Retro Comic Review: ROM: Spaceknight #37

 Hi everyone,

Today I'll be writing about the thirty-seventh issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight title. The cover, illustrated by Ed Hannigan and Al Milgrom, shows the titular character being likened to a knight (shown behind him) from years past. The story was called "In Days of Olde, When Knights Were Bolde!" The issue had a cover date of December 1982. 

The tale began where the last issue left off, with our hero standing by himself in a field in the English town of Gwillin Dale. ROM had freed a young boy named Stephen (who likened the Galadorian to Earth knights from centuries ago), but was unable to prevent him from being taken away by Dire Wraiths. The silver Spaceknight vowed not to rest until the children from the small hamlet had been rescued.

A few minutes after ROM uttered that vow, angry townspeople arrived. They admitted that they had been scared by the wraith invasion, but were now determined to get their children back. Some of them weren't convinced that the Spaceknight wasn't the enemy, even after he turned his energy analyzer's rays on them to ascertain if any wraiths were hiding among them. The Galadorian soon took off in search of the youngsters.

As he flew, the Galadorian regretted being harsh to the townspeople, but knew that the wraith conflict needed assertiveness and action. ROM used his energy analyzer to track his enemies. Their trail soon led him to a trail beneath the Earth. 

Meanwhile, in Clairton, West Virginia, Brandy Clark's fiancé, Steve Jackson, arrived at her parents' home. He was wondering where Brandy was, since she hadn't shown up to work in days, and her landlord had no clue as to her whereabouts. Her father suggested that she had simply taken a few days off to deal with the stress of ROM's recent departure. Jackson ran off and was soon spotted by the Torpedo (Brock Jones), who was appointed as the town's protector in the Spaceknight's absence. Steve asked Brock if he had seen Brandy, and stated that she'd gone missing. Jones replied that he'd just seen Brandy the night before at Starshine's grave.

While Steve was stunned by that news, neither of them knew that Brandy was still at the city cemetery. She was now digging up the fallen Spaceknight's grave. Brandy smashed its glass covering with her shovel and carefully placed Starshine's armor in the trunk of her car. She then declared that if ROM could never be human again, she would have to become a Spaceknight. 

As for the silver Spaceknight, he was busy tracking the wraiths in England and eventually located their hiding place: a stone castle that had stood for centuries. ROM drew nearer to the castle, and a trio of wraith hellhounds soared to greet him. One hound was able to phase its hand into the Galadorian's Spaceknight armor temporarily, but ROM still managed to banish the wraiths to limbo, leaving behind the dogs from Earth who the wraiths had infested with their dark magic.

ROM continued on his quest and found a pair of Watchwraiths waiting for him. They posed no danger to him. Not even their freezing plasmifire was a match for ROM's armor. During the battle, one watchwraith fell into the deep waters of the moat surrounding the castle. Afterward, the Spaceknight continued his search on foot, entering the castle through a nearby doorway. As he did so, his energy analyzer informed him of previous conflicts that had been waged by ancient forces of good and evil in that building in the past. The stories of some of these conflicts were tales that young Stephen, a boy abducted by wraiths in the previous issue that the Galadorian had vowed to save, had been raised on. 

The silver Spaceknight drew ever closer to the boy, as a wraith sorcerer and its underlings prepared to use the children they had captured for their sinister plans, once their beloved dark nebula aligned with Earth. ROM was very close to their chamber, but on the way there, he fell into the brackish waters, after the stairway he had been descending gave way. As he swam, ROM used his energy analyzer once more and soon found a wall with depictions of knights from many years past inscribed upon it. The images seemed to bolster the Galadorian's spirit and confidence. He burst up into the floor of the room where the Dire Wraiths had been lurking moments later, and swiftly dispatched several of his attackers to limbo.

The wraith witch conjured up dark apparitions to combat the Spaceknight. ROM continued to fight, even when it seemed like their darkness might consume his very being. Just when all looked hopeless, the images of the knights ROM had just seen shone through. At one point, it looked as though the long-dead warriors had risen to combat this new alien menace. However, that was apparently just a dream that the ROM had...or was it? One of the children roused the Spaceknight from his slumber. He awoke to see that the children had been freed and the wraiths were gone. The Galadorian didn't know just what had happened, but he was relieved that the youngsters were no longer in danger, and that the wraith threat was over, at least for now, anyway.

This was an unexpected but satisfying conclusion to this two-part story. I have to commend writer Bill Mantlo for his commitment to comparing ROM's mission to those of the knights of merry olde England. It was another fun story, embellished brilliantly as always by penciler Sal Buscema.

Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about the thirty-eighth issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight title. That issue starts another two-part epic. This time, ROM will encounter more wraiths and meet another longstanding Marvel character. We'll also learn where Brandy Clark took Starshine's cyborg armor. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.