"At the dawn of the new millenium, the human race discovered they were not alone in the universe when an abandoned alien vessel crashed into the Earth. The bounty of advanced technology within would alter the course of human history. This alien technology was known as Robotech. A powerful alien race, the Zentraedi, would bring an age-old war to Earth. However, aided by the miracle of Robotechnology, the human spirit would prevail ..."

It is the year 2015. Veritech Wolf Squadron is in pursuit of a team of full-sized Zentraedi rebels who have stolen a cache of GU-11 gun pods. The squadron leader radios his base, assuring them that his team will intercept the rebels and recover the goods. As he tells his wing that they don't have authorization to use deadly force, meaning they'll have to deal with the Zentraedi "the old-fashioned way," the Veritechs transform to Battloid mode and follow the rebels into what appears to be a drained resevoir. Suddenly, one of the rebels lets loose with a gun pod, which the squadron members are surprised to discover is loaded, and the Battloids take cover. One pilot notices some approaching Monster Destroids. "Oh," he says, "looks like reinforcements. Guess base didn't think we could handle these stragglers on our--"

One of the Monsters fires, and it's not at the Zentraedi. The blast takes the head off of one of the squadron's VF-1A Battloids. "Those are Zentraedi markings!" another pilot shouts. Indeed they are--shoddily-painted blue Zentraedi insignias adorn the "noses" of the squat Destroid mecha. The Veritech team has been led into an ambush. The Destroids let loose on the Veritechs, firing everything they've got at the team. "Wolf Leader to base! Wolf Leader to base! We're taking heavy fire! We need back-up now! I repeat, we--"

"I heard you the first time, Wolf Leader ..." A sleek new model of fighter plane with familiar yellow and black trim and skull & crossbone markings flies into the oncoming fire. "This is Skull Leader. Hold on, I'll have you out of there in no time!"

In the cockpit of his shiny new YF-4 Veritech Fighter, Rick Hunter pulls down on a familiar control lever marked "G". The jet begins to respond to the command, but it registers a malfunction. Instead of swooping down in Guardian mode, Rick decides to simply lock onto the two Monsters with his missiles and knock 'em out the easy way, letting loose a missile barrage and slipping between them as the Monsters' weapons systems explode. "The Destroid Monsters have been neutralized," Rick tells Wolf Squadron. "We've deployed a full assault team to assist you in containment and clean-up." Wolf Squad thanks him as they take the full-sized Zentraedi rebels into custody.

Rick returns to Macross City with the YF-4 prototype, flying by the mounds that will stand as a monument to the fallen SDF-1 and cover over the rubble of that ship, Khyron's battlecruiser, and other remains from the Battle of New Macross City. As he passes the memorial, he reflects on how the last major conflict with the Zentraedi nearly destroyed what little remained of the United Earth Government. His mind returns to the present as he prepares to land. As the Veritech screeches along the runway, Doctor Emil Lang runs up to demand a word with Hunter.

"Hello, Dr. Lang!" Rick says cheerily as he removes his flight helmet. "We're going to need a complete rundown of the YF-4's new transformation system ..." Lang demands to know what he was thinking, taking the prototype into battle. "Had you been shot down, all of our research vould have been lost ..." Lang says. Rick goes on about the transformation system, pointing out that the configuration actuators appear to seize up during a hard dive. "... and the Veritech advancement program vould have suffered an enormous setback!" Lang finishes. Rick says it's a good thing he didn't get shot down, then. Lang asks Rick to take the matter more seriously, but Rick counters that he takes this all very seriously; after all, if it hadn't been for the YF-4, some men's lives would have been lost. "Spoken like a true fighter pilot, I must say," Lang notes. "I vonder who taught you your priorities. Surely, it wasn't ..."

Lang notices that Rick's not listening. Rather, Rick has noticed that the VF-1S Skull One is in the hangar in Battloid mode. He asks what it's doing here. "Now that ve're phasing out zee first Veritech series," Lang explains, "ve're preparing to disassemble Skull-One to perform a structural analysis of stress and fatigue. The data vould be invaluable since it is zee oldest surviving VF-1 in our inventory." Rick says he must have missed it on the schedule. He apologizes for risking the prototype, and asks if they can continue at another time. Lang agrees, then adds that Admiral Hayes wanted him to remind Rick about his appointment tonight. Rick thanks him., then runs his hand along the mecha's canopy. "Well, old girl, Roy told me once that he thought you'd outlive him. But knowing Roy ... I thought he was just being dramatic."

Rick flashes back sixteen years. It is the year 1999, six months prior to the crash of the SDF-1. At a small air circus in the southwest, it's pouring rain outside, and the announcer is telling the audience that the rain doesn't seem to be letting up, so they're going to have to close up early. "Hey, waitasecond ..." he says as a small yellow biplane soars through the dark clouds towards a striking bolt of lightning, "maybe the show ain't over yet! Look, folks--that's death-defyin' Roy Fokker up there! Looks like he's gonna make sure you get your money's worth, rain or shine!"

Later, Fokker climbs out of his plane. Two people are waiting for him: a young boy of around nine and his father, a square-jawed old-timer in a bomber jacket. The man is one "Pop" Hunter, the owner of the air circus. As Roy boasts about his flying, Hunter chides him. "Part of being a good pilot is knowing when to take intelligently calculated risks. But flying stunts in a thunderstorm is plain stupid even for someone with your raw talent." Roy assures Pop that he can take care of himself, but Pop already knows that. "But one of these days ... you're gonna get someone else killed."

