Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about the sixty-ninth issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight series. The cover depicts ROM and a pair of other Spaceknights being trapped by alien tendrils. The cover blurb read "By Ego Consumed!" The story was named "This World Alive!" The issue had a cover date of August 1985.
The tale began with the titular hero heading toward another strange planet. This time, the world that the silver Spaceknight has landed on is alive. Steve Ditko incorrectly drew ROM's energy analyzer as his neutralizer, but the Galadorian soon learned that there were others of his kind on this planet. He sought to find them, but not before encountering resistance. His first opponent was a set of long tendrils that arose from the planet's surface.
ROM fought off the tendrils with his neutralizer until he was swallowed by a pore and descended further into the planet's interior. He continued to marvel at being inside a living world as he ventured further into it. At one point, green globs of digestive fluid were actually able to mar his Spaceknight armor. As the Galadorian sought freedom, he was eventually attacked by some familiar-looking antibodies. The humanoid-looking entities swarmed ROM quickly, but he was able to neutralize the antibodies before he fled.
The Galadorian then found himself in pitch blackness. His video receptors shed some light on the situation, and ROM was stunned to see Dire Wraiths entangled in the planet's stomach. The wraiths begged for mercy, asking their mortal foe to banish them to limbo and end their suffering. ROM granted that wish before traveling to the planetary brain. Once there, the mind of the living planet known as Ego turned to face the Spaceknight.
Ego asked who was capable of denying him sustenance and attacked the greatest of the Spaceknights. ROM looked up and found his fellow Spaceknights Seeker and Scanner (first seen in ROM Annual #2) trapped. His comrades asked ROM to leave them behind and go on to seek his humanity. However, the hero could not leave his fellow Spaceknights behind. He asked Ego to free his friends or face his wrath.
Ego laughed at this request, asking the Galadorian what he knew of wrath. He went on to explain that after confronting the Fantastic Four and being weakened by Galactus (in Thor's monthly comic), he grew close to exhaustion, until being separated and seared by our sun. He eventually pulled his mass together to reform and move on his own once more. Ego wasn't able to absorb other planets like Galactus could. However, he could consume those who landed on him. Eventually, wraiths and ROM's fellow Spaceknights engaged in a battle there. The living planet finally decided to end hostilities by consuming all parties who'd landed on it.
ROM's neutralizer sang its familiar song, injuring Ego before freeing Scanner and Seeker. The trio soon departed, just before Ego ventured into another sector of the galaxy. ROM informed his companions that the wraith war was finally over. They were overjoyed by the news, and the three of them decided to begin their gradual journey home.
It was good to see Ego in this comic. I read his storyline in the Fantastic Four and thought the character's concept was interesting. He appeared in different comics from time to time, and is nothing like the version portrayed in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie. This comic reunited ROM with fellow Spaceknights, which gave me hope that they would eventually return to Galador.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about the seventieth issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight title. In that issue, ROM and his friends will meet some more familiar characters, in a tale that has another important moral lesson. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment