ROM #60-66 (1984-1985): ROM wins the final Wraith War


Rick Jones seems to be a regular cast-member now, as ROM and Starshine fight the wraiths.  After a pretty horrific scene where the Dire Wraiths murder a train full of people stuck in the snow due to the Casket of Ancient Winters, they discover that the Dire Wraiths have a magical spell that will open a portal that will bring their homeworld access to Earth.

Side Note: This story is during the “Wraith War,” which crossed over into X-Men and Avengers. And the above panel crossed over with the Casket of Winters Event, from Thor, which crossed into a dozen non-Thor books. And so we see the beginning of the “event age,” which would really never end and would transform the world of comic books. And not necessarily for the better.


Lots of big battles, and ultimately Peter Gyrich gets involved because he doesn’t want aliens like ROM usurping his role as defender of the U.S.  ROM learns that Forge has a neutralizer and the tech specs were stolen by Gyrich and used to zap Storms powers (this happened in the X-Men book)—and the Dire Wraiths learn this, too, so they go after Forge again (they already attacked him in X-Men #187).  That brings in the X-Men, soon other heroes join in…

And Steve Ditko draws the crap out the entire MU.

And when I say entire, I mean entire…


It all ends with a giant battle featuring every Marvel hero.

They win.

ROM and the heroes defeat the Wraiths and this means ROM can now return to space.  Earth is free.  The book will change quite a bit after this.

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