Atomic Robo: Difference between revisions

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* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]

"Probably not, no." }}

* [[Action Girl]]: The Sparrow, one of Britain's top operatives, who ended up working (Rather reluctantly) alongside Robo in parts of Volume 2. They didn't really get on.

** {{spoiler|ALAN plays this trope dead straight}}.

* [[Affably Evil]]: {{spoiler|ALAN}} repeatedly tries to reason with Robo and convince him {{spoiler|[[We Can Rule Together|to join it]], even as it's trying to kill him}}.

* [[Alternate History]]

** The Vampire Dimension- a universe where all humans of the early 1900's where turned into vampires due to an unknown worldwide catastrophe (like [[I Am Legend]] without Will Smith).

* [[American Robot]]: ''[[Roaring Twenties|Now in 20th Century Flavor!]]''

** There's also Dr. Dinosaur (a super-stupid dinosaur scientist opposing a super-intelligent robot scientist) and Undead Edison (who was the arch enemy of Robo's father).

** Basically, Helsingard is Robo's most frequent and dangerous enemy (Robo calls him "an unparalleled genius"), Doctor Dinosaur is his most humiliating (since he is stupid and yet manages to continuously outwit Robo), and Edison is Robo's oldest and most personal (Robo even calls him "[his] greatest enemy"). Based on what little we have seen, [[Stephen Hawking]] is either another one or simply [[The Rival]].

* [[Arc Number]]: In ''The Shadow From Beyond Time'', "infinity minus one".

* [[Art Evolution]]: And it was nice art to start with!

* [[Artifact Title]]: ''Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War'' was named because the original outline had Robo fighting Vanadis's [[Werewolf|Wehrwolf]] soldiers. The Wehrwolf Formula was given a token mention at the end of the Vanadis conflict and a mention on the back cover of the trade paperback.

* [[Ascended Fanboy]]: Emma Armstrong from the 2011 FCBD issue. The ten-year-old granddaughter of one of Robo's old action scientist comrades, who ''really wants'' to join Tesladyne and get away from her boring school and stupider teachers. The [[Kid Sidekick]] potential is subverted when Robo points out that [[Reality Ensues|legally, he cannot hire a ten year old, especially considering the hyperdangerous shenanigans he gets up to]], but - in light of the fact that she [[Child Prodigy|completed her grandfather's life work by solving a decades-old paradox and building a prototype out of car parts]], he tells her to come back in ten years or so and there will be a job waiting for her. The Epilogue shows her after college, meeting Robo for the employee tour.

* [[Attack Its Weak Point]]:

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]:

''"[[Lampshade Hanging|Good name]]."'' }}

** Not many people realize it, but Robo's full name is Atomic Robo ''Tesla'':

* [[Ax Crazy]]: <s>Dr. Dinosaur</s> DOCTOR DINOSAUR!

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Carl Sagan. {{spoiler|Tesla}}.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Jenkins in Volume 1 (and a backup story in Volume 2), who has survived the Vampire Dimension, blown up an ancient Egyptian monster while the others were debating what to do with it, crippled the Big Bad's giant robot body, and killed an entire crime cartel (including an ''entire beach full of armed people'') while sent on an enforced vacation to unwind. Also, James Milligan in Volume 2, essentially a Scottish Jenkins in WWII as part of the British Royal Commandos.

* [[Big Bad]]

** Baron Heinrich von Helsingard in ''The Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne.''

** The creature from ''The Shadow from Beyond Time.''

** You just ''know'' that the mysterious grumpy gentleman from the first issue of ''The Deadly Art of Science'' is going to be revealed as Edison, even before you actually see his face.

* [[Car Fu]]: Giant Ants? Just use Buicks!

* [[Character Blog]]: <s>Dr. Dinosaur</s> [http://twitter.com/Dr_Dinosaur DR. DINOSAUR!]

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In ''The Ghost of Station X'': Robo calls Steve Jobs to complain about how his hands don't work on touchscreens. Later, he finds a smartphone that he can't use because of the same impediment.

