“Yesterday’s” Comic> Battletech: Fallout #4

Can they stop pretending this has any connection to the animated series now?

Battletech: Fallout #4

FINAL ISSUE

Malibu (March, 1995)

In the third issue, which I don’t have, the new group dubbed their makeshift unit Fallout and took on the Wolf Clan, hoping to drive business from their facilities to Movl. This didn’t sit as well with Darius as they thought. Raul is branded a traitor and Darius issues a “batchall” (a special kind of challenge) to Morgan’s team (except for Hilda, who died in the raid).

This issue finds the batchall beginning, but Beauregard doesn’t play by the Clans’ answer to Marquees Of Queensbury rules, and the team take the Jade Falcon forces rather quickly. Then they blow up Stars’ End, but Morgan has the ability to reform the planetoid…but first Fallout decides to kick the Clans out of the Inner Sphere first!

What they got right: By itself, Fallout was a good story. There isn’t a lot of character development, mind you, but the action was well written and well drawn. It’s not perfect but I found myself enjoying it more than the Blackthorne comics. Maybe because they took more time to explain things to new readers who never played the game.

What they got wrong: There are some continuity issues, and one of them does put the comic into a negative point. According to the Battletech wiki (because of course there’s one), there’s some question about what models of Mechs should have been available to Fallout and Jade Falcon at this point in the timeline. There’s also some question about Stars End as depicted in this book, but mostly with Morgan Fletcher. The wiki claim that by 3050 she should be much older than the book depicts her and that she has a major hatred of men. That helps make Beauregard look almost like a fanfic insert character. (“My guy is Bedford Beauregard. He’s strong, even people who hate him end up liking him even when he pulls rank on someone of higher rank, and he’s the only man Morgan will sleep with because he’s awesome and has a robot arm.”)

The comic claims to be based on the cartoon, but there’s a problem there as well. In the early episodes of the show the Clan Mechs (and they fight the same Clan here, Jade Falcon) are so tough that the Sommerset Strikers are lucky to get away, never mind handing Jade Falcon their posteriors. And that by ignoring the batchall battle style just as Fallout does in this comic. This again makes Beauregard and his friends look way too good.

Recommendation: But all of those issues aside, this was an enjoyable miniseries and I do want to get issue #3 someday and complete the story. It’s worth taking a look at if you come across it.

Related articles

• “Yesterday’s” Comic> Battletech: Fallout #1
• “Yesterday’s” Comic> Battletech: Fallout #2