Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Rom spaceknight, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

Rom spaceknight #54
I just got done watching the premier of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D yesterday. I gotta say I deliberately avoided all the hype around it in fear it might end up being like some "CW ish" kinda sitcom which I'm completely burnt out on especially with what a bore Arrow turned out to be. But after having seen it it's anything but! It was funny with out being campy, the action was good as were the characters (for the most part) and story line. There was no shortage of  references made to both the recent Marvel films in the last few years as well as to the actual Marvel comic book narratives related to S.H.I.E.L.D. And they even brought back agent Colson with a fairly plausible explanation. Maybe Marvel should just co-produce movies and TV shows it seems to be the only thing they're good at these days. All of which got me thinking of how well S.H.I.E.L.D was interwoven into the ROM series which is something I blogged about a while back:
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2012/05/sheild-infiltrated.html

The King of Thessely gave me a heads up about a Fred Hembeck Torpedo sketch card for sale on ebay. As you all know I'm not a huge Hembeck fan but I thought both sketch cards together in one scene look kinda cool none the less. And in general I thought it was cool that Hembeck even did a sketch card of this somewhat forgotten hero of the 80s.


One last thing here I wanted to include in this posting. You remember the Eagle Moss Publications origins one shot magazines that go with those Marvel superhero lead figurines I posted about last week right? Well the issue for the Jack of Hearts figurine has an actual two page spread about Bill Mantlo's career and even covers that dreadful day of the accident. The whole thing is way too much copy for a blog posting but it's stuff Bill Mantlo fans mostly know already. However as you see here I added the last segment of it here which I enjoyed the most.

22 comments:

  1. I always think it's great that Bill hasn't been forgotten by the modern media. Just the other day my brother started talking about ROM, and how great it would be to see his comic out there again. Someday I hope our kids do the same.
    I haven't watched S.H.I.E.L.D. yet. It's on my DVR until I can make sure I'll stay awake long enough to watch all of it, but I'm glad to hear I won't be disappointed in it. I wasn't much worried, though. Whedon hasn't let me down much since his early Buffy days.

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  2. great stuff...I just cant take those sketches seriously....

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    1. well fortunately this recent Hembeck stuff that i posted is the exception and not the rule when it comes to the type of fan art i post. much to your delight i imagine : )

      hasn't anyone out there who follows this blog seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D yet?

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    2. Hey Shlomo I watched SHIELD and was intrigued enough that I'm going to follow the series; it'll probably be my most anticipated show of the week since Dexter & Newsroom are over. I like Ming Na Wen, and the character of Agent Coulson...did you guys see the short movie on a Marvel DVD, don't remember which, where he stops into a convenience store? That was awesome. My wife has watched & loved every Joss Whedon series but won't get around to seeing SHIELD until next week probably; I told her I think she's going to enjoy it. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is something we've kept up with together, for fun. Oh, and yesterday we watched SyFy's Fangasm premiere together; pretty goofy show, but she got a kick out of the George Takei segments as much as I loved Stan Lee's. :-)

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    3. Until your post I hadn't made the mental connection yet with how tightly related a burgeoning popularity of SHIELD could be to ROM. Thanks for the reminder, it'd be alright if the wider web gets drawn here because of it.

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    4. thanks for coming by Gary i'm glad you liked this posting. as you can see it's not the first time i've been inspired to write about the Rom/SHIELD connection. let's up that show continues to deliver and by the way i was watching DEXTER too that was a great show.

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  3. I entered the Jim Shooter web page the other day and I could not believe it; he keeps talking shit about Mantlo. Came across an article where he tried to demonstrate that Mantlo plagiarized some HULK story. What kind of man does that with a person who cannot defend himself?

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    1. One who's ego is bigger and more insecure than his compassion.

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    2. Bruce, i saw some stuff on shooter's blog site for postings back in 2011 about Bill and plagiarism and then there was some other stuff with letters about an original art page distribution policy at Marvel between writers and artists. is that the stuff you were talking about?

