Rom #13
Published and © by Marvel and Rom © Parker Brothers, December 1980
Title: “Peril, thy Name Is Plunderer!”
Synopsis: An amnesiac Rom foils the Plunderer’s pirate plot with some help from a young Earth girl.
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Review: Rom kicks off its second year with this odd tale featuring an amnesiac Rom battling a pedestrian pirate plot from C-list villain the Plunderer. It’s a done-in-one without much weight and just passing entertainment value. Sal Buscema’s art is similarly unremarkable.
•••
Title: “The Saga of the Spaceknights!”
Synopsis: The Galadorian-Wraith War is over, but Rom’s dream of reclaiming his humanity must be put on hold.
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Sal Buscema
Review: This backup story offers a glimpse of Rom’s back story and adds a little gravitas to this otherwise pedestrian effort.
Grade (for the entire issue): B-
Second opinion: “Mantlo built upon the germ of a backstory provided by (Rom’s) owners … and expanded to include both the intimate world of Rom and Brandy Clark as well as the whole blamed Marvel Universe! All of which can be seen at work in Rom #13.” – Pierre Comtois, “Marvel Comics in the 1980s: An Issue By Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon,” 2014
Cool factor: The backup feature has promise.
Not-so-cool factor: No, little girl. Don’t take the alien cyborg into that cave. Alone.
Character quotable: “This, then, is our mission: To follow and destroy Wraithkind wherever it may hide … to defend humanity in all its forms … to penetrate the darkness with Galador’s light! To fight on … until the war is won!” – Rom, mission statement
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Sequential Reaction (Vol. 1) on Oct. 10, 2016.
