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scans_dailyAfter taking a break last week (I was thinking of making this bimonthly, anyway) we return to the riveting realm of ROM SPACEKNIGHT!
(if you want links to the older stuff: part 1, part 2, part 3, or just look up the char: ROM tag.)
Previously, ROM and Steve fought off a pair of unearthly trackers sent by the Dire Wraiths to mess ROM up, which they did. ROM's in a cyborg-coma, Steve's freaking out about how to help and keep him secret, the world's going crazy, cats and dogs living together . . . mass hysteria!
So Artie thinks Steve has captured ROM, but Steve explains that he's helping him and about the Dire Wraiths, but Artie doesn't believe him, until Steve points out the remains of the hellhounds from the last couple issues. Artie still isn't entirely sure, but is willing to go along with it until a better explanation presents itself (hint: it doesn't!). Steve calls Brandy with knews about ROM, and that he wants to take ROM to her place of employment. Brandy agrees, and Steve and Artie take off with ROM. We learn the uninteresting fact that ROM weighs about 850 lbs., and more hellhounds appear after the humans have left the old gas station. They alert their corraler to the existence of the downed hellhound, and they transform to humanoid form and steal ROM's neutralizer, cleaning up all evidence of the previous hellhounds' failure, certain that no humans will now believe wild tales of aliens without proof.
Meanwhile, Artie, Steve, and ROM have arrived at Brandy's job, a pharmacological lab where she's an administrative assistant. Brandy ushers them into an empty lab, worried that ROM is dead.
Just then, storm clouds gather, rain starts to fall, and the Thornoids (thorny red vines with big leaves) start to grow. Using an EEG, Brandy determines that there's some brainwave activity, if she's reading the results right, but Brandy and Steve have no real knowledge of how the Galadorian technology really works. There's a brief recap of last issue, and a cutaway to the Thornoids growing towards them (dun dun dun!)
Look, I get that your emotions regarding ROM aren't entirely based on reason, but Brandy? Steve's been working hard to get him up and running again, and he knows that ROM is humanity's best hope of defense against the Dire Wraiths.
Anyway, the Thornoids bust in--
The humans are in big trouble, but--!
ROM to the rescue. Unfortunately, not before Artie is killed.
The next issue pick up right where the last left off, and Brandy wonders what they'll tell her co-workers, who'll show up any minute. Steve angrily says they'll tell them Artie died because of ROM.
ROM insists that something similar, but slower, more subtler, is happening on earth, and if you think about it, it might be true. Sure, paranoia and suspicion of mutants is a human reaction, but the citizens of Marvel Earth have always taken it to ludicrous extremes. What if . . . the Dire Wraiths have been behind it? But that's just speculation. Brandy's co-workers start banging on the door to the lab wondering what the heck's going on. Brandy and Steve wonder how they're going to explain, with Steve saying ROM should banish the evidence to Limbo, but ROM explains he can't without his Neutralizer. Instead, he uses his Analyzer to determine that Artie is still alive, and in need of medical attention, and flies off after his Neutralizer.
The labworkers bust in the door, and Brandy gets them too busy working on getting Artie medical care to question too deeply about the dead plant creatures and destroyed lab, but they know they've only delayed the inevitable. Meanwhile, ROM has found a funeral procession, where a kid in attendance notices that the families of the dead guys--who were "killed by ROM"--aren't really looking too much like mourners. ROM twigs to this, and uses his Analyzer on the "mourners," and yup, they're Dire Wraiths. Unfortunately, without his Neutralizer, ROM can't do much about it.
The priest is another Wraith, sent to make sure the local Wraiths keep their cool and morale. The locals react in fear and paranoia, and the priest insults and threatens them, reminding them of DEATHWING (IT COMES). And then ROM lands on the coffins.
As ROM's rampage goes on, the weather changes subtly, and the clouds take the form of DEATHWING, summoned by the priest. This scatters the other Dire Wraiths, more afraid of it than ROM. Rom takes a hit, which causes the priest to overestimate his chances. ROM instead ignores DEATHWING and starts Jack Bauer-ing the priest before Jack Bauer was cool, demanding to know where his Neutralizer was taken while choking the hell out of the priest. The priest tries shapeshifting, but ROM just keeps ahold of him, and plays an interesting version of "chicken" with him, standing perfectly still with the priest in his grip, waiting for DEATHWING to take them both out.
ROM is hard fucking core.
So the priest answers ROM that the Neutralizer was taken to Project: Safeguard in Washington, D.C., just before the DEATHWING arrives and takes his life. But ROM was in DEATHWING's wake, and starts feeling numb and cold, and falls into a rapidly forming abyss. Afterwards--
Yes, ROM, beware Serpentyne! He'll drool upon you!
