ROM / Micronauts #1

Writer: Christos Gage

Artist: Paolo Villanelli

Colorist: Alessandra Alexakis

Published by : IDW

There is something to say about having old properties from the 1980s - my childhood - converge into one comic after a pretty fun event that saw their first pairing. In this new mini-series, Gage and Villanelli bring back the awesome pairing of ROM, Space Knight, with the tiny adventures, the Micronauts to continue where they left off at the conclusion of the First Strike event that spanned IDW comics this pas fall.

In this series, we see, from the beginning, the re-teaming of our titular heroes’ enemies once more: D’Rge, Baron Karza and the Absence have decided to team up once more to try and take over the world. As far as plots go, it’s fun to see Gage go directly for the classic bad-guy plan of taking over the world. The fact that they all distrust each other is but semantics for these evil beings.

From our heroes perspective, the Micronauts are still on the trail of Baron Karza as they are looking to deal with him once and for all, but as they seek him out, they notice that the Baron is keeping new company in the wraiths and that means only one thing: they need ROM’s help.

The rest of the issue makes good use of the original set-up, but lends itself well to the future issues. After the MIcronauts find ROM, and ROM’s allies, they immediately confront D’Rge, the Absence and Baron Karza. As they confront each other, a massive fight erupts and we are left with some pretty dire consequences at the end. And these consequences serve as the set-up for the rest of the series.

For a first issue of a mini-series, Gage does a great job on all fronts: we get introduced to all the actors within the series - done through both the recap page and within the story. We get the antagonist’s motivations right from the beginning. We get some somewhat cheesy exposition that fits really well with the source material. And finally, we are treated to some fantastic art from Villanelli and Alexakis. Great start!