• Title: "Micro-Management!"

• Writer: Peter David

• Penciler: Chriscross

• Inker: Rodriguez/Livesay/Candelario.

• Editor: Tom Brevoort

• Rating: 3 out of 4.

• Summary:

  • The story starts in the microverse, specifically on Psycho-Man's ship. Psychoman is causing Drax to crouch in fear of him, while telling him that he needs Drax's awesome strength to open something. Psycho-Man says he hates failure, then using his machine makes Drax hate failure too. Psycho-Man asks Drax if he would smash the thing he cannot open to peices. Drax says yes, into a hundred pieces, a trillion pieces, a trillion trillion pieces. He then starts counting and hitting the floor. "One! Two! Three!"

    On Earth Genis is in the middle of a discussion, more like a debate, with Marlo and Moondragon. Moondragon and Marlo want him to go save the Kree Women Una-Rogg from being mentally mutilated by the Kree. Cap says no, because he's not a sap. He's not going to go rescue a female women who tried to kill him. Genis floats there and begins playing a guitar while Moondragon yells at him. He yells back, asking if Una-Rogg wasn't a women, and was a man, would she be demanding him to go and save her? The argument goes on for a few more pages, and then ends when Genis and Rick exchange places (after Genis wakes Rick up from a dream involving Marlo dressed in a Wonder Women outfit). Marlo and Moondragon, angered by Genis, turn their back on Rick, shouting "Men!" Rick wishes he had his dream back. Rick suggests maybe Genis should help her, Genis says "Forget I asked.

    Genis flies up to what is the Micron's ship. They tell him that Drax flew out of it in fear, and they believe that he may be in the clutches of the Psycho-man. Back on Psycho-Man's ship, Drax is still counting and hitting the floor. He is up to "One thousand two hundred and nighty-five" when Psycho-Man, extremely irritated, uses the machine to cause Drax to feel doubt. Drax is unsure of what comes next, and he is not sure of anything. He clutches Psycho-Man, desperately wanting something to be sure of. Psycho-Man says that there is a cocoon-like structure in the next room, and if Drax breaks it he'll never have anything to doubt again. Drax asks him if he's sure. He says yes, and then Drax says:

    "But...But I'm not sure! Not of anything! Maybe I don't have the strength! Maybe it'll hurt me! Maybe...maybe none of us are really here, but are only figments of someone's imagination! Maybe we're just...just four-color constructs with no will of our own! And at someone's whim, at any given moment, we could be wearing funny hats or something!"

    Psycho-Man is very frustrated, and uses fear to make Drax do what he asks, and Drax flies into the other room and starts hitting the cocoon. On Earth, Rick says he can't twist Marv's arm to get him to do what he doesn't want to do. He says Cap needs to want to do it on his own, and forcing him to do what he doesn't want to will only make him angry. And anger leads to hate...hate leads to fear...and fear leads to the darkside! Moondragon asks if that's a movie reference, Marlo says "I'm afraid so." Marlo flies out the window, and Rick shouts at her asking how much guilt she's going to put on Marv's shoulders. Moonie replies, "As much as it takes." Marlo says she needs to get back to the store. Back on the Micron's ship, Genis asks Rick if he's ever heard of Psycho-Man. Rick says it's a Black Sabbath song. The microns correct him, explaining who Psycho-Man is, and if he has Drax that he's using him for something. Incorrectly, they assume that Psycho-Man is using him for something other than his brute strength, which is exactly what he needs him for. On Psycho-Man's ship, Dax breaks the cocoon and is blown back by an explosion of energy from within. Out comes a blue man. He greets Drax. He asks Drax why he is cowering, Drax says he is afraid. The man asks of what, Psycho-Man says that Drax is afraid of him. Psycho-Man introduces himself and tries to use fear on the man. It doesn't work since this person is able to manipulate energy waves, such as his emotion device uses. He then blasts Psycho-Man. Psycho-Man commands his ship to crush the man, and a big thing drops on him. On Earth in the comic shop, Marlo learns that her agent got her a movie audition. Lorraine reminds her that last time she had a gig she was almost killed by the Wendigo. She says "Disaster follows you like oscars follow Meryl Streep." Marlo takes it as a compliment and runs off. When Psycho-Man's ship lifts the crushing device, the man is not under it, nor is he harmed. He attacks Psycho-Man with energy and says if he moves he'll crush Psycho-Man with his energy beams. The man says he's interested in taking over the Outer worlds, Drax says that they can't because of the heroes. Psycho-Man casts doubt on Drax. Psycho-Man asks if he knows the Outer-World, the man says he's from a variation of it. Suddenly, the Man senses something. On the Micron's ship, their comm screen comes on. The man from Psycho-Man's ship is on it. He introduces himself as Fredd. Captain Marvel's evil twin clone future self from an Alternate Dimension! He says as soon as he and Psycho-Man the Microns, he's going to go to the Outer World and conquer it. He hopes that they don't have a problem with that.

• Title: "Marvel Mania!"

• Writer: Peter David

• Penciler: Chriscross

• Inker: Annibal Rodriguez.

