Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about the seventy-first issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight series. The cover shows the titular character under attack by fellow Spaceknight Raak. The story was titled "Shame." The issue had a cover date of October 1985.
The tale begins right where the last issue left off, as ROM, Scanner, and Seeker walk past the disgraced Spaceknight Unam. Unam was finally starting to understand the consequences of his recent actions. He was down on his knees, deep in sorrow and regret, before asking his companions to not leave him behind. Unam ran after them, begging them to not leave him alone and thinking that they despised him.
ROM remarked that they did not despise him. However, they were not happy with his decision to use his invisibility ability to coerce Dire Wraiths into doing his bidding. Unam was ashamed of that. He felt that his power was the most passive of all those granted to Spaceknights. He felt important when battling wraiths among other Spaceknights, but his doubts started resurfacing once he found himself alone on a world inhabited by wraiths.
It wasn't until the destruction of Wraithworld and the subsequent loss of the wraiths' sorcerous capabilities that he began to feel more self-confident. The mythology of the Hidden God convinced the wraith to do his bidding. ROM reminded Unam that he was supposed to banish the wraiths instead of ruling them. Unam replied that he had no abilities or weapons to do so. He begged the greatest of the Spaceknights for forgiveness, which ROM said was not necessary. The four Spaceknights then flew off into outer space to continue the search for others of their kind.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Rick Jones, Brandy Clark, and Cindy Adams were starting to get settled in a cabin and begin their new lives together. Rick reminisced about his early days as an orphan and befriending Doctor Bruce Banner (aka the Incredible Hulk), Captain America, and Captain Marvel. He also talked about their recent successful efforts in eliminating the wraith threat from Earth. At one point, Jones tried to be like the heroes he associated with and subjected himself to a powerful dose of gamma rays. Instead of giving him superpowers, he contracted cancer.
Brandy talked about how simple her life was before the arrival of ROM and the discovery of wraiths, who would end up destroying many people whom she had loved dearly. Jones and Clark talked about the loss of Cindy's parents and the wraith that died, leaving its mind inside the young girl, before Jones became wracked with pain. Clark reached out, and it appeared that a small amount of light essence from her former Starshine Spaceknight abilities was able to temporarily stave off his discomfort. Brandy was happy that Rick felt better, but Cindy was troubled by her vision of Brandy glowing with an ominous light while Rick lay dead in front of them.
As they soared through the cosmos, Scanner and ROM talked about what the silver Spaceknight had left behind on Earth. He thought of his love, Brandy Clark. The Galadorian admired her humanity, knowing that half of his own humanity had perished on Galador (which had been stolen by the Spaceknight Terminator, who fell in battle to the mighty Galactus). Scanner soon identified the presence of fellow Spaceknights on a nearby planet, and the four of them flew to its surface in a matter of minutes.
Seeker and Unam soon leapt into battle against natives of that world, who had quietly been preparing to attack the newcomers. They ran for their lives before encountering ROM. ROM offered to use his universal translator, just before a voice above him informed him that the beings had learned to hate all Spaceknights, except for her. The voice belonged to Vola the Trapper (who was last seen in ROM Annual #2).
Trapper jumped down to meet her comrades and informed them that she was not the only Spaceknight on the planet of Clavius. Clavius was a world that had been under siege by many different parties for various reasons. All of the warring factions soon fell once the planet was invaded by Dire Wraiths. The sorcerous and science wraiths that remained after Wraithworld fell soon formed an alliance with Raak the Breaker (also last seen in the second ROM annual).
Vola described Raak as a traitor. His wraith allies joined him in resisting charges led by natives of Clavius. They would have been destroyed if she had not stepped in to help them. As ROM talked about the betrayal, Unam thought about how he could have been talking about him. The first of the Spaceknights soon announced that Raak had broken the Spaceknight oath and that he must be stopped at any cost.
ROM and his companions soon entered the fray. Before long, Raak and ROM battled face-to-face. ROM faced possible peril until Unam stepped in front of the dangerous rays emanating from Raak's gloves. Unam fell, but his sacrifice was not in vain. Angered by what had just happened, he summoned his neutralizer from subspace and dispatched Raak and his wraith allies to limbo. He then lifted his fallen friend and departed with his friends, so that Unam could be given a proper burial.
This was another good morality tale. Even though I never really liked how penciler Steve Ditko drew ROM and other Spaceknights (I thought his drawings were a bit dated in the age of the Transformers, Gobots, and other popular robot toys), the message was conveyed quite clearly. It was nice to see how much Unam changed and, much like Gloriole in the first ROM annual, stood up for what was right, even if it meant sacrificing himself in the process.
Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll write about the seventy-second issue of Marvel's ROM: Spaceknight. That issue was a tie-in with the Secret Wars II miniseries. ROM isn't featured, but several of his friends on Earth will encounter the Beyonder. What happens will affect them moving forward through the rest of the title's run. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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