Hi everyone,
Today, I'll be writing about the forty-ninth issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight series. The cover shows the silver Spaceknight and his love, Starshine (aka Brandy Clark), fighting an unknown evil. It appears the Spaceknights are trapped. The story was titled "Massacre!" The issue had a cover date of December 1983.
The tale begins with an army of female Dire Wraiths descending upon ROM's adopted home of Clairton, West Virginia. A dog is alerted to their arrival. A wraith spell eliminates the canine, but not before its owner hears its cry for help and ventures outside of her home to investigate. The elderly woman is attacked by a wraith, who swiftly assumes the woman's identity. At the next house, the witch wraiths find themselves welcomed by Mary Lou (who was one of the female wraiths' first victims back in issue #47) into her home, where her unsuspecting parents sat in the living room, watching TV on their couch. They were also attacked in the same grisly manner.
Many longtime readers may have been wondering by now what happened to Brandy's fiancé, Steve Jackson. We now see Steve at his auto shop in town, talking to his buddy Johnny about his date with Mary Lou. Like Mary Lou, Johnny was also one of the female wraiths' first victims (also in issue #47), and revealed his true identity to Jackson. A half dozen more wraiths took Johnny's side. Steve was no stranger to Dire Wraiths and attacked the one that had been Johnny with a screwdriver. However, he soon found himself outnumbered.
Later that evening, Steve rang the doorbell of the home belonging to Brandy's parents. They were relieved to see him and had wondered how he had been doing since Brandy left (and was merged with the Starshine Spaceknight armor). Steve seemed to be remarkably calm until a pair of wraiths attacked the couple. Afterward, Steve hoped that the Spaceknights would return home, as he and his companions would be waiting for them.
On the outskirts of town, Brandy was overjoyed to finally be home. ROM longed for his own home back on the planet of Galador. Starshine was determined to try to encourage and cheer her love up, even as he seemed to despair about the coldness of their being encased in cyborg armor, and his doubt that they could ever live a peaceful life together. He stayed by her side and vowed to continue the fight against the wraiths as she teleported them to the high school football field, where their friend Brock Jones (aka the superhero known as the Torpedo) was leading a practice. Brock welcomed his friends home and assured them that he had kept Clairton safe in their absence. He then donned his Torpedo suit and flew off with them toward Brandy's parents' home. As they departed, several of Brock's players stood there watching the trio, including a few who might not have been human.
Brandy was very happy to see her parents and Steve. ROM offered to use his energy analyzer to learn if wraiths were present, but the Torpedo reassured him that the analyzer ability that the silver Spaceknight had gifted him would have informed him of that already. The Galadorian stood in the yard, alone with his thoughts, as Brandy followed her mother up to her old room. She told her mother about the exploits she and ROM had been on, as we see a translucent wraith reflection in the mirror behind Brandy.
Starshine rejoined ROM in the backyard and convinced him that all was good. They entered the house together, where they found a circle of family and friends awaiting them. Starshine showed off by playing with particles of living light. As they danced off her hands and she illuminated the room, dark shadows of dire wraiths appeared on the walls. Before they could react, ROM and Starshine were encased in an other-dimensional trap. Starshine was stunned by what she had just seen, and her love had to persuade her to rise to her feet, as menacing eyes filled the area, surrounding them. The female wraiths looked on with glee, thinking that their mortal enemy had finally met his match. Meanwhile, the alien ship that we saw in the last issue in Earth's atmosphere touched down. A pair of familiar-looking aliens exited and looked onward toward the site of their prey.
While it was good to see some of the familiar supporting characters from Clairton for the first time in several issues, I figured that they wouldn't be around forever, especially after Brandy became a Spaceknight. I'm happy that writer Bill Mantlo had plans to wrap up this plotline, although in a way that wouldn't exactly please all longtime readers of this comic book.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about the landmark fiftieth issue of ROM: Spaceknight. In that double-sized tome, we'll learn the final fate of Clairton, West Virginia. We'll also find out what happened to Starshine and ROM, and who the new aliens in this story were after. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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