How you can help ROM return with just 30 seconds of your time. Also, update with Avengers Academy #24 review

For some dumb reason after having had a copy of Avengers Academy #23 for over two weeks now I just realized that it had an actual letter column in the back! What's even cooler is that it opens up with this message to the readers from someone on the production team for the book, presumably the editor or editor in chief. Being a letter column quite naturally it also includes an email address for you to send your letters. So it occurred to me that other then a letter of praise about bringing Hybrid back this is another chance to bug these people about ROM. And the advantage here is that your letter is going to some folks at Marvel who currently have the Greatest of the Spaceknights on the brain other wise they wouldn't have brought Hybrid back. You know that old saying about striking while the iron is hot right? Even something as simple as just writing in the subject line "Bring ROM back!" will do. Send e-mails to MHEROES@MARVEL.COM Mark as "OK TO PRINT" for a shot at having the letter published but remember this is more about sending Marvel a message.

And by the way I sent a letter last night to that address and got a personal reply this morning from the editor Bill Rosemann so yes they actually read their letters over there.

Thursday Jan. 5 update
Avengers Academy #24

Well I went to go check out Fearless #6 from the Fear It's Self story line that feature some Dire Wraith connection http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=3919&page=3 thanks to Ptor from The Sanctum who gave us a heads up in the comment section. Indeed there is a Dire Wraith among the bad guys doing what Dire Wraith do but gets a nasty surprise when she tries to tongue spike Luke Cage. That was actually in Fearless #5 which was also there. I didn't pick those up because I have no idea what's going on in that story line but to my surprise I did see Avengers Academy #24 sooner then I expected so I got that.
Basically what's going on here is that Reptil is leading the students one by one into being ambushed and immobilized by Hybrid who then some how feeds off their powers making him in turn more powerful. However Reptil's betrayal eventually gets the better of his conscience and he turns on Hybrid. But by then it's too late Hybrid proceeds to take control of their minds and turns them on the remaining Avengers. So it looks like this Hybrid story arc is going to span at least 3 issues. They haven't revealed yet how Hybrid was "resurrected" by Reptil which I would really like to know but as you can see by the clip art above Hybrid is up to his old game but also has even grander plans then ever before.

Rom commision art for Rick Hansen by IDW artist Thomas Zahler

Usually I'm not a big fan of caricature style renderings of characters unless it's in MAD magazine or as a political cartoon but this one is an exception. This guy has a distinctive style that I like. It's kinda tongue n' cheek and bad ass looking at the same time. Not at all an easy thing to pull off. You may also recognize Zahler's work from IDW's Love & Capes title.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!
The first few pages of Avengers Academy #25 can be read here: http://www.theouthousers.com/forum/previews-f35/marvel-preview-avengers-academy-t76976.html
And for those of you who are interested in how the Avengers Academy Hybrid story arc ends you can see a comprehensive review of #25 here: http://xmanscomicblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/avengers-academy-25.html

The ROM Spaceknight legacy, either do it right or don't do it at all!

