Micronauts issue 4
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| Publisher | IDW Publishing, Ted Adams | ||||||||||||
| First published | July 27, 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Cullen Bunn | ||||||||||||
| Line-art by | Max Dunbar | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | David Garcia Cruz | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Tom B. Long | ||||||||||||
| Editor | John Barber | ||||||||||||
Tale of the Time Travelers!
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Gazing into the entropy cloud, Baron Karza is joined by Shazraella, who correctly deduces that his mind is on the past...
Years ago, Karza and Daegon stand at the side of the Emperor of Microspace, the pillars of his rule. Both chafe under the presence of the Emperor's son, the self-styled "Red Falcon", an arrogant and power-hungry influence on his father. During a session of the Council of Worlds, Red Falcon steps in to declare that he will personally lead a mission to rescue captured Pharoid prophets. Afterwards, he embraces his betrothed, Shazraella, earning him the ire of Karza, who has long pined for the Mistress of Spies.
At the captured Pharoid temple, Karza and Red Falcon fight side-by-side, even as the Baron secretly hopes that the Emperor's son will be struck down, or indeed that he could do so himself. Along with their Acroyear army, they rout the temple's captors, but not before Karza receives a cryptic warning from a dying soldier, warning that the Pharoid prophets' actions would "destroy everything". Entering the temple, the Baron finds that Red Falcon is already there, gazing into the light surrounding five Time Chambers of the Time Travelers.
Red Falcon subsequently becomes obsessed with the Time Travelers and the knowledge of the future that they supposedly blessed him with, communing secretly with them in his chambers, and insisting to his father that he alone could divine their secrets and advise accordingly. Alone, the Barons discuss this new state of affairs, and Karza suggests they act against Red Falcon for the good of the Emperor. Daegon refuses any part in it, but after he departs, Karza is joined by Shazraella... who embraces him in a kiss! Having seen Red Falcon's growing madness, Shazraella joins Karza in a plot to prevent the rise to power that the Emperor's son has foreseen for himself, and crafts a dark poison with which to strike him down. Karza successfully administers the concoction, and never again do the Time Travelers appear in Red Falcon's chambers...
In the present, Shazraella assures Karza that the cryo-hibernating Emperor would forgive the assassination of his son, before departing to their bedchambers. Alone again, Karza is then approached by his MT class robot, which holds an object expelled from the entropy cloud. The robot has ordered itself and all who saw the item destroyed, because in its hands it holds... Baron Karza's own helmet.
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
(Characters in italics appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Microspace empire | Other |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"P-please... Please, listen... Y-you have to understand... They're not safe... If only you knew what they will become... What they have already become... They've shown us... so much... so many horrors... the past... the distant future... but they can't see their own fate... can't s-see what they will bring about... They enerchanged with time itself... and it drove them mad! ... Please believe me... They'll destroy every—"
- —A dire warning...
Notes[edit | edit source]
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- The present-day bookends of this issue appear to take place out of sequence with the adjacent issues—the opening scene of issue #5 directly continues Karza and Shazraella's final appearance in issue #3.
Micronauts references[edit | edit source]
- His lack of a helmet obfuscates it somewhat, but the Emperor is based on a Micronauts toy of the same name, as is Red Falcon.
- The captors of the Pharoid temple possess a Terraphant vehicle.
- The captors themselves wear silver masks, an obvious reference to the vacuum-metalized chrome heads of the original Micronauts toys.
Covers (5)[edit | edit source]
- Regular cover: The Time Travelers, by J.H. Williams III.
- Subscription cover A: Acroyear escapes from Rom's boot, by David Williams and David Garcia Cruz; one of several Rom themed crossover covers for various July 2016 IDW covers promoting the launch of ROM.
- Subscription cover B: One Acroyear toy faces a swarm of more, photography by Jack Rivera.
- Subscription cover C: Larissa action figure, by Adam Riches.
- Retailer incentive cover: The Micronauts versus a cat, by J.K. Woodward.
