Dire Wraith / X-men cross over cover variants. Which do you like better folks? Plus, the "Why bring back ROM" slide show

You all remember the X-Men Classic series from the late 80s and 90s? It's where Marvel was reprinting a bunch of original X-men issues with different covers and they also featured an original back story. This series was a good marketing move on Marvel's part it had a lot to do with what got me into the X-Men.Well I came across X-Men Classic #91 (bottom clip art) in some $1 bins a couple of days ago. I have the original X-Men issue (#187) of course but I'd never seen the X-Men Classic variant version which prompted me to find the X-Men Classic cover for 90 which naturally reprints X-Men #186 which I also have. And in case you didn't know X-Men issues 185, 186,187 and 188 feature a Dire Wraith cross over storyline in which the Wraiths try to take down Forge because of the Neo-Neutrilazer he was developing to aid ROM in the Wraith War on Earth. For a recap go to: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/07/so-whats-this-about-forges-dire-wraith.html
I thought it might be interesting to do a comparison of the covers and get some opinions on which you all like better. In the case X-Men 186 & X-Men Classic 90 I have to say I've always liked the original but the new one does add something extra to it that I like seeing as the story also featured a skirmish Rogue had with the Dire Wraiths. Even with the slightly exaggerated Billy Idol sneer on Rogue's face I'm kinda torn on this one.
But in the case of X-Men 187 & X-Men Classic 91 it's a no brainer the original cover is far better. It's not that the X-men Classic cover is so terrible but to me what hurts it the most is how the lead Wraith looks. I just don't like the way it's drawn it kinda reminds me of a bad sci-fi B movie prop. And as you can see the original cover looks really good especially where composition is concerned. So what do you folks think? If your wondering why I didn't include X-Men issues 185 and 188 or their corresponding X-Men Classic issues in this posting is because neither versions of the covers feature any Wraiths.

New kick ass custom figure and some cool fan art

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I really enjoy doing these side by side cover comparisons of these X-Men back issues with the corresponding X-Men Classic reprints. On this one I'm so torn because I love the original but the cover variant looks pretty damn good too especially with how they included Forge's neutralizer which was a pivotal part of the issue. An issue I'm happy to remind you all which launched a four issue story arc (X-Men 186, 187, 188, 189) of the attempted assassination of Forge by the Dire Wraiths only narrowly avoided by some help from The X-Men. But as it turned out Forge had almost as much to worry about from Storm despite her having lost her mutant powers. Here's a back posting of the side by side comparisons of the next two X-men issues  http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/search?q=classic+x-men

2.5"x3.5" Watercolor over inks sketch card by Danny Kuang

Now as we all know sometime not too long before the Wraith War spilled into the pages of the X-Men the Dire Wraiths had something of a "changing of the guard". In other words the females killed off all the males so they could do things they're way proving that indeed the female is the more deadly of most any species  : )

 

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But that certainly doesn't make this new custom male Dire Wraith from Chris any less cool. In fact it's not just merely cool it's down right bad ass. And to save you the trouble of asking the base figure was The Thing from the Fantastic 4.

It's funny when artists who are Rom fans seem to almost be thinking about the same thing at nearly the same time. It wasn't long ago I did a piece that included Rom and Acroyear and even more recently Firefall. Have a look what just turned up yesterday http://dannphillips.deviantart.com/gallery/

Sunday Update: I think Firefall must be the spaceknight of the month or something look at this video that just turned up today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvXLbM6Womc

ROM, the original & the re-envisioned by Joe Singleton. Plus there's even more!

Here's another good find I made on the internet. This is pretty sweet for a few reasons. First, this is some damn fine drawing. The figure composition and shading are especially good it has an almost streamline quality to it. In all my years of ROM fandom I've never seen and illustration of him brandishing both his analyzer and neutralizer at the same time so that right their makes these illustrations unique.
The revamped version of ROM is more a look for the character that Singleton apparently would have like to have seen. You'll notice features like a more organic design for his armor, less bulky accessories and new "boots". I think for me it deviates a bit too much from the classic ROM look but it's still a cool illustration on it's own merit. Lately I've been noticing how artists sign their work for some reason and this guy has a really cool way of doing his signature.

