‘Zombies Vs. Robots’ Omnibus Comic Review

Zombies are everywhere, and it’s fitting that they, unstoppable force of horror fiction that they are, dominate television, books, movies, and comic books. In recent years, the public has clamored for anything zombie-related with an insatiable hunger, possibly because there is always hope to be found, even in the most hopeless of human survival stories. In the end, however, it’s usually the same old story, and everyone knows that the zombies always win.

In IDW’s Zombies Vs. Robots Omnibus, the fight rages on long after the human race has been vanquished to the undead hordes via the legions of mechanized warriors designed to protect them. As the book states, where zombies represent mankind’s unwavering arrogance, robots represent our tenacious desire for progress. Both are extremes that have the potential for dire consequences, which is the prevailing theme of the story. Ultimately, the book is a tale of a pointless struggle between beings of pure instinct with a dwindling food source, and automatons following a single programming protocol—kill everything and protect that food source, the last living baby on the planet.

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Like some of the best sci-fi horror stories, the story opens with mankind screwing with things, simply because they can, without ever thinking about whether or not they actually should. It’s fitting that, immediately following the introductory arc Which Came First, things go enjoyably off the rails as writer Chris Ryall manages to throw zombies, robots, nuclear holocaust, even Amazons, into the story. This sort of rapid fire, “kitchen sink” approach to storytelling works incredibly well when depicting the unbridled brutality of a war between two sides who destroy each other because that’s simply what they exist to do.

Throughout the story, Ryall manages to humanize the robots, giving each of the main characters, short lived as some of them are, their own identities defined by their roles within the hierarchy of automatons. They represent a civilization, each different model possessing unique programming with specific skills and a distinct social standing within the group. The dialogue, a cold and calculated technical robot-speak with elements of dark humor, keeps the story grounded in its own absurdity because these robots, although they are programmed to survive, have no ability to fear extinction. Ryall’s zombies, who often speak only in brain-shaped icons or yell the occasional, “MEEEEEATS!” are comically horrific as hordes of them storm throughout the comic.

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Any credit that Ryall gets for instilling a sense of humanity into a book featuring a mindless cast of characters has to be shared with artist Ashley Wood, who handles all of the art and the bulk of the lettering. In comics, robots are often stiff constructions; they have gears and defined joints that offer little opportunity for any sort of expressive body language. Under Wood’s technical yet loose design aesthetic, however, bots stomp through the story with an anarchic swagger befitting Ryall’s frantic plotting. Because his work is so fluid and dynamic, Wood’s mixed-media style is occasionally difficult to read from a sequential standpoint, as there are a couple of “what the hell just happened?” moments. In this case, however, a little confusion benefits the work; the story doesn’t care whether it makes sense or not because, well, it’s zombies fighting robots (and later, Amazons).

At nearly 200 pages, this omnibus collects the various Zombies Vs. Robots mini-series and makes for a hefty yet swift read that begs to be read in one sitting. It is a book about destruction and survival, and about things reaching so dismal a point that the only solution is to slam on the reset button as hard as possible. Together, Ryall and Wood present a glorious celebration of ultraviolence and disorder that doubles as a compelling tale of great loss and survival by any means necessary. In the end, the threat may be over for now, but, to quote a Guard-bot, “only ever for now.”

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