Robotech Comics Blog

Robotech: Academy Blues (Academy Comics Ltd.)

2008-08-12T00:39:00.006-05:00

Ongoing series / May 1995 - February 1996, Dec. 1996
Story by Robert W. Gibson

Most academies have long histories and traditions. Ours is less than three years old. Most schools are built around famous historical sites and landmarks. Ours is built around something that dropped out of the sky. But the most important, most meaningful difference is that wheras most other military academies were formed between boundaries, ours was formed beyond boundaries. There are no countries here, no nationalities ... no borders. Just people.

THE LOWDOWN

A spin-off of the ongoing Return to Macross title, Academy Blues follows the adventures of Lisa Hayes, Kim Young, Vanessa Leeds, Rolf Emerson, and other future war heroes in their days as cadets in the Robotech Academy, dealing with experimental futuristic machinery as well as everyday problems.

Not that there is such a thing as an everyday problem on Macross Island ...

BACKGROUND INFO

Much like Warriors before it, Academy Blues was a logical extension of the idea behind Return to Macross -- the tales of the Macross Saga cast before the First Robotech War. Where Warriors showed us Breetai and Exedore scouring the galaxy for the SDF-1 and Return to Macross covered Gloval, Fokker, and Dr. Lang fighting the forces that would destroy the Robotech project, Academy Blues turned its attention on Lisa Hayes and the rest of the SDF-1's bridge crew, along with future Army of the Southern Cross chief of staff Rolf Emerson, learning the ropes at the Robotech Academy. Consequently, this series held little room for high adventure, focusing more on the characters and their relationships.

While the six-issue series, written by former Eternity Comics Captain Harlock writer Robert W. Gibson, got a few minor points wrong (par for the course in the Eternity/Academy pre-Macross material), for the most part it maintained the feeling of the good ol' Macross Saga days, even more so than the series it was spun off from. This probably has a lot to do with the characters involved and artist Sean Bishop's early involvement in the series -- of any ROBOTECH comic artist, Bishop managed best to match the style of the original animation.

Unfortunately, as the series wore on the stories grew less and less about Lisa and company and more about side issues tying into Return to Macross, drifting the series away from its original remit. While that gives the appearance of cancellation due to low sales, ultimately it's unclear why Academy Blues folded so early. It is worth noting that Robert Gibson become the bimonthly writer on Return to Macross soon after Academy Blues ended, and the book's cast was integrated into the parent title for what would be its final story arc.

In the last month of Academy's ROBOTECH titles, a one-shot called Breaking Point ultimately tied up the loose ends of Academy Blues and the Robotech Academy storylines in Return to Macross, although it did this in a rather vague way due to poor lettering and rushed, unclear artwork by final Return to Macross artist Dusty Griffin.

ACADEMY BLUES

Issue 0 - Academy Blues
Issue 1 - Tests
Issue 2 - Roles
Issue 3 - Tremors
Issue 4 - The Calm Before ...
Issue 5 - The Wind and the Wave

Breaking Point: Cadet Lisa Hayes Special #1

Super Dimension Fortress Macross #1

2008-08-11T00:19:00.021-05:00

"Booby Trap"

Editing & Script - Carl Macek
Pencils - Svea Stauch
Inks, Colors, and Production - Phil Lasorda, Gerry Giovinco, with much help from Vince Argondezzi and Dotty Linberg
Letters - Carrie Spiegle
Production Assistant - Aaron Keaton

Published by Comico The Comic Company.

Release date - Approx. January 3, 1985
Cover date - 1984

THE STORY

"The alien invasion began almost coincidentally. A mammoth interstellar fortress ripped through the fabric of hyperspace on a collision course with the Earth. Whether by chance or some obscure twist of fate, this alien vessel was drawn toward the unsuspecting planet. The ship appeared over the South Pacific as a destructive fireball racing across the nighttime sky. Most people interpreted the incident as though the Earth had been struck by a giant meteor. Most people had other things on their minds ... like trying to survive World War III. An uneasy peace eventually came to his global conflict. The peace was the result of a group of people who knew that what hit the Earth was not a meteor ... but a machine of destruction--the product of an alien technology lightyears ahead of that of the Earth's. A United Earth Government was formed. Its sole purpose was to create a global defense system utilizing the reconditioned space fortress as an offensive weapon."

Ten years pass. On the day of the maiden voyage of the rebuilt alien space fortress, now christened the Macross, citizens of the metropolis that grew around it worry that without the ship their home will become a ghost town. They watch as a limousine carrying Captain Gloval and Senator Russo passes by, and two citizens comment that without those men the ship would never have been repaired or funded.

Inside the limo, Russo tells Gloval to cheer up. "In less than half an hour, the Macross will be in your command. The least you could do is act like you're having a good time." Gloval remarks that he had his good time last night and worries that they might not be doing the right thing with the Macross.

On the bridge of the space fortress, Lisa Hayase arrives to tell the rest of the crew to look sharp, because Gloval's limo has arrived. "I don't know what's gotten into the captain ... coming aboard so late. He practically missed the entire ceremony." Claudia tells her that he probably got the most out of his "shore leave."

"Well, Claudia ... some of us consider duty before pleasure," Lisa quips.

Claudia asks if she's referring to her seeing Lt. Commander Fokker the night before, and states that what she does on her own time has no effect on her performance as an officer. Lisa asks about Roy, and Claudia points out that during the war Roy shot down five enemy planes with a hangover. Before she can add anything, Lisa suddenly notices something on her radar screen. It's a tiny plane piloted by one Rick Yamata, invitation #1021. Lisa confirms that as an invitation from Lt. Commander Fokker and gives him a heading for landing.

Below, Roy Fokker narrates the actions of the newly-designed Valkyrie Fighters overhead. Suddenly a little air racer appears among them and a loudmouthed pilot addresses Fokker.

"It's been a long time Captain! You sent me this invitation -- now tell me where to land."

Fokker tells his old friend that this is no playground, but Rick counters that he's not here to play -- he's here to show Fokker how a real pilot can fly a plane! He nearly takes off Fokker's head with a low dive, then fires his boosters and joins the Valkyries in a burst formation. Rick lands his racer and Roy takes off after him, demanding an explanation. As Rick climbs out of his plane, he reminds Roy that he was the one who taught him the booster climb. Roy comments that he heard he won the amateur pilot competition last month and asks about Rick's family. "You promised my father that when the war was over you'd come back to the air team," Rick reminds him. Roy apologizes, then notes how he shot down 180 planes during the war. "So, you're proud of being a killer?" Rick asks. Roy says it's kind of hard to explain. "When you start flying those fighter planes .. well, something happens inside of you ... and nothing seems the same." Rick figures he could be right. "But for now," he says, "why don't you start by giving me the grand tour?"

On the far side of the moon, a fleet of Zentraedis warships materializes from hyperspace. Aboard the flagship, Commander Breetai asks his aide Exedore if this was the quadrant he traced the transmission to, and also asks if he checked to see if the ship executed a refold. Exedore states that the computer indicates that there was no second jump, and that the ship must be on this planet. "Perhaps their damages have forced them to retreat to this zone," Breetai suggests. "There is a good possibility that we can end this war within the hour." He orders a recon vessel to go down and investigate.

Back on Earth, Rick admires one of the new Valkyrie fighters. He tells Roy that while it looks impressive, he wonders how it handles. Roy suggests climbing aboard and finding out for himself. As Rick climbs on-board, Roy asks if Rick has the guts to fly one of these things. "Just as long as I'm at the controls," Rick quips.

Elsewhere on the island, Russo is making a speech about how what an asset Macross has been to the community and is introducing Gloval when an officer arrives to tell Gloval that sensors have detected unusual activity near the moon and he's needed on the bridge. Just as Russo prepares to turn the microphone over to Gloval, he takes off for the bridge.

On the bridge, Claudia remarks that every system on-board is starting up on its own. The booms that make up the front third of the ship begin to separate and energy begins to crackle around them. Gloval makes it to the bridge and, as his head slams against the too-low doorway, he tells the crew to shut down all the systems. As energy surges between the Macross's twin booms, Claudia attempts to shut off the ship's power, but to no avail. The guns, as Claudia notes forebodingly, are going to fire. Lisa asks what they're going to do, but Gloval has no answer.

Suddenly, the pent-up energy between the booms discharges, blazing forth over the rooftops of the city, through the island's terrain, and into space, obliterating the Zentraedis scout vessels.

Watching the carnage, Breetai notes that this attack confirms Macross's presence on that planet. He orders all ships to advance in full balance formation immediately.

Claudia reports that the computer is responding to their programs again, and Lisa asks Gloval if he's all right.

On the ground, Rick is stunned by the display. "What are they trying to do, blow the island apart?" Roy leaps out of the Valkyrie's back seat to find out what's going on.

Lisa receives the space monitor report, which states that what they were attacking appears to be two large objects out in lunar orbit, probably spaceships. Gloval concludes that this was a booby trap. "The aliens who abandoned Macross must have armed it with an automatic defense system designed to detect and destroy their enemies. The system's activation means that an unfriendly force has approached close enough to be a threat to the Macross." Out of nervous habit, Gloval pulls out his pipe. Just then, Sammy pipes up, telling him that there's no smoking on the bridge. "I wasn't going to light it! I was just holding it," he comments, putting his tobacco back in his uniform jacket. He asks Claudia for a report on all systems and orders Lisa to scramble all fighters and prepare for combat.

Below, Roy orders the runway cleared and the Valkyries armed.

In space, Armour 1-A base responds to the Zentraedis' approach. Lancer space fighters are launched and attack upon visual contact; at the same time the space platform begins bombarding the Zentraedis craft with missiles. Their attack has little effect. Breetai orders a standard laser bombardment, and when the space platform breaks out its nuclear weapons, he finds this simply amazing. "Primitive nuclear weapons," he muses with a quizzical grin, "and it appears that they have not raised their particle beam shields." Exedore wonders if it's a trick of some sort to lull them into a false sense of confidence, and also wonders why they haven't broken out their reflex weaponry. "These soldiers act as if they've never engaged in real space combat before," Breetai notes with a sinister smile. "Press the attack."

In moments, the Zentraedis' intense laser barrage rips Armour 2 to pieces and Armour 1-A makes a hasty retreat before it shares Armour 2's fate.
Word soon reaches Captain Gloval. He muses how the aliens have shattered his hopes of world without war, and orders Lisa to prepare the Macross for combat. She orders the Valkyries to take off.

Back on the Zentraedis flagship, Breetai spots the Macross among what he refers to as "the most disorderly display of primitive military organization that I have ever seen." Exedore points out that while it does resemble Macross, it looks strangely different. Breetai assures him it is no trick, and that the initial reflex weapon attack was a clear invitation for battle. Still, he advises all ships to proceed with caution.

Zentraedis fighters break through the atmosphere. The Earth forces fire a barrage of missiles to counterattack.

On the exhibition ground, Rick is awakened from his slumber in the Valkyrie cockpit by an order from Lisa to take off. He tries to tell her that he's not a combat pilot, but his words are met on deaf ears. He tells her that the runway is demolished, but she tells him that runway 2 is clear, and that he's holding up the rest of the squadron. Thus, the brash young amateur is thrust into the thick of battle.

Rick takes off to the skies and is met by the sight of hundreds of dazzling explosions. In the air, he is reunited with Roy and asks his former mentor what the hell is going on. "Rick ... so you decided to try your hand at being a fighter pilot after all," Roy comments with a smile. Rick insists that it wasn't his idea, and Roy tells him that while combat can be scary, it's really not too much different from the good ol' days at the flying circus. While Rick talks big about not leaving his old friend behind, he finds himself blasted out of the sky within moments. Stunned, Roy tells Rick to climb and bank, but Rick can't get control of his craft.

As Rick's Valkyrie dives towards the Macross, Lisa radios Rick and tells him to switch to Battloid mode. Rick has no clue what she's talking about, but she tells him to pull down the control marked "B" on the left side of his console. He pulls the one marked "G" instead, and gears and hydraulics within the craft begin to turn and hiss, changing the fighter into a squat, avian robot resembling a bird of prey. It continues to fall, finally crashing into a mess of buildings as Rick realizes he's pulled the wrong lever. He pulls the one marked "B", and soon the Valkyrie Fighter shifts again into a more humanoid configuration. As it rises to its feet, Rick wonders how he can get out of this "flying nightmare."

NOTES

TIMELINE - This is a mostly faithful adaptation of Harmony Gold's English language version of the first episode of the Japanese television series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, "Boobytrap," which was soon after adapted into the first episode of the ROBOTECH TV series. As such, with a few character name swaps and some minor rewrites here and there, it can fill the shoes of "Boobytrap" in any version of the ROBOTECH timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Tommy Luan (last seen in Return to Macross #37)
Henry J. Gloval (last seen in Civil War Stories #1)
Senator Russo (last seen in Return to Macross #24)
Lisa Hayase [Lisa Hayes] (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #11 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 4")
Claudia Grant (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #11 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 4")
Vanessa Leeds (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #8 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 1")
Kim Young (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #8 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 1")
Sammy [Sammie Porter] (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #8 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 1")
Roy Fokker (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #11 "Prototype 001: Variants Part 4")
Rick Yamata [Rick Hunter] (last seen in Robotech: The Graphic Novel)
Lynn Minmei (last seen in Robotech (WildStorm) #4)
Lynn Jason (first appearance)
Breetai (last seen in Metalswarm #1)
Exedore (last seen in Metalswarm #1)

This is a ROBOTECH comic only on a technicality.

This is the first issue of what would, a few months later, be called Robotech: The Macross Saga. However, it was published before the names and plot elements unique to the ROBOTECH version of Macross were created. As such, there are no references to "Zor's battlefortress," or Robotechnology, or even Rick Hunter -- he's got a different name, though oddly enough, it's not Hikaru Ichijyo. This comic was created to tie into Harmony Gold's VHS release of the first three episodes of Macross, advertised in the back of this very comic book. (Those curious can watch the first half hour of that release on Elements of Robotechnology V, the extras disc released with the Robotech Legacy Collection 5 DVD box, also available with the Protoculture Edition complete remastered series DVD box set.)

The character names are an interesting mixed bag of ROBOTECH names, original Japanese Macross names, and names that seem to have been changed almost at random. The worst offender is the name of our brash young amateur pilot hero; originally named "Hikaru Ichijyo" in the original Japanese program, here he becomes "Rick Yamata," which is almost "Rick Hunter" but is still kind of Japanese. Similarly, "Misa Hayase" becomes "Lisa Hayase," which is almost "Lisa Hayes," but again is still Japanese, though more faithfully in that case.

Otherwise we're in ROBOTECH territory, complete with "Henry Gloval" and "Roy Fokker" instead of "Bruno Gloval" and "Roy Focker." The technology retains its original flavor, with Valkyries instead of Veritechs and the Macross" rather than the nameless SDF-1. And oddly enough, as you may have noticed, the word "Zentraedi" is permanently plural for some bizarre reason. It wasn't so in the Space Fortress Macross pilot episode produced by Harmony Gold that ties into this comic book, so I don't know what the deal with that is.

I believe it is as a consequence of this book's non-ROBOTECHness that "Boobytrap" was adapted twice more into comic book form -- first as Comico's one and only 3-D ROBOTECH comic special, with a strikingly unique scripting job by The Macross Saga and The New Generation dialogue wizard Markalan Joplin and art by The Macross Saga mainstay Mike Leeke, and then in the mid-1990's Return to Macross and Academy Blues artist Sean Bishop would do a staggeringly faithful black & white adaptation of ROBOTECH's first episode. Both are a cut above this adaptation, but neither are in full color like this one.

Despite some stilted dialogue here and there, Macek does a pretty solid job of adapting the first episode of Macross into comic book form, complete with lines that are remarkably faithful to the Japanese version (Claudia talking to Lisa about Roy's service record while hung over) and to the ROBOTECH version that eventually aired on American television (Gloval's explanation of the "booby trap" is almost word for word from the TV series, minus the references to the Macross). Some scenes are needlessly overexplained, such as Rick's VF-1D's transformation -- Macek added the accidental switch to GERWALK when its pass through that mode was considered a legitimate transition to Battloid in the actual episode -- and he uses a few cliches like they're going out of style, such as two instances of "duty before pleasure" and the bit where Rick awkwardly spits out, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing," at the end, but the trims and the pacing of the adaptation work nicely. I especially like what Roy says to Rick about flying fighter planes: "When you start flying those fighter planes ... well something happens inside of you ... and nothing seems the same." Vague and kind of awkward, but certainly a much more substantial statement than that horribly overquoted line that replaced it in ROBOTECH -- you know the one:

"This Robotech thing is just so exciting I just couldn't give it up! It just gets in your blood or something, I don't know."

There's a weird bit of mistranslation during the attack on the space platforms. Breetai refers to the humans' "primitive nuclear weapons," then Exedore asks why they didn't destroy the Zentraedis with their "reflex weaponry." I'm not clear on how this got bungled between the Japanese script, the English language series script, and Macek's comic script, but what they call "reflex weaponry" is more commonly translated into English as "reaction weaponry," which in fact is a different way of saying "nuclear weaponry." It was only in ROBOTECH that the term "reflex" somehow came to mean Protoculture-based -- at this point "Protoculture" hadn't even been redefined yet, after all. The point being, though, that I have NO idea what, in this version of Macross, Exedore would be referring to when he mentions "reflex weaponry."

As far as the artwork goes: at first glance, the painted art in this book is kind of stunning, in a good way. As ROBOTECH series producer -- and this issue's script writer -- Carl Macek helpfully points out, all the character and mechanical art was done on animation cel-like overlays, while the backgrounds were painted on separate layers. The effect is quite nice. It's a shame the character and mecha art on the whole isn't very good, and to be honest, I'm not sure who to blame. The attention to detail is there, but the raw talent doesn't seem to be present. I think it might be fair to split the blame between penciler Svea Stauch and the inking staff. After all, there seem to be some decent shots ruined by sloppy inks, but there are some shots which have odd, awkward poses.

Most of the more well-staged shots are directly adapted from the show, which means that for serious fans of the show reading the comic gives the weird sense of looking at it through a fun house mirror. To put a finer point on it, it's immediately recognizable as something familiar, but somehow not as good -- kind of like watching the dumb, poorly-written and cheaply animated cartoons you loved as a child years later with all your adult sensibilities, only without the weird sense of guilt.

As an aside, notice how the cover depicts the Macross in its humanoid "attack" mode, while the ship doesn't enter that configuration (and in fact cannot enter that mode, since the fold drives are still intact) until episode/issue #5.

Also, that VF-1J on the cover is a bit huge, isn't it?

This issue was, almost two decades later, reprinted in the Robotech: The Macross Saga Vol. 1 trade paperback, published by WildStorm/DC Comics (January 2003). However, a few changes were made. The text of all six issues reprinted in the volume was relettered by computer. In some cases, especially in this issue, that involved changing the content of the text as well. That version of this issue features ALL of the proper ROBOTECH terminology (although some references to the ship as "Macross" remain) and also features a number of additional changes, including spelling and punctuation changes and the addition of certain bits of dialogue which brings it closer to the first episode of the ROBOTECH TV series. For instance:

Page One
Original: "The alien invasion began almost coincidentally. A mammoth interstellar fortress ripped through the fabric of hyperspace on a collision course with the Earth."

Revised: "In 1999, a giant alien battlefortress ripped through the fabric of hyperspace on a collision course with the Earth."

Page Two
Original: "Most people interpreted the incident as though the Earth had been struck with a giant meteor. Most people had other things on their minds ... like trying to survive World War III."

Revised: "The general public interpreted the incident as though the Earth had been struck by a giant meteor. The rest of the world was preoccupied ... in the clutches of a global war."

Page Eight
Original: "When you start flying those fighter planes ... well something happens inside of you ... and nothing seems the same."

Revised: "When you start flying those fighter planes ... well, something happens inside of you ... it just gets in your blood."

(That seems a fair compromise, to be honest.)

Page Seventeen
Original: "Amazing Exedore. Primitive nuclear weapons. And it appears that they have not raised their partical beam shields."

Revised: "Very heavy resistance. But why are they using such primitive weapons? Our scout ships are breaking through."

(Note that this fixes one of my concerns above.)

Page Eighteen
Original: "With what? We have fired all missiles, sir. And the aliens are beyond the range of our lasers."

Revised: "Mayday! Mayday! This is Armor-2 space cruiser calling SDF-1. Come in, SDF-1."

This is merely a sampling of the changes made, though I'm pretty sure this covers all of the major rewrites for this issue. Just be aware that the version of Macross #1 that appears in The Macross Saga Vol. 1 is not an entirely faithful representation of the comic book published back in the 1980's.

Next issue

Robotech: Covert Ops #1 (of 2)

2008-08-05T21:58:00.006-05:00

"Covert Operations"

Art & Story - Gregory Lane
Edits, Typesetting, & Proofing - Doug Dlin
Cover Colors - Nathan Lumm

Published by Antarctic Press.

Release date - August 19, 1998
Cover date - August 1998

Estimated sales - 5,000 copies

THE STORY

Above the fourth moon of Saturn, Pandora, a VF-1E reconnaissance Veritech makes sure the coast is clear in advance of the SDF-1. Everything seems secure, until the sensor operator notices a large stationary structure of definite Zentraedi origin on the moon's surface. As the operator sends the data back to the SDF-1, two Zentraedi Powered Armors rise from the installation to attack. As the crewmen try to escape, the pilot radios the SDF-1 to call for backup, but by then the Zentraedi are already upon them.

Meanwhile, inside the SDF-1, crews begin to work on repairing the damage made during Roy Fokker and Max Sterling's battle with the Zentraedi warlord Kohrah. "Well, Little Brother, looks like you moved into the barracks just in time," Roy tells Rick Hunter as the younger pilot stares up at one of the ruined buildings.

"Yeah, I've got some luck with buildings," he tells Roy. "If I'm not crashing into them, mine gets blown up."

They start towards Claudia's place for dinner, and Roy asks Rick how it's going with Minmei. "I don't know," Rick says. "I can't seem to get any time to talk to her. There's always a crowd around her." Roy tells him just to do what he always did -- dinner, flowers, and a ride in the sky. Rick says it's just not his style.

Just then, Sammie radios Roy from the bridge. Captain Gloval and Commander Hayes need him immediately. As he starts away, Roy tells Rick to try and explain to Claudia. "Don't worry," he tells Rick, "I doubt she'll kill the messenger."

A few minutes later, in Gloval's office, the captain informs Roy of an alarming transmission from a long-range scout "It appears the Zentraedi have established an outpost on Saturn's fourth lunar satellite, directly along our return heading to Earth." He shows Fokker some photos they've received, and tells him that the photos were followed by a mayday call and then silence. The scout is assumed destroyed, and the enemy probably knows the SDF-1 is in the vicinity. Roy notes that the base looks small enough that he could just take the Skull Squadron in and flush the Zentraedi out.

"We can't risk a frontal assault, Roy," Lisa tells him. "We're still down three anti-gravity units from our last encounter, not to mention the civilian casualties." Roy asks what the alternative is -- after all, a change in course would add months to the trip home. Lisa has another idea. "To avoid risking the entire ship, I propose we send in a small assault team to remove the base surgically. I've already got tactical working on the base layouts to determine where to plant explosive charges that will destroy the complex." Roy thinks it sounds dangerous, so naturally he volunteers. He is ordered to assemble his team and prepare to move out in two days.

At that moment, Rick rings Claudia's doorbell. "I hope you boys are hungry!" she says as she opens the door. "I've been cooking all--" She observes Roy's absence. Rick starts to explain, but she's tired of excuses and tells him to come on in.

Two hours later, Rick finds Roy in the hangar, working on Skull One, and tells him Claudia seemed really hurt. Roy assures him the call was important. "I'll patch things up tomorrow after she cools down. Right now, I need your help." He hands Rick a list and tells him to contact these pilots and have them meet the two of them in briefing room four at 0700 hours tomorrow.

At the Zentraedi base on Pandora, Lord Buran orders his men to make their report. One of his patrol groups has captured the crew of a Micronian scout ship alive. "The nearest Micronian base is on the fourth planet, which they call Mars," Buran notes, "and it fell easily. A Micronian presence here must mean the SDF-1 is near." He orders his men to bring the captives to him, so that he might interrogate the Micronians personally. "And request an audience with Supreme Commander Dolza. These Micronians are our opportunity to escape this desolate rock and return to glorious battle."

The following morning, in briefing room four, Roy explains the mission to the gathered personnel. "Before I go into mission specs," he tells them, "I want to make it clear that chances are good some or all of us won't be coming back from this mission, so if anyone wants out, speak up now. We won't think any less of you."

Max, sitting in the front row, asks Roy if he's kidding. "This is what I've been waiting for," he says. Roy mentions that he didn't think there'd be any takers, but he prefers to ask. He explains that they've determined that the Zentraedi base is in a mountainous region on Pandora's surface.

"The mission is simple. Our strike force comes in low, using the terrain for cover. Zentraedi are accustomed to all-out warfare, not stealth attacks. Two fighters stage a bombing run for diversion while a second team infiltrates the target and plants explosive charges to take it out. The tech boys have already pinpointed the locations of the power generators from the surveillance photos. Everything goes according to plan, we're in and out and back in time for cocktails in the officers' lounge -- on me." Max worries that two fighters might not present much of a problem for the Zentraedi and asks if they'll have enough firepower. Roy tells him they've got it covered -- all the Veritechs will be equipped with the new VF-1X armor they've been testing. "The extra missile packs they carry should be plenty. Plus we'll need the extra fuel and booster packs to reach the target." Fokker then explains the breakdown of the teams -- he and Max will pilot the fighters and provide the diversion, while Rick and Hansen will pilot retrofitted trainers and assist in planting the explosives. The back seats of the trainers will be used by Jones and Lambert, the demolition specialists. "We leave at 06:00 tomorrow. I want all gear checked and ready by 05:45," Roy tells them. He informs them that they'll be off duty until then, and should go spend the rest of the day with their loved ones, though the mission information is classified as they don't want a panic among the civilian population. The personnel are dismissed.

Rick comes up to him after the meeting, feeling unsure that he's qualified for this mission since he's had no experience in combat yet. "Are you kidding?" Roy asks. "Rick, you're one of the best pilots on the ship. I handpicked each member of this team for his distinctive skills. Relax and enjoy the day. You'll be fine." Rick tells Roy he's got a lunch date with Minmei, which reminds Roy that he's got to do some "damage control" with Claudia.

A few hours later, with five minutes remaining until the shift change on the SDF-1's bridge, Lisa calls Claudia out into the hallway for a quick chat. The other bridge girls are certain there'll be some sort serious friction.

In the hall, Lisa tells Claudia that she doesn't see why she's to blame for Roy volunteering to lead the mission on Pandora. "Oh, come on," Claudia says, "you and Gloval knew he would jump in as soon as you told him." Lisa reminds Claudia that Roy is the senior combat officer, and HAD to be told about the mission. "Just because you lost your man doesn't mean I want to!" Claudia snipes. As the words leave her mouth, Claudia starts to backtrack, telling Lisa that she's sure Karl made it out of Sara Base and is waiting on Earth right now. Lisa returns to the bridge, and Claudia begins to worry how the rest of the day is going to turn out. She pushes the button for the elevator, and as the door opens she finds herself face to face with Roy with a picnic basket under his arm. He invites her for lunch.

Back on Pandora, the elder member of the VF-1E crew tells the younger to give up trying to escape. The younger man asks why they haven't been killed, and the older one says the Zentraedi probably want information. "My guess is we can expect a very unpleasant interrogation. I've been in this spot before back during the war in South America. I wouldn't talk then, either." The younger crewman insists he won't talk either as the Zentraedi commander Buran enters. Buran introduces himself and demands the location of the SDF-1. "You and the rest of your Jolly Greens can all go straight to hell!" the older crewman tells Buran. "You're not getting anything out of us!" Buran orders one of his men to remove the shield from their prison. It is done, and Buran picks up the younger crewman. "We have observed the strange concern Micronians bear for each other's lives. Provide the coordinates of the SDF-1 or this one will be terminated," Buran tells the older crewman. The young guy tells his fellow crewman to tell Buran the coordinates, but he refuses. "Very well," Buran says as he crushes the younger man.

Back in Macross City, Rick enters the Chinese restaurant in search of Minmei. She seems happy to see him, and tells him she'll just be a couple of minutes while she changes her clothes. In the meantime Uncle Max asks Rick if he's seen any combat yet. "Just in the simulator," Rick says, "but it won't be long."

As she returns, Minmei grabs Rick by the hand and tells Max she'll be back in an hour. "Don't be late this time," he warns her.

In the park, Roy and Claudia relax over lunch. She tells him that she has to admit he did well. "This was a beautiful picnic. You'd better lay off the wine, though. You've got an early mission tomorrow." Roy reminds her he does some of his best flying tanked. Claudia asks to what she owes the pleasant afternoon. Roy admits, "I figured I owed you some quality time." She tells him she was pretty steamed and took some of it out on poor Rick. "I hear you took a run at Lisa, too," Roy says. Claudia says she blamed Lisa for him going on the mission, but realizes she was just feeling too hurt to consider that Lisa was just doing her job. Roy doesn't get why Claudia's so steamed about this particular mission -- after all, it's no more dangerous than some of the others he's been in. Claudia realizes this, but has an unnerving feeling that something terrible is going to happen. "I don't want to lose you," she tells him. Roy assures her that she won't, and the two embrace.

Elsewhere in the park, Minmei tells Rick she always enjoys coming here because it reminds her so much of Earth. She takes him down to the stream to feed the ducks, and adds that she sometimes even forgets that they're out in space. As Rick looks up at the high metal ceiling above he remarks that there's always something there to bring reality crashing in. "I'm glad I got to see you today," he tells her. "I've been wanting to spend some private time with you for a while, and this might be my last chance." He tells her that he's going on a mission tomorrow and might not come back. At that, Minmei shoves him over, and tells him to stop being so gloomy. "You should be like me," Minmei tells him, "and make the best of the situation. Think about happy things -- like my birthday, for example." She tells Rick that her uncle's planning a sweet sixteen party, and she was going to invite him, but now she doesn't know. "On the other hand," she says, "if you cheer up a bit, you might get a special invitation." Suddenly she realizes she's running late and, as she bolts off, wishes him good luck on the mission.

Moments later, Lisa is standing on a bridge overlooking the park. "The end of another shift and no one to go home to," she thinks. "Claudia didn't mean it, but she was right -- I've forgotten what it's like to have someone in my life." She wishes that Karl hadn't volunteered to go to Sara Base, but remembers how he always put his pacifistic ways above his personal life. At the same time, Rick passes by, worried that Minmei seems more concerned about her birthday party than his mission. He absent-mindedly runs into Lisa, and they both apologize. Realizing who he's face-to-face with, Rick quickly salutes, but Lisa reminds him that they're off duty. She asks if he's taking a walk, and tells him that she often comes by here to think before a big operation. Rick tells her he was just on his way home, and finds her behavior odd -- usually by now she'd be at his throat. Lisa asks if that was Minmei he was talking to, and asks if they're dating. He says he's not sure yet, and tells her he's got to go over the mission specs, so he has to get going. As he races away, Lisa notes that while he acts so odd sometimes, he is kind of cute ...

Back on Pandora, Lord Dolza appears on Buran's monitor and asks what he has to report. Buran informs him that while he has not located the SDF-1, he has captured the Micronians who were scouting his secto and he believes they are from the ship. However, he is having trouble extracting its coordinates. Dolza tells him to continue his efforts. Meanwhile, the Robotech Masters have a new Protoculture weapon to be used against the Micronians, and Dolza informs Buran that he is sending the Boturu fleet under Lord Khyron to Pandora to test it. Buran finds this unnecessary, but Dolza will not be questioned. "Upon successful completion of the tests, your squadrons will accompany his fleet to Earth for final victory," Dolza orders. "You will provide whatever assistance he requires. Am I understood?" Buran acknowledges, and Dolza signs off. The minute his image has faded, Buran smashes the monitor with a shout of, "HAJOCA!" He knows of Khyron; the Backstabber will probably test the weapon on Buran's own battalion. He orders the prisoners to be prepared for further interrogation.

The next morning, aboard the Prometheus, Roy arrives to find his team assembled, with all their gear checked and ready. He tells them to mount up, and asks Rick how he's feeling.

"Armed and dangerous," Rick says.

When each crewman is on-board his craft, the flight crews engage the grapple cranes for the fighters and open the bay doors. Skull Group launches from the SDF-1 and proceeds to Pandora ...

NOTES

TIMELINE - While this story is set during The Macross Saga with no overt references to any dates or concepts native to the McKinney novels (i.e. Thinking Caps), it relies on the previous Antarctic Press story Megastorm for certain plot points. It also directly contradicts the original TV series (specifically episode #6, "Blitzkrieg") and features iconography native to the Macross movie, Do You Remember Love. As a result, it doesn't work in ANY ROBOTECH timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Roy Fokker (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #3 "Megastorm Part 3")
Rick Hunter (last seen in The Macross Saga #5)
Henry J. Gloval (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #3 "Megastorm Part 3")
Lisa Hayes (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #3 "Megastorm Part 3")
Claudia Grant (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #3 "Megastorm Part 3")
Max Sterling (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #3 "Megastorm Part 3")
Sammie Porter (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #2 "Megastorm Part 2")>
Kim Young (last seen in Robotech (Antarctic) #2 "Megastorm Part 2," next in The Macross Saga #7)
Lynn Minmei (last seen in The Macross Saga #5, next in The Macross Saga #7)
Uncle Max (last seen in The Macross Saga #5, next in The Macross Saga #16)
Hansen (first appearance)
Jones (first appearance)
Lambert (first appearance)
Buran (first appearance)
Dolza (last in Return to Macross #4, next in The Macross Saga #11)

Let me lay this key continuity problem out a little more clearly ...

At the end of Megastorm, the SDF-1's overdrive maneuver sends it from Jupiter to the asteroid belt, from which it should proceed to Mars, returning us to the TV series narrative. In Megastorm, three of the SDF-1's anti-gravity modules are destroyed, which is cited as one of the reasons the SDF-1 doesn't just charge into battle over Pandora; this directly ties the two stories together. Yet, for some reason the SDF-1 has doubled-back towards Saturn, given the need for a VF-1E to scout ahead to its moon Pandora. Roy suggests that going around Pandora will cause them to add months to their voyage -- but it looks like they've already covered that one.

Making matters worse ... Max Sterling is removed from active duty to cover up the testing of the VF-1X Super Veritech equipment at the end of Megastorm, yet is hand-picked by Fokker (and gung-ho to go) in Covert Ops, totally at odds with his nervous, never-flown-in-space portrayal in episode #8, "Sweet Sixteen." Rick looks at him like he's crazy -- maybe when he sees Sterling later he doesn't put two and two together? Certainly the nervous, sickly-looking young guy he meets in "Sweet Sixteen" is totally at odds with the confident, eager young pilot he meets here.

