Writer – Bill Mantlo
Artist – Steve Ditko
Inker – P. Craig Russell
Colours – Petra Scotese
Letters – Kevin Nowlan

The final issue of Rom sees our hero face off against Dominor for the final fate of Galador. The second generation of Spaceknights wish to destroy the planet and all that lives upon it and as the two leaders battle each other in a duel to the death – Seeker, Scanner and Trapper all fall in the line of duty. As the battle wears on, those rogue Spaceknights decide to enact their plan, much to their regret for Dominor built a failsafe that would destroy them should they ever choose to use that ‘nuclear’ option. For the most part, the battle is a draw, but Rom takes an incredible beating and almost dying at one point. Thankfully, the Spaceknights which were discovered to be heading home were signalled thanks to the efforts of Rom’s fallen companions and they arrive with Dominor lying dead. It is soon made known that Rom’s humanity had lain intact with Terminator’s corpse and so, with the entire Galadorian race wiped out except for Rom who is now human and the Spaceknights that still reside in their armour and will do so forevermore, Rom and Brandy get their happy ending. Bill Mantlo, Steve Ditko and P. Craig Russell end Rom’s longstanding series on a happy note and it works out perfectly, at least as long as you try not to think too hard about it. Much is said during the issue about breeding and birthing a new race of Galadorians by Dominor who wanted Brandy for his own. With that not working out, it now falls to Rom and Brandy to do so – to give birth to an entire race. Just how they expect to do that, just the two of them, would have been an interesting question to have answered for in later years in later Marvel comic books, that race does indeed exist. Were Rom and Brandy the so-called Adam and Eve of Galador, or did something else happen in the intervening years? It is a little mind-boggling to say the least, but again, if you just let the ending lie where it is without overthinking it, it worked out quite well, for those that lived that is. Overall, the series was quite fantastic with nearly every issue being quite solid both in the execution of story and art, it is just too bad that the ending chapter could not have been just a little bit stronger.

3.5 out of 5