The Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus, Vol. 3

Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus #3

by Bill Mantlo

Custom-bound collection of Marvel Comics' MICRONAUTS vol. 1 #45-59, THE X-MEN AND THE MICRONAUTS #1-4, and MARVEL AGE #3 and 7.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

712 pages, Hardcover

Published December 31, 2024

About the author

William Timothy Mantlo is an American comic book writer, primarily at Marvel Comics.
(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It isn't often that I stop reading a book, no matter how bad it is. Especially if that book has a $125.00 price tag. But I skimmed this after the 350 page mark, because it was just unbearably boring. NOTHING..HAPPENS. Bill Mantlo's wrapup in issue #58 was phenomenal, but everything after that was pure boredom. I appreciate Peter B. Gillis' attempt to tell what is basically a fight-free story of pure intellect, but conflict is a part of every story for a reason.

Gimme my money back.

[Gabriel Rojo · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, if you're upset about the omission of the X-Men/Micronauts miniseries, trust me, you're better off without it. It's an absolute embarrassment.
It would have marred the consistently high quality of the material in this Omnibus, by far the best in the series. The final Mantlo/Guice stories are great, and so is the truly offbeat "New Voyages" series, which goes into full sci-fi mode and explores gigantic topics in true Marvel fashion.

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conclusion of the Saga and it has some problems.

I'll start with the good parts though: The 5 issues leading towards the conclusion of the initial run of #59 issues are the best Micronauts comics among all of these 3 Omnibus volumes. The artwork by Butch Guice is incredible for the time and the story is really captivating. It has an ending, one I'm quite satisfied with. But Marvel decided to reboot the book only months later in 1984.

That brings me to the issues I have with this volume:
1) The mini series X-Men and the Micronauts is not collected here, but it is kind of essential and goes right in between issues #57 and #58 of this book. It is essential because characters die and the micronauts are in another place at the end of the mini. Licensing is a mess, I know.

2) The 20 issues of The New Voyages are a drastic shift of tone. It is very experimental and starts out with stories akin to Star Trek, gets very philosophical and eventually tries to wrap the series up by ending the entire Microverse. Some things in here a intriguing, some don't make sense and a lot of the Micronauts act out of character.

I should focus a bit more on the New Voyages, as it spans most of this book. The shift in tone caught me off guard, but I did like that 2 new characters joined the roster. The lack of an overarching plot, aside from 'escaping the war' got corrected quite quickly, yet the Sci-Fi concepts were thrown overboard in favour of a new conflict in the Microverse. I acknowledge that the book had to be wrapped up due to poor sales, but I feel like the writer tried to many different things at once and the book lacked substance, which possibly reflected in the sales.

I'm glad to have read the whole saga, and I would rank the volumes like this: Vol. 2 > Vol. 3 >> Vol. 1. Volume 1 was aimed at children, while starting with volume 2 the focus shifted towards adults. That continued into Vol. 3 but the problems listed above bring it down.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para mí, ha sido una auténtica sorpresa descubrir los números del tándem Peter B. Gillis-Kelley Jones, que, además de cambiar el ritmo pausadísimo y verboso en exceso de Mantlo , demuestran el verdadero potencial del grupo cuando se tiene un plan claro, con un principio, un nudo y un desenlace bien desarrollados que conforman un relato de ciencia ficción “hard” de los mejores que he visto en viñetas. El sacrificio final de los héroes cuadra impecablemente con el tono de epopeya trágica que la serie ya tenía desde sus mismos comienzos, y cierra con broche de oro la colección. Lamentablemente como es habitual en los cómics, este final, que hará que se le salten las lágrimas a más de uno, devendría en bufonada cuando, algún tiempo más tarde, unos plumillas cualquiera resucitaron a los personajes creados por Mantlo, es decir, Bicho, Marioneta y el Comandante Rann. Y es que no estaban muertos, estaban de parranda. En fin…

Mención aparte merece el arte de Kelley Jones, todavía en pañales, pero ya perfectamente capaz de demostrar su potencial, sobre todo cuando se entinta él mismo. En definitiva, unos cómics excelentes, vieja escuela y con un final que no dejará indiferente a nadie. Muy recomendable.

[Davide Pappalardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warning: despite of what stated in the description, the Micronauts/X-men crossover is omitted from this omnibus per Hasbro decision, due to "controversial" moments in it. It's a shame because reading it is necessary in order to fully understand the full plot of the first saga (you can find it easily online, thankfully).

So, this is the last omnibus, containing the finale of the first series by Mantlo, and the final one from Peter B. Gillis. We have probably the best material so far, and I dare say that Gillis is even better than Mantlo. He goes full-sci-fi mode here, with high-brown concepts for the time and a lot of Kirby-esque elements. Unfortunately not many readers were ready for that, and so the series had to be cancelled, but we get a satisfying ending, at least.