A Look Back at X-Men and the Micronauts

Of all the completely nonsense crossovers X-characters have had over the years and there have been plenty), X-Men and the Micronauts excited me the least.  I can enjoy a dumb comic book story as much as the next person, but the facts of this series make it sound positively wretched.  The X-Men (Marvel's hottest property at the time) having a limited series crossover (so, maybe it could be an "event" or important to future stories?) with a licensed property (okay, so it's unlikely that anything important or "event"-ful would happen with characters that Marvel may lose the rights to) based on a toy line (ugh, but Innerspace Online is a great resource if you want to learn more about the toys) that had been discontinued a few years earlier?  That sounds positively wretched.  I can't be alone in that reaction, because I can find no proof that Marvel ever reprinted this story in any form.  I wasn't aware of the toys as a kid, so this doesn't even hold the promise of nostalgia for me.  What are the chances that this is enjoyable?

Marvel house ad, circa 1984

Slightly different pencil-and-ink version of the house ad

Well, let's look a the story first.  Charles Xavier's repressed "dark side" manifests itself as a destructive entity (fittingly called The Entity) that decides to massacre everything he finds in the Microverse, with the ultimate plan of taking over Xavier's body and the "real" world.  Why did The Entity show up in the Microverse?  How did it get a corporeal form?  Why did it have the ability to create massive destruction, when Xavier's ability is telepathy?  The bad news here is that none of these questions is answered in this series.  The good news is that nobody bring them up, so at least the only people that ask these frustrating questions are the ones who wasted their time to think about the miniseries in the first place; I'm imagining that number is pretty small.  Thanks to some plot contrivances (characters switching bodies, Kitty Pryde's powers acting in a way they have never worked before or since, mind control, etc.), we see the X-Men and Micronauts fight and later team up.  And hey, they win!  The only casualties are the unnumbered masses in the Microverse, the Micronaut Bioship (AKA Biotron), and the innocence of a few of Xavier's younger students (more on that later).

So...story-wise, it's not great.  Surprisingly, it's not truly bad, aside from having a ridiculous premise and enemy. I think the characters come off reasonably well-represented (thanks to the regular writers of each title, Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo, participating), and there were some fun and clever moments.  I really liked how they pulled off having the small-scale Micronauts fight against the X-Men (and later, the New Mutants).

And in case you were wondering whether or not Wolverine's claws can cut the armor of Micronauts villain Baron Karza, you finally have an answer: yes.  Also, it is pretty funny to see Wolverine go full-out against a character that is maybe six inches tall.

I am not a huge Jackson "Butch" Guice fan, but it was kind of cool for the then-current artist on Micronauts to get a chance showing them off on a (presumably) larger stage.  At least readers that are unfamiliar with the Micronauts (like me) can be reasonably assured that the characters are being drawn on-model.  I found some interesting inked pages online that show off Guice's skills.  He wasn't doing a ton, detail-wise, but he can tell a story, at least.

How essential is X-Men and the Micronauts? I can't say definitely for Micronauts fans, but I'm gonig to go out on a limb and say "not at all."  A lot happened to the Microverse in this series --- a seemingly huge portion of the population was massacred --- and the balance of power between Karza and the Micronauts seemed to be heavily swayed toward the good guys.  Also, the Micronaut Bioship died!  However, if you search for "Bioship" online, hoping for a character biography or anything like that, you come up short.  For whatever reason, he was also known as Biotron, and if you look up info on him, this miniseries is not mentioned.  This may be because Micronauts only lasted two issues more after this miniseries ended, but it's still damned odd.  Why even bother to kill him off?

As for X-Men fans, X-Men and the Micronauts holds an interesting place in history.  It is similarly unessential reading for X-fans, but it is one of the earlier instances of a writer highlighting Xavier's dark side.  It wasn't the first time --- Uncanny X-Men #106 is the most obvious precursor --- but it may have helped plant the seeds that eventually resulted in the infamous Onslaught storyline in the 1990s.  More interesting to me, though, are the implications that come from the fact that this series is never mentioned by anyone, ever, in any other X-Men comics.  Think about all the potentially disturbing things that happen in this series: body swapping for the teenage Kitty, the X-Men killed a bunch of people, and Xavier was revealed to be a sexual predator with a taste for underage girls.  Let's take another look at those gross sexual scenes with Xavier:

"Other aspects of your...personality --- intrigue me."  Okay, maybe that's more innuendo than anything else, but Karza/Kitty spells out that this is a lusty villain, so it's not like the grossness is taken out of context.  The scene with Psyche was far, far worse, though.

