If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Whispers of Ice and Sand, G. W. Thomas’ space opera collection featuring Space Westerns but also good old-fashioned SF adventure with Sudana and her android (read tin robot) Zaar. In “New World Survival”, Sudan and Zaar are hired to take a group of contestants to the terror planetoid Blister. Everything goes wrong when a saboteur disables their ship, forcing them to compete in the life-and-death games.
The Bronze Age superheroes continue with more Marvel Comics. Buried in and around the Captain Americas and Avengers are some odd bits. The Independent comics are in full swing in the 1980s and they promise to bring us never before seen wonders, better than the old faithfuls, Marvel and DC. So with this golden opportunity to launch comics into new realms, what do they do? Giant robots, of course. I am being more than a little facetious here. You won’t confuse Boris the Bear‘s robot tale for Marvel. Or Timothy Truman’s Scout which is a love letter to Japanese anime. Or DNAg–well, maybe not that one. Other oddments include the provocative European comic strip Axa.
The rest is superheroes beating the crap out of gigantic robotic machines. And wow, did they ever! (I have to remind myself I pulled most of the SF stuff out for another post. So you are missing comics like the adaptation of Asimov’s I, Robot, one of my favs, Alien Legion, and even The Transformers. There were plenty of non-superhero robots.) We also have plenty of bots in 2000 A. D. and Heavy Metal. Here’s the rest of the 1980s.
The 1980s
“The Brave” (Axa comic strip, 1980) was written by Donne Avenell.
“Better Red Than Ronan”/”Last Stand on Long Island” (The Avengers #198-199, August-September 1980) was written by David Michelinie.
“The Evil Reborn”/”This Evil Undying” (The Avengers #201-202, November-December 1980) was written by Jim Shooter.
“Countdown of the Killer Computer!” (Action Comics #514, December 1980) was written by Marv Wolfman.
“Samurai Destroyer!” (Fantastic Four #226, January 1981) was written by Doug Moench.
“Master Plan of the Thinker!” (Spidey Super Stories #51, March 1981) was written by Jim Salicrup and Steven Grant.
“The Smasher” (Red Dagger #11, April 1981) was written by an unknown author. Art by Terry Patrick
“Court-Martial” (The Avengers #213, November 1981) was written by Jim Shooter.
“Flight From Thunderhead!” (Captain America #266, February 1982) by David Anthony Kraft.
“Scents and Sense!” (Marvel Team-Up #117, May 1982) was written by J. M. DeMatteis.
“Someone Who Cares” (Captain America #270, June 1982) was written by J. M. DeMatteis.
“The Trojan Gambit” (G. I. Joe #3, September 1982) was written by Larry Hama.
“Zero Attacks” (Mighty Heroes Annual 1984, 1983) was written by an unknown author.
“Robots Don’t Dream” (Weird War Tales #122, April 1983) was written by Robert Kanigher.
Captain Paragon (#1-4, 1983-1985) was written by Mark Heike and Phil White.
Frank Brunner’s Seven Samuroid (Image International, 1984) was written and drawn by Frank Brunner.
“Trackdown” (The DNAgents #8, January 1984) was written by Mark Evanier.
“Book 5” (Ronin #5, May 1984) was written and drawn by Frank Miller.
“Mechanics” (Love & Rockets #7, July 1984) was written and drawn by Jaime Hernandez.
“Night on the Town” (Blue Devil #6, November 1984) was written by Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin.
Robotech Masters (#1-23, July 1985-April 1988) was written by Mike Baron. Art by Neil Vokes, Tom Poston, Harrison Fong and Bill Anderson
“Robot Gun” (Cracked #221, August 1986) was written by Mort Todd.
“Siege of the Terminators” (Hex #12, August 1986) was written by Michael Fleisher.
“Die, Robot, Die!” (Boris the Bear #2, September 1986) was written by Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley and James Dean Smith.
“Me and the Devil” (Scout #12, October 1986) was written and drawn by Tim Truman.
“Thunder on the Moon” (Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5, October 1986) was written by Roger McKenzie.
“The Robot In My Rose Garden” (Kickers Inc. #2, December 1986) was written by Tom DeFalco.
Conclusion
We’ll leave the giant robots there for now. There are many bots to be found after 1986. 1984’s The Terminator, for one, spawned a whole new batch of metallic assassins. Visions of the future war with the robots are often the most interesting bits in this franchise, with giant tank-like killers rolling over the frail humans. The silver Terminators are there shooting victims, and looking like the epitome of the giant killer robot. This image began in 1928 with Edmond Hamilton’s “The Comet Doom” (ignoring the Frankenstein origin and H. G. Wells’ tripods). Hamilton had brain-stealing cyborgs come to Earth on a comet with the intention of diverting the planet’s trajectory and an invasion. How many movies have we seen with similar ploys since then? A most recent one, Elevation, has Anthony Mackie stuck above 8.000 ft. because of what looks like dragons but are actually…well, no spoilers. Everything old is still around for another kick at the cat….
Discover the classic Military SF series
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