Robot vs. Robot

G.I. Robot, who first appeared in Star Spangled War Stories #101 in 1961, is one of writer Bob Kanigher's most magnificent creations. A experimental combat machine, G.I Robot was supposedly emotionless and would perform the task of fighting the Axis with mechanical efficiency. But there were always subtle hints that maybe--just maybe--the Robot had feelings.

The early G.I. Robot stories were drawn by Ross Andru, who had the ability to put just a hint of emotion into the robot's unchanging visage. I have no idea how Andru did that, but by golly he did.

Today, we're looking at a later Robot story from Weird War Tales #122 (April 1983). Kanigher is still the writer, with George Tuska. And Tuska is almost (if not quite) as good at giving the Robot a subtle sense of emotion as was Andru.

By the way, this story involves the fourth version of the Robot. G.I. Robots take a lot of casualties, which kind of makes you wish that they don't have emotions.

This Robot is J.A.K.E. 2 (Jungle Autonomous Killer Experimental) and his human partner is Sgt. Coker . The two are with a marine unit on a Pacific island, tasked with the job of sinking a Japanese ship that is bringing tanks to the island.

Coker and J.A.K.E. fail to sink the ship, but J.A.K.E. pretty handily takes care of the tanks with a volley of mini-bazooka rockets fired from his fingertips.

This is, of course, awesome. But there is a detail of story construction that is open to criticism. The marines were in a panic about the Japanese tanks being delivered, implying they have no anti-armor weapons at all. Coker and J.A.K.E. nearly get killed in a desperate attempt to stop the tanks from getting to the island. But then J.A.K.E. destroys the tanks in a single casual gesture. So why were they considered such a threat in the first place?

But that's a small criticism. All these shenanigans are simply to set up the meat of the story, in which the Japanese send a Sumo Wrestler Robot to destroy J.A.K.E.

They've tried a Samurai Robot 9 issues earlier. A Japanese officer mentions they had also tried a Geisha Robot, which I don't think we actually ever see in a G.I. Robot story. I try to keep my blog family friendly, so I won't speculate on how exactly a Geisha Robot tried to do away with J.A.K.E.

Anyway, we get a fight scene between the two robots that Tuska does a wonderful job of illustrating. At first it looks as if J.A.K.E.is going to lose, but Coker gives him a "remember you're a Marine!" speech and J.A.K.E. pulls off a come-from-behind victory.

He then carries Coker through a mine field, but without warning the soldier beforehand that he has mine detectors in his feet and there was no danger.

So does J.A.K.E. respond to Coker's speech during the fight against the other robot? Does he show a sense of humor in carrying Coker through the mine field and giving the sergeant a scare? Does he have emotion? Does he dream?

Coker isn't sure. And neither are we.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll look at one of the many times Batman and Superman teamed up.