I was going to do a whole "His name was Forager" bit, but they went there straightaway!

From 2017, Bug! The Adventures of Forager #1, "Bughouse Crazy! Domino Effect, part 1 of 6" Written by Lee Allred, art by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred. 

 

The insect-raised Forager, disparaged by Orion as a "Bug," sacrificed himself to save the universe in 1989's Cosmic Odyssey #4, but he's back today; having awoken from a cocoon, in the basement of an earth house? This might be a dream, as he encounters a bizarre ghost girl and her talking teddy bear; who advises him not to use his name there. Fine, he'll be Bug for now. He isn't real keen on going back to Highfather and Orion, or the insects, so what's left? Saving the universe? Bug considers, he's saved the universe, without really getting to see much of it. The little girl had set up dominoes, in a pattern Bug recognized as from a Mother Box, and when she changes one Bug has a vision of characters that will probably show up later, including Deadman, OMAC, and the Black Racer. But, the classic Kirby Sandman shows up now!

With Sandman's helpers Brute and Glob, Bug helps fight General Electric; but a domino falls into his hand from nowhere. Bug protests, he is not a domino and won't fall in line; but still stops the General, before falling into a dimensional hole that he figures will take him to the next domino. I'm not sure who's pulling the strings, but I'm hoping it's not New Gods related, since Bug seems to have had it with their drama. I kinda think this little series was because the Allreds liked the character and maybe wanted to give him a happy ending; although it could still end as a dream or with him dead. Also, did Kirby ever do Deadman? It's a love letter to Kirby, with one extra guy.

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Today's Cross-No-Ver: Small X-Pectations!

During "The End" week, we saw the last stand of the Micronauts. They got better...well, not all of them. The Micronauts were licensed from Mego, and when that expired, characters like Acroyear and Baron Karza reverted to them. Commander Rann, Marionnette, and Bug were created by Marvel, so they didn't lose the rights to them. Some years later, they returned as "the Microns," in today's actual book: Captain Marvel #6, "It's a Small Universe After All" Written by Peter David, pencils by ChrisCross, inks by Anibal Rodriguez.

Genis, the current Captain Marvel, is searching for Drax in the Negative Zone. Only, as Bug points out to him, it's not the Negative Zone, it's the Microverse. Apparently, the one and only now: previously, there had been several like the Micronaut's molecule-shaped Homeworld, Jarella's world (from the Hulk) or the world of the Psycho-Man. But, after a crisis with Thanos and "the Baron" and their attempt to destroy all the micro-worlds; the Microns and the X-Men defeated them, but "all the micro-realms merged into one."

I don't know if the "Small X-pectations one-shot" joke was from David, or editor Tom Brevoort, but I would've read it. Here, the fake crossover is a good way to establish how things were versus how they will be going forward, and that the Microns were tough before. That and it's a quick jab at comics and marketing.
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I've had this flier from an issue of Wizard or Toyfare or something for years, and it's been sitting by the computer for a while now.

I was going to ask if anyone had ever actually seen this bust, but then I thought, duh, eBay. And after a few minutes of searching--"Bug" and "Thing" are tough ones to search for oddball comic-related items, and I don't want to guess how many worm listings I've seen looking for Nightcrawler stuff--an auction came right up.

I'm afraid I'm not interested enough to buy it: I don't have anywhere to put busts. Ever since my wife broke the tail of a Nightcrawler statue, what little high end stuff I have goes into the basement. Also, check out the link: the eyes don't look right on the auction one...like they've been turned about 90 degrees.

I've fallen behind on Annihilation and Guardians of the Galaxy: is Bug still in there? This Dynamic Forces promo was an odd item, since it was tied into Image's relaunch/reimagination of Micronauts that didn't use any of Marvel's characters. Didn't, um, didn't take. Everyone remembers Micronauts fondly, but with the licensing all tied up and the wave of nostalgic comics come and gone, it's never coming back. (I took a quick look for it, but I couldn't find Warren Ellis' explanation on why that was a bad idea in the first place.)

Still. The old issues are still out there, and fun enough to flip through. Now ROM, hell, ROM deserves a new figure, new book, and a dramatic reveal in Secret Invasion...hey, at this point, that's like the one thing that would get me to pay money for that. Read more!

Going...going...out!

One kid's got therapy, the other basketball, the wife's sick, and my family's here. So, probably no comics today, sorry. We'll be back to the rambling, tangential posts soon enough, promise.

How Marvel, and Keith Giffen, are going to use Bug when I think they've lost the rights to mention the word 'Micronauts,' I don't know. Maybe it's not as strict as all that.

From Bug #1, "Apples and Origins" Story by Todd Dezago, pencils by Derec Aucoin, inks by Rich Faber and Ralph Cabrera. Post-Onslaught, Bug and a pre-Annihilation Alanis...I mean, Annihilus, crash a number of key Marvel moments and origins, necessitating sweeping rewrites of history and Marvel Universe Handbooks. Or something similar. Read more!