X-Men and the Micronauts - Back Issue Review

Original Publication Date: January 1984 - April 1984

Writers: Chris Claremont & Bill Mantlo

Pencils: Butch Guice

Inks: Bob Wiacek

Colors: Bob Sharen

Letters: Michael Higgins

Editor: Bob Budiansky

The Review: Ahhhh, the early and mid 1980's....  When Marvel still did comics based on licensed properties.  I guess as a kid I was aware that there was a Micronauts comic and some of my buddies had the toys, but I never read it.  Now days on message boards, folks always say Micronauts was a great comic run, so it's kinda "on my list" along with a lot of other things that I may or may not ever read.


Despite being a huge X-Men fan, I somehow missed this miniseries as a kid.  Probably the 7/11 where I bought my comics didn't get the issues.  Regardless, I read this miniseries fresh as an adult over the last week.  We all know that can be really dangerous; unlike today's comics which are written for adults, these comics were written for 12 year old boys and sometimes they're not good in hindsight [Like Crisis on Infinite Earths....unreadable].

It turns out this story holds up pretty well.  We start out being introduced to the Micronauts who are facing an attack on the microverse by The Entity (catchy, huh?) which threatens the very fabric of the microverse.  During an attack by The Entity, the Micronauts's sentient ship and their arch-enemy, Baron Karza, get zapped to the Xavier School and the fun is on.  Of course, the X-Men get shrunk down to size and travel to the microverse and after many high-jinks, the problem is solved.

THIS is how to introduce a team...

The big highlight of this miniseries is the artwork by Butch Guice.  Sometimes when you go back and reread these 80's comics, you get unpleasant surprises in the art department (like Al Migrom) because kids just didn't care about art much back then.  But, the art in this series is glorious...even though it's from an era where the artists where concerned with storytelling first and making pretty pictures secondly.  Guice does really nice traditional superhero anatomy and he could draw a wonderful pretty lady.

I feel a SPOILER WARNING is useful, since I was reading this series for the first time and enjoyed a few of the twists.  Surprise #1 is that during their initial battle with Baron Karza, the psyches of the Baron and Kitty Pryde get switched.  So, much of the series features "Kitty" traveling with the X-Men and being a little off (since she's really the Baron) and the Baron being a little weird around his minions since he's really Kitty.  Lots of thought bubbles from teammates saying, "Hmmm, Kitty seems very quite and withdrawn...."  And, it leads to some typical handwringing from Kitty about how she might be "trapped" in this form and away from Peter

Surprise #2 is that The Entity is really the evil part of Xavier's psyche.  I didn't really enjoy this aspect too much because I've never enjoyed X-Men stories that revolved around Xavier.  I've also never really enjoyed stories where the good guy turns evil because the whole point seems to be, "Be glad he's on our side kiddies, because he is REALLY powerful.  Muh ha ha!"  However, the one cool thing is that as The Entity, Xavier manifests some golden gladiator armor that he first used in Uncanny #117.  It's always neat when a miniseries tosses out little bits of red meat to the hardcore fanbase.

END SPOILERS

A couple of weird observations too:

• This was back when Wolverine could still smoke.  And.....he was in the brown uniform!
• Due to the fact that we have two Xavier's in this story, we get a single page where Good Xavier is possessing Dani Moonstar in our world while The Entity is putting the moves on a scantily-clad Kitty Pryde in the microverse.  Even though the scene with Dani isn't overtly sexual, it's still kinda creepy.  But, seeing the Xavier's subconscious is thinking about sleeping with a ~14 year old girl is just disturbing as hell.  Especially when you add the wrinkle that the Baron is trapped in Kitty's body.  Kinky dude, that Xavier!
• Do you X-fans remember when the New Mutants were getting rammed down our throats?  Well, this is right in the heart of that time, so be prepared: Lots of New Mutant action.  

Conclusion: If you're an fan of the X-Men or the Micronauts and/or have an affinity for 80's comics, this is well worth checking out.  I'm not sure if it's ever been collected, but the issues are dollar bin fare. Check it out.

Grade: B

- Dean Stell