Random Happenstance

Someday I want to sit down and read all of ROM, straight through; not just because it's a cool book and I'll enjoy it; but I've been trying to recall if this was ever specifically established or was just subtext: the notion that Galador's Spaceknights got powers related to their personalities, self-image, and/or tendencies. Rom himself, a pacifist, gets the neutralizer to banish Dire Wraiths to Limbo; but it might be a worse punishment than death and that too might say something about the character, whether that was intentional or not. Unam, who had zero self-esteem and felt invisible, got invisibility powers; which Marvel seemed to downplay as useless since Fantastic Four #1. If Unam had been given an invisible shank too, he probably would've been a killcount leader...If you're a punchy hothead, you might become Firefist. If you're that girl, the one ray of sunshine in someone's life, maybe you become Starshine. If you're a basic thug, or the ghost of same, maybe you're Terminator. Let's see some of those, in today's book: from 1981, ROM #20, featuring "Mindgames" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott.

By this point in the series, the locals in Clairton, WV were on Team Rom, and after Rom had been sucked into Limbo, Steve Jackson built a homemade "energy analyzer" to try and find a trace of the Spaceknight. The analyzer immediately catches fire, but Rom had already freed himself and had just arrived back, kind of stepping on Steve's try there. In Limbo, the Wraiths had shown Rom a destroyed Galador, but he had no way of knowing if that was true, something that would happen later, or an outright lie. Although she wants him to stay, Brandy has to admit he needs to try to get home, but it had taken him almost 200 years to get to earth. Steve suggests some options that sound like sci-fi, but he did live in the Marvel U. Brandy seems to doubt stories about the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, or at least ones involving aliens, as "invented by the New York news media!" Wow, small town much, Brandy?

Meanwhile, the Wraiths on earth continue plotting against Rom, but the witches' ideas like the "murder mole" aren't great. (I think the murder mole would turn up in a later issue, though!) The head guy is then approached by Mentus, who seems to be wearing Galadorian armor, only evil. For reasons of his own, Mentus wants Galador, and Rom, destroyed; and changes two Wraith witches for his plan. That night, as Brandy goes to bed thinking about Rom, Rom is visited by two Spaceknights, or their ghosts: Starshine and Terminator! And Terminator had died, centuries ago, as we'll see in the back-up feature. They show him the image of destroyed Galador again, then attack, accusing him of abandoning them: Rom's Kryptonite was his feels, as the guilt renders him unable to fight back.

Brandy urges Rom to fight, and Starshine turns on her; making Rom start to question. Then, two pages of subplot, as Mack Killburn follows up on fellow reporter Ace O'Connor's Rom story: Ace and her editor claim it had been a hoax, but Mack had seen Rom himself. Ace and her editor, of course, were Dire Wraiths...as too, were the fake Starshine and Terminator. Rom banishes them, in a cool shot that I'm pretty sure was used elsewhere, like the Marvel Handbooks maybe. Picking up Brandy in her nightdress, Rom still wants to check on Galador, but refuses to leave Clairton undefended...it's not spelled out here, but next month would feature a new hero in town, the Torpedo! I'm sure everything would work out fine for him.

Also this issue: "The Trial of the Terminator!" 200 years ago, searching for the Wraiths that had spread out into the universe, the Terminator had killed an alien king, for "harboring" the Wraiths. It had been excessive, but Rom still defends him: unlike most Spaceknights, who hoped they could be restored to human after the war, Terminator didn't have a human body to return to: his colony had been destroyed by a Wraith virus, and his mental patterns put into a Spaceknight shell. Terminator doesn't want Rom's defense, since he felt he might kill again; but the Prime Director offers him the choice of death or banishment. He chooses death without hesitation, and is seemingly destroyed by fire. Instead, Terminator was taken, by Mentus, as part of his future plans. Unknowing, after the trial, Rom chooses to leave Galador, alone; beginning his long journey that would eventually lead to earth.