The premise of Junkyard Angels is pretty cool. The story takes place at the outbreak of a robotic infection that turns people into homicidal machines. The story centers on Jason, who is still reeling from tragedy as his world collapses around him. The focus is clearly on the personal relationships even as the story shifts into apocalypse mode. This focus is the best part of the comic, even with such a cool premise.

The story doesn’t concern itself with the how or why of the outbreak, only what it means to our characters. The zombots are pretty cool. One clear inspiration is Carpenter’s The Thing, which is the best outbreak movie ever made. There is an organic aspect to the robot parts that feels very wrong (in the right way). The only thing I wasn’t sold on was a scene where two zombots are interacting with themselves, but, by and large, this is a great zombot outbreak story.

I was very interested in the character development and some of the initial warning signs of the robomaggedon. Unfortunately, I missed the character work once the outbreak went public. There was a great deal of running around and yelling and not many opportunities to let the characters shine. Now, I am certain that if I were involved in a zombot outbreak, I would be running and yelling too, but the strength in this comic is in the characters, and, towards the end, the story kinda got away from that. I am very interested to see where the story is going next, and I am sure that the characters will get a chance to impress me again, once they can stop running and yelling.

With some strong choices in the art design and some great characters, Junkyard Angels is more than just another zombie comic. It is always nice to see an independent comic try something really different, and I can’t wait to see what is next.

Three Zombots (Which is Totally a Word Now) out of Five