THE G-MEN

Membership: Four shown but names unrevealed

Purpose: To eliminate the criminals of Prisonworld and to destroy or disrupt any rebellious uprisings.

Affiliations: Servants of Baron Karza (especially his Dog Soldiers), Prisonworld wardens, ally of the Tri-Bunal

Enemies: Little D’s Den o’ Thieves, the Micronauts (specifically Acroyear, Bug, Marionette, Huntarr)

Base of Operations: Prisonworld, the Microverse

First Appearance: Micronauts I#53 (July, 1983)

Powers/Abilities:  Each of the tall G-Men had been grotesquely mutated in Baron Karza's Body Banks on Prisonworld which gave them various powers but significantly deformed them at the same time. They may also have been trained to augment their fighting skills. All seemed to lack gender given the extent of their mutation.

The green G-Man was reptilian in appearance and confident of its immense strength and fighting skills. It was strong enough to knock out a trained Acroyear warrior (although he was unarmed at the time).

The red G-Man was serpentine in appearance with lobster-like claws for hands which it used to hold away foes' arms so that it could spit out green gelitanous fluid from its mouth to initially blind its opponent. This fluid was hallucinogenic in nature and may have been telepathically activated by the red G-Man to blind opponents so that they would see that which they feared most, but these purely visual apparitions disappeared once the red G-Man was disabled. He was not well armored.

The pink G-Man was also strong with high dexterity and used its tentacled arms to hold down its foes.

The grey G-Man was also incredibly strong with an armored exterior.

History:
(Micronauts I#53(fb) - BTS) - Prisonworld was once Baron Karza's depository for rebels, thieves and any others who opposed him who were too strong willed for mutation in the Body Banks. The prisoners were experimented upon psychologically and physically until their identities were lost and they had no idea who they were any more. Later, when Karza was initially defeated by the Micronauts and the prison wardens left, the prisoners broke free from their cells.  However, Karza's Dog Soldiers arrived again and rebuilt the prisons. New prisoners were also being brought to Prisonworld, shipped from all over the Microverse on top of those recaptured. Many were brought to the sinister Body Bank clinics there where they were genetically re-engineered into grotesque mutate enforcers of Karza’s rule. These powerful enforcers were dubbed the G-Men by the Prisonworld gangsters who feared them greatly.

(Micronauts I#53) - The Micronauts landed on Prisonworld in hopes of re-forming a rebellion against Baron Karza, who had recently been recreated. The Micronauts were disorientated when they found that Prisonworld had been so extensively altered. They encountered Little D's Den o' Thieves and allied themselves with Little D to free Prisonworld from Karza's rule. With Little D and a group of his gangsters, the Micronauts infiltrated a Body Bank clinic where several of Little D's agents had been captured but they had arrived too late, and the ones they had come to rescue were already sealed in pods of mutagenic slime. The Micronauts opted to put them out of their misery rather than be re-formed into more servants of Karza. As they did so, alarms rang out. Little D's cohorts abandoned the Micronauts and their leader as the G-Men attacked.

(Micronauts I#54) - The Micronauts attempted to escape from the G-Men but were cornered by Prisonworld's Dog Soldiers. Marionette fought back by leaping at the red lobster-like G-Man. However, this G-Man spewed slime in Marionette's eyes that caused her to hallucinate an image of Baron Karza lashing out with a force-saber at her. Meanwhile, Huntarr was chased by the pink tentacled G-man. Huntarr leapt into a nearby waterfront and then attacked his opponent with a bludgeon formed out of his fist. Little D and Bug were cornered by the massive gray G-Man, but managed to disable the mutate by knocking it down a stairwell. However, the two were then captured in the inertia nets launched by Karza's Dog Soldiers. Acroyear struggled with the green reptilian G-Man and was also caught in an inertia net. As he tried to escape, the green G-Man headbutted him against the wall and knocked him unconscious. Marionette, meanwhile, realized that the Karza image she was fighting was merely an illusion and hurled her dagger at the red G-Man, killing it. But as she attempted to escape, she was apprehended by Dog Soldiers. Just as Huntarr finally defeated the pink-skinned G-Man, he was also caught by Dog Soldiers using another inertia net. Little D and the Micronauts were then brought to the prisons.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo (writer) and Jackson Guice (penciler & inker).

The Prisonworld story is one of the most memorable (and peculiar) of the Micronauts’ adventures. The G-Men’s ‘screen-time’ in these two issues is actually about eight pages in total. I wish they’d gotten to play a bigger part, because they’re such a cool bunch of mutates. I am not clear over whether the G-Men the Micronauts defeated (besides the red one) were supposed to be dead or merely beaten into a state of unconsciousness and if they escaped Prisonworld before Karza's rule was overthrown.

Another nice touch is that all the graffiti seen on the walls and fences and such in Prisonworld have either the names or references to Marvel employees of the time, most of which were connected to the Micronauts such as Bill Mantlo, Dan Bulandi, Bob Harras, Ralph Macchio, and Janice Chiang. Also, on pages 15 and 16 of issue 53, you can see a weird little guy who looks uncannily like Fred Flintstone.

The adoption of the 1930s gangster theme is similar to that which developed on the Skrull world of Kral, @ Fantastic Four I#91--Snood.

Profile by Ben Peberdy, Spaceknight

CLARIFICATIONS:
The G-Men have no known connection to:

image: Micronauts I#53, p30

Appearances:
Micronauts I#53 (August, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jackson Guice (pencils & inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Micronauts I#54 (September, 1983) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jackson Guice (pencils), Kelley Jones (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)

Last updated: 10/06/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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