There is something oddly comforting about a story that begins with humanity already gone. If Destruction Be Our Lot places into a world where humans have long been dead, leaving the robots who cared for them to carry on without us. Brother writing duo, Matthew Rosenberg & Mark Elijah Rosenberg, along with artist Andy MacDonald take this cold, post-apocalyptic setting, and turn it into something surprisingly human while we follow a robot that refuses to accept that what the world is like not is all that there is.

Humanity is extinct and all that remains are the robots who once helped us. The robots that once helped us are happier now, doing their work without human interference. But not Abraham Lincoln. Abe is haunted by the thought that there must be something more out there—that somewhere, human beings might still exist. After nearly getting killed, he's determined to wander the Earth until he finds them. . . or gets recycled trying. Join him on an epic quest to learn who lives beyond the walls, why no one ever comes back, and what it means to be truly alive.

Matthew and Mark Elijah have crafted a tale in If Destruction Be Our Lot, that is about the robots we left behind after humans have seemingly gone extinct, but really finds a way to make the story feel more human as the pages turn. There is this emotional connection felt between the reader and our new friend, the robotic Abraham Lincoln that the writing duo was able to conjure up and I was not expecting at all, but glad it exists.

This story would've been amazing to follow along, even without Abe Lincoln as the face of the robot main character. However, Lincoln being the thing to break the mold and his everyday duties as a robot, serving the humans, makes the story all that more unique and special. Abe is now the character to think outside the box, wonder what else there is for these robots now that the humans are not around. Using Lincoln as the main character is such a great choice, as we get to see the 16th President of the United States explore this post-apocalyptic landscape as a robot looking for a better tomorrow, even after the actual person lived and died doing something similar.

The first chapter sets the story in place, but it's the rest of the first volume that ratchets things up a bit. Lincoln is on a search for what else is out there, but ends up going through so stuff along the way. The first four chapters of this story is a true whirlwind and goes places I had never expected to go. A former human-serving robot is beaten down, and broken, but still attempting to continue his search. Even after four amazing first installments, there are so many unanswered questions that make you want more.

Building on the humanity of it all, the illustrations by MacDonald and colors by Francesco Segala, bring that human side of things to a cold and jagged world. The art team finds a way to include some warmth, beauty, and human elements into a robotic and dark future. A desolate world that feels there is some hope on the horizon, even if the present seems hard to get through.

Writing duo Matthew Rosenberg & Mark Elijah Rosenberg and artist Andy MacDonald find humanity in a cold and robotic future where humans are seemingly long gone in If Destruction Be Our Lot. A science-fiction adventure where a lonely robot Abraham Lincoln searches for a new purpose in a post-apocalyptic world that is fighting back. With unanswered questions abound, this first volume is a must-read, but makes you want so much more...in a good way.

If Destruction Be Our Lot is about a world of sentient robots in a future with no humans. In a bit of irony, the main character is an Abraham Lincoln robot. There are some great philosophical questions raised. The illustrations are full color and quite amazing.

Looking forward to the next volume!

Making the main character a sentient animatronic Abraham Lincoln was inspired. There is real heart here, as well as dry wit and adventure with some real depth. This is a superior effort.

Just like the first half hour of WALL-E where the humans are gone and it is just robots pursuing their programming, If Destruction Be Our Lot, Volume 1 opens in a technology rich dystopia. Despite the improved efficiencies, some robots struggle to continue, especially ones designed with specific human centric functions like making breakfast. One robot who seems unmoored by the world is an replica Abraham Lincoln, he had been daily performing his 1838 Lyceum Address, but seems to be breaking down.

After a confrontation that sees him rebooting, Robot Abe sets out in search of something more. If possible to find out where the human have gone. He hijacks a bus and drives to the end of the road, then he falls afoul of the authorities and must figure out how to survive where robots are 're-processed.' If he makes it out of the depths, he will have a new clear purpose.

The start of what could be an epic quest to explore a world much changed, but facing the same questions, what is our purpose and can we find that purpose through connections with others?

