This week the world of pop culture was totally rocked by the news that one of the greatest underrated movies of the 80s is FINALLY getting a sequel. Director Nick Castle’s 1984 science fiction epic The Last Starfighter is being revisited, after over four decades, in a new comic book series by Mad Cave Studios and the planet absolutely REJOICED. 

Well it rocked MY world, anyway.

I loved The Last Starfighter growing up. If you’ve never seen it, here’s the short version: teenager Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is addicted to a video game – a cabinet video game, not one of them newfangled home consoles – and keeps playing it until he shatters the record. That night, he’s visited by an alien called Centauri (Robert Preston) who tells him that the game is actually a secret test, and Alex has been recruited to join the real StarLeague in its battle against “Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.” In fact, for a lot of people my age, just SAYING the phrase “Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada” activates something inside of us similar to saying “mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”

There were lots of movies in this era trying to ride the coattails of Star Wars, and this is one of my favorites. It’s been adapted before – there was a novelization, a Marvel comic book adaptation, and even a stage musical – but despite being pretty well loved by its fan base, there was never a sequel and the story has never continued until now. Original screen writer Jonathan Betuel is working with writers Deric A. Hughes and Benjamin Raab as well as artist Willi Roberts on this new series, which Beutel hints is the beginning of a plan to tell larger stories to expand the universe of the film. And I, for one, couldn’t be happier about it. Honestly, it couldn’t happen to a better franchise.

That said, just because this is the perfect franchise to relaunch as a comic book, that doesn’t mean there aren’t others. Mad Cave has taken the forefront on this in recent years, with reboots of Speed Racer, Dick Tracy, and Defenders of the Earth, as well as individual Defenders characters such as Flash Gordon and the Phantom. And Dynamite Publishing has stepped up to the plate with more “sophisticated” reboots of old cartoons like Thundercats, Silverhawks, Space Ghost, and Captain Planet. It’s not really surprising that writers and artists who grew up on these franchises want to resurrect them in comic book form and put their own spin on them. That said, even with the avalanche of classic stuff we’ve gotten in the last few years, there are still a few that haven’t been touched.

Yet.

So today, in a “Three Wishes” special, I’m going to propose three franchises that – to the best of my knowledge – have never had a sequel or reboot of any kind since their original run ended. And this was harder than it sounds – I thought about nearly a dozen different movies and TV shows that I discarded when I checked and found out that there HAD been a comic book or TV reboot that had escaped my notice. But I’m pretty sure that, for the three I’m about to talk about, any continuation of the original story exists only in the imagination of fans everywhere. Here are three 80s IPs that I would love to see get a reboot or sequel as a comic book. 

Bionic Six

Although Bionic Six had only one season in 1987, this was in the day when a season of a syndicated show ran for 65 episodes, and the reruns could be broadcast for ages. I remember distinctly that our local station showed it fairly early in the morning, and I would watch this cartoon every day when I was getting ready for school, which is probably why I have such fond memories of it. In the “near future,” test pilot Jack Bennett is given super powers through a series experimental of bionic implants and acts as a superhero and secret agent, Bionic-1. But when an avalanche on a family vacation buries his entire family (his wife, son, daughter, and two foster sons) with an object giving off bizarre radiation, the professor who gave him his bionics decides that the only way to save his family is to bionicize the whole batch of ‘em. Professor Sharp becomes the handler/science guy for the team as they fight the supervillain Scarab (who also happens to be Sharp’s brother) and his minions. 

I watched this show faithfully every morning, loved the heroes, loved hating the villains, and I even became a fan of some of the side-characters like the Bandroids (a robot rock band) and pair of villains called Perceptor and Kaleidoscope who did a heel-face turn and joined the good guys. There was a line of action figures in the same scale as the G.I. Joe toys I loved, and even better, the figures had transparent plastic and die-cast metal pieces for the bionics, objectively making them some of the coolest figures of the era. And although it didn’t become as well-known as the likes of Silverhawks or Captain Planet, I think the concept has just as much potential for continuation.

Were I to relaunch the book, here’s what I would do: I would pick up the story several years later. Professor Sharp has passed away, Scarab has long since been defeated, and the Bionic Six are in retirement. Eric (aka Sport-1) has settled into a low-level job, bitter that his dreams of becoming a professional athlete were quashed because he realized he could never compete without the secret of his bionics becoming public. His sister Meg (Rock-1) has found happiness as a music teacher. Their adopted brother Bunji (Karate-1) has retreated to a monastery somewhere, embracing a life of peace and solitude. And J.D. (IQ) has spun his remarkable intelligence into an enormous business empire. Things are mostly okay. 

