When we last saw Nova he brought a bunch of guys from his mediocre solo series–guys like Diamondhead (who had a Diamond for a head) and Powerhouse (who was really strong)–and had formed the New Champions. One of these mediocre guys dies this issue, in a flashback.
Hembeck had a nice recap of Nova’s status.
Hembeck was cool. I miss when Marvel used to use him for recaps and fun stuff. Marvel should have a month where they hire him to do all the splash/recap pages for them.
Anyway, when we last saw ROM, he was heading home to Galador. Along the way, he gets sidetracked into a mission with Nova and the New Champions fighting skrulls.
The end result is that the Xandarians, who “own” the nova corps, take the Nova powers from Rich Rider and return him to Earth, with ROM telling him to figure out how to fight the Dire Wraiths without powers.
Yeah, easy for him to say!
Then, we see Torpedo back in Clairton, West Virginia, arriving home to find his children have been replaced with Dire Wraiths.
So far, Bill Mantlo has written every issue of ROM. For this one, Mark Gruenwald gets a scripter credit alongside Mantlo.