After having looked at an Avengers Academy #25 preview which concludes the Hybrid story arc I started reflecting on what Marvel has done with the ROM Spaceknight legacy over the years. First of all this was a pretty good read but would it have killed Marvel to have Hybrid on at least one of the 3 covers for that story line? Not too mention an actual explanation of how Hybrid returned would have been nice given that he was psi-blasted to atoms by Nate Grey in X-Man 31* (1997). Don't bother looking at Marvel's updated wiki page on Hybrid that won't shed any light on his return either.
Marvel's efforts on the Rom continuity has been a mixed bag but quite frankly some of it I'd like to pretend never happened like the recent Avengers Academy issues. Among the other forgettable continuities was the 2000 Spaceknights mini-series along with their appearance in the Annihilation Wave . The follow up Annihilation Conquest saga basically introduced the spaceknights we would see in the first Annihilators mini-series which seem like was Marvel's way of saying that the 2000 mini-series had indeed been forgotten. But aside from Ikon those spaceknights were pretty lame too, about as useful as red shirted security guards from the original Star Trek series. And then there was the unexplained return of the Dire Wraith Queen Volx in the Annihilators mini-series who was killed at the end of the New Warriors series years before. I hate that kind of shit as if the writers don't think we'll notice logic gaps like that.
Then of course there's what I would describe at this point as Marvel stone walling us about why they're unwilling to bring ROM back in some kind of incarnation. Now for the most part I don't have a problem with how Marvel has handled peripheral elements of the ROM legacy such as the Dire Wraiths, The Torpedo armor, Hybrid and the neo-neutralizer over the years in New Warriors Vol. 1* . The story line in the 2010 Darkstar: Winter Guard mini-series* that revolved around the abandoned Wraith base (The Citadel) in Russia from ROM 42-46 was a pretty good way to introduce the Dire Wraith again into the Marvel Universe. And later again in Fantastic Four 577* (2010) as part of the Universal Inhumans. But right now I'm pretty much at a point where I'm feeling like it would have been better had Marvel just left Rom, Brandy and Galador continuity alone after the Rick Jones Wedding in Hulk 418* (1994) wedding appearance so that we the fans could just assume that they lived happily ever after while over seeing Galador's reconstruction era.
In fact, I think that works for me so as far as I'm concerned I'll throw both Avengers Academy and Annihilators mini-series into that pile of forgettable Rom continuity story lines. All that could have been part of some sort of Marvel alternate universe spin off and what not for all I care. As for Christos Gage (writer of Avengers Academy), Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (Annihilators) . . seriously guys, either do it right or don't do it at all!

* denotes all the fairly well done Rom related continuities

The final word on ROM's fate in the Marvel Universe from Avengers Academy editor Bill Rosemann

I swung by a comic shop on my way home from work last night. While browsing at some random stuff I took a look at Avengers Academy #25. At one point in the issue one of the characters informs the others that Hybrid was defeated before by a spaceknight's weapon that disintegrated Hybrid and sent him to Limbo. After which another responded with "Where do we find him?". The reply to that is, "We don't, he's dead".
How about that? It all but sounds to me like those sons of bitches at Marvel pretty much hammered in the nails to Rom's coffin. For a moment I was actually considering picking up the issue so that I could scan and post that conversation but I just wasn't in the mood to give Marvel any of my money. In fact, I have no intention of buying any more new Marvel comics indefinitely I'm so pissed. If you go back a couple of postings ago I had already decided to disregard Avengers Academy 23-25 along with a few other shitty ROM spin off continuities in a concept known as Krypton-Revisionism http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Krypto:revisionism.html


Here's my letter to the editor William Rosemann:

Avengers Academy #25. Cmon guys what was that!?

The Hybrid 3 issue story arc seemingly started off as a tribute to Rom spaceknight but pretty much ended up being a slap in the face to old school Rom fans by declaring him as being dead in issue #25. And by the way thanks for not providing an explanation for Hybrid's return along with such predictable ending to him (back to Limbo how original!). Unfortunately I had already picked up 23 and 24 but at least I was able to save my money for 25. And please don't bother reminding me about the Rom licensing issue it's been all over the net for years now. Nothing a spelling tweak to the name and having him in human couldn't fix. Aside from Christos, Abnett & Lanning also have pretty much butchered the legacy of Bill Manlto's work. What a shame!


Update: This is a portion of the response I got later in the day from Rosemann. This pretty much confirms what we surmised why Marvel won't bring Rom back unfortunately. But I gotta hand it to him for bothering to get back to me after that rather scathing email of mine:

Remember, Giant-Man just said that the spaceknight in question was dead…but he can certainly be incorrect in his assumptions, yes? After all, he didn’t produce a body, did he?

