The Micronauts

They began as a line of toys "inspired" by STAR WARS: a black-armored villain named Baron Karza, the Han Solo figure called Space Glider, the armored stormtroopers called Acroyear, tall and short robots like Biotron and Microtron, and assorted vehicles which could interchange parts to form bigger vehicles. In that sunset of unsafe toys, the Micronaut ships fired rubber-tipped projectiles which choked a child or two. Marvel Comics signed a deal to produce a licensed comic series based on the toys, as they had also done with THE SHOGUN WARRIORS and would later do with ROM.

I came aboard with the second annual, picking it up on a whim in a convenience store; interested by the concept, I started to collect it, passionately searching for back issues and walking downtown to a malt shop to buy new issues once a month. It was the series which got me back into collecting comics after giving them up earlier in childhood. It still holds a special place in my heart and I am happy to see that it still holds up pretty well almost 20 years down the road.

The writer of the book, Bill Mantlo, was determined not to copy STAR WARS any more than the toys already had. He had enjoyed some success, and controversy, as the man who succeeded Steve Gerber on HOWARD THE DUCK before legal difficulties forced the book's cancellation. Using the mythology of the toys, Mantlo and artist Michael Golden created a universe- or Microverse, to be precise- and a history for the characters. They created Homeworld, the embattled birthplace of the Microverse, a giant molecule where each particle houses a different race. It was once a peaceful place under the rule of the benevolent royal family, Dallan and Sepsis; their son, Arcturus Rann, departed in an exploring spaceship called the Endeavor on a thousand-year voyage to the farthest reaches of the Microverse, with his robot navigator Biotron.

In Rann's absence, chief scientist Karza his parents and usurped the throne, using a combination of black magic and darker science to extend his own life and sell immortality to a wealthy ruling class by farming the poor for young body parts (or even whole bodies). After subjugating Homeworld, Karza's scientists created ships with a more powerful drive than the Endeavor's: they visited the same worlds that Rann had centuries before, conquering them instead of making good on promises of friendship.

The series begins with the return of Commander Rann to Homeworld: as he learns all of the above to his horror, he is forced to watch a gladiator contest which is won by a pair of alien warriors: Acroyear of the stone planet Spartak, and Bug of the "insectivorid" planet Kaliklak. They manage to escape from the coliseum with the aid of Princess Mari, who leads a rebellion with her brother Argon, and their and servant robot Microtron. The six Micronauts escape Homeworld in the Endeavor, with the help of a mysterious glowing green figure named Time Traveller, pass through something called "the spacewall" which separates the Microverse from our own. Still pursued by Karza's "dog soldiers", they crash land- where else?- on Earth. Where they stand just six inches tall: the size of a toy.

The fully realized world of The Micronauts, firing on all cylinders right from the first issue, is a rarity in comics. As much as the toys were inspired by STAR WARS, the comic series owes (and pays) a debt to great comics of the past. The name Rann comes from the homeworld of Adam Strange. The original creation named Bug is based on "The Bug" from Jack Kirby's NEW GODS- not to mention Baron Karza himself (Darkseid), his chief scientist Degrayde (Desaad), Time Traveller (Metron), and the separation of the Microverse from our own (as New Genesis and Apokolips were, accessible only via "boom tube.") The Microverse itself was preceded by an issue of The Fantastic Four called "Worlds Within Worlds," as well as a famous story about The Hulk written by Harlan Ellison, in which the green guy is shrunken into a subatomic universe and, regaining human intelligence, falls in love with a native of that Microverse (which, to my recollection, never did meet up with Mantlo's).

The genius of THE MICRONAUTS concept, in my opinion, was the fact that the characters' salvation lay in hiding among giants who might inadvertently destroy them. They would alternate between their home universe and our own. In our world, they encountered a wide array of classic super-villains (or allies) and less exotic dangers, including The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Man-Thing, Molecule Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers, Arcade, Nightmare, Plant-Man, Ant-Man, Dr. Strange.. and instead of the usual "let's have a misunderstanding and fight" plot which such team-ups employ, these combinations made sense at the time and advanced a greater agenda.

One of the more memorable creations in the series was a "Dial H for Hero" type called Captain Universe ("The Hero Who Could Be You!") The Captain was a superpower looking for a person to wield it in a time of need: a cosmic extension of "The Enigma Force" which Time Traveller represented. As a showdown neared between Karza and The Micronauts back at Homeworld, the Travellers intervened and brought their powers (wielded by Commander Rann) to bear against the dark forces. It was revealed that it was Rann, during his thousand year journey, who created the Travellers in the first place, leaving spiritual pieces of himself behind.

The Enigma Force was one of several examples of how the different races of the Microverse had spiritual or telepathic connections with their homes and could draw on them for strength. The most vivid example of this was Spartak, the Acroyear homeworld which actually had sentience and which invited the warrior race to settle there. When its adopted people were threatened, this "Worldmind" would lend its energy to a host, usually the king or queen of the Acroyear race. Similarly, the hivelike world of Kaliklak was ruled by an Insectivorid queen who had a unique death-sting.

After the first defeat of Baron Karza in the series' first dozen issues- an award-winning run and some of the best storytelling of the time- Michael Golden departed the book. He was replaced briefly with Howard Chaykin, whose run was not memorable artwise; then came Pat Broderick, who followed Golden's example of dramatic layouts, lots of zip-a-tone and shapely women. He stuck with the book for almost two years, through a rebirth (and re-defeat) of Baron Karza. After issue 35 or so, he was gone, replaced by some fill-in artists including Val Mayerik, Kelley Jones, Keith Giffen, Steve Ditko (who also drew both Annuals and a few MARVEL SPOTLIGHT issues about Captain Universe), and a nice run by Gil Kane, who went on to other pint-sized exploits with his popular SWORD OF THE ATOM series for DC.

Broderick's departure also roughly coincided with the collapse of Mego toys and the canellation of the Micronauts toy line, which allowed Mantlo a little more creative freedom. No longer did a corporate agreement demand that the 'Nauts spend all of their time on Earth, forcing the creators to come up with new Lilliputian situations. The latter half of the series took more of the exploration and contact with other worlds which Mantlo originally wanted.

During this transition, THE MICRONAUTS was one of three books (the other two being KA-ZAR and MOON KNIGHT) to take part in Marvel's "great" direct sales experiment of the early '80s. It was announced that it would not be available on newsstands any longer, just by subscription and through direct sales stores, which were not very common then. I had been getting my copies through subscription for a while; at one point, circa 1982, I received two copies of an issue which had both been bound for New Brunswick but got stuck together. I forwarded the comic to its owner, one Jean-Pierre Morin from Moncton, with a brief note. He wrote back to say thanks, and, being a young cartoonist himself, sent me some nice fan artwork. We began to correspond, met once, and decided to establish a fan club for the book.

I wrote a fan letter announcing such a club- a primitive APA called TOMAS- which was printed in issue #48. There were a healthy number of respondents, and one issue of the fanzine was produced. Not long afterward, I got a letter from J.P. McClernan, a former member of APA Centauri who was then recruiting for S-TAPA (devoted to super-teams). I had no idea what he was talking about and never wrote back. A while later, I read the famous Comics Scene article about APAs and joined APA Centauri, where I remained a member for 15 years.

A fellow named Jackson "Butch" Guice took over the artwork on the book from Gil Kane. His cartoony style was reminscent of Golden and Broderick, infusing some new energy into what was becoming an otherwise repetitive and rambling story. Mantlo was running out of things to say, ultimately casting Karza as Yin to the Micronauts' Yang, two forces which would rise and fall against each other forever. This may not be surprising given the report that he had originally envisioned the book as a 50-issue miniseries, intended to conclude with the storyline that had won such acclaim during its first year, and a lot more exploration of the Microverse in between.

It all built up to a "final" confrontation with Karza in #58; an underwhelming swan song from Mantlo, who was jumping ship with Guice to a new creator-owned Epic series called SWORDS OF THE SWASHBUCKLERS. Far more interesting was the previous issue, #57, "The World of Never-Summer," based on an Ojibway folk tale.

The final issue, #59, was scripted by Peter B. Gillis, who had written some lackluster Star Trek comics and did not serve The Micronauts any better. The issue served as a sort of epitaph, with each character meditating on what they had seen in their adventures. Ennh. The series was rebooted immediately afterward as MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES, available again on the newsstands, scripted by Gillis. Somewhere along the line, Mantlo and Gillis got so interested in the spiritual, magical aspects of the book, as well as the myriad worlds of the Microverse, that they lost the direction which drove the book for its first few years.

I was going to conclude this article with a lament that some good comics (and characters) were probably forever consigned to the quarter bins, but I have heard of proposals for a new series called MICROVERSE, presumably using the original characters and locales which were not part of the toy line- although now that Marvel owns a toy line, perhaps they have also acquired the rights to the toys anyway. Apparently an Acroyear was also sighted in an issue of ALPHA FLIGHT, and there was a very amusing BUG one-shot not long ago. I guess it was only a matter of time...