IDW - Rom and the Micronauts

Title: Gods and Monsters

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rom and the Micronauts confront Karza and D'rge, whilst the Absence is incubating both the Presence and the Entropy Cloud within himself, speeding up her rebirth. Rom takes on Karza alone, whilst the Micronauts attack D'rge. Using the Presence's power, D'rge sends energy to all the Wraiths on Earth, allowing them to reveal themselves and begin conquering the planet.

Nearby, Orphion and Livia detect the massive Wraith readings, so they decide to join Rom in his battle, leaving the Wraith guards at the facility to Camilla and Darby.

During Rom's fight with Karza, he attempts to retake his energy from the Baron using an Enerchange, shocking Karza, and the two fight over the Enerchanging process and are slowly fusing.

Livia and Orphion arrive, with Livia joining the Micronauts in attacking D'rge, whilst Orphion goes straight for the Absence, shooting into him to hit the Presence...however when he fired into him, he became exposed to the Entropy Cloud inside, corrupting his body. Knowing he is dying from the exposure, he grapples with D'rge and strangles him to death, just as his body fails too, and he dies...

The Micronauts and the Knights begin their attacks on the Presence when Karza appears behind them, having fully merged with Rom, seemingly in charge of the body, however Rom manages to show he has some sway too, and forces him to blast a hole into the Absence, opening a hole, and beginning to seep out the Entropy Cloud forcing him to help them. The group focus all their weapons fire on the hole, and force the Presence to remain inside the decaying body of the Absence, forcing her to also become over-exposed to the Entropy Cloud, killing her with explosive effect.

The group make it outside where Karza ejects Rom from his body, giving him back all his own energy. The Knights and Micronauts prepare to battle their enemy, when he suddenly displaces himself back to Microspace, declaring victory.

The team soon learn that the Wraiths across the planet are being subdued and killed due to their extra energy being removed with the Presence's death.

A while later, Orphion is buried on Earth with full Solstar honours. Rom bids goodbye to his tiny allies, who have learned that when Karza returned to Microspace he took full credit for getting rid of the Entropy Cloud, and is now being hailed as a god. The Micronauts are heading back home to reunited with Oz and the Time Travelers to try and stop Karza and his new regime...

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion Killed by Entropy Cloud Exposure

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron

Oziron Rael (Mentioned)

Dire Wraith

The Presence Killed by Entropy Cloud Exposure

The Absence Killed with The Presence

D'rge Killed by Orphion

UN President Wraith Defeated

NORAD Wraiths Defeated

Parisian Wraiths Defeated

Other Earth Wraiths Defeated

Other Microspace

Baron Karza

Microspacian Citizens (Footage)

Acroyear III Units (Footage)

Time Travelers (Mentioned)

Human

Camilla Byers

Darby Mason

UN Members

NORAD Workers

Parisian Citizens

Notes

• It turns out, despite his theory that he would survive exposure to the Entropy Cloud, due to his armour, that Rom would have died if he had of back in Microspace.
• So...for basically the main villain of the Rom series, D'rge dies from being strangled....I'm surprisingly okay with that!
• Orphion's death was sort of spoiled in the earlier released (not reviewed here yet) Unicron #0, where he was missing from the Solstar Order's ranks
• So...I was sort of right in my theory...Karza did end up betraying the Wraiths and helped to kill their Goddess, but he was forced to do so by Rom. So I sort of got it right I guess?
• AHHHH!!! Microtron zombie!!! I mean he clearly seemed to die before, so what other explanation is there to him coming back to the story?
• It can be assumed that Livia leaves Earth after the events of this story to return to Elonia for the events of Unicron #0. This is likely due to the Wraith infection on Earth being so minimal now.
• Oz gets a name-drop in this issue! Now if only he would have appeared...
• Aww what a happy ending (minus the Orphion dying part) it sure would be a pity is some evil demon planet was to come along and ruin it...
• Despite this being the ending of the Rom and Micronauts series', this really feels like an opening to another series for the Micronauts back in Microspace being set up.

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts #4

Title: Asymmetric Warfare

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Gold Goldstein

Plot

Orphion, Livia, Camilla and Darby are pinned down by a small army of Wraiths, including Axiom and Reptos, being powered up by sorcerers in South Korea. Luckily Rom and the Micronauts arrive and turn the tide of the fight by taking down the sorcerers, allowing the others to fight properly again. Axiom escapes to warn Karza and the others about this turn of events, whilst the heroes take out the remaining Wraiths. During the battle Rom is pointed towards the Reptos, who have Enerchanged with others to gain a larger size, but are left unstable due to the difference in power, meaning Rom needs to Enerchange with Karza to regain his own true powers.