And unfortunately, just changing a letter in a name or showing the character in his human guise wouldn’t satisfy those pesky lawyers. We wish it weren’t do, but thus is the litigious world we all live in.

So, just know that both Christos and DnA are huge fans of Bill Mantlo’s work, and this is all of our way of doing what we can to keep these great characters alive and introduced to a new generation of readers.

Always cool when your letter gets published

This past weekend I found a copy of Avengers Academy #27 which I had been made recently aware (thanks Gary) of as having letter I wrote (under the pen name "Sol Rosenberg", any other Jerky Boys fans out there?) back in 2012 to the editor William Rosemann. I had actually written two letters but completely forgot about this one until recently. This one was written after the first issue of a 3 issue story arc that included the return of one of ROM's top deadliest enemies, Hybrid. But by the time the 3rd issue came along my attitude had changed drastically when I realized marvel had failed yet to do justice to the ROM legacy. So I wrote a rather critical follow up letter which obviously didn't make it into any Avengers Academy letter columns but I did have it in a past posting along with Rosemann's reply : )
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/search?q=avengers+academy

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=Oh man after posting the letter page related stuff I got a call from work letting me know I can have the day off from work because it's so slow this week. I'm so sprung right now it makes me feel like doing a another drawing I've been meaning to get to for a while now. This scene didn't quite turn out the way I envisioned at first but this is basically how I see an encounter going between ROM and Dr. Doom.

Also, I found something cool on Figure Realm today . . .
https://www.figurerealm.com/viewcustomfigure.php?FID=72162
and for fans of the Masters of the Universe mini comics . . .
http://old.he-man.org/primary_sects/comics/html/mini_comics/motu/index.shtml

Marvel 80s Assemble

Here's my latest sketch card and as you may have guessed it's based on the events of issue 65 (1985).  But in terms of it's layout it's loosely based on based on the movie poster for Iron Man 3. No particular reason why I just always thought the movie poster was pretty cool even though the movie certainly was not the best of the three Iron Man films by a long shot. Speaking of art, the art in most of today's comics is really outstanding but I never the less feel very uninterested beyond their visual appeal. More style then substance as it were.

Continuing the theme from part of the last posting in terms of the half baked continuity of the original one and only ROM series. I'm back to talking about Avengers Academy after having ripped into Hickman's Imperial in the last posting. Avengers Academy from 2014 saw the return of Hybrid in a 3 issue story arc. Unfortunately, unlike the 1997 X-Man (Nate Grey) Hybrid return one shot story this one was not at all written well and ultimately ended up being a big disappointment. I've got several blog postings and a published letter to the editor from back then expressing my grievances. For the one or two of you over the course of the next decade who might actually be interested in seeing those they're just a key word search away but I'm not going to go into all that now I don't want this posting to be any more too long winded then it already is. But those Avengers Academy issues did have one little bright spot of genuine 80s nostalgia in the form a single panel featuring a flash back of ROM 65. It also acts like a preview of what that issue might have looked like with a different artist then Steve Ditko.

 

One of the other things I miss about the Marvel Comics of the 80s are those corner boxes on the front pages. Although like every one else at the time I liked them, while at the same time they were such a standard fixture on Marvel covers to the point where you almost stopped noticing them on a conscience level. But, like many other things in life you sometimes don't miss something or really begin to appreciate what you had until it's gone. This one here is what a version with Starshine (art by Kapandais Nikolause) might have looked like back in the day.

Fast forward to today, more specifically to the San Diego Comic Con a couple weeks ago. This is the front and back cover art variants for the Comic Con one shot Dread The Hall H which is a satirical anthology of the challenges, mishaps and the sub culture of the world of Comic Con. ROM has made some waves in the past year between the Legends figure, omnibus collection and other reprint publications. Not to mention the actual ROM cosplay that has been at the Comic Con in recent years so it's nice that they were able to get him into the mix on that cover art.

https://fanbasepress.com/press/event-coverage/item/57166-sdcc-2025-syzygys-dread-the-hall-h-takes-comic-con-by-storm-with-its-all-too-relatable-convention-horror-stories/ 

I seldom post things here that are from the horror genre but this mural I spotted a while back is never the less worth sharing. Like most of the other murals I feature on this blog this one is also in the San Francisco Bay Area although I can't recall which city exactly but I'm pretty sure it was in or around oakland. Anyways, I like this it looks like something you'd see as the cover art for some kind of horror magazine or comic.

