Rom #0 Free Comic Book Day Review

A ROM With A View

Written by: Chris Ryall and Christos Gage
Art by: David Messina. Michele Pasta and Shawn Lee
Cover Price: Free
Release Date: May 7, 2016

This was one of the books I was looking forward to the most for Free Comic Day and it had nothing to do with ROM's former book at all.  Nope, it came down to three things...everyone seemed to think it was a big thing and I am a sheep, Christos Gage and David Messina.  So, I grabbed it to see the work of two of my favorite creators as well as being with the "in crowd".  As of this time, I have not seen an increase in my cool factor, but I did get to read a pretty cool (and free) reintroduction to a classic character.  Was it good?  Let's find out...


The issue opens with two police officers heading to what they believe is another "those damn kids" type of problems.  Things seem a little bigger than a "beach bonfire" when they are suddenly joined by a squad of some sort of military outfit.  I don't know about you guys, but I didn't trust these jarheads the minute I saw them.  Of course, one "person" is missing from all of this...ROM.  That is remedied almost immediately when ROM appears and that's when things get very interesting.

ROM goes from "take me to your leader" to a more quick ass approach and we see that not everything is as it seems.  Most of the military are not of this earth and are in fact, Dire Wraiths, who attack ROM with weapons that look like a David Cronenberg wet dream.  While there wasn't really enough setup for me to go ga ga over all of this, it looked great and gory enough to grab my attention big time.

Gage and Ryall then give us a little background when we are told that the Dire Wraiths have been on Earth for a long time and whether we all know it or not, we are at war with them.  The issue ends with ROM telling the reader that the war now goes through ROM and he's all out of bubblegum, his friend is dead tired and if it bleeds, we can kill it.  In other words, he's ready to kick some major Dire Wraith ass!

This is a very short introduction.  The story is followed by some character sketches that are cool enough, some ads for upcoming IDW books and a backend preview story of Action Man.  ROM is the main draw and it doesn't disappoint.  Gage and Ryall give us just enough to have me intrigued and I will be back when the #1 issue hits in July.

The best part here, though, is David Messina's art.  It's not actually the character model of ROM that Messina nails (he actually does, but ROM just isn't that exciting looking), but the Dire Wraiths and their weapons.  They are crazy looking and I want to see a whole lot more of them.  Luckily, they are ROM's all-time big bads and are in a war with him right now so we should see plenty of them going forward!  I will be around to see it all.

Bits and Pieces:

ROM is the return of a character that i have no history with whatsoever.  However, after reading this FCBD issue, I am interested in learning more and with Christos Gage and David Messina involved, I will be back for the beginning of the full series in July.  Since this issue was free, I can easily recommend to everyone and then you will see that I am right as usual.

8.5/10