If you've been to the comic shop recently, you might've seen Giant Robot Hellboy #1 on the racks, which is fun even if the first issue seems to be mostly set-up: Hellboy gets abducted and his brain seemingly transplanted into a giant robot version of himself, which then gets slapped down in a kaiju fight. Neat, but weirdly enough; I just picked up another book with unexpected giant-sized monster fighting: from 1972, Magnus, Robot Fighter #33, reprinting from 1968, Magnus, Robot Fighter #21, "Space Specter" Story and art by Russ Manning. Cover by Vic Prezio.

Although the robots are on the ball, the titular Space Specter is able to cloud men's perceptions, and frees two imprisoned baddies: Xyrkol and Dr. Laszlo Noel. Specter quickly forces them to start harnessing "ectothere," which it describes as the force behind sorcery, ghosts, and poltergeists. Sort of a unified-field theory for the supernatural, there; although I should definitely read more books that go "WHUMP!" With some "C'thulhu" name drops, they build the Ecto-Rob, but that's just the start of their scheming: spells are cast over food distribution centers, to sap the wills and fighting spirit of any who eat it...not that North-Am had a lot of that, but Magnus ate there, too! A weakened Magnus makes a good effort against the Ecto-Rob, but is also hit by illusions and his arms turned to feathers, and gets beat. Magnus is thrown over a railing, while Xyrkol (Circle?) and Noel order nearby bots, specifically do not take that guy to a doctor.

Magnus is saved by young Willo and her father, Director Talltree, who were Blackfoot, and ate locally grown food that hadn't been hexed. Magnus heals up, and Talltree explains the bad guys were tapping into what would have been considered magic, so the same needed to be used against them: it depended on belief. Magnus suggests they share their food with the rest of North Am, to get them out from under the spell, and the people rebel. Magnus fights Ecto-Rob again, this time resistant to the magic, and televised: as more of North-Am believes in him, he gains more power, until the two combatants seem to be a mile high! Defeated, Ecto-Rob vanishes with Space Specter, leaving Xyrkol and Noel to the mob. Talltree has a final note for Magnus, with who might be behind this...Maleev-6, the robot planet Magnus had believed destroyed!

Also this issue: "The Aliens," a Captain Johner story from Magnus #1. Read more!

I've only read Magnus, Robot Fighter as issues randomly fall into my hands from the quarter bins; but darn, I know I've read this one before! Also, you can make a talking dog, but thanks to Gary Larson's Far Side we all know what they say:

From 1975, Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #39, reprinting "Cloud-Cloddie, Go Home!" from Magnus #16, which I might have read in Acclaim/Valiant's reprint book Vintage Magnus Robot Fighter #4. Story and art by Russ Manning.

A junky robot and a talking dog rob a department store for a young girl; and Magnus and Leeja figure the dog to be a lost puppy of genetic engineer Danae. She explains the puppy had been given to a little girl, and both had gone missing years ago, but even her telepathic "neo-animals" couldn't talk, so that was a new one on her. Using a neo-raccoon to track the dog, they make their way to the lower levels of North Am, where the Gophs and other anti-socials live in the junk. (And do what? What do they eat? I don't know.) In short order, Magnus faces off against the robot Junko, then the talking dog Sam tags in to help his robot partner: Magnus is handicapped by not wanting to hurt the dog, who has no compunction against biting him! But, their girl Pert calls them off: she doesn't want them hurt, but she wasn't going back; and the Gophs are there to back her up. The head Goph L'sier actually briefly holds his own against Magnus; who was usually far stronger than any human opponent. When the Gophs pile on Magnus, Pert doesn't see that as fair, and uses Junko and Sam to break it up.

Pert had been badly injured in an accident that had left her an orphan, and had been gifted the puppy Sam to encourage her to get better. While she had recovered physically, she was still a bit bitter about it and left upper level, "cloud-cloddie" society. She lived with a young Goph, Spikey, who was pretty handy for apparently having less quality school, and had built a voicebox apparatus for Sam, who had been smart enough to talk but didn't have the vocal chords for it. To try and sell Pert on rejoining "proper" society, Leeja takes her on a tour, really selling her on the girl-friendly aspects: pretty clothes, better food, stuff to do. Pert's willing to come up, if she can bring Spikey and Sam and her pets; but the Gophs take them and leave a note to make it seem like Danae was going to take them away. L'sier planned on stealing robots and pinning the blame on Pert, but the neo-raccoon saves the day again, leading Magnus to the captured Danae, Sam, and all. It all ends in a donnybrook fight with Magnus and Sam and the junk-robots versus the Gophs and their stolen new robots. L'sier eventually gives, because while Magnus might beat his ass, Sam seems like he would eat him!

