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• Price: $4.99
• Pages: 40
• On Sale: April 4, 2018
• Writers: Christos Gage & Chris Ryall
  
• Artist: Guy Dorian Sr. & Sal Buscema
  
• Colorist: Alessandra Alexakis
• Publisher: IDW

From the Publisher – “Battle Scars!” This special re-presentation of Rom comic co-creator Sal Buscema’s storied return to the character is presented in a single issue for the first time, along with bonus art, an interview with Buscema, and other cool extras!

Our We Talk Comics WeView – Rom: Tales of the Solstar Order is a great excuse by IDW to bring comic book legend Sal Buscema in to work on their Rom series while allowing him to do things the way he wants. This is Chris Ryall’s way of trying to work in the same type of stories that Marvel’s Rom series had with their “Saga of the Spaceknights”, and I would suggest that it’s even more successful than those were. It’s nice to be able to read these backup stories combined, and it’s an interesting exercise in storytelling to read them and enjoy them as one full comic.

Christos Gage and Chris Ryall tell the story of Rom’s friend and fellow Knight Fy-Laa as they investigate a planet that was visited by Dire Wraiths. The story probably borrows a bit from an original series Star Trek episode “This Side of Paradise”, but that can be forgiven since it is a pretty common science fiction trope. I appreciate the characterization here and the story provides a nemesis that is different than one might expect for Rom. The story flows well and it isn’t obvious to a first time reader that this was originally broken up into multiple backup stories.

The real draw here is the inks by Sal Buscema over the pencils of Guy Dorian, Sr. Buscema brings a bit of history to the look of Rom and for my eyes, Rom looks great. I think the layouts and camera angles by Dorian are excellent, with several standing out as quite original and eye-popping. The colors by Alessandra Alexakis bring a shiny look to everything without dominating the original pencils and inks. It serves more to enhance then to take over in this case. It can’t be easy to tell a story with characters encased in armor, but the art is successful in providing depth to the story.

This special edition is chock full of interesting extras, such as script to art pages and an interview with Guy Dorian Sr. and Sal Buscema. I found that comparing the script to the pencilled pages to be very informative and the interview was fantastic. I always loved Rom back when he was with Marvel, so whenever I get a chance to see Rom look a little bit more “classic”, I’m always a fan. This book reads well and works nicely to add character to IDW’s Rom universe. This is a really nice package as a whole, and even if you have the original Rom issues with this as a back up story, I would still recommend grabbing this issue to read the combined story and get all those tasty extras.

Rating – 8/10 Very Fine (VF)

Review by Brett

Love the review? Hate the review? Disagree with me? I’m happy to talk comics on twitter @Brett_WeTalk

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