Comic Review: gen:LOCK “unwelcome:GUESTS Part 2”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Chase reports back about his escape, prompting the other pilots to do the same. Cammy hacks the doors and Val fights off the guards, but they soon find themselves face to face with some of the base’s augmented scientists. Kazu manages to talk them down from gassing the room by…telling the scientists that it is against orders to even LOOK at them, which they somehow believe. But the team then comes face to face with “The Shogunate”, a robot that is supposedly superior to gen:LOCK by utilizing two thousand minds at once to control it. Chase convinces General Anno to let them go, lest more needless destruction happen, but Anno keeps the ship, mechs, Caliban, and Migas under lock and key. They fly off unharmed, though Kazu is still concerned that Anno will get to them somehow.

OUR TAKE

The second issue finally concludes with…not a ton actually happening. Again, half issues naturally mean not as much is going to take place, but it remains a sticking point since I’m only covering these things in chunks instead of a finished product. We’re shifting more and more to Kazu as the spotlight character, but I think I’m starting to understand what’s bugging me about this choice. Kazu, as he is written in the series proper, isn’t exactly stoic, but he is someone who has been shown to express himself through action over talk. And the problem with that is so much of this story is talking, including parts just about him. It’s understandable to have that shift to more dialogue when going from animation to print, but then why is this story given to the impulsive fighter character as opposed to Val or Cammie (I assume Yaz is off the table since she’s directly connected to the Union through her parents).

The most egregious example is probably when they come across those three scientists with robot parts on their heads. No idea what those three were DOING or WHY they look like that, but what I want to focus on is that Kazu, the punch first and ask questions later guy, is able to smooth talk these guys into thinking they’re not a threat. Negotiation, as far as I’ve noticed with his character in the series, is not exactly his strong suit, let alone information that these three guys should really already know is bullshit. Either Anno is keeping them cut off from the rest of the base for god knows what reason or we are seriously not getting enough information about anything that’s going on here.

Though probably the more important detail going forward is the introduction of the Shogunate mech. How it works is not exactly explained well, just that it’s piloted by two thousand people at once, looks to be much bigger than a regular Holon, and kinda looks like G1 Shockwave. I don’t know if simply having it stand there was the best way to make an impression. Honestly, the best way to show the Shogunate is a big deal would be to have it already fighting off Union forces when the team got there. Also, this situation kind of reminds me of the “Jet Alone” episode of Evangelion, where a rival company makes a competitor mech to the main one, only for that to go awry. And with the general sharing a name with Evangelion’s director, I wonder that if that was a coincidence. Guess we’ll see as we move onto Issue 3.