IDW - Rom #14

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage & Chris Ryall

Colours by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assist by: David Mariotte

Edited by: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Long Roads to Ruin Part 4

Art by: David Messina

Inks by: Michele Pasta

Battle Scars Part 4

Pencils by: Guy Dorian, Sr.

Inks by: Sal Buscema

Main Story Plot

Off on his own solo mission, Orphion has tracked down a group of Wraiths, led by Kagan Knight, who have just absorbed a large group of humans, and fed their energy to The Presence. Orphion soon attacks them, and kills the bulk of the Wraiths, before grabbing Knight to get information from him about what has happened here...

Later, Orphion reaches a fissure in the ground that Knight told him the energy was sent to where he realizes that something is below the surface. Elsewhere, D'rge and the Absence are monitoring Orphion and his discovery, but the Absence is not concerned for the Knights to learn about their secret, as it is almost too late now...

Under water, Rom and Livia fight off the Aquatic Dire Wraiths, and despite their numbers, are able to take them on head-to-head. Rom soon notices that the Wraiths appear to be acting as a hive mind, and are actually being controlled by Scylla, so he attacks her, causing them to become more disorganized. Scylla scuttles away, and in their confusion the Wraith army leaves too. Rom and Livia chase after Scylla to end her threat once and for all.

The Knights follow Scylla and find her with a giant creature sprouting it's tentacles from under the surface, the Presence, the Dire Wraith's god, and reveals that all the energy they have been stealing from humans and the Knights has been being fed into her, and is slowly strengthening her before she can awaken.

The Knights kill Scylla with their Neutralizer weapons, and they detect no more Wraiths in the area. The Presence's tentacles fade away, they are now determined to destroy this Wraith god before she can awaken fully, and conquer everything....

The two Knights then fly off, presumably to report their findings to Orphion.

Tales of the Solstar Order

"Battle Scars" Part Four

Fy-Laa, now a part of Verdulun-5's hive mind tries to convince Rom to join him, but his friend continues to refuse and even using his Neutralizer energy to free himself from the planet's bonds, and even frees Fy-Laa momentarily.

He tries to convince Fy-Laa to let him remove the Wraith from his body, but he states that it is too late, and he cannot survive without Verdulun-5 now, and asks Rom to destroy the infection and stop them from spreading further. Rom is unwilling to initially, but agrees that this is right. Fy-Laa requests that Rom never allow another planet to fall to the Wraiths again, and he agrees.

Rom flies off the planet and fires off his Neutralizer at full power at it, killing both Fy-Laa and the living planet of Verdulun-5. Rom flies away, now alone, having lost his oldest friend and one of the last remnants of his life before being a Space Knight...

Later, Fy-Laa's remaining armour is captured by the Dire Wraiths, and they intend to study it to discover how their enemies are so powerful....

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion

Fy-Laa Killed by Rom, Remains captured by Wraiths (Tales Only)

Dire Wraith

The Presence Incubating under the Earth's Crust

The Absence 

D'rge

Scylla Killed by Rom and Livia

Kagan Knight Probably Killed by Orphion

Knight's Assistants Killed by Orphion

Aquatic Wraith Army

Verdulun-5 Killed by Rom (Tales Only)

Wraith Sorcerer (Tales Only)

Human

Knight's Audience Absorbed into The Presence

Notes

• Sorry this issue, and the next few are so late, my previous comic supplier was a bit terrible...
• This is the final issue of the Rom solo series, which is set to be brought back as "Rom and the Micronauts" in December...Yay!
• Orphion is revealed to have gone on a mission to take down the Dire Wraiths on his own, rather than anything too reckless, like trying to blow up the planet again!
• Kagan Knight is shown to be alive still here! Last time we saw him, he was being turned into energy and fed into the Presence...dafuq?! Though considering Orphion's stance on Wraiths, he most likely killed him immediately after interrogating him....
• Orphion is able to extend his snake-tongue out of his armour...this is cool and disturbing! Also his tongue appears to be irradiated with Neutralizer energies....I guess he can lick the Wraiths to death!
• It's fully revealed now that "The Presence" is located just under the Earth's crust, and is able to absorb Neutralizer energies to power itself, meaning that had Orphion of succeeded in shooting the energy into Earth to blow it up as planned, then he would have just powered up this Wraith God instead.
• The identify of the Solstar Knight whose armour the Wraiths managed to capture is revealed to indeed be Fy-Laa, as has been long speculated.
• Rom's desire to not allow the Earth to be destroyed is also heavily hinted as being due to Fy-Laa requesting him to not let another world be destroyed like Verdulun-5 was.
• Despite the Sorcerers' claims, we know from the past issues that the Wraiths were never able to learn about the secrets of the Solstar Armour they had in their possession.