A Month of... Board Games! Day 10: There've been times when I wander / And times when I don't / Concepts I'll ponder / And concepts I won't ever see

Witness the spec-*TIC*-ular world of the alien Micronaut Bug (created by Bill Mantlo, and we loves him for it)...in board game form! By Fred Hembeck! How much more awesome can one post possibly supply?

"The Help Bug Right the Time/Space Continuum Board Game" from Bug one-shot (March 1997);
script, pencils, inks, and letters by Fred Hembeck
(Click picture to Professor Prometheus-size)

Just as Nestlés makes the very best (sung:) chocolate!*, Hembeck makes the very best (sung:) activity pages! * Note: in the interest of truthiness, Nestlé does not make the very best (sung:) chocolate.


That's just exactly how madcap this Bug special is! Not to be confused with how buggy that Madcap series was.


Cover of Bug one-shot (March 1997); pencils by Derec Aucoin, inks by John Dell
Say, why are all those vintage issues of classic Marvel Comics on the cover of this one-off Micronauts special? And why is Bug so casually destroying them when he could take them to his local Homeworld Micro-Comics Shop and sell them for a little loose change? The answer...may surprise you! Until you read the next paragraph.

It's because the entire story is a romp through the full history of the Marvel Universe (caution: "Heroes Reborn" is not included). As Bug and FF supernemesis Annihilus (the villain who has the word "anus" right in his name) chase each other throughout the time/space continuum, they consistently land each time right at a vital point in Marvel History! F'r instance, when Wolverine had his first beer! When Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal teamed up with Millie the Model to battle the Atlas Implosion! Or, say, when Gerry Conway was kicked by Stan Lee in the patoot for investing the Spider-Clone! You'll also get other great hits, like this classic!


Panels from Bug one-shot (March 1997); script by Todd Dezago, pencils by Derec Aucoin, inks by Rich Faber and Ralph Cabrera, colors by Kevin Somers, color separations by GCW, letters by Kiff Scholl
Trapped in the Marvel Universe, Bug finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time, that his next leap will be the leap home.


From disrupting a happy picnic by leading some gangsters to it...


...to messing around with some intricate college physics paperwork...


...and being the first step on the road to recovery for a guy who...I dunno, I think we're seeing the origin of Bill W. here.


Yep, this story gleefully drops Bug into every pivotal moment of Earth-616 history. As the Rolling Stones once cryptically sang: 'Who killed the Watcher?' / When after all / It was Bug and me."


Why yes, he even had a hand in creating this guy:


And I'm pretty sure Bug invented Calvinball.


Now, granted, other sagas of Marvel history have definitively proven the words of Mister Gordon Sumner: "'Cause when the elephants escape you / Their logic fries you up and apes you" "A connecting principle / Linked to the invisible** / Almost imperceptible / Something inexpressible / Science insusceptible / Logic so inflexible / Causally connectible / Yet nothing is invincible**." Or, if like me, you subscribe to the Fuzzy Sweater Theory of the Marvel Universe, "pulling on one string of yarn will unravel all the others."

* Girl?
** Except Iron Man.





Panels from "...What If There Was No Fantastic Four?" in What If? #31 (February 1982), plot by Bill Mantlo, script by Roger Stern, pencils by Alan Kupperberg, ink by Frank Giacoia, colors by Bob Sharen, letters by Rick Parker
Of such delicate fabric is the Marvel Universe and Earth-616.8, (I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Earth Prime!) that such future events such as these will affect you in the future.

But they didn't have an accompanying board game, so nyah on them.