Shoot, do I haveta buy another Rom figure?

I have two, of course, but one is unopened on my wall! Still, this was one of the issues I had as a kid, so a good one to finally hit: from 1981, Rom #25, featuring "Galador!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Joe Sinnott; and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" Written by Stephen Grant, pencils by Greg LaRocque, inks by Steve Mitchell.

Some have pointed out some similarities between the silver Spaceknight here, and Marvel's own Silver Surfer: aside from the coloring, both were insanely noble, and had made horrible sacrifices to save their respective homeworlds, and later earth. But the Surfer's timeline is somewhat vague as to how long he was Galactus's herald: in-story, it seems like it could've been centuries, although the Surfer's girl Shalla Bal didn't seem to have gotten old and died, so maybe it wasn't? Here, Rom returns to Galador, after leaving 200 years ago to continue fighting the Dire Wraiths. Which is why he's confused when he's greeted as though he had never left? And that he was their Prime Director? The people hail and kneel to him, as the Hawkman-like Angel Elite form an honor guard/perimeter around him, saying they had not realized he intended to go out in public. Rom thinks back over his history, and the first two years of the book, as he approaches the "Hall of Science!" It's a bit foreboding to him, as that's where he had been made into a cyborg Spaceknight, but also where his remaining human parts were still stored...He notices the doors were now covered with carvings, of his own heroic deeds; but that was troubling in itself since the Galadorians had never glorified war.

Before he can enter, Rom is confronted, by another Rom: it doesn't get a big reveal, it's on the cover, okay? Rom-2 also had the ornaments of office, the "Living Lightning" which look a lot like the thunderbolts Arkon threw around, and the "Golden Globe of Power," which looks like a pain in the ass to hold with Rom's mitteny hands. Rom scans his duplicate with his analyzer, thinking it would be a shape-changing Dire Wraith: instead, Rom-2 was almost a literal mirror image of himself, human where he was machine, and vice versa. The Angel Elite fry Rom with weaponry that seemed specifically created to zap him; captured, he's hung up in a stasis field. Really surprised they didn't lean into the crucifixation angle of that; that might be a tokusatsu thing. Rom-2 and a hooded figure question him: was he sure he was the real Rom? Uh, yes; this wasn't anywhere as close to breaking him as they seemed to think it would be, but the worst was yet to come. Rom-2 was really Rom's old friend Terminator: all of his human parts had been lost, so he was probably happy just to have Rom's spare bits. The hooded figure reveals himself to be...Mentus! That name doesn't really mean anything to Rom, but he was the 'evil' side of the previous Prime Director...y'know, he probably had a name besides the job title, but okay. The Prime Director, grieving that he had asked a generation to sacrifice its humanity, tried to project his will into a Spaceknight shell, but instead of creating an alternative to making cyborgs, just released his evil side. Mentus then faked the PD's death, but the populace greeted the returning 'Rom' as a hero and gave him the position. The people believed him when he said the Dire Wraiths were defeated, but Mentus was actually moving Galador to the Wraith's dark nebula: he was going to give them Galador, in exchange for ruling them, which he assumed they would in awe of his evil.

Back in Clairton, WV; Brandy Clark takes Steve Jackson to the drive-in movies, but not for anything fun: she needed to talk to him without anyone listening, since she could tell people were acting changed. Steve doesn't think they had been replaced by Wraiths, since they had new hero the Torpedo to watch for that, but after a mysterious fog settles in, the townsfolk turn on them like zombies. Worse, after they escape to the Torpedo's house, they find it filled with the same fog...

Meanwhile, on Galador, the Prime Director tries to encourage Rom, telling him Mentus fed on despair. Summoning his neutralizer from subspace, Rom frees himself, then the PD, then the frozen Spaceknights that had returned over the years but been betrayed by Terminator and Mentus. The Spaceknights strike first, to disable the duped Angel Elite; but Mentus had brought in Dire Wraiths, who are probably a little steamed Rom had only been captured, not killed. Rom faces his own face in the Terminator, who is willing to kill to keep at least some humanity, but he is then swayed by Starshine, who forgives his earlier coldness. Terminator turns on the Wraiths, using his neutralizer not just to banish, but to kill; seemingly sending them directly to hell. Rom also gladly accepts his old friend, even if it costs him his humanity, because goddamn he's noble. But, the collected Spaceknights then find the Prime Director and Mentus, both dead: appearing briefly as a big floating head, the Prime Director explains he had reabsorbed his evil side, but at the cost of his life. Still, he warns there was more danger ahead, as Galactus was coming...as we saw, some time back! This one would have to be backpedaled a bit to get Rom a happy ending at the end of the series, but at the time was just one in an ongoing series of tragedies for the character.

