This & That: ROM, The Brave Giant Toaster Meets Hybrid

Martinex1:  Today Redartz and I are looking at the late Bronze Age experiment, ROM Spaceknight, particularly issues #17 and #18 of his eponymous book cover dated April and May of 1981.  I say "experiment" because ROM was the result of a marketing deal between Marvel and Parker Brothers based on the action figure.  The comic built a loyal following and ended up outlasting the toy by many years and running seventy-five monthly issues plus four annuals. For the vast majority of the run, Bill Mantlo handled the writing and Sal Buscema covered the interior art chores. Frank Miller supplied some covers including the covers for these issues (inked by Al Milgrom and Terry Austin respectively). Some of our faithful readers may not be familiar with ROM and his adventures, so buckle up as we bring you up to speed.  We are not starting right at the beginning (and may circle around to that someday if you enjoy this review), but decided to jump in mid-stream when ROM hosted some special guest stars, the Uncanny X-Men in the peak of their popularity.  If you are thinking it was a sales gimmick - you may be right but it also turned out to be one of ROM's most popular arcs.

Backstory:  For the uninitiated, let me back up and fill you in on ROM's storyline up to this point.   ROM arrived on Earth crashing into the small town of Clairton, West Virginia.   He is a cyborg from the planet Galador and had spent the last two centuries chasing and eliminating the threat of the Dire Wraiths.  ROM was once "human" but along with other Spaceknights sacrificed that humanity (and significant body parts and organs) to be melded with the Spaceknight armor so that he could battle the Wraiths.   The Dire Wraiths are evil shape-changing aliens who rely on sorcery and science to infiltrate and take over worlds.   They are similar to Skrulls in their means of mimicry, but much nastier in their reliance on dark magic which makes them particularly wicked and creepy. ROM is single-mindedly focused on his mission to dispel the subversive aliens so he can return home and regain his life..   The Spaceknight is troubled as he has seen some of his comrades go mad dealing with their lost humanity, and after 200 years of battle he is feeling increasingly worn out, lonely, and reflective about his choice.  ROM has two devices that he relies on: 1) his analyzer which basks all beings in its path in a pink glow so ROM can see if they are hidden Wraiths or not ( the truth is only visible to him and not to bystanders), and 2) his neutralizer which he uses to banish those Wraiths to Limbo.  When struck by this ray, the evil creatures' forms disintegrate leaving a heap of dusty residue while their spirits are swept away to the shadow dimension.   This of course is quite unsettling to any witnesses on Earth as they only see the destruction of their neighbors and friends.   ROM can use the neutralizer to kill, but he has sworn to not take a life insisting that banishment of his enemies allows him a certain superiority over them.   But ROM being rather stoic in his approach to his mission initially didn't bother to explain to the earthlings what he is up to.  So he is extremely feared at first as his actions seem callous. 

What the people of Clairton don't know is that the Wraiths  have been on Earth since WWII and are pretty well entrenched (this was really a Secret Invasion long before that modern storyline).  ROM through his adventures in Clairton has gained the trust of Brandy Clark and her fiancé Steve.   Together they have gradually been able to convince some of the townfolk that there is more to ROM than meets the eye.  And that is where this story starts.

Redartz:  Thanks to Martinex1 for the synopsis. I'd never read any ROM stories before, and actually had been hesitant to do so. Thinking it simply 'another toy comic', it stayed off my radar in the era in which it was published. Upon reading it now, however, I was quickly struck by how meaty the story actually was. It definitely had the feel of an old alien - horror - science fiction movie. And the writing was quite good; I should have known.  I loved Bill Mantlo's work on Micronauts and on Spectacular Spider-Man. This was equally good reading.

Martinex1: What were your first impressions on the art?   The covers interest me, because both are by Frank Miller but the inking styles are so different.   I much prefer the cover to the second issue with Austin's work.   In fact, as a kid I bought that issue first but had to circle back for the previous book because the story was so intriguing.  This was actually my first ROM purchase and eventually I owned the whole run.

Redartz: Right off the bat, we see that Sal Buscema is inking his own pencils in issue 17. That's a good start; the art throughout the issue is clean and sharp. It is very attractive, some of Sal's nicer work. I did prefer that to the art in 18, which was still good but the inks seemed a bit rougher. As for the covers, I fully agree- the cover to the second issue is more striking. You can't go wrong with Terry Austin, after all.

Martinex1: Reading these again, it seems like Mantlo threw everything into it.  I find the storytelling reasonably complex.   It is interesting to me - and I'm not sure I can draw a good comparison to anything else - that the Dire Wraiths were essentially the only villains throughout the 75 issue run.   Sure there were some subplots and side-stories, but essentially it was always ROM vs the Dire Wraiths.  And here it seemed incredibly dense with characters, motivations, and hints of things to come.

Redartz:  Indeed, there was a lot of material in both these books for a 32 page comic (especially issue 17). This is even more evident when compared to today's 'decompressed' storytelling. This two-issue story would have taken up a full six-issue spread today, doubtlessly. And I'll have to bow to your reading experiences regarding the paucity of other villains; but that is interesting- it almost makes the whole series a kind of  novel.

