AGRICONAGRICON
Nature: Extraterrestrial planet, unrevealed
star system (but presumably in relative proximity to the Taloman system
and/or part of the "Golden Galaxy"), Milky Way Galaxy (presumably)
Environment: Life-sustaining biosphere
Gravity: Unrevealed (but presumably possessed a gravitational field in which it was
comfortable for humans to function)
Atmosphere: An unspecified combination of gases (likely mostly nitrogen and oxygen);
it has a vermilion sky
Natural Satellites: Unrevealed;
Agricon was only seen during the light of day, and no moons or planetary bodies, etc. were shown
Artificial Satellites: None known
Natives: Agriconians (presumably including Kyra and the rest of her unidentified family of farmers)
Population: Unrevealed (Agricon was
considered lost, but whether the Dire Wraiths had actually slain all of
the natives is unrevealed; see comments);
Capital City: It was only referred to as the "capitol city"
Government: Unspecified
Languages: Unrevealed
Monetary Unit: Unrevealed
Major Resources: Agriculture
Planetary Defense: Unrevealed, but apparently no match for the Dire Wraiths
Places of Interest: The "Capitol City" and/or the capitol building (see comments & the image immediately below)
Prominent Residents: Ray-Na
Visitors: Dire Wraiths (notably the Wraiths impersonating at least one farmer family; and the Wraiths holding Ray-Na hostage in the capitol building), Rom, Starshine (Landra), Terminator
First Appearance: Rom#14/2 (January, 1981)
History:
(Rom#14/2 (fb) - BTS) - Agricon was presumably part of the "Golden
Galaxy," the sector of space associated with Galador and its colonies
and neighboring/allied worlds.
(Rom#14/2 (fb) - BTS) <200 years ago (see comments)> - Some time after the Spaceknights departed Galador to pursue the Dire Wraiths, Ray-Na traveled to the planet Agricon.
(Rom#14/2 (fb) - BTS) - It is at least speculated
(notably by the Spaceknight Terminator) that the Dire Wraiths had
regrouped in the D'Barri Sector as a diversion to draw the Spaceknights
away from Agricon to facilitate their invasion of Agricon.
(Rom#14/2 (fb) - BTS) - Dire Wraiths invaded Agricon,
taking control of its capital and replacing a number of its people.
Ray-Na was taken hostage to be used to control Rom. A distress call was
either sent to the Spaceknights directly or via Galador.
Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.
"200 years ago"
The flashback in Rom#1 took place "200 years
ago," which would have been around 1780 A.D. when the story was
published in 1979.
The sliding timescale moves that date way forward,
and Rom#1 would be around 9 years before the stories currently being
published in the Marvel Universe (so like 2015 at the time this profile
was written in 2024 A.D.).
However, I would think that the date of
initial Galador-Dire Wraith conflict should stay fixed in time in the
late 18th century A.D. rather than being moved forward into the 1800s.
Or should it? Significant amounts of time have passed that having it stay fixed in time would make the initial conflict between the Wraiths and Galadorians 250 years ago, rather than 200 years ago...
Unless Ray-Na is native to
Agricon, no actual natives of Agricon were actually shown, as those
seen were actually Dire Wraith impostors.
However, as they had apparently slain and then taken
the form of locals, those forms seen presumably replicated the forms of
the actual locals, notably Kyra and her family.
Perhaps the capital city was also named Agricon, and
only the capital city and the surrounding areas were overwhelmed by the
Dire Wraiths.
A lot of stories show a city in conflict, and it is
assumed that the whole world is suffering the same fate...but a planet
is pretty huge, and it's hard to believe that a few Dire Wraiths on the
run could overwhelm a whole planet.
Or, perhaps Agricon was colonized, and there was
only a relatively small population extending out from the capital city?
Speaking of which, my understanding is that
"capitol" (with an "o") refers to the building(s) where the government
meets, while "capital" (with an "a") has many meanings, but in this
instance refers to the head/ruling location, specifically the capital
city.
But, it was a little harder to do the Google search
to learn that information back in 1981, as there was no internet. You'd
have had to check a physical dictionary.
