Since The Keeper can’t get enough of ROM - or new blog templates - these days, here’s … well, how else can we put this … ROM and a new blog template!
Like DC’s sadly short-lived Captain Action, the ROM comic was a toy tie-in that transcended its origins to become a landmark of apocalyptic action and over-the-top melodrama.
However, Captain Action only lasted five months while Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Steve Ditko put ROM through the grinder for 75 ISSUES.
The title owed much of its intensity to the Spaceknight’s unearthly foes - the Dire Wraiths. Unlike the 1.26 million other aliens that invaded Earth 616, the wraiths employed particularly bloodthirsty methods.
Mass murder, torture, cruel experiments … Mantlo pulled out all the stops when it came to portraying the Dire Wraiths’ immense evil.
At one point, the initial group of Dire Wraiths were wiped out by their even deadlier female counterparts for failing to eliminate ROM. Any restraint the title had previously displayed was promptly thrown out the window as the invaders targeted an entire town for extinction.
Clairton, West Virginia, served as an unofficial base of operations for ROM. The inhabitants of this town were the first to learn of the Dire Wraiths and accepted the cyborg Spaceknight as one of their own.
One of the townspeople, Brandy Clark, even fell in love with ROM and joined his crusade as the Spaceknight Starshine.
Readers had come to know and accept these characters as part of the book’s status quo. However, in the 49th and 50th issues the book’s supporting cast was brutally murdered and replaced by the shape-shifting aliens.
To be honest, the above sequence seriously messed with the Keeper’s head back in the day. We had just returned to collecting after a few years’ hiatus and had never seen such carnage in a Marvel comic.
Super-hero bloodbaths were not commonplace at this juncture, even if the deaths were somewhat off-screen. Mantlo and Buscema did not kill off characters gratuitously and the wraith’s despicable actions had very real consequences on ROM and (especially) Brandy.
When the two Spaceknights returned to Clairton, they were lulled into complacency by the presence of familiar faces … until it was too late.
Complicating matters, a cadre of Skrulls landed nearby to exterminate the Dire Wraiths. Turns out the wraiths were an off-shoot of Skrull evolution - one the longtime FF foes could not stomach.
Oblivious to this new presence, the Dire Wraiths continue killing off Clairton residents … in this case the D-list super-hero known as The Torpedo.
Aw, we kinda liked the guy. Even bought his mini-series way back when.
Meanwhile, ROM and a despairing Brandy finally tire of battling shadowy monsters in Limbo and decide to bust loose. But not before Starshine debuts her new, kick-butt vengeance armor!
Unfortunately, the Spaceknights materialized smack dab in the middle of a war between the Dire Wraiths and the Skrulls!
The now crazed Starshine (Dark Starshine?) is all too happy to join the battle until ROM put an end to things with his trusty “send ‘em all to limbo” gun.
And that, well, really wasn’t that. After the carnage of the previous two issues, the remainder of the book’s run could be summed up in two words …
Really, could you expect anything less?
The final issue of Rom was one of the first comics I ever got (as part of a collection of 50 or so random comics I got as a Christmas present). It was pretty impressive how much I could understand of the series from just that one issue.
But still, Rom comes down pretty hard on Starshine in that page where they get caught doesn’t he? Dude, don’t be bagging on her emotions; she just found out everyone she loved got killed by Wraiths.
ROM is kind of like the Silver Surfer. He likes to whine a lot. First it’s “Curse your human emotions Brandy” and then its “Don’t sacrifice your soul to the ravages of war!”
Unlike the Surfer, though, ROM makes up for his angst by carrying one kick-ass ray gun.
Rom #49 is EXACTLY the one issue I bought that FREAKED ME OUT as a kid, and then I only got the one with Alpha Flight and the Annual with the New Mutants… It’s those Dire Wraiths, man, they are CREEPY!
Back in August, I chronicled my shock and dismay on my faux-blog: http://www.siskoid.com/blog/rom49.html
Linked rather than copy pasted as a response to your post.
(Nightmares, here I come…)
Siskoid -
I liked your take on this issue.
I’ll have to check out the rest of your faux-blog, it looks interesting.
And yes, those Dire Wraiths are pretty dang creepy.
I was just transferring my collection from my old long boxes into those new “Drawer-Boxes”, and when I got to ROM I felt that this wonderful series deserved to be re-bagged & re-read.
I’m falling in love with this title all over again.
Damn, this was some good stuff.
As a young man (I was what…12 years old?, when he made his debut in 1979) ROM was one of my 3 favorite titles (Man-Thing & Doctor Strange being the other 2), and I bought it religiously.
My first issue was # 3, but I quickly hunted down the first 2 and from then on, I was HOOKED!
The series STARTED with a kick and just kept getting more intense.
Then with the arrival of AKIN & GARVEY on inks, it took a level of “teh awesome” I hadn’t seen outside of the Michael Golden covers!
Sadly, by the time the whole “FORGE & STORM” stories came around, I was getting behind on it and then the DITKO stuff turned me off.
I LOVES me some Ditko, but his “bendy” artwork wasn’t made for a “stiff” character like ROM.
To that extent, I don’t recall much of the latter half of the series.
A problem I’ll be rectifying soon enough.
~P~
P-TOR