Following the battle, the Earth team explain that Karza and the Wraiths have set up base on a Japanese island facility, Hashima Island, and have Japan on their side due to them infiltrating their government and portraying the Solstar Knights as murderers. Whilst Orphion shares his intel on the island with the Micronauts, Rom talks with Livia about his lessons in Enerchanging, and believes that they could use it to be able to safely remove their armour and resume their pre-war lives, however Livia doesn't want to do that, as she isn't the same person she was before they joined the war.

At Hashima Island, Axiom explains what has happened, and the Wraiths are starting to panic. Karza reveals that he has a plan to speed up their plans, but it requires The Absence to be "dedicated", angering the intangible Wraith to the point that he agrees, just to show his power...

Back at the staging ground, Acroyear approaches Livia and relates to her that he is also an organic being trapped inside armour, and that he would give anything to remove it and have a normal life, indicating towards Phen again. Livia picks up on what he's saying and points out to him that one's appearance doesn't matter, and she has witnessed many very different species fall in love in her travels across the universe, even a Solstar Knight and a Dire Wraith once fell in love. Rom's true ambition with removing his armour is that he hates it because it is a constant reminder of how his family and his innocence died.

After their preparations, the team head out to Hashima Island, where they split in two teams, Rom and the Micronauts use their smaller size to sneak into the base, whilst Orphion and the others create a big distraction outside.

Things begin well, but Axiom notices that Rom isn't amongst the others fighting so he hunts him down. The Micronauts manage to fight off Axiom, but Rom finishes him off by Enerchanging with him, stealing his size and seemingly sending him to Microspace as Karza did to him earlier. Rom is glad to have a full sized body again, but can feel his body is unstable, so the group rush off to confront Karza and get Rom's true power back, however as they reach his chamber, they see Karza has already succeeded...he has awoken The Presence...

Characters

Solstar Order

Rom

Livia

Orphion

Space Knight in Love (Flashback)

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear

Biotron

Microtron (Voice Only)

Baron Karza

Dire Wraith

The Absence

The Presence 

D'rge

Axiom Shunted to Microspace by Rom

Wraith Sorcerers

Wraith Soldiers Most Killed

Wraith Hawks

Reptos Army Most Self Destruct

Wraith Sorcerer in Love (Flashback)

Human

Darby Mason

Camilla Byers

Other

Fire Alien (Flashback)

Multi-Headed Alien (Flashback)

Torchbearer (Flashback)

Blind Alien (Flashback)

Rom's Family (Flashback) Dead

Notes

• I know it's the penultimate issue, and they had to gloss over the timeline between the end of Rom and this series, but I still find it amazing how quickly Livia and Orphion accept Camilla and Darby, considering the former has partial Dire Wraith powers, and the latter is wearing the dead arm of one of their former allies...
• Oh wow! It's Axiom! He hasn't been seen in like a year, wonder if he'll do a lo- oh...he pretty much dies at the end
• It's implied by his dialogue that "The Absence" is technically "An Absence" and is a position one can attain through a hard ritual, and implies to be a conduit for The Presence to be summoned through.
• Amongst the aliens who find love appears to be a Torchbearer (Camien religious warriors and the guards for the Mistress of Flame) and a blind alien (based on her eyes being covered, yet they still have a gun out)
• Microtron, despite seeming to be on death's door last issue is HEARD on the ship a few times this issue...we don't see him, so either this was a late addition just to show people he's fine before the series ends, or it's for a reveal that he's been modified in some way on the ship (maybe even as part of the ship now?)

IDW - Rom and the Micronauts #3

Title: Entropy

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colourist: Alessandra Alexakis

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rom and the Micronauts are attacked by the now Wraith infected Acroyear, but after a long fight, Phen manages to stall her would-be lover for a second, allowing Rom to use his Neutralizer on him, purging the Wraith-taint from his body.

At the Entropy-Cloud processing facility, Membros is showing the Absence his work, by using a combination of Wraith magic and Ministry of War technology to contain the cloud, allowing it to be transported to the Presence, allowing her to turn Earth into a new Wraith homeworld. 

Outside, the Ampzilla and Terraphant guards are attacked by Rom, but don't realize that a Hornetroid unit following him is a Trojan horse, just as the Micronauts blast themselves out of it and tear through the guards.

With the guards dead, the Micronauts attack the barrier around the facility, but cannot break it down...that is until Microtron bashes their ship into the wall, causing it to create a hole for the others to go through.

