Spaceknight Saturdays: 50

It's the pin-up filled, double sized 50th issue, and considering that 2 Annuals have also gone by, a full year of Spaceknight Saturdays!

A quick recap will show that the new creeptastic Dire Wraiths have taken over Clairton, killed and replaced all of Brandy's loved ones, including her parents and former fiancé Steve Jackson, and sent the two Spaceknights to a shadow dimension full of monsters. Meanwhile, "extra-terrestrial" have landing in the West Virginia town...

Oh and this is the day the Torpedo dies!
But that's all subterfuge, right? Gordon Ramsey is going to come along and finish that sentence for us and reveal that he's not REALLY going to die. And yeah, Brock Peters means that he's going to hang up his threads now that Rom's back in town, and live happily ever after with his wife and kids.

But WE know that the Dire Wraiths are still in hid midst. And he does too once the Wraiths shut down their illusion.
So the Torpedo ISN'T dead, after all! Of course, he isn'---
Did you just forget these are the most terrifying Dire Wraiths EVER? And here I'd actually forgotten that the first time I ever saw the Torpedo was in the Marvel Universe Handbook of the Dead.

Meanwhile, Rom and Starshine are trapped in the shadow realm, and Rom is under attack by shadow demons. And Starshine with the light eyes?
She couldn't care less. Man, these Spaceknights are prone to melancholy, eh?

And mean-meanwhile, the aliens that have come to Clairton are revealed to be...
Skrulls come to kill "the enemy". No, not screaming fanboys who don't like it when you screw with a sacred character like Mockingbird! That hasn't happened yet! Their enemy is the Dire Wraiths! And their first blood is the Wraith Torpedo, who falls at the hands of the Skrulls' crap gun.
Not quite the heroes of the piece, they also burn down the family's home just for their street cred.

Back in the shadow dimension, Starshine finally wakes up and in a blast of light turns her silly armor into a real warrior's form!
How can she do this? Spaceknight, that's how. And the shadows are history. Before Rom can make her dial it back a little, she teleports Rom and herself back to Clairton.
How? I told you: Spaceknight!!!

When they reach the Clarke homestead, they're caught in the Skrull-Wraith crossfire, but Brandy knows which side she's on.
Rom tells her she's being too harsh. She says she's not the one who swore the Spaceknight's oath to avoid killing and zaps him a good one as a warning. Rom puts his foot down and sends the remaining Wraiths to Limbo before she can execute them. You know, I think I've had this exact fight back when I was married.

So what are the Skrulls doing her anyway?
THEY created the Dire Wraiths! Yes, as it turns out, the Wraiths were their ugly cousins who dabbled in magic and eventually ran to the Dark Nebula where no one frowned upon their religion. The Wraiths are space Pilgrims. If the Pilgrims were all witches. The Skrulls are apparently seeking them out to rectify their old mistake. But since Rom is there, and they're due to appear in Fantastic Four or something, they think they've done enough for one trip, and leave.

BONUS WALT SIMONSON NEW STARSHINE SKETCH
From Marvel Age, just as his new concept drawing for the Wraiths was.

BONUS ASSISTANT EDITORS' TAKE ON ROM
Wondering what that weird image in the corner of the cover is? It was Assistant Editors' Month! Now you know why Rom's head looks like that. And they lived happily ever after.

Unless you read issue #51... Next week!