BARON KARZA IS BACK! And that's the good news!

A threat so ominous looms over HOMEWORLD and the MICROVERSE that CMDR. RANN and the rag-tag remnants of the MICRONAUTS are forced to do something they never dreamt of doing--they reanimate BARON KARZA from the BODY BANKS. Now allied, the MICRONAUTS and BARON KARZA are all that stand between HOMEWORLD and the invading K'LAR IMPERIUM.

A Marvel Comics, Inc. monthly series proposal By Shon C. Bury

"Hope may be a puny thing, my friend, but as the saying goes, it's been known to move worlds. Shall we give it a try?"
--CMDR. Arcturus Rann, X-Men and the Micronauts #3, 1984

THE PREMISE: The K'LAR IMPERIUM has invaded the MICROVERSE. From across the microdimensions--punching through the SPACEWALL aboard their dimension-traversing organic ships--they've come with one objective in their hive-mind: to rid the dimensions of their technological advancements and absorb all other organic life.

As our story opens, the K'Lar have all but succeeded in enslaving HOMEWORLD, half the MICRONAUTS have been imprisoned or lost in the war and CMDR. RANN, in an act of desperation, has brought BARON KARZA back from the dead! Now allied with their greatest foe, the Micronauts stand divided against a menace that threatens to ravage the entire Microverse.

Now the war begins...

THE MICROVERSE & HOMEWORLD: THE MAKERS gave the MICROVERSE a second lease on life after the MICRONAUTS entered the PROMETHEUS PITS in The Micronauts: The New Voyages #20. The microverse of Homeworld is one of many sub-atomic experiments of The Makers. There are several microverses, and the microverse of the K'Lar is even more brutal than the one we know. The Imperium has fed all other organics to their living planet in the pocket universe created for them. Now they've come with their cold, calculating tyranny through the SPACEWALL that divides the worlds...

As the series opens, the Microverse stands on the brink of destruction yet again. First fending off the threat of Psycho-Man in the pages of Cable, now the MICRONAUTS are waging war again--this time against the K'Lar Imperium. When we catch up to them--it doesn't look good for our heroes! THE MICRONAUTS: Only CMDR. RANN, MARI and BUG remain. HUNTARR and ACROYEAR are imprisoned aboard the living-ships of the K'Lar. DEVIL is dead, FIREFLYTE is lost in the ether of the ENIGMA FORCE and the roboids BIOTRON and MICROTRON have been purged in the K'Lar's anti-technology blitz across the dimensions. In desperation, our heroes were forced to turn to the BODY BANKS to reanimate their greatest foe, BARON KARZA.

CMDR. RANN made the decision to reanimate Baron Karza and ally the remnants of the Micronauts with the Microverses former despot and his Dog Soldiers. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but Rann's decision was not a popular one. Mari and Bug realize that once the K'Lar threat is over, they will once again have to fight Karza and his Dog Soldiers. The Karza alliance has divided our heroes and is a source of internal conflict for our battle weary team.

MARI especially loathes Rann's decision. Karza killed her parents and brother, destroyed her world and forever changed the man she has loved since childhood. She can hardly stomach the Karza alliance. After all, the Micronauts defeated the threat he posed. Once again, the Karza factor will divide Mari and Rann. Will the Princess take command of the Micronauts again? leaving Rann in the bed he made? Or will she stick through the greatest threat the Microverse has ever faced and lead her people out of darkness?

BUG wants to understand why Rann brought Baron Karza back from the dead, but haven't the Micronauts defeated every other threat the Microverse has thrown at them? The Micronauts are his only family, he'll work within the Karza alliance for now, but once the K'Lar threat is over and Huntarr and Acroyear are freed...

HUNTARR was captured by the K'Lar before issue #1 and before the reanimation of Karza. He's being held prisoner aboard the K'Lar's living-ships along with Acroyear and millions of other Homeworlders. Who knows what's being done to them, but the Micronauts plan to find out.

ACROYEAR and Huntarr will be freed from the clutches of the K'Lar, but they will be changed. Acroyear will reunite with his people and lead them in the war against the Imperium. The united Acroyears make a devastating addition in the K'Lar War. BARON KARZA: Brought back from the dead in time for issue #1's SPLASH PAGE, Karza--ironically--is the Microverses last hope! As the Micronauts fight along side his Dog Soldiers, Karza and Rann orchestrate the resistance against the K'Lar Imperium--each eyeing the other with suspicion. Karza serves to divide the Micronauts by adding internal conflict, as well as staging the advent of his return to his tyrannical ways. And if you think he's not going to betray his greatest foes when the time is right, your neural matrix needs a tune-up.

