It's no secret that
I love the Tandy Whiz Kids, especially when
they use Radio Shack computers to kick Superman's ass.
But that was 1980. It's now 1985, and
Archie is the publisher these
infomercial comics instead of
DC. Which brings us to:
And yes, the title of the story
actually is...
"
The Computers That Said No To Drugs"? Well, that would explain...
OK, OK,
sorry, cheap shot.
Anyway, back in 1980, the Whiz Kids got to use the awesome
TRS-80, with it's
4K of memory (yes, 4K). Five years later, it's a whole different story:
But wait...
there's more!!
And don't forget the porn!! Oh, wait, that'll come later.
And now, Radio Shack's inarguably correct view over what the future of education will be like once classrooms are chock full of (hopefully
Tandy) computers:
Yeah, that
so happened.
Anyway, this is a story about stopping drug smugglers, which, if you ask me, is a huge step down from
Major Disaster...which is a pretty
sad statement, if you think about it.
It's a tedious affair, so let's just look at what happens when industrious investigative reporter
Judy Baker has infiltrated the bad guys' hideout, and has to--as quickly as possible--get that information to her paper:
Ah, all the joy of
rotary dialing!!Suffice it to say, Baker's
95 step set-up, when she could have just picked up the phone and called the police herself, gets her caught. Not to worry, though--the Whiz Kids have
advanced information technology at their disposal!!
Long story short, drug smuggler
Ali Gurka (yes, his real name) is thwarted in his scheme
to use daisy wheel printer cartons stuffed with drugs, hidden with the rest of the boxes for the Traveling Science And Technology Exhibit, to move his product from city to city. Let's give him his
Scooby Doo moment, shall we?
Well, the title of this post sort of promised to reveal the
final fate of the Whiz Kids. Well, just look at their home city, as revealed on this banner at the big end-of-issue celebration:
All right, all right, it says
Coastal City,
not Coast City.
Yes, yes, this series no longer takes place in the
DC Universe (...or does it? Prove it isn't so!!)
So what? It's
my punchline. And if I want to imagine
Alec and
Shanna tapping futilely at their Tandy computers, trying to stop
Mongul before he atomizes their city, well, I'm kinda of sick that way.