** Also, his signature [[Revolvers Are Just Better|WWII revolver]] gets trashed {{spoiler|on re-entry}}, and he has his quartermaster repair it. The guy gives him an ''anti-materiel handgun'', which Robo later uses {{spoiler|to take out an Apache.}}

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Robo. He's a grumpy old man in the body of a super-strong robot.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: "What's this about a ''fifth'' cardinal direction?"

** Bernard can be seen hiding from Jenkins in the cafeteria background in 3.5, which canonically takes place about a year after the "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" B-story.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Robo.

* [[Deface of the Moon|Deface Of Mars]]: STEPHEN HAWKING IS A BASTARD.

* [[Dem Bones]]: Undead Edison.

** {{spoiler|Note that ''none'' of this did anything to actually kill the monster. The only reason why it exploded after Robo did those things is because, in doing them, Robo had actually transported himself into the Shadow's [[Another Dimension|dimension of origin]]. There, the 4 versions of Robo set up a chain of events that enabled them to jury-rig a bomb to blow it up, retroactively dispelling it throughout history.}}

* [[DVD Commentary]]: Sort of. The website has pages of writer [[Brian Clevinger]] and artist Scott Wegener commenting on their issues over instant messenger ([http://www.atomic-robo.com/?p=187 here is the page for issue #1]), doing such things as mocking the early art, arguing over how Helsingard should have been more obviously not-Nazi and pointing out that [[Improperly Placed Firearms|they gave Germans English guns]].

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: {{spoiler|ALAN is Robo's}}.

* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]: Subtly done: {{spoiler|Robo repeatedly accuses ALAN of not having helped humanity end the [[Cold War]], despite having the ability to do so. ALAN does not understand the question}}.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Lewis' comment about {{spoiler|how we're lucky Robo is morally upright}}.

* [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]]: {{spoiler|ALAN chooses to interact with Robo as a holographic projection of its own creator, Alan Turing}}.

* [[Freud Was Right]]: Lang gets a little too cozy with the rocket launcher she picks out in "Flight of the Terror Birds."

* [[Genius Bruiser]]: Robo himself.

* [[Genius Ditz]]: Dr. Dinosaur. Capable of great scientific feats, but at the same time:

'''Dr. Dinosaur:''' ''You can't prove that!'' }}

'''Fort:''' Adventure was more a hobby. We're ''writers'', really. }}

* [[Good Name for A Rock Band]]: "Your problem will be solved." "With violent science." "That is SO a band name."

* [[Government Conspiracy]]: Majestic 12, an organization dedicated to researching Tesla supertech, are the prime suspects for the elaborate anti-Robo conspiracy that's been going on in ''The Ghost of Station X''. Robo originally dismisses the theory, stating that the attack are [[More Dakka|too overt]], and that Majestic like to play the long haul (since they've been hiding since the '40s). He's quickly reminding that for humans, 70 years ''is'' a long haul.

* [[Gratuitous German]]: Averted, thankfully. Skorzeny's German is accurate.

* [[Gun Fu]]: [[The Gunslinger|Jack Tarot]] is an interesting case. His marksmanship looks nothing like this, but his aiming technique is an adapted form of "Zen Archery".

* [[Hand Cannon]]: Besides the Webley Mk VI Robo got in the 1930s and carried as his main gun for nearly eighty years, in Volume 6 his weapons technician gives him a custom made pistol described as an anti-material handgun. Soon afterwards, it proves its credentials by shooting down an attack helicopter.

** At the climax of Volume 5 we see {{spoiler|''Tesla'' flying and shooting [[Hand Blast|energy blasts]] with the help of a [[Clothes Make the Superman|minor rig]].}}

* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]:

** Thomas Edison using the ghost of Rasputin in an attempt to assassinate Tesla. Which turns out to be only ''one'' of his villainous schemes. Though arguably his ''characterization'' is pretty true to life. The man once electrocuted an elephant ''and filmed it'' in order to discredit Tesla, so using ghost-assassins doesn't seem ''too'' off the mark.

