Spaceknight Saturdays: Rom Teams Up with Aquaman

Picking up where things left off in Rom #33, ish 34 has Rom in Maine with poor blind 13-year-old Sybil, raised by Wraiths to be turned into some kind of mystical thingamajig before being rescued by the Spaceknight. She kinda has a crush on him and doesn't want to be left alone in the swamps to fend for herself.

So... will Rom give in to his Jerry Lee Lewis impulses? Or will he find himself a way out of this budding "relationship"?

Well, first things first: As long as the girl is blind, she'll always be codependent, so Rom performs the world's first laser eye surgery.
But she still doesn't want to stay, so Rom torches her old place and flies off with her... direction: Nova Scotia... or perhaps Europe.
Isn't that a gorgeous ink job by Akin & Garvey?

The ocean is a treacherous place though. Rom detects a Dire Wraith presence just before a mutated electric eel attacks. A quick lobotomy is in order:
But he and Sybil still get zapped and fall towards the water.

Meanwhile, down in Atlantis, Namor the Sub-Mariner gets current that some kind of witches are despoiling Neptune's Cave, a sacred site to them... guess who? So he's in the area when the eel makes its move and saves Sybil, no problem. He summons a giant bubble fish to bring her down to his sunken kingdom after promising her to go help Rom.
Whoahhh, hold on! Can Namor do this kind of thing? Teaming up with another hero without having to fight one another first? That's not Marvel Universe standard procedure! Especially when we're talking about anti-hero Namor!

Oh yeah, and of course, there's the matter of talking to the fishes!
See that? "Finny friends"! I guess Bill Mantlo wanted to write about the REAL sea king!

While I was making my point, Rom was finding a coven of Wraith witches in the shape of deep sea monstrosities performing a dark ritual around a giant black pearl. They attack him with sheer grossness.
I'm especially disturbed by the sea cucumber hybrid that gets it in the face.
No worries though, because Rom goes HARDCORE on its ugly puss. Yes, people, Rom forces the Wraiths to cannibalize each other!!!
But he's not done. There's this coral-making monster to deal with as well.
Eventually, things do get a little overwhelming though, which is Aquaman's cue to swoop in.
Did I say Aquaman? Oops sorry. I guess I did mean Sub-Mariner. In the climax, the High Witch throws itself into the black pearl and completes the ritual sacrifice, unleashing an ancient sleeper from Neptune's Cave. Need more information? Go read Tales to Astonish #71 before Rom #35, the comic tells us. So that's a widely available issue, is it?

Comments

SallyP said…
Hee! Namor said "finny friends"!
H said…
If Aquaman had paid closer attention to his legal rights in those days, Namor would have never dared to utter the trademarked under Atlantean law phrase, "finny friends".

At least Namor didn't try to slip in a "Suffering Sardines!"
Siskoid said…
Some things are too sacred.