The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

Cover art by Geof Darrow

The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a comic book by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow and an eponymous animated television series.

Comic Book

"Big Guy and Rusty, the Boy Robot" appeared under Dark Horse Comics' now defunct Legend imprint as a large format comic book published as a two-part mini-series in 1996, featuring story by Frank Miller and art by Geof Darrow. In the comic, the story revolves around an attack on Tokyo by a giant reptilian creature that is generated in an experiment gone wrong, and the failure of the newly-commissioned Rusty the Boy Robot to stop the threat. Subsequently, Japan requested help from the U.S. Armed Forces, whose ultimate defense, the robot Big Guy, launches from his air carrier base and uses his awesome arsenal and good old-fashioned American know-how to save the day.

The comic book features intricate artwork by Geof Darrow, and story by Frank Miller, of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City fame. The two had previously collaborated on the "Hard Boiled", another story combining Miller's short spoken and violent storytelling with Darrow's graphomaniacally meticulous art. The Big Guy first appeared without Rusty in two issues of Mike Allred's "Madman" comic.

Big Guy also makes an appearance in Frank Miller & Dave Gibbon's Martha Washington: Stranded In Space and a cameo appearance in the last Sin City book.

Animated Series

The animated series, produced by Columbia TriStar Television and Dark Horse Entertainment, aired from 1999 to 2001, and in many aspects is a more mature and established series. Whereas the comic book seems like only an introduction to the robots, the animated series is full-fledged with a strong back story which links the episodes together. The plot and setting of the series is different from the comic book as the whole story is based around New Tronic City, a fictional American city clearly modeled after New York City. Rusty is the most advanced robot with human emotional grid and nucleoprotonic powers that is going to replace the Big Guy, the Earth's last line of defense against all threats alien, domestic, or against the American way. However, Rusty is too inexperienced to stand on his own, so the Big Guy is re-commissioned to teach Rusty the way of trade. Rusty idolizes the Big Guy, regarding him as the best robot ever. Big Guy is actually piloted by Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter, who poses as his chief mechanic. Big Guy's secret is known only to a few, and many situations involve Lt. Hunter's clever and impromptu excuses to hide the fact from Rusty for two reasons: that the truth could overload Rusty's emotional grid; and Rusty has trouble keeping secrets.

Recurring characters

• Rusty - Quark's intended replacement for the Big Guy, a robot with real artificial intelligence and powered by nucleoprotons. However, Rusty is far too inexperienced to face the threats that the Big Guy normally handles, so he is relegated to being Big Guy's sidekick and trainee. He idolizes Big Guy but is unaware that his hero is actually a human inside a metal suit. Though immature and impetuous, Rusty does at times gives his hero an emotional boost in morale, and is able to do the job when the chips are down. He initially had a bit of a problem of handling the recoil of his nucleoproton blasts, and regularly got knocked down afterwards or shoot the wrong target, but after some practice learned to compensate for the recoil.
• 'Big Guy - Designated as the BGY-11, the so-called 'robot' champion of Earth was actually a heavily-armed battlesuit, piloted by Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter. When Quark Industries failed to produce an actual robot with artificial intelligence, the solution was to use a human pilot. As Hunter puts it, the Big Guy was nothing more than a fancy tank. Big Guy is able to fly, possesses great strength and is armed with a variety of integrated weaponry, including the signature fold-out guns in the elbow housings. Unlike Rusty, he is powered by a Cobalt/Thorium G Power Core. Always ready with a patriotic quip, Big Guy's personality is much different than that of his human pilot in real life.
• Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter - the Big Guy's pilot to a few, the Big Guy's chief mechanic to the world. Has a crush on Dr. Slate.
• Dr. Erika Slate - A scientist at Quark Industries, she developed Rusty's human emotional grid and acts like a mother to Rusty. She is one of the few who knows the Big Guy's secret. Voiced by Gabrielle Carteris.
• Dr. Axel Donovan - Voiced by Stephen Root. President of Quark Industries, a robotics firm. He is a caricature of capitalistic greed and moral cowardice. He often provides comic relief.
• Jenny the Monkey - A monkey who talks and usually sits on Dr. Donovan's shoulder while making fun of Quark's scientists and employees. She has a keen sense of self-preservation.
• Jo, Mack, and Garth - The Big Guy's pit crew. They serve on the aircraft carrier S.S. Dark Horse, which acts as Big Guy's base and stores his airship.
• General Thornton - A U.S. Army general who heads the government's BGY-11 Commission, that created the Big Guy. His voice actor is R Lee Ermey.
• The Barnacle Jim - General Thornton's faithful assistant. Due to always failing in his job he is often portrayed as depressed, and thus is often met with the phrase "Why the long face, Jim?".
• The Squillacci Empire - Squid-like tentacled aliens who make crop circles, attempt to experiment on cows and other stereotypical alien actions. Their attempts to conquer the Earth have been repeatedly thwarted by the Big Guy. It is later revealed that, if not for the Big Guy, the Squillacci Empire would have ruled the earth.
• Legion Ex Machina - Latin for Legion from Machine, they are an enigmatic group of six very advanced robots who aim to destroy humanity and create a robot-heaven of "Robotopia." Their whereabouts and origin are unknown, yet their robotic design and function are very similar to the Big Guy. This presents an intriguing hook that ties the episodes together, with clues to their origin and their creator being revealed one by one. Ironically, they were created by the same man who originally led Big Guy's design. The show ended on a cliffhanger, where it is discovered that there is a seventh Legion Ex Machina that Big Guy and Rusty have yet to defeat. Even though they have different outer bodies all Legion Ex Machina have the same AI and the same Exoskeleton. Gilder was the only exception as he still had his emotion grid but otherwise identical to the other members. With the exception of Gilder, all Legion Ex Machina members were voiced by Clancy Brown.

