Rom the Space Knight
Rom the Space Knight is a superhero who was originally conceived as a toy and then a magazine lead. Rom was created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan L. McCoy for Parker Brothers and is now a Hasbro asset. After the toy was licensed to Marvel Comics, Rom became a character that debuted in the eponymous American comic book Rom: Spaceknight, by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.
In July 2015, IDW Publishing began publishing a new Rom comic book series as part of the Hasbro Comic Book Universe.
In May 2023, Marvel reacquired the rights to begin publishing omnibus editions collecting the Rom material they had previously published in the 1970s and 1980s.
Toy
"Rom" was co-created by Scott Dankman, Richard C. Levy, and Bryan Lawrence "Bing" McCoy. It was sold to Parker Brothers and was the inspiration for the comic book series Rom: Spaceknight. The toy was originally named COBOL, after the programming language, but was later changed to Rom, after ROM, by Parker Brothers executives.The toy set a precedent for the game publishing company, which up until that time had only ever produced board games. As this was a new venture for the company, and given that electronic toys were still very new, a decision was made to produce the figure as cheaply as possible. As a result, the final product had few points of articulation, and twin red LEDs served as Rom's eyes instead of the originally envisioned green, which were more expensive to produce.
Rom appeared in the corner box of the cover of Time magazine's December 10, 1979, issue. It was featured in the interior article, "Those Beeping, Thinking Toys", which decried Rom's lack of articulation and predicted it would "end up among the dust balls under the playroom sofa".
Rom was licensed to Palitoy in the United Kingdom to extend the "Space Adventurer" line of Action Man, appearing in their 1980 catalog. Ultimately, the toy failed and only sold 200,000 to 300,000 units in the US, with creator McCoy blaming the failure on poor packaging and marketing. Parker Brothers subsequently abandoned the line.
A new action figure of Rom was released for the 2017 San Diego Comic Con and at HasbroToyShop.com in limited quantities as part of the IDW Revolution set alongside figures of Jetfire, Roadblock, Action Man, Leoric, characters from the Micronauts, a Dire Wraith and Matt Trakker.
In September 2024, The Loyal Subjects inked a deal with Hasbro to relaunch a host of legacy brands, including Rom the Space Knight.
In January 2025, Hasbro announced the release of an 6-inch action figure of Rom, inspired by his appearance from the Marvel comic books, as part of their Marvel Legends product line.
Publication history
Marvel Comics (1979–1986)
To build interest in the toy, Parker Brothers licensed the character to Marvel Comics, which created a comic book featuring Rom. The comic expanded on the premise that Rom was a cyborg and provided the character with an origin and personality, and established the character was firmly grounded in the Marvel Universe, having regular encounters with mainstream heroes and villains. Ironically, the title outlasted the toy it was created to support, with 75 issues and four Annuals published from December 1979 to February 1986.The comic was written by Bill Mantlo and initially illustrated by artist Sal Buscema. Buscema stated in a 2010 interview: "I liked the character. And I liked what they did with it. I thought the concept was quite good. It was unique. It made it attractive to do. I almost hate to say this, but it was pretty easy to draw, too". Buscema was the main artist for the series from its creation through 1984, when Steve Ditko became the regular artist for the remainder of the series.
IDW Publishing (2016–2020)
licensed the character from Parker Brothers' parent company, Hasbro, and in May 2016, released Rom #0 as part of Free Comic Book Day. The free issue served as a prologue to a new ongoing series which began in July. Rom continued to be part of the Hasbro Comic Book Universe until 2018, following the Transformers: Unicron event.A prequel limited series titled Rom: Dire Wraiths, written by Chris Ryall and drawn by Luca Pizzari, Guy Dorian and Sal Buscema, was published in January 2020.
