Rom the Spaceknight
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Rom the Spaceknight is a fictional cyborg outer space hero created in co-operation between Parker Brothers and Marvel Comics.
Creation
Originally, the character was produced as a toy with electronic light and sound effects, by the toy company Parker Brothers. This was one of the first toys to feature LED lights. The toy was co-created by Richard Levy who is also one of the inventors of Furby. Parker Brothers arranged to have the Marvel Comics Company publish a comic book series starring the character. This comic was published between 1979 and 1985, and actually outlasted the toy by several years. The comic book version was adapted by writer Bill Mantlo, illustrated by artist Sal Buscema and was made a part of the Marvel Universe.Character biography
In the comics, it was explained that Rom was originally a young man from Galador, a paradisiacal planet from the so-called Golden Galaxy, whose inhabitants closely resembled humans. Rom led a happy life until Galador was threatened by the evil, shape-changing aliens known as the Dire Wraiths. The planet's ruler, the Prime Director, called for volunteers to be transformed into cyborg warriors called 'Spaceknights' so they could defend the planet from the invaders. It was promised to them 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 one to volunteer, and was transformed into a silvery, robot-like being. He was also given Galador's greatest weapon, The Neutralizer, which, among other powers, could banish the Wraiths into the dimension known as Limbo. Inspired by his example, a total of 1,000 Galadorians volunteered and were transformed into Spaceknights, each with his or her own unique armor, powers and code names.
The Spaceknights succeeded in stopping the wraith invasion. Rom, however, decided to follow the escaping fleet of starships back to its home planet, Wraithworld, and banish them all. The Dire Wraiths, panicking, abandoned the planet and scattered in all directions across space. Rom, feeling that he was now responsible for spreading the Wraiths’ evil across the universe, swore he would not reclaim his humanity until all the Dire Wraiths in the universe had been defeated. Again, his fellow Spaceknights swore to do the same. They then left Galador.
200 years later, Rom arrived on Earth. It is at this point that the Rom comic begins. He landed near Clairton, a (fictional) town in West Virginia, USA, located near where many of the Wraiths had landed years before. The first human that Rom encountered was a girl named Brandy Clark. Brandy befriended Rom, but was forced to help him hide from the public, since the use of the Neutralizer caused onlookers to believe that Rom (whom they thought a robot) was disintegrating people (actually Wraiths in human form.) Brandy's boyfriend, Steve Jackson, also helped Rom to track down the Wraiths hidden in Clairton. However, as time passed, Brandy began to fall in love with the noble Rom, straining her relationship with Steve. One of the menaces they fought in Clairton was The Hybrid, a monster created from the mating of a human and a Dire Wraith.
Eventually, Starshine, a female Spaceknight who was secretly in love with Rom, followed him to Earth. She died in combat, but her armor was magically transplanted onto Brandy's body by a Wraith sorcerer called Doctor Dredd, as part of a plan to use her against Rom. Brandy secretly yearned for this, since she wanted to stay by Rom's side.
At one point, Rom was briefly transported to his home world, where he found that the Prime Director was now an evil Spaceknight. He was killed, but not before Rom's human body was apparently destroyed by Galactus. Rom was then transported back to Earth. (Rom #50)
With Clairton now free from the Wraiths, Rom and Brandy, now Starshine, left to track down more Wraiths elsewhere on Earth. In the process they met many of Marvel's superheroes. Unknown to them, however, the female Dire Wraiths rebelled against their mates, whom they saw as failures. They killed all the male Wraiths on Earth and then began to attack human civilization openly. Their first target was Clairton; they killed all of its inhabitants while Rom and Starshine were away, using their horrible ability to eat a person's brain, reducing their victims to slime (and gaining their memories in the process). Steve was one of their victims. Brandy was very traumatized by this event.
Eventually, Rom and Starshine were able to convince the Earth's authorities of the threat of the Dire Wraiths, especially after the aliens made the strategic blunder of breaking their cover and openly attacking the intelligence agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., at their headquarters, the Helicarrier, and were barely beaten off. With definite proof of the enemy, the various Earth nations directed their forces to counter them with Rom directing field operations. In addition, after learning that vital psionic trackers from SHIELD were being killed with special Dire Wraith magical attacks, the sorcerer Doctor Strange appeared on his own accord to cast a spell to give the personnel improved resistance to them.
