The X-Men and the Micronauts #1-4 (January – April 1984)
Written by Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo
Pencilled by Butch Guice
Inked by Bob Wiacek (#1-4), Kelley Jones (#2)
Colour by Bob Sharen (#1), Julianna Ferriter (#2-4)
Spoilers (from thirty-eight years ago)
As Bill Mantlo and Butch Guice’s time on Micronauts was coming to its close, they also created, with Chris Claremont, this four-issue miniseries that had the Micronauts team up with the X-Men (the Micronauts had met Nightcrawler before). Strangely, this miniseries ran concurrently with the Micronauts series, which had gone bi-monthly at the time, but was also eight to ten pages longer than a regular monthly comic. I’ve been reading the Micronauts books, and am surprised that nothing was done to advertise this book, at a time when the X-Men were the most popular book going.
In the Micronauts series, the team had been suffering from many losses, as their enemy, Baron Karza, a Darth Vader-like figure, was consolidating his rule over the Microverse. The team had recently lost members, and were having a hard time accepting their leader, Arcturus Rann, who was moving onto a more pacifist trail than they liked. Things were starting to feel desperate, during what is tied with the first year of the book for its best run.
In terms of the X-Men, this is around the time that Rogue joined the team, I believe. The X-Men were super popular, and experiencing one of their best runs of their history (I would argue; it’s also the era where I started reading the book, so I know I’m biased).
Having these two teams come together made sense from a commercial point of view, as plans were in place to relaunch the Micronauts as a newsstand book again, with a new creative team. I’m sure Marvel expected more readers to flow in that direction than Micronauts readers discovering the X-Men.
I’m pretty sure I picked these issues up as back issues, and don’t really remember reading them more than twice, in the mid-80s. I have no real memory of their story, so I’m eager to dive back in and check it out again. These are two of my all-time favourite teams, and their story is being told by an excellent creative team, so how can it not be great? Let’s find out!
Let’s track who turned up in the title:
The Micronauts
- Bioship (#1-2, 4)
- Commander Arcturus Rann (#1-4)
- Fireflyte (#1-4)
- Acroyear (#1-4)
- Bug (#1-4)
- Huntarr (#1-4)
- Marionette (Mari; #1-4)
The X-Men
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner; #1-4)
- Storm (Ororo Munroe; #1-4)
- Ariel (Kitty Pryde; #1-4)
- Wolverine (Logan; #1-4)
- Colossus (Piotr Rasputin; #1-4)
Villains
- Baron Karza (#1-4)
- The Entity (#1-4)
- Chief Scientist Degrayde (#2-4)
Guest Stars
- Sunspot (Roberto DaCosta, New Mutants; #1-4)
- Cannonball (Sam Guthrie, New Mutants; #1-4)
- Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair, New Mutants; #1-4)
- Spellbinder (aka Mirage, Dani Moonstar, New Mutants; #1-4)
- Magma (Amara Aquilla, New Mutants; #3-4)
Supporting Characters
- Illyana Rasputin (#1, 4)
- Charles Xavier (#1-4)
- Lockheed (#1, 4)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- The opening of this series is a little jarring, as it doesn’t really reflect what was happening in the main Micronaut around the same time that it came out (Internet wisdom says it takes place between issues 57 and 58, which makes sense given Rann’s status with the team. Bioship is leading a fleet of vessels towards the Spacewall, where something has been destroying worlds. An equal-sized fleet launches from the planet D’arnel. The planet is known as a peaceful farming planet, and Fireflyte is able to detect that the people living there are in pain. Rann speaks to someone off-screen, and then commands the battle fleet to attack. The two fleets are evenly matched, so Rann orders boarding parties to launch. We then see that the Micronauts are working with Dog Soldiers, who begin to fight the D’arnellians. One of the Dog Soldiers beams onto the bridge of Bioship, to report to his master, Baron Karza. It’s a bit of a surprise to see that Karza is on the bridge, working with the Micronauts. We learn that whatever has been attacking these worlds is seen as a bigger threat than Karza, making them strange allies. There’s some Entity, believed to have come from beyond the Spacewall, who is responsible for what is happening. Rann and his team put on their spacesuits and are beamed into the battle. Karza remains on Bioship, and they talk about how they need to be held in reserve. Bioship finds the Entity’s energy focused on an asteroid, and they suspect that the being is from Earth. We get our first look at the Entity, who is dressed in yellow armor reminiscent of a gladiator’s. He attacks the Dog Soldiers, and is surrounded by the Micronauts, who are shocked by how much he enjoys killing. He tells them that he finds chaos fun, and then with a snap of his fingers, the planet D’arnel explodes. As debris flies through space, Bioship has no choice but to move back. The Entity has kept only the Micronauts alive through this, and holds them prisoner, again for his own pleasure. Karza orders Bioship to warp away, and they leave. On Earth, at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, some