• Editor: Tom Brevoort

• Rating: Four out of Four

• Summary:

We open up in Los Angelas, right above The Comic Book Castle. A red-armored (someone has pointed out to me that this is Red Raven, gee--I should've known that shouldn't I?) super hero flies down and crashes through the Castle's wall. He says to whoever is inside, "Wizard" is what he is identified as, that he is angry about being taken advantage of and used. Before Red Raven can do something "Wizard" turns him into a bird. The bird then flies outside, and gets hit by a truck.

In the Microverse where we left off, Fredd introduces himself again. Captain Marvel asks why his future evil self would be named Fredd, Fredd replies, "It's spelled with two 'D's.' That's what makes it evil." Marionette says maybe he's not really evil, only mis-understood. Fredd then explains him plan, he intends to invade the real world by using Captain Marvel as a guinea pig for an invention that can send him to the real world. Captain Marvel is molecularly teleported off the ship, in his place Drax reappears. The Microns seem happy, until they find out Drax is still under Psycho-Man's control when he shouts "I'll Kill You All!" The Microns run.

On Psycho-Man's ship, Captain Marvel flies towards Fredd to attack, but Fredd ties him up in his energy bands. Fredd tells Captain Marvel he once came close to beating The Avengers and Fantastic Four combined, his version of them at least, but Reed Richards found a way to send Fredd into the Microverse in that cocoon. Captain Marvel wants to know how he is being held by Fredd, Fredd says Captain Marvel hasn't even come close to reaching his full potential (see the Powers section for more!) Fredd throws Captain Marvel into Psycho-Man's machine. Rick wants to switch places with Genis, because Fredd can't use Rick as a test subject, Genis says he doesn't want to. Why? Because if Psycho-Man's machine works, it will send him into the real world, and he and Rick don't have to be connected anymore.

On the Micron's ship, Drax is still chasing them while ripping the ship apart.

Psycho-Man and Fredd activate the device, and Genis vanishes shouting, "ArRrHhHhh!" and the device makes the sounds "Dooom." Fredd says, "'Arrhh' and 'Dooom'? That can't be good."

Genis appears in Rick's apartment, suddenly Captain Marvel and Rick are pulled together and begin being sucked together, Rick tells Genis to bang his bands.

Psycho-Man sees that the readings are making no sense. Fredd tells him to pull Genis back. Genis bangs his negabands together and he vanishes, this time the explosion is so big that Rick's apartment is completely burned. Fredd asks what went wrong. Psycho-Man explains that Genis was molecularly unstable and when he attempted to reintegrate him on the surface world, there were not enough molecules in his body. Fredd realizes that Genis was molecularly bonded, just like the person he was cloned from was bonded to "Snapper Jones." Psycho-Man continues, telling him that since nature abhors a vacuum, his body tried to absorb the molecules of whatever he was near with results that would have been catasrtrophic if Genis had not returned. Fredd then points out that Genis isn't in the tube, he asks what happened. Psycho-Man says:

"This was not what I calibrated for, in essence, I took a being whose every atom is charged with photonic energy, turned him from mass into energy and attempted, in defiance of Meepak's uncertaintly principle, to reintegrate his atomic structure..."

Fredd doesn't care what Psycho-Man did, and then his machine begins exploding. Psycho-Man says that Genis is in the machinery. His molecules weren't reintegrated, he's in energy form. Fredd says he'll get Genis out of there, Psycho-Man says that's a good idea since the longer he's in his energy state, he'll gain more control.

On the Micron's ship, the Commander stands in front of Drax, and tells him that he's not going to move. And he's not going to fight Drax back, since he knows Drax is still his friend. He wants Drax to release his anger, and he just stands before him, thinking Drax will snap out of it. Drax punches Rann, he then looks up and sees Bug and Mari.

Rick gets up, seein ghis apartment scorched. He jokes about getting asbestos furniture, even if he has to wear an oxygen mask just so his apartment doesn't get burned so often. He runs to the bathroom, looks in the mirror and sees a bunch of energy in it, which is what Genis is (remember, Rick sees Genis' reflection instead of his own.

On Psycho-Man's ship, Fredd absorbs Genis into his nega-bands. Psycho-Man says Fredd just screwed up, since Genis, inside the nega-bands, has tapped into his psyhotronic beams and is directing them right into Fredd. Fredd hits Psycho-Man. Then Fredd begins doubting himself, then Fredd is afraid, then he's angry...all effects of Psycho-Man's device. Angry Fredd destroys Psycho-Man's entire ship.

On the Micron's ship, Marionette points a gun as Drax's head, telling Drax to let go of Bug, he does. Then, Captain Marvel appears and reforms himself. He says he doesn't know exactly how he did it, he just did. Marionette asks about his evil clone twin-whatever, Genis says he's gone as far as he could tell. Marionette hugs Bug and Genis, saying that everything turned out all right since Fredd is gone and Commander Rann used his glider wings to absorb most of the impact from Drax's punch. Rann, lying down in a bunch broken machinery shakily raises his hand and says "'Most of the impact...but not...quite...all of it. Medic."

On Earth, Marlo has found the bird from the beginning of the issue and placed it in a cage, it seems he has survived even though his wing's are injured. She gives him a paper to poop on, and says he will enjoy living there in the comic shop. Marlo goes off the get ready for her audition (see last issue).