I'm not sure why I recently decided to reread & nit this series, but here are the Micronits. *ducks for cover* ;-)

My friend the Marvel fan had suggested this to me and surprisingly it was the only regular Marvel series I bought in the '70s.

The Micronauts were a Mego toy line, but the book definitely seemed aimed at a much older audience than the toys. What with the carefully poised nudity, violence & immortality from scavenging body parts from the dead, I don't think parents would have appreciated their young brats being exposed to it.

Oh, yeah, and it was a blatant Star Wars knockoff too. ;-) Matter of fact let's just get that part out of the way right up front.

Baron Karza = Darth Vader
There were differences. Karza has some kind metal strands that sorta moved like hair and he could become a centaur for no adequately explained reason & his armor had some red parts on it. Also he seemed to lack Vader's ability to manipulate the Force. However Karza does launch his hand at a guy and strangle him from a distance in issue 4.

Princess Mari (Marionette) = Princess Leia
Obviously they both had that Princess thing in common. Marionette was better looking and had a more pleasant personality, but both were strong women fighters, not afraid to speak their mind.

Commander Arcturus Rann (Space Glider) = Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
I don't think anyone actually called him Space Glider I believe that was just the toy he was based on. As the hero & pilot of the Endeavor he sorta fills the roles of Luke & Han and being a 1000 years out of date kinda makes him naive like Luke, but I think that's as far as the resemblances go.

Endeavor = Millennium Falcon
Especially in the first scene showing it. Other shots of it show a very different looking ship.

Biotron = C3P0
Well, they're both tall.

Microtron = R2D2
They're both short. ;-) At least we can understand what Microtron says unlike R2.

The Enigma Force = The Force
Well, the name is similar. ;-)

Energy Blade = Lightsaber
Well, a low rent one. It seems to be more of a blade charged with energy rather than a blade formed of energy.

And at the end of the first issue the Micronauts are allowed to escape from Karza's clutches with a tracking device on board the Endeavor, just like Vader allowing the Millennium Falcon to escape from the Death Star.

#1 Homeworld!
I wonder if Commander Rann's name came from Adam Strange's adopted planet?

Bug (Galactic Warrior) is referred to as an Insectivorid. Is that what they called themselves or is that just what Rann designated them when he got to their world 700 years earlier.

Oddly enough people in the Microverse refer to their universe as the Microverse & in issue 2 Rann will refer to himself & the others as Micronauts. Until the Endeavor breaks through the Spacewall no one, except Time Traveler, knew there were other universes. Does Micro mean something different in the Microverse?

For that matter, the Microverse will be used in later Marvel Comics, however do these comics ever refer to the Acroyears, Insectivorids or Baron Karza's rule?

Star Wars wasn't the only thing Bill Mantlo was 'borrowing' from. Karza's ships fire Photon Torpedoes & in issue 2 Phaser Flares. I wonder if Paramount knew about this?
Also the Body Banks seems to come from Larry Niven's stories.

#2 Earth!
The little introductory thing at the top of the first page of issues 2-4 & 7 reads, "The Microverse - - a subatomic solar system" No, I don't think so. There are more than one star down there & I don't think it would take a 1000 years to traverse one solar system.

Starting with this issue they also 'borrow' from Land Of The Giants.

The description of Karza's Body Banks sounds like a description of Apokolips from Jack Kirby's New Gods.

#3 Death-Duel At Daytona Beach!
Why do I think the title came first & the story later? ;-)

Page 11, Panel 5. Time Traveler is called Time Traveller. This nit will pop up several times in coming issues. (I admit it. I noticed that mistake because I also misspell Traveler with 2 L's.)

The most bizarre, & inspired, aspect of this duel is when it takes place at a skate park with skateboarders doing tricks amidst a battle between tiny spaceships & aliens. What were Mantlo and/or Golden smoking when they came up with that? ;-)

At the end the police arrive because the skate park owner has called them about being attacked by toy spaceships. *snicker* When they arrive one policeman says, "Bring the Breatholator!"
Breatholator? I've always heard them called Breathalyzers, not Breatholators. Does anyone know if that is a legitimate term or not?

