Issue(s): ROM #53
Cover Date: Apr 84
Title: "Paranoia strikes deep!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Mel Candido & Bill Sienkiewicz - Inker

Review/plot:
A little bit of a disappointment here. In issues #51-52 we saw ROM publicly declare all out war on the Dire Wraiths and the Wraiths respond in kind. Since ROM's declaration went out on the news, the assumption was that at this point the public was aware of the menace. But it turns out that despite that broadcast, the public still doesn't quite believe it, and the government won't officially confirm anything. It feels like a bit of a back-tracking; almost like Mantlo had to back off from the intended plotline.

That said, after SHIELD deal with a major Dire Wraith attack on the Helicarrier...

...the US government is indeed convinced of the threat, and the president (Ronald Reagan in this issue, but you know, sliding timescale and all that) makes a difficult decision to reach out to the other governments of the world to unite against the Dire Wraith menace. They officially recognize ROM and Starshine and include them in their military plans.

As is said in the comic, even if the government doesn't want to acknowledge it, the Dire Wraiths are doing what they can to make their presence known.

Those are Thornoids, previously seen in ROM #7, in that scene above (thanks to the Marvel Appendix for noting that).

Despite what feels like a switcharoo to me, it's still a pretty interesting and unique issue with the government giving its full backing to ROM.

Bill Sienkiewicz co-inks this issue, giving the president's speech an extra bit of realism.

And this opening splash seems to be a tribute to the one from Avengers #93, a nice acknowledgement that the Dire Wraith threat is similar to the Skrulls' mission on Earth during the Kree-Skrull War.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: During the president's speech, it's mentioned that the government recently attempted to contact American super-hero groups to help fight the Dire Wraith menace but found that many super groups were missing. A footnote indicates that this is due to Secret Wars, but it's speculated that their disappearance was part of a Dire Wraith plot. We know that Henry Gyrich and Raymond Sikorsky met with the Vision to discuss the Wraith menace in Avengers #243, (before the other Avengers returned from Secret Wars), so ideally this issue takes place before that happens. The montage scene that goes along with this part of the speech shows the FF, the Avengers, the X-Men, and, oddly, the Defenders, who were of course not in Secret Wars.

It's not clear why they couldn't have been contacted (by publication date, the Secret Empire arc was wrapping up the same month as this issue, and that's when the Defenders received official government clearance. Nick Fury was part of that arc as well).

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The title is a lyric from Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth".

I know I keep beating this SECRET WARS horse, but you've got the FF "return" issue before everybody else's. Am I remembering it wrong or does SECRET WARS #12 show the FF being the last ones to leave Battleworld? That's how I remember it, and this issue itself has Sue observing all the other heroes appearing in Central Park before Reed and Johnny return. So why mix up the order? This isn't an example of events happening concurrently; there is a very clear order in which the heroes returned to Earth. These things happen in sequence, not simultaneously, so why ignore that sequence?

FF #265 and to a lesser extent Avengers #243 are a great coda to Secret Wars. They begin while the heroes are still away, spend some time dealing with that, and then show the heroes all returning. And Byrne and Stern did a good job coordinating so that the events of the FF and Avengers issues weave into each other.

The fact that the FF members on Battleplanet were the last to leave isn't really relevant. Sue is on the receiving end in FF #265 and sees everyone's return (except, maybe, the X-Men). So sequentially it works very well.

Most of the other books deal with Secret Wars very tangentially and then move on to whatever plotline was interrupted by it. You say it's not an example of the events happening concurrently, but it is. The return of the heroes is repeated in several books, and then they move on to their own stories. So a lot of events are happening simultaneously, and it's arbitrary which order you read them in.

But as i've mentioned, i look at where the story ends, and for FF #265 it's a few moments after the heroes all return. And more importantly, thematically, the FF story is directly related to Secret Wars. So i absolutely recommend that anyone putting down Secret Wars #12 pick up Fantastic Four #265 next.

(FYI, these comments are on the ROM #53 entry, which is a story that takes place during Secret Wars, while the heroes are away.)

Yes. It was intended for the relevant FF issue. However, that brings up another point. SCRET WARS is twelve issues taking place over a week. If you consider ROM and some other titles to take place during the events of SECRET WARS, why not intersperse them with the SECRET WARS issues? SECRET WARS has plenty of breaks where they could fit. The decision to list all of SECRET WARS in one entry is goes against the idea that anything could happen DURING that story.

Jay, i think your problem here is that you just don't like the idea that entries are taking place concurrently. Placing a story before or after Secret Wars and saying they take place at the same time isn't going against the idea that anything could happen during that story. There are a lot of characters in the Marvel universe and so a lot of stuff is going on at once. There's no need to interrupt a storyline to show what other characters are doing elsewhere so i try to do as little of that as possible. Secret Wars is happening. And during that same period, Rom #53 is happening. And part of FF #265 is happening. And part of Avengers #243 is happening. Then the heroes return and that's shown in several different books. It's not a direct sequence. The comics aren't structured that way and my site can't list them that way without breaking up the books into individual panels and i have no interest in doing that. So i make some choices about the order and describe what's going on. That requires a judgement call and i do it based on what i think is a good suggested reading order, keeping storylines intact and placing an entry where a story ends, trying to not "spoil" a story by having a reference to it elsewhere appearing before the actual story is placed. No doubt others may have a different preference. But in these cases we're talking about really fine tuning. My goal is to have ROM #53 circa Secret Wars, not halfway up the 1984 page before the heroes left for Battleplanet. I don't need to specify that this takes place specifically between Secret Wars #2-3 or whatever.