Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about Marvel's third ROM: Spaceknight Annual. The Bill Sienkiewicz-crafted cover shows the titular character and his love, Starshine. There's a cover blurb featuring the New Mutants and the indication of the end of a Spaceknight. The story was named "The Prodigal Son!"
The tale began outside of a childcare center in the eastern United States. ROM and Starshine arrive as a corral of cars and parents wait anxiously outside the building. The Spaceknights talk with General Locklin, leader of the Wraith-Hunter Rangers. He confirmed that the SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law Enforcement Division) ESPer agents had identified Dire Wraith activity in the building. The wraiths were still inside the building, but the safety of the students and staff inside was still unknown. Starshine flew to confront their enemies, followed close behind by the silver Spaceknight.
In one room of the daycare center, a quartet of wraiths was almost as confused as the children in the room. The younger wraiths were without the guidance of their elders. Minutes later, the students' teacher woke up, which drew the attention of one of the wraiths. As the alien looked into the frightened female's eyes, it seemed to understand more. The wraith then dug its forked tongue into the teacher's forehead, absorbed her memories and knowledge, and assumed her appearance. The disguised wraith now knew what to do and invited her sisters to join her in turning the children into wraiths as well.
Before that could happen, the Spaceknights burst through a classroom wall. The wraith, assuming the teacher's guise, unleashed tendrils of black wraith magic at Starshine, whose light eyes eliminated her foe. The children watched in horror as their teacher died for a second time. ROM and Starshine battled the wraiths before the Wraith Hunter-Rangers entered the fray. One of the wraiths knocked ROM's neutralizer from his hand, but he recovered his weapon moments before the remaining Dire Wraiths took to the skies to flee.
Two of the three remaining wraiths were gunned down, but one flew off, with the Spaceknights hot on her trail. Eventually, the young wraith tired and found a resting place atop a rock jutting out from the river. Realizing that the alien was a child, ROM tried to convince his love that their foe should be banished to limbo. Starshine was less than agreeable to that, especially after the wraith spat fire at them while posing as a Deathwing. Starshine struck back with her light eyes, but ROM's neutralizer dispatched the creature to the limbo dimension anyway. Starshine was amazed that he did not kill the beast, even though he had suggested this option earlier. As she flew off, ROM reminisced about the woman inside the golden armor whom he had once loved for her humanity.
The Galadorian watched the portal to limbo close before flying off. What he didn't know was that a small portion of an organism escaped the portal and remained in the river. It gradually began to assemble itself as the currents carried it downstream, until it came across several members of a religious revival movement who, at the time, were preoccupied with baptizing one of their parishioners in those same waters. No sooner had the young man been baptized than the priest noticed another being in the river. The entity first seemed to have an alien appearance, until it took on human form just before accepting the priest's outstretched hand for help. His arrival was hailed as a miracle, and the youth was welcomed into the fold with open arms, even as an evil grin formed on his lips.
Several weeks later, Professor Charles Xavier and his teenage students were held up in a roadblock. The Appalachian road they had been trying to traverse was blocked off because of a raging fire in the nearby hills. One of the students, Sam Guthrie, was trying to reach his family, who lived not far from there. Xavier and Guthrie's fellow students tried to console him before young Bobby Da Costa took matters into his own hands.
The young man, also known as the mutant Sunspot, used his powers to fell several large trees in much less time than it would have taken the lumberjacks who were already on the scene. Guthrie then sped off in his guise as the mutant Cannonball to move the trees and clear a path in a matter of seconds. Their teammate, Rahne Sinclair (aka Wolfsbane), transformed into a wolf and used her animal instincts to locate firefighters who had been trapped by the blaze. It was then up to Ilyana Rasputin to use her teleportation skills to move the firefighters out of harm's way. However, the fire still continued to spread until young Amara Aquilla used her Magma powers to concentrate the flames into a volcanic output that cleared a path for their car to cross.
As Xavier and his New Mutants drove past, Rahne noticed a nearby church that had been in the path of the blaze, yet amazingly appeared to be unsinged. Inside that church, the priest warned his flock that the one who came after him would baptize them in fire. The disciple in question stood behind him, with a sneer on his face, replying that the priest had indeed taught him well, but that even he could not fathom to guess the miracles that he was capable of.
Not far away, ROM was alone with his thoughts on a secluded hillside until Starshine asked her love if he was still praying. She told him it would take more than that to defeat the wraith menace, and the pair flew off to the Wraith Hunter-Rangers base. They were trying to figure out where the Dire Wraiths would strike next, now knowing that their enemies had something big planned. One of the humans with extrasensory perception abilities was trying to determine just that when she was struck with a severe mind blast that left her semicatatonic. The woman kept repeating "the horror," two words that reminded ROM of one of his most brutal enemies.
In Cumberland, Kentucky, Guthrie was finally reunited with his family. He and his traveling companions were greeted warmly by his mother and siblings. Sam's mother insisted that they spend the night there and share a meal with them. At the dinner table, the conversation eventually turned to the recent fire. Sam asked his mother what happened to Reverend Joad. She replied that he had fallen ill, and taken on an apprentice, a young man who had arrived out of the river stark naked and suddenly began speaking Scripture as if it were second nature to him.
Meanwhile, the Spaceknights were flying toward that very church, noticing how it remained unmarked by the recent fires. They soon landed and walked toward the building to get a closer look. Once inside, the Reverend looked up at the silver Spaceknight and repeated the words "the horror" before falling to his knees. The Galadorian asked his opponent to come out of hiding, and the enemy revealed himself.
The shrill sound of ROM's neutralizer being fired drew Starshine's attention, and she flew through the open church doors. She saw the prone figure of the reverend lying dead in front of her. Clark asked who slew the man, right before his assailant reached out with his clawed hands, which he quickly wrapped around her head. We then saw the being known as Hybrid facing her. The half-human, half-wraith announced his desire to antagonize his foe by making her his bride.
The next morning, Sam Guthrie and his younger brother Josh went out for a walk in the woods together. Josh brought his hunting rifle with him, just like their late father used to do. They talked about Sam's time away from the family, which Josh suspected was since his older brother was different than most. During their conversation, the pair noticed a man carrying another man in his arms. Josh turned to fire, but Sam deflected his shot, realizing that what they saw were people, not animals. What they did not know at the time was that what they saw was the young deacon carrying his deceased predecessor, wearing the same evil grin on his face that we saw earlier.
Sam, his family and friends, and other residents of Cumberland County gathered not long afterward for Reverend Joad's funeral. Sam looked down at the casket and was amazed by how quickly the reverend had aged. His apprentice, who was now the new reverend, led the ceremony. As he spoke, Xavier and Ilyana could detect his evil. After the ceremony at the cemetery, the professor shared his suspicions with the rest of his young charges. Guthrie and Roberto initially doubted their leader's words. None of them thought to look toward where the priest was watching them with glee.
A while later, inside the church, ROM and Starshine remained Hybrid's helpless prisoners. The evil being sent the Galadorian to limbo to battle wraiths, which would preoccupy him so that he could strip Starshine of her cyborg armor and prepare her for the upcoming wedding ceremony. He also swore that he would deal with the mutants, having faced several of their kind twice before. As he did so, he forced the church to bury itself deep underground and out of sight.
Word of this incident spread among the community quickly, and a search and rescue team was swiftly organized. Xavier and his young charges were among the rescue party. As the efforts commenced, no one knew that the young reverend was watching them from close by. A cave-in started minutes later. Cannonball rushed up hundreds of miles before collapsing from exhaustion. Magma kept the cave illuminated while she and her companions approached the church.
No sooner had they arrived than Hybrid struck Xavier with a powerful mind blast. The reverend then revealed his true hybrid form, and the New Mutants went to attack him. Hybrid deflected them with ease, and only Ilyana escaped by teleporting to limbo. Charles and his remaining charges were now Hybrid's unwilling servants.
In the limbo dimension, Ilyana stumbled across ROM and helped him to defeat the wraiths. Her kind actions reminded the silver Spaceknight of Sprite (aka Kitty Pryde), who had assisted him during his first encounter with Hybrid (in issue #18 of ROM's monthly mag). She returned them from limbo just before the wedding was about to begin. ROM leapt to defend his comatose love, and the battle was renewed. Ilyana's sword cut deep into Hybrid, causing him to lose focus.
Brandy was awakened by ROM's pleas and offered to help, but then noticed her Starshine armor lying empty on the floor near her. She knew she had to do something to save her beloved and rushed to his neutralizer. She fired the weapon, and thanks to Xavier's mental shield, was undamaged. Clark continued firing until Hybrid had finally disappeared from Earth once more.
Clark expressed her longing to fight once more at her love's side before collapsing in his arms. By then, the church had disappeared. ROM thanked his new friends before flying off. We later saw him soaring outside a hospital, where Clark lay in a deep sleep. Even though he didn't know when or if Brandy would awaken, he was dedicated to her now more than ever before.
This was one of the first ROM annuals that I ever read. Mutants were popular, and this was the third time that several of them appeared in this comic. Seeing what happened to Brandy reminded me of the late Archie Stryker, who wraiths bonded in the old Firefall armor. It was the last time that Starshine would appear in this title, and put Clark on a different path for the rest of the series. This was also Hybrid's last appearance in this series, but he would still be a part of the Marvel Universe and encounter other characters before eventually being depowered along with many other mutants.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about the sixty-first issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight series. That issue marks the beginning of the endgame for the Dire Wraiths. We'll learn just what they have in store for our planet, and meet another character who has a potential solution, one that will impact another title later on. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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