Micronauts #41

MICRONAUTS #41 (1982)
by Bill Mantlo & Gil Kane

Well… this might be the weirdest thing I’m going to cover in the Doctor Doom retrospective.
No, the Kiss comic doesn’t count.

Just in case you don’t know, in the 80s Marvel published several comics based on different toys, and several of them were connected to the main continuity.
The “big three” that were tied to the continuity were:

1) Rom: incredibly tied to continuity, pretty well received and considered an 80s classic, with a fanbase mostly based on the comic (which seems to be FAR more famous than the toy)

2) Transformers: they tried to connect it to the main continuity but later pretended never happened, it has its fanbase but it’s almost entirely its own thing separate from Marvel

3) Micronauts: lasting 59 issues, almost all of which written by Bill Mantlo

Now… full disclosure: I barely know anything the Micronauts. I tried to get into the series several times but for some reason it never clicked for me. And I honestly don’t remember a single thing.
So I’m going into this pretty much blindly, and I’m not focusing on any subplot.

Just about the ONLY thing I remember about the Micronauts is that they’re from the Microverse, which you might remember we saw aaaaaall the way back in Fantastic Four #16.

The Micronauts are stuck in our world and they wish to go back. So they decide to go to Doctor Doom to get help.

They don’t get to Doom’s castle until page 13, where despite their small size they manage to break in.

There is some unexpected continuity with the previous Doom appearance, to the point of visiting the room where the Invisible Girl caught him playing the piano.

Which is to be expected since, instead of finding what they’re looking for (Doom’s shrinking technology) they discover Liddleville thanks to a distress call they intercept.

That’s a fun concept. Even if the fact that the Micronauts are conveniently the same size of the Liddleville inhabitants feels a bit forced.

In my review of the Fantastic Four issue I wondered how the heck the Puppet Master managed to reprogram the Liddleville robots, since he’s not a scientist.
But here the robots are sentient to the point that one of them tells them the Puppet Master actually just convinced them to revolt against Doom (which they know as Vincent Vaughn).

This means that Doom created thousands of sentient robots and put them in Liddlevill just to annoy Reed Richards. For once, that actually DOES sound legit!!!

Unlike them electing the Puppet Master as mayor…

…and building a castle (with what materials!?!?).

Unfortunately it looks like Doctor Doom has returned to Liddleville, where… Jesus Christ!
Almost literally!!!

I did not expect to see crucifixion on a comic book based on a toy!
They’re just robots, but still…

The Micronauts attack the new castle, which is defended by robots (not Liddleville androids, the usual Doom kind).

But Doctor Doom shows up and deals with the Micronauts as if they were mere toys… oh, the irony.

The Micronauts are imprisoned in the dungeon with the Puppet Master, who gives them the backstory and claims to have been the one to clone the Fantastic Four (which I’m not buying for a second).

As for the explanation on how Doctor Doom is back in his armor… he just built one.
Understandable, but pretty underwhelming.
Also: the robot is SUPPOSED to have the same face of the original Doom, but Gil Kane is going really out of model here!

Doom seems to have a preference for female hostages, though, as his robots kidnap Marionette for poorly explained reasons.

Which leads to an underwhelming escape by the team, who pick up the Puppet Master as an ally.

They get the jump on Doom, but he defeats almost all of them by… and I’m not kidding… a sonic weapon activated by his piano.
All except Acroyear, who is protected by his armor.

Okay, this comic has been severely disappointing so far, but at least we might get ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?

VINCENT Von Doom!?

COME ON, Bill Mantlo!!! You wrote Super-Villain Team-Up  #4 !!!
Which was admittedly a pretty bad comic, but STILL!!!

*groan*

Well at least Doom has a pretty hilarious comeback to one of the Micronauts’ battle cry.

Unfortunately Doom’s attack sets fire to the castle (WTF!?).

Subtlety, your name is DEFINITELY not Bill Mantlo.

Then, out of ABSOLUTELY F#CKING NOWHERE, it turns out that the Puppet Master had access to his radioactive clay this whole time!!!

WTF!? Why didn’t he use that in the Fantastic Four issue then!? Or to escape Liddleville after that issue was over? Or to stop Doom at ANY point before now!?!?

AAARRGHH!!!

Can we please be done with this!?

For the Micronauts yet, but we still have some time to butcher the connection to the previous story.
In THAT one, Doom was explicitly transferring his mind into a robot instead of a clone; it was THE WHOLE POINT of the ending! But now apparently it’s just one of the mini-clones!

I suppose that was done to excuse the Puppet Master being able to control him, but since that’s bulls#it as well it’s not a great excuse.

You and me both, Micronauts. I’m going back to completely forget this issue five minutes after this review.

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Doom significance: -1/10
It needlessly complicates a classic story without adding anything interesting, and of course there’s VINCENT Von Doom. Obviously it’s not as bad as Super-Villain Team-Up #7, but few things are.

Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The weaponized piano and the ending coming out of NOWHERE are pretty Silver Age for Marvel. To get a higher score the Micronauts should’ve arrived at Liddleville by chance, but there is an explanation for why they’re there.

Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Look… Bill Mantlo is a good writer, and he’s done some fantastic comics over the years. But when he misses the mark, he REALLY misses it. And this was just awful!!!
It’s frustratingly slow to get anywhere: the Micronauts don’t get to Castle Doom until page 13, they take until page 22 to face Doom the first time for a couple of panels, than they don’t face him again until page 28… of a 32 page story!
The Micronauts don’t do anything interesting, Doom and the Puppet Master are incredibly generic, the ending comes out of nowhere… it the hope was to attract new readers, this gives me exactly 0% incentive to check the rest of the series.

It was a Doombot all along
Oh how I wish that VINCENT Von Doom was just a faulty Doombot… but unfortunately the circumstances of his next appearances confirm this was the real one.
My headcanon is that the mind transfer caused him severe brain trauma.

Destroy the FF! & Take over the world
None of the motivations apply.

Crazy tech
If the Liddleville robots are sentient it’s impressive, but not that much by Doom standards. Building himself a castle, a new robot army and a castle with seemingly no new resources, however…

Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 48
Adding the five Micronauts: Acroyear, Arcturus Rann, Bug, Devil and Marionette. My understanding is that Microtron and Nanotron are not really heroes but the comic relief robot sidekicks, so I’m not including them (it’d be like counting H.E.R.B.I.E.); if any Micronaut fan can convince otherwise I might add them.
I’m pretty sure about the others, although I wouldn’t recognize anyone except Bug and MAYBE Marionette.