The NOW! Comics Astro Boy 

The Original Astro Boy #1, September 1987

Writer: Michael Dimpsey

Artist: Ken Steacy & Rodney Dunn

Colourist: Paul Rivoche, Ken Steacy, Debra Marks

Letterist: Debra Marks

Edits: Tony Caputo

 

 

Issue 1 opens with Dr. Boynton starting up a piece of robotics machinery, promising, "Steel and plastic will assure that you never leave me again!" This activates the robot, a young boy, and Boynton lets him walk towards him and pulls him into a hug, calling him his son.

 

The next morning, three scientists are walking through the Institute of Science, discussing the completion of Boynton's "secret project". These three are Lance, Rebecca, and Elmer. All they know is that Lance's micro-reactor and Rebecca's emotion simulator chip were used, and Elmer mentions that there was a meltdown during the first attempt at activating the robot. Lance is uninterested, but Elmer insists that they as scientists need to avoid causing horrible environmental side effects. Rebecca breaks up the fight and insists Elmer apologizes, and then she leaves with Lance.

 

Back at Boynton's house, the robot has been named Astor Boynton III, and is taking a physics lesson while Dr. Boynton oversees. When Boynton mentions Astor will grow up to be the future head of the Institute of Science, Boynton notices a group of children playing on his lawn. He sends Astor and his tutor robot to his room, and then has the children chased off the lawn bu some robot hounds. Elsewhere, an older scientist in the shadows studies the robot Astor's blueprints, questioning why Boynton put so many weapons into him.

 

Boynton and Astor eat dinner. Astor asks why their maid robot Millie can't eat with them, and Boynton dismissively says it's because she's a robot. Astor asks what a robot is, why Millie can't emote, and why Boynton doesn't like Millie, none of which Boynton will answer. Astor takes a bag of chewed food out of his chest cabinet, and Boynton orders him to never "dispose of [his] waste in front of other people." Astor leaves.

 

The scene cuts again to a military office, where General Hawkins is calling for the status of Project Mighty Atom, a robot her military funded. She only learns it has been finished, but nobody knows where it is.

 

Boynton walks into Astor's bedroom, finding the boy in the process of trying to make a robot for Boynton. To distract him, Boynton pulls out a board game for them to play, but Astor gets stuck calculating the probabilities of the game. Boynton snaps, throwing the board over, screaming, "You are not my son!"

 

The scene cuts again to Dr. I.Q. Plenty and his speech-enabled pet dog in a junk-filled basement. I.Q. complains that he should have been chosen as the institute director, and he begins to scheme over what to do to get the role.

 

Astor hides in the basement crying when he discovers a hidden damaged robot. The robot looks like a horrifically warped and melted-down version of Astor, but Astor fixes it and names it after the shrieking beeping it makes, "As*@-Clunk".

 

The boys sneak outside and meets a little girl playing in her yard. The girl lets them play with her, but when she calls As*@-Clunk ugly, he rips away the girl's doll and beheads it. Astor tries to get it back, but is thrown through the roof of the nearby garage. The two begin fighting in the air, until Astor's left arm is ripped off and As*@-Clunk begins to overheat. As*@-Clunk flies far into the air and explodes fatally. A police officer passes by, demanding Astor show his robot license, and orders the boy home when he can't provide it.

 

 

Analysis: This is actually one of my favourite issues of the series. The eerie mood at Dr. Boynton's house that Dimpsey wants to convey comes through fairly well, and we get to see Astro as a clueless but well-meaning newborn robot. However, what I find really spooky is the scene with the kids on Boynton's lawn...it's near identical to a scene in the 2003 Astro Boy anime (episode 49) where Dr. Tenma has Uran and Astro's friends chased off his lawn, right down to the robot hounds, the number of kids, the shot of the doctor in the window, and the little girl with pointed hair like Uran's. This comic came out in 1987, while that episode came out in 2003. I find this to be pretty cool.

 

All in all, there's potential at this part of the series, which makes it an interesting read, but one gets the feeling that too many characters are being introduced in one take while the crucial story of Astro's origin is supposed to take centre stage.