Issue(s): ROM #30, ROM #31, ROM #32
Cover Date: Jun-Jul 82
Title: "West Virginia reel" / "Choosing sides!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker
Al Milgrom / Al Milgrom & Ann Nocenti / Ann Nocenti - Editor

Review/plot:
ROM is ready to move on from Clairton to pursue the Dire Wraith threat elsewhere. That means leaving Torpedo in charge of protecting the homefront, and last time that was the case he didn't do so great a job. This time, ROM charges up his visors so that he can detect Wraiths.

Unfortunately, almost seconds after ROM departs, Torpedo runs into Hybrid. And just being able to see him isn't enough to help with that.

Torpedo just isn't cut out for this job.

We'll come back to Hybrid further down.

The main story for issue #30 has ROM facing off against the alien Metal Master, not seen since 1963. He's been using metal spiders to collect metal...

...and when he detects ROM, he sends the spiders after him.

When ROM hears about the Hulk again from Metal Master, he again wonders if he'll ever get to meet the guy.

The Metal Master is defeated when he tries to take control of ROM's cyborg body. A combination of ROM's metal being unearthly and it being fused with living cells causes the Master's control to fail and leaves him catatonic.

Next, ROM is duped into thinking that criminals held in jails are actually slaves, so he attacks a prison in order to free the occupants. At the same time, Mystique, Rogue, and Destiny have infiltrated the prison in an attempt to rescue the Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro, who were recently transferred there.

After learning of his error, ROM switches sides.

Mystique abandons her male team members...

...leading Rogue to remark that they should rename themselves the Sisterhood. ROM chases after Mystique's team, leaving the prison courtyard a shambles. The Blob must regain consciousness and escape soon afterward, because we'll see him soon in Marvel Fanfare #7.

The Sisterhood hole up in an old mansion that turns out to be where Hybrid has been recuperating.

ROM catches up with the mutants and teams-up with them to defeat Hybrid.

Mystique's plan was to let ROM get killed fighting the wraith horror, but earlier Rogue attempted to absorb ROM's powers, and in doing so she became aware of his innate goodness.

It's a turning point for Rogue, surprising since it's not written by Chris Claremont. I wonder if Mantlo was aware of Claremont's plans or if this was his own decision. In any event, the Sisterhood end up helping ROM. They were also a little freaked out by how Hybrid handled the other escaped convicts.

After Hybrid is banished to Limbo, the arc ends with ROM and Rogue longingly thinking of each other, which is kind of weird.

The scripting is pretty bad, but the plotting isn't terrible, and there's nothing wrong with Sal Buscema's art.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This has to take place after Avalanche's encounter with the Hulk in Hulk #263. But it has to take place before the Blob's encounter with the Hulk in Marvel Fanfare #7, which occurs between Hulk #268-269. Due to that, this has been pushed back to a little earlier than it's publication date.

References:

• Starshine died in ROM #29 in part because she didn't use her analyzer vision on ROM's human friends, and Steve Jackson tells Torpedo to never take that chance.
  
• ROM lost his humanity in ROM #26, and therefore thinks he can't pursue his love of Brandy Clark. Later, Hybrid tries to trick ROM by taking his human form, but ROM isn't fooled since he knows that his human body was destroyed.
  
• The Metal Master appeared in Hulk #6.
  
• Hybrid was last seen in ROM #17.
  
• The male members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were captured by the Avengers in Avengers annual #10.
  
• Avalanche subsequently escaped, only to face the Hulk and get his arms crushed in Hulk #263. He's been returned to imprisonment with the rest of his team.
  
• ROM compares Pyro's control of flame to that of Firefall, a Spaceknight we met in ROM #19.
  
• ROM's analyzer shows that the Brotherhood are mutants, like the X-Men he met in ROM #17-18.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A