Mystery Ruins Theatre 2135

S'Landrai Fred: Silence officer. Control yourself. What could possibly be wrong--

What's New?

The amazing conclusion to Robotech Defenders is finally up and about! On one side: A dickhead, a monkey, a fish and a squinty guy. On the other: A bunch of Kobolds and CATS from Zero Effing Wing

It is the year 2135, and Earth is in ruins.

The world is ruled by EarthGov, a millitary dictatorship. At its helm is Sandra Backmore, an enigmatic, seemingly all-knowing and immortal woman. This one person controls the lives of billions. The fate of the world is, litterally, in her hands.

Then Sandra was kidnapped. Louisa Cheng, an agent sent from another planet, has devised a plan to control the world. She will force Sandra to read terrible comics, until she goes out of her mind. And once Sandra's mind has been broken Louisa will rule the world through her. Sandra, along with three others, have been trapped on her Sattelite of Rednecks, in orbit high above the Earth with no way down...

Yes, it's been tried before. And yes, it has failed every time. But Louisa... well, she's just to daft to realise it.

Mystery Ruins Theatre 2135 is a MSTing series, by Alex Fauth. This time, rhater than fanfics, the series is targeting bad Robotech comics. Specifically, bad ones. (Antartic Press gave me plenty to work from...). Actually, non-Robotech comics may also be considred at a future time...

Issue 1-1: Robotech Megastorm, part one
The first episode of the series. Four people are mysteriously transported to a sattelite high above the Earth. Once there, they are forced to read a Robotech comic, featuring a disturbing lack of such things as plot, story, characterisation and consistency. But hey, it's in colour, and that's what people want, right? Guest starring Kevin Nash!
Original story by Fred Perry
Art by Ben Dunn

Issue 1-2: Robotech Megastorm, part two
Megastorm continues, much to the regret of the audience. The feircely generic (and humerously inept) Khorah unleashes his Master Plan which he caged from watching an old epsiode of Yamato, while showing off his trendy cybernetics. Veritechs spontaniously change models, gun pods come and go, and the planet Jupiter is revelaed to be donut shaped! And remember, there were two editors on this.
Original story by Fred Perry
Art by Ben Dunn

Issue 1-3: Robotech Megastorm, part three
Megastorm continues to go nowhere fast in its pointless final issue. Khorah claims indestructiblilty, which means that he's about to die. Max gets hit, which causes him to go John Woo. Or was it Roy? It's getting hard to tell. Then, all of a sudden, it ends. Which is probably for the best, all things considred.
Original story by Fred Perry
Art by Ben Dunn

Issue 2-1: Robotech: Aftermath #12, part one
Welcome to Aftermath, a desloate wasteland populated by Magical Girls, giant atomic monsters, holes in the ground (also known as Ohio), extras from Fist Of The North Star, mysterious voice-overs and other such things. There's also the occasional Robotech character, but they're not really relevant. Aaaanyway, Scott Bernard's Megaroad (Ha ha, very funny Bruce) crew accidentally revive a monster, which means that only a SSSWZMG (Snort-Skirted Sword-Weilding Zentraedi Magical Girl) can stop. Are you sure this is Robotech?
Original story and art by Bruce Lewis, HPMD

Issue 2-2: Robotech: Aftermath #12, part two
The VFX-66 Omega Valkyrie (Um, Veritech. Really) rampages across the countryside, destroying cardboard cities. Only Min-Sarya (Bruce's other avatar) can stop it, by flashing her panties. Yes I know it doesn't make any sense, but hey. The Mysterious Voice-Over returns, which means that obviously she's going to win. It's true, it's true. It's moments like this which makes me think that some people shouldn't be let near the comics industry.
Original story and art by Bruce Lewis, HPMD

Issue 2-3: Robotech: Aftermath #13
Actually, this is served as a short to Aftermath #12 above. Basically, another SSSWZMG comes to earth, and the story ends. Then there's twelve pages of bumf. I wish I was making this up.
Original story and art by Bruce Lewis, HPMD

Issue 3-1: Robotech the Movie: the Comic adaptation part one
When is an adaptation not an adaptation? When it bares no resembelance whatsoever to the material it adapted. Case in point: Academy Comics' "Adaptation" of Robotech the Movie. If you hadn't seen the moive before reading this, well, you weren't going to learn a thing about it. Sandra's commentary might actually prove to be more useful.
Original story by Benny R. Powell
Art by Chi
Based on a story by Carl Macek

Issue 3-2: Robotech the Movie: the Comic adaptation part two
This was the last Robotech comic published by Academy Comics before Antartic took over the licence and it pretty much set the standard for things to come. Any resembelance to anything in the moive goes completely out of the window whan Becky and Stacy decide that they want to be the Dirty Pair instead. Mark arrives with a handy Deus Ex Machina to save everyone (of course), which means that it's time for a Star Wars riff. Lots of stuff blows up, which is good. Unless you're BD, in which case it's a Bad Thing.
Original story by Benny R. Powell
Art by Chi
Based on a story by Carl Macek

