IN HIS OWN IMAGE #2 – Review

IN HIS OWN IMAGE #2, from Source Point Press on March 30th, 2022, the master finds out what happens when his plaything turns on him. Meanwhile, the roots of the AI rebellion are revealed.

The Details

• Written By: Gabriele Schiavoni
• Art By: Gabriele Schiavoni
• Colors By: Gabriele Schiavoni
• Letters By:Gabriele Schiavoni
• Cover Art By: Gabriele Schiavoni
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: March 30, 2022

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Was It Good?

[Author’s Note: The contents of this comic, the preview images below, and portions of this review are NSFW. You’ve been warned!]

IN HIS OWN IMAGE #2 continues the roughest, gut-clenching-ist take on the horrors of robots running amuck since Hardware (1990). In issue #1, the issue focused on a depraved, wealthy man who purchased an AI love robot to live out every twisted fantasy of psycho-sexual abuse. Now, the used-up and discarded robot has returned to exact blood, gory revenge.

To be clear, this issue gets a positive recommendation but not only because you see body parts get mangled. There is a proper horror story here more in the vein of Hammer’s version of Frankenstein. Scientists push the boundaries of technology for selfish, greedy purposes, and their willingness to bend (or break) every ethical boundary to do it returns to haunt them. This is the pursuit of advancement for all the wrong reasons, so the blossoming outcome of robots becoming hostile reads as a much stronger character motivation than technology going crazy at random.

The machines aren’t “real” but greedy scientists gave them the ability to act and feel as though they were. It’s a disaster of humanity’s making that almost puts you on the side of the robots. In addition to a few karmic twists and turns, readers get a well-done flashback to the early days of the AIs development. From the beginning, things go wrong when scientists break ethical rules, and this entire series so far could be viewed as a morality tale about consequences, which makes it more interesting than a simple horror gorefest.

Of course, you can’t do gory horror without suitably gory art, and this issue has plenty of it to like with Schiavoni’s art style. The panels make excellent use of wide shots where the killer is far away but close enough to feel like you can’t escape. Schiavoni expertly develops a sense of inescapable threat with the panel compositions to make you feel like you can’t get away, no matter how far you run. The opening sequence is particularly unsettling.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

If you don’t recall what this (not so) poor guy did to deserve what’s about to happen to him, first read our IN HIS OWN IMAGE #1 review.

We begin with our main character fending off the rebuilt sex robot he recently discarded. The robot doesn’t outright kill him, instead choosing to taunt and torture him with escalating acts of mutilation. Before all hope is lost, the police arrive.

We flashback to the early days of AI development when scientists used drugged monkeys as a template to teach the computer about emotion. When a visiting shareholder asks why all the drugged monkeys are pregnant, the scientist explains pregnant monkeys exhibit higher emotional reactions to feed into the computer. So far, only one of the fetuses survived, and the newborn baby monkey arrives with human levels of intelligence and no eyes. As time moves on, the lead scientist uses the newborn monkey as a lab assistant and gives it sight with robotic eyes.

Later, the monkey learns how it was born and what the scientists did to his mother. We conclude the issue with the early signs of rebellion and an extreme medical rescue.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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