Rom: Spaceknight had its share of fans when Marvel first published the series some four decades ago, but one well known filmmaker has a simple explanation why the action-figure-turned-superhero won't be hitting the big screen anytime soon.
"Marvel owns the story from the comics; Hasbro owns the character," Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn tweeted when asked about the possibility of Rom appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "So, unless something changes, the original Spaceknights tale with Rom can never be told."
The character has an interesting conceptual origin amidst a complicated legal scenario. Rom the Space Knight was a property owned by board game maker Parker Brothers -- now a subsidiary of Hasbro -- licensed to Marvel Comics as a comic book character in 1979. Rom: Spaceknight, as the comic was titled, was written by Bill Mantlo and initially illustrated by Sal Buscema, It ran for over six years and was fully integrated with the Marvel Universe.
Rom went into comic book limbo for three decades before IDW Publishing picked up the publishing rights for the character from Hasbro in 2016, and published 15 issues of Rom as well as related mini-series.
Marvel's loss of the rights to the character has created a decades-long inconvenience for the publisher, as it cannot legally reprint Rom: Spaceknight -- nor any other of its comics where the character appeared. Rom made guest appearances in The Incredible Hulk, Power Man and Iron Fist and Marvel Two-in-One, among other comics, and those particular issues have either been edited or outright omitted from collected reprint editions.
In Marvel's original series, Rom was originally a human from the planet Galador. When his world was invaded by the shapeshifting alien race known as the Dire Wraiths, Rom and several hundred of his fellow Galadorians allowed themselves to be transformed into cyborg soldiers -- Spaceknights -- to repel the invaders. The Spaceknights succeeded in liberating their planet, but their victory caused the Wraiths to disperse across the galaxy and become a threat to other systems, including Earth. Rom therefore journeyed from his home world to protect our planet as he did his own.
The comic proved more popular than the action figure itself, which was considered cheaply made and featured minimal articulation. Parker Brothers was best known for its boardgames such as Monopoly and Clue, and Rom the Space Knight was the company’s first foray into action figures.
Source: Twitter