My Frank Miller RoboCop trilogy is complete!5034
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
I just got this guy in the mail! It's a custom-bound hardcover collecting the two RoboCop:Last Stand trades, which are based on Miller's original script for RoboCop 3. These join my other (commercially available) hardcovers collecting RoboCop vs Terminator and Frank Miller's RoboCop, based on his original script for RoboCop 2!  RvT I was actually able to get signed by Walter Simonson and Frank Miller's Robocop has Frank Miller and Peter Weller!   |
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 I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I really enjoyed this last iteration of Robocop in comics. Great story, too | ||
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I think Robocop Vs Terminator is one of the better intercompany crossovers I’ve read. It was nice that it was a well-crafted story that uses both properties well instead of a fluff piece made to make both properties look good. I haven’t read Last Stand yet, I was waiting to get the bound book back, but m Frank Miller’s Robocop was some over-the-top fun |
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
I'm not really a fan of Frank Miller since he left Daredevil, but I do collect the Diamond Limited Trade Paperbacks where they took comics they had on hand and bound them together as retailer incentives. The Robocop vs. Terminator is by far the easiest to find but I still buy them.  While searching for that scan, I discovered that I have a Robocop magazine that I'd forgotten about.  Eh! It has a crease in it. Bought it in a bulk deal most likely. |
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by X51 I have that one as well, along with the Artist Edition that reproduces the art boards. Apparently, the hardcover updates the coloring so that it's more consistent across the entire series. I think Simonson had told me that they changed colorists about halfway through the series, which was a major improvement over the first half.  |
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 Suck it up, buttercup!!
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KatKomics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I missed these the first time around...might have to add them to my want list | ||
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I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
i've had this one since I was a kid, 10 years old imo |
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conditionfreak private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Are there any RoboCops that are HTF? | ||
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 I'm a #2.
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BigRedOne1944 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Ahhh! Robo Cop! Ya just gotta love it           |
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by conditionfreakThat’s a good question. The Frank Miller Robocop hardcover is limited to 1,000 copies. I know there’s a photo cover of one of the Avatar/Pulsar one-shot that I’ve only seen for sale once or twice and a few variants that sell for a few dozen dollars but as far as I know there aren’t any especially rare RoboCop issues. |
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I bought a meat grinder on amazon for $60 and it's changed my life.
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kaptainmyke private msg quote post Address this user | |
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have a Robocop 3(or 2?) plastic cup with a handle that I've been using for around 20 years. It was a promo giveaway that I got at an advance screening of the movie. | ||
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dielinfinite private msg quote post Address this user | |
| *Spoilers follow* Okay, so I actually read the book a few weeks ago and wrote up my review and observations but moments before I hit the Reply button, my computer had a catastrophic crash, requiring me to reinstall windows. I finally thought I'd give it a second try. Okay, so a little introduction to start. As most of you probably know, comics legend Frank Miller was brought on to write the sequel to Robocop. Miller's script was considered too large in scope and too ambition so it was modified significantly in it's transition to the screen. Miller returned to write Robocop 3. Miller carried over several unused elements from his Robocop 2 script into the new sequel but due to Orion's insistence on a PG-13 rating lead to even more drastic alterations from Frank Miller's script to make it more kid-friendly (and it didn't work because even as a kid, I knew Robocop 3 blew). Anyways, some time later, a draft of Frank Miller's original Robocop 2 script was adapted into comics form under the title Frank Miller's Robocop. Several years later, Frank Miller's Robocop 3 script was adapted as Robocop: Last Stand. So when reading Last Stand, you kind of have to start by finding a context for the story. It doesn't feel that Last Stand is a sequel to Robocop 2, the film, as there would be a large gap of events between the movie and the book and characters appear different that they should. It does feel better as a sequel to Frank Miller's Robocop but again the transition isn't perfect. Instead you kind of have to take it as an amalgam of the two and neither. Basically you just have