Saturday Splash Page #203

"Extermination," in ROM: Spaceknight Annual #2, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (inkers), Ben Sean (colorist), Rick Parker (letterer)

Over the course of its run, ROM had 4 annuals. The the first Annual was a standalone adventure where Rom fights a bizarre alien that comes to Earth, plus a story set in the past, when he was defending Galador from the Wraiths and seemed betrayed by another Spaceknight.

I don't know if it was an edict from editorial or just Mantlo's preference, but the remaining Annuals all tied into developments in the ongoing series to varying degrees. The final Annual was set during the stretch after Rom left Earth to find Galador, and he and his Spaceknight allies run afoul of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. The third Annual brought back Hybrid, the Wraith/human child that embraced his Wraith heritage, but he's planning to use the girls on the New Mutants as mothers for more hybrid kids, and he somehow makes Brandy Clark human again, wrenching her out of the Starshine armor.

Granted, Rom probably considers that a net positive, since Brandy was growing increasingly brutal in the war against the Wraiths, which he thought was a sign she was losing her humanity. Or she's got PTSD from the Wraiths killing everyone she loved except you and no one is offering therapy, just opportunities for revenge. But the whole "humanity" thing in ROM is always a little curious. Rom is described as a cyborg, that still has organic parts somewhere under the metal. But he's missing half his "humanity" which, along with all the other Spaceknights, is a glowing orb stored in a mausoleum. So it's not some organs that were removed in the procedure, but its restoration transforms a Spaceknight, somehow, back into the flesh-and-blood human they were before.

The end result of Hybrid's actions is Brandy can't fight alongside Rom any longer, or accompany him into space. Meaning she loses the last connection she had to her home, which probably fuels her feelings of loneliness and leads to the Beyonder sending her to what's left of Galador.

The second Annual, is sort of a mix. It's set in the past, at the climax of Galador's war with the Wraiths, as a way for Mantlo, Buscema, Akin and Garvey to introduce some other Spaceknights that fought alongside Rom in a little "squad": Taram the Seeker, Skera the Scanner, Vola the Trapper, Plor the Pulsar, Unam the Unseen, and Raak the Breaker. Their abilities, the personalities (Raak's a loudmouth egoist, Unam tends to wallow in self-pity), their relationships (Skera and Taram are siblings, Unam and Plor were both in love with Vola.)

At the same time, it sets up the entire series. Rom purses the Wraith fleet, but when given the option between following the flagship to the Wraiths' homeworld, or chasing the smaller vessels as they scatter. The end result is Rom banishes every Wraith on the planet to Limbo, but all those smaller ships are free to infiltrate other worlds. Like, say, Earth. So after his Spaceknight Squadron pals help him through a spell the Wraiths cast before being banished, Rom insists they have to keep fighting, to scatter across the stars and make sure the Wraiths can't do to any other world what they tried to do to Galador.

Thus the Wraiths come to Earth, followed by Rom. The Wraiths, suspecting has deprived them of their home, try to make Earth into a new home. The Spaceknight Squadron scatters, leading to Rom eventually finding them during the last year of the book, and several of them have changed in their own ways. Raak's embraced a situation that lets his ego run wild, while Unam's bitterness at the power he received curdles into its own form of monstrosity.

Saturday Splash Page #202

"A New Sentinel of the Spaceways," ROM: Spaceknight #66, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Steve Ditko and Steve Leialoha (artists), Petra Scotese (colorist), Janice Chiang (letterer)

By the end of issue #58, the war against the Wraiths is in full swing, as Rom has alerted Earth's governments to the presence of alien shapeshifters. The Wraiths, growing desperate, ramped up their attacks in turn. Contaminating blood supplies in hospitals, destroying towns and leaving badly wounded victims behind, even sorcery capable of mutating things at a sub-atomic level.

That also happens to be Sal Buscema's last issue as artist, at which point he's replaced by Steve Ditko working with a host of different artists. P. Craig Russell's the most frequent one credited for "finishes," working on 6 of the 17 issues Ditko penciled, but also Bob Layton, John Byrne, Brett Breeding, Joe Sinnott, and in the issue above, Steve Leialoha.

