Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about the thirtieth issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight title. On the cover, we see the titular character subdued by one of four large alien-looking spiders, with an eerie green acid being spit upon his Galadorian armor. The story was called "Silver Spiders in the Snow!" The issue had a cover date of May 1982.
The tale begins with the owner of a junkyard being woken from a sound sleep by the barking of his dog on a snowy morning. The dog was trying to warn his master of a threat, which we see is the appearance of several metallic spiders who are rapidly consuming some of his inventory. The proprietor runs outside with a shotgun to defend his possessions. After shooting one of the intruders, he is soon ensnared by the webs spun by another large spider. He still manages to shoot a spider that tried to attack his dog, before collapsing onto the snow under his feet.
The man, identified as Bernie Tarpin (a clever allusion to Elton John songwriter Bernie Taupin), looks up and sees a humanoid aloft on a metal sphere, calls his creatures to consume as much as they need, and then departs. The being known as Metal Master is on a quest to find out if any metal on Earth can thwart his plans. Tarpin is left behind, wondering if he's still dreaming or if what he just witnessed was all too real.
Meanwhile, in Clairton, West Virginia, ROM and his human companions are gathered in the basement of the Clark family home. The silver Spaceknight has once more trained his neutralizer's rays on a model of the planet Earth. This time, he can safely say that the town has been cleansed of the wraith threat. ROM is still aware that his hated enemies could still return, and turns his weapon to fire at the Torpedo's visor, thus enabling the superhero to detect wraiths in his absence. Brock Jones then uses his new ability to confirm that the people in the room are indeed human.
Brandy Clark then leaves the room in tears, knowing that the Spaceknight has no reason to remain in Clairton. Her boyfriend, Steve Jackson, points out to ROM how obvious their love for one another is. As they talk, two of Jones' children see an alien ship outside a basement window. When they try to tell the adults what they saw, they're quickly dismissed as having overly active imaginations, possibly spurred on by the toy laser pistols that they had just received for Christmas.
The children are taken upstairs to bed, and the adults begin to depart. Steve is the last one to leave. He tells ROM that he's thankful for his assistance, but he also loves Brandy. The fact that she and ROM love each other has made things difficult for Jackson. ROM ponders this, and his desire to express his love to Brandy outright by himself, wondering if he will ever be fully human once more.
Back in Washington, D.C., Mack Killburn is nervously running for his life. We soon see that a humanoid leading a pair of menacing-looking hounds is tracking the reporter, who exposed the story of ROM and the wraith threat. The dogs soon transform into wraith hellhounds. Mack shoots them. The bullet goes through one hound and into the second, who quickly turns into a pile of ash. The surviving hellhound lashes out at Killburn, and the commotion draws the attention of a policeman on patrol.
The officer turns into the alley, only to see what he thought was a man shed his disguise and reveal himself as a pasty white Dire Wraith. The wraith attacks the officer, and Killburn's gun soon fells the wraith. The officer then shoots the second hellhound, who now has to figure out how to report the incident. Mack assures him that no one will probably believe whatever he reports anyway, as he speaks from experience. He explained that his attackers were alien Dire Wraiths, while he ran off to find the one being he knew who could address their threat.
That individual, ROM, was busy that Christmas Eve making a routine patrol with Torpedo. As the heroes flew together, they talked about the Spaceknight's predicament with Brandy. Brock told the Spaceknight to take a chance on Brandy and himself before veering off to patrol the old Marks homestead. Near the farm that was destroyed during ROM and the X-Men's battle (in issues 17 and 18), his newly charged visor detects something similar that regular readers will probably recognize.
As ROM flew on by himself, he was being watched from above by the Metal Master in his spaceship. The villain soon ordered his metal spiders to attack the Spaceknight. Caught unaware by the sudden attack from above, ROM was swiftly grounded and ensnared in webbing. He recovered quickly and bravely fought off the spiders. Thinking that his target was an Earthling, the Metal Master swooped down on his disc to investigate.
The battle eventually carried ROM and his opponents back into the same junkyard where this tale began. His neutralizer made short work of the spiders before the Metal Master made his presence known. He explained his plans to conquer Earth and how his mission had been thwarted once by the Hulk (in issue #6 of his own mag). The alien then used his mastery over metal to animate an old construction vehicle and send it against the Galadorian.
ROM was captured by the crane, but rapidly burst from its metal jaws. Not even steel tentacles could restrain him. The silver Spaceknight soared toward the Metal Master, still hovering on his platform. He crashed into his foe, sending both combatants face down into the December snow. The Metal Master rose slowly, stunned by the realization that he had finally encountered a metal he could not control. He then wandered off into the distance.
Our hero was left to tend to Mr. Tarpin and his faithful dog. He brought them both into the small cabin and eyed the Metal Master's ship still aloft along the way, which gave the Galadorian an idea. When Bernie awoke on Christmas morning, he found a present left behind for him by the Spaceknight: the alien ship, which he could keep, give to the government, or strip down into scrap metal.
This was another of the first issues of ROM that I ever read, and it was a very enjoyable issue. It was also another example of Bill Mantlo putting a rarely used character to good use. Sadly, we wouldn't see the Metal Master in another Marvel comic for another 18 years after this appearance. Sal Buscema's artwork was just as impressive as ever, and Joe Sinnott's inks really cleaned up the drawings on each panel.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll take a slight detour and write about the first-ever ROM: Spaceknight annual. In that publication, ROM faces a rather unique opponent in one story, and we'll see more of Galador in a brief tale from ROM's past. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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