Micronauts vol 1 #6

June 1979
“The Great Escapes”
by Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden and Joe Rubenstein

Cover
The Micronauts are attacking a Folorida Highway Patrol car. Bug is using his lance to melt through the windshield, Acroyear swings a piece of wreckage, Marionette points a gun at the cop.

PAGES 1-6 (1-3, 5-7): The Micronauts and Steve Coffin escape from H.E.L.L.

• Rann refers to Prometheus’ robots as humanoids. They only appear to operate in Prometheus’ inner lab. The rest of H.E.L.L. is operated by humans.
• Bug reminds us that his homeworld is Kaliklak.
• Rann is unable to communicate with Biotron because a cat has the robot cornered back at the Coffin house.
• Rann is able to hotwire Ray Coffin’s pickup truck.

PAGES 7-8 (10-11): Ray Coffin and Professor Prometheus fall through the Prometheus Pit into the Microverse. Ray encounters the Time Traveler.

• Prometheus and Ray shrink as they fall into the Microverse.
• Ray begins to glow and is transported by a Time Traveler who knows who he is.
• Prometheus acknowledges he has lost his mind.
• A SATELLITE DRONE records Prometheus’ fall and conveys the information to Homeworld.

PAGES 9-10 (14-15): Karza is summoned by the High Shadow Priest who has information about the arrival of Prometheus. Karza launches a fleet of spacecraft.

• The temple of the High Shadow Priest has a stained glass window.
• Karza appears before the High Shadow Priest in his centaur form. He is accompanied by two centaur soldiers.
• The High Shadow Priest is hidden within robes. What we can see of the temple is a mixture of technology and what appears to be primitive furnishings.
• The VIEWSCREEN in the temple shows the size and arrival of Prometheus.
• Karza’s relationship with the High Shadow Priest is antagonistic. He’s clearly not afraid of them and warns the High Priest that he’ll deal with him later.
• Karza uses the phrase “By my armor” to express his surprise.
• Among the fleet of spacecraft sent to intercept Prometheus are rebel Acroyear. Are these Acroyear still subject to the Thoughtwash that Karza removed to punish Shaitan?

PAGES 10-11 (15, 19): Slug rescues Argon and they escape from the Body Banks.

• Slug refers to Argon as FORCE COMMANDER (one of the Micronauts toys). Argon has been, as we know, transformed into a centaur.
• Slug explains that she risked losing her body to an old crone in order to rescue Argon (as we’ll see in a later issue, this isn’t the case).
• Slug uses a DISRUPTOR to melt through walls and open doors. She says she hid it somewhere on her that remained undetected by dog soldiers (again, not actually true).

PAGES 12-16 (21-23, 26-27): The Micronauts return to the Endeavor. On route to Ray Coffin’s fishing hut in the Everglades they are chased by the police.

• Steve connects the Endeavor’s power cables to a fuse box which causes a blackout in the neighbourhood. Steve says it makes him feel like Scotty on Star Trek.
• The next-door-neighbour, Abner Jenkins is particularly upset about the blackout as he wanted to watch the Osmonds.
• We see the same flight controllers from #3 view the Endeavor in flight once again. This time they don’t act on the UFO sighting.
• Florida Highway Patrol observe Steve driving his father’s red pickup and identify it as the one NASA has an all-points-alert on.
• Biotron is able to transmit Rann’s communication to the CB radio in the pickup. Steve uses CB-slang (“county-mounties”).
• The Micronauts attack the pursuing police car. Marionette uses a LASERSONIC PISTOL.
• Biotron is able to jam the police radioes.
• The Micronauts are heading to Ray Coffin’s fishing cabin in the Everglades.

PAGE 17 (30): Karza’s space fleet encounter the giant-sized Prometheus.

• The dog soldiers run BIO-SCANS on Prometheus to show that he is in a state of shock.
• Karza himself is part of the fleet and stands aboard the GALACTIC COMMAND CENTER.
• Karza deduces that Rann has made an alliance with “giants from another universe” (little realising that it’s only a human boy and Muffin the dog). His probes indicate Prometheus was driven insane by his encounter with the Micronauts. (As we know, this isn’t correct. Prometheus’ injuries and his transformation into a cyborg caused his madness.)
• Karza identifies an evil in Prometheus and says that it is very much like his own. (I wonder if by “evil”, Karza is referring to the cyborg aspects of Prometheus. Does Karza associate evil with that which isn’t natural?)

Next issue: “But first… the macabre Man-Thing!”

Commentary

• There’s a lovely sense of camaraderie built in this issue around the character of Bug: Acroyear worries that Bug takes too many risks, there’s banter between Bug and Microtron when Bug pilots the Astrostation.
• Microverse space seems different that our universe’s space. Ray Coffin and Prometheus are able to survive in their space which suggests either that there is oxygen or that beings don’t breathe in the Microverse. Next issue it’s suggested that the great size of Prometheus in the Microverse causes an atmospheric skin to surround him.
• One of the letters in Micromails is from future Marvel writer, Kurt Busiek. He writes about issue #2 and praises aspects of the issue. He picks out things he doesn’t like: the absence of lettering by Tom Orzechowski, the colouring and the representation of buildings and vehicles on Homeworld as looking like toys.
• There’s also a translation of the Homeworld alphabet created by Michael Golden: