Rom Spaceknight?

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon May 31, 2004 10:15 pm

Okay, I'm just plain curious from the previous topic. What do you guys specifically like about Rom?

I'll readily admit I've NEVER read a single issue, but the covers were always enough to turn me away. Silly look (at least in the issues I saw) combined with the fact that I haven't been able to find a comic store that isn't selling the full run for under $40, has always suggested to me that it wasn't a very good read. Plus, I HATE Bill Mantlo's writing, or what little I've read of it (mostly in Spectacular Spider-Man and The Champions).

So sell me. What am I missing?

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Mon May 31, 2004 10:26 pm

<smirk>...I doubt you'll get anyone posting but me, but here goes:

The appeal of Rom, to me, was the whole 'secret shapechanging aliens quietly invade our world' thing. As you know, it's a VERY frequent sci-fi theme. Most of the issues from 1-46 are standard fare, some better than others, and even the second and third appearances of Rogue! (#32-33)

#47 is when it really took off, with the 'revelation' of female dire wraiths who stole personas....well, I won't spoil it, but let's just say, it's GRAPHIC and frightening even to this day.

It is also one of the very few series at Marvel that WASN'T X-Men that managed to filter into most Marvel titles in '84....it was REALLY good stuff.

I read them again recently, and, amazingly, they still held up. That's what impresses me most. Sure, the dialogues corny, but the plots are fantastic, and the overall theme is compelling.

It's just a good, solid 80's series.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon May 31, 2004 10:33 pm

Well, strangely enough, there was another Rom fan in that other thread. It definately sounds more compelling though. Maybe I'll talk one of the comic shops down and check out the run for $30 or so. I'm a big fan of imaginitive space-based science fiction. Does Bill Mantlo write the entire run?

johnpaulbill · Post by **johnpaulbill** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:06 am

I must say that it is nice to find others who still like Rom. I have them all, and still like to look at them. I just saw a very large quantity at a LCS just today for $.50 each (I also got a Magnus Robot Fighter #25 VVSS for that, too). The series was a great read, and I have to agree that the prospect of a race secretly invading the world was very intriguing, not to mention the whole man-grafted-into-a-living-suit-of-armor thing. Very cool to a teenager back then. I even had one of the large action figures back then. Hopefully, like most things 80's nowadays, Rom will find a way to be "reborn" into current mainstream. Definitely would be interesting with the better art/graphics available today. Just my $.02. jp

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:01 am

shaxper wrote:Well, strangely enough, there was another Rom fan in that other thread. It definately sounds more compelling though. Maybe I'll talk one of the comic shops down and check out the run for $30 or so. I'm a big fan of imaginitive space-based science fiction. Does Bill Mantlo write the entire run?

Yes, Bill wrote the entire run, with the exception of a couple of fill in issues. It and Hulk were Mantlo's 'big runs', and after that he retired from comics to be a full time lawyer, until his car accident in '92 left him mentally disabled.

I will always be grateful to Bill for his Rom work, regardless of his other stuff and how good/bad/indifferent it was. The fact is, Bill's Rom is the ONLY comics memory I have as a child, so I hold onto that more dearly than most.

$30 for the run of 1-75, so long as they are NM, is a fair price. It was the very first run I collected, and back in 1990, I had few resources to buy comics, so ended up paying $2 for a great many of them, before finding them in 25 cent bins in the mid-90's. Not that they were WORTH $2 each in 1990, it's just the only store that had them (screw you, Fact, Fiction, & Fantasy) squeezed EVERY damn dollar out of EVERY damn comic they possibly could, and I didn't know there were other options. Greedy pigs.

....

