Issue(s): ROM #69
Cover Date: Aug 85
Title: "This world alive!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
P. Craig Russell - Inker
Michael Higgins - Assistant Editor
Mike Carlin - Editor

Review/plot:
ROM has been doing some Strange Tales-type encounters, and in one sense this issue breaks from that, but on the other hand, what's stranger than Ego the Living Planet?

ROM detects the signals of two Spaceknights, Scanner and Seeker, trapped in Ego's core. He fights his way through Ego's usual bio-defenses and anti-bodies...

...but eventually finds that Ego has been absorbing Dire Wraiths.

Unable to watch them suffer being digested in Ego's stomach, ROM banishes them to Limbo. This makes Ego mad.

But ROM's neutralizer is surprisingly effective against him...

...so he releases the Spaceknights and takes off.

The MCP lists Scanner and Seeker as appearing only in flashback in this issue, but i think that's a mistake. They're shown in present-tense scenes at the end of this issue. I believe this is their first present day appearance. We don't learn too much about them yet except that they were pursuing the Dire Wraiths that made the mistake of setting up base on Ego.

As usual when a normal-sized character encounters Ego, you don't really get to see the full majesty of the living planet, but Ditko and Russell, who i think have been gelling better as their run goes on, do a decent job.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• ROM engages in a little alliteration, thinking to himself that since ROM #65, he has "sought surcease from strife in the solicitude of space."
  
• ROM's armor takes some damage fighting Ego, which he said wouldn't have worried him if his humanity wasn't stolen in ROM #25 and destroyed in ROM #26-27.
  
• Ego was already dying during his clash with Galactus in Thor #228 when he faced the FF in Fantastic Four #235, who sent him into the sun. The sun actually wound up restoring him.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Seeker and Scanner, along with Raak and Unum (next 2 issues) and Pulsar from Annual 4, all first appeared in Rom Annual 2 from 1983.

From the "Out Of Scope" page -
ROM annual #2 (entirely a Tales of the Spaceknights)