Most of the time it's still recognizably Ditko's later work, which is both good and bad. He's good at drawing the weird stuff, like when Rom ends up on Ego, the Living Planet. His human faces have an odd quality. Eyes and mouths too big, a lot of awkward postures for characters where I'm left wondering what they're doing with their arms.

Ditko's first 8 issues are the war's finale. Rom and Earth's forces learn what the Wraiths' plans are for Earth - turn to it into a new version of their old homeworld via a magic portal that will replace Earth's Sun with their own - and so the question becomes what Rom and Earth's defenders are prepared to do about it.

Specifically, what is Forge prepared to do about it. He was able to make a lesser version of Rom's Neutralizer, and could create one that would, powered by Rom's weapon, work on a planetary scale. But his neutralizer, in reliable Government Dickhead Peter Gyrich's hands, took away Storm's powers. And Gyrich, looming over Forge and Rom's shoulders like the most pervasive fart you've ever encountered, is not someone that needs a larger, more powerful version of that same weapon. So it's going to take some doing to convince Forge to build it. Which leads me to the conclusion some general ought to have just shot Gyrich in front of Forge and hey presto! Problem solved!

(Not really. The "problem solved" part, anyway. Always another dangerous lunatic in a position of power. Killing Gyrich is still a good plan.)

Once the war is done, Rom leaves Earth, and the book drifts for most of its last year. The lack of any supporting cast doesn't help. Brandy Clark, who had her humanity placed in the Starshine armor after the original was killed, and who was growing more brutal the longer the war ran (to be fair, the Wraiths had killed everyone in Clairton by that point), was turned back into a human in one of the Annuals. So she can't come along.Rick Jones, who got swept up after the Wraith attack with the tainted blood (because his attempt to give himself powers via gamma radiation is killing him) had hung around to, well basically be really fucking annoying. He yells at Rom or Brandy about different things, usually not being compassionate enough. How the hell did the Hulk not squish this idiot? No wonder Rom was so eager to leave Earth once the fighting was done. 

Mantlo sends Rom to a few different alien worlds, until he starts finding his old friends, the half-dozen or so Spaceknights that formed a sort of distinct unit with him during the war to defend Galador. Their homeworld got moved to another galaxy(?) by Galactus after Rom juked him out of eating it during his last trip home, hence Rom's wandering. They manage to find it, about the same time Brandy does (courtesy of the Beyonder in a Secret Wars II tie-in), and find things aren't great.

After Galactus pulled that stunt, Galador, feeling vulnerable, tries the Spaceknight program a second time, but the people selected this time sacrifice almost all their humanity. And with no immediate threat the new Spaceknights start throwing their weight around until they simply conquer the planet. (The person who tells Brandy all this allows that if there'd been an enemy to face, these Spaceknights might have fought for the planet. My suspicion is, most volunteered precisely because there was no immediate threat.)

The last 3 issues are a war (maybe a skirmish, it's pretty small numbers) between the 2nd generation Spaceknights, the few remaining human Galadorians, Brandy, and Rom and his Spaceknight friends. Brandy's threat to destroy their humanity flops, because most of them have no interest in becoming human again, and Rom keeps hesitating to go lethal. The combination of the two results in the deaths of everyone else, but hey, Rom keeps his hands clean. Even the very last of the 2nd generation, who did harbor plans of becoming human again, swipes Rom's Neutralizer when his humanity is lost, and kills himself.

It's a strange end. The other 1st generation Spaceknights are able to follow a signal from Scanner, one of Rom's friends, to Galador's new location, but all their humanities are destroyed. Tough shit for them, but Rom's, due to convoluted circumstances from his previous visit, still exists. So he gets to be human again (somehow adding the glowy orb of his humanity makes all his Spaceknight armor vanish), and he and Brandy get an entire planet to themselves, the 1st generation opting to watch over them from somewhere in space.

