Hi everyone,
Today, I'll be reviewing the fifth issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight. The cover was something that longtime Marvel readers might associate with some of the publisher's previous horror or monster comics. It teased an appearance of Doctor Strange, and the issue was published in April 1980.
The story titled "A House Is Not A Home!" began almost immediately after ROM's confrontation with Archie Stryker, who donned a suit of Spaceknight armor that had previously been occupied by ROM's fellow Galadorian Karas, also known as Firefall. ROM, Brandy Clark, and her boyfriend Steve Jackson hide behind a tree while police officers and their canine units search the area in an attempt to discover the source of the damage that the road sustained.
While the humans confide in each other, ROM thinks about how Clark reminds him of his beloved Ray-Na and the night they spent together before he donned his cyborg suit of armor and left his home planet to battle the dreaded Dire Wraith menace.
A few minutes later, officers find the wrecked Spaceknight armor with the unconscious Stryker still inside. A few more familiar agents then intercede and float the armor into an awaiting vehicle. One of the agents looks inside the wrecked car and finds the nearby piles of ash that sat where their former Wraith comrades once were. The wraiths posing as government officials request that the area be blocked off.
ROM notices the wraiths' actions just before one of them brings a pair of dogs from the back of a van. The dogs quickly pick up the Spaceknight's scent and are about to lead the villains to the heroes until ROM flies off, carrying Jackson and Clark with him. The dogs bark angrily, and several wraiths pull out strange-looking guns which they fire at the escaping Galadorian and his companions.
ROM deftly evades the enemy fire, but his escape only arouses suspicion among the humans who don't know about the wraiths. One of the wraiths, in his guise as SHIELD Agent Kraller, continues to agitate the humans before he and another agent (posing as Agent Rachel Sweet) take off in their van. They talk about their interactions with the humans, not knowing that Stryker is awake and listening as they discuss how they deceived him.
As the wraith fan departs, the human officers find their actions and words a bit odd, but nothing out of the ordinary, apparently. ROM flies on, thinking for a moment about how Clark makes him long to be loved as a human once more, before landing near an old, abandoned house. They go through the open door and look around. Jackson lights a candle before sitting down to rest next to Clark. ROM sits in a nearby chair and rests. Not long afterward, he sees images of a human (who we know as Doctor Strange) in this very house. He calls out to the dweller in the shadows, proclaiming that he knows its secret.
Puzzled, ROM looks around, seeing mists swirling around him, and looks down to find his legs bound by several strands of mist that quickly become solid. Soon, he sees a pair of arms growing from the wall, whose hands are about to grab his sleeping friends. ROM strikes angrily, breaking the bonds that tied him to the chair.
ROM's neutralizer then appears in his right hand, and he pulls the trigger, shooting a beam of energy at the attacker, who shrieks in pain after being hit. This causes the ghoulish hands to retreat back into the wall, but then ROM is attacked from behind by the table that he had just sat in front of a few minutes earlier. The table crushes down onto the Spaceknight's back, and he is momentarily trapped, while he sees Clark and Jackson being carried off by mists.
ROM rises and breaks the table, and reaches up to grab his friends, awakening them in the process. Once he knows that the humans are safe, he summons his energy analyzer, who identifies the being as the House of Shadows, which debuted in Strange Tales #120 way back in 1964. He then replaces the analyzer with his translator, and the apparition tells ROM the tale of his battle with Earth's Sorcerer Supreme.
The being also revealed that Dire Wraiths had freed him from limbo during an attempt to save their colleagues from that otherworldly dimension. The dweller swore to never return to limbo and tried to burn ROM with magic flames as he strove to save Clark and Jackson. ROM retaliated by attacking the dweller with his neutralizer.
As the house soon burst into flames, ROM flew off once more, bringing his friends outside before using his neutralizer one final time to banish his foe once more to limbo, where he had just sent several Dire Wraiths to in earlier issues. The house disappeared and the trio was safe...for the moment.
This issue had even more of the 1950's and 1960's science fiction suspense that I grew to respect and appreciate. Mantlo and Buscema's efforts were excellent as usual. It also marked the first of many appearances by Marvel Universe characters in this magazine. Since ROM was a licensed property, it wasn't a sure thing that they would or could even be able to allow other well-established heroes and villains interact in this magazine.
Next time, I'll review issue #6, where we see the a wraith deviant for the first time. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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