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scans_dailyOkay, we've got 3 issues to go through today, so let's get moving!
Last time, the Galadoran Spaceknight ROM landed on Earth after 200 years of searching for and fighting the villainous Dire Wraiths, aliens with the power to change shape. He met a nice youngish human woman named Brandy Clark, and scared the wits out of the population of Clairton, Virginia. Also, he fought the National Guard, and told his origin to Brandy. Brandy witnessed a Guardsman with a sci-fi blaster, presumably a Dire Wraith, who got sent to limbo by ROM, a process that leaves a heap of ash behind.
Now, ROM foils a robbery!
You got to hand it to him, ROM knows how to make an entrance.
Anyway, Laserium Corp (or Laserium, Inc, as it's sometimes called, it seems to go back and form), makes lasers. It doesn't make simple lasers, or even just weaponized lasers, no no. It makes sci-fi blasting lasers! Anyway, the guy who identified ROM is a Dire Wraith, and the guy just to the left of him is Archibald Stryker, leader of this gang of thieves. They've taken the first guy prisoner so they can use him to break into the place, and after ROM scans them and informs them that he's only after that one, the thieves prove their intelligence by shooting at ROM with their revolvers. The bullets bounce off, and the thieves scatter, but Stryker leaps on one of the sci-fi lasers and attacks ROM!
I'm sure we'll never see Archie Stryker again!
Rom pursues and banishes the disguised Dire Wraith, but as he's sent away he manages turn on ALL the sci-fi lasers at Laserium Inc Corp, LLC, and since the lasers are Dire Wraith tech and able to harm ROM--
Steve is Steve Jackson, not the guy with the role-playing games, but Brandy's boyfriend. He's supportive and seems like a nice guy, but he's got it all wrong about ROM, and Brandy angrily tries to tell everyone what really happened, and storms off, sure that they don't believe her, and not sure if she believes it, either. After all, the evidence looks like ROM vaporizes his targets . . .
We are also introduced to the Clark dog, Tempest (what an awesome name for a pet!), as Steve follows Brandy out of the house, and tries to comfort her. He clearly doesn't believe that ROM is anything but a murderous monster, though. The two share a kiss, and Brandy walks off with Tempest to try to clear her head. But Tempest starts to growl at something in the gazebo! But it's too late, Tempest. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you. Maybe if you roll up a fire-using mage it can avenge your pointless death.
After this, we cut away to what I erroneously identified as the Pentagon last time, but it really looks more like a very simplistic, stunted key-template. The phone operator from the first issue flies in as a bird and reverts to normal, meeting with a council of 4 more Dire Wraiths, one of whom is a military guy, and other is in a SHIELD uniform. They all decide they have to do something to thwart ROM, and soon.
BACK TO CLAIRTON!
Anyway, Steve has called the cops, and while he's protective of Brandy, he's confrontational towards ROM, so ROM zaps him with his analyzer, and Steve is surprised he's still alive. But the cops have arrived with Stryker in custody, and one of the officers pulls out a sci-fi doohickey from the glove compartment and then:
TEMPEST! I was only making a joke about your pointless death!
Justifiably angered, ROM throws the top half of the gazebo at a cop car. So, the cops pull out a "bazooka blaster" that looks nothing like a bazooka, and just fires a bigger laser beam. The Dire Wraith cop uses the doohickey thing to send a strange shriek out of the sirens that hurts ROM. Brandy is held back from rushing to ROM's side by Steve (who wonders why she cares so much if an alien monster lives or dies) and ROM goes for the offending police car, lifts it, analyzes its occupants, and confirms the cop is a Wraith. He tosses out Stryker--whose been in the back of the car this whole time--and banishes the Dire Wraith. The issue ends with Stryker swearing he'll devote his whole life to hunting down and destroying Rom.
And here's an ad for Rom I thought was neat (why it's IN an issue of ROM, idunnno):
The timing in this issue is kind of truncated and strange. The issue begins with the Dire Wraiths from the council last issue watching recorded footage of ROM. It's quickly revealed they're really doing this because Stryker is in their midst, and he rants and raves some more about ROM, and how he needs to be stopped, I tell you! STOPPED! So the disguised Wraiths manipulate Stryker into agreeing to "let" them give him the power to destroy ROM.
And what about ROM? He's contemplating his origin.
As ROM flies off, Brandy is contemplating ROM, as she drives to her apartment, where she's confronted by a couple of guys who identify themselves as FBI agents, and say they have questions for her about ROM.
We cut again, to Stryker undergoing a strange obstacle course (we learn from his thoughts that he's a Korean War veteran), and as he finishes the course, narrowly avoiding a trio of missiles--
Anyway, we return to ROM, who discovers a cave, flies in, and stumbles upon the real reason the Dire Wraiths are on Earth--
Satellite television!
