Issue(s): ROM #67
Cover Date: Jun 85
Title: "Lifesong"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
P. Craig Russell - Inker
Mike Carlin - Editor

Review/plot:
With the Wraithwar over, this series takes a turn to something like the early Strange Tales style comics where ROM travels from planet to planet in space and encounters unusual civilizations or other situations. It's actually a nice change of pace for the book and a good vehicle for Ditko's art (and the more abstract we get, the more i like P. Craig Russell's inks over Ditko's pencils).

In this story, ROM finds a world where the people are kept in cryogenic storage for a millennium at a time and only awoken for less than a day when the planet's twin suns are in the right position.

For action, ROM gets into a brief altercation with the planet's guardian, but he solves things by using his translator device to convince the guardian that he means no harm.

Minor question: back in ROM #23, ROM had to borrow a Skrull Saucer from the Fantastic Four in order to return to his homeworld. But after the Wraithwar, ROM seems capable of interstellar space flight without a ship, and that's actually how he arrived on Earth in issue #1 as well. I wonder what it was about his trip in issue #23 that required an spaceship.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Rick Jones is dying of cancer after exposing himself to gamma rays in an attempt at becoming a second Hulk in Hulk #269-270.
  
• Even with the Wraithwar over, ROM is unable to return to a human body because half of his humanity was destroyed during the fight with Galactus in ROM #26-27.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A