WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Cable #1 by Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
As Kid Cable -- the younger, brighter version of Nathan Summers from a post-apocalyptic future -- carves his own niche on the newly created mutant nation-state of Krakoa, he quickly finds himself drawn into a rescue mission in the untamed wilds of the island.
After the island merged with one populated by savage monsters, portions of the island have the ravenous beasts run amuck, with a mutant child lost within the monsters' territory. As Cable leads a rescue expedition, he finds a surprise sword that brings in a fan-favorite cosmic Marvel team into the Dawn of X: the Spaceknights.
After Cable and Armor narrowly rescue the mutant child from a towering lion beast, they realize that the behemoth is attacking not of hunger and an invasion of its territory but because it is wounded and in deep pain. Upon closer inspection, the mutants discover that there is a sword embedded deep within the creature's paw and extract it. After the blade gives Cable a shock, he realizes that the sword once belonged to a Spaceknight who battled the monster and stabbed its paw before being killed by the creature.
ROM, the original Spaceknight, was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy and Bryan L. McCoy as the center of an intended action figure line for Parker Brothers before the toy company's acquisition by Hasbro. To help promote the toy line, Parker Brothers licensed the property to Marvel Comics to receive its own comic book series set within the Marvel Universe.
Launched in 1979, ROM Spaceknight was initially helmed by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, with the eponymous character designed for the comic book series by Bing McCoy. While the toyline ultimately fizzled out, the ROM comic was a Marvel staple throughout the '80s.
The Spaceknights were an ensemble of advanced cyborg warriors that defended their home planet Galador primarily from the Dire Wraiths that constantly attacked it, with the Spaceknights themselves volunteers that sacrificed their humanity in order to be fitted with the cybernetic armor until the Dire Wraith threat had been neutralized. After accidentally allowing the Dire Wraiths to escape across the cosmos centuries ago, ROM personally held himself responsible and pursued them all the way to Earth. While fighting the Dire Wraiths hiding on the planet, ROM had adventures with many iconic Marvel heroes and villains, participating in Secret Wars II and even appearing as a guest at Rick Jones' wedding.
Since Marvel's license to ROM with Parker Brothers and Hasbro expired, the character has been conspicuously absent from the Marvel Universe, and IDW Publishing currently publishes ROM comics. While Marvel still owns the characters and concepts that were created specifically for the series, ROM has since only ever been vaguely referred to as "the greatest Spaceknight," and his armored form has not been shown in years to work around the franchise's rights issues. The Spaceknights have appeared sporadically in the Marvel Universe following the license's expiration, but they always do so, without their champion.
While it is unknown if the Spaceknights' brief appearance in the first issue of Cable heralds a more prominent role for the cosmic defenders in the immediate future, it is a nice nod to a long-forgotten Marvel property caught in the middle of decades-old licensing issues. And while it is unlikely that ROM himself could make a triumphant return, the character's legacy has already spread to Dawn of X, with the blade seemingly set to become Cable's weapon of choice on Krakoa.