Hi everyone,
I hope that you're all having a nice, relaxing holiday. Today, I'll be writing about the tenth issue of ROM: Spaceknight. The cover, once again illustrated by Michael Golden, is wordless, but features the silver Spaceknight locked in combat with Army aircraft over what appears to be the U.S. Capitol. The story was titled "Warrior Over Washington!" and the issue had a cover date of September 1980.
In the very first panel, we see ROM soaring in the atmosphere, his energy analyzer in his hand. Our hero is on his way to retrieve his neutralizer from Project: Safeguard in Washington, D.C., after it had been stolen away from him by wraith hellhounds. He is sidetracked from that mission when his analyzer detects his friends Steve Jackson and Brandy Clark, who were being held at the Clairton County Jail in connection with the death of their friend Artie Packer, a city police officer who perished as the quartet fought a wraith thornoid in the lab where Clark worked.
The sheriff and his deputies didn't believe the truth that Clark and Jackson told, as they still had yet to believe that ROM had arrived on Earth to save it from his mortal enemies, the Dire Wraiths. Clark recounted how the Spaceknight had gone to find out what the wraiths had done with his neutralizer when ROM himself broke open a wall of their cell and freed the couple. ROM then used his energy analyzer on the crowd, revealing that no wraiths were in the facility. He was incredulous that the law enforcement officers did not believe their claims, but Clark told him that in their eyes, ROM was the alien enemy. ROM, Clark, and Jackson then left through the gaping hole in the prison wall, soaring off into the air to land just outside the city.
As dawn broke, the trio looked out once more, and ROM told his companions that he had learned where his neutralizer had been taken, but that he did not know where Project: Safeguard was. Clark drew him a rough map in the dirt with a stick, and the Galadorian was on his way. Before he left, Clark warned ROM of the dangers that he might encounter, and for a brief moment, ROM saw a vision of his beloved Ray-Na in her face. He softly wiped tears from her eyes and rocketed off. We then saw a sly look in Jackson's eye, as he confronted his girlfriend, that made me wonder if it was actually Steve.
ROM made the 200-mile trek by air to the nation's capital, at one point passing a train that contained two supporting characters. One of them was the Clairton County coroner, Silas Lane, who was on his way to check birth records of citizens who had supposedly died during ROM's battles in their town against the Central Bureau of Records. The people in question all had the exact same birth date, which raised suspicion for the coroner. The person sitting across from him on the train was Washington Weekly News reporter A.C. "Ace" O'Connor. She was on her way to Washington when she saw the Spaceknight zoom by the train window, thinking that what she saw might just be her next news exclusive.
Soon, ROM neared his destination. His analyzer detected the location of his neutralizer, but failed to warn him of the approach of a pair of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which had been activated by local radar operators who interpreted the unidentified flying object that is ROM as a possible threat. Jet fighters soon followed after the supposed intruder. ROM evaded the missiles and even coaxed several of them to fly right into the path of one of the army planes. He was then attacked by machine gun fire emanating from another fighter jet. The Spaceknight wasn't fazed by the bullets and eventually caused all three planes to be destroyed, with their pilots safely ejecting and parachuting to safety before their jets were wrecked.
Just as ROM observed that the pilots were human, he was stunned by a neuroshackle blast from a decidedly different-looking aircraft and taken away by tractor beam toward Project: Safeguard. One of the vehicle's passengers removed her helmet and exposed herself as Rachel Sweet, one of the project's leaders, who was actually a Dire Wraith in human disguise.
Back in Clairton, Jackson drove off to find help for the couple. Unbeknownst to Clark, the real Steve Jackson was still locked in the county jail, and the person that she had just embraced was another wraith posing as her boyfriend, one who now decided that there should only be one Steve Jackson in Clairton.
Overall, I felt that this issue did a good job of moving the story along, although the pace was a bit slower than other Marvel comics. The first page warned us that there were going to be different letters, as production manager Danny Crespi, who was originally tasked with that chore, was ill and several of his coworkers stepped in to fill in for a few pages at a time. The inconsistency of the lettering caught my eye, but it wasn't a major concern. Mantlo and Buscema spun a tale that was well worth purchasing, as usual.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about ROM: Spaceknight issue #11, where we find out if ROM will ever find his neutralizer and what's waiting for him at Project: Safeguard. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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