Even more problematic ... Rick tells Uncle Max that he's never flown a mission before, and makes sure to remind Fokker of the same after the mission briefing. Megastorm works best between episodes #6 & 7. Episode #6, "Blitzkrieg," is Rick Hunter's first action, at the Battle of Saturn's Rings. Roy's internal narration in "Blitzkrieg" notes it, Minmei mentions it enthusiastically when she and Rick meet at the park where she's wearing the dress they picked "together," and while this has all the feel of a "top secret" mission squeezed between episodes, Rick tells Minmei it's happening. How can he tell his not-quite-girlfriend that he's going on his first mission twice?

What's clear is that as far as Rick's story goes, this is supposed to either fall before "Blitzkrieg" or maybe instead of it. Lane spends a lot of time making references to events that will occur in the near future: "Bye Bye Mars" is set up extensively, with references to Sara Base, Karl Rieber, and Khyron. "Sweet Sixteen" is set up in the scene with Minmei, where she talks up her birthday party. The only piece of the puzzle reflected here that's missing if "Blitzkrieg" happens after this story (or not at all) is Rick and Lisa's antagonistic relationship -- Lisa recognizes him and knows he's a pilot, which she didn't until Fokker properly introduced them the day before Rick's first action -- you know, the scene where Sammie calls Rick "Mister Lingerie."

The other major continuity problem with the book is that nearly every single design in the book is taken from the Macross movie Do You Remember Love, starting on page 1 with the VF-1E recon variant Veritech Fighter. The RDF was still using Cat's Eye recon planes at this point (see episode #7, "Bye Bye Mars," and episode #10, "Blind Game"), if they ever did wind up with the -1E variant in the ROBOTECH universe (hey, it's always possible). The Zentraedi Powered Armors that attack and capture the fighter's crew are the Do You Remember Love variants, though in the next issue the different mecha and combat armor designs are explained away as a sort of tribal difference.

Almost all of the RDF uniforms and weapon systems feature Do You Remember Love designs and detailing -- the little buttons on the collars, the multiple rank stripes, the pilot jumpsuits, the slightly different VF-1A head -- heck, even the Coca Cola machine Roy passes by as he runs away on page three is a Do You Remember Love design. And yet there are occasional reminders that we're in the ROBOTECH universe -- the demolitions experts are wearing TV series uniforms, a character on a video billboard at the top of page three is wearing a TV series-style intra-atmospheric flight helmet (no visor and chin), and most importantly, the SDF-1 still has the Daedalus and Prometheus attached and NOT two ARMD space platforms. (Which makes the crane launch on the last page really strange -- when would they have had time to add that functionality to the Prometheus? And better, WHY?)

Despite the Do You Remember Love styling of all the Zentraedi equipment, our heroes are still facing TV series-style Zentraedi -- they still have hair and round ears. (Do You Remember Love's Zentraedi are all bald and pointy-eared.) I am struck by the fact that on page six the Zentraedi seem to be equipped with helmets and shields far more reminiscent of the Masters' Bioroid Terminators' equipment -- unless that's Do You Remember Love equipment I'm not familiar with, which is highly unlikely.

Aside from very rough inks, the art throughout is beautifully detailed and solid -- Lane clearly knows these characters and designs backwards and forwards, inside and out. His Minmei looks a bit old for her age (sweet sixteen coming up), but that's probably just because he's using the movie character design. Buran strikes an imposing figure -- no wonder Lane wanted to use the Do You Remember Love uniforms, he wouldn't look quite as impressive in anything else -- and doesn't look out of place next to more familiar faces.

Especially sharp-looking are the last three pages, where Lane cracks out the gray tone patterns, giving those pages a very manga-flavored feel. Those pages feel a lot sharper, a lot less inky.

Question: As our story opens, Roy tells Rick that he "moved into the barracks just in time." Is this a sarcastic remark, with the building they're standing in front of being the barracks Rick just moved into, or is Lane suggesting that Rick was living in this building before he enlisted? Because right before he enlisted, Rick was temporarily living above Minmei's aunt & uncle's Chinese restaurant (see episode #5, "Transformation").

Until the publication of "Mars Base One," the backup strip that ran in WildStorm's Robotech: Invasion series, it was considered a misconception that the Zentraedi destroyed Mars Base Sara -- after all, in "Bye Bye Mars," Exedore says it was destroyed "in a battle with their allied forces," meaning other humans. The story now is that Sara was wiped out by Zentraedi long-range scouts, though it was hushed up, and the scouts never made it back to Dolza with a report, meaning the Zentraedi shouldn't know it was taken down by their fellows. Buran says it went down "easily" -- and according to "Mars Base One," that wasn't the case. But of course, "Mars Base One" was published six years later ... and until that point, Exedore's statement in "Bye Bye Mars" should still have stood as what really went down.

The Super Veritech equipment, as in Megastorm, shouldn't be in use yet, though at least this time there's a story-related reason for using it. The very same month as this was published, the first issue of Lee Duhig's two-issue mini-series Wings of Gibraltar has the Super Veritech equipment just under development much farther along in the timeline, post-"Paradise Lost" (episode #20). Where in the blue blazes was the editorial oversight? (Answer: nowhere. Why do you think Antarctic Press lost the ROBOTECH license?)

Fun fact: outside of Robotech The Sentinels: Rubicon, this is the only time Minmei appears in an Antarctic Press ROBOTECH comic book story. Also, the way that she and Uncle Max's remarks toy with Rick's emotions is quite reminiscent of the way Minmei's words played with his feelings in "Transformation." Lane has some trouble with the words, but boy does he have the melody down ...

I was positively ecstatic when I saw Lane using the Zentraedi term "hajoca," one of the words created by long-time ROBOTECH comics writer Bill Spangler way back in Eternity's The Malcontent Uprisings. While that's a rather strong term to be throwing at the Supreme Commander of all Zentraedi forces, it was still a pleasant sight to see in an Antarctic Press publication.

Also, kudos to him for writing Buran as an honest-to-goodness character rather than a monster-of-the-week like Megastorm's Kohrah or Wings of Gibraltar's Calen. The mega-weapon that Dolza describes doesn't even arrive in this story -- Buran doesn't get a gimmick to fight his foes with, like a fancy kewl new mecha or cloaking shields. He has to get by with traditional Zentraedi tools -- albeit Do You Remember Love-styled Zentraedi tools.

Next issue

Robotech: Covert Ops (Antarctic Press)

2008-08-05T18:51:00.010-05:00

Mini-series / August - September 1998 / Story & Art by Gregory Lane

Everything goes according to plan, we're in and out and back in time for cocktails in the officers' lounge -- on me.

THE LOWDOWN

In the aftermath of Kohrah's devastating attack, the crew of the SDF-1 is faced with an enemy force located on the fourth moon of Saturn, Pandora. When a VF-1E recon plane goes missing, Robotech Defense Force intelligence discovers the culprits hiding out on Pandora and, taking a suggestion from Commander Hayes, devises a strategy to destroy the base with a small team of specially equipped Veritech Fighters. Roy Fokker, Rick Hunter, and Max Sterling lead a demolitions team to the target, but find themselves confronted with a desperate foe hungry for glory.

BACKGROUND INFO

Out of all the people who worked on ROBOTECH comics for Antarctic Press, Greg Lane probably had the second most experience with the property after Megastorm writer and Rolling Thunder writer/artist Fred Perry, who inked and toned the first issue of Cyberpirates and several issues of Invid War back in the day. Lane had penciled a few issues of The Malcontent Uprisings in the early 1990's for Eternity, and since then had done a number of anime-style comics for smaller publishers, including Mecharider and Danger Girls (not to be confused with J. Scott Campbell's more well-known Danger Girl).

Despite his qualifications, however, Lane's first two issues of ROBOTECH material for Antarctic, a side-story set during the SDF-1's long trek back to Earth, crossed a very vexing line. As if it wasn't enough of a black mark that he was writing and drawing a sequel to Antarctic Press's incompetently-produced debut outing Megastorm, almost all of the character and mechanical designs Lane used in Covert Ops were from the 1984 motion picture Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love (DYRL for short) -- from the bridge uniforms, to the flightsuits, to the SDF-1's bridge layout, to the Zentraedi base and armor design, right down to the Coca Cola machine on page 3 of the first issue. I understand that it was his preference to do so, as he's more partial to those versions of the Macross character and mecha designs -- buuuuuuuuuut ...

The problem is that DYRL is not a part of ROBOTECH. DYRL is a fancy, redesigned retelling of the original Japanese Macross television series, but it was never adapted into ROBOTECH. Consequently, at no point should Rick Hunter be wearing a DYRL flight suit, nor should the ROBOTECH version of the SDF-1 be launching Veritechs via crane-arm. Moreover, at the time, Harmony Gold didn't even possess the rights to the DYRL designs -- I'm pretty sure they do now, thanks to a licensing agreement with Tatsunoko Productions earlier in the 2000's, but in 1998, this was not the case.

It's worth pointing out, though, that Lane does not use DYRL designs all the time in this series -- indeed, on page 7 of the first issue, you get an eyeful of the contrast that appears throughout Covert Ops. The SDF-1 body we see is based off of the DYRL ship design, while the Daedalus and Prometheus are straight out of the TV series. Hence, the SDF-1 gets the intricate detail treatment, while the deck of the Prometheus gets TV animation-level detail work. The Zentraedi soldiers at the base on Pandora are all dressed in DYRL Zentraedi gear, but when Dolza appears on Buran's video monitor, it's the TV series bald-guy-in-a-robe that appears, not the movie's weird piecemeal floating torso jacked into a plant-like fortress. That dichotomy is rather pervasive throughout -- Covert Ops is a story which in so many ways tries to be true to the TV series, despite the fact that the author insists on using much of the movie's eye candy.

If Covert Ops weren't tied into Megastorm, and didn't have the non-canonical art design, and as a separate issue didn't have the SDF-1 doubling back to Saturn (they passed Jupiter while heading towards Earth -- according to Megastorm itself, they should have passed through the asteroid belt by now), it would actually be an excellent side-story. To tell you the truth, as it stands it's actually a fun ride. The characterization is excellent and the artwork is very well done -- Lane does a good job emulating character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto's style to a degree (though the inking, as Lane himself admitted at the time, is not that great), and the mecha action is about as solid as you can get when gray tones are few and far between. There are only a few confusing fight panels, mostly those without a dark space background for contrast.

To sum up, it's not a terrible Macross-era mini-series -- in fact, it compares very favorably to the rest of Antarctic's Macross-era offerings due to the strong characterization both visually and verbally, some excellent scene staging, and -- best of all -- the little touches that recall the Eternity and Academy days (Zentraedi villain Buran's furious shout of "HAJOCA!"). It just doesn't work very well as either a sequel to Megastorm or even as a side-story in proper ROBOTECH TV series continuity. Well worth a read if you're in need of a quick ROBOTECH fix, but from a pedantic fanboy standpoint -- as an interlocking piece in the grand tapestry of ROBOTECH -- quite a mess. (Lane's follow-up, the New Generation one-shot Class Reunion was better on several counts.)

COVERT OPS

Issue 1 - Covert Operations Part 1
Issue 2 - Covert Operations Part 2

Robotech (WildStorm) #1 (of 6)

2007-07-19T19:05:00.001-05:00

"From The Stars"

Plot - Tommy Yune
Script - Jay Faerber
Art - Long Vo, Charles Park, & Saka of Udon
Letterer - Jenna Garcia
Asst. Editor - Kristy Quinn
Editor - Ben Abernathy
Special Thanks - Tom Bateman & Erik Ko

Published by WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics.

Release date - December 18, 2002
Cover date - February 2003

Diamond order number - OCT020801
Estimated sales - 53,023 copies

THE STORY

It is the year 1999. Somewhere in rural northern California, on the fields of Pop Hunter's Flying Circus, young Rick Hunter races excitedly towards his mailbox. Inside is a letter from his dear friend Roy Fokker, currently flying fighters for the military out in the Pacific. He rips the letter open and sits down in the grass beside the mailbox, smiling as he reads the latest from his mentor:

"Dear Rick, sorry I couldn't call you, but my latest mission requires the entire carrier group to maintain radio silence, so this letter will have to do. Has Pop let you fly in the circus yet? I know you've been dying to strap yourself in the cockpit and contribute to your family business ... but remember that flying can be dangerous. Take it from me. So stay sharp and remember everything your pop and I taught you, and I have no doubt you'll be flying rings around me in no time."

Somewhere in the South Pacific, aboard the U.S.S. Kenosha, Roy Fokker returns from his latest run untouched, a feat which doesn't go unnoticed by his fellow fighter pilots. What also doesn't go unnoticed is the fact that he's gone through four wingmen in the last three months, including the one today. "And in all that time," one of the pilots says, "he's never even taken a serious hit."

"Well, he's been flying since he was a kid, right?" a younger pilot, Steve, says. "I heard he was part of a flying circus. I guess it's in his blood."

One of the other pilots tells Steve he can ask Fokker all about it, because he's his new wingman. "Been nice knowin' ya!" he adds.

Steve shrugs it off. "Go ahead and laugh, guys. This guy managed to become a double ace faster than anyone else in Skull Squadron history. Frankly, I'm honored."

As Steve walks down to meet Fokker, Admiral Hayes looks down from the ship's bridge and asks the Kenosha's captain if he thinks this new wingman is going to make it. "I don't know, Admiral Hayes. That's a good question. Fokker sure has blown through his share of wingmen ... but this new nugget got top scores at the Academy, so let's just say I've got my fingers crossed, sir." Hayes laughs, asking if he carries a rabbit's foot as well. "I don't mind telling you, sir, considering our latest mission, it probably wouldn't hurt. Do you really think the Russians would be so careless as to sell their Oscar-class nuclear subs to a foreign power?"

Hayes is quick to respond. "Captain, considering the shape the world is in today, nothing would surprise me. Our orders are to follow the Russian sub that was spotted in these waters, and see if we can find any truth to the rumors. The Pentagon's suffered too many setbacks with all the recent hot spots around the globe. Let's see if we can carry out a mission that they can put in their "win" column."

Meanwhile, aboard the aforementioned Russian sub, the SSGN Minsk, Captain Henry J. Gloval asks his first officer Poruchik if there's any sign of the Americans yet. Poruchik says there's no sign yet, but the sonar station is on alert. "Good, good. If our information is correct, the American Navy has probably dispatched an entire carrier group to follow us by now. They must really think we're so desperate that we'd even sell our most prized vessels ... vessels which could then be used against us! I must say, it's been ages since I've heard a more ridiculous notion. It just goes to show you how strange the world has become. Our military forces are already stretched to their limits, trying to maintain a grasp on the many conflicts which have erupted all over the world. And something in my bones tells me this is going to get worse before it gets better." Just then, the sonar operator informs Gloval that an American helicopter just dropped objects into the water above them. "Sonar buoys. I should've guessed ... Admiral Hayes is a slave to traditional American tactics." He gives the order to go quiet, and Poruchik relays the order to bring the sub to a full stop.

For a moment, all is quiet except the "ping" of the sonar. Then, above the waters of the Pacific, a volley of missiles strikes and destroys the American helicopter. Gloval is immediately informed of this development. He asks if it was one of theirs that hit the chopper, but it wasn't.

Above the water, aboard the Kenosha, Hayes asks if it wasn't the Russians, who shot their helicopter down? He looks out with his binoculars, seething, when the captain tells him the Pentagon is on the line for him. "I'm just a little bit busy right now, Captain," he grumbles. The captain informs him they said it was important. He takes the call. "This is Admiral Hayes, what's -- Well, I'm in the middle of a situation, can't -- I see. Okay. Yes, sir." He hands the captain the phone and tells him he's in charge. "I'm needed back at the Pentagon, ASAP. I want you to send sub hunters after the Minsk, and scramble a fighter squadron to chase down those bogeys." The captain asks why Hayes is being called away. "I honestly don't know," Hayes says. "But what if it is, it's big."

On deck, Roy and Steve rush to their fighters. Roy asks Steve if he thinks he can keep up. "You can count on it, sir!" Steve says with a big thumbs-up. As Roy looks at a photo of himself and Rick in happier times, control tells him he's cleared for takeoff. "Skull One-Eleven here, ready when you are. Let 'er rip, tower!" He shoots off into the sky.

Elsewhere, on the shuttle back to Washington, Admiral Hayes gets a call from the Pentagon. "Admiral, this is Secretary Dellinger. I know you're probably curious about why we're calling you back." Hayes says "curious" is a good word. "Well, I didn't want to keep you in the dark for your entire trip bacl. You'll recieve a full briefing upon your arrival at the Pentagon, but in short ... we've detected a massive unidentified object that appears to be heading straight for Earth's atmosphere." As he takes the words in, Hayes's eyes widen in sheer and utter shock.

Back in the skies over the Minsk, Skull Squadron comes into the range of the fighters that shot down the American chopper. "I count fourteen bogeys, dead ahead," Skull Leader reports. "We've got our work cut out for us, Roy. Lead ahead with Steve and try to break up their formation ... and save some bogeys for us this time!" Roy tells Steve to follow him. When cannon fire begins to come their way, Skull Leader orders them to fire at will. Steve misses with one of his missiles and asks Roy if those are Russian SU-37s they're flying. "No, it's something else ... now pull ahead of me, kid. We're gonna weave a basket!" Steve is unsure -- he points out that he's got a bunch of the enemy craft on his tail. "Absolutely!" Roy responds. "This is an old trick. They're a sucker for this every time!" A short bit of quick maneuvering and gunfire later, and Steve is astonished that it worked like a charm -- the enemy's been torn to shreds. "Would I lie to you, kiddo?" Roy asks.

"Uh oh, Roy -- they got a lock on me!" Steve says, spotting a missile on his trail. Roy tells him he won't outrun it, so he has to outmaneuver it.

"Head for the deck and then pull up at the last second. The missile won't be able to duplicate that move." Steve tries, but goes too low. His nose touches the water, and the missile catches up with him, blowing the plane to scrap.

After a brief moment of shock and horror, Roy recovers and resumes his fight with renewed conviction, tempered with anger. "All right, you bastards, playtime's over," hs snaps. In a matter of moments, three enemy craft are full of holes and going down. He then spots the one that took out Steve. "I wanna see the look on his face when he realizes his ticket's about to be punched. Wait," he says, pausing to get a good look at the enemy fighter, "those aren't Russian markings. Who are these guys?" As his thumb hovers over the trigger to fire his missiles, Roy decides there's no time to worry about that now. "We can sort this out once these guys are taken out for good."

Just then, Roy spots something shining out of the corner of his eye. He looks up ...

Just as the sub hunter aircraft sent to track down the Minsk prepares to launch its torpedoes after it, a blazing light draws towards them. As it draws ever closer, the aircraft is torn apart. On the Kenosha, the captain orders all hands to brace for impact and the deck to be cleared, but it's too late. The incoming blazing object tears past them, and the shockwaves behind it knock the Kenosha on its side, spilling aircraft into the ocean; its escorts are tossed about like bath toys by the tsunami created by the unidentified incoming object's entry. Roy kicks in his afterburners, gaining altitude to avoid a burning death as the flaming object from the stars crash lands on a nearby island.

Beneath the ocean, Gloval is told there are some strange readings coming in. He takes a look at the monitor and orders the ship to dive deeper immediately.

Back in the sky, Roy tries to radio the Kenosha and Skull Squadron, but to no avail. He takes a look towards the island and wonders what the hell is going on.

The Minsk rises to periscope depth and Gloval takes a look outside. He is stunned by what he sees. "Take us to the surface, Poruchik." Poruchik tells him they could be looking at nuclear war here, but Gloval insists. The sub rises, and Captain Gloval gets a look for himself at Macross Island, smoke steadily billowing from its flaming surface, marred by the presence of a massive twin-engined monstrosity.

"This," Gloval says forebodingly, "is a whole new war."

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Roy Fokker
Rick Hunter
Steve (first and final appearance)
Admiral Donald Hayes (last in flashback in Return to Macross #20, next in Invasion #1 "Mars Base One")
Henry J. Gloval (last in flashback in Return to Macross #30, next in Robotech: The Graphic Novel)
Poruchik (first and final appearance)
Secretary Dellinger (first and final appearance)

Personally, I wouldn't suggest reading Admiral Hayes's and Captain Gloval's storylines in chronological order based on how things fit -- or rather, how they fail to -- in the events prior to and following this issue. The appearances that Admiral Hayes is between are two separate, distinct stories explaining how his wife died. Even better, in each story both he and his wife have different names ("Nicholas" and "Catherine" in Return to Macross, "Donald" and "Sara" in "Mars Base One"). The latter story is the one that is currently considered valid.

On top of that, Lisa is already with Karl Rieber in the Return to Macross story, while in "Mars Base One" they meet for the first time. In the Return to Macross flashbacks, the SDF-1 hasn't crashed yet, while in "Mars Base One" it's explicitly stated that it's taking place in 2001.

Gloval is in a stranger fix, temporally between events that in no way could have had any impact on his storyline according to the modern take. While the story told here appears to be very slightly derived from the old pre-Robotech.com novels and comics -- maintaining Roy Fokker's participation in the conflict raging across the Earth prior to the crash of the SDF-1 and his assignment to the carrier Kenosha -- it shakes up the old storylines quite a bit. For instance, it scales back the nature of the pre-SDF-1 conflict, turning it from one huge conflict called the "Global Civil War" into an explosion of smaller conflicts across the globe. Unlike earlier works, the lines between countries seem to be about what they were in the REAL 1999. In the Comico Graphic Novel, Fokker was a pilot for the "Western Alliance;" the novels and Bill Spangler's Return to Macross referred to him as having been a pilot for the "Internationalists"; here he seems to be flying for the U.S. Navy.

Further -- and this is what throws Gloval's story continuum out of whack -- it takes Captain Gloval and puts him on the opposite side of the conflict from Fokker and Hayes. This is a major difference from all previous pre-Macross era ROBOTECH works, which had put Gloval in command of the Kenosha with Fokker flying under him during this era of war. The only major problem with the new setup is that it has the potential side effect of effectively bolluxing the story Gloval tells Lisa Hayes in episode 15, "Homecoming". As Gloval tells her:

"When we were serving together, a problem came up once about inadequate rations for the men. When he couldn't get any action from headquarters, he ordered our entire division to raid the food supplies of the commanding general. The general thought spies had infiltrated the regiment. He kept sending down orders for us to find them."

All I can figure is that this must have happened in some joint U.N. operation of some sort in the early '90s (the Gulf War perhaps?); McKinney figured about the same, though he had the luxury of a nearly decade-long Global Civil War to explain it away and didn't have the problem of Gloval and Hayes being on opposite sides immediately prior to the crash of the SDF-1. The one thing that helps fit Gloval's story in "Homecoming" into continuity with this issue is the fact that here Gloval does know Hayes by name. The way he speaks of him it seems the two have a history, and the TV series does nothing to suggest that it was always a friendly one, especially considering the way things go in the TV episode in question.

This issue had two different covers, neither of which have much of anything to do with the contents. Cover #1 is a rather nice but fairly stock piece of The Macross Saga art conjured up by Long Vo and his pals at Udon. It's unfortunate that the ROBOTECH logo covers up the top of the image; it would have worked better on the bottom, since there's no important characters' faces there. Heck, the logo covers Gloval's face, and he's one of the few characters on the cover to appear in this issue! Otherwise, though, not bad; the VF-1J isn't even too Super Poseablish. My only other complaint would be that Fokker seems to be wearing a Macross The Movie: Do You Remember Love? pilot's jumpsuit, not a ROBOTECH uniform. Notice how he has no stripe on his shirt collar and the jacket collar is the wrong color.

Cover #2 is also nice, though it's obvious that the model for the VF-1S was the "VF-1S Roy Fokker Last Stand" action figure that was a mail-away exclusive at ToyFare magazine in the summer of 2002. Also obvious from their flatter-than-normal appearance is the fact that the Battlepods were modeled off of the video game Battlecry for the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. While not a good representative piece of art for this series, it's a really nice piece. Why don't we have a poster of it, or maybe a wallscroll?

Unlike the Comico Graphic Novel and the flashback scenes in Return to Macross, everyone's wearing uniforms that, as far as I can tell, hew pretty close to the present day uniforms of their respective countries, though with a few liberties taken here and there (notably the RDF-style striped shirts underneath the U.S. Navy pilots' flight jackets). I also think Roy's flight helmet probably should have a visor of some sort, but anime-style creative license seems to have been taken so we can more easily identify him in the skies.

On the first page they appear, Hayes and the captain's name badges are blank; on all subsequent pages, they do appear. Hayes is identified only as "Admiral Hayes," though later issues do identify him as Donald Hayes -- as remarked above, this is the second first name the character has been given, though Hayes was only originally given a first name during the Academy run of Return to Macross, so I can very easily forgive Tommy Yune & Co. for not being aware of it. The captain serving under him's name badge appears only in one panel, in such small type that I can't read it -- it's on page 8, and it's slightly askew. Anyone out there able to read it?

The Russians' dialogue is written in a faux-Russian-looking font, which I think is a nice touch. Yes, Gloval was Russian in the ROBOTECH TV series. Yes, I know the character was originally supposed to be Italian in the Macross TV series. Quiet, you.

The fighter that shot Steve down has the same markings that T. R. Edwards's plane had in the old Comico Graphic Novel (which also happen to be the same markings seen on the fighters in the flashbacks in episode 33, "A Rainy Night"). For those of us who know our ROBOTECH, this is foreshadowing; for everyone else, the beginning of a mystery that really doesn't pay off.

When this was released, there was a discussion about the physics of the SDF-1's arrival on one of the ROBOTECH on-line forums. Ironically, it was pointed out that while the tsunami generated by the shockwaves of the SDF-1's arrival would only move the aircraft carrier group around and not utterly destroy them, it would have created enough force to crush Gloval's Minsk, especially if it dove into deeper water. I suppose that's something of a major "oops" given the outcome presented, though I doubt most readers would catch it.

Previous issue | Next issue

Robotech (WildStorm) #0 (of 6)

2007-07-19T13:07:00.002-05:00

"Promise"

Story - Tommy Yune
Script - Jay Faerber
Art - Jim Lee, Ale Garza, Carlos D'Anda, Lee Bermejo, Trevor Scott, Richard Friend, and Sandra Hope
Colors - Udon Studios
Letterer - John E. Workman
Editor - Ben Abernathy

Published by WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics.

Release date - December 4, 2002
Cover date - February 2003

Diamond order number - OCT020800
Estimated sales - 47,880 copies

THE STORY

"At the dawn of the new millenium, the human race discovered they were not alone in the universe when an abandoned alien vessel crashed into the Earth. The bounty of advanced technology within would alter the course of human history. This alien technology was known as Robotech. A powerful alien race, the Zentraedi, would bring an age-old war to Earth. However, aided by the miracle of Robotechnology, the human spirit would prevail ..."

It is the year 2015. Veritech Wolf Squadron is in pursuit of a team of full-sized Zentraedi rebels who have stolen a cache of GU-11 gun pods. Wolf Leader Jack Archer radios headquarters and assures them that his team will intercept the rebels and recover the goods. As he tells his wing that they don't have authorization to use deadly force the Veritechs transform to Battloid mode and follow the rebels into what appears to be a drained resevoir. Suddenly, one of the rebels lets loose with a surprisingly loaded gun pod and the Battloids take cover. One pilot notices some approaching Monster Destroids. "Oh," he says, "looks like reinforcements. Guess base didn't think we could handle these stragglers on our--"

One of the Monsters fires -- and not at the Zentraedi. The blast takes the head off of a VF-1A Battloid. "Those are Zentraedi markings!" another pilot shouts. Indeed they are -- shoddily-painted blue Zentraedi insignias adorn the "noses" of the squat Destroid mecha. The Veritech team has been led into an ambush. The Destroids let loose on the Veritechs, firing everything they've got at the team. "Wolf Leader to base! Wolf Leader to base! We're taking heavy fire! We need back-up now! I repeat, we --"

"I heard you the first time, Wolf Leader ..."

A sleek new model of fighter plane with familiar yellow and black trim and skull & crossbone fin flash flies into the oncoming fire. "This is Skull Leader. Hold on, I'll have you out of there in no time!"

In the cockpit of his shiny new YF-4 Veritech Fighter, Rick Hunter pulls down on a familiar control lever marked "G." The jet begins to respond to the command, but it registers a malfunction. Instead of swooping down in Guardian mode, Rick is forced to lock onto the two Monsters with his missiles and knock 'em out the quick & dirty way. He fires and dives between them as the Monsters' weapons systems explode. "The Destroid Monsters have been neutralized," Rick tells Wolf Squadron. "We've deployed a full assault team to assist you in containment and clean-up." Wolf Squad thanks him as they take the full-sized Zentraedi rebels into custody.

Rick returns to Macross City with the YF-4 prototype, flying by the mounds that will stand as a monument to the fallen SDF-1 and cover over the rubble of that ship, Khyron's battlecruiser, and other remains from the Battle of New Macross City. As the Veritech touches down and screeches along the runway, Doctor Emil Lang runs up to demand a word with Hunter.

"Hello, Dr. Lang!" Rick says cheerily as he removes his flight helmet. "We're going to need a complete rundown of the YF-4's new transformation system ..." Lang demands to know what he was thinking, taking the prototype into battle.

"Had you been shot down, all of our research would have been lost ..." Lang says. Rick goes on about the transformation system, pointing out that the configuration actuators appear to seize up during a hard dive. "... and the Veritech advancement program would have suffered an enormous setback!" Lang finishes. He asks Rick to take the matter more seriously, but Rick counters that he takes this all very seriously; after all, if it hadn't been for the YF-4, some men's lives would have been lost. "Spoken like a true fighter pilot, I must say," Lang notes. "I wonder who taught you your priorities. Surely, it wasn't ..."

Rick is no longer listening; he's noticed that the VF-1S Skull One is in the hangar in Battloid mode. He asks what it's doing here. "Now that we're phasing out the first Veritech series," Lang explains, "we're preparing to disassemble Skull-One to perform a structural analysis of stress and fatigue. The data vould be invaluable since it is the oldest surviving VF-1 in our inventory." Rick says he must have missed it on the schedule. He apologizes for risking the prototype, and asks if they can continue at another time. Lang agrees, then adds that Admiral Hayes wanted him to remind Rick about his appointment tonight. Rick thanks him., then runs his hand along the mecha's canopy. "Well, old girl, Roy told me once that he thought you'd outlive him. But knowing Roy ... I thought he was just being dramatic."

Rick flashes back sixteen years ... it is the year 1999, six months prior to the arrival of the SDF-1. At a small air circus in the southwest, it's pouring rain outside, and the announcer is telling the audience that the it doesn't seem to be letting up so they're going to have to close up early. "Hey, waitasecond ..." he says as a small yellow biplane soars through the dark clouds towards a bolt of lightning, "maybe the show ain't over yet! Look, folks -- that's death-defyin' Roy Fokker up there! Looks like he's gonna make sure you get your money's worth, rain or shine!"

After the show, Fokker climbs out of his plane. Two people are waiting for him: a young boy of around nine and his father, a square-jawed old-timer in a bomber jacket. The man is one "Pop" Hunter, the owner of the air circus. As Roy boasts about his flying, Hunter chides him. "Part of being a good pilot is knowing when to take intelligently calculated risks. But flying stunts in a thunderstorm is plain stupid even for someone with your raw talent." Roy assures Pop that he can take care of himself, but Pop already knows that. "But one of these days ... you're gonna get someone else killed."

A day or so passes. Young Rick Hunter races across the field to the front office of the air circus in search of Roy. Roy and Pop are watching the news, and Rick asks Roy if he's really going to go fight in the war. "'Fraid so, little brother," Roy says. "Can't put it off any longer." He turns to Pop. "I know you're anti-war, and I"m not exactly eager to kill anyone myself, but I'm a damn good pilot, and my country needs me." Pop puts his hand on Roy's shoulder. "I can respect that," he says. "Every man's gotta make his own way in this world." Roy thanks him, then takes Rick outside to talk.

Rick asks if he can come with him, but Roy tells Rick that war's no place for little guys like him. "When I get older, then?" Rick asks. Roy assures Rick that when he's old enough to be a fighter pilot, this war is going to be a distant memory. "Then will you come back and fly for the circus again?" Rick asks. "You bet," Roy replies, "and I'll be back for good."

"You promise?"

"Yeah, I promise."

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

2015

Rick Hunter (last in The Macross Saga #36, next in Robotech (WildStorm) #6)
Jack Archer (first and final appearance)
Dr. Emil Lang (last in The Macross Saga #6, next in Robotech II: The Malcontent Uprisings #7)

1999

Roy Fokker (first chronological appearance)
Mitchell "Pops" Hunter (first chronological appearance, next in Robotech: The Graphic Novel)
Rick Hunter (first chronological appearance)

While "Pops" Hunter has a different first name in the old Comico Graphic Novel (one of three, collect them all) and a more feeble appearance overall, that doesn't change the fact that the scenes with Rick's dad (and Rick, for that matter) in that story don't contradict anything in this mini-series. Everyone else (the Earth-based characters, that is), on the other hand ...

This was the first all-new published story set in Harmony Gold's revised ROBOTECH timeline, which throws all of the old, previously published material out and starts fresh with the original 1985 TV series as its only basis.

I have to agree with a friend of mine when he says that the opening narration is missing a little something, namely, "In the year 1999 ..." The date does come up later, but honestly, it should have been in the narration, if only for nostalgia reasons. Besides, the "at the dawn of a new millenium" stuff (which became the standard opening for all the WildStorm ROBOTECH comic series) gives me nasty flashbacks to the Robotech 3000 trailer. *shudder*

Note the use of the ROBOTECH: Battlecry video game's VF-1R Veritech Fighter (three-lasered head) as Wolf Leader's craft. The Battlecry storyline was, at this point, the only other all-new story material in the revised ROBOTECH timeline. Wolf Leader Jack Archer's cameo here would not be the only cameo by a ROBOTECH video game character in the comics; Dr. Osmund from ROBOTECH: Invasion would appear in the last two issues of the comic series of the same name. However, Osmund gets to be referred to by name, while Archer is not.

Bear in mind, Wolf Squadron was referred to in the first episode of ROBOTECH and reappears in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, setting up its appearance in the Shadow Chronicles animation. It's been set up in the new material as the other premiere Veritech squadron, alongside the Skull.

Despite the reboot, traces from other earlier "secondary canon" works do shine through; notice that one of the primary established characters in this story is Doctor Emil Lang, who first grew to prominence in ROBOTECH II: The Sentinels and works designed to set the stage for that aborted television project (i.e. the original Comico Graphic Novel). If you'll recall, originally he only appeared in episodes 5 and 6 of the TV series. The scenes with Roy and Rick's father also seem to draw heavily from the portrayal of "Pop" Hunter in the aforementioned Graphic Novel, though "Pop," while clad in a very similar outfit, is much younger-looking here than his Graphic Novel counterpart.

