Rom #75...It's what the last year and a half has been building to. Driven by the knowledge that this series could never be collected because the rights to the toy are in parts unknown, AND my own disappointment at never collecting it myself back in the day (#49 scared the heck out of me, so I stopped where I started), I went into my local comic book shop, slapped a 100$ (Canadian) on the counter and asked for their complete run of Rom Spaceknight.
It was quite the stack. And now it's dwindled to this:
But you may be more interested in the story itself. As you may remember from last week, things have gone from bad to worse on Galador. The good Spaceknights are fighting a losing battle against the NextGen baddies and now Rom must throw a fight against their leader, Dominor, so that he might allow Brandy to live... as his bride! (Remember: Everyone wants to marry Brandy, that's at least 5 now).
Dominor is well equipped with electric blowtorches for hands and a nasty trashtalking whisper.
Plus, handy "destabilizer beams" that tap right into a Spaceknight's angst circuit.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Spaceknight Squadron gets jumped. Trapper holds her own for a while...
And though Scanner manages to reach and recall the lost Spaceknights, she has a harder time getting revenge for her friend, what with having no offensive capabilities whatsoever and all.
In the basement, Brandy is sticking her nose in all sorts of business and comes across... Rom's corpse?!
No, that's actually Terminator AS Rom. He died at Galactus' hands back in issue #26. As for the REAL Rom, he's decided he can't throw his fight with Dominor and all his friends to the wolves. And yet, he refuses to kill. Maybe his neutralizer can just make the opposing toy pop at the joints.
Oh yeah, it's Toy Story 2 all over again. Dominor is alive but defeated, and the other evil Spaceknights offer Rom a change to join them. He refuses, so they trot out their ultimate weapon: The Ring of 
Alas, the Spaceknights are big fat metal suckers because it destroys only them and the building they were in. It was Dominor's back-up plan if his knights ever went too far. Speaking of suckers, his humanity having been hidden in his throne, has just been blown up too. (So go to the back of the class if you thought Rom would become human again via Dominor's old body. I'll join you there.) Dominor can't take it and grabs Rom's neutralizer - watch out kids, this is the grisly bit -
When Rom comes to, Brandy's crying over him and she's got the good Spaceknights behind her. They've pulled his surviving humanity out of Terminator's corpse which he could use to finally be rid of his cyborg shell (which by now, has seen better days). In a twist I did not see coming, a Spaceknight's humanity is a big glowing ball. Urm...
And by just touching it, Rom turns from a silver Spaceknight into a buff young man with supple hair and a comfortable tank top.
The Spaceknights, having lost their own humanity forever agree to fly into space and keep the peace, leaving Rom and Brandy on Galador to do recreate the Galadorian race. I hope twins run in Brandy's family...
The beginning... of a lot of sex, I imagine.But it's not over! There are still a couple of loose ends and key appearances by Rom and the Wraiths that we need to talk about before I can close the book on Spaceknight Saturdays. So stick around all week for daily Spaceknight content, starting Monday!
Comments
I'm kidding. Probably.
Thanks 'skoid :^p
I'll be sending you my therapy bill.
At least Rom has a happy ending. Can't say the same about the rest of the cast: Steve Jackson, killed (so Earth-616 won't have GURPS), Spaceknights, killed; Galador? Fated to be full of endogamic people...
But at least Rom has a human body again. I can see the Silver boy crying in joy: "I've a pe*is! I've a pe*is! Brandy, come here and look my new...".
You can imagine this.
SISKOID: we are talking alout about Rom at writeups.org's list. Go there, pal!
Roger
PD: And here I thought I was helping out a fella. Sometimes you can't win.
Roger: I'll pop in, been a while.
If I go by the fact that current copyright holder Abrams/Gentile Entertainment kept Marvel from publishing a Micronauts reboot in '97, though it has more recently (2005) greenlighted new toys, I don't believe Marvel will be allowed to reprint Mantlo's series.
Despite it's somewhat "that's it" ending, I think the Rom story was one of Marvel's better triumphs of using a toy product license effectively beyond it's original scope (as opposed to say...Crystar..ugh that was a train wreck).
As person who still owns all of the original issues, I was glad to see Rom get some attention again.
You done an amazing job with it, and it's what brought me to your blog. Needless to say, I've hung around for all your other topics of discussion.
I think a stab at the Micronauts sounds interesting. Golden's and Broderick's pencils on that series is what I remember being so cool at the time.
Although I'm sure it would be hard to come by some issues, I'd be curious to see your take on Marvel's Star Wars series too - back before Lucas went and inserted all his midiclorians, clone troopers, etc.
It certainly had a very different feel in those pre-internet, expanded universe days.
Anyhow, just my thoughts on things.
I'll try not to hold that against you. ;)
Cong rats on the Rom-tastic conclusion of Spaceknight Saturdays! It's been a blast.
As for follow-ups (because a bloggers work is never done!) Micronauts would be very cool, as I've only read a handful of the Marvel issues and few of the Devils Due re-launch.
Continuing in the licensed vein, how 'bout Marvel's Godzilla? It's a shorter one (only 23 issues I think) and was collected as a one-shot Essential (Marvel bought the rights to one print run, so they can't make anymore, or something like that). Plus, it features Dum Dum Dugan, and that's never a bad thing.
Or how 'bout GI Joe or Transformers? Both are readily available via reprints these days but might be kind of fun. Some of those Transformers issues might even inspire some "Batman and the Outsiders" style mocking.
The Micronauts almost made it though, while Star Wars is something I have very little interest in.
Siskoid, as a Star Trek fan you need to see this if you haven't already.
http://www.redlettermedia.com/insurrection.html
Yes, I've seen all your comments and they're appreciated. It doesn't matter to me if the posts commented on are fresh or years old.
Wow, almost a year since Spaceknight Saturdays ended.
Hey Siskoid, i found a ROM appearance (of sorts) in the mainstream Marvel universe under the most cleverly humorous of circumstances. i think Siskoid you are to finding cool ROM stuff on the internet what Indiana Jones is to archeology but i think i actually may have come across something you missed out there. check out my latest post through your blog roll: blog for ROM fans