Marvel Comics (2023–present)
In May 2023, Marvel reacquired their license with Hasbro to publish reprints of their original Rom series. A facsimile edition, reprinting Marvel’s first issue, was released in September 2023. An omnibus collection containing the first twenty-five issues of the original series was also released in January 2024. A second volume was released in June 2024.Fictional character biography
Marvel Universe
Shown in flashback, Rom was originally human in appearance, and belonged to a utopian society on the planet Galador, where he served as a poet. When the planet was threatened by the warlike Dire Wraiths, another technologically advanced race capable of Skrull-like shapeshifting, Galador's ruler, the Prime Director, called for volunteers to be transformed into cyborg warriors called "Spaceknights". Volunteers were promised that their "humanity" would be preserved and restored to them after the danger was over.Rom was the first to volunteer, and was transformed into a large, silver humanoid that at first glance appeared to be totally robotic. Rom was given Galador's greatest weapon, the Neutralizer, which on one setting could banish the Wraiths into the Limbo dimension forever. Inspired by his example, other Galadorians volunteered and eventually one thousand were transformed into Spaceknights—each with his or her own unique armor, powers and code names. The Spaceknights succeeded in stopping the Dire Wraith invasion, although Rom decided to follow the remnants of the fleet back to their home planet, Wraithworld. The Dire Wraiths panicked, and after a futile counter-attack, abandoned the planet and scattered throughout space. Unable to stop Rom, the Dire Wraiths successfully used their sorcery to trick him into allowing their escape. Rom now felt responsible for spreading the Dire Wraiths' evil across the universe and swore he would not reclaim his humanity until all Dire Wraiths had been vanquished. Fellow Spaceknights, including comrades Starshine and Terminator, adopted the same oath and left Galador. Terminator ultimately went insane, killing Starshine and attempting to kill Rom and his human friends, as he thought all had been "contaminated".
After 200 years in space, Rom arrived on Earth, landing near the fictional town of Clairton in West Virginia, United States. Rom befriended a local woman named Brandy Clark, who, after witnessing Rom deal with the Dire Wraiths, began to assist him in his mission. Those witnessing Rom's neutralizer could not see the Wraiths being banished to Limbo, leading Rom to be hunted for supposedly killing innocents.
During his time on Earth, Rom fought and banished thousands of Dire Wraiths. The increasingly desperate Dire Wraiths created new foes for Rom, including Firefall, a fusion of human and Spaceknight; the sorcerous Hellhounds; and robotic Watchwraiths. Two of Rom's greatest foes were Hybrid, and Mentus. Other opponents were more traditional and hailed from the Marvel Universe proper, such as the Mad Thinker, the Space Phantom, and Galactus and his then-herald Terrax. He encountered such heroes as the X-Men, Power Man and Iron Fist, the Fantastic Four, Nova, the Thing, and the Hulk. Rom was one of the many heroes transported into an arena in space for the Contest of Champions, though he was not chosen to participate.
At one stage, a new breed of Dire Wraith arrived on Earth, and appeared to be far deadlier than the first variety. It was later revealed that these were females who relied on sorcery, as opposed to the weaker males who placed their faith in science. Unlike the males, the female Dire Wraiths chose not to act in secrecy and openly attacked Clairton while Rom was away, killing everyone with the exception of Brandy. Furthermore, they attacked S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile headquarters which gave Earth authorities clear evidence of the Dire Wraiths' existence and threat. So informed, the combined nations of the world pooled their resources to counter the threat, with Rom as their resident expert and leader of field operations. The Dire Wraiths came into conflict with the Avengers and the X-Men as well. Rom managed to banish all Dire Wraiths on Earth to Limbo with the aid of his super-powered allies and members of the U.S. military.
Rom left Earth soon after the battle and returned to Galador. Unknown to Rom, Brandy had accidentally met the entity called the Beyonder, and Brandy asked to be transported to Galador. The Beyonder complied and Brandy found herself on Galador, now a war-torn world occupied by a new generation of Spaceknights. Created to defend Galador in the absence of the first Spaceknights, this next generation of cyborgs became corrupted by their power, and massacred the Galadorians in a show of superiority. In an act of spite, the new Spaceknights destroyed the frozen remains of the originals. Rom arrived too late and could only save Brandy. Enraged, Rom summoned the original Spaceknights and together they destroyed the traitors. Rom then made a surprising discovery—his original humanity persisted within the entombed body of Terminator. Reclaiming it, Rom became human again and finally admitted his love for Brandy. The two chose to remain on Galador with the intent of repopulating the planet. The remaining Spaceknights, with their humanity now lost, set out to explore the universe, except for a few others that remained on Galador to protect Rom and Brandy.
During Rick Jones's wedding to Marlo Chandler, the human Rom returned to Earth, together with Brandy, as guests at the ceremony, and Rom greeted the Hulk with a friendly handshake.
In the Spaceknights miniseries, written by Jim Starlin, it is revealed that Rom took the name Artour and that he and Brandy had two sons. Rom himself is not actually seen in the series, nor is he mentioned by that name or shown in his spaceknight form ; his ship is attacked off-panel just prior to the start of the story, with Rom himself missing and presumed dead.
Spaceknight Morn, "progenitor for a new type of warrior", appears in a flashback in Cable #1.