we’re going to revisit a 1970s comic book that was based on a line of toys that were based on another line of toys but had its own solid 59 issues run for Marvel Comics. I’m talking about our friends from inner space the Micronauts. Back in the 70s toy company Mego released a line of science fiction based toys called Micronauts that was based on a Japanese line of toys called Microman by a company called Takara. But this episode isn’t about the history of the Micronauts brand. Instead, we’re going to focus on the first issue of the Marvel Comics series that hit the spinner racks on September 19th, 1978. Marvel is a big comic brand in action category just like Savita Bhabhi comic character in india.
Comic included both original characters and characters directly based on the ego toys. The story begins with a splash page of Prince Argon and Princess Mari being chased by the Acro years as their planet Home world is in the middle of a rebellion. The rebellion’s goal was to annihilate the ruling class of Home world. Prince Argon’s men have been cut down and he and Mari, now fugitives, find brief shelter from the pursuing Acroyears. Mari can’t understand why the masses turned on them. But her droid, I mean robot attendant, Microtron and Argon Know it’s the result of the evil Baron Karza’s promise of immortality to the masses if they accept his rule. Argon summons the Time Traveler to get them out of danger, but as Mari questions Argon’s reason for summoning this power of the Enigma Force, Baron Karza’s dog soldiers bombard their hideout. Argan and his men make one last push but are quickly cut down.
Argon survives but Baron Karza himself appears in centaur form and orders Argon taken prisoner and transferred to the body banks. As all this plays out commander Arcturus Rann, in his ship the Endeavor, has the unfortunate timing of returning to Home world from a 1,000-year voyage unaware of the rebellion taking place. He mistakes the military action for a hero’s welcome, but as a member of the elite class he’s quickly knocked out and captured by Karza’s dog soldiers. Arcturus wakes up in a prison cell surrounded by other life-forms that are ready to have him for dinner. He’s quickly saved by fellow prisoners Bug and Acro year but is confused as to how they could even be on Home world when he discovered their life forms 700 years earlier and they wouldn’t have had the means to travel to the world with only light drive capability.
It turns out while Arcturus was on his one thousand year voyage the warp drive was created on Home world which allowed his people to travel to distant planets within the Microverse and made his journey pointless. It also led to a war within the Microverse with Baron Karza defeating and subjugating all other races. Arcturus and Karza I have a history one thousand years earlier Baron Karza was Arcturus Rann’s professor. But if that news wasn’t shocking enough wait till you hear what happened to Arcturus Rann’s parents. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Cut to chapter 3 in this issue and the Roman style games with prisoners as the entertainment are about to begin as Karza, evil Acro year Shaitan and Shadow Priest observe from their seats. Down on the sandy floor of the arena Maridis guises herself as a roboid dancer named Marionette with Microtron as her impresario.
Arcturus is distracted from the possibility of death by Marionettes beauty and Bug lets him in on the secret that she’s actually Princess Mari, a member of the resistance, and she’s organizing their escape. But they’ll have to get past the death tank first! Acro year holds Arcturus back. It’s his and bug’s responsibility to protect him. Bug knocks out the death tank and Acro year, Prince Shaitan’s good brother, finishes it off as the resistances bombs rock the stadium. Time traveler appears to transport them to safety, and while Arcturus still has a lot of questions about what he’s missed over the last thousand years, Mari’s reference to the gods Dallan and sepsis triggers Arcturus. Not only was Dallan and Sepsis the first member’s home world to defy Baron Karza 1,000 years earlier giving them god status, but there were also Arcturus Rann’s parents. Baron Karza senses an unknown force and instructs Shaitan to let the insurgents reach Arcturus’s ship in order for it to reveal itself. Once on the Endeavor, Arcturus and the gang are pursued by a much faster patrol.
But Arcturus bets the patrol ships don thave the capability to penetrate to the fringes, and they begin their warp toward. When I first read Micronauts in the early eighties it was simply an enjoyable space saga. But when I revisited the first seven issues last year, the stories really resonated with me and now I consider Micronauts one of the more underrated Marvel titles of that era and some of writer Bill Mantlo’s best work. But you really have to take some elements of Micronauts number one with a grain of salt. It’s a fast-paced story because out of 32 pages16 are devoted to the story 1 page to editorial 1 page to character backgrounds and a whopping 14 pages of ads. As a result, some elements of the plot are resolved a little bit too easily while others need to be taken at face value because of the lack of backstory. While the Microverse has been represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Quantum Realm, the film rights to Micronauts are currently held by Hasbro and Paramount with a feature film scheduled for 2021.
