Giga #1 Review: I’ll Have The Giant Robots Please

Writer: Alex Paknadel / Artist: John Lê / Vault Comics It is a well documented fact at this point that I love robots. As someone who grew up absolutely fascinated by Mobile Fighter GGundam on Toonami, the giant fighting robot genre is one that I am absolutely enamored with. Aldnoah.Zero? Here for it. Gurren Lagann? You know it. Pacific Rim? Quite easily my favorite movie ever and I watch it every year on my birthday because that movie makes me happy and the guitar riff is just pure serotonin. There are dozens more that I could wax poetic on and on about, but today we’re here to talk about the highly anticipated Giga, which I’ve seen much hype on my side of comics Twitter and I’ve been dying to get my hands on the first issue, and folks, it very much lives up to the hype.

Giant robots are ultimately just set pieces in a story. Contextual entities meant to fulfill some grander purpose within the narrative; whether it is to stand in for the literal representation of military prowess or the metaphorical representation of a character’s self esteem. And much like how we have a wide range of superhero movies, there is a wide range of giant robot stories, and Giga feels like it’s injecting new life by coming in a bit more forwardly philosophical approach. The opening pages of Giga #1 show a group of ‘Novices’ being taught about the “Book of Assembly” and the vast and vague religion that surrounds the robots in this world. Lê’s artwork shows carved murals of several hulking machine…