ROM wrecks their shit, which causes electrical disruptions around the area. Most people think it's a freak storm, like the Clarks, who explain this to Steve as he arrives to check on Brandy. But he knows there's not a cloud in the sky, and when he hears Brandy went home, he charges off after her, only to discover her apartment is trashed, and she's missing.
ROM finishes up at the Dire Wraith Cave Complex (tm), but is surprised by a jolt from behind. Flaming tendrils assault him, wrapping around him and hurting him. Despite the pain, he recognizes the effect as "The Living Fire" of Galador, a holy symbol of the Spaceknights, wielded by Karas, aka Firefall, one of his friends and a great Spaceknight. But the technology of the Living Fire was beyond the Dire Wraiths, and the only other way they could harness it would be if they possessed Firefall's armor, but they couldn't have done that without--
See what I said about timing? That's kind of fast from what the comic shows, unless the scenes with Stryker and the Wraiths are on a different time track than ROM and the Clairton citizens until this last scene . . . oh, whatever.
The next issue begins in space! We never find out how they went from the cave to Earth's orbit, but what does it matter! SPACE!
There's a brief recap of the Living Flame energy, and how the only way Stryker could have gotten it, and in anger, ROM threatens Stryker with his Neutralizer. This turns out to be a bad move, as it only enrages him, and he lashes out with the power of the Living Flame--
Meanwhile, on the ground, Brandy has been kidnapped by two Dire Wraiths disguised as FBI agents, and they're driving her . . . . elsewhere, but she attempts to escape and grabs for the steering wheel, only for one of the Wraiths to chloroform her--but Steve Jackson is not far behind in his own car!
But we jump back to ROM and Firefall 2.0, and it turns out they're not in space so much as just up in the air at night (boo! boo!) and Stryker whammies ROM--
Stryker witnesses the "carnage" and we get a synopsis of his story from the last two issues (just scroll up of you really need it), and Stryker calls ROM a murderer. ROM tries to explain that he hasn't killed anyone, but that sets Stryker off again, and the fight intensifies.
The Neutralizer apparently does have a lethal setting, or at least not just a "banish to the realm of Limbo" setting, as ROM turns it on Stryker and Stryker mentions that he felt it "through my armor." ROM explains that he didn't feel it "through" anything, but "with your armor!" He tries to explain the Spaceknight-ification process has left Stryker in the same boat as ROM, but Stryker denies it, he is "a human being!" They fight some more.
Meanwhile, Steve has caught up to the Faux-BI agents, not that he knows who they are, but the Wraiths speed up and start firing on him.
That's enough of a distraction for her to gain the upper hand and toss the other guy out of the car, to be promptly run over by Steve (whoops). Brandy is meanwhile struggling with the driver, and causes the car to crash into the mountainside.
So Karas saved Rom from drowning, and they both were volunteers for the Spaceknight program, and both made it to the final round, becoming Spaceknights. Karas, aka Firefall, was a great ally during the war with the Dire Wraiths but that they were separated long ago, and he lost contact with his old friend. ROM finishes explaining this piece of backstory, but Stryker's not buying it, claiming "a monster like you can't have any friends or true feelings" which causes ROM to lose his temper and bash five kinds of hell out of Stryker. ROM realizes that Stryker will never be anything like him or his old friend Karas, and after breaking the see-through faceplate, leaves Stryker in a heap on the road. Steve wonders aloud why ROM left Stryker alive, after all he would have killed ROM if given the chance. ROM explains that his real victory was in conquering his desire to kill the human, saying that if he'd died by ROM's hands, he would have been the murdering monster he (and most of the planet) believe him to be, that he would have been no better than the Dire Wraiths . . . while Stryker slowly realizes that the armor he's in will never come off.
Thus ends the first real story-arc for the series, and ROM's first "super-villain" threat. It does a great job of defining ROM and his interaction with the Earthicans, sets the bar for how far he should be willing to go in his war against the Wraiths, further defining his heroic qualities, and gives him another ally in that war, with Steve now having witnessed the Dire Wraiths (although it will take him a little bit to realize what that means). It also shows us that Brandy is more than just the everyman she appears (and yes, this will be important later), and begins to show us just how entrenched the Wraiths are in at least American government, having infiltrated congress, the army, even SHIELD, and that they had at least one secret underground science project. The deck is so far stacked against ROM that anyone reading along will be forgiven for wondering if ROM even has a chance. All I'll say for now is that things will get better . . . eventually.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; these issues were so short! 1/3 limit, you're killing me, sheesh.