Rick's craft in this issue is the YF-4/VF-X-4. He played with a model of it in the opening scenes to episode 36, "To The Stars". There was some chatter about whether or not Harmony Gold could legally use that design prior to this issue's release. Since it does appear in the show, at least in model form, I would assume they do. However, I assume that the mecha was unable to transform in this story for legal reasons; Harmony Gold does not own the rights to the design of the Guardian or Battloid modes for this mecha since it only appeared in Fighter mode in the material they have the rights to. In fact, no such forms were designed by mecha designer (and Macross co-creator) Shoji Kawamori for this particular revision of the design. A refined version of the mecha called the VF-4 Lightning was later developed for the 1987 combination music video/epilogue Flashback 2012 and further refined for the Bandai video game Macross VF-X, only the latter of which actually featured a GERWALK (Guardian) and Battroid (Battloid) mode for the craft. I suspect a Battloid and Guardian mode would have to be designed for this mecha in-house at Harmony Gold before it could be used again in ROBOTECH for any period of time.

The two-page spread on pages 7 & 8 depicts the construction of the three mounds that appear in the Masters episodes of the ROBOTECH TV series (a.k.a. SX Point 83). Easily seen behind the unfinished framework of the one in the forefront are the remains of the SDF-1; in another, Khyron's downed battlecruiser. The third one is almost complete and thus we don't get a look inside. Harmony Gold has been awfully noncommittal about what exactly is in that third mound. Series story editor & producer Carl Macek has long claimed that he intended for the SDF-2 to be standing back-to-back with the SDF-1 in the final episode of the Macross portion of ROBOTECH, "To The Stars," so that its remains could be the contents of the third mound. However, since no SDF-2 actually appears in the footage, some have argued that the references to the SDF-2 in "To The Stars" had to be referring to events at another location and thus it cannot be what is inside that third mound. Since the Daedalus arm of the SDF-1 was sheared off in Khyron's final suicide attack, I suppose that could be the contents of the third mound. (In the trade paperback collection that contains this story, From The Stars, a reference drawing of the under-construction mounds appears and does identify the third mound as the SDF-2. However, that's merely preproduction material, and the finished art remains noncommittal.)

Speaking of that location, it appears that New Macross City is relatively intact below the mounds. Since the passage of time between Rick's thoughts about that fateful day in New Macross and his final approach for landing is indeterminite, it's not clear if he's landing at New Macross or at nearby Monument City, but if he is landing at the former locale, this flatly contradicts all earlier licensed material, which swears up and down that New Macross is so terribly irradiated by the destruction of the SDF-1 and Khyron's battlecruiser (and possibly the SDF-2) that nobody should ever go there ever again ... or at least until an insubordinate Dana Sterling decides to ride out there in 2029.

I have a qualm with Lang's accented dialogue (not reproduced in the quotes above, for clarity's sake), written out like, "vhat is dis?" which strikes me as a trend that should have been given up by comics writers years ago. Nobody had ever written Lang's dialogue that way before, at least not in any published officially licensed story, despite the fact that he spoke in a German accent in the show. While I could hear Lang's voice the way I remember it from the series a shade more easily with the accented dialogue, I still think it reads like a bad stereotype in an obnoxious kind of way.

Notice that Rick is still "Captain Hunter;" he has apparently not recieved a promotion since the end of the Macross episodes of ROBOTECH, wheras Lisa is referred to as "Admiral Hayes." This is another aspect that flies in the face of previous licensed works, which brought Rick up to just under Lisa's rank after the destruction of the SDF-1 and -2 (hence references in the novels from "The Zentraedi Rebellion" onward to "the Admirals Hunter"), but makes good sense. After all, Lisa's last words to Minmei concerning Rick before she and he took off to fend off Khyron's final attack were, "He's a pilot! That's his life!" This very point is made by Rick early in "The Zentraedi Rebellion," and the fact that Yune and Faerber didn't go down that route in this story proves that they were paying better attention to that line than Lisa was in that particular story.

The appointment that Rick has with "Admiral Hayes" appears at the end of issue #6.

The twelve story pages of this issue were handled by seven different artists. It's not clear who did what, or who served in what capacity; only a person familiar with each artist's style and what each person tends to do (as in "pencils or inks?") would be able to tell, and I'm not that familiar with most of these names. Oh sure, I know Jim Lee, WildStorm's founder and Editorial Director, but the rest of the names aren't totally clicking. I think Lee did the first page or two; and even then I'm not totally sure, since it's possible that different artists may have worked on the same pages.

The mecha art appears to be strongly based on the Toynami Super-Poseable Veritech action figures. The hands on the Veritechs are more mechanical-looking than those in the show, and the neck and leg joints are more detailed and mechanical-looking as well. The large kneecaps are definitely taken from the Super-Poseable toy design; Veritechs' knees are generally NOT that pronounced. The shoulders, though, are very much those of a transforming Veritech design; they're more boxy and less pointy than those on the Toynami Super-Poseables. Very, very slight but noticeable liberties were also made with the VF-1A's head; it's not as rounded as it used to be. Despite the numerous nitpicks, though, the mecha art looks excellent -- much better than most of Antarctic Press's hand-drawn mecha art -- but it does have certain hallmarks which reek of revisionism rather than nostalgia. Then again, revisionism seemed to be quite the order of the day during the 80's nostalgia boom.

The character art is another matter. Dr. Lang is the spitting image of his anime counterpart, despite some weirdness on his lumpily-drawn jowels. Rick, on the other hand, is barely recognizable. He bears a much closer resemblence to the toned-down and kind of hideous Matchbox action figure from the 1980's than his big-haired anime counterpart. He actually somewhat resembles the early test drawings for the character done by Macross character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto during the two years of lead time prior to the beginning of production on the TV series. Between the story and the pin-up art in the back of the book, I swear that I've seen more Rick Hunters that don't actually look like Rick Hunter in this book than anywhere else ever. Usually artists at least try to replicate his big and weirdly-pointed hair; the artists on this book didn't even seem to try.

And the noses look kind of weird, too.

Somehow, though, Roy manages to look sorta like Roy. Perhaps it's that his hair is more generically anime-styled and his face shape more specific than Rick's. Looking at it now, the final shot of Roy actually bears a striking resemblence to the He-Man character design from the 2002 relaunch of that property, with a longer chin. Maybe it's just that I've seen so many weird-looking versions of Roy (due to the revolving door of artists on Return to Macross) I'm much more tolerant of weird Roys than I am with weird Ricks.

Speaking of He-Man, Rick's dad looks a lot like Man-At-Arms from the '02 relaunch as well. Same age lines, same moustache, same face shape, same predeliction for wearing protective headgear ...

In "Boobytrap," Rick says, "You promised my dad you'd return to the air circus when the war was over ..." The only person he promises here, however, is Rick. I assume Roy made that promise before he made his promise to Rick; otherwise the line from "Boobytrap" either doesn't make sense or, feasibly, you could claim Rick decided to bring up his father in "Boobytrap" just to stick a nice, sharp emotional knife in his "big brother" -- after all, it does come right after Rick calls Roy a "killer."

The pin-ups in the back are something of a mixed bag. For the record, they are:

Rick Hunter and Lynn Minmei with a VF-1S Super Veritech behind them, by Adam Warren (Gen 13, Dirty Pair, Empowered) on character art and Joe Wight (Twilight X) on mecha. Please note that this is the most correct-looking Rick Hunter in the ENTIRE BOOK. Also note that Wight was a regular cover artist on the Antarctic Press ROBOTECH anthology title in the late '90s.
Exedore, Breetai, and Khyron along with a small fleet of Zentraedi ships and a few Zentraedi mecha, by Troy Nixey (Grendel: Black, White, & Red, Jenny Finn) and Jeromy Cox.
Claudia Grant, Lisa Hayes, and Lynn Minmei having a picnic with an extremely Super-Poseable Figure-looking VF-1S Skull One giving a "V" hand-sign in the background, by Randy Green (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, New X-Men: Academy X), Rick Ketcham, and Omar Dogan.
Max and Miriya's video game battle with a CG rendered showdown between their REAL mecha in the background, by Kaare Andrews (Spider-Man: Reign) on characters and Tipatat Chennavasin on mecha renders. Scratch my comment above, the Rick Hunter in the background HERE is the most correct-looking Hunter in the whole book. Also note that Chennavasin also was responsible for at least one render that appeared in Antarctic Press's Vermilion mini-series and the cover art for the third issue of the Antarctic ROBOTECH anthology title from the late '90s.
A "poster art" style piece with Rick Hunter, Lynn Minmei, Zentraedi Battlepods, and the VF-1S Skull One in Guardian mode, by Dustin Nguyen (Wildcats 3.0, Manifest Eternity).
A decidedly non-anime piece featuring a horrifyingly well-endowed Rick Hunter carrying a spherical flight helmet, Lynn Minmei, and two Skull-marked and sleeker-than-usual VF-1 Veritech Fighters, by Keron Grant (Son of Vulcan), Rob Stull, and Udon.
An all-out mecha battle with proper anime-style VF-1's (yay, no Super-Poseable knees!) of various sizes in front of the SDF-1, by Long Vo and Saka.

Moving a little away from the art to other visual elements of the book, on one of the readouts when Rick is attacking the Monster Destroids, the screen says that the glitch is with the "transportation system", not the "transformation system". Easy mistake, corrected in the trade paperback collection.

This also appears to have been otherwise hand-lettered, one of the very few hand-lettered books put out by a major publisher that I've seen in so many years. Kinda nice, though the lettering is not as clean as the lettering I recall from the days when all books were hand-lettered. Does lend it more of a nostalgic feel, though.

Next issue

Robotech: From The Stars (WildStorm/DC Comics)

2007-05-26T03:04:00.001-05:00

Mini-series / December 2002 - May 2003 / Story by Tommy Yune & Jay Faerber

This is a whole new war.

THE LOWDOWN

It is the year 1999. Across the planet Earth, chaos reigns. As armed conflicts erupt between nations all over the globe, a rumor reaches the Pentagon that Russia is selling off a nuclear sub to a foreign power. The U.S. sends a carrier group into the waters of the South Pacific to investigate.

Between the arrival of a mysterious fighter group and a phenomenal event in the sky that soon alters the course of human history, only U.S. Navy pilot Roy Fokker and group commander Donald Hayes survive the encounter.

Six years later, both men find themselves thrust into the spotlight of history when they become involved in the further investigation and development of the technology that fell into the lap of humanity on that fateful day in the South Pacific.

BACKGROUND INFO

Like Bill Spangler's earlier Return to Macross, WildStorm Productions' first ROBOTECH mini-series is a look back at the dawn of planet Earth's involvement in the ROBOTECH saga. It is also designed, for the most part, so that someone without a PhD in ROBOTECH history can read it, but not in such a way that most long-time fans will be grimacing at the liberties taken -- unless, of course, they were weaned on the novels by Jack McKinney and still consider them gospel. A fan with a clear understanding and a certain level of acceptance at the way Harmony Gold is handling ROBOTECH these days should be fine throughout the bulk of From The Stars.

Harmony Gold Creative Director Tommy Yune and Noble Causes creator Jay Faerber's storyline overwrites the classic and infamous Comico Graphic Novel, "Genesis," and Return to Macross with more realistic and far less cartoonish storylines, hewing as close to the way things were in the real 1999 as possible without compromising the integrity of the ROBOTECH TV series -- which, of course, is the only backstory Harmony Gold actually cares about at this point. The inclusion of such elements as the carrier Kenosha and Sentinels villain T.R. Edwards shows that Harmony Gold isn't throwing the backlog of stories created between '86 and '98 out the window entirely, but is rather refashioning their base elements to try and create something better out of them -- or at least something less out of step with the original animation.

The frustrating thing about the resulting storyline (besides its frankly bizarre characterization of Roy Fokker as wide-eyed, clueless, and embarrassed around women) is that it sets certain precedents that the next two mini-series by WildStorm follow pretty slavishly; the framing sequence for this series is set in the post-Macross era and introduces at least one plot point that is incongruous with the tale told in flashback throughout most of the series' six and half issues. Later series spend a lot of time on framing sequences, flashbacks, and confusing epilogues that would serve only to confuse casual ROBOTECH fans; this practice was broken by Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles presumably only because it needed every page to blaze through all the story it could possibly cover.

It is important to note that despite a legacy in comics that lasted from 1984 to 1998, this ROBOTECH series was considered part of the '80s nostalgia boom that struck the American comic book industry beginning in 2001 with Devil's Due's G.I. Joe and rolled on in 2002 with Dreamwave Productions' Transformers revival. As such, it was treated with great disdain, especially in light of the fact that WildStorm's previous '80s revival book was Thundercats of all things.

This series had a Sourcebook issue covering all its major characters and mecha with pin-up pieces, some of them two-page spreads, by a virtual "who's who" of WildStorm talent and brief write-ups by Tommy Yune and Tom Bateman. This issue was released in January 2003 and was partially collected along with the series in the From The Stars trade paperback collection.

FROM THE STARS

Issue 0 - Promise
Issue 1 - From The Stars
Issue 2 - Call To Duty
Issue 3 - The Program
Issue 4 - Conflict of Interest
Issue 5 - The Gathering Storm
Issue 6 - Commitment

Robotech: Invid War #1 (of 18)

2007-05-21T22:49:00.001-05:00

"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)

Actually, that reference to Wolff's last appearance is a tricky one ... in Love & War, it's 2031 and the Invid have already arrived, but he's seeing off Dana Sterling and the 15th Squadron as they head out into space to get help from the Expeditionary Force. Essentially the same scene under a different set of circumstances appears in flashback in Invid War #3 -- prior to the invasion, Dana steals a ship, along with most of the rest of her 15th Squadron, to return the surviving clone triumvirates to Tirol and be reunited with her parents. For those curious, Wolff's last appearance prior to those was in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13.

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.

Next issue

Robotech: Invid War #4 (of 18)

2007-05-21T21:23:00.001-05:00

"Only Survivors"

Story - Bill Spangler & Tim Eldred
Art - Tim Eldred & 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 - August 14, 1992
Cover date - August 1992

THE STORY

It is March of 2033. Jonathan Wolff's Orpheus Flight, a mixed team of VF-1 Veritechs and Alpha Fighters piloted by the few men Wolff knows he can trust implicitly, arrive at the burning oil fields of old Texas. Parkes, a former forager, asks how long the others think the oil fires will keep going. Gavin Murdock, formerly of the Stone Men, figures about forty or fifty years. Terry Weston, an ex-TASC pilot and former drifter, points out that the burning fields are providing the Invid with plenty of cover, but Murdock tells him the cover works both ways -- the Invid won't expect them to come in from this direction. Wolff says to cut the radio chatter so as not to draw attention to themselves, though as he thinks about it he realizes that's exactly what he did back at Vahalla ...

Speaking of which, back at Vahalla, Major Carpenter has something to show Bekka Cade -- a message from Wolff. "This is a heckuva wake-up call, I know," Wolff says on the recording, "but I think this is the best way to handle things. I've decided I can't ignore Gary Hauser's theory about where the Invid are holding Catherine and Johnny. I've put together a team to attempt a rescue. By the time you see this, we'll be on our way. Murdock, Hauser, Parkes, and Weston are going with me. I told traffic control that we were a scouting mission for the attack on Reflex Point. If you're smart, you won't contradict the story. Believe it or not, Carpenter, I am sorry. Catherine, Johhny and I will probably never be a family again, even if I can find them ... but I owe them this much." He says he'll try to rejoin the main force to attack Reflex Point as soon as he can, but if his men don't return, they'll know what happened. Bekka is outraged. "That arrogant, irresponsible ... who does he think he is??" she asks.

"He knows who he is," Carpenter tells her. "He's Jonathan Wolff."

On the outskirts of Dallas, Hauser is amazed by the energy being given off by the Invid domes among the ruins of the city. As the Veritechs approach the target zone, Wolff suggests that if they come in low and fast they might surprise their foes. However, they are soon met by a squad of Invid Troopers. Parkes and Wolff nail a couple of them, but Weston is hit from behind. Realizing he's in bad shape, he decides to ditch his Alpha at one of the domes. The plane touches the ground and skids along on its tailfins before exploding at the Invid's doorstep. Horrified, Murdock takes his VF-1 down to try and rescue Weston, but as he switches to Battloid he finds himself face to face with an Invid Enforcer.

Meanwhile, the fleet from Moon Base ALuCE II descends to Earth as a convoy and is forced to confront the Invid in space. Mecha from Vahalla arrive at Reflex Point ahead of them and launch their attack. Bekka and Carpenter, flying over Reflex Point in a recon VF-1, receive a request for backup from the attacking Hovertank and Valkyrie squads below. Bekka receives word from Captain Nobutu that the moon fleet will arrive in four minutes. However, the forces from Vahalla might not last that long.

Back in Texas, Murdock quickly dispatches the Enforcer, surprisingly with minimal effort. Once-enslaved humans begin swarming out of one of the Invid domes, and Wolff takes this as a sign that he's done the right thing. Murdock and Hauser are ordered to get the humans to safety while Wolff blasts his way into the central Invid dome and destroys its power core. As it crumbles in upon itself, the survivors of Orpheus Flight worry for him, but his Alpha soon emerges and Parkes notes his satisfaction with their performance today. "Norvell thought I was crazy for agreeing to help you, but we did good today, Colonel," he radios to Wolff. "We saved a lotta lives!"

Back above Reflex Point, Bekka loses contact with Nobutu. Half of the fleet from the moon has been wiped out, and Nova Satori informs Carpenter that she's ordering her GMP forces to withdraw. Carpenter points out that they had an agreement. "I didn't agree to let my people be slaughtered," she retorts. "The Invid had us outnumbered from the beginning. Your so-called reinforcements from the moon don't have any real combat experience. We lost hundreds of soldiers today and we didn't make a dent in that blasted hive. We never had a chance against the Invid and your precious Colonel Wolff knew it. Otherwise, he'd be here! You've got to order a retreat now, while there's still people left to save." Against all those facts, Carpenter finds himself defeated and orders a retreat.

While Wolff's day has ended in victory, he is told by one of the freed slaves that his wife and son were transferred to another hive two or three days ago. The rumor was that they were sent to Reflex Point. "Oh, god ..." Wolff says upon hearing the news, "oh, god ... I'm sorry, Carpenter."

Three days pass. In Vahalla, an angry and betrayed Carpenter tells Wolff that he, Bekka, and the survivors from ALuCE II are pulling out and starting their own unit. He accuses Wolff of putting himself ahead of the mission. "Mission?" Wolff asks. "What mission? Letting the Invid use you for target practice?"

"That's not the point," Carpenter counters, "and you know it. The point is, you betrayed our trust. My trust."

Wolff tries to get Carpenter to accept that he's not the same guy he was on Tirol, and he's certainly not the guy the UEG and REF built up with those old propaganda films. "I'm old, I'm tired, and I let my family down when they really needed me." He tells Carpenter there will be no winners or losers in the war with the Invid, only survivors, and if he can't accept that, he should probably go. Carpenter says he'll be out in seventy-two hours.

Elsewhere, Louie Nichols finds that Wolff is currently unavailable. "Tell him it's a matter of life and death!" he urges the operator, but he's already been cut off. "Aaaah, skip it. Typical military mindset. He drags me halfway around the world to upgrade his communications system, and then he doesn't communicate. Well, I've got the message on tape. He'll hear it soon enough." The message is that the Mars Division of the REF fleet is en route to Earth. The Robotech Expeditionary Force is coming home to fight the Invid.

NOTES

TIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Jonathan Wolff (next in Invid War #9)
John Carpenter (next in Invid War #9)
Bekka Cade (next in Firewalkers #1)
Norvell [referred to as "Parkes"] (final appearance)
Gavin Murdock (final appearance)
Gary Hauser (final appearance)
Terry Weston (final appearance)
Nova Satori (last in Invid War #1, next in Invid War #11)
Louie Nichols (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2)

According to Invid War #2, Louie Nichols remained behind on Earth when the rest of the 15th Squadron took off, and will go on to hook up the hackers from McKinney's novel The Masters' Gambit, who wind up becoming his colleagues in The End of the Circle. (He may have already, given that in issue #3 Carpenter remarks offhand that Nichols is working for the Japanese these days.) It's also a major plot point of Invid War that, going forward, nobody can actually leave Earth, so this Louie Nichols won't go on to join Dr. Cochrane's crew at Space Station Liberty in Prelude. However, that is the next place you see the character.

It's been a point of contention ever since Sentinels whether or not the Invid Regess developed the Invid Enforcer before or during its first appearance in the ROBOTECH TV series. Of course, the TV series leans towards their genesis occurring at that appearance, since the implication is that she's exploring the Invid's evolutionary development as the series progresses, but later sources, including the Sentinels comics and the RPG assert that while the Enforcer is only in the Regess's arsenal, it did appear prior to the TV series storyline. Given the Sentinels comics' track record, though, and the RPG's penchant for tossing things in for gameplay rather than veracity to the original source material, of course, I could definitely understand counting its appearance here as a flub ...

It was a little annoying that early on the only way to tell which member of Orpheus Flight was talking was by paying attention to the pilots' facial hair. Without haircuts and head shapes to tell them apart, the characters' appearances become awfully similar.

With the conclusion of this story, Wolff goes even further into the depths from which he'll never return except for that one brief, shining moment at the end of "Eulogy." I like how he addresses the propaganda films, though since Scott watched them I think they're actually Expeditionary Force-produced rather than specifically UEG produced, at least according to this McKinney-inspired course of events; the UEG and the REF didn't exactly cross paths in an organized state ever again after the SDF-3 took off -- again, according to McKinney. Of course, in the post-Robotech.com world, I think they portray Space Station Liberty (the ONLY link between the REF and Earth, according to the narrator in the early episodes of the Robotech Masters episodes) as having actually worked as a relay station on occasion, so perhaps in the TV series continuity it could be the UEG that produced those propaganda films. In either case, I'm glad Spangler left that remark in, since it provides something of a context for one of the key images of Wolff we see in the ROBOTECH TV series -- and that propaganda actually appears later on in Invid War (issue #13).

Wolff then says, "There aren't going to be any winners or losers in this war -- only survivors." This line does a good job of illustrating how Wolff's thinking is getting ever closer to his portrayal in "Eulogy." Apparently the feeling that he's lost his wife and son forever really has killed him in a sense. After all, just pages earlier, he seemed rather optimistic as he fought the Invid and helped free those slaves.

The battle against Reflex Point is portrayed later in the series as well, in issue #8. In neither instance does it seem massive enough for an attack that took this much planning on Nobutu, Wolff, and Carpenter's parts. There just aren't enough fighters, not enough chatter -- just not enough stuff to convince me that this is a major concerted effort to destroy Reflex Point. Remember what it took in the TV series, what with the hordes of Shadow Fighters with big Destabilizer cannons and the like? At first glance, you might almost wonder why Carpenter is so angry at Wolff for bailing on the attack -- did he really think that five more fighters would have made a difference?

Then again, notice the way Satori mentions Wolff's absence; she nearly suggests that if Wolff didn't even bother to show up, naturally he must've thought they didn't have a chance in hell. And after all is said and done, he realizes they didn't have a chance. But if he'd been there, perhaps the morale would have been better, or his kills might have prevented some of the casualties, and maybe the joint forces might have gotten out of there in a bit better shape. In any case, Carpenter had good reason to break away from Wolff, even if it's painfully obvious that Wolff's presence wouldn't have done too terribly much.

The next time we see Wolff, in issue #9, he's in really bad shape. Thinking about it, it's not much of a jump from saying that all anyone can do is survive to stealing Protoculture and trading lives for the stuff -- just a step, in fact, from saying to doing. But the Jonathan Wolff who saved the slaves from the Invid hive doesn't seem to be the same Jonathan Wolff who lectures Carpenter at the end of this issue, and certainly doesn't seem to be the same Wolff who, in his next appearance, sneaks into Carpenter's new base in search of Protoculture to steal. When the man fell, he fell hard, and he fell fast ...

As an aside, I wonder ... is the reason we never see either of Wolff's allies in Orpheus Flight due to Wolff selling them out to the Invid down the road? I wonder.

Previous issue | Next issue

Robotech (Antarctic) #4 - Rolling Thunder Part 1 (of 4)

2007-05-20T23:07:00.001-05:00

"Rolling Thunder - Part 1"

Story & Art - Fred Perry
Coloring - ARNie & Patrick Thornton
Editor & Lettering - Doug Dlin
Publisher - Ben Dunn

Published by Antarctic Press.

Release date - October 1, 1997
Cover date - September 1997

Estimated sales - 8,900 copies

THE STORY

The Second Robotech War is at an end, but the remaining armies of the Robotech Masters fight on, attacking sites of human survivors at random. In order to deal with one such attack, Dana Sterling and her 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Corps suit up and get their Hovertanks ready for battle.

At a location designated Site 626, Bioroid forces swarm across the city, annihilating civil defense Battloids left and right. Western Command assures the soldiers there that reinforcements are on their way, but the defenders of 626 can't hold out. Their Battloids are innevitably wiped out. With the 15th Squadron en route, their command vehicle is destroyed as well. The site is a lost cause. Still, the 15th is dropped into the warzone, and Dana orders her men to spread out. As Sean and Bowie land, Dana orders them to shift to Guardian mode and lay down some artillery fire. At that moment, though, Bowie is hit by a force of Bioroids at 4 o'clock attacking from some good cover. Dana, grumbling about how she hates air drops, tells Angelo to cover Bowie and asks Sean if he's in Guardian mode yet.

"Three more Bioroids, Dana!" Angelo calls out. "10 o'clock! And they've got even better cover!"

Indeed they do, as all one can see of them is their arms poking up and firing. However, they're soon blasted by fire from above. Louie Nichols, late in dropping in, nailed 'em from the sky. Dana thanks Louie and orders him into formation. Sean and Bowie finally get into Guardian and Dana tells them to use direct fire, full power, with no missing. They nail target after target, and with some breathing room available, Dana orders her men to charge.

Just then, orders come in from Marie Crystal at Western Command to pull out. "They've gotta be kidding!" Sean comments. "We're completely engaged here!" Dana tells Marie that there has to be a heck of a good reason for this. Marie tells her that not only have they lost contact with Site 626, but their satellite has picked up one hundred and twenty-eight rogue Bioroids inside the city ready to overrun Dana's forces. Sean soon changes his tune. "That sounded like a damn good reason to me! It's bailin' time!" While Dana wants to look for survivors, Angelo disagrees. "Dana, we're good," he says, "but against one-eighty??" Command tells them they have a mercenary transport on its way, e.t.a. forty seconds. Angelo tells Dana it's her call, and she tells her men to just keep the pressure up while she thinks. Bowie informs her that their ride has arrived, along with air support. Finally, Dana caves in and orders Sean, Louie, and Bowie to get on-board. The dropship pilot tells them to hurry up, as he's starting to take fire. Sean's tank is hit. Western Command tells the 15th that twenty more Bioroids have broken through the city limits, and Angelo tells Dana they need to get a move on. However, she tells Angelo to go ahead, and she'll cover him.

Suddenly, something comes up on infrared -- a little girl has survived. Dana takes off after her, much to Angelo's irritation.

Upon observing Dana's strength in battle the commander of the Bioroids, a Master called Khane, orders the Bioroids to leave the area so that he can test her himself. "Kill the rest of them," he orders. His customized Bioroid arrives before Dana's mecha, startling her. She is informed that the Bioroids are flooding out of the city, and as she continues in pursuit of the girl, bad news about her squad floods in -- Bowie's running low on ammo and his damage is in the red, annd Sean's in equally bad shape and has no comm. She orders Angelo and the others to the dropship immediately just as her own Hovertank takes some damage. Khane finds it odd that Dana's evading him rather than fighting, and wonders why she won't focus on the fight. Bowie tells her that they're all on-board, and she should be, too.

Khane then notices the child. "Is this what you are after?" he asks. "What you want to protect? Intolerable!" He has much disdain for the notion of sacrificing strength in the name of protecting the weak, and thus blasts the child into oblivion. This boils Dana's blood, and she begins to fight him with all the strength and skill she can muster. Sean radios Dana, demanding to know where she is and telling her they have to take off immediately. She asks for a few more minutes, but the dropship pilot decides to cut his losses -- he's got heavy damage and no weapons on-line -- and take off. "Negative, command!! Negative! Major Sterling is still out there ... !" Sean shouts, but the pilot says she's just flat out of time. Sean starts to threaten the guy, but he just doesn't care.

"You fight well, Micronian," Khane admits as his Bioroid begins to take some damage. "It is with great regret that I must turn you away ... but your fighting spirit and skill stem from the desire to protect that which is weak ... unacceptable." He tells his men he is through with her; she is to be eliminated. The Bioroids regroup and swarm over Dana, blasting her from every angle.

Aboard the dropship, Louie taps into the EDF satellite feed and tells Bowie to take a look. "Can you see Dana ... ?" he asks. Indeed he can. "Dana's getting dissected out there! " Louie says. "She's got forty or fifty Bioroids on her! They're cutting her to ribbons!!" Bowie insists they have to do something, but Angelo insists they're staying. "Think about it! What good are we gonna do out there?? Against over one hundred Bioroids? Two of our mecha are down hard already!! We'd all be killed! We have no choice! We have to run for it and leave the Major behind! But I swear ... we're gonna find those creeps again ... and we're gonna make them pay for this!"

NOTES

TIMELINE - Since this story has no overt references to any dates or concepts native to the McKinney novels (i.e. Thinking Caps), it is compatible with any ROBOTECH timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Dana Sterling (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Bowie Grant (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Angelo Dante (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Sean Phillips (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Louie Nichols (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Marie Crystal (last in Robotech Masters #23)
Bill Tuscon (first appearance)
Dalmeric Khane (first appearance)

An eye-popping actioner featuring Dana and the 15th Squadron? And it's actually pretty good? Saints be praised!

Fred Perry takes the characters and mecha of Southern Cross and makes them his own without violating any of the rules in the process. All the uniforms and mecha designs among the Army of the Southern Cross forces are spot-on to the series, but colored in drab earthy greens and grays that make a lot more tactical sense than the garish, heroic schemes of the TV series. The 15th dispense with their bulky, fancy armor in favor of down-to-earth leather jackets over their drab recolored uniforms. The characters themselves have been given an angular, expressive and cartoony overhaul that feels right for the carefree 15th.

New villain Dalmeric Khane is given a cold, imposing look -- squinty-eyed and pointy all around, including big evil eyebrows -- that matches the cold, imposing words he expresses. And Fred Perry concocts a nifty new Bioroid command model, a self-propelled monstrosity (which predates the slightly similar Bioroid Interceptor from Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles by about nine years) with pointy toes and overblown tubing that arrives in a glorious, fiery moment that makes it look like it had just arrived from the mouth of hell. As big bad Antarctic Press boss mecha go, it's pretty slick.

I do have a quibble with the recolored Bioroids and Skysleds. They're pretty blah looking, and giving the Bioroids and their sleds the same fugly aqua color scheme makes it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

An argument I recall from when this story was first published was that the 15th charges in with only five members, while in the TV series they always had a few extra. However, as the next issue makes clear, the Southern Cross is running low on both men and machines. Marie probably let the 15th stay together as a unit due to their ability to get results and also as a favor to Dana, but with Dana out of action next issue the 15th is split apart to bolster other squadrons.

Also, some of the hand-drawn lettering when characters start screaming is a shade melodramatic and over the top, and doesn't really match well with the obviously typeset and sometimes lazily laid-out lettering throughout the rest of the story.

One thing I adore about this story is that it makes the logical leap that despite the lull in the fighting at the very end of "Catastrophe," that moment when everything comes to a peaceful if foreboding end, the fighting didn't just stop then. Skirmishes would certainly continue for a while, as Bioroid teams led by high-level clones regroup and find a way to keep on fighting. And who's to say that there weren't more Masters, like Khane, among the Tirolians who made the trek to Earth? Who's to say that someone couldn't take charge of the Bioroid survivors and keep the war machine running?

Though, of course, Khane himself does open up a lot of questions. Don't get me wrong, he's probably my favorite of the Antarctic Press ROBOTECH rogues' gallery, mostly because the guy's about as cold as they come. For a moment you almost think Dana's going to rescue the kid, but when he kills her merely to refocus Dana's attention, you just know this chapter can't end well. His sick yet perfectly reasoned philosophy hearkens back to the Masters of the TV series, but his execution is far less hypocritical; the Masters in the series would speak of power, but did they ever step into battle to prove their superiority? No, they would stand around on their ship and talk about how they would become the supreme power in the universe and yet let others do their fighting for them: first the Zentraedi in the pre-TV series days, then their Bioroid clones during their campaign to capture the Protoculture Factory. But as for Khane, he will seek the strongest among his foes and prove that his is the most superior power and the most superior skill.

But the problem with the guy is that it's not explained where he came from, or what his function was in the Masters' fleet. He stands alone, not with a triumvirate. Was he running one of the other ships? Was he locked away for his denial of the Triumvirate? Is he some sort of rogue Clonemaster? I have my own ideas, but the text of the storyline never really offers any explanation.

Next issue

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Prototype 001 'Tigercat' Part Four

Rolling Thunder (Antarctic Press)

2007-05-20T04:56:00.002-05:00

Four-part bimonthly storyline / 1984 - March 1998 / Story by Fred Perry

If I'm going to hell, I ain't going alone!

THE LOWDOWN

While the curtain fell on the Second Robotech War when the spores of the Flower of Life scattered to the winds and the Robotech Masters Shaizan, Dag, and Bowkaz died on their flagship, that did not mean that the Masters had been utterly defeated. Indeed, remnants of the Masters' forces continued to be a threat to the scattered and poorly-armed Army of the Southern Cross as well as the human race at large for some time after the destruction of the Masters' flagship. When Dana Sterling's 15th Alpha Tactical Armored Corps is called in to defend a surviving human settlement, she and her allies find themselves pitted against perhaps the most merciless Master of all, a creature guided so totally by the concept of "survival of the fittest" that he finds defense of the weak to be the most intolerable of all crimes. His name: Dalmeric Khane.

BACKGROUND INFO

Rolling Thunder was the second main storyline serialized in Antarctic Press's bimonthly full color ROBOTECH anthology series. Oddly -- or maybe not so much, given how little attention has been paid to the second generation of ROBOTECH -- it is the only story outside of McKinney's final Robotech novel, Before the Invid Storm, to chronicle the period after the defeat of the Robotech Masters but before the arrival of the Invid. It is also one of the only original Southern Cross tales featuring the TV series cast ever published with Harmony Gold's blessing -- in fact, setting aside the story in Antarctic's Robotech Annual, it's the ONLY wholly original comic book storyline featuring the 15th Squadron!

In some respects, it's not too different from Perry's earlier effort, the hopelessly flawed Megastorm. It's a very action-oriented tale pitting original ROBOTECH TV series heroes against a villain more powerful than any they faced in the course of the old show, featuring improbable new mecha and irritating pop culture references. Still, the unique character redesigns -- done in the same art style as writer/artist Fred Perry's Gold Digger -- matched up with the nifty new Bioroids and the less garish camouflage look given to the Hovertanks and other ASC mecha provide the series with some excellent eye candy. The returning characters are all handled pretty well, though there are a few noticably absent from the roster (Dennis Brown, Nova Satori, Musica).

The only thing is, the new villains, while excellently developed in the personality department, raise a number of questions about the Masters' culture which are never addressed in the story. Likewise, the ideas that make up the bulk of the storyline's conflict, theories regarding the relationship between the Robotech Masters and the Zentraedi, come out of the blue and aren't really backed up by anything in the previous ROBOTECH canon. While it's only really concerned with action and military adventure, the story raises a lot of interesting questions that it never gets around to answering. If there was ever a ROBOTECH comic book story yearning for its own sourcebook, it would be this one. But then, isn't that the Robotech Masters era in a nutshell -- so much interesting potential, so little explored or explained?

