IDW - Rom #10

Title: Interlude: A day in the life

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage and Chris Ryall

Art by: David Messina

Inks by: Michele Pasta

Colours by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assist by: David Mariotte

Edited by: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Following up on the conditions of their cease-fire, Rom takes the other two Space Knights into a Californian city, where they reveal themselves to see hoe regular humans act around them. Orphion expects the humans to attack them, but is shocked when they accept them, assuming them to be Autobots, and appreciating their work to protect their planet from evil aliens. The plan works, and both Orphion seems pleased with humanity (though hates being thought of as an Autobot) whilst Livia seems to be easing up on her cold exterior and is more playful, as she was when they were younger.

One of the humans asks if they are there to tackle evil aliens in the area, and points them towards a nearby church, where he says an alien is hiding.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, Darby and Ruan are out walking, and Darby s worried about what they are going to do about the Wraiths. Ruan speculates that Darby was able to resist being turned into a Wraith before because of her PTSD messing with her mind. She doesn't care though, as she is worried that she can't identify Wraihs like Ruan and Rom can, but Ruan reveals that the Wraiths have something that could help her, that was taken from a fallen Solstar Knight, but it'll be hard to get to it..

The Knights head to the church, where some kids also ask if they're there to get the alien too, adding to their suspicions. Inside the church, the Knights encounter a Dire Wraith disguised as a priest, who then reveals that he has been hiding on Earth for a long time, hiding as various religious leaders and a congregation members, claiming to bring the humans salvation when he kills them, and evokes his belief that his god will allow him to continue and condones this course of action.

In Seattle, Leonard Song has been called to Deepwave HQ to finalize the work on the Axiom armour, finally perfecting the technology to allow people to control machinery, much to Caleb Awan's delight.

Meanwhile in a Californian hospital, Camilla wakes up from her life-saving operation, seemingly in pain...

The three Knights fight the priest, who manages to get the upper hand on them by morphing into a never-before-seen giant monstrous Wraith form, who is able to resist a Neutralizer's blasts with ease, however when Rom and Livia combine their weapons, they are able to destroy him, but not before he claims that his god will "embrace" them and the planet soon....

Orphion s glad that they have defeated the powerful Wraith, and is now intrigued by why the Earth is making the Wraiths so powerful, but is also concerned that this is further proof that they should just destroy the planet after all...

Characters

Solstar Order

Orphion

Rom

Livia

Fy-Laa (Mentioned)

Fallen Solstar Knight (Mentioned) Dead

Dire Wraith

Ruan Sablik

"Freaker" Priest Killed by Solstar Knights

Caleb Awan

Axiom

Dave Dubosky (Mentioned)

Human

Darby Mason

Camilla Byers

Leonard Song

Jogger

Old Lady and her Dog

Californian Civilians

GI Joe (Mentioned)

Other

Benna K'atsema (Flashback only)

Reyn K'atsema (Flashback only)

The Transformers (Mentioned)

Notes

• This issue follows up on Rom's promise last issue to show Orphion and Livia why it is worth saving Earth
• Shockingly, all of the civilians seem to be very accepting of the aliens, even assuming they are Autobots, whom they have been shown to partially blame for the devastation on Earth and recent annexation of the world.
• This issue confirms that the short black haired  mother is Benna, and she is the one who would later be turned into a Wraith during the Annual story.
• Despite her imaginations, the three "Wraiths" seen by Darby are clearly not actually Dire Wraiths...Ruan would have told her if they were.
• This issue reveals to us that starting from issue 11 there will be a back-up story focusing on the other Solstar Knights!
• It's unclear whether Leonard Song knows that Caleb and Axiom are Dire Wraiths, as you would assume he'd not want to work with a known invading alien group
• Also, Deepwave have now continued their work on developing their cybernetic interfaces, as seen previously in the Rom: Revolution tie-in, but they apparently needed some outside human help with it.
• ALSO, didn't Caleb get absorbed into the Karza-Wraith hybrid? After which they all died, resulting in most of the other Wraiths going rogue on Earth since a large portion of their leaders were now gone?
• Rom still has Orphion's Neutralizer, most likely he'll keep it until his commander promises not to blow up the planet.