Astro Boy 14
December 28, 2007
This volume was crammed full of shorter stories, and there wasn’t really one that dominated the volume. The first story was about an alien robot that was commissioned by an explorer from the Ministry of Science. Astro swears up and down that the miniature version of the robot told him through psychic abilities that he would destroy all humans, but nobody believes Astro. Well, until the other aliens show up in the poor village where the robot’s head was being used as the sole light source. You know how these stories roll. In the most insane way possible.
The next story, called “Uran,” begins with Astro showing shiny new versions of Cobalt and Uran around town and trying to get them acclimated to the human way of life. In case you didn’t think Osamu Tezuka had invented enough, here he shows he also invented battle bots, since this story is mostly about robots fighting coliseum-style in an arena and destroying each other (or turning each other into smoking pipes, as the case may be). You may think it’s Astro who takes part in the festivities, but you’d be wrong. Uran is the champ here.
The next story is about a swarm of killer bees being unleashed on humanity from below the Gobi desert. You can imagine how that goes. Another story features a race of alien centaurs that love children and teach them how to obtain special powers.
There’s one story at the end that’s only about eight pages long, and I think it was mostly intended as a gag story. It features genetically enhanced snails that are sucking people of their moisture and turning them into mummies. The last panel is a great gag if you don’t see it coming.
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