You may not be surprised to learn that most people in the comic business grew up reading comic books. However, you might be interested in knowing what they were reading. Here’s a look at “Famous Fanmail”!
Jim Krueger is the writer behind Marvel’s greatest alterniverse epic, the Earth X Trilogy. After completing that massive saga, consisting of over sixty issues, he’s recently launched Project: Superpowers alongside Alex Ross at Dynamite Entertainment. But, years before all that, he was a fan of Rom, a comic book title published by Marvel Comics based on a robotic toy made by Parker Brothers. He got a letter published in Rom #52 (cover date – March 1984), which you can read below.
On Ebay: Jim Krueger | Earth X | Rom
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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 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. 
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!