a gist of what happened in Robocop 2/Frank Miller's Robocop and go with what Last Stand presents you. Reading Last Stand, it's easy to see where Robocop 3 came from. Many characters and events, if not directly carried over, then at least elements of which are recognizable. The tone of the story of course, is far more mature, and the violence is far more intense than what was seen in the film. The book begins with Robocop a fugitive. This seems almost a direct continuation from Frank Miller's Robocop where Robocop goes on the lamb after breaking with OCOP following the Robocop 2 incident. OCP is using its control of the media to paint Robocop as an out of control murderer while OCP mercenaries try to force out the residents of a neighborhood that is preventing OCP from constructing their Delta City project and force them into bankruptcy. In the film, the REhabs were the mercenaries tasked with forcing the residents out of the neighborhood but they were an element Miller had originally intended for Robocop 2 and they appeared in Frank Miller's Robocop. Here, they're presented more like random OCP goons. Robocop is already working with the resistance to help defend the neighborhood. We also learn that Officer Lewis is already killed. We it only as a brief recollection from Robo. Lewis' death, of course, is a major plot point in the film but here it seems to have happened similarly but in an ambiguous past. We're also introduced early on to Marie Lacasse, a clear analog to Marie Lazarus from the film. In the film, Lararus is something of a continuation of the character of Technician Garcia from Robocop 2; basically a part of Robocop's support team at OCP that advocates for him against the very bottom-line-focused business men at OCP that are making decisions concerning Robocop as a product, not as a person. Anyways, when we meet Marie in Last Stand, she's already searching for Robocop on her own, as opposed to being sought out by the resistance on Robocop's recommendation after he is injured. She's technically savvy but isn't connected to Robocop before they meet here like they were in the movie. In this story, Marie is the one that reprograms the ED-209 and makes it "loyal as a puppy," as opposed to the young girl that is one of the main characters from the movie. We see a major difference in Robocop's motivations between the book and the movie. In the films, Robocop is somewhat well-adjusted at the end of Robocop 2. There's difficulties being what he is but he thinks of himself as both cop and human. In Robocop 3 he turns on OCP because he feels the mass eviction of the residents of the neighborhood is wrong and the Rehab agents callously kill his partner. In Last Stand, Robocop actively hates OCP for having made him. He was dead but they built the body and put him in it, an existence he hates. Here we come to a strange point in the story. Robocop attacks a sort of OCP brainwashing facility with Marie and the ED-209 in tow. This facility has no analog in the film and doesn't seem to have any other ties to what OCP is doing. We also have a weird jump in continuity where the rebel leader (similar to the Bertha character from the film) we last saw successfully defending the neighborhood against OCP thugs earlier in the story is now incarcerated in the facility. The facility location is used to introduce Doctor Faxx, who appears almost exactly as she did in Robocop 2 and id interrogating the rebel leader to find out Robocop's whereabouts. At the end of Robocop 2 it is implied that she will be the scapegoat for the Robocop 2 incident. Here, it's mentioned that she was let out jail, which could hint at a continuation from the film. In Frank Miller's Robocop there was a character, Doctor Love, who filled the role of Doctor Faxx from the film. In the climax of that story, she uploads her mind into the Robocop 2 cyborg and is eventually killed by Robo. After the facility rescue, we're shown OCP's current state for a bit. They're in some financial straits and people are being laid off. We're introduced to the Japanese Otomo android who is used to start a fire in a neighborhood building to drive out the residents and lure Robocop. The Otomo attacks Robocop with an attack copter which leads to a car chase. During the whole confrontation, Robocop rescues a young girl. Eventually the two escape, though Robocop is drastically injured. They flee into the sewers much like in the movie. Robocop makes it to the rebels where they, along with Marie, work furiously to repair Robo. Once operational, Robocop kills the young girl, revealing her to be a robot sent by OCP to track Robo. Immediately, the location is attacked in force. Robocop saves Marie from an Otomo Android only for her to be killed by another. Robocop fights the second Otomo and though he kills it, the Otomo manages to punch through Robo's chest plate and destroy his heart. Robocop is later recovered by OCP along with a strange package left by Marie. Back at the OCP HQ, Robo is placed in a facility that slowly dismantles him. The package Marie left contained several discs. When the OCP techs run the disc, they accidentally infect their system with a virus. So this part may seem familiar and I will get back to why shortly. It turns out Marie had fallen in love with Robocop from afar. Of course, given Robocop's situation there weren't any real way for that relationship to go anywhere. Marie had programmed her