80s Space Opera Comics

[Lee Stone]

Omega Men's relaunch and subsequent digitization of the original series got me to fondly recall a period where super-hero comics met Star Wars grandeur.

Titles like Dreadstar, Omega Men, Micronauts and Atari Force were doing really good at the time and Legion of Super-Heroes embraced its space-opera facets with Levitz doing some of the best world-building this side of Star Trek.

Sadly, Micronauts and Atari Force are lost to us now. Being licensed comics at the time (and even then pretty far removed from the source material), we may never see them reprinted or in digital format.

Does anyone here have a favorite space opera-superhero fusion from days gone by?

[Pharozonk]

deleted. .

[Mace Dolex]

I have some Atari Force comics but not because I like them but because of the fantastic art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

[Mister Mets]

Tim Truman's Hawkworld mini-series is probably the gold standard.

[FanboyStranger]

tim truman's hawkworld mini-series is probably the gold standard.

Nexus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tony]

Sadly, Micronauts and Atari Force are lost to us now. Being licensed comics at the time (and even then pretty far removed from the source material), we may never see them reprinted or in digital format.

Can the owner of those not sell digital copies? Marvels GI Joe Transformers Star Wars and Conan were all reprinted not by Marvel. Maybe someone should write them.

[Lee Stone]

Can the owner of those not sell digital copies? Marvels GI Joe Transformers Star Wars and Conan were all reprinted not by Marvel. Maybe someone should write them.

I think the problem stems from one company owning the original concept and then DC and Marvel owning the characters they introduced in the comics.

Micronauts is a prime example. The characters owned by Marvel have been rebranded as Enigma Force and the ones they didn't own had a new series by Devil's Due a while back.
Reprints or digital copies prob won't appear because every issue involved characters owned by the two seperate companies.

Atari Force was a bit different but not much. I believe that almost all the characters were created by DC after the original version was scrapped but the Atari name and logo could cause them problems. And since DC never used the characters outside the title, I'm not really sure if they do own them. Except that they did all appear in their Who's Who series.

And a few of those Transformers issues that IDW digitized skipped over the issues that guest-starred Marvel characters.

ROM is a similarly hindered comic. Marvel did revive the Spaceknights but ROM was vaguely referred to as the first knight or something.
And no one else would be able to reprint the old series because Marvel owns the spaceknights that were created in the comic and almost every issue had a guest star it seemed.

[Hellboydce]

L.e.g.i.o.n

[Deathstroke]

I was a huge fan of both Dreadstar and the Micronauts. I love Atari Force as well, but I don't think I read every issue. And I loved Rom as well.

[Lee Stone]

Good news: Atari Force will be getting reprinted by Dynamite!

[FanboyStranger]

Good news: Atari Force will be getting reprinted by Dynamite!

Yeah, I was excited to see that. Dynamite is a bit sketchy with following through on these things, though. (They did do right by the Helfer/Sienkiewicz Shadow run, though.) I guess the stuff everyone really wants is the JLGL stuff that leads off the series, so I'm sure we'll at least get that.

[Deathstroke]

Good news: Atari Force will be getting reprinted by Dynamite!

Any details on the reprint?

[FanboyStranger]

Any details on the reprint?

Just a press release that Dynamite has acquired the Atari license, and will be producing an "Art and History of Atari" book similiar to Dark Horse's Zelda book, reprints of Atari Force, and some new material. No word on whether this will include the mini-comics that came with certain Atari games, which fetch some serious prices on the secondary market. No time table for the reprints or new material, either.

[Lee Stone]

Yeah, I was excited to see that. Dynamite is a bit sketchy with following through on these things, though. (They did do right by the Helfer/Sienkiewicz Shadow run, though.) I guess the stuff everyone really wants is the JLGL stuff that leads off the series, so I'm sure we'll at least get that.

True.
They only did the first twelve issues of Dreadstar.

[FanboyStranger]

True.
They only did the first twelve issues of Dreadstar.

Funnily enough, the second Dreadstar omnibus was supposed to come out on July 7th according to Amazon, along with a bunch of other stuff that wasn't released. (Read the IDW thread.) It's supposedly been pushed back until January 2016.