Sorry about the lack of updates, people. Let’s just say that the past week has been interesting in the Chinese sense of the word. Lots of fun to read about, not so great to live.

Enough of my whining. As promised, I’m going to expound upon the supporting cast that would appear in Ultimate ROM: Spaceknight. Read on…

Brandy Clark and Steve Jackson.

Initially, the viewpoint of the revised Rom takes place from the perspective of this couple. Brandy and Steve have known each other for years and are engaged to be married. They’re a reasonably happy couple, being neither giggling idiots nor constantly at each other’s throats. It’s safe to say that they know each other fairly well, and are comfortable with their upcoming marriage.

Brandy is the first human to come to trust Rom, and that is partially due to her open, if slightly overly trusting nature. She’s no fool, but she does have a habit of expecting that people generally have good intentions. Brandy is in her late 20’s, and is an assistant at a clinic in Clairton. She’s reasonably happy with her job, but anticipates leaving it once she has children. Brandy is neither the doting fiancee, nor is she the liberated feminist. She is independant when she chooses to be, but not aloof to the needs of those around her.

Steve is far less trusting of Rom, as some of his personal ‘friends’ are killed by Rom early on in the story. At first he despises Rom, seeing him as nothing more than an alien robot whose only purpose is to destroy. To begin with, Rom gives Steve little reason to doubt this, other than the fact that Steve finds himself in the line of fire and not being killed by Rom. Steve is 30 and works at a mechanic’s shop owned by his father. His dad is getting ready to retire, and is letting Steve run the place so that he can pass the shop on. Steve’s primary buisness is repairing diesel trucks for a nearby coal mine, but he does a little buisness fixing some of the locals’ cars. Steve is in many ways your typical guy. He likes football, loves Brandy (his fiancee), and thinks Captain America is just about the best damn thing ever.

The best summation of these two would be average American, with a dash of redneck. Not so much as to be comical or a gross parody, but enough so that their behavior is appropriate for someone who has lived their entire lives in West Virginia. If you’re looking for stereotype busters here, keep looking, as these two people should be the point of reference for the reader. That is, until Rom becomes a comfortable character for the reader to deal with.

“Rachel Sweet”

Dr. Rachel Sweet is the human identity assumed by one of the higher ranking officers of the Dire. She is the first ranking corrupted Chitauri to become aware of Rom’s arrival on Earth, and as such it is her duty to organize the response. She knows that the odds are significantly against her, as Rom is in significant part the reason for their defeat against the Golden League. She fears him, and yet knows that her future, and the future of her crewmates rides on her ability to stop him. Fortunately for the corrupted Chitauri, Rachel is one of the most brilliant artificers their race has known. With regards to her own kind, she is loyal, trustworth, and implacable. Her fear of Rom is only matched by her hatred of him. She regards humans as test subjects, cannon fodder, or pests, depending on her mood or the circumstances.

Kinda light on the characters, if for no other reason than the fact that there’s a pretty high body count. After all, this is an intergalactic war that finds Earth as its latest battlefield. Next time, a brief synopsis of the first couple-a story arcs.

Kharas

Kharas was a close friend of Rom’s from before the assault of the wraith-fleet. They volunteered together to become spaceknights and were the first two to undergo the operation. Kharas appears only in the Saga of the Spaceknights portion of the first Rom story arc. It is his armor that Archie Striker is grafted into. While Rom was gifted with the single most devastating weapon Galador dared create, Kharas was bestowed with a gift no less significant. He weilds the living flame of Galador, the symbol of its noble spirit. To be more specific, while the Living Flame was bound to the armor, it was also bound to Kharas. This distinction would become important later in the original series. Kharas can wield the living flame not only as a weapon, he can also use it to create objects made of solid flame, and create gates between dimension. Kharas as a stabilizing force for Rom’s passions, and reminded him of his limitations.

Landra

Known by the codename “Starshine” in the original series, I prefer to drop that name. Perhaps her name could mean ‘Starshine’ or something like that. Landra, along with Rom and Kharas, were the first to volunteer to become spaceknights. Like Kharas, she was gifted with a symbol of Galador’s glory as a weapon to be used both by her, and her armor. She wields the living light of Galador, a symbol of the accumulated wisdom of their culture. The living light could be used as a weapon, and as a means of teleporting intergalactic distances. When the spaceknights were still together, she consoled Rom’s grief and helped to ease his emotional distress.

After the death of Rayna, Starshine’s devotion to Rom blossomed into love. Rom did not encourage it but neither did he discourage it. Secretly, he welcomed it for it gave him hope for a normal life once the threat of the wraith-fleets had been dealt with.

Terminator

Terminator is the only spaceknight who is not partially flesh. He was discovered on a Galadoran trade vessel that had been infected with the wraith plague. When he was found, he was the last one still alive, stubbornly clinging to life, fueled only by his hatred for those that had done that to him. As he lay dying, he begged to be allowed to fight against the corrupted Chitauri as a spaceknight. However, his body was so riddled with disease that he could not be grafted into spaceknight armor. So, as his body died, his mind patterns were transformed into spaceknight armor. Unfortunately, the wraith-plague destroys both the soul and the body. The mind that now inhabited the grim, black suit of spaceknight armor knew only one emotion, that of hatred for his enemy. He called himself “Terminator” clearly stating his intent, and no one living knew his true name. Terminator posessed the ability to project dark light, similar in some ways to the living light of Landra, but possessing only pure destructive power.

Terminator will later become involved, albeit reluctantly, in the greatest betrayal Galador has even known.

That’s it for now, kiddies. I hope you’re enjoying this, because I’m not quite done. There are still two more parts to read, both of which deal with the story of the first major arc of ROM: Spaceknight!

Similar Posts:

• Ultimate ROM 06 – Endgame
• Ultimate ROM 05 – Arc 01: Arrival
• Ultimate ROM: Spaceknight 02- Rom
• Fanboy Masturbation: A proposal to Marvel Comics to retell Rom: Spaceknight.
• Ultimate ROM: Spaceknight 03 – Dire Wraiths

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