Last time, the Galadoran Spaceknight ROM landed on Earth after 200 years of searching for and fighting the villainous Dire Wraiths, aliens with the power to change shape. He met a nice youngish human woman named Brandy Clark, and scared the wits out of the population of Clairton, Virginia. Also, he fought the National Guard, and told his origin to Brandy. Brandy witnessed a Guardsman with a sci-fi blaster, presumably a Dire Wraith, who got sent to limbo by ROM, a process that leaves a heap of ash behind.
Now, ROM foils a robbery!
You got to hand it to him, ROM knows how to make an entrance.
Anyway, Laserium Corp (or Laserium, Inc, as it's sometimes called, it seems to go back and form), makes lasers. It doesn't make simple lasers, or even just weaponized lasers, no no. It makes sci-fi blasting lasers! Anyway, the guy who identified ROM is a Dire Wraith, and the guy just to the left of him is Archibald Stryker, leader of this gang of thieves. They've taken the first guy prisoner so they can use him to break into the place, and after ROM scans them and informs them that he's only after that one, the thieves prove their intelligence by shooting at ROM with their revolvers. The bullets bounce off, and the thieves scatter, but Stryker leaps on one of the sci-fi lasers and attacks ROM!
I'm sure we'll never see Archie Stryker again!
Rom pursues and banishes the disguised Dire Wraith, but as he's sent away he manages turn on ALL the sci-fi lasers at Laserium Inc Corp, LLC, and since the lasers are Dire Wraith tech and able to harm ROM--
Steve is Steve Jackson, not the guy with the role-playing games, but Brandy's boyfriend. He's supportive and seems like a nice guy, but he's got it all wrong about ROM, and Brandy angrily tries to tell everyone what really happened, and storms off, sure that they don't believe her, and not sure if she believes it, either. After all, the evidence looks like ROM vaporizes his targets . . .
We are also introduced to the Clark dog, Tempest (what an awesome name for a pet!), as Steve follows Brandy out of the house, and tries to comfort her. He clearly doesn't believe that ROM is anything but a murderous monster, though. The two share a kiss, and Brandy walks off with Tempest to try to clear her head. But Tempest starts to growl at something in the gazebo! But it's too late, Tempest. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you. Maybe if you roll up a fire-using mage it can avenge your pointless death.
After this, we cut away to what I erroneously identified as the Pentagon last time, but it really looks more like a very simplistic, stunted key-template. The phone operator from the first issue flies in as a bird and reverts to normal, meeting with a council of 4 more Dire Wraiths, one of whom is a military guy, and other is in a SHIELD uniform. They all decide they have to do something to thwart ROM, and soon.
BACK TO CLAIRTON!
Anyway, Steve has called the cops, and while he's protective of Brandy, he's confrontational towards ROM, so ROM zaps him with his analyzer, and Steve is surprised he's still alive. But the cops have arrived with Stryker in custody, and one of the officers pulls out a sci-fi doohickey from the glove compartment and then:
TEMPEST! I was only making a joke about your pointless death!
Justifiably angered, ROM throws the top half of the gazebo at a cop car. So, the cops pull out a "bazooka blaster" that looks nothing like a bazooka, and just fires a bigger laser beam. The Dire Wraith cop uses the doohickey thing to send a strange shriek out of the sirens that hurts ROM. Brandy is held back from rushing to ROM's side by Steve (who wonders why she cares so much if an alien monster lives or dies) and ROM goes for the offending police car, lifts it, analyzes its occupants, and confirms the cop is a Wraith. He tosses out Stryker--whose been in the back of the car this whole time--and banishes the Dire Wraith. The issue ends with Stryker swearing he'll devote his whole life to hunting down and destroying Rom.
And here's an ad for Rom I thought was neat (why it's IN an issue of ROM, idunnno):
The timing in this issue is kind of truncated and strange. The issue begins with the Dire Wraiths from the council last issue watching recorded footage of ROM. It's quickly revealed they're really doing this because Stryker is in their midst, and he rants and raves some more about ROM, and how he needs to be stopped, I tell you! STOPPED! So the disguised Wraiths manipulate Stryker into agreeing to "let" them give him the power to destroy ROM.
And what about ROM? He's contemplating his origin.
As ROM flies off, Brandy is contemplating ROM, as she drives to her apartment, where she's confronted by a couple of guys who identify themselves as FBI agents, and say they have questions for her about ROM.
We cut again, to Stryker undergoing a strange obstacle course (we learn from his thoughts that he's a Korean War veteran), and as he finishes the course, narrowly avoiding a trio of missiles--
Anyway, we return to ROM, who discovers a cave, flies in, and stumbles upon the real reason the Dire Wraiths are on Earth--
Satellite television!