THE K'LAR IMPERIUM: The invaders of the microverse that we know, they've come from their own sub-atomic dimension to enslave Homeworld and rid the Microverse of its technology. The K'Lar come from a world of organic science. They are telepathically linked to their world, their living-ships and each other. Their information retrieval systems, weapons, even their chairs and beds are bred from the organic mass of their world. Cold, calculating and uni-minded, the K'Lar consider other life forms as raw material suitable for fueling their living-ships and feeding their home world. Metal- and plastic-based technology is abhorrent in the K'Lar's mind and must be wiped from the dimensions. Having conquered their own microverse, stripping it of its other life forms and non-organic technology, the K'Lar now stand on the verge of ravaging the Micronauts' universe as well.

THE MAKERS: The microverses are their playground. The Makers created the microverses to study strife-ridden sentients. When the Micronauts succeeded in recreating Homeworld via the Prometheus Pits, The Makers saw fit to rework the fabric of reality once again to throw the Micronauts into harms way. With the Micronauts able to defend their sub-atomic universe from all it's internal threats, The Makers found it an interesting experiment to sic a trans-microverse species on the inhabitants of Homeworld. The microverses are The Makers' sandbox, the Micronauts their playthings.

THE ENIGMA FORCE: The energy that binds the inhabitants of the Micronauts' microverse. It was thought that the Enigma Force was an entity that guided the microrverse and appeared to them in the form of the Time Traveler, when, in fact, it was the avatar of their collective-conscious projected through CMDR. Rann. The Enigma Force will bind the microverse that we know and aid in defeating the hive-minded K'Lar Imperium.

ARC #1
"The Enemy of My Enemy is..."
3 Issues

The opening arc, the war against the trans-microverse conquerors known as the K'Lar Imperium, serves to set in motion three elements: 1) to setup the return of the Micronauts and their arch-nemesis Baron Karza in the most believable and dramatic fashion possible; 2) to create a dimensions spanning threat that is even more ominous, and supersedes, the threat of Baron Karza, and; 3) to simultaneously rebuild a revitalized team of Micronauts and insert internal conflict into the core of the team for dramatic effect.

The first arc, the war with the K'Lar Imperium, will last only three issues, possibly four. Anything longer than that, readers will start to loose interest. The Micronauts--only after much of Homeworld is ravaged--harness the Enigma Force and push back the K'Lar threat. But only after Karza has disappeared, Huntarr and Acroyear have been rescued--albeit emotionally altered from their experience aboard the living-ships. Fyreflyte reappears as well, after coalescing within the ether of the Enigma Force, learning that all living things in their microverse comprise the Enigma Force. Fyreflyte holds the key to the K'Lar's defeat. The climactic battle at the end of this arc will make the space battle in Return of the Jedi pale in comparison.

As the arc ends:

The Micronauts are reunited, yet divided. Mari must return to Homeworld and unify her people. Acroyear, after unifying his people to fight the K'Lar, also must choose between his people and the Micronauts. To top it off, CMDR Rann seems...unbalanced by all his time spent with Baron Karza.

The K'Lar threat is not completely over. What remains is mop-up missions to rid Homeworld of the remnants of the K'Lar invasion force. And will the K'Lar ever find a way to return, even though billions of Homeworlders shed their corporeal forms to reinforce the Spacewall by joining with the Enigma Force?

Baron Karza has disappeared. The Micronauts know this bodes ill for them and the rest of the Microverse. And this is the staging point for our next arc.

ARC #2
"Balance of Power"
3 Issues

The return of Baron Karza as the Micronauts' arch-nemesis! He has recaptured his Body Banks from the still-weak Homeworlders and in short order launches an assault on the Micronauts. Rid the plant of its roots and it shall wither, after all. To aid him, Karza has reanimated some old pawns as well as some new ones: Force Commander is back, leading one division of Karza's Dog Soldiers; the renegade Acroyear, Shaitan, is back, claiming the name Spartak as his own and leading Karza's second division of Dog Soldiers. Karza has also reanimated his Chief Scientist, Centauria, Captain D'Ark and Force Commander's one time love and rebel leader, Slug. Now, however, Slug, resembles closer Huntarr in appearance and power. This arc also brings back shinny new versions of BIOTRON and MICROTRON!

With Karza's power matrix in place, he sets out once again to become the iron-fisted ruler of the Microverse. To top it off, Rann is suffering from reoccurring nightmares that threaten to send him over the brink.

The arc ends when Baron Karza is assassinated. Out of the darkness emerges CMDR. Rann, dawning Karza's helmet and mantle of power for himself.

The stage is now set for:

The Micronauts to fight against the man and living legend that once lead them. Mari is forced to leave the domestic affairs of Homeworld to her Chief-of-State while she yet again wages war against the threats to her people. Never before has that threat been the man she loves!

The return of Baron Karza. AGAIN! The power struggle within the power matrix of Homeworld's enemies will be their undoing. This time Karza comes with allies. The remnant of the K'Lar invasion fleet!

A new member for the Micronauts. The mysterious wielder of the Enigma Force, Narrian, will turn out to be a psionic duplicate of Baron Rann, the embodiment of his suppressed good side. * * * *