What a zany, insane, childish comic. It's great.
You seriously wouldn't believe that 'Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space' is by modern epic (in every sense) fantasy novelist Laini Taylor. But it is; alongside her artist and cartoonist husband Jim Di Bartolo, as essentially a present for their daughter, and as a celebration of all the silly things they'd made up in their home. It shows, and it is spectacular.'Billie Blaster' is like 'Phineas and Ferb', 'Jimmy Neutron', 'Atomic Betty' and 'Ed, Edd n Eddy', with the cartoon characters drawn to look like 'Sesame Street' puppets, or killer dolls from horror franchises. Those teeth and crazy eyes, *shudders*. But the art style grows on you.
It's about a ten-year-old girl genius with wild red hair, Billie Blaster, who may not actually be a genius but is unconsciously living off her famous scientist parents' successful inventions and popularity, and her archnemesis, her former-friend-turned-bitter-rival Hector Glum, who was shrunken to the size of a stick insect by one of his own inventions...and turned evil by Billie's mother's intelligence-enhancing invention, and he now wants to take over earth as well as actually kill Billie. Yeah, not a good message to send to kids: that smart people, scientifically-inclined people, or people who are "too smart for their own good", are evil/have no morals. I thought we had done away with that harmful, dangerous cliché ages ago. But the comic is too much fun for me to dwell on that detail, and it is obviously not to be taken seriously in the slightest.
As the title plainly says, the plot is: there is an upcoming robot army sent by aliens to take over earth, which is kind of Billie's fault, and which Hector is all in for. The evil emperor alien is named Emperor Mwahaha. The jokes centred on that are brilliant.
It's all a good laugh and lark. There is a talking goat sidekick, intelligent racoons, evil intelligent pigeons, tall sandwich world championships, a giant talking alien robot head, a spaceship that Billie forgot to include a bathroom in on her blueprints (easily among the best jokes, and further evidence of Billie's short-sightedness, overlooking the obvious, and being in fact a dumb smart person), self-building robots everywhere, funny aliens and their planets, a toilet weasel (don't ask), lap dinosaurs (again, don't ask), floating cheese puffs (as in, cheese puffs that make you float when you eat them), and...this:
"How am I supposed to invade a planet with fart blasters?!"
Very juvenile and wacky. And even more hilarious than its appearance, blurb and promotion suggest.
'Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space' was created to be read just for fun, for comedy, for kids, and adults too. Nothing deep about it, except the acknowledgement of the privilege gap between Billie and Hector - an additional, clever factor to their rivalry - and that any competition is merely a popularity contest. Plus, the lesson that "smart" and "wise" are different things.
It sets up a sequel, but regardless of whether that will ever come to fruition, the comic works well as a standalone, a one-off trip to a crazy universe set in the future. A future where earth is immensely overpopulated, yet humans somehow still thrive and survive, no effs given about anything.
Who or what is the conglomerate corporation Jax anyway? *suspicious glare*
If you like cartoony, colourful and creative fun and hijinks, and are nostalgic for the silliest, most bizarre cartoons you watched as a kid, then check out 'Billie Blaster'.
Final Score: 3.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment