“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: Aftermath #13

Even the man in the moon is getting gender-swapped.

Robotech: Aftermath #13

FINAL ISSUE

Academy Comics (May, 1995)

“The Girl In The Moon”

WRITER/ARTIST: Bruce Lewis

Sera senses the arrival of another Zentraedi from the moon, this time landing in Belmont. She calls herself “Caddy” (her full name and title being Min-Quadderaq) and she ends up outside of Lunk’s restaurant in T’sentown (named after that silly “real name” for the Zentraedi I don’t use). Taking pity on the hungry girl Lunk gives her food and Caddy also meets his business partner, Christophe Bandy. She brings a message from his late father, found after the Invid invasion and brought to the moon. He helped build a new city but sadly passed away before bringing young Christophe and his mother (whom he named the city after) to the new moon colony. She and her sisters have come to bring a new age of enlightenment to the post-Invid Earth, referring to Sera as the “High Born”.

The comic is followed by a piece called “The Aftermath Files” by Matt Kudasai, chronicling the history and giving a brief synopsis of the Eternity and Academy years of Aftermath and the events that led to the Eternity and later Academy comics runs. Apparently Sera ended up with powers like Marlene/Ariel and I finally know what events drove Scott, Rook, and the others away from Belmont to form the MegaRoad Foundation. (Fun fact: the “Mega” part is actually an acronym even though it isn’t written that way. It stands for “Make Earth Great Again”, which in light of recent politics is kind of amusing. You’re view may be different based on your political perspective and I wonder what Lewis thinks of that so many years on.)

Honestly there isn’t enough in this story to give it the usual format review. I’ve noted not being a fan of this series, not in the Lewis stories or in the three-parter “Threadbare Heart” written by the Wolfgarths as a way to spin-off Clone, which we’ll be looking at in the next few installments prior as well as the relaunch under Robotech: Mordecai. This issue is just more worldbuilding that despite Lewis’s stated goals in the the “Aftermath FIles” chronicle was never returned to and built upon. As noted before this sounds like a good stand alone series but the few issues I have never felt like Robotech to me, nor did it feel like the characters from my favorite period of the original show or Nova Satori from the second war. (Original in a relative sense given it was three shows shoved together and given a new connecting narrative.) Apparently the two Zentraedi moon girls we’ve already met and a few more for a total of 12 are supposed to usher in a hundred years of a better world somehow. There are so many loose threads and I know it comes mostly from Academy losing the Robotech license but it makes it a lackluster ending to the series.

Granted I explained my biases so judge my opinion as thou wilst. Still, I rarely enjoy an ending that is more about discussing the writer’s intended plans and doesn’t solve anything. (This includes the introduction of the mysterious organization from last issue, which the comic’s coda refers to as simply “The Organization”.) I’m not sure when the creators were told the license and the Robotech titles were over. Clone and Mordecai seem to run into other problems, which I’ll discuss when we get to their finales, but despite Robotech II: The Sentinels having a harder cliffhanger something about it and the prequel Return To Macross and Academy Blues series just seem to end better than this comic. I think it’s because Sentinels was so good that it demanded continuing and it would have been impossible to give a proper wrap-up, while the best we got to that story’s end was Prelude To The Shadow Chronicles, which had other problems.

Lewis clearly had plans for his alternate take and I’m torn on that. As a fellow storyteller I wish he had the chance and as an original concept I might have been more interested, but as a fan of the franchise (and this is me personally, not me talking for the fandom or even a section of it because I don’t know what the series reaction is from other Robotech fans) I just couldn’t get into it and I’m not sorry it ended. I’ve seen this type of ending done worse because at least this is an attempt at a conclusion that speaks to long term plans rather than a cliffhanger ending meant to show off long term plans we won’t get to see in a “see what you’re missing out on” that ruins the existing story and what it could have been. Lewis is playing the hand he was dealt and at least trying to give the story a proper conclusion with an opening should another licensee do what Academy did and continue the Eternity titles. Sadly WildStorm didn’t outside of letting the Waltrips wrap up their tale to questionable results as it was also tied in to an upcoming direct to video movie, and Titan just rebooted the whole series to even more questionable results for me. In the end though this is one of the weakest of the conclusions of the Academy Robotech comic. Not the weakest or even terrible compared to what we’ll see coming up. However this is one alternate take I won’t miss seeing continue.