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Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures #2
Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures: Billion Dollar Plot
In the aftermath of the financial panic of 1893, Nikola Tesla and the Centurions of Science are all that stand between the rule of law and a shadowy cabal of corrupt industrialists plotting to usurp the federal government of the United States. Featuring: Black Coats, Swamp Men, the vast pneumatic tube network of New York City, and tons of action tying it all together!
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 11, 2013
2 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Brian Clevinger
226 books94 followersBrian Clevinger is best known as the author of the most popular sprite webcomic, and one of the most popular webcomics overall, 8-Bit Theater. He is also the author of the self-published novel Nuklear Age. Clevinger has recently received attention for his Eisner-nominated print comic Atomic Robo.
Claiming that his "favorite comics are the ones where the jokes are on the reader," Clevinger is an expert in using anti-climax, interface alterations, and the occasional false ending to play with the reader's expectations. It is a testament to both his sense of humor and his writing skills that these "jokes on the reader" are usually beloved by his fanbase.
Claiming that his "favorite comics are the ones where the jokes are on the reader," Clevinger is an expert in using anti-climax, interface alterations, and the occasional false ending to play with the reader's expectations. It is a testament to both his sense of humor and his writing skills that these "jokes on the reader" are usually beloved by his fanbase.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 3, 2017
This was a real treat to read. As the author describes it, it's Oceans Eleven meets Nikola Tesla, where big bad industrialists want to take over the United States government by stealing and using Tesla's inventions. And who's on Tesla's squad? Oh, just favorite history icons like Annie Oakley and Harry Houdini. It's fun and it's a little silly, which is exactly the right tone for this kind of story.
January 29, 2018
A bit of an improvement from the previous volume, and a totally different thing. Instead of a collection of short stories set in the Atomic Robo universe, this is one story told with multiple artists. Still didn't really grab me, but certainly more fun than volume one had been.
July 6, 2018
The Atomic Robo author takes "real scientists" and plunges them into a baffling battle against industrial titans who are creating some kind of tank-based army to take over the world. It's all over the top, but in a confusing way more than a fun way. None of the characters are developed, perhaps because we're supposed to recognize them as real people? The action is fun enough, but it blurs by with limited explanation.
August 9, 2022
What complete nonsense, garbage, trashy shite.
Even if you take liberties with history for the sake of entertainment, it has to be grounded in the conceivable, or the setting is just nonsense. Walkie-talkies, giant fucking robots...good god!
The 'real people' are about as shallow as the rest. Here they are just the names of people you might have heard of.
LOTS OF 'SPLOSIONS! DON'T CONCENTRATE! DON'T THINK! But there's a massive narrative jump without explaining how anything...SHUT UP! 'SPLOSION! But what happened to the...BOND VILLAIN! 'SPLOSION!
Absolute fucking trash.
Oh, I forgot. It's uglier than a literal pile of shit. Sharp jawlines, then beachball heads, then...no, I can't see what that is...don't dwell! Get through it as quickly as possible!
Even if you take liberties with history for the sake of entertainment, it has to be grounded in the conceivable, or the setting is just nonsense. Walkie-talkies, giant fucking robots...good god!
The 'real people' are about as shallow as the rest. Here they are just the names of people you might have heard of.
LOTS OF 'SPLOSIONS! DON'T CONCENTRATE! DON'T THINK! But there's a massive narrative jump without explaining how anything...SHUT UP! 'SPLOSION! But what happened to the...BOND VILLAIN! 'SPLOSION!
Absolute fucking trash.
Oh, I forgot. It's uglier than a literal pile of shit. Sharp jawlines, then beachball heads, then...no, I can't see what that is...don't dwell! Get through it as quickly as possible!
February 4, 2020
Nicely done alt-history turn-of-the-century Centurions of Science vs the Triumvirate, an industrialist inventors cabal out to take over the country. While an improvement in some ways on Vol. 1, being a unified story, it also ended up feeling a little internally disjointed, difficult to follow who was who, and just not up to the normal Atomic Robo adventure (esp. as Robo isn't part of it).