Also this issue, "Love Will Tear Us Apart"--wait, not that one! OK, I would've read this in '81, but I wouldn't hear Joy Division until several years later, probably on 120 Minutes or its tie-in CD. Set earlier than the lead story, Rom sends more Dire Wraiths into Limbo, while still trying to track down a field commander named Baran. He gets a tip from Brandy, who had researched recent developments in advanced sciences; but both her dad and her ostensible boyfriend Steve worry about her associating with the Spaceknight: it's more than obvious they've lost her and she loves Rom, even if nobody comes out and says it yet. Baran, for his part, had 'gone native': he had been on earth for at least five years, and had a human wife and adopted son, which his cohorts are appalled by. When his wife is captured by the Wraiths, Baran is forced to admit the truth to her; but Rom arrives in time, having looked Baran up in the phone book! The other Wraiths, having already turned on Baran, nearly kill Rom with new magnetic weapons, but Baran shoots and wounds one, giving Rom time to recover. Baran then surrenders: he had acted against his own to save his wife, but was done. Instead of banishing him, though, Rom considers him human now, and leaves him to try and hash things out with his wife, who isn't sure if they can go on. (If you know what eventually happens in the book, I'm not sure it works out for Baran either way!) Read more!

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. Read more!

"Drama."

That's a wrap on the Age of Apocalypse and assorted figures, but we did manage to squeeze in a few more we hadn't seen yet. I'm sure those guys'll be fine, at least until the next reboot, retcon, relaunch.

I think the most recent San Diego Comic Con, Hasbro had a Marvel Legends display with tons of skulls on the ground, to go with the Sentinels. I don't have anywhere near that many, but one bit I didn't get to was that in the AoA, dozens if not hundreds of Spirits of Vengeance had been called up, then killed by Apocalypse, which was why there were always skulls and fires everywhere. And Vengeance would've been the current Ghost Rider, because why not? Ah, that's a figure I didn't get at the time, but would much later: he's one of the very few Toy Biz Legends that's not been remade, although I think there were Ghost Rider movie figures for him, even if he wasn't in said movies. (Aside: along with Vengeance, the other Toy Biz Legend I still have in regular rotation is Beta Ray Bill. Hasbro made one, with a less ornate, less Thor-style costume; the old one and the even older Silver Surfer Bill are better.)

Read more!

"Helmet."

AoA Jean alludes to the continuity/timeline changes, because like we mentioned there have been a few; but we're referencing a load-bearing piece of mainline Rogue's continuity, ROM #32! In the midst of a battle between the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (or the girl members, Mystique, Destiny, and Rogue!) and the monstrous Hybrid, Rogue had touched Rom, and seen his inner goodness. That changed her: Rogue had previously been kinda mean, and pretty obedient to Mystique; but it's a straight line from her touching Rom to becoming an X-Man. (By the way, we made a subtle change on the AoA Rogue figure for this one!) Read more!

Today, Rick Jones misses his shot at grunge a decade early.

Black hole sun, won't you come--oh, it might be here already. From 1984, ROM #60, "The Eyes of a Child!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Steve Ditko, inks by Tom Palmer.

Rick Jones is having a nightmare, that he thinks is about Wraithworld, but he gets the "it was earth all along" twist when he sees the fallen Statue of Liberty. But, then we get Rom flying through unseasonably cold weather: it's one of comics' best "red skies" crossovers, the opening of the Casket of Ancient Winters! The editorial caption box credits it to Thor #349, but I think it was actually #348. Massive snowfall across the planet, and across multiple titles, like the Avengers books, and perhaps most famously, Amazing Spider-Man #258. While Rom has a talk with Brandy Clark, who was currently the spaceknight Starshine and getting progressively angrier and more violent; we check in on a train stopped by the snows, just in time to see everyone on board murdered by the Dire Wraiths. The Wraith Sisterhood, the magic-using ones, seem somewhat divided: sure, they can kill a bunch of people, but so what? What was their goal? Conveniently, one explains it: to recreate Wraithworld on earth!

