Mission Log: AF2.13/1

Atari Force #13, main story
Jan 1985
"The End"
16 pages

The Dark Destroyer explains how he survived his last encounter with the original Atari Force (AF1.05) by sending out some of his life-essence in an organic pod before he was destroyed. He absorbed Lydia Perez' life force as she gave birth and also passed through Martin Champion so he could form a new organism. He found a pregnant creature (non-humanoid) on another world and used her as the host of his birth. He grew to his present form within a year, collecting his army of easily controlled sentients. Now he is going to destroy the New Earth universe. Martin jumps him and the fight resumes, this time with Atari Force winning. Dart makes for the bomb and it comes down to only Blackjak stopping her. She has too shoot him. As she tries to deactivate the bomb, she sets off a fail-safe. It's going to detonate and they can't do anything about it. Atari Force heads for Scanner One. Shortly before, Martin had beat the Dark Destroyer in hand-to-hand combat. The Destroyer makes his way to the bomb, but can't stop it either. He does something to Kargg and sends him on his way to fulfill the Destroyer's destiny. The Destroyer himself stays with the bomb, which goes off, destroying a universe.

Notes

Regarding the title: this truly is the beginning of the end for Atari Force, as this is creator/writer Gerry Conway's last issue.

Annotations

1. Page 5: Not only did the Destroyer rapidly age himself, but he's kept himself from aging since. If he hadn't, he would now look exactly like Martin instead of a younger version. And don't forget, this means that the Destroyer's body and Tempest are almost exactly the same age.
2. Pages 7-13: The Destroyer easily dispatched Tempest, even with his phasing powers, yet he only manages to get in one punch against Martin. Even keeping in mind Martin's marine training, he's still fighting "himself" at about half his age. Helfer responds to this in AF2.17:lettercol by saying Tempest is young, inexperienced, and was scared while Martin has been waiting 20 years for this.

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