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  4. hey folks i can't believe i'm just realizing this for the first time. according to that portion of the two page spread on Bill Mantlo's career that i posted it turns out that all but issue 59 of The Micronauts (Vol. 1) was written by Mantlo. 59 was written by Peter Gillis i read it many years ago but i remember the story well it was really good. it was something of an introspective issue for the characters as they get set to leave Homeworld: http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/micronauts_59.shtml

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  5. Hmmm- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    I was not looking forward to it- at all. Not in a bad way- just in an indifferent one. I've never given a flying fuck about S.H.I.E.L.D. in the comics and never really liked how prevalent they are in the Marvel movie-verse. But it was a great Whedon show- as are all of his shows- and it especially had a DollHouse vibe to it.
    I liked it a lot- but Joss only did the first episode. Now it will have to stand or fall on its own merits and I don't think it has many. A lot of the acting is flat. And I was pissed that Gunn wasn't anybody specific. Oh wait- he was that guy from the SlapStick comic, even though he wasn't. Whatever- what a waste of an amazing actor. (Did you see that Arrow he was in? Holy shit- he was KILLIN' it!)
    I really feel like they're going to shy away from the Marvel Universe as a whole- UNLESS it was in a movie- and that's too bad. But you never know- we'll see... I'll give it a chance. Especially since, in a typical Whedon-fashion; they set up about nine specific mysteries to be solved throughout the season.

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    1. damn dude! first all this hate on Rick Jones from the other followers and now you be hatn on SHIELD? well like you said a while back hater gonna hate just like with Rob Liefeld : )

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    2. Fuck S.H.I.E.L.D.!
      -At least Rick Jones and Rob Liefeld are interesting... If I'm reading Marvel comics- I want to read about awesome super-heroics and bad-ass bad guys- not about a group of regular, boring-ass normals with stupid tech and war-time, spy, espionage, political shit... That's just not what I'm into. If you like it that's fine- I'm not hatin'... I just don't like it. lol
      And if Marvel feels the only way to bridge the wacky, colorful world of superheros to the general popcorn eating audience is through a super-high tech "realistic" secret government agency who are like: "What's up with all these super-powers? Am I right?" then fine- go that route, I guess... But to me it's almost just a bad as using some tag-along normal kid or woman as a bridge so everyone can 'see it through their own eyes!' or whatever.
      I'm just saying- I'd rather see a show called The Marvel Universe or Marvels or Marvel Comics Presents than as show about fuckin' S.H.I.E.L.D. -Way to strip it down to the basics, Disney. (Okay, maybe now I'm hatin' a little bit...)
      Seriously- strip away any reference to the Marvel movies that they make and what's really left after Whedon's not involved? I mean- those aren't even ACTUAL SHIELD characters from the comics... Like I said- I liked the pilot well enough- but compare it to the first episode of other shows about people with powers like Heroes or Alphas or Misfits or The 4400...
      What, it's a better show than Mutant X? Congratu-fucking-lations!


      I'ma go take some sedatives now.

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    3. i think that would be a good idea. i know it won't be easy for you but also try to stay away from alcohol for at least the next 24 hours.

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  6. I have in on the DVR caught half of the first and I agree Dave its pretty amazing stuff Lovin that plane that is a bad ass look!!

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  7. I missed the new show but my ten year old boy saw it and liked it.not susprised as he has liked ALL the modren marvel movies.

    Sheild just like rick jones showed up everywhere in marvel.id bet alot not even knowing that they worked together somewhere. I liked sheild in the early issues of ROM. Wraith agent Kraller infiltration of sheild and rachel sweets differences with him on how to treat the humans they hate was classic as was his demise.

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    1. agreed. but I also liked S.H.I.E.L.D's later participation in the Rom series with things like project wraith watch.

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  8. Shield was cool in that too your right.I took them as human fodder for the kill but they kicked ass.

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  9. I really love that Life in Comics benefit book. Such a great career and so many wonderful stories he made! the SHIELD premier was very good, but I think that made improvements in the second episode. It might take a few episodes for the characters to find their groove, but I see a lot of potential. Im curious to see what they do with Coulson and his "resurrection", whether it will be predictable and uninspired or interesting and imaginative.

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  10. So far I'm enjoying the series. I'm also interested in seeing how they explain the resurrection and other mysteries... I'm a fan of the way JMS sprinkled strands all over the 5 year series with many such as "There's a hole in your mind" over more than one season.
    I picked up the benefit book when it was released... A great read and an excellent cause.

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