Review: Rust – Vol. 1: Visitor In The Field

Rust is sure draw comparisonsto Iron Giant and the Rocketeer due to the boy with thejetpack and giant robot on the front cover. In reality this all age’s tale isnothing like either of its “sources” and only people that have never watched orread either product would make such a careless comparison. Rust is in all actuality one of the grimmest sci-fi worlds createdand could be seen as Metropolis inthe country.

The story begins 48 years in the past as it silently shows awar between two fractions that resembles WWI. The two sides continue to “one-up”each other with technology in a LooneyTunes sort of fashion, until the robots come into play. We follow onesoldier as he crawls through the battlefield looking for dead robots so that hecan steal one particular part. In the modern time line we’re introduced to Romanthrough a letter he writes his father. He tells his father in the letter aboutthe day Jet Jones came to the farm by crashing into their barn. Again weflashback to see the event of Jet’s arrival and sure enough he crashes throughthe barn, but there seems to be some question of whether it was from within thebarn or not. Jet is being chased by a giant robot killing machine. Roman discoversthis as he’s trying to get Jet help, but Jet seems to be doing okay even after therobot throws his through a tree.

From there the two battle until Jet tells Roman what to doin order to stop the robot. After everything is settled, Jet stays on the farmto help Roman. Roman on the other hand is rebuilding one of the robots from thewar in order to turn it into a helper on the farm. Jet gets really upset bythis and spills a fact about himself… he was a part of the war. What othersecrets does Jet have and how long before Roman is the only to work the farm?

Rust was a great story; I really enjoyed it through andthrough. I loved the world that Royden Lepp created and just the sheer richnessof it all. I became emerged in the world that is Rust and became invested in the story and the two main characters.The story was perfect from beginning to end and I really couldn’t find anyfault in it. I’m looking forward to the next volume for sure and hopefullyArchaia doesn’t keep us all waiting too long. I did have some issues with theart as I found Lepp’s style to be lacking in detail a lot of the times. It wasstill very impressive, but in general I think he’s coloring andforeground/background work saved the art a lot. I would love to see Lepp’sstyle develop more as this was only a good start. The art is still good anddoesn’t distract from the story which is the most important part. I just wishit added more to the story rather than falling kind of flat.

I’ve been interested in Rust since Archaia announced it atWonder Con this year and I have to say I’m more interested in the next volumethan I ever was in this one. That is to say that this first volume was so goodthat I’m hooked on the series and will be waiting with baited breath for itsreturn. This is a solid all-ages book that is simple enough for children andyet if you dig deeper you’ll find its very complex for adults as well. Don’tlet the “source material” fool you; this book is far more complex.

Score: 4/5

Comments

[Connor]

i shall now be buying this

[Anonymous]

Damn, this website makes my local comic book store rich off my money!