Plus, you blame it an faulty translation of an extraterrestrial alien language.
OR...the whole city was the specific meeting place
of the government, so it was both the capital and the capitol?
I feel like Agricon may have been confirmed to be
Ray-Na's homeworld, but I did not see it in Agricon's nor Ray-Na's
appearances. I'll keep an eye out for it as I move on to my next
Spaceknight profile, Terminator, but if you know if/where it was
revealed, please let me know.
Further comments courtesy of Donald Campbell:
First,
when the remnants of the Dire Wraith warfleet had regrouped in the D'Barrian
satellite cluster, Rom, Starshine and Terminator destroyed the five Wraithships
that attacked them. Taking this as confirmation of reports of extensive Wraith
activity "on the D'Barri sector," Rom was about to propose that they
do something after attending to their own dead when another Spaceknight arrived
and told them that a distress call had just been received from Agricon. As the
trio flew off, Terminator mentioned that this skirmish was but a ploy to draw
them away from Agricon. The possibility that the attack was just a diversion to
enable the Dire Wraiths to overrun Agricon might be worth mentioning.
Second, the fact that Agricon was described as
"a simple farm world" has always reminded me of those planets in
science fiction continuities which are devoted exclusively to agricultural
production. For example, the Puppeteers from Larry Niven's novel Ringworld had
terraformed four planets into agricultural worlds to supply their homeworld
with the food that its massive population required, and farming/agricultural
colonies have been mentioned in the original Star Trek series. However, those planets
usually employed modern/advanced technological methods to raise enough crops to
supply other planets as well as their own needs. The idea that a farm world
would use shovels and pitchforks as the people manually worked the land would
seem to be insufficiently productive. Using such methods requires a lot more
manpower than using farm machines like tractors and combines. Then again,
writer Bill Mantlo may have used the term "farm world" simply to
refer to a planet (or colony) whose people had chosen to follow a simpler, less
technological "back to nature" way of life.
Third, as you mentioned, Agricon is yet another
example of a whole planet having only one region of any significance. And the
idea that what seems to have been no more than ten Dire Wraiths would be enough
to overrun the entire planet is patently ridiculous unless, as you said, it
only had a small (make that REALLY small) population.
Fourth, Agricon is one of only four planets in
the Golden Galaxy to be seen or even mentioned in the original Rom series. The
other three were Angelica, Galador and Thayri. All four planets were inhabited
by humanoids that were outwardly identical to pink-skinned humans from Earth. I
suspect that they were all meant to be members of the Galadorian race, but only
Angelica was speciffically stated to have been settled by people from Galador.
Fifth, while Rom did state that Agricon was
where his beloved Ray-Na resided, every other scene in which she and Rom
appeared was set on Galador itself. Also, the narration in Rom#4 refers to her
as "the raven-haired Ray-Na, a woman of his (Rom's) homeworld,
Galador." In a conversation that Rom remembered having had with her, he
spoke of Galador as "the world that has been our home and our
happiness" that might perish. This would seem to indicate that Ray-Na was
a Galadorian who lived on Galador with Rom and only moved to Agricon after Rom
chose to continue fighting the Wraith War.
Sixth, when the Spaceknight trio arrived on
Agricon, they were greeted by five natives, three children and two adult males.
After Terminator incinerated two of the children, Rom used his Energy Analyzer
to expose the two adults, and then Terminator killed one (by blasting a hole
through his body) while Rom banished the other adult. What happened to the
third child?
I had assumed that Terminator blasted all three of them, as they were
all together, and Terminator had told Starshine to stand away from them
before they blasted. Only two were shown on panel, but I had, again,
assumed that the third was just off panel; however, the narrative
specifically describes that the children were reduced to "twin heaps of
smoldering ash." Maybe the center one was blasted in half, and its
ashes split between the two piles?
In the scene
were Rom banishes the second adult to Limbo, we see the farmer caught
in Rom's neutralizer beam and then a second figure falling into Limbo.
I had ASSumed that this just showed the progression of the farmer
returning to its Wraith form as it fell into Limbo. But, maybe it
actually was two figures being banished?
