shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Dec 1, 2016 6:37:45 GMT -5
Chaykin seems like the kind of artist that if he has passion for the project he's great, but if it's just a paycheck, well, he'll show up. I also kinda like some of Milgroms art (I'm a fan of the original Marvel Presents GotG, warts and all) & inks (Warlock) so even now the obvious disinterest displayed on the pages just makes me think "missed opportunity". I also do remember enjoying the Jackson "Butch" Guice issues too, so I'm looking forward to rereading them. But I also love myself some Gil Kane, but my memory of his run wasn't that spectacular. FYI - While I bought a lot of these comics off the shelf back in the day, in the late 80's I pretty much sold everything. It wasn't until I started scouring ebay around 5 years ago and found cheap full runs of of a lot of this stuff that I had a chance to reread them. And some of the issues, like these Chaykin ones, I just kinda scanned through. So I'm looking forward to this re-re-etc-reading of the series. I started a full read of Micronauts when I started this thread, and I just wrapped it up earlier this year having read all 59 issues of the original series plus both annuals, the 4 issue X-Men/Micro mini, the 20 issues of New Voyages, the 2nd Marvel series, all the Devil's Due and DD/Image issues of their Micronauts version, the Karza mini they did and the new IDW series, plus the first book in the Time Traveler trilogy, a prose series based on the Image/DD version of Micronauts (haven't been able to track down vol. 2 or 3 yet). It's worth the read for sure, but I think the only stuff I would definitely go back to reread is the first 12 issues of the 1st Marvel series and the IDW stuff. -M I took that advice to heart the first time you wrote it in this thread and ran out to buy the first 12 issues. To date, I still haven't gotten to them yet, but soon...! |
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Post by brianf on Dec 9, 2016 18:06:26 GMT -5
 Micronauts #19 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Armando Gil Colorist - Ben Sean Letterer - John Costanzia Editor - Al Milgrom Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: Bug, who went off by himself the previous issue, discovers a farm. After minor run ins with some barnyard animals, Bug is captured by the farms owner, the junior mad scientist named Odd John. The other Micronauts go searching for him, and with Biotron using "some kind of signal broadcasting on Bugs brainwave frequency" they find their colleague. Odd John uses mutagen gas on insects, which allows him to talk with and control his mutated critters. See - Odd John attack the Micronauts ship with a pitchfork! See - the male Micronauts do battle while the women stay on board the ship! See - Odd John expositionally take 3 pages to tell his origin story! By the end of the issue Bug has been mutated and Odd Johns insect horde attacks our heroes. We also see Ant-Man coming to investigate after being notified by distressed ants. Comments: Pat Broderick is by no means a great artist, but he's solid and he is obviously trying in his first outing at the new Micro-artist. The detail is wonderful to look at. There's a life to the pages that had been missing. But while an improvement over the last few issues, we haven't gotten 100% back on track yet. The villain is kinda silly, and while I do kinda like seeing Bug fight a chicken, it's not what i would call a super high stakes. But it is a fun read. Question - How can Biotron track Bug when his actual telepathic link is with Commander Rann? Answer - Comics!   |
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Post by brianf on Dec 9, 2016 18:47:14 GMT -5
 Micronauts #20 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Armando Gil Colorist - Roger Silfer Letterer - Jim Novak Editor - Al Milgrom Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: Marionette saves Commander Rann from being impaled on a butterfly pin, and knocks out good ol' Odd John. After tying the kook up our heroes go on the hunt for Bug and his hungry insect swarm. Ant-Man and the Micronauts converge on a supermarket the mutated insects are attacking and we pretty much just get a fight issue. Ant-Man figures out his shrink gas returns the insects to normal so after noticing all the normal people had left the store Ant-Man circulates his gas via the stores air conditioning system, returning Bug and the other insects to normal. The team gets split up again when Rann & Mari get knocked out and wind up in a garbage truck, while Biotron and the others lead Ant-Man to Odd Johns barn. Comments: Fight fight fight. I do like this one, but there's not much meat on these bones. Broderick reminds me of a cleaner & more detail oriented Ditko.  |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 9, 2016 22:14:52 GMT -5
That cover, that cover... That's what Commander Rann's helmet looks like. It's not a Magneto-like Greek helmet with a baseball visor in front of it and two heavy lumps on top; it's an elegant design full of thin edges and tapering pieces. Only Golden ever managed to get it right. Broderick was a step in the right direction after Chaykin's underwhelming run, but he was no Golden, alas. (But then who is?) |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 10, 2016 2:14:09 GMT -5
I like Broderick, quite a bit, as an artist, especially on sci-fi stuff. He excelled with Captain Mar-Vell, at the tail end of the series and Marvel Spotlight (The ISAAC story, as Thanos' legacy) and was awesome with Captain Atom.
