Long Roads to Ruin, Part 2
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 Continuing IDW's long tradition of having awesome covers depicting scenes that aren't actually in the issue. | |||||||||||||
| "Long Roads to Ruin, Part 2" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | IDW Publishing, Ted Adams | ||||||||||||
| Published in | ROM #12 | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 16, 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | June 2017 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Chris Ryall & Christos Gage | ||||||||||||
| Pencils by | David Messina | ||||||||||||
| Inks by | Michele Pasta | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Alessandra Alexakis | ||||||||||||
| Letters by | Shawn Lee | ||||||||||||
| Editor | Carlos Guzman | ||||||||||||
| Editorial assistant | David Mariotte | ||||||||||||
Rom and the other two Knights face off against a dire new threat.
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
On the Italian sea, a fishing boat makes a small detour to avoid rough waters. A wise decision as below, Rom and Livia fight for their lives from the tentacles of Scylla, a prospect made all the more difficult by the Dire Wraith draining the energy from their armors. Summoning their willpower and energy reserves, Rom and Livia are able to break free. Though Rom opts for a calmer approach, Livia is as impulsive as ever tracking the Wraith signature to its source and firing her Neutralizer at maximum power to blast away undersea rocks.
Miles away in Providence, Rhode Island, Darby Mason has returned to her grandmother's house with the severed arm of a deceased Space Knight. Knowing the Wraiths will come for the arm, she prepares to flee with it before she endangers her grandmother. As she slips on the gauntlet, it reconfigures itself to fit over her hand. Her grandmother soon enters and Darby proves able to activate the Analyzer which confirms her grandmother is indeed human. Though a myriad of questions fly into Darby's head, for the first time she is able to distinguish between friend and foe.
Blundering right into a Wraith trap, Livia discovers that the whirlpool of Charybdis proves just as capable of draining her armor's energy with the whirlpool extending Wraith tentacles and pulling her in. Telling Rom to flee and contact Orphion, Livia disappears beneath the murky depths. Though Rom prepares to follow, he is beset by Scylla now having assumed a monstrous form wishing to consume him. Though Rom offers to spare Scylla if she steps aside, the two soon come to blows. Before Rom can fire his Neutralizer however, Scylla spews forth ink that clings to his armor and disables it sending him adrift in the ocean.
Though unable to burn off all the ink at once, Rom discovers he can focus the armor defences on one spot and slowly burns the contaminant off. Unsure of how much time has passed, Rom flies off to try and save Livia. Far from being grateful, Livia informs him the tentacles are sprouting from the crust of Earth itself. Reiterating her belief that Earth cannot be saved, she insists that Rom find Orphion and the two destroy the planet. Refusing to leave her behind, Rom begins ripping the tentacles apart and begs Charybdis to take him in Livia's place. Livia's energy has been drained too much however and, telling Rom to avenge her, the lights in her eyes go out.
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Space Knights | Dire Wraiths | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
"Ever...the sentimental fool. If I could not make a warrior of you in life...then perhaps...I will in death. Avenge me, Rom...avenge me."
- —Livia's (last?) words.
Notes[edit | edit source]
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- Now that we've seen it in colour, that severed Space Knight arm looks suspiciously like Fy-Laa's doesn't it? But we've been made fools of before by jumping the gun on speculations so we're not commenting on it just yet.
- Livia repeats her and Orphion's belief that Earth is beyond help and must be destroyed. She also tells Rom to reunite with Orphion, who went off on his own last issue, and help him destroy Earth.
- In her internal monologue, Darby mentions Ruan Sablik's death which occurred last issue.
Real world references[edit | edit source]
- Continuing last issue introducing creatures from The Odyssey, Rom refers to Scylla's ink as "Stygian blackness", a reference to the River Styx.
- Darby ponders the Dire Wraiths disguising themselves as Girl Scouts.
Other notes[edit | edit source]
- Charybdis is still unnamed.
- Space Knight armor (or just a severed arm) is capable of automatically reconfiguring itself whereas in previous issues, the armor's pilot had to think of what to shift the armor into.