Recommended for readers or fans of the Murderbot Diaries, Fall Out or our world post humanity.

Funny and chaotic and beautifully illustrated. More ideas thrown my way than I expect out of a frustratingly slender volume -- one that leaves me anxious to read the next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Image comics, the authors, and the illustrator for the advanced reading copy of If Destruction Be Our Lot!

If Destruction Be Our Lot follows Abraham Lincoln, defunct tour robot programmed to be the 16th president of the United States, as he grapples with loneliness in the aftermath of the robot revolution. He is a robot that resembles humans and holds no useful function in the new society, so he is an outcast and wanders the city while reciting Lincoln's famous speeches. One lonely bus ride becomes world-shattering as the bus serves around a very real and very alive human. No other bot believes what he has seen, so Abe must continue his pursuit for the truth alone. Are humans still alive? And if they are, where have they been all these years?

Full transparency, I have been buying the individual issues of this comic, so when I saw an ARC available on the site, I couldn't resist getting the end of the first volume a little quicker than everyone else. I love the world building and the idea that hierarchical structures persist even past the robot revolution, as there were obviously some bots left behind in the dust once the robots rose up. As this is only the first four issues of the series, I am really interested in where they story is headed and the implications presented by a living human. The story does drag in some areas, but I am sure those detours will pay off in future issues. The artwork is so intricate and well done, I especially like the designs of the robots. When I was first looking at the comic I was worried they would all be humanoid robots like Abe, so I am really happy with the wide range of designs.

This fantastic volume collects issues 1-4 of the sci-fi dystopian comic If Destruction Be Our Lot.

In the future, a city is filled with robots and automatons after humanity has died out on Earth. The story begins with an Abraham Lincoln robot trying to give the “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher” speech to a group of uninterested robots.

I loved this comic! It is beautifully illustrated and really well written. Many of the robots are still doing something close to the tasks they were originally designed for, while others have found ways to exploit their fellow robots. There is a nice mix of dark dystopia, hopeful optimism, and whimsy. Mostly, I loved that the themes of humanity, purpose, and what it means to be alive are explored through a group of robots.

This is a wonderful start to an exciting new comic. This story arc is concluded, but it leaves off in an exciting new direction. I will definitely be on the lookout for more from this series.

Art: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
My Enjoyment: 5/5

*** I received an ARC and am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

This is a fun start to a post apocalyptic comic where humans have been mostly wiped out and robots are running the show. Robot society seems to function mostly the same as human society, every bot for themselves. It was interesting that Rosenberg made the lead robot Abraham Lincoln and I'm definitely interested in learning more about how and why he functions the way he does. The art was great! I look forward to reading more of this series.

My absolute favorite thing about this comic is the silly ways the robots' curses are censored–especially the bus saying "What the PING DING are you doing!". I love this kind of silliness, especially in a post-apocalyptic setting. There's so much character to each robot and many different ways it's revealed. I could read multiple hundred pages of the robots' daily lives and nothing else; I wish I were a little stray cat just walking around, watching and listening to them just hanging around.

The muted colors work so well for this setting and make the more colorful special effects so effective, the art style is really nice.

This volume is a good setup for the story and characters, but I'm not quite hooked yet. Although it seems like this will be more of a character-driven story, which is my favorite kind of story, so I'm really excited to see more of them. I might've even shed a little tear seeing what Abe's home port looks like... It's so easy to get invested in whatever this guy gets himself into.

Like a cyberpunk Night at the Museum, the Rosenbergs basically get to do a showcase for appx 100 pages. Highly recommended.

A very interesting book. I was really intrigued by the portrayal of this world devoid of humans, yet where the story is told through the eyes of the most human(-like) robot of them all.
The pacing of the narrative is spot on, and the illustrations and colours effectively convey the desolation of this universe. I was really disappointed to see it cut short just as it was getting really good; I’m curious to find out how the story will unfold.
An excellent start.