Shortly thereafter, the Hybrid returned, using Wraith magic to separate Brandy from her armor, making her human again. Rom defeated the monster again, but he chose to leave the now-human Brandy behind, for her own sake.
Soon, the Wraiths launched their master plan: they cast a spell on Earth's Sun that used its energies to draw Wraithworld across space, close to Earth, since they gained their magical abilities from it. The Wraiths then attacked New York City en masse, and were resisted by an alliance of most of the city's superheroes. Rom, with help from the mutant inventor Forge, created a satellite that could boost the power of the Neutralizer, enough to banish all Wraiths on Earth. But there was the risk that it would also permanently cancel the powers of all superhumans on Earth. So Rom instead directed its effects on Wraithworld itself, banishing it to Limbo. This caused the Wraiths to lose all their powers. Rom then banished the remaining Wraiths as well.
Afterwards, Rom left Earth and returned to Galador. Before he reached it, however, Brandy, having accidentally met the cosmic entity called the Beyonder, asked him to send her to Galador, which he did. But to her dismay, she found out that, in the absence of the original Spaceknights, a new group of cyborgs had been created to protect Galador. But these Spaceknights felt superior to humans, and killed the rest of the Galadorians, and destroyed all the frozen body parts as well. Rom reached Galador in time to save Brandy but not in time to prevent the massacre. With the help of the original Spaceknights, the evil ones were destroyed. Rom then found that his original humanity had actually only been hidden by Galactus. Reclaiming it, Rom, now human again, finally admitted his love for Brandy, and stayed with her on Galador, hoping to repopulate the planet. The other Spaceknights, their humanities forever lost, set out to continue protecting the universe from evil, as well as safeguarding Galador for its new inhabitants.
Copyright issues
Since Marvel no longer has the rights to the character of Rom, it is unlikely that they will ever use him again, at least not in the form it had as a toy. The human version of Rom, however, has been seen in other comics after this comic's cancellation, and so have other concepts from the series, such as the Dire Wraiths, which were invented by Marvel writers.Rom did reappear (but in human form) along with Brandy, at the wedding of Rick Jones, who was Rom’s human partner for a while. Rick Jones also owns a toaster in the shape of Rom's helmet.
The alternate world of Earth X/Earth-9997 saw Rom ironically banished to Limbo, battling against the very Dire Wraiths he had sent there. In his human form, weilding his Neutralizer and his armor fashioned as a shield, Rom encountered Cap, the Mar-vell child, and their party as they scouted Limbo to use as a new Hell. After an encounter with Mephisto and Belasco, Rom handed over his Neutralizer to Cap. Cap later melted the Neutralizer while battling against the Hydra collective.
Marvel has recently (January 2006) published a reprint of their Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, under their Essentials line of trade paperbacks, and it includes the original Rom entries as well as entries for his weapons and other devices.
Powers and weapons
Rom’s cyborg armor gave him superhuman strength, great resistance to damage, the ability to fly (via backpack rockets), to travel across space by creating space warps, and to breathe any atmosphere (and in space). It also gave him the ability to summon three pieces of equipment stored in “subspace”:- The Neutralizer - In addition to banishing Dire Wraiths to Limbo, this handheld weapon could fire red beams of destructive energy, and neutralize various forms of energy. Only Rom (or someone with electric phasing abilities, like Shadowcat) could use the weapon; anyone else would get an energy feedback.
- The Energy Analyzer - which allowed Rom to see shape-changed Dire Wraiths in their true form.
- The Translator - a device that allowed Rom to instantly learn any language.
Bibliography
- Rom #1-75 (December, 1979 – February, 1986)
- Rom Annual #1-4 (1982 – 1985)
- SpaceKnights #1-5 (2000)
External links
- http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/Rom/
- http://www.romspaceknight.com
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