Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles
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Robotech: Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles Is a 5-part comic book miniseries written by Tommy Yune along with the Waltrip brothers, who were previously the art and writing team of the Robotech II: The Sentinels comic series. It was published under DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. It bridges the gap between the Sentinels and the new movie Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, and also features characters from the Robotech Masters Saga. The series is important as that it provides an explanation, and deepend backround for many of the events seen on screen in the movie, and clears up many supposed contradictions with the original animation.
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[edit] Plot
The story of Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles focuses on the betrayal of the Robotech Expeditionary Force by T. R. Edwards, as he deffects to the side of the Invid Regent. The story begins with the REF's Council ordering the arrest of Edwards, Admiral Rick Hunter leads a team down to Tirol to arrest Edwards for treason, only to find, that Edwards has already cleared out his facility in Tiresea, kidnapped Lynn Minmei and killed her cousin Lynn Kyle. The REF forces are attacked by Invid inorganics and Edwards launches off planet in a newly developed ship, the Icarus.
Admiral Lisa Hunter in the SDF-3 attempts to prevent Edwards from leaving, but finds they are unable to to get a lock on his ship or the ghost squadron fighters, which are using Shadow Technology. The Regent's ship defolds and fires on the SDF-3 crippling it. During the battle Lisa, who is pregnant, is injured and miscarries.
Back on Tirol, Dr. Emil Lang and his android assistant Janice Em, try to investigate the Shadow Technology that is making Edwards ships impossible to detect. The Sentinels pledge to help the REF rebuild and prepair for their next encounter with the invid. Particullary the Kabbarrans who help rebuild the fleet, and the Haydonites who help reverse engineer the Shadow Technology which is an area they excel at. One Year later Vince Grant leads the capital ship Tokugawa against Edwards and the Regent at Optera. However, the Tokugawa is severely damaged by a surprise attack by the Icarus. Edwards uses the battle as a chance to dispose of the Regent and Breetai while they are engaged combat. The death of the Regent gives him and his living computer control of the Invid forces. Grant's ship is left crashing into Optera.
Edwards rounds up the survivors including Vince, and brings them to the Invid hive, where he reveals his plan to use the Regent's Army to liberate the Earth from the Invid Regess. Rick arrives in the SDF-3 and leads a team to rescue Minmei and the survivors of Grant's party. They capture Lazlo Zand and rescue Minmei, but Edwards is pushed into the Genesis pit by Janice where he and the living computer are fused and mutated into one monsterous being. Janice tells the rest of the team to escape and uses herself as a beacon for the SDF-3 to lock onto so it can destroy the Edwards-creature. Janice uploads herself to a new body created by Lang and the Haydonites so she can act as a liason, but the upgrade is only partial and Janice's memory is damaged.
From Edwards, the REF gets the Neutron-S missiles, which the Haydonites help them to replicate. The series ends with the SDF-3 testing the missiles, and causing a black hole to be created.
[edit] Sentinels revisited
The rebooting of the Robotech Universe relegated everything except the original 85 episode series to secondary continuity. This includes the Sentinels comics and the Jack McKinney novels, both of which tell the same story but diverge on many details. As part of this reboot, the Wildstorm Robotech comics before the Prelude miniseries feature a retelling of the years between the SDF-1 crash and the first animated episode Boobytrap. Prelude To Shadow Chronicles picks up where the Sentinels comics left off with Edward's betrayal. Although, with the reboot, it is generally acknowledged that the basic events of The Sentinels still occured, although many minor details are different.
[edit] Character deaths
Several key Robotech characters are killed off during this comic, some on screen, and some are confirmed when watching the follow up movie. They include
- Lynn Kyle (shot by Edwards)
- Breetai (killed when the Tokugawa's cannon fires on the Regent's ship)
- The Regent (killed when the Tokugawa's cannon fires on the Regent's ship)
- T.R. Edwards (killed by the SDF-3's Synchro cannons)