In the end, Pert decides to go live "up there," with Sam and Spikey and Junko and all. Good, I guess? I mean, there's daylight and all, it's got that going for it; but the socio-political-economic structure of North Am seemed dicey at best. Also, while I still miss my old dog Sam; I won't lie and say he would've been a great conversationalist if he could've talked. Plus he probably would've picked up bad words from me... Read more!

Shortlist: Magnus, Robot Fighter

Created by Russ Manning for Gold Key, Magnus: Robot Fighter has done tours of publishing duty with Valiant, Acclaim, and currently Dark Horse Comics. (Their first issue wasn't too bad, and included a nice reprint of the first Gold Key issue.) In the year 4000 AD, the robot 1-A raises and trains Magnus to defend humanity from rogue robots, aliens, and laziness. (If you've seen WALL-E, you've seen how the average person would get with robot servants, although you never see that many fat people in Magnus...)

How Magnus hasn't to date got a video game, to say nothing of an action figure, is beyond me. The guy's whole deal is karate-chopping robots. A sandbox game where robot crime escalates as Magnus's robot-fu technique improves wouldn't have to be especially deep plotwise to be fun. Some of those robots got mighty big, and he's also fought aliens, including a crossover with Predator.


Magnus not only deserves an action figure, but by god he needs an action feature, too: if any figure needed karate-chopping action, he does. (I wonder how that would work: your basic DCUC or Legends style articulation, but with one shoulder given over to the spring-loaded chop? Traditionally, the karate-chopping arm is a unarticulated piece, and I wonder how well it would go with elbow and wrist joints.) Hell, I'd go for a Gold Key wave: Magnus, Turok, Dr. Solar, and...um, I don't know. Mighty Samson? Andar, Turok's sidekick? Dagar the Invincible? It'll never happen, although if movie versions ever pan out, Turok or Magnus might get lucky.


I don't know the character very well, but I think Dr. Solar might be interesting for a live-action adaptation. That said, it would probably become Dr. Manhattan: the Movie. Still, a figure of him with a light-up chest emblem; or to go old-school, a face that turns green in cold water, would be neat.

Scans from Dark Horse's Magnus, Robot Fighter #1, "Metal Mob, part one: Taken" Script by Jim Shooter, art by Bill Reinhold; and reprinting Gold Key's Magnus, Robot Fighter #1, script and art by Russ Manning.

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Hey you kids! Get off my continent!

Huh, I've been doing this for how many years and haven't brought up Magnus, Robot Fighter yet? It wasn't a book I read as a kid, since Gold Keys were somewhat few and far between in my neck of the woods. I never read Valiant, either; but over the years I've picked up a few back issues and reprints, and the Magnus crossovers with Nexus and Predator. (Why Predator and not Terminator? I imagine the Terminator people vetoed the idea of a guy in a red skirt karateing Arnold to death...)

More after the break!

While I haven't read every single Magnus comic, it seems like a common theme that just about everyone, except for Magnus himself and on rare occasions his girlfriend Leeja, are completely useless. Most of the citizens of North-Am are spoiled rotten and completely dependent on their robot servants, except for the underclass of Gophs (or whatever they were called...) that are fiercely independent to the point that you can't help them or get them to do anything except live free in their own filth.


Since I don't read them often, though, it doesn't bother me as much that much that Magnus never seems to make a lot of headway in getting the citizens off their lazy asses. But, I remember Magnus fondly for one reason more than any other: the song "The Death of Magnus" from Servotron's CD No Room for Humans. Servotron was an indie-rock band that in-character, was like Devo assimilated by the Borg. Surf-guitar songs about robot superiority and the inevitable human extinction. If Bender had been around at the time, they would've been his favorite band.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video for "The Death of Magnus," so here's "I sing the body cybernetic" from their second album, which I wish I had right now...I had a Servotron t-shirt for years from one of their shows, and wonder if it's still around here somewhere.



Scans from Valiant's Vintage Magnus Robot Fighter #2, "Giant from Planet X" Written by Robert Schaefer and Eric Freiwald, pencils and inks by Russ Manning.
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