Villordsutch reviews ABC Warriors: Return to Mars…
Mars, the far future. Tasked with increasing the peace on the war-ravaged Red Planet, the A.B.C. Warriors are reunited with one of their oldest number – the mechanic known as Tubal Caine AKA Happy Shrapnel. As Happy explains how he died and was subse-quently resurrected by Medusa (the planetary consciousness). Happy’s story exposes the identity of the villain responsible for most of the trouble on Mars – ‘the father of all A.B.C. Warriors’ needs to be executed, and the Warriors are going to need the help of another old ally to carry out the mission…
The ABC Warriors were, and of course still are, truly the height of cool when it comes to mechs. The true mean mutha hubbard mechs on the block who sorted “stuff” out when other people couldn’t. My history with these characters hasn’t always been constant – I first met them when I was a teenager passing through Oban (Scotland) in the now long gone John Menzies. I needed a comic fix and there was ABC Warriors; after that I bought it for a few more months, but that dropped off when my local newsagent ran dry. Every so often – through my later years – I’ve grabbed a graphic novel but I haven’t been able to remain a constant ABC Warriors die hard.
Before I slip on my negative hat I have to first praise the variety within these tales – both bleakness and also humour balanced so well from Pat Mills, given the limited amount of pages – only 98 – you’ll be surprised how much value for money you feel like you’re getting here. There is clearly a TARDIS effect going on between the covers. This effect is gloriously enhanced with the outstanding artwork delivered from Clint Langley, each story is drawn using a different artistic style. Langley could use ABC Warriors – Return to Mars as a portfolio of his work here! There are images in this comic that made me consider writing Langley a begging letter and asking if he would kindly sign them for me, just so I could frame them.
However as said there is a negative to this graphic novel, and it is this – if you’re not up on your ABC Warriors you are going to spend this comic feeling rather lost. Yes you will enjoy the story, and you’ll eventually pick up what is going on, but you’re not got to have much knowledge on who is who and you’ll spend the beginning of the comic head scratching. The ABC Warriors – Return to Mars requires you to have a firm grasp of the lore of these Mechs and unfortunately my lore wasn’t as strong as I thought it was.
If you’re an ABC Warriors “to the core fan” and you know everything about everyone then this – I’m sure – will be fantastic. Even without the strong history I was still enjoying the Pat Mills tales and especially the Clint Langley art, but if you’re not up on your ABC’s then I suggest catching up before you even attempting this book.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=8HTiU_hrLms
Originally published May 8, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
