While decried by many as a hack these days, back in 1992, Frank Miller was riding pretty high as the author of not only the Dark Knight Returns, but numerous smaller titles, Elektra Lives Again, and the then first volume of Sin City. With that much clout, he decided to do a crossover story involving Robocop, whose penned the script to the sequel before it was mangled by Executive Meddling, but made it a key point to do something unique. Terminator crossovers (and Miller noted such) can often be little more than "Character X finds Sarah Connor, then fights Terminators sent to kill her and/or John."
Robocop vs. Terminator doesn't do that at all, in fact, it does quite the opposite. Rather than have two characters and premises, Miller does his best to meld the two series together, with the central premise of making Robocop directly responsible for Judgment Day, and reversing the time travel dynamic of the first two Terminator films by making the humans the hunter and the Terminators the defender.
Those of you familiar with the modern stereotypes of Miller might find some things familiar, and some not. Miller does use his trademark noir style writing, with short, choppy trains of thought mixed in with dialog, and a bit of repeating one's self. Sarcasm is all over the place in the past setting of Old Detroit, but considering the nature of the Robocop movies, it fits perfectly rather than jarring with the characters and setting. And the main human female, Flo, is not a prostitute, but a tough, competent soldier.
The series wraps up rather nicely in four issues, escalating the plot until bringing things to a head in a final battle that's a testament to rising odds without wearing out its welcome. It was certainly more satisfying than the endings to Robocop 3 and Terminator 3.
Better than a lot of their movie sequels
While decried by many as a hack these days, back in 1992, Frank Miller was riding pretty high as the author of not only the Dark Knight Returns, but numerous smaller titles, Elektra Lives Again, and the then first volume of Sin City. With that much clout, he decided to do a crossover story involving Robocop, whose penned the script to the sequel before it was mangled by Executive Meddling, but made it a key point to do something unique. Terminator crossovers (and Miller noted such) can often be little more than "Character X finds Sarah Connor, then fights Terminators sent to kill her and/or John."
Robocop vs. Terminator doesn't do that at all, in fact, it does quite the opposite. Rather than have two characters and premises, Miller does his best to meld the two series together, with the central premise of making Robocop directly responsible for Judgment Day, and reversing the time travel dynamic of the first two Terminator films by making the humans the hunter and the Terminators the defender.
Those of you familiar with the modern stereotypes of Miller might find some things familiar, and some not. Miller does use his trademark noir style writing, with short, choppy trains of thought mixed in with dialog, and a bit of repeating one's self. Sarcasm is all over the place in the past setting of Old Detroit, but considering the nature of the Robocop movies, it fits perfectly rather than jarring with the characters and setting. And the main human female, Flo, is not a prostitute, but a tough, competent soldier.
The series wraps up rather nicely in four issues, escalating the plot until bringing things to a head in a final battle that's a testament to rising odds without wearing out its welcome. It was certainly more satisfying than the endings to Robocop 3 and Terminator 3.