Quozl's Design Workshop

[Yodaking]

Well if you run Rom, I'll try to work up something for Ikon and maybe we can put together a Space Knight's release. Not sure if any of the others have a mini but I'm pretty sure I picked up Ikon's mini a while back.

[MrNobody]

I just got a gold generic space knight in an order today. I think it’s just an Ikon with a different color scheme but it could make a fun little faction.

[Ronin]

I have an Annihilators-focused Ikon write-up. (You're welcome to take her off my hands if you want, though - Lord knows I've got enough things to keep busy with)

They just put out some more space knight minis in the last Avengers set of Clix. (Avengers Infinity)

[Yodaking]

I'm not saying I will get to it soon, just that I have an interest in seeing it get done. I don't churn out the cards a quickly as some and have several other more pressing ideas already waiting in line. So if someone else doesn't get to it, I'll try to, if someone else does get an Ikon card done, then more power to them.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by quozl

Maybe? @Soundwarp SG-1 do you know?

To my knowledge nothing from Rom's original run was really retconed by later stuff, but I've actively avoided any of the 'spaceknight leftovers' stuff Marvel has done as I think the whole idea of trying to do Rom minus Rom is stupid and the original series didn't need any sort of continuation in the first place.

Honestly, even if there where retcons, I wouldn't given them any weight since they'd be retcons for a character Marvel hasn't had any rights to for like 35 years now. Ikon is a third gen Spaceknight IIRC, so what's true for her has next no relevance to Rom anyway. There's a big gap between first gens and third gens tech/culture/etc. wise.


Rom isn't really 'seeking' his humanity (except that time Terminator was cruising around with it I guess), so the name of that power does feel off. He is either actively refusing to reclaim it or thinks it destroyed for like the whole series. And yeah, in this case the 'humanity' he pines for is his actual fleshy bits, 50 percent of them to be exact, he basically just wants to bang Brandy Clark when you really get down to it. Rom would have probably been a lot more stable if only the designer of his armor included a large piston in the right location.

The mechanics of the power are a bit more on point though, Rom 100% is a noble defender of humanity that would never harm a human on purpose and would react to doing so with a bit of suicidal behavior. Though really, that's not limited to Humans, Rom refuses to kill anything unless it's a crazy dire situation. Humans probably have a special place in his heart considering they're physically identical to Glaladorians and Earth gets some extra loving as it is Brandy's home, but Rom once refused to kill an ant. Not 'all the ants in the area' or an ant colony, an individual ant. One that was already mutated into a (still ant-sized) wraith monster and spreading the wraith-taint across the whole planet. He also felt really guilty that he was forced to killed a wraith-tainted parasite on said ant to prevent it from killing himself and Brandy (and thus the whole world if they failed their mission).

Rom doesn't even kill Dire Wraiths usually, the neutralizer sends them to limbo, the only times he has killed them on purpose were towards the end of the series where the Wraiths were in a state of total war against the Earth and murdering every human they saw or that one time he was half crazy from being stuck in a rotting clone body.

So really, the power would only be properly thematic if it was expanded into working whenever he kills anything. He certainly wouldn't feel any better about offing like Cyclops or whatnot just because Scott was a Mutant and not a 'pure' human or whatever.

I'd kinda argue that a Rom that is going around murdering humans/others things with his beefy attack and then punching himself over it afterwards is kinda missing the forest for the trees though. Like it's modeling the outcome of a scenario that shouldn't really happen in the first place and is assuming that every time he destroys a figure he's killing them and not just knocking them out or banishing them or something. Personally, I'd probably go with something more like Superboy's Pulled Punches instead of Seeking My Humanity. It's a better designed power, and it feels more thematically on point.


Oh, as Ronin mentioned, personally I'd just make his class Knight. Lets Marvel Spaceknights and IDW Space Knights have one class between them without having one of the two having to have a 'typo' on their card, and Rom teaming up with King Arthur or whatever seems fine thematically anyway (and sort of happened once). 'Spaceknight' isn't just a random name, Rom really is a knight-type character (from space) on a 'holy' quest and everything.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

I'd kinda argue that a Rom that is going around murdering humans/others things with his beefy attack and then punching himself over it afterwards is kinda missing the forest for the trees though. Like it's modeling the outcome of a scenario that shouldn't really happen in the first place and is assuming that every time he destroys a figure he's killing them and not just knocking them out or banishing them or something. Personally, I'd probably go with something more like Superboy's Pulled Punches instead of Seeking My Humanity. It's a better designed power, and it feels more thematically on point.

Yeah, I'd certainly agree that destruction, in a general sense, is just incapacitating the destroyed figure in some way, whether by killing them, knocking them out, rendering them unable to move or some more exotic sense. Makes no sense to put a strict definition on it - how I imagine it playing out when Spider-Man destroys a figure is very different from when Punisher destroys a figure.

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

Oh, as Ronin mentioned, personally I'd just make his class Knight. Lets Marvel Spaceknights and IDW Space Knights have one class between them without having one of the two having to have a 'typo' on their card, and Rom teaming up with King Arthur or whatever seems fine thematically anyway (and sort of happened once). 'Spaceknight' isn't just a random name, Rom really is a knight-type character (from space) on a 'holy' quest and everything.

Okay, this guy just got cooler. I'd really like to see him sooner rather than later.

[quozl]

Wow, that's awesome, Soundwarp! I wish I could find the original run somewhere. I haven't read any ROM comics in 30 years.

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

Personally, I'd probably go with something more like Superboy's Pulled Punches instead of Seeking My Humanity. It's a better designed power, and it feels more thematically on point.

Yeah, sounds like a good swap. I like it mechanically too as he shouldn't be rolling too many skulls when he has a good chance of neutralizing defensive powers.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Have to be honest, this is not a character I am very familiar with. Very happy that Soundwarp seems to have a bevy of knowledge here, where I have next to none. (Didn't even realize Brandy Clark was Starshine. I think I read exactly 2 Rom comics, and I never understood the basic storyline.)

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

Have to be honest, this is not a character I am very familiar with. Very happy that Soundwarp seems to have a bevy of knowledge here, where I have next to none. (Didn't even realize Brandy Clark was Starshine. I think I read exactly 2 Rom comics, and I never understood the basic storyline.)

I've read all of Rom's original run and most of IDW Rom, so yeah if someone has a question I can probably figure it out.

Brandy is technically Starshine II. There's a Galadorian one first (I think her real name was Landra) that shows up mostly in the Spaceknight Squadron back-up stuff before dying, then Brandy is basically merged with her corpse by a Wraith named Doctor Dread. This lasts for a big chunk of the back half of the series before Hybrid separates Brandy from the armor/corpse in an annual. Brandy then starts showing some of her Starshine powers while in human mode, but the book kinda just forgets about that. Then the Beyonder turns her back into Starshine for like half an issue before turning back into a human again and sending her to Rom for the end of the series.

Pretty sure there's a 3rd Gen Starshine III too, but I've never paid much attention to the 3rd Gen stuff.

[quozl]

Update: I got the big compilation book of IDW's run of ROM and started reading it. Dire Wraiths are really freaky!

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Yeah, the IDW Wraiths are basically like a smart(er) version of John Carpenter’s version of the thing from another world. Super freaky dudes. Though it gets even worse when they try to infect Cybertronians.

[quozl]

I was thinking Marro could be good stand-ins for miniatures. Any ideas for the wraith hawks or other things I haven't seen yet?