But, where do we start…?      A strange universe full of different lifeforms, both alien and familiar.  A heroic prince returning from his first heroic voyage to find his kingdom usurped?  A mentor from his past now the ultimate evil, more machine than man?  A desperate escape then rebellion against impossible odds?      Barring the interesting particulars, notably that the worlds in this universe are literally ATOMS and Molecules, but somehow have suns (?The Electrons?) and otherwise the inhabitants need standard space travel era tech to visit other ones, well it is a standard space opera - in the setting.  A “Space Opera” is a story that is cliche, like Pulp Detective, War Stories, Sword and Sorcery…  Reading the genre the reader indeed expects something - and the challenge to the writer is how to tell the story he’s expecting.  Too much modern writing is surface only and it’s easier to do that with Comic books…  Not here.    Here came a grand space opera worthy of Star Wars or the many works in the past that inspried it.  Even as the real science fiction/fantasy publishing world was beginning to choke itself in the “Late New Wave” comics were still free to explore that realm, turning grand science fiction adventures and lush fantasy worlds to life in a way that Cinema could not touch, save a few rarities like Star Wars.  No wave of censors, publishers with an insane overbearing agenda, lists of corporate expectations yet - Marvel was a business that made a product people wanted and earned money doing that.      So, though it’d be rejected by any publisher since the 50s this universe ran for many issues.  And all the simple one- sided characters based very loosely on imported toys became

dear friends to the kids that read it.  The main ‘Default’ was Commander Rann - but Marionette (the space princess) became a worthy character, even the commander for a time.  The Spartan inspired Acroyear was the near invulnerable warrior (this was LONG before “300”) went from an almost spock like character into a very deep mature warrior, willing to live for honor but sacrifice it if the greater good demanded it.  But was a joke character at first, an insectoid humanoid, but an odd friend to the Spartan Acroyear and they complimented each other.  Even the cybernetic machines of the ship had personalities.     It was a brutal universe, with a brutal evil bad guy.  Ignored by the mainstream and under the radar of the weakened comics code the Evil Baron Karza did horrible experiments on human beings and in his hideous wars for more power countless innocents and even main characters died.  Karza himself had a neat feature where his hands could detatch and fly at high speed to strangle people.  A mixture of Darth Vader’s Force based “Grip” and Darkseid’s eye beams.      This epic space opera based on some pot-head notion had countless highs and lows, humor and horror.  Overall a message warning against the constant dangers that liberty might be lost to those who seek only power and the need for people to overcome their differences and inner prejudices for

such evil people will indeed use them to better conquer.     Eventually the comics were cancelled though later decades saw nostalgia cash- grabs.  The one that I approve of is the Palisades re-release of the figures, available on Ebay for a good price though not cheap. As a final note there was tragedy with the book itself - Bill Mantlo.  He used Marvel comics to get his Law degree - then he worked as a public defender though he certainly could have earned far more money as a corporate raider helping elites buy up companies, strip the pension fund, saddle them with debt and run for the bahamas…  Not him.  He worked as a public defender for less than Marvel paid him, helping especially people too poor to get a normal lawyer.  Then he got hit by a car and crippled horribly with terrible brain damage so was unable to even write or draw as America’s predatory health care system did as much as possible to take all the money.  He’s still alive and stable, but I shall finalize this with a link to his page, where donations can be made.  If this costs me a residual versus someone buying old comics or Palisades figure from Ebay, so be it!