The first issue of RoboCop vs The Terminator got the series off to an excellent start, with a great premise – revealing that the cybernetic breakthrough of melding police officer Alex Murphy with machines to create RoboCop was what ultimately led to the rise of Skynet and the Terminators.

Though marred by some seriously dodgy, very heavy handed social commentary (it’s written by Frank Miller, after all), the smart plot and Walt Simonson’s fantastic art carried it through.

The same can’t be said of the second issue, which tries far too hard to be edgy – and ends up just feeling like it’s in incredibly bad taste throughout.

For example, the issue begins with a child being murdered, then a dog is blown to bits in the very next scene.

I mean, just to hammer the point home: this is a Frank Miller comic after all.

Subtlety isn’t a word you’ll find in Miller’s vocabulary.

Anyway, the plot here sees RoboCop looking for answers after the bleak future he’s responsible for is revealed to him – teaming up with other machines to take on the cybernetic threat.

Meanwhile, the Terminators cause utter chaos, destruction and death in their quest to take RoboCop for themselves – and force him to kickstart the future that’ll make them inevitable.

To the contemporary reader, much of this just comes across as impossibly juvenile; Miller’s attempts at mature material just seem laughably OTT these days.

Simonson’s art – particularly a jaunt into a very 90s vision of cyberspace – is the saving grace, with the action scenes also being nicely done too.

It remains an unusual vision from two respected creators, with some neat elements, despite the glaring weaknesses and dated nature of the material.

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