MICRONAUTS MONDAY: 22 - THE BEST DARNED BURGLAR IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

Micronauts vol.1 No.22 (Oct 1980)
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Pat Broderick / Armando Gil
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Louise Jones
EIC: Jim Shooter

While Marionette and Rann are running around and protecting the flower shops of Manhattan, the remaining Micronauts have taken the Astrostation to the skies in search of their missing comrades. Microtron, Acroyear, Cilica and Bug are also on the lookout for Biotron, who works to repair the Endeavor somewhere unknown to his allies.

This book is at its best when it tackles a few things. First off, the ideas and systems implied by the nature of the Microverse, and whether the individual members of the team deserve human rights. You will be happy to know that the answer is "yes, of course." This includes Microtron and Biotron, but fairly recently did not include Bug and his insectivorid race. This seems to imply that full rights were only granted under the Karza reign, which you might think would make a significant portion of the insectivorids dedicated followers of Karza, across the board. Let's see if that ever comes up.

The other thing which this book does when it's at its best is pit the Micronauts against some quotidian object made into a menace by dint of scale. In this situation, the Astrostation-occupying 'Nauts fight a speeding semi truck inside the Holland Tunnel*

*Well, in some tunnel in New York, "Holland Tunnel" always sounds like the best place to have a speeding car fight when you're in New York).

The fight goes on for four pages, featuring Cilicia avenging herself against the truck's air horn, Bug getting pinned to the grille, and then the whole shmear crashing into a legitimate McDonald's (they show the golden arches and everything),  interrupting a robbery in progress!

Rodney, the burglar in question and a former (and easily recognized) employee of the restaurant, responds to the chaos immediately. Spying the tiny figures which he declares to be "poltergeists" or "gremlins," he starts taking potshots at them -- leading to my favorite scene this issue. ACROYEAR CATCHES A BULLET.

I mean, catches it, a bullet the size of his torso and he just catches it and lets it crumple against his armor. I genuinely, genuinely love Acroyear. He is super-tough and has a great aesthetic, and he's a pretty sensitive, thoughtful guy, to boot. Swipe right. Plus he gets knocked into a vat of fry grease (he's okay).

Pal, you are about to get murdered.

The ruckus at McDonalds draws the attention of Mari and Rann, somehow, so they're able to rejoin their peers. This leaves Biotron and the Endeavor lost somewhere, which next issue promises to find.

I never liked this guy.

TALES OF THE MICROVERSE! We catch back up with Slug, betrothed to Prince Argon and the future queen of Homeworld. Since we last saw her, she started rocking a sort-of Dejah Thoris thing, but with her tits in. She's going to probably want a little more protection since flaming meteors are smashing down all over the city.

Actually, they're missing one target -- Karza allegedly demolished Body Banks! The hated ruins of the Body Banks had been left alone by Homeworld's citizenry, but something is obviously gathering in the edifice for some sinister reason or another.

Slug breaks in but soon faces fire -- from Argon! He's gone all bad because of a post-hypnotic command left in his brain back when Karza turned him into a centaur. Yeah, I didn't think he got turned into a centaur for centaur's sake. Had to be a Plan B. Flanked by centaurs of a desert-dwelling tribe, Argon incapacitates and abducts his former bride, and hints that Karza may not be as dead as he seems ...

LETTERS PAGE! We get a brief history of counter-revolutionary pop culture baby names from a concerned reader.