- Linkara: Let's talk about... "ROM"! In 1978, Parker Brothers, hoping to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, introduced their own sci-fi toy: a single lone robot warrior, one of the first action figures to include electronic components, a toy that would revolutionize how we think of action figures, a toy unlike any other that would...
- [he holds up a ROM toy of his own]
- Linkara: Yeah, okay, the toy is not very good. It has very limited articulation, it makes some annoying sounds, and it lights up. Even at the time, it wasn't very impressive. But we're not here to evaluate the toy, we're here to talk about what the toy spawned.
- Linkara: Marvel, for one reason or another, decided to license "ROM" from Parker Brothers and make a comic book about it. But the thing about ROM is that, well, he had no backstory. Seriously, there was only a vague idea of what ROM was supposed to be doing: some explanation of his accessories; stating that he had a respirator, even though he was a robot; and there were no other toys in the line. He was it. So an original backstory for the character had to be created, and the job of doing so was handed over to Bill Mantlo, whom some might know as the co-creator of Rocket Raccoon. Before this, he had been known as the fill-in king at Marvel, having written multiple fill-in stories ready for various Marvel titles, should a deadline be approaching and the intended story not be ready. He was instrumental in launching a book based on another toy line, Micronauts, which, like ROM, lasted far longer than the toys were actually on the shelves.
- Linkara: Licensed stuff tends to take place in its own little world, but as I've discussed before, Marvel has had a very strange and interesting relationship with its properties, and you probably have no better example of that than with "ROM", whose impact on the Marvel Universe is still being seen today.