It’s been years since Paramount tried to replicate the success it has had with the Transformers movies by creating a cinematic universe around other Hasbro toys like Visionaries and M.A.S.K., but now—against all odds—there has once again been movement on a Micronauts movie (Hasbro didn’t create the original Micronauts toys, but it now controls the rights). As reported by Variety, How To Train Your Dragon director Dean DeBlois has signed up to both write and direct the toy line/comic book adaptation, so this is slightly closer to actually happening. Considering that this has been slightly close to actually happening for a decade now, though, it’s still better to be cautiously optimistic than regular optimistic.
As for what Micronauts is, the brand began in the ‘70s as repackaged Japanese robot toys (much like Transformers a decade later), with Marvel enlisting writer Bill Mantlo to put together storylines about the figures for a series of tie-in comics. Marvel eventually lost the Micronauts rights, but it retained control of the original characters and concepts that had been created for the books (which is why the Micronauts’ microscopic Microverse world appeared in the Ant-Man movies). Various other publishers tried to tell their own Micronauts stories, most recently with IDW creating a shared Hasbro universe of its own by connecting the Micronauts, Visionaries, G.I. Joe, Rom The Spaceknight, and Transformers into a single continuity. It worked out fine, but that specific continuity was mostly destroyed by Unicron shortly after that.
There’s no mention of similar high-minded plans in the Variety story, as Paramount and Hasbro have probably learned not to get too far ahead of themselves, but there’s no reason the Micronauts can’t meet Bumblebee if this becomes a huge hit (assuming it really gets made this time).
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Actually the MCU can’t call their microscopic pocket dimension The Mircroverse as that’s owned by Hasbro. Instead they call it “The Quantum Realm”. However, Marvel can refer to it as the Microverse in the comics but they can’t use any of the Micronauts except for the ones that originally appeared in the comic such as Bug. However they can’t use Bug in the MCU because he’s a Micronaut, hence why James Gunn couldn’t use him in GotG.But the good news is that there is a character that has crossed over with a Hasbro property that Marvel can include in the MCU: Death’s Head.He was created by Marvel UK in a Transformers comic. However, the writers liked the character so much that to make sure Marvel owned him in his entirety they introduced him in a one page comic called High Noon Tex.This means that Marvel owns Death’s Head 100% and can probably introduce him into the MCU.
As much as I love the Bill Mantlo Micronauts run — that was some wild and trippy shit for a little kid to be reading, with amazing art and sound effects — Bug was really the only Micronaut character worth worrying about, once Klingons totally became Acroyers in the later years. (OK, the multiple incarnations of Arcturus Rann as Time Traveler were kind of cool, too.)
I probably haven’t read Micronauts since the late 70’s. I was obsessed with the toy line as a kid: I can remember having them battle my mini and giant Shogun Warriors while Luke Skywalker and his buddies tried to pick sides.I very vaguely remember the comic: is it one of those things where I have huge nostalgia for it but when I read it as an old I’m going to experience a lot of cringe? (I call this the Star Blazers experience: after decades of not watching one of my all time favorite cartoons as a kid, I wasn’t ready for that theme song to put it mildly)
I liked how you could swap body parts among the figures (I am thinking of the right toy line, right?). So much more creative than Star Wars figures.
That’s the one alright. I think there were a few figures that were stand alone but in general you could build some cool stuff.
I think Baron Karza could give Doctor Doom a run for his money. Dude put ALL of Homeworld into his Body Banks at the end of the series, rendering the population of the entire planet into horribly mutated freaks for his armies.
It’s funny how the Darth Vader rip off ended up being a much more frightening villain with actual plans and a worldview, instead of being a weepy pasty guy who gave up evil the moment he had a son.
And the comics did such great things with the Karza design. The toy itself really doesn’t live up to the great chain “hair” that cascades back down the back of the helmet, etc.
Aw, come on. Bug WAS the best, but the Microtron/Biotron duo was sweet too, and Acroyer ended up with some REAL pathos once they got him back to his homeworld to fight his ne’er-do-well brother.
That first year or so of the comic was a perfect story. It was the only thing that came out around Star Wars that had as good world building, narrative thrust, and, in that first run, a complete story.
