Random Back Issues #83 - ROM #45

It's been a while since we looked at an issue of ROM. A lot of things have changed, as the issue opens on Rom burying his own corpse!

He and Brandy Clark (now occupying the Galadorian armor of Rom's old ally Starshine) wound up in Russia, where Rom got duped by Quasimodo into giving up the armor in exchange for a clone body. Which broke down, and forced him back into the cold cyborg armor. He takes it well.

Or maybe not. The two of them are joined by the sometimes pilot of the Titanium Man armor, the Gremlin, who wants to know more about these Wraiths Rom keeps talking about. After a few panels of exposition, Gremlin explains he'd been seeing signs of odd behavior among others in Moscow. He thought it was Soviets jumping at shadows, disabling security out of fear it was going to be exploited by an enemy. Now he figures it was Wraiths impersonating humans, trying to weaken the USSR against an attack.

Agreeing to work together, Brandy uses the "Living Light" to transport them to a secret base Gremlin discovered evidence of before he fled Moscow. Rom gets to blasting, only to have his Neutralizer beam reflected back at him. A Wraith impersonating the Commissar of State Security has duped the Soviet Super-Soldiers - Vanguard, Major Ursus and Darkstar - into defending the facility from invaders set on destroying the Soviet Union. Those three got no love for the State (as explained through another page of exposition), but they do want to protect the people. Darkstar used her power to transport them there, and its Misunderstanding Battle Time!

Brandy and Darkstar square off in a battle of light and dark that begins to escalate beyond either of them. Rom manages to toss Ursus aside, but has more trouble with Vanguard. Random odd thing: Ursus can understand Rom's English perfectly well, but Vanguard admits to knowing only a smattering of the language.

Gremlin, minus any weapons, heads for the facility, with Ursus tracking him. Brandy starts to overwhelm Darkstar and is moments away from banishing the Darkforce from her entirely (which would kill her), but Vanguard throws his hammer and sends Brandy plummeting into the snow. Oh Vanguard, you done fucked up now. Rom snaps, although he always seems about two seconds from a berserker rage that would impress Wolverine. 

He turns the Neutralizer on Vanguard and when Darkstar uses her power to shield her brother, Rom just keeps firing at killing intensity. Brandy snaps him out of it, asking if he intends to kill them or force a surrender, and Rom figures out they're fighting mutants, not Wraiths. Good thing, because Ursus comes staggering back, wounded, with a bunch of Wraith Hellhounds on his heels.

We're still almost two years from the end of the Wraith War to conquer Earth at this stage (by which point Steve Ditko will have taken over as artist), but Rom's globe-trotting adventures will end up paying off in making sure various forces are aware of the danger.

[9th longbox, 14th comic. ROM #45, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (inkers), Ben Sean (colorist), Janice Chiang (letterer)]