Six Million Dollar Man Season Six comic book by Dynamite Entertainment gives Maskatron a back story
IT’S taken nearly four decades, but an iconic TV-related toy of the ’70s is finally having his story told.
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MASKATRON, the face-changing robotic nemesis of the Six Million Dollar Man who occupied many a young boy’s toy chest in the ’70s, is finally having his story told.
The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six comic book, debuted last week by Dynamite Entertainment, picks up where the TV series left off 36 years ago, continuing the adventures of bionic man Steve Austin (played in the show by Lee Majors) and his boss at the Office of Strategic Intelligence, Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson).
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The comic stays faithful to the ’70s style, from the fashions right down to the “audio effects” used when Austin is using his bionic powers.
The Six Million Dollar Man spawned an array of licensed merchandise during its run from 1974-78, including 12” action figures, one of which — Maskatron — never actually appeared in the show (though it appeared to be inspired by some other robotic foes).
The Maskatron toy was particularly cool because, aside from being a robot with revealable “electronic” parts, it came with three interchangeable faces: its default generic face, along with Austin and Goldman, so it could operate as an impostor.
And the new comic book reveals Maskatron is actually an acronym for the new robotic being (though we only find out the first few words).
We also discover there is an army of Maskatrons being built, and they are designed to remove the “unpredictable” human element of cyborgs such as the Bionic Man and Bionic Woman.
Also in the first issue, Steve Austin is assigned to track down a stricken satellite which fell to Earth after encountering a strange radiation cloud, and his investigation leads him to hand-to-fin combat with great white sharks (in the best tradition of the ’70s show).
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