consciousness into the computer virus that now lives on OCP's systems. Exploiting a software flaw, Marie takes control of the facility Robocop is contained in, Marie rebuilds Robocop, upgrading him. Robocop emerges with wings and heavy firepower. Robocop flies off to engage various Otomo androids who are approaching the neighborhood block in attack helicopters. Robocop shoots them down and they continue the fight on the ground. Meanwhile, Faxx wipes the OCP system to get rid of the Marie virus. What she doesn't know is that Marie had used the manufacturing facility to build herself a body. Marie kills Faxx. It's not exactly clear what Marie does next but she seems to unplug some Otomo androids in storage, which screws up the Otomos Robocop is fighting, allowing him to destroy them. The story basically ends here. OCP is ruined and since they ran all the city services, Detroit is back in the hands of the people. After this, there is an additional epilogue credited to Ed Brisson so I'm unsure if it's adapted in any way from Miller's work. Here, Detroit has to cope with gang violence that has moved in in the absence of OCP and the citizens discuss beginning their own police department. Robocop goes off to confront the gang. Robo faces off against them, killing many but ultimately getting injured and at the mercy of the gang leader. He's rescued by the rebels-turned citizen police as well as Marie who has reactivated and is controlling the Robocop 2 cyborg (as he appeared in the movie) as they symbolically reclaim their city. Overall, I enjoyed the story and it's neat to see the ambitions Frank Miller had for the story and I can certainly understand why it wasn't filmed as written, especially since Orion was in financial trouble at the time these were made. The movies tackled it more as a series of smaller events while Miller seemed to be aiming for something grander. The threats and ambitions of OCP were much larger. Robocop's arc is also wider. In the first movie he was killed and he came back to bring justice to the ones who killed him. In Miller's arc it continues into open warfare against the ones who brought him back to life as well as another death and a second, more angelic rebirth. The book is not without it's flaws, however. At many times it feels there are gaps in continuity and action. I pointed one major case in my overview but it happens a little more often in a smaller scale which leaves you wondering what happened during a fight. The scale also takes a little getting used to, but I think that's more a result of the fact that the Robocop (as in the property of Robocop) we know (as in what was actually produced) is a lot smaller than Miller's original vision so it fells a little out of place with what we expect from the property. Now, I mentioned earlier about a portion towards the end of the story sounding familiar and here's why. So first off, Robocop 3 went into production soon after Robocop 2 was finished. It was finished for a Summer 1992 release but Orion left it on the shelf for a year and released it in late 1993. I'd imagine it was originally meant to ride along the wave of PR for the upcoming Robocop 3 and to take advantage of the immense popularity of Terminator 2 the year before but in May 1992, Dark Horse Comics released the mini-series, Robocop versus the Terminator, also written by Frank Miller. In this story, it is revealed that Robocop's human brain and it's interface with his software component is the key element that would allow Skynet to become self-aware. A soldier from the future travels back in time to kill Robocop and prevent him from ever interfacing with Skynet, thus making it self-aware. The terminators manage to capture Robocop and forcefully interfacing him with Skynet. So, my theory is that at the time Miller was writing Robocop vs Terminator, he was already aware of how divergent Robocop 3 was going to be from his original script and as a result, reused a major idea from that script into the comics mini-series. When Robocop becomes interfaced with Skynet, Murphy's consciousness exists, much like Marie, as something like a computer virus floating through Skynet's systems. Murphy is basically forced to watch all the destruction he's partially responsible for, at the hands of Skynet. Eventually, Murphy is able to exploit a software glitch and takes control of a terminator manufacturing plant and rebuilds himself, only upgraded and more powerful, along with flight capabilities and heavy firepower. That whole last paragraph pretty much happens in Last Stand with Marie in place of Murphy. Robocop vs Terminator concludes with Robocop using the manufacturing facility to make multiple Robocop-like terminators to combat Skynet's terminators in the future before Robocop sends himself back in time to destroy Skynet in the past. Robocop finds himself back on the beat in his own time, the soldier from the future that was sent back to kill him finds herself in an idyllic future (reminiscent of the deleted Terminator 2 Coda ending), the Terminators, detecting a major change in the timeline, hastily send a terminator back in time before the new timeline is fully established. The terminator finds itself in the distant, distant past and is crushed by dinosaur. |
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I waited all my childhood for Robocop vs Terminator movie.  |
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