 

September 17th Update: I just heard the sad news about Terence Stamp having passed away this weekend. Between Stamp and Gene Hackman that's two main actors from the original Superman films we've lost this year. Aside from playing General Zod, don't forget Terence Stamp also was in the movie Red Planet along with Val Kilmer who as you know we also lost this year.

I saw these at a Half Price Book store the other day. Talk about bringing back great 80s memories. Too bad they were in a locked glass case it would have been interesting to see how much the set with the Shogun Warriors was going for as well.

October 30th Update: This morning I was watching a video about the rise and fall of the New Universe project back in the mid to late 80s when this still image of Archie Goodwin appeared with him holding a copy of ROM 5. Would have been interesting to hear what he was saying at that very moment in time.

December 16th Update: We lost Gil Gerard with just about 2 weeks left in 2025. Saw the theatrical movie in theaters back in the day and I loved the TV series as re-runs for so many years. Great memories, rest in peace Buck.

The custom figure that's too hot to handle!

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Well this now makes the third Micronauts cover I've strategically inserted Rom's image into and I think this is a good time to post it given that it's Bill Mantlo's birthday. Thanks to Mantlo's imagination these characters would live on for many years after their respective toy lines long since disappeared from store shelves and stock rooms. It just sucks that we never got to see them together but of course we've had that discussion already here on more then one occasion.

Here's a digital project I've had in the back of my mind ever since Chris produced this awesome Firefall custom. Aside from the custom it's self Chris had an assortment of well staged photos of it that almost begged to have something like this done to one of em. You all know about the back story for Archie Stryker and the Firefall spaceknight armor I don't need to get into that right?
Good, so with that said let me move on to presenting the last of Gary's foot notes. This one comes from Nova #10 (Vol. 2). Rom spaceknight #24 sure did have some staying power given all the flash back cameos and foot notes out there for it. The art work is done by Erik Larsen who I'm not a big fan of.

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And now my latest back issue discount box finds from earlier this week . . . 

Fantastic Four Roast special (1982)

This panel comes from the 1982 Fantastic Four Roast 1 shot spoof. Did anybody else out there know about this Torpedo appearance in it that I discovered?

Avengers Academy 25 (April 2012)

Onward to some other shit I found in the same discount box that wasn't so cool. Coming right off the heels of the massive disappointment that was The Annihilators mini-series we were then treated to a shitty 3 issue (#23, 24 and 25) story arc in Avengers Academy that featured the return of Hybrid. By the time I got done reading 24 I was getting irritated with how they hadn't explained Hybrid's return as they did in X-Man 31 (1997).
By the time issue 25 came out I decided to thumb through it first and woe and behold I came across the clip art you see here. Oh man was I ever pissed! Why couldn't he have just said something like "He left Earth years ago" or "We don't know where he is and we don't have time to try and fins him". Did ya have to say Rom is dead Marvel? really!? I didn't buy that issue nor did I buy any new Marvel comic since then up until recently with Infinity and we all know how that turned out. But I decided to pick up Avengers Academy #25 for a buck just so I could share this bullshit with you all. To all Rom fans, don't buy new marvel comics it's just rewarding bad behavior and Infinity is just the latest example.

THE RETURN OF HYBRID!