Inside the facility, Microtron scans the area and transmits his findings to Biotron, just as the Absence attacks him, phasing through his body and disabling the robot. The others arrive and start attacking the Absence, he begins to panic as he is needed for the conduit to send the cloud to Earth, but is rescued when Membros returns with an Antron and Lobros, upgraded with wraith-matter, who attack the Micronauts and Rom.

Biotron recovers Microtron's injured body and tells Rom to go after the machine collecting the cloud, since Microtron's data shows that he can destroy it, allowing the other Micronauts to fight their new enemies.

Rom quickly destroys the machine, but as a result, the collected cloud is unable to be stored anymore, and he is forced to fly away. Rom is willing to fight the remaining wraiths and Ministry members, since his armour should protect him from aging from the cloud's energies, however Membros just tells them to leave, as he plans to, since he is now planning to go into hiding since he has failed Karza, and now fears for his life.

The Micronauts escape, just as the cloud erupts, causing everything around it to age and decay. Larissa decides to take this opportunity to return to Earth, so they can take down Karza and his allies before they can rebuild their facility.

However, on Earth, Karza is informed of the facility's destruction by the Absence, but admits that he expected this to happen, so he built another device, ready to be sent back to Microspace, this time more heavily protected, despite this leaving their Earth forces limited.

Karza intends for the Micronauts to attack, seeing him as being open to attack, but he already hasd a plan to take them out once and for all...

Characters

Micronaut

Larissa

Phenolo-Phi

Acroyear Cured of Wraith-Taint by Rom

Biotron

Microtron Disabled by The Absence

Ministry of War

Baron Karza

Membros

Dire Wraith/Wraith Infected

The Absence

Lobros

Antron

Ampzilla Killed by Rom

Terraphant Three Killed by Acroyear

Hornetroid (Corpse Only) Dead

Wraith Creatures

Wraith Warriors

Wraith Sorcerers (Mentioned)

The Presence (Mentioned)

Other

Rom

Aged Corpses Dead

Notes

• As mentioned in the comic itself, Solstar Knights are able to burn out a Wraith infection using their weapons, as Orphion did to Camilla Byers in the Rom solo series. However in that case, a taint remained and gave her the biology of a Wraith still, despite remaining human...wonder if Acroyear will show any changes from this too?
• Following the removal of the Wraith taint, Acroyear never deploys his wings, which he normally does...coincidence?
• Is it just me, or does the picture above of the Micronaut's ship look like the armoured version of Voyager from Star Trek?
• It appears that the Lobros and Antron shown in this issue are not the same ones from Wrath of Karza, since he refers to the older ones as "the last versions".
• Okay, Karza is definitely one of the smartest villains out there. He figured there was a chance that the heroes could destroy his weapon, so he had another one (potentially more) built just in case.

IDW - Rom #9

Title: Reinforcements Part 5 

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage and Chris Ryall

Pencils and Inks by: Paolo Villanelli

Colours by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assist by: David Mariotte

Edited by: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

The Wraith sorcerers work with The Absence to complete their mission, despite the Space Knights having defeated all their troops above, but they have an unexpected ally, Rom is distracting the other Knights from attacking them...

Above, Orphion starts to charge his energies into the drill heading to the core of the planet, but Rom continues to fight him, despite being weakened himself. Livia is forced to fire on Rom by an order from Orphion, and knocks him out. Before anything else can happen though, The Presence appear and slams his arm through Livia's chest, draining her of her energy. He turns to Orphion, who tries to attack him, only to find him intangible. The fight continues to go bad for Orphion, but Rom suddenly appears, and fires his Neutralizer from inside The Presence, causing him to explode.

Orphion thanks Rom for his help, but goes back to charging the drill, whilst informing him that Livia is close to death now, and he has to choose, either save her life, or stop him from destroying the Earth.

Meanwhile, in Pawtucket, Darby has brought Ruan home with her, and her grandmother is surprisingly understanding about it (though still shocked that he's an alien). They explain that they are going to try and stop the Dire Wraiths from conquering the world, so she gives Darby a suitcase filled with weapons to help her out (she'd been stocking them up since the Transformers returned to Earth)

Rom tries to save Livia, but his energy is too depleted to heal her, Orphion continues to send his energy into the drill, unaware that the energies are being syphoned by the Wraiths below into a device.

Luckily, Rom is able to convince Orphion that saving his loyal and obedient partner is more important that rashly destroying a planet, which manages to convince Orphion of his mistake, so he helps Rom to heal Livia.

Livia wakes up, but is angry that they would "sacrifice" this world to the Wraiths just to save her. Orphion reveals that he hasn't given up on his plans to destroy Earth, but wishes to allow Rom a chance to prove to him why it should be saved instead...

