ROM Spaceknight #1 (Marvel Comics, 1979)

A mysterious comet crashes into the Earth and brings the mysterious Spaceknight known as ROM to a small West Virginia town. After nearly being run over by a woman driving a sports car, ROM shoots her with a strange red beam from his Energy Analyzer. Though it looks menacing, the Energy Analyzer merely determines whether the terrified woman is a human being or an alien known as a Dire Wraith.

ROM flies away to the nearby town center and begins to shoot more people with his Energy Analyzer in search of the evil Dire Wraiths. When he discovers two of them disguised as humans, ROM blasts them with his Neutralizer, which incinerates the two alien beings. Naturally, the primitive 1970s townsfolk are terrified and think that ROM is trying to kill them all with a death ray, and call the National Guard.

ROM issue #1 shifts gears into a backstory called "The Legend of the Spaceknights" that tells the story of ROM and his people, known as Galadorians. 200 years ago, the space planet known as Galador was a technological paradise, but while exploring the stars, they were attacked by an evil alien force that summoned the Deathwing.

After taking heavy losses, the Galadorians turned many of their bravest citizens into cyborgs who attacked these new enemies called the Wraiths. Once again, the Deathwing appeared and killed pretty much everyone except the Galadorian known as ROM.

ROM followed the Dire Wraiths to Earth, and the story picks back up in the small West Virginia town, where ROM fights the National Guard after vaporizing more Wraiths who look like humans. He tosses their tanks and smashes their guns, but hurts no human beings. One of the arms soldiers pulls a Wraith gun on him, and ROM turns him into a pile of ash, setting off a greater conflict between the well-meaning space robot and the idiot humans who don't understand what he's doing.