ROM wrecks their shit, which causes electrical disruptions around the area. Most people think it's a freak storm, like the Clarks, who explain this to Steve as he arrives to check on Brandy. But he knows there's not a cloud in the sky, and when he hears Brandy went home, he charges off after her, only to discover her apartment is trashed, and she's missing.
ROM finishes up at the Dire Wraith Cave Complex (tm), but is surprised by a jolt from behind. Flaming tendrils assault him, wrapping around him and hurting him. Despite the pain, he recognizes the effect as "The Living Fire" of Galador, a holy symbol of the Spaceknights, wielded by Karas, aka Firefall, one of his friends and a great Spaceknight. But the technology of the Living Fire was beyond the Dire Wraiths, and the only other way they could harness it would be if they possessed Firefall's armor, but they couldn't have done that without--
See what I said about timing? That's kind of fast from what the comic shows, unless the scenes with Stryker and the Wraiths are on a different time track than ROM and the Clairton citizens until this last scene . . . oh, whatever.
The next issue begins in space! We never find out how they went from the cave to Earth's orbit, but what does it matter! SPACE!
There's a brief recap of the Living Flame energy, and how the only way Stryker could have gotten it, and in anger, ROM threatens Stryker with his Neutralizer. This turns out to be a bad move, as it only enrages him, and he lashes out with the power of the Living Flame--
Meanwhile, on the ground, Brandy has been kidnapped by two Dire Wraiths disguised as FBI agents, and they're driving her . . . . elsewhere, but she attempts to escape and grabs for the steering wheel, only for one of the Wraiths to chloroform her--but Steve Jackson is not far behind in his own car!
But we jump back to ROM and Firefall 2.0, and it turns out they're not in space so much as just up in the air at night (boo! boo!) and Stryker whammies ROM--
Stryker witnesses the "carnage" and we get a synopsis of his story from the last two issues (just scroll up of you really need it), and Stryker calls ROM a murderer. ROM tries to explain that he hasn't killed anyone, but that sets Stryker off again, and the fight intensifies.
The Neutralizer apparently does have a lethal setting, or at least not just a "banish to the realm of Limbo" setting, as ROM turns it on Stryker and Stryker mentions that he felt it "through my armor." ROM explains that he didn't feel it "through" anything, but "with your armor!" He tries to explain the Spaceknight-ification process has left Stryker in the same boat as ROM, but Stryker denies it, he is "a human being!" They fight some more.
Meanwhile, Steve has caught up to the Faux-BI agents, not that he knows who they are, but the Wraiths speed up and start firing on him.
That's enough of a distraction for her to gain the upper hand and toss the other guy out of the car, to be promptly run over by Steve (whoops). Brandy is meanwhile struggling with the driver, and causes the car to crash into the mountainside.
So Karas saved Rom from drowning, and they both were volunteers for the Spaceknight program, and both made it to the final round, becoming Spaceknights. Karas, aka Firefall, was a great ally during the war with the Dire Wraiths but that they were separated long ago, and he lost contact with his old friend. ROM finishes explaining this piece of backstory, but Stryker's not buying it, claiming "a monster like you can't have any friends or true feelings" which causes ROM to lose his temper and bash five kinds of hell out of Stryker. ROM realizes that Stryker will never be anything like him or his old friend Karas, and after breaking the see-through faceplate, leaves Stryker in a heap on the road. Steve wonders aloud why ROM left Stryker alive, after all he would have killed ROM if given the chance. ROM explains that his real victory was in conquering his desire to kill the human, saying that if he'd died by ROM's hands, he would have been the murdering monster he (and most of the planet) believe him to be, that he would have been no better than the Dire Wraiths . . . while Stryker slowly realizes that the armor he's in will never come off.
Thus ends the first real story-arc for the series, and ROM's first "super-villain" threat. It does a great job of defining ROM and his interaction with the Earthicans, sets the bar for how far he should be willing to go in his war against the Wraiths, further defining his heroic qualities, and gives him another ally in that war, with Steve now having witnessed the Dire Wraiths (although it will take him a little bit to realize what that means). It also shows us that Brandy is more than just the everyman she appears (and yes, this will be important later), and begins to show us just how entrenched the Wraiths are in at least American government, having infiltrated congress, the army, even SHIELD, and that they had at least one secret underground science project. The deck is so far stacked against ROM that anyone reading along will be forgiven for wondering if ROM even has a chance. All I'll say for now is that things will get better . . . eventually.
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; these issues were so short! 1/3 limit, you're killing me, sheesh.
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