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[icon_uk]

send for THE ACROYEARS!

Going through an old box of junk I came across this little gem from 1980 which I felt I had to share; It's from one of a series of digest sized, softback (And stapled rather than bound), black and white reprint magazines that the UK had for a while. There was one for the Fantastic Four going back to their earliest issues (And which were my introduction to Jack Kirby (and let me tell you, the black and white format REALLY worked on that), another for Spider-Man, one called "Chiller" which was horror themed, and this one...



which reprinted Marvel's Micronauts and the old Battlestar Galactica comic (Then in vogue)

To place the events under the cut in context, the malevolent Baron Karza has been defeated, Homeworld has been freed from his grasp and the plucky bunch of resistance fighters known as the Micronauts have disbanded for some much needed R&R, recovery or to deal with pressing matters at home.

The ranks of the fearsome Acroyears, the ultimate warriors of the Microverse played a large part in that victory, led by King Acroyear himeself (who regained his stolen throne from his treacherous brother Shaitan) and now they head for home... but what sort of home breeds warriors of their ilk?


There's a sort of grim, epic grandeur to this next scene, and it's insanely cinematic... this would be bloody AWESOME filmed properly...



Note that gender is no barrier to warriorhood amongst the Acroyear, the Lady Cilicia seen here is highly respected for her embodiment of Spartak's finest traditions of combat, duty and honour. People may josh with Lady Sif in Asgard, NO ONE joshes with Cilicia.







...BLOOD COMBAT!"

But that's a story for another day.... I just wanted to share the moments here, the past of Spartak (Which would later go on to have an impact in the MU proper as the notion of a sentient, living planet has returned with Caiera in "Planet Hulk" is hevily implied has links to the Worldmind) and the ceremonial unmasking of the Acroyears (Something they do very, very rarely, even amongst themselves, to most they ARE their armour.)

There's a definite Thor/Loki vibe here of course, but I also like the emphasis that the Acroyears are not human themselves.
 

Comments

[whitesycamore]

People - or... battling alien things - with albinism really get shat on by fiction, huh?

When I was five my best friend was a boy with albinism. Although we later fell out briefly, after an argument over who was the best Ghostbuster... Still, "sickening pale flesh" just isn't cool with me.

[drmcninja]

I get more the feeling that he's delusional and paranoid or something, like its because of his skin that he was second to his brother. The King seems pretty quick to say "No. Youre wrong. Shut up."

[whitesycamore]

Yeah, but it's pretty uncool how the "deformed/abnormal" characters are always the paranoid, delusional fools who feel mistreated, even though it's apparently all in their heads!

So they just coincidentally happen to be bitter, petty and evil. It's... not really much better.

The King seems pretty quick to say "No. Youre wrong. Shut up."

That's realistic at least. People with unexamined privilege usually *are* quick to tell others to shut up about it.

[drmcninja]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Its a pretty standard procedure because its easier for us to associate "bad" with "ugly" or even just "different." They do get the short end of the stick pretty often.

But I'm getting a different feeling from the king. "Brother, as little as you love me, even less do I love this throne upon which I am forced to sit." Its clear he has privilege, but it would seem he has no desire to flaunt it, or even to rule at all. I think his "shut up" is from something different than just arrogance, definitely more a feeling of being fed up of his brother.

[nezchan]

Been a while since I've read these, but hasn't Acroyear himself been sitting as king for a very short time, having been out fighting to win the freedom of his people? I don't know how much kingly privilege applies here.

[icon_uk]

Pretty much. He was King, deposed by Shaitan who made a deal with Baron Karza, and has been fighting against Karza since escaping. When he says he doesn't want to be King, he really means it, and shortly after this he more or less abdicated, leaving the post to someone who cared for it so he could rejoin the Micronauts. Eventually he returned to take the Throne to fight the revived Karza and in stopping him, "killed" the Worldmind, which led to his exile, with Cilicia left as ruler of Spartak.

Clearly "monarch" is not a long term career choice amongst the Acroyear.

[nezchan]

I always got the impression that this particular Acroyear was a bit more adventure-oriented than most.

[icon_uk]

Indeed, his time with the Micronauts showed him a Microverse beyond Spartak which fascinated him and which he wanted to see more of.

[nezchan]

He tended to be a bit more humane than his fellows, which always seemed to baffle Lady Cilicia at the best of times.

To say nothing of those times when she was trying to kill him.

[icon_uk]

You make some very valid points there (And yes, I agree that such things are used as a lazy shorthand for "other" too many times), that's not quite what is happening here I think.

The albinism genuinely doesn't appear to be an issue amongst the Acroyears, they don't care about that. Shaitan is fixated on it, but only because of his REAL problem; his paranoid delusions.

Now, had the Acroyear's been aware of his problems, I imagine their reaction would have been different (IIRC Acroyear himself had some awareness of if through Shaitan's tendency towards cruelty, but covered for his brother out of loyalty, which was perhaps not a wise move, but an understandable one) but by the time they realised just how mentally unbalanced Shaitan was, it was too late; he'd hidden the extent of his issues until adulthood, conspired with Karza to depose Acroyear, and slapped mind control on the entire Acroyear people which had only recently been broken.

