Micronauts #1 (January 1979)

In 1976, the toy company known as Mego debuted a toyline known as the Micronauts. They were licensed from a Japanese toy company. You may have heard of them, a little-known company called Takara. The Micronauts were the American version of Takara's Microman line. The main gimmick of these toys was that they had interchangeable pieces and parts that all were compatible together. Think LEGO, but a bit more restricting.

The Micronauts were a hit for Mego, making over $30 million in sales. As such, it makes sense for the company to want to spread the franchise around. In Christmas of 1977, Marvel writer Bill Mantlo had gotten the idea to write the adventures of the Micronauts after seeing his son get some from Santa Claus. He convinced Jim Shooter, who had become Marvel's Editor-in-Chief in January 1978, to get the license from Mego to make Micronauts comics, and the rest is history. 

The comic we're looking at here is the first issue of their first series. This series lasted surprisingly long, going nearly 60 issues from 1979 to 1984. Not bad for a toy tie-in. Let's look at Micronauts #1! 

The cover is a Dave Cockrum and Al Milgrom piece. It's really cool. It gives me the vibe of an epic sci-fi movie. It depicts the titular Micronauts front and center ready for action, the evil Baron Karza looming over them like a dark shadow. It's really cool.

"Earth!"
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Michael Golden
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Al Milgrom
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with a group of people fleeing a golden city on horseback.

Two of the people in this fleeing group are rather big deals, as they are royalty. In particular, Prince Argon and his sister Princess Mari. They're fleeing a rebellion. The royals' forces are powerful, but the rebellion is mighty in number, as it seems an entire world has risen up against them. They are herded by flying men called Acroyears into a killzone, where Argon and Mari as well as their party are seemingly blasted to death.

"Don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!"

They are hit with special weapons known as Puls-Rays. These guns allow the users to kill their targets...while leaving their bodies intact...and ripe for recycling. Yeah, I get the feeling Mantlo watched Soylent Green. 

However, Prince Argon and Princess Mari managed to escape thanks to help from Argon's horse...who is evidently telepathic. I don't know, it was the 1970s. Drugs were everywhere.

The two royals are only left with a couple guards left and their retainer, the robotic Microtron. It turns out this rebellion was started by a man known only as Baron Karza. Karza offered something to the people of this world...immortality. This won him over with the people of Microworld, and it made them rise up against the royals, killing the king and queen of the planet. Argon wants to get his sister to safety and has summoned a man to take her to what is presumed to be a safe place.

"Uh, Argon? I think he's radioactive! That can't be good!"

She...is shocked by who Argon called in, implying that Argon must be desperate if he's called on General Glow-in-the-Dark here. But before she can leave, Karza's forces have discovered the group. Argon and the few remaining loyal soldiers try to fight them off, but they are easily overwhelmed, leaving everyone seemingly dead except for Argon, who is out like a light.

Baron Karza himself is very pleased with this, as he has dark plans for the prince.

"I shall make him...into a shrubbery!"

As this is going down, a ship arrives after a millennium in space. The HMS Endeavor, commanded by one Arcturus Rann, has been spending the last thousand years exploring the stars, seeing what is out there. Collecting samples. Surveying. Getting into space barfights and catching up on some films on Space Netflix. Rann likely also spent some time hooking up with space chicks. 

An honor guard is there to greet him, in the form of blasting him. This, like Argon, gets him kayoed too and thrown in a cell.

"Dibs on the thigh meat!"

The other occupants in the cell crowd around Rann. They aren't there to welcome him, they are there to make him into their next meal. Literally.

Thankfully, the cell has two other occupants who are not interested in eating him. They smuggled in food because they're civilized.

"Back home, I was a matinee idol! The most handsome man in Insectivor!"

Meet Acroyear and Bug. Rann recognizes them (well, not as individuals) and wonders how they're on Microworld. Especially Bug, as he thought Insectivoroids were not native to the planet. At least, that's what I thought Rann's dialogue was implying, as Acroyears are seemingly native to Microworld. Well, Bug is happy to explain.

It gets a bit confusing here. You see, Bug claims that Rann's ship was traveling using FTL technology (faster-than-light), warp drive was discovered on Homeworld. I'm a Star Trek fan, and that line threw me off. You see, in the Star Trek universe, "warp drive" is how starships travel faster than light. I think what Mantlo was intending to say was that while Rann was out in space, scientists back home on Microworld had found a new method of transportation that was for all intents and purposes, instantaneous. After all, even if you travel faster than light, it will still take time to get somewhere. 

Somehow, this innovation caused the Microverse to break out into war, and it allowed Baron Karza to conquer the planet. Rann is even more confused. After all, he knew Karza in the past. Karza was no baron. He was a teacher at the Science Academy. Rann studied under him. It leads the man to wonder if his thousand-year journey was a waste. I wouldn't say that, Arcturus. I mean, you got to explore the Microverse. You likely got to see a lot of neat stuff, make first contact with other beings, expand the knowledge of your people. That's hardly a waste if you ask me.

Besides, I'd personally be more shocked that a seemingly benevolent science teacher became a tyrant. Outside the cell, Microtron is seemingly manipulating a large puppet in the shape of a woman called Marionette.

"Make it sing 'Freebird'!"

Rann is taken by the seemingly-robotic woman. Bug hints that she's really human, but Acroyear's like Carl in the Simpsons episode that introduced the Stonecutters: "Shut uuuuuuup." 

A day passes. The Great Games have begun! It'll be a big event, baby! Performances, showing off of athletic ability, all the nine yards. In the 24 "xats"...I'm assuming that one "xat" is equivalent to around 41-42 Earth years, as Rann was out in space for around a thousand years, and assuming that Karza took over not long after he left, and 1000 divided by 24 is 41.66666666666667. But then again, that could be affected by the exact time this warp drive was developed, which supposedly led to Karza taking over-!

Right, right. Since he took over, Baron Karza had pacified the population of Microworld with religious propaganda, the Body Banks granting seeming immortality, and endless entertainments. It's all bread and circuses. As long as the population of Microworld is fed and entertained, they don't care what Karza does to them. 

Arcturus Rann is herded alongside his fellow prisoners into the arena, presumably to fight for people's entertainment. Baron Karza is clearly fond of Ancient Rome. Bug notes that something is wrong. The performing robot woman we saw earlier is actually Princess Mari, who's now working with the resistance. She's supposed to be at the gate, letting in the Resistance to attack and liberate the prisoners. But she's performing, so who's going to open the gate?!

And now Karza decides to release the monster the prisoners will be fighting: the Deathtank!

"Ladies, gentlemen, whatever you choose to identify as, it's TANKIN' TIME!"

Yes, Karza has a tank.

You all have no idea how long I wanted to use that one. Anyway, the prisoners try to fight the tank, but them being prisoners, they presumably don't have any decent weaponry. And of course, the Deathtank is, well...a tank, you can guess how this fight will go. Acroyear tells Rann to stay back, as he's an X-Factor. No, not that X-Factor. Not that one, either. And definitely not this X-Factor. Basically, he's someone Karza really does not want around. Makes you wonder what makes Rann so special that Karza didn't just kill him. Maybe he likes his face. 

The battle goes badly...but Bug has a secret weapon.

You see, he implies that Bug was looked down on, and they didn't check him for hidden weapons. And because of that, Bug has a handy pocket bomb that is perfect for crippling a Deathtank. Prince Shaitan, an ally of Karza's is nervous about this, but Karza is like "Relax, dude. I planned for this."

Acroyear finishes the Deathtank off, Karza remarking that Acroyear is Shaitan's estranged brother.

Rann thinks he could stop this madness if he just got to talk to Karza, but the mysterious Time Traveler tells him that won't work. Karza is not the man he knew a millennium ago anymore...if he's even a man anymore. Rann has to leave. And none too soon as the stadium starts getting blown up thanks to charges planted by the resistance. 

Rann, Acroyear, and Bug head to a futuristic van, where Microtron and Marionette are waiting for them.

Acroyear fights his fellow Acroyears, telling them he will have his traitorous brother's head. Mari tells them to get on board, swearing to Dallan and Sepsis. Rann recognizes those names...as they are of his parents.

Imagine a parent who shares a name with a genus of fly or a life-threatening response to an infection. Or maybe "Sepsis" in the Microverse tongue means "Nice Person". Who knows? But that's not important. 

The Time Traveler explains they were the first to rise up against Karza 1,000 years earlier. And Karza put them in his Body Banks for it. Since then, the two have been deified as symbols of freedom. Shaitan is wondering why Karza is letting this attack happen. Karza points out that there's another X-factor at work here, and he wants to see it reveal itself. He's presumably referencing the Time Traveler.

The future team of Micronauts notice that their pursuers are also backing off. They take it as a boon and get out of there in the Endeavor. 

The ship is old, but she has been through some things and has gotten modified by Biotron and Rann over the millennium out in space. It's been to the fringes of the Microverse, and now...they are going beyond.

The story ends with the Endeavor flying into space, the narration revealing they'll end up going...to Earth.

This was a fun story. It's your classic tale of a plucky band of rebels coming together to fight a maniacal tyrant ruling the planet with an iron fist. There were some headscratching moments. Arcturus Rann did say he was in space for 1,000 years, and that does raise some implications of the length of Microverse natives' lifespan. I also wondered how a new transport system led to Karza taking over the Microverse, but I can imagine that will be explored further in future issues. But still, it was a fun story. A bit basic, but it does the job, telling the tale of how our heroes got together. 

As for Michael Golden's art, I have to admit, when I first saw it, I wanted to compare it to Hal Foster's Prince Valiant stuff, but the comparison didn't quite work to me. But it does look quite different than your standard superhero comic, which does work here, as the Micronauts are not strictly superheroes per se. They will go on to meet Marvel's mightiest heroes, but in general, they're not superheroes. They're freedom fighters. Rebels. Dedicated to bringing down a corrupt system. Kind of timely, if you ask me. 

For many years, the original Marvel Micronauts series was never collected in trade paperback. Mainly because it came out in a time before trades became common, and the license lapsed in the mid-1980s. It left the characters in a bit of an odd place. Acroyear and Baron Karza were part of the original toyline, so Marvel did not own them. However, because Marionette, Arcturus Rann, and Bug were created for this comic, Marvel does own them. They have appeared in other series over the years. Most notably, Bug was a Guardian of the Galaxy for a while. And the Microverse has appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You may know it as the Quantum Realm. 

In 2023, Marvel managed to reobtain the comics license to the Micronauts from Hasbro (the current owners of the franchise), and they collected the series in Omnibus and trade form for the first time. My scans are from a reprint of the first issue, but I do recommend you track down the 2025 trade Micronauts Epic Collection Vol. 1: They Came from Inner Space. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and want to give this blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!