“And to make matters worse, we’re out of cereal!”
Droids #2
Star Comics (Marvel; June, 1986)
“The Ultimate Weapon!” WRITER: Dave Manak PENCILER: John Romita INKERS: Al Williamson & Jon D’Agostino COLORIST: George Roussos LETTERER: Grace Kremer EDITOR: Sid Jacobson
During the trip to the repair station, C-3PO gets on the bad side of some other droids and in the struggle R2 is further damaged. The pilots, Vik and Nikki, offer to be temporary masters for C-3PO and R2-D2 until R2 is properly repaired by their father, Lonn, who runs the station. When they get there, however, they find their father is the prisoner of Tig Fromm and Vlix. Fromm wants Lonn to install a laser he designed onto their ship but refuses until Nikki tries to stop them from torturing him, instead using her to force Lonn to comply. She’s able to warn Vik and 3PO, who are able to free Nikki thanks R2 using his overload (at cost to himself), but the kids are captured by Fromm’s men. Using the laser-resistant shell of an old Guardian droid to free his temporary masters and chase off the mobsters. Lonn repairs R2 and the two Droids say their farewells.
What they got right: Using villains from the show. Tig and Vlix were a major threat during the first storyline of the cartoon. According to research this places the comics before the TV series (except for the later adaptations of the first movie from the Droids’ perspective). That means this is most likely the first time the Droids have met the mobsters. It is good to see them connect to the show beyond the art style.
What they got wrong: I do have to ask, not having seen the show in far too long, did the Droids recognize the mobsters when they first saw them? This story was at least written after that tale and 3PO knows exactly who Tig and Vlix are. That may put the placement of this comic into question. Also, I have nothing against kid characters but Vik and Nikki are a bit young to solo-pilot a starship, even a small one. Manak also seems to love adding things to the mythos whether they belong or not, but so far it still isn’t as bad as his additions to ALF sometime later.
Recommendation: If you like the Droids you may like this comic. Just remember it’s intended for younger audiences than other Star Wars comics, including the Dark Horse Droids comics we’ll be getting to soon enough.
BW Media Spotlight 
[…] run afoul of mob son Tig Fromm and his reluctant, snarky bodyguard Vlix, whom you may remember from one of the Star Comics reviews. That means this is actually connected to a previous BW review as well as the first storyline, that […]
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