Ruthless Ro-Man (comic story)
Ruthless Ro-Man is the second story in the Kaza’s Mate, Gwenna web comic.
Plot
The story opens with Kaza and Gwenna at home, getting dressed in formal clothes. They are picked up by Wimberley and driven to The Adventurers' Club, where The Commissioner is already waiting to tell them of a surprise.
Two of Gwenna’s friends from high school are here, Deena and Junior; Gwenna delightedly greets them and introduces them to Kaza. (In the background can be seen Jenny Everywhere and Sven Allestädes at one table and Herbie Popnecker at another.) They only begin to chat when the wall of the building explodes, revealing the Ruthless Ro-Man, a ray-gun wielding extraterrestrial who announces that he has returned for revenge upon Kaza.
After a brief inconclusive skirmish Kaza is knocked unconscious and Ro-Man makes off with Deena as bait, to lure Kaza and his allies into coming after him.
When Kaza recovers consciousness he agrees that allies are necessary but so is speed, so heads off to follow Ro-Man. Gwenna brings everyone up to speed on the situation, explaining that Ro-Man is an alien who tried to invade Earth several years earlier and was repelled by a gathering of heroes, the Space Patrol, and Stardust the Super-Wizard. She calls up a satellite view on her laptop and finds Ro-Man’s flying saucer only a kilometer away.
Wemberley drives Gwenna and Junior out to the spaceship, where they find a giant lizard. It spits acid and is bulletproof but the timely arrival of the superhero Dynamo keeps things from getting out of hand.
Dynamo explains that Ro-Man is an energy being, only riding the gorilla shaped alien body for convenience, and the helmet shields it from outside electromagnetic influences. Meanwhile Kaza has found Ro-Man’s former host Hezton and has been filled in on this as well; Ro-Man has moved on to possess Deena.
Ro-man attacks but Deena’s body is not accustomed to combat; at four to one odds Ro-Man is soon overwhelmed and attempts to move to another body. Dynamo’s superpowers disrupt Ro-Man’s energy form and Junior catches him in the discarded shielding helmet.
Hezton is helped back to the flying saucer, where his injuries can be tended, and the ship automatically leaves for home.
Continuity
Gwenna has light brown hair in this story, intermediate between the black hair she wore in The Serpent Sorceress and the red hair she would have in the rest of the series.
Surprisingly, Gwenna is addressed as “Miss Davis” by both Wimberly and Hopkirk, despite being married. It may be that “Mrs. Kaza” sounded silly and that Kaza doesn’t use the name Kyle Elsworth in the jungle – or perhaps their marital status had not been settled at this point.
The restaurant scene includes cameos of Jenny Everywhere, Sven Allestädes, and Herbie Popnecker, but none of them have any influence on the plot of the story.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story can be read on the Kaza's Mate, Gwenna webs starting here.
