Cyberspace Comics market report, reviews and more

With years spent reading single issues here and there, juggling storylines of dozens of titles, I decided it was time to find a better way to read comics. So, it was off to the back issue bins armed with the longest want list you’ve ever seen! Putting together series after series and reading them in their complete goodness, I was reborn as the Retro-Reader!

Publisher: Marvel Comics
Number of Issues: 75 (and four annuals)
First Issue: December 1979 (40¢)
Last Issue: February 1986 (75¢)
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema, Steve Ditko

Parker Brothers has manufactured the most popular and enduring board games of your childhood including Monopoly, Clue, Risk and Sorry! Attempting to explore the toy and action figure market in the late 1970s, Parker Brothers manufactured Rom, a silver action figure with light-up eyes. After experiencing success with other licensed properties (Star Wars, Godzilla, Shogun Warriors, and Micronauts) Marvel Comics acquired the license for Rom and began publishing an ongoing series in December of 1979. The series far outlasted the action figure’s popularity as it continued on for 75 issues, all of which were written by Bill Mantlo. The first 58 issues were illustrated by Sal Buscema (aside from #56 by M.D. Bright) and most of the others were pencilled by legendary artist and co-creator of the Amazing Spider-Man, Steve Ditko. The entire storyline is easily broken into five distinguishable acts.

Over two centuries ago, a race of sorcerous shape-shifters (later revealed to be a descendent of the Skrulls) known as the Dire Wraiths emerged from their Wraithworld in the Dark Nebula to expand their influence to the world of peaceful Galador. Galador’s ruler issued a call to arms to the planet’s youth … merging their humanoid forms with cyborg technology, they were reborn as Spaceknights and endowed with unique abilities. Newly empowered, Galador’s youth were able to defeat the Dire Wraiths and send them packing. However, instead of retreating to their home planet, the Dire Wraiths dispersed themselves across the cosmos hoping to conquer other worlds. With their planet saved, it would have been easy for the Spaceknights to return to Galador, undergoing the process to restore their humanity. But, the noble Spaceknights charged themselves to defeat the villainy of Wraithkind on every world! Only after their goal was achieved would they return to Galador to reclaim their humanity. Rom, greatest of the Spaceknights, was dispatched to Earth to eliminate the Dire Wraith threat.

Finally landing on Earth, Rom finds himself in the small-town of Clairton, West Virginia. He begins his hunt there, summoning forth his energy analyzer to detect the Dire Wraiths who have hidden themselves in human disguises. After discovering some wraiths in Clairton, Rom uses his neutralizer on them, banishing them to Limbo and leaving behind a pile of ashes. Unfortunately for Rom, to the human population there, it appears as if an alien robot has come to town and fried some of their neighbors! Unable to speak English, Rom cannot explain to them that he has eliminated an evil alien presence from among them. Utilizing his universal translator, Rom is able to learn the language and explain his case to the nearby populace but they are still not too quick to believe his story. As the story continues, Rom draws close to Brandy Clark and her fiance Steve Jackson, as they are exposed to situations that lead them to believe in Rom’s mission. And, eventually the entire town comes to believe in Rom as he finally rids their community of every Dire Wraith infiltrator. Not an easy thing to do, though, as humans are unable to perceive the Wraiths as anything but the form they’ve disguised themselves in! Eventually, Rom appoints Brock Jones (the Torpedo – previously seen in Daredevil and Marvel Premiere) as a deputy-of-sorts to watch over the town of Clairton as Rom travels back to Galador to ensure that his home planet is still free from Wraith attack.

Rom arrives back on Galador just in time to stave off a small Wraith invasion! With barely any time to breath free, Galactus shows up to feast upon the gleaming world of Galador. However, Rom is able to convince Galactus not to eat his planet by offering up another one to the world-eater. One guess as to what planet Rom’s going to lead him to …. you got it! Wraithworld! Incredibly enough, though, Wraithworld’s polluted and dangerous landscape is able enough to fend off an attack from even the mighty Galactus. As punishment for his “trickery”, Galactus moves the entire world of Galador to an unknown location where the Spaceknights will never find it and banishes Rom back to Earth. After ensuring Clairton is still Wraith-free and safe in the hands of the Torpedo, Rom departs to continue his Wraith-cleansing goal across the planet Earth. He ventures to all sorts of new locales and begins to interact with other super-beings including Namor the Sub-Mariner, the “Missing Link”, Shang-Chi the Master of Kung Fu, Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme, the Metal Master, the Soviet Super Soldiers, Quasimodo, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Awareness of the Dire Wraiths’ presence on Earth continues to increase with each new encounter! And, in a daring move, Brandy Clark merges with the dead body of Starshine (the golden, female Spackenight) to join Rom in his quest to rid the world of Wraithkind.