of the X-Men lounge by the pool. Kitty Pryde, who was going by Ariel at this time, is studying with her friend Illyana Rasputin, and complaining about the amount of work Professor Xavier is assigning her. Xavier is in the Danger Room control room, about to put Sunspot through a test. He emails more work to Kitty, having read her mind. With Xavier are Cannonball, Wolfsbane, and Dani Moonstar, who is tagged as Spellbinder, a name I don’t remember her using elsewhere. Just as Xavier prepares his test, Baron Karza emerges through the Spacewall, on the attack (he’s about six inches tall). He believes that the source of the Entity’s power is there with them, and fires his hand, which grows to human size, at Bobby’s throat. Sam blasts over and rams him into the wall, without hurting Karza. Karza is quickly able to take out the New Mutants, despite being so tiny. Dani shows him an image of himself as he used to be, and he reverses her powers, projecting an image of the Demon Bear which terrifies her. Storm arrives and fires lightning at Karza while Nightcrawler tries to get Xavier, who is hurt, out of the way. Wolverine and Colossus rush into the Danger Room, and join the fray. Logan is able to cut Karza’s armor, but Karza manages to take down the team. He teleports behind Kurt and blasts him. Kitty phases into the room and hopes that her ability to disrupt electronics when she phases through them might help. When she phases through Karza, she calls out in pain, and the two seem stuck in each other momentarily. When they separate, somehow Karza’s mind is in Kitty’s body, and Kitty, who is unconscious, is in Karza’s body. Karza pretends to be Kitty. This is when Bioship materializes (he’s taller than the X-Men), and quickly tries to de-escalate the fighting. Kitty/Karza backs him up. Soon, the heroes have joined together, and we learn that Karza is mentally controlling his body from Kitty’s and is able to make it speak. Storm notices that something is wrong with Kitty, but doesn’t know what. Karza explains that the Entity’s energy trail led straight to Xavier, and apologizes for attacking. Xavier can read Bioship’s mind, and understands what’s happening, but is curious that he can’t read Karza’s mind, and that there is some kind of telepathic static keeping him from communicating with his X-Men’s’ minds. Xavier agrees to let the X-Men help Karza free the Micronauts. Illyana brings Lockheed to see Kitty, and he reacts poorly to her, which everyone notices as odd. Bioship uses his reducta-ray to start shrinking the X-Men, and once they board him, he returns to the Microverse. Xavier is left worrying about his people, and wanting to search his own mind for the link to the Entity that Karza spoke of.
- The Micronauts find themselves in a strange realm. They are on top of large rocky formations and start to climb down. They are attacked by green creatures that the narrator calls Weirdlings. Bug falls into some slime that devolves him into a true insect. Fireflyte’s song is canceled by the Weirdlings, and she loses her voice. Acroyear is distracted in his fight when he thinks he sees Cilicia, his estranged wife. He follows her and learns that she’s given birth to their son, an albino she’s named after his evil brother Shaitan. Acroyear falls. Huntarr learns that the Weirdlings won’t fight him, as they see him as a monster like them. Mari climbs and finds herself approaching an arena like the one that Baron Karza has used on Homeworld. When she enters it, she finds herself moving like a true marionette, with no idea who is controlling her body. She sees all the men in her life in the stands. Commander Rann comes across a graveyard filled with the bodies of his Micronauts. He falls into his own grave, and then all the Micronauts find themselves at the feet of the Entity. They crawl towards him, except for Mari, who does a strange puppet dance. He uses his sword to heal them all, and Mari calls him ‘master’. Back on Earth, the New Mutants find Professor Xavier asleep at his computer. When they make noise, the Entity gets weak in his realm (wherever he is). He feels better, and Acroyear asks how the team can help him. He tells them that he’s going to have them ravage the Microverse and then move on to the Macroverse. He dresses the Micronauts in versions of the original X-Men uniforms. On the Bioship, Baron Karza and the X-Men approach Homeworld. Nightcrawler can tell that things aren’t pleasant there, and Karza explains that it’s because of the work of rebels who are against him. While the X-Men make it clear they don’t much like Karza, Kitty supports him (remember that Karza is inhabiting her body, and telepathically controlling his own body because she’s still unconscious). Karza suggests they talk to Bioship, since he’s loyal to Rann, to understand how much of a threat the Entity is. Karza wants to be left on Homeworld, and suggests he keep Kitty with him, but Storm won’t allow that. Karza teleports down, while Bioship continues to take the X-Men on their way. Once in Karza’s Body Banks, Kitty finds herself trapped, immobile, in Karza’s body. Chief Scientist Degrayde approaches Karza’s stiff figure, and talks to himself about how it might