Issue(s): Micronauts #41
Cover Date: Apr 82
Title: "Everyone's little in Liddleville!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Gil Kane - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Ann Nocenti - Assistant Editor
Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
I think it's actually pretty brilliant to have the Micronauts head to Dr. Doom's castle to explore the tiny town of Liddleville where he and the Puppet Master are trapped.

Arcturus Rann's telepathic powers were thought lost after the death of Biotron and the expulsion of the Time Travelers, but they've been re-emerging lately. In this story he's able to sense the distress of the Puppet Master, who's been imprisoned by a tiny Dr. Doom, who has taken control of Liddleville after his tiny avatar was driven out by the ones under control of the Puppet Master.

But Doom captures them too.

In the battles that follow, it's really Acroyear who has the power to stand up against the miniature Dr. Doom...

...and then the Puppet Master is able to take control of Doom.

With that, and having learned that nothing here will help them return to the Microverse, the Micronauts take their leave. This scene will be continued directly in Fantastic Four #246, where we'll learn that the Puppet Master's victory is short-lived.

Back in the Microverse, more playing with the Body Banks. The old hag Duchess Belladonna has switched bodies with Lady Slug, the former rebellion leader and former girlfriend of Force Commander/Prince Argon, now a prisoner of Agron's. Belladonna hoped it would convince Argon to marry her and share power with her. But Argon has been playing with the Banks himself, and has become a creature of pure energy no longer interested in physical pleasures.

He's still ready to take up the offer of marriage, though, with the idea that since she looks like the former leader of the rebellion it would cause confusion.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Liddleville was first seen in Fantastic Four #236.
  
• The Micronauts are still traveling in their Astrostation since the Endeavor was damaged in Micronauts #39.
  
• With the loss of the Endeavor here and the loss of Biotron in Micronauts #27, Commander Rann has lost his "oldest friends".
  
• The next option for a way home is the Prometheus Pit, seen in Micronauts #5. Professor Prometheus was thought to have died in Micronauts annual #2.
  
• Tiny Dr. Doom plays his organ for the Micronauts, and the music initially soothes Devil the way the music of Firefly used to. Firefly died in Micronauts #35. Doom soon makes the music become discordant and it becomes an attack.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Vincent Von Doom"?

It appears that Doom's mechanical avatar has a few micro-screws loose if he can't even remember his own first name.

Love this issue. I don't particularly like Bill Mantlo's soliloquy-laden expository dialogue, but it well suits Doom, who, even in this artificial world (which, being composed of nothing but miniature robots, has no importance whatsoever on the Marvel scale), must rule. This issue crosses over one of FF's most famous villains, with one of its most bizarre and oldest ones, with one based on a line of *toys*. It's almost absurd in its small scale, yet it's the only location in the Marvel universe that *is* the same scale as the Micronauts. And, while it's the only Marvel story where the Micronauts aren't the smallest people around, it's also the only (?) Micronauts story with no people -- and the everyone (everything?) pretty much "dies" after the Micronauts leave. A great sequel to a bizarre little location of the mainstream Marvel universe!