The last issue of ROM was the first I ever read, part of a batch of comics I got for Christmas. It didn't mean anything to me. Rom, Spaceknights, Brandy, Galador, what is all this? Heck, before I got the rest of the series, I thought the Brandy Daredevil meets during his time away from NYC in Nocenti's run was the same lady somehow. Looking at the entire series now, just, why? Why that approach? Why kill every single other Galadorian, or destroy their humanity? That's not what Rom fought for, sacrificed 200 years to achieve. To lay down his weapons and regain his humanity, yes. To find love, sure. To come home to an empty world, to live in the ruins of the civilization he once knew, no. Why not let the rest of the 1st generation regain their humanity, or the rebellion surviving, and Rom and Brandy working together to help the others rebuild Galador?

It's not a war allegory, where Rom returns from battle and finds himself unable to reintigrate in a society that knows nothing of what he experienced, because there is no society left. What there was, had been living in a state of desperate rebellion for however long it had been since his last visit, trying to avoid annihilation at the hands of their former fellow citizens. Which is a little like Brandy's experience when she first learned about the Wraiths, learning there are enemies all around. Except for the part where it was easy to see a Spaceknight coming.

If anything, it's like if Rom reached Earth too late, and the Wraiths plan to replace the Sun with their Black Sun already succeeded (which sounds like an issue of What If? Who is leading the rebellion? Captain America? Magneto? A Wolverine altered with Wraith science?) He'd still have to fight the Wraiths, but got an entire world arrayed against him, with no back-up from other Spaceknights this time. Would he hold to his principles then? If his stance here is anything to go by, yes. No killing. Is that the right call? Seems to have worked out for him here, not so much for anyone else. Yeah, really not sure what Mantlo was going for.

Saturday Splash Page #201

"Interdimensional Bouncer," in ROM #41, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Ian Akin and Brian Garvey (finishers), Ben Sean (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)

If October's Saturday Splash Pages were all Runaways-themed, November's a month for Mantlo, starting with the book based on an unsuccessful (according to Wikipedia) toy!

Rom was a poet on the world of Galador, but when it came under attack by the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths, he was the first to volunteer for a project to turn citizens into cyborg warriors to combat the threat. He and hundreds of other "Spaceknights" successfully drove off the Wraiths, but Rom argued they couldn't leave other worlds vulnerable. So Galador's warriors scattered across the cosmos to finish the job they started. 200 years later, Rom arrives on Earth, and his war starts again.

As far as I know, the only info the toy provided was Rom's a cyborg, has red eyes (apparently red LEDs were cheaper than green) and had three accessories: the Translator, the Analyzer, and the Neutralizer. All that up there is Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, regular penciler on the book for 50+ issues. Mantlo's Rom is dramatic, prone to big speeches and soliloquies, especially when he's being attacked by Earthlings who think (or have been tricked into thinking) he's some sort of death machine. He's a bit like the Silver Surfer at those times, though in Rom's defense, he's trying to save Earth and its inhabitants from the Wraiths, not serve them up as dinner for Galactus. He's got cause to be miffed.

Rom's also, despite being the one who insisted on pursuing the Wraths, weary of fighting, and not entirely comfortable with it. When under attack from enemies he can't recognize, he brings out the Analyzer first, to discern whether he's up against a Wraith or something else. While the Neutralizer has a lethal setting, Rom has a vow about not killing (how well he keeps that vow is up for debate) and mostly sticks to banishing enemies to Limbo.

The same Limbo Space Phantom hangs out in, not the one Maddy Pryor and Illyana trade control of like it's a stick of chapstick. A dimension from which there is supposed to be no escape. Certainly Rom doesn't haul anyone out of there. Is eternal prison better than death? Guess it depends on what Rom's goal was, mercy, suffering, or just being able to tell himself his hands are clean.

Setting the book in Clairton West Virginia (population 14,000), far from the New York City skyline that dominates Marvel Comics, lets Mantlo show just how far the Wraiths have gotten, and play a bit with the paranoia. (Plus, it's not hard to arrange for the X-Men or Mad Thinker to wander in whenever he feels the book needs a crossover jolt.) Even in this small town, where everyone knows each other, went to school together, worked together, there are aliens that have been plotting for decades to either subjugate or exterminate humanity, without anyone the wiser.

