For this 4th of July 2025

Since it's the 4th of July let me open up this month's posting with some new fan art that features the red, white and blue by Greek artist and my friend Nikolause Kapandais. Actually, it's not exactly new per se, I used photoshop to take two separate fan art pieces from Nikolause and put them together into one scene with Captain America and Sabra together. I think Contest of Champions and Incredible Hulk 279 were the only times where these two characters appeared together in the same comic book story lines.

Ikon spaceknight cameo in IMPERIAL issue 1 by Hickman  Coello  Vicentini

Now if there's any writer in Marvel that can get the hopes up of ROM fans only to shoot that hope down in flames it's the asshole known as Jonathan Hickman and this is exactly the kinda shit I talked about last month (*see previous posting). This panel featuring Ikon looking like a has been spaceknight suffering from depression in an alien dive bar is from Imperial issue 1 which is a new cosmic series. Now in Hickman's mind he might have actually believed he's paying tribute to the ROM legacy with sorry ass shit like but in reality he's doing it a disservice. Shit like this along with IDW's ill conceived reboot is what made ROM fans give up on any sort of hopes for a return for The Greatest of The Spaceknights in contemporary story lines and instead look toward stuff like Omnibus reprints and a articulate action figure which they finally got as of this year. One last thing, I'd like to give a not so honorary mention to writers Abnett & Lanning who gave us The Annihilators which was yet another big let down for the fans base.

THE COMING OF ROM: A Knight's Tale by Jim Shooter June 2011 http://jimshooter.com/2011/06/coming-of-rom-knights-tale.html/

This year has seen the loss of some major talents who have contributed to all things ROM over the years in one way or another. Jim Shooter passed away at pretty much the exact half way point of 2025. A controversial figure in some ways, he never the less was a big part of what made the Marvel 80s so epic with the Secret Wars series being just one of the many examples. On one hand, Shooter helped get greenlit Bill Mantlo's idea for the Micronauts and reached out to MEGO so ofcourse that was awesome. And ofocurse he was instrumental to getting the ROM series launched. But at the same time we know they also had a tenuous working relationship as well and unfortunately we'll never get Mantlo's side of the story about all that for obvious reasons.

 

Earlier this year we also last Peter David  and Butch Guice. Guice, who was an overall phenomenal artist (as seen in the pages of the before mentioned Micronuats) also did the cover art for at least three ROM issues (55,58 and 70) that I know of. Peter David never worked on the original series but he certainly made sure to help keep the legacy of ROM going in a big way with the Rick Jones wedding issue of The Incredible HULK. David also included  some clever ROM and Dire Wraith references in other HULK issues as well as in Captain Marvel in the 90s.

Rest in peace Kenneth Colley, you served the empire with honor & distinction

 

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.

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!