Down below, the energies of Orphion's Neutralizer has killed the Sorcerers, and The Absence reforms following his fight with Rom. He is annoyed that their plan is not complete yet, but is also glad, since it is still within his sights, and he is still waiting for "The Presence" to awaken....

Characters

Solstar Order

Orphion

Rom

Livia

Dire Wraith

Ruan Sablik

The Absence

Acolyte Sorcerers Killed by Orphion's Energy

The Presence (Mentioned)

"Friends of our Enemies" Staff (Mentioned)

Human

Darby Mason

Grandma Gay-Lyn Mason

Grandpa Mason (Mentioned) Dead

Notes

• Orphion mentioned "The years of solitude" regarding Rom, this implies that his partner died a while ago. We know that the upcoming Shining Armour crossover is set about 200 years ago, so it's likely that we'll see the identity and death of his partner in that (Most likely the Cybertronian member)
• "The Absence" refers to him as the absence of a Wraith, and is shown to be impervious to most attacks, implying that he is either ghost-like, or simply projecting himself to Earth in some way.
• Grandma keeps a suitcase filled with armed guns in her house?! HIDE!!!!
• "The Absence" mentions someone else named "The Presence" who seems to be his opposite....wouldn't ALL of the Wraiths other than he be classed as "present" though...

IDW - Rom #8

Title: Reinforcements Part 4

Plot and Script by: Christos Gage and Chris Ryall

Pencils and Inks by: Paolo Villanelli

Colours by: Alessandra Alexakis

Letters by: Shawn Lee

Editorial Assist by: David Mariotte

Edited by: Carlos Guzman

Publisher: Ted Adams

Plot

Orphion speeds towards an oil rig, which is infested with Dire Wraiths, and goes about killing them all. Livia and Rom go after him, with Livia just tagging along, but only to accompany Rom. The Joes below are feeling down for being defeated by the Space Knights so easily, but decide to make a new plan with some "smaller friends" of theirs.

Orphion tears through the Wraiths on the oil rig, but makes sure not to damage the rig itself, as he's planning to use it to channel the neutralizing energies that he's going to use to destroy the Earth with, however before he can, Rom and Livia catch up to him.

Elsehwere, in Rhode Island, Darby and Ruan are sitting in a coffee shop, when Ruan soon reveals that he is a Dire Wraith, Darby understandably freaks out, and runs away. Ruan chases after her, leading Darby to fight back. However, Ruan soon reveals that he's not her enemy, he was a sleeper agent from birth, and has chosen to side with Earth against the other Dire Wraiths, and he needs her help to save the world.

Back at the oil rig, Rom tries to convince Orphion not to destroy the planet, but Orphion just sees him as a traitor and attacks him, ordering Livia to help him in attacking the traitor. Orphion keeps Rom busy, whilst sending Livia down below to clear out the remaining Wraiths. Rom and Orphion have a vicious fight, and Livia is overrun and isn't going to be able to defeat them. Orphion soon disables Rom, and prepares to destroy the planet.

Underneath, the Sorcerers are trying to power up "The Absence", but become concerned that the Space Knights are right above them. One of the Sorcerers, Kagan Knight, (the preacher from last issue) gives his life to "The Absence" and fully powers her. The Sorcerers want her to help them defeat the Knights, but she simply announces that there is no need, since the Knights are going to give them all they need, and kill each other in the process.

Characters

Solstar Order

Orphion

Rom

Livia

Dire Wraith

Ruan Sablik

The Absence

Kagan Knight Absorbed into The Absence

Sorcerers

Oil Rig Workers Most Killed by Orphion

GI Joe

Beach Head

Grunt

Scarlett (Mentioned)

Human

Darby Mason

The Mason Family (Mentioned) Killed by Wraiths

Notes

• Very quickly, since the last issue's release we've all seen the announcement of a new prequel event called "Rom vs Transformers: Shining Armour" in which a young Cybertronian is raised by the Solstar Order and a conflict arises from it. Last issue Orphion mentioned that when Dire Wraiths merged with Cybertronians it was bad news....I think we may now have a clue about what he was referring to.....
• Grunt's comments about "think smaller" leads me to believe that he's going to ask the Micronauts to help in taking down the Space Knights
• Oh no! Darby's sudden new friend Ruan is revealed to be a Dire Wraith! Shocker! (He is a good one though, so that's a shock!)
• On the point of Ruan though, his comments that he was raised as a human and was a sleeper agent could be also what "Cons4eva" from the MTMTE Revolution tie-in was too, and why he wasn't interested in the invasion of Earth. Just food for thought.
• The strange creature we've been seeing glimpses of and mentioned as "Legion" last issue is named as "The Absence" here....wonder what new name we'll be giving it next issue?