"I, Robot"

The latest in IDW's series of adaptations of science fiction author Cory Doctorow's short stories is "I, Robot," an interesting riff on Isaac Asimov and George Orwell, filtered through Doctorow's technology-minded aesthetic and offering commentary on some of the current debates about copyright laws and technological freedom. Doctorow often insists that he writes about the present, even though his stories are often set in the future, and this attitude leads to some eye-opening thoughts about the state of the world. But he's also a good storyteller, so you still get an exciting tale, even if you aren't paying attention to the real-world implications.

In this story, Doctorow posits a totalitarian state with complete control over what technology is available. It's sort of a comment on what a society would look like if technology came from only one government-sponsored company that dictated the rules for operation, as in Asimov's writings. The story here follows Arturo Icaza de Arana-Goldberg, a Toronto police officer who gets caught up in a web of political machinations when his ex-wife, a scientist who defected to the less restrictive nation of Eurasia, makes contact with his daughter and tries to convince the two of them to join her. It's an exciting story full of well-developed characters and plenty of lovingly-detailed hi-tech equipment. Doctorow describes a fascinating future, in which the oppressive government can always keep a close watch on citizens by bugging cell phones and tailing them with annoyingly cheerful robots.

Unfortunately, the adaptation here, while well-intentioned and readable, fails on both the writing and artistic fronts to fully capture what makes Doctorow's writing special. In the case of the script, it might be due to a desire to remain as faithful as possible to the original story. For instance, exposition is given in regular captions, and they contain excerpts from the story, told in the third person. While third-person captions aren't unheard of in comics (see the recent story arc in Ed Brubaker's Criminal for an example of them being used exceptionally well), a first-person narration (or even some thought balloons) would make for a more immediate and less distancing effect, bringing Arturo's character to life more effectively. But that would take a bit of interpretation of the story, and it's understandable that Naraghi wouldn't want to stray from the original text. Still, that third person narration sometimes makes it seem like you're reading an illustrated version of the prose story, rather than a comic.

On the art front, Erich Owen does his best, often delivering some really nice images, but he also fails to bring the characters to life effectively, showing little range of facial expression and emotion. I don't fault him for it too much; emotion is difficult to convey, and he's obviously doing his best, but it didn't quite work for me; Arturo especially seems to have little variation from the same open-mouthed, slightly confused look he almost always sports. Owen fares a bit better with Arturo's daughter Ada, but she has such a small part in the story that it doesn't make much of a difference. On the other hand, Owen does a bang-up job on exterior images, delivering stunning cityscapes suffused with a gritty texture (provided by the coloring which Owen also did). And I like the retro-looking robots that work with the police, with their circular speaker mouths and tank-tread "feet." They make a nice contrast with the more futuristic Eurasian robots (which look like they came right out of the Will Smith movie adaptation of Asimov's I, Robot) that show up. Character art aside, this is one of the best looking of the Doctorow adaptation books, second only to Paul McCaffery's luscious work on "Craphound."

So overall, as with most of the other parts of this series, I can't really recommend this issue. Adaptations of another work from one medium to another need to bring something new and interesting to the table for them to be worthwhile, and this one doesn't really have anything that distinguishes it enough to feel like it should be read in comics form. I wanted to like it more than I did, but I think I would point anybody interested to the original story instead.

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