L-r: Robota, Omnus, Terry. Artists: Warren Kremer and Vince Colletta.

PLANET TERRY

Medium: Comic books
Published by: Marvel Comics
First Appeared: 1985
Creators: Lennie Herman (writer) and Warren Kremer (artist)
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Planet Terry was a kid on a quest — sort of like Ren, in Pirates of Darkwater, except that Ren's quest was structured in stages, so viewers could see him making progress toward its …

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… completion. Terry was trying to find his parents, with no set path in front of him. He could discover clue after clue without any danger of his series reaching any important turning points, so writers would never have to worry about it taking off in a new direction.

In fact, he found his important first clue in the introductory issue of his comic book, Planet Terry #1, dated April, 1985 and published by Marvel's "Star Comics" imprint. An old planetoid prospector named Enoch Diggs recognized the small space ship in which Terry had formed his first memories. He'd been present when Terry, newly born, was placed in it because that was the only sterile environment available. Then he'd watched while it was accidentally launched. The ship had raised Terry automatically while his parents, the chief engineer and supply officer of the starship Space Warp, went about their business, convinced their child was gone forever.

That issue also introduced a pair of sidekicks for Terry, a female robot named Robota (whom he rescued from a junk heap after she, sturdy and sweet but not glamorous, had been discarded in favor of a newer model; and a big, tough, scrappy alien named Omnus. Readers also learned there was some shameful secret about the Space Warp, a plotline that never was fully resolved. The whole scenario was set up by writer Lennie Herman, who wrote two other Star Comics series, Top Dog and Royal Roy; and artist Warren Kremer, a veteran of Harvey Comics, where he'd handled such characters as Hot Stuff and Richie Rich.

Of all the Star Comics original properties, Planet Terry most closely resembled a series out of Marvel's mainstream. The ongoing quest provided plenty of scope for drawn-out melodrama, such as an extended sequence in which Terry thought his father was an interstellar villain named Vermin the Vile. There was also an implicit tie to the Marvel Universe — Terry's clothing looked just like the sort worn by the Kree, the alien race that had spawned Captain Marvel and impacted many other Marvel heroes. Surprisingly, no great revelations were ever developed out of that clue. Maybe that's because the comic didn't last long enough.

Like the other non-licensed Star titles, Planet Terry lasted about a year. The final issue was #12, dated March, 1986. Its dangling plotlines could, of course, be resolved in some completely unrelated Marvel title, like so many other unfinished stories from that company. So far, however, that hasn't happened.

— DDM

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Text ©2005 Donald D. Markstein. Art © Marvel Comics.