ROLLING THUNDER

Issue 4 -- Rolling Thunder Part 1
Issue 5 -- Rolling Thunder Part 2
Issue 6 -- Rolling Thunder Part 3
Issue 7 -- Rolling Thunder Part 4

Robotech: The Macross Saga #36

2007-05-20T01:34:00.001-05:00

"To The Stars"

Adaptation - Markalan Joplin
Artwork - Mike Leeke & Mike Chen
Lettering - Bob Pinaha
Colors - Trishie Schutz
Editor - Diana Schutz

Published by Comico The Comic Company.

Release date - February 21, 1989
Cover date - February 1989

THE STORY

It has been two weeks since the Zentraedi warlord Khyron's attack of Christmas Day, two weeks since Lynn Minmei declared her love for Rick Hunter and the two began living together. However, as Rick gazes wistfully out his apartment window, he realizes that something isn't working, something just isn't right. Minmei watches him and hopes that he isn't sick of her. "I've already lost my parents and my career and Kyle," she frets. "I can't lose him, too!" I just can't!"

Minmei speaks up and tells Rick how much she appreciates him taking leave time so they could be together for the holidays. "Don't you wish it could go on forever?" she asks. "What if I could give up my career and you could quit the military, annd we could be together like this for always?"

Rick finds the notion ridiculous. "You must be joking! With Khyron on the loose and millions of people depending on the RDF for protection ... I'm supposed to just chuck away my responsibilities, so we can run away together? No -- I'm sorry, Minmei. My personal life has to come second. I can't -- I won't -- ignore my duty. And you! How could you possibly consider giving up your career? Don't you know what you mean to those people? When the SDF-1 was exiled from Earth, whose Thursday night concerts gave those hundreds of thousands of frightened people the hope they needed to face the unknown? Your voice brought Zentraedi and humans together! Your voice helped save the world from Dolza's armada! My god -- don't you realize what a gift you have?!" However, Minmei isn't joking. She tells Rick that the war could go on forever, and that they may grow old never knowing what else life has to offer. She asks Rick to marry her.

Meanwhile, on a balcony overlooking the lake surrounding the SDF-1, Lisa Hayes fears that she's lost Rick forever, and she realizes that the only person she has to blame is herself. "I should have come right out and told him, that night he came looking for me! But I just couldn't! Because ..." Lisa just can't think why. "... and anyway," she thinks, "because of my stupid hesitancy, Minmei got up the nerve to tell him first -- and who wouldn't take her up on an offer like that?" Lisa believes she can't deal with working alongside Rick every day and watching him go home to Minmei, and when Claudia comes looking for her, Lisa tells her that she's decided to resign from the service.

"Oh, grow up, Lisa," Claudia tells her. "Look at you! A military woman, born, bred, and trained, carrying on like some simpering schoolgirl!" Claudia tells her that while it's her decision to make, if she's going to throw her life and career away to run and hide, she's not the woman Claudia thought she was. As she walks away, Claudia tells Lisa that Admiral Gloval wants to see her on the bridge for a new assignment.

On the bridge, Lisa tells Gloval that in her current state she just can't take something new on, that she needs to get away. "All the more reason to accept the assignment," Gloval tells her, "since it will involve a certain amount of travel." Lisa tells him she's going to resign, but Gloval tells her that's just nonsense.

"All of us have known heartbreak in the last four years, but we can't simply abandon our duties for it -- and certainly not for some silly unrequited romance!" Gloval tells her. Lisa asks if he's known about her and Rick all along. "I have eyes, don't I? In fact, I'd say that the last person to know about it ... was you." Lisa apologizes for her foolishness. "Well," Gloval says, "let's not have any more of that, then! After all, foolishness would be an unbecoming thing for the commander of the SDF-2." Lisa is shocked, but Gloval asks who would be better equipped for the job. However, he tells her that this is a long-term commitment. She quickly accepts, and Gloval gives her the details of her mission: "Our Earth is starting to recover her former beauty -- but she couldn't possibly survive another holocaust like the last one. Too, the time has come for us to leave our cradle behind -- to go forth and claim our place in the universe. That is the purpose of the SDF-2 ... and the reason for your new assignment. You will be taking the new battle-fortress into space. Your mission: to find the home world of the Robotech Masters. Breetai and Exedore will accompany you -- although it might be easier to simply follow Khyron's lead."

Lisa is momentarily confused by Gloval's remark, but he explains that they let Khyron seize that tank of Protoculture during his Christmas raid to allow him to rejoin the Robotech Masters. "... and through him, we can contact the Masters ourselves. We must try to make peace with them -- for the sake of both our races. And if peace isn't possible -- then I intend to make certain that the next battlefield will be on their home planet." He tells her that the reflex engines from the SDF-1 will be transferred to the new ship tomorrow, and asks if she can be ready by then. Lisa salutes and tells him she simply needs to say a few good-byes.

Elsewhere, Khyron's battlecruiser lifts off. Grel asks Khyron if they should set course for Tirol, but Khyron considers the mission incomplete. "Before we leave ... we are going to destroy the SDF-1!" he assures his crew. Azonia asks if he's serious. "And what are we to do, then -- let the micronians have Zor's Protoculture Factory? Let them have the power they need to the Robotech Masters? No -- if we can't have the SDF-1, then nobody will!" At Khyron's command, Grel lays in a course for New Macross City.

Back at Rick's apartment, he plays with a model of the prototype next generation Veritech Fighter and mulls over his future. He can't see giving up flying and all his responsibilities for Minmei, even if she would make such a wonderful wife. He realizes that he just can't think of settling down now, with so many people relying on the RDF for protection from the Zentraedi renegades, and the one person he knows would understand is Lisa. Just then, his doorbell rings. Minmei, busy cleaning the dishes, tells Rick to get the door. Who else could it be but Lisa, come to say her farewells?

"New orders have been handed down -- I'll be going back into deep space soon." Rick is shocked and begins to stammer a response. "It's true -- I can scarcely believe it myself," Lisa says, "but Admiral Gloval has given me command of the SDF-2! Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you happy for me, Rick?" Rick simply asks when she's leaving. "As soon as the reflex engines have been transferred from the SDF-1 ... probably in a day or so." She explains the mission to Rick, and he remarks that it could easily take years. That very fact begins to hit Lisa as she begins to cry and struggles to get the words she so wanted to say out: "Rick Hunter -- I love you! I always have -- and I always will!" She turns to Minmei, now standing at Rick's side. "Oh, please forgive me, Minmei. I know it's too late for me -- I know I waited too long ... but I may never see him againn -- and I had to tell him!" Lisa turns and runs away, telling them that her crew is waiting, but Rick finds himself running after her, telling her that it's not too late. Minmei follows behind, screaming, "Come back, Rick! What about me?!"

Just then, an explosion hits the city, knocking all three down. That explosion is the result of fire rained down by Khyron's ship. Aboard that vessel, Khyron gleefully notes how unprepared the micronians are. "The SDF-1 will be a smoking ruin before they even know what hit them! Fire another volley!" Azonia tells him that the SDF-1 will be in firing range in a few minutes.

Rick finds Lisa laying on the ground, motionless. He rushes to her side, picks her up, and prays she isn't dead. "I d-didn't know -- I didn't know until now .. but I swear I'll make it up to you! I'll make you happy -- I'll take care of you ... I love you ... please, Lisa ... I love you ..." Rick tells her. At that moment, she begins to regain consciousness, and as she sees his face, she asks if she's dreaming. She tells Rick that she just got the wind knocked out of her and asks what happened. "It's a Zentraedi battle cruiser -- probably Khyron's!" Rick says.

"The usual perfect timing," Lisa says. "Seems our relationship has always been interrupted by Zentraedi attacks. Either that," she says, seeing a figure approaching in the distance, "or Minmei would show up ..." Minmei urges Rick to join her in the shelter, but Lisa tells her that she and Rick are soldiers, and they have their duty to perform.

"Listen to me, Minmei!" Rick says. "If you love me, let me do what I have to do! I'm a pilot -- a soldier! This is my life!" Minmei is shocked that he'd even call this a life, this constant string of battles until everything is destroyed. As another explosion rocks the city in the distance, Lisa tells Rick that she has to get to the SDF-2, and he tells her that he'll be there, too. Minmei is still trying to prevent him from going, asking him if he still loves her, but Rick tells her that he can't just think of himself, not when the stakes are so high. "If you still can't understand that, after all that's been said," he says, pulling away from her, "then there's no chance that you ever will!" As Rick leaves her behind, Minmei swears that she'll never understand.

Lisa arrives on the bridge of the SDF-2 just as Khyron's ship comes into range. Vanessa tells Lisa that the enemy ship is twenty-seven miles out and closing fast. The booms of the Zentraedi vessel open like a great maw as Veritech Fighters close in on it. Kim reports high-level radiation readings, and as Sammie tells Lisa that the enemy ship is firing, the blast strikes the SDF-2 dead-center.

Rick's Veritech Fighter flies by the listing SDF-2 as he tries to radio the ship. There is no response. He swears vengeance and tears into the oncoming waves of Battlepods with his fighter's autocannon.

However, all hands are still alive on the bridge of the SDF-2. Despite this, when Lisa asks if anything's still functional, Kim and Vanessa report that the computer's down and power is out. Lisa asks herself what Admiral Gloval would do, and suddenly realizes exactly where they need to be. Lisa tells the trio to follow her, and leads them down a service corridor that takes them directly to the bridge of the SDF-1.

"Welcome aboard, ladies," Claudia greets them. "What took you so long?"

The four women return to their familiar stations. Lisa asks if it'll fly. "Well, now," Gloval says, "there's only one way to find out, eh?" Vanessa reports power levels at maximum, and Claudia reports that the drive is operational and ready for liftoff. "All right, then ... take her up!" The SDF-1 lifts off from the lake, leaving its crippled newborn sister ship behind. The citizens of Macross leave their shelters, aghast at the sight of their city, their world's defender, risen again.

In the air, Max radios Rick to ask if he's seeing things. Rick radios the bridge and asks the SDF-1 what they're doing. "Well," Lisa replies, "we're preparing to fire the main gun ... so I strongly suggest you get your afterburners out of there!" Rick is happy to hear her voice, and calls the Skull Squadron away from Khyron's battlecruiser.

Back on the bridge, Claudia reports the main gun locked on target and Lisa reports only enough power for one shot. Gloval gives the order to fire. The blast from the SDF-1's booms cripples Khyron's ship, but doesn't kill it.

Aboard the dying vessel, Khyron is surprised to still be alive. Azonia tells him that all systems are dead except for navigation. However, the SDF-1 is dead as well. "They're powerless!" Khyron is pleased by the news -- with no power, they can't raise a barrier. "Yes! They're helpless!" Azonia says. "Let's get them!"

"We both will, my love -- but it will require a sacrifice. Will you face it with me?" Khyron asks.

"Yes, Khyron -- yes. It will be glorious."

As Khyron's ship bears down on the helpless SDF-1, Sammie reports not enough power to fire the main gun. Vanessa reports no helm control. Claudia tells them there's no reserve power. Gloval orders the ejection modules readied, but Sammie grimly reports that only one still works. "Only one of us can escape," she says.

"Only one of us," Claudia says, "the one who has the most to live for." She approaches Lisa. Lisa tells her she can't be serious, but Gloval approaches her as well ...

"What is he doing?!" Rick screams from his Veritech as he watches the enemy ship closing in on the SDF-1. "Stop him! Somebody stop him!" Khyron's ship falls dead center between the SDF-1's crippled booms as Rick screams his beloved's name. As the remaining members of the SDF-1's bridge crew huddle together, a family 'til the end ... and as Khyron and Azonia hold each other tight in a passionate embrace, the Zentraedi cruiser crashes through the head of the SDF-1, taking off the bridge and main gun, and comes to a violent rest as a javelin through the heart of the SDF-2. The explosion wipes out the surrounding cityscape.

Max begins the rescue operation for the survivors of thrice built Macross, allowing Rick some time to say good-bye. His Guardian-mode Veritech sits on the edge of the irradiated lake as he thinks the words he would say to Lisa were she still there.

Only, she is right there. "Say, soldier-boy ... give a girl a lift?" she says. Rick leaps down from his cockpit and runs into her arms.

"I--I thought I had lost you ..." he says, grinning. Lisa tells him that Admiral Gloval and Claudia shoved her into the only remaining ejection module.

"They wanted me to live -- now that I have something to live for," she tells him.

"You do, Lisa -- we both do now. And I swear, nothing's ever gonna keep us apart again."

Right on cue, however, a voice calls out from afar. "Rick! Thank heaven you're all right!" Minmei calls out. Rick tells Lisa that he'll handle this, and as he begins to tell her, Minmei interrupts. She knows that he's really in love with Lisa, and he asks her to forgive him. "If you can forgive me for trying to force you into being something you're not," Minmei says. "I ... guess I do understand, after all. My music means as much to me as flying does to you. Kyle's gone. My career is probably in ruins -- but I can't give up my music." Lisa invites Minmei to come with them, to use her talent to help them bring peace between the humans and the Robotech Masters, but Minmei tells her she'll have to think about it. "Right now, though, I want to try and find Aunt Lena and Uncle Max -- and see if there's anything of my past left." She says good-bye to Rick and asks him to say he'll never forget her.

"I could never forget you, Minmei."

Some time later, the Robotech Defense Force regroups and Lisa addresses the remaining personnel. She tells them the mission laid before them by Admiral Gloval -- peace between Earth and the Robotech Masters. "We've lost the SDF-1 and SDF-2 -- but we still have the Robotech Factory Satellite and the remaining ships in Breetai's fleet. With them, we can build the SDF-3, and make good on the admiral's assignment. There's no guarantee whenn -- or if -- we'll return to Earth, so anyone who undertakes this mission must do so voluntarily. Although there are a few people we'd specifically like to request come along." She turns to Max and Miriya. Max agrees, but tells Lisa that Dana won't be coming with them.

"I know how important having a human-Zentraedi child would be to your mission ... but we might not ever come back -- and I want Dana to grow to adulthood and live a long, happy life. If we fail -- if we're killed by the Robotech Masters or even those Invid that Exedore talked about ... I want to die knowing that my daughter lives on." Rico tells Max that he, Konda, and Bron will gladly take care of Dana. Miriya tells him to accept -- that while she'll be raised human, she'll know her Zentraedi heritage as well. Max tells Lisa that they're in. From the crowd behind them, others agree to come along.

"Then, together, we'll realize Admiral Gloval's dream!" Lisa says. "Together we'll go ... to the stars!"

NOTES

TIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (next in Robotech (WildStorm) #0)
Lisa Hayes (next in Robotech (WildStorm) #6)
Lynn Minmei (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels #3)
Henry J. Gloval (final appearance)
Claudia Grant (final appearance)
Vanessa Leeds (final appearance)
Kim Young (final appearance)
Sammie Porter (final appearance)
Max Sterling (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels - The Malcontent Uprisings #1)
Miriya Parina (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels - The Malcontent Uprisings #1)
Khyron (final appearance)
Azonia (final appearance)
Grel (final appearance)
Rico, Konda, and Bron (final appearance)

This is one of the few issues of the Comico adaptations of the original TV series episodes to be written in full script format ahead of the artist going to work. Most of the adaptations were done with the artist setting the pacing, laying out each page while reviewing a videotape of the TV episode, and the writer coming in later and adding the captions and dialogue. No, in order to properly capture the apocalyptic finale of The Macross Saga, Markalan Joplin took the story as presented in the TV series -- and more importantly, in Jack McKinney's novel Doomsday -- and laid everything out for Leeke and Chen. The resulting issue feels a lot more open than the typical Comico adaptation, and hits all the highs and lows far more sensibly and spectacularly than, say, the somewhat off-kilter adaptation of episode #27, "Force of Arms."

In the first shot in the issue, there's clearly a bottle of Petite Cola on Rick's desk. I didn't even know it came in bottles ...

And of course, that model Rick's playing with is a YF-4. He later test pilots a real one in Robotech (WildStorm) #0; his Japanese series counterpart Hikaru Ichijyo goes on to lead a squadron piloting the production model, the VF-4, aboard the SDF-2 Megaroad.

The angle that Gloval really just let Khyron get the Protoculture during the Christmas raid so that he could lead the way to Tirol comes straight from the novels.

Speaking of the novels, they also provide the idea that the SDF-2 requires the reflex furnaces from the SDF-1 before it can lift off "to the stars." Throughout this issue the two ships actually appear back-to-back, as described in the novels and producer Carl Macek's own remarks when asked where the SDF-2 is in the final battle.

Khyron's remark about letting the humans have Zor's Protoculture Factory is more than a little odd -- how would Khyron know about the Protoculture Matrix being aboard the ship? He was a mere battalion commander during his service with the Zentraedi. Wouldn't that be privileged information?

A lot of the dialogue throughout the issue is very strangely different from the TV series and even the novelization. For instance, it's Rick who tells Minmei that he's a pilot, and this is his life, when in the TV series and novels it's Lisa who delivers the line. There are also a lot of additional lines added throughout, clarifying actions and feelings where there might have been some ambiguity in the TV series or where something might have been covered in the narrative of the novelization.

On the rare occasion when all the details of the SDF-2 can be seen, it can be seen to have two ARMD carriers for arms and actually has details inspired by the unused SDF-2 Megaroad design originally drawn up by Kazutaka Miyatake for the Macross TV series. However, to my knowledge there is no art of the Megaroad in a humanoid configuration.

Unlike the scene in the TV animation, the SDF-1's booms don't disintegrate after firing their last shot. However, it does clearly lose its head (and those booms with it) to Khyron's ship instead of its arm, explaining how the crew of the SDF-1 is killed.

It's not just me -- the dialogue during the scene after the SDF-1's destruction is awfully glib considering these people just lost friends as close as family, right?

Rick and Lisa appear in the final scene in command uniforms -- Rick in the same high-collared coat that Gloval once wore, and Lisa in the captain's uniform that was designed by the staff of the original Macross animation for when she was to take command of the SDF-2. So Rick has already gotten his promotion by this point? The two wear the same uniforms in issue #6 of Robotech (WildStorm) and in the framing sequence of "Mars Base One," the backup strip in the Invasion mini-series, so I guess Harmony Gold has decided that this is the correct depiction of post-Macross Saga and pre-Sentinels Rick & Lisa.

In The Malcontent Uprisings and the novel derived from that work, The Zentraedi Rebellion, Max and Miriya only decide to join the SDF-3 mission after a number of trials and tribulations in South America fighting against Zentraedi terrorist cells. But that would really put a damper on this optimistic epilogue here, wouldn't it?

Previous issue

Robotech: The Macross Saga (Comico The Comic Company)

2007-02-28T23:14:00.002-06:00

Regular series / 1984 - February 1989
Based upon episodes 1-36 of the 1985 television series produced by Harmony Gold in association with Tatsunoko Prod. Co.

The alien invasion began almost coincidentally. A mammoth interstellar fortress ripped through the fabric of hyperspace on a collision course with the Earth. Whether by chance or some obscure twist of fate, this alien vessel was drawn toward the unsuspecting planet.

THE LOWDOWN

In the year 1999 AD, a 1200-meter alien space fortress plunges through hyperspace from parts unknown and crashes into the Earth's surface, coming to rest on a small island in the South Pacific called Macross. The arrival of this visitor from the stars ends nearly a decade of global war and unites the people of Earth in a way that nothing before ever had. Ten years of painstaking restoration and dedicated research at the hands of the United Earth Government's newly-formed Robotech Defense Force -- named for the ship's mysterious alien technology -- result in the launching of the rebuilt starship, known as the Super Dimensional Fortress One, in July of 2009.

By a strange twist of fate, on the day of the SDF-1's maiden flight, a genetically engineered alien force known as the Zentraedi arrive in Earthspace to lay claim to the ship and its secrets for their creators, the Robotech Masters. During an attempt to evade capture, the fortress is accidentally flung across the solar system to the near side of the orbit of Pluto. Now the SDF-1's young, inexperienced crew and its 70,000 accidental civilian passengers are forced to fight their way back to their homeworld.

BACKGROUND INFO

The Macross Saga made up the first thirty-six episodes of the ROBOTECH TV series, and at the same time its adaptation was the first ROBOTECH comic book series, published by the very first licensee ROBOTECH as we know it ever had, Comico The Comic Company.

The comic series started in 1984 as an adaptation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the 1982-83 hit Japanese animated TV series, which was being released on video in the U.S. under the title Space Fortress Macross by Harmony Gold USA. However, during the period between the publication of issues one and two of the comic book series, Harmony Gold's plans changed. Rather than a somewhat faithful adaptation of the Macross TV series on video (certainly more faithful than previous anime dubs of the era, such as Battle of the Planets and Voltron), now Macross would be combined with two other anime series -- 1984's Southern Cross and 1983's Mospeada -- to create a new American TV series called ROBOTECH. Names and terminology changed, and Comico now had two more comic book series to produce.

Robotech: The Macross Saga, as the Macross adaptation was now called, became the flagship title of the ROBOTECH line, and as such seemed to garner the most attention from its publisher. The first three issues were written by ROBOTECH's story editor and producer, Carl Macek. The artwork for the first issue was drawn by Macek's wife, Svea Stauch, and later issues were drawn by future Robotech Masters and Robotech: The Graphic Novel artist Neil Vokes, New Generation artist Reggie Byers, and finally the man who would become the series's regular artist, Mike Leeke. On the story end, Jack Herman was the first writer to claim Macek's vacated chair, but it would be Markalan Joplin -- taking over with issue seventeen -- who would truly bring the series to greatness. Herman's scripts tended to hew closely to the source material, a plus for a series built on a fairly stringent continuity, but Joplin started bringing in additional details from the novels by Jack McKinney to flesh out the stories somewhat, and worked to adapt unclear events and dialogue from the TV series to make more sense emotionally and continuity-wise.

Markalan Joplin died at the age of 32, having been in failing health for a few years, not long after the completion of his script for issue #36 of The Macross Saga, the final issue of the series. The script for #36 had been completed before his script for issue #35 -- most of the Comico adaptations were drawn by the artist from tapes of the animation and then dialogued and captioned by the writer afterwards, but "To The Stars" was adapted with a full script first in order to segue the story into The Sentinels and better reflect the story as presented in the McKinney novels. Comico editor Diana Schutz eventually finished the adaptation for issue #35, "Season's Greetings," the last Comico ROBOTECH comic to be written. Ever.

A few months prior to the publication of the final issue of The Macross Saga, Eternity Comics, a division of Malibu Graphics, started cranking out their own black and white ROBOTECH comic book story adaptations -- adaptations of the unfinished ROBOTECH sequel TV series The Sentinels that was supposed to have launched back in 1986. The Comico era was over, and a few years later, Comico would be over, too. But that's another story ...

THE MACROSS SAGA

Issue 1 -- Booby Trap
Issue 2 -- Countdown
Issue 3 -- Space Fold
Issue 4 -- The Long Wait
Issue 5 -- Transformation
Issue 6 -- Blitzkrieg
Issue 7 -- Bye Bye Mars
Issue 8 -- Sweet Sixteen
Issue 9 -- Miss Macross
Issue 10 -- Blind Game
Issue 11 -- First Contact
Issue 12 -- The Big Escape
Issue 13 -- Blue Wind
Issue 14 -- Gloval's Report
Issue 15 -- Homecoming
Issue 16 -- Battlecry
Issue 17 -- Phantasm
Issue 18 -- Farewell Big Brother
Issue 19 -- Bursting Point
Issue 20 -- Paradise Lost
Issue 21 -- A New Dawn
Issue 22 -- Battle Hymn
Issue 23 -- Reckless
Issue 24 -- Showdown
Issue 25 -- Wedding Bells
Issue 26 -- The Messenger
Issue 27 -- Force of Arms
Issue 28 -- Reconstruction Blues
Issue 29 -- The Robotech Masters
Issue 30 -- Viva Miriya
Issue 31 -- Khyron's Revenge
Issue 32 -- Broken Heart
Issue 33 -- A Rainy Night
Issue 34 -- Private Time
Issue 35 -- Season's Greetings
Issue 36 -- To The Stars

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2 (of 5)

2007-02-25T12:28:00.001-06:00

"Part Two: Retribution"

Story - Tommy Yune
Script - Jason & John Waltrip
Art - Omar Dogan @ Udon Studios
Letters - Travis Lanham
Asst. Editor - Kristy Quinn
Editor - Ben Abernathy

Published by WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics.

Release date - October 19, 2005
Cover date - December 2005

Diamond order number - AUG05 0266
Estimated sales - 10,811 copies

THE STORY

As General T.R. Edwards's warship, the experimental battlecruiser Icarus, orbits the Invid homeworld of Optera, Vince Grant's command, the retrofitted Tokugawa, comes out of space fold and approaches the planet. Vince orders a passive scan of the planet below, so as not to let the Invid know they're coming. "Reading dense cloud cover and electrical discharges. The atmosphere is highly ionized. Spectro-analysis shows almost no oxygen, but high levels of carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and traces of silicon and heavy elements. Looks like the ecology of the whole planet's been wiped out," the ship's sensor operator offers. Another bridge officer suggests that the war between the Robotech Masters of Tirol and the Invid must have taken its toll. "Serves 'em right," he says, "they never should've started it." Sensors indicate another ship in Opteran orbit, along with several unidentifiable objects. Vince orders them up on the screen and magnified. The ship is revealed to be the Invid Regent's flagship, surrounded by a swarm of red lights. "Sound general quarters! All crews to battle stations!" Vince orders. "All decks to alert status!" Zentraedi Commander Breetai races from the bridge to prepare for battle. Karen Penn informs Vince that all crews are at battle stations, and reports that while the Regent's ship hasn't made a move, there's another ship behind it -- T.R. Edwards's Icarus!

Back in orbit around Tirol, Admiral Rick Hunter and Dr. Emil Lang are ferried to the newly rebuilt SDF-3. Rick thanks Lang and his teams for getting the SDF-3 reconstructed and refitted in so little time, but Lang says he should be thanking the Sentinels. "Without Ambassador Veidt we would never have been able to reverse-engineer Edwards's research. Without L'Ron and the Karbarrans we never would have been able to retrofit the SDF-3 or any of the Expeditionary fleet ships in such a short period of time," Lang says. Most of the Haydonites' assistance came in the form of reverse-engineering Edwards's biggest advantage, his new Shadow technology. Lang explains that Edwards discovered that the Invid can detect Protoculture power emissions, and has found a way to mask the energy signatures of reflex furnaces, rendering them invisible to most forms of detection. Janice approaches and tells Lang that everything is on schedule, and they should be able to get under way in twenty-four hours -- less if her central processor could handle the Haydonite technical data more effectively. Lang assures her that he's enlisted the aid of the Haydonites to develop some upgrades for her systems.

Rick is then informed of an incoming transmission from Space Station Liberty. Dr. Miles Cochrane lets Rick know that the installation of the new Shadow technology on the fleet is proceeding on schedule. Rick asks if the new fold drives for the SDF-3 will be ready by the time the ship is completed. Cochrane says it'll be down to the wire, but he has his best engineer, Dr. Louis Nichols, on it. As Cochrane signs off, Rick remarks that they might have to thank Edwards for this new technology if they can actually use it against the Invid, but Veidt tells him that what Edwards discovered what not new at all, but rather something very old that the Haydonites thought was lost. Rick asks Veidt how it works. "Simply put," Veidt says, "it utilizes what we call a Shadow Dimensional Field that creates a fourth-dimensional shift around Protoculture power emissions, rendering the reflex source invisible to any form of detection." Rick hopes that they're not too late to help Vince. However, Veidt remarks that this is merely the defensive application of the technology, and that he suspects that with the aid of someone not of the Invid, Edwards may have adapted it towards offensive weaponry.

Back in Optera orbit, Karen confirms the ship as Edwards's Icarus. Vince orders shields up, forward batteries to prepare to fire, and all fighter squadrons to scramble. Jack Baker's Wolf Squadron and Breetai's Zentraedi forces race to the flight deck. Karen notices that the forward hull of the Icarus is beginning to glow. Vince asks what the sensors show, but as before the Shadow technology is preventing them from getting any sort of readings. As a ring of energy emanates from the enemy vessel, Vince realizes what he's looking at and orders immediate evasive action. It's too late. The Icarus's main forward synchro cannon blasts straight through the port side of the Tokugawa, causing damage on a massive scale. The ship lists towards Optera, and Karen reports that the only systems responding are navigation and communications. "Get us some distance behind the planet!" Vince barks. "We're sitting ducks here!" Then Karen, with a look of dread, informs Vince that the Icarus is preparing to fire again.

Jack reports from the fighter bay that the doors won't open. Karen tells him that the Tokugawa has been seriously damaged and they've just lost auxiliary power to the launch bay. Jack shoots a hole in the bay door and leads his squadron of Alphas to battle.

From his flagship, the Invid Regent congratulates General Edwards on his strategy, then orders his elite battalion to launch. Waves of Invid fighters flood from his battle fortress.

Aboard the Icarus Edwards is informed that the synchro cannon is ready for another firing and the Invid are intercepting the REF fighters as expected. "Stand by," Edwards says. He tells Dr. Zand to get ready.

Jack notices the energy buildup on the Icarus's synchro cannon and tells Breetai that they're going to fire on the Tokugawa again. However, Breetai has a plan.

As the Regent watches the Invid battle the Alpha Fighters with glee, the Zentraedi's Bioroid units breach the Invid flagship's hull and storm his chambers. The Bioroids do battle with the Regent's guards as the Regent demands that his units be recalled to defend the ship. However, they're not responding -- Dr. Lazlo Zand has transferred control of the Invid mecha from the Regent's Invid Brain to the one stolen from Tirol! Now they will only do Edwards's bidding. The Regent realizes what's happened and shouts in rage, striking down invading Bioroids with his bare fists.

Breetai enters the Invid battle fortress's main bridge and maneuvers the ship between the Icarus and the Tokugawa. He orders all units to evacuate the enemy ship, but is suddenly struck from behind. Breetai looks up and recognizes his foe. "So, the Regent himself has come for me? What did I do to deserve this honor?"

"And the slave warrior has returned to complete his Masters' bidding!" the Regent snaps.

"No longer a slave, but still a warrior! Your reign of terror ends now!" Breetai retorts. The two warriors grapple as the Icarus's synchro cannon glows ever brighter.

"Ends!? It began when you tyrants decimated my planet! Now I will finish what the Robotech Masters started!" the Regent shouts.

"The Invid supercarrier is headed right at us!" Edwards is told. "Should we abort the synchro cannon and take evasive measures?"

"Negative," Edwards replies. "Fire at will."

The blast thunders across the vacuum of space and annihilates the Invid warship, taking Breetai and the Invid Regent with it.

"Ah, audacity ... always audacity!" Edwards remarks. "For a moment there, gentlemen, I wasn't sure we were going to pull that off." One of his men tells him that they've suffered minor damage to the port bow weapons array, but nothing serious. Dr. Zand compliments Edwards on his ingenious use of the Shadow Dimensional Field, using it not only to mask the synchro cannon's energy signature to also cut off the Regent's control of his troops, and Edwards adds that with the Regent's living computer destroyed, all the Regent's war machines will only obey Edwards's commands.

"So ... what do we do with our new army?" Zand asks.

"Patience, Zand," Edwards says as he watches the Tokugawa, knocked back by the shockwave of the Regent's ship's destruction, drift into the pull of Optera's gravitational field. "I want to enjoy this." Zand asks if they'll finish off the Tokugawa, but Edwards feels there's plenty of time for that later. "All in all," Edwards says, "I'd say it's been a very satisfying day."

Meanwhile, aboard the falling Tokugawa, Karen tells Vince that navigation is no longer responding. Vince orders her to send a distress call to the SDF-3 before they lose communications, too ...

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter
Dr. Emil Lang
Vince Grant
Jack Baker (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4)
Karen Penn (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
Janice Em
Dr. Miles Cochrane (last in Robotech Masters #11)
Dr. Louis Nichols (last in Invid War #4)
Breetai Tul (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12, final appearance)
T.R. Edwards
Dr. Lazlo Zand (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Wedding Special #2, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4)
Veidt (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #5)
Invid Regent (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12, final appearance)

Many of the following notes are based on my earlier, more visually detailed observations made in November of 2005 around the time the following issue of Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles was originally released. You can read those notes here.

The first page of this issue features excerpts from both T.R. Edwards and Vince Grant's personal logs in the style of the epigraphs that open each chapter of the ROBOTECH novels by Jack McKinney. Edwards's is especially interesting in that it references Julius Caesar's crossing of the river Rubicon, the first step in his rise to power, which also serves as a reference to the final novel of Jack McKinney's Sentinels series, which was entitled Rubicon.

Karen Penn, Jack Baker's love interest and rival from Robotech II: The Sentinels, seems to take the post of first officer aboard Vince Grant's Tokugawa. Unfortunately for Sentinels fans, she does not retain this post when he assumes command of Edwards's Icarus in the Shadow Chronicles animated feature. Also, she doesn't get a single chance to interact with Jack on anything more than a professional level -- they get exactly one scene where they get to exchange some dialogue, and the only indication that they know each other on a personal level is that he calls her Karen and she calls him Jack, and that's only after she's tried to maintain her professionalism by calling him "Commander Baker." Of course, that is completely in character for her ...

Despite the fact that he was a full-sized Zentraedi the last time we saw him in Robotech II: The Sentinels, Breetai is micronized and wearing a better-designed version of his ridiculous Sentinels helmet. A really cool touch is that several times throughout the issue Omar Dogan gives us a nice close-up of his helmet and we can see his left eye behind the helmet glass and a blank panel where his right eye should be.

It should be noted that micronized Breetai invalidates the Sentinels Book II subplot where the Zentraedi resizing chamber wore out after all the Zentraedi but Exedore were returned to full size to mine monopole ore on Fantoma that was necessary to repair the SDF-3, but given the differences between the McKinney Sentinels storyline on which the Sentinels comics were based and the new timeline as suggested throughout Prelude, the monopole ore might not have been needed. Also, the Prelude crew was working under a remit to keep Prelude away from certain elements of Macross -- hence the Zentraedi using Bioroids later in the issue instead of, say, the Z1 and Z2 Battlepods that were designed for Sentinels.

When Breetai talks to Vince about the Invid, he curiously remarks that, "We have fought them alongside the Robotech Masters for many years!" The key word here is "alongside." The Regent later makes a point of calling Breetai a "slave" to the Masters, which makes Breetai's word choice here all the more interesting. Then again, might it be possible that Breetai is referring to the REF working alongside the surviving Masters forces to fight the Invid? Unlikely, but certainly possible.

The bridge officer on the Tokugawa says that Optera has "almost no oxygen" and that it, "Looks like the ecology of the whole planet's been wiped out." Yet at the end of the next issue, Rick Hunter is able to walk out onto Optera's surface without a helmet. Whoops!

