The Complete Frank Miller RoboCop Omnibus (Frank Miller's RoboCop)

So this is touted as Frank Miller's "Robocop 2" and "Robocop 3"; if you're a fan of "Robo", you're not just into the first movie (the 1987 classic) but also the two follow-up theater movies, the short run WB made for TV movies (the 'Prime Directives' series: Crash & Burn, Resurrection, Dark Justice, and Meltdown), as well as Miller's excellent "Robocop Vs Terminator" (the comic). Both renditions of R2 and R3 are gritty, violent, and Miller-esque. Fans of Frank's work will be satisfied, but the visuals (and some of the dialogue) are not up to par.PHYSICAL ASPECTSThe book comes in as thick as a telephone book — about ¾" thick. The binding is fairly sturdy, but I foresee pages coming loose if you treat the binding poorly (by bending it excessively). The page quality is high; it feels thick and weighty to your fingers, and doesn't have an airy or porous feeling like a comic page. The book is softcover (the covers are double-thick pages) and if you eyeball the edges of the book, you can see the story of Robocop 2 in the black-edged pages, while Robocop 3 is printed on the white-edged pages. A keen way of separating which story is which at a glance.THE ARTThe artists are given as Juan Jose Ryp and Korkut Öztekin (I'm just going to write Oztekin for ease). While the script is Miller's, the art isn't. Instead, what we have are what appears to be Robert Crumb-like aesthetics when it comes to the deformed, f-ugly men, side and minority characters. Even female characters in the vein of Officer Anne Lewis, don't escape the excessively gritty and grimy "visual skin" painted onto the panels. This excessive grittiness becomes weary, and then reaches a level of ridiculousness, once applied to things like explosions and smoke.If you're familiar with the art of Robert Crumb, that's what this omnibus has (as a baseline), although Robocop himself usually remains sleek and metallic. Don't say you haven't been warned.THE STORY — ROBOCOP 2Miller's original screenplay for R2 takes up only two pages before the events take on the "comic book panel" look (some dialogue and scenes are repeated from the screenplay). This story primarily differs from the movie by changing the character of Cain from insane drug-dealer to Kong, an insane mercenary hired for OCP.Changes to the movie-universe include: Kong's unit of corporate mercenaries (the unit of 'Rehabs' headed by Charlie Seltz from the third movie); Dr. Love, a Liberal-Progressive "psychoanalyst" working for OCP; and two new TV hosts: one who is a mixture of Donoahue, Springer, and Geraldo, and the other is either a steroid-pumped lesbian, or a cross-dressing transsexual bodybuilder named Lilac. Clearly, over the top stuff.Robo-cain is now "Robo-kong", although they are simply referred to as "Robocop 2" in both the movie and in Miller's treatment. Officer Anne Lewis gets to exhibit her bad-ass side (something actress Nancy Allen gets too little credit for in all three movies where she protrays Officer Lewis). The anti-police activity is changed slightly (being much more than a simple cut-scene of a grenade in a locker-room), and the final confrontation is messy, over the top, and somewhat poignant. There is no "kid kingpin", or the appearance of Cain's teenage squeeze. Those aren't spoilers, those were characters that didn't matter much.The downside would be the impossibility of compressing all of that action into the surface area of those pages. There were a few panels where the artist himself seems confused and had to add arrows directing your eyes to the flow of the story, and that's not a good thing.THE STORY — ROBOCOP 3Like the "Robocop 2" treatment, you get 2 pages of Miller's original screenplay before the comic takes over (and again, repeats the initial scenes). While Robo-fans know that the third movie was much derided, the comic of Robocop's third outing does a good job attempting to push Alex Murphy's story to the next level. Frank Miller may have tried introducing some of the concepts of Robocop having transcended humanity (into a God-like computer viral entity) from Robocop Vs Teminator. Here, we don't have a kid hacker, but rather Marie Lacasse (who looks similar to Marie the OCP technician in Robocop Vs Terminator) who serves as Robocop's logisitics partner.Other story ideas and elements appear here: the Robocop TV show pilot had a "computer ghost" character just like one does here; Otomo the robo-ninja is a steroetypical play on all things "mecha", right up its "One Punch" solution to everything Robocop; and Faxx, the slutty OCP executive who pork-slides the OCP Chairman, plays a major role in this story (fans of the movie will know that the Faxx character only appeared in Robocop 2). Additionally, the amount of time that has passed since Robocop's activation is similar to the in-universe decade that passed in Robocop Prime Directives (although that TV reality is separate from the movie and comic realities); the similarities in where the story is being taken to is surprising and thoughtful.The art in Robocop 3 is, in a word, worse than the art in the Robocop 2 story. The colors are muted and dark to establish mood, but page after page of dreariness can wear on your eyes. The art style tries its best to convey stylish action, but ultimately looks non-descript and unexciting. Expressions range from the childishly frenetic to downright odd/weird (the art only gets worse with the epilogue to Robocop 3, The Rebirth of Detroit).PRODUCT OVERALL ASSESSMENTThis is a fun read, especially if you're a diehard Robocop fan. Frank Miller's vision of Officer Murphy/Robocop extended to levels of thought. The idea of man-made perfection (i.e., a Bolo tank from Keith Laumer) is something Robocop symbolizes — the ideal beat policeman (and who is pretty much proof against most present-day small arms fire) in turbulent times.

This is one of the poorest assembled books i've ever read. the cover and binding completely came apart by the time i got halfway through this volume. i was able to glue it all back together and make it hold. but there is no good reason why this book should fall apart so easily, so quickly.

These are two amazing stories, but I feel like the artist failed them. I love the style of the art, but sometimes it's confusing. They even had to add red arrows on panel frames to make sure you read them in the correct, but confusing, order.I would have given this 4/5, but the binding completely fell apart on first read. The content of this book is great, but the quality of the book itself is miserable.

Great writing and amazing gritty drawing by fm...loved it. A robocop masterpiece here. This should have been the movie sequel. Highly recommended.

I love Frank Miller’s work and this seemed like a whole bunch of Miller for the price, especially on Kindle. The art is quite good and unusual, but there’s more violence and blood than plot or even dialogue.So I quit at about 1/3 through it... and will likely delete to free some space.

Amazon will delete this book off of your kindle every time you power down your device. You need to connect to Wi-Fi every time to read it. What a deceptive ripoff.

Bought as gift

Awesome book. The detail in the artwork is amazing. A must have for fans of Miller or Robocop.

Brilliant stuff, the artwork is reminiscent of Geoff Darrow and the story line is definitely Miller. Unfortunately some of the art work is hard to follow as is the story which jumps and chomps. But if you are a fan of Miller and Hard Boiled then you'll enjoy this.

Bought this brand new. Binding came undone the first time I read it. Really poor quality

Great story and artwork. Would have been interesting to seen these films made.

Frank miller at his finest, the story is fantastic and the art is amazing was very happy with it

A fantastic read, especially if you have seen RoboCop 2 or 3. Frank Miller crafts an exciting adventure with a dystopian background.