The army, with Rick, Rom, and Brandy in tow; discover the train and the slaughter two days later. Rom is even at a loss to explain the Wraiths' cruelty, while Rick is trying to hold it together, since the cancer he picked up trying to turn himself into a Hulk was progressing. Rick does find a survivor: a little girl, who was beyond traumatized. But, Starshine points out, she has the tell-tale wound on her head of a Wraith tongue-sucker, and must die! Rick has to throw himself in front of a blast; and Rom's analyzer reveals the child to be human. The girl, Cindy--I don't think we get her name this issue!--tells how the Wraiths killed her parents, but her mom had survived long enough to slice the Wraith's tongue. Instead of getting her brain sucked out, now she knew everything that Wraith had known...including their Wraithworld plans! She would be a recurring character for a good chunk of the rest of the run. Read more!

"Events."

The Age of Apocalypse Forge appeared in X-Man, and died there: Jean encountered Nate Grey later and would've picked that up since he had been a father-figure to him. 

We might have to check out Immortal X-Men #7 one of these days; since it features Nightcrawler abusing the hell out of the Krakoan-reincarnation system. Think playing a video game and just plunking in quarter after quarter every time you die...with two rolls of quarters and a lot of determination.

I also think I might have backpedaled on an earlier notion, that someone would need to find another person from the Age of Apocalypse to scan for a return trip there; but Kurt indicates after going back and forth Zero would probably be able to do it again. 

Read more!

There's a splendid example of Dire Wraith-dom on the cover of this one, but mostly I'm struck about how this Avengers roster feels powerful, yet also designed to cause problems in-story: I can almost hear Cap trying to work through it. "We've got four members that can fly, but only one of them can carry anything while flying...and it's the space pervert." (OK, Cap probably never really took to Starfox, but he probably didn't call him that. Probably.) From 1984, the Avengers #244, "And the Rocket's Red Glare!" Written by Roger Stern, pencils by Al Milgrom and Carmine Infantino, inks by Joe Sinnott.

The current Avengers roster was on a little boat trip, but despite the encouragement of Jan and Starfox it wasn't a pleasure cruise: the Dire Wraiths had been sabotaging recent launches at Kennedy Space Center. These were the Wraith "Rocketeers," possibly the last of the science-oriented Wraiths, as the sorcery-types had taken over and wiped out most of the others. The Rocketeers wreck another rocket, then manage to escape as a third-party deploys a mysterious gas that even delays the Vision, who is later furious--furious by synthezoid standards, anyway--at the failure right out of the gate in his chairmanship of the team. (Jan had recently given up the chair, so she seems to be flighty again without that responsibility; although I also figure she does that to Steve on a regular basis: "Good lord, what are you wearing? Take that off, right now. And the pants.")

The Rocketeer-Wraiths realize the Wraith Sisterhood had assisted them, but only in hopes of drawing them out. Still, they were going to stick with their plan, and had wristwatch sensor-jammers to keep them from being detected. That almost works, but the Vision has better eyes than that, and can see them. (From the art, it's unclear if Vision can see the Wraiths' true form, or just a distortion giving them away.) While the Avengers give them the what-for, with Wanda revealing their Wraith-forms; the head scientist/lead Wraith makes a break for it, in a rocket with a cobbled-together FTL drive. Which, one of the Wraiths notices, looked like it was about to explode, and the Wasp was on that rocket...

There was a fun bit in the opening, where Captain Marvel (Monica, still my Captain!) is pretty enthusiastic about being on a boat: she had been harbor patrol before getting powers. Although, in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, she also appeared in a very distracting bikini, which she seemed unwilling to do here around Starfox...(Actually, her super-suit might've been the only clothes she had that would change when she did, so...) And, subplots galore, as Hawkeye and Mockingbird arrive on the west coast; and Quicksilver arrives at Bova's cabin, finding it leveled. Read more!