This is a repost, with some updates, from the original Godmera's Fandom site. Rom the Spaceknight is a character and cosmic superhero created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers, currently a subsidiary of Hasbro. Rom appeared in the American comic book Rom: Spaceknight (December 1979 – February 1986) by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, and published by Marvel Comics. In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series. In December 2015, it was announced that a live-action film version of Rom was in development by Allspark Pictures and Paramount.
As a result, the final product had very few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce. Not long after its debut, Rom appeared in the corner box of the cover of Time magazine's December 10, 1979, issue. It was also featured in the interior article, "Those Beeping, Thinking Toys," which decried Rom's lack of articulation and predicted it would "end up among the dust balls under the playroom sofa." ROM was licensed to Palitoy in the UK to extend the "Space Adventurer" line of Action Man, appearing in their 1980 catalog. A new action figure of Rom was released for the 2017 San Diego Comic Con and at HasbroToyShop.com in limited quantities as part of the IDW Revolution set alongside figures of Jetfire (a repaint of the previously released Transformers Thrilling 30/Legends LG-07 Leader Class Jetfire figure), Roadblock, Action Man, Leoric, characters from the Micronauts, a Dire Wraith and Matt Trakker.
On May 7, 2016, having licensed the character from Parker Brothers' parent company, Hasbro, IDW Publishing debuted a brand new Rom #0 as part of Free Comic Book Day. The free issue serves as a prologue to a new ongoing series which began in July 2016. Rom continued to be part of the Hasbro Comic Book Universe until 2018, following the Transformers: Unicron event. On July 18, 2019, during San Diego Comic-Con, IDW announced a new series titled Rom: Dire Wraiths, which will be written by Chris Ryall and drawn by Luca Pizzari, Guy Dorian and Sal Buscema. Fictional character biography Marvel Universe In the comic book, Rom is more than a simple cyborg, being originally from a utopian society on a planet called Galador. The series details Rom's defeat of an invading alien race known as Dire Wraiths, and the continuation of their battle on Earth and other planets. Unlike the technologically advanced Galadorian civilization, the Dire Wraiths rely primarily on dark magic and their power to change their appearance. Some years before Rom's arrival on Earth, Galador is threatened by a fleet of ships manned by the Dire Wraiths. Galador's ruler, the Prime Director, calls for volunteers to be transformed into cyborg warriors called 'Spaceknights', so that they can defend the planet from the invaders. The volunteers are promised that their "humanity" (that is, the body parts that would be removed to accommodate the bionic armor) would be preserved and restored to them after the danger was over. Rom was the first to volunteer, and was transformed into a large, silver humanoid that at first glance appeared to be totally robotic. Rom was also given Galador's greatest weapon - the Neutralizer - which on one setting could banish the Wraiths into the dimension known as Limbo forever. Inspired by his example, a total of 1,000 Galadorians volunteered and were transformed into Spaceknights, each with his or her own unique armour, powers and code names. The Spaceknights succeeded in stopping the Wraith invasion, although Rom decided to follow the remnants of the fleet back to their home planet – Wraithworld – which orbited a black sun. The Wraiths panicked, and after a futile counter-attack abandoned the planet and scattered throughout space. Unable to stop Rom, the Wraiths successfully used their sorcery to trick him into allowing their escape. Rom now felt responsible for spreading the Wraiths’ evil across the universe, and swore he would not reclaim his humanity until all Dire Wraiths had been vanquished. His fellow Spaceknights, including comrades Starshine and Terminator, swore the same oath and left Galador.
During his time on Earth, Rom fights and banishes thousands of Wraiths. The increasingly desperate Wraiths also create new foes for Rom, such as the sorcerous Hellhounds, robotic Watchwraiths and Firefall - a fusion of human and Spaceknight. Two of Rom's greatest foes are the aptly named Hybrid (a hideous result of a union between Wraith and human), and Mentus (a suit of Spaceknight armor occupied by the dark side of the Prime Director's psyche). Many other opponents were more traditional and hailed from the Marvel Universe proper, such as the Mad Thinker, the Space Phantom, and the herald of Galactus, Terrax. Rom was one of the many heroes transported into an arena in space for the Contest of Champions though he was not chosen to participate. At one stage, Rom's war against the Wraiths takes a turn for the worse - a new breed of Wraith appeared on Earth, and appeared to be far deadlier than the first variety. It is later revealed that these are female Wraiths, who rely on sorcery, as opposed to the weaker males who placed their faith in science. Unlike the males, the female Wraiths chose not to act in secrecy and openly attack Clairton while Rom is away, killing everyone (including Steve Jackson and superhero ally the Torpedo) with the exception of Brandy Clark. Furthermore, they also attack S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile headquarters, the Helicarrier, which gave Earth authorities clear evidence of the existence and threat of the Dire Wraiths. Rom manages to banish all Dire Wraiths on Earth to Limbo with the aid of his super-powered allies and members of the U.S. military.