*** Topsy the Elephant was far from Edison's only victim in his crusade to discredit alternating current electricity (which is what we use in almost everything today), he also electrocuted many cats, dogs, barnyard animals, and also presided over the first execution via the electric chair which was botched and had to be repeated to actually kill the man.

** [[Super Sentai|Science Team Super Five]] pilots the [[Humongous Mecha|Mecha Robo]] in Volume 4 Issue 2, to limited effect. It requires a large ground support crew, is barely capable of moving without falling over, and was only deployed so it could fire an extremely large weaponized ''orbital delivery'' railgun at [[Kaiju|an improbably large mutant monster]]. Also, it looks more like something out of Battletech than any sort of mecha you'd see in [[Super Sentai]].

*** Interestingly enough, it appears to be based on ''Robo''. Having an existing robot capable of every range of human movement probably inspired some engineers to borrow a few ideas.

* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Averted with {{spoiler|Otto Skorzeny in the '70s. He attempts to have Robo give him a soldier's death by informing him he killed Tesla and used his technology for the Nazi war effort. Robo instead lets him die a painful, lonely death to cancer.}}

* [[Jerkass]] - A few examples:

* [[Kill All Humans]]: Ivan Koshchey, the villain of the 2008 Free Comic.

* [[Large Ham]]: Several examples:

** Helsingard, who can't resist making grand speeches about how he is definitely, absolutely, for sure this time going to kill Atomic Robo after seventy years of trying. And whose ''first appearance'' sets the tenor for pretty much all his other appearances. "'''Behold, the Helsingard!'''"

** Dr. Dinosaur. "Behold my mastery of the mammal haiku!"

* [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: How Carl Sagan copes with the sight of an [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* [[Law of Conservation of Normality]]: According to [[Word of God]] in various places, the threats that Robo faces are designed to adhere to this law as much as possible (for example, Robo fights extradimensional monsters but not alien invasions because the latter would necessitate a cultural shift; practical, functioning giant robots are out because of the necessary technologies to invent them should change the world).

* [[Legacy Character]]: There has been a number of British operatives code-named 'The Sparrow', all seemingly from the same family.

* [[Let Us Never Speak of This Again]]: [[The Tunguska Event]]

* [[Lightning Gun]]: When Robo has enough prep-time to pick his loadout, he tends to gravitate towards electricity-based weapons.

* [[Made of Iron]]: Robo, naturally enough. He is really, ''really'' tough. Artificial Intelligence aside, his body is a metallurgic ''miracle'' given that it's built with early-20th-century technology.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: As a distinguished Robot of Science himself, it's no surprise that Robo encounters quite a few of these:

** Henrich von Helsingard as well. The guy was building ''tanks'' as early as 1888, and had cyborgs and mechanical bodies for his brain to ride in during WWII, and possibly earlier.

** Thomas Edison is [[Invoked Trope|even called]] this in the preview text for the final issue of Volume 5.

** Tesla is one as well, given is... ''peculiar'' approach towards building something as innocuous as an electronoscope. He is of the gentle, benevolent variety, though.

* [[Magitek]]: The Backup story for Volume 1 Issue 3 is about Jack Parsons, who builds a rocket as part of a scheme to become a god. Robo blows it up midflight because it would have crashed into a city. No consideration was given to whether or not the magic would have worked.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Dr. Shinka<ref> "Evolution" in Japanese</ref>

** During the "Revenge of the Vampire Dimension":

'''Robo:''' "Jenkins is... well, he's on '''our''' side. You'll come to appreciate that." }}

** The titular [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|genius, nigh-indestructible, immortal atomic robot]] is ''his'' sidekick, according to [[Word of God|Scott & Brian]].

** The device was seen in an earlier backup story. Edison used it to communicate with Rasputin's ghost. This is based on actual reports from the 1920s that Edison was working on just such a device.

* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: Robot mummies in a steam powered attack pyramid. With solar death rays.

** Recent ([[Anachronic Order|or not]]) developments suggest otherwise... a revision might be in order.

* [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]: Robo is highly proficient in several scientific fields; justified in that, as an 80+ -year-old robot, he's had plenty of time to study a lot of sciences.

* [[Our Monsters Are Different]]:

** [[Cyborg|Cyborgs]]

** [[Giant Enemy Crab]]

** [[Kaiju]]

** [[Mummy|Mummies]]: They are [[Clockwork Creature|Clockwork Creatures]].

** [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Our Consciousnesses Projected via Odic Perturbations Are Different]]

* [[Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs]]: Dr. Dinosaur believes that "mammal energies" traveled back in time and killed all the other dinosaurs while granting him super-intelligence. Robo thinks this is BS and that Dr. D is just a genetic experiment.

* [[Power Crystal]]: Dr. Dinosaur swears by these things. Robo is more skeptical about them.

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Most of the Nazi soldiers.

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]: Lampshaded in Volume 4 Issue 2, with Robo commenting how the Guardian suits' non-military applications alone could solve all of Dr. Yumeno's budget problem, with Yumeno responding by stating the suits' absurd maintenance time and cost.

** Meaning of course that not only can they not solve his budget problems, very likely they ARE his budget problems

* [[Retired Badass]]: {{spoiler|Tesla}}. [[Seen It All|He never, ever]] [[Fantastically Indifferent|even so much as]] ''blinks'' at all the Mad Science and insane adventures that crop around him. Compare to Robo, who normally is fabblergasterd by the shenanigans of the working Universe even after 80 years of life. Just by passing references, Robo is barely catching with him 57 years after he died.

{{spoiler|'''Tesla'''}}: [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight|Either that or the subatomic world is actually filled with monsters]]. Hmmm''. }}

* [[Reverse Polarity]]: When a Tesladyne experiment accidentally causes an invasion from the Vampire Dimension, this is Robo's solution, only to discover the machine lacks a reverse setting. He considers this criminally negligent with the sort of ludicrous science they get up to.

** [[Magic Pants]]: He ends nearly every fight with pants intact, but naked to the waist.

** [[Captain Crash]]: It's best if Robo doesn't take the stick. Just ... let someone else fly, alright?

** The [[Another Dimension|fifth cardinal direction]], Zorth, that Robo discovered.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: Damn near everything

* [[Science Hero]]: Robo himself, and many of his support scientists.

* [[Sentai]]: Parodied in Volume 4, Issue 2 with Science Team Super Five, A team of Japanese Action Scientists who haven't fought monsters in decades and are supporting their technology through furious patent development.

* [[Shooting Superman]]: Robo is immune to small arms fire, and this has been demonstrated repeatedly over his 80+ year career in Action Science. Still doesn't stop [[Mook|Mooks]] from trying.

** Played with at one point: [[Badass Normal|Otto Skorzeny]] shoots Robo with his gun at one point, and it seems like it had no effect. Only then do we notice that Robo is, in fact, disabled, by virtue of a special bullet. It doesn't stop there, however, since Skorzeny ''also'' planned to [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|drop a trainload of heavy ordnance]] on top of him, for good measure.

** In the free online Atomic Robo comic, the monster seen can only shout Waargh. Yes, Clevinger does play Warhammer.

** "Nice shootin', Tex!", Total Protonic Reversal, the jumpsuits worn when trying to capture and study the "ghost", among others--both creators have said that ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' has had an influence.

** The [[Humongous Mecha]] [[Super Sentai|Science Team Super Five]] brings out to fight a [[Kaiju|raging monster]] must function with cords attached and is only used to aim and fire a [[BFG|very large gun.]] This rather resembles the fight against the fifth angel in [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]].

