The feature inspired by great cosplay and fan art where I imagine various Marvel properties taken to the small screen and wonder aloud just what their shows would be like. Today's pitch: Rom Spaceknight.
Fan art by: John Gallagher (uncannyknack on DeviantArt)
One way to choose a superhero property to exploit as a television show is to look at what's a step down from a movie property. On actual TV screens, Arrow is thus a television version of Batman (ish), Agents of SHIELD is a poor man's Avengers, Agent Carter is derived from Captain America, and so on. On this feature, to give more examples, Hercules was my TV version of Thor, and New Mutants was TV's answer to the X-Men franchise. Rom, aside from being a perennial favorite, works the same strategy on a combination of Iron Man and the Silver Surfer, but with strong Invasion of the Body-Snatchers vibe mixed into it.
Let's be real. Between the rights issues and Rom's not-even-relative obscurity, there's no way this should would ever exist. I don't care. Though cosmic in origin, the Spaceknight's story WOULD work on the small screen, because despite the silver giant protagonist, it's set (at least initially) in a Smalltown USA (Clairton, VA), which turns out to be a nest of Dire Wraith doppelgangers. Brandy, the girl who would fall in love with an inhuman cyborg, eventually becomes Starshine, but way down the line. Brock Jones would become the Torpedo well before then. And you'd have jealous boyfriend Steve Jackson, and the Clarks in there as well. Galador might figure in flashbacks, and eventually, as effects got simpler and cheaper, I'm sure we'd see more Spaceknights.
But not gonna lie, the real reason to do a Rom series is for its villains. The Dire Wraiths are an incredible creation, equal parts SF, fantasy and horror, and after the male of the species is defeated in season 1 (with its tense paranoid thriller atmosphere), we'd discover the female are on Earth as well, and they're witches! Oh, and Hybrid! We need Hybrid! Since Rom is a voice and suit/effect, most of the series is about getting to know the human characters around him. and it should be a real blow/freak-out moment when they get offed and/or turn out to be Wraith impostors.
A crazy dream, but let me dream. What might you do with a Rom/Wraiths TV series? (Except sell your Rom toy at an obscene prince on eBay, I mean?)
One way to choose a superhero property to exploit as a television show is to look at what's a step down from a movie property. On actual TV screens, Arrow is thus a television version of Batman (ish), Agents of SHIELD is a poor man's Avengers, Agent Carter is derived from Captain America, and so on. On this feature, to give more examples, Hercules was my TV version of Thor, and New Mutants was TV's answer to the X-Men franchise. Rom, aside from being a perennial favorite, works the same strategy on a combination of Iron Man and the Silver Surfer, but with strong Invasion of the Body-Snatchers vibe mixed into it.
Let's be real. Between the rights issues and Rom's not-even-relative obscurity, there's no way this should would ever exist. I don't care. Though cosmic in origin, the Spaceknight's story WOULD work on the small screen, because despite the silver giant protagonist, it's set (at least initially) in a Smalltown USA (Clairton, VA), which turns out to be a nest of Dire Wraith doppelgangers. Brandy, the girl who would fall in love with an inhuman cyborg, eventually becomes Starshine, but way down the line. Brock Jones would become the Torpedo well before then. And you'd have jealous boyfriend Steve Jackson, and the Clarks in there as well. Galador might figure in flashbacks, and eventually, as effects got simpler and cheaper, I'm sure we'd see more Spaceknights.
But not gonna lie, the real reason to do a Rom series is for its villains. The Dire Wraiths are an incredible creation, equal parts SF, fantasy and horror, and after the male of the species is defeated in season 1 (with its tense paranoid thriller atmosphere), we'd discover the female are on Earth as well, and they're witches! Oh, and Hybrid! We need Hybrid! Since Rom is a voice and suit/effect, most of the series is about getting to know the human characters around him. and it should be a real blow/freak-out moment when they get offed and/or turn out to be Wraith impostors.
A crazy dream, but let me dream. What might you do with a Rom/Wraiths TV series? (Except sell your Rom toy at an obscene prince on eBay, I mean?)
Comments
Based off the outline you laid out in this article, even I'm intrigued by a ROM series, and I'm not as interested in ROM as my buddy or like-minded fans.
The dire wraiths impostors concept sounds a lot like the modern take on the Cylons from the recent Battlestar Galactica series, so I could see this show have a built-in fan following on the SYFI network.
Oh wait, the Wraiths are in there.