Issue(s): ROM #16
Cover Date: Mar 81
Title: "The Watchwraith!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Sal Buscema - Inker
Mary Jo Duffy & Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
ROM is ready to leave Clairton, West Virginia to hunt down Dire Wraiths in the rest of the world, but Brandy Clark convinces him to stick around a bit to make sure there are no more Wraiths in town. But when two kids trigger a "Watchwraith" robot that wanders around the town confused because its masters aren't around, ROM takes that as confirmation that the town is safe.

Brandy still convinces ROM to use Clairton as his base of operations. Brandy is sending confusing signals to ROM considering that she was ready to marry Steve Jackson last issue, and both ROM and Steve are noticing it.

Who wouldn't fight over this beauty?

Also in this issue, a reporter named Mack Killburn comes to town following up on the reporting that Ace O'Connor did on ROM before she died. Since the town is now behind ROM, they first refuse to help him, and then when Killburn sees ROM during the robot fight, they take his notepad and tell him they'll refuse to confirm anything he writes.

It's nice to see ROM being supported; it's cool how the tone of the book changes from the early issues where ROM was constantly misunderstood. But at the same time, you'd think the right thing to do here would be to ask Killburn to get ROM's real story out there. You'd think ROM would have no problem making the world aware of the Dire Wraith invasion. He certainly has no problem telling the people of Clairton about it over and over again; this issue starts with someone saying to ROM "Tell us again, ROM, about the dread Dire Wraiths -- and what we have to fear from them!". ROM spices things up this time by including some big-headed aliens in his recap.

ROM also helps the people of Clairton to create an analyzer based on his version.

A Saga of the Spaceknights back-up introduces Terminator, a Spaceknight who is not a Galadorian. He became a Spaceknight after his planet's people were all killed by a Wraithplague.

Watchwraith? Wraithplague? Do they drive their Wraithcars to the Wraithstore to buy their Wraithgroceries, too?

A minor oddity on this series is that both Mary Jo Duffy & Al Milgrom are listed as full editors, whereas usually there's one editor and one assistant title on a series at this point in time. Mantlo thanks the efforts of Duffy in this issues lettercol, though, suggesting that she was the one he dealt with regularly (but that actually might mean that she was playing the assistant editor role).

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• ROM is known to the larger world thanks to his perceived attack on Washington in ROM #10-12.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Terminator" appears again in issue #20 and I believe in a few other issues. Should he be tagged?

The Sagas of the Spaceknight take place 200 years ago, so i treat them like Tales of Asgard. I cover them as a bonus but don't tag characters appearing.