#4 A Hunting We Will Go!
According to the indicia in this and later issues, Mego has a Trademark on Galactic Warrior, Battle Cruisers & Slugs.
Galactic Warrior seems like a rather vague description.
I thought Battle Cruisers was an actual name of a type of ship? (Must be embarrassing for the Navy having to get permission from a toy company to call their ships battle cruisers. ;-)
If Mego has a Trademark on Slugs I wish they would pick all of them up and take them out of Washington State. ;-)

Oddly enough there is a rebel leader named Slug in the story, but not Slugs.

In issue 2 Homeworld's sky was described as Ochre, but here it's Azure.

Surprisingly there are Royalist supporters amongst the poor of Homeworld, and the poor are described as living in the underground sewer section. Why would anyone who lives under those conditions support the leaders?

It sounds like Mari is saying that Rann's parents died before Rann left Homeworld, although Rann was surprised to discover his parents had been murdered by Karza & a later issue shows them watching Rann leave.

Real heavy-handed on the alleged love between Rann & Mari. Microtron breaks up a fight and calls it a lover's quarrel, Biotron says that they are in love but don't seem to realize it. Gee, maybe it's because they seem to do nothing but fight? (Okay, Rann does find her attractive, and in that outfit who wouldn't, and admires her strength, but hey, he hasn't had any sex for a 1,000 years, so he's probably just horny.) Personally I think the love angle would work better if they actually seemed romantic rather than arguing.
Note to aspiring writers: The whole "they fight, but they're really in love" cliché began as an example of irony. It's been done to death and it's a load of garbage. Don't do it!

The have a pin-up/diagram of the Endeavor & for some odd reason the text also explains how Karza conquered the Microverse. Really odd, I don't think this explanation ever made it into any of the actual story. Rather than conquering Homeworld first and branching out, Karza used the warp drive to go out & conquer worlds and Homeworld would reap the benefits. After he'd conquered the rest of the Microverse, then he conquered Homeworld.
Another oddity, it says the royal family of Homeworld reaped the benefits of Karza's conquests. Clearly they didn't expect Karza to turn on them and wipe them out. However in a later issue it will be revealed that Rann's parents were royalty &, as stated in the first issue, were the first to oppose Karza & were killed.
Presumably they were killed before Homeworld started reaping the benefits of Karza's conquest & replaced with royalty who were willing to ignore Karza's 'misdeeds'. However Prince Argon & Princess Mari were members of the royal family. Hmmmm...
Also because they stood against Karza, Dallan & Sepsis became martyrs to the resistance. At one point Microtron refers to them as Mari's gods.
Soooo, the royal family didn't mind Karza conquering other worlds, but raised their children to revere the memories of Dallan & Sepsis???

#5 The Prometheus Pit!
The Astrostation can separate from the Endeavor and fly, but they can't fly over a fence???

Philip Prometheus has specimens from the Microverse. Okayyyyy, in issue 1 the Spacewall was broken by the Endeavor. The first any ship from the Microverse had done that (it even said that in the little introductory thing at the top of the first page of issues 2-4 & 7). In the second issue Time Traveler says that now that they have broken the barrier any ship can leave the Microverse.
However here we find that dead individuals from the Microverse have somehow been going past the Spacewall and ending up on Earth, possibly for years.

Prometheus says that the crew of Starlab was outside & killed by cosmic rays. What?!? In the Marvel Universe cosmic rays can kill??? I thought they just gave one superpowers.

This was a nit I noticed at the time. Prometheus is a cyborg. His left shoulder & upper arm are robotic, but his forearm & hand appear to be flesh. Why? Wouldn't it be easier to just replace the whole arm?

