Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara begins a retrospective on the greatest of the Spaceknights - ROM!
atopthefourthwall.com
Originally uploaded February 16th, 2015.
ORIGINAL INFO: A retrospective on the first 40 issues of the far-reaching licensed comic about a cyborg who fights evil space wizards.
RUMINATIONS: In case you were wondering why Pollo has an actual human voice in the AT4W Movie, there’s your answer in this episode! The actual plan was to introduce it here and have Pollo make a few more appearances with it before the movie, but unfortunately no storyline thing involving him came up, so it was only here and then during the Halloween storyline, which some people skipped anyway, so for many the movie was the first time they heard Alex Tansley as the voice. Actually my original thought was to ask someone from Team Four Star to voice him, but when I suggested the idea to Al, who also happens to be my title card artist, he asked if he could voice it. And since the guy already does great work for me AND can do a snarky voice, it all worked out. I’m already in regular contact with him to produce the title cards, so it all works out anyway.
And yep, ROM has since come back, most recently in a Free Comic Book Day issue for IDW… that I haven’t read yet since I’ve been busy with other stuff. I’m sure you’ll hear my thoughts on it eventually, but I’m just disappointed that Marvel couldn’t get the license for him back, instead becoming part of this “Hasbro Shared Universe” idea they’re trying to create despite lacking any movies so far. Not that it’s necessarily doomed to failure, just that it seems like trying to create a shared universe right out of the starting gate is a bad move. At least Universal and their monster movies have HAD a shared universe back in the 40s to justify making their own in the vain hope of gaining Marvel’s level of success.