Also worth noting, in the only visual representation of the defoliation of Optera, the Waltrips' Legend of Zor, the defoliation was perpetrated with giant harvesting machines that manually removed all the Flowers of Life. However, the description of Optera here suggests to me that it's possible that the Robotech Masters used chemical weapons to defoliate the planet once they retrieved all the Flowers they needed. However, I suppose it's also possible that the removal of the Flower of Life from Optera's ecosystem caused these changes to the planet's ecology. Of course, the officer's remark ignores the possibility that this is simply the kind of environment that the Invid in their current form thrive on -- remember, aside from the human-type Invid and the Regent and Regess, we've never seen an Invid wandering around outside his or her mecha in the current canon.

The remark from a rank-and-file REF bridge officer that the Invid never should have started their war with the Robotech Masters gives the strong impression that the Expeditionary Force has been getting all their information about the war between the Masters and the Invid from the Tirolians, an obviously biased source. Breetai, as we see later in his battle with the Regent, knows better, but on the bridge of the Tokugawa he remains silent. Remember, doddering old Cabell spent the end of Sentinels Book I #16 assuring Dr. Lang that the Invid must wiped out -- "survival of the fittest," he says, and also, "The greatest threat to your planet is the Invid. Have no sympathy for them, Doctor. They are no longer the race they once were. They are driven. They will stop at nothing to regain their precious Flower of Life." The Sentinels have surely expressed similar sentiments to the humans, especially the Haydonites (for reasons that are made clear in The Shadow Chronicles), and in the Shadow Chronicles animation, young Marcus Rush gleefully relishes every opportunity he has to destroy the Invid. This strong loathing for the Invid and total misunderstanding of their motives has permeated the entire Robotech Expeditionary Force, and is consistent with what is seen in the New Generation episodes of the TV series -- Scott Bernard's attitude throughout the series and the use of the Neutron S missiles at the end alike.

The dialogue mentions some craft surrounding the Regent's flagship and supercarrier that "don't look Invid," but the art shows only twinkling red lights surrounding the Invid war machines. These are not brought up again. Perhaps they are the Neutron S warheads that Edwards mentions in issue #4, but if so it's a very poor foreshadowing, especially from a visual standpoint.

The giant Invid supercarrier that the Regent's flagship (which, again, was destroyed back in Sentinels Book IV #8, but that's not canon in this timeline) has docked with exhibits a distinct "lots of eyes and claws" aesthetic consistent with the Invid war machines the Waltrips designed during the Academy Comics publishing era.

Important point: While in the Shadow Chronicles animation the Haydonites are given all of the credit for Shadow technology, in this issue of Prelude Dr. Lang gives all the credit to Edwards. The Haydonites merely get credit for aiding the REF in their understanding and application of the technology. Clearly there is some retconning going on here. On the other hand, Veidt's dialogue swings things back around by telling Rick that what Edwards discovered was something the Haydonites were aware of all along.

When Rick and Dr. Lang arrive on the SDF-3, Janice and Veidt are seen supervising a team of Karbarran workers in REF uniforms putting some finishing touches on some part of the ship's construction. This is the last time the Sentinels aliens are seen, with the exception of Veidt, until the last issue of the series, and then that's just L'Ron.

Proof of this book being rushed out the door: on page 5, a large block of Dr. Lang's dialogue is put in Janice's mouth. Oh, and they're still doing the phonetic German accent thing on Dr. Lang's dialogue -- the key reason you can tell at first glance that the dialogue is coming out of the wrong mouth -- but in quoting it in the text above I've dropped that for clarity.

Wasn't Dr. Miles Cochrane a medical doctor back in the Robotech Masters episodes of the ROBOTECH TV series? I clearly recall that his lab was where Zor Prime was being studied; he didn't have anything to do with ships and mecha and the like, and now suddenly he's in charge of refitting Robotech vessels with the latest defensive technology. Either he's merely in management at Liberty, or he's gone through the same program the Robotech Master Zor did to be able to both understand and tap into the bio-energy of Protoculture within the Flower of Life (biology) AND design and oversee the construction of the SDF-1 (mechanical engineering).

Apparently the bow of the Icarus was designed for a single surprise blast of the synchro cannon; the blast tears it apart so that henceforth the ship appears as it does in the Shadow Chronicles feature, with two prongs sticking out flanking the giant maw of the ship's synchro cannon.

Question: What was the Invid Regent getting out of his alliance with T.R. Edwards in this version of the ROBOTECH timeline? In Sentinels, Edwards fed the Regent the whereabouts of the Sentinels' flagship, the Farrago, and led the charge on setting up the peace accords that ended in the death of the false Regent at the hands of the Invid scientist Tesla. However, it's clear from the events of the first issue of Prelude that the whole "peace with the Invid" arc didn't happen in the new timeline, and the REF's involvement in the liberation of the Sentinels' worlds has been downplayed. So I ask again, what exactly did the Regent get out of all this -- besides being annihilated at the end of this issue?

The Regent's "elite battalion" appears to be a space variant on the Invid Shock Trooper design, with the thrusters of the booster-equipped Scout and an additional claw on each hand. Given the black coloration and red accents, these seem to correlate to the Black Death Destroyers that the Regent had developed in Sentinels Book IV #8, a caste of bizarrely redesigned Invid soldiers evolved from the Regess's "special children" in the wake of his major defeat on Haydon IV -- the same defeat where he lost that flagship he's commanding here. Of course, the Black Death Destroyer designs and name are a bit too over-the-top for Prelude (at least at this early point), but obviously that's the basic concept at work here, based on the visual presented and the Regent's word choice.

Dr. Lazlo Zand is revealed to be alive and well and working for T.R. Edwards. Given his place in the Leonard-Edwards cabal was supposed to be back on Earth running Robotech Research Tokyo in Dr. Lang's stead, and for that matter, he was supposed to have been transformed at the end of chapter 25 of McKinney's novel The Final Nightmare into a giant Flower of Life, I'm curious how he wound up here working on T.R. Edwards's top-secret projects. My guess: he stowed aboard on one of the ships that left Earth in the framing sequence that ended issue #6 of Love & War. Of course, given Lang's dialogue regarding their discussions about fourth-dimensional reconfiguration, I'm curious how long Zand was supposed to be dead, and if he was supposed to have died the same way, and if he and Lang were somehow in contact during the early stages of the Pioneer Mission. Too many questions, not enough answers!

Zand is wearing a science uniform strongly similar to Louie Nichols's in the Shadow Chronicles animation, complete with cape. His cyborg eyes/glasses are reminiscent of Bateau from Ghost in the Shell, and his tan skin brings to mind his appearance as described in McKinney's The Zentraedi Rebellion, when following his self-induced Protoculture mindboost Dr. Lang confronts him about his newly tanned appearance -- a side-effect of the Protoculturally-charged drug cocktail he injected himself with, like his all-black eyes. It should be noted that the character was originally based on a Dr. Lang look-alike who appears in The Macross Saga, episode #29, "The Robotech Masters," and his description in the novels was never anything akin to the Exedore-like figure that John Waltrip drew in Robotech II: The Sentinels Wedding Special #2. Still, the version of the character that appears here bears little resemblance to any previous description or visual interpretation of the character. I like the design, though. I hope we see him stirring up trouble in the next ROBOTECH animation.

The Zentraedi are all pictured using a newly designed variant on the Bioroid Invid Fighter design from the end of Robotech Masters, the Bioroid Interceptor. Model sheets of the design can be seen in the back of issue #3 of Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Note the rank insignia on the shoulder, a holdover design element from Sentinels as seen in the old Eternity/Malibu Graphics Sentinels Illustrated Handbook. Mind you, when you see Breetai's rank insignia, you'll notice that it has more stripes on it than the rank insignia the Illustrated Handbook gives for a Commodore -- the highest rank in the Illustrated Handbook's chart -- so I don't know what's up with that.

When the Regent confronts Breetai, the mecha he's using is what I suppose could be a non-transformable variant or prototype of the Invid Overlord mecha, the transformable Invid craft designed to be the "final boss" of the Robotech: Invasion video game for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. I say that his particular craft is probably not transformable because I doubt that the Regent's tremendous bulk would fit into a mecha of that scale that was also transformable.

The word balloon for the Regent and Breetai's war cries as they are killed is poorly placed, another symptom of just how quickly this book was rushed out the door.

Zand states that the Brain cut off "the Regent's control of his Inorganic units," but the units that the Brain was coordinating were living Invid, not Inorganics. What Zand forgets here (and the Waltrips, apparently) is that living Invid Scouts, Shock Troopers, and the like can also be controlled by the Invid Brains (see, for instance, the mental control tug-of-war at the very end of the Waltrips' own Sentinels Book IV #13). Whoops.

Previous issue

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #13

2007-02-21T21:59:00.000-06:00

"Requiem for Justice"

Story & Art - John Waltrip & Jason Waltrip

Published by Academy Comics Ltd.

Release date - December 26, 1996
Cover date - December 1996

THE STORY

At the base of the Royal Pyramid, Invid Inorganics march and fire wildly at the patrolling Expeditionary Force officers. Within, Jonathan Wolff orders the search party, which was trying to locate T.R. Edwards and his men, to retreat. Vince Grant orders the Destroids to scramble. As the REF personnel wonder where these Inorganics came from, Wolff is informed that Dr. Lang's personnel carrier has landed. While Lang and the REF Council make their way to the carrier to return to the SDF-3, Wolff tells Vince to have all the Destroids and Hovertank units converge on the Royal Pyramid. He then asks who was in charge of disposing of all the Inorganics after the Invid were defeated on Tirol. He is told that it was General Edwards ...

Beneath the Royal Pyramid, Edwards tells his men to contact their remaining forces on the SDF-3 and the Jutland and to prepare the Invid Brain for transport. However, he has one stop to make beforehand. He returns to his hovercar and orders it to his personal headquarters.

In the streets of Tiresia, Inorganics clash with Destroids and Hovertanks. The city burns anew.

Aboard the SDF-3, in the ship's situation room, Captain Forsythe greets Lang and the council. He informs Lang that the ship is secure, but Edwards's men have gotten away with the Jutland. The council is shocked, but Lang tells them to remain calm. He is certain that Edwards is employing the Invid Brain they captured during the liberation of Tirol, that the Inorganics are under his control. "Send whatever forces you can to support the ground troops," Lang tells Forsythe, "but the SDF-3 must be protected at all costs. Without this ship ... we can't get home." Forsythe sends Veritech Grey Squadron down to join the battle.

Beneath REF Headquarters in Tiresia, Benson tells Edwards that the Jutland will be sending a Veritech escort in twenty minutes. Edwards says for them to execute the extraction at the south wing of the Royal Pyramid. He proceeds to Lynn Minmei's cell. She screams at the sight of him. He quickly covers her mouth and insists that she's coming with him, that she's his, not Hunter's and not Wolff's. She continues to scream and he slaps her, drawing blood. "If you don't leave me alone, T.R. ... I'm going to kill you," Minmei says, wiping the blood away. Edwards prepares for another slap, but when he sees the defiant look in her eyes he stops.

"I'm going to make you beg me to forget what you just said," Edwards says.

"No, you're not," Minmei says, her eyes narrowing.

"No, you're not," a voice from behind tells Edwards. Edwards looks back as a hand grips his. Suddenly, a bearded pilot swings Edwards overhead by his arm, then smashes Edwards's face into the wall. The pilot reaches out his hand to Minmei. She asks who he is. The pilot removes his helmet, revealing himself to be Lynn Kyle. "Come on, Minmei," he tells her. "Let's go home." Edwards reaches for Minmei's leg and insists that she's his, but Kyle grabs Edwards by the arm and tells Rebecca Nicks, standing by, to look after Minmei. Kyle puts Edwards in an armlock and turns him over. "I've never taken a human life," Kyle tells Edwards, "but I'll kill you if you don't lie still."

"Go ahead. Take the little slut. She's a waste of time in bed anyway," Edwards says.

Kyle prepares to smash his face in, but Nicks and Minmei tell him to stop. "It's over, Kyle. Just hang on to him and we can end it all today," Nicks says.

"Please, Kyle. You're not a murderer," Minmei says.

Kyle lifts Edwards up and slams him against the wall. "War's over, General. You're going to order your troops to stand down. We'll strike a peace with the Invid. And then we're all going home, right?" Edwards responds in the affirmative. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. And the leopard shall lie down with the kid. And we're all going to live happily ever after, right?"

"Right."

Just then, Minmei screams. One of Edwards's men has stabbed Nicks in the back, and has Minmei by the throat. Edwards orders him to kill Minmei, and as the soldier's knife begins to draw blood, Kyle rushes at him, disarming him and knocking him out. As Minmei sobs, Kyle notices Edwards reaching back. Kyle leaps at Edwards, but Edwards draws a gun and fires a shot. Minmei screams, and Kyle tackles Edwards, but it's not enough. Lynn Kyle is dying. Edwards pushes him aside and stands as Minmei rushes to her dying cousin's side.

"Well," Edwards says as he dusts himself off, "that turned out better than I thought."

"The war was almost over," Kyle croaks out. "We'd won."

"Yes. We'd won. You won it for us, Kyle," Minmei says.

"Tell me you love me, Minmei. Let it be the last thing I hear. Please."

"I love you, Lynn Kyle. Now and forever."

Minmei kisses Kyle as Edwards barks orders into the comm link on his uniform collar. "That's right, Benson. Brain extraction is at south pyramid, but I want an A/B VT pick up at this location. Now move!" He yanks Minmei away from Kyle's body. "Get up! Don't waste your tears on him, my sweet. He's finished with you ... but I'm just getting started." He forces a kiss on her and drags her away, cackling.

Meanwhile, over the planet Spheris, the forces of the Sentinels descend towards the atmosphere in a Haydonite flyer, approaching the planet's central Invid Hive. Jack Baker asks the Invid Tesla if he's sure he can control the Invid garrison there. "I wish you would stop asking me that," Telsa whines. "Of course I can. I am evolved now." Karen Penn asks what happens if they fire first. "They will not. I have already seen to it. My will is there. Get me closer."

Below, the Invid commander is informed of an unidentified object approaching the Hive. Commander Nazdak orders a wave of Shock Troopers to be deployed to intercept.

Veidt tells Tesla that they are now over the Hive and that he may now proceed with his orders. "Loyal hordes of the Invid race! Hear my voice and obey! I am Tesla, your master! You will do as I command!" Nazdak is infuriated by the challenge to his authority. As both Invid shout for the Shock Troopers' attention, the troops stand motionless. Jack shouts for Tesla to tell them to disarm, but Tesla tells him that he's concentrating. Meanwhile, Nazdak orders the planet's Invid Brain to go to full power.

"Assert your control over the Troopers! Destroy that usurper! Fire!"

Meanwhile, Tesla sends out contradictory orders. "Protect your master!" he demands. "Fire!"

The Invid Shock Troopers begin firing on one another, and several of those still under Nazdak's command fire upon the Haydonite craft. As the flyer shakes, Jack demands to know what's going on. "I thought you said you could control the garrison!"

"I am controlling the garrison!" Tesla snaps. "I'm controlling half the garrison! Unfortunately the Hive Brain controls the other half!" Jack orders Veidt to get them out before they're blown out of the sky, but it's too late -- a blast from a Shock Trooper knocks them out of the sky ...

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modified Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Dr. Emil Lang (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Jonathan Wolff (next in flashback in Invid War #3)
Vince Grant (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Jack Baker (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Karen Penn (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chrnoicles #2)
T.R. Edwards (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Benson (final appearance)
Lynn Kyle (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Rebecca Nicks (final appearance)
Justine Huxley (final appearance)
Scott Bernard (next in flashback in Class Reunion #1)
Raul Forsythe (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book III #8, final appearance)
Bela (final appearance)
Gnea (final named appearance)
Veidt (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Teal (final appearance)
Baldan II (final appearance)
Burak (final named appearance)
Tesla (final appearance)
Nazdak (first and final appearance)

Welcome to the end of an era.

Study that cover a moment. The golden logo and big red Robotech Defense Force fighting kite set against the black backdrop suggest that Jason & John Waltrip were aware of the layout and appearance of the first Antarctic Press ROBOTECH comic cover; it's a distorted mirror image of the first book from Academy's successors, which would be all the more effective if a stray "TM" wasn't hovering right above T.R. Edwards's crotch. In any case, though, it's both an interesting nod to the next comic license holder and a good stark "final issue" cover, despite the fact that it gives away the book's major plot point -- though I doubt there were many reading the title for whom Lynn Kyle's death would come as a shock.

Despite the fact that the Veritech squadron sent down by Raul Forsythe appears to be entirely made up of Alpha Fighters, when it comes time for the big two-page spread of battle, all the Veritechs that you can make out in the sky are VF-1 Valkyries. One of them lacks a gun pod; two have Skull Squadron markings on their FAST packs, and still another appears to be a VT-1 from Macross: Do You Remember Love? However, given that this is the last issue of the series, I'll give the Waltrips a pass on this. Clearly they wanted to reach back and toss the classic mecha in for the climactic mecha battle of this final issue.

Note that the Invid commander on the crystal world of Spheris, Nazdak, is wearing a jeweled necklace and a variety of jeweled rings. That's a cute touch, I thought.

Honestly, of all the places the Sentinels comics could have ended, I think this was a good spot. It provides a certain amount of resolution, just in case the Waltrips never returned to the story, but also gives enough of a cliffhanger that the fans still want to see what happens next according to the Waltrips' version of events. Sure, Edwards has the upper hand and the Sentinels are in a really tight spot, but nowhere else could so much false hope have been dangled in front of the readers -- it's just as Minmei said to Kyle, "The war was over. We'd won." That's just a beautiful note to end on. Everything almost ended for the best. Sure, Kyle's notion was simplistic, but he was caught up in the moment; he had the enemy at his mercy, and suddenly it was like he could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if that light was something of a fairy tale ending.

While the storyline concerning T.R. Edwards was ultimately resolved to some extent in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, it was resolved with certain details changed -- his motivation and goals, for starters -- and others diminished, such as his twisted feelings for Lynn Minmei. Kyle's death appears in flashback in the first issue of Prelude, more or less as it happens here, while the unleashing of the Inorganics on the REF forces, which occurred at the end of Sentinels Book IV #12, is repeated in a slightly different sequence later. At the same time, the Spheris storyline that ends on a cliffhanger here was dropped entirely -- indeed, the entire Sentinels Campaign is resolved off-panel -- as well as the story of the evolution of the scheming Invid scientist Tesla. It's such a shame that it's unlikely we'll see him again.

Previous issue

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #12

2007-01-12T21:57:00.000-06:00

"Checkmate!"

Story & Art - John Waltrip & Jason Waltrip

Published by Academy Comics Ltd.

Release date - November 27, 1996
Cover date - November 1996

THE STORY

The Haydonite starship Ark Angel, flagship of the Sentinels, maintains its orbit around Spheris. While the Invid hive on the planet's surface has not taken notice of the ship, neither has there been any sign of the Grizlon, the Karbarran vessel that was supposed to pick up the Sentinels' mecha and forces left behind on the planet Garuda. When it is mentioned that it's kind of a moot point, given that their Protoculture-based weapons would destroy the planet's crystalline structure and the Spherisians along with it, Bela points out that while she certainly doesn't want Spheris to share the fate of her own world, if the new Invid mecha they encountered earlier catches up with them they won't be able to fight back without those mecha. Veidt says they probably won't be much help. He turns the crew's attention to the monitors, replaying the battle between the Karbarran E-Wings and the new Invid craft. "Those new Invid fighters were using weapons I've never seen before. Spine missiles, soliton waves, energy webs and something that looks like directed lighting." Rick Hunter remarks that they'll need to change their tactics to deal with them next time just to stay alive, and wonders if the Spherisians can help. However, attending to the matter at hand, Rick says that not only are they incapable of using their own weapons on Spheris, but they have to prevent the Invid from using theirs. Thanks to Tesla's evolved state, it is believed that the Invid garrison on Spheris will obey him. Lisa Hunter still doesn't trust Tesla's word, and Lron asks what will happen if Tesla turns the Invid garrison on the Sentinels. Rick reminds them all of the explosive collar around Tesla's neck -- one false move, and he loses his head. "Jack, Karen, Bela and Gnea, get Tesla and take him to the hangar bay," Rick orders. "Veidt, get a cone flyer ready to take them down." As he returns to his chair, Teal and Baldan II approach. As the boy has never seen his homeworld, Teal would like him to go down with them. Rick agrees to it. "After the garrison is secured," Rick says, "you two can be our liasons and make contact with your people below and tell them it's safe to return to the surface." Teal thanks him.

Elsewhere on the ship, Tesla is plotting to use the Invid garrison on Spheris to make his ascent to the Invid throne. Burak reminds Tesla of his promise to free his planet, Peryton, from its curse. "All in good time my old friend," Tesla says. "FIrst things first, the garrison. And to think, these humans are actually giving it to me, putting it right into my hands!" Burak points out the explosive collar, but Tesla assures him that he has something up his sleeve.

Shortly, the Haydonite cone flyer exits the Ark Angel's hangar. As Veidt takes the craft down to the planet's surface, Lisa tells Rick that she hopes they're doing the right thing. "We're doing the only thing we can do, Lisa," Rick says. "I just hope it works."

Somewhere in Tiresia, Rebecca Nicks still can't believe she's helping this mystery pilot, and tells him that she should turn him in for stealing and crashing the Delta Veritech prototype. As he opens a a grating leading into the catacombs, he assures her that rescuing Minmei from Edwards's complex is more important. "Tiresia is honeycombed with hundreds of underground passageways, some of which pass directly under Edwards's complex. They must intersect with or near a basement or shelter somewhere in the building." Nicks worries about how she could ever explain this to Dr. Lang if she's caught. The pilot tells her that Lang is keeping Edwards busy at the hearing, so they should be able to get in, get Minmei, and get out before anyone notices.

At the Tiresian Royal Hall, the trial of Jonathan Wolff, Vince Grant, and Breetai is reconvened. General Edwards believes the trial has gone on long enough, and it's time for the council to render its decision. The council asks for Edwards or Dr. Lang to submit any further evidence, and Lang produces a recording which he submits as evidence for dismissal of the hearing. "What is the nature of this recording, Dr. Lang?" chairman Justice Huxley asks him. "Call it ... a sworn deposition. If you'll just watch the viewscreen."

Edwards wonders what Lang is up to, but when the image comes up, he is shocked to see the words he said in Dr. Lang's lab being played back for the council: "Here's the oath I'll serve! I swear to exterminate Rick and Lisa Hunter, and Breetai, after I've made them suffer enough ..." When the recording is done, Edwards insists that it's some kind of forgery, but Lang assures the council that there has been no digital manipulation, that Edwards can have his own people go over it and they'll find it to be completely legit. Huxley thanks Lang for bringing this to the council's attention, and the council agrees to drop the charges against Wolff, Vince, and Breetai. "Also," Huxley says, "effective immediately, General Edwards is hereby relieved of duty and is to placed under arrest until an investi--"

General Edwards makes a run for it. Wolff chases after him, and Breetai rises to his feet but finds that he can't get to Edwards without potentially flattening half of the council. Scott Bernard grabs him, but Edwards bats the youth away. Wolff catches the boy and orders the security officers to cut him off, but Edwards tosses one man into another, then shoots a third. Wolff orders Vince to look after Scott as he continues his pursuit.

"All Ghost Riders," Edwards says into his comm link as he races through the hallways of the Tiresian Royal Hall, "this is Edwards. Code Red! Repeat, Code Red! Converge on my location for immediate evac! Stand by for additional orders!" Meanwhile, Lang alerts all personnel that Edwards is to apprehended immediately by order of the Plenipotentiary Council. "Arrest General Edwards at once. He is not to leave the area!" As the dueling orders go out, Ghost Squadron members attack Expeditionary Force loyalists. General Edwards ducks into his hover limo, and as Wolff closes in, Ghost Squadron members cover the General's escape with machine gun fire.

Inside the limo, a stammering Benson asks his commander what they can do, given that the entire city of Tiresia saw the broadcast. "Shut up Benson! I'm trying to think! They think they've got me, don't they?"

Colonel Wolff returns to the Royal Hall courtroom with news of Edwards's escape. Vince asks where he might go to. "He'll probably try to make it to the landing area, steal a shuttle." Lang tells them that the Veritech Spectre Squadron has been scrambled, that Edwards can't get far.

Back in the limo, Edwards assumes that the council expects him to make a run for the landing area and steal a shuttle, but he first has a call to make. He orders Benson to take him to one of the Royal Hall's side entrances. As the door closes behind them, Spectre One Five reports no sign of Edwards's motorcade.

Back at the courtroom, Wolff wonders where he could be. Vince tells Lang that they should round up Edwards's Ghost Squadron, since they may aid his escape or try to stage a coup. He also suggests that Lang and the council return to the SDF-3 until Edwards is captured. Lang believes he may be right.

Beneath the Royal Hall, Edwards's assembled Ghost Squadron salutes. Edwards tells his men that more help is on the way. "We're not finished yet," he assures them. He crosses the room to a monitor screen where a link has been established with the hive on Optera. On the screen is a hazy image of the Invid Regent. "Well, well. General ... Edwards, isn't it? Been quite a while since our last talk. To what do I owe the pleasure of this rare occasion?" the Regent asks.

"It seems you aren't the only one to have suffered a recent setback."

"Oh? Having difficulties, are we? How inconvenient."

"I think it best, strategically, if we unite our forces. I want you to send your army to get me and the people loyal to me."

"Why do you need my help? You have the Brain you captured from us when you took Tirol, if you didn't destroy the Inorganics that were left after the battle, you already have an army there."

Edwards looks over at the Brain, sitting nearby. "Of course! The Brain! I should've known all along!"

"Do stay in touch," the Regent says, signing off.

Benson asks Edwards what he's going to do. Edwards asks him where they put all the inert Inorganics. "They're piled up like cord wood all through these catacombs. Why?" Edwards activates the Brain, using the key combination that the late scientist Obsim showed him. The Brain begins to burble and bubble. Benson asks what he's doing.

"The perfect diversion," Edwards says, grinning. "Lang's going to be sorry he ever crossed me!" As the Brain continues to make bubbling noises, the Ghost Squadron hears cracking noises coming from the darkness. The Inorganics are rising to their feet.

Outside the pyramid, a search team is unlucky enough to find a side access door rising open. They stop their hovercycles and notice lights approaching. One of the men reports in that it might be the headlights of a limo, but unfortunately for them, it's the glowing sensor eyes of a horde of Invid Inorganics, firing wildly at anything that moves ...

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modified Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Lisa Hunter (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Dr. Emil Lang
Jonathan Wolff
Vince Grant
Jack Baker
Karen Penn
Janice Em (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Breetai Tul (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2)
Exedore Formo (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
T.R. Edwards
Benson (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #3)
Lynn Kyle
Rebecca Nicks
Justine Huxley
Scott Bernard
Lron (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1)
Bela
Gnea
Kami (final named appearance)
Learna (final appearance)
Veidt
Teal
Baldan II
Burak (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #8)
Tesla
Invid Regent (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #8, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2)

Janice and the Garudans Kami and Learna only appear in one panel, on the bridge of the Ark Angel; while the Garudans are kind of obvious, only the most keen-eyed regular reader of the title would notice Janice. They've been reduced to bridge props. Honestly, I think this is a product of Sentinels having too many extraneous characters and not enough for them all to do, especially after their big moments are over (the liberation of Garuda for Kami & Learna, and the big "reveal" for Janice on Haydon IV).

Kami's appearance here has been flagged as his "final named appearance" because it's possible, even likely, that the Garudan seen among the Sentinels in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1 is intended to be Kami, but short of Lron and Veidt none of them are named.

The activation of the Invid Brain here overlaps a similar scene in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1, though in the later work Edwards appears a lot less cartoonishly, evilly wild-eyed and psychotic. That only makes sense, as Prelude Edwards is a lot less cartoonishly evil and psychotic, and has a completely different set of goals, which do not include conquering the Earth and making it his own.

While the ROBOTECH TV series shows Scott Bernard watching propaganda footage of Jonathan Wolff when he thinks back on what a hero Wolff was, in the McKinney novels this is the incident that Scott fixates on in his hero worship of the man -- when Wolff leapt to his rescue during T.R. Edwards's escape. Of course, again, in the modern canon young Scott Bernard probably doesn't have the familial connection to Dr. Lang that leads to him serving in this position.

Previous issue | Next issue

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #11

2007-01-10T23:31:00.000-06:00

"Summit"

Story & Art - John Waltrip & Jason Waltrip

Published by Academy Comics Ltd.

Release date - October 16, 1996
Cover date - October 1996

THE STORY

In a makeshift courtroom within the Tiresian Royal Hall on Tirol, Jonathan Wolff, Vince Grant, and Breetai stand accused of high treason against the REF, conspiracy, theft of the SDF-7 and the monopole ore, sabotage of the peace talks between the REF and the Invid, and the murder of the Invid Regent. Chairman Justine Huxley of the REF council asks the accused how they plead. Wolff, speaking for the three, admits to the theft of the SDF-7, but pleads not guilty to the rest of the counts. "The charges of treason and conspiracy are completely groundless and the charge of murder is totally non sequitur and unapplicable," Wolff tells the council. When asked why this is, Wolff tells the council that the Invid Regent isn't dead. Huxley asks him to explain, and he hands an aide a data card filled with images provided by the Haydonites' surveillance systems -- images of the Regent's fleet in orbit around the planet and of the Regent himself on the planet's surface. Dr. Lang suggests to the council that the being that was aboard the SDF-3 during the peace talks was not, in fact, the real Regent. Exedore reminds them that his people, the Zentraedi, are clones. "It is possible that the Invid developed a cloning technology of their own," he says, "or stole it from the Robotech Masters when they conquered Tirol. In any case, it appears the Regent constructed a clone of himself and sent 'it' in his place to the peace talks." General Edwards leaps to his feet and says this is beside the point, that it Wolff still thought it was the genuine Regent and killed it. "Impossible, General," Lang says as he enters his own data card into evidence containing records that reveal that Wolff was in his office from 21:45 to 22:10, within the time of death given by the medical examiner. "Furthermore," Lang says, "the Regent is twenty-five feet tall and weighs over five tons, there are no invasive wounds on the body. Death was caused by asphyxiation from a crushed windpipe. Are we to believe Colonel Wolff strangled a being four times his own height with his bare hands?" With these points taken, Huxley orders the charge dropped. Edwards curses.

The next charge is the theft of the monopole ore. Huxley asks Breetai if he maintains his innocence of the charge. "I do." One of the senators tells him that the trajectory records and cargo scans state otherwise, but Breetai argues that in order for him to steal the ore, the REF would have had to have had possession of it. "No such condition exisited. I did not 'steal' the ore. I simply did not give it to you. But I am willing ..." Edwards leaps to his feet and says that's a mere technicality. "That ore was mine!" he shouts. "Uh, I mean ... ours ... Ours! By a previously arranged agreement! You promised the ore and then you took it!" Breetai plays dumb, suggesting that he may have misunderstood. Dr. Lang suggests that they could make a new agreement with Breetai. "If Breetai is willing to hand over the ore at this time, I think we could see our way to reducing the charge to midirection of REF property and mark the whole affair down as a miscommunication between species. My lab is standing by to receive the monopole and we can get on with the repairs." Breetai agrees, and Huxley rules it so.

Shortly, Huxley reminds Wolff that the charge he admits to, theft of an REF vessel, is a serious act. "I realize that, your honor, and although I take full responsibility for it, I do not regret taking such action, for this council gave me no choice," Wolff explains. "It was absolutely necessary in order to save the lives of Admiral Hunter and the Sentinels at Praxis. They were stranded there after a surprise Invid attack destroyed the Farrago. Praxis was destroying itself because of an unfathomable experiment conducted by the Invid, you refused to send help for fear of antagonizing the Regent at the peace talks. If I had not taken the SDF-7 to rescue them, they all would have died. Since then we have continued our campaign to liberate the planets of the Local Group from the Invid. We've freed Karbarra, Garuda, and most recently Haydon IV, but the fight is far from over. The Invid still ..." Edwards interrupts, reminding him that the Invid are not on trial here. Wolff continues, "... still hold the Local Group in a grip [of] tyranny! Tyranny that will reach Earth if we don't stop them here! You may not be at war with them, but they are at war with us ... with all races!"

"Impudence!" Edwards shouts.

"... but this war is winnable for those with the courage to fight it!" Wolff says.

"Insubordinate!" Edwards shouts.

"Coward!" Wolff shouts back. Edwards begins to approach Wolff, but Huxley slams down her gavel and demands order. She suggests a short recess, adjourning the hearing until 19:00 hours. As the council members disperse, Lang approaches Edwards.

"General Edwards. We need to talk."

In a dark Tiresian alleyway, Rebecca Nicks recognizes the soldier before her as the man who stole Lang's Delta Fighter prototype and tried to help Minmei escape the planet. He admits this, and tells Nicks that Edwards got Minmei back and is holding her somewhere in his office complex. "I can't get in there alone. I need your help, Nicks." Nicks says she should turn him in, but he tells her that with Edwards at the hearing, most of his security men will be with him, meaning the complex will be lightly guarded. "When Minmei's safe, I promise I'll turn myself in. Whataya say, Lieutenant?"

At Dr. Lang's research center, Edwards asks him what's on his mind. "The question is, General, what's on yours?" Edwards assures Lang that he's only interested in dispensing justice to those who have jeopardized the mission. "I only want what's best for the REF, for Earth, and the human race." Lang assures Edwards that his trumped-up charges against Wolff and the Sentinels won't stick and asks that Edwards put an end to the hearing. "Never! They defied the council and they're going to pay!" Lang asks him, then, to remain neutral for the rest of the proceedings, since he has no evidence, to put his men under command of the council, and to allow his team to examine the Invid Brain that was captured when the REF liberated Tirol. Edwards refuses, insisting that his men are still disarming it. Lang says it doesn't matter, that when the United Earth Government finds out what Edwards has been up to his career will be over. "What do you mean?!" Edwards demands. Lang explains that Major Carpenter's ship has folded for Earth, that they already had enough ore to either repair the SDF-3's fold drives or build a smaller drive for Carpenter's ship. "I managed to persuade the council to accept the latter," Lang says. "It was necessary to keep you here at Tirol. I know what you're planning, Edwards, and I can't allow it, but I can't prove it, yet. You intended to construct a fleet to conquer Earth. Breetai took the ore to delay you until Carpenter's ship was ready. It might take Carpenter a little longer to get to Earth ... but he'll get there ... before you. He's taking a full report from me on your activities to the Robotech Defense Command. When we do get back to Earth, you're going to have a lot of questions to answer. You're finished, General." Edwards lunges at Lang, but Lang grabs his wrists, stopping him. As Lang's eyes turn liquid black, Edwards is brought to his knees. His wrists crack under Lang's inhuman strength, and Edwards tells Lang to go ahead and kill him. Lang lets go, and while Edwards laughs, telling him he hasn't the guts, Lang assures him that he will never turn him into a murderer. "You will be punished in time. The Shapings will see to that." Edwards tells Lang that he's mad. "Not as mad as you. Stop your subversion now, General, before there is any more bloodshed. Adhere to your oath, and abandon these megalomaniacal dreams."