So this issue begins with ROM at the bottom on a hole (it's night and the rain is coming down, the sides are falling in and there's no rope to climb, he's down at the bottom of a hole) and then there's a brief recap of last issue.
The next morning, at the hospital, Brandy and Steve are cornered by her parents, her boss, and the police, wanting to know exactly how Artie got so beat up. They decide to tell the truth, but they aren't believed (SHOCK!) and when they say that Artie knows its the truth, the surgeon arrives with the bad news: Artie died 5 minutes ago. Without anyone to corroborate their story, Steve and Brandy are taken away as accessories to murder . . . and the coroner from last issue shows up to talk with the surgeon. He reveals that he'll be going to Washington to deliver the records he discovered, of all the men who ROM "killed" being born on the same day . . . and asks the surgeon, wasn't he born the same time? The surgeon suspiciously waves it off as a coincidence, and we return to ROM, exploring the underground caves.
He says the "Wraith-stink" is strong here, discovering the remains of the priest from last issue, vaporized by DEATHWING, as well as many skeletons. He identifies them as Dire Wraith skeletons, and starts to wonder who on Earth could have penetrated the Wraiths' disguises and killed so many? He's interrupted in his musings by--
This is another case of Bill Mantlo exploring the weirder and lesser utilized corners of the Marvel Universe, at the time: villain-ish culture of mutated lizard people Ms. Marvel faced in two issues of her first series. They were last seen about a year prior to this story, so they weren't quite as obscure as the Dweller In The Walls from a few issues back, but they'd still been mostly forgotten, even now (having been subsumed by the Savage Land). They show up occasionally, but that's it. Anyway, Ms. Marvel frees a bunch of humans from captivity, but unknown to lizards or Ms. Marvel, one of the captured humans was a Dire Wraith!
So Serpentyne explains he's been attempting vengeance on his own since, tracking Wraiths by scent and slaying them when he can, taking their remains down to his "trophy room," which ROM stumbled upon. ROM explains his mission to end the Dire Wraiths' evil on Earth, and that his weapon banishes the Wraiths to limbo, it doesn't kill them, and that he's on his way to retrieve it now. After turning his back to Serpentyne, the lizard backstabs ROM, and they fight.
Fight fight fight, fight fight fight~~!
So ROM leaves, to get his Neutralizer back. Will he succeed? What new threats await him at Project: Safeguard? Find out next time (hopefully in two weeks).
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; I thought I'd gotten the hang of these short issues. I was wrong.
(if you want links to the older stuff: part 1, part 2, part 3, or just look up the char: ROM tag.)
Previously, ROM and Steve fought off a pair of unearthly trackers sent by the Dire Wraiths to mess ROM up, which they did. ROM's in a cyborg-coma, Steve's freaking out about how to help and keep him secret, the world's going crazy, cats and dogs living together . . . mass hysteria!
So Artie thinks Steve has captured ROM, but Steve explains that he's helping him and about the Dire Wraiths, but Artie doesn't believe him, until Steve points out the remains of the hellhounds from the last couple issues. Artie still isn't entirely sure, but is willing to go along with it until a better explanation presents itself (hint: it doesn't!). Steve calls Brandy with knews about ROM, and that he wants to take ROM to her place of employment. Brandy agrees, and Steve and Artie take off with ROM. We learn the uninteresting fact that ROM weighs about 850 lbs., and more hellhounds appear after the humans have left the old gas station. They alert their corraler to the existence of the downed hellhound, and they transform to humanoid form and steal ROM's neutralizer, cleaning up all evidence of the previous hellhounds' failure, certain that no humans will now believe wild tales of aliens without proof.
Meanwhile, Artie, Steve, and ROM have arrived at Brandy's job, a pharmacological lab where she's an administrative assistant. Brandy ushers them into an empty lab, worried that ROM is dead.
Just then, storm clouds gather, rain starts to fall, and the Thornoids (thorny red vines with big leaves) start to grow. Using an EEG, Brandy determines that there's some brainwave activity, if she's reading the results right, but Brandy and Steve have no real knowledge of how the Galadorian technology really works. There's a brief recap of last issue, and a cutaway to the Thornoids growing towards them (dun dun dun!)
Look, I get that your emotions regarding ROM aren't entirely based on reason, but Brandy? Steve's been working hard to get him up and running again, and he knows that ROM is humanity's best hope of defense against the Dire Wraiths.
Anyway, the Thornoids bust in--
The humans are in big trouble, but--!
ROM to the rescue. Unfortunately, not before Artie is killed.
The next issue pick up right where the last left off, and Brandy wonders what they'll tell her co-workers, who'll show up any minute. Steve angrily says they'll tell them Artie died because of ROM.
