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Robotech and REMIX by Titan Comics


Old_Nash

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That was "then", right? The proof is in the pudding. And such arguments did not stick to the wall.  We see the quality of works under the RT label. And the yarns being spun. And we see how Macross is flourishing. Weather or not some like the direction or focus of Macross. It's a very successful franchise. While RT quivers and $hits itself in the shadow of Macross.

I watched RT when it premiered on tv in the 80's. And i loved it. I still don't begrudge RT, for what it WAS ( now it's just annoying) .. Later that summer I connected the dots and i knew why i loved it. Because it was MACROSS!

I've  collected comics since way before Macross. And this comic is bad. But, to each his own. Every monkey has his ( or her) own swing!;)

Edited by Bolt
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15 hours ago, Einherjar said:

Just curious, but when was the last time a story from the Robotech universe suited you?  Because while all of that sounds noble, it's also a luxury this franchise hasn't had over the past 35 years.  The run before Titan Comics came in was the Voltron crossover.  Just felt like pointing that out again.

My tastes are eclectic, I only care about the alien characters and military hardware really. So for RT my interest is really the Tirolian/Zentraedi  v Invid conflict backstory.

If you mean canon or semi-canon then I enjoyed the novels (alien parts) , certain comics (Warriors) Sentinels etc.

Most recently I am reading a 3 part fan fic, the first part from the Zentraedi perspective.

This reboot enters nowhere.

Its not any different from what I do with Marvel where I'm only really following the Kree/Skrull/Shi'ar etc conflicts which AYKB started in the 60's.

 

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11 hours ago, JB0 said:

As I recall, it was usually more along the lines of "lying Macross purist". In that we were fabricating tales of what Macross was doing and how bad Robotech, internationally renowned epic saga, was performing. 

A lot of that had to do with those of us who knew better torpedoing the various... interesting... interpretations of the Macross rights situation that Robotech fans were coming up with, virtually none of which bore any resemblance to objective reality.

 

11 hours ago, JB0 said:

I mean, the Robotechies were claiming the creators of Macross preferred the RT take on things and were steering their own franchise in that direction("ripping off Robotech"), and somehow WE were the liars.

To be entirely fair, it isn't like Robotech fans concocted that ridiculous delusion themselves.

That was a lie told by Carl Macek himself in several interviews, including the three-part interview he did that was published on the official Robotech franchise website in 2003.  Macek was a habitual liar when it came to interviews and convention panels, and frequently exaggerated both Robotech's standing and his own to make himself seem more important.  The lies changed over the years as his audience became more aware of Macross and Robotech's true origins, but he never stopped lying about it.  He just changed to lying about aspects of it that were harder to verify.  His early lies about having created the stories of MacrossSouthern Cross, and MOSPEADA and paying the Japanese to animate them are lies that can be debunked with a few minutes on Google or Wikipedia.  The lies he was telling in the early 2000s were harder for Robotech fans to spot the flaws in, because they required you to actually know a bit about Macross... something Harmony Gold spent a lot of time and effort discouraging Robotech fans from doing because Carl Macek was telling them that those original Japanese shows were flawed, inferior versions of Robotech.

 

 

10 hours ago, Bolt said:

That was "then", right? The proof is in the pudding. And such arguments did not stick to the wall.  We see the quality of works under the RT label. And the yarns being spun. And we see how Macross is flourishing. Weather or not some like the direction or focus of Macross. It's a very successful franchise. While RT quivers and $hits itself in the shadow of Macross.

Poisonous toadstools don't change their spots, my friend.

You'll find that, even now, many Robotech fans still desperately want to believe that Robotech is an internationally successful mega-hit and that Macross is some incredibly obscure TV series nobody would know about if not for Robotech... because the alternative is acknowledging the reality that Robotech was really never a successful series, that it never will be, and that it's actually even more obscure than they like to pretend Macross is.

