Tag: rom spaceknight

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Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume One (Part Two)

 This is part two of my review of Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume One. You can read my review of the first part here. I have most of the original issues of Rom stored in an attic somewhere, but one of the advantages of aging gracefully is the fact that I don’t recall what I ate for breakfast two days ago.

The upshot: I don’t remember most of this series, although I do recall enjoying it. First off, this is a horror comic disguised as a superhero comic. Rom has a meta-story that lasts 70+ issues, albeit with a number of side stories. Unlike superhero comics, it has a beginning and a definite end. The monsters, the sense of paranoia that permeates this book, and the weird conspiracy theories remind me of The X-Files, but unlike the X-Files Rom hasn’t jumped the shark…yet.

The other reason this is a horror comic is the body count. The creators (Mantlo & Buscema) use a cast of mostly new characters. There are cameos by Marvel heroes – in this volume we get the Torpedo, the X-Men, Power Man & Iron Fist, Nova, and the Fantastic Four – but they make sense in the context of the larger storyline, which is earth’s invasion by the Dire Wraiths. Bottom line: many of the characters are new, and the creative team has no qualms about killing them. This can be unsettling, because cast changes in superhero comics tend to remain static. In practical terms, this means that nobody is safe.

The highlights of this volume are Rom’s battle with Hybrid, the offspring of a human mother and a Dire Wraith father. Hybrid – who is also a mutant, and whose character design is totally grotesque – wastes no time killing his parents. His battle with Rom is interrupted by the arrival of the X-Men, searching for the new mutant. A number of misunderstandings ensue, which leads to the X-Men attacking Rom.

The second highlight is Rom’s return to his home planet of Galador, which leads to an encounter with Galactus, who wants to eat the planet. Rom strikes a deal with the planet-eater and leads Galactus to the Dark Nebula (the Dire Wraiths’ home planet), but who will consume who?

Mention should also be made of the arrival of The Torpedo, the Grade Z hero Rom chooses to protect his adopted home town of Clairton, WV from the Wraiths. So far, his record is 0-1, as Clairton is overwhelmed by a mystical fog in Rom’s absence. The Torpedo seems like a nice guy, and he does his best, but sometimes that’s not enough…

Highly recommended!

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Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume One

 This is part one of a review of Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume One. Because this is a longer graphic novel (thirty issues), I’m going to review it in two parts. One of my goals for the New Year is to read longer material. I started reviewing graphic novels in 2023 because at this point in my life I have trouble finishing longer books. Reading two issues per day isn’t a lot of work, but it’s additive. In 2023, I read and reviewed fifty-four graphic novels.

On to the review. Rom was a toy released by Parker Brothers in the late 1970’s. The toy company went to Marvel, who have written material for properties such as The Micronauts, Planet of the Apes, and G.I. Joe, for help in fleshing out the character. Writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema filled in the blanks, and the rest is history.

Rom is a Spaceknight, hailing from the planet Galador, and he’s fighting a war against the evil Dire Wraiths. The Wraiths are shape-changers like Skrulls, but they depend on magic as much as science. They’re written as being evil with a capital ‘E.’ In one of the first issues, they shoot a dog. They let a man die on the operating table. You get the idea.

Rom – who has been pursuing the Dire Wraiths for two hundred years – crash lands on earth. He sets foot in West Virginia, and is almost run off the road by Brandy Clark, his future love interest. Rom uses his analyzer to determine that Brandy isn’t a Dire Wraith. When Brandy sees Rom seemingly kill humans, she’s a tad upset, but Rom explains to her that they are actually Dire Wraiths in disguise. He isn’t killing them, but banishing them to Limbo with his Neutralizer.

I am guessing the banishing to Limbo bit has to do with an edict Jim Shooter, the editor-in-chief of Marvel at the time, made about Marvel heroes not killing. This is used to great advantage here. Rom’s Neutralizer banishes the Dire Wraiths to Limbo, but to human eyes it looks like he’s killing human beings. All that’s left of the Dire Wraiths is a pile of ashes. Nobody believes Rom but Brandy and her boyfriend, Steve.

Rom, Brandy, and Steve soon become enmeshed in a bizarre love triangle. Rom is a cyborg; his nervous system has been bonded to his armor. This makes him very powerful, but since he’s partly human he’s also very, uh, lonely. Unfortunately, at this point he’s mostly robot. Rom soon falls in love with Brandy, who senses Rom’s noble spirit, and Steve doesn’t like any of it. Unlike Rom, Steve has a functioning penis, so you’d think there wouldn’t be much suspense as to how this love triangle ends, but appearances can be deceiving.

I stopped reading when Brandy is about to marry a Dire Wraith disguised as Steve, and Rom strides into the church. Sort of like that scene in The Graduate, except instead of Dustin Hoffman a eight-foot silver robot bursts into the church. Anyway, really good stuff. Highly recommended.

Part Two coming soon!