Parker Brothers created the term Dire Wraiths to promote the original ROM toy, but Marvel developed all of the backstory and art behind them.

IDW Publishing developed a new appearance and backstory distinct from what had been previously created by Marvel, who still owns those aspects.

[4] The basic transitory form is stocky and troll-like in appearance, with red or brown skin, but otherwise roughly human-like in size and shape.

Two hundred years before the events of the main comic strip, the Dire Wraiths launched an offensive on Galador and the galaxy in which it was located.

However, upon arriving at Galador they found out that hundreds of young Galadorians had been transformed into cyborg warriors called Spaceknights, who repelled the attack.

The Dire Wraiths returned to Wraithworld, only to have Rom, the greatest of the Spaceknights, follow them there, intent on wiping them from the universe.

[5] Several decades prior to Rom's arrival on Earth, a large group of Wraiths landed near a small town in West Virginia.

Then he proceeded to travel around the world, looking for the rest, eventually leaving the protection of Clairton to the human superhero, the Torpedo.

This proved a major blunder in that the personnel were able to repel the attack and all doubt by the authorities as to the existence and threat of the alien species was removed.

The Wraith's Queen Volx and the Galadorians both are manipulated into setting this up, and the Annihilators find that Wraithworld has to be brought back to reality to balance out the unleashed Dark Sun.

When the Annihilators arrive there, the team is horrified to find out that after generations in Limbo, the surviving Dire Wraiths are a disease-ridden, half-starved people in constant anguish and most of them are suicidal.