(Not all, though. Rom encounters a few Wraiths who fell in love with Earthlings and renounce conquest, although one dies at the hands of his own child.)

It's hard to believe, especially coming from an enormous metal man with a ray gun that leaves only ashes in its trace. While a camera can apparently capture the doorway to Limbo opening and Wraiths falling in, the average human eye can't. And while Rom's arrival begins to expose some of the cracks in the Wraiths' facade, they're deeply entrenched at many different levels. Even as more evidence comes to light - birth certificates that list the same birthday for people years apart in age, snoopy reporters - efforts at exposure are stonewalled by Wraiths in high places. Newspaper editors, generals, SHIELD agents, captains of industry, telephone switchboard operators. All of them, at different times, can make sure that, at best, a highly edited version of the truth slips out.

Mantlo starts with just one human believing in Rom. Brandy Clark, who nearly drives off the road to avoid hitting him, until Rom catches her car. Brandy sees him disintegrate two people she's known for years, but he doesn't harm her, even urges her to safety when the National Guard attacks. So when she sees him attacked by a weapon like none she's ever heard of, Brandy warns him and Rom saves her, only to fly off, leaving her with few answers.

From there, it builds slowly. Rom eventually talks with Brandy enough she can understand what's going on, and she, with some difficulty and being abducted, convinces her boyfriend Steve there are aliens hiding among them up to no good, and Rom's here to help. Over time, the entire town (the Earthling segment, anyway) come to believe Rom and help him drive the Wraiths out of Clairton. It needs some help from Rom to get going, but humanity is willing to defend itself.

Steve, Brandy and Rom end up in a love triangle. Brandy loves Steve, but feels drawn to the noble and tortured soul within Rom, who fights for people who think he's a monster. Steve respects Rom, but also resents the fact he can feel Brandy falling for the tortured poet inside the metal shell, and is happy when, late in the book's 2nd year, Rom decides he needs to find a way back to Galador to check something a Wraith told him. Rom falls for Brandy, but doesn't see how they could be together and feels she's better off with Steve, a flesh-and-blood man. And Rom respects Steve for his courage in facing the Wraiths with none of the gifts Rom possesses. The specifics of that dynamic shift over the course of the series, for various reasons, but there's no resolution until the very end.

The trip back to Galador hands Rom two pieces of bad news that will haunt him for a long time after his return to Earth. Although it does result in a new ally, as another Spaceknight, Starshine, accompanies him. The tail end of the 3rd year brings two major changes. One, Rom takes his hunt for the Wraiths worldwide. This brings him into contact with more of the wider Marvel Universe - Namor and Shang-Chi, as two examples - which helps spread word of the Wraith infiltration, improving humanity's chances of defense.

The other is a new type of Wraith threat. While there had been Wraiths that summoned creatures that seem to be eldritch horrors, they mostly relied on science. Ray guns and things designed to disrupt Rom's cybernetic circuitry. Magnets, electrical currents, that kind of thing. Buscema drew the Wraiths, minus a few exceptions, as either beings of smoke, or lumpy, potato-shaped things with arms and legs.

Now, we learn that while male Wraiths are science-inclined, the females focus on sorcery. And with a cosmic convergence approaching, their power is on the rise, giving them the impetus to take control of the Wraiths' conquest plans. Mantlo also establishes the two sides don't particularly care for each other, interacting only as necessary (which I feel was also true of the Badoon?)

While kept in shadows or human disguises at first, female Wraiths are revealed as hulking, purple-red beings with squat legs like tree stumps and narrow upper arms that balloon to Popeye forearms, with fingers like a claw game. The most disturbing new feature is a barbed tongue they stab into victim's brain. It not only dissolves the victim's, but downloads all their knowledge into the Wraith, enabling them to more perfectly imitate anyone. It's a more brutal approach, brought forth in response to the fact Rom's efforts are taking a toll, especially now that he's alerting their prey and helping them to arm and defend themselves.