Obscure ROM related reference found. Something got me thinking of a bit of clip art I remember seeing many years ago. So I did a Google image search and found it pretty fast to my surprise considering it's obscure nature. What you see here is from an X-Men issue (#236) in which the Carol Danvers persona of Rogue's psyche takes Rogue on a "fantastic voyage" through her subconscious. There, Rogue encounters pretty much every person or thing that she has ever used her power/psyche absorbing mutant abilities on. Do you notice a certain brain sucking alien in that first panel? That's because during the Wraith War on Earth the Dire Wraiths at one point attempted to assassinate Forge because he was developing a "neo-neutralizer" for Earth's use. He was saved by the timely intervention of the X-Men. During the battle Rogue had to get a little too close for comfort with the Wraiths. See the recap of the X-Men Dire Wraiths show down here: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/07/so-whats-this-about-forges-dire-wraith.html

New found Rom cameo! Plus, Dire Wraiths vs The Brood. The deadliest species!

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I found this panel by chance on a ComicVine clip art collection having to do with Dire Wraiths. I suspect this is from the Marvel Universe X issue that has an appearance of a version of ROM (human) who was stranded in Limbo and still fighting Dire Wraiths with his neutralizer. For a quick recap: http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2009/10/rom-universe-x.html One thing I'm sure about is that this clip art is from something Marvel published after the licensing rights expired. They don't use the ROM name here and notice how the details on "Rom" are obscured by the neutralizer's rays to the point where technically that could be any other spaceknight? But that's still a cool panel cause we all know who that is with or with out a copyright. Those are Dire Wraiths but it looks like Rom could be blasting John Carpenter's The Thing to Limbo with his neutralizer.

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 Who could forget this awesome panel from the now classic X-Men 187. What Storm was thinking here got me thinking too. Aside from that I love the way Storm's face is drawn here. Her expression of knee jerk fear and revulsion is perfect.

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Imagine for a moment the Dire Wraiths having invaded Brood infected space instead of the Golden Galaxy. Or perhaps imagine The Brood attempting to invade and infect the Dark Nebula. The Brood and the Dire Wraiths are arguably the most vicious and vile aliens in the Marvel Universe. But which is the most deadliest of the two species!?
Both bring plenty to the battle field when it comes to advanced weapons technology and deadly genetic adaptations. But I'm thinking Wraith sorcery might end up giving the Dire Wraiths the edge in an all out interstellar conflict between these two alien menaces. What do you think?

My scathing letter to IDW found in ROM (in name only) issue 4

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Well you can all thank ROM curator Gary Martin Jr. for this weekend's blog posting. This letter page that Gary sent me is from a digital copy of "Rom the spacknight" issue 4. Gotta say I was pretty surprised IDW printed that one. Well I'll tell you this Mr. Ryall, I'll take the "knee high metal disco boots" over the anime style metal snow boots you came up with for your ROM in name only series. I think Ryalls reasoning for having ditched ROM's classic hardware was also bullshit. Prior to this letter being published I had several correspondences earlier this year with IDW by email in regards to my ROM re-design grievances. And each time their responses becameare more baffling I feel like we're really talking two different languages just as you see here with chris ryall's reply to my letter. I mean we might as well be a Clinton and Trump supporter debating political-ideological differences which as you can imagine would be as pointless as a tic tac toe game or a dog chasing it's own tail.
Have you seen the cover variants for that issue yet? Most of em look like shit, all these cover variants idw keep doing are the same thing over and over again do you think it would kill em to make a cover that's a reflection of the story inside the issue for a change? So now I have to deal with the dilemma of "to buy or not to buy" ROM in name only number 4. I vowed to never buy any of IDW's shit ever again after the shitty Micronauts #1 but I might have to make an exception for this issue given that it does have a letter from me giving me now a total of 4 different titles I've now had my letters published in.

