Dawnrunner is a mecha-kaiju comic about the ‘Bandai-ification’ of the military-industrial complex
Every beloved work of mecha fiction, be it anime or not, isn’t just about cool robots. Whether it’s the anti-war underpinnings of Mobile Suit Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s allegory for learning to love and be loved in return, or a commentary on the ways in which power is concentrated in the hands of a select few, the mecha genre is filled with stories that drive at something deeper than the chrome-plated exteriors of its humanoid war machines.
Dawnrunner, the new original sci-fi comic series from Detective Comics writer Ram V and artist Evan Cagle (Catwoman #32), follows in the footsteps of these giants, crafting a story that follows Anita Marr, a mech pilot in a post-apocalyptic future who must pilot a powerful new prototype to defeat an extra-dimensional threat. It’s a mecha-kaiju story, yes, but it’s also a ghost story, depicting the relationship between Anita and a weapon that seems to have a mind of its own — quite literally. It’s a big action-drama with big, beautiful artwork and even bigger questions at its core. For example: What do all human beings have in common, even centuries apart? Or another, as Cagle puts it: ‘What if the military-industrial complex acted more like Bandai?”
“I’d had this story in my head probably around 2015 or 2016-ish,” Ram told Polygon in an interview over Zoom. “It had begun in concept as a mecha-kaiju story, but also with the sci-fi of it, the human drama of it, and the elements of a ghost story. The basic idea being people communicating with each other across time.”
Though he had the basic concept down, a mecha-kaiju story that could be summed up as “Pacific Rim as told by the people behind Arrival,” it wasn’t until Ram came across Evan Cagle’s artwork on social media that the idea that would become Dawnrunner began to fully spring to life.
“I hadn’t really acted on it until I saw this illustration that Evan had done for Neon Genesis Evangelion called Golgotha. I saw that and I went, Man, if I ever do that mecha-kaiju story,
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