Nice biographical material on the characters at the end, though.
Nice biographical material on the characters at the end, though.
July 23, 2014
I'm a prophet. I wanted more and I got it. Sort of. It was super fun, though it had less whimsy and bombast than the short story in Volume 1. I guess that suits the longer tale, but I missed it. And there's still only one female character, alas.
I deducted one star for the artwork. Two reasons. One, the character designs weren't very strong. I found it difficult to tell who was who from chapter to chapter. Too many dark haired men in suits without strong distinguishing characteristics. Not to mention, Charles Fort's design changed from Chapter 4 to 5, and then again from Chapter 5 to 6. Not helpful! The artists labeled the characters multiple times across the book which was nice, but several pages later I lost track of who's who yet again because the visuals weren't pulling their weight. And two, the coloring was super dark and made it difficult to even see what was going on. In general, I don't mind when the artist changes from chapter to chapter, but in this specific case the art was poor overall.
I loved that some trufax historical character bios were included at the end. Very nifty. I totally missed the references to the villains. Also pretty neat.
I deducted one star for the artwork. Two reasons. One, the character designs weren't very strong. I found it difficult to tell who was who from chapter to chapter. Too many dark haired men in suits without strong distinguishing characteristics. Not to mention, Charles Fort's design changed from Chapter 4 to 5, and then again from Chapter 5 to 6. Not helpful! The artists labeled the characters multiple times across the book which was nice, but several pages later I lost track of who's who yet again because the visuals weren't pulling their weight. And two, the coloring was super dark and made it difficult to even see what was going on. In general, I don't mind when the artist changes from chapter to chapter, but in this specific case the art was poor overall.
I loved that some trufax historical character bios were included at the end. Very nifty. I totally missed the references to the villains. Also pretty neat.
May 15, 2014
All the problems I had with the previous volume of this spinoff series are remedied with this volume. Instead of several vignettes all about different characters and stories this volume is one single story. The author (the excellent Brian Clevinger) remains constant across all six issues while the artists are different each issue. Seeing each artist's interpretations of the same characters adds an interesting layer to the story while not being as distracting as the jarring changes in art from the previous volume.
It also helps that the story here is good with plenty of twists and intrigue and action. The characters are fairly funny, although nothing approaches Atomic Robo himself (who is absent from this story).
I like the end notes explaining where all the characters came from, both historical and literature. I'm a big fan of using real characters in fanciful ways (which is different than historical fiction, mind you).
Overall a huge improvement for this series. I hope they stick with this approach.
It also helps that the story here is good with plenty of twists and intrigue and action. The characters are fairly funny, although nothing approaches Atomic Robo himself (who is absent from this story).
I like the end notes explaining where all the characters came from, both historical and literature. I'm a big fan of using real characters in fanciful ways (which is different than historical fiction, mind you).
Overall a huge improvement for this series. I hope they stick with this approach.
January 1, 2018
A fun story. The art changes every "chapter" which is distracting but also annoying. Since Tesla, Houdini, and Lovecraft look similar, the changing artwork makes it difficult to identify the characters and to distinguish between the three. The story also suffers from what I call "Smurfette Syndrome" (I can't remember if it has an official name now or not). Other than a female assassin who is in a few frames at the beginning, there is only one female character, Annie Oakley (a shooter). 80's cartoons had this problem, too. They needed a female character so that girls would watch, but they didn't want to take the time to create more than one female character in a group of males. Female scientists or millionaires would have been nice. Still, I enjoyed Oakley's character.
January 17, 2018
I have to agree with other reviewers that the changing art was a little distracting. While they were mostly similar in styles, the differences were enough to be mildly annoying.
Other than that, though, the book was excellent. The section on the "real world" versions of the characters presented in the story were very interesting, especially the changes that the creators of this story had to make in order for the story to work. The design sketches were also interesting and informative.