"Reflex denial", it would seem, is the ultimate expression of Robotechnology. :p 

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13 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

His early lies about having created the stories of MacrossSouthern Cross, and MOSPEADA and paying the Japanese to animate them are lies that can be debunked with a few minutes on Google or Wikipedia.

I was shocked to hear Macek's claims in the infamous 1986 "Robetech" TV interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xejgJdHC5A

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16 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

You'll find that, even now, many Robotech fans still desperately want to believe that Robotech is an internationally successful mega-hit and that Macross is some incredibly obscure TV series nobody would know about if not for Robotech...

Lol. That's quite silly considering many of us were buying Takatoku VF's before Robotech was a thing. And the west coast was quite flooded with Macross merch at comic stores and swap meets..

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Bolt said:

Lol. That's quite silly considering many of us were buying Takatoku VF's before Robotech was a thing. And the west coast was quite flooded with Macross merch at comic stores and swap meets..

Yeah, it is... but some Robotech fans really have been living under a rock all this time, and have no interest in "Japanimation" beyond Robotech

Robotech Remix and its constant references to Macross must be a weird, foreign experience to them.

Edited by Seto Kaiba
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Heh. all the video store chains in the 90s had a “Japanimation” section. Even then the word seemed a bit... odd. 
 

I don’t understand the way some people cling to Robotech the way they do. I enjoyed it when I was like 6, and on later reviewings it was like... “I think I want to watch the original shows they stitched together to make this instead.”

even the books, which I loved when I was a kid, didn’t hold up under later readings. At the time I thought it was really cool that they could put things in the book that weren’t in the animation, but it’s just generic sci fi with some weird tech magic hoodoo thrown in. And Minmay, whatever that was all about (I assume someone at HG really didn’t like her).

Without Robotech I probably wouldn’t have really discovered anime until much later, college probably. But I’m not looking back on it with any delusion that it was some grandiose epic that ruled the minds of children of the 80s. Compared to Transformers, GI Joe, etc, it was barely a drop in the bucket.

this comic seems hilarious though. 

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12 hours ago, Podtastic said:

My tastes are eclectic, I only care about the alien characters and military hardware really. So for RT my interest is really the Tirolian/Zentraedi  v Invid conflict backstory.

If you mean canon or semi-canon then I enjoyed the novels (alien parts) , certain comics (Warriors) Sentinels etc.

Most recently I am reading a 3 part fan fic, the first part from the Zentraedi perspective.

This reboot enters nowhere.

Its not any different from what I do with Marvel where I'm only really following the Kree/Skrull/Shi'ar etc conflicts which AYKB started in the 60's.

 

That is reminiscent of the sad stories of other holdovers from Robotech who came and went over the years.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Spoiler Alert for Robotech Remix Issue 2 December 2019

Spoiler

Spoiler Alert for Robotech Remix Issue 2 December 2019

1. Rick has lost his protoculture powers and x-ray vision.

2. Rick believes Minmei is alive and is searching for her.

3. I believe this comic has confused a member of the Hayes family named Nicholas Hayes with Lisa’s father Donald Hayes. wink

4. The Zor-like character Frudah Arminius Blanc buries his craft to hide it. The name Arminius implies the historical context of a German hostage raised by Rome to later lead Rome to victory in Germany but then betray Rome and lead Germany to victory over Rome. He was later assassinated by Germans.

5. Sammie has been macronized and is the foreman of a construction site where a micronized Miriya is employed.

6. Miriya stumbles upon Frudah Arminius Blanc stealing supplies to repair his ship. He wins a fight with her.

7. Miriya has been in Dana’s custody since the events of the last series and Bowie is in Dana’s care.

8. Jack Baker and Karen Penn are scavengers and head out to the inter-dimensional crash site of the fugitive Frudah Arminius Blanc was pursuing. (There is some graffiti in a panel referencing the Macross franchise song Zero-G love and a Wolf Pack Robotech reference. There is also an allusion to the Macrossnald’s fast food franchise from the Macross franchise.)