Martin from the Too Dangerous For A Girl blog http://dangermart.blogspot.com/ gave me a heads up earlier today about Avengers Academy #23 having something I would find of interest. Thanks for the heads up on this mate!
So basically some members of the Avengers go out on a call to save an orphan mutant boy (Jimmy Marks) by some anti-mutant religious fanatics called the Purifiers. Jimmy is adamant about not being sent to the X-Men so the Avengers allow him to stay at Avengers Academy. Toward the end of the issue Jimmy reveals himself to be Hybrid to Reptil sensing that Reptil knows the truth about him. It also turns out that Hybrid knows that the psyche of Reptil's future self is inhabiting the body of the current much younger Reptil and that Reptil facilitated Hybrid's return (we don't know how exactly yet) for his own agenda. Hybird agrees to cooperate with Reptil (for now) under the promise of getting dominion over some of the Avenger cadets. Avenger Academy #24 will continue the Hybrid story line.
The last time we saw hybrid in the Marvel Universe (1997) was back when he battled X-Man (Nate Grey) and was psi-blasted into atoms. For a recap of the issue: http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2010/11/finally-x-man-32-extended-review-return.html

Just like I said, Marvel still loves ROM and they know about the fans but . . .

 Apparently early this year this wasn't the only blog out there that was discussing the matter of the the ROM name and likeness licensing issue which was prompted by the return of  Hybrid in Avengers Academy back in March. The slamonstrobot blog authored by Snell posted on the topic with more feed back from Marvel. What you see here is from the Christos Gage in the Avengers Academy letter column.
For those of you who have been following this blog you pretty much know all of this. So really, here this information to the left is just more not so positive reinforcement on the ugly reality of the situation. And there's more:  http://slaymonstrobot.blogspot.com/2012/03/donald-duck-spacekinght.html

It's not that I disbelieve Gage in this letter column but Marvel has found a way in the past to fudge that legality as shown in Universe X #3 (2000) http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/10/rom-universe-x.html

 Yeah I know that blows. So I endeavor to keep digging into the past to bring ROM fans today something to smile about. Although sometimes even the stuff from the past doesn't make me entirely happy. Here's a good example. I forgot I used to have this issue of Secret Wars II until I saw an entry for it in Lee's Rom Spaceknight Revisited data base site. I think the reason why I didn't keep the series or this issue was for two reasons. One is that the Secret Wars II was massively inferior to the original. As to this issue of course it was cool that they had a ROM cameo/reference to ROM#72 but it pissed me off that Al Milgrom who did some of the original ROM covers back in the day drew ROM in that horrible Steve Dikto style. God! I especially hated the way Dikto drew ROM's eyes.

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Look what else I found at RSR. This is something I didn't know about before. Here's a Rom head shot from Web of Spiderman #7 during a dream sequence Peter Parker is having.

You can see the full page here:

 http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/web_of_spider-man_7.shtml

 Just found Avengers 268 in a $1 bin recently. I remember when this issue first came out I happened to see it on the shelf at some dime store in San Francisco back in the day. After I thumbed through it I kinda waffled for a bit but ended up not buying it. I guess at the time this loose ROM tie-in didn't seem like that big of a deal to me since this issue came out in June of 1986 which was just a few months after the last ROM issue (#75 Feb. 1986) It featured a few pages of all these suicidal Dire Wraiths attacking some of the Avengers who had been kidnapped and temporarily stranded in Limbo by the timelord Kang. Now of course, finding something like this now is a bigger deal then it was over 25 years ago. I'm a sentimental kinda guy and for just a half a buck it was money well spent.

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As you may have figured The Avengers didn't kill all the Limbo dwelling Dire Wraiths in this issue. Many others were still there and they would eventually find themselves in conflict and ultimately subjugated by another timelord in Limbo by the name of  Immortus as told in the pages of the Darkstar Winter Guard mini-series (2010).
 

