Ratchetrospective: Ratchet and Clank #1-6 (bonus review)

A late addition of the Ratchetrospective but I’ve referenced it often enough, and it’s referenced in the opening chapter of All4One so I figured I’d give it a short review. Short being the operative word here, just trying to give it the once over.

This comic was a 6-issue mini-series, published by DC’s Wildstorm imprint for the first 4 issues, and then under DC comics for the final 2 issues. Written by T J Fixman, who had written the Future Trilogy, and drawn by Adam Archer, who recently has done work on Gotham Academy (come back Karl Kerschl) and was an artist in the Scribblenaut’s series (which I haven’t read) does it turn out alright, let's take a look

Ratchet and Clank have retired to Veldin after the events of A Crack in Time. Ratchet's feeling a little down after the death of Azimuth. They’re called in by now President Qwark who explains that they’ve been losing planets, including Aranos from the Bogon Galaxy. Ratchet initially declines the invite but soon Veldin becomes the next target. Ratchet and Clank are set upon by legions of robotic commandos and despite an effort that actually involves trying to shoot them and using his hoverboots and Azimuth's wrench, they are eventually captured.

They're taken to the mastermind: Artemis Zogg, former Galactic President. He'd been teleporting planets out of orbit into his own galaxy. He spares Ratchet because he’s a fan and sentences them to the Vartax detention facility. With the help of an Agorian Prisioner named General Glumm, and Kronk and Zephyr, they manage to break out of the prison.

Zogg had hinted that Captain Qwark was responsible for this, so upon arriving on the Nundak Asteroid Base they quickly confront Qwark, with Sasha as witness as well as Talwyn… The awkwardness is only slight as the two exchange one line of dialogue. Anyway, her father had been on Zaurick on a diplomatic mission when the Planet was taken. Qwark had offered to help Zogg’s publicity in his re-election campaign, Zogg showed him the Helios Project which consisted of a comet shard which can open dimensional portals and a portable sun.

Thanks in part to the machinations of Qwark’s former agent, Qwark uses his time in the spotlight to endorse himself for Galactic President (presumably his criminal record was expunged since I think galaxy endangerment might’ve been an issue otherwise) anyway, upon becoming president, Qwark orders the Helios Project shut down but Zogg instead has the project brought onto his ship. The Galactic Rangers were instigating an attack on Zogg’s ship but he teleports away, along with his entire galaxy.

After a couple of nice character moments contrasting the Presidential styles of Sasha’s father and Zogg, and one between Talwyn and Sasha (it’s actually kinda rare for a Ratchet and Clank game to pass the bechdel test) Zogg contacts them with an ultimatum. Veldin has been moved far out from the artificial sun and is slowly freezing (I'm not sure if that'd actually work but...). If Ratchet and Clank surrender, he’ll spare the planet.

Qwark has an idea to stop Zogg, removing the comet shard. Ratchet and Clank surrender and are taken to a teleport pod to transfer to Zogg’s Galaxy. However, Zogg is not true to his word and Veldin remains in the cold. Sasha, Talwyn, Cronk and the Galactic Rangers key into Ratchet’s Nav unit and follow him, Clank has a grenade inside of him that allows their escape but it takes the troops firing on the ship to allow Ratchet to proceed to the shard. Clank wants to take it and leave but Ratchet sets up the Geo-sphere, powered by the shard, to move Veldin, unfortunate Zogg shatters the sphere before they can move it. Talwyn moves in, crashing through the ship, allowing Ratchet and Clank to take the shard. They’re separated, however, and Clank forces them to leave. Talwyn won’t be harmed as long as they have the shard.

They take an escape pod which lands on the frozen Veldin. Zogg sends his robotic forces after them but with an EMP they manage to take them out, shutting Clank down briefly in the process. Zogg confronts Talwyn and we get something about Max Apogee heading to another dimension to save the life of a Lombax, I’m not sure what sense that makes so *shrugs.* They come across a defence station that General Glumm has activated, he fires the weapons and destroys Zogg’s ship, which had been stranded thanks to the destruction of the geo-sphere.

