Question of the Week

I am starting a new feature. It's the Question of the week. Kind of an either/or situation that requires a brief explanation. Usual rules apply (mostly to Matthew)... 3-5 sentences. No more than 7. The objective is clear and concise. Responses by Monday please.

Question of the week: There have been comic book tie ins to toys for as long as Jim can remember. It's a great marketing tool for toy companies and sometimes we readers even get great stories. But, sometimes publishers lose the license and suddenly something that was once fantastic cannot be reprinted. This week, which toy inspired comic deserves to be reprinted more: Micronauts or Rom?

Lee: It has to be Micronauts. Both were poorly written so the deciding factor has got to be art. Rom had the very workmanlike Sal Buscema for the majority of the run until some inspired work by Ditko at the series end. But Micronauts, oh la la the Micronauts. It starts with a masterful 11 issues run by Mike Golden which is just stunning! Then it gets Ditko, Chaykin, Kane, and early Butch Guice. For that reason alone, Micronauts needs reprinting.

Jim: Lee has a point, but I actually thought Rom's story was decent. Plus, if memory serves it actually had an ending. Micronauts wins art, but at times I remember it being muddy, Maybe if done today it would look better, but I'm still voting Rom, story over art.

Matthew: I've only ever managed to get a handful of Rom comics, but I liked the ones I've read and hope to one day get the whole series (the first Annual is really good). But, Lee is way off base about the Micronauts being "poorly written" -- SACRILEGE, I SAY!!! -- as it is one of my all time favorite comic stories (and it did have a definitive end, actually two of them). The first TWELVE (not eleven) issues of Micronauts may be the best Bronze Age story of all time with great character dynamics: Rann and Mari; Biotron and Microtron; Bug and Acroyear; Acroyear and Shaitan; Ray and Steve Coffin; Force Commander and Baron Karza (the greatest villain this side of Darkseid); even Slug and Lady Belladonna. He also forgot to mention the best artist to come after Golden and that's Pat Broderick (Chaykin's work was RUINED with poor inking)! Two omnibuses should do it for Micronauts (forget about the second series), which definitely should be reprinted first (I'd buy an IDW Artist Edition). However, both should be collected by Marvel, since they crossed over with the regular Marvel Universe often. Now, please apologize for that disparaging remark concerning Sal Buscema's wonderful art!
There. I counted seven...creative...sentences.
 
Thomm: Need is far too strong a word for either series.  Neither needs to be reprinted.  I read most, if not all, of Rom, which was not good, in either art or writing, final ending notwithstanding.  Micronauts definitely looked better in the few issues I read and appeared to have more variety in its character development.  Rom was all knight errant and genocidal slaughter.  I vote for not republishing either of them, though. Lee, you’re just making Matthew into a master of the run on sentence.
 
Matthew: Gwen can just donate some of her leftover sentences to me.