Reviewer: Daron Kappauff
Story Title: The Gathering Storm
Story by: Tommy Yune
Script by: Jay Faerber
Cover and Interior art by: Long Vo, Charles Park, & Saka of UDON
Lettered by: Jenna Garcia
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Publisher: Wildstorm/DC Comics
As much as I’ve liked this new Robotech series, I have to say that up until now there hasn’t really been anything that stands out about it. It’s been an interesting look into some of the lead up stories that we fell in love with during the animated series, but hasn’t been groundbreaking, or all that action packed either. In fact, I would guess that the only people who are really enjoying the series are those who are fans of the animated series. It’s been fun watching what came before the animated series, Roy being the test pilot for the new Veritechs, actually getting to see Rick and his dad’s flying circus, and some of the other characters we all know and love, but there hasn’t really been anything new, or even all that interesting for new fans to grab onto.
Well as of this issue, that all changes. Robotech issue 5 fired on all cylinders, and pleased with great art, as always, and a great story. We had more character development and interaction, as well as some nice action scenes.
After 5 issues of dealing with the “relationship†between Roy and Claudia, we finally get some idea of what’s going on, or at least what will be going on. I don’t want to ruin it, but we finally find out what Roy’s true feelings are and whom he wants to be with. (If you’re a fan of the animated series, you probably already know the answer to that anyway.) Besides a little bit of romance, there are some nice comic scenes between Roy and the starlet who’s been chasing after him.
“So what is this a romance novel?†No, but relationships have always been the hallmark of the Robotech series, of any work of fiction really. But past that, Robotech is also steeped in transforming-robot action. And though we don’t really get a lot of transforming-robot action here, there are some nice scenes and the promise of even more next issue.
Toward the end of the issue a rebel faction manages to sneak aboard a shuttle heading to a giant military space platform, and of course there’s a large explosion. Without giving too much away, the rebels then threaten to wipe out Earth Gov military installations all over the world, and they are almost powerless to stop them. Of course, there’s one man who knows how to operate the only operational, fully functional, space/atmospheric transformable fighter plane, and his name’s Roy. Let me just say that the last few pages of this issue lead perfectly into what promises to be a pulse pounding final issue to this series.
