We get that a lot. Positive reviews use it as a hook to get people to check us out, negative reviews spit it out like an accusation we ought to be ashamed of and defend against. I prefer to ignore it as I’m of the school of thought that says reacting against petty things gives them far too much validation. But, the sheer ridiculousness of it is on my mind, so here we go!
I know no one will believe me, but for the record, I came up with the major elements of Atomic Robo several years before I’d read a single page of Hellboy. At the time, all I knew of the series came from the trade paperback covers. I was convinced it was a comic about a monster, apparently called Hellboy, who plagued mankind in some way.
Book, cover, judge, don’t.
I could never find all the trades, or I didn’t know if I could because they weren’t numbered back then. I can’t stand starting in the middle of something, so I avoided reading it. This is why Robo is written so that any issue is a great starter issue even though I realize the futility in doing so. The kind of person who would most benefit from that is the kind of person who, like me, would never open a random issue because it’s not starting at the beginning. But I’m a big fan of Norse mythology, so I choose futility.
Anyway. Little things like Tesla’s involvement hadn’t been decided upon yet, but the big things, like Robo owning a company dedicated to investigating/fighting weird-science emergencies all over the world, being old, tough, and funny were all there. These dimensions to his character weren’t decided upon at random, and they could not be changed. They are a natural part of his character. Robo doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Who and where he is at any given point is a direct consequence of his presence in the world. His existence would necessarily have impacts on technology, industry, science, politics, and religion. How people in those spheres of influence reacted to Robo over the years would necessarily affect Robo himself.
So, imagine my surprise when the Hellboy movie came out years later and I was finally able to find all the trade paperbacks. In them I found an old and tough character who stomps through history at the discretion of an agency dedicated to eliminating threats outside the norm.
Oops.
Of course, as soon as you go beyond those surface details, the comparison becomes ridiculous. You might as well say that Spider-Man is nothing more than a Batman rip off. Think about it! Both have a tragic past that haunts them, both combat a mix of petty and super crime, both are excellent fighters, both are very intelligent, both use/invent gadgets, and — most damning of all — both swing through their cities!
Of course, no one says that Spider-Man is just a Batman rip off because 1) that’s stupid, and 2) there’s no reason to. Everyone knows who Batman is. Everyone knows who Spider-Man is. You don’t have to say “He’s a funny Batman”. Atomic Robo is the new kid in town and there’s only one other comic remotely like it, so we hear, “He’s a robot Hellboy,” because that’s the quickest way to communicate the basic idea even if it’s technically inaccurate.
So, when people say it to try to hook new readers, I cringe internally, but I know what they mean. It’s like when you pitch a movie in Hollywood. You’ve got to sell it and you’ve got to do it quick. The fastest way to do that is to hit them with something they’re already familiar with. “It’s Star Wars plus Dracula!” is far more immediately engaging than a twenty minute discourse about your space opera with vampires.
It’s where the “robotic Hellboy” idea is supposed to be used against us that I get confused, because it makes exactly as much sense as saying Spider-Man is a Batman ripoff, which is to say, none.
I guess both Robo and Hellboy go on missions and exist in history? I mean, are we seriously saying Mignola invented putting characters in the past or going on missions? Are League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Planetary just Hellboy fanfics?
I’ll grant that both characters are old and tough. Robo’s a robot, so of course he doesn’t age and he’s tough — that’s what robots do. Are we now suggesting that Mignola invented old, tough characters? Should Ellis give the royalties to any of his “century babies” stories to Mignola? Kirkman’s Brit? Pretty much every member of the JSA? Tom Strong? Captain America?
What’s funny about all this is that my complaint here is that the only complaint we get is idiotic. We must be doing something right if our detractors are A) few and B) objectively wrong.
I mean, if you want to accuse us of ripping anything off, here’s the list: Ghostbusters, Buckaroo Banzai, Indiana Jones, Dragnet, Rocketeer, Iron Giant.
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