be time for him to make his move. A telepathic image of Karza appears, chastises Degrayde, and tells him to get a new wave of Dog Soldiers ready to fight. Bioship approaches the world that he believes the Entity is on, based on the amount of telepathic static he detects there. Karza-in-Kitty notices that Storm keeps watching them. As Bioship prepares to land on this world, he suddenly loses power and crashes. The X-Men emerge from his mouth, and find that things on this planet are very large. Storm takes to the air, and discovers that they are on the grounds of the Xavier School, maybe. They approach the door, and Colossus punches a hole through it after Kitty is unable to phase through (because Karza-in-Kitty doesn’t know how to use her powers). Wolverine confirms that things smell just like home, while Kurt feels a sense of wrongness. They see Professor Xavier, in his wheelchair, surrounded by the Micronauts in X-Men costumes. The Micronauts attack, and the much-smaller X-Men are sent scattering. They have a lot of trouble fighting people so much bigger than them (although Fireflyte is the same size, and she is able to take down Storm). Karza-in-Kitty tries to flee but gets caught. Xavier picks her up and we see him turn into the Entity. He holds all the X-Men in his hand, and talks about breaking their spirits and shaking the universe to its foundations. On Homeworld, Karza screams. Degrayde rushes to him; he is back in his own body, and wants to act.
- While Charles Xavier sleeps on Earth, he has visions of the X-Men and the Micronauts (now back in their regular clothes) attacking a Dog Soldier Kennel on a remote world. They slaughter the Dog Soldiers, and it’s noticed that Kitty (who is actually Karza, remember) seems to be enjoying it more than the others. A group of Dog Soldiers, and a modified human Archivist, surrender. Karza-in-Kitty wants to kill them all, but Huntarr stops her. The Entity appears, and the heroes bow to him. The Entity claims they all failed him, and when Rann argues that there is no point in killing the surrendered Dog Soldiers, he turns him into dust and then resurrects him. The Entity praises Kitty, and then kills all the Dog Soldiers himself. On Earth, Xavier calls out in his sleep. The New Mutants come to his room (Magma is with them now for the first time in this series) and help him back into bed. He seems calmer, so they leave him to sleep, and no one notices that he’s crying. The Entity spared the Archivist so it can continue to transmit data to Baron Karza, and then with a snap of his fingers, he teleports away his thralls while the world they are on collapses on itself. On Homeworld, Degrayde tells Karza what’s happened. Karza (who is actually Kitty, despite the last issue suggesting otherwise) tells Degrayde to shut down the Body Banks, and has to threaten him to get his compliance. Kitty-in-Karza tries to work out how to help herself, and triggers Karza’s centaur form. Elsewhere, Karza-in-Kitty finds themselves in a skimpy outfit, lounging in a Grecian room. The Entity comes to them and kind of comes on to them (Kitty is thirteen, remember). We see that the other X-Men and Micronauts are sprawled out in a dungeon. Logan considers killing his friends to help them escape the Entity’s control, but Peter stops him, pointing out that the Entity would just resurrect them. They decide to try to escape. On Earth, Dani checks on Xavier, who is still sleeping. When she touches him, he takes over her mind momentarily, as a bridge to escape his own body. His astral self goes in search of the Entity. At the same time, the Entity, who is sitting next to the reclined Kitty in a very threatening way, senses that Xavier has escaped and goes to meet him on the astral plane. Charles recognizes the Entity’s armor as something he’s worn before when fighting the Shadow King. As the Entity is frozen, Karza-in-Kitty grabs a knife and stabs him in the back. Karza plans to get his own body back, and then kill the Micronauts and X-Men. On the astral plane, Xavier and the Entity start to fight. The Entity is aware of what happened to his body but thinks he can defeat Xavier. Xavier captures him in an astral hand, and pulls off his helmet, discovering that the Entity looks like him. The Entity explains that he is the dark thoughts that Xavier hides (does this mean he lusts after Kitty?). He puts his armor on Xavier, and explains that as Xavier’s slept, he’s started to conquer the Microverse (nowhere is it explained how he crossed the Spacewall, or even knew it was there). Now that the Entity is stronger, he is able to dominate Charles; he says goodbye to him, as the astral hand drags him off somewhere. The Micronauts and X-Men continue through the labyrinth that is the Entity’s dungeons. Acroyear has a bit of a panic attack, but Storm gives him a pep talk/shames him into carrying on. They are surprised that they haven’t been discovered, but don’t know that Karza-in-Kitty is watching them through a sniper rifle of sorts, and intends to kill them all, starting with Storm. On Earth, Dani tells the other New Mutants that Charles is fine now, and tells them to go back to bed. We see that it’s not Charles sleeping in his bed, but the Entity.
