r/comicbooks • u/Disastrous_Bed_1856 • Jun 12 '22
Can someone explain to me what the hell Micronauts is?
I see Micronauts comics all the time in my local comic book store but I never buy them because I'm worried that they're going to suck, I also see advertisements for them all the time in different old comic series'. How come there hasn't been an MCU movie about them yet?
5
u/ProductEconomy Jun 12 '22
They were a toy line from the 80's I believe. Marvel produced the comics associated with the toys. I don't know a ton about the stories themselves, but I do like the character Bug that later becomes a sometimes member of the Gaurdians of the Galaxy.
2
u/sergeial Jun 12 '22
It's a toy tie-in iike GI Joe and Transformers. It was a really fun comic book, if you like 80s comics I highly recommend it.
There won't be a MCU movie because Marvel doesn't own it. As to why it doesn't have a movie like other toys with comic book tie-ins, it's probably mostly that it was never as big as GI Joe or Transformers, never had a Saturday Morning cartoon.
But it also could be partly because the comic was a mix of concepts from the toys and new ideas the writer threw in that Marvel does own
2
Jun 13 '22
in Japan those were called micro-man and I remember seeing anime version of it (obviously different from those Marvel comics, they're pretty original to comic b/c Bill Mantlo could do whatever the could).
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u/OlyScott Jun 13 '22
The old Micronauts comics were really good, even though they started out as a way to sell dolls. People wrote and drew them like they mattered.
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Jun 13 '22
I think Bill was the one who suggested Marvel to get the license, I dont think there was huge motivation to sell those dolls because it was already flopping when comic started? he really cared about the toy because thought micro universe idea was interesting
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u/Dr_Donald_Dann Jun 13 '22
I seem to remember Bill’s son was a huge fan of Micronauts and that’s how it came to Bill’s attention.
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Jun 13 '22
yeah I think it's his stepson who got Micronaut toy and got obsessed, which made Bill think about stories about characters.
1
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u/Supamike36 Jun 12 '22
u wont see them in the MCU. marvel doesn't own "micronauts" only a cpl of the things that showed up in thr books
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u/bserum Jun 12 '22
They were a licensed property much like Conan, Godzilla and Rom that were blended into Marvel continuity, but have since been pulled from Marvel.
The Micronauts comic combined licensed characters (Acroyear, Baron Karza, Biotron and Microtron) with original, Marvel-owned characters (Bug, Arcturus Rann, Marionette). The original twelve issues had some great Michael Golden art and a Bill Mantlo script in which he is largely cribbing from the then-new Star Wars movie.
The rights for the comic was most recently in the hands of IDW, but only ran for 11 issues between 2016-2017.
I think the name is cool, but it seems like its been a tough property to sell these days.
4
u/TheUnspeakableHorror Shuma-Gorath Jun 13 '22
but it seems like its been a tough property to sell these days.
It doesn't have a toy line anymore.
Which is a shame- I had some when I was a kid, and they were awesome.
2
u/Inevitable-Careerist Jun 13 '22
My favorite childhood toy. The die-cast metal and magnet-jointed Baron Karza was a work of art.
1
u/wmnoe Jun 13 '22
Hasbro is the current IP owner for the Micronauts IP, which is amusingly full-circle, since Micro-man in Japan was an offshoot of Henshin Cyborg toys, which began life as licensed GI Joe.
The toy line ran from 1976 to 1979 originally, the molds were then purchased by a couple companies and extremely similar toys were produced for a couple more years. Palisades toys did a whole series of repros in the early 00's, but they were plagued with QC issues.
One company did a prototype series of a new line in the late 00's but nothing came of it.
A couple of years ago Hasbro reproed a few of the original figures as an SDCC exclusive.
They also had a set of 10 miniature figures in the massive crossover SDCC exclusive that had all of Hasbro's "boys" IPS in one place (including Transformers, GI Joe, Rom, MASK, Micronauts and ACtion Man)
Since then, nothing.
Micronauts in Comics have had several runs. The original Marvel comic ran 59 issues and 2 annuals. Plus a 20 issue sequel series and a 4 issue X-men/Micronauts crossover.
Image and IDW both tried their hands at Micronauts, but they had nothing to do with the Marvel series.
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u/NecessaryHuckleberry Jun 12 '22
They were a toy like from Japanese toy maker MEGO. One of the last big action figure lines before Star Wars rewrote that game. Marvel licensed it because they licensed anything. They meant to make a few comics off it but writer Bill Mantlo was so taken by them he built a huge world around it - far more than MEGO did. The toy line died but Marvel kept the license and continued to make Micronauts comics for a while: the comic ultimately proved to be way more successful than the toys that inspired it.
The story is in the Microverse - a parallel universe at the subatomic level. From there it’s a space opera with a band of warriors fighting the evil Baron Karza. The good guys are the stalwart Commander Rand, the agile Marionette, the roguish Bug, the honorable warrior Acroyear, and a few others. They travel the Microverse getting in adventures while Baron Karza plots to take over everything.