~ ahem ~

Anyhoo, it's a great run, lots of fun. You'll enjoy it, I think.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:03 am

johnpaulbill wrote:I must say that it is nice to find others who still like Rom. I have them all, and still like to look at them. I just saw a very large quantity at a LCS just today for $.50 each (I also got a Magnus Robot Fighter #25 VVSS for that, too). The series was a great read, and I have to agree that the prospect of a race secretly invading the world was very intriguing, not to mention the whole man-grafted-into-a-living-suit-of-armor thing. Very cool to a teenager back then. I even had one of the large action figures back then. Hopefully, like most things 80's nowadays, Rom will find a way to be "reborn" into current mainstream. Definitely would be interesting with the better art/graphics available today. Just my $.02. jp

There was a Space Knights miniseries published in 2000-ish, 5 issues, that dealt with the Space Knights and mentioned Rom...but Mantlo pretty well closed the door on Rom in ish #75. So, it'd take a pretty talented writer to resurrect the character.

cinlach@aol.com · Post by **cinlach@aol.com** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 7:35 am

that "spaceknights" mini series was really good but due to the fact that marvel doesn't own rom he was (as far as i can remember) never even mentioned. they made references to him and it was understood that the 2 main characters were his childen.
i think it was written by starlin with art by chris batista...i'd have to pull them to be more specific.

kenpierce · Post by **kenpierce** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 1:23 pm

I also loved the ROM series, as a matter of fact they made a reallly expensive action figure of him (Mattel I think it was). It had his various weapons etc, I still have him somewhere but doubt he works anymore. I think one battery exploded on me inside it. Oh well.

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 2:25 pm

I think $40 for that run is a gift. 70 something books? Even solid reading copies it's a good deal. What would 70 new books cost? It costs more than $40 to pull 70 comics out of a box and put them in a bag to make a run!

shaxper wrote:Well, strangely enough, there was another Rom fan in that other thread. It definately sounds more compelling though. Maybe I'll talk one of the comic shops down and check out the run for $30 or so. I'm a big fan of imaginitive space-based science fiction. Does Bill Mantlo write the entire run?

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:33 pm

ckb wrote:I think $40 for that run is a gift. 70 something books? Even solid reading copies it's a good deal. What would 70 new books cost? It costs more than $40 to pull 70 comics out of a box and put them in a bag to make a run!

SeeKayBee, you have an *odd* notion of what constitutes a 'good deal'.

If they're reading copies (read: Fine or worse), at best they're quarter books, which puts them at $19.75 for the set. That's what I'd sell them for, and be happy I got it. NM copies are a different story, but again, it's a series that very few are currently seeking. I wouldn't sell NM copies (except #1, #17-18, 32-33, and 73-75) for more than 50 cents each.

The 'price of new books' really doesn't have relevance on back issues, as the glut of 1993 Valiants demonstrates. Those books were released for $2.25-$2.50 for regular issues, and were quarter books or less within a year, and remain so to this day. The 'cover value' of a new book rests (as it used to, and should, and does for every other periodical) on it's 'newness'; once it become a back issue, it's cover price becomes meaningless, and it's 'value' rests solely on it's status in the back issue market.

It's why reruns on TV don't command the same ad rates as the original.

On the flip side, of course, I want you to buy all your books from me.

CLA · Post by **CLA** » Fri Jun 04, 2004 11:39 pm

Rom sounds interesting. I think I'll try it out.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 4:14 pm

Picked up #47 today and really tried to like it, but I couldn't do it. The female dire-wraiths would have been awesome if they hadn't been a blatant theft of Aliens/Invasion of the body snatchers, and the scene was lifted every 50s B horror film known to man. I think, had the issue not been wasted on a horrible villain, ithe new dire wraith plot might have gone somewhere better and intrigued me more. Perhaps I should try #48.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 8:06 pm

shaxper wrote:Picked up #47 today and really tried to like it, but I couldn't do it. The female dire-wraiths would have been awesome if they hadn't been a blatant theft of Aliens/Invasion of the body snatchers, and the scene was lifted every 50s B horror film known to man. I think, had the issue not been wasted on a horrible villain, ithe new dire wraith plot might have gone somewhere better and intrigued me more. Perhaps I should try #48.

But the COVER, man...the COVER!!!

Try #48. Then #49...at least until the Alpha Flight issues in 57 and 58.

And remember...it was the 80's!

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 1:02 am

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:

And remember...it was the 80's!

Ah yes. I began reading #75 tonight (a far better issue, so far), and my favorite part has been the "Lions and tigers and bears" ad, featuring the Thundercats and Carebears

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