Friday 4 January 2019

ReadItDaddy's Comic / Graphic Novel of the Week - Week Ending 4th January 2019: "Mega Robo Bros 3: Mega Robo Revenge" by Neill Cameron (David Fickling Books)

It looks like "The Phoenix Presents" series will once again dominate our "Comic / Graphic Novel of the Week" slot if this particular entry is anything to go by.

"Mega Robo Bros" is one of our favourite strips in the mighty Phoenix Comic. It's a strip that veers between providing blistering action-packed story arcs that take its robo-protagonists Alex and Freddy from their ordinary lives as robo schoolkids in the not-too-distant-future, to Agents of R.A.I.D, fighting for justice against a weird, wonderful and sometimes deadly range of robo-foes.

In this latest collection of stories taken from the pages of the Phoenix weekly comic, Alex and Freddy face off against their most deadly opponent yet but this isn't your ordinary everyday robot, this is Wolfram, one of the first creations of their mum, Dr Sharma. A deadly robot who is absolutely hell bent on revenge.

We won't go too far into spoiler territory, suffice to say that a certain blogger makes an appearance in this collected edition of the fantastic MRBs - and that once again we've been treated to a strip that perfectly fuses science-fiction kick-ass mecha-action with some pretty neatly observed insights into what it's like being parents to a couple of ordinary everyday young lads who just also happen to be super-powerful robots.

As this particular story arc draws to a satisfying close, rest assured that there's still plenty of action to look forward to in the weekly Phoenix comic with Mega Robo Bros - so don't be too downhearted when you reach the end of this.

It's inclusive, but not at the expense of just ticking boxes. Characters in the strip are there because they BELONG there, they work beautifully there, and danged if we wouldn't give our eye teeth to see that happen a lot more in comics (and kid's books in general, to be honest!)

With some superb new artwork (just look at that cover) this is a treat even if you do own the original strips in their comic form. We've said it quite often on the blog, Neill is a massively talented fellah and this is some of his best work yet.

C's best bit: Well obviously it's a certain cameo! It didn't go to her head though, nosirree!

Daddy's favourite bit: Once again, as ever with the MRB stuff, I just can't get enough of the dad's hang-dog expressions (usually when Freddy has destroyed something expensive yet again!)

"Mega Robo Revenge" (Mega Robo Bros Book 3) is out now, published by David Fickling Books.