Malt Shop Menace
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| Planet Terry in Malt Shop Menace (Part IV) | ||||||||||||||||
| Publisher | Marvel Comics | |||||||||||||||
| Published in | The Transformers issue 19 | |||||||||||||||
| First published | 1st June, 1985 | |||||||||||||||
| Writer | Lennie Herman (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Pencils | Warren Kremer (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Inks | Vince Colletta (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Colours | Peter Kremer (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Letterer | Grace Kremer (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Editor | Sid Jacobson (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Executive editor | Tom DeFalco (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
| Editor-in-chief | Jim Shooter (uncredited) | |||||||||||||||
"Following up clues"
Synopsis
Following a tip, Planet Terry and Robota travel to Asteroid 43KX in the hopes of finding his long lost parents. Their search is for Squink at the Milk Toast Malt Shop, and the find the latter easily. What's less easy is getting to it, as the Malt Shop is surrounded on all sides by a Crocogater-infested moat crossable by a single log bridge. Gulping down his fear, Terry prepares to cross the log...
Elsewhere, a fearsome and hateful creature stomps through a forest, declaring his hate for anything that gets in his way: trees, bushes, Gnork hogs. He passes by the Milk Toast Malt Shop, implying that it's lucky it wasn't on his path, but the threat still stands to anything else in his way as he approaches a single log bridge over a moat...
Carefully making their way over the log, Terry and Robota come face to face with the creature, who calls himself Omnus. He demands they let him by, as nothing gets in his way – and he'll make them gator chow if they don't. After Terry tells him he has bad manners, Omnus readies a punch, but the swing causes him to lose his balance and fall into the moat. Omnus shouts for help as he is swarmed by Crocogaters; Robota comes to the rescue – though she tells him he doesn't deserve it – and her steel skin proves to tough for the gators' teeth. After she hoists him back up onto the log, Omnus thanks them, saying he owes them one, and he heads off along the log.
Terry and Robota come to the Milk Toast Malt Shop, and its warning sign of "No sissies allowed" fails to prepare them for the myriad tough, muscular, and mean alien thugs patronising the dive bar. They approach the bar and order their chocolate malts (Robota's with a shot of oil), and tell the bartender they're looking for a man named Squink. The bartender is quite familiar with the "ice cream freak", pointing him out at the other end of the bar.
Down there, the boss bartender is refusing to serve Squink another banana split, as he's over the limit. Squink gets aggressive, and he throws his sundae dish at the bartender; thus turns out to be the last straw for the boss, who calls for his bouncers, Morthrott and Grmbil, to toss the troublemaker into the moat with the Crocogaters. Terry protests, and the boss turns his goons on him and Robota, too. Though they put up a fight, Terry is soon grabbed, and Robota captured by one of the bouncers' wrist-mounted electromagnet.
Just as it seems they're about to take a dip in the moat, Omnus arrives and demands they let Terry and Robota go. He makes short work of Morthrott and Grmbil, repaying the debt he owed them. Together, the three of them flee back over the log bridge, with Robota carrying the unconscious form of Squink. Terry ditches their armed pursuers by kicking the log loose, stranding the thugs on the Malt Shop's island. As they approach Terry's ship, Robota asks if he can join them, as he's not going to be welcome on Asteroid 43KX for much longer – "And besides... you start darn good fights!"
Terry gladly welcomes him aboard, and they take off from the planet. He tells Robota and Omnus that, while he may not know how to find his parents yet, he's already found a family with the two of them.
But in the main body of the ship, Squink is not as unconscious as they presumed. Reaching for a blaster, he darkly vows that no-one must learn the secret of the Space Warp...
Featured characters
| Planet Terry's crew | Antagonists | Milk Toast Malt Shop occupants | Fauna | ||
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Quotes
"Nothing gets in the way of Omnus, shorty! How would you like to be gator chow?"
"You have bad manners, Mr. Omnus!"
- –Omnus (unstoppable force) meets Terry (immovable object).
"I said I want another banana split! Pronto!"
"I can't serve you, Squink! You've had enough! Your stool says you're over the limit!"
- —Squink and the boss bartender have a heavy conversation.
Notes
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Original printing
- Planet Terry issue 1, 25 December 1984
As originally published, each issue of Planet Terry contained multiple separately-titled but interconnected chapters. "Malt Shop Menace" is the fourth and final chapter of the first issue.
As it was originally published in the same book as "The Search", "Malt Shop Menace" carries no credits for its creative team, meaning they are uncredited by The Transformers.
Edits
- A new recap of "Some Answers" is lettered into the top gutter on the first page.
- On the final page, Terry's use of the word "mom" is edited to "mum".
Artwork and technical errors
- The drinking establishment is referred to as the "Milktoast Malt Shop" in dialogue in both this story and "Some Answers", but the sign as actually seen on the building spells it "Milk Toast Malt Shop".
- If "Crocogater" is a portmanteau of "crocodile" and "alligator" – and the shortening of the word to "gator" suggests it is – then it's spelled wrong.
- On the first page, the logo on the Malt Shop has "Milk Toast" and "Malt Shop" on two lines of text. In the close-up on page four, the text is on one line.
- In the second panel of page three, Robota's face is the same colour as the pink background.
- On the fifth page, the boss bartender alternates whether he's across the counter from Squink or not during the course of their conversation. It's decent of Squink to let him go back around the bar before throwing his sundae dish at him.
- Whichever one of the bouncers is the rabbit, his eyes are yellow in the fifth panel of page five but red everywhere else.
- In the sixth panel of page five, Terry's gloves and belt are white instead of yellow.
Continuity errors
Continuity notes
- A Gxyzpldberry is a type of fruit one might expect to get in a sundae.
- One of the bartenders is the same species as the mother and daughter fish people seen on Bznko in "The Search".
- An alien with horns starts telling a joke about a Gwork, an Arterian, and an Earthling. The skinny alien's response suggests that the Earthling is the usual butt of the joke.
Real-life references
- The Milk Toast Malt Shop is a subsidiary of Cadence Industries – at the time, this was the real world parent company of Marvel Comics.
Other notes
- This story and "The Saga of Princess Ugly" are the only Planet Terry strips to be printed entirely in colour.
- As with "The Search", the majority of the weird background aliens introduced in this story go on to appear in the 2009-2010 miniseries X-Babies,
with the boss bartender, elephant alien, and snout-nosed alien all appearing in the first issue, being joined by the wide-mouthed amphibian alien, the three-mouthed alien, the thick shakes alien, the fish person bartender, the burping demon, the fourth-wall breaking demon, the skinny alien, the horned joker, the quilled alien, and the blue lizard in the second issue.
