Many moons ago, a board game company decided to turn away from dice and spinners, cards and tokens and make the foray into the wonderful, awe-inspiring world of mechanized, end-of-century, far-flung future-type toys.
And lo, in 1979, Parker Brothers gave us the space-faring toy doll called ROM The Space Knight.
The Gort imitation (see the robot from the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still), stiff metal-clad humanoid toy with few points of articulation and no real backstory or expanded universe had, at least, flashing red LED eyes (which were cheaper to mass produce than the originally desired green) and some sound effects that were powered off of a nine volt battery. Enough, I suppose to raise an eyebrow of any pre-teen boy, if not his imagination.
No, that job was left to the comic books.
Upon the launch of the ROM Space Knight toy, Parker Brothers teamed up with Marvel Comics to help market the fairly bland but full-of-possibilities creation.
Under the pen and pencil of stalwart and now legendary Marvel Comics creators, Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, a more fertile characterization of ROM was suddenly thrust into the minds of comic book readers across the globe.
Here, now, was ROM Spaceknight, defender of the galaxy against the tyrant, black magic wielding and conquest-seeking, Dire Wraiths! Much like an emerald ring-wielding hero from rival DC Comics, ROM, was one of many Spaceknights stationed across the galaxy. In this case, ROM was sent to earth to eradicate a furtive Dire Wraith scourge.
It’s not like ROM was a standalone hero set in a standalone Universe that belonged to Parker Brothers. In their wisdom, Mantlo and Buscema gave the character a history and a gravitas. He was a cyborg-humanoid hybrid, trapped with responsibility and in his station in life – when all he wanted was to be a free man. Most importantly, the creators placed the outsider Spaceknight firmly in the Marvel Universe, adventuring with and sometimes battling against the likes of the X-Men, Doctor Strange, the Skrulls, Namor and the Fantastic Four!
No cast-off marketing ploy, ROM was a full-fledged Marvel superhero!
ROM Spaceknight would be published for the better part of a decade, over seventy-five monthly issues and annuals, becoming firmly entrenched in space-faring Marvel heroics. Perhaps most astoundingly, even though the Parker Brothers toy quickly floundered and failed, ROM became deeply-rooted in the minds of comic book readers, living on as a sort of “where were you?” cult classic.
At the beginning of this year, Marvel Comics released ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1, a 700+ page tome containing the early issues of the characters famed run. Today, they release ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2, a 664-page continuation of the classic tale, containing early 1980’s issues 30-50, Annuals 1, 2 and Marvel Two-In-One #99. The hardcover book has got the stories that I first started reading and collecting when I was a kid: the ones that compelled me to seek out back issues of the series at flea markets, comic book shops and comic book conventions across the Greater Toronto Area.
Although it might lighten your wallet some, ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2 is, of course, the perfect companion to the first volume, and a highlight of sci-fi storytelling from a more fascinating age of comic book publishing.
Don your armor and make the run to a better comic book shop or bookstore near you today and pick up the second compilation of the wonderful science fiction cult classic that is ROM: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2!