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Also from Gary we've got some old school stuff. This here comes from a Comics Buyer's Guide special on HULK back issues complete with a price guide and brief review on all the issues it covered. The special also included an entry for Incredible Hulk 262 (dire wraith back story) but I'm just featuring the entry for 296 because this one has a been of interesting commentary. Gary also found some entries for X-Men 187 and 188 for an X-Men Comics Buyer's Guide Presents special. But the asshole who did those entry write ups was a real dick head with his smart ass remarks about how the dire wraiths were some kinda second rate villains and what not. I'm not posting his shit fuck him.

November 5 update: Buying a copy for the IDW Rom in name only series for me is a lot like casting a ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Most people don't want to do it but feel like they have to in order to keep the option they hate even more out of the Oval Office. In my case I don't want to give IDW any of my money but not having a copy of my letter might be a worse option then this one time only purchase. Figures my LCS (CRUSH COMICS) only had one of the shitty cover art variants in stock. Apparently the ROM in name only series is selling better then the shitty Micronauts reboot from IDW according to the owner of CRUSH.

November 6 update: This is why I like people who leave comments I basically had no idea the cover variant I picked up yesterday was done by Al Milgrom and was a homage piece to Iron Man 80. Although I think it worked much better on the Iron Man cover. And just for the record I'm not just beating up on Al I've also pooped on cover variants done by Sal Buscema and Michael Golden it just seems to me that these cover variants from IDW lately don't bring out the best in these iconic Marvel 80s artsists. Although I betcha if Milgrom had done this homage cover in the RTO (Rom the original) series it would have come out much better then this RINO crap (Rom in name only).

Contest of Licensed Properties unredacted and in color for the first time

If this looks familiar to you this might be why . . .

https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nova-vs-dire-wraiths-halloween-e.html

There's this from earlier this from the tail end of last year . . .

https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2022/11/will-2023-be-happy-new-year.html

In recent weeks I've become quite certain that the original art work by Alan Davis was colored only after it was redacted. If I'm right that's a damn shame, but I recently decided that I wanted to see what it would look like in color and with out all those annoying black boxes all over Davis's kick ass art work.

 

 The question of all questions as illustrated by Kapandais Nikolaos way back in 2018. Would The Greatest of the Spaceknights be able to lift Mjollnir? I'll let the 3 or 4 people out there who will come across this posting ponder that. 

 

Over the decades we've seen the Sabra character go through several costumes and hair styles. But depending on who was drawing her it seemed like she also went through a spectrum of ethnic appearances as well. Sometimes she's been drawn to look more ashkenazi (basically more caucasian) and others have drawn her with more sephardic (Middle Eastern) features. I'm sure there's a further discussion on that subject matter to be had but for now I felt like just doing a more sephardic interpretation of Sabra.

 

And speaking of strong Israeli women (fictional or otherwise), I saw the movie GOLDA last weekend. It was epic! Golda Mier's legacy is certainly not with out it's critics both in and outside of Israel. And as far as the movie goes, like most any other historical biography I'm sure it was not with out it's inaccuracies. But despite that, it had me totally emotionally invested in it and in a state of suspense through out even though I knew how it would end and that says a lot. Best film about Israel's history I've seen since Munich. Way better then 7 Days In Entebbe I assure you of that!

 

September 22 Update: Marvel/Hasbro will be reprinting ROM's first encounter with Marvel's mutants in a one shot coming out right before Christmas this year. Ofcourse I have those ROM issues already but I'm getting a copy of this just for the cover art alone which is by Nick Bradshaw. For me it's kinda like new fan art that's actually good for a change. Get the full details here...

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/09/22/rom-and-the-x-men-marvel-tales-1/

 

In other news of all things having to do with Marvel & Hasbro joint projects for ROM I'm sure most of you by now have heard about all 3 variants of the ROM spaceknight 1 facsimile having come up a couple days ago. There's no hard data as to how well they're selling but I can tell you my LCS sold out of all their copies within the first couple of hours after opening on new comic book day although by the owner's own admission he did place a pretty small order.

https://damosteez.com/product/marvel-tales-rom-x-men-aventures-hunting-the-vile-dire-wraiths-on-earth-fan-gifts-classic-t-shirt/

Infinity# 1 - Oh Marvel, what have you done with Mantlo & Buscema's ROM series this time?

