ROM Spaceknight #10 - Review - Warrior Over Washington

Originally published: September 1980

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Art: Sal Buscema

Letters: "Friends of Danny Crespi" [Note that Mr. Crespi became ill so everyone pitched in to letter the issue.]

Colors: Ed Hannigan

Editor: Jo Duffy

Sequence of events:

• Bemoaning the loss of his Neutralizer, ROM sets about searching for his friends, Brandy Clark and Steve Jackson. ROM fled the scene of the Thornoid attack in the pharmaceutical plant in issue #8, leaving Brandy and Steve to deal with its aftermath.
• ROM's Analyzer allows him to track the energy signatures of his friends to the Clairton County Jail.
• Inside the Jail, Steve and Brandy are locked up and frustrated that the authorities won't believe their stories about ROM and the Dire Wraiths.
• Suddenly, ROM smashes through the outside wall and after verifying that all the corrections officers are human (and not Wraiths), ROM grabs Steve and Brandy and flies to safety.
• After telling his friends that his Neutralizer is in Washington, DC, Brandy draws ROM a map in the dirt and ROM jets off, but not before having another awkward flicker of romance with Brandy.
• As ROM streaks across the sky, we touch base with the Clairton county coroner who is going to Washington to investigate that fact that all the "people" who were "killed" by ROM all seem to have the same date of birth even though the appear to be various ages.
• Washington, DC air defenses detect ROM and scramble fighter planes to shoot him down.
• ROM is able to dispose of the fighter planes without killing their pilots, but is captured by a mysterious hovercraft piloted by Dr. Rachel Sweet (a known Dire Wraith from early issues of ROM).
• Meanwhile, we are left with a doozy of a cliffhanger as Steve Jackson is confronted by anexact duplicate of himself. One of the Dire Wraiths has taken his form!

What's good:

• It was good to get the action out of Clairton, WV. That wasn't a bad setting for early issues of the series, but by now most of the key players have been introduced and it was time to be on a bigger stage and raise the stakes.
• Great cliffhanger ending that promises an "invasion of the body-snatchers" story as Brandy will be in peril from fake-Steve.
• Very nice to see ROM's acrobatic side. Thus far, his ability to fly had mostly been a matter of transportation or a way to flee danger, but this shows that he is acrobatic enough to dogfight with fighter planes.
• It almost goes without saying, but Sal Buscema was again in top form on this issue. Not only are all of his characters nice looking and well rendered, but his storytelling is impeccable.

What's a little silly:

• The silly had mostly departed this issue, but there are still a few nuggets.
• ROM's reaction to the jail is pretty funny: "There is a stark and somber quality about this structure that I do not like. Why would Brandy and Steve await my return here -- unless they were forced to do so?!"
• The actual jailbreak is pretty comical as it is ripped right from the pages of a western, right down to ROM smashing through an exterior wall with one of those little windows with bars on it.
• There is something comical about the scene of Brandy drawing the map in the dirt to direct ROM to Washington. Perhaps it is just the the map merely shows two stars (unclear how she drew those with a stick) that are labeled Clariton & Washington and an arrow that says Northeast. I appreciate that sometimes for the sake of storytelling the art has to show things that aren't realistic, but this map wouldn't be very helpful to ROM and I wonder how many 1980's readers weren't aware of the geographical relationship between Washington and West Virginia.
• Love how we are shown folks staring slack-jawed at ROM flying overhead. This is the Marvel U. where we have Avengers, Ultron , Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four, etc. Folks wouldn't do a double take about ROM.
• But, the most comical aspect of this comic (for me) was the depiction of the fighter aircraft on the interior pages. The cover clearly shows an F-16. It may be a little short and stubby in the nose, but it's an F-16. And that kinda makes sense as the F-16 was the Air Force's newest fighter plane in 1980. But, the fighters on the interior pages are referred to as "F-5" fighters (which they aren't), nor are they very similar to the F-16's on the cover. They're just made up planes. I wonder if this was an editorial directive or Buscema just failing to find good reference material or if they just wanted to be futuristic.

Wraiths banished to limbo: Zero (again)

Conclusion: A pretty snappy issue that sets ROM on a path to the nation's capital and features some nifty aerial battles.

Grade: 7.0/10

ROM Spaceknight #9 - Review - The Stalker in the Night!

Originally Published: August 1980

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Art: Sal Buscema

Colors: Bob Sharen & George Roussos

Letters: Jim Novak

Editor: Jo Duffy

Sequence of Events:

• After falling into an open grave while battling Dire Wraiths in ROM #8, ROM finds himself in an underground network of caverns. He detects an mysterious energy source and sets out to find its origin.
• Meanwhile, ROM is observed by Serpentyne who watched ROM's fight with the Dire Wraiths in the graveyard and overhead ROM speak of the Neutralizer. Serpentyne swears that he will possess this weapon!
• We cut back to the local hospital where Steve Jackson and Brandy Clark's story about the attack of the Thornoids (from issue #7) is drawing scrutiny from the authorities. Brandy and Steve are reluctant to tell the truth, lest everyone think they are insane, but they finally confess. At just that time, the doctor comes in to say that Artie Packer (the policeman attacked by the Thornoids) has died in surgery. Steve and Brandy are arrested as accessories to MURDER while the surgeon reveals himself (to the reader) to be a Dire Wraith.
• ROM finds many dead Dire Wraiths in the caves and is confronted by Serptentyne who relates his origin story. His people began and humble lizards that were transformed by the first nuclear bomb test. These intelligent, bipedal lizards quickly established a thriving society, but were attacked and wiped out by the Dire Wraiths who coveted their caves as a base of operations.
• Although ROM believes that he and Serpentyne should be friends, Stepentyne attacks ROM because he wants the Neutralizer.
• After a multipage battle, Serpentyne is impaled on a stalactite and dies, but not before coming to his senses and making a deathbed confession that he should not have attacked ROM.

What's good:

• As you can see from the brief description of events above, this is a pretty streamlined issue and that is never a bad thing. You can pretty much sum up the plot of this issue as: ROM fights Serpentyne because Serpentyne wants the Neutralizer.
• Despite some odd motivations, Serpentyne is a pretty tragic character who illustrates that the Wraiths are capable of genocide.
• Sal Buscema was really on his A-game in this issue. The fight between ROM and Serpentyne is full of energetic panels.
• This issue will always have a soft spot for me because as a child, this was the oldest issue of ROM I ever owned and I remember it having a treasured spot in my collection.

What's kinda silly:

• Well, let's start again with the small matter of Serpentyne's color. On the cover, he is clearly green. Yet throughout the interior pages, he is orange. I wonder if this was due to the fact that Sharens and Roussos shared coloring duties?
• Many silly things about Serpentyne's people. Let's start with their Godzilla-esque nature. It is worth remembering that this comic was published while the Three Mile Island accident was still fresh in people's memory and a year after the China Syndrome came out in theaters. So, folks were worried about nuclear power, BUT....still....for a race to evolve the complex and hierarchical structure that Serpentyne describes in under 40 years is a beyond preposterous.
• Let's also consider the fact that the first atomic weapon test was in New Mexico and the confrontation between ROM and Serpentyne takes place in West Virginia. The comic leaves it very vague how the creature traveled such a distance.
• Finally, Serpentyne's plan makes zero sense. He is ostensibly attacking ROM to gain the Neutralizer so that HE can be the one to banish the Dire Wraiths to Limbo. That's a great plan except for the fact that ROM has been muttering about how he doesn't actually have the Neutralizer right now, so if he had killed ROM, he still wouldn't have the weapon.
• I love how blatantly obvious it is that the physician is a Dire Wraith. Long face, sunken cheeks, squinty eyes....and....cigarette dangling from his lips. Kudos to Buscema, you can just tell this dude is evil.
• Found it a little odd that ROM just left Serpentyne's body to be pecked by crows. Since they kinda made a peace as Serpentyne lay dying, a nice cairn of stones might have been in order.

Wraiths banished to Limbo: Zero (again....c'mon ROM)

Conclusion: Not a very important issue in the ROM mythos. It features a big fight and that's about it. Nice art by Buscema though.

Grade: 6.5/10

- Dean Stell

ROM Spaceknight #8 - Review - Deathwing!

Originally Published: July 1980

Writer: Bill Mantlo

Art: Sal Buscema

Colors: Ben Sean

Letters: Diana Albers

Editor: Jo Duffy

Sequence of events:

