Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Defenders for a Day: spotlight on The Torpedo & Paladin. Plus, Marvel publishes "ROM Spaceknigtht"

As it happens I found this rendering by Gabriel Harderman (damn I wish that was my last name!) just before I picked up Defenders: Strange Heroes which is basically a Marvel Universe one shot of heroes affiliated with The Defenders both past and present. Both The Torpedo and Paladin made relatively brief appearances in a some what tongue n cheek story line that spanned 2 or 3 issues in which a series of A and B list heroes had try outs for joining the Defenders. This illustration would have made an awesome cover for a Marvel Team Up issue. Be sure to magnify the image it looks way better when it's bigger. Yeah, size matters.
I was a bit bummed out that the book only published clip art (aside from the cover) of The Torpedo that showed up in past editions of the Official Marvel Universe Handbooks. But to my surprise in The Torpedo bio page they printed the words "ROM Spaceknight" which I thought was also prohibited along with having Rom's likeness in Marvel books these days? I dunno go figure. The Torpedo I'm quite familiar with of course but Paladin is a character I knew next to nothing about for many years up until recently with him being a regular now in the Heroes For Hire series. And I must say his character has grown on me quite a bit in a fairly short time especially given the interplay and pop culture quips between him, Spiderman and Misty Night.
Sadly though we'll never get to see this team up as suggested in Hardman's illustration given the ill fated Brock Jones who perished during the dire wraith massacre of Clariton. He fought valiantly but he made the mistake of letting his emotions distract him during battle making it possible for a dire wraith to sneak up on him and tongue spike him in the back of his head. Most of you know by now I'm sure that the Torpedo armor would later be worn by Michoko Musashi who was part of The New Warriors under the super heroes alias of Turbo. Later the Dire Wraith queen Volx would appropriate the armor in a grand scheme against Earth's heroes. While in her possession we would learn that the armor had many more capabilities such as microwave and electrical energy manipulation. This posting is probably gonna do it for me for the rest of this year but rest assured I'll be back in January when Avengers Academy #24 comes out and we get to see what Hybrid is up to now that he's back. Hopefully we'll also get to find out exactly how he was brought back as well. And who knows maybe something cool and post worthy will come along before that.

7 comments:

  1. Nice research. I didn't know that the Torpedo armor was still around. It would be interesting to find out how it went from being possessed by the DWs to Musashi. I know absolutely NOTHING about her or the Turbo character. I am expecting to receive X-man #31 in a few days (got it on Ebay for $5 delivered) and read the Hybrid storyline.

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  2. I'll have to keep an eye out for Defenders: Strange Heroes. Marvel policy seems to be okay with mentioning Rom in the text of handbook-style entries, but no pictures of him and no entry for Rom himself. Hence we got the Spaceknights entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook that pretty much summed up Rom's career, but was ostensibly about all the Spaceknights.

    Graphics Wiz, you can get Turbo's origin in New Warriors (vol. 1) #73. Basically, the suit got sent with Jones' other possessions to his cousins, the Jeffries. Young Mike Jeffries later found it in a trunk in the attic and got his friend Mickey to wear it to a costume party. She was attacked by Rocketeers and that's when they discovered the suit's powers.

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  3. i found a copy of X-Man #31 a couple of months ago for only $2 in a back issue bin but i had the e-comic for a little while before that. having an actual copy is much preferred of course. i'm sure once you get to read it Brian it won't disappoint you it's a good story.
    Lee sums up the Torpedo/Turbo origins pretty well but i sent you something to help out so check your email. thanks for the comments guys.

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  4. I have to say after Torpedo's death at the tongue of a Wraith which aggravated the hell out of me! I hate it when hero's who know a villain will always go for the stab in the back actually fall for it! Well anyway that news on the suit actually get a bit of use again was news to me awesome I'll have to see if I can catch that one Thanks all for the info!!

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  5. The art work in that book with the death of Torpedo was Out-Standing I hated how he bought it but wow the new Dire Wraiths or females of them where no joke compared to the original ones we knew Wow Things got considerably darker at hit home more!!

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  6. the Sal Buscema pencils/Akins & Garvey inks combo is a tough act to follow. that issue was a perfect blending of amazing art and story telling. it's what made ROM so great and why i love to blog about him. thanks for the comments. i got some more great stuff coming in the next week or so stay tuned!

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