Issue(s): ROM #48
Cover Date: Nov 83
Title: "Renunciation! or: What happens when a Spaceknight's had enough! / Meanwhile, what of... Rom?" / "Massacre!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Ian Akin & Brian Garvey - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
We start with more on the female Dire Wraiths. A meeting between a group of males and a group of females occurs at the United Nations building. It turns out we have seen the females before; they're the ones that are usually wearing cloaks. Maybe that should have been obvious but after reading last issue i was wondering why we hadn't seen the females before.

It's firmly established here that the males are reliant on technology while the females prefer sorcery.

There is a discussion of Wraith history, wherein it was the males who suggested that the Wraiths leave their Dark Nebula to invade other worlds. The females view that as an error, confirmed in light of the attacks from the Spaceknights.

The meeting results in a coup, with the females taking over the direction of Earth's invasion.

The rest of issue #48 has ROM coming to terms with Brandy becoming a Spaceknight.

ROM and Starshine's discussion turns to Galador; ROM says that it's not necessarily the paradise he might have portrayed it as previously. I raise this because eventually Brandy will make it to Galador and have a little freak-out and call ROM a liar for telling her that Galador was flawless.

The original Starshine armor is so cute; it's so incongruous to see her angrily attacking a group of rapists.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• ROM's been upset since ROM #46 when he found out that Brandy had become a Spaceknight.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

fnord, I don't know if it has ever been established with complete certainty, but it's been suggested that the unnamed Dire Wraith Queen seen in this issue's flashback is Volx, the Queen who years later becomes an enemy of the New Warriors. There's a possible confirmation via the fact that in this flashback the Queen is the one, over the objections of the female Wraiths, authorizes the invasion of Galador. Years later, in the Annihilators miniseries, when the Wraiths who have been banished to Limbo encounter Volx, they angrily start throwing stones at her, stating "Begone! You brought us to this!" That would fit with the Queen being the one who authorized the war against Galador, which eventually led to the Wraiths' catastrophic defeat.

Not that it particularly matters, since you usually don't tag characters who appear in flashbacks :)

Anyway, in my own head canon, the female Wraiths have been around since the first issue of this series. The Wraiths were using plenty of sorcery, and the Most High One referred to the science vs sorcery debate in the Wraith community, so the females must have been present. I figure that there must have been a number of female Wraiths disguised as humans I those early issues.

Yes, it doesn't work perfectly, but Bill Mantlo was obviously making up all the stuff about the Dire Wraiths as he went along, and he changed his mind on more than one occasion about their exact nature.

I do wonder what happened to the Most High One, though. Mantlo seemingly forgot about him after issue #20. Once again, in my own mind at least, I figured the High One was probably among the Wraiths wiped out by the females in this issue.