Well by now I'm guessing most of you have either picked up this issue or know about what happened in it. Yes it seems Galador and all the spaceknights were obliterated just as sure as Alderaan was by the fucken Death Star in STAR WARS. Well obviously I'm not happy about that and I'm clueless what Hickman's thought process was in regards to doing away with Galador, the recently resurrected classic spaceknights and Marvel's premier spaceknight Ikon. Was that the sacrificial lamb for drama's sake for this latest cosmic cataclysm story line? Is that all that Rom's legacy is worth to Marvel? And for that matter, was bringing back some of the classic spaceknights for a "New York minute" and then utterly destroying them just some cheap marketing stunt? Or is there going to be some sort of time space rectal continuum explanation later in this mini-series or perhaps in a later series that will some how magically restore what happened to Galador?
It's a shame actually cause all that aside this was a pretty good read. But I don't see myself being able to really enjoy this mini-series with all these questions about Galador and it's spaceknights. Ya know I said a couple of postings back that Marvel never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to get me on board as a regular reader of their stuff as far as going out to buy something every month. There are those who might say to be patient, don't have a panic attack over the first issue and keep reading the series and see what happens. That's a good point but damn, we've been waiting for over 12 years to get some real satisfaction when it comes to Marvel continuing ROM's legacy and this time it felt like it was so very close starting with Avengers #16 Prelude to Infinity. But at the end of the day I came away disappointed yet again with what Marvel is doing. It seems like no matter how much of today's writers at Marvel are fans of Mantlo's work on Rom spaceknight they just can't seem to deliver a satisfying product that will work for current story lines along with the old school fans. As if Sabra getting shot in the back by a fucken nazi wasn't bad enough (more on that later). For now I'll keep following Infinity on the internet cuz Marvel ain't getting any more of my money for this shit.

Let's see if I can end this posting on some what of a high note. It appears Sabra may not be dead after all. Follow the link and scroll down to the clip art for X-Men#31 which comes right after the panel with that douche bag Crossbones. The New Warriors and Fantastic Four clip art is also worth checking out if you have time: http://arousinggrammar.com/2013/07/02/superheroes-and-judaism-pt-3/
And in other news of The Empire today . . .

DAMN! That looks good in color!

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A little while ago I came across this awesome coloring job for this Sal Buscema HULK vs THOR line art
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Hulk-Vs-Thor-By-Sal-Buscema-327576237 So of course I left my compliments and gave the artist a heads up about the recent commission piece that Sal Buscema did earlier this year (my April 4th posting) and suggested it would make for a great coloring job project. As you can see our friend here (who's from Portugal) turned out another fantastic piece so let's here it for this labor of love as someone who has done a lot of coloring work this was a pretty time consuming effort.

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Here's something cool I found that looked like it might have been intended as some sort of cover concept. Unfortunately I don't know who the artist is but seeing this makes me really wish there had been a Sabra mini-series or at least some sort of one shot special. I dunno maybe one of these days I'll do something with this when I have some time. Sabra was created by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Belinda Glass.


X-MEN Days of Future Past: Just wanted to share with you all that I saw the movie last night. I thought it was pretty good and arguably the best film of a franchise that never quite reached a level that could be described as great. Yeah there were some logic gaps, some discontinuities and even a running time that was a bit too long. But all that aside it was still a well thought out story line complimented with some fantastic acting and plenty of homages to 60s / 70s American pop culture. In a lot of ways Quicksilver is the sleeper high light of the movie I wish we could have seen more of him then we did.

Other cool stuff from my Memorial Day weekend included some temporary exhibits at The Oakland Museum of California that I checked out. The first one was on the history of the San Diego/International Comic Con (since 1970!) in which I learned that the Comic Con has become the biggest event The San Diego Convention Center holds every year and as you may have guessed it generates far more revenue for the local economy then any other annual event in the San Diego area.
http://museumca.org/exhibit/sunshine-and-superheroes-san-diego-comic-con
Also at the Oakland Museum was the Art and Giant Robot exhibit which featured among other things this awesome display of the classic giant size Shogun Warriors. It's really cool to see how over the years all this one time obscure comic book/sci-fi nerd stuff become so mainstream.

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