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.

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.

 

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.

Bill Mantlo Sal Buscema and what could have been as we watch Captain America 4 nose dive

Sometimes when I reflect on Bill Mantlo’s legacy it’s not just about what was, but also about what could have been under different circumstances. A big thanks to Greek artist and friend Kapandias Nikolaos for helping make this imaginary cover art possible. Like many of you we sure do wish it had been a published hard copy found on a spinner rack back in the day. 

And speaking of spinner racks. I'm sure you've all seen this photo before with this George Lucas looking guy it's been posted all over social media countless times over the years. By chance I recently found this color version on X/twitter. 

 

 Back to more collaboration fan art with my before mentioned Greek friend. I dressed up some fan art of his from 2021 to make a ROM Annual 3 cover variant. Now, no disrespect to Bill Sienkiewicz who did the original cover art we all still very much love. It's just that a different interpretation some times can be interesting and enjoyable as well. 

If you grew up in the 80s and don't remember the show Airwolf, well I don't know what to say because I sure do remember it. Back when ROM annual 3 came out I noticed something very familiar about the helmets featured for the Wraith Hunter Rangers. I would find it hard to believe that redesign concept was not directly influenced that cool helmet design from the show.

 

Also, my hypothetical Tales to Astonish publishing those untold Mantlo stories would be penciled by just about any other artist other then Steve Ditko. Sal Buscema ofcourse would have been ideal but Bob Layton would have been a good alternative. The same Bob Layton who did this spectacular SABRA commission late last year. 

I also have a message for marvel studios because even though the opening weekend of Captain America Brave New World is not quite over we can already do a post mortem. Well you idiots caved in to the BDShole woke antisemitic mob and how did that work out for ya? But that still didn't keep the hamas supporters from harassing Shira Hass at the premier in LA. Did you people learn nothing from the last election and see how all the double talk from the democrats on the war in gaza was just pissing every one off on both sides!? Like Nick Fury said in Captain Marvel ..."pick a side". 

I mean Shira Hass was a questionable person for the role in the first place given that she looks like she's barely old enough to drive but was playing a character who's traded punches with the HULK in the comics. But you people really screwed this all up even worse then expected. And Marvel/Disney has got another money losing disaster over the horizon in the form of the semi live action Snow Woke film. Just as gaza has brought all this misery and destruction on it's self as a result of the October 7th terror attack, you've done much the same with your financial miseries and brand destruction. Well deserved in each case!

Instead of wasting your money on Captain America Brave New Whatever, just watch this instead. It's free, a better use of your time and I heard it has better CGI effects.

February 27th Update: Holy shit I just heard the news about Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog having been found dead in their New Mexico home! I don't even know where to start with this one. My personal favorite Gene Hackman films are Superman I and 2, The Unforgiven, Crimson Tide, The Firm and The Poseidon Adventure. My all three of them rest in peace.

April 1st Update: And here we go again with the loss of another iconic actor for early 2025. My all time favorite Val Kilmer films are Top Secret, HEAT and Tombstone. Top Gun was good in a cheesy 80s action drama kinda way but Mavrick really ended up far exceeding my expectations for a sequel to a movie like Top Gun could be. I'm so glad Val Kilmer was at least healthy enough at the time for that heart warming scene between him and Tom Cruise it was one of those great moments that made Maverick so damn good. In terms of science fiction, Val Kilmer was in the film Red Planet. Not at all a bad film although not as good as other Mars based films like Mission To Mars and The Martian.

Captain America 4 and The Fantastic Four . . . you need to do better Marvel!

Over the years I've seen quite a bit of foreign cover art for reprinted ROM issues and stories. Mostly they were made up of lifted images of both clip art and cover art from the Marvel series. In other cases it was more like mediocre fan art style reproduction from the original series. But in a handful of cases they were actual original art work created for those foreign reprints. This one here, which is based on the cover art from ROM issue 20 is my favorite original art foreign cover although there's also one from Strange Magazine (French) that features ROM and The Sub-Mariner that I think is a close second . . .

https://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/04/of-spartans-spaceknights.html

  It's been a while since I've posted any public art based on comic book/science fiction pop culture. I recently discovered this pretty cool mural in downtown Oakland Califonia. Kinda surprised to find this rather patriotic Steve Rogers Captain America in such a "progressive" town like Oakland which might as well be renamed to Wokeland these days. Speaking of all things Captain America, we all know that Captain America 4 is debuting in theaters in just a couple weeks from now and it's pretty much a guaranteed box office bomb. 