Several different creators have done stories like this, centering on Tesla and other scientists at around this point in time, but this one has more of a science focus, even if some of the science is science-fictional in nature.
Overall, a good graphic collection for teens and up.
Other than that, though, the book was excellent. The section on the "real world" versions of the characters presented in the story were very interesting, especially the changes that the creators of this story had to make in order for the story to work. The design sketches were also interesting and informative.
Several different creators have done stories like this, centering on Tesla and other scientists at around this point in time, but this one has more of a science focus, even if some of the science is science-fictional in nature.
Overall, a good graphic collection for teens and up.
August 26, 2014
Now what this volume does better than the first volume of Real Science Adventures, is tell a complete story. There was one plot and the collection was so much better for it. It doesn't hurt, of course, that Tesla and his gang were funny, well-written (as expected), and vaguely recognizable.
I believe that this entirely volume takes place before the Airship story in Real Science Adventures: Volume 1 but it doesn't feel like an afterthought.
Definitely enjoyable and great for fans of Robo who were wondering why in the world Tesla would even make an Atomic Robot (I mean, why not if you can, but it does bear wondering).
I believe that this entirely volume takes place before the Airship story in Real Science Adventures: Volume 1 but it doesn't feel like an afterthought.
Definitely enjoyable and great for fans of Robo who were wondering why in the world Tesla would even make an Atomic Robot (I mean, why not if you can, but it does bear wondering).
November 24, 2014
Like the first volume of Real Science Adventures I am quite torn on this one, although for different reasons. On one hand it delivered just want I wanted by giving the focus over to the Centurions of Science team. The team itself is fantastic but unfortunately the specific story told here was rather dry and lacked much of the bombast of their original outing in volume 1.
The short stories interspersed between the main adventure felt particularly throw away this time around which was very unfortunate.
Overall I liked the direction this title is going in now, and hopefully we get more of the Centurions, but with any luck turned up to 11 next time around.
The short stories interspersed between the main adventure felt particularly throw away this time around which was very unfortunate.
Overall I liked the direction this title is going in now, and hopefully we get more of the Centurions, but with any luck turned up to 11 next time around.
March 11, 2014
Nikola Tesla and the Centurions of Science, which include such luminaries as George Westinghouse, Harry Houdini, Charles Fort, and Annie Oakley, take on the Triumvirate, three billionaires inspired by dime-store-novel characters and intent on overthrowing the government. The plot is fairly simple, but the story is simply delightful. It's inherently fun to see these historical figures team up and use science to save America, and I appreciated that Brian Clevinger included information on their real-life counterparts.
July 28, 2014
Clevinger's script is sharp as always, if the technology is almost too unbelievable. The concept is fantastic, more fun and free spirited than League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Drawbacks are the coloring, which is too dark and spoils a lot of the art, and the character designs, which change from issue to issue. Not quite as good as regular Robo, but still a blast.
December 13, 2015
I should have loved this book, but the art brought down an otherwise fun and engaging story. The fact that it was drawn by six different artists didn't bother me - the fact that none of them could tell the story clearly did. This was made worse by overly dark, muddy coloring that obscured what storytelling was there.
January 12, 2015
This second volume of RSA picks up from the short story in the first volume with the league of real historical people that Tesla has working with him in and around the war of the currents. It's quite a lot of fun.
June 15, 2014
Enjoyable, but i think i preferred the higher variety of the last volume.
July 20, 2014
Very glad to read this in trade form. Can't imagine this being in issue form.
January 2, 2015
Liked this one much more than the 1st due to connectedness of stories
October 11, 2017
I really enjoy the Atomic Robo world even when Robo himself istn't in it. I wasn't crazy about each issue being drawn by a different artist but I enjoyed the story.
July 17, 2014
I had such high expectations for this series. It's not the book's fault.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews