The Micronauts

I’m a Micronauts fan.  I loved the toys.  I had a Space Glider, Acroyear, and set of 3 Time Travelers, plus the Astro Station.  When Marvel released their comic version of the toys, I was immediately hooked.  I have, in one form or another, all the Bill Mantlo-written issues of the Marvel Micronauts series.  There have been a couple efforts to revive the title by other companies, but these didn’t last long, and I think it was due to writing that just wasn’t good enough.  Bill Mantlo isn’t my favorite comic writer, and every storyline in the Micronauts wasn’t great, but he really did some excellent writing over the course of the series.  There were many artists who worked on the title with Mantlo.  The three that define the book to me are co-creator Michael Golden, Butch Guice who drew Mantlo’s final issues, and Pat Broderick who penciled the return of Baron Karza.

The Micronauts was science fiction fun taking place in the Microverse, a sub-atomic realm with lots of planets and human-like and alien beings always involved in one conflict or another.  Most of the conflict had to do with fighting Baron Karza.  The look of the Microverse was very Kirby-esque, which makes sense because Kirby created the Microverse in the pages of the Fantastic Four and Karza was a bad guy in the Darkseid mold. Though the Micronauts made excursions into the mainstream Marvel Universe, they never seemed to belong there as much as they did running around their home worlds, which included Homeworld.

The characters in the comic differed greatly in appearance, and in Acroyear’s case role, than the toys, but they had a chemistry that carries the book.  My favorite was Bug, the funny green guy with a big rocket-lance weapon who made “tiks” when he talked.  Bug’s usual companions included Acroyear and Marionette (pictures below) and Space Glider.

Micronauts drawn by me!