In 2002, Image Comics obtained the comic book license to the Micronauts toyline from rights holder Abrams Gentile Entertainment and produced a comic book series set in a different continuity from the Marvel Comics series.
The main series was made by Devil's Due Publishing back when it was still a subsidiary of Image and lasted 11 issues, with the premise of a young man named Ryan Archer being transported into the Microcosm and having to lead some freedom fighters in standing up to Baron Karza and ending the cruel tyrant's reign.
There was also a miniseries detailing the origins of Baron Karza and a short-lived continuation that Devil's Due Publishing published independently of Image that only lasted three issues.
It wasn't until 2016 that yet another Micronauts comic would be published. For information on that comic, see Micronauts (IDW).
Tropes:
- Big Bad: As in the Marvel Comics series, the main villain is Baron Karza, with the Micronauts' main responsibility being to stop him in order to end his reign over the Microcosm and his attempts to take over Earth as well.
- Continuity Cameo: In the eighth issue of the main series, bounty hunters resembling Antron, Centaurus, Kronos, Lobros, Membros and Repto briefly appear to attack the Micronauts during Baron Karza's invasion of Chicago.
- Cut Short: The Devil's Due series ended at three issues in spite of the story arc still unfinished.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Baron Karza has a daughter named Penelope, who ends up continuing his legacy as Lady Karza in the short-lived Devil's Due continuation.
- Death by Origin Story: The series begins with Ryan Archer's father killed.
- Expy: Kitokk and his tribe are blatantly based off of Bug from the Marvel Comics Micronauts series.
- Last of His Kind:
- Knave is the last known surviving Vaerian.
- Koriah is the last of the Galactic Defenders.
- Mythology Gag: Acroyear at one point mentions using equipment called Mantlo tubes, a nod to Bill Mantlo, the original writer of the Marvel Comics Micronauts series.
- Origins Episode: The Micronauts: Karza miniseries serves to explain the origins of Baron Karza.
- Token Human: With Acroyear being an inhabitant of Boraya, Knave being a Vaerian, Koriah being a Forlian and Microtron and Biotron being robots, Ryan Archer stands out as the only human of the Micronauts team.
