May the 4th live long and prosper … or something or other. With this Star Wars festival coming right before tomorrow’s debut of the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie I figured a look at The Micronauts would be appropriate.
The Micronauts was one of those oddly-conceived Marvel Comics titles from the late 70s and early 80s that were about forcing a continuing storyline around an already-existing toy franchise. (Rom: Spaceknight was another example of this ultimate in ass-backward storytelling.)
And a young Joel Schumacher mused “Nipples on black armor, eh? Hmmmmm.”
The above example of Six Degrees of George Lucas or whatever you want to call it was just my odd way of pointing out my reasoning for posting this item on the 4th of May.
The Micronauts (First Issue: January 1979) was mostly a strained imitation of the Star Wars universe but also had a few similarities with Marvel’s ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy. Those Guardians – Vance Astro, Charley-27, Yondu and Martinex – were freedom fighters waging a guerilla war to free 30th Century Earth from the dictatorial rule of its alien conquerors, the lizardlike Badoon race.
The Micronauts was set in the Microverse, a sub-atomic universe which was being ruled by the evil, black-armored Baron Karza, one of the most blatant Darth Vader ripoffs this side of Japan’s Swords of the Space Ark movies. Karza could detach his arms and legs and could transform the lower half of his body into that of a black horse (think of Centaurs) for no better reason than the fact that THAT was the gimmick of the Baron Karza toys. Kids could move around the arms and legs or replace his regular body with the horse-like lower body. Oh what fun! (?) Continue reading
GEORGETOWN VS CUMBERLAND – The 4th seeded GEORGETOWN (KY) COLLEGE TIGERS swept the 5 seeds – the CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY PHOENIX in 2 games straight. Game One went scoreless for the first 5 Innings before the Tigers notched 4 runs. 
THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE (1979) – Category: Brucesploitation with an enjoyably absurd twist. 
GAME ONE – The 7th seeded SHAWNEE STATE BEARS took the Diamond against the 2 seeds – the UNIVERSITY OF THE CUMBERLANDS PATRIOTS. The Patriots grabbed a quick 1-0 edge in the 1st Inning but the Bears went on top 2-1 in the 2nd. 
Trump also continues pushing for universal paid maternity leave, which would have him hailed as Emperor if he was part of DemCorp but has been ignored since – like so many of us – Trump left the Democrats in disgust long ago. Needless to say Republicans are fighting Trump tooth and nail on his desire for universal paid maternity leave, which we should have had LONG ago.
Voodoo mythology is a fascinating hybrid of Yoruban, Dahomey, Fon and Christian mythology intermixed with touches from Caribbean belief systems. 
THE WAR UNDER THE SEA (1892) – Written by Georges Le Faure. This sci-fi work was intended as an escapist societal salve to a French public still smarting from their loss to Germanic forces during the Franco-Prussian War just over two decades earlier. 
Interestingly enough, despite this threat the Germans are not depicted as being any more bloodthirsty than the alleged “heroes” of this story as we will see. Though the Count and his allies prove equally callous about large-scale killing (and worse) their attitude is romanticized and approved of by the narrative since Andre and the others are fighting France’s traditional Continental foes the Germans. Instead of Film Noir think of this novel’s approach as callous enough to be called World Noir. Or at least Politics Noir. 
As if the Faculty Lounge Fascists who run Cal-Berkeley haven’t already proven what bloodthirsty garbage they are, NOW the administration and faculty are trying to pretend that it’s wrong for the rest of the country to have NOTICED their masked, black-clad thugs beating bloody anyone who expresses an opinion they disagree with. 
The Left-Wing Archie Bunkers of the 1960s who now run American colleges and universities used to take pride in Cal-Berkeley’s significance to the Free Speech Movement. Now, however, Cal-Berkeley has come to epitomize the hypocrisy of the American Left and the Faculty Lounge Fascists who abuse their positions to browbeat students into agreeing with their outdated 1960s worldview. 
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