Warning! Spoilers for Ultramega #1 ahead!
Automation is a threat to a lot of working peoples’ livelihoods and that includes Kaiju fighters in the Image Comics series Ultramega. Monsters always need punching, but the Ultraman lookalikes are being phased out (by being executed) and robots are stepping in to take on Kaiju.
Ultramega #1 by James Harren and Dave Stewart takes inspiration from Japan’s favorite superhero Ultraman and swerves down a gory, bleak avenue full of horrific Kaiju and excessive violence—but that’s a good thing. No hulking, slow-walking Kaijus in this comic, each monster is more terrifying and deadlier than the last. The ordinary people gifted with the ability to transform into gigantic Kaiju-clobbering Ultramega have tried to keep the monsters at bay, but ultimately fail and are wiped out by the titans.
The planet is plagued with a virus that can turn normal people into gigantic Kaiju that then go on a rampage. A being gifted three people the ability to transform into Ultramega and they have been fighting day-in and day-out ever since. The protagonist (unnamed in the comic) is so exhausted after his latest battle with a kaiju that when he shrinks down his head is awkwardly too large for his body. His inability to return to proportional size is a reflection of the wear-and-tear he is taking from the constant fighting. An effect that eventually wears off, just in time for him to be decapitated by a Kaiju and for a robot to take his job.
Automation has a strong presence from the beginning of the comic. Cute robots are assigned to take over menial jobs and the unnamed protagonist loses his janitorial career to one such robot. By the end of the comic, gun-toting machines have usurped the Ultramega as defenders from the Kaiju, taking the jobs from the little guy and the big guys alike.
The little bots sweep the street, clean restrooms and sell on street corners. Advertisements for the home-helping robots stand out in every piece of this drab-colored dystopia. Machines are everywhere in the background, bagging groceries, cleaning up debris from Kaiju battles and eventually defending earth from Kaiju. Even though none of the robots see any action, the military built the automated monster-smashers after the three Ultramega were killed. This presents a concerning parallel to our own world where drones carry out missile strikes and private industry automates more and more regular jobs.
The plan was always to have the robots take over or at least assist in taking down Kaiju. Robots are more expendable, instead of sacrificing the vulnerable people that can turn Ultramega. While there are no automaton mechs to fend off Kaiju in the real world, this comic points to a dystopian but not altogether out-of-reach future where robots take away low-level careers leaving nothing else for unskilled workers. The comic concludes with giant mechs armed with every form of explosive munition one could imagine, but no Kaiju to point them at. The last battle that wiped out the Ultramega marked the last sighting of a Kaiju. The world is robbed of human guardians and has set all its faith in the soulless machine—just like its workforce.