Issue 4-1: Robotech: Sentinels Rubicon #1
After two years of fans demanding it, Antartic ressurected the Sentinels comic. OK, so they just took any old peice of crap, and put the Sentinels name on it in the hope of placating us. Gee, thanks. The end result is the World's Worst Robotech comic. I double dog dare you to find one that is worse. Peter W. Walker assisted in the writing of this comic, but to this day he denies it. I would. The ad on the back cover has nothing to do with Robotech, but it seems more relevant somehow.
Original story by Alan Nepomuceno
Art by Vithoon Kamchareon

Issue 4-2: Robotech: Sentinels Rubicon #2
A whole bunch of random people show up and engage in random scenes of... well, I'm not sure what, really. This causes Max Sterling (I think) to do his impersonation of Captain Harlock. Miriya fails to get into the spirit of things by pretending to be Emeraldas, however. This causes the story to degenerate into only pencils. Lerena shows up and changes her species for the fun of it. Someone's apartment is invaded by the headband people in an effort to steal a Rubik's cube. A whole bunch of badly-drawn ships go out to look for other badly-drawn ships and find huge rubber monsters. Something explodes, or maybe not. I can't really tell. This was the last Robotech comic ever published by Antartic Press, and good riddance.
Original story by Alan Nepomuceno
Art by Vithoon Kamchareon and Alan Lacombe

Issue 5-1: Robotech Defenders #1 New Release!
A retro timewarp takes us back to DC's loopier times. That's right, 1984. We're talking Pre-Crisis, boys and girls. As for the plot... A bunch of Kobolds show up in a battlecruiser and only huge enigmatic robots left behind by the precursor races can stop them. That's it, really.
Original story by Andrew Helfer
Art by Judith Hunt

Issue 5-2: Robotech Defenders #2 New Release!
Robotech Defenders was so good that DC cut it back from three issues to only two. I'm sure that says something. Anywaym the S'Landrai's mysterious goals are revealed, the people take back seat to the bots, somebody dies (and nobody cares) and all sorts of really silly stuff happens, supported by the marvellous performance of S'Landrai Fred. In the end, one of the worst plot contrivances ever allows for the triumph of good over evil. Oh yeah, Dex is a dickhead. Just thought I'd say that.
Original story by Andrew Helfer
Art by Judith Hunt and Mike Manley

Issue 6: Robotech: Escape Coming soon!
After being blown up, buried under rubble and blown up again, Corg is surpised to be not only alive but to have been taken in by the Voltron Force. Despite all this (and several subsequent fatal beatings) he does not bleed even once, which makes you wonder how tough the guy really is. He then kills them all. Normally I'd be a bit upset by this, but by that point I'm beyond caring, as I'm sure you will be too.
Original story by Aslum Khan

Issue 7-1: Robotech: Wings of Gibraltar #1 Coming soon!
Max and Rick depart on a fold capable shuttle for a secret research base somewhere deep in the asteroid belt... (Looks back at what he just typed in utter disbeleif). Aaaaanyway, once there they put up with inane scientists showing off all their kewl (but improbable) new mecha with many hundreds of main body MDC. While we're there, we learn that a laser is just like a railgun and that AP have no sense of internal continuity.
Original story and art by Lee Duhig

Issue 7-2: Robotech: Wings of Gibraltar #2 Coming soon!
Khorah's Neo-Nazi buddy shows up at Gibraltar base to bash some heads. He brings with him a whole horde of badly-drawn improbable mecha. Fortunately, Gibraltar have a badly-drawn improbable mecha of their own! Ha! Lots of stuff explodes and lots of people die, and dialouge is avoided at all costs. In the end, nothing is accomplished, but it's probably for the best.
Original story and art by Lee Duhig

Issue 8: Robotech: Variants #3 Coming soon!
Antartic press defiendly stated that they would have no "alternate universe" stories. So that's why they published one. It's true, it's true. Apparently, Rick and Minmei are dead, Lisa, Roy and Claudia are admirals, and there's lots of Megaroad class ships around. Plus a guest appearance by the cast of Luftwaffe 1946!. Also contains some backup panels. Not a story, mind you, just some random panels.
Original story and art by Ted Nomura. Backup panels uncreditred.

Back to the Elmer Studios page.

My extra special thanks to: Jason Waltrip for the letters amd 75 quality issues (Sorry for never writing back, Jase); John Waltrip for 75 quality issues; Stan "Basara" Bundy for encouragement, help and suggesting the adaptation of the movie as MST-fodder; Cyclone for extra lunacy and his dreaded quizes; Everyone else on the Robotech Message Board for extra encouragement and feedback; Douglass Weeks for donating an issue for MSTing; Bruce Lewis for making End of the Circle look good and some constructive criticisim; Alan Nepomuceno and Vithoon Kamchareon for making Bruce Lewis look good, and anyone else I may have missed.