#6 The Great Escapes
Argon asks Slug where she hid the disrupter, she answers that there are some places where a soldiers forget to search.
Wellllllllllll, I guess she could have swallowed it and regurgitated it. There are two other bodily orifices where it might have gone. One of which could be considered unpleasant to search, although given the way some of the dog soldiers were leering at her they might have been willing.
The most amazing thing is that she had the foresight to hide it at all. Given the situation just prior to her arrest I'd have figured that escape would be the first thing on anyone's mind, but she apparently realized that she might be captured so she figured out a good place to hide a disrupter for later use.

In issue 4 Ray Coffin's truck is a 1972 Chevy, here it's a 1967 Chevy.

#7 Adventure Into Fear!
The first crossover (that of know of) with an actual member of the Marvel Universe, Man-Thing.

Homeworld is described as a spiralling molecular chain. So much for being a subatomic universe.

Biotron is flying the Hydrocopter. The what? I suppose it's possible that this was a part of the Endeavor's manifest since they had no idea what kind of worlds the Endeavor would be encountering, but this darn thing just pops out of nowhere with no explanation. Also why is it called the Hydrocopter? Is it supposed to fly above & below the water?

Rann refers to Man-Thing as... a man-thing. If I encountered this thing I might refer to it as a thing, probably some kinda swamp-thing, but no way in heck would I call it a man-thing 'cause it just don't look like a man!!! Owl-faced-thing? Tentacle nose? Green slimy hominid? Ethel? All would come to mind before man-thing.

#8 Earth Wars!
Actually it's just one battle.

Dialogue is different in the two panel flashback to issue 5.

Mari says she loves Rann. Say what?!? Since when? Was there a missing adventure between 7 & 8? Good thing Mantlo never wrote Romance Comics.

Captain Universe! Technically speaking since Cap was created by Time Traveler using the Enigma Force, shouldn't he be called Captain Microverse?

Okayyyy, at the end of last issue Karza & his troops were examining the giant Prometheus (who had fallen into the Microverse through the Prometheus pit) & Karza realizes that if he transfers himself to Prometheus' body he will be a giant to the Micronauts on Earth.
At the beginning of this story Karza refers to himself as a giant among giants & at the end when Karza transfers himself back to his body it's said that Prometheus body returns to human size.
First off, why should Karza be any bigger than Prometheus?
Secondly since we never see Karza next to any normal human we can't really tell if Karza is giant-size or not so the dialogue seems rather pointless.

#9 Home Is Where The Heart Is!
Mantlo is being ironic. Rann says to Mari, "Not everyone believes in arguing as a way of showing affection, princess." You couldn't tell from the story so far.

Karza says to Rann, "The moment has come for the tutor to test his pupil." Why does that sound like a twist on a line from Star Wars? ;-)

#10 Defeat!
The cover shows Spartak exploding, which doesn't happen in the story.

Bug says that the Phobos Sentinel is going to implode, but it explodes instead.

#12 To The Victors Belong A World!
Slug says, "Homeworld belongs to her people again!"
Again? First Baron Karza was from Homeworld. Secondly his Dog Soldiers were recruited from the poor of Homeworld. Third, before Karza, Homeworld was run by royalty. When did Homeworld ever belong to the people?

A guard calls Shaitan a "betrayer of worlds." Technically the only world he betrayed was Spartak, which is the only betrayal that the judge's council charges him with.

When recounting the history of the Acroyears the words of the Worldmind are slightly different here than they were in issue 9.

The trees of Kaliklak are colored green, instead of red like Bug said in issue 2, but they do get it right for the next two issues.

#16 Rendezvous In Sub-Atomica!
Recapping the previous issue, Bug says they were fighting Antrons on the outer hull of Psycho-Man's spaceship, but actually they were fighting them on the outer hull of the Endeavor.

At the end of the issue Johnny appears giant-size because he came through the Prometheus Pit instead of using the Reductor Craft that Reed, Sue & Ben used. However in issue 8 the Time Travelers said that the Spacewall was sealed, indicating that the Prometheus Pit couldn't be used again.