A day or so passes. A young Rick Hunter races across the field to the front office of the air circus in search of Roy. Roy and Pop are watching the news, and Rick asks Roy if he's really going to go fight in the war. "'Fraid so, little brother," Roy says. "Can't put it off any longer." He turns to Pop. "I know you're anti-war, and I"m not exactly eager to kill anyone myself, but I'm a damn good pilot, and my country needs me." Pop puts his hand on Roy's shoulder. "I can respect that," he says. "Every man's gotta make his own way in this world." Roy thanks him, then takes Rick outside to talk.

Rick asks if he can come with him, but Roy tells Rick that war's no place for little guys like him. "When I get older, then?" Rick asks. Roy assures Rick that when he's old enough to be a fighter pilot, this war is going to be a distant memory. "Then will you come back and fly for the circus again?" Rick asks. "You bet," Roy replies, "and I'll be back for good."

"You promise?"

"Yeah, I promise."

ARTWORK

Yes, the twelve story pages of this issue were handled by seven different artists. It's not clear who did what, or who served in what capacity; only a person familiar with each artist's style and what each person tends to do (as in "pencils or inks?") would be able to tell, and I'm not that familiar with most of these names. Oh sure, I know Jim Lee, WildStorm's founder and Editorial Director (and penciler on Batman as of this writing), but the rest of the names aren't totally clicking today. I think he did the first page or two; and even then I'm not totally sure, since it's possible that different artists may have worked on the same pages.

The mecha art is strongly based, I believe, on the Toynami Super-Poseable Veritech design. The hands on the Veritechs are more mechanical-looking than those in the show, and the neck and leg joints are more detailed and mechanical-looking as well. The large kneecaps are definitely taken from the Super-Poseable toy design; Veritechs' knees are NOT actually like that. The shoulders, though, are very much those of a transforming Veritech design; they're more boxy and less pointy than those on the Toynami Super-Poseables. Very, very slight but noticable liberties were also made with the VF-1A's head; it's not as rounded as it used to be. Despite the numerous nitpicks, though, the mecha art looks excellent--much better than most of Antarctic Press's hand-drawn mecha art--but it does have certain hallmarks which reek of revisionism rather than nostalgia. Then again, revisionism seems to be the order of the day when it comes to '80s nostalgia comics.

The character art is another matter. Dr. Lang is the spitting image of his anime counterpart, despite some weirdness on his lumpily-drawn jowels. Rick, on the other hand, is barely recognizable. He bears a much closer resemblence to the toned-down and kind of hideous Matchbox action figure from the 1980's than his big-haired anime counterpart, or perhaps one of the early test drawings done by original character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto during the two years of lead time prior to the beginning of production on the Macross TV series. Between the story and the pin-up art in the back of the book, I swear that I've seen more Rick Hunters that don't actually look like Rick Hunter today than any other day in my life. Usually artists at least try to replicate his big and weirdly-pointed hair; the artists on this book didn't even seem to try.

And the noses look kind of weird, too.

Somehow, though, Roy manages to look sorta like Roy. Perhaps it's that his hair is more generically anime-styled and his face shape more specific than Rick's. Looking at it now, that last shot of Roy actually bears a striking resemblence to the new He-Man character design with a longer chin. Maybe it's just that I've seen so many weird-looking versions of Roy (due to the revolving door of artists on Return to Macross) I'm much more tolerant of them than I am with Rick.

Speaking of He-Man, Rick's dad looks a lot like Man-At-Arms from the modern (2002) He-Man cartoon and toy line. Same age lines, same moustache, same face shape, same predeliction for wearing protective headgear ...

The pin-ups are something of a mixed bag. For the record, they are:

• Rick Hunter and Lynn Minmei with a VF-1S Super Veritech behind them, by Adam Warren (characters) and Joe Wight (Veritech art). Please note that this is the most correct-looking Rick Hunter in the ENTIRE BOOK. Also note that Wight was a regular cover artist on the Antarctic Press ROBOTECH anthology title in the late '90s.
• Exedore, Breetai, and Khyron along with a small fleet of Zentraedi ships and a few Zentraedi mecha, by Troy Nixey and Jeromy Cox.
• Claudia Grant, Lisa Hayes, and Lynn Minmei having a picnic with an extremely Super-Poseable Figure-looking VF-1S Skull One giving a "V" hand-sign in the background, by Randy Green, Rick Ketcham, and Omar Dogan.
• Max and Miriya's video game battle with a CG rendered showdown between their REAL mecha in the background, by Kaare Andrews (characters) and Tipatat Chennavasin (mecha renders). Scratch my comment above, the Rick Hunter in the background HERE is the most correct-looking Hunter in the whole book. Also note that Chennavasin also was responsible for at least one render that appeared in Antarctic Press's Vermilion mini-series.
• A "poster art" style piece with Rick Hunter, Lynn Minmei, Zentraedi Battlepods, and the VF-1S Skull One in Guardian mode, by Dustin Nguyen.
• A decidedly non-anime piece with a horrifyingly well-endowed Rick Hunter with a spherical flight helmet, Lynn Minmei, and two Skull-marked and sleeker-than-usual VF-1 Veritech Fighters, by Keron Grant, Rob Stull, and Udon.
• An all-out mecha battle with proper anime-style VF-1's (yay, no Super-Poseable knees!) of various sizes in front of the SDF-1, by Long Vo and Saka.