After nearly four years’ worth of publishing, the true form of the Dire Wraiths is finally revealed in issue #47. This issue marks the escalation of the Wraiths’ mission to conquer Earth. Not only do they intend to overcome the planet and its inhabitants … but, they intend to replace Earth’s place in our solar system with their very own Wraithworld! With the Wraiths stepping up their game, Rom and humanity must do the same. In an unprecendented move, President Ronald Reagan and every other world leader of Earth make a pact to set aside their differences in an effort to combine their forces against this threat to all of humanity. As Wraithworld draws nearer to the Earth, global catastrophes of all sorts strike the planet, throwing the population into panick. Earth’s only hope lies with Rom utilizing his neutralizer as it is amplified by an orbital device created by Forge (from the pages of the then-current Uncanny X-Men). Earth’s mightiest heroes (the X-Men, Avengers and many more) unite to hold off Wraithkind, buying Rom and Forge enough time to put their plan in motion. Turning the neutralizer beam on Wraithworld itself, Rom destroys the dangerous planet, forever ridding the Dire Wraiths of the source of their sorcerous powers. Now posing very little threat at all, Rom banishes the remaining Wraiths to Limbo … finally accomplishing his goal.

His mission finally accomplished, Rom departs for the void of space, tracking down the energy signatures of his fellow Spaceknights and searching for his home planet of Galador. When he finally finds Galador, Rom discovers that it’s been overtaken by a second generation of Spaceknights that were originally created to protect the planet while the first generation was off fighting the Dire Wraiths on other planets. So, Rom and the Spaceknights he’s picked up along the way, battle alongside the humanoid Galadorian resistance against these new Spaceknights! Despite casualties, Rom is victorious and is finally able to reclaim his own humanity. His mission accomplished, our hero is now able to enjoy the paradise of Galador with his love, Brandy.

The Bad: The strange dialogue in each issue makes reading this almost seem like a chore. Naturally, being alien to our planet, Rom may have a different style of speaking. And, he does. It’s certainly very formal and respectful. That part was fine but, the dialogue the humans speak throughout this series is near-painful on many occassions. It’s heavily expository and seems very odd. People wouldn’t talk like this in real life. Every issue takes a few pages to recap who Rom is, what his mission is and what’s happened previously. Every issue. There are even whole issues that are almost entirely a synopsis of past events. It’s more suited to a monthly read (where new readers – at that time – might pick up an issue midway through the run) but, it gets really old chugging through this on a daily basis.

The Good: Sal Buscema‘s art didn’t really grab me, at first, but once he was smoothed over with other inkers, the look of the series took a big climb in quality. Later on, even Steve Ditko‘s “bubbly” style was turned into nicer-looking work by inkers such as Peter Craig Russell and John Byrne. The series even managed to pick up a semi-regular cover artist with the very talented (and very stylish), Bill Sienkiewicz.

Bill Mantlo‘s plotting and characterization was the real treat of this series. He showed that an alien like Rom (and even a rogue Dire Wraith) could display the best attributes of humanity. He also displayed the depths we could sink to when acting without compassion (Brandy – reborn as a Spaceknight – was ruthless!). The romance between Rom and Brandy was also another highlight of Mantlo’s characterization. Brandy was engaged to Steve Jackson but, when Rom came to town, it was clear that she was smitten with him. Many writers would take the easy way out and kill off the other guy. Or, at least make him out to be a bad guy. But, not Mantlo. Steve Jackson was a great guy who befriended Rom and aided him in his crusade against the Dire Wraith invasion. Sure, he displayed some jealousy here and there but, he never took it out on Brandy, Rom or anyone else. Eventually, Brandy made the choice to desert her fiance and become a Spaceknight. Kudos to Mantlo for not making this an easy choice for her … or for forcing us to empathize with her. In fact, after reading the entire series, I’m not a big fan of Brandy’s. Even though Rom is quite taken with her, I find way more faults with her (lack of loyalty and, later on, compassion) than positive aspects.

Unlike Rom’s bold first appearance, the true form of the Dire Wraiths was not revealed, initially. Parker Brothers, who designed the look of Rom, were initially going to design the look of Rom’s enemy but, I suppose that when the Rom toy didn’t sell well enough, it didn’t make sense to follow it up with yet another toy that could sell even worse. In the meantime, a curiousity built over what the Dire Wraiths looked like. It certainly created a nice draw to continue reading … “would this be the issue they were revealed?” Finally, after nearly four years of publishing, the true form of the Dire Wraiths was revealed in Rom #47!

When Bill Mantlo took Rom on adventures around the world, throughout Act Three, it ended up being a real treat for continuity-freaks like myself. He followed up on the stories of a lot of characters, mostly seen in the Incredible Hulk series including the Soviet Super Soldiers, Quasimodo and the Metal Master. But, not only did he have them appear … he moved their stories along, as well. He often teased that the Hulk might meet up with Rom at some point but, unfortunately, this never came to be. Nevertheless, his progression of other characters (most notably the Torpedo) was a nice bonus!

The Verdict: While it’s unlikely that’ll I’ll ever read this entire series all the way through again, I’m glad I’ve read through the whole thing. Sure, it could have easily been condensed into a much quicker read but, I’m assuming that good sales kept them from wanting to resolve the war against the Wraiths all too quickly. However, as was warned by other readers in the letters pages, once the Dire Wraiths were defeated, the book just couldn’t keep its following. It was ended soon after, and Rom’s story came to a “happy ending”. The guest-stars and their stories kept the series from stagnating while we waited for the plot to be resolved and the unrevealed true forms of the Dire Wraiths certainly kept a mystique to the book. Also, the artwork, while outdistanced by today’s standards of form and coloring still looks good and serves the plot well without detracting from it. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading the entire series, especially since every issue recaps what has happened before but, it would be enjoyable to read through most of Acts Three and Four again.

On Ebay: Rom | Bill Mantlo | Sal Buscema | Steve Ditko