Cosmic Book News

Dark ‘Knights:

Return to glory!

By Byron Brewer, Managing Editor

IKON – A IS SHE!

Rom was never one of my main books, but I always enjoyed the creation and mythos of the Spaceknights of Galador, and was glad to welcome them back to Marvel Cosmic in Annihilation.

Now, as we ready ourselves for a new era of wonderment by cosmic scribes Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with the mini The Annihilators (which many of us hope will become an ongoing), a new character has popped in: Ikon, a new Spaceknight, who is ready to lead the Annihilators into battle against … what? The Dire Wraiths?

We will look forward to that discovery in March.

The Spaceknights are an elite group of cyborg humanoids from the planet Galador, created to battle the Dire Wraiths. The idea of the Spaceknights was invented by the Parker Brothers toy company as part of the background for their toy character of Rom, but it was developed by Marvel in Rom the comic book. While Rom is gone, Marvel retains ownership of the Spaceknight characters today.

Galador was located in a galaxy known only as “The Golden Galaxy” and was a paradisaical planet, with very advanced technology. Galadorians seem to be identical to normal humans but with longer lifespans. Two hundred years ago, the planet was ruled by a man known as “The Prime Director” and its scientists had already developed a class of angel-like warriors using genetic engineering. However, when it was discovered that the evil shapeshifters known as the Dire Wraiths were invading their galaxy, the Galadorian government decided that it would be necessary to create cyborg warriors to defend the planet from them.

The Prime Director himself asked the people of Galador to volunteer, promising them that their “humanity” (the body parts that would need to be removed to implant the Spaceknights’ armor) would be preserved frozen and later restored to them after the threat had passed. At first the Galadorians were hesitant, until a young man called Rom became the first volunteer. Inspired by his example, a total of 1,000 Galadorians underwent the process, and were transformed into Spaceknights — each superstrong and capable of space flight, but each having a different special power or weapon as well as an individual form and codename. Rom was given the Neutralizer, Galador’s most powerful weapon, to use.

The Spaceknights formed a ring around the planet and waited for the Wraith space fleet to reach them. After a great battle, the Spaceknights managed to repel them. Rom chased them back to their home, Wraithworld, but this caused the Wraiths to flee in all directions, infiltrating various other planets. Feeling responsible, Rom swore he would not reclaim his humanity until every Wraith in the Marvel U. had been defeated. Once again, the other Spaceknights followed his example.

Two hundred years later, Rom arrived on Earth. There he battled an Earth human who had been given the Firefall armor by the Wraiths, but who soon died in battle. The Wraiths tried to replicate the Spaceknight armor, which led to the creation of the uniforms used by The Rocketeers and the Torpedoes. While fighting The Hybrid, Rom was banished to Limbo with his own Neutralizer. There he met Karas, who helped him return to Earth with his Living Fire, and warned him of trouble in Galador. Rom returned to his homeworld, where he ended up facing Mentus, Terminator and Galactus; his humanity was apparently destroyed in the process. He was then returned to Earth.

Starshine arrived on Earth soon after, following Rom, whom she had fallen in love with, but was soon killed by a Wraith. She was buried in Clairton, West Virginia, where Rom had set up his operations, but was soon dug up by Brandy Clark, a local girl who had fallen in love with Rom, and magically given her armor by a Wraith Sorcerer called Doctor Dredd. She was transformed back to normal not long afterwards by The Hybrid.

Meanwhile, a second generation of Spaceknights had been created in Galador to protect the planet. However, these came to feel superior to normal Galadorians, and began to hunt them all down. The now-human Brandy was transported to Galador by The Beyonder since she wanted to be reunited with Rom after all the Dire Wraiths in the universe lost their powers. Rom arrived in time to save Brandy but not the human Galadorians; nor could he prevent the destruction of all the Spaceknights’ humanities. With help from the original Spaceknights, the evil ones were destroyed. Rom then found his humanity — left for him to claim by Galactus — and became human again, staying on Galador with Brandy to repopulate the planet. The other Spaceknights left to protect the planet from afar and continue fighting evil across space.

In Jim Starlin’s Spaceknights limited series, we see that Rom and Brandy have two sons, Balin and Tristan, who have become part of a new generation of Spaceknights. Note that these characters are named after two legendary knights, Sir Balin and Sir Tristan.

The six-issue miniseries Annihilation has the Spaceknights from the Starlin miniseries (including one of Rom’s sons) being led by Blastaar. They were featured most prominently (albeit still briefly) in issue #5. In issue #6, doubts about the Spaceknights’ survival were expressed.

In Annihilation: Conquest Prologue, Galadorian ships and Spaceknights appear over the Kree home world Hala where the former-and-to be Star-Lord, Peter Quill, has arranged for them to demonstrate a new defense program known as “A-ware.” The lead Spaceknight is known as Daystar and interfaces with the Kree computer War-net by downloading the defense program from his gauntlet. A scenario is then run but things go haywire as the Kree Sentinel robots begin attacking Kree ships in orbit. Quill attempts to get the War-net rebooted but is stopped by Daystar. It becomes apparent that the Spaceknights have been infected with the Technovirus and are under the control of The Phalanx. Quill kills one of the Galadorians during an escape attempt but the others survive. It is revealed that several of the Spaceknights’ “Crusade Missions” have been assimilated into the Phalanx having lost contact with their home world while in Kree Space. This causes the Galadorians to send a Spaceknight as a part of the efforts to get past the energy barrier surrounding Kree Space, along with surviving members of the Kree as well as representatives from Spartoi, Badoon and Rigel.

It will be interesting to hear Ikon’s story and see what faces our team of cosmic heavyhitters carrying out our beloved Guardians’ legacy. Here is hoping for a long, long string of space-based stories by DnA to follow. (Just itching to see the Annihilators take on the Brood!)

Annihilators #1 hits stores in March!