Sectaurs #1-8 (1985)

Hoo boy. Let's just say this Marvel licensed title is no GI Joe or ROM. Or Shogun Warriors or Micronauts. These 8 issues were a chore to power through, which was pretty disappointing. I'm a huge Bill Mantlo fan so I had reason to hope that these would be pretty good. In fact, I remember reading issues 4 and 6 as a 10-year-old back in the day. My brother was a big Sectaur fan and had the toys, so they were actually his books, and when I saw the run for a dollar each at a comic show, I grabbed them. Mistake.

I can't really accuse Mantlo of mailing this in though, because there is a LOT of text in each issue. Mantlo has his characters re-thinking their motivations and re-stating recaps on an almost constant basis every issue. The fights are pretty generic, with General Spidrax riding in on his flying spider-wasp and getting thumped, then he runs off to fight another day. There is an issue where the good Sectaurs team up with some fairies in a cloud spaceship, but that issue is filled with other odd things that keep it from being a good comic. I mean, are tiny goblins on rats a good challenge for hero bug-men? The characters are all pretty generic, with the hero prince Dargon, the wise Mantor as his "mentor" (how about that, huh?), mighty Pinsor the strong guy, fun loving Zak (my favorite), and Stellara, the lady hero with no bonded insectaur. Oh man, it's painful just remembering their names. The series runs around a quest to discovery "Hyves" secret bases created by ancient sectaurs. There is a ton of that awful alternative spelling throughout the book, yet another nail in the coffin.

The art is by Mark Texiera for the first couple issues (I had him sign issue 1 a couple years ago at a show). His work is less scratchy and more "classic" looking than I'm used to seeing from him. After those first few issues, the art is by Steve Geiger. I really like Geiger's clean style, and his characters look EXACTLY like the toys. The weapons and animal companions look spot on. This is the rare comic where the art is actually better than the story.

Poor