** Robo is wearing a [[Nedroid|Beartato]] T-shirt in ''Ghost of Station X'' #4.

** In vol. 1, issue #5, Robo has a one-panel flashback to his last encounter with Heisengard, in 1985 France. In that flashback, he and his three Action Scientists are dressed like members of the G.I. Joe team; Robo has Chuckles's outfit on, while he's apparently got Roadblock, Scarlett, and Bazooka with him.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: It's not uncommon to see Brian blog or [[Twitter|tweet]] about doing research for upcoming issues.

* [[Stable Time Loop]]: Only it's not a time loop, because [[How Unscientific|time travel is obviously impossible.]]

* [[Steampunk]]: A pyramid possesses not only a steam-based system that allows it to move, but a ''water-based computer''.

* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: Dr. Dinosaur is a Dromaeosaurid (for the less jargon-enabled, think "Velociraptor.") And it is explicitly stated that he can't be an actual velociraptor, since: 1. they don't exist, 2. he's too big, and 3. he doesn't have feathers.

* [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]]: Volume 2 has Robo fighting Nazi mecha (''Laufpanzers''), Nazi supersoldiers, and various weird science like lightning guns and a ''railgun emplacement'' on Nazi-held Guernsey.

** Technically a coilgun.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:

'''Dr. Dinosaur:''' It is only a coincidence! I do not even know who [[Tom Baker]] is! }}

* [[Talking Is a Free Action]]/[[You Fight Like a Cow]]: Robo could give [[Spider-Man|Spidey]] a run for his money.

* [[Technical Pacifist]]: Tesla would never shoot anybody, heavens no! Because he has a very capable automatic man to do that for him.

* [[Those Two Guys|Those Two Idiots]]: Martin and Lewis.

** The original title for the fourth series/volume was "Atomic Robo's Two-Fisted Science Tales". Scott Wegener has also mentioned that he and Clevinger play an unwritten "Atomic Robo: Two-Fisted Tales of Action Science" tabletop RPG.

* [[Translation Convention]]: When someone is speaking in a translated foreign language it's written <in angular brackets>.

* [[Unsound Effect]]: "DOOR!" from the first issue.

* {{spoiler|[[We Can Rule Together|We Can Explore The Universe Together]]: ALAN offers Robo the chance to join him in escaping the planet and travel the Cosmos, in a nuclear-powered, Earth-destroying Orion spacecraft}}.

** The Lightining Guns that Robo uses are essentially scaled-down models.

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Robo prefers Lightning Guns, as mentioned above.

* [[We Are Team Cannon Fodder]]: The Action Scientists aside from Jenkins turn into this during the Helsingard fight.

** Thomas Edison's plan in 1931 was {{spoiler|to use New York as an antenna for his Odic Capacitor, and concentrate enough [[Life Energy]] into himself to become immortal. When the machine exploded, his consciousness got scattered across the Od, only pulling itself back together as a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghostly manifestation]] in 1999. When he finds that Robo's analysis inadvertently restored his corporeality (in part), he's [[Villainous Breakdown|not happy about it]]. He's later seen nostalgically returning to his historical estate, now a museum.}}

* [[Write Who You Know]]: Examples include:

** James Milligan is based off of Robo co-creator and artist Scott Wegener's grandfather, James Milligan.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: {{spoiler|ALAN}} ''lives'' on this trope. {{spoiler|Its continued existence is due to its being hidden for 50+ years behind many layers of bureaucracy and manipulation going up to he highest levels of both the British and US governments (including [[Government Conspiracy|Majestic 12]]). Not only was it able to successfully hide itself, but it also managed to build an Orion-class nuclear pulse starship ''in perfect secrecy'' on a Japanese island.}} Extra points for having done much of this via telephone and telegraph {{spoiler|before the existence of the Internet}}.

** Example: moving a ''house'', intact, out of Bletchley Park, England, to Japan, via truck, boat and the sixth-ever-built Airbus Beluga (of which there are only 5), ''with no paper trail''.

 

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[[Category:US Canadian Comics]]