As some of you know, I was always a big fan of Marvel's Micronauts (another comic book inspired by a toy line from the very beginning). But ROM was the stuff of myth and legend when I was a wee lad. For whatever reason, I was not able to acquire the issues that came when it first started. It was well thought of by both the playground set and the big brother set. I read issues sporadically.

I always liked the way there was a real heroic mythology to it, with his arch-nemeseses the Dire Wraiths, and the fact that he had sacrificed himself to be a Spaceknight, and was protecting Earth, etc.

I wanted to read it all from the beginning, but I suppose it's one of those books where licensing the property is a barrier to us getting a good archival reprint. So I decided to acquire (at dollar-box prices) all the issues. As of now, I have issues 1-30. I intend to read them and review them here. My reviews are not big on synopsis, but rather impressions and reactions.

Additional fact you should know in your head of knowledge -- Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema were doing their Hulk run and this comic at the same time. It has that exact same look as the Hulk comics of its day.

First, the uninitiated must soak up the TV commercial for ROM that launched at about the same time as the Marvel comic. Marvel was heavy into the "toy strategy" for its comics at the time. It was doing Shogun Warriors, Micronauts, and Star Wars at the time.

Now onto the first issue. The cover to #1 is iconic enough (drawn by Frank Miller, believe it or not), but oddly its splash page was more memorable, because they would run it in numerous ads for the series in the next couple of years.

Issue #1: Arrival

The first issue succinctly sets up who Rom is, where he came from, and why he's on Earth. He's a Spaceknight, which means he travels the galaxy (unaided, like Silver Surfer) in pursuit of the evil Dire Wraiths. Rom comes from an advanced and peaceful civilization.The Dire Wraiths were an existential threat, and in order to save his people, Rom was the first volunteer to permanently be transformed by technology into a Spaceknight. The procedure makes the former person into a cybernetic organism (a cyb---org, if you will). The immediate threat of the Dire Wraiths was turned back, but he now pursues their escaped (and disguised) numbers elsewhere.

In this issue, we learn that Dire Wraiths walk among us, masquerading as humans. They are in control of key offices, military and government, and are in total CAHOOTS with one another. With his "analyzer" he can tell who is a Wraith and who is not. And with his "neutralizer," he seemingly kills them (quite willy-nilly), but we learn it is actually a banishment to something like the Phantom Zone (called limbo). It is said to be a fate worse than death, though. So it's still good.

We meet Brandy Clark -- who is not sure whether Rom is good or bad, but feels like he is good and she should help him.

High points of interest thus far:

1. That Rom is a hero who sacrificed a normal life to defeat evil. He is not a robot.
2. That the Dire Wraiths are mustache-twirling evil bad guys, not misunderstood at all.
3. The "human disguise" for the Wraiths presents many possibilities for stories, because it is always possible any character is a Wraith, or that Rom will be disbelieved.
4. That Marvel found a way to do a Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica rip off that was actually pretty original.
5. The Spaceknights (there are others) are kind of Jedi-like, saving the good people from the Sith-like Wraiths. The Dire Wraiths use dark magic, whereas the Spaceknights are all technology and valor.

I have read some of these.

I like Bill Mantlo's writing. There, I've said it.

I'm in a bit of a different camp from Doot because I didn't like Bill Mantlo's writing on anything else - other than this and Micronauts. But I really did like these, what few of them I saw before comics became a thing of my past.

I own the two Galactus issues.
It lasted longer than I remember, 75 monthlies, and 4 annuals.

I think I have the complete ROM run, but I would love for Marvel and the current license holder
to work out an agreement to produce some ROM Omnibus volumes.

I used to have the complete run. I enjoyed these comics. Sal's work was really good. Though I liked it better when he inked himself. Ditko had a run of issues at the end inked by an all-star lineup of inkers, including Byrne.

I have all the Ditko issues, but the stories never did much for me. Mantlo was a competent, uninspired craftsman. Nothing wrong with that, but rereading him as an adult is a chore for me.

Your face is a chore for me.

That would hurt my feelings if you knew what I looked like.

Well… you're making him have to imagine it, and that takes effort.

I remember ROM as being pretty decent most issues, certainly an average or above-average
book every month. I enjoyed the later issues that Ditko did, but I think he was mainly just doing
breakdowns for those issues. Still… he was teamed with some pretty good finishers/inkers.
P. Craig Russell comes to mind.

Have you read his Hulk stuff? That's his other big triumph.

I'd probably agree that on other stuff he isn't the best.

Oh wait, maybe Alpha Flight.

I read all these and loved them. ROM was, for a long time, my favourite Marvel title. It's the only thing I still have a complete run of. I love this as much as Howard the Duck or Werewolf by Night. It's even right up there with Spectacular Spider-Man.

Many moons ago, when I was first washed ashore on IMWAN island, Brian fever sent me a copy of the only issue I was missing - #14. It's one of my most treasured possessions. He refused to accept any money. He just sent it to me. I was, and am, still grateful to him for that act of kindness.

They're put away, and some of them are not the original issues but digest-sized B&W Australian reprints, but I've been inspired by Jay to get them out of storage. I'll do that tomorrow and I'll read along.

I still remember so much of it - Clairton first fearing then accepting him, how cool it looks when he zaps a Wraith into limbo, the fact that ROM would encounter all the other MU heroes and villains and seemed to fit right in. I didn't know until years later there was even a toy. I don't know how I missed that but I did. To me he was just another character but a really, really good one.

I loved the angst, the alien stuff, the shape-changing bad guys, the way the Wraiths would try and outsmart him but he'd always end up zapping them into limbo hissing and cursing his name, etc. I loved the stuff where the Wraiths got Firefall's armour and convinced a dude to become a third-rate Spaceknight and Rom was upset about it but fought heroically. It was just a much, much better comic than most things I was reading then. It had a unique quality to it.

Anyway, I love this comic.

I read a few issues. The battery in my tablet died and I am using it as an excuse to catch up on the mountains of physical comics I have purchased and not read over the last decade.

I would read along if it weren't for that... and I may still when I finally decide to get that tablet.

Now that Doot's come out of the Mantlo closet, I have to confess I love his Hulk run as well as ROM. I've never understood the Mantlo dislike.

They hate raccoons, especially those with rocket technology.

In the 70s-80s Bill Mantlo was Marvel's chief pinch writer. If they needed a script to beat the deadline doom, it went to Mantlo. Most of the full-in issues that were commissioned in the drawer, were written by Mantlo. So, his reputation as a good writer was hurt.

I had a Rom toy. I still have it, somewhere.

I picked up a a latter issue of the comic, thanks to the Secret Wars II crossover, but wasn't particularly moved to be a regular reader, possibly because the series was cancelled a couple months later. I did pick up random back issues at flea markets and garage sales, and I think I acquired Ditko's run. I think I read the whole series of 75 comics plus annuals when I worked at a publisher with every issue in the library, and I remember finding it repetition personified, the tedium broken up by frequent cameos, in which the characters shouted their names a lot and were decidedly poorer-written than in their home series. (Rom spent a lot of time whining, but in his defense he had a worse deal than Spider-Man, that's for sure.)

Overall I thought Chris Claremont ended up doing more and better with the concept in his handful of crossover issues.

In any case, Disney should pony up the rounding error to Parker Brothers or whoever and make a frickin trilogy already. Same with Micronauts.