• We join the action immediately after the Thorn-oid attack in the lab at the pharmaceutical company where Brandy Clark works from issue #7.
• Steve Jackson proceeds to flip out on ROM. Steve is grief stricken about the death of his good friend, Artie Packer, and declares that Artie is only dead because ROM is causing trouble. He notes that the Dire Wraiths didn't start hurting people until ROM showed up.
• ROM quickly corrects Steve by telling him the story of Angelica - a peaceful world that was totally destroyed by the Wraiths.
• Just then, managers at the pharmaceutical company start banging on the door of the lab where ROM, Steve and Brandy are, demanding to be let inside. The lab is trashed: dead Artie, dead Thorn-oids, smashed windows, etc. ROM uses his Analyzer to detect that Artie isnot quite dead and decides to leave so that his presence isn't a distraction.
• When the door is opened, the dying policeman receives most of the attention rather than the focus being on ROM (now departed) or the Thorn-oids. But, Brandy and Steve know that sooner or later, people will question what happened in the lab.
• ROM knows that he must retrieve his Neutralizer (stole by the Wraiths in issue #7). He observes a funeral for several "humans" thought to have been killed by ROM in earlier issues. ROM shines his Analyzer on the crowd revealing that all of the pall bearers are, in fact, Dire Wraiths. Perhaps one of them knows where the Neutralizer is? ROM determines to question them.
• Cut to the coroner's office, where the coroner mentions how sad the funeral is, but how odd it is that all six of the dead have the same birthday to a co-worker. The worker offers to take the records to Washington, D.C. before a revealing thought-bubble shows him to be another Dire Wraith in disguise. This Wraith is determined to cover up this same-birthday problem that the coroner has discovered.
• As this Wraith walks down a rainy street, he is grabbed from behind by something with reptilian claws and killed in the shadows. All the reader sees is s humanoid/dinosaur profile in the shadows.
• Back at the funeral, a Wraith Elder leads the funeral services and implores the gathered Wraiths to remain resolute in the face of this hardship. Wraiths disguise as old women howl that the rewards of Earth are not enough to warrant facing ROM! The Elder silences them with threats of summoning a Deathwing to punish them.
• Just then - ROM jumps into the middle of the funeral. ROM yells at the Wraiths that so far he has not killed any Wraiths because he used his Neutralizer. But that if they do not tell him where the Neutralizer is -- he WILL start to kill them.
• A battle ensues and the Elder summons a Deathwing. In the chaos of the battle, ROM gets ahold of the Elder and tells him he'll feed him to the Deathwing if he doesn't reveal the location of the Neutralizer.
• The Elder tells ROM of Project Safeguard, but as the Deathwing takes the Elder, it also brushes against ROM's arm, causing ROM to collapse into an open grave. ROM breaks through the bottom of the grave into a system of caves below.
• In the final cliff-hanger, we see the reptilian Serpentyne standing over the open grave. He was the one who killed the coroner's co-worker. He hates Wraiths and vows to get the Neutralizer for his own personal battle against the Wraiths.

What's good:

• Lots of good continuity in this issue by showing the funeral of the Wraiths that ROM banished earlier. One of the things that I loved about this series as a kid was how it was telling a singular, ongoing story. Each issue picks up right where the last issue ended rather than being broken up into 6-issue stories that were convenient for collecting into trade paperbacks (like is done in comics today).
• We also get the first hints of story that will take ROM away from Clairton, West Virginia. The story had started to feel a little bottled up in this small locale.
• The Wraiths' plot is also starting to become apparent to more humans as the coroner realizes that something fishy was going on.
• Typically good art from Buscema and a really nice cover too! I really liked Buscema's design and linework on the Elder who looks very hellfire-n-brimstone minister.

What's kinda silly:

• The whole opening scene where the pharmaceutical managers want to get into the trashed lab is just comical, especially ROM's decision to slip away so that no one will pay any attention to him. On one hand, it probably would have been worse if he had stayed, but the idea that everyone would be so distracted by the dying policeman on the ground that they don't notice the trashed lab and dead aliens all over the place is kinda silly.
• What color is Serpentyne? His hands show green, but on the final page he is orange. For a reveal that was clearly to say, "See kids! This is the guy who killed that Dire Wraith earlier. This is what he looks like and ROM will have to fight him next issue!" Why would you change his color?
• I loved how the Wraiths who complained most loudly to the Wraith Elder about their working conditions were all disguised as old women. Were they dumb Wraiths that stole the identities of old women and were then stuck with a bad secret identity where they hand to learn the rules of bridge and go to lots of tea parties where they gossiped about "the young whipper-snappers" and made quilts?
• After ROM crashes the funeral, this line is spoken, "Defend yourselves, Wraiths. There are weapons hidden in the unopened coffins!" [Emphasis added]. Doesn't everyone carry weapons to a funeral and hide them in empty coffins?

Wraiths banished to Limbo: Zero! Again! No Neutralizer = No banishment!

Conclusion: A pretty strong issue of ROM that is fast-paced and does a lot to advance the story.

Score: 8.0/10

- Dean Stell