9. The crash site has a malfunctioning shadow technology field causing the craft to sink into the ground. The ground is a Zentreadi burial site.

10. Karen and Jack discover the injured fugitive who has identification stating he is Rick Hunter 481 possibly implying he is from the 481st protoverse splinter timeline.

11. They decide to fly the craft back to New Macross City and bring the fugitive along for first aid.

12. A giant Zombie Zentreadi hand comes out of a grave.

Note: These two Titan series take place in a splinter timeline of the protoverse. The last series began with the events of the End of the Circle novel and Rick sending the SDF-3 back to a version of the Macross Island in 1999 in which Zor’s ship never crashed. However, somehow the Zentreadi were still in pursuit of Zor’s ship in this timeline but have stumbled across the SDF-3 from the original timeline. The Regis is likewise still seeking revenge however she may be more aware this is a splinter timeline as she seems to be able to access all timelines. Thus, from an out-of-universe perspective, Lisa is in the SDF-6 and Max is in the SDF-3.

Another Note: There is an excellent article in the back of this issue written by Jennifer de Guzman titled Of Foot-races and Veritech Fighters. It contrasts the Greek myth of Atalanta with the Miriya character of Robotech.

 

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Spoiler Alert for a backup story in Robotech Remix Issue 2 December 2019 framed as a MBS public service announcement.

Spoiler

1. The new pop idol Aahna is a glamorous professor giving a lecture.

2. She explains not only can the SDF-1 fold space for faster travel, it can also travel through time as well as space or distance. However, if you travel to your past you may alter your own future and create a splinter timeline.

3. A scribbled Orguss mecha is shown in one panel.

 

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This is a delicate subject and I wish to be respectful and even neutral in the matter. I just wanted to make an observation.

I possibly detect an intentional organized effort by Harmony Gold to market Robotech to females and minorities. The original 85 episodes contained these qualities inherently with the Lisa and Azonia characters, Roy and Claudia's relationship, Bowie and Musica's relationship, Lancer's lifestyle, and many other examples. These two Titan Comics may be attempting to update the series to further meet current sensibilities of 2020. As evidence Lisa and Minmei were more assertive in the last series.

Brian Wood wrote the first 8 issues of the last Robotech Titan series. He has several accusations of improper behavior so he may have written an updated version of Robotech to demonstrate his egalitarian views. Or maybe Titan hired him either with with or without knowledge of these accusations.

Somewhat related is Harmony Gold CEO Frank Agrama's association with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been proven to exhibit certain interesting behaviors. In 2012 Agrama was found guilty of tax schemes occurring in 1988 which involved Berlusconi.

Just food for thought. These topics are probably too divisive to discuss here. However, this information may better inform the fans understanding of certain creative decisions.

Edited by Brofessor
clarification
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1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

1. Rick has lost his protoculture powers and x-ray vision.

But how will they save Zion without the powers of The One? :rofl: 

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

2. Rick believes Minmei is alive and is searching for her.

Because death would be a sweet release from this Robotech nightmare, and he doesn't want to suffer alone?

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

4. The Zor-like character Frudah Arminius Blanc

... when you try way too hard to give a character a meaningful name...

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

10. Karen and Jack discover the injured fugitive who has identification stating he is Rick Hunter 481 possibly implying he is from the 481st protoverse splinter timeline.

What's next?  The Death of RickFuneral for a Flop?  Reign of the Rickmen?  It's like they're trying to cram all the concentrated stupid of other, more successful properties with badly thought-out multiverse settings into one comic.  Are we in for Rickboy Prime?  Rick-616?  The Amazing Arachno-Rick?  

(Okay, I've taken the joke too far and now it just sounds like I'm pitching episode titles for Rick and Morty...)

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

12. A giant Zombie Zentreadi hand comes out of a grave.

Just in case you weren't already clear they were completely out of ideas.

