ADVANCE REVIEW! D4ve #1

Does this odd-ball somewhat real-world comedy compute? Read on to find out.

The official description from IDW:

Primetime TV; mortgages; traffic jams. The robots conquered earth, wiping out all life in the galaxy, but nothing changed. Meet D4VE, the greatest robot war hero, now trapped behind a desk at a soul-sucking day job. Can something, somewhere snap him out of this slump? This is D4VE’s mid-life crisis.

Let’s start off with the fact that this franchise is weird, fun and wholly inviting. The premise behind it is simple: what if man made robots. And the results of that simple act would no doubt bring about a curious round of evolutionary steps. I never thought of how the world would be decades after humans are gone but the comic proposes that these machines would emulate our way of life, as flawed as it is.

Ryan Ferrier pens the script and he keeps it real with our tin-can main character, D4ve. For all intents and purposes the text is a strange combination of The Incrdibles and Terminator. Take a moment to envision a protagonist who’s seen glory in the past, but is now stuck in a depressing office job with a family unit to support. And that right there is where the humor comes into play, as our hero has to face the problems around him without day dreaming about what he was and where he wants to be again.

The illustrations handed in by Valentin Ramon work on a level that invites praise. Each player is unique is the sense that they don’t look like copies of each other, which could have been an easy way to handle the cast. Instead the talent finds a way to translate personality into our mechanical descendants while emulating the normal and mundane anecdotes of everyday life. And when the colors come into play the whole of the yarn pops with a purpose.

D4ve #1 is an unexpected treat from IDW. With a strong character and a compelling world this has all the necessary parts to be a grand mini-series as this first installment comes recommended.