Deron Generally
Deron Generally
RoboCop: Citizens Arrest #1
Boom! Studios
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Jorge Coelho
Colors by Doug Garbark
First things first. I have loved the character of RoboCop since I was a kid. It was the first R rated movie I saw in the theater when I was 11 and the simplicity of the concept was always something that I found entertaining. This story picks up in a world where OCP has done what it always planned to before, take over Detroit completely. The issue opens with what should be a joyous occasion when a young couple is about to have a baby.
Unfortunately, the young husband finds out that his health insurance has been cancelled. The fact that he’s a police officer doesn’t matter because all city plans have been cancelled on order from OCP. With no insurance, he has to work out a payment plan and when he and his family make their way home, they discover that the police department has been disbanded. There are some definite parallels to our current political climate, especially in the portrayal of the morning news hosts and how they discuss the situation. It’s a bold step to make in this climate, but one I thought was topical.
The Detroit we see five years after the end of RoboCop’s active duty is one that could rival a Black Mirror episode with police being dispatched via app with citizens reporting “crimes” and fully automated police robots dispensing justice. It’s an interesting dichotomy on display when you see what the new CEO of OCP reveals to be his vision for the new order he’s implemented. Both sides of our current political spectrum seem to be represented as not entirely different when it comes to sacrificing freedom for order.
What follows is the part of the issue that made me angry, but in a good way. The young officer from before has decided to enter a mysterious house and finds Alex Murphy aka RoboCop alive, but in a state of “retirement” that is almost tragic. The art in this issue and in those last scenes portrays just how tragic the circumstances for RoboCop are and I really want to see how he comes out of it and what he does when he does.
