If Marvel had ever done a What If issue for ROM I think it would have been over the final showdown for Earth in issue 65.And who knows maybe the cover would have looked something like this photoshop hatchet job I did tonight. For a very comprehensive and funny recap of ROM 65 "The Final Conflict" go to:
http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/08/spaceknight-saturdays-lets-get-this.html
Of course there are a lot of other What If themes from the ROM anthology that would have been interesting to see ( What If Brandy Clark had never become Starshine or What If FireFall had become Greatest of the Spaceknights ) but with out a doubt the events in issue 65 had the biggest impact on the mainstream Marvel Universe.
So if the Wraiths had gotten the drop on ROM and put him down, would Earth's heroes have been able to the task of thwarting the Wraith's "World Merge" apocalypse plan? A plan that would have brought Wraith World and it's black sun into Earth's orbit causing horrific environmental damage that would make BP & Exxon look like green energy companies. And don't forget, back in ROM # 27 Galactus ( "The big G" ) tried and failed to devour Wraithworld and it's sun and received an ass pounding as a result that would have made a stay in federal prison look like a trip to Disneyland. As always, if you have any thoughts on other ROM "What If" scenarios or on my cover concept please do share them.
Nice job on the cover - I've wondered that 'What If' before - definitely one worth exploring!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan, I'm not as good as you are with finding all the good source material your always updating your blog with so i gotta get creative make up stuff sometimes. In the case of my 911 posting i used photoshop to "splice" some art from one of my many political cartoons with the published art from a panel in a back issue or ROM. playing make pretend that terrorists are ending up in Limbo with the Dire Wraiths is part of that "coping mechanism" i mentioned to you before.
ReplyDeleteI love that cover mock-up! Even if it IS Ditko art ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've got lots of Rom What Ifs in my head:
What if Brandy had stayed married to Hybrid?
What if Brandy had remained Starshine?
What if Terminator had not stolen Rom's humanity?
What if Galador had fallen to the Wraiths 100 years ago?
What if the male wraiths had never fallen from favor?
What if all the Spaceknights had come to Earth?
What if the Torpedo had lived?
What if the Spaceknights mini-series had been any good?
But the only one I truly care about is:
What if Marvel still had the rights to Rom?
I had a feeling somebody was going to say something about the art. Unlike my zero issue concept this What If story line was based off a specific issue that was published and drawn by Dikto so i wanted to have some consistency. Those were some great What If ideas Siskoid, and funny too! and so true on the matter of Marvel having the rights to ROM being the most important "What If" concept. I just found out recently that Marvel can't even so much as reprint issue #73 of ROM for a Secret Wars omni bus publication because of not having the licensing rights. The whole thing about Brandy being sent to Galador and Cindy Adams getting her parents back doesn't tie in too importantly to the Marvel Universe but i'd say Rick Jone's terminal cancer getting cured certainly does. So that omni bus is going to be a bit incomplete to say nothing about the Micronauts issue that won't be part of it either for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteHow about...what if Dire Wraiths, and not Skrulls, were being the secret invasion? Or...What if Skrulls had conquered Earth, and Spaceknights were Earth's last hope?
ReplyDeleteHey Tony how does this slogan sound?
ReplyDeleteROM Spaceknight: "Hope you can believe in"
Not such a bad photoshop job. It gets the point across.
ReplyDeleteHi Darlene
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my blog. i just called it a hatchet job because in general i'm all about low expectations. but i appreciate the compliment just the same.
Oh how I wish to have seen an isue like that.
ReplyDeleteBut, as for a suggestion... what about:
WHAT IF?
ROM REMAINED HERALD OF GALACTUS!
That would have been similar to the Surfer's heraldship, what with both of the Silver heroes being peace-loving heroes and all.
Perhaps, ROM would lead Big-G to worlds felled by Wraiths?
Or, maybe ROM would use his neutralizer weaken Galactus by neutralizing his energies , thus forcing Galactus to swear to release ROM from service lest he perish.
As a side note; ROM did indeed appear in an issue of WHAT IF.
Issue # 36 (of vol 1) - and it dealt with the period of time where ROM helped NOVA (Richard Rider) end the battle with the Skrulls. Just before that Galactus storyline.
*Sigh*
I miss ROM.
I may have to dig out some issues this weekend to soak in the nostalgia.
Nice post!
~P~
Nice one ~P~! the whole thing about ROM as Galactus's herald being an ongoing thing. especially since that's a pretty obvious "What If" concept i and even Siskoid overlooked. If your talking about the What If issue that deals with richard ryder keeoing his Nova powers i used to have it but i don't seem to remember any flash back cameo appearnce of ROM. if your interested Siskoid has a review of that issue on his blog.
ReplyDelete