MICRONAUTS MONDAY: 36 - THIS BATTLEFIELD EARTH

Micronauts vol.1 No.36 (Dec 1981)
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Keith Giffen/Danny Bulandi
Letterer: Jean Simek
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Tm Defalco
EIC: Jim Shooter

A fire extinguisher is used as a weapon.

The temptation to make this entry in the series just a single-sentence review is tempting. This is because this really doesn't warrant much more than a single sentence summary -- there's just not enough going on. Here, watch this:

"The Micronauts go the Earth again for no reason and beat up dumber Micronauts until it's over."

That was it, good night.

The M'nauts do, indeed, go to Earth again, having passed through the Spacewall when fleeing Deadzone and the Dog Soldier armies of Argon. They've ended up in an elementary school in an undisclosed location -- you'll remember that Mantlo has previously been explicit in where the stories take place, so it's weird to have a Generic Elementary School used as a setting -- where the gimmick of the story is exclusively "What normal sized thing can be used as a huge weapon against tiny alien ships?"

This series is gonna become excoriations if the quality don't pick up.

A tack is used as a weapon.

 I mean, let's see -- the Death Squad is still fighting the Micronauts, and that Repto has joined them for no reason. Battleaxe of the Death Squad turns out to be Karza's former chief scientist Degrayde for no compelling reason, and Mari continues to be a straw-woman feminist. Devil says "To the devil" again, third time in as many issues, and the Endeavor makes a last minute save again, just like last issue. Oh, and the bad guys now invoke Dallan and Sepsis, the gods of rebellion. I think this book has lost the plot -- compared to the first few issues, this is kiddie-wink stuff.

And that really is it. As individual issues go, this is non-existent. There's also no letter column for me to quote from or drop in images, and there's not much to say about Keith Giffen's pencils except that it would have been fun if he'd done this in his faux-Kirby style.

I guess maybe I can describe the ads? Lifesavers did a wordfind, that's fun. Coulda won a Lifesavers pencil case if I'd submitted an entry. Grit, they got Grit ... looks like you could get a 14 carat gold chain for eight bucks if you order before the end of the year. Good news for juvenile guidos.

Saturday morning lineups here -- oh, hey, The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam, that was fun, I remember that. CBS had Blackstarr, which is great, but everything else was Kwicky Koala and Trollkins.

Bubble Yum, here's a Bubble Yum ad. Willie Wonka, too. I don't remember what a "Skrunh" bar, was, might be before my time. Hostess ad, of course, and something called the Youth Opportunity Sales Club with a logo that looks like some sort of homegrown Hitler Youth association. Back cover advertised those MPC model kits for the Empire Strikes Back, if you wanted a sculpture of Luke Skywalker hunkering down in front of a mud yurt for your bookshelf. Good ads, here, nice ones, I like the ads. Good work over at the ad department this issue, let's give 'em the credit that's due.

A globe is used as a weapon.