  Rumor has it that the would be SABRA appearance has been stripped of her Israeli identity. Needless to say that pisses me off but it comes as no surprie that Woke Disney/Marvel Studios would cave into BDS post october 7, 2023. But it's also the least of this movie's productions problems with all the reshoots, multiple failed screen tests and the latest comments from actor Anthony Mackie. I'm really feeling like that whole MCU story arc with Steve giving Sam the shield should have just been wrapped up with the Falcon Winter Soldier mini series. It wasn't with out it's problems but overall I really enjoyed it to be honest. I'll pass on this one I can wait till it shows up on streaming.

 

As I was reading this online article from late last year about this series of variants based off the classic Marvel Two-IN-One series I realized that issue 99 was the second to the last issue of the series. So glad they decided to get ROM into the mix before it's end it was one of my favorite Marvel team ups ever.
 https://comicbook.com/comics/news/marvel-the-fantastic-four-the-thing-two-in-one-variant-cover-series/

 

Around Hanukkha last year I thought it might be fun to rework the recent ROM and THING fan art from Ron Frenz by substituting ROM for Sabra by artist Darryl Banks. I think the Banks Sabra blended pretty seamlessly into a Marvel Two-In-One issue that would have been awesome. Speaking of all related things Ben Grimm, I'm not seeing that not so Fantastic Four shit either in theaters. Sorry but not sorry Pedro, you're not Reed Richards. Because despite his work on The Mandalorian I can't stand him as a person. And on top of that, Norrin Radd is now going to be Nora Radd as I understand it. No thank you to all that!

 

A Marvel 80s Hanukkha for 2024

Now this one here I retrieved from my fan art archives. It's the only Jewish culture and ROM crossover piece I've ever come across and unfortunately I still don't know who the artist is because I sure would have a few questions for him or her about it. The four or five of you who will see this posting probably aren't old enough to recognize the little "girl" here. She's an android from this late 80s sitcom called Small Wonder. This artist had a quite a vivid imagination. Well, Happy Hanukkha whoever you are. 

 

I really wanted to close out the year with some original fan art of my own so in honor of the first night of Hanukkah I came up with this sketch card a couple days ago. There ofcourse are a number of other Jewish characters from Marvel Comics such as Moon Knight and Alpha Flight's Sesquatch but I decided to use the ones that I think worked best for this gathering around the menorah scene. Please spare a thought and maybe even a prayer for the hostages still in the terrorist Hell hole of gaza who will be missing their second Hanukkah in a row now. Bring Them Home Now!

January 18th Update: Tomorrow will be the first day of phase 1 for the ceasefire for the hostages deal. Let's hope it holds and eventually results in the release of all the hostages in the coming weeks from those hamas bastards. 

Anyways, on a much much less serious topic . . . images of these new Marvel Legends action figures have turned up yesterday on social media. At exactly 20:20 in this presentation video we get a detailed look and description of the ROM figure.

https://www.youtube.com/live/u0wYt4ysVm8?t=1199s

Happy Birthday To Me

This is some fan art by Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos that's based on the unpublished pages from Cloak & Dagger featuring Sabra as seen in the previous posting. I've had this art work for a little while now but I've been waiting for the right time to feature it as I love to do with good fan art. So with it being my birthday today I guess this is a good time as a treat to myself.

Coincidentally I also discovered this new fan art commission by artist Jeff Slemmons which was posted to Comic Art Fans just a few days ago. I would definitely say this is the best ROM related fan art for 2024 I've come across. ROM blasting away Dire Wraiths is nothing new when it comes to ROM fan art including this year with a fictitious cover by Bob Layton and a 3D rendering I saw on farcebook more recently that was kinda cool. But Slemmons does it best here hands down. 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=2074609

 December 12 Update: And look what else I just found! A new commission piece by one of the best and possibly most under rated Marvel 80s artists Ron Frenz. All that aside I'm always happy to have more Jewish superheroes in my posts.

 December 21 Update: Here's the color version. I can't decide which version I like better . . . 

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=2079247

Cloak n' Dagger 11 Vol. 2 and the lost SABRA pages

Before we get to the Sabra stuff, have a look at this. A mere coincidence? I think not.

So just earlier today I came across something of a wonderful mystery involving Cloak n' Dagger issue 11 (Volume 2) from 1985. What you see here are two unpublished pages (9 and 15) for a story called O Little Town of Bethlehem in which Cloak n' Dagger get caught up in a West Bank weapons smuggling operation. The published story featured a non super powered female semi protagonist named Beth Stein who is on a personal vendetta to avenge the death of her daughter by terrorists.