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

2. She explains not only can the SDF-1 fold space for faster travel, it can also travel through time as well as space or distance. However, if you travel to your past you may alter your own future and create a splinter timeline.

So now the plot can finally transition from almost completely incomprehensible to COMPLETELY incomprehensible and anything resembling continuity can f*ck off.

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

Another Note: There is an excellent article in the back of this issue written by Jennifer de Guzman titled Of Foot-races and Veritech Fighters. It contrasts the Greek myth of Atalanta with the Miriya character of Robotech.

... Titan Comics must really have a problem with the employees huffing paint, or they must REALLY be desperate to fill page count.

 

 

1 hour ago, Brofessor said:

I possibly detect an intentional organized effort by Harmony Gold to market Robotech to females and minorities.

Harmony Gold couldn't organize their own sock drawers, and their previous takes on Robotech were pretty misogynistic.

If anything like this is going on, and I suspect you're just reading things into it that aren't there in the search for nonexistent hidden meanings, it's almost certainly Titan Comics trying to find a market for this steaming turd because the profit margin's shrinking as Robotech fans abandon this going-nowhere mess.

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2 hours ago, Brofessor said:

Spoiler Alert for Robotech Remix Issue 2 December 2019

  Reveal hidden contents

Spoiler Alert for Robotech Remix Issue 2 December 2019

1. Rick has lost his protoculture powers and x-ray vision.

2. Rick believes Minmei is alive and is searching for her.

3. I believe this comic has confused a member of the Hayes family named Nicholas Hayes with Lisa’s father Donald Hayes. wink

4. The Zor-like character Frudah Arminius Blanc buries his craft to hide it. The name Arminius implies the historical context of a German hostage raised by Rome to later lead Rome to victory in Germany but then betray Rome and lead Germany to victory over Rome. He was later assassinated by Germans.

5. Sammie has been macronized and is the foreman of a construction site where a micronized Miriya is employed.

6. Miriya stumbles upon Frudah Arminius Blanc stealing supplies to repair his ship. He wins a fight with her.

7. Miriya has been in Dana’s custody since the events of the last series and Bowie is in Dana’s care.

8. Jack Baker and Karen Penn are scavengers and head out to the inter-dimensional crash site of the fugitive Frudah Arminius Blanc was pursuing. (There is some graffiti in a panel referencing the Macross franchise song Zero-G love and a Wolf Pack Robotech reference. There is also an allusion to the Macrossnald’s fast food franchise from the Macross franchise.)

9. The crash site has a malfunctioning shadow technology field causing the craft to sink into the ground. The ground is a Zentreadi burial site.

10. Karen and Jack discover the injured fugitive who has identification stating he is Rick Hunter 481 possibly implying he is from the 481st protoverse splinter timeline.

11. They decide to fly the craft back to New Macross City and bring the fugitive along for first aid.

12. A giant Zombie Zentreadi hand comes out of a grave.

Note: These two Titan series take place in a splinter timeline of the protoverse. The last series began with the events of the End of the Circle novel and Rick sending the SDF-3 back to a version of the Macross Island in 1999 in which Zor’s ship never crashed. However, somehow the Zentreadi were still in pursuit of Zor’s ship in this timeline but have stumbled across the SDF-3 from the original timeline. The Regis is likewise still seeking revenge however she may be more aware this is a splinter timeline as she seems to be able to access all timelines. Thus, from an out-of-universe perspective, Lisa is in the SDF-6 and Max is in the SDF-3.

Another Note: There is an excellent article in the back of this issue written by Jennifer de Guzman titled Of Foot-races and Veritech Fighters. It contrasts the Greek myth of Atalanta with the Miriya character of Robotech.

 

This is the trainwreck that keeps on giving, lol!

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5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

  Hide contents

2. She explains not only can the SDF-1 fold space for faster travel, it can also travel through time as well as space or distance. However, if you travel to your past you may alter your own future and create a splinter timeline.

