it, and it predominately features him and his lady scientist/mechanic solving crimes. At one point he becomes a U.S marshal and goes into denver to kick some ass, which was fun. I liked how its the one series where robo cop and a criminal just decide to mutually team up, because fuck the other guy.
Citizens arrest:
This one was really interesting, im not sure if Id call it great, but I liked the idea of a future future robocop just being left alone in a house to wallow by OCP and being coaxed back into being a hero. I liked seeing an IPod Facebook version of OCP run by a soy zuckerburg/ bozos type asshole. It's a minorities save robocop story and probably the closest to being a "woke" work, but I actually thought it was done well in comparison to most and I appreciated how Murphy is treated with a genuine sense of reverence and respect. The ending could have been better but its still decent if extremely heavy on satire.
Frank miller robocop 2:
hoo boy.. This one is probably the most violent, sleazy and gratuitous work on here. It's very interesting to read as its based on the original script for robocop 2 and features elements that would be cut out for 3, but yeah It was completely unfilmable. Just too much violence. This is the most fucked up ive ever seen robocop get in terms of battle damage, let alone Lewis, who conveniently gets shot up and burned down to her bra and undergarments a couple times. The best part is the opening sequence where Murph busts a child trafficking ring and then proceeds to violently and disturbingly froth up and collapse from working several days without sleep. I enjoyed how the scientist bitch becomes the main villain and how robocop is able to spout off nonsensical lines about feelings while still shooting people. I hated how it killed off Reed needlessly. Not a big fan but worth a look.
The last stand:
Shockingly this was actually really good. It's straight up an R rated version of robocop 3 using Frank's original script for it and in continuity with 1-2 . Starts off right in the thick of it after lewis dies and still has the samurai robots and everything. The major changes are that they import the bad scientist chick from 2 as the main villain and give Robocop a robo love interest. It's not bad and an actual significant step up from Franks robo 2 script.
Dynamite comics run
This was a fascinating if flawed run for the character. It's probably the most batshit out of all of them and it has some really interesting things that makes it standout. Basically OCP gets taken over by some bitch (im noticing a pattern) that decides it would be a great idea to replace all the cops with ED 209's. what starts out as a darkly hilariously series goes balls to the wall with America being completely fucked up on the brink of civil war. It's basically the plot of 3 on crack. When Lewis dies Murph goes insane and starts seeing hallucinations of clarence boddicker fuck with him. it's kinda awesome. Sadly the entire arc would apparently go unfinished without resolution and would be topped off with quite possibility the worst piece of shit ever produced with robocop's name on it
Robocop terminator kill human.
Trash. Absolute fucking trash.
Remember Dark fate? Imagine dark fate if Robocop showed up to kill everyone at the end. Yeah. Yeah it's that kind of shit. The worst part is I cant say its Badly written from a strictly narrative standpoint but fuck me Murph in even the most EXCESSIVE moments of Frank millers run was still able to keep his humanity. He would never stupe so low as to intentionally let a child die, and holy shit did they drop the ball here. The kindest thing I can say is that this was made in 2011 before a lot of the really bad shit had started to come out, but just because your the first doesnt mean your not among the worst.
It has a great opening hook, with Robocop being found by the last human survivors in the future and ultimately getting forced to kill them by skynet and trying to go back in time to stop it, but it doesnt get any better, the whole fucking time its implied he's been influenced or reprogrammed by skynet, so all his good intentions are apparently twisted and warped into screwing up the ending of T2. Yeah this one is just mind bogglingly bad compared to the original.