The Seven members are:

• #1: The leader of the group. He was the first of the legion to come online and can create complex tactics very quickly. He also has no remorse about executing his own brothers should they be inefficient. He perished in the final battle at the lab, thrown against and disintegrated by a powerful force field used to contain Big Guy and Rusty after being blasted by Big Guy's gun fired by his own creator.
• #2/3: Since they both lacked emotions they are nearly identical other than their looks. They often agree on the same things that usually contradicts #1. They are completely loyal to #1 and would respect him, although they are always seen as equals. #3 was destroyed when Big Guy pushed him and his combat armor into an acid-filled cauldron with the help of Rusty. #2 was destroyed while fighting Rusty, getting torn to pieces by the blades of a gigantic fan.
• #4: The only one to develop an emotion grid. #4 temporarily switched personalities and knowledge with Rusty, leading to his childish behavior in the episode. He would be captured by Rusty when their minds completely switched and later placed in a toy robot when Dr. Donovan's nephew, Pierre, stole his brain. He tried to contact the Legion only to find that he is to be executed. He would then try to fry the entire area by creating a nuclear fusion meltdown. Dr. Slate defused the reactor and Big Guy activated his defense mechanism, destroying #4's brain.
• #5: The first Legion member to meet the Big Guy. He was very similar to #2 and #3. He took over a munitions factory and was destroyed when the factory was leveled.
• #6: Also known as Dr. Gilder, #6 was the only member whose emotion grid was fully intact. However his emotions are highly exaggerated and are considered by his peers as a weakness. He was sent to Quark Industries as a spy to gather blue prints and information on various Quark staff. He was first portrayed as a shy, weak scientist but was soon revealed as a Legion Ex Machina member. His emotions also changed to a sadistic killer. His exoskeleton was destroyed when it was dropped into a grinder. His brain was destroyed when Big Guy tried to access his memory files and triggered a self defense program, detonating the brain. He is the first to be destroyed and also gave the protagonists some clues on how to destroy Legion Ex Machina members (see #4's demise above).
• #7: Still at large.

The series ran for 26 episodes on Fox Kids and featured, amongst others, the voice of Pamela Adlon credited as (Pamela Segall) as the voice of Rusty (better known as Bobby Hill on Fox's "King of the Hill"), and character actors R. Lee Ermey and M. Emmet Walsh. A line of toys based on the show was produced by Bandai, which can sometimes be found on ebay along with ephemera surrounding a brief promotional tie-in with Burger King.

Theme song

The theme song is notoriously difficult to understand, with many words garbled by the intro video which includes the sounds of weapons firing. It consists of a montage with a ballad of the back history of Big Guy and the creation of Rusty, sung in a deep voice:

"Watch the skies, coming at you,

A hero of metal hue,
He locks horns with disaster,
For the red and white and blue,
Then was born a boyrobot,
Miracle of science,
Ready to battle large monsters,
Supercharged and quick on the draw,
Pretty darn good, but he needs help,
The Big Guy, he's a big deal,
Heart of gold, and fists of steel,
Clobbering evil entities, with Rusty at his heel,
Now that they're a mighty team,
The boy robot lives his dream,
To be a legend in history,

The Big Guy and Rusty!"

Criticism

The series has been noted for Rusty's design, which is similar to Astroboy, and Big Guy's design, which is similar to Gigantor. This is thought to be a homage to the early 1960s cartoon series.

External links

• Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot at Internet Movie Database
• Comic book DB page