Sasha, Cronk and the Galactic Rangers find Ratchet, and return to the Nundac asteroid ring. They believe that Talwyn had died when Zogg’s ship was destroyed. What had actually happened is Zogg’s “assistant,” Vorn Garblak, who does have a line in All4One, had broken her out and taken her to an escape pod, one with a bit more range than the one Ratchet took. They crash into the station. Zogg had got on board and has Talwyn hostage and an army of Mr Zurkons.

Qwark had been tasked with assembling a device to teleport the planets back, with the help with big Al who surprisingly does not have robot circuitry in his head, go figure. Ratchet, Vorn, and Talwyn use the aquaduct to escape but their exit is blocked off and their saved by the Plumber, making his obligatory cameo. Clank tapes up Qwark to prevent him doing anything stupid as they bring Vorn in to help. Zogg bursts in but noticing Azimuth’s old wrench (yeah, Ratchet had been carrying that around some of the time) Qwark remembers that he’d been told that negatively charged energy would cause the comet to open a portal, he asks Vorn as a final request to confirm that the wrench produces it before kicking the wrench to Ratchet and telling him to hit the shard) a portal opens and Zogg is tossed through it, spending the rest of his days arguing with emperor Tachyon.

Ratchet decides to remain retired but return to the Polaris Galaxy to be with Talwyn… Which is why it took her 3 more games for her to show up next.

All joking aside, this is a very good read. T J Fixman’s writing style translated very well to the comic book, it has believable character motivations, a few old faces to provide some nostalgia, it carries on the arc from A Crack in Time whilst being relatively self-contained, provides some good action and most importantly in a Ratchet title, there are some good laughs here. There is a big difference to how comedy works in a title like this and a video game and I think TJ Fixman did a good job making the dialogue funny whilst also adding in the odd bit of visual humour (which in part is of course down to Adam Archer)

Where his weakness came for me is handling of Sasha. I know she’s not exactly having a good time but there’s a mighty big elephant in the room when it comes to her and Ratchet, they were romantically involved! The fact that she and Ratchet barely say a word to one another is one of the biggest disappointments of the series. And yes I know about the scene where she motivates Ratchet to get up again using knowledge she could not have possibly had about Talwyn, but I’m talking about reminiscing, I know that means drawing up on a lot of past continuity but otherwise what was the point of bringing her in at all?

Adam Archer’s art looks nice, it certainly provides the scope that you want in a Ratchet title, the planets and such. The problem is his art in character design really does not suit that of a Ratchet title. His designs are kinda stiff (I noticed some very odd Sasha poses) in what should be a very dynamic comic and bigger yet I think their character does not fit with the more exaggerated nature of the Ratchet and Clank series. It’s not bad by any means, and I give credit to the nice bright colours of Tony Aviña, but it’s just not the right fit for a Ratchet and Clank title in my opinion

Still, it’s serviceable and you can at least understand what’s going on, it’s not Rob Liefeld or Frazer Irving level bad or anything.

Memorable Quotes

"I stake my pilot's license on it!" *Clank stares at Ratchet* "OK, I stake my theoretical pilot's licence on it"

"It's President Qwark, and I have a business card to prove it"

"Very admirable sir, a lot of public servants would've let the sudden spotlight change them. It's a weak mind that allows ego to take control" - Qwark

"Have you any more good news? Perhaps you'll tell me next that my parents were eaten by wild carnivores? Or maybe an ion storm vaporized the summer camp I spent my childhood in?"

"I only understood 3 of those words, but I'm fairly certain that was an insult"

"Greetings, space rat! My hearts are filled with something akin to joy to see your life force has not been extinguished"

"We have to go! I'm too young and attractive to be assassinated"

Rating 75/100

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Images/clips used in this review are from Ratchet and Clank (comic) and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use