Robotech: Invid War #1 (of 18)
"No Man's Land"
Story - Bill Spangler & Tim Eldred
Pencils & Letters - Tim Eldred
Inks & Tones - Fred Perry
Cover Painting - Robert Chang
Publisher - Dave Olbrich
Editor-In-Chief - Chris Ulm
Editor - Dan Danko
Published by Eternity Comics, a division of Malibu Graphics Publishing Group.
Release date - April 24, 1992
Cover date - May 1992
THE STORY
It is February of 2033 C.E. Colonel Jonathan Wolff flies his Alpha Veritech down to Brazilia, into the airspace of an organization calling themselves the Stone Men. He's been invited by their commander to mediate a dispute between them and the Global Military Police. A Valkyrie escort leads him to their camp.
Wolff enters the camp and tells them he's looking for Gavin Murdock, their leader. Murdock is surprised to see that Wolff actually came. "When the G.M.P. asked if there was a negotiator I would trust, I gave them your name as a joke," Murdock says. "I didn't really believe you were back on Earth." Wolff tells him that he's been doing a lot of this sort of work ever since he's returned, and that he's here to stop the fighting between the Stone Men and the GMP, but Murdock's men don't really believe him. "What's in it for you?" one of them asks, a sign of the times. Wolff tells them they have bigger worries -- the Invid are coming, merciless and hungry for Earth's remaining Protoculture supply. He wants to unite all the remaining power blocs so humanity will be ready to fight the Invid. However, the Stone Men are skeptical. Murdock asks when the Invid are supposed to arrive. "We don't know," Wolff says. "We could have years ... or we could have days. But either way, the Invid are coming. And when they do, they're going to make the Robotech Masters look like amateurs.""Don't give us that!" one of Murdock's men snaps. "We fought the Robotech Masters!"
Murdock gets his men to settle down. He explains that most of them are former Southern Cross personnel who fought against the Masters. When the Masters destroyed their station at Mexico City, they moved south, gathering food and Protoculture to survive. Although many of the Stone Men feel they're still a part of the Southern Cross, but as Wolff points out the GMP doesn't see it that way. Murdock thinks the GMP just doesn't want another military force so close to their borders. The Stone Men aren't going to leave Brasilia without a fight. "Maybe if had gone into space, this would look like small potatoes to me, too," Murdock says, "but this is all we have, Colonel. We're fighting for our future here!" Wolff is just about to agree with that sentiment when --
Suddenly, their lookout sounds an alarm. Mecha are approaching. Murdock throttles and decks Wolff, shouting, "YOU SET US UP!!" Assuring Murdock that Satori tricked him as well, Wolff gets up, disables a couple of the Stone Men, and escapes to his Alpha. Two GMP Gladiators and a Raidar X arrive, attacking the Stone Men's base. As Wolff's Guardian-mode Alpha launches, Murdock arrives in a Hovertank. Wolff destroys the GMP's mecha, and leaves. "He fired on his own men ... and now he's leaving!" Murdock stammers in disbelief. "What's he trying to prove?"
At the GMP base, Wolff meets with Nova Satori. Wolff isn't happy with her lies. She explains to him that one of her subordinates broke the truce between the Stone Men and the GMP, and she simply pressed the advantage. Wolff thinks she's still lying. However, the issue is settled, as the Stone Men have been dealt with, although Murdock escaped. Wolff tells her he supposes that he's not getting his payment of Protoculture, and Satori tells him to drop the issue unless he wants his superiors in the United Earth Government to find out about his private Protoculture stockpile. "I would advise you to take this setback philosophically," she suggests, "and move on to something else. Clear?"
Wolff leaves the base in his Alpha and as he's flying, there's a crash of lightning. Soon after, UEG Command loses contact with Moonbase ALuCE before losing contact with all its other stations, including Wolff's base at Vahalla. The Invid have arrived. Wolff tries to fight the airborne Shock Troopers, but after a few quick kills, he's shot down.In the morning, a pair of foragers, Norvell and Parkes, discover Wolff's crashed Alpha. Upon noticing the intact canopy, they smash it with a crowbar and help him out, and he asks them to transport him back to Vahalla.
NOTES
TIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.MAJOR CHARACTERS
- Jonathan Wolff (last in Love & War #6/flashback in Invid War #3)
- Nova Satori (last in Robotech Masters #23, next in Invid War #4)
- Gavin Murdock (first appearance)
- Norvell (first appearance)
- Parkes (first appearance)
Brasilia, in the McKinney/Spangler continuity, is the original home of the Army of the Southern Cross prior to its recognition by the United Earth Government and was last seen in Spangler's first ROBOTECH series, The Malcontent Uprisings. That was also where Wolff first appeared on the scene in the pre-Robotech.com continuity; since then, he's been shoehorned into the Macross Saga era as a combat pilot-turned-flight instructor on-board the SDF-1 (see Love & War).Wolff and Murdock make an explicit reference to the five missing years from the SDF-3's fold -- seriously, half the characters Wolff encounters in Invid War say something like, "Jonathan Wolff, eh? I thought you'd be older." Wolff also cites the novels' SDF-3 year of departure, 2020. Welcome to McKinneyland, folks -- strap on your Thinking Caps and watch out for the singing, chanting psychic children!
This issue does an excellent job of showcasing the fractured political landscape of the Earth prior to the Invid Invasion. Nobody trusts anyone, supplies are few and far between -- the world is in a severe state of decay. The human race has weathered two armageddons, and it shows.
I assume that the name of Wolff's headquarters, "Vahalla," is a misspelling of "Valhalla," the great hall in Norse mythology where soldiers slain gloriously in battle to to await their final test of combat in the battle to end all battles, Ragnarok.
Labels: Invid War, New Generation
posted by Captain JLS @ 10:49 PM
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