Issue(s): Micronauts: The New Voyages #1, Micronauts: The New Voyages #2
Cover Date: Oct-Nov 84
Title: "Shadow of the makers!" / "Life-cycles"
Credits:
Peter Gillis - Writer
Kelley Jones - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson - Inker

Review/plot:
I think Peter Gillis' Defenders was the hidden gem of 1984, so it stands to reason i'd love his Micronauts series as well. But i'm just not as invested in the characters. Everyone loves *tic* Bug, but the rest are all kind of devoid of any real personality.

Sure, Acroyear is a warrior-turned-priest, and Huntarr is sad because he has no mouth...

...but so far i don't really feel like the characters are developed beyond their stock personalities. It's almost definitely bias - having been introduced to these characters through Bill Mantlo's writing, i'm just not that interested in them.

That said this is still a fun sci-fi book that seems to be somewhat inspired by the original Star Trek concept. Having finally defeated Baron Karza, the Micronauts are just gonna go off and explore the Microverse.

And it starts off with a pretty cool concept. The Micronaut's ship gets damaged in hyperspace, so Commander Rann has to climb outside the ship in hyperspace to repair it. That should be an awesome high-concept scene with wild art, but it's really a subdued affair.

Rann accidentally puts his hand outside of the ship's narrow protective field, and his fingers get chopped off. Because Rann is wearing a space-suit designed for Baron Karza's Dog Soldiers, and their lives were cheap, there's a solution to that. The suit is designed to chop off the entire hand, closing the wound.

Presumably the suit could cut off just about any portion of any limb. Those buttons probably shouldn't be so exposed.

With the drive temporarily repaired, the Micronauts are able to drop out of hyperspace, but they're now stranded in the middle of nowhere with limited power. They find their way to a strange asteroid orbiting a sun. Investigating, they find that it's a living organism, and it is full of eggs.

The organism mistakes the genetically mutated Huntarr as one of its eggs and starts trying to "fix" him.

The rest of the Micronauts fight their way out of the asteroid and back to their ship.

Rann manages to communicate with the asteroid telepathically, and he learns that the creature intends to burst through hyperspace, sending its eggs throughout the universe, and then kill itself to explore life after death. It also cryptically references the "Makers".

Then Huntarr shows up, mutated further (at least he's got a mouth now), and carrying one of the eggs.

The Micronauts are able to use the egg as a power source (which seems cruel, especially since earlier they were very careful not to hurt the asteroid since it was a sentient being).

While the robot Micronauts (Biotron and Microtron ) are aware that that the others were badly irradiated by the asteroid, the rest don't know it yet.

Not a bad start, but not fantastic.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Huntarr mutates

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Unfortunately, Baron Karza did sorta come back anyway.

Kelley Jones later developed an art style resembling a synthesis of Bernie Wrightson and Simon Bisley and became quite popular.

As a kid reading this, issue #1 was compelling and horrifying. Jesus, he just lops off his own hand like that! And the asteroid-monster is totally going to kill those dudes with radiation... I never tracked down issue #2.

I can believe that it seems mediocre to an adult, and certainly the second issue doesn't sound very good, but that first issue really works (if you are 8 years old).