This is also when Ian Akin and Brian Garvey start getting credited as either inkers or for "finished art" over Buscema's pencils. Combined with Ben Sean's coloring, they give a rounded effect not often found in Buscema's work. The backgrounds are more vivid, the armor shinier and more reflective, the things the Wraiths summon kept less physical, allowing more of the reader's imagination to take hold. That stretch, which extends from issue 36 through issue 50, is the best Buscema's art has ever looked to me, but for one reason or another, neither he, Akin, or Garvey could stick around until the conclusion of the war for Earth.

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)]

Random Back Issues #17 - ROM #4

It's been a couple of years since I read through Rom, but I don't remember Galadorians being big into Tarzan cosplay. Still, if you're about to surrender your body for an eternity in a cold metal suit, might as well enjoy flesh while you got it.

Alright, we're goin' all the way back to 1980 for today's selection, and find Rom under attack by an Earth criminal by the name of Archie Stryker. Normally no big deal, except disguised Dire Wraiths have convinced Archie Rom is a dangerous alien invader killing humans with his death ray. Rom's actually banishing them to Limbo, but Archie can't see that. The Wraiths have the armor of Rom's old pal Firefall, and put Archie in it to tangle with Rom.

Rom's on defense for most of this, trying to reason with Archie. He doesn't want to use the Neutralizer, because it might kill a human, and he swore never to take a life. Firefall sends him crashing to Earth near a Wraith base he destroyed the issue before. The Wraiths inside see an opportunity, rush out to attack and. . . get immediately blasted into Limbo. Good try, though. Maximum effort.

Of course, as far as Archie's concerned, Rom just killed a bunch more humans, so the fight's on again. Rom clips him with the Neutralizer, and Archie feels it through the armor. Rom explains that Archie is becoming linked with the armor, that it's going to become his new epidermis, but the guy's not having it. Rom is able to counter Archie's "living flame" by lowering the exterior of his body to near absolute zero. This lets him grab the flame and throw it back, then take to the skies.

While all that's happening, Rom's only friend on Earth (and future romantic interest) Brandy Clarke is a hostage of more disguised Wraiths in a car speeding down the highway. Brandy's boyfriend Steve is in pursuit. The Wraiths think Brandy's unconscious, because I guess playing opossum is unknown to them, and she pushes one out of the speeding car when he tries to blast Steve. Because Sal Buscema's drawing this, the guy isn't simply run over by Steve's car, but sent flying. Gravity is a very inconsistent presence in Buscema comics. Brandy causes the car she's in to wreck, which kills the driver, but leaves her unharmed (even though neither of them appears to be wearing seat belts). The driver reverts to his Wraith form and his body turns to dust, convincing Steve Rom's telling the truth.

In the midst of all that, Rom swatted Firefall into the highway nearby, then stops to explain how that armor used to belong to his friend Karas, who once saved Rom from drowning in a river. When the Wraiths attacked Galador, Karas charged in alone, and was never seen again. Archie thinks that's a bunch of bunk, stating he doesn't believe Rom has any feelings, so Rom starts monologuing about his feelings while beating the piss out of Archie.

Rom stops after a couple more punches, to ponder if he's still human, considering he almost killed Archie tonight. Steve and Brandy don't seem worried, telling Rom the guy was an enemy as strong as him sent by the Wraiths to kill him. Rom's not having it, citing the old "if I killed, I'd be no better than they are" line. He worries if he continues fighting this war, he'll eventually be corrupted by it. I know he does snap when he thinks Brandy's dead and just starts beating Wraiths to death with his shiny metal fists, but that's not for another few years.

Meanwhile, Archie's just realizing Rom was telling the truth all along, and he can't get out of the armor. Pretty sure Archie dies in the next issue or two, but Rom will encounter Karas when he gets banished to Limbo. Or he meets a Space Phantom pretending to be Karas. I forget which. Maybe both.

{4th longbox, 60th comic. ROM #4, by Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Ben Sean (colorist), Jim Novak (letterer)}