 

At least The Entity got distracted before going too far with Kitty.  Here, Dani basically has her mind raped.  There isn't much grey area here, either; the only real argument you can make would be the degree of how much Dani was violated.  Since Chris Claremont co-wrote this series while writing both Uncanny and New Mutants, I guess we're left to assume that Xavier basically mind-wiped this entire experience from the minds of his students, and that's why they never seemed traumatized by it?  I guess the other explanation would be that this is entirely out of continuity, but that's a less interesting reading.

What's the bottom line?  Well, X-Men and the Micronauts is a completely unnecessary miniseries that never needed to happen.  I'm assuming that Claremont and Mantlo wanted to work together, and had hoped this would improve the sales of Micronauts.  It didn't, and it looks like the only people who ever thought about this series after 1984 are retro reviewers on the interwebs.  If it wasn't for the truly awful decision to make Xavier's dark side into statutory rape (and I'm being generous with that description), this would be an inoffensive series that ends with the X-Men shrugging off all the death that they caused.  But that was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.  I guess.

Mighty World of Marvel (Vol. 2) #12

"Endgame"
Published May 1984
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciler: Alan Davis
Inker: Alan Davis

What's Going On?
The battle between The Fury and Mad Jim Jaspers continues, and they seem evenly matched.  Finally, The Fury realizes that Jaspers warps reality around him; if he is in a void, like what was left of The Fury's original dimension, there would be nothing to warp.  The Fury transports them both there and executes Jim Jaspers with extreme prejudice. 

Seeing that The Fury has been weakened, Captain Britain attacks, but either The Fury is too strong still, or CapBrit is too weak from the Jaspers-and-Fury beating he recently took.  Watching Cap falling to The Fury triggers some repressed rage in Captain UK, who takes up the battle and beats The Fury into a purple puddle.  The Fury is finally dead.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- The Crazy Gang, created by Jaspers last issue, escapes to parts unknown after the Jaspers/Fury battle ends.

- Saturnyne takes a blood sample of the dead Jim Jaspers for unstated, but probably not altruistic, reasons.

- After The Fury is defeated, Captain Britain, Captain UK and Saturnyne find themselves teleported to Otherworld for Merlin's funeral.

Writing!
It's another issue mainly devoted to fight scenes, but I have to admit it's well done.  Moore has been building up to this battle for so long that it is cathartic to see the finale of the Jaspers/Fury fight AND the Captain Britain/UK fight vs. The Fury.  I had wondered after previous issues how CapBrit could stand up to either Jaspers or The Fury, given their power, but Moore did a fantastic job making the final conflict plausible; the ending was not obvious (to me, anyway), but still felt true to the known limits of these characters.  One of my favorite bits was how we followed The Fury's logic during the battle with Jaspers, as it prepared for the coup de grace. 

Art!
More great work from the "other" Alan on this title.  While there could be some improvement in the coloring department (a common complaint for this era), Davis' action scenes are consistently great.  Even the challenging design of Captain Britain's torn mask/flowing hair combo looked good here, to say nothing of the very cool Jaspers/Fury fight and the dismembering of The Fury. 

I've been a fan of Davis' graceful action scenes for many years, but this is a great example of how well he can do "savage."

Retrospectively Amusing:
- The scene that triggers Captain UK into action is a panel similar to --- but not an exact copy of --- the scene back in Daredevils #7 where Captain UK's lover is murdered by the Fury.  It's interesting that Alan Davis chose not to just photocopy the old art for this scene.  Maybe that wasn't a thing back in '84?

Here's the original scene, from Daredevils #7.  They are certainly similar, but definitely different.

Worth Noting:
- The Fury and Jim Jaspers both die in this issue.

New Mutants (Vol. 1) #15

"Scaredy Cat"
Published May 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: Sal Buscema
Inker: Tom Mandrake
Cover Artist: Tom Mandrake

What's Going On?
Worried about Kitty Pryde's safety as she visits the Massachusetts Academy, Magik decides to cast a spell that allows her astral projection to visit the academy without being noticed.  There, she witnesses Kitty tied to a chair, in the clutches of the villainous White Queen; the Queen somehow senses Illyana's presence and disrupts the spell.  With the X-Men missing, the team tries to get help from other adult super-heroes, but has no luck.  Desperate, they decide to take the bus --- because unlicensed teens driving Xavier's Rolls Royce would be suspicious --- to the Massachusetts Academy to save Kitty, but instead fall into a trap!

