When I was in Elementary School, one of my classmates brought this issue of the Gold Key comic Magnus, Robot Fighter to class, and I was an instant fan.The first thing that caught my eye was the painted cover, which was unlike any other I'd seen (up to that point).
Then I looked at the interior art, and became an instant fan of Russ Manning, whose style was futuristic, clean, detailed and powerful. His men were handsome and his women were beautiful - I still consider Leeja one of the sexiest ladies in comics, if just for her dress with the transparent hem. To this day, he's one of my all-time favorite comics creators.
I also loved the design of his robots, which were sleek and dynamic, and the costumes were futuristic but practical. Magnus' "uniform" is a classic design that's surprisingly simple but iconic - it's a belted red chain-mail tunic with white boots. Everything about the strip holds up to today's standards.
The story inside takes Magnus and Leeja to another dimension, where an evil genius maintains an army of nearly-indestructible robots, and has plans that will spell doom for Magnus. It's clever with a dark edge and features lots of great action sequences and unexpected twists.
The comic included a recap of Magnus' origin on the inside cover, which was handy since I'd never read the comic before. Briefly: in the year 4000 AD, an intelligent robot rescues an orphan child and trains him to physical perfection - he can smash metal with his bare hands. Magnus will defend humanity against the danger of evil robots and the threat of mankind becoming too dependent on robots.
And that was the panel that really shocked my young self - this image, which depicts a problem that's all too real today:
Well, we don't have robots waiting on us like that, but our society does have a problem with a lack of emphasis on fitness and proper nutrition - it's easy to visualize this becoming a reality. (In place of robots, put TV, computers and video games.)
Magnus' run in comics was all too brief, but there are several years worth of outstanding stories that are thankfully available in collected form from Dark Horse, and well worth tracking down.
It's so rare to see a story set in a happy, optimistic future, as opposed to the usual dystopian lot - and the Magnus stories - especially the ones by Russ Manning - were outstanding and lots of fun.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need to go run on the treadmill.
Grade: A+
6 comments:
Kudos on Russ Manning's "vision"
of the future. Every other comic
book of that era that purported to
show what things will be like in
our future seemed clunky, goofy and
cliched.
Manning showed us a future world that was sleek, streamlined and
desirable. He obviously sat down
and thought things out, rather than
resort to tried and true sci-fi
pulp designs from the 1940's.
Even Kirby's dynamic designs in books like Fantastic Four take second place to Manning's way cool
world of the future!
Sam Kujava
Sam, your Kirby comment may be blasphemy - but I agree completely! Manning's vision of the future was one I wanted to visit - I especially loved those one-man flying belts. Oh, and the flying cars you drive while lying down!
Ha! That panel reminds me of Wall-E!
Pete, that's exactly what my lovely wife said when I showed it to her. "Wall-E" swiped from Magnus!
I had never heard of Magnus Robot Fighter until Shooter revived the concept in the Valiant Universe. They also did some a few single issue reprints of the original series as well, which were awesome. I would like to read all the old Gold Key issues but 50 bones is a lot... I hope Dark Horse comes out with TPB versions someday.
Kyle, I agree the collections are steep - although you can occasionally find good deals, and Amazon generally has a solid discount. But I only have the first volume myself - the others are on my "want" list.
I liked those early Valiant issues, but the less said about that last issues in the run, the better.
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