Hi everyone,
Today I'll be writing about the seventy-second issue of Marvel's monthly ROM: Spaceknight comic book. The cover shows a gamma-powered Rick Jones and Brandy Jones once more in her Starshine Spaceknight armor, leaping into action. The Secret Wars II crossover story was called "When You Wish Upon a Star!" The issue had a cover date of November 1985.
The tale began with the golden being known as the Beyonder walking through the air in Earth's lower atmosphere. He had recently merged himself with every living person on the planet, but still had difficulty grasping the incompleteness of humans and what we know as desire. Seeking understanding, he peered into a small nearby cabin that was occupied by Rick Jones, Brandy Clark, and Cindy Adams.
He peered into the minds of each individual there. The Beyonder saw Brandy's love for ROM and her desire to be closer to him and return to her status as a Spaceknight. He observed Rick's association with several superheroes and his longing to be like them. In Cindy, he saw the supreme sadness in her soul, witnessing the death of her parents and the wraith whose mind was stuck inside of hers. The near omnipotent being wondered if the three individuals would be complete if he granted their desires. He decided to find out.
Cindy started softly singing the song from the story's title (that we probably know best from Disney's animated Pinocchio movie) while staring out the living room window. As she did so, she noticed a bright star in the sky, just before everything went dark for a moment. Rick ran outside the cabin and saw a man lying unconscious. Minutes later, the quartet was huddled around a warm fire inside the cabin. The stranger thanked his hosts for helping him. He claimed that he had been struck by lightning while hiking in the rain, but Cindy noticed how the stranger was completely dry, while Rick had been soaked.
The conversation moved to wishes. The stranger asked Rick, Brandy, and Cindy what they wished for. Each of them thought about their desires, but kept those wishes to themselves until Cindy announced that she wished to know just who their guest was. He then revealed himself as the Beyonder. He stood before them, and after a flash of brilliant light, Rick noticed that his cancer was gone. Cindy was no longer plagued by the thoughts of the wraith whose mind had occupied hers. Brandy was in the Starshine cyborg armor again. Everyone was happy, but confused by the sudden gifts.
Rick suggested that the kindness seemed like an experiment, and the Beyonder confessed that it was, in a way. He explained that he struggled with the concept of desire and that he now felt incomplete. Rick admitted that wanting to cure his own cancer felt a bit selfish when many others were also afflicted with it. Cindy said that she would rather have had her parents back, and Brandy said that she would have wished that her love ROM was human once more. The Beyonder surmised that granting desires only led to more desire.
Everyone stepped outside after Brandy asked the Beyonder to stop the rainstorm. He then lifted the closest mountain. Rick feared for the safety of the people on that mountain until the Beyonder turned him into a gamma-powered being. Rick used his new abilities to save the people and animals that had been suddenly sent aloft. He enjoyed the rush that it brought, but was saddened by the loss of a deer that he wasn't able to save. The Beyonder was confused by the concern of one animal when he had saved so many others, but used his mystical abilities to restore the deer to life. It ran away swiftly. Rick explained that he didn't ask the Beyonder to lift the mountain and that he fretted over those who were impacted by that action.
Brandy and Clark then started questioning the repercussions of their wishes, like Brandy's desire to have ROM's humanity restored, especially if it happened while he was flying through space. Jones postulated that ending cancer and other diseases could lead to overpopulation and eventually devastating war. They pointed out the possible consequences of any wishes of theirs that the Beyonder would grant.
Cindy broke her silence and approached the Beyonder with her wish that her parents be brought back from the dead. The supreme being informed her that this wish was possible, since her parents were in a dimensional void between realities, where the creatures that stole their minds and memories had been placed. Brandy knew at once the dimension was limbo, where ROM had sent many of his mortal enemies, the Dire Wraiths, with his neutralizer.
With a thought, the Beyonder dispatched Clark and Jones to that dimension. They soon fought off hordes of wraiths until Starshine's lighteyes found Adams' parents' essences, still trapped inside the wraiths who stole them. They returned to Earth with those wraiths. The Beyonder studied the aliens cautiously before reaching inside and taking out a couple of pink glowing spheres and returned the wraiths to limbo. He asked Cindy to wish for her parents' return, and before she knew it, they materialized and locked in a loving embrace.
Jones and Clark noticed how Cindy's wish was granted without consequences. The Beyonder noted that it was because her wish was radiating completeness and contentment, and that time would eventually bring about additional desires. She would grow up to desire more than she would have at the time.
Rick expressed regret and concern over his new abilities. He suggested being normal. The Beyonder said that he could return him to his previous state, cancer and all. Rick didn't want that. He just wanted to live a healthy, normal life again, as did Brandy. Clark also wanted to be with her love. The Beyonder granted both wishes. He sent Clark toward the silver Spaceknight after removing her Starshine armor and abilities. He also removed Jones' superpowers and returned him to his normal, cancer-free self. The Beyonder then moved on in his quest to understand and be complete.
Bob Layton's inks were a real asset for this issue. They shone through in the pages where the Beyonder granted the humans their desires. This issue was the last one that showed ROM's friends on Earth. Jones would later return to Doctor Banner and even become a green hulk temporarily. Later on, he'd even become a blue superhuman known as A-Bomb before those powers were also removed. As far as I know, I don't think that any other writer or artist has shown what happened to Cindy Adams and her family after this issue.
Well, that's all for now. Before we find out what happened to Brandy, I'll write about Marvel's fourth and final ROM annual. Our hero will meet more well-established Marvel characters in that issue. The search for more Spaceknights continues, as ROM and his allies find one more of their kind, although this particular person isn't quite who they thought he was. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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