Sunday 30 June 2013

The Valiant Annual 1977 - The Prisoner of Zenga.

 An interesting one this. The cover caught my eye, and I must learn to check inside the covers of annuals that don't have a robot on the cover.
The story features the Robot Zenga, but it turns out that this robot is actually a mechanical body within which 'intelligence of ex-arch criminal Max Zenga' controls the 'merciless metal monster' towards some great crime.
As you can see from the cover the robot can fire lasers from his eyes, and is quite happy to do so, killing the inhabitants of the helicopter (in this instance). I guess having a human mind implanted in the robot means that Asimov's Laws don't apply.
This 8 page snippet seems to be somewhere in the middle of an ongoing story. Poor lab assistant Julian Caine 'has become the terrified slave' of Zenga and appears to be being dragged along for the ride. I'm not entirely sure that Caine is as innocent as this makes out though, as he appears to care for the robot and certainly does very little to change his path. From searching the web, and there's very little up there about this robot, it seems that Julian Caine was actually looking to control the robot, as it was being created, for a robbery he was planning himself and so is certainly not the innocent victim here. Looks like he got more than he bargained for.
It's a nice twist to have the robot be evil and therefore move away from Archie and Iron Teacher territory.
I also like the way the body is pitted and not the shiny expanse of metal shown on the other robots of the time.
 I'll have to see if I can find out more about the character in other annuals.

1 comment:

  1. You ever find out more.

    I had this annual (and only this one) when I was 5.

    I would love to see more of Zenga's story.

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