Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about the fifteenth issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight, or the wedding issue, as fans know it. The cover, drawn by Hercules and Iron Man artist Bob Layton, shows the titular character drawing his neutralizer on his friend Steve Jackson, much to his fiancée Brandy Clark's horror. The story was called "Brandy Clark and Steve Jackson Cordially Invite You to...A Wedding!," and the issue had a cover date of February 1981.
On the first page, we see the bride and groom-to-be arriving at the church in Clairton, West Virginia, before the ceremony. Brandy still wants to marry her longtime love, but has noticed a change in her boyfriend's behavior, one that's rather unlike him. As his groomsmen encourage him, Jackson follows Clark into the church.
At the same time, ROM returns to the Clark household. He enters the front door, surprised to see the empty building. He makes his way to Brandy's room, where he stops to page through a photo album. The Spaceknight stares at the images for a while, including the signed photo of Jackson by her bedside.
ROM thought about how Jackson initially despised him, and didn't listen to his warnings about the Dire Wraiths until he saved Steve and Brandy from Archie Stryker, who attacked in his friend Karas' Firefall Spaceknight armor, and after the trio fought off the wraith thornoids at Clark's job. ROM was both thankful for Jackson's friendship and jealous of his relationship with Clark. He then walked out of the Clark home and was witnessed by a young child on a bike and an elderly man in a car, both of whom were fearful that the alien man in armor would harm them or others in the town. The Spaceknight watches the possible collision and decides not to interfere.
In Washington, D.C., Clairton's county coroner, Silas Lane, is busy reviewing piles of birth registrations dating back to the 1940s. He's concerned that multiple citizens of his town who perished during ROM's attacks all had the exact same date of birth. As he examines the records more closely, he finds that more than a dozen of them were recently tampered with. He then decides to reach out to "Ace" O'Connor, a reporter whom he had met on the train ride to the nation's capital several issues earlier.
Unfortunately, O'Connor had already been captured by the Dire Wraiths. We find her on the next page in a wallless prison, where she meets Jackson, who explains how he had been captured and the wraiths' plans to impersonate him in his hometown. O'Connor then told Steve about seeing ROM in action for the first time against the Jack of Hearts and how she discovered from a photo that she took during that battle of a person who the Spaceknight had banished, who wasn't exactly human, and the hellhounds who had brought her to their shared prison.
No sooner had O'Connor recounted her experience than a pair of Dire Wraiths entered to take Jackson and end his life. The aliens revealed that his doppelganger was preparing to wed Jackson's fiancée, Brandy Clark. O'Connor used the flash from her camera to momentarily blind the wraiths, and the humans briefly fought the alien beings.
Ace pleaded with Jackson to escape and save his girlfriend. Jackson grudgingly agreed and left the portal through the same opening that the wraiths had entered from. He heard a chilling scream, moments later, knowing that the lady reporter had sacrificed her life for him. Steve ran down the hallway in front of him, and found that he had been in another of the city's old mine entrances. He then rushed off to find his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, ROM changed his mind and stepped in front of the oncoming car to save the young girl who had been riding down the street on her bicycle. He put her down safely moments before the driver of the car left his vehicle and verbally assaulted the Spaceknight. ROM informed the man that if he really had the malicious intent that the human claimed, he would no longer be alive to issue any more utterances to him. He lifted the human briefly, tossing him back at the ruined car after learning of the wedding. ROM then walked off in the direction of the church.
At the church, final preparations were being made. ROM soon made his way there, and casually tossed aside an attendant at the front steps. At the same time, we see Jackson back at his auto garage in town. He breaks the front door's window and grabs the keys off the wall for an older car that was sitting in the lot. Gunning the engine, he speeds off to save his love.
A few minutes later, the ceremony finally begins. Brandy's parents talk quietly about the sparse crowd, knowing that their daughter's association with the silver Spaceknight probably caused several citizens to stay away. Just before the minister is about to proclaim the couple man and wife, ROM bursts through the wooden church doors, and asks Brandy to halt. His sudden appearance surprises everyone in the building.
The Spaceknight pushes the humans who try to interfere out of his way, until Brandy's father walks up to him and accuses him of murdering his fellow townspeople. ROM explains that those he banished were not townspeople, and becomes angered by his hatred and blind prejudice. He raises a fist in the air, before realizing what he was almost about to do. ROM lowers his fist, and walks toward the couple at the altar.
The wraith posing as Jackson tries to shield Brandy and accuses the Spaceknight of trying to disrupt their nuptials. Clark defends ROM, who summons his energy analyzer from subspace. He trains its beam on the couple, and confirms that the male in front of him is indeed a Dire Wraith. The wraith denies ROM's accusation, and Brandy realizes that the Spaceknight has loved her ever since the day they first met (in the debut issue). She doesn't initially believe that the man next to her is a wraith until he's felled by a single gunshot.
As the assemblage is swiftly silenced, we see the real Steve Jackson standing in the back of the church, with the pistol that he just used to shoot at his double in his hand. He admitted that ROM was telling the truth about the wraiths. Clark is overjoyed to see her fiancé, who provides background to the people in attendance about ROM's activities in their town and his mission to rid their planet of the alien menace.
The priest informs ROM that the people of Clairton now believe and trust him and asks the Spaceknight to use his energy analyzer on them. The Spaceknight denies the request, knowing that no real Dire Wraith would ever willingly submit to that. He takes the man at his word and confesses his faith in those gathered around him. Clark talks with Jackson and admits that she felt that something was off. She is willing to marry the real Steve Jackson, who appreciates the offer, but admits that it isn't the right time. The couple still loves each other just as much as they ever did.
Just when readers were getting accustomed to the two-story setup, Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, and company reverted to a single-story issue, but I think that it's one that was essential to the supporting characters' development. The revelation that ROM loves Clark would be important to the storyline moving forward. My only regrets were that O'Connor's character was killed so quickly, and that we didn't see more of the other-dimensional prison. I thought that Buscema did a good job of drawing the characters and conflict in the borderless panels. Overall, ROM #15 was another solid issue.
Well, that's all for this issue. Next time, I'll write about the sixteenth issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight. It's another two-story issue, where we learn more about a new kind of wraith menace and the saga of the Spaceknights. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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