Martinex1: The story touches on ROM's growing trust in the community and then segues into the tale of a Wraith who had entrenched himself on Earth in the mid 1940's and took on the identity of Jacob Marks, a farmer with simple goals in life.   He found himself to be happy living as a mere human and wanted to continue doing so.   That led him to love and the eventual marriage to Marjorie, and unfortunately to the birth of a child - a hybrid Wraith and Human child.  That doesn't turn out too well.  Fifteen years later when the little cretin is exposed to witchcraft and macabre teaching at the hands of Wraith elders, he reveals himself to be something quite evil. He tortures his mother and turns on his father.

Redartz:  Much of the story was pretty somber, with the dead livestock, Marjorie Mark's aging and the eventual fate of Jacob Marks. Jacob's death was grim to behold ( a brief flashback to the Green Goblin's death hit me), a striking three-panel sequence resulting with the only remains being a silhouette on the wall.

 Redartz: Sal's depiction of Hybrid was quite creepy, his attitude and personality equally so. The setting of the deserted farmhouse, encased in snow, added to the 'chilling' aspect of the tale. There was the occasional element of humor, though: the scene with Rom seated in the living room, with his “Greetings, Earthman” comment was great. Kind of like catching the Terminator indulging in an afternoon tea and cakes affair. As for the X-Men's appearance, it was well-handled. Mantlo had a good voice and characterization for each. I noticed that Chris Claremont was credited in both issues as a consultant; seems like he kept a close rein on the mutants at the time.

Martinex1:  I liked how the X-Men were dragged into the story rather organically.  Hybrid, as the malevolent offspring was called, registered as a mutant on Cerebro.  So the all new, all different crowd set out to check it out.   They stumbled into the melee between ROM and Hybrid and of course misidentified ROM as the threat because the baddie was using his shape-shifting abilities to appear as a young teenager.   The X-Men assumed a robot was hunting muties again.

Redartz: The battle that took up most of issue 18 was dramatic and suspenseful; the use of the blizzard to keep the combatants off-balance was noteworthy. Again, the artwork was effective at portraying the inherent confusion of the storm. I was also struck by the attention to Kitty Pryde's youth and inexperience at combat. This story appeared in early 1981, so Kitty's time with the team had been brief, maybe a year? The ending scene with her pain at having killed (or so she thought) ROM, and Storm's comforting words, were well done. Felt very true to the characters we knew and loved from the Claremont /Byrne classics.

 Martinex1:  I agree; this story really fit well with the characterizations we had been seeing in the team book.  In retrospect, there may have been some gaps in logic like how does Wolverine not smell the stench that Hybrid reeks.   Perhaps Wraiths can adjust their odors as well.   But I really enjoyed the story.  Many fans joke about ROM being a walking toaster, but it is really amazing how much emotion and pathos Mantlo and Buscema generate from an essentially featureless character.   Showing emotion from ROM has to be even more difficult than a masked Spider-Man; at least Spidey's eyes can be adjusted to demonstrate what he is feeling or thinking.  ROM had to be a challenge, but I find it interesting that Sal Buscema was quoted as saying, "I liked the character. And I liked what they did with it. I thought the concept was quite good. It was unique. It made it attractive to do. I almost hate to say this, but it was pretty easy to draw, too." 

Redartz: Cool to hear Sal's thoughts on the book. And by the way, I'd never heard ROM referred to as a "giant toaster" before now!
This being my introduction to ROM, I was impressed by his appearance and his nobility. It did whet my appetite to read more of his story. With all that was going on in these two issues, it would have been hard to add in much detail about ROM himself; and that was no doubt covered in earlier issues. I did find the term “Galador” reminiscent of Arthurian nomenclature; appropriate for a “Space Knight”. All told, a very enjoyable hour was spent reading this tale, and it has prodded me to seek out more.

Martinex1: I think there were a lot of influences for ROM, those legends you mention plus a bit of Frankenstein, Beauty and the Beast, Silver Surfer, and 1950's B-Movie invasions thrown in.   Many of the stories have a horror impact to it, and this captured much of that feel.

The story ends with ROM himself being sent to Limbo as Kitty used his own weapon against him.  There he is trapped without defense amongst his worst enemies and another Marvel universe denizen.   Later ROM would join Nova in a space war and even take on Galactus in a rather creative way.  But those are all stories for another time.

As far as this story goes though:

The Good:  A jam packed story with interesting characters and motivations, a truly creepy villain, and Sal Buscema art.

The Bad: I have to admit that I typically don't like when kids are monstrously evil in fiction, but here it was handled fairly well.  But I will say that often the character in its human guise did not always act as a fifteen year old.   He seemed much younger throughout and I wonder if the creators crossed some wires here.

The Ugly:  Hybrid sure is ugly....

But overwhelmingly I would recommend these issues.  I would also say that the first 25 or so books in the ROM catalog are quite entertaining.  Any last thoughts, Redartz?

Redartz:  Just a recommendation to anyone else who may have passed over this book on the basis of it's merchandising origins- give it a look. I'm glad I did, and I think you would be, too.