Rom The Space Knight Joins Energon Universe As Surprise First Issue Drops From Robert Kirkman And Lorenzo De Felici

Back when Skybound released Invincible Universe: Battle Beast #1, they hid a few surprises inside beyond your requisite variant covers. Those included Battle Beast #2 and Marvel Team-Up #14, a reprint of the issue where Invincible met Spider-Man. Well, they may have beaten that with the debut of M.A.S.K. #1, which is hiding an even bigger surprise in the blind bags: ROM #1, by Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici.

News of the surprise first issue of the new Energon Universe series (presumably, we’ve reached out to Skybound for confirmation but did not hear back by publication time) began leaking out thanks to copies popping up on eBay, as well as on Reddit. But given we’ve already got Void Rivals, who wear helmets and deal with robots, and Transformers, G.I. Joe, and now M.A.S.K., well, Rom The Space Knight should fit right in, if in fact this is a new ongoing series and not just a one-shot.

Also of note, back at ComicsPro, Skybound teased the Blind Bags would feature the debut of a heavily demanded character. Smart money was on Snake Eyes. Turns out, it’s Rom — unless there’s a Snake Eyes #1 hidden in there, too.

Who is Rom? Created by toy designer Bing McCoy, and brought to comics by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, Rom was originally created by Parker Brothers, licensed by Marvel, moved to IDW in 2015 as part of their Hasbro comic book universe, and curiously, found the rights reclaimed by Marvel in 2023 so that they could publish previously published material in omnibuses. How Skybound/Image Comics got the rights is unknown at this time, but probably it has to do with the whole Hasbro of it all.

And per the name, he’s a cyborg space knight from the planet Galador. He’s usually seen fighting disgusting villains called Dire Wraiths, who can shapeshift. In various storylines Rom has fought in space or on Earth, and he’s encountered everyone from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four.

How Rom will fit into the Energon Universe, and whether he’ll be spacebound or Earthbound? We’ll just have to pick up enough M.A.S.K. #1 blind bags until we find out.

Comic Book Club Live Info:

Want to watch Comic Book Club live? We stream every Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on YouTube and Twitch. Come hang out, and ask questions of our guests (and us!). And you could potentially win a $25 gift card to Midtown Comics. You can check out a current list of upcoming guests and other live appearances on our Shows page.