“You place nice with kitty, now.”
Robotech II: The Sentinels #2
Eternity Comics (December, 1988)
“A New Threat” part II
WRITERS: Tom Mason & Chris Ulm
ARTIST: John Waltrip
COVER COLORIST: Scott Bieser
LETTERER: Clem Robins
On Tirol, the situation gets worse. The Invid have conquered the city and the Regent himself has come looking for the Flower Of Life, or barring that the Protoculture matrix. On Earth, our heroes get their first look at the SDF-3, designed to resemble Zentraedi ships in order to more safely approach the Robotech Masters, not knowing the planet was taken over after the Masters left to come to Earth already to start the Second Robotech War. Edwards’ aide, Benson, disrupts the meeting over the plans for making contact with the Masters with his anti-Zentraedi beliefs. Rick agrees to keep an eye on him and Edwards after Vince’s warnings but he still have a mission to plan and would need concrete evidence that Edwards is up to something. He also has a wedding to think about…his own to Lisa!
What they got right: The story balances out its two locations, Tirol and the Robotech factory near Earth, well enough, not staying so long in one spot that you forget what’s happening in the other. The required redesigns of the first war characters to make them distinct enough from their Macross origins, takes some getting used to but they do explain Breetai’s new helmet.
What they got wrong: Why is Benson in a private meeting of the top brass of the REF mission if he wasn’t invited? Did he go in Edwards’ place? While they try, there isn’t enough time to really highlight just how badly things are going for the Tirolians without their Masters and Zentraedi warriors, giving us a surface view of the situation at best.
What I think overall: I still hope to complete this collection someday, though the story ends on a cliffhanger as nobody picked up the series after Academy Comics lost the license, later licensees either opting not to continue or rebooting the entire series for some reason.
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