Now should Shaitan receive compassionate treatment because his actions were motivated by his mental illness? Yes, absolutely he should, and Acroyear was intending to spare his life at the very least (Though banishment was unavoidable) but once you've committed high treason, I think most countries still have severe and completely unbreakable rules about that. (Even Britain only did away with the death penalty for high treason in 1998, though it hadn't been used since William "Lord Haw-Haw" Joyce in 1946)

[nezchan]

There's also the fact that he lived in a masked society, if I remember right only your mate and your parents would even know what you looked like under all that gear. The unmasking here always struck me as an exceedingly rare event that maybe only happened a couple of times in their history.

[kenn_el]

It's not the albinism, though. It's the difference. Look at Komand'r, who alone among her people cannot fly, or Maximus, the only Inhuman with no powers. They always grow up angry and resentful. No 'It Gets Better' videos for them.

[whitesycamore]

Yeah, I know that, it's just that albinism is a condition that actually affects people in real life, and whenever it occurs in fiction it's almost always used to signify twistedness and evil.

Look at Komand'r, who alone among her people cannot fly, or Maximus, the only Inhuman with no powers. They always grow up angry and resentful. No 'It Gets Better' videos for them.

Exactly. And although we, the audience, are supposed to feel a little sympathy for them, ultimately we are meant to shake our heads at just how "angry and resentful" they are. But the fact remains that people deal with disabilities and deformities in real life... and very rarely become evil megalomaniacs. Yet if they look for representations of themselves in fiction, they are faced with a surfeit of villains.

This trope seems to me like an expression of cultural guilt and unease over how we treat the visibly different, that ultimately ends with the self-congratulatory message that no matter how badly we treat them, their reaction will always be an over-reaction, and really, they probably deserved it in the first place, because look how evil and bitter they allowed themselves to become!

It supports the status-quo and the supremacy of 'normality' in the end. Really, if anything it reminds me of the treatment of homosexuality under the Hays code - which was depicted as a sort of moral deformity that might provoke a little pity, but ultimately was just the most obvious signifier of a fundamentally sick and unworthy individual.

[jlroberson]

Remember it's called "Spartak." That might be an explanation as to their rather unforgiving attitudes about physical imperfection--especially in a prince. The Acroyears were a harsh warrior race that Mantlo patterned after the Spartans, who would throw their babies off cliffs if they had flaws or defects.

[remial]

so, who did he think was the best ghostbuster?

[whitesycamore]

He thought the best one was Egon, which is a perfectly reasonable decision - but then he said it was because Egon was a scientist. I pointed out that *all* the Ghostbusters were/are scientists, except for Winston, but he would have none of it!

[kamino_neko]

Well, Egon and Ray were scientists. Peter was a charlatan.

[icon_uk]

Not at all, Peter has a PhD in psychology as well as one in parapsychology.

[kamino_neko]

Didn't say he wasn't educated in the sciences, just that he wasn't a scientist.

He never actually does any science stuff - his 'research' is wholly faked to get into the pants of the female volunteers.

[whitesycamore]

But an *accredited* charlatan! The guy that fired them even said so - he said "you are a poor scientist, Dr Venkhman."

[halloweenjack]

Yeah--it's not only got its own TVTropes entry, but somewhere I've seen a web page done by people with albinism that covers the phenomenon pretty thoroughly.

[nezchan]

You talk about cinematics here, I'm just staring at that sequence where Acroyear rises from his throne as he tells the story of his people. It's friggin' amazing.

It also serves an interesting purpose, partly to inform the reader of who these people are and their history, but also as an accusation against Shaitan for having betrayed that history, which is very real and present to the Acroyear race. Good dramatic writing.

[citygod]

Agreed - that's a lovely framing device, keeps the story moving forward during a flash-back/exposition dump. And I love that low angle on the top panel of the second page, with the pose of the traitor getting up. Golden had a lovely pencil style but his layouts where very powerful, too.

[keeva]

Note that gender is no barrier to warriorhood amongst the Acroyear...

I'd believe that more if we saw more than one female warrior at a time. The gender imbalance is pretty damn big; nearly all of them are men. It's like saying the Smurfs had no gender barriers.

[icon_uk]

In the panel which starts "But Spartak was a cold, stone world" at least two of the warriors appear female, and we do see others from time to time IIRC. Not 50/50, which would have been much nicer I grant you..

[domino_blue]

It's not hard to see why Bill Mantlo was such a respected storyteller. He was given two properties nobody would care for today and made great stories about them.

[icon_uk]

Complete and utter motto. Micronauts and Rom both transcended their origins to a pretty much unrivalled extent.

What happened to Mantlo remains a tragedy, and they never even found the censored bleep who hit him and drove on.

[citygod]

Thanks so much for posting - I had forgotten the Marvel UK digests, they where excellent little packages. And agreed, early Kirby looks terrific in black and white.
As does Mike Golden's art - what a fantastic artist, so unlike anyone else at the time. Shame he did so little work in this style. (And Al Milgrom was his favoured inker, I think - there's some lovely line work here. It seems to emphasize the DNA that Golden shares with Jim Starlin.)

[halloweenjack]

I've been down on Bill Mantlo in the past for some of his stuff, particularly for what he did to Puck when he took over Alpha Flight, but this is pretty good. I can especially see the influence of Kirby on this, and not just with the Kirby Dots.