Book Review: If Destruction Be Our Lot Volume 1 by Matthew Rosenberg and Mark Elijah Rosenberg

I picked up If Destruction Be Our Lot, Volume 1 because I heard it described as WALL-E meets Fallout, and honestly, that was enough to get me to try it. I love Fallout, and I can definitely see the comparison in the post-apocalyptic setting, strange remnants of civilization, dangerous wasteland, and the particular combination of bleakness and absurdity. But this also has a bit of Detroit: Become Human in its DNA, especially in the way it imagines robots developing their own society after humanity has largely disappeared from their world. The funny thing is that they haven't exactly created some enlightened robot utopia. This is a gritty dystopia that is somehow dystopian even for the robots, complete with social hierarchies, violence, exploitation, bureaucracy, and all the other charming characteristics of civilization. It is a genuinely cool premise, and I really liked how committed the book is to making this world feel dirty, strange, and lived-in rather than turning the robots into cute little WALL-E clones.

Abe is what really makes the story work for me. Making the protagonist a robot version of Abraham Lincoln is already inherently absurd, but he isn't treated purely as a joke. He is curious, lonely, stubborn, and increasingly dissatisfied with the narrow life he's been given. One of my favorite little details is that he keeps a plant in his apartment and takes care of it. It is such a small glimpse of tenderness in an otherwise harsh world, and it gives Abe this unexpected humanity despite the fact that he is literally a machine. The book also has a wonderfully strange sense of humor, particularly when Abe gets himself into increasingly ridiculous situations. There is a sequence involving him getting high that is both completely absurd and somehow perfectly consistent with the tone of the book. I like that the story can move from philosophical questions about consciousness and purpose to genuinely ridiculous robot nonsense without feeling like it has completely changed genres.

Spoilers: The encounter with the human girl is where the story really starts to open up. Abe eventually comes face-to-face with an actual human, proving that the assumption that humanity is gone is completely wrong. The encounter itself is chaotic, and when she is knocked unconscious, Abe ends up holding her, creating this unexpectedly gentle moment between two beings who are supposed to have nothing to do with one another. Then they both essentially panic and flee, which is a very funny way for this potentially world-changing revelation to unfold. Abe goes home afterward and returns to his ordinary routine, including taking care of his little plant, and I actually loved that juxtaposition. He has just encountered a living human, something that should fundamentally change his understanding of the world, and yet there he is back in his apartment tending to a plant. It makes the story feel less like a grand chosen-one narrative and more like the story of a strange individual whose curiosity keeps dragging him farther into something much bigger than himself.

The final stretch shifts the scale again. After everything that has happened, Abe works his way through the tunnel system and eventually reaches the desert, where he starts trekking into this completely unfamiliar landscape. And that is where the volume ends. I actually liked the decision to leave him there rather than immediately explain everything. The human girl has already shattered his assumptions about the world, but the desert suggests that what he has discovered is only the beginning. I really enjoyed this book. The art is easily one of my favorite things about it, with that grimy, industrial, almost battered aesthetic that makes the robot world feel genuinely dystopian. The story is weird, funny, violent, occasionally surprisingly sweet, and just philosophical enough to give all the absurdity some substance. I went in expecting a fun Fallout-ish robot apocalypse and got something that feels much more distinctive. 4 stars.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Is it on the nose to open a 2026 comic with a replica Abraham Lincoln being mocked and beaten by robots? Perhaps, but the times are beyond subtlety. It's hardly new to show us robots who, generations beyond the end of humanity, find themselves just as dissatisfied, their society as unequal and sclerotic, as was the case for their fleshy progenitors – think Service Model, D4VE, Saturn's Children. But even if those mostly had more finely tuned satirical and existential chops, where this is happy to run with a sort of manic picaresque, it hits harder for coming out as we watch our democracy and culture get chewed up by the apparently unstoppable, despite also mostly being inept, maw of AI.

(Netgalley ARC)

I love a future without humanity because even during times of climate crisis the world will persist even without us. This comic explores that with a population of robots who would rather forget about humans.

