Monday, April 5, 2010

Something DIRE This Way Comes...

Lest anyone forget that one of the "Holy Trinity" of this site's blog-focus is;
ROM : SPACEKNIGHT


(the other two being Dr. Strange & Man-Thing, natch!)

I thought it important to share some new revelations that have been occurring in the ROM-centric universe over at Marvel as of late.

As I mentioned here just over a year ago (in this old post found [HERE]) it was hinted that a return of the DIRE WRAITHS; a race of shape-shifting aliens (and Rom's primary enemies) was imminent.

That first clue was made in the DARK REIGN FILES oneshot.


*click to make more eeevil*
Dark Reign Files : Know Your Foes

It's your basic database style reference comic; in this case showing the various baddies that are currently active in the Marvel Universe.

The pretense is that it is Norman Osborne's reference logistics about each of these villains, and what the powers/ threat level / allegiances / expendability for each may be.

Among the list is THIS entry:

DIRE WRAITHS!


Since then, many ROM fans have been on high-alert for a return of the Wraiths... a vigil that has finally paid off.

Two new revelations had been made in two of this months comic issues of SPIDER-WOMAN # 7 and FANTASTIC FOUR # 577.

First, in the last pages of Spider-Woman, as she wraps up her current mission (and arc...andthe series), her boss; Agent Brand of S.W.O.R.D. sends her a text message.

*click pic to read*
 
Spider-Woman v2 # 7
Brian Bendis (words), Alex Maleev (art)

I'll retype it here:

Agent Brand types:

"Are you ready for your next assignment?

I got Dire Wraiths.
I got Spaceknights.
I got a microverse outbreak.
I got a symbiote cult.

What are you in the mood for?"


How awesome is that?
Bendis seems like he was going to bring the Spaceknights and/or the Wraiths soon enough.

I had blogged exactly one year ago (seen [HERE]) about Bendis' deep desire to bring Rom back, but without the ability to do so he seems to have kept true to his deisre and offered forth this teaser of what he might have wanted to do.

However, with that being the final issue of the truncated series, such developments would either have to wait, or be shunted over to another title.
Or, perhaps, the events that S.W.O.R.D. was monitoring is the same that what was revealed in the pages of the new issue of FANTASTIC FOUR # 577

The Dire Wraiths appear to be one of 5 races who make up the "Universal Inhumans"!

* click pics  to make Celestial in size! *

The 5 races are the INHUMANS, The CENTAURIANS, the BADOON... 

...the KYMELLIANS and the DIRE WRAITHS, who all seem to be the direct result of genetic tampering by the KREE.
Never saw female Wraiths wearing clothes before... or with breasts.
That's gonna cause some nightmares right there, I can tell you.


The revelation is that these four other races will have their queens mate with (or rule alongside) the Inhuman King; Black Bolt, in order to forge a new union to a new destiny...




...take over the Earth!

Fantastic Four's creative team; Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dale Eaglesham (art) and Paul Mounts (colors) have been doing excellent work on that title, and (to this reader, anyway,) bringing it back to a level of grandeur of Lee/Kirby proportions.

According to the date-text in the back-up page (ipad type feature), there are currently 44,500 Dire Wraiths living in the Inhuman city-ship. 13,250 are female (the red ones) and 31,250 are male.
I don't see the typical white blobby "Pillsbury doughboy"-type of male Wraiths in the issue.
Perhaps the males have evolved into a new form?

Could that be what the blue hairy Wraith was?
Or maybe that basic white putrid form was done away with in some way?
(at the very least, it's safe to assume that any Wraith without breasts is probably be male. That still weirds me out a bit though.)

I guess we'll find out in subsequent issues.

While a return of ROM himself seems unlikely (due to red-tape of property rights as seen in this old post [HERE] - and some follow-up posts - all found at that link), we will definitely see more of the WRAITHS... and there is more likely of a chance to see SPACEKNIGHTS in our future as well.

Tamam Shud!
~P~

1 comments:

plok said...

Slight problem: the Badoon are older than the Kree, according to Gerber's Guardians of the Galaxy!

Yeah, it's a quibble.

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