Kickin’ It Old School: Magnus Robot Fighter #12

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for another new edition of Kickin’ It Old School, our weekly column in which we look to the past and review books from the original Valiant universe! This week, I’ll be discussing Magnus Robot Fighter #12

Magnus Robot Fighter #12

Published in May 1992
Written by Faye Perozich and Jim Shooter
Art by Gonzalo Mayo
Colored by Knob Row

Synopsis

Magnus is serving as judge between Elzy and another Goph, Gork, who are fighting over possession of a Senator’s daughter, Willow. Magnus rules in Elzy’s favor, a fight ensues, and Gork’s crew is defeated. Back at Magnus’ digs, Magnus insists that Elzy give up on ransoming Willow, but says he will owe her a favor. Willow tells Magnus that she’s part of a group of people who found a doorway into a prehistoric land they call the Lost Valley. They’re being led by a Doctor Noel, who apparently hasn’t been a very good person in the past. The natives are trying to kill the settlers, and they need Magnus’ help.

They travel through time eddy to discover a land filled with dinosaurs. Magnus and Willow fight them off, with Magnus using his patented pokey-hand that does such a good job tearing robots apart. Turok and Andar witness this and realize that Magnus is too great of a threat to allow him to join ranks with the settlers. Turok shoots Magnus with his bow, but the arrow is no match for Magnus’ fancy, short-skirted tunic. The natives split and Willow takes Magnus to the settlement which, at a glance, doesn’t look like it’s trying to escape the technology of North Am like the settlers claim.

In the settlement, Magnus is at odds with Noel’s ideas of his rights to settle in this land. As they argue, the natives attack, and Magnus helps in the defense of the settlement in order to defend innocent bystanders. He quickly sees how vicious Noel is and tries to get Willow to leave. When Noel sees this, he sentences Magnus to death and locks his fiancé Willow (WTF?) up so she can’t get away. Magnus gets away, but is shot again by Turok as he flees. Noel thinks he is dead, but it was a ruse, since Turok knew it wouldn’t hurt Magnus.

While Magnus is with the natives, Noel brings giant robo-dinos through the time eddy to attack and put fear into the natives. After being viciously attacked by the settlers and the robo-dinos, Magnus leads the natives to a surprise counter attack. With Magnus’ help, they overwhelm the settlers with the addition of catapults to their repertoire. Noel flees in one of the robo-dinos, but Magnus cuts the power, disabling all of the robo-dinos and trapping Noel inside. In the end, Magnus and Willow say their goodbyes to Turok and Andar, who are happy to realize that there is a way out of the Lost Valley.

Review

A story with dinosaurs is like a pizza, you almost have to try to screw it up.  This story was great and is a good example of Magnus at its best!  This story is chock full of action, dinosaurs, robots, scantily clad fighting women, scantily clad Magnus, and pokey-hand attacks.  It was a lot of fun and sets up Turok’s further involvement in the Valiant Universe.  There were a couple of things that I found particularly funny.  Number one, why is Willow dressed like the natives when she’s a settler?  There’s nothing that points to a reason for this.  Number two, when Magnus and Willow first fight the dinosaurs, it looks like they must have pogoed towards Magnus on their tales like Tigger.  They’re all over the place and almost always have their tales tucked under.  It’s disorienting and makes it impossible to even guess how Magnus fought them off.

This book had a bonus insert that begins a three-parter of the origin of 1-A and Magnus.  This story was very good!  1-A/Grandmother are bound and gagged while on trial by a bunch of crazy people.  It turns out that they are all of the failed Robot Fighters that 1-A tried to create before Magnus.  They hate 1-A for abandoning them in this terrible place and in the end destroy their captor.  It is, however, just a mock-up of 1-A/Grandmother.  I think this is one of the best written pieces in Valiant thus far!

Kickin’ It Old School: Magnus Robot Fighter #1

Originally from ValiantCentral.com