Blew my little mind when they got out of the Microverse and were getting chased by cops in Florida…and goddamned Man-Thing.
Marvel, Buy whatever owns Micronauts. Make that perfect story into a movie, then intergrate the characters into the greater MCU.
The amount of world building that Mantlo and Golden accomplished in the first year of Micronauts is ridiculous. They not only introduced and pretty deftly fleshed out a main team of six distinct characters and a fairly robust cast of allies and opponents, but also sketched out the rules of societies on at least two planets, built a sense of history and backstory to the events that made the story feel more epic than just what was appearing on the pages, including alien alphabets and religions, all while telling a story that had serious forward momentum and never seemed to drag its feet to try too hard to explain things – a story which spilled over into two different universes AND had time for a guest appearance by Man-Thing. It’s pretty unimaginable in today’s world of single conversations sometimes spreading out over months. I really don’t know why the hell Disney doesn’t just pony up for Micronauts and ROM. I would think it’s pocket change to them, which they’d make back in merchandising the first time Rom appeared in a GOTG movie, and it would give Marvel access to some fairly large chunks of their own continuity. If Conan the Barbarian can be back in the Marvel Universe, so should the Micronauts. (Oddly, though, Red Sonja is still not back with Marvel, even though Marvel actually created the character as she is now. But apparently they didn’t realize they had, and let their copyright lapse, with the result that now neither the Robert E. Howard estate or Marvel have the rights to the character. But that’s way off topic.)
I can imagine that there would be some awesome corporate synergy things for Disney if they bought a toy company as well.
Oh, Acroyer was great. The Star Trek movies and later TV shows basically walked off with all the characterization for the Klingons (or had parallel evolution) which is why I said Bug is the only thing left worth using from that original run.
But yeah, when they shifted to Florida — and it was all taken seriously, not played as a cutesy kid fare — that was when I was hooked too.
(Other key moment: Time Traveler’s reveal that “a man who lives many lifetimes can have many selves,” and that the Time Travelers were all incarnations of Arcturis Rann during his time in suspended animation.)
Yeah…that was definitely a “Whoaaaaaaa….!” moment.
Man, know thyself.
Nerd.I really wish Marvel still had the rights. A high-quality collection of the Michael Golden issues would make me happy as hell.
HELL YES. I’d love a good trade collection of all the Micronauts issues.
I always thought he was a Doctor Who comic character, yes?
The Seventh Doctor appeared in his solo series back when Marvel UK had the publishing rights to Doctor Who comics. He shrunk Death’s Head down from building size to humanoid size and dropped him off on top of The Baxter Building, the home of the Fantastic Four.
Can the MCU use everyone’s favourite duct-tape sporting villain, Circuit Breaker?
I loved Death’s Head, he was a great addition to Transformers UK comics.
I’m guessing he had an influence on Rafa Nadal’s grammar pattern. What with the way he’d say yes at the end of sentences, no?
Marvel owns Rann, Mari, and Bug. It’s easy for them to just slide over to be Quantum Denizens and never mention anything “Micro”.
(and if they run into a certain quartet in there, all the better! ask Janet!)I’m really hoping GG3 has an aside where Mantis learns she’s of the same race as Bug, to tie him into the Guardians, since Gunn has already wasted the OG Guardians as “Olds” instead of their 30th Century selves.
> It worked out fineIf you mean it turned the IDW Transformers comic storylines into a clusterfuck and the non-TF titles had varying levels of quality and none of them really took off… Then yes, it was fine.(Though ROM was surprisingly quite good.)
I dunno…I had a fit of nostalgia a little while back and the prices of vintage Micronauts makes me wonder if you’re wrong…
The original Micronauts comics were surprisingly good, and also surprisingly adult oriented and violent as hell. Not really How to Train Your Dragon territory.
A bit off topic, but if you want to read Chris Claremont at his most disturbing track down the X-Men and Micronauts limited series. Claremont’s one of the Hall of Fame comic book writers but that series was MESSED UP.
Wow, i now really need a live action M.A.S.K. Plump William Hurt would make an excellent Miles Mayhem.
I thought the headline read Dom DeLouise at first glance.
God that man is delicious.