Image Comics brings you a graphic novel about a robotic war hero which comes from a Sunday comic strip and now the robot is chasing his own shadows in Junkyard Joe vol. 1. So there are some times when heroes became legends, from every DC Universe to Marvel Superheroes, to any other Image heroes and vigilantes, but there’s a war hero who is actually a robot from a Sunday comic strip which is now giving him serious angst and finding himself who he is. But what intrigues me is that the comic creator who created Junkyard Joe is retired, however, the robot still exists in his very own eyes. The comic is created by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, Geoff is an American comic book writer and screenwriter whose work has critical acclaim from DC Comics characters such as Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash, and Superman. However he also worked as a co-creator for DC Comics, and in later years DC Comics helped him to extend the DC Universe to franchise one of the highest-grossing films which is Aquaman. And Gary is a British comic artist who is actually a penciler for Midnight Nation and Supreme Power, both written by J. Michael Straczynski. He even created his own series which is Kin, which he wrote himself and published by Top Cow Productions in 2000.
The front cover shows a classic comic strip of Junkyard Joe buried in the snow which is too random to see in sight, because it’s a thing in the past, but now in this comic, readers will suddenly remember this adorable character. And suddenly there’s some blood splatter on the lower right of the background as if there’s another war going on. Well, there’s nothing more to say, other than the fact that the main character turns from cartoonish to a Robocop-like war hero.
The story starts when the creator pops out of a classic comic of Junkyard Joe created by Muddy Davis, and then the comic literary changes from a cute cartoony comic into an Image comic material where the characters are realistic and the details are well drawn and colored. But the story truly starts off in the year 1972 when a helicopter arrived on the battlefield and then suddenly the soldier inside of the helicopter is acting like a robot because the only reason I know is that he doesn’t show any emotion and he doesn’t talk either, he just disguised himself as a human that later on he revealed himself as a robot. So later on Joe followed the soldier who are stuck with him, and made friends with them, but suddenly they got ambushed by an exploding bull and attacked by the enemy. Joe shows an edgy side and suddenly annihilated the enemy all by himself which is too crazy to begin with because he’s a robot. And ultimately, he saved Muddy Davis from the attack of the enemy, and a few years later, he created the comic strip, Junkyard Joe. The following chapter shows Muddy, now a retired old man who is living in a snowy village where he was actually being grumpy because he had a rough life after retirement, but not after long, Joe paid him a visit and suddenly Muddy felt as if he’s seen a ghost because he’s Junkyard Joe himself. Well probably he wanted to visit his old army friend, and Muddy is glad that Joe is still around because he saved his life once. But what is really so strange is who and how did Joe the robot created and for what purpose did they send him to war back in 1972?
The story is quite intriguing that someone has sent the robot to the battlefield and suddenly created a comic about him from the man who was saved by the robot. It’s quite inspirational for children to read, but this comic is for older teens because there’s a lot of bloodshed and war involved in this comic because it’s almost based on a true story about a soldier who makes a friend with a robot. But this is still an Image comic book where Spawn and other superheroes reside. The character design of Joe is all mechanic, not to mention the whole design almost reminded me of Robocop because he was designed to put crime in its place, while Joe sets off to destroy everything because he hates guns, but deep down he isn’t a bad robot, he just wanted to learn to be human. Furthermore, this book is actually made for veterans who went to war years ago, and the only that I know is that at the end of the book it shows some “Veterans Dedications” and some propaganda about it. So Junkyard Joe is a great comic, and if you ever want to read something about a robot going to war, then this is for you.
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