Rom: Dire Wraiths

Rom: Dire Wraiths is a superhero comic book miniseries by Chris Ryall, Luca Pizzari, Guy Dorian Sr and Sal Buscema. Based on Hasbro's Rom the Space Knight franchise and published by IDW Publishing, it follows the Dire Wraiths and acts as a spin-off prequel to the 2016—2017 Rom series, also being the final title in the Hasbro Comic Book Universe.

The series debuted on January 15, and concluded on December 30, 2020, following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the comic book industry.

Premise
The main story features NASA's Apollo 11 astronaut crew during the 1969 Moon landing, where they will confront the inhuman presence of Dire Wraiths waiting to conquer Earth.

A back-up story features what happened to Rom during those events.

Background
After IDW Publishing acquired the comic book licence of Rom and other Hasbro brands, the company announced in January 2016 the Reconstruction campaign to converge these franchises in the Hasbro Comic Book Universe, featuring the crossover events Revolution and First Strike.

This shared continuity, the Hasbro Comic Book Universe (HCBU), ended with Transformers: Unicron in November 2018.

Development
The series was revealed to be in development at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. The series contains three issues written by returning Rom writer Chris Ryall, with art by Luca Pizzari. A back-up story was written by Ryall, with art by returning artists Guy Dorian Sr. (pencils) and Sal Buscema (inks). Ryall said that "returning to Rom for any reason is a happy occasion. Being able to use this story as a way to celebrate the monumental journey of American heroes is even better".

The series debuted on January 15, 2020. Due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic over comic book industry, the third and final issue was delayed for December 30 the same year.