Retro Comic Review: ROM: Spaceknight #4

Even though I wasn't initially impressed by the cover for ROM #4, it was well worth buying to see the conclusion of the battle between ROM and Archie Stryker, a human who was grafted into the Firefall armor. The story was called "The Fire, The Friend and the Foe," and had a cover date of March 1980.

The issue began with another trademark Sal Buscema action image, this time of ROM locked in combat with Stryker in Earth's atmosphere. For the first several pages, both combatants seem evenly matched, although Stryker seems to be fighting with rage in his heart, wishing to avenge the humans that he mistakenly thought ROM had killed, not knowing that the beings in question were actually Dire Wraiths disguised as humans that ROM had dispatched to limbo.

As the battle raged on, we see Brandy Clark riding in a car with two government agents. One of them notices the living fire of Firefall and uses a strange-looking device to communicate with others. Clark then realizes that her companions in the car aren't from the government, and tries to take the steering wheel. A brief struggle ensues until one of the wraiths posing as a government agent manages to use chloroform on Clark to send her drifting off into sleep. Undaunted, the wraiths drive on, not knowing that Clark's boyfriend Steve Jackson has been following them in his own car.

The attention then turns back to the battle between Stryker and ROM. At first, ROM seems to be knocked out, and he falls back to Earth, landing near an entrance to the hidden base that he discovered in the previous issue. He no sooner gets to his feet when he is attacked by more wraiths in human guises, whom he quickly sends to the limbo dimension with his neutralizer. 

Stryker lands close by after seeing what he thinks is the murder of more human beings, and he recalls his first experience witnessing ROM's neutralizer in action and the events that led to his donning Spaceknight armor. He renews his attack on ROM, and the living fire is pitted against neutralizer ray. ROM then uses his energy analyzer and learns that Stryker has been biologically grafted to his old friend Firefall's Spaceknight armor. Stryker continues to fight back, and the battle continues.

Meanwhile, Jackson's car catches up with the one driven by the wraiths, with Clark now their unconscious passenger. Their car speeds up, and one wraith fires an alien weapon at Jackson's vehicle. The ray misses the car, but after it strikes a nearby ridge, Steve discovers that the weapon wasn't man-made. He then starts to believe Brandy's story that ROM had been attacked by the alien Dire Wraiths. He presses his foot down harder on the gas pedal, renewing his pursuit. In the leading car, the wraiths move on to their destination, not knowing as they prepare to fire again that Clark was just faking her unconsciousness.

At the same time, ROM can effect the repairs to his armor and dispatch the living flame rings that Stryker threw at him. He goes on the offensive and manages to knock Stryker down to the ground, just a few feet in front of the wraiths' car. Brandy manages to knock one of the wraiths out of the speeding car and can distract the wraith driver enough for him to crash the vehicle into the side of the road. Then she jumps out and into the arms of her boyfriend. Both of them watch in astonishment as the driver's body turns to gray ash, just like the other wraiths that Clark witnessed ROM send to limbo.

ROM stands feet apart from Stryker and recounts a story of him and the original Firefall years before they were Spaceknights on their home planet of Galador. They were swimming, and ROM recalls how his friend Karas saved him from drowning and later became the first Galadorian to inhabit the Firefall armor. Karas soared into battle to meet the oncoming Dire Wraith fleet during their first encounter as Spaceknights, and ROM did not see him again. He thought that his friend had perished in the attack. Stryker crudely dismisses the story and doubts ROM's good intentions. This angers the silver Spaceknight, who opts to use his fists to settle the conflict.

Our hero is driven to such rage that we've never witnessed before. While Jackson shields Clark from the fight with his body, ROM mercilessly pummels the less experienced Spaceknight until Stryker's armor is nothing but a battered mess. A punch to the face ends the skirmish, shattering Stryker's clear faceplate. ROM is clearly the winner. 

ROM, Jackson, and Clark take a few moments to reflect after the battle. ROM seems to have impressed himself at not slaying his opponent, even though Jackson pointed out that Stryker would surely have slayed him if he were able to. ROM expressed sorrow for his opponent, who realizes in the last panel that he can't remove the Spaceknight armor that was grafted to his body. 

Going into this issue, I knew that the action would intensify, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. Mantlo, Buscema, and company kept things rolling along at a good pace all the way until the battle's ending. I saw a side of ROM that I didn't expect, and he rallied a couple of formerly skeptical people to his side. Those themes would resonate throughout a good portion of the title's run. 

That's all for now. Next time, I'll review ROM: Spaceknight issue #5, when ROM encounters a character that most Marvelites hadn't seen for quite some time. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.