Issue(s): Micronauts: The New Voyages #10, Micronauts: The New Voyages #11, Micronauts: The New Voyages #12
Cover Date: Jul-Sep 85
Title: "The wall around the universe" / "Failures of the heart" / "Descent into the maelstrom!"
Credits:
Peter Gillis - Writer
Kelley Jones - Penciler
Bruce Patterson / Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Craig Anderson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
The Micronauts are returning home, but they have to break through the spacewall that separates their galaxy from the rest of the Microverse.

Solitaire turns up on the Micronaut's ship as a stowaway, wearing a new form that for once isn't an exact copy of someone else's.

The plan to get through the spacewall is to use a technique similar to the Dreaming Star from last issue, focusing all the energy of the fleet of Confluence ships through Commander Rann so that he can punch a hole in the wall. This puts them in conflict with the Enigma Force, which is for some reason trying to keep the wall sealed (as Devil's message from last issue indicated, the Force seems to have gone mad).

Rann battles the Enigma Force, fails to defeat it, and in failure aged (it's worth remembering that Rann is actually centuries old).

Marionette is also paralyzed in the attack.

After that failed attempt, the Confluence decides to go home, and Rann chooses to go with them to return to the Dreaming Star. Marionette doesn't take that decision well, and i'm not sure if Bug's decision to comfort him is based on friendship or if he's making a movie.

Soon, the remaining Micronauts are contacted by Acroyear's people, led by his betrothed, Cilicia, who wants to arrest Acroyear and try him for treason. Since they're on the other side of the spacewall, they lead them to an interesting area they located, called Breachpoint, where the Micronauts discover an alien corpse.

It belonged to an ancient conquering species that died failing to breach the wall. It's noted that the creature looks vaguely like the smaller creatures from Confluence. Finding the ruins of an ancient alien civilization may be a bit cliched (as noted in the comments, Alien & Planet of the Vampires being homaged here specifically) but i think it's pretty cool.

Acroyear uses the technology of Breachpoint to fire a ray that disperses Cilicia's fleet. But when he returns to the Micronaut's ship, he finds a strange new being called Scion, who says that he'd like to be Leader of the Micronauts, please.

We learn that Scion is actually the creature that hatched from the egg that the Micronauts have been carrying around this entire series; we actually saw him in a larvae form in issue #8, he was the monster that helped them when they were dying from radiation poisoning. He considers the Micronauts, and especially Huntarr, his siblings.

He and Solitaire also share a secret but we don't learn it yet.

With Scion's help the Micronauts finally breach the spacewall.

At one point Scion is stuck outside of the ship and because she's already paralyzed and therefore numb to pain Marionette is the only one who can rescue him. To do so, Huntarr has to manipulate her body, making her a true marionette, which is a clever bit.

The boobie shots of Solitaire are out of control.

Marionette has unfortunately always been a source of cheesecake but it's gotten ten times worse since Solitaire joined the cast. Kelley Jones is a good artist but this is not an admirable trait of his.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first adult Scion and backstory

Chronological Placement Considerations: Last issue ended with the Micronauts and the Confluence fleet heading to the Micronaut's galaxy, and they are still in transit at the beginning of this issue, but presumably some time has passed.

References:

• Huntarr vouches for Solitaire, saying she was instrumental in saving the Micronauts when they were dying of radiation poisoning in Micronauts: The New Voyages #8. Huntarr also used his mutated body to heal the Micronauts in that issue, similar to how he tries to revive the ancient alien at Breachpoint.
  
• Unable to break through the spacewall, the Micronauts consider passing through Earth, but the Time Travellers sealed the gaps in the space wall between the Microverse and Earth in Micronauts #58.
  
• But they did get find another gap in the wall in Micronauts: The New Voyages #1. Issues #1-2 are also when Huntarr was trapped in the womb of Scion's mother and became his "brother".
  
• Acroyear is considered a traitor to his people due to his use of his planet's Worldmind to fight Baron Karza in Micronauts #10. The planet, Spartak, was destroyed in the process.
  
• In a flashback in Micronauts #59, Acroyear destroyed a crystal flower representing his memory of Spartak. He destroys another one here.
  
• Scion says he helped protect the Micronauts from the lasers in Micronauts: The New Voyages #4. He also helped them again in Micronauts: The New Voyages #8.
  
• Biotron has been carrying the "electronic pattern of Devil's body" since Micronauts: The New Voyages #9.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Solitaire seems to be copying a Times Square hooker.

The scene with the dead alien appears to be lifted from a similar bit in "Alien".

Can anyone say Space Jockey?

While I'm sure this comic more than likely takes the "space jockey" imagery from Alien, it should be pointed out Alien arguably lifted that whole sequence from Planet of the Vampires (1965). Scott and O'Bannon denied having ever seen the Mario Bava film but the scenes are so similar it strains credulity to believe it's a coincidence.