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- The White Queen tells Kitty that Doug Ramsey is in love with her --- and that Kitty secretly loves him back.  Gasp!

I love that it looks like Doug is crooning into an invisible karaoke microphone as much as it looks like he's dancing with himself.

- The New Mutants are now aware of Illyana's powers of sorcery.  So I guess the memory-erasing spell she cast on Stevie Hunter last issue wasn't really needed.  Well, that secret lasted all of one issue.

- Both Kitty and the White Queen can see Illyana's astral form.  When Illyana reflects on that fact, she is confused because he astral form is "invisible to mortal eyes."  For some reason, Kitty seeing her seems more confusing to Illyana than the White Queen.  Are telepaths not considered mortal by Illyana?

Also, I love that the White Queen's (presumably) psychic attack is coming from her hand.  And she knows who Illyana is?  She's got quite the information network, since Illyana returned from Limbo after the last time the White Queen encountered the X-Men and is now several years older than any official records of Colossus' family would indicate.

- The New Mutants try to call the Avengers and Fantastic Four for assistance, but they are also missing, thanks to Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.  It's a small moment, but it makes the kids seem less idiotic when they go to save Kitty; at least they tried to get help first.

- Illyana is reluctant to use her mutant power of teleportation, because her control over it is still shaky.

- Sunspot and Wolfsbane find themselves distracted and almost hypnotized by the sight of Cloak and Dagger's church refuge.  This is another reference to their appearance in Marvel Team-Up (the last one happened in #13)

- Sam compliments Dani's leadership abilities while criticizing his own lack of skills.  Dani also makes a good point, building up the imminent confrontation with the Hellfire Club as a serious problem.

- Sam and Rahne share a moment where they discuss their Christian faith and how Rahne is not the spawn of Satan.  It's a nice scene.  Sam doesn't often get portrayed as the religious type --- a little bit country, sure --- and it's a sensible thing for him to bond with Rahne over.

Writing!
This is a solid issue, and it has some good character moments.  I especially like that Chris Claremont takes the time to have at least Dani and Sam realize that fighting the Hellfire Club is going to be way out of their proverbial weight class.  Unfortunately, this issue brings to a head something that has been bothering me for a few issues.

I don't like the presence of Kitty Pryde in the pages of these recent issues of New Mutants.  Now, she's an X-Man, lives in the mansion with the kids, and is best friends with Illyana, so it makes sense that she pops up from time to time.  I just don't like her being instrumental to the plot of this title.  She hasn't had much time on the page, but her relationship with Doug Ramsey (including them hacking into Project: Wideawake!) happened here; the team doesn't have any emotional investment in Doug, so rescuing Kitty is the impetus for the team's trip to the Massachusetts Academy.  You know what would have made more sense?  For Doug to befriend one or more of the New Mutants (as a computer tutor, perhaps?) and then be unwittingly drawn into the clutches of a X-enemy.  That would have been a more satisfying narrative.

Art!
It's more of the same from Sal Buscema and Tom Mandrake.  Solid storytelling with a focus on non-action scenes.  It's not super-pretty, but it works well enough.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- I'm keeping track of how many times the New Mutants refer to Illyana as scary/evil.  Since she joined the team last issue, we are now two-for-two!

- While this issue does not explicitly state where it falls in the Secret Wars timeline, we have some clues.  First off, the New Mutants are not worried about the X-Men being missing, so it probably has not been too long.  After learning that the Avengers and Fantastic Four are not home Dani concludes that the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men all vanished on the same night.  That means 1) this issue takes place on the evening/morning after Secret Wars started 2) the Avengers' butler, Jarvis, is happily willing to speculate the fate of the Avengers to complete strangers

3) Dani appears to know something (like Marvel's publishing initiatives?), stating that the Avengers, FF, and X-Men all disappeared on the same night.  She didn't get the Fantastic Four's disappearance from their robot receptionist, though.  According to it, they might have just been out to dinner.

Everything 80s:
- Illyana (who shares a room with Kitty) has a Garfield stuffed animal and a Tom Selleck poster on the wall.

Worth Noting:
- Kitty's outfit in this issue is the first appearance of the typical "Hellions" uniform.  So there's that.

Uncanny X-Men #181

"Tokyo Story"
Published May 1984
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciler: John Romita Jr.
Inker: Dan Green
Cover Artists: John Romita Jr. and Ron Zalme (the Zalme credit is from marvel.wikia.com)

What's Going On?
Between last issue and this issue, all 12 issues of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars happened (even though Secret Wars #1 only hits the sales rack this month).  This issue picks with the X-Men returning to Earth --- but landing in Japan, for some reason, instead of New York.  That reason may have something to do with the gigantic dragon that appeared out of nowhere, only moments before they arrived.  The dragon, who had gotten friendly (in the Biblical sense?) with Lockheed during Secret Wars, does not appear to be malicious, but is destroying Tokyo nonetheless.  The X-Men and Sunfire join forces to combat the dragon and limit the damage/casualties, but it ultimately falls to little Lockheed to end the battle.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Teasers to get readers to pick up Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, part 1: Rogue and Xavier are sporting new costumes! 

- Teasers to get readers to pick up Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, part 2: Lockheed apparently finds himself a lady dragon friend in Secret Wars, and she apparently thought it was true love.  He disagreed.

- A week has passed since the end of Uncanny X-Men #180, which means that the X-Men were off-world when Kitty Pryde needed their help with the White Queen at the Massachusetts Academy.  Rogue is assigned to fly home as quickly as possible to check on Kitty and the New Mutants.

- Xavier undercuts Storm's authority by commanding the other X-Men.  Xavier realizes that it may be problematic, but Wolverine thinks it straight up sucks.

- Mariko Yashida makes a cameo appearance (why wouldn't she be in Tokyo whenever the X-Men are?), and it turns out that she misses Wolverine. 

- Even though he's "retired" from super-heroing, Cyclops was involved in Secret Wars.  Madelyne Pryor forgives him for missing a week of their honeymoon.  The woman is a saint.  Nothing bad will happen to this couple!

- Teasers to get readers to pick up Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, part 3: Colossus mentions the emotional pain he is in, having recently lost a love.  But...Kitty didn't attend the Secret Wars...what is he talking about?

- Xavier finds himself buried in some wreckage and he panics, thinking that he is paralyzed once again.  It's a nice (and rare!) moment that humanizes Charles "The Saint" Xavier during Claremont's run.

- Senator Robert Kelly is show in an epilogue pushing upcoming legislation called "The Mutant Affairs Control Act."

Writing!
This is almost like a slow, character-based issue, but with a dragon.  The X-Men didn't really face a huge change of status after Secret Wars, so it makes sense that the biggest changes were in the soap opera department.  Xavier, Wolverine, and Colossus all had good characterization scenes this issue, and it was much-needed for Xavier.  A lot is mad of how much Claremont humanized Magneto, but he did nearly as much work adding depth to Xavier's brusque teacher persona.  I don't think the title needs a leadership controversy, but it is an organic result of Xavier joining the team as a superhero in the field, so at least it doesn't feel forced.

Art!
The main takeaway here is that Romita Jr. can draw a good dragon.  That's really all you need to know.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Kitty Pryde appears on the front cover (in the top right of the cover), even though she is not in this issue.  What makes it strange is the fact that she is wearing either street clothes or another new uniform.

- The kids in this issue don't look like they have disproportionately large heads.  For readers of Kick-Ass, it may be strange to see Romita Jr. drawn child characters without spindly limbs.

- Mariko Yashida, as head of the criminal enterprise that is Clan Yashida, apparently has enough clearance to be in the military control center, where they plan attacks against kaiju.

- The giant dragon and Lockheed disappear from the Japanese military's radar, thus ending the incident.  Lockheed reappears soon, although no explanation is given for either the disappearance or his return.

Worth Noting:
- For only the second time since starting this blog, I find an issue of Uncanny X-Men that is actually missing "Uncanny" in the title.  The other instance was the double-sized #166.  Thrilling, I know.

- This is the first appearance of Wolverine's adopted daughter, Amiko/Akiko (I'm reasonably sure the name changes at some point).  She won't be showing up too often.

- The letters page returns this month (letters answered by Wolverine this time) features a fan letter from future comic writer Lee Allred!

