Skip and the cadets take the fight to the Sharg, in outer space!

There’s that moment in the film where the young characters and alien are torn apart. E.T. Iron Giant. They have those moments and it’s at those times I find myself choking up a bit. Mech Cadet Yu #9 is that moment in the story.

The battle has been taken to the Sharg and it looks desperate. Writer Greg Pak has set things up perfectly so that we the readers not only have an emotional attach but we also feel the dread and epic nature of it all. This feels like an extinction level event and the odds are stacked against Earth.

It also feels like that last stand moment where the hero stays behind and sacrifices themself to make sure the bomb goes off the stop the bad guys. Except in this case, everyone feels like they’re in that role. Despite theis being a comic full of children there’s a sense that anyone can die here and I truly had no idea who would and who wouldn’t if any.

But what’s more interesting is that Pak puts these heroes in the middle of two sides of bad. There’s the evil bugs (who get a really nice twist reveal) and then there’s the military who want to murder the friendly robots. There’s a desperation that permeates the issue in so many ways. How to defeat the aliens and our heroes doing what they can with a ragtag force.

The art by Takeshi Miyazawa with color by Jessica Kholinne is fantastic as always. The mixture of alien robots and aliens, the organic and inorganic just blends so well. There’s some twists when it comes to that as well and it works really well visually. Each robot continues to have so much personality themselves and a lot of that is how they’re drawn. They don’t have the emotional range of humans but somehow we still know what they’re feeling through their physical actions.

The issue continues the blend of the adult and the kid. You can enjoy this adventure as giant robots and kids versus aliens but then there’s also this layer of militarization and sending children to war. We also get an emotional rollercoaster of an issue with ups and downs throughout. At one moment you want to celebrate victory and another it’s tragedy. The creative team toy with our emotions with perfect pacing and punches. This is a series I look forward to each month and Pak and Miyazawa keep delivering excellence with every issue.

Story: Greg Pak Art: Takeshi Miyazawa
Color: Jessica Kholinne Lettering: Simon Bowland
Story: 8.25 Art: 8.25 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review