So now the plot can finally transition from almost completely incomprehensible to COMPLETELY incomprehensible and anything resembling continuity can f*ck off.

 

 

Well.... maybe they can travel back to the early 1980's and nuke HG before they ever got the rights to Macross. :D

Seriously though: I cannot understand Rick's obsession with Minmay here, especially since he has Lisa. Are they trying to pander to the "Minmay" fan club or something?

Edited by pengbuzz
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14 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Well.... maybe they can travel back to the early 1980's and nuke HG before they ever got the rights to Macross. :D

That'd be an odd but welcome bit of off-color humor.

 

14 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Seriously though: I cannot understand Rick's obsession with Minmay here, especially since he has Lisa. Are they trying to pander to the "Minmay" fan club or something?

As badly as Titan's Robotech and Robotech Remix are written, I suspect attempting to ascribe any kind of sane or rational motive to any character's actions is a bit of a boondoggle.

It's better to assume they're all coming off of heavy doses of surgical anesthetic and aren't quite rational.

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8 hours ago, Brofessor said:

This is a delicate subject and I wish to be respectful and even neutral in the matter. I just wanted to make an observation.

I possibly detect an intentional organized effort by Harmony Gold to market Robotech to females and minorities. The original 85 episodes contained these qualities inherently with the Lisa and Azonia characters, Roy and Claudia's relationship, Bowie and Musica's relationship, Lancer's lifestyle, and many other examples. These two Titan Comics may be attempting to update the series to further meet current sensibilities of 2020. As evidence Lisa and Minmei were more assertive in the last series.

Brian Wood wrote the first 8 issues of the last Robotech Titan series. He has several accusations of improper behavior so he may have written an updated version of Robotech to demonstrate his egalitarian views. Or maybe Titan hired him either with with or without knowledge of these accusations.

Somewhat related is Harmony Gold CEO Frank Agrama's association with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been proven to exhibit certain interesting behaviors. In 2012 Agrama was found guilty of tax schemes occurring in 1988 which involved Berlusconi.

Just food for thought. These topics are probably too divisive to discuss here. However, this information may better inform the fans understanding of certain creative decisions.

While I cannot speak to HG's current "inclusion," giving them any credit for the inclusion in the original series is disingenuous.
I am guessing that you are a Millenial or younger, this is not meant as an insult, but an observation, so you don't remember the 80s.  The 80s believe or not were all about inclusion.  Most pop-culture, especially that aimed at children included casts with diverse ethnic backgrounds and also gave us the badass females as well.  The difference is, it wasn't called out or made a big deal out of.  Men and women of different backgrounds were all a part of the crew/team/show and treated as equals.  Honestly it was  a great time.  Now, we still had our "very special episodes" where race and gender relations would become a major topic, but it was never the thrust of the show.  Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada all had diverse casts, though leaning towards Japanese due to their region of origin, and badass women characters, or women in positions of power, or both.

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5 hours ago, Knight26 said:

The 80s believe or not were all about inclusion.  Most pop-culture, especially that aimed at children included casts with diverse ethnic backgrounds and also gave us the badass females as well.  The difference is, it wasn't called out or made a big deal out of.  Men and women of different backgrounds were all a part of the crew/team/show and treated as equals.  Honestly it was a great time.

Honestly, it wasn't.  <_<

MV5BMWEwZmJiMzEtMWVmOC00NzY0LWJiMzItMjgz

They weren't called "woke" or "social justice warriors," but most depictions of racial diversity and gender equality were far more transparently obvious (and blatantly political) than they are today.  

We just didn't bitch and whine about it on social media... because there was no social media, of course.  :p

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Sorta somewhere inbetween, really.

Attempts at inclusiveness/diversity/whatever tended to be rather blatant, with the cast becoming a checklist.

