Review by Frank Plowright

In the near future the USA is at war in Turkey, although not with the Turkish authorities, with whom an uneasy alliance is maintained. Assorted forms of robot have been devised as combat tools and weapons. Developed with artificial intelligence, they’re designed to evolve in order to make instant combat decisions, but when a robot prioritises rescuing a downed drone it seems the intelligence has evolved in an unpredicted way.

Geoffrey D. Wessel’s plot is an intelligent variation on the robot stories of the 1950s feeding in Cold War paranoia. Here, though, humans are the threat as audience sympathy is directed to the humanoid R39X unit and dragonfly drone MU784.

Wessel is a new name to most comic readers, but Steve Parkhouse has been a great artist for decades, yet for some reason flies under the radar despite Resident Alien now being a TV show. Not that you’d immediately connect the art in War Birds with the polished goofy cartooning Parkhouse usually supplies. He starts with action art seemingly influenced by Wally Wood’s 1950s work, but with the added 1970s touch of plenty of zip-a-tone for shading and effects on buildings and technology. When the more caring Sibel Aydin appears the environment switches first to more normal surroundings, then to fantasy scenes, both supplied by Parkhouse as lushly drawn, fully detailed locations.

Sibel is key. She randomly picks up calls for help from the robots and is thrown into life-threatening circumstances due to a compassion deliberately contrasted with the military mindset of destroy first and ask questions later. A pair of other characters also have concerns and form the final corner of the cast. Will humanity prevail or will we all be protected by being dead? Discovering the answer is worth your while.