My Spacenotes and Micromail in BACK ISSUE Magazine 82

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So yesterday I was in downtown Berkeley with some friends and I needed a mental break from all the gibberish they were talking so I slipped into a near by comic shop I like to frequent when I happen to be in the area. By chance I thumbed through a copy of BACK ISSUE Magazine #82 (Aug. issue) just for the heck of it and decided to buy it because it had some articles about the original Secret Wars I and Secret Wars II (with plenty of ROM & Micronauts references) series that looked pretty interesting. Plus I wanted something to read it didn't look like there was gonna be shit on TV last night.
Well imagine my surprise when I got to the letters page toward the end of the evening and found my letter there although I don't remember entitling it "Mantlo Booster" I think that's something they added. Plus it seems like they also may have tweaked my letter a bit to. In fact I had totally forgotten about the letter altogether seeing as I wrote and sent it back in December 2014 in response to a Micronauts article for BACK ISSUE Magazine #76 published October 2014. As far as published letters go this is the second one I've discovered this year back in May I learned about a 2012 Avengers Academy issue that printed my letter as well. Ironically I was giving them shit about some Avengers Academy issues which were written by Christos Gage who is slated to co-write the 2016 ROM series.

BACK ISSUE Magazine #82

Rather big or small BACK ISSUE Magazine once again showing they don't give a shit about copy rights issues when it comes to printing ROM. As many of you know there have been a number of reprinted material over the years in which Marvel removed ROM's likeness including in a color version of this poster art.

All the ROM and Micronauts stuff aside there were some pretty interesting topics in those articles being discussed. Apparently there was some kind of "disconnect" in the deal between Mattel's Secret Wars toy line and Marvel Comics. Ever wonder why Mattel came out with accessory toys like The Doom Roller or Captain America's Turbo Cycle which were never in the series? Or better yet why did they never make any figures of any female characters like She-Hulk or Enchantress? Or why would they make a figure for Kang who was "killed" off by issue #4 but never a HULK figure who was pivotal through out the series? Not to mention the figures that Mattel made like Daredevil, Iceman or The Constrictor who were never in the series in the first place. It's funny according to the Secret Wars article the comic book series was a huge hit which I certainly remember being the case back in the day but apparently the toys line was some what of a marketing failure much like the Parker Brothers ROM spaceknight doll. That certainly wasn't my impression at the time I had a few of the figures and they seemed to be fairly popular at the time although not quite as much as Masters of The Universe, G.I.Joe or The Transformers. However, just like the ROM doll the Secret Wars action figure line have become highly sought after collector's items especially the ones still in their original packaging.

Cool late 70s Marvel house ad and new bullshit from Marvel to kick off 2014

Oh talk about a cool blast from the past I found this full page house ad in Avengers # 177 which also happens to be a great action packed issue ( November 1978). Here's the TV commercial for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITMYl_oygRU So the deal here is if you send in some sort of proof of purchase from the packaging of a Micronauts Battle Cruiser you can get two free Marvel Comics. This was a good way of getting kids who were into The Micronauts toy line also interested in Marvel Comics assuming they weren't already which had obvious marketing benefits given that Micronauts #1 debuted January of 1979. To no surprise this was the last paragraph that appears in the Bullpen Bulletin page of that very same Avengers issue.

Alright so that was Marvel Comics back then, let's take a look at the here and now which I couldn't be less enthusiastic about.

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Well, marvel does it again. Apparently Hybrid makes a brief appearance in the first issue of the New Warriors series. As you can see he and the current Nova are having a skirmish in what appears to be some sort of govt. building in new Mexico. Needless to say we get no explanation about anything here like . . . oh let's say how Hybrid is back after having gotten blasted back to Limbo again a couple years ago in Avengers Academy. Marvel has pretty much made Hybrid into some kind of WWF fall guy now like that no name wrestler who always loses to the popular one every body roots for. We can all thank Gary Martin Jr. for taking another one for the team cuz I sure as fuck don't buy new stuff from marvel any more.

