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Power Man and Iron Fist Vol 1 73

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Never in all my travels have I met anyone as insane as you and your comrade!

—Rom

Appearing in "Wraith, Color or Creed"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Dire Wraiths
    • Polly Laughton (First appearance) (Appears to be vaporized)
    • various policemen (Unnamed)
    • various newsmen (Unnamed)

Other Characters:

Races and Species

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for "Wraith, Color or Creed"

Rom the Spaceknight has come to Earth and is vaporizing any humans he detects as being Dire Wraiths. When he arrives in Times Square one night, he scans a crowd of people and then uses a weapon to disintegrate six of them, including Solace's friend, Polly Laughton. While this is happening, Luke Cage and his lady, Harmony Young, Danny Rand and his date, Misty Knight, and her partner Colleen Wing are in the audience of a Broadway theatre watching Bob Diamond starring in the hit play, "The Day of the Dredlox." After the show, Colleen and Bob go to her apartment where she explains that she is reluctant to let herself care for anyone because she was hurt a lot when her ex-boyfriend, Scott, dumped her as soon as his old girlfriend crooked her little finger. Bob reassures Colleen that he truly cares for her and the two begin kissing. Neither of them are aware that Master Khan is using a crystal ball to observe them and the tiger's paw amulet that Bob wears around his neck.

Meanwhile, at the Gem Theater, Solace hires Luke Cage to find the "robot" that killed Polly and get him some revenge. In a phone conversation, Luke and Danny plan to start their search first thing the next morning but are unaware that Dire Wraiths hidden among the police and newsmen are busily destroying all evidence so that it can be dismissed as a hoax or a publicity stunt...one of their usual stories.

The next morning, the heroes are frustrated when they speak with Lt. Scarfe who tells them that there has been no substantiation of reports of people being killed the previous night. When Luke suspects a cover-up, a policeman named Neil suggests that Power Man's sources, a fancy-man and that long-haired kid, are unreliable. This angers Luke so much that he crushes the front of a police car on the way out and is surprised to notice that two policemen who witnessed his action doesn't seem too upset.

After hours of fruitless searching, Luke and Danny go to their Park Avenue office where Jennie Royce plays for them a videotape that had arrived that morning. The video was from Mister Fantastic who warns Luke that the creature for whom he is searching is Rom, a member of a hostile alien race called Spaceknights who are planning to soon attack Earth. Richards says that the Fantastic Four are going to face them but, in the meantime, he asks that Luke keep Rom away from their headquarters.

Later, in a Hispanic neighborhood, Rom lands, scans for enemies and, after finding none, uses his Translator to gain an understanding of Spanish from a local boy so that he can ask where to find the Fantastic Four. Before the boy can answer, Danny and Luke show up. After Danny attacks him with a powerful blow, Rom suspects that they might not be human so he uses his Energy Analyzer to learn their true natures. Seeing that they are human, Rom states that he has no wish to fight them but Luke doubts this because of all the people that he has killed. Rom explains that everyone he has appeared to destroy were really alien shape-shifters called Dire Wraiths and that his weapon actually banished them to Limbo instead of killing them. Luke is unconvinced and when Rom tries to leave the two heroes end up battling him, with Luke actually damaging Rom's rocket pods with one of his blows. When Luke realizes that Rom has been using far less than his full strength against Danny, he begins to believe that Rom may not really want to hurt them, but then Rom's attempt to fly away causes his rocket pods to explode, knocking Luke out. Misunderstanding the situation, Danny tries to use his Iron Fist against Rom but the alien Neutralizes it.

As Luke revives, he spots civilians approaching with a weird-looking gun. Luke warns them not to fire while Iron Fist is in the way but they ignore him and fire, but Rom shield Danny from the shot. Staggered, he mutters that it is a Wraith weapon that has the power to kill him. To prevent this, Luke dives at the attackers, causing their second shot to miss, and the people then attack him. Danny comes to his defense and kicks the gun away but it discharges as it flies through the air and a stray blast hits a nearby building, When debris falls on one of the attacking people, Danny is initially upset and Luke takes the opportunity to crush the weapon. Then, to their amazement, the body of the dead woman just crumbles away into ash. Realizing that the heroes have learned the truth, the surviving attackers turn into birds and fly away. Luke and Danny then promise to help Rom any way they can.

Notes

  • Power Man, Iron Fist and Rom continue their adventure in Rom #23. In that story, Luke and Danny realize that the taped message from the Fantastic Four, supposedly recorded in the Baxter Building, was actually a fake made by Dire Wraiths who had disguised themselves as the FF.
  • This issue's omniscient narrative describes D.W. Griffith as a "Film Student".
  • No letters page is published this issue.

Trivia

  • Showing this issue at the Gem Theatre: John Wayne Festival.

See Also

Links and References

References

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