Peter B. Gillis Big Comics Readthrough

The Eternals #5-8 (1986) Pencils: Sal Buscema Inks: Sal Buscema, Danny Bulanadi In this middle act of the story, Kro steals the essence of a Celestial from Ikaris' vault, but it winds up in the wrong scaly hands of Ghaur. Thena rescues her ex Kro from certain death at Ikaris' hands, so the rekindled lovers end up on the run from Eternal and Deviant alike. The mismatched pair make an oddly charming couple, risking all for a forbidden love. Again, the action zips along at a fair old pace, although there's more room here for character introspection. There's a particularly affecting scene where Ikaris recalls his son of the same name. Gillis always seems stronger and more comfortable in these quiet moments. Kirby's Eternals, humans and Deviants can easily be dismissed as counterparts to angels, humans and demons, but Gillis offered a more complex view. To him the divides mirror the class struggle, or to dig deeper, the id, ego and superego. Which is why he was keen to p...

With the Microverse on the brink of self destruction, the Micronauts return to the epicentre of the madness: their Homeworld. Micronauts: The New Voyages #17 (1986) Pencils: Howard Bender Inks: Danny Bulanadi The first of two late fill-ins from predominantly DC penciler Bender. It's nice clean art, but rather old fashioned compared to Jones. There is a wonderfully inventive four page sequence where the scene splits in two vertically down the page. Huntarr and Mari have a heart to heart on the left, while the action builds on the right, before it joins back up again. The beleaguered Micros return home to finally save their old pal Devil from a broken transporter tube. Unfortunately what they end up freeing is the twisted form of Homeworld's Worldmind in Devil's body. Bill Mantlo established the concept of the Worldmind as a Gaia like soul of Acroyear's ex-planet Spartak. Gillis extended this notion, so that every planet has a distinct Worldmind. As Homeworld was left a f...

Cancellation of New Voyages (due to the impending New Universe or simply low sales, take your pick) was announced before the title even entered its second year. Thankfully a stay of execution enabled them to properly conclude what became an epic 20 issue storyline. Micronauts: The New Voyages #13 (1985) Pencils: Kelley Jones Inks: Danny Bulanadi, Kelley Jones Scion guides the Micronauts to their original intended holiday destination, Fiome. There's little time for chillaxing though, as Scion has his sights on Zodiac Keys that are powering the locals' blob shaped chitin starships. The Keys are mystical MacGuffins from one of Mantlo's sagas, here recast as part of the language of the Makers. More wonderfully odd sci-fi and great character work on display here, beautifully delineated by Jones and Bulanadi. Micronauts: The New Voyages #14 (1985) Pencils: Kelley Jones Inks: Danny Bulanadi Next stop on Scion's magical mystery tour is the planet Aegis, which to the Micronauts ...

Here begins the middle act of the New Voyages saga, where it ratchets up a notch into something truly special. Following their new adventures into the unknown, the Micronauts began to get pulled back into the familiar, with various concepts from the first series making a reappearance. Micronauts: The New Voyages #9-10 (1985) Pencils: Kelley Jones Inks: Bruce Patterson Picking up on Mantlo and Guice's final panel, ex Micronaut Devil finds himself reborn on a desolate ruined Homeworld. Essentially a pink version of the furry Beast, he shares a neverending life cycle with the pixie like Fireflyte, reborn once the other dies. The terrified Devil gets twisted in a transporter tube, psychically broadcasting a distress signal to Commander Rann. Devil's matrix ends up in the latest incarnation of Biotron (yes, Gillis brought the annoying droids back again, presumably chiefly for this plot device). Rann, feeling his thousand year age and full of self doubt over recent errors in judgemen...