Issue(s): ROM #36, ROM #37
Cover Date: Nov-Dec 82
Title: "The sign of the victim is... Scarecrow!" / "In days of olde, when knights were bolde!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Ian Akin & Brian Garvey - Inker
Ann Nocenti & Al Milgrom - Editor

Review/plot:
ROM takes his leave of Atlantis. Sybil, the formerly blind human who is now an Atlantean, will never be seen again, which is pretty surprising, actually. With her unusual (human) origin and oracular abilities, you would think she would figure into some future Sub-Mariner stories in a minor way.

From there, ROM continues to deal with the sorcerous side of the Dire Wraith threat. He finds a town in England that has been hanging its children out like scarecrows, and it turns out to be infested with Dire Wraiths, led by another Wraith Witch.

The regular Wraiths make a specific distinction between Wraith magic and science, and note that magic is currently ascendant.

This is all leading somewhere really good. And in the meantime, Ian Akin & Brian Garvey's inks are doing wonders for Sal Buscema's pencils.

The Wraiths manage to escape through a portal with the boy that was trussed up as a scarecrow, and it makes ROM so mad that he actually kills, instead of just banishing, a couple of Wraiths.

He then tracks down the Wraiths, fighting his way through Hellhounds...

...and Watchwraiths.

He ultimately faces off against the Wraith High Witch in a medieval castle...

...and weirdly gets some helps from the spirits of English knights.

Meanwhile, Brandy Clark visits the grave of Starshine, and is visited by what appears to be her spirit. And the spirit transfers her light powers to Brandy.

She subsequently digs up the Starshine armor.

The knights may have been the product of ROM's overactive imagination, though. The kids he rescues say they didn't see them.

Thanks in part to the improved artwork due to the mystical subjects and a nice inking team, these issues are pretty good, and we're actually getting into a high point for the ROM series. One fun thing to do is to compare the look of the male wraiths to what they looked like in ROM #26 (towards the bottom of the entry)(and the difference there isn't because of the inker).

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: ROM is departing Atlantis at the start of this arc. I've included Doctor Dredd as a character appearing, since he is behind the appearance of Starshine's spirit.

References:

• ROM brings up the fact that half his humanity was destroyed in ROM #26.
  
• ROM used his Neutralizer to set Starshine's spirit free in ROM #29 (incorrectly footnoted as #26).
  
• ROM has been fighting Wraith High Witches since ROM #33.
  
• No footnote for this, but we previously saw a Watchwraith in ROM #16.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Possibly the first published art by Evan Dorkin appears on the letters page to #37.