IDW - Rom #5

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage & Chris Ryall

Pencils & Inks by: Paolo Villanelli

Colours by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assist by: David Mariotte

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Following the Revolution, Rom leaves Autobot City to continue his work fighting the remaining Dire Wraiths. However, two of the Joes, Beachhead and Grunt decide that they can't trust Earth's safety to an alien Space Knight and the Cybertronians, and decide to take care of things themselves...

Later, in Santa Barbara, a couple of elderly tourists are attacked by a pair of Dire Wraiths and turned into their new hosts, killing their pet dog in the process, soon they hail down a cab, and kill the driver to use as a new host as well. The duo plan to run amok across Earth since most of their leaders were killed during the Revolution, but are soon killed when their cab is blown up by a pair of shadowy figures...

Rom returns to Cooper's Mill, where he has made his new home, hiding from the human army troops guarding the scorched town, and returns to Darby Mason's house, where he left Camilla for her protection, whilst thinking over the events of the Revolution, and s convinced that the Cybertronians will need to be dealt with in the future...

Rom returns to the house, where he is shocked to discover that Camilla's Wraith mark has grown by a lot. Outside, the two shadowy figures appear and knock out the human guards, before detecting Rom and a Dire Wraith inside the Mason house.

Rom has finished scanning Camilla, and asks her to decide whether she wants to risk the Neutralizer to try and cure her, or kill her, but before she can decide, her inner Wraith takes over and forces her to attack Rom. the two of them fight it out, resulting in the duo tumbling outside, but Rom finds himself unwilling to Neutralize his friend, fearing that it'll kill her.

Soon however, Rom receives some unwanted back-up, when the two shadowy figures are revealed to be the newly arrived Space Knights, ready to kill the Wraith-Camilla, and plan to "wipe the planet clean".

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom, the Space Knight

Femme Knight

Snake Knight

Dire Wraith

Musician #1 Merges with Mr Tourist

Musician #2 Merges with Mrs Tourist

Camilla's Inner Wraith

Axiom (Flashback)

Joe Colton (Flashback) Dead

Wraith Leaders (Mentioned) Dead

GI Joe

Scarlett

Mainframe

Roadblock

Beachhead

Grunt

Human

Camilla Byers Inner Wraith taking control

Mr Tourist Turned into Wraith Host, Merges with Cab Driver

Mrs Tourist Turned into Wraith Host, Killed in Cab Explosion

Cab Driver Turned into Wraith Host, Killed in Cab Explosion

Cooper's Mill Soldier

Action Man

Soldier Jensen (Mentioned)

Darby Mason (Mentioned)

Jem (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Soundwave - Personnel Carrier

Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet

Metrotitan - Autobot City

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Other

Tourist Dog Killed by Tourist Wraiths

Notes

• Optimus and the others appear to be allowing Rom to deal with the remaining Dire Wraiths alone, but Rom is still considering Optimus and he others to be a threat to Earth, so he is willing to deal wit them in the future...YIKES!
• The Rogue Dire Wraith's plans don't really seem to make sense, they're just jumping from host to host for no apparent reason, not to grow their forces but just for the sake of it.
• Also, the Wraiths appear to make their hosts look younger after taking control of them.
• With the loss of the Ore-13 following Revolution, the Wraiths cannot trick Rom's Analyzer any more.
• Rom is now using Darby's old family home in Cooper's Mill as his base of operations, since it's been abandoned with the town destroyed
• The army guy guarding Cooper's Mill sings along to a song from Jem and the Holograms, seemingly placing her in the new IDW Hasbro-verse
• Wraiths have been shown to need the blood of others to grow wings, but Camilla does so without any.