“Uh, fellas? I’m out of road. Guys?”
Centurions #1
DC Comics (June, 1987)
“Time Bomb” WRITER: Bob Rozakis ARTISTS: Don Heck & Al Vey COLORIST: Tom Ziuko LETTERER: Agustin Mas EDITOR: Jonathan Peterson
Centurions is an adaptation of the Ruby-Spears cartoon featuring three heroes–Max Ray, Ace McCloud, and Jake Rockwell–who used exosuits that can connect to special armor beamed to them from the spacestation Skyvault by Crystal Kane. Together they battle Doc Terror, his assistant, Hacker, and his army of robots as he plots to take over the world.
In this issue Terror announces that he will cripple the world with a huge electromagnetic pulse to wipe out technology all over the world unless the nations surrender to him. The Centurions follow missiles that convert into traps for the trio, but Max deduces the real target.
What they got right: Rozakis does a good job getting the voices and relationships of the characters. The fights are good and using the results of a battle the Centurions were in before the main plot worked well.
What they got wrong: In the show, Doc Terror’s base was secret and the Centurions couldn’t attack him because they didn’t know where is was. In the comic, however, they know where Terror is, but somehow he got his arctic base declared a sovereign nation. Supposedly this means our heroes can’t attack his base due to international law but considering how many attempts he’s made to take over the world and has turned innocent people into cyborg slaves I would think it would be declared he’s committed an act of war by now. Doc Terror lacks Doctor Doom’s subtlety.
Other notes: For the record, and as I said above, Centurions was a TV show first that just happened to have toys based on it, just like Filmation’s Bravestarr. However, I’ve seen people (including myself at one point) confused unless you read the small print on the toys and ads (I never owned a Centurion toy), probably because there were so many shows based on toys at the time.
Recommendation: A fun adventure as only the 80’s could do it. If you like 80’s action cartoons you may like this comic even if you’ve never seen the show.
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