ROM Revolution #1 Review

ROM Revolution #1

Storytellers: Chris Ryall, Christos Gage, Ron Joseph
Colors: Jay Fotos
Letters: Shawn Lee
Publisher: IDW

Reviewed By: Gregory Brothers

This week IDW kicked of their crossover event Revolution that is meant to brings all of their 80’s licensed comics together into the same shared universe. In addition to the core book, ROM, also had a companion title released with ROM Revolution #1. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the ROM franchise, he is a space knight who has been tasked with stopping a group called the Dire Wraiths from taking over different planets. After chasing the Dire Wraiths across the universe, since the beginning of time, his pursuit has recently brought him to Earth.

I have been enjoying the regular series ROM series that IDW has been putting out, as it has been a nice update of the classic series. What I really like about the beginning of ROM Revolution is that the writers give you a quick run down of what has been going on and who all of the major players are from the main series, so if you are a new reader you can be caught up quickly. We immediately see that ROM is locked in battle with what seems to be a new version of the Dire Wraiths. As ROM tries to figure out what this new threat is and how he could defeat them, we are sent back to six months ago, when this new threat first was born. The back-story is one that will be familiar to most comic book readers. A young idea filled scientist trying to do things to make the world a better place, whose ideas are then corrupted and out of what was suppose to help the world instead a threat is born.

One of the things that I always fear when a comic that I am reading regularly becomes part of a crossover event is that the character that I like will act differently or be written in a way that does not fit with their normal behaviour. Thankfully, the writers here keep the same nuisances that make ROM such a unique character. The self-doubt and questioning of one’s self helps to show the side of ROM that can not be shown because of the lack of facial expressions and shows the reader that ROM is much more human than he may appear. The use of this new threat will create obstacles that ROM has never had to deal with before, while the reveal of who is behind this main threat shows that even some of the longest tenured characters within the universe may not be able to be trusted. The fight scenes throughout give you an idea of how desperate ROM is to find answers and the way that the flashbacks are done gives you answers without seeming to force.

The art does an excellent job with the action sequences and flows nicely. I do think that sometimes the art is a little muddled and lacking detail that I think could have really enhanced the storytelling and in a few spots makes it hard to follow what comes next.

The Verdict:

Buy It! If you are following the Revolution event, ROM Revolution is a nice compliment to the Revolution series that is coming out at the same time. Events that happen in this issue help to explain some of ROMs actions in Revolution #1. The art is a little clunky at times, but the story shines through as ROM begins to adjust to this new threat. If you are in for Revolution, then grab this book as a nice compliment to the main series, but if you do not care about ROM you can most likely skip this issue.