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Post by brianf on Dec 12, 2016 2:03:37 GMT -5
 Micronauts #21 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Armando Gil Colorist - Barry Grossman Letterer - Tom Orzeckowski Editor - Milgrom / Jones Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: Starting this issue is the back up "Tales From The Microverse" feature, so there's 2 stories. First up in the main tale - Waking up in the back of a Poughkeepsie dump truck, Mari attempts to fly her & Rann to safety but instead leads them to the lair of the Plantman, master of the vegetable world. Plantman has cozied up with an innocent woman whos florist shop is next door to a bank. Plantman - stealer of blueprints from the public library! Using his "chloroblaser" he forces the plants to break into the bank. Discovered by the woman she is attacked by the plants & the Micronauts leap into action to help. Well, Commander Rann is initially hesitant, but Mari forces his hand. Once the villain is defeated our heroes depart. In the second (5 page) story - On Acroyers world Spartak the Sacred Temple Of The Rock is defiled by strange corpse while beings. They have raised the evil Prince Shaitan from the dead! To be continued.... Comments: I really enjoyed this issue. The main story is a bit silly, but my impression is what Mantlo & Broderick set out to do, they succeeded. In this issue at least, adding the Tales from the Microverse feature helps keep each story on track so the comic is a quick breezy read. The team is split up at this point and we only see what Rann & Mari are up to, but that's fine. I also learned a new word - Plantman calls the lady he is duping a Mooncalf. Mooncalf - a foolish or absentminded person. yay learning! Fun Fact - Micronauts #21 was published the same month as X-men #137 - the death of Phoenix issue.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 12, 2016 12:11:25 GMT -5
At this point, the A-stories are light, but entertaining. The B-story Tales of the Microverse where what to follow, obviously building to the big epic. They also got to introduce some of the later toy releases, like Pharoid, as well as give us further glimpses of Homeworld, expanding the Microverse. It proved popular enough that they moved things back to exploring the Microverse to find the keys of the original colonists who came to Homeworld, in the following epic.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2016 2:19:08 GMT -5
I found 2 new Amazon sellers claiming to have copies of Books 2 and 3 of the Time Traveler's Trilogy on Sunday, so I tried ordering them again. I got e-mails form both sellers today that the books had shipped, so I may have finally gotten my hands on these two book after a number of failed attempts to get them from other Amazon sellers. I'll fully believe it when they actually arrive, but I am hopeful. Vol. 2 was only a quarter plus S&H, while vol. 3 was $12 and change (I've typically seen it sell in the $50-$75 range elsewhere and wasn't willing to pay that but I would do $12, especially since it was off a gift card I got from my mom for the holiday.   -M |
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Post by brianf on Dec 14, 2016 2:40:07 GMT -5
 Micronauts #22 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Armando Gil Colorist - Bob Sharen Letterer - Tom Orzeckowski Editor - Louise Jones Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: The splintered off team consisting of Bug, Acroyear, Microtron & Cilica are flying by a highway when the get into a fight with a semi truck. The useless attack on the truck causes it to crash into a McDonalds, where a burglary is taking place. Some silliness ensues, no one really gets hurt, and the Micronauts mistakenly help foil the robbery. By the stories end Rann & Mari find their comrades, next up is looking for Biotron. in Tales Of The Microverse there's a fiery rain of meteorites on Homeworlds Royal City that has Slug alarmed. One structure not being touched by the hot hail is the Body Banks. Going to examine it, Slug finds a fallen guard & is attacked by desert dwelling Centaurs. She also finds Prince Argon under the control of a post operative suggestion by Baron Karza. As she is shot by Argon he states that perhaps Karza is not dead. Comments: This comic follows a similar formula like last issue - somewhat silly main story, more serious back up. Considering their previous experience with motorized vehicles on earth it does seem a little weird that the Micronauts are so freaked out & aggressive with the truck - for example Bug hitched a ride on the back of a pickup in the past. So things are a little forced here to get the action going. The dialog between the restaurant characters are somewhat entertaining, and I do like the exchange between the thief and the fast food manager. Manager "Rodney, just what in blazes do you think you're doing?" Thief " I'm robbing your establishment, Mr Michaels - and don't call me Rodney!" Manager "But that's your name! You use to work for me here!" Things we learned this issue - Acroyears armor is bullet proof. Acroyear can also survive being dunked into a hot vat of french fry oil. The TOTM is another solid 5 pages of plot. While not as solid as last issue, things are still rather well done here.  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 14, 2016 2:51:50 GMT -5
This is when I came back to reading it regularly, after a gap at the end of the first year. I had one of the Bug stories a,d the conclusion to the FF crossover; but, that was it until this point, with Broderick. I stuck it through for the next year or so.