X-Men and the Micronauts #4

"Doppelganger!"
Published April 1984
Writers: Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Jackson "Butch" Guice
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Cover Artists: Jackson "Butch" Guice and Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
At the end of last issue, The Entity took control of Xavier's body, while trapping Xavier in The Entity's body (which is dying).  Meanwhile, in the Microverse, the X-Men and Micronauts are in the process of escaping from the dungeons of The Entity, while Baron Karza (trapped in the body of Kitty Pryde) plans to kill both teams of heroes.  As this is happening, Kitty Pryde (trapped in the body of Baron Karza) makes the decision to attack the planet that The Entity is on (as are the X-Men and Micronauts, for that matter) with Baron Karza's forces.  Her plan is to destroy the entire planet to stop The Entity's ruthlessness, even at the cost of her friends and countless innocents.

But that was last issue!  As this issue opens, The Entity (in his Xavier flesh suit) sets out to control the New Mutants, as he successfully did to the X-Men and Micronauts in the Microverse.  He does this with ease.  His next plan is to use Cerebro to amplify his abilities to the point where he can destroy the entire Microverse (with his enemies inside it). 

While this is happening, the X-Men and Micronauts spoil Karza-Kitty's attempt to murder them all; in the process, they encounter Kitty (in Karza's body) and Xavier (in The Entity's body).  After some confusion, every body-switched person's true identity is revealed and everyone agrees to team up against The Entity.  The group manages to avoid The Entity's Cerebro-enhanced attack on the Microverse and makes their way to the X-Men's universe (Earth-616) to battle The Entity; unfortunately, after successfully escaping the Microverse, both the X-Men and the Micronauts are the size of action figures on Earth.  The New Mutants (under the sway of The Entity) attack the tiny heroes; with The Entity distracted by the battle, Xavier launches a psychic attack.  Xavier tries to resume control of his body and mind, and threatens to kill his body before allowing The Entity to continue. 

The Entity believed Xavier capable of this, and chose to take his consciousness back to his own body...which had just died.  With nowhere to go, The Entity ceased to exist and the battle stopped.  Kitty and Baron Karza managed to switch their minds back to the correct bodies, and the Micronauts used science(-ish) to enlarge the X-Men to their natural size before returning to the Microverse.  All's well that ends well...except for all those that died in the Microverse at the hands of The Entity.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Lockheed can sense the presence of Xavier's invisible astral projection.  So that's weird.

Writing!
The summary above may have given you a clue, but this is a plot-heavy issue where a lot of ridiculous things have to get wrapped up.  I would feel sorry for Mantlo and Claremont, but they painted themselves into this corner, so I'm glad they were the ones that set everything back to normal in this issue.  It was their mess, so it was only right for them to clean it up.  Well, as "clean" as a kid's comic with a hidden dick joke can be.

Art!
Like the previous three issues, the artwork from Guice and Wiacek is serviceable, but not terribly pretty to look at.  There are a few panels that made me wonder if maybe multiple inkers worked on this issue --- this panel featuring Dani Moonstar seems unlike anything else in the comic ---

but I don't see anything online to back up this notion, so I guess Guice and Wiacek were just trying a few new things here and there.  Art highlights for me include a new costume for Kitty in what I think was supposed to be Baron Karza's color scheme...

...and this panel of the action figure-sized X-Men fighting the New Mutants. 

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Whatever is going on here (psychic sexual assault?) is gross.  It's worth pointing out that The Entity can (and has) bent heroes to his will without his "psychic fingertips play[ing] a sensual caress" with any of them.

- I love that, when possessed by The Entity, the visual indication that Sunspot has become fierce and savage is to...give him Wolverine's haircut?

- I love the nonsense pseudoscience used in this issue.  There are many instances of it (How do the X-Men regain their full size again?  How did the Micronauts return home?), but my favorite is this, the power of song:

- Last issue showed us that The Entity has the ability to raise the dead with no ill effects.  I had assumed that this would be used to make up for all the people in the Microverse killed by The Entity and the X-Men and Micronauts under his sway.  As the issue closes, Xavier states that he wished he could atone for The Entity's crimes, which could have easily led to someone saying, "Actually, maybe you *can* help..."  What actually happened was nothing.  The X-Men killed a bunch of Microverse people, Xavier's dark side killed millions in the Microverse, and two students were basically sexually assaulted by their trusted teacher.  The repercussions for all of this?  None, which is hilarious (in the bad way).  But at least Xavier takes the time to explain the ending and completely shrug off The Entity's crimes!

Worth Noting:
- The Micronaut's sentient ship, Bioship, dies in this issue.