Review – Insurrection #1

Insurrection starts off with a story that I feel like I’ve heard before. Set far in the future, Earth is experiencing a time of peace and prosperity. It's benefiting from the findings of materials off world that has allowed this prosperity to grow. Poverty, pollution and armed conflict are all but gone as the book states in the introductory panel. It really is too bad that the peace doesn’t seem to extend to the colony of Sparta.

You see, Sparta is home to resources and various economic powers that battle regularly for these things. There are battles and soldiers die. So why don’t people on Earth seem to be upset about it? Oh perhaps it is because the soldiers are robots. BOOM! Studios brings us an interesting title created and written by Blake Masters with Michael Alan Nelson assisting on writing and Michael Penick on art.

So what could possibly go wrong with robots doing all of humanity's dirty work? Surely that's a solid plan right? Let us delve into some of the possibilities presented in Insurrection #1.

This book isn’t really breaking new and innovative ground to me yet, but somehow I am still strangely drawn to it. The artwork is solid and consistent with a nice transition from the bright cheerful looking Earth to the more dark and foreboding Sparta. You can tell that facility is not at the same level of prosperity. That said, there isn’t anything there I haven’t seen before.

The writing is interesting and there are some new wrinkles to the robots in this title that really make the entire issue intriguing. Typically, you’ll see a story where robots slowly develop some artificial intelligence and their personalities shift. Insurrection seems to take a closer look at robots that are almost completely human. They show emotion and are bonded so that they react as a human would when their spouse or family member passes. They bitch and moan when conducting silly tasks. They even have a seemingly derogatory name for humans, “skins.”

The issue starts off by telling us that Tim, the self-stated name of the new Team Leader (T.L.) model, going to Sparta is different. We get glimpses of what I could only say is humanity from him and the other AUTs as they are called. All of these robots are working under a new Sparta inspector who has flown in from Earth. He is trying to be a stickler for the rules and wants to see everything, even when people are told it's dangerous. The issue ends with a nice cliffhanger. Let’s just say that the AUTs are not going to be pleased with his antics.

I’m curious to see where this book is going. Will there be an all out AUT takeover of Sparta giving the robots the control of critical resources – think Dune and the spice. I think that's a possibility. Perhaps that could not be farther from the truth. I’ll be keeping an eye out though because I want to find out.

Interiors below and the book should be in stores this week.