There's no mention of Israel or of "palestinians" but it's very obvious that Beth is an Israeli and that the terrorists she's pursuing are palestinians. I always thought that was a bit odd when I first read Cloak n' Dagger 11 as a back issue a few years ago especially considering that Marvel had published stories with Middle East politics in the background in the early 80s with out any drama for first appearance issues (Incredible HULK series ofcourse) of Sabra and The Arabian Knight. And now it would appear as if at some point in this issue's production that it was intended to have Sabra (aka Ruth Bat Seraph) as the semi protagonist instead of this Beth Stein character.

I wish I had more answers about what the Hell went on behind the scenes at the time between original writer Bill Mantlo, penciler June Brigman and editor Carl Potts. I dunno maybe it had something to do with it already having been established that the Sabra character's background involved the murder of her son (presumably only offspring) to palestinian terrorists and that this revenge story line about a murdered daughter would then not make much sense for Sabra? I suspect the reasoning was more political in nature but really who knows? 

All I can say for now is that I'm grateful for these two pages that were uncovered even though I have no idea if they're are any more out there from the unpublished Sabra version of Cloak n' Dagger 11. Interestingly enough in the 90s and early 2000s we would see Sabra make appearances in The Hulk, New Warriors, X-Men and Union Jack that took fairly deep dives into hot topics such as The Holocaust and Israel's conflict with the palestinians. And here we are in 2024 with the ongoing MCU Sabra drama for Captain America Brave New World in this post October 7th world with this shit hamas war still ongoing. 

Cloak & Dagger 11 as it was published read online  https://www.zipcomic.com/cloak-and-dagger-1985-issue-11

No ceasefire without the speedy return of all hostages still in gaza. Fuck hamas and all their useful idiot supporters!

 

September 9th Update: All I can say is damn! Not you to James Earl Jones! Another part of my childhood and so much more gone, but never forgotten. Rest in peace.

November 13th Update: Here's one I didn't see coming, at only 69 we lost Tony Todd a few days ago. Todd had a long film and TV career spanning decades but my favorite work from Todd was his countless appearances on Star Trek and when it came to his movie work there was the excellent Night of The Living Dead remake, Platoon and The Rock. I also want to make an honorary mention of yet another recent loss just prior to Todd of another Star Trek DS9 actor, James Darren. Darren played the reoccurring beloved holodeck character Vic Fontaine and you may remember him also from back in the day on T.J. Hooker.

 

The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe issue 9 re-covered sketch card

Hopefully you're familiar with the 80s Official Marvel Universe Handbook series? Anyways, here's issue 9 for you to reference  . . . 
https://viewcomiconline.com/the-official-handbook-of-the-marvel-universe-issue-9/

What I did here was replace the characters on the front page cover with characters on the page page cover with the one exception being ROM whom I just repositioned on the front cover. Interestingly enough as I was working on this labor intensive sketch card I realized that Sabertooth was completely absent from the cover art for issue 9 despite having his profile in the issue. I've had this issue since the early 80s and I'm just noticing that for the first time. His profile shares the same page (15) along with Israel's Sabra. I'm thinking that might have been some sort of over site at the time. Anyways, I decided to add him to the mix. 

March 30th Update: Well I thought I was gonna have to finish up this month with out anything else to update this posting with when by chance I came across this gorgeous gouache painting of The Mad Thinker with his awesome android by Dan Orgil which also happens to contain a ROM Easter egg. A reference to ROM the events in 14 and later recapped in Captain America 311. In a description attached to this illustration Orgil goes on to say that he likes to give a little love once in a while to non A list characters. Thank you Dan we appreciate that and you taking us on a little trip down Marvel 80s memory lane. 

 

 March 22nd 2025 Update: This is the latest update from when I originally published a posting that I've ever done. For some reason this just hit me for the first time after literally all these decades! And this is coming from someone who was an art major and who's owned ROM 14 since I was a teenager. I'mreally curious to know if this was Buscema or Mantlo's idea but I suspect we'll never get the answer to that.

July 18th Update: Time to showcase some newly discovered public art! For years I've had this love hate relationship with the city of oakland, or Wokeland or Oaklandistan as I like to call it. But since the October 7th terror attack in Israel, I just simply hate this town for the antisemitic and crime ridden urban Hellscape that it is. But even so, once in a while you will actually find something cool.