| Posted: 08 March 2012 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | 10
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I was there for Rom's first issue and picked up the book routinely after that. I never bought every issue of a series back in those days. I would only buy the ones that looked really, really good that month. There were too many titles to keep track of to focus on any one or two books to the exclusion of others. I looked in on Rom often, though, and always enjoyed the book when I did. I liked that he had occasional guest-stars, but that the title was his own, and not some ancillary spin-off of the greater Marvel Universe. Then and now, I like for books to have their own tone and identity. The paranoid, 50's monster-movie vibe in Rom was well-done and enjoyable. The supporting cast took a lot of tragic hits, and I was upset with the developments that happened to Brandy. Hybrid was a majorly creepy villain who left a huge imprint on my young psyche. In some ways, with Brandy's growing love of violence, her thirst for vengeance, and the sickening deaths of many of the supporting characters, Rom was a glimpse ahead at where comics were heading, especially once the MU in general caught wise to the Wraith menace and converged upon the invaders en masse. Those issues did set me on edge, as the Marvel heroes came off to me as a bunch of Johnny-come-latelies swooping in to mop up and take the bows after dismissing the issue for so long... Still, I loved the Ditko artwork and the look at how he interpreted many of the modern characters such as Beta Ray Bill and Monica Rambeau. I carefully scanned the backgrounds to see if the inker might try to slip Spidey in there somewhere, something I imagined Ditko would not take to kindly. I very much enjoyed the Byrne inks over the Ditko pencils in a few of the issues, but I was well past my need to keep up with the title by that point. I never had the toy. I have long wanted one, however...
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