Marvel Comics, Hasbro and The MCU have in part redeemd themselves

Clearly the ROM Marvel Legends figure is a big hit with both ROM fans and action figure collectors alike and for good reason it is among other things a masterpiece of manufacturing. People out there who have gotten there's have come up with some great scenes to stage them in that pays tribute to the original series and it's tie-ins, these are some of my favorites. A nice fella over on Farcebook was telling me earlier that that a local Target store sold out more then once of their ROM figures which certainly suggests ROM has broader appeal then I might have originally suspected and that overall the figures are selling well both online and at whatever retail locations they may be at. The Omnibus collection along with all the other reprint iterations also appear to be fairly successful as well despite the hefty price tag in some cases.

On an interesting side note, back in the early 2010s it seems like what ROM fans were mostly clamoring for was a return of ROM to the Marvel Universe but I think that changed during the next decade. There's a number of reasons for that I think stemming from the legal red tape. A lot of it is due to the poorly handled ROM related continuity Marvel Comics had been doing but also in general it's because of an overall dissatisfaction with comic book stories these days. I think IDW's short lived and divisive reboot also was a contributing factor. In short, I think ROM fans ultimately gave up somewhere along the lines of ever getting what they really wanted when it comes to new comic stories with their favorite spaceknight and shifted their focus more on pushing for high end reprints of the original series and for articulate action figures. And that's what they ended up getting which is more then I ever expected to happen to be honest.

Well, this is probably the first time in over a year that I've come across some fan art by an unknown artist to me. I like the movement and the energy here with the line work it really conveys this action scene well. I came across this on Threads posted last year by artist Wayne Brian Hughe. He has a youtube channel of his work go check it out . . .

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtFybT9rYC8T_ViNs3Za8byCyOmpJyS73

Well, I finally got around to seeing Captain America Brave New World now that it's on streaming. Yeah it pretty much lived up to all the mediocre reviews but it also had a bit of a silver lining for me at least. After what, nearly two years of of all these leftist antisemites trying to get "Sabra" removed from the movie I finally get to see the finished product for myself. Given that Shira Hass was cast as Ruth Bat Seraph you knew right away this wasn't going to be a very comic accurate representation although it would have gone a long way for a number of reasons to still at least make her a mutant or perhaps some other manner of enhanced individual. 

As someone who was part of president Ross's security detail she never went by the code name Sabra but at least it was established in the movie that she was born in Israel so that was a big plus. No mention of her being russian or otherwise stripping her of her Israeli identity as was rumored on social media despite it also being established she was an ex black widow. With all the re-shoots, re-edits and endless other productions problems it's hard to know for sure how they originally envisioned Ruth Bat Seraph a.k.a Sabra for this film. But I would say the antisemitic BDS losers out there definitely did not get their way on this one given that this movie still had an Israeli actress playing an Israeli born character named Ruth Bat Seraph. So thank you MCU for basically giving all those BDS assholes the middle finger.

June 15th Update: If you're at paying attention to the news you may have heard about the latest and worst round of open warfare between ISRAEL and the filthy terrorist iranian regime. It's times like this I really really wish we lived in a world of real superheroes. All that being said the fighting men and women of Israel's armed forces are among some of the most amazing people in the world and this latest fan art of mine is dedicated to them and to Operation Rising Lion.

And in my latest comic book sci-fi pop culture public art discovery. I spotted this classic Ditko style Spider-Man mural in San Jose California on the side of some smoke shop/novelty store. Although I am not a fan of Ditko's later work in the late 70s, 80s and 90s I can still appreciate him as an artist for his time.

ROM Spaceknight fan art rewind and more!

 

Pretty much put this ROM vs Hybrid scene together in the same way I did the one in the previous posting. Moving on we're going to be revisiting some really professional looking past fan art piece from years ago that for reasons I can't remember I didn't feature here at the time. So let's get to it...

And speaking of beautiful custom figures related to the ROM series, this Torpedo one has gotta be one of the very best I've ever seen and I've seen quite a few over the years.  

This one come from artist Eteuati J Lalau. I'm assuming that's Galactus's hand that ROM is either perhaps materializing from or away to where ever Star Trek transporter style.

 This one is from artist Nalldo Ribeiro. Now normally ROM wouldn't have much to worry about from a single dire wraith trying to get the drop on him but this one looks like it's jacked up on roids or something. I also like this spaceship type corridor this scene is taking place in. It tells a story that your imagination can run with.

This cool space battle scene comes from artist Brian Douglas Ahern (a.k.a Brizy) who's work is no stranger to this blog. 

This sketch card scene taking place in the skies of Israel's capital of Jerusalem was inspired by a splash page in Incredible Hulk 250 (1980) in which The Silver Surfer flies all over Earth lamenting his terrestrial imprisonment by Galactus. In the process he has these scant encounters with various international characters (like Sabra ofcourse) which acted as a prelude to their eventual Marvel Comics full appearance in upcoming issues of The Hulk...

 https://earthsmightiestblog.com/hulk-250-1980/

But, in 1996 a Fantastic Four animated series would utilize that same Silver Surfer story line which gave us an animated version of Sabra's encounter with the surfer as seen here...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWKyH94Ie9g

 It's been awhile since I've posted any local cool comic book/sci-fi pop culture public art. Here we have a fantastic mural of Godzilla, King Kong, Voltron and Ultraman playing the NES game system on Mecha Godzilla. It can be found in San Jose's Japan Town here in The San Francisco Bay Area. 

March 15th Update: Well we're only about half way through March and already we've had a pretty long list of celebrities that have passed away this year. For me, Raquel Welch, Tom Sizemore (died too young) and Jewish Israeli actor Topol have been the ones that have saddened me the most. I go way back with Raquel Welch with films like Fantastic Voyage and Topol in Flash Gordon. Tom Sizemore came along later and although his sci-fi stuff like Red Planet wasn't bad, HEAT, Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan were his best moments as an actor.  

A fond farewell to Richard Hatch

Left click to enlarge

It's looking like 2017 might be another shit year for more of the actors from some of my favorite childhood sci-fi genre movies and and TV shows passing away. This afternoon I just got the sad news about Richard Hatch (age 71) passing away as a result of pancreatic cancer (just like Patrick Swayze RIP). Most of you ofcourse know him as Apollo from the original Battlestar Galactica which I loved back in the day and for many years continued to watch as reruns. Hatch would also go on to play a semi-regular character on the SyFi channel Battlestar Galactica reboot in the mid and late 2000s.

Left click to enlarge

I actually had the privilege of meeting Richard Hatch a little over a year and a half ago at the BIG Wow Comic Fest in San Jose CA. where he was at a table promoting Star Trek Axanar. Axanar is a very well done independent production for youtube that chronicles the original war between The Federation and The Klingon Empire in which Hatch played a high ranking Klingon commander obsessed with defeating The Federation. Hatch's acting career included a lot more then what I've mentioned in this posting ofcourse for example did you also know he replaced Michael Douglas's character on the 70s TV show The Streets of San Francisco? 

Exactly one month ago in a posting I featured an old photo of part of my toy collection back in 1981 that among other things included a few Battlestar Galactica figures. So I guess this seems like a good time to showcase the one toy I have these days from Battlestar Galactica. This was something of a rare find it was one of those toys that never seemed to appear in regular retail stores you just always saw the other ships you really didn't want that much and then one day you see it at a comic shop or at a convention going for twice or three times what it retailed for. Well anyways I saw just one at  a Walmart back in 2007 and snatched it up with out second thought.