While ROM is out reuniting with lost Spaceknights, we see Rick Jones back on Earth having a little Beyonder encounter.
I’m not sure if Bill Mantlo was instructed to maintain a Rick Jones storyline—it doesn’t make a lot of sense, since ROM has no intention of ever returning to Earth and this is a book about ROM. Not about Rick.
Anyhow, Beyonder is exploring what happens when people are given exactly what they want and, of course, Rick wants to be a superhero and to be cured of cancer. (Not a rock star, though?)
He gets both.
Of course this gift backfires so that in the end Rick asks not to have powers anymore. Beyonder grants that wish, and keeps him cancer-free. He also gives Brandy Norwood, ROM’s human girlfriend, the power to go to space and be with ROM.
Wisely, ROM himself stays out of this comic.