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Post by brianf on Jan 7, 2017 21:04:56 GMT -5
 Micronauts #23 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Danny Bulandi Colorist - Bob Sharen Letterer - Tom Orzeckowski Editor - Louise Jones Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: There's 3 stories this time around. In #1 Biotron on his own scavenges for parts to repair the damaged Endeavor. Finding a junk yard, he also finds a cast off refrigerator to get trapped in & somewhat stereotypical drunk hobo to surprise as he busts out of the refridge. The overly stereotyped junk yard drunk stumbles across Molecule Mans power wand and gets taken over by the villain. We then get a Molecule Man vs Biotron fight thats fun, but Biotron gets a rather easy win against such a powerful foe. By stories end he is reunited with the rest of the team. The 2nd story is entitled "Inside the Homeworld Microship Endevavor" and is pretty much a tour given by Microtron. As the robot rolls through the ship he offers food to the Acroyears, argues with Bug about snail-loaf, looks up plans for the ship & opens a sealed door while Rann & Mari are having sex. It's 4 pages of attempted humor. Finally in Tales Of The Microverse a captured Slug is taken by the mind controlled Prince Argon to a desert location where the revived Shaitan awaits. The issues ends as Shaitans expositional speech gets interrupted by an attack by "Prince Pharoid, lord of Aegyptia, wielder of the Star Scepter and commander of the Desert Demons!" Try yelling that as your battle cry, reader. Comments: My biggest problem with this issue is the racist caricature of the junk yard hobo. I'd like to think that Mantlo was just trying for comic relief, but dialog like "Who dat, disturbin muh rest?" and while lying in garbage says "Cain't a man even relax, here in d' lap o luxury?" are bothersome, to say the least. more - "All I wants to possess is my bottle o' Thunderbird Red" His final words in the issue, after being freed of the Molecule mans control is "D' things I s seen.." The shuck & jive language is really awful. In all honesty I don't remember this from previous readings of the comic and has given me much thought about my own blindness to such stereotyping. I find myself a bit surprised by finding this, to the point that it's taken me a while to review this comic. I really do not want to write up a big dissertation about casual racism in 1980 comic books, but to ignore it is also nothing I want to do. So at this point I guess i will leave it at that - I may come back to it later. here's a more fun and less uncomfortable observation - A Biotron toy is too big to fit into the Hydro-Copter toy.   |
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Post by brianf on Jan 8, 2017 2:57:31 GMT -5
 Micronauts #24 Writer - Bill Mantlo Art - Pat Broderick Inks - Armondo Gil Colorist - Bob Sharen / Rosen Letterer - Rick Parker Editor - Louise Jones Cover Artist - Michael Golden Synopsis: Thinking the ship is repaired, the Micronauts launch the Endeavor, only to lose control almost immediately after switching on the on-board computer. The seemly out of control ship wobbles itself to a computer complex where they find a program called Computrex has taken over the space and has knocked out the workers. The rebelling program gets the Mirconauts ship to join in, and the team has to fight back. Commander Rann finds his way into the guts of the machine, and after damaging it's memory banks Computrex uses Ranns telepathic link with Biotron to cause Rann to hallucinate. Seeing Rann suffering, Mari goes to aid him but Computrex causes Rann to see only Karza. Attacking Mari frees Rann from the illusion, enabling the commander to smash the computer, ending the threat. In the tales last panel we discover it is S.H.I.E.L.D. villains Mentallo & The Fixer are behind the computers rampage. Then after a map of Homeworld we get a nice Tales of the Microverse - Prince Pharoid helps to free Slug, and during his fight with Shaitan we see Shaitan is pretty much immortal, and being stabbed in the gut causes him no ill. Shaitan escapes with Prince Argon in a sand skimmer, and is traveling too fast for Pharoids bird mounts to follow. In search for answers to Shaitans plans the heros head to Aegypta, the birthplace of Baron Karza. Comments: While the main story is ok and has flashes of interesting bits (Ranns agony after being ticked into hurting Mari is well done) the more interesting story is the Tales from the Microverse back up. Mantlo is showing us more locations of Homeworld, and that is better done that the primary feature. Brodericks art continues to be solid, and there's a good amount of story packed into this issue. The Pharoid figure doesn't look like the comic character. ![]()   |
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Post by Trevor on Jan 8, 2017 13:02:40 GMT -5
Issue 23 is one of my favorites. While the characterization is somewhat stereotypical, I feel like modern culture is trained to see racism in everything.