The remaining Spaceknights, their humanity now lost, set out to explore the universe, except for a few others that remained on Galador to protect Rom and Brandy. During the wedding of Rick Jones to Marlo Chandler, the now human Rom returned to Earth, together with Brandy, as guests at the ceremony, and Rom greeted the Hulk with a friendly handshake. Starlin miniseries In the Spaceknights miniseries (Oct. 2000 - Feb. 2001) written by Jim Starlin it is revealed that Rom took the name Artour (a reference to Brandy's love of Arthurian legends, and perhaps in memory of his own encounter with King Arthur's ghost), and that he and Brandy had two sons. However, Rom himself is not actually seen in the series, nor is he mentioned by that name or shown in his spaceknight form (no doubt to skirt the fact that Marvel no longer held the license from Parker Brothers, which had retained the copyrights on Rom's name and armored likeness); his ship is attacked off panel just prior to the start of the story, with Rom himself missing and presumed dead. Hasbro Comic Book Universe Rom plays an important role in the Hasbro Comic Book Universe by IDW Publishing.
Neutralizer Rom's primary weapon, which is designed to banish Dire Wraiths to Limbo by opening a dimensional portal. Unfortunately, the process leaves considerable waste material that makes it appear that the weapon kills its target to an uninformed observer. In addition, the Dire Wraiths unsuccessfully explored the possibility of examining the gun to find some means of returning its victims to the normal dimension. This handheld weapon could fire energy beams that can be deadly at a high setting if Rom chose to select it and it can neutralize various forms of energy. This device was designed so that only Rom would be able to discharge it. The mutant Wolverine once tried to use the weapon and received a numbing blast of energy feedback. Rom's Neutralizer would inspire a similar creation by the mutant Forge when the US government tasked him with constructing a weapon against the Wraith horde. It is notable that his neutralizer for a time cost Storm her mutant abilities. Analyzer Allowed Rom to see shape-changed Dire Wraiths in their true form and could assess the energy and potential of any object/entity. It could also be used on an item which represented a world, such as a globe, and would display lights corresponding to Dire Wraith infestations at that point on the planet. Unfortunately, the device resembles a handgun, and Dire Wraith imposters have taken advantage of this fact to fool others into thinking that Rom is attacking them. Rom once arranged an ally to have the equivalent kind of vision, but the Dire Wraiths counteracted that by magically blocking his mind from recognizing that particular visual data. Regardless, Rom allowed SHIELD to examine the Analyzer in hope of creating equivalent devices among the Spaceknight's human allies. Universal Translator Allowed Rom to instantly learn the language of any creature, irrespective of their origin. This device was also used to scan and store printed information from an encyclopedia in Rom's memory banks for future use.
In 2006, Marvel reprinted the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe as part of their Essentials line of trade paperbacks, including the Rom entries. In The Avengers 12.1 (2011), the super-villain group, The Intelligencia, was seen working with a 'spaceknight' that had actually been hosting the Ultron A.I. Reprint controversies Legal issues regarding the reprinting of Rom guest appearances in other comics have led to complications. Brief cameos such as a holographic version of the character appearing as a distraction in Uncanny X-Men #187 have remained intact as have the Rom entries in the Essential Marvel trade paperbacks for the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and its deluxe edition sequel. The cover of the Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe removed Rom from the artwork used for the cover of the collection. Several appearances by Rom have been outright omitted. Power Man and Iron Fist #73, which featured Rom was omitted from Essential Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1, and similarly Marvel Two-in-One #99 was omitted from Essential Marvel Two-in-One vol. 4, while The Incredible Hulk: Regression trade paperback features a heavily edited version of The Incredible Hulk #296, removing Rom's entire appearance in the issue. Furthermore, Rom #72, which was a tie-in to the Secret Wars II series, was omitted from the Secret Wars II Omnibus.
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