Micronauts vol 1 #3

March 1979
“Death Duel at Daytona Beach”
Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden (breakdowns) & Joe Rubenstein

Cover
A space cruiser battling the Endeavour on a street corner. Acroyear and Rann flying. A couple of people in the street shocked by what’s happening (a typically Marvel cover). Michael Golden and Joe Rubinstein.

PAGES 1-2: Ray Coffin, Steve’s father returns home to find the garden wrecked by last issue’s attack by space cruisers.

• The family’s dog, Muffin, seems dead. Presumably killed by Acroyear last issue. (We’ll find out that Muffin isn’t actually dead. It just looks like it.)
• Steve’s father is Ray Coffin. He considers taking Steve to see doctors at NASA until he finds the remains of the attacking cruiser destroyed last issue.
• Bug is still alive and hiding in long grass.
• Steve’s mother is dead.

PAGES 3-7 (3, 6, 7, 10-11): The Endeavour and Shaitan’s battle cruiser battle above Daytona.

• The Endeavour exits warp at West Daytona Beach.
• In a scene reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a group of air traffic controllers view the battle between the Endeavour and Shaitan’s battle cruiser.
• Jets are scrambled from Cape Canaveral. One of them has the call-sign, Tiger 8.
• CB radio – popular in later 1970s – is mentioned as spreading news about the space ships.
• The sign to Daytona Speedway is seen (advertising Pepsi).
• The Endeavour has a THORIUM GUN (also called its BELLY GUN) which Microtron is able to use. Golden uses an upside-down panel to show Microtron sitting in the gun seat and hoping its lubricant doesn’t rush to its head as a moment of light relief. Marionette uses the DECK GUN.
• Shaitan’s battle cruiser separates into parts on page 6. Shaitan declares he won’t be bested in battle.
• Rann mistakes a skateboard park for a mountainous area.
• Time Traveler appears to Marionette to reveal that there is a tracking device aboard. (Why the all-powerful Enigma Force only now reveals this is unknown?) The Time Traveler seems ponders about Karza’s reaction to the news of other universes.

PAGE 8 (14): Duchess Belladonna arrives at Karza’s body banks.

• Duchess Belladonna describes Karza as “courtesy incarnate”. She is old and dying. She reserved Marionette’s body as her own. She demands Argon’s as a replacement but Karza refuses, insisting that he is using Argon for a special experiment.

PAGES 9-15: The battle continues above Daytona Beach.

• Acroyear shows no mercy to one of the Acroyear pilots (of a WING FIGHTER) when the pilot appeals for it.
• The Micronauts are able to communicate with humans because Biotron SYNCHED THEIR BRAINWAVES (Rann tells us this in a thought balloon).
• The two thorium guns on Endeavour can be linked.
• The jets can’t see anything so return to base.
• Acroyear calls Shaitan: “Betrayer of worlds”. Acroyear is powerful enough to stop Shaitan’s craft in flight and, despite his boasts, Shaitan uses a warp drive to escape his brother.
• There’s a gentle scene between Acroyear and Microtron when he returns to the Endeavour. It gives the impression that Acroyear treats Microtron as a person but also there’s a sense of paternalism (he calls Microtron “little one”).
• The police arrive at the skatepark ready to breathalyse the witnesses to the the battle.
• Rann assumes the role of leader of the Micronauts (well, Endeavour is his ship). He does seek the opinions of the team. Marionette believes Karza will seek to enslave Earth’s universe.
• Rann uses Bug’s brainwaves to try to find the insectivorid.
• The Endeavour seems to fly out to sea rather than retrace its route to the Coffin household.

Pages 15-16 (30-31): Bug overhears Ray Coffin talking on the phone. The owner of Speedway Skateboard Circus is interviewed by the police.

• Bug overhears Ray Coffin speaking to a director at the Institute (presumably someone at NASA). Ray’s put the damaged craft and the dead Acroyear into a shoebox (just like the real toy).
• The manager of Speedway Skateboard Circus is called Martinelli. Police ask him if he’s trying to pull an insurance scam.

Next issue: “A body hunt on Homeworld while the Micronauts roam the Earth! A’ Hunting We Will Go!”