I found the sheer melancholy of Abraham similar to that of some people right now blackpilling themselves. The humour was punchy, it definitely reminded me of the movie robots a bit! I think the art style also lended itself to that.

My major question is Why Do Sci Fi Authors Love Abe Lincoln So Much. Please advise.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

I’ve been reading a lot lately about robots, but honestly, the conscience question is one that is still unanswered and therefore I can read quite more about it yet. And, if there is a robot to question those things, an robotic Abraham Lincon feels fitting.

I love the art style. The noir vibes fit so incredibly and the colors help so much to bring the story to life.

The notion that humans are the scary ones… pretty fucking cool.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy!

I very rarely read BD or graphic novels, for no particular reason really, but it's not a genre I'm much interested in. However, when the graphics really hold my eyes, especially if it's sci-fi or fantasy, then I can give it a try. And I'm glad I did with this one because I had a great time! I read it in one sitting while I was at the park, it was very immersive and particularly beautiful, I could totally see myself as part of the story. The plot is also amazing, I was hooked, and honestly it made me want to read it as an entirely written series!

So, I definitely recommend it, even for sci-fi/fantasy lovers who usually don't tend to read graphic novels!

Great read!! The story about Abraham Lincoln robot that is unique compared to other normal robot. He was unusual and human like. Human are a rarity in their times. He found a human kid and it makes him more broken as he couldn’t forget about that child. He journeys to find that human child back. Well it left on cliffhanger so i cant wait for Volume 2!!!

#IfDestructionBeOurLot Volume 1 A House Divided Written by #MatthewRosenberg & #MarkElijahRosenberg Illustrated by #AndyMacDonald is an action packed journey about what it means to be alive in a world of robots after humans have seemed to have left them behind. Energetic art fleshes out the world. Thank you #ImageComics & #NetGalley for the opportunity to review the e-ARC. #BookSky

If Destruction Be Our Lot Volume 1: A house divided
collects the first four issues in the series. It’s a fast paced story of a world where robots reign supreme after humanity went extinct. Our protagonist Abe is a fun character who while he knows he’s a robot also seems to think he’s really honest Abe. The two main side characters of volume one, Bus and Speed, play off Abe’s curiosity well. Speed in particular is a fun little play on Wall-e.
That art is beautiful. The colors and designs make everything feel alive. Having a character who’s look is well established be surrounded by a plethora of different robot models is a smart choice.
Rosenberg has again created a wonderfully offbeat story that plays with genre tropes and creates endearing characters. By the end of volume 1 it feels like the story is just kicking into high gear. Volume 2 can’t come soon enough.

Thank you Matthew Rosenberg, NetGalley, and Image Comics for the ARC.

How would a world be without people and only robots? What would happen to them when they are gone? What world would we leave behind. This comic explores these questions and more. Haunting but oddly beautiful, the comic follows a robot who looks like Abe Lincoln. A humanoid robot in a city with no humans is an odd sight. He wants to know what happened to humans and what purpose he has without them. I can't wait to read vol 2, as the ending was a huge cliffhanger! Excellent read.

I read this in one sitting. It was so good. Left me hanging for more tho.

I may be reading too much into it but I understood that maybe it has some criticism on what society has become. I have two theories: on the one hand they’re talking about IA and on the other hand they refer to the cold, un-feeling world we have. I personally like the last one better so I’m gonna believe that’s it, that’s my final interpretation on it.
It made me so sad to understand how alone Abe feels, how we shoot a fix of dopamine just to not think about how shitty our lives are. However, he doesn’t give up on his search and I want to think that we, the people who read, are kind of wired that way too: we don’t give up on our search of a better world, even if it isn’t our own.
Even though this made me deeply sad, it also made me laugh. I was cackling at the sassy interactions with Bus and Speed.
Honestly no bad notes here.

There's something so endearing about a robot acting human. Especially such a recognizable robot. This story was fun, adventurous, funny, and silly. The dialogue was a little campy at times, but I was along for the ride! Excited to read the sequels and see where Abe will lead us next.