Yes, I know this is in the wrong post schedule. I’ll get more into it in the Sunday post but things are going to be a bit disorganized for a few weeks.
Looks like the military budget is really tight right now.
Robotech Masters #9
Comico The Comic Company (July, 1986)
“Stardust”
ADAPTATION: Mike Baron
LAYOUTS: Neil D. Vokes
FINISHES: Many Hands (The Grand Comic Database credits Phil Lasorda, Gerry Giovinco, Reggie Byers, Michio Okamura, and Chris Kalmick, but I don’t know where they got their information.)
INKER: Keith Wilson
COLORIST: Tom Vincent
LETTERER: Bob Pinaha
EDITOR: Diana Schutz
Upset that Supreme Commander Leonard just vaporized the captured Bioroid pilot she and Bowie go to a nearby club during their night patrol. They meet George Sullivan, a singer that Bowie sometimes plays piano for on off hours, and Dana is immediately smitten. Then she learns he’s with the Military Police and is using her to gain intel on the Masters’ ship, his sister having been killed during an invader attack. She tries to use his information to find a weak point in the ship coming to rescue the downed Masters’ ship but the plan fails and George is killed during the battle. Meanwhile, the Masters use their Zor-Prime clone to set up events to have him infiltrate the RDF.
What they got right: We learn that Leonard is actually being pressured by the higher ups to not be as cautious, showing it’s not just him that’s responsible for some of his bonehead decisions. (Though as I’ll get to the comic messed something up there.) Dana is in character here, both wrong in how she challenges the higher ups and right about her convictions when it comes to the pilots being more than bio-androids. They took out (probably for time) yet another scene of Dana in the shower contemplating. (Jeanne spends more time in the show in Southern Cross than anybody I know, and that keeps getting translated to Dana.)
What they got wrong: There’s always something translated wrong and here it’s Dana giving the troops word about the mission when in the show the orders came while she was in the shower and thus she had to be informed. It may make Dana look like she’s better at her job than the show sometimes depicts but it’s still inaccurate to the episode. As for what little defense Leonard has in his often bonehead attempts to get done fast without any thought to the consequences the comic still wants him to look bad and still makes it clear he’s not the cautious type, taking as much blame away from the RDF bigwigs and more back to him. Again, the story doesn’t need the comic’s help to make him look bad but do we have to drain all sympathy out of him? As for the episode itself, it’s not surprising for Jeanne/Dana to fall for a guy this quickly but what info is George trying to secretly romance out of Dana? He works for the Global Military Police as a spy. Even if he’s acting outside his job it’s not like he’d have trouble getting her reports and would know everything anyway. In the episode as soon as he learns who she is he starts flirting with her, the hint not shown in the comic. Maybe it makes more sense in the original Japanese episode but here I’m not sure what he needs her for.
Other notes: George’s sister is named Marlene, not to be confused with Scott’s late fiancé in New Generation, which he later names the amnesiac girl he doesn’t know is the Invid spy Ariel. Was it a coincidence or did Carl Macek really like that name for some reason? Oddly, in Southern Cross she was his girlfriend before she died the same way George’s sister does here, and it’s an unusual change for this series. Scott Bernard’s fiancé is still his girlfriend and she dies in the first episode.
Recommendation: A good story overall. If you can’t see the episode (though it’s available free from many online sources) the comic is a mostly fair representation.
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