ROM insists that something similar, but slower, more subtler, is happening on earth, and if you think about it, it might be true. Sure, paranoia and suspicion of mutants is a human reaction, but the citizens of Marvel Earth have always taken it to ludicrous extremes. What if . . . the Dire Wraiths have been behind it? But that's just speculation. Brandy's co-workers start banging on the door to the lab wondering what the heck's going on. Brandy and Steve wonder how they're going to explain, with Steve saying ROM should banish the evidence to Limbo, but ROM explains he can't without his Neutralizer. Instead, he uses his Analyzer to determine that Artie is still alive, and in need of medical attention, and flies off after his Neutralizer.
The labworkers bust in the door, and Brandy gets them too busy working on getting Artie medical care to question too deeply about the dead plant creatures and destroyed lab, but they know they've only delayed the inevitable. Meanwhile, ROM has found a funeral procession, where a kid in attendance notices that the families of the dead guys--who were "killed by ROM"--aren't really looking too much like mourners. ROM twigs to this, and uses his Analyzer on the "mourners," and yup, they're Dire Wraiths. Unfortunately, without his Neutralizer, ROM can't do much about it.
The priest is another Wraith, sent to make sure the local Wraiths keep their cool and morale. The locals react in fear and paranoia, and the priest insults and threatens them, reminding them of DEATHWING (IT COMES). And then ROM lands on the coffins.
As ROM's rampage goes on, the weather changes subtly, and the clouds take the form of DEATHWING, summoned by the priest. This scatters the other Dire Wraiths, more afraid of it than ROM. Rom takes a hit, which causes the priest to overestimate his chances. ROM instead ignores DEATHWING and starts Jack Bauer-ing the priest before Jack Bauer was cool, demanding to know where his Neutralizer was taken while choking the hell out of the priest. The priest tries shapeshifting, but ROM just keeps ahold of him, and plays an interesting version of "chicken" with him, standing perfectly still with the priest in his grip, waiting for DEATHWING to take them both out.
ROM is hard fucking core.
So the priest answers ROM that the Neutralizer was taken to Project: Safeguard in Washington, D.C., just before the DEATHWING arrives and takes his life. But ROM was in DEATHWING's wake, and starts feeling numb and cold, and falls into a rapidly forming abyss. Afterwards--
Yes, ROM, beware Serpentyne! He'll drool upon you!
So this issue begins with ROM at the bottom on a hole (it's night and the rain is coming down, the sides are falling in and there's no rope to climb, he's down at the bottom of a hole) and then there's a brief recap of last issue.
The next morning, at the hospital, Brandy and Steve are cornered by her parents, her boss, and the police, wanting to know exactly how Artie got so beat up. They decide to tell the truth, but they aren't believed (SHOCK!) and when they say that Artie knows its the truth, the surgeon arrives with the bad news: Artie died 5 minutes ago. Without anyone to corroborate their story, Steve and Brandy are taken away as accessories to murder . . . and the coroner from last issue shows up to talk with the surgeon. He reveals that he'll be going to Washington to deliver the records he discovered, of all the men who ROM "killed" being born on the same day . . . and asks the surgeon, wasn't he born the same time? The surgeon suspiciously waves it off as a coincidence, and we return to ROM, exploring the underground caves.
He says the "Wraith-stink" is strong here, discovering the remains of the priest from last issue, vaporized by DEATHWING, as well as many skeletons. He identifies them as Dire Wraith skeletons, and starts to wonder who on Earth could have penetrated the Wraiths' disguises and killed so many? He's interrupted in his musings by--
This is another case of Bill Mantlo exploring the weirder and lesser utilized corners of the Marvel Universe, at the time: villain-ish culture of mutated lizard people Ms. Marvel faced in two issues of her first series. They were last seen about a year prior to this story, so they weren't quite as obscure as the Dweller In The Walls from a few issues back, but they'd still been mostly forgotten, even now (having been subsumed by the Savage Land). They show up occasionally, but that's it. Anyway, Ms. Marvel frees a bunch of humans from captivity, but unknown to lizards or Ms. Marvel, one of the captured humans was a Dire Wraith!
So Serpentyne explains he's been attempting vengeance on his own since, tracking Wraiths by scent and slaying them when he can, taking their remains down to his "trophy room," which ROM stumbled upon. ROM explains his mission to end the Dire Wraiths' evil on Earth, and that his weapon banishes the Wraiths to limbo, it doesn't kill them, and that he's on his way to retrieve it now. After turning his back to Serpentyne, the lizard backstabs ROM, and they fight.
Fight fight fight, fight fight fight~~!
So ROM leaves, to get his Neutralizer back. Will he succeed? What new threats await him at Project: Safeguard? Find out next time (hopefully in two weeks).
Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; I thought I'd gotten the hang of these short issues. I was wrong.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-22 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-22 11:18 pm (UTC)I wish Marvel could at least reprint the series.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-23 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-26 04:42 am (UTC)Thanks for posting this, it's great fun - and those Mike Golden cover are fab.