- The Entity, now inhabiting Charles Xavier’s body, approaches Dani Moonstar, who is sleeping at a desk wearing only a short t-shirt and panties (honestly, what I thought was a bit titillating when I was ten is coming off as seriously creepy now). The Entity sends his mental projection into Dani, taking control of her and bending her to his will. He embraces her. In the Microverse, on the Entity’s planet (the narration makes it clear that the Entity created this world), the X-Men and Micronauts search for the source of their enemy’s power, not immediately realizing that Karza, in Kitty’s body, is preparing to shoot them. Logan spots her and Peter uses his metal body to protect Rann from being shot. Kurt teleports to Karza’s location and is shocked to see that it’s Kitty shooting at them. Karza-in-Kitty phases away, just as Karza’s fleet starts to bombard the planet from orbit (it’s really Kitty, in Karza’s body, that is commanding things). Chief Scientist Degrayde recognizes that something has changed in Karza. Kitty is contacted by Xavier’s mind, and then orders Degrayde to stop bombing the planet. She teleports down, and Degrayde, sensing his chance to take charge, does not follow orders. Kitty and Karza find one another, standing over the Entity’s dying body, which is inhabited by Xavier. Kitty-in-Karza fires her hand at Karza-in-Kitty’s neck, just as the X-Men and Micronauts arrive. There is some general confusion, but Xavier-in-Entity gets them to stop fighting. He explains that Kitty and the Baron have swapped bodies, and while no one believes it at first, Logan is able to prove it. On Earth, Entity-in-Xavier uses Cerebro to increase his mental powers, and plans to destroy the entire solar system. The bombing continues in the Microverse, and Karza figures out that Degrayde has betrayed him. Rann contacts Bioship, who comes to beam them aboard and fly towards Karza’s fleet. Fireflyte feels an attack on the Enigma Force itself, which they figure must be the Entity. The Entity’s power destroys the frontier worlds of the Microverse, and Karza’s fleet, killing Degrayde. The Bioship’s shields just barely withstand the force, and the heroes decide they need to cross the Spacewall and seek their enemy on Earth. Fireflyte is able to sing them through the Spacewall, and Bioship lands roughly on the lawn of the real Xavier School. Inside the ship, the X-Men realize that Bioship is alive and suffering. Karza-in-Kitty is wearing a new, strange, outfit, which upsets Kitty-in-Karza. Cannonball, under the Entity’s command, attacks Bioship (which is roughly his size), as do the rest of the New Mutants. The X-Men and Micronauts emerge and start fighting the kids. Acroyear and Huntarr, despite their small size, are able to toss Sunspot. Bioship explains to Storm that he has only enough power to keep Xavier-in-Entity alive, or to restore the X-Men to their proper size. Kurt looks after the Professor. Xavier plans to fight the Entity on the astral plane, asking that the heroes keep him distracted and that Kurt protect his body, and to kill him if need be. Everyone keeps fighting the New Mutants, which frustrates the Entity-in-Xavier. Magma opens up a volcano, pouring lava on Bioship, which does further damage to him. Kurt moves the Entity’s body, while Xavier’s astral self enters the school and finds Illyana passed out. Lockheed the dragon recognizes him, and flies out the window to help Kitty. Xavier approaches the Entity and enters his own body. He sees some of his memories, and is upset that the Entity has access to them. Outside, Lockheed approaches Kitty and Karza, recognizing that his friend is in Karza’s body. He tries to fry Karza-in-Kitty, who phases away. This tips the Entity off to the fact that the body switch took place, and he takes control of Karza’s armor, firing his hands at Karza-in-Kitty’s throat. Kitty and Karza are next to each other, and because Karza doesn’t understand how Kitty’s powers work, he can’t phase away (even though we’ve seen him do it twice this issue). Fireflyte comes to help them phase together, which is apparently painful. The Entity becomes aware of Xavier’s presence in his mind. Kitty, now wearing a bathing suit somehow, is back in her own body, and Karza has teleported away. Bioship tells Kurt that he’s dying. Kurt teleports away with the Entity’s body, recognizing Bioship’s sacrifice. Xavier starts to attack the Entity from within. Their two astral forms confront one another and they start to fight, which has an effect on Xavier’s body. Xavier starts to have a stroke, which he has caused as a way of driving the Entity out or killing him. The Entity returns to his body and disappears. Later, everyone gathers around Bioship, including Xavier’s still kind of comatose body. They see that Bioship is dying, and Storm again worries about her size. Rann figures that Bioship can either get them home or help the X-Men, but not do both, while Mari worries that they don’t know where Karza is. Fireflyte, who is almost drained of energy, thinks she can get them home, but they have to leave soon. Bioship says goodbye to Rann, and uses the last of his energy to restore the X-Men to their rightful size. Storm says goodbye to the Micronauts, who disappear thanks to Fireflyte. Xavier comes to and explains that he faked the stroke to get the Entity to leave his mind, but since his own body was dead, he just disappeared. Xavier is wistful, while the Micronauts fly back to their universe.
