In 1977, Marvel Comics was not doing that well until the movie Star Wars helped propel the newly launched comics based on George Lucas’s creation to the top of the charts. It was such a massive hit that the company started looking into more licensed comics, from Godzilla to Hanna-Barbera cartoon adaptations, Edgar Rice Burroughs comics, and Battlestar Galactica. It represented 20% of Marvel Comics’ production and some fans were not too happy about that. But it was a commercial success and it was not going to stop any time soon.
Introduced in 1974 by Japanese toy maker Takara (also known as Tomy in English), Mircoman was included in the line “Henshin Cyborg” but was not an 8 or 12-inch action figure, as it was the standard back then, but was 3.75-inch tall. The marketing used the size to sell the idea that this miniature bionic alien came from a place called Micro Earth. It was so successful that Microman got his own line. Soon, the American company Mego started importing them into the US under the name Micronauts.
Marvel into the Micro Verse
It was Christmas 1977. Comic book writer Bill Mantlo bought some Micronauts toys for his son and, after seeing him play with them, he was inspired to write a series. He made the proposal to Jim Shooter and quickly got the green light to start working on the project. At the time, Mego didn’t have a lot to say about its toys (but supplied a lot of character designs, even unproduced ones). They had names, but no background story had been established. Mantlo had to invent almost everything.
Artist Michael Golden was then working at DC Comics drawing superhero adventures, but he was lured away by Marvel Comics who offered him to do something different, a science-fiction adventure comic, and with the DC Implosion happening, it was time to look for work elsewhere. As the Marvel method was still in effect, Golden had an important role in developing the Micronauts comics with Mantlo, even creating new characters.
Mantlo and Golden worked hard on their first story, but Marvel editorial was not happy with it. Still, they reworked it and gave life to an ambitious space opera, taking us into the Microverse, a subatomic universe filled with strange planets and civilizations, ruled by the tyrannical Baron Karza, a power-hungry dictator who prolongs his life through a sinister body-swapping process. Karza’s rule is enforced by a massive army of robotic warriors and genetic experiments. After spending a thousand years in suspended animation traveling the Microverse, Commander Arcturus Rann returns with Biotron, his robot co-pilot, to find his homeworld under Karza’s rule. One of the two only survivors of the slaughtered royal family, Princess Mari (aka Marionette) joined Rann and his team which also includes alien gladiators Acroyear, master thief Bug, and Microtron.
The story follows their rebellion against Baron Karza, leading to battles across the Microverse and even interactions with the main Marvel Universe, where they team up with characters like the Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Wasp, and even a few supervillains.
Micronauts: From Marvel Comics to IDW Publishing
Bill Mantlo stayed on as the main writer of the Micronauts comics for years, but Golden moved on after 13 issues. He was then replaced by Howard Chaykin, then Pat Broderick, Keith Giffen, Greg LaRocque, Gil Kane, and Jackson Guice (who also worked on X-Men and the Micronauts by Chris Claremont and Mantlo). In 1984, Mantlo and Guice left the title, but Commander Rann’s team went on with a new creative team, Peter B. Gillis and Kelley Jones, in “The Micronauts: The New Voyages.” This new story saw the Micronauts becoming cosmic explorers, traveling into uncharted space, going into a deeper mystery about the nature of reality and their purpose in the universe. It ended in 1986.
After that, some of the characters appeared in other Marvel titles, Bug even got a one-shot. A relaunch was developed in 1998, but it never amounted to anything as Marvel Comics couldn’t negotiate a satisfactory deal to get the license back. In 2002, Image Comics picked it up and launched a new short-lived Micronauts comics with a new lead character, but also a limited series about Baron Karza’origins. A new relaunch happened two years later but was even shorter (3 issues were published). Finally, in 2015, IDW Publishing recruited Cullen Bunn and artist David Baldeon to revive the Mirconauts. Once again, only 11 issues were produced and two miniseries, but the company also used the characters in crossovers with other toy-based comics from Hasbro (now right-holder of the Micronauts) like Rom the Spaceknight, Transformers, and G.I. Joe.
In 2023, Marvel Comics finally signed a deal with Hasbro which allowed the company to reprint the original comics.
The Micronauts Comics Collection: The Marvel Years
The original Mirconauts comics series is now available in three omnibuses.
- The Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1
Collects The Micronauts (1979) #1-29 & Annual (1979) #1-2 and material from Micronauts Special Edition (1983) #1-5. - The Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2
Collects The Micronauts (1979) #30-54. - The Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3
Collects The Micronauts (1979) #55-59, Micronauts: The New Voyages (1984) #1-20.
Following the success of the omnibus collection, Marvel Comics will reprint the same Micronauts comics by Bill Mantlo in a more economical format, as part of the Epic Collection:
- Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years – They Came From Inner Space
Collects The Micronauts (1979) #1-20 & Annual (1979) #1. - More coming soon…