THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #3

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #3

Since I’m apparently going to keep doing these, I thought I ought to throw in the proper credits for each issue. Make it more 'professional' looking.

Unfortunately, the rest of this will still be the random musings of a
decidedly non-professional, so, ya know, whatevs….

Besides, the credits can double as spoiler-space.

THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON 6 #3

Writer: James Kuhoric
Art: Juan Antonio Ramirez
Colors: Fran Gamboa
Letters: Joshua Cozine
Publication Date: May 2014
Published by Dynamite Entertainment

The story so far….

Former OSI head Oliver Spencer has returned and made his move to
disband the Bionics project in favor of his fully robotic agent,
Maskatron. Unfortunately, Maskatron doesn’t seem to be as obedient as
Spencer hoped, and has its own ideas about how to accomplish its
mission - bringing in the Seven Million Dollar security risk, Barney
Hiller.

Steve arrived in Russia on a ‘secret’ mission only to find the Soviets
waiting for him. Someone has tipped them off.

Meanwhile, a strange, alien entity has hitched a ride to Earth on a
returning satellite and infected scientist Joan Anderson….

Now:

So Maskatron is back from his mission to get Barney, but due to damage
it’s operating independent of Spencer’s control so it tends to react
somewhat badly to potential threats, like the SWAT team that greets it
as it returns to OSI HQ. It pretty much destroys the team until
Spencer arrives to command it shut down in person.

Steve finds himself in a knock-down, drag-out fight with a giant,
Soviet, armored robot-tank, but of course he finds a way to beat it
and get away. Now he just has to make it out of Russia. Note: the base
Steve infiltrates is in Chelyabinsk, which was hit by a meteor in
February 2013. Lots of nice dash-cam videos on YouTube of that if you
haven’t seen it.

Jaime returns! She’s on the scene at Washington National Airport,
where a plane with a US senator on board has been hijacked. After the
hijacking has been dealt with, Rudy gives her the bad news about the
Bionics project, but explains that they’ll likely be re-assigned
somewhere else as opposed to cut loose from the OSI altogether.

Oscar shows up at the hospital emergency room after a call from
Barney’s wife, Carla. We find out for sure how Maskatron decided to
complete its mission as Barney is a man barely alive and now missing
his bionic arms and legs. (Lucky for him he didn’t need an eye or an
ear - that wouldn’t have been pretty.)

And police show up at Dr. Joan Anderson’s house to find out why she
hasn’t been at work only to be attacked by a Species-esque alien
version of her.

Things are, as they say, heating up.

So, cue the random musings -

Since the final seasons of their respective shows were on different
networks, it’s been a long time since Steve and Jaime were able to
interact. It’ll be nice to see them working together again. Wonder how
Steve will get along with Chris Williams
- Jaime’s semi-boyfriend from her final season?

The hijacking scene also starts with a newscast setting up the
situation. A newscast from the Peeping Blonde herself, Victoria
Webster. Webster was one of Farrah Fawcett’s three characters from the
show and this is the type of cameo I love. So often on episodic TV
we’re introduced to characters that by all rights we should see again
in our heroes lives, but it’s not practical due to having to bring
actors in again for a thirty second scene. Comics don’t have to worry
about that so if you need a newscast, let Webster deliver it. If Steve
is chilling between missions, let him be playing tennis with Fred
Sloan. I hope to see more of this. (I *really* hope to see crossovers
with other shows/characters of the time snuck in but that’s just a
thing with me.)

Still not sold on the art style, but I can’t say it’s bad, just not to
my taste. I think there’s a bit of a manga influence and I’m not a fan
of that. And I’m really not sure why Spencer is always wearing a hat.
Pretty sure he never wore one in the pilot movie. I suspect it’s a way
to cue us that it’s him, but I think a better likeness to Darren
McGavin could cover that. Still, those are just personal quibbles. It
does the job and is dynamic and gets the point across. And it’s
entirely possible it will grow on me. It’s happened with other artists
before.

The writing, the part I was most worried about when the title was
announced, has continued to impress. Aside from the changes necessary
due to the format (that I mentioned in earlier write-ups) it’s pretty
easy to hear the characters I grew up with in there and that’s what I
really wanted.

Overall, I’m still really happy with how the series is going hope we
get season’s seven, eight, nine….

Also wonder if we’ll be getting a separate ‘The Bionic Woman: Season
Four’ comic. The way this one is going, I’d be on board with that.