CBR Live! Archive
11/16 - If Only...
- by Brian Cronin
- in If Only...
Rom was still around to help with Secret Invasion...

- Posted on November 16, 2008 @ 02:15 PM
Rom was still around to help with Secret Invasion...

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32 Comments
Kane
November 16, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Damn right.
Scott Free
November 16, 2008 at 2:26 pm
You're completely right; that would have been awesome, what with his limbo-gun and wraith detector (that maybe works on Skrulls?). But I'll be Bendis would have found a way to draw out the story even longer and Marvel would have found a way to milk yet another tie-in miniseries out of the situation.
JackKing
November 16, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Instead of melting someone who already has no legs, maybe he should be helping his buddy on the crucifix.
Lawrence
November 16, 2008 at 2:46 pm
If Rom was around there'd be no Secret Invasion. He wouldn't allow it.
scooby
November 16, 2008 at 3:04 pm
For ROM + Skrulls, see ROM #50, in which he makes common cause with the Skrulls in order to fight the Dire Wraiths.
Dan K
November 16, 2008 at 5:13 pm
If ROM was around to fight the Skrulls, Secret Invasion would be a one-shot, the final 25 pages of which would be a ticker-tape victory parade in his honour.
Thok
November 16, 2008 at 5:56 pm
If ROM was still around, Bendis would find a way to write him with his IQ decreased a minimum of 50 IQ points, just like he's written everybody else in this story.
joe c
November 16, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Man, was Bill Mantlo ever unappreciated. This was one solid title the whole way through. And Hybrid was a great character. So sad what happened to Bill.
captaintrips
November 16, 2008 at 6:53 pm
is a guy getting crucified in the background?!
Craig
November 16, 2008 at 7:09 pm
My brother used to own a full run of Rom. He quit collecting comics, presumably because he had reached the collector's apex with 75 issues and however-many annuals of spaceknight action.
Why haven't those rights been cleared up yet? Trades of the old stuff, or even new material, would rock.
Chris Heide
November 16, 2008 at 7:36 pm
If Rom was still around, Bendis wouldn't care because Rom was an 80s character, not a 70s character...
Anonymous
November 16, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Rom was indeed a great series, I collected most of it. Though its shift to a more dark style after issue #50 -precisely the Skrull one- was never fully to my liking. Of course, compared to today's comics it was barely "grey."
Btw, yes, Rom's Analyzer allowed him to see Skrulls in thir real form. And no, the guy in the cover (it's actually a kid) is bound, not crucified. (This was before issue 50.) Still, messing with children made even a noble Spaceknight like Rom kill (a few times anyway.)
scooby
November 16, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I enjoyed the series up to and through issue 50. After that, both the art and the stories go in the tank. It's a great ride up to that point though.
buttler
November 16, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Help? ROM could have handled it just fine by himself.
Paul
November 17, 2008 at 8:29 am
If ROM was still around, he'd fry Bendis, THEN stop the Skrull invasion ...all in 6 panels.
SanctumSanctorumComix
November 17, 2008 at 9:53 am
MY love of ROM is only 2nd to that of my passion for DOCTOR STRANGE (and Man-Thing).
I frequently crack open an issue at random and that title was SOLID for most of it's tenure.
(it got a bit weak after Sal Buscema left - sorry, Mr. Ditko, I love you to pieces, but ROM wasn't your best work)
In a fair world, ROM would still be kickin' it in the M.U. & Bill Mantlo would still be at the helm.
Between the two of them, Bendis would be sent packing back to his loathed gig at McDonald's.
Or Limbo.
Either works for me.
~P~
E.D.
November 17, 2008 at 9:57 am
I really wish Marvel and Hasbro would get the copyright issues sorted out. Or, rather, that they'd see the sorting out of the copyright issues as worth doing.
I would buy a set of Essential ROM volumes in a heartbeat.
Dalarsco
November 17, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Wow. The vitriol some of you spew makes part of me want to hate ROM on principle. The sudden derailment of a "ROM kicks ass" discussion into a "Bendis sucks" discussion is the kind of crap I'd expect from the 'Rama. But ROM just kicks too much ass for anyone to hate him.
And Hybrid is awesome. They might not be able to use ROM himself, but I wish they used his old enemies more often. The last time we saw Hybrid was way back in X-Man.
Josh P.
November 17, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Personally, I loved how they snuck ROM into Universe X, even if it was only for a scene.
Eric P.
November 17, 2008 at 1:46 pm
If only the rights to ROM allowed a collection of the series (in color!!).
Adam P. Knave
November 17, 2008 at 2:46 pm
My only real problem with ROM is that he fought the Dire Wraiths and I always manage to read their name as Dire Straights and then I get mad at ROM, because what's his beef with Mark Knopfler?
sgt rawk
November 17, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Seriously? ROM has THIS many fans? ROM?
Luis Dantas
November 17, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Early Rom rocked
It was of the books with the most heart in the market. I particularly liked his meeting with Jack of Hearts.
Anon
November 17, 2008 at 7:38 pm
As a wee tot, I loved the Rom comics. It was all rolled up into one ball of explosive fun. Manly men doing heroic inspirational things. Killer robots on a killer rampage. Alien invasion or fight back the aliens, it was all there. (Poor Firefall!) Nowadays they're lucky to have one or two 'cool scenes' per formulated CC/PC/PTC-whipped comic issue. One for the title page, "We're doing what now?" "Blowing up superheros!" one for the ending surprize.
The robot wrath of god has come down to take no prisoners, pull no punches, and zap everything like Original Judge Dredd.
Alex
November 17, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hopefully we'd have a better ending than 'I quit'.
Craig
November 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Dalarsco, don't mistake our Chuck Norrisesque worship of the one true Spaceknight for hatred of things that aren't Rom.
Jeff Ryan
November 18, 2008 at 9:20 am
ROM facts
ROM's tears can cure cancer...but ROM has never cried.
ROM can slam a revolving door.
Underneath ROM's helemt is just another limbo gun.
ROM does not sleep. He waits.
There is no Secret Invasion: just a list of Skrulls that ROM has allowed to live.
Dan K
November 18, 2008 at 10:02 am
"ROM does not sleep. He waits."
My internet claim to (micro)fame is that I came up with that for that Chuck Norris fact site back in the day.
JimZipCode
December 12, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I got a letter printed in ROM once.
JimZipCode
December 12, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Oh, and a No-Prize!
It was SWEET.
Prime Director
December 27, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Scooby: In #50, Rom did let the invading Skrulls off the hook, but only because they "cleansed" Clairton of Wraiths. However, back in #24, he pretty much single-handedly held off a Skrull invasion of Xandar and killed around a bajillion of 'em... with great ease.
ParanoidObsessive
April 24, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I always loved the concept of Rom more than the actual comic. I have no idea why. Still, definitely cool.
---
"You’re completely right; that would have been awesome, what with his limbo-gun and wraith detector (that maybe works on Skrulls?)."
Weren't Dire Wraiths a genetic offshoot of the Skrull species? It should work.
---
"Why haven’t those rights been cleared up yet? Trades of the old stuff, or even new material, would rock."
Probably because Parker Brothers/Hasbro doesn't need the extra money. And Marvel doesn't think they'd make enough off potential trades to make it worth even talking about.
---
"ROM’s tears can cure cancer…but ROM has never cried."
He couldn't even if he wanted to, what with his eyes in a jar back on Galador.
Though the Rom/Chuck Norris comparison raises an interesting question. What if Chuck Norris was turned into a Spaceknight?