I didn’t really remember this series, but having read it now, after having recently read almost all of Mantlo’s Micronaut’s run (there is one more issue in his run, set after this miniseries), and considering that at the time this was written, Chris Claremont was at the top of his fame, I’m shocked by how disappointing it is. This series is a mess.
When the series opens, the Micronauts and Baron Karza, their worst enemy, are fighting alongside each other, with no flashback or clear explanation as to how that came about. What we did piece together, a little later in the issue, is that the mysterious Entity was destroying worlds, so they had no choice but to team up. This doesn’t really make much sense, as it had been established that Karza was in control of almost all of the Microverse, and even if it was true, I’m not sure what the Micronauts would be able to add to that situation.
The Entity is never really explained. For a while, it seemed like he was the dark impulses of Charles Xavier, but that doesn’t make much sense, for we see him as having Beyonder-level powers in the Microverse, a place that Xavier wouldn’t have even been aware of. Plus, he had a body that was separate from Charles’s. But at the same time, he was connected to him? It was never made clear who this guy was, what his power set really was, or what happened to him. The only good thing about him not really having come from Xavier is that it allows us to forget that the Entity had the hots for Kitty Pryde, who was only thirteen or so at the time of this story.
Another thing that bothered me about this story was that the Bioship was killed off kind of casually. Biotron was Commander Rann’s companion for one thousand years, and the death of his original self had a lasting impact on the team. He was then brought back, in a fashion, as the ship that became the team’s home, but they brushed off his passing and quickly returned home to continue to fight the guy they had just teamed up with. It moved too quickly.
Likewise, I thought the off-handed death of Chief Scientist Degrayde would have benefited from a little more time and space, given that his character was a mainstay in the Micronauts’s book for a while, and his treachery towards Karza was given some space to grow.
Perhaps the issue was that Mantlo’s departure from the Micronauts left him without enough space to clear out Bioship and Degrayde in that book, but I just found that the pacing here was off by a lot.
Other things didn’t make a lot of sense either, like when the X-Men first went to the Microverse, and found that they were smaller than the Micronauts, who were dressed as X-Men, but only temporarily. The shifts from one issue to the next were often jarring, despite the creative team being stable throughout.
This series really did nothing for the X-Men. Chris Claremont didn’t invest any real character growth or development in it, and aside from the space given to Dani Moonstar (who was called Spellbinder?) and Kitty Pryde, his characters were not important to the story. This could just as easily have been Avengers and the Micronauts, or Defenders and the Micronauts.
I can only assume that this series, which was the first that the Micronauts had been on newsstands in addition to direct market stores, was simply a trial balloon for the upcoming Micronauts relaunch, and an attempt to drum up interest in the characters. I know that by this point, sales on the main book weren’t great (which is probably why it got canceled), and a tie-in with the X-Men made sense, but I think this was a failure.
Butch Guice’s art was not a failure though. He did a fine job on this book, although I think the work he was concurrently doing on the main title was a little better. I love Guice’s work across his whole career, and have enjoyed going back to his origins here.
In the end, this was a strange little series. Stopping my reading of the main title to read this threw off the pace of that series, which was excellent during this same time. Knowing how good that book was, and how good X-Men was at this time, this series was a disappointment.
Next time I’m going to be digging into the Micronauts’s New Voyages, which I remember as the first that I regularly bought the book, but aside from enjoying the way Mari was drawn, I don’t remember a lot else about that title.
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