My Rating
“This Is The Way The World Ends”
The mountains, those glorious peaks that once shone in the brightest of sunlight, have now become man’s last refuge from the pending environmental disasters. For decades the scientists warned humanity about the escalating cost of deforestation, unregulated industrial pollution, and overpopulation. Now Earth’s fragile ecosystem is in full collapse.
As civilization evacuates in mass to underground mountain complexes, the best and brightest stay behind to solve the poisoning atmosphere which has doomed the plant. One of these men, Doctor Norman Micron, works diligently in his high-tech laboratory with the assistance of eight robotic wonders he calls the Microbots. These autonomous machines help Doctor Micron improve his efficiency, but his work is all in vain. It appears the damage to the earth is far beyond any man’s repair. Mother Nature must be allowed to heal herself.
Doctor Norman Micron and his son Jeffery retreat to a fortified area of the laboratory building. It was there that the Doctor had prepared two suspended animation chambers for him and his son. The new plan was to sleep through the downfall of mankind. Maybe the future would bring hope to all who remain. Within minutes the complex machines begin to place Norman and Jeffery into a deep comatose state. Their only protection would be the eight robotic sentries built to serve mankind.
“Day Of The Juggernaut”
Centuries have passed since the Micron’s placed themselves into suspended animation. When they awoke from their cryogenic slumber Norman and his son Jeffery discovered a perplexing new world of jungle covered cities, superstitiously driven tribes populated by primitive humans, and mutated animal species that were both alien in appearance and highly dangerous. With the loss of his father, Jeffrey Micron has been left to survive in this strange new environment without parental guidance. His only companions would be the eight mechanical wonders known as the Microbots and an outcast barbarian boy named Vik.
As the two boys grew more confident in their abilities to live off the land, Jeffrey began to think more about his promise to his father. Doctor Micron had charged his son with the task of helping rebuild civilization at any cost. So one day Jeffrey and Vik decided to explore an ancient part of the city where Vik’s tribe had once heard bizarre rumbling sounds within a fenced area. Was this the telltale signs of active technology?
Midday arrived as the two explorers stumbled upon an overgrown security fence which belonged to the Fort Smith Arsenal. The words were very puzzling to the young barbarian boy, but Jeffrey knew exactly what this was. A military base! With some effort the two traverse the wires and links of the degraded fencing and start their investigation of the strange ruins. Before they made much headway however, the rumbling began. The source of the disturbance was not a seismic event, nor the beating of primitive drums, this was the sounds of a heavy tracked vehicle powered by a diesel engine. Jeffrey and Vik both turned to see the huge form of a Juggernaut class U.S. Army combat tank rolling towards their position. As the gun turret began to pivot in their direction Jeffrey screamed at the top of his voice to “RUN”.
Reviewer Notes
Wow, this comic book was very interesting indeed. Based on Kenner’s new line of toys, the Microbots launched in 1971. I don’t have the full details to speculate if this Gold Key comic was a oneshot promotional tie-in, or if it was canceled due to low sales, but we get two very competent stories in one bronze age issue of the Microbots. Forget the bandwagon jumping modern environmentalist like Gretta Thunberg, people were very concerned about the environmental impact of the modern industrial complex as far back as the 1960’s. With books like Microbots and the Mighty Samson, we have one piece of evidence to conclude that Gold Key writers were trying to reach out to children with these issues.
As far as the comic book goes the art was very reminiscent of the 1970s, and writing was very well done. I do love the old style monster art and the Microbots take on their fair share of these. If I were to ever run across the writer Len Wein I would definitely ask if this post apocalyptic world was the same as the one inhabited by the Mighty Samson. Talk about crossover potential. I guess we will never know for sure.
I’m giving the sole issue of the Microbots a four out of five stars. It would have been nice to see a few more issues of this series in play. Maybe we can get a reboot? Come on Disney!
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