Marvel no longer had the rights to ROM the Spaceknight in 2010 (at least I’m pretty sure they didn’t), but they did attempt a revival of the other spaceknights as well as the Dire Wraiths. If they were serious about it, though, wouldn’t they have used some vehicle other than a miniseries about Russia’s superteam with a basically unknown creative team?
The Agents of Atlas are fighting to free Namora from the clutches of Krang, who for some reason is hiding in Russian territory. The Winter Guard show up to help, and together the teams rescue Namora and imprison Krang into another dimension.
None of that matters.
The Russian team go back to base to have what passes for a few character moments (including an armor upgrade for the 13th Crimson Dynamo, who is rechristened “Ultra Dynamo”). This allows the reader to engage with the extended Winter Guard family, including a couple former Crimson Dynamos. I have to say, I’m not a fan of the Winter Guard (who is, really?) but it’s cool to see them like this. It reminds me that they’ve been around a long time, and there’s a lot of potential with them.
They’re then sent to investigate a tear in spacetime. Fantasma falls out of it, and the main story begins.
Turns out, Fantasma is a Dire Wraith. All the Wraiths were imprisoned by Immortus in the Annihilators Event, and she has escaped so that she can hatch Dire Wraith eggs hidden in Russia.
She does it, and an invasion unfolds. But it unfolds pretty quickly because we just have three issues to tell this story. Ursa gets to reference the original Christopher Reeves Superman movie–you can check out more at Comics Vanguard.
I dig how deeply this all references the main story in the ROM comic, which is a great forgotten gem of the ’80s.
It all ends when a Dire Wraith attempts to possess the new Darkstar, who shares a mind/body with the old, dead Darkstar. The Wraith’s possession triggers a (pretty far fetched and unexplained) phenomenon whereby the new Darkstar dies and the original, Laynia Petrovna, is reborn.
Note that nobody seems to care that Reena is dead, which kinda tracks. Most people never even knew she existed in the first place.
This enables the defeat of the alien invasion, with Starlight and Powersurge dying in the effort. So does the villain, Fantasma.
This series also serves as a rebranding for several members of the team. Vanguard becomes the sixth Red Guardian. As noted above, the thirteenth Crimson Dynamo becomes the first Ultra Dynamo.
This comic was way, way better than I expected.