OK THIS ALSO REALLY PISSES ME OFF! I just found out that Bill Mantlo doesn't own any portion of the rights to the current White Tiger character apparently because that character is now a woman. But keep in mind the new White Tiger is actually the daughter of the original and wears pretty much the same costume and mystic amulets. Now also keep in mind that permission to conceive or use this new White Tiger was never obtained by marvel from Michael Mantlo who is Bill's legal guardian. And marvel has been using that character in both print and in it's TV cartoons for at least a couple years now if not longer. Now considering how marvel won't use the name ROM or even have Rom appear in human form you gotta ask yourself what the fuck is going on with those assholes who run marvel comics these days!?

ROM: New convention sketches & a rare micro sized house ad

The portion of the video that shows this guy doing a Rom sketch only lasts for about 6-7 seconds but it's still pretty cool to see this going sketch in action. It comes at exactly 1:40 into the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-72j8sJS-8

Sketch from Chicago Con from a few back by Wilson Ramos Jr.

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This "micro ad" makes for over half a dozen house ads Marvel had running for Rom through out the 80s. If you look at the far left side you'll see Rom#5 and Micronauts #16. To view the full page:  http://www.themarvelproject.com/2013/01/bullpen-bulletins-april-1980.html#comment-form

On a side note here I decided to take renouncing all the Rom related crap that Marvel has come up with in the last few years and new comics in general one step further. This weekend I took my copies of the Annihilators & Avengers Academy (Hybrid) to my local comic shop to trade for credit on back issue comics. As most of you know I've gotten sour on that stuff and felt like it was time to wash my hands of it completely.

New commission fan art from our pal Sal!

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I just found this on comicartfans.com last night. I tell ya, I don't know what's more tragic sometimes. The fact that Bill and Sal couldn't finish up the ROM spaceknight series together (creative differences apparently) or marvel and hasbro not having been thus far been able to work out a Rom return deal.
This is probably the best chance we'll ever get in a very long time to make a push at marvel and hasbro to put their heads together on getting ROM back into the Marvel Universe. If you have any means you have to contact anybody at either company I'd say go for it. In the past I was successful in contacting the editor of Avengers Academy during the Hybrid story line a couple of years ago. Email him at  mheroes@marvel.com and be sure to write "Ok to Print" in the subject line. keep your message short and too the point but feel free to email the same thing from more then one address if you can.

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And this was found on farcebook just earlier this morning. Actually Gary Martin Jr. gave me a heads up on this as well as an Ikon spaceknight HeroClix figure a couple of days ago but we just couldn't locate any good images to post. I couldn't tell ya anything about this whole HeroClix thing other that some of the figurines are kinda cool. I see loose ones here and there a from time to time I'll definitely grab a Dire Wraith and Ikon if I ever come across them.

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Holy shit look what else I just turned up on farcebook! This amazing piece of digital fan art comes to us from professional artist Hal Laren. This is pretty impressive for a number of reasons. First of all it the image pops I mean it really dazzles your eyes with the use of color and lighting. Second, the guy has a good grip on figure composition that pose looks really good and it's dynamic. The image is slightly stylized but not overly so to the point where it looks too abstract. Pretty much my kinda fan art in every way.

7/29 Update: I just got this message in response to an email I sent earlier this morning about hasbro revisiting the idea of a deal with marvel comics for Rom spaceknight and or new collectibles for him from hasbro. If nothing else at least this shows they actually read their mail. But if more people were to email them ya never know what might come of it (hint hint).