Or Starshine -- or Rom or Terminator -- blasted the remaining "child" off panel.
Or, it was a typo, and there were three piles when Terminator blasted the "kids."
--Snood
Seventh, the five-page story in which Agricon
appeared is notable because it is the first (and possibly the only) story in
which the way by which Spaceknights travel across interstellar distances is
described as "warping through hyperspace." Yes, the Official Handbook
does mention that Rom's armor contains internal sensing devices that enables
him to locate "space warps" that can function as
"shortcuts" across vast interstellar distances, but that idea was
NEVER mentioned in the comics. As far as I know, every other story only shows
Spaceknights flying through space propelled by their rocket-pods. Well, except
for Starshine, who could transform herself and others into light which could
then travel across intergalactic distances nearly instantaneously...meaning
that that "light" somehow traveled VERY MUCH FASTER than
light...which is impossible.
Eighth, I agree that flying "to the capitol
city of Agricon" probably contains a misspelling of the word
"capital" and I can confirm that a physical dictionary does specify
what the different meanings of the two words are. However, while I wish that
the writer or the letterer or the editor had caught and fixed the error before
the issue went to print, it's not that big of a deal. After all, as confirmed
by my dictionary, the two words are actually pronounced the same, right? Plus,
the misspelling only occurred in an Omniscient Narrative caption and they seem
to be held to lower standards of accuracy than dialogue.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Agricon has no known connections to
 
The farmer family impersonated by the Dire Wraiths
appeared to be either a man (gray hair) and his wife (black hair) -- or
possibly the two adults were both men, as they were not shown clearly
-- and three children, apparently one boy and two girls. One of the children was identified as Kyra by the pony-tail-having girl out front. The same girl referred to Starshine as "the golden lady," and Starshiine was seen (in the next panel) replying to that comment with a hand on the brown-haired pony-tail-having girl (and the other hand on the boy), so I would assume the brown haired-girl is the one who made the comment, which would make the other girl (black hair on the edge of the image) Kyra The Wraiths planned to pose as the farmers -- presumably to get the Spaceknights to let their guard down -- and then spring some of trap. (Rom#14/2) - Rom, Starshine and Terminator arrived in a local farm, greeting the seeming farming family. With no evidence of Wraith presence, Rom and Starshine greeted the family and questioned them about a Wraith invasion, which the seemingly native family denied; however, Terminator immediately realized something was wrong, and he instructed Starshine to stand away from the seeming children, whom he subsequently slew with his eyebeams. |
 .. Starshine was upset by the seeming murder of innocents, but Terminator advised Rom to use his Analyzer on the remaining "adults." After this confirmed them to be Dire Wraiths, Terminator slew some them, while Rom banished the others to a branch of Limbo. --Rom#14/2 Note: While unconfirmed, it is logical to ASSume that the Dire Wraiths slew and impersonated the Agriconians, taking their place and assuming their roles to maintain the facade of normal life on Agricon to draw Rom and the other Spaceknights into a trap. I'm not sure how the Dire Wraiths could know from what direction Rom and his associates would approach (or why they wouldn't just head to the capital city first), so it would seem LIKELY that there were multiple farm settlements with Wraiths having slain and impersonated the residents. Perhaps they might have "sprung their trap" when the Spaceknights were discussing the fate of the "children," rather than waiting until their true nature had been exposed. |
images: (without ads)
Rom#14/2, pg. 3, panel 1 (Spaceknights arriving at farm);
panel 2 (Rom speaking to farmer impostors);
panel 3 (Starshine speaking to children impostors);
panel 4 (Terminator blasting children impostors);
panel 5 (Terminator pointing to adult impostors);
panel 6 (Rom's analyzer exposing adult impostors as Wraiths);
pg. 4, panel 3 (capital city/capitol building);
panel 5 (Wraiths holding Ray-Na hostage);
Appearances:
Rom#14/2 (January, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (artist),
Jo Duffy (editor); based in part on a story suggestion by Steve Grant
First posted: 11/21/2024
Last updated: 11/22/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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