Time Traveler is called Time Traveller. This nit will pop up several times in coming issues. (I admit it. I noticed that mistake because I also misspell Traveler with 2 L's.)

I checked my Merriem-Webster online dictionary. "Traveller" is an acceptable variant.

In issue 2 Homeworld's sky was described as Ochre, but here it's Azure.

One color for night, one color for day? I mean, I could accurately say that the sky on Earth was blue or black or even grey or red. It would depend upon the weather condition.

According to the indicia in this and later issues, Mego has a Trademark on Galactic Warrior, Battle Cruisers & Slugs.

The indicia to The Micronauts Special Edition #3 (which is what I own, and reprints issues #6-8) states that the following are trademarks of Meco Corp.: "Micronauts", "Space Glider", "Biotron", "Microtron", "Acroyear", "Baron Karza", "Galactic Defender", "Lasersonics", "Phobos", "Force Commander", "Time Traveler", "Hydro Copter", "Astro Station", "Repto", "Antron", "Neon Orbiter", "Thorium Orbiter", "Star Searcher", "Battle Cruisers", "Centaurus", "Ampzilla", "Lobros", "Hydra" and "Pharoid".

I'd think that "Force Commander" would be too generic to trademark. So would "Time Traveler". (Maybe if you spell it with two els it's okay?)

"Star Searcher" is trademarked? Does Ed McMahon know?

Isn't "Ampzilla" Godzilla's cousin or something?

"Hydra"? Really? Don't tell Marvel Comics and Nick Fury. They might not be too happy about that. (And so much for certain Greek mythologies.)

I see that "Slug(s)" is no longer trademarked. (This is according to the 1984 indicia for The Micronauts Special Edition #3.)

:Tik!:

I checked my Merriem-Webster online dictionary. "Traveller" is an acceptable variant.
Tell that to Microsoft's Spell checker then. ;-)

Also as you pointed out Time Traveler is his Trademarked name, not Time Traveller.

One color for night, one color for day?
Maybe, but the author never specified any reason for the differences. (Personally, I think he just forgot.)

trademarks of Meco Corp.
Mego changed its name? ;-)

A lot of those Trademarks were also in the indicia's for different issues, I just listed the ones I had comments for.

"Centaurus" is Trademarked? That's a whole constellation!

Isn't "Ampzilla" Godzilla's cousin or something?
Wasn't he the monster working on the speakers in Destroy All Monsters? ;-)

Me - However in issue 8 the Time Travelers said that the Spacewall was sealed, indicating that the Prometheus Pit couldn't be used again.
Time Traveler actually said, "The Prometheus pit is now sealed, brothers! It will never be used again!"
I guess the dumbest superhero alive™ didn't realize this and used it anyway. ;-)

BTW issue 16 was the last issue I bought so how did the Micronauts & the FF stop Psycho-Man?

I probably read the two-part Psycho-Man story, but that would have been waaaaay back when it was first published. I haven't seen it since, and I don't currently own a copy, and wouldn't really want to own one either. I have no idea how the FF and the Mikes stopped P-M. You can get it from Lone Star Comics for $2 in near mint. The only issue of Micronauts I'd really want right now is #23. I'd be very interested in seeing how they fared against the Molecule Man. (That, in all honesty, should have been an outright massacre. The final issue of the series.)

I'm surprised to see that the series lasted a whole 59 issues before being cancelled. Some people will buy anything.

:Tik:

Actually, according to the Slings & Arrows comic guide, after 59 issues Marvel rebooted with The New Adventures, which lasted for another 20 issues.

IIRC there was also some kind of X-Men/Micronauts mini-series.

I was surprised when Image did a Micronauts series recently & even more surprised to discover that there may be a Micronauts movie.

Go fig?

Did the Micronauts ever team-up with the Shogun Warriors? ;-) Giant robots, tiny aliens, fighting a common foe.