But the writing wasn't equally hamhanded. Arguably, the diversity was only superficial, as the writing didn't reflect the implied backgrounds of the casting. But it is also arguable that they were all written as just people, rather than "the black one", "the female one", and "the mexican one". (Unarguably, Power Rangers wasn't thinking AT ALL when they made the black kid the Black Ranger and the asian kid the Yellow Ranger.)

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41 minutes ago, Podtastic said:

Which explains why it is so lousy. Anything further left than HG Well's War of the Worlds is unpalatable.

Awww, be fair. It isn't awful because of any political agenda.

It is awful because it is written and illustrated by the cheapest "talents" available.

...

Or possibly just because it is Robotech.

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8 hours ago, JB0 said:

It is awful because it is written and illustrated by the cheapest "talents" available.

...

Or possibly just because it is Robotech.

A little from column A, and a little from column B... it's written and illustrated by the cheapest "talent" available because it's Robotech.

Looking for a sociopolitical agenda in a story so incoherent it borders on straight-up Dadaism is a waste of time.  It's a midnight search in a dark cellar for a black cat that isn't there.

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32 minutes ago, Einherjar said:

Enough with the creepy Internet straw man garbage.  It did not help Robotech years ago.

Besides, there might be a guitar operated fighter in this comic’s future.

Nah, they'll go for the old hot take on that... Lancer's Rockers.  Don't you just think this guy is screaming for a gritty modern adaptation?

Image result for Lancer's Rockers

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12 hours ago, tekering said:

Honestly, it wasn't.  <_<

MV5BMWEwZmJiMzEtMWVmOC00NzY0LWJiMzItMjgz

They weren't called "woke" or "social justice warriors," but most depictions of racial diversity and gender equality were far more transparently obvious (and blatantly political) than they are today.  

We just didn't bitch and whine about it on social media... because there was no social media, of course.  :p

Yes and No.  Captain Planet was 90s, and the start of the PC culture, so making sure you had a diverse cast for diversity sake was becoming a thing.  The Power Rangers and their ilk continued the trend.  I'm talking more about the early to mid-80s with shows like GI Joe, Thundercats, Starcom, etc...  Characters of different ethnic origins were present and accounted for with cultural respect but they were treated no differently due to their origin.  Though I will admit that having Spirit be the guy always fighting Storm Shadow in GI Joe always felt off, but that was because Snake Eyes was a mute, so no witty comebacks.

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32 minutes ago, Knight26 said:

Yes and No.  Captain Planet was 90s, and the start of the PC culture, so making sure you had a diverse cast for diversity sake was becoming a thing.

Historically speaking, there's a good argument for "PC culture" having actually gotten started in the 70's... though that is merely the latest name for a socio-political debate that's been ongoing for at least as long as we've had the written word, and probably a good deal of time before that.  

Captain Planet and the Planeteers, though, wasn't diverse simply for diversity's sake... it was attempting to make a well-intentioned point that environmental issues are global problems in a manner every bit as hamfisted as the rest of the show's writing.  You had two planeteers from the major world powers of the day (US and USSR), two who were from areas that are ecological crisis zones (the Amazon rainforest and the advancing edge of the Sahara desert), and one who's just sorta there to round out the classical elements (possibly because the show's writers didn't feel comfortable having the American outnumbered 2-1 by communists?).

 

That said, if you're seeing a socio-political agenda in Titan's Robotech or Robotech Remix, your eyes are playing tricks on you.  They're so incoherent that it's doubtful the writers could rouse themselves from their absinthe-stupor to voice a thought of any type.  They're writing by throwing darts at a wall full of trope titles printed out at random.

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11 hours ago, JB0 said:

Awww, be fair. It isn't awful because of any political agenda.

It is awful because it is written and illustrated by the cheapest "talents" available.

...

Or possibly just because it is Robotech.

By the way, thanks Titan Comics for finally giving Tommy Yune’s Shadow Saga the closest thing to an ending it will ever get at this point.

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