This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at the stories in which Marvel’s licensed toy I.P. the Micronauts interacted with established Marvel characters. My look at the early Micronauts stories can be found HERE and HERE.
MICRONAUTS Vol 1 #15 (March 1980)
Title: The Inside Job
Villains: Psycho-Man and the Antrons
NOTE: Technically, the first Micronauts crossover with Marvel characters was in their 7th issue and they encountered the Man-Thing, but I covered that issue in my look at their early stories.
Synopsis: At the Baxter Building headquarters of the Fantastic Four, the quartet notice that their old foe from the Microverse/ Quantum Realm – Psycho-Man – has broken out of his prison and returned to subatomic space.
Meanwhile, back in the Microverse/ Quantum Realm we join the current roster of the Micronauts – Commander Arcturus Rann, Princess Marionette, Bug, Acroyear, the roboids (Biotron and Microtron), Cilicia (Acroyear’s wife, at right) and Jasmine (Bug’s girlfriend). The escaped Psycho-Man shows up in his vessel which dwarfs their own, called the HMS Endeavor.
Psycho-Man uses a tractor beam to bring the Endeavor aboard his own ship and sets his biomechanical Antrons on them. Our heroes fight the Antrons. Elsewhere, the Fantastic Four are searching for Psycho-Man around the Microverse in their Reducta-Craft. Continue reading
CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #16 (January 26th, 1977)
Reluctantly, Captain Britain uses some of his super-strength and agility to break free of the cops before they can unmask him. The other police on hand start shooting at C.B. when – out of nowhere – Captain America intervenes. He’s used to authorities in the U.S. often being wrong about superheroes so he offers to fight off the cops while Captain Britain escapes.
CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #1 (October 13th 1976)
Synopsis: British college student Brian Braddock was working as an assistant to Dr. Hugo Travis at the Darkmoor Energy Research Center, a scientific organization probing the supernatural energies and anomalies of the Darkmoor area.
The Amulet of Right and the mystic Quarterstaff turned Brian into the costumed superhero called Captain Britain. Stragg and his men had not seen Braddock’s face clearly, so his real identity was safe. Using his new powers – flight, a skin-tight force field, enhanced senses and enough strength to lift a couple tons – the hero defeated Stragg’s armed thugs.
FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #166 (January 1976)
CAPTAIN AMERICA Vol 1 #193 (January 1976)
This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at some of the stories Marvel Comics created around the licensed I.P. of Micronauts toys.
BARON KARZA – The evil, black-armored Baron Karza was a very impressive villain, despite being one of the most blatant Darth Vader ripoffs this side of Japan’s Swords of the Space Ark movies.
SPACE GLIDER ARCTURUS RANN – The leader of the Micronauts. Rann was the very first Micronaut (the Microverse’s version of Astronauts), who was placed in suspended animation and sent out in a spaceship called The Endeavor on a 1,000-year mission of exploration throughout the Microverse.
DAZZLER Vol 1 #1 (March 1981)
This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at licensed I.P. Rom the Spaceknight’s crossovers with Marvel Comics characters.
ROM Vol 1 #5 (April 1980)
DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU Vol 1 #22 (March 1976)
While fleeing those villains, Jonathan was accidentally exposed to the Zero Fluid, transforming him into a super-powered being able to shoot Zero Energy from his hands in the form of rays of concussive force. That concussive force from his hands could allow him to fly, as well, the same way the Fantastic Four villain Blastarr does.
YOUNG MEN Vol 1 #24 (December 1953)
Synopsis: Steve Rogers aka Captain America is now teaching at a prep school called the Lee School in a New York suburb. James Buchanan Barnes aka Bucky is one of his students. In old school comic book disregard for the passage of time, Bucky is still that young despite having been a teen in 1941.