CustomerService@HasbroToyShop.com

The giant sized Micronauts ROM cross over annual that never was

A big thanks to Gary for giving me a heads up about this commission piece by Brian Douglas Ahern for what I would assume is for a big time ROM and Micronauts fan. Most long time ROM fans will recognize the guy who's menacing the Micronauts as marvel's first evil spaceknight, Mentus. I like the creative aspect of this as a concept (taken from Micronauts 8) although I do have one little bit of criticism as far as the art work goes. I think the inking on ROM and The Micronauts is a bit too lite they lack depth but this is other wise a solid piece. There's also an interior page to go with this cover concept to help give it a bit more context  . . .
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1258857&GSub=104286

Sept. 24th Update: Also just in from Gary who found this in the October issue of PREVIEWS comic book catalog magazine. Some of you may remember Christos Gage as the writer of the ill conceived 3 issue Hybrid return story arc from Avengers Academy a few years back. Well at least his heart was in the right place because he is something of a ROM fan. Plus we've seen this sort of thing before among marvel writers who like ROM like Abnett & Landing (The Annihilators) and Johnathan Hickman (Infinity).

Rom spaceknight 32

More colorized fan art! Plus, look what Marvel is up to in October

Left click to enlarge. DO IT NOW!

 A fellow on Deviant Art who goes by the handle of Deaddog2007 just in the last week or so took this Loston Wallace line art illustration of ROM and did some really cool stuff to it in photoshop. The first obvious thing is that he gave Wallace's rendering some color and added a back ground screen of some clip art from issue 47 (first appearance of female Dire Wraiths) along with the ROM logo. This came together really nicely there's some good design work going on here. Magnify this it will fly off your monitor no 3-D glasses required!

SPACEKNIGHTS #1 (of 3)
Written by JIM STARLIN & CHRIS BATISTA
CHRIS BATISTA (A)
Cover by CHRIS BATISTA
• The planet Galador rebuilds its elite defense force, recruiting a new generation of Spaceknights!
• Can Balin and Tristan, sons of legendary Spaceknight Starshine, live up to the legend of their family name?
• Collecting SPACEKNIGHTS (2000) #1-2.
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I'd like to give a thanks to Dan from  http://www.itsadansworld.net/ and Ptor from http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/ for bringing this to my attention. Both of these gentlemen suggested this reprinting of the 2001 Spaceknights five issue mini-series may be a prelude of more ROM related things to come from Marvel. To be honest I find it hard to have any enthusiasm for this. This mini-series was a commercial failure back then (and with good reason) and since then Marvel has pretty much erased this continuity with the Annihilators story line. And in a way when I see stuff like this it makes me feel more frustrated over this whole ongoing licensing legal red tape bullshit . . . 

Left click to enlarge

By my estimation Marvel lost the licensing rights to ROM pretty much quite literally at the turn of the century. All the ROM related continuity narratives prior to 2000 were done pretty well. Most notably I'm referring to ROM & Brandy's appearance at Rick Jone's wedding, the continued legacy of the Torpedo armor in New Warriors and the short lived return of Hybrid in X-Man. As for the Dire Wraiths Marvel has managed to make good use out of them for pretty much the last 25 years now and we've been seeing a lot of them especially in the last year or so. 
But when it comes to all the ROM related stuff outside of the Dire Wraiths since the character license was lost, Marvel has largely only sullied the legacy of the greatest of the spaceknights. The best examples is the before mentioned Starlin & Bastista mini-series and more recently The Annihilators and Hybrid's return in Avengers Academy. All of which by the way I have disregarded through the wonder known as krypto-revisionism (see 2/3/12 post). But all these failures still frustrate me because it's a constant reminder that there can be no doubt were it not for this legal issue ROM would still be a regular fixture in many of Marvel's cosmic story lines today.
Marvel's continued attempts to revive the ROM franchise with out ROM himself just goes to show how there are certainly those at Marvel right now who still think very highly of the work that Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema did. It also goes to show that they have at least some awareness of the enduring fan base out there too.
But in spite of all this Marvel still seems to think obtaining the rights somehow is still more trouble then it's worth. Marvel is a business so that's probably more a business decision then anything else. But please Marvel, moving forward here no more Manga inspired spaceknight armor or spaceknights that are easier to knock over then shopping mall security guards who are sleeping on the job.  

Coming up next, ROM vs. ROBOCOP