Until Scarab returns, kidnapping Eric’s daughter, Meg’s son, and J.D.’s twin girls. The siblings reunite, fetching Bunji from his retreat, and head out to rescue the kids. When they arrive, though, they find that Scarab has begun experimenting on them. To save them, J.D. finds himself forced to repeat Professor Sharp’s experiments and bionicize the kids, who never knew that their family was the legendary Bionic Six. After a few near-tragedies caused by their inexperience, Eric and Bunji agree to train them in the use of their powers, with J.D. providing financial backing and support. Although he and Meg decline to return to active duty, they agree to help out if the situation demands it, but now Eric, Bunji, and the four kids are the new Bionic Six. Bunji tries to teach them a more peaceful, spiritual approach, while Eric is desperate to prove himself, causing some nice little interpersonal conflict amidst the family in their new adventures. 

Call me, Mad Cave.

Galaxy High School

The next sci-fi cartoon of the 80s I would give another shot is Galaxy High School. Like Bionic Six, this show only lasted one season. Unlike Bionic Six, though, it was a Saturday morning cartoon, and in its one season it only turned out 13 episodes. I was pretty stunned when I discovered that – I have memories of watching this cartoon that I could have SWORN lasted for YEARS. Reruns are a powerful thing, I guess. Anyway, the show was created by future blockbuster director Chris Columbus (who you may know as the guy who masterfully helmed the methodical torture of Joe Pesci and Daniel stern in Home Alone, among many other films).

In the show, two teenagers from Earth are accepted to the intergalactic “Galaxy High School.” Doyle Cleverlobe is a popular all-star jock, while Aimee Brighttower is an all-star in academics, but shy and unpopular. When they arrive at a school full of aliens, however, the script is flipped: the aliens all adore the brilliant Aimee, while Doyle finds himself immediately rubbing many of them the wrong way and turning into an outcast. The core of the show was the friendship (and teased romance) between the two of them and the adventures they had with their wild cast of alien friends.

If I were to continue this series, I’d pick up right where it left off in Galaxy High School: Sophomore Year. Doyle isn’t quite the outcast he was before, mostly because the others tolerate his presence since he’s friends with Aimee. He’s still eager to prove himself, but he’s a bit less of a dork about it. Aimee, meanwhile, will have a bit of a crisis when a new student rolls into school – a computer intelligence from another planet that’s even smarter than her. 

In addition to continuing the teen romcom with the two of them, I would want to explore the hell out of this universe. The aliens in the show were really wild and creative (Gilda Gossip’s species had several mouths that never stopped talking, Booey Bubblehead had a literal bubble for a head, and the school bully Beef is a giant chicken), but we didn’t see much of their individual cultures in the show’s mere 13 episodes. I would do stories with field trips to other planets, or comics that take place during school breaks and holidays where Aimee and Doyle go with their friends back to their homeworlds for a visit, really getting a chance to explore. Galaxy High School only hinted at a larger, hilarious sci-fi universe that was kind of a kid-friendly version of Douglas Adams. I want to see more of that.

Condorman

The last 80s character I would love to see again comes from the little-known 1981 Disney movie Condorman. Woody Wilkins (Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford) is a comic book writer and artist who insists on testing out his fictional hero’s stunts in real life, such as building a Condorman hang glider and trying to fly from the Eiffel Tower. Woody gets caught up in a document exchange with a woman who turns out to be a Soviet spy who falls in love with him and decides to defect to the United States. The movie is kind of half superhero/half James Bond spoof with a lot of awesome gadgets and vehicles that sincerely appealed to the kid I was when I watched it over and over again. To this day, I think about the scene where Woody and Natalia are in what looks like an old truck that, with the flip of a switch, turns into the cool-as-hell Condormobile. It was pretty atypical of Disney, even for the time, but it was fun.

If I was bringing back Condorman, what would I do? Glad you asked, my friend. I’d keep the 80s time frame, because once you hit the 90s spy movies just weren’t what they used to be. I’d reintroduce the characters a year or two after the film, where Woody and Natalia have become a real spy team (mostly due to her doing her best to keep him from getting killed) and send them on another quest, this time to find an American asset who has been captured behind the Iron Curtain. After several adventures, we’d finally rescue the American, only to hit us with the big reveal: the American in question turns out to be Cliff Secord, a pilot in his 60s who once saved the United States wearing the jetpack and helmet of the Rocketeer.

Yeah, that’s right. I would use Condorman as a stealth entryway into a Disney Cinematic Universe. I would also bring in things like Tron, with those characters battling Russian programs. Woody and Natalia would find the remains of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean. Tech would be built by Professor Ned Brainard (The Absent-Minded Professor) and Dr. Wayne Szalinski (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids). They would face off against the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus at Halloween, meet The Santa Clause’s Scott Calvin at Christmas! And I’m not sure when or how, but at some point SOMEBODY would have to Escape to Witch Mountain.

Look, crazier things have happened.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. He may have gotten a little carried away on the Disney Universe thing, but he has no regrets.