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Post by brianf on Jan 8, 2017 18:08:51 GMT -5
Issue 23 is one of my favorites. While the characterization is somewhat stereotypical, I feel like modern culture is trained to see racism in everything. Well, I see racism where I see racist cultural stereotypes. However, I do not think Mantlo is a bigot. I think when he used a racist stereotype he was just being a lazy writer. I wish there was a word for pointing out something that's racist, but that's not bigoted. Not every use of a stereotypes is coming from a dark place. We all know comic book creators are always fighting deadlines, so sometimes falling back on cliches is an easy out for them. It doesn't necessarily equate hate. One of my favorite comics of all time is Eisners Spirit. But while I do NOT think Eisner had hatred in his heart when writing and drawing the Ebony character, for me to deny Ebony is a racist stereotype is to put my own blinders on. I realize this is a huge conversation that I really don't want to get into right now nor argue, I personally think pointing out racist tropes in popular culture is a positive thing, it's a sign of growth in our world. We can always do better, right? Being honest with what was done wrong in the past helps us to progress. Peace |
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Post by brianf on Jan 10, 2017 8:06:06 GMT -5
 Micronauts Annual #2 (1980) Writer - Bill Mantlo Pencilers - Rich Buckler (pg 1-7) / Steve Ditko (8-30) Colourist - Carl Gafford Letterers - Mark Rogan Editor - Al Milgrom Cover - Ditko Synopsis : The Micronauts are in New York City when Acroyear has something go painfully wrong with his head & he starts attacking his teammates. Trying to control himself, he flies off in search of the source of his agony. We see a toy store where actual Micronauts toys are being sold. A mysterious hooded figure uses a strange gun to bring the toys to life. Acroyear, after causing some shenanigans to NYC traffic, is drawn to the toy store w/ the other Micronauts closely behind. We learn via his thoughts that the hooded figure - the Toymaster - actually brought the Micronauts toy designs to the toy company and included some alien tech that not only allows him to control the toys, but the actual Micronauts themselves. As toy store chaos ensues we learn the Toymaster is actually former Micronauts foe Professor Prometheus. Thought to be driven insane from being merged with Baron Karza in Micronauts #8, for some weird reason after being freed from incarceration in a mental institution Prometheus took the information he gleamed from Karza to create a toy army. The toy company decided to not make toys of Marionette & Bug, so Prometheus can't control them, which leads to Prometheus's defeat. Comments : This is my least favorite Mantlo Micronauts comic. While the comic attempts to be an action packed silly fest, so many bits just ring wrong with me. It seems like this story was created to throw in as many Micro-toys as possible in a manner that was as little work as possible to write. I'm also curious about the origins of this annual - The first 7 pages by Buckler look so similar to the Ditko pages that it makes me wonder if the Buckler pages were completed after Ditkos. Maybe there was a different start to the comic? What ever Chaykin was drinking while he was drawing the Micronauts, Buckler was chugging as well - his pencils are super sloppy. Cilicia is not to be found in the issue either, which also makes me think this was an inventory issue. Here's Buckler -  And Ditko -  |
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