"Here's the oath I'll serve," Edwards tells Lang. "I swear to kill Wolff. I swear to exterminate Rick and Lisa Hunter, and Breetai, after I've made them suffer enough! The rest will either bow at my feet or die! I swear to have Huxley and Obstat and the entire council as my personal slaves! I swear the Earth ... and the galaxy will be mine! I swear revenge!"

"Then there is nothing further for us to discuss ... except for one last question, if you will." Edwards asks what it is. "I understand why you despise Rick Hunter; his friendship with your old nemesis, Roy Fokker, makes that obvious, but whence comes this loathing of Lisa Hayes-Hunter? What has she ever done to you?"

"You'll find out when the oh-so-saintly Hunters do: when it's too late." At that, Edwards exits. When the door is closed, Lang tells Scott Bernard he can come out and asks if he got all of it. Scott isn't sure; Edwards's surveillance scramblers were set to the max, and he had a tough time cutting through. As Edwards leaves the compound, he is sure that all Lang has is so much blank tape. "Nothing I say can be held against me. I'm not finished yet."

Meanwhile, the battered Ark Angel soars through foldspace towards Spheris. Rick asks Veidt for a damage report. "Shields down twenty-five percent, Admiral. Lateral weapons array disabled. Hull breach on decks nine and ten, and auxiliary power systems are off line. Main power is good, but with the current energy use by the drive system it will take a while for the ship to repair itself." For all their sakes, Rick hopes it's soon, since those new Invid craft will certainly come after them again, and he wants to be ready for them. He asks Jack Baker when they'll be at Spheris. Jack says they'll be there in an hour and forty-five minutes. Rick orders everyone to the situation room.

The plan is this: when they arrive in Spheris orbit, they'll quickly survey the strike zone, determining the size and strength of the enemy garrison. Veidt notes that a passive scan won't reveal their presence to the Invid and the shields will keep them from appearing on their sensors. They'll then pull back to a high orbit and rendezvous with the Karbarran ship Grizlon, which will be carrying the remainder of their forces from Garuda. When the Grizlon has transferred all the mecha to the SDF-7, that ship will proceed to the target area, while the Ark Angel and Grizlon remain in high orbit to provide cover. "If those new Invid fighters do arrive," Rick says, "presenting them with multiple targets might confuse them. They caught us off guard before, but with the Grizlon, Ark Angel, and the SDF-7, we should have enough firepower to handle them." Teal asks if they're planning on destroying the Invid hive outright, even with the possibility of Spherisians in there. Rick assures her that the spectrum scan should reveal if there are any Spherisian prisoners inside, and that will help them determine their specific plan of attack. Teal thanks Rick for taking that into consideration, but points out one thing he didn't consider -- that they cannot take any Protoculture-based weaponry down. While Jack and Karen complain, Lisa asks Teal to explain why. "Spheris is a planet of crystal structure. Protoculture weapon emissions invoke catastrophic harmonic and quantum resonances from the very fabric of my homeworld. A beam striking a crystal will be reflected in almost any direction before shattering the crystal like glass. Heavier weapons fire could sunder the delicate lattice work that makes up the planet, causing great death and destruction among my people." Lron asks about the Invid, but Teal points out that they don't care what effect their weapons have. Bela reminds everyone that her people can attest to that. Lisa asks Rick how they can fight if the Invid can fire and the Sentinels cannot. Rick orders Tesla to be brought in.

Rick asks Tesla if he can order the garrison to surrender. "Of course I can. It would be a simple matter, Admiral. In my evolved state, the garrison will obey me without question." Lron asks what will prevent Tesla from turning the garrison on the Sentinels. Rick draws his handgun and produces Tesla's explosive collar. Tesla isn't very happy to see it. "Any tricks, Tesla, any at all, and you won't be around to regret it." A report comes in from the bridge telling Rick and the others that they are approaching Spheris. Rick orders everyone to their stations ...

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modified Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Lisa Hunter (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Dr. Emil Lang
Janice Em (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Jonathan Wolff
Vince Grant
Jack Baker (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Karen Penn (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Breetai Tul
Exedore Formo
Rem (next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #5)
T.R. Edwards
Lynn Kyle
Rebecca Nicks
Justine Huxley
Scott Bernard (last in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Three #6)
Lron (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Crysta (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Bela (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Gnea (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Kami (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Learna (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Veidt (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Teal (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Baldan II (next in Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special #1)
Tesla (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #8)

This issue is seriously all talking heads, all the time. Since there is an advertisement for the Waltrips' Noble A.R.M.O.U.R. Halberder (still known as Cyberknights at this point), the Waltrips obviously knew that the jig was up, and I suspect that they were trying to get through the story with Edwards to end on the note they did in Sentinels Book Four #13.

When Lang holds the threat of Carpenter ratting Edwards out over the General's head, I have to wonder if the idea is that Carpenter is supposed to be providing Lang's allegations to the United Earth Government during an off-camera moment in the TV episode "Outsiders," or if Lang is bluffing. Honestly, Lang doesn't strike me as the bluffing type, but at the same time this is quite the continuity implant.

I believe this is the first and only time the Waltrips drew Lang with the all-black eyes during the course of the Sentinels comic series, and the first time that Lang has mentioned the Shapings -- the metaphysical will of the Protoculture that is key to the McKinney novels -- in the Sentinels comics since we got a glimpse of Lang's personal journal in the first issue of Book Two. Of course, the original Dr. Lang character design in the Sentinels animation didn't have the all-black eyes; McKinney was the first to make a big deal about that aspect of the original Macross character design, and consequently his description in the novels always referred to them. (The only other time his eyes even appeared strange in the Sentinels comics was during a flashback to him touching the console aboard the SDF-1 that gave him the Protoculture-induced mindboost, back in Sentinels Book One #13, and there his eyes appeared all white.)

While Edwards mentions Niles Obstat (a member of the REF council mentioned with some regularity in the novels) during the swearing of his "oath" (nearly verbatim from the novels), the only McKinney-only member of the council identified by name during this issue of The Sentinels is Justine Huxley, who presides over the trial during this and the next issue. (Senator Longchamps is named in Book Four #8.)

As this is Scott Bernard's first appearance in Book Four (he appeared as a member of Lang's staff alongside Carpenter when Lang left for the monopole mining satellite in Book Three #6), it's worth noting that the character design for young Bernard seen here was originally done for the Sentinels animation, and his use as Dr. Lang's young assistant was explained in the novels by stating that he was Lang's nephew; Return to Macross clarifies the relation further by introducing Lang's sister Nina (issue #21) and a colleague named Dr. Brian Bernard (issue #25). While the modern canon retains the notion that Lang has a sister, given her new function in the storyline she cannot be Bernard's mother, and this oh-so-insular relation has been severed.

When Rick presides over the strategy meeting, the first thing he says as the scene opens is that they're going over it again. If this is the second time, why is it that Teal only brings up her concerns -- the potential presence of Spherisians in the hive and the fact that the Sentinels cannot use the weapons they intended -- now?

The Sentinels Halloween Special was released the same day; while it's the next Sentinels tale in the comics' chronology, it's merely a side-story that doesn't drive forward any of the ongoing storylines.

Previous issue | Next issue

Robotech: Vermilion #1 (of 4)

2007-01-03T16:57:00.000-06:00

"Vermilion"

Story & Art - Duc Tran
Cover Colors - ARNie
3-D Renderings - Tipatat Chennavasin

Published by Antarctic Press.

Release date - August 6, 1997
Cover date - August 1997

Estimated sales - 8,300 copies

THE STORY

The SDF-1 has finally returned to Earth following its lengthy exodus and constant battle with the Zentraedi fleet. It's been over a week since anyone aboard the space battle fortress has seen combat.

Lt. Rick Hunter and pilot trainee Hiro Amano are flying their Veritechs over the Pacific on a training run. When Rick finds that he's running low on fuel, he decides to return to the SDF-1, and leaves Hiro practicing a rolling mechamorphosis maneuver. As Hiro practices, a Zentraedi battlecruiser appears out of nowhere, but does not appear on Hiro's radar. A squadron of Veritechs streaks past, and while Hiro thinks they're here to back him up, he spots them going to Guardian mode and entering the enemy ship! Squadron leader Raven notices Hiro's lone Veritech and decides to take care of him. With his radio jammed, Hiro tries to flee to inform the SDF-1 that there are traitors in their ranks. However, Raven's Battloid stops him single-handedly. His craft is equipped with an Electro Magnetic Frequency bomb, which paralyses anything electronic that touches its armor. With his engines out, Hiro is helpless as Raven drops the fighter and blows the young trainee away with his gun pod.

Back on the SDF-1, Rick and Roy are at the shooting range remarking on how quiet things have been lately, when Lisa informs Rick that the SDF-1 has lost contact with Hiro's Veritech. A recon chopper is sent out to investigate his disappearance, with Rick on-board, but they find no sign of the young pilot.

Veritech Crimson Squadron returns to the SDF-1 from the Zentraedi ship, and Raven meets with General Golic, who asks if he "made the delivery." He then remarks how lucky Raven was that the lost Veritech's wingman left early and begins to threaten the sinister squadron leader, but Raven reminds Golic that he's in this up to his neck. The recon helicopter returns shortly thereafter, and Rick asks Raven if he or any of his squadron saw anything. Raven shoves Rick aside and walks away.

NOTES

TIMELINE - Since this story is set during The Macross Saga with no overt references to any dates or concepts native to the McKinney novels (i.e. Thinking Caps), it is compatible with any ROBOTECH timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (last seen in The Macross Saga #13)
Roy Fokker (last seen in The Macross Saga #13
Lisa Hayes (last seen in The Macross Saga #14)
Hiro Amano (first and final appearance)
Raven (first published & chronological appearance)
Thomas Golic (first published appearance, last in flashback in Vermilion #2)

This takes place after episode #14, the recap episode "Gloval's Report," which was said to occur "amidst the jubilant celebration" of the SDF-1's return home. Seeing how it's been a week and change and nobody's celebrating, it's clearly after that episode. At the same time, the trigger for the snowballing events that follow (the journey to Alaska Base and the arrival of Lynn Kyle) isn't reflected, so it has to be before episode #15, "Homecoming."

The art style, gray tone work, and word balloons really put me in the mind of a Japanese manga serial, and a lot of the fiddly bits of mechanical detail and costume design is reminiscent of late 1980's sci-fi/mecha anime. However, the first shot of a Battloid is missing some important details, and the Veritech flight suits are slightly off -- probably just a case of not quite enough source material, or perhaps just not paying enough attention to detail.

The notion of traitors within the RDF joining up with the Zentraedi is still a neat idea (hey, if some of the Zentraedi turned traitor, why can't some of the humans?) and while Raven is given an obvious "bad guy" design, he's at least cool looking, if kind of a shallow villain in the classic T.R. Edwards mold. At least co-conspirator Golic is later given some kind of depth.

My only problem with the story is the stealth technology angle, and that's probably got something to do with the fact that the Shadow Technology in the third generation is supposed to be so very new and cool. However, that's more of a "big picture" problem; within the context of a quick little Macross Saga action romp that's trying to do something new without resorting to the "kewl new mecha" angle, it works.

Big problem: it's only thirteen pages! The rest of the book is filled up with a lame "crying soldier" recap of the first eight or so episodes of The New Generation with decent enough artwork drawn from animation stills. Blech.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Mospeada Diary

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1 (of 5)

2007-01-03T12:28:00.001-06:00

"Part One: The Enemy Within"

Story - Tommy Yune
Script - Jason & John Waltrip
Art - Omar Dogan @ Udon Studios
Letters - Travis Lanham
Asst. Editor - Kristy Quinn
Editor - Ben Abernathy

Published by WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics.

Release date - October 5, 2005
Cover date - December 2005

Diamond order number - AUG05 0265
Estimated sales - 11,735 copies

THE STORY

The SDF-3 Pioneer orbits the occupied moon of Tirol, the former homeworld of the Robotech Masters. On the surface, Robotech Expeditionary Force Garfish-class cruisers patrol the skies and infantry on foot and mounted on Cyclones sweep the streets of Tiresia, the former capital of the Masters' empire, searching for a traitor.

The door to the Expeditionary Force council chamber is kicked open by a military police officer. "Find and detain General Edwards!" Vice Admiral Rick Hunter shouts from the back as the police sweep the room. Dr. Jean Grant directs Rick's attention to a dead body in the middle of the room. When they take a closer look, Rick notices the uniform coloration matches Edwards's own Ghost Squadron. "Why would Edwards kill one of his own men?" Rick wonders aloud.

An alert on all military channels goes out ordering the arrest of General Edwards. In the catacombs beneath the city, Edwards listens with some interest. "Unit 5 proceeding to Edwards's compound. Units 3 and 9, secure the landing field. He may be trying to make a run for it!" However, Edwards isn't ready to run yet; he taps a button on a nearby console, activating the Invid Brain seized during the Expeditionary Force's counter-invasion of Tirol.

Back in the council chamber, Rick turns the dead Ghost Squadron pilot over and is shocked to see that it's Lynn Kyle, Minmei's cousin. Jean asks what he's doing on Tirol, but Rick worries that if Kyle was here, Minmei probably was as well.

A team of REF soldiers arrives at Edwards's compound and begins to report no sign of the General, when the ground begins to rumble. Before they know it, Invid Inorganics are tearing through the streets; it's an ambush!

The military police report to Rick that there's no sign of anyone here. "You can add murder and kidnapping to the charges against Edwards," Rick says. Jean is surprised that Edwards would resort to something like this. "After being left in charge of captured alien technology for years, I don't think he welcomed the decision to hand authority back over to Dr. Lang. I suspect he was concerned that we would discover--" Rick is cut off by reports of battle with Inorganics at Edwards's compound.

"That should keep them busy for a while," Edwards tells one of his subordinates. "That's our signal to go."

Rick, Jean, and the military police run outside just in time to see an experimental REF battlecruiser tear forth from Edwards's compound. Rick orders someone to get him Commander Vince Grant on the comm, to have him meet them at the landing field. "And notify the SDF-3 in orbit. Tell them to scramble their Veritechs to intercept!"

Aboard Edwards's Icarus, Minmei assures Edwards that Rick will have him shot out of the sky. "With you on board? You two must have had quite a falling out." Edwards tells her to sit tight, and that Hunter certainly can't shoot what he can't see.

Rick, Vince, and Jean pursue Edwards with the Tokugawa. Vince tells Rick that the ground forces have contained the Inorganics, but they can't get a lock on Edwards's ship, as it doesn't appear on their scanners. Rick sees that it's headed straight for the SDF-3. "We have to warn Lisa!"

Aboard the SDF-3, Admiral Lisa Hayes-Hunter assures her worried husband that Wolf Squadron is heading to intercept the Icarus. Wolf Leader Jack Baker radios the Admiral with confirmation of visual contact. "Try to force them down, Baker! Disable the vessel if you can, but do not destroy it! He may have a hostage aboard."

As the Icarus escapes the atmosphere, Edwards is given news that Alpha Fighers are closing to intercept. Edwards orders the launch of the Shadow Fighters. The Alphas close in. Jack orders his men to target the Icarus's engines and use guns only. "We want to bring them down in one piece, not pieces!" Wolf Two, Lt. Daryl Taylor, notes that he can't target the engines with his scanners. "You can see 'em, can't you? Just follow my lead!" As Jack prepares to fire a warning shot across the bridge, the Alpha to his immediate right explodes. Taylor tells Jack that he's got incoming missiles, but Jack can't see them on his scope. As one whizzes past, he radios the squadron to tell them to switch to visual, that their scanners are useless against Edwards's new fighters. "Break formation! Take evasive maneuvers now!" The Shadow Fighters rip the Wolf Squadron to shreds. Taylor's canopy shatters and he's forced to eject. As his Alpha explodes, Jack swings around and switches to Guardian to rescue him. "Wolf Leader to SDF-3, we are unable to intercept the bogeys! Do you copy? They're using some kind of cloaking device, so we can't get a weapons lock! I've lost eight ... nine fighters! We're getting wiped out here!"

Back on the SDF-3, Lisa orders Wolf Squadron to break off their attack and return to base. Asking Rick to forgive her, Lisa orders the firing of the main gun. All of a sudden, a Shadow Fighter appears before the bridge. Lisa quickly orders shields up, but the barrage knocks her off her feet. A bridge tech tells her the reflex cannon will be charged in fifteen seconds, but there's a fold disturbance in sector three. "Invid carrier defolding!" Lisa recognizes the ship -- it's the Invid Regent's flagship! "They're targeting the reflex cannon!" Before Lisa can get an order out, the Invid carrier's claw-hands open up and annihilate the SDF-3's main gun.

Aboard the Tokugawa, Rick Hunter screams in horror. As the Icarus and the Invid Regent's ship fold away, Rick orders Vince to get him to the SDF-3 immediately with a rescue team to check for survivors.

Shortly, Rick sits beside Lisa's bed in the SDF-3's sick bay. Vince reports that the SDF-3 is in bad shape. "There's extensive structural damage and the feedback from the reflex cannon overloaded nearly every relay on the ship and wiped out the fold drives, too. She's not going anywhere for a while, against Edwards, the Regent, or even back to Earth. We're stuck here." Vince notices that Rick doesn't seem to be paying attention, but he is. He's just ... tired.

Back on Tiresia, in the burned-out compound of T.R. Edwards, Dr. Emil Lang, the android Janice, and former Zentraedi Domillan Exedore are investigating the General's computer records. Janice tells the two that Edwards wasn't very thorough in deleting his backups. "According to this, Edwards has developed a form of stealth technology that masks the energy signature of a vessel from detection with some kind of transdimensional shift." Lang is surprised to hear this, as his former colleague Dr. Lazlo Zand assured him that fourth-dimensional reconfiguration was impossible. "But he didn't accomplish this alone," Janice remarks. "He was assisted by some technology he acquired from the Invid." Exedore is appalled. Lang asks Janice if she can make anything else out, but the rest of the data is incomplete, making it impossible for them to reproduce the technology.

At the Expeditionary Force Council chambers, Lang tells the council how Edwards seized the Invid Brain during the Expeditionary Force's initial battle against the Invid on Tirol. Rick is flabbergasted by the fact that as Edwards shouted down the council for its involvement with alien races he was conspiring with the Regent. "Apparently those anomalous signals we've been picking up over the last few months were from Edwards communicating with the Regent," Vince adds. General Gunther Reinhardt is astounded. "Edwards has always been a xenophobe!" he remarks. "Why would he then collude with the very enemy he fought against?" Rick says it's because Edwards has no faith in the council, and believes he's the only one who can protect the Earth, and the only way to do that is by destroying all potential enemies. Reinhardt asks how Edwards got the Shadow Technology. "We don't know," Rick says. "Dr. Lang's team is working on it now." Reinhardt turns to an assembled group of figures at the end of the council table, the Sentinels. "This betrayal is not and should not be representative of our race as a whole. We came to this region of space to make peace with the Robotech Masters. To help them--and you--in the struggle against the Invid, who threaten us all. Now we need your help." The Haydonite Veidt, hovering at the fore, tells Reinhardt that the Sentinels are prepared to help the REF in whatever fashion is necessary. He offers the Haydonites' assistance to Dr. Lang's team researching General Edwards's Shadow Technology, while the Karbarran L'Ron offers the shipbuilding might of his people in reconstructing the SDF-3 and building any additional ships necessary. Reinhardt accepts their aid on behalf of the REF. Watching from the sidelines, Lt. Taylor asks Jack Baker if they can trust these new aliens. "They've been fighting the Invid longer than we have," Jack tells him. "Their homeworlds have just recently been liberated. Their experience and knowledge can come in pretty handy when we take on the Regent again."

With the meeting over, Rick finds Jean and asks her how Lisa is. Jean says that she's been moved to the base infirmary due to all the power fluctuations aboard the SDF-3, but he shouldn't worry. "She's going to recover," Jean assures him. "Thank God for that," Rick says. "You know, I was looking forward to Lisa finally resigning her commission after she found out that she was pregnant, and none too soon it seems. You really can't be an Admiral and a ... mother ..." Rick notices the look on Jean's face. Jean tells him that Lisa lost the baby. As the words reach his ears, Rick's legs start to give way ...

One year passes. A bottle of champagne shatters against the hull of the retrofitted Tokugawa. At a docking facility in Tirolian orbit, Rick shakes Vince's hand and grants him command of the ship. He turns to the assembled crewmen and thanks the Karbarrans for their support. Turning back to Vince, Rick tells him to be careful. "There's no telling what Edwards and the Regent have been doing all this time, but we've got to find out and stop them as soon as possible. I would prefer to send you on this mission with more than this ship, but as soon as the SDF-3 is finished ..." Vince tells Rick not to worry, that with Breetai's Zentraedi forces at his side that shouldn't be a problem. "We're going to get him, Rick. I promise."

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12)
Lisa Hunter (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #3)
Lynn Minmei (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4)
Lynn Kyle (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13, final appearance)
Dr. Emil Lang (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
Exedore (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #5)
Vince Grant (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
Dr. Jean Grant (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #9, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #3)
Jack Baker (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
Janice Em (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12)
T.R. Edwards (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
Veidt (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #13)
L'Ron (last seen in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #5)
Daryl Taylor (first chronological & published appearance, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #4)
Gunther Reinhardt (first chronological appearance, next in Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #5)

Many of the following notes are based on my earlier, more visually detailed observations made in October of 2005 when Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1 was originally released. You can read those notes here.

Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles opens with a giant tease for fans of Jason & John Waltrip's Robotech II: The Sentinels. While it is soon revealed that most of the players have been shuffled about, not to mention the order of events, T.R. Edwards is right where readers of the canceled Academy Comics series last saw him in December 1996, making his escape from Tirol in the wake of, I suppose, Dr. Emil Lang revealing to the Expeditionary Force that he's a traitor. Then again, it is never explicitly mentioned how Edwards was revealed as a traitor; the brief flashback is very vague, only showing a slamming gavel, a blast from a Mars Gallant H-90, a shrieking Minmei, and a falling Lynn Kyle. For all we know, it could have been Edwards's own trial, and not, as depicted in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #11-12, the trial of other, loyal REF personnel engineered by a scheming T.R. Edwards. Also, bear in mind that while the events alluded to in these panels happened in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #12-13, as #13 opened Edwards had already unleashed the Invid Inorganics on Tiresia at the suggestion of the Invid Regent, to much greater effect.

When Rick Hunter was last seen in The Sentinels, he was captaining the Haydonite flagship Ark Angel. His wife Lisa was at his side, and Janice Em was on the bridge. L'Ron was also aboard. Jack Baker was last seen aboard a Haydonite shuttle craft controlled by Veidt over the planet Spheris. Jean Grant was left behind on Haydon IV with the Sterlings to tend to a pregnant Miriya. Dr. Lang, Exedore, and Vince were all on Tirol, at the trial where Edwards was revealed as a turncoat.

Visual nods to the original Sentinels include the appearance of Rick and Jean in the Haydonite armored uniforms given to the Sentinels in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book IV #9 (incorrectly drawn in the early pages, but fixed by their final appearance on page 16), the use of the original psuedo-Zentraedi SDF-3 design until its destruction (colored, for once, to match the original Sentinels animation), and the appearance of Lynn Kyle in a gray Sentinels-era REF uniform. However:

A) While Rick was last seen wearing the Haydonite armored uniform, Jean was never seen wearing one, though she was probably given one (Max and Miriya are last seen wearing the discs that activate the armored uniforms, but never activate them since they decide not to rejoin the Sentinels).

B) The SDF-3, despite looking like the old ship on the outside, now has a spacious bridge identical to General Reinhardt's SDF-4 as opposed to the familiar confined SDF-1-style bridge described in the McKinney novels and drawn by the Waltrips throughout Robotech II: The Sentinels. Also, McKinney had Lisa's bridge crew entirely male in an inverse of Gloval's crew, which was reflected in the Sentinels comics.

C) Lynn Kyle was wearing an REF flightsuit when he was killed in The Sentinels. Also, that's an awfully drab gray uniform, although I suspect the coloration (or lack thereof) be a nod to the black & white Sentinels comics.

The year this takes place in was left intentionally vague. However, we can definitely ballpark it. Following the SDF-3's departure for Tirol in 2022, the opening captions refer to "decades of struggle" leading up to the REF's more-or-less peaceful occupation of Tirol. At most it could be two decades later -- that would result in the story opening in 2042 and Vince's pursuit of Edwards taking place in 2043, leaving the rest of the series to take us to 2044, the end of the Third Robotech War and the opening of the Shadow Chronicles animation. It would also explain Jack Baker's command of his own squadron and his scruffy beard, as well as the more Shadow Chronicles-style look of the pilots' CVR-3 battle armor as compared to the equipment used by the Mars Division in New Generation.

Funny how between publishers this story has apparently leapt from pre-Mars Division (Robotech Masters-era Hovercycles in lieu of Cyclones and flare-shouldered uniforms) to post-Mars Division (fancy neon-trimmed uniforms & Shadow Devices). I love ROBOTECH.

When Rick mentions Edwards's reluctance to turn the captured alien technology he had over to Dr. Lang's teams, that seems to be a direct reference to Lang's request in Sentinels Book Four #11, that Edwards turn the Invid Brain over to Lang's personnel. That's an interesting bit of consistency.

Lynn Minmei's non-appearance here (seen from the back, cropped out of shots) was due to Harmony Gold being unable to settle on a new character design for the forty-something former pop star. In fact, on page 9 a panel was enlarged to crop out her vaguely-drawn face. Since it was decided that we'd likely never see her again in future ROBOTECH animation or comics, however, she is seen in a little more detail in issue #4 ... sort of.

The near-destruction of the SDF-3 has some very definite parallels with the way the Invid crippled the SDF-3, knocking out its reflex furnace and crippling its fold drive, waaaaaaay back in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book I #9, during the initial action against the Invid garrison on Tirol.

The Invid Regent's flagship that cripples the SDF-3 was actually destroyed by a giant apparition of the Robotech Master Zor on Haydon IV, birthed from the rage of Prince Administrator Vowad at the death of his daughter Sarna, in Sentinels Book IV #8. Except, of course, those events aren't canon in this version of continuity ...

Doctor Lazlo Zand is mentioned by Lang. Despite the fact that he was transformed into a giant Flower of Life at the end of the Second Robotech War (see McKinney's novel The Final Nightmare), he pops up next issue. Clearly the reason he wanted Lang to look the other direction when it came to fourth-dimensional reconfiguration is because it totally works and he wanted to have one up on, as he kept ranting about in The Zentraedi Rebellion, "the great Dr. Emil Lang."

General Reinhardt, a big wheel in the final two episodes of ROBOTECH, did not appear in any of the Sentinels comics prior to Prelude. The McKinney novels gave us a character named Gunther Reinhardt, but he was based on a bald and bearded character from the Sentinels animation who was originally going to be named Colonel Adams. However, Macek & Co. renamed the fellow Colonel Reinhardt when the Sentinels video was edited together and rewritten, presumably to tie together the references to a commander named Reinhardt mentioned by Major Carpenter in the Robotech Masters episode "Outsiders." The bald, bearded fellow is seen a few times in the later Sentinels comics during staff meetings and the like, but is never referred to by name, unlike the novels, where we eventually find a General Reinhardt in command of the flagship of the Earth reclamation fleet. While the final novel of the TV adaptations, Symphony of Light, was written with the intention of Reinhardt being the character seen here, if you read the McKinney novels in sequence the implication is that these are both supposed to be the same character. Consider that General Reinhardt in Symphony of Light is never described. (McKinney promotes the Sentinels animation's Reinhardt to Brigadier General in his first appearance, much in the same way "Major General Hunter" is a Vice Admiral in the novels and "Colonel Edwards" is likewise a Major General.)

When the assembled Sentinels are shown, they include characters who appear to be Burak, Kami (redesigned with a more compact breathing apparatus and and a sharper, more dangerous look), Baldan, and Gnea. However, since Burak was slated to be killed off in the liberation of Peryton and Baldan was killed in Robotech II: The Sentinels Book III #3, and these characters go unnamed, it might not be them. (Also, with the passage of so many years, the Sphersian could very well be Baldan II, who was just a boy when we last saw him in the Sentinels comics.)

When the year passes, Rick's hair turns all white, the first stage of his transformation into the Rick Hunter we see in the Shadow Chronicles animation. Considering the fact that his arch enemy ran off with an experimental starship and brand new fighters invisible to radar, kidnapped his old girlfriend, seriously injured his wife, killed his unborn child, and crippled his flagship, I don't blame him. (Okay, half that was the Regent, but it was all in service to Edwards's master plan.) Until he finds out about the unborn child thing, though, Rick seems to give Edwards the benefit of the doubt, hinting at how Prelude Edwards is a very different animal than maniacal, grinning, evil Sentinels Edwards.

The ship that Vince Grant is given command of, the Tokugawa, was also put under his command in the opening chapter of McKinney's last Sentinels novel, Rubicon. Previously it had been commanded by one Commodore Renquist, a subordinate of T.R. Edwards, and was used to pursue Zentraedi Commander Breetai when he stole the monopole ore from the Zentraedi mining facility over Fantoma. In the Sentinels comics this happened in Book IV #2. However, there the Tokugawa was depicted as an Izumo-class vessel, same as the SDF-4 Liberator, not a ... well, Tokugawa-class vessel, like Major Carpenter's Recon-1. Still, it's an established ship in the old Sentinels canon, making for a nice bit of consistency.

Next issue

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles (WildStorm/DC Comics)

2007-01-02T04:34:00.000-06:00

Five-issue mini-series / October 2005 - January 2006
Story by Tommy Yune

There are those who will call me a traitor ... but they won't be writing the history books.

THE LOWDOWN

In 2022, the SDF-3 Pioneer Mission went to the stars and beyond in search of the homeworld of the Robotech Masters in order to prevent a second Robotech War on Earth. Having failed that goal, they nonetheless reached a state of uneasy peace on the Masters' homeworld of Tirol after defeating a garrison left behind by the Masters' long-time foes, the Invid. Now the Robotech Expeditionary Force finds itself divided, pitted against forces under the command of the renegade General T.R. Edwards and equipped with experimental stealth technology and new weapons against which the bulk of the REF is defenseless. Making matters worse, Edwards has allied himself with the Invid Regent, who covered Edwards's escape by all but destroying the REF's flagship, the SDF-3. With the help of their own alien allies, the Sentinels, the Expeditionary Force prepares for a climactic battle that will finally put to rest demons decades old.

BACKGROUND INFO

Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles is a series designed to serve many masters, but is too short to effectively do it all. First of all, it marks the return of Robotech II: The Sentinels artists Jason & John Waltrip to the franchise after nine long years. Indeed, one of the goals with this series as defined by Harmony Gold Creative Director Tommy Yune was to give them a chance to tie up the loose ends of their adaptation of Sentinels. However, as the title of the series makes obvious, there is another, more pressing master to serve -- the Shadow Chronicles animation. Consequently, Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles acts as a bridge between the two works, carrying over certain characters, elements, and plot points from the Waltrips' version of The Sentinels and guiding them into the world of the new animation. Considering the fact that the Waltrips were working in a ROBOTECH universe built along the guidelines of the Jack McKinney Sentinels novels and now found themselves transplanting their plot points into the new, modern Robotech.com timeline, the result is something of an unclear hodge-podge, picking up only the major thread of the final issue of The Sentinels -- the escape of General T.R. Edwards and his forces -- and considering the rest of the story moot. The campaign to liberate the worlds of the Sentinels is established as long over, the traitorous Invid scientist Tesla is nowhere to be found, and while the Invid Regent is still at large the Expeditionary Force seems to consider him and his forces a lesser threat, weakened and driven back to Optera.

Despite being trained artists rather than writers, the Waltrips were originally only brought in to write Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Omar Dogan of Udon Studios, who previously worked on the mecha art on Invasion, handled the art for most of the series, giving it a look somewhere between traditional American comic art and the ROBOTECH series's anime roots. All of the characters and uniforms were redesigned to match the style of the Shadow Chronicles film; Dogan himself redesigned Jack Baker, giving him an older look to go with his new responsibilities, and aged Long Vo's redesigned T.R. Edwards from From The Stars to bring him closer to the familiar cowled General Edwards of The Sentinels. Gone are the flare-shouldered harnesses of the Sentinels era, and in their place are more sensible, New Generation-style jumpsuits and Macross-style uniform jackets. The only real holdover is the in-jokey presence of the Haydonite armored uniforms the Waltrips designed for Sentinels Book IV during the first half of issue #1; Rick Hunter and Jean Grant are seen wearing them throughout the opening scenes, though no reason is given in-story for them.

Prelude was originally going to be released biweekly; the first two issues came out on that schedule, but the plan was for the last issue to come out right before the Shadow Chronicles DVD in December of 2005. Unfortunately, the distribution deal that was being taken into consideration when the first two issues of the series were in production fell through, meaning that the rapid schedule no longer needed to be maintained. As a consequence, issues #3-5 were released monthly. Despite this, Omar Dogan fell behind on drawing issue #4 -- I seem to recall hearing that the holidays slowed him down -- and rather than have the book be delayed, Jason & John Waltrip were recruited to draw the final act of the Edwards storyline, which included the final eight pages of issue #4 and the first seven pages of issue #5. Featured in those pages is a major cliffhanger invented by the Waltrips for their version of The Sentinels; it's a nice touch that they were given the opportunity to fully realize this sequence.

Sales of the series in the direct market were dismal; despite a year passing between ROBOTECH comic series, Prelude quickly picked up right where Invasion's falling sales figures left off. The direct market stores clearly no longer had any faith in the ROBOTECH name to sell books, and given the fact that this series in particular requires a certain amount of hardcore ROBOTECH fan knowledge to make any sense whatsoever, I almost don't blame them.

Issues #2-5 each contain two pages of material relating to the production of the Shadow Chronicles film, very much like a modern version of the animation production process walkthrough presented in Carl Macek's Robotech Art 3: The Sentinels, complete with character and mecha model sheets. Interestingly, some of which relate only to the Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles storyline as opposed to the Shadow Chronicles film, such as pre-Shadow Chronicles uniform designs and unique mecha.

PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES

Issue 1 -- Part One: The Enemy Within
Issue 2 -- Part Two: Retribution
Issue 3 -- Part Three: Necessary Evil
Issue 4 -- Part Four: Ghosts of the Past
Issue 5 -- Part Five: The Children of the Shadows

Robotech Invid War #2 (of 18)

2007-01-02T02:28:00.000-06:00

"Salvation Run"

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 - June 17, 1992
Cover date - June 1992

THE STORY

The Invid Invasion of Earth begins has begun. Their first act is to wipe out all planetary defenses in orbit, including the recently returned Robotech Factory Satellite. They then turn to planetside defenses. Communication lines between terrestrial bases are shattered by electromagnetic pulses from above, and the few remaining Southern Cross forces that rise up to stop the new menace are crushed by the Invid's overwhelming might. Watching from above, the crew of Moon Base ALuCE II, an underground base constructed shortly after the defeat of the Robotech Masters, could do only that without communications from the mother planet. In a way, the Invid overlords returned a lost sense of stability to the fractured and factionalized world. They put the survivors work in their hives, where the Invid began their Great Work.

It is now a cold, dark March evening in the year 2033 C.E. At the former United Earth Government base known as Vahalla, Jonathan Wolff's slumber is interrupted by a call informing him of a strong transmission coming from a lone fighter returning to Earth. With no sign of Invid interference, Wolff heads down to establish contact.

At the communications center, Wolff asks Major Carpenter how they're doing. "So far, so good. She's at 900 kilometers and descending," Carpenter says. Wolff radios the fighter, designated Legioss 3, and identifies himself. The transmission is kind of hazy. "What's the status of Moon Base ALuCE?" Wolff asks. Legioss 3 tells him they're holding their own, but it's a long story. She was intending on landing at Pinnacle Base, but she says Carpenter told her that wouldn't be safe. Wolff tells her that they haven't heard from Pinnacle since the night of the invasion; for all they know the UEG no longer exists. Legioss 3 isn't surprised.

At that moment, a team of Invid Shock Troopers rise through the atmosphere to attack Legioss 3. She switches her Alpha to Battloid and blasts one with her gun pod. Another one passes her by, swiping at one of her boosters and frying it. Legioss 3 jettisons the others and they detonate, destroying two Invid.

Back at Vahalla, Wolff asks if they can supply any backup, but he's told they can't do it fast enough. Legioss 3 radios back and tells she can probably lose the last of the Invid in reentry. Radio contact is lost as the Alpha descends into the atmosphere, and Wolff asks if they can figure out where Legioss 3 is going to touch down. "I think so ... grid reference MK-41." Wolff recognizes that as the territory of the Defoliators, an anti-Robotechnology group.

The following day, Wolff, Carpenter, and a pair of foragers take a jeep out into the wastelands in order to find Legioss 3. "We need to get in, get the pilot, and get out without attracting any attention," Wolff says. Norvell, one of the foragers, asks Wolff what will happen if the Defoliators get the pilot first. Wolff fears it won't be as simple as a mere trade; the leader of the Defoliators has a personal dispute with Wolff. "When I left for Tirol back in 2020, I left my wife and son here on Earth. We had split up, although we never officially got divorced. When I returned last year, I tried to contact them ... but they had moved out of our old home. I didn't know whether they were dead or alive ... and before long, I got bogged down in trying to create an anti-Invid resistance. The remainder of the United Earth Government had moved to an underground complex in the Rockies called Pinnacle Base. We decided to hold a summit conference there, with as many factions as we could. The Defoliators was one of the factions. They believed that Earth would be safe if we destroyed all our Protoculture and all our Flowers of Life." Norvell asks how this got personal. "My son, Johnny, is the leader of the Defoliators. He didn't arrive until after the conference officially started. On the SDF-3, Dr. Lang had told me what to expect, but I really didn't believe it until I saw it. When I had left Earth, Johnny was six. I had aged only a couple of years aboard the SDF-3, but thirteen years had passed on Earth. Johnny was now a man. What's more, he was his own man."

Carpenter interrupts Wolff's story to point out that they've got company -- an old Cestus battlesuit, probably from the Defoliators. Norvell floors the accelerator, and the Cestus tries to blast them. As the foragers argue, a shot strikes right in front of them. Carpenter asks if they fight or run, but Wolff says neither. "If we surrender, we stand a better chance of being taken to where they're holding the pilot." They stop the jeep, raise their hands, and the Cestus pilot radios for another vehicle to pick them up and take them the rest of the way, as prisoners. Staring out at the barren land behind him, Wolff thinks back to his encounter with his son. "How can you possibly believe this?" he had asked. "Protoculture is the only weapon we've got against the Invid." "But the Protoculture is what's drawing the Invid to Earth!" Johnny countered. "You said that yourself! If we destroy the Protoculture, they'll go someplace else!" Wolff asked Johnny for his help to try and pull the factions together before the Invid, but Johnny refused. "You ran out on Mom and me! You left us here to face the Masters, and the gangs and metrobosses. And now you expect me to treat you like my father! You're not my father! I don't even know who you are!"

Carpenter taps Wolff on the shoulder and tells him they've arrived. Their destination appears to be a temporary camp made up of a few tents and a large military transport. While the Defoliators have found the Alpha, the pilot's location is a mystery. The Defoliators lead Wolff, Carpenter, and the foragers to their transport, when Wolff suddenly recognizes one of them as Gary Hauser, a colleague of Johnny's. Wolff asks how Catherine and Johnny are. Hauser has some bad news. "John and his mother were captured in an Invid raid on Cutlerville ... we don't know whether they're alive or dead." Wolff begins to tear up, but Hauser says there are more pressing concerns. "I want you to tell me everything you know about that Alpha." The foragers act like they're in some sort of bad comedy routine, but Hauser demands to know if the Alpha is one of Wolff's, and more importantly, where the pilot is. Just then, someone blasts the Defoliators' transport, knocking Hauser unconscious. Carpenter quickly grabs a gun and orders the team to move, when another blast strikes the transport. Wolff suddenly notices a soldier in Cyclone armor behind them -- the pilot of Legioss 3, Bekka Cade. She tells the four to get into the truck. Norvell takes the wheel and as the Alpha goes up in flames, the truck speeds away.

The following morning, with the Defoliators off their tail, Wolff and company stop the truck and rendezvous with Lt. Cade. She tells Wolff that she's sorry about his family and asks if there's anything she can do. "I'm not sure there's anything anyone can do. Catherine and Johnny may be dead. They may be slaves at one of those Protoculture farms. The Invid may be planning to use them to reach me. I've fought the Invid before. Anything is possible." Carpenter asks if they can expect any help from ALuCE II. She tells him that's why she came down to Earth. "When the Factory Satellite started up again last year, a percentage of all the mecha produced were sent to ALuCE II as a reserve force. We hated just sitting and watching during the invasion, but those were our orders. But now that the situation's stabilized a little, we want to launch a full-scale assault on Reflex Point, the Invid headquarters. My mission is to reestablish contact with ALuCE II and to coordinate an attack with the United Earth Government ... or what's left of it." Wolff notices a shimmering of light in the distance and realizes what it is. He leaps out of the way and tells Bekka to look out as a shot rings out. She lowers her visor and speeds off after him. Wolff tells her to take him alive if possible.

Mere minutes later, Bekka leads her prisoner back to the truck. It's Gavin Murdock, former leader of the ex-Southern Cross unit known as the Stone Men. Wolff explains to his companions that Murdock believes Wolff betrayed him to the GMP. While this isn't the case, Wolff has no way to prove it. Carpenter asks what to do with him, and Wolff says to take his firearms from him and let him go. "I never intended to hurt him or his people," Wolff says. "Maybe now he'll believe it." Murdock's still pretty angry. "You are hard to please, aren't you?" Wolff says. "Suppose I gave you another choice. Suppose I give you a chance to do something good with all that anger ... there's a big assault against the Invid coming, and I'm going to need men. Men I can trust. You in?" Murdock hesitates for a moment, but joins up. Carpenter asks if this is a good idea, and while Wolff has his doubts, he does want to convince Murdock that he's telling the truth. "Besides," he adds, "we're going to need all the help we can get."

NOTES

TIMELINE - Jack McKinney novels timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Jonathan Wolff
John Carpenter (last seen in Robotech Masters #10)
Bekka Cade (first published appearance, last seen in Invid War #6)
Norvell
Parkes (final appearance)
Gavin Murdock
John "Johnny" Wolff (last seen in The Malcontent Uprisings #9, final appearance)
Gary Hauser (first chronological & published appearance)

Actually, while this is the last we see of the forager who has, up to now, been referred to as Parkes, the next time we see Norvell he's calling himself Parkes; he goes by that name until the last time we see him in Invid War #4.

Much like most of the pre-Return to Macross work of Bill Spangler, this takes place firmly within the timeline of the ROBOTECH novels by Brian Daley and James Luceno working under the pen name Jack McKinney. The most obvious touchstone is Wolff's quote of 2020 as the year he left for Tirol, taken from the Sentinels novels. The destruction of the Factory Satellite at the hands of the Invid early on also comes straight from McKinney, specifically their adaptation of the New Generation TV series. At the same time, due to the date quoted by Wolff as well as the use of McKinney's "five year fold" plot point to make Johnny Wolff as old as he is compared to his father, the story doesn't work in the context of the more modern material. I've never been a big fan of the idea that the fold drives used by the Expeditionary Force keep taking five years, but Spangler and Eldred use it very effectively in this chapter of Jonathan Wolff's most unfortunate story arc.

The Cestus Battlesuit that appears here is a Shoji Kawamori creation, designed for Super Dimension Fortress Macross when it was still in the planning stages under the title Battle City Megaroad, back in 1980. It's actually a very early predecessor to the VF-1 Valkyrie, and is even supposed to be able to transform into a sort of Fighter mode with the cannon on the right arm as the nose of the jet. If you look closely at the art here, there's an "MPM" on the left arm, which I think stands for "Macross Perfect Memory," the artbook that Eldred and/or Spangler would have most likely seen it in back in 1992.

For the few of you who aren't aware by now, the term "Legioss," used here as Bekka Cade's callsign, is actually the proper name for the Alpha Fighter in the original Japanese TV series Genesis Climber Mospeada, the program that was dubbed into English and rewritten to create the New Generation episodes of ROBOTECH. Later material, most notably the novel Before The Invid Storm, appropriates the term as the name of a docked Alpha and Beta Fighter, but here Bekka is using a generic booster pack.

This issue introduces Moon Base ALuCE II, which presumably corresponds with the base seen at the end of the ROBOTECH TV series and referred to simply as ALuCE in the Shadow Chronicles film. Despite being equipped with Cyclones and Alphas, here it is a Southern Cross installation, as its predecessor was following its seizure by the military.

I have to give Spangler & Eldred points for their clever use of the Factory Satellite as a plot point; since it was the staging base for the SDF-3 mission, it's only natural that it might still contain machinery capable of producing Alpha Fighters. On the other hand, I'm not too keen on the idea of bringing back the Factory Satellite only to have it destroyed by the Invid. Then again, as I pointed out above, Spangler was only following McKinney's lead with that one. It does beg the question though, if the Factory Satellite met such an end, what then of Space Station Liberty? Did it just fold away (unlikely, as McKinney implies that only the REF had fold-capable ships during the Second Robotech War), or was it destroyed as well?

As an amusing aside, in the ROBOTECH TV series both Jonathan Wolff and John Carpenter are played by the same actor, Thomas Wyner.

Previous issue | Next issue

Robotech: Vermilion (Antarctic Press)

2007-01-02T01:35:00.000-06:00

Bimonthly mini-series / August 1997 - February 1998
By Duc Tran

After witnessing the true power and vastness of the Zentraedi fleet, I am convinced it is only a matter of time before the Earth is destroyed. Your problem is the SDF-1. I can deliver it to you, for a price ...

THE LOWDOWN

The SDF-1's journey back to Earth is at an end, and all's been quiet over the Pacific for a week now. Lt. Rick Hunter of the Vermilion team has been spending some of his time breaking in a new Veritech pilot, Hiro Amano. During a training session in the skies far from the SDF-1, Hunter leaves Amano behind to continue practicing his manevuers, a critical error in judgment that results in Amano's disappearance. With some help from his mentor, Roy Fokker, Hunter is given access to an experimental long-range radar plane to find his missing trainee. What he finds instead is a conspiracy involving a traitorous general more interested in maintaining his family's military legacy than the survival of mankind, a like-minded Veritech squadron equipped with deadly new equipment, and the defectors' unpredictable ally ... the Zentraedi warlord Khyron.

BACKGROUND INFO

When the first issue of this series hit the comic racks shortly before Labor Day of 1997, I'd never even heard of it. The first issue's cover doesn't say much except that it apparently stars Rick Hunter, taking fashion tips from Megazone 23's Shogo, in the good old First Robotech War days. Indeed, aside from issue 2's cover, the covers only feature Rick Hunter and either an orangish VF-series Veritech or the SDF-1. Nice art, but not much meat there.

While the first issue of Duc Tran's four-issue story runs a mere thirteen story pages (the remainder is a clunky New Generation recap), it does manage to capture a very traditional manga-style feel, down to the speedlines, the effective gray tone work, and even the shape of the word balloons (nubs pointing to the speaker rather than the pointed tails that American comics have). The character designs are also fairly impressive, suggesting what the Macross cast might look like were they redesigned by Evangelion's Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. The new characters are interesting, if shallowly scripted -- like many of the new characters that Antarctic's books introduced, they left me wanting at least some additional background on them, or better, further adventures featuring the cast along the lines of Cyberpirates lead Terry Weston's appearances in McKinney's The Masters' Gambit or his short-lived return in Bill Spangler and Tim Eldred's Invid War.

Like many other ROBOTECH mini-series, despite a number of logistical flaws and a very rushed ending that juxtaposes a disturbing death with super deformed nonsense, this is a fairly entertaining little tale, even with the stigma of being an Antarctic Press Macross side-story.

VERMILION

Issue 1 -- Vermilion
Issue 2 -- Vermilion Ver. 2
Issue 3 -- Vermilion 3
Issue 4 -- Vermilion 4

Invid War: Aftermath (Eternity/Malibu Graphics, Academy Comics)

2006-08-13T02:25:00.002-05:00

Regular series / November 1993 - May 1995
Created by Bruce Lewis

And at that moment, I knew where my true loyalty lay. Not with the service, or with Belmont, or even with Scott; then and there I pledged allegiance to the fact that her love was all that mattered. Farewell, lonely soldier boy.

THE LOWDOWN

Ten years have passed since the final battle at Reflex Point. The former freedom fighters who have been left behind on Earth have made their home at an abandoned resort town called Belmont. Over the years, Belmont has become a sort of utopian democracy, filled with people of every race and creed. It would have remained that way but for the return of prodigal son Scott Bernard, last seen taking off to find Admiral Rick Hunter and the SDF-3 a decade ago.

Bernard is among friends again, but he certainly doesn't act like it. By his side stands a mysterious black-haired woman who has become his most trusted confindant; his old friends are treated as little more than pawns. He soon reorganizes the Robotech Defense Force within Belmont's walls, and before long the liberal democracy becomes a military dictatorship with Bernard as its figurehead, former GMP head Nova Satori as its true ruler, and mysteriously scarred Rook Bartley as its chief enforcer.

Before long, a group of Zentraedi refugees led by Ganz Hohsq finds its way to Belmont's now-closed borders. Turned away by Bartley's troops, the Iron Butterflies, the Zentraedi kidnap the Invid princess Sera and take up camp in an abandoned -- and radioactive -- RDF base called Castle Fate, preparing to take control of Belmont's fertile North Fields by force if necessary.

In the middle of all this stand Lancer, Rand, Annie, and Lunk, opponents of the new military state and enemies of the Zentraedi aggressors, willing to risk their lives one more time for their friends and for the future of humanity.

BACKGROUND INFO

When Bill Spangler and Tim Eldred decided to finally put Invid War to rest after eighteen issues, Malibu Graphics graphic designer Bruce Lewis was handed the surviving cast of the series and told to pick up where the Invid War series -- and by extension, the original ROBOTECH TV series -- left off. Originally, Lewis and Dave Lanphear came up with a "fourth generation" idea they called MegaRoad (after the name given to the SDF-2 in Japanese Macross canon), but Eternity editorial told the two they'd rather stay with the established ROBOTECH cast, so Bruce and Dave decided to work within the timeframe prior to their story -- the Aftermath of the ROBOTECH wars. Yet, Lewis didn't want to simply adapt Jack McKinney's final Robotech novel, The End of the Circle, or even use the Earth that McKinney's generally space-based novel left behind. Part of the reasoning behind this move was that so much had been done in the Invid War comic series that simply was not in the novels, and Lewis did not wish to ignore all that; additionally, Ballantine Books owned the full rights to EotC and, as Lewis explained in the letters page for the third issue of Aftermath, Eternity had no legal right to adapt it.

The significance of this is that the storyline he developed showed that there was room for official ROBOTECH stories that weren't in step with the novels, which appear to have been accepted as series gospel by the most vocal segment of ROBOTECH fandom during much of the 1990's. Of course, where there is change there is controversy, and Invid War: Aftermath quickly became the most controversial ROBOTECH title in Eternity's lineup. It was not only because of the shake-up in the continuity, however; some objected to Lewis's use of the ROBOTECH cast and storyline as a soapbox for his then-liberal personal ideology. Despite this, he said in various forums that mail about the book was 5:1 positive, so controversy aside, the most vocal segment of Aftermath's readership was enjoying it, at least.

Lewis always stated that the goal with Aftermath was to do a story about characters rather than giant robots. Of course, this being ROBOTECH, the giant robots were sure to appear eventually, but in taking the series away from a full-scale war, he did find room to flesh out the cast, test their bonds of friendship, and create a dramatic new chapter in the ongoing saga of ROBOTECH.

Aftermath ran for six issues at Eternity, pretty much tying up the conflict at Belmont with a neat bow, but leaving plenty of room for more adventures concerning the survivors of the third generation of ROBOTECH. When the license moved to Academy Comics, writer Rikki Simons and artist Tavisha Wolfgarth took over Aftermath for three issues, while Bruce Lewis only found time at Academy's start to contribute a one-shot shading in the life story of Aftermath's chief "villain" Hohsq Ma'alduk. The three Aftermath issues contributed by Rikki and Wolfgarth serve as a prelude to their Clone series, chronicling Lancer and Annie's adventures on the Isle of the IHE (Immuno Heredity Enigma) prior to the lift-off of the Super Dimensional Fortress Mordecai. At once more and less conventional than earlier Aftermath adventures, it lacked the lengthy exposition and footnotes of Lewis' work, but featured a cast of arrogant, haughty new characters who treated the established cast, little more than bit players in these three issues, with a sense of disdain. Furthermore, while the events going on felt somewhat more in step with the feel of the ROBOTECH TV series, the backstory behind the Isle of the IHE and the SDF-M felt phony and fanfiction-like in a way that Lewis's work -- most notably the Hohsq one-shot that was released simultaneously with Tavicat's work -- never did.

With Rikki and Wolfgarth continuing the chronciles of the SDF-M and the IHE in the Clone regular series, Lewis picked up where they left off with what would be the final four issues of his contribution to the ROBOTECH saga. He decided that henceforth Aftermath would be split into two distinct "sagas" -- one following Scott Bernard and his MEGARoad convoy across the country as it spread technology to the masses; and one staying put in Belmont, following the day-to-day lives of Sera, Lancer, Lunk, Rand, and Annie as well as the rest of Belmont's fluctuating population. Only two installments of each were actually produced, and the final issue contained a truncated, broken twelve page story and an eleven page retrospective article. It is obvious in the last few issues of Aftermath that Bruce Lewis had something major planned -- something about Zentraedi magical girls from the moon and a spy within the MEGARoad organization -- but due to an increased workload in his own comic studio, he ended it then and there. The article, by the psuedonymous "Matt A. Kudasai", hinted that Lewis did want to eventually return to ROBOTECH, but as the years pass by it looks increasingly unlikely that we'll ever get another look at the world of the Aftermath.

AFTERMATH

Issue 1 -- Belmont
Issue 2 -- Exile
Issue 3 -- Iron Butterfly
Issue 4 -- Fate
Issue 5 -- Lancer
Issue 6 -- Yellow Belmont

Hohsq's Story: A Robotech Romance

Issue 7 -- The Threadbare Heart: Part 1
Issue 8 -- The Threadbare Heart: Part 2
Issue 9 -- The Threadbare Heart: Part 3

Issue 10 -- Four Eyes
Issue 11 -- Burt Finds A Job
Issue 12 -- Ghost Machine
Issue 13 -- The Girl in the Moon

COLLECTIONS

Robotech: The Threadbare Heart Collection

Published by Academy Comics, this collects the story pages from Invid War: Aftermath #7 - 9 in their entirety. It features an introduction by writer Rosearik Rikki Simons; three pages of supplementary data on the science and technology of the IHE, including the Super Dimensional Fortress Mordecai, the Xalon Process, and Spleen Clones; and an original painting of Dr. Gilles Vaudell by Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons.

Note that this is the only trade paperback collection of Aftermath ever published and it collects the only three issues of the series not written and drawn by series creator Bruce Lewis.

Robotech: Clone (Academy Comics)

2006-08-13T01:14:00.001-05:00

Regular series / December 1994 - August 1995, February 1996
Created by Rikki Simons & Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons

The Mordecai shall become the great father, forever seeding the universe with the souls of colossal laborers of art, mind and invention. And we shall unite to be known as the Empire of the Eye.

THE LOWDOWN

It began as the dream of one man, the wealthy Dr. Gilles Vaudell. In the early 21st century, as the Robotech Defense Force toiled to understand the secrets of the Super Dimension Fortress One, Vaudell and his wife, Demont, along with a cadre of well-trained and well-paid operatives, did the same from their base of operations on the Isle of the IHE (Immuno Heredity Enigma).

Forty years and three Robotech Wars later, Vaudell's dream became a reality. He had for himself a ship, the Super Dimensional Fortress Mordecai, and a crew of loyalists and clones. He had a plan, the "First Manifesto," to populate the Andromeda Galaxy with colonies of clones raised by Mordecai citizens. And he had immortality--a method he discovered called the Xalon Process provided him and his people with the opportunity to watch their plans unfold over the next several generations.

However, once Vaudell's ship folded for Andromeda, he soon discovered what the rest of the Earth already knew--that wherever Robotechnology goes, war soon follows. As the flames of battle began to scorch his mighty fortress, the question struck him:

"Does being immortal mean only this: that the only death I should fear is a violent death?"

BACKGROUND INFO

Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons' Clone was the first Harmony Gold-authorized attempt made to create a new generation of characters in an all-new series of adventures beyond the end of the original ROBOTECH TV series. Of course, Harmony Gold had absolutely nothing to do with it short of signing off on it; it spun out of Simons and Wolfgarth-Simons' three-issue stint on Aftermath, in which they introduced ROBOTECH fans to Gilles, Demont, and the Isle of the IHE. In a way, it is the antithesis of subsequent licensee Antarctic Press's take on ROBOTECH; Clone concerns the continuing adventures of an all-new cast of characters in an unfamiliar place fighting with and being manipulated by all-new alien races.

Despite an extremely labored premise, Clone comes off as one of Academy's more professional efforts, with fantastic, distinctive character designs by Wolfgarth-Simons, striking mechanical stylings by Simons and John Scharmen, interesting twists that seek to explain and explore aspects of the nature of Protoculture, and a fascinating cast of diverse characters. The surface of most of these characters had barely been scratched, however, when Clone started to peter out at issue #5 with a well illustrated but lackluster prose wrap-up of sorts following a fantastic character-driven side story. Despite the questionable quality of its text, though, Clone was headed in a very epic direction at its end. This direction would have remained in the Andromeda Galaxy had Clone's forebearer, Aftermath, not ended prematurely. However, with Bruce Lewis's rushed conclusion to his own take on the ROBOTECH universe in the years following the TV series, Simons retroactively removed Lewis's Aftermath from the Clone timeline, turning it into a fictional storyline written by The New Generation's Rand, and then set forth plans to bring the SDF-M back to its homeworld in an illustrated prose sequel entitled Mordecai. It is ironic that after being stripped of Lewis's poorly concluded storylines, Simons' work would not even be graced with an ending, rushed or otherwise; a second issue of Mordecai was in the works, but was delayed and then cancelled when Academy Comics lost the ROBOTECH comic book license at the end of 1996.

CLONE

Issue 0 -- The Dialect of Duality Part 1
Issue 1 -- The Dialect of Duality Part 2
Issue 2 -- The Dialect of Duality Part 3
Issue 3 -- The Dialect of Duality Part 4
Issue 4 -- The Dialect of Duality Part 5

Special 1 -- Youth Inertia

Issue 5 -- Cradlesong

MORDECAI

Issue 1

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One #1

2006-08-08T03:54:00.000-05:00

"A New Threat"

Writers - Tom Mason & Chris Ulm
Artwork - Jason Waltrip
Letters - Clem Robins
Cover Illustration - Jason Waltrip
Cover Colors - Scott Bieser
Editor in Chief - Chris Ulm
Creative Director - Tom Mason

Published by Eternity Comics, a division of Malibu Graphics, Inc.

Cover date - November 1988

THE STORY

On the broken world of Tirol, third moon of the planet Fantoma, a woman runs through the streets, cradling her child in her arms and crying for help. As an unseen creature backs her into a corner, she insists that she has done nothing, but her pursuer does not listen. A blast of searing energy washes over her and her infant, turning them and the walls behind them into dust. Her pursuer is revealed to be an Invid Shock Trooper, who pauses to examine its fallen prey. The Invid have found their old foes, the Robotech Masters, to be a far weaker opponent than they had anticipated. With this knowledge, they are now ready to begin their full-scale invasion of Tirol.

Far, far away, on the planet Earth, in the planet's unofficial capital city of Monument, a voyage nine years in the making is getting underway. Lisa Hayes races down a corridor as a voice behind her calls her name. The voice belongs to Dr. Emil Lang, who tells her he was sure she'd already be in the control room. She replies that she just had some last-minute wedding details to attend to. Lang asks if she's nervous, but Lisa says that between the launch and the final wedding plans she's far too busy to be nervous. He then asks about Rick, who seems unusually edgy to him. "Rick's put nine years of work into rebuilding the SDF-3. If he's not nervous now, he'll never be." However, as Lang starts to walk ahead of her, Lisa wonders if it's the wedding that Rick's worried about.

The shuttle lifts off, and in a conference room, the key players in the SDF-3's mission to Tirol go over some last minute concerns. Rick Hunter, staring out the window into the darkness of space, tells the others to keep their fingers crossed, as they'll soon find out whether nine years of work has been enough. Colonel Jonathan Wolff tells Rick he hopes that Exedore is right, as he's always found the strategy of turning the SDF-3 into a "Trojan Horse" a trifle odd. "By disguising the ship and loading it down with the most powerful mecha in our arsenal, I hope we haven't undermined the diplomatic thrust of the mission." Exedore still believes that, after studying Earth's military history, this particular strategy seems to be the most appropriate in dealing with the Robotech Masters. He asks Rick if he agrees, but Rick says he hasn't given it much thought lately. "I wish you would, Rick," Dr. Lang says as he enters the room with Lisa. "As commander of the Robotech Expeditionary Force, you might agree it's well worth your time. There is always the potential for war with the Robotech Masters. I hope we can settle our differences peacefully, but we need a plan if diplomacy fails." Wolff points out that given the fact that the ship is loaded with the latest and most powerful mecha the RDF has developed, they should be ready for anything should things get heated. Besides that, he points out that the SDF-3 looks more like a Zentraedi vessel now than it did when it was found on Macross twenty years ago. Lang only hopes the Masters will be fooled. "It's irrelevant, gentlemen," Rick notes. "First we've got to get to their homeworld. We don't know if the SDF-3 can even fold into hyperspace yet. And if it does, there's no guarantee that we'll come out where we want to. We are about to embark on a trip to the unknown, a trip to meet our destiny head on ... to face a new threat. I just hope we're prepared." At that moment, they are informed that they've got a visual on the Factory Satellite. Most of the group stands to take a look at the giant Zentraedi factory, but Vince Grant calls Dr. Lang aside to talk about Rick. "He's been acting strange lately. Jean, my wife, said he didn't say a word during his medical examination." Lang tells Vince that it's an important day for Rick, the culmination of years of work on the SDF-3, and not only that but he has a lot to think about before marrying a fellow RDF admiral. "I know," Vince says, "and I wish Claudia and Roy had lived to see this." Lang tells him they can't live in the past, though they all miss Claudia, and Roy was just like a brother to Rick. Max Sterling comes up behind Rick and Lisa and asks if they're forgetting something. Lisa asks what that would be. "We've got to give our pal the best bachelor party in the history of the RDF!" he exclaims, much to Lisa's frustration and Rick's amusement. Wolff asks if that's allowed, as he thought there wasn't any civilian life on-board the repair station. "There didn't used to be," Max tells him, "but things have changed since Commander Reno was overthrown."

As the shuttle begins docking procedures, General T.R. Edwards asks his aide Benson what he knows of Rick Hunter. "Well, sir, I know he was the leader of the Skull Squadron during the war, that he was commander of the RDF after the destruction of the first Super Dimensional Fortress ... and that he's about to marry Admiral Lisa Hayes ..." Edwards says he can stop there, and that he admires a man with a good memory. "It won't be long before we see exactly what the famous Rick Hunter is made of. If he's anything like his pal Fokker, it shouldn't be too difficult to put our plan into action." Benson asks how he figures that, and Edwards tells him he's waited quite a while for the right moment to seize control of the military, and has studied every variable. Still, Benson tells him the Masters could become a problem. Edwards assures him that he'll be able to deal with them, or any other alien force, when the time is right. "But Rick Hunter could ruin everything. If I had my way, he'd still be on Earth and I'd be in charge of this mission. That's why he's got to be taken care of first. That's where you come in." Edwards tells Benson that he is to first read Hunter's file, then stick close to him, figure out all he can about the way Hunter thinks, how he responds to situations. "Many people have tried to get the best of Hunter, sir, and most ..." Benson starts. "And most have failed!" Edwards finishes for him. "I've been a soldier longer than Hunter's been alive! And I'll still be a soldier long after he's dead! Is that clear?" Frightened, Benson nods, telling Edwards he can count on him.

Back over Tirol, the second wave of Invid forces arrive. Clam-shaped Mollusk carriers release hordes of Invid Armored Scouts, which descend to the planet's surface and storm the capital city of Tiresia. The city begins to crumble under the might of the Invid war machine. However, in one part of the city, two residents seem to be going about their business as though nothing is going on. Young Rem and his mentor Cabell are experimenting with Protoculture, trying to retrace the steps of the first Robotech Master, Zor. Rem complains to Cabell that every time he experiments with active Protoculture, the pollinators they keep in the lab begin acting like they're possessed. "If their behavior continues, I'll have to move them to another part of the lab or we'll never discover the secret of Protoculture." He picks one up and wonders aloud why Zor was so attached to them, and wonders if they could speak whether they'd be able to help solve the riddle of Protoculture. Cabell notes that the only way to learn the secret is to retrace Zor's steps scientifically, not to muse about pollinator speech. Still, Rem thinks he's on to something, pointing out that every time he sends the current through the pods, the pollinators react. "It seems my young assistant puts much credence in his own imagination and in your scientific value," Cabell says to one of the little creatures. Suddenly an alarm light goes off, warning them that the city's defenses are weakening. Rem can't believe the Invid penetrated the perimeter so soon, and Cabell tells him to bring his equipment and the pollinators quickly. "We must go into hiding!" he assures the young Master.

Outside, the Masters' Bioroids are outclassed, outgunned, and outnumbered by the merciless Invid swarm. They continue to stream down from the skies, destroying ancient cultural monuments with the wave of an armored claw or a single shot from their energy cannons. Centuries of development and growth are reduced to rubble in merely a few hours.

Below the city, Cabell assures Rem that they'll be safe once they reach the catacombs. There they'll have enough provisions for a week, though Rem believes the Invid are here to stay. "They have destroyed our world! We're doomed!" Cabell tells him to calm down and have patience, for he's sure they'll be rescued. "That's easy for you to say," Rem tells Cabell. "You're old. You've lived your life. If the Invid find us, it is of little concern to you. But I am young. I should have my whole life ahead of me." Cabell says that's why he should never succumb to the Invid. He must have courage if they are to defeat the Invid. As the hatch leading to the catacombs slides away, Rem asks Cabell if he's sure the Invid won't find them down there. "Not unless they've learned to see through lead walls," Cabell tells him.

In orbit, aboard the flagship of the Invid Regent, the Regent realizes his folly. "There is no Protoculture factory on this world," he grumbles to his subordinates. "This raid is a waste of time. The most we can hope for are isolated storehouses of Protoculture matrix. And if we are very lucky, information that will lead us to our precious Flowers of Life. A field report comes in from a scout, informing him that the resistance from the Masters has been weak and uncoordinated. "I fear we may be too late to reap any harvest expected from this obscure moon," the Scout tells him. The Regent orders the Scout to keep him posted, when the Regis enters. She tells him she has been monitoring the field reports, and came down to congratulate him on yet another display of his stupidity and poor judgement. "Do not try to conceal your failures from me. You forget we are both built from the same mold," she says as he tries to talk his way out of the situation. The Regis reminds him that she said the attack would be pointless, that the Masters are too clever to hide something as valuable as the protoculture Factory at home. The Regent points out that if anything they have at least conquered another planet, but the Regis points out that the operation may have cost them the very information they seek. "Do not be so quick to parcel blame." the Regent counters. "Was it not you who said that contact with alien races might give us a cue to our evolutionary direction? Did you not recieve the scientist Zor? And was it not you who let him steal our precious Flower of Life to leave us with nothing?" He reminds her that if not for his Shock Troopers' intervention, their entire race might have been destroyed. The Regis counters that it was a long time ago, and since then she has become just as ruthless as he. "Stirring up the past does nothing but push me farther away from you." She tells him that his talk of power and purpose makes her laugh, and that he is nothing more than a symbol of death and destruction for the Invid people. The Regent is furious. "How dare you! My troops have kept our civilization alive while we mounted the crusade to recapture our stolen treasure. It is our life's blood! Our future!" The Regis tires of this discussion and retires to her chamber to meditate. She tells him that she does not wish to be disturbed for any reason. However, the Regent demands that she return. "I am the Regent of all the Invid, and no one speaks to me in this way, not even my wife! Do you hear me?" He proclaims that she has insulted him for the last time, and orders his barge to be prepared for his immediate depature to the surface of Tirol.

NOTES

TIMELINE - Designed with original TV series in mind (see remarks below).

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Rick Hunter (last seen in Crystal Dreams #1)
Lisa Hayes (last seen in Invasion #5 "Mars Base One Part 5")
Max Sterling (last seen in Crystal Dreams #1)
Dr. Emil Lang (last seen in The Malcontent Uprisings #7)
Jonathan Wolff (last seen in The Malcontent Uprisings #12)
Vince Grant (first published appearance; last seen in Love & War #4)
Exedore Formo (last seen in Crystal Dreams #1)
T.R. Edwards (last seen in Return to Macross #12, next in Sentinels Book 1 #3)
Benson (first published & chronological appearance)
Rem (first published & chronological appearance)
T.R. Edwards (last seen in Return to Macross #12, next in Sentinels Book 1 #3)
Cabell (first published appearance; last seen in Genesis: The Legend of Zor #4)
The Regis (last seen in Genesis: The Legend of Zor #5, next in Sentinels Book 1 #4)
The Regent (first published appearance; last seen in Genesis: The Legend of Zor #5)

PUBLICATION NOTE: This issue was reprinted due to high demand. The second printing has a blue Robotech II: The Sentinels logo on the cover but is otherwise identical.

This first issue of Eternity's adaptation of Robotech II: The Sentinels closely resembles the original television scripts for the series, and as such fits far better within the context of the original ROBOTECH TV series than with the novels by Jack McKinney. For instance, the figure of nine years since work began on the mission to Tirol doesn't jive with McKinney's figures (his timeline wraps Macross up in December 2014, then add nine and you get a departure date of 2023, when the first Sentinels novel says that the story begins in 2020). In addition, there are little things here and there which lean towards the wording and tone of the TV series over the novels, such as the way the Regent clarifies the difference between the Protoculture Factory and Protoculture Matrix. McKinney muddled that big time--"Protoculture Matrix" is, in the context of the TV series dialogue, a single isolated unit containing Protoculture, such as the unit Khyron stole in episode #35 "Season's Greetings" and the pods the Masters were so protective of in episode #60 "Catastrophe"; the "Protoculture Factory" is the device lodged in the SDF-1's reflex furnaces that the Zentraedi and the Robotech Masters were after, which Bowie and Musica discovered the remains of in episode #59 "Final Nightmare." In later issues, when Mason and Ulm (and later the Waltrips) start working from the McKinney novels rather than the original TV scripts, the terminology reverts to McKinney's take.

As I look over this issue again, I realize that I'm rather fond of Jason Waltrip's early ROBOTECH art style as opposed to what it evolved into circa Book Two. Sure, the landscapes aren't as detailed, and some shots are kind of rough-looking, but the overall character design more closely resembles art from mid-80s anime than it does in later issues of the series. Plus, Rick's chin isn't horribly out of whack with the rest of his face yet, and Edwards isn't overacting yet.

Indeed, the only character I'm not happy with in this issue is the Invid Regis, who doesn't look quite on-model enough. I think it does work better for the character, making her look more alien than she does in the Sentinels video footage, but it still feels off.

Carl Macek once stated that the opening scene with the woman and child getting fried was actually animated for the Sentinels TV series despite the fact that it does not appear in the animated video release. It wasn't omitted because of the strikingly harsh content, but rather because Macek thought the animation was of unacceptably low quality.

Notice that everyone keeps on talking about "rebuilding" the SDF-3. Believe it or not, all these references come straight from the original Robotech II: The Sentinels TV series scripts. It's one hell of a story flub, but it's one on Carl Macek and and his team's part, not Mason & Ulm's. Bear in mind that the Protoculture Factory--the item both the Zentraedi and Masters were after (and according to this issue, the Invid Regent as well)--is locked away in the SDF-1's reflex furnaces. Now, if the SDF-3 is the rebuilt SDF-1 (note Wolff's statement about the ship looking "more like a Zentraedi ship now than it did when we first found it on the island 20 years ago", implying that the SDF-3 is in fact the SDF-1), then the entire climax of the Second Robotech War and the subsequent Invid Invasion is negated, since the Protoculture Factory would be off in the star system of the Southern Cross and would be unable to get crushed in Zor Prime's final suicidal act to spew forth Flowers of Life that would spread across planet Earth. So really, all these implications that the SDF-3 is the SDF-1 in an ugly-colored Zentraedi suit have to be utter nonsense, unless you feel like utterly negating episodes #59-85 of the TV series.

In the same scene, it looks like Wolff changes his tune in mid-conversation. First he remarks that the "Trojan horse" strategy is an odd one to take with the SDF-3 and that the disguise and the overarming of the ship might undermine the diplomatic thrust of the mission. Then, when Lang enters the room, he tells Lang that since they've got the ship loaded down with all these weapons they should be ready to face any new threat, and besides that it looks more like a Zentraedi ship than ... well, see above. In any case, the next thing he tells Lang is the big flub: "It's the perfect plan," he says. Whoa, wait a sec, didn't he just say it was an odd plan and that he had some misgivings about it given that this is supposed to be a diplomatic mission? Indeed he did. As to whose fault this flaw is, I'm not sure.

One comforting change from the original version of Sentinels is the inclusion of civilian life on-board the Zentraedi Factory Satellite. In the coming issues, it adds something of a classic Macross City feel to the story, even if it only lasts until the depature of the SDF-3.

I find it interesting that Edwards tells Benson, "I've waited a long time for just the right moment to seize control of the military." As I reread that line, I keep thinking back to the plans for the original Macross-era cut of Robotech The Movie: The Untold Story where the villain who seizes control of the government is Edwards rather than a Masters-controlled clone of someone else. Something tells me that line survived several drafts of the original Sentinels TV scripts to find its way into this comic book.

One discrepancy that's always struck me as a little odd is the fact that the Regent's toadies are all wearing robes while in the animation they wore tunics and pants. I've always wondered why the Waltrips changed that. It's almost the only thing that's totally different visually between the original Sentinels animation designs and the comic adaptation.

A lot is said in narration about how the Invid live for combat, and how merciless and relentless they are, when in fact they're only hungry for revenge against those who stole their Flower of Life. It strikes me as the same sort of inaccurate but imposing writing one would find in an early episode of The Macross Saga or The New Generation. So on the one hand, it works because it gives more of a ROBOTECH TV series feel to the sequences, but on the other hand it doesn't because it's blatantly inaccurate.

At one point an Invid Scout is depicted talking to the Regent. Recall from the New Generation episodes of ROBOTECH that there's a strict delineation between Invid that can talk and Invid that can't -- Invid in crustacean mecha don't talk. Invid toadies in robes talk, Invid in Enforcer armor talk, but Invid in crab-shaped mecha just don't talk.

This is more a gripe with the Sentinels story overall than with the comic book in particular, but anybody else ever feel like the Regent and Regis's dysfunctional relationship kind of weakened the grandeur with which the Regis is treated in The New Generation? I like the Regent as a concept and also as a villain, but when he starts acting like a cranky and bumbling husband he really drags both himself and the Regis down a few notches on the grandeur scale. But at the same time, I do like the speeches they throw back and forth, both because they shed some light on the ROBOTECH backstory (in this issue there are even some odd clues which never pop up anywhere else and are contradicted in later works), and because some of them just sound majestic and cool, even though it is just a marital spat.

The back of this issue is filled up with a two-page parody comic/advertisement by Ben Dunn called "Ninja-Tech," involving tiny Invid encountering the cast of Dunn's long-running Ninja High School comic series; four pages of letters from worried and eager ROBOTECH fans; and then ads, including a one-page subscription ad and a one-page ad for Protoculture Addicts from back in the days when it was still a ROBOTECH fanzine.

Robotech II: The Sentinels (Eternity/Malibu Graphics, Academy Comics)

2006-08-08T02:37:00.002-05:00

Regular series / November 1988 - December 1996
Based on the unproduced TV series by Harmony Gold in association with Tatsunoko Prod. Co.

I swear to exterminate Rick and Lisa Hunter, and Breetai, after I've made them suffer enough ... the rest of you will either bow at my feet or die!

THE LOWDOWN

Ten years have passed since the near-destruction of planet Earth at the hands of the Zentraedi and the subsequent annihilation of the Zentraedi Grand Fleet. On Earth, civilization continues to mend in the wake of this global apocylapse; while aboard the captured Robotech Factory Satellite in orbit, the Super Dimension Fortress Three has been constructed to complete a mission vital to the survival of the Earth. This vessel, manned by the greatest heroes of the Robotech war and a new generation raised in the war's aftermath, is to travel to the homeworld of the Robotech Masters, the moon Tirol, in an attempt to prevent a second Robotech war--a war which the people of Earth fear their world would be unable to survive. However, when the fortress arrives in Tirolspace, Tirol is found to have been conquered by a new foe--the slug-like Invid.

The Robotech Expeditionary Force's peaceful mission ends in failure, and a battle between the REF and the Invid begins. Our heroes manage to drive the Invid from the planet, but at a great cost--the SDF-3 is crippled, unable to return home and stuck in Tirolian orbit until full repairs can be made. And the Robotech Masters are already on their way to Earth.

Enter the Sentinels, a group of revolutionaries from several nearby planets that have been conquered by the vicious Invid. They have banded together to free their homeworlds from Invid rule, but are in desperate need of assistance in waging their war. Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes, along with a contingent of their fellow REF personnel, agree to help the Sentinels in their fight for freedom.

BACKGROUND INFO

Robotech II: The Sentinels was originally developed as a 65 episode animated sequel to the original ROBOTECH TV series, co-produced by Harmony Gold and Tatsunoko Productions, slated to air in the Fall of 1986. Unfortunately, due to a chain reaction of sorry circumstances, the animated version of this storyline was never completed. From April to August of 1988, Del Rey released five Robotech II: The Sentinels novels by the writing team of Brian Daley and James Luceno -- two men who had previously, under the pen name Jack McKinney, adapted the original 85 episodes of ROBOTECH into twelve bestselling novels. They were given the original concepts and outline for the Sentinels TV series and told to tinker with them to their liking. The end result was a product which bore a strong resemblance to the Sentinels story as outlined by ROBOTECH story editor and producer Carl Macek but slowly diverged from the original course as the storyline progressed and unfolded. It was a few months after the five Sentinels novels were on bookstore shelves that the Sentinels story began to emerge in comic book form, written by Eternity Comics editors Tom Mason and Chris Ulm and drawn by newcomers Jason and John Waltrip.

Along with Ben Dunn's Ninja High School, The Sentinels became one of the flagship titles of Malibu Publishing's Eternity imprint. Early on the story remained quite faithful to the original TV scripts, a fact that outsiders can tell only because Eternity published two books containing the first eight scripts in 1991 & 1992, but also included all-new ideas from Mason and Ulm. However, by the beginning of Sentinels Book II in mid-1990, the comic book series had veered more towards the course of the novels -- whether this was due to a lack of access to the remainder of the original TV series material, a desire to present a unified Sentinels front, or due to fan demand, nobody's ever said. Still, as the story progressed all-new elements still slipped in, including an entire new subplot revolving around an underground movement within the REF, featuring brand-new characters, at the start of Sentinels Book III in mid-1993.

Following the closure of Malibu's Eternity imprint in late 1993 and the ROBOTECH comic book license's move to small publisher Academy Comics, even more new, original ideas from the minds of the comic book writers -- now the Waltrips, having taken over those chores shortly before the move -- started to appear in the storyline, freshening up the then six year-old epic.

Ultimately, with the end of Academy's reign as the ROBOTECH comic licensee at the end of 1996, so ended The Sentinels with Book IV, Issue 13 and a dangling cliffhanger regarding the fate of the title characters, though there was at least a certain amount of resolution regarding events on the Robotech Masters' former homeworld of Tirol. Antarctic Press, the next comic licensee, made an abortive attempt to get the Waltrips to continue the series, but a satisfactory deal was never struck. While the Waltrips wanted to strike a deal with Antarctic and finish the series, the powers that be at Antarctic either wouldn't or couldn't pay them the same rates that Eternity and Academy did. Rumor is that Antarctic was more interested in giving the ROBOTECH saga to their own staffers to play with and develop, but these rumblings came from a disgruntled former employee, so heaven only knows how accurate they might be.

In the end, Antarctic wound up publishing a series entitled Sentinels: Rubicon with a different creative team, but it was set in the post-New Generation era and had nothing to do with the novel of the same name, nor did it have much of anything to do with the original Robotech II: The Sentinels property outside of a few side references. However, with the appearance of several of the Sentinels story's non-Macross cast members, including T.R. Edwards, Vince Grant, and Janice Em, in modern ROBOTECH projects, such as WildStorm Productions' first comic book mini-series From The Stars and the upcoming fourth generation of ROBOTECH in animation, The Shadow Chronicles, it seemed only a matter of time before a certain period in these characters' lives would have to be addressed.

In late 2004, Harmony Gold Creative Director Tommy Yune remarked that he really felt bad about how the Waltrips never got to properly wrap up their long-running adaptation of The Sentinels, so they were being brought back into the fold to work on the comic book lead-in to The Shadow Chronicles. During the summer of 2005, the true nature of this project was revealed; the Waltrips would only be writing the series, but it would pick up more or less where things had left off nine years ago, with T.R. Edwards making his escape from Tirol with a captive Minmei at his side. With only five issues to bridge the gap and deal with the dangling threads from The Sentinels, it would not be a perfect resolution, but considering that most ROBOTECH fans who had followed the Waltrips' adaptation of The Sentinels had long ago given up hope for any sort of resolution to the series' storylines, any sort of wrap-up bearing the Waltrips' names was good news.

More on Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles in its own entry here.

THE SENTINELS

Book 1 #1 - A New Threat
Book 1 #2 - A New Threat Part 2
Book 1 #3 - Preparations
Book 1 #4 - The Inorganics
Book 1 #5 - War Toys
Book 1 #6 - The Best Laid Plans
Wedding Special #1 - Wedding Day
Wedding Special #2 - I Do
Book 1 #7 - Good Morning!
Book 1 #8 - Departure
Book 1 #9 - Here, There, and Everywhere
Book 1 #10 - Stranded
Book 1 #11 - The Message
Book 1 #12 - First Date!
Book 1 #13 - Old Friends, New Friends
Book 1 #14 - You Can't Go Home Again
Book 1 #15 - The Battle For Fantoma
Book 1 #16 - Victory?

Book 2 #1 - The Coming of the Sentinels
Book 2 #2 - Smooth Landings
Book 2 #3 - Pursued!
Book 2 #4 - The Hunted
Book 2 #5 - The Invid Must Die!
Book 2 #6 - Preparations (Again)
Book 2 #7 - Farewell
Book 2 #8 - Seek and Destroy
Book 2 #9 - Karbarra
Book 2 #10 - Over Their Heads
Book 2 #11 - Battle Royale
Book 2 #12 - Reflections
Book 2 #13 - Cut Off
Book 2 #14 - Missing Persons
Book 2 #15 - Hooooooooowwwlll! ... in the Night!
Book 2 #16 - Full Metal Planet
Book 2 #17 - Assault on Karbarra
Book 2 #18 - Operation: Karbarran Storm
Book 2 #19 - Traitors in the Midst
Book 2 #20 - Beware of the Handshake ...
Book 2 #21 - The Slow Death of the Sentinels

Book 3 #1 - The Dance of Death
Book 3 #2 - The Hand at Work
Book 3 #3 - A Ship Divided
Book 3 #4 - When Worlds Implode
Book 3 #5 - Into the Pit!
Book 3 #6 - Return of the Native
Book 3 #7 - Wild Card
Book 3 #8 - Escape From Tirol
Book 3 #9 - Into the Fire!
Book 3 #10 - Of Enemies and Allies
Book 3 #11 - Where the Wild Things Are
Book 3 #12 - Dream a Little Dream
Book 3 #13 - Scheme a Little Scheme
Book 3 #14 - None But The Brave
Book 3 #15 - Unto the Breach!
Book 3 #16 - Where Humans Dare!
Book 3 #17 - A Portion For Foxes!
Book 3 #18 - Garudans in the Mist
Book 3 #19 - To Walk Among Giants
Book 3 #20 - Destination: Earth!
Book 3 #21 - The Predator and the Prey
Book 3 #22 - A Clockwork Planet!

Book 4 #1 - World Killers!
Book 4 #2 - No Man's Land
Book 4 #3 - Specters in Midnight
Book 4 #4 - Prisoners of Fate
Book 4 #5 - Monkey Wrench
Book 4 #6 - Clockwork of Doom!
Book 4 #7 - Seraphim Avenging
Book 4 #8 - Conquer and Divide
Book 4 #9 - Disperate Paths
Book 4 #10 - Dance with the Devil
Book 4 #11 - Summit
Halloween Special #1
Book 4 #12 - Checkmate!
Book 4 #13 - Requiem for Justice

COLLECTIONS

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One - A New Beginning

Published by Malibu Graphics, this hardcover volume collects the story pages from Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One #1 - 4 in their entirety. It features an introduction by Chris Ulm and Tom Mason (series writers) that explains how the Sentinels project came to be and how it came to be licensed by Eternity Comics/Malibu Graphics for comic book adaptation. Also scattered throughout the book are five original black & white group shots of the main REF heroes by Jason Waltrip.

Following the story material are five pieces of production art from the animated series (the SDF-3, an Invid Hellcat, a Tiresian cityscape, a Pollinator, and an Alpha Fighter in Fighter mode) and swimsuit shots of Karen Penn and Lynn Minmei by Jason Waltrip. Included with the book is an adhesive plate featuring a Jason Waltrip illustration of Minmei in a bikini, signed by Ulm, Mason, and both Waltrip brothers; this is limited to 850 pieces.

The back cover features a linked Alpha and Beta trying to recover from a blast while a Valivarre-class vessel (a single-boomed vessel similar to the SDF-3, designed for Sentinels but never used in any finished version) explodes overhead; this painting is by Steve Martin (no, not THAT Steve Martin).

Robotech II: The Sentinels Volume Two - The Marriage of Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes

Published by Malibu Graphics, this hardcover volume collects the story pages from Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One #5 - 6 and Wedding Special #1 - 2 in their entirety. It features an interview with the Waltrips in lieu of an introduction. The book also features two all-new illustrations by Jason Waltrip and four all-new pin-up/cover art style illustrations by John Waltrip of the Sentinels characters.

Included with the book is an adhesive plate featuring a John Waltrip illustration of an Alpha Fighter in Battloid mode, signed by Chris Ulm, Tom Mason, and both Waltrip brothers, limited to 500 pieces.

The back cover features a Jason Waltrip illustration of Rick Hunter in his old Veritech flight helmet looking to the sky against a similarly posed Alpha Veritech in Battloid mode, with an Alpha in Fighter mode taking off in the distance.

Robotech II: The Sentinels Volume Three - Operation: Tirol

Published by Malibu Graphics, this softcover volume collects the story pages from Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One #7 - 10, though a misprint in at least the first printing (1992) replaces page 22 of issue #8 with page 22 of issue #9. Also, the cover art for issue #7, by Dave Dorman (best known for his Star Wars paintings, though he previously did a number of ROBOTECH covers for the Comico adaptations), is replaced with the John Waltrip Alpha Fighter piece from the second hardcover collection nameplate. The omitted cover was the only one not drawn by either of the Waltrips during the entire Sentinels run.

This book features an introduction by then-Sentinels editor Dan Danko dated January 1992 regarding his ROBOTECH fandom and how he became involved with the property at Malibu Graphics. It also features a John Waltrip piece (previously used as a house ad for the Sentinels series during the end of Book One) on the first page, and two pages later a new Jason Waltrip cover-style piece (featuring the Sentinels aliens, who do not appear in the Sentinels comics until Book Two). The back cover features a previously unreleased John Waltrip illustration roughly contemporary with the material presented in this volume, featuring Rick & Lisa, Minmei & Janice, an Alpha Fighter in Battloid looming over them, and the battle-damaged SDF-3 in the far background.

Robotech II: The Sentinels Volume Four - Mission Impossible!

Published by Malibu Graphics, this softcover volume collects the story pages from Robotech II: The Sentinels Book One #11 - 14 in their entirety. Its bonus material is limited to a single new pin-up/ cover art style illustration by Jason Waltrip on the first page behind the front cover and a brief guide to the cast of characters. The back cover features a recolored version of John Waltrip's cover art to the second issue of Robotech II: The Sentinels - The Illustrated Handbook.

Welcome to my makeshift solution ...

2006-08-04T01:59:00.000-05:00

OK, as I noted at the Roboblog, I'm going to be tearing down Robotech Comics Universe at the end of the year. But I'm not one to let a lot of hard work just fly right out the window, no sir. So right here I've started a second ROBOTECH blog to store all the information from that site. Hopefully about once a week, I'll be posting up something from the old site over here, and I'll be customizing and tweaking the sidebar over there to keep it all nice, neat, and clear for all of you.

So be ready to change all your bookmarks at the end of the year: robotechcomics.blogspot.com. OK?

Robotech: Invasion #5 (of 5)

2006-08-04T01:50:00.000-05:00

"Invasion Part 5"

Story - Tommy Yune
Script - Jay Faerber
Art - Takeshi Miyazawa, Omar Dogan, and Alan Tam
Letters - Bob Leigh
Colors - Long Vo, Charles Park, and Saka of Udon
Asst. Editor - Kristy Quinn
Editor - Alex Sinclair

Cover by Tommy Yune.

Published by WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics.

Release date - May 5, 2004
Cover date - July 2004

Diamond order number - MAR04 0350
Estimated sales - 11,300 copies

THE STORY

Olivia kicks Lancer back into one of the Invid's experimentation tubes, shattering the glass. Despite Lancer's cries for her to stop, she loads her rifle and begins firing at him. He just barely dodges her shots and gets in close, deploys his Cyclone's vibro-blade (still armed, despite the disposal of his Cyclone mecha last issue) and cuts her down. She stammers out a final "L-Lance?" as she falls, and Lancer thinks back to when he promised her, long ago, that if the Invid ever got to her, he would put her out of her misery. One more person was a party to this pact, one whom Lancer is shocked to see standing before him--his wingman Dimitry, whose body is now covered in stitches and sensors, his brain half exposed and an eye lost to the Invid's tampering. "Don't blame yourself, Lieutenant," he assures his former squadron leader. "You did the right thing." Lancer is horrified by Dimitry's condition, but is still happy to see him. He asks what the Invid did to him. "The Invid ... they were fascinated with us. They wanted to know everything about us ... our minds ... our bodies. They took us apart and then tried to implant everything from machines to alien organs ... They found Olivia's body after the crash, and managed to revive her ... but it wasn't really her."

"I know," Lancer replies.

As he carries Dimitry along in search of an escape route, Lancer spots something out of the corner of his eye--a Garfish-class cruiser, its nose smashed through the hive outer wall. "It looks like we've found our ticket out of here," he remarks.

Escape proves to be far easier said than done. Once inside, Lancer discovers that the anti-gravity drives on the ship are inoperable and the protoculture reserves are too low to execute a space fold. Dimitry tells him that they can still finish what Olivia started by setting the reflex furnace to blow the hive, but Lancer says they'll never make it out in time. "Leave me here to take care of it," Dimitry says. Lancer insists that he's not leaving him to die, but Dimitry tells Lancer that he doesn't want to go on like this. "You know our deal," he says. "I'd do it for you."

Outside, energy crackles around the wounded Garfish. Watching from afar, Carla asks Dr. Osmund what's happening. "A runaway reflex furnace," Osmund says, watching through his binoculars. The hive begins to explode, and Carla puts her hand to her mouth in shock. "That's it!" Osmund exclaims. "There must be a frequency that can disrupt Protoculture-dependent life forms!" The entire hive erupts in fire and, tears streaming down her eyes, Carla screams, "LANCER!"

Some time later, Carla sits at a table in a bar, clutching her drink despondently as a lavender-haired woman sits at the piano singing "Lonely Soldier Boy." As the song hits the chorus, Carla's ears perk up. She asks a man sitting nearby who that is singing; he tells her it's Yellow Dancer. When the singer gets up and comes a little closer, it clicks in Carla's head--it's Lancer!

A while later, the reunited Lancer and Carla prepare to get on a train headed towards the Andes. Lancer tells Carla that a stronghold has been established near the old Maxwell Avionics plant. Since the stronghold isn't affiliated with the resistance, it should be safer there. Carla tells him how happy she is, how they'll be able to be together, possibly start a family without military or Invid interference. Unfortunately for her, it is not to be. Lancer apologizes, then runs away as the train door closes behind Carla, cutting her off from her love.

"I'm sorry, Carla," Lancer thinks to himself. "You meant too much to me to let you get mixed up in this. What I had to do was far too dangerous for you. I knew I had to fight the Invid to the end. Unfortunately that end did not arrive quickly--even when the Robotech Expedition sent another invasion force over two years later. Even with more advanced Veritech mecha, it was still too little, too late. We were engaged in a race for survival against a species that could finally outpace our own. I wonder when the stakes to regain the Earth will become so high that we will be forced to sacrifice everything? Even the loved ones that we are sworn to protect."

It is now 2042. Rand sits at a bar, having just heard a slightly tweaked version of these events from Yellow Dancer. "That's an amazing story," he says, "but a real man like me would never leave you high and dry on a train like that." Yellow asks what he'd do instead. "Well, I was thinking you could run away with me. A town like this is no place for a classy girl like you." Yellow takes the flattery and asks if Rand is a soldier, like the uniformed man at the door. Rand insists that he isn't, that he just hangs out with that guy to lend a hand. "He's headed to Reflex Point to take out the Invid when Admiral Hunter's expedition returns." Scott Bernard shouts for Rand to come along, while Yellow finds that she may very well be running away with them ...

Meanwhile, at Reflex Point, the Invid Regess determines that their attempts to directly control the human race may no longer be of any concern, as she has found the ideal form for the next stage of Invid evolution--the human form itself.

NOTES

TIMELINE - Modern Robotech.com timeline.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Lance "Lancer" Belmont (next in The New Generation #3)
Carla Morales (next in The New Generation #11)
Olivia Stahl (final appearance)
Dimitry (last seen in Invasion #1, final appearance)
Dr. Osmund (final appearance)
Rand Somerville (mid-appearance in The New Generation #3)
Scott Bernard (mid-appearance in The New Generation #3)
The Regess/Regis (last seen in Sentinels: Book 3 #20, next in Class Reunion #1)

While this particular issue does not directly contradict it, save the years given, this series supplants Bill Spangler and Tim Eldred's Invid War and their one-shot Firewalkers, offering an alternative take on Lancer's origins. This specific issue also overlaps a flashback in the TV episode #71 "The Secret Route" and a scene from episode #63 "Lonely Soldier Boy."

Though he has no further appearances in the ROBOTECH comic book canon, Dr. Osmund does reappear in the Robotech: Invasion video game for the Xbox & PS2 (set during the course of the events of the TV series) with an overly bloated sense of self-worth and a maniacal streak only hinted at in his final scene in this issue.

Simon, the producer from New York who appears in episode #83 "The Big Apple," has a cameo on pages 12-13 at the bar Yellow is singing at. Kind of makes me wonder the context of his appearance--do he and Lancer already know each other at this point, or is he about to learn Yellow's big secret after the show?

There's a wanted poster for Lancer at the train station where he ditches Carla. Shouldn't he be traveling as Yellow if there's money (or perhaps Protoculture) being offered for his head?

Lancer mentions the Maxwell Avionics plant, which I suppose is Donald Maxwell's father's company and the manufacturer of the A.I.-controlled fighters that figure into the climax of "The Secret Route." The reference to Maxwell is a nice way of tying things together, explaining why exactly Carla winds up in the situation she's in when the two are reunited.

Visually, the train scene is totally faithful to its counterpart in "The Secret Route," from Lancer and Carla's clothes, the color of the train, and their poses as the two are separated with a note of finality. The first four sentences of Lancer's internal monologue are also almost word for word from the show, with the only substantial change being a shift in tense.

The lack of any good transitions between the later scenes in this issue, most notably between Yellow's gig with Carla in the audience and the train scene from "The Secret Route," make the issue feel more like a set of scenes strung together than a coherent story--a problem that's plagued the WildStorm ROBOTECH books before. The tacked on Invid Regess scene only accentuates this feeling, especially since it adds nothing more than another continuity gripe or two. What is with Faerber & Yune and all these tacked on epilogues? (See also the final issues of From the Stars and Love & War.)

A couple of visual errors towards the end of the story: Yellow's in the wrong outfit in the bar, and Rand's jumpsuit is miscolored to match Scott's REF uniform. So that's why Yellow asked him if he was a soldier ...

As of episode 69, "The Genesis Pit," the Regess had not yet come to the conclusion that the human form was the perfect one for the Invid race; that's what her use of the Genesis Pits of the episode's title was all about, after all, as she helpfully explains at the episode's outset. Yet, the scene between Rand and Yellow in this issue that occurs just prior to the Regess's speech is a sort of "lost scene" from episode 63, "Lonely Soldier Boy." Since the only indication that we're elsewhere is a geographic one ("Thousands of kilometers away," it helpfully notes), I think it's safe to log this as some sort of overall storyline gaffe, albeit a minor one.

Speaking of the "Lonely Soldier Boy" filler scene, I suppose it takes place during the brief lull between the fight with the bikers in the bar and Scott's Cyclone-assisted rescue of Lunk from the very same bikers. I was surprised that this works so well. Kinda neat.

The Regess is in her humanoid form in the final scene. Fine if you've suddenly decided to take The Sentinels and Greg Lane's Class Reunion one-shot into account, not so fine if you're working directly from the TV series as Yune claims the modern ROBOTECH canon is supposed to be doing, where for the longest while she seems to be some sort of disembodied voice, often taking the form of flickering green energy, all the way until her appearance in episode #84, "Dark Finale." I'm sure you could argue that she was in this humanoid form this whole time, just off camera, but that doesn't seem to be the original Japanese animators' intent.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Mars Base One Part 5

Robotech: The New Generation (Comico)

2006-08-04T01:45:00.000-05:00

Regular series / July 1985 - July 1988
Based on episodes #61-85 of the 1985 TV series produced by Harmony Gold USA.

Responding to reports sent by one of their many sensor nebulae, the Invid became aware of a large supply of active Protoculture on the Earth. Apparently the Invid regard unprocessed Protoculture as a food source. They are drawn to it with almost metaphysical determination.

THE LOWDOWN

The ramifications of Zor Prime's final sacrifice have struck planet Earth. The dispersal of the Flowers of Life from the ruins of the SDF-1 has not gone unnoticed by the Invid, the protoplasmic alien race from whom the original Zor stole the Flowers in order to create the mysterious energy source known as Protoculture. Led by their queen, the Regess, the Invid arrived on Earth en masse and swiftly conquered it, routing out the last remnants of the Army of the Southern Cross.

But all hope is not lost. A new generation of young men and women have grown up in the dark reaches of space, aboard starships and on colonies set up by the Robotech Expeditionary Force. Equipped with the latest in Robotech weaponry, they start to return to their mother planet in hopes of freeing the Earth from its latest alien invaders.

Unfortunately, the attempts to defeat these alien parasites seem futile. An entire wave of starships and fighter craft is destroyed in a matter of minutes by the relentless Invid, save one lone Veritech Fighter. That Veritech, the craft of one Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard, crash lands on Earth mostly intact, though the same cannot be said for the psyche of its young pilot, thrust alone into a world he's never known. Driven to battle by both duty and the memory of his lost fiancee, he hits the road. His destination: the Invid central hive at Reflex Point, which he has every intention of destroying single-handedly if need be. Lucky for him, his journey provides him with an assortment of allies: nature loving scavenger Rand, biker chick Rook Bartley, guilt-ridden mechanic Jim "Lunk" Cooper, former soldier/transvestite nightclub singer Lancer, and hopeless preteen romantic Annie "Mint" LaBelle. Together, this rag-tag band of fighters and cheerleaders travels across the Americas, faced with enemies both human and Invid in their journey towards a common destination and a final battle with an impossibly powerful foe.

BACKGROUND INFO

Genesis Climber Mospeada, much like the following year's Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, would be but a footnote in mecha anime history if not for its inclusion in ROBOTECH. Mospeada -- retitled Robotech: The New Generation -- served as the temporary concluding chapter in the war for Protoculture. The fact that Mospeada seized on several of the elements that made Macross a hit in an attempt to replicate its success made it an easy fit as the third generation of the ROBOTECH saga -- we have fighter jets that turn into robots, a singing star, alien invaders equipped with their own giant robots, alien defectors, and ultimately love conquering all. Sort of. And the geniuses at Artmic even threw in transforming motorcycles and the character design stylings of Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy). Is it any wonder that The New Generation tends to be fans' second-favorite segment of the Robotech saga?

Despite remarks to the contrary by Invid War co-creator Tim Eldred, Comico's adaptations of these episodes weren't too shabby. TV series producer Carl Macek's first issue script wasn't some of his best work, but it did present an interesting slant on the worst day in Scott Bernard's young life, and a few of the touches Macek put in the script provide insight into the way things could have developed had ROBOTECH's follow-up animation projects not suffered from so many production problems. The workman-like scripts that followed for twelve of the next thirteen issues, courtesy of Macek's Macross Saga successor Jack Herman, neither added nor subtracted much from the series' rather episodic adventures. Later issues, which included some of the more important chapters in the series' infrequently developed storyline, were thankfully handled by the deft writing pen of Markalan Joplin, whose talents similarly livened up the comic book adaptations of The Macross Saga around the same time. The same cannot be said for the art end on either count; Reggie Byers penciled some Macross Saga issues early on, but he more consistently stuck with New Generation, where his oft unsuccessful attempts at reproducing the style of the ROBOTECH animation plagued the book for month after month. While he did have some very good months throughout his run, thirteen out of the first twenty issues of the series, most of his issues suffer from the look of an artist shoehorning the big eyes and small mouths of Japanese animation into his preexisting style to horrific results. Byers left the title to pursue work of his own creation, and the excellent Thomas Tenney -- who did a bang-up job faithfully putting the TV series character and mechanical designs to paper -- took over for the last five issues of the series run. Between Joplin's superb writing and Tenney's dazzling artwork, the final few months of Comico's adaptations of The New Generation were sheer ROBOTECH bliss, sometimes giving the original TV episodes a run for their money in terms of overall quality.

THE NEW GENERATION

Issue 1 -- The Invid Invasion
Issue 2 -- The Lost City
Issue 3 -- Lonely Soldier Boy
Issue 4 -- Survival
Issue 5 -- Curtain Call
Issue 6 -- Hard Times
Issue 7 -- Paper Hero
Issue 8 -- Eulogy
Issue 9 -- The Genesis Pits
Issue 10 -- Enter Marlene
Issue 11 -- The Secret Route
Issue 12 -- The Fortress
Issue 13 -- Sandstorms
Issue 14 -- Annie's Wedding
Issue 15 -- Seperate Ways
Issue 16 -- Metamorphosis
Issue 17 -- The Midnight Sun
Issue 18 -- Ghost Town
Issue 19 -- Frostbite
Issue 20 -- Birthday Blues
Issue 21 -- Hired Gun
Issue 22 -- The Big Apple
Issue 23 -- Reflex Point
Issue 24 -- Dark Finale
Issue 25 -- Dark Finale Part II: Symphony of Light

Robotech Comics Blog

Robotech: Academy Blues (Academy Comics Ltd.)

THE LOWDOWN

BACKGROUND INFO

ACADEMY BLUES

Super Dimension Fortress Macross #1

"Booby Trap"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: Covert Ops #1 (of 2)

"Covert Operations"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: Covert Ops (Antarctic Press)

THE LOWDOWN

BACKGROUND INFO

COVERT OPS

LINKS

Robotech (WildStorm) #1 (of 6)

"From The Stars"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech (WildStorm) #0 (of 6)

"Promise"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: From The Stars (WildStorm/DC Comics)

THE LOWDOWN

BACKGROUND INFO

FROM THE STARS

Robotech: Invid War #1 (of 18)

"No Man's Land"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: Invid War #4 (of 18)

"Only Survivors"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech (Antarctic) #4 - Rolling Thunder Part 1 (of 4)

"Rolling Thunder - Part 1"

THE STORY

NOTES

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Rolling Thunder (Antarctic Press)

THE LOWDOWN

BACKGROUND INFO

ROLLING THUNDER

LINKS

SEE ALSO

Robotech: The Macross Saga #36

"To The Stars"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: The Macross Saga (Comico The Comic Company)

THE LOWDOWN

BACKGROUND INFO

THE MACROSS SAGA

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #2 (of 5)

"Part Two: Retribution"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #13

"Requiem for Justice"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #12

"Checkmate!"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech II: The Sentinels Book Four #11

"Summit"

THE STORY

NOTES

Robotech: